Link’s Awakening: Tail Cave

 

The Quest Begins

From here, each dungeon is fairly formulaic:

  • Link needs to accomplish something in the overworld to be allowed to enter the dungeon. E.g., five of the eight have hidden keys Link must find.
  • Inside the dungeon, Link generally finds a Stone Slab (used to get hints within the dungeon), Map, and Compass fairly early.
  • Link finds the dungeon’s treasure, which is somehow needed to complete the dungeon, often to defeat the miniboss or Nightmare, get the Nightmare’s Key, or progress past some obstacle.
  • Each dungeon has a miniboss. Once defeated, a portal between its room and the dungeon entrance opens.
  • Link gets the Nightmare’s Key, needed to open the door to the Nightmare’s lair1.
  • Finally, Link defeats the Nightmare, recovers the dungeon’s Instrument of the Sirens, and receives a hint about the general location of the next one.

The Mysterious Forest

The Mysterious Forest is north of Mabe Village, and a sign along the way helpfully clarifies, “It’s a little bit mysterious.” In the forest, Link can find a mushroom, which serves the exact same purpose it did in the last game: deliver it to a witch – who, in this case, lives just outside the forest – and trade it for Magic Powder. The Magic Powder is mostly used in the game to light torches, but it has other uses, familiar from A Link to the Past: turning Buzz Blobs into Cukemen2, waking the Mad Batter from his nap, and other similar things. One of those uses comes up immediately: there’s a mischievous raccoon in the Mysterious Forest who delights in getting Link lost, but sprinkle Magic Powder on it and it turns into… Tarin? Tarin says the last think he remembers is eating a mushroom, and then he was a raccoon. This whole thing reminds me of some other Nintendo game series…

With Tarin restored to his natural form, Link can finally reach the treasure chest with the Tail Key. The owl shows up again to tell Link to go to the first dungeon, Tail Cave, but there’s some stuff to get first. There are two heart pieces in Mabe Village, one down a well, and one swallowed by a fish in the fishing pond. Cutting down a big area of trees, Link can find a secret seashell, which promises something good if he finds enough of them.

And he can start the game’s most memorable sidequest. Papahl’s wife asks Link if he can find a Yoshi doll for her baby. Link wins a Yoshi Doll at the village’s trendy claw game, which he trades to Papahl’s wife for a ribbon. The ribbon is coveted by one of Madam MeowMeow’s chain chomps, who trades a can of food for it. Then, on the shores, there’s an alligator who wants the canned food, and trades a bunch of bananas for it. That’s as far as this can go for now, so it’s time to visit Tail Cave.

Tail Cave

Tail Cave has Hardhat Beetles, which can’t be killed with the sword, so the best way to deal with them is to knock them down pits. Then there’s Spiked Beetles, which require being flipped over with the shield before they can take damage. And completing the annoying enemy trio, Three-of-a-Kinds, which spawn in groups of three and display cycling symbols on their surface; the symbols stop cycling when they’re damaged, but the three only die if all three symbols match. Passages are now side-scrolling areas populated by Goombas, and at this point I think it’s safe to say there are a lot of Super Mario Bros. crossovers in this game. Goombas can even be stomped on the head, giving hearts, and they respawn if Link exits the passage, so they can be farmed to get health back.

The treasure in the dungeon is a new item to the Zelda series, the Roc’s Feather, which lets Link jump. This ability is needed to get the Nightmare’s Key, and to fight the miniboss, Spike Roller3, who rolls a giant bar across the room. The Nightmare shouldn’t come as any surprise to those paying attention. The map is shaped like a certain critter from A Link to the Past, the statues out front that had the keyhole also call it to mind, and the dungeon’s enemies include its smaller forms. Also, a bunch of annoying enemies, which leads to the fight with a giant Moldorm. With system limitations, the platform’s much smaller than the Link to the Past fights, but being able to jump over the Moldorm at least gives Link an advantage he didn’t have there, either.

The dungeon offends me because there’s a room only accessible by bomb, which don’t become available until after completing the next dungeon. So I have to leave a room unchecked on my map for now.

Defeating the Moldorm, Link gains his first instrument, the Full Moon Cello. As soon as it’s played its song, a voice informs link that a path opens in the swamp, which is the next destination.

Next: But first, dognapping.