(I play a game 1 hour every Sunday and write what happens inaccurately.
Currently I'm playing through Majora's Mask. See previous parts here.)
This seems like a weird time to keep doing a goofy blog about old
Zelda games, but honestly, it's one of the things keeping my weekly
rhythm sane so I'm keeping at it.
That said, go donate, go help. Go do what you can. Because Black Lives Matter.
Last time, we began our venture up through Elsa's Mining Shaft, to help the Goron's because they don't like the cold, even though they're rock people. And even better, we found the Fire Arrows inside this Ice Temple, carried by an Ice Wizard with bad teleportation magic, who was very susceptible to regular arrows.
But anyways, time to reset time, because this game has a time limit and I'm approaching it. So went back to town, deposited my bank, and reset time. Then I went back to the dungeon and wasted an entire in-game day running around, getting lost, forgetting how I progressed, and then realizing I needed bombs, of which I had none.
Great. Good start to the day!
Back to town, reset again(!) because why not and buy some bombs.
So, okay. I'll admit it. This is the time I used the one bit of outside game knowledge I had, to look up how to get a song. Because I knew there was a song that slowed down the day-timer. Which seemed VERY handy at dungeon times like these. And I was getting a little annoyed at constantly having to reset.
Turns out, I should've learnt that song from the scarecrow! Beneath the observatory! Who we talked to in the very third episode! Who wanted us to play a "pleasant song"! That's apparently Song of Time. Which we didn't have then, granted, but now we do.
Only problem is, to get down there, we need the secret code to enter the Bomber Kids' passage. And I thought I'd taken a screenshot of it, but I hadn't...
Soo, I tried to look it up.
But then I learned...
It's... random.
It's literally random seeded every time you reset time. That's... more than I expected of this game. But joke's on you game because I'm not playing hide and seek with 5 asshole kids again so I'ma just gonna look up the songs.
Turns out they're pretty self explanatory.
The Inverted Song of Time, which... slows down time (ok, that part is not self explanatory), is just the Song of Time, backwards.
And the Double Song of Time, which speeds up time, is just the Song of Time, with each note played twice.
And they work regardless of whether you've learnt them or not, soo yeah. I did the thing.
Now I have INFINITE TIME!
Or at least, double the 72 hours I had before.
Back to to the dungeon!
Where it was time to shoot arrows at things!
With Fire!
Which gives me a lot of joy. Remember that puzzle I talked about struggling with last time? There's an ice-block that I can now disappear, and voila:
no more puzzle! Now we're cooking with fire.
Okay, so the next major crux of the temple is this big pillar in the centre of the room:
Which I found a way to raise up and lower down.
The Water Temple comparisons do indeed continue. However, this time, it's a big pillar instead of water, which is very different. Because pillars are used to... block bridges...
When it's raised, the problem is then getting up to the place where the fact that it's raised is useful, because the way we got up there before was by the bridges and jumps that are now blocked!
Oh no!
What a tragedy.
See, when this place was used as a mining shaft, they had a dedicated pillar-raiser, called the "Dumbwaiter" because he was the brightest kid in the room and the others had an inferioty complex and demoted him to the most boring role, and he needed to wait around a lot.
That's where the word dumbwaiter comes from. True story.
Anyways, now it's just me and I need to be my own Dumbwaiter and I can still only be in one place at once (just you wait, it's gonna happen any day now).
Anyways, I accidentally bumped into this guy again, trying to find my way up:
He was even easier the second time, since he seemed to take more damage from fire arrows. That's probably why he kept them. His one weakness.
WAIT IS HE THE DUMBWAITER?!
Taking his revenge upon the Evil Masters of the Mineshaft?
Oh. Yeah, that makes sense.
And I think I found the culprits:
They're right there... behind the... let me see if I can get a better screenshot:
Okay. Sure, Tatl. Just put Link's big head in the way every time I try to do this. Thanks.
It's an "Eeno"TM. It's clearly not proud itself. And it's made of snow. This is definitely the ones who used to... mine this shaft.
...ughh... nope. not saying that again.
AND they're suspectible to heat! It all adds up! The dumbwaiter was protecting them because he just couldn't let go! Even if they treated him like shit, he still tried to make them like him.
It's really quite a sad story.
Anyways... who's next?
Oh, uh...
Yeah, you being here makes no sense. Sorry. I got nothing.
But wait.
Does this remind you of something?
Two lizard-like things, with tails, jumping around, slashing, breathing fire...
I'm about to say it again aren't I? The big, pear-shaped head of Some Unlit Souls is rearing themselves again. It's some real Hollow Business, I tell you. It's a very Lordan Affair.
...
It's the damn Gargoyle fight from Dark Souls. This is the inspiration. It even looks like it, except it's not on a roof.
Luckily, of that fight, I have the experience necessary, and thwart their foolish attempts at mimicry and squash them into the dirt.
With impunity.
I don't know what they did wrong, but I'm sure they did something wrong. Just look at them.
(can you tell not a lot happened this episode? I'm really stalling here.)
Anyways, back on track, remember this fella?
Yeah, he's not important. At all.
The guide literally says "you can ignore him".
He's just a rat with a bomb for a tail. In a room in which you need to stand on the middle box, shoot a frozen eye, then get raised up and proceed to the upper floor.
The rat's just there to party.
So you know what? Yeah, you know what?
He's on the Party List.
That's right. He'll be the bomb.
(...that's the worst pun this time, I swear.)
I make my way all the way up the pillar and ready to face the top of the shaft
and it turns out its more of this guy:
Which doesn't really make that much sense either, considering the previously established canon... Maybe he had a brother? This guy is about as bad at fighting as the other, and instead of fire arrows, he's keeping the Boss Key.
Which is clearly not as smart as keeping fire arrows, so this is definitely the inferior brother who spurred on the bullying of the real Dumbwaiter.
This guy is nothing.
Time to go where the boss lurks!
It's just up there! Out of reach!
Because in order to go up... we have to go down.
By PUNCHING!
Apparently, these very obvious blue parts of the middle pillar can be punched out, lowering the pillar to the level below, where you can then reach a hallway with snowballs you can also
to then go up the backstairs to the top level to reach the door.
Yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense. No wonder they needed a dumbwaiter to make sense of it all.
BOSS TIME:
What do we think it is? A big ice monster? A yeti? A slime, but ice? An even bigger, even dumber wizard? A Goron Turned Bad?
That's a... horse? Bull?
Horsebull.
....Leaning more towards bull now...
oh. It's just encased in Ice.
Is it... really a threat then? It's... clearly incapacitated itself with its own power? It shouldn't be able to do more harm?
UNLESS, this is an Elsa situation where she locks herself off to not cause anymore harm, but she still turns everything around her to ice.
This is Elsa's Castle after all. We have established that. I mean, just look at it:
Okay, fine I'll shoot some fire at it and see what's up.
Oh, scary camera angle.
What kinda name is "Goht"? And why does a mechanical monster need a mask?
Did the people who ran the mineshaft make the mechanical monster? And then gave it a mask? I mean, the name's about their intelligence level, so that fits.
Ok, then, Mr Goht. What you got?
Oh, you ran off? Okay. Goodbye.
Good thing I can also ROLL
I'm catching up to you!
There you are! And that hurts it! Me hitting it with spike-rolling, that is.
And it just keeping running around this big, circular arena.
Yes, indeed. Another Dark Souls Boss.
We're in it.
But this one has the major advantage that rolling around as a Goron Ball is REALLY FUN and there's constantly respawning green vials of magic juice that make sure you can just keep rolling forever.
And while it seems I'm doing very little damage every time I just hit it regularly, it's also just so fun that why not? Right?
But then he got...
Lightning.
Lightning?
In this Fire and Ice Temple on top of a big snowy mountain that's themed around the fact that this boy is making it cold everywhere..?
Why give it lightning?
I have no answer.
I'll think about it until next week. Because I called it there. After dying to its lightning twice.
It's okay, because it's still fun to just roll. I just needed a break.
So see you next time, where we kill a big Mechanical Bull With a Mask That Can Shoot Lightning!