(I play Ocarina of Time every sunday. See previous parts here.)
(This is one day late because I had family stuff in the weekend and forgot to plan ahead, but luckily, this monday's a public holiday in Denmark so it's still a kinda sunday!)
Last time, I left myself in the middle of the "Dodongo's Cavern", and after facing the aforementioned Lizardfellows I got to a darker part of the cave and found these guys!
The Titular Dodongo!
Does that mean this is their cavern? It's in the name... Sooo, what are we doing here? The Gorons said I had to clear out the cavern of dangerous creatures, buutt... they also named the cavern after them? Am I just cleaning up a cavern of its harmless inhabitants so the Gorons can continue eating their luxury cuisine?
Of course I am!
In the next room is this row of Bomb Flowers that at first makes me think it's a farm of some sort.
So I bypass that completely and go into the next room where three of the ominous statues I moved before stand at the end of the room.
Surprise! This one moves.
Game. No mimics. I thought we had a deal. No More Dark Souls.
But no, this one's a fully fledged alive statue that moves and hits me and I have to throw bombs at it and barely manage to scrape through the battle, but in the chest behind it is a Compass!
That's a Zelda ThingTM . Good we're back to knowing what this game is.
But there's no way outta this room so I go back to the row-of-bombs. I toss a bit around with them for good fun until I realize that if I place one in the row, it'll blow the next ones up in succession!
And there's a neat little hole in the center so you can get all of them!
(I will also just remind you that the Gorons told us this is edible rock. So everything we're blowing up, we're essentially destroying food.)
And then we get into this pleasant fucker of a room:
4 Statues. And two flying bat thingy's. It's unclear how many of the statues are alive, but a few bombs reveal that at least a few of them are. And one of them attacks me and I get this message:
WHAT
Durability is a thing in this game??
No wonder people were constantly trying to sell me shields before. Christ. Woulda liked to know that, you know, before I was hip-deep in a dungeon.
Flustered and surrounded by two statues and a bat, I fall to my second death.
And guess where my shield is?
Still gone. I respawn back at the beginning of the dungeon with no shield (but with the same dungeon progression).
So I go back across the main room, through the door, up the stairs, and into the room again, now ready for the statues to be some big idiots andd.... nothing.
None of them attack me. I just move one, climb up and press the switch and walk out the door.
With terror in my eyes, watching the statues, wary of any movement.
But nothing happens.
And now I'm above the main room! Sweet!
There are a few bat-thingys (oh did I mention some of them are on fire? Some of them are on fire.) but I dispose of those easily with my trusty slingshot and go into a room with an eye thing from the first dungeon and I'm like "hah! As if I forgot that trick."
And then I go into this next room which is a tiny maze with narrow corridors and these spiky balls
At the other end is this situation:
Up the ladder is an explodable door (read: food). On this platform is a single Bomb Flower (the only one in the room). The ledge by the door is so small that any Bomb I throw falls down before it explodes.
So I stand there thinking, "ok, do I really have to time the throw? That seems like a tad precise for this kind of game this early on?"
And the worst part is that every time I fall down the platform I have to crawl up the ladder and make this precarious jump back to the platform (before I realize I can drag the box instead).
I stop my throwing because that can't possibly be the right thing to do and search the room again and again and don't find any other solution.
I think I'm on this one part for like 15 minutes.
Then I throw it up again and it magically lands right on the edge and blows up the door.
This is the first time I feel like this game genuinely fucked with me. That cannot be the right way to do that??
And behind that door?
More lizardfellows. Well that was bound to happen. I fight them for a while, but my low health isn't a help and then I get into this situation where my camera Just Doesn't Want To Target The Lizardfellow For The Death Of Me and I die.
So I go back across the main room, through the door, up the stairs, and into the statue room, across the bridge, through the eye room, jump over the maze, and DISMANTLE those fools. They ain't stand a chance when I get the camera to do what I want it to, and so more merry creatures die in the name of Me Getting A Magic Stone.
Lastly, I back around and atop the maze room and find a treasure chest with a Bomb Bag inside it!
And I'll end with this cryptic riddle I found in the main room as I got access to the final part of it.
I finally hit a bit of of what I was afraid of with these dungeons, where I was just stuck on the same arcane thing for a while, but it was only once so far and it wasn't too bad. I'm still enjoying dungeoneering. My guess is we're out by next time! (link previous episode)