Link takes on Maze Island and , then heads south for the final two towns.
Two Islands: One Big, One Small
The magic quest in Darunia is another that requires Link to leave town: a child’s been kidnapped and is being held on Maze Island. The path to the child is simple, and the rescue includes the first Geru fight. This one’s like a cross between a Moblin and an Iron Knuckle, and they’ll only get worse from here. Oh, and coming down from the mountain and going back up means doing the water-hopping sequence two extra times. The spell is worth it, though: reflect, which makes Link’s shield able to repel attacks it couldn’t before.
Back to Maze Island, and there’s a magic container en route to the palace. The palace itself is divided into two sections from the entrance. First go right and get the boots, then left for the boss. The only new enemies this time are wizards who are only vulnerable to having their spells reflected back at them; it’s so much easier to just ignore them and carry on. The boss, Carock, is one of these guys on steroids, but because he’s the boss, there’s no ignoring him. However, he’s also really easy to fight: cast reflect, crouch in the corner, and wait for him to die.
Now there’s nothing to do but go on to the Palace on the Sea. Well, before actually making it to the palace, there’s a heart container also hidden in the sea, which I’ll definitely want because the palace is bloody tough. Throughout the palace are Magos, witches that teleport around and drop fire on the floor. They’re annoying to fight and not easy to avoid. So between them, the Iron Knuckles, the dead end if you take a wrong turn – after passing through a terrible platforming sequence of Ras trying to knock Link into the lava – and the fact that it’s a long palace, the game’s really amping up the difficulty. The end boss, Gooma, is the hardest of the six; the downward thrust is mostly useless against him, so the only option is to get in close, try to jump over his flail1, and stab him when the opportunity arises.
With that done, it’s time to go south. First we have to deal with the river devil, which is a rather disappointing experience. I walked right up to it, dared it to try to eat me, called it names, farted in its general direction, made insinuations about the species of its mother, and it still didn’t try to eat me. Then I blew the flute and it poofed. So, in the end, all it was was a super roadblock.
The Abandoned Town and Its People
Anyway, from here on in, even 8/8/8 isn’t overpowered. Okay, maybe a little, but it’s not like running through Death Mountain at max stats with the downward thrust and steamrolling what was once a super difficult bit of content. There are three sequences of Gerus throwing rocks at Link with a single enemy in the center of the stage, and these are tough. Then there’s a broken bridge with Bago-Bagos popping up all over the place, and if you want to go to Kasuto now rather than skip it until you have the cross, or at least the eighth magic container so it’s not a wasted trip, you have to do another Bago-Bago broken bridge.
Kasuto is deserted except for the magic man, who tells Link “The town is dead. Look east in woods.” There are invisible Moas, which make travel dangerous, but if Link’s determined, about halfway through the town there’s a house with a message on the wall, “Magic key reads… treasure of Kasuto.” Now to escape Kasuto as alive as possible, go back over the bridge, and start the search for where the people fled to.
The old man could have been a little more helpful, because you have to go through a cave to find the right patch of woods2. Now it’s time for the RTFM feature of the hammer, cutting down trees. Hit the right patch, and there’s Kasuto Mk. II, who probably wouldn’t be happy you destroyed their cover, except that the forest here regrows really quickly.
Anyway, there’s someone standing just inside the entrance, who tells Link, “We had to flee Kasuto.” Oh, so that’s why you’re here rather than back in the town with the invisible murder ghosts. Would never have guessed. The rest of the hints point at Kasuto, the last palace, and the last heart container.
“The man who remains has magic.” Well, I figured something was keeping him safe from the invisible murder ghosts. Anyway, he wanted me to come see you first.
“Call for help at the Three Eye Rocks.” Like Kasuto Mk. II, the last dungeon is hidden. This tells you where it is and what you need to do, and I suppose since there are exactly two actions you can take in the overworld and the hammer’s clearly not useful, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out what to do.
“The hole in palace is endless trap.” Clear enough. Although there’s a second hole that’s not an endless trap.
“East of Triple Eye Rock at seashore.” It’s boiled down to its most basic information, but this hint tells you where to find the last heart container. The two people who talk about the landmark can’t agree on its name, and neither is the “official” one, Three-Eye Rock, even if I give them a pass on the hyphen.
There are three things to find in the town. First, assuming you’ve collected all the magic containers so far, you get invited into a house to receive the last one. There’s a hint in this house about the third secret, “There is a secret at edge of town.”
There’s no quest for the spell. I guess they figured finding the town was enough of a quest. Link does have to crawl through the fireplace to find the old man, which is weird. The spell this time is… spell. Okay, that’s descriptive. It’s really only useful for finding the secret at the edge of town, a building housing the magic key hinted at in Kasuto. After that, magic’s too precious to waste on spell.
Next: The last two dungeons.