Turtle Rock
Upon entering Turtle Rock, Link is warned not to proceed without a way to restore his magic, but there are plenty of magic decanters in the dungeon so he really doesn’t have to worry unless he’s careless. There are rails through several rooms but nothing to ride on them, requiring the second function of the Cane of Somaria to create platforms. Many rooms in the dungeon are mazes requiring the use of these rails to navigate through; one room is dark with no torches, so there’s just the little bit of illumination around Link to navigate by. One other room has Link required to make like that other Nintendo hero and go tumbling through green pipes to his destination.
The new enemies in this dungeon are segmented hopping creatures called Hokkubokkus, whose segments go flying around the room for a moment after Link hits them. They’re actually quite dangerous, even with the blue mail. Also, Chain Chomps from Super Mario Bros. 3 make a cameo appearance.
The treasure is strictly optional but neutralizes the laser eyes so it’s so worth it. Getting the Mirror Shield requires stepping out of the dungeon, crossing a platform, and re-entering. Before going back in, warping back to the Light World leaves Link in front of a cave with the 24th and final heart piece, which he can probably use after having to run a laser eye gauntlet to get out of the dungeon.
The dungeon’s boss is Trinexx, a snake creature with a turtle shell that projects two extra heads. The two extra heads shoot fire and ice, and are thus vulnerable to the opposite rods. The ice head is more dangerous because if it shoots ice, an icy patch will remain on the dungeon floor for the rest of the battle, and that’s no good, so it has to go first. Once the two elemental heads are destroyed, the shell explodes and the snake comes after Link. A few shots to its weak spot and Trinexx is dead.
Zelda thanks Link for rescuing her, and says that her initial impression, that he would become the legendary Hero, was correct. Now it’s time to go to Ganon’s Tower to the west, where the maidens will break the barrier and allow Link to enter.
Ganon’s Tower
Much like its Light World counterpart, the Tower of Hera, Link enters Ganon’s Tower on the second floor. This floor is completely empty aside from some statues and three staircases on the northern wall, two leading down, one leading up.
The first floor of the tower is a completionist explorer’s bane. The path splits from the staircases, one leading east, the other west. The eastern path gives the compass, the western path the map. Neither item is really useful as once Link starts ascending the tower it’s very linear with only one secret room. The two paths converge near the bottom of the map, with Link forced walk over a large section of hidden floor tiles to the correct exit. Then he falls through to the basement and fights another group of Armos Knights. They may be on an icy floor now, but silver arrows make it only require one shot to kill them, so the fight really is much easier than before. Link can get the big key and find a group of faeries here before returning to the first floor and finding the dungeon’s treasure, the red mail, which further protects him from damage. There’s no real reason to take the path not taken before, unless you’re like me and can’t help yourself.
Heading up the tower, the first major threat is the return of Beamos. The Mirror Shield does nothing against them, sadly. There’s often more than one in a room, and on the 4th floor, some evil genius had the bright idea to put them on moving waterways so they don’t stay in a fixed position and dodging became even harder. Once finally through that gauntlet, Link finds another group of Lanmolas, now with a fireball-spitting Medusa in the corner. Still not that much harder than before, and the journey up the tower continues.
The fifth floor contains one of my favorite rooms in the whole game. There’s a crumbling bridge, and on either side of the bridge is a moving waterway, one going in each direction. I’ve been known to sit around after the bridge crumbled riding the waterways back and forth for minutes. But we can’t delay the inevitable forever, so eventually Link comes across the return of the Moldorm. Of the returning bosses, this is the one they most succeeded in making harder: the one that didn’t need it to begin with. The platform is narrower north-south, so there’s less room to maneuver to avoid its attacks. Should Link fall off, he lands in a spike-filled room1 with Wizzrobes and a Fire Faerie, which can of course be turned into a normal faerie if needed for health.
After the Moldorm, there’s one last room with ice, moving water, bumpers, and traps to navigate before it’s time for the second confrontation with Agahnim. He spawns a couple illusory dopplegängers, which should make him harder but is tactically unsound. If your only weakness is having your fireballs reflected back on you, why create doubles that always shoot fireballs that can be reflected and hurt you? Hitting him three times in a single casting rotation is tricky – it depends where they all cast from, and whether the real Agahnim uses a fireball or his blue shot – but glorious when pulled off. Oh, and he doesn’t have his lightning attack, which was the worst of the three he had before.
With no way to escape this time, Agahnim dies after taking enough hits. Ganon’s spirit rises from Agahnim’s body and flees. Link somehow calls his loyal bird to the Dark World to follow him to the Pyramid of Power, where Ganon has crashed through the top, creating a large hole.
Next: The end.