So, for how much I said the first game’s open world felt weird, the world in this game is not that far behind in how much exploring you can do once exploring at all is allowed. There are chunks of the world that are blocked off, especially Death Mountain, and little areas that you can see but not get to, most of which require warping in from the Dark World, but most of the Light World is explorable at this point. Of course, that’s only half the total game world…
Having played the game so many times, at this point I have the list of everything to do and see memorized:
- Go to the Lost Woods and get the mushroom and heart piece.
- Go to Kakariko Village. Get bombs and the heart piece from the well. Get the treasure chests and heart piece in the thieves’ hideout. Blow open the mysterious hut and fill up on bombs. Get two bottles and the bug-catching net. Since I’m actually trying to follow the story this time, talk to the woman at Sahasrahla’s house, the kid who knows where Sahasrahla is, the smith who’s missing his partner, and everyone else.
- Go to the Quarreling Brothers’ house and perform an act of vandalism, then run through the maze to get a fourth heart piece.
- Go south from Link’s house to the Great Swamp, open the watergate, and get the heart piece there. Continue east and get the ice rod, one of the deadliest things to do right now because of the damned crabs that take off two hearts if they hit Link.
- I usually skip this next thing because it’s easier to do when going for the Desert Palace and there’s no benefit to doing it now, but: Go into the Desert of Mystery, talk with Aginah, and bomb the south wall of his cave to get a sixth piece of heart.
- Visit the magic shop, fill bottles with potions, and trade the mushroom for the magic powder.
Now it’s time to go to the Eastern Palace. Talking to Sahasrahla is optional at this point if you know where to go, but worth it for one of the few times these first three games show a sense of humor1: When Sahasrahla asks if Link really wants to find the Master Sword, the two dialogue options are “Yeah!” and “Of course!”
Anyway, he sends Link off to the Eastern Palace, where the Pendant of Courage is hidden. The dungeons in this game, like pretty much everything else, are a return to the style of the first game, only now taking advantage of the Super NES’ abilities to have bigger rooms, 3D effects – there’s one point in this dungeon where Link passes over a walkway through a room he’d previously visited – and so forth. I don’t think the dungeons ever quite get as big as the ones in the first game did, and certainly never as maze-like. The dungeons’ treasure is now hidden in big chests, which require the new dungeon item, the Big Key, to open2.
There’s not a whole lot of variety in the enemies in the Eastern Palace: Stalfos, plant creatures called Popos, one-eyed animated statues that I remember calling Rocklops but now they’re Eyegores, and Bubbles/Fire Faeries. The Eyegores are the hardest of the bunch until Link gets the bow, which makes them pretty easy. After two games of being tormented by bubbles, it’s really nice to be able to turn the fire faeries into normal helpful faeries with magic powder. It can be a drain on magic, especially if it takes a few tries, but usually the faerie restores more hearts than are lost in the attempt. A group of six Armos Knights is the boss and a pretty good test of Link’s skill with the bow, although it’s possible to kill them with the sword if arrows run out.
Now with the Pendant of Courage, Link can return to Sahasrahla and learn more about the legendary hero he’s aspiring to become. Sahasrahla says the Knights of Hyrule existed three or four generations ago, while the manual says the Imprisoning War that killed most of them was 500 years prior. But the real point here is that he gives Link the Pegasus Shoes, which means no more walking anywhere when I can run and, if I don’t stop, run right into monsters that want to eat Link or off cliffs or the like. But who cares? Run! Run! Wheeeee!
He also hints about the ice rod, but I already got that.
Next: Exploring most of the rest of the world.