Oracle of Ages, Part 6: Wing Dungeon
Hm, it's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry, I got rather caught up in other stuff. Classwork, mostly. And also playing Hotel Dusk, which I quite enjoyed.
Anyway, on to the dungeon.
Now that we got the bombs from Queen Ambi, we can blow open the entrance of this rather unstable-looking dungeon.
Yay explosives!
This is me getting hurt by my own bomb like the klutz that I am.
But, hey, it's open! And, astoundingly, it didn't collapse! Most excellent.
These eye statue things still creep me out.
Cryptic. But its meaning will become apparent immediately.
Spiked beetles. Invulnerable to harm, until...
you flip them over with your shield.
Defeating them all opens this door. I still want to know how one triggers a door to open only upon the deaths of a certain number of monsters.
This looks suspiciously like a puzzle. We've seen these colored blocks before, but this time the solution isn't quite as simple.
Still not at all difficult, though.
More blocks standing in my way for no particular reason.
Hm. Looks suspicious.
When in doubt, blow it up.
When I first played this game, it took me forever to realize that these walls were bombable. I remember wandering around this dungeon for ages trying to figure out what to do. I was quite new to video games at the time. Ah... the days of my youth. Like the scent of fresh lemon...
Yay! Again, not that I need it, but whatever. It's there, so I simply must get it. I remembered to take caps of it this time though.
Wing Dungeon looks like a bird. Clever. A lot of dungeons are like that: their shape reflects their name. Or is it the other way around?
Oh, right, the rails. Riding around on mine carts is a big thing in this dungeon.
Sparks. I don't yet have any way to harm them. They're kind of a pain.
Nice conspicuous floor tile, perfect for a key to fall onto.
And there it is, falling from the ceiling once all the monsters are dead. You know you're in trouble when this sort of thing starts to seem normal.
Note to Legend of Zelda programmers: it really isn't particularly fun to solve the same simple configuration of blocks over and over. There's no need to put them in front of every other door. Really.
Using my shiny new key.
I easily dispatched the ropes. Ooo, chest!
And so I thought, I might as well show you what the map looks like when you have the compass.
And then my game froze when I brought up the map. Great.
\
One reset later...
Here we go. You can see where the chests are, and the skull-looking symbol is the boss room. That's all. And now I might never show you another map because I'm tired of my game freezing when I bring it up. (Yes, it already happened to me once before while I was working on this adventure.)
Anyway, moving on. Explosions! Bombs get frequent use in this dungeon.
Another sidescrolling portion.
The Thwomp will try to fall on me when I get near it.
So of course I just walked right under it without even trying to avoid it. :B
Yay, I guess?
Now that's the right way to get past it. Bait it into falling, then walk under while it's going back up. Though it looks like I took damage that way too. Maybe I'm just an idiot.
Anyway.
Doors that will only open for oncoming mine carts.
Mine carts that are the perfect size for Link. He looks kinda cute riding along in there.
The cart kills any enemies it runs into. Link can still use his sword and some other weapons while riding it, though.
That tile over there looks suspiciously puzzley.
End of the line.
Uh-oh. Big, wide-open room, something coming down from above... smells like a miniboss!
This weird, demonic-looking, wing-ear guy is Swoop. An appropriate miniboss for a place called "Wing Dungeon".
I beg to differ.
Swoop's thing is basically flapping around and trying to come crashing down on top of you. Not particularly sophisticated. But if you fall into the holes he leaves behind, you'll end up in the room below and have to come back up and start the fight over. Which is annoying, so don't fall in.
You have to hit him while he's near the ground.
There's really not much more to say about this fight, except that if he falls on the blue tiles, he won't make a hole. So it's best to lure him to the edges to fight.
Oh, and he bounces at you after landing after he's taken some damage.
And that's the end of Swoop.
More locks. How do you lock a block, anyway?
Whisps. Can't defeat 'em yet. They're a bit of a nuisance, but not too annoying.
That platform the Stalfos are on is completely surrounded by bottomless pits. I wonder how that works. Is it the top of a bottomless pillar...?
And the door closes behind me. Looks like there's puzzles afoot.
Hm. Guess I'll take the stairs for now.
By the way, did I mention that at some point during this episode, I took too much damage and used up my magic potion? 'Cause I did.
Damn, just a feather. Here I was hoping for treasure, and it's just junk.
On second thought... yay feather! Apparently Link is completely incapable of jumping if he doesn't have a feather. Kind of sad.
Let's get back and solve that puzzle. But first... there's something that I want to get.
But I fell short of my jump and got thwomped by the Thwomp and died. Good thing I have a magic potion - oh wait
I swear I don't usually suck at this game so much. I'm going to blame my broken arrow key for my failings even though it's not actually hindering me much at all. It's definitely not because I'm just plain clumsy or anything.
Luckily I'd saved right after getting Roc's Feather.
Another reset later, a cryptic message. Come on, you might as well drop the pretense of mysticism and just come out and say "Roc's Feather" and "colored tile".
But before solving that puzzle, there's something that I STILL want to get.
And I managed not to die this time! Yay me.
All that for thirty rupees.
The mysterious narrator's sarcastic comment adds insult to injury.
Anyway! Jumping over the tile makes it turn red. Another simple introduction to a type of puzzle that will be made more complex later on.
Hah, such pits don't scare me anymore! I have a feather!
I say that, but I totally fell into one of the pits in this room anyway. Sigh.
Some quick swordwork flips the switch. The gate bumps the cart back the way it came.
This is me getting a simple colored block puzzle wrong.
Much better.
Boom.
There were a number of enemies in here at some point. I took most of them out before remembering to take a cap.
And naturally a chest magically appears. I really should stop questioning this, but it's just so absurd.
Peahat. Gotta wait till it stops flying around to kill it.
Link is very acrobatic.
Upon being jumped over, panels change color: red -> yellow, yellow -> blue, blue -> red.
I'm not sure I'd want to meet the sort of person who thinks that the ceiling is the best place to hide keys.
Anyway, now I can get past that locked block. Which vanishes when you use the key on it. Okay then. That makes sense. Except not.
But I forgot that these rails are blocked. Durr.
There we go.
This room has four pots at the entrance. One must resist breaking at least one of them. I know it's hard, but wanton destruction just isn't the answer to everything. It's only the answer to 90% of things.
The bomb was dropped upon the death of an enemy. It's not about to explode or anything. Kind of makes you wonder why the moblin or whatever never tried to bomb Link, though.
YES would you believe I occasionally forget myself and break the pot at this point? It's just so hard not to! Seeing pottery go unbroken is just so frustrating.
Looks like it's puzzle time again!
The statues are only movable when the floor tile is the same color as them.
How does one make statues work like that, anyway? And, more importantly, why would anyone ever bother? The architects of these dungeons were clearly quite unhinged.
And, of course, the reward is a key falling from the ceiling. Right.
Eh, just an empty, red room.
wut
I've foiled your clever camouflage, weird blobby things!
You can run, but you can't hide!
Okay, maybe you can hide. But not for long!
And I cut out like seven caps of me running around trying to catch these things. I'M GOOD AT THIS GAME, I SWEAR D:
Finally.
I somehow managed to take a bunch of damage from those sparks. Go me.
OKAY OMG BOSS AHEAD I'D BETTER WATCH OUT OMG OMG
...er. Boss? Hello? Where are you?
One of the pots had a fairy in. Yay healings!
DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE
There's a friendly-lookin' guy.
So. Head Thwomp. Basically, he has four faces, and is always turning to switch between them. Like so:
The terrified red face is the most important, though.
His default attack is spewing out fireballs. Easily avoided if you're on top of one of the ladders.
Chucking bombs into the top his head is the only way to attack him.
...I tend to miss a lot.
Ah, there we go. Once you get a bomb in, he closes up the top of his head and starts spinning madly, then eventually slows down...
...and comes to a stop.
And when he stops on the red face, he takes damage, AND drops a heart for you. Sweet!
But, if he stops on another face...
...he attacks.
The purple face slams into the ground and makes boulders fall from the ceiling. Not too terribly threatening, given that the terrain provides some spots that practically seem designed as shelters from such attacks. How convenient for Link. Almost as if some kind of cosmic designer was looking out for him...
But, argh, the blue face D:
He sends all these fireballs spiraling out around him, sometimes clockwise, sometimes counterclockwise. And some places are safe to stand when they're going one way, but not when they're going the other. Oh, and his fireballs do a whole heart of damage instead of half a heart. Arrrggh.
Happily, the bottom right corner is always safe.
But this time I tried to leave the safety of the corner before the attack was completely done, and took three fireballs to the face. D: Real smart.
Anyway, the best thing to do is to try throw the bomb into the top when the purple face is showing, so by the time it gets there, he will have switched to the red face. I am sometimes successful at doing so.
Like this time. I almost feel bad for picking on the one face that seems so scared. Poor guy.
He sometimes drops bombs for you to pick up along with the fireballs. Thank you, Head Thwomp, for providing me with an endless supply of ammunition. How I love it when bosses are nice like that.
Blue face again D: Whyyyyy
Green face just spews out fireballs, same as the default attack. Boring. And easy to avoid. The blue face is really the only difficult one.
I usually keep the sword equipped in the B slot, but sometimes there's no point in having it equipped. Like now. It's not like there's any use for it in this battle anyway. This way I don't have to keep bringing up the item screen.
You can see I was afraid it was gonna stop on purple here. But happily...
...it stopped on red instead.
By the way, every time Head Thwomp takes damage, he starts spinning faster. By now, he's spinning fast enough to make it very difficult to throw a bomb in with the right timing. So at this point I'm pretty much just throwing them in at random and hoping I get lucky.
Luck doesn't seem to be on my side, however.
Bomb refill.
Remember how the bottom right corner is safe during this attack? Yeah, that doesn't go for the bottom left.
A mistake I make often, and for which I nearly died. Sigh.
Nooooo not blue again!
Argh.
This battle can really take quite a lot longer than the first boss battle.
I'm feeling good about this toss.
Vwoop.
C'mon...
Stop on red...
Please...
...
YES
And then it crashes to the ground and EXPLODES! So satisfying! Just don't stand underneath if you're low on health :P
I was so happy the first time I beat this guy when I was a kid. It took me so many tries... Ha... I even remember where I was when I finally managed it. Good times, good times.
You have no idea how hard it is for me not to make an immature joke here.
Back outside, it looks like baby Maku Tree's calling.
Yes, ma'am! *salute*
Next time! Sailing Rafting the high seas!
But, hnn... I feel like the dungeon episodes are probably rather boring. I wish I could manage to make them more fun and less... walkthroughy.
Oh well, anyway, the part coming up is really quite fun, in my opinion. There's quite a bit to do before getting to the next dungeon.
Anyway, on to the dungeon.
Now that we got the bombs from Queen Ambi, we can blow open the entrance of this rather unstable-looking dungeon.
Yay explosives!
This is me getting hurt by my own bomb like the klutz that I am.
But, hey, it's open! And, astoundingly, it didn't collapse! Most excellent.
These eye statue things still creep me out.
Cryptic. But its meaning will become apparent immediately.
Spiked beetles. Invulnerable to harm, until...
you flip them over with your shield.
Defeating them all opens this door. I still want to know how one triggers a door to open only upon the deaths of a certain number of monsters.
This looks suspiciously like a puzzle. We've seen these colored blocks before, but this time the solution isn't quite as simple.
Still not at all difficult, though.
More blocks standing in my way for no particular reason.
Hm. Looks suspicious.
When in doubt, blow it up.
When I first played this game, it took me forever to realize that these walls were bombable. I remember wandering around this dungeon for ages trying to figure out what to do. I was quite new to video games at the time. Ah... the days of my youth. Like the scent of fresh lemon...
Yay! Again, not that I need it, but whatever. It's there, so I simply must get it. I remembered to take caps of it this time though.
Wing Dungeon looks like a bird. Clever. A lot of dungeons are like that: their shape reflects their name. Or is it the other way around?
Oh, right, the rails. Riding around on mine carts is a big thing in this dungeon.
Sparks. I don't yet have any way to harm them. They're kind of a pain.
Nice conspicuous floor tile, perfect for a key to fall onto.
And there it is, falling from the ceiling once all the monsters are dead. You know you're in trouble when this sort of thing starts to seem normal.
Note to Legend of Zelda programmers: it really isn't particularly fun to solve the same simple configuration of blocks over and over. There's no need to put them in front of every other door. Really.
Using my shiny new key.
I easily dispatched the ropes. Ooo, chest!
And so I thought, I might as well show you what the map looks like when you have the compass.
And then my game froze when I brought up the map. Great.
\
One reset later...
Here we go. You can see where the chests are, and the skull-looking symbol is the boss room. That's all. And now I might never show you another map because I'm tired of my game freezing when I bring it up. (Yes, it already happened to me once before while I was working on this adventure.)
Anyway, moving on. Explosions! Bombs get frequent use in this dungeon.
Another sidescrolling portion.
The Thwomp will try to fall on me when I get near it.
So of course I just walked right under it without even trying to avoid it. :B
Yay, I guess?
Now that's the right way to get past it. Bait it into falling, then walk under while it's going back up. Though it looks like I took damage that way too. Maybe I'm just an idiot.
Anyway.
Doors that will only open for oncoming mine carts.
Mine carts that are the perfect size for Link. He looks kinda cute riding along in there.
The cart kills any enemies it runs into. Link can still use his sword and some other weapons while riding it, though.
That tile over there looks suspiciously puzzley.
End of the line.
Uh-oh. Big, wide-open room, something coming down from above... smells like a miniboss!
This weird, demonic-looking, wing-ear guy is Swoop. An appropriate miniboss for a place called "Wing Dungeon".
I beg to differ.
Swoop's thing is basically flapping around and trying to come crashing down on top of you. Not particularly sophisticated. But if you fall into the holes he leaves behind, you'll end up in the room below and have to come back up and start the fight over. Which is annoying, so don't fall in.
You have to hit him while he's near the ground.
There's really not much more to say about this fight, except that if he falls on the blue tiles, he won't make a hole. So it's best to lure him to the edges to fight.
Oh, and he bounces at you after landing after he's taken some damage.
And that's the end of Swoop.
More locks. How do you lock a block, anyway?
Whisps. Can't defeat 'em yet. They're a bit of a nuisance, but not too annoying.
That platform the Stalfos are on is completely surrounded by bottomless pits. I wonder how that works. Is it the top of a bottomless pillar...?
And the door closes behind me. Looks like there's puzzles afoot.
Hm. Guess I'll take the stairs for now.
By the way, did I mention that at some point during this episode, I took too much damage and used up my magic potion? 'Cause I did.
Damn, just a feather. Here I was hoping for treasure, and it's just junk.
On second thought... yay feather! Apparently Link is completely incapable of jumping if he doesn't have a feather. Kind of sad.
Let's get back and solve that puzzle. But first... there's something that I want to get.
But I fell short of my jump and got thwomped by the Thwomp and died. Good thing I have a magic potion - oh wait
I swear I don't usually suck at this game so much. I'm going to blame my broken arrow key for my failings even though it's not actually hindering me much at all. It's definitely not because I'm just plain clumsy or anything.
Luckily I'd saved right after getting Roc's Feather.
Another reset later, a cryptic message. Come on, you might as well drop the pretense of mysticism and just come out and say "Roc's Feather" and "colored tile".
But before solving that puzzle, there's something that I STILL want to get.
And I managed not to die this time! Yay me.
All that for thirty rupees.
The mysterious narrator's sarcastic comment adds insult to injury.
Anyway! Jumping over the tile makes it turn red. Another simple introduction to a type of puzzle that will be made more complex later on.
Hah, such pits don't scare me anymore! I have a feather!
I say that, but I totally fell into one of the pits in this room anyway. Sigh.
Some quick swordwork flips the switch. The gate bumps the cart back the way it came.
This is me getting a simple colored block puzzle wrong.
Much better.
Boom.
There were a number of enemies in here at some point. I took most of them out before remembering to take a cap.
And naturally a chest magically appears. I really should stop questioning this, but it's just so absurd.
Peahat. Gotta wait till it stops flying around to kill it.
Link is very acrobatic.
Upon being jumped over, panels change color: red -> yellow, yellow -> blue, blue -> red.
I'm not sure I'd want to meet the sort of person who thinks that the ceiling is the best place to hide keys.
Anyway, now I can get past that locked block. Which vanishes when you use the key on it. Okay then. That makes sense. Except not.
But I forgot that these rails are blocked. Durr.
There we go.
This room has four pots at the entrance. One must resist breaking at least one of them. I know it's hard, but wanton destruction just isn't the answer to everything. It's only the answer to 90% of things.
The bomb was dropped upon the death of an enemy. It's not about to explode or anything. Kind of makes you wonder why the moblin or whatever never tried to bomb Link, though.
YES would you believe I occasionally forget myself and break the pot at this point? It's just so hard not to! Seeing pottery go unbroken is just so frustrating.
Looks like it's puzzle time again!
The statues are only movable when the floor tile is the same color as them.
How does one make statues work like that, anyway? And, more importantly, why would anyone ever bother? The architects of these dungeons were clearly quite unhinged.
And, of course, the reward is a key falling from the ceiling. Right.
Eh, just an empty, red room.
wut
I've foiled your clever camouflage, weird blobby things!
You can run, but you can't hide!
Okay, maybe you can hide. But not for long!
And I cut out like seven caps of me running around trying to catch these things. I'M GOOD AT THIS GAME, I SWEAR D:
Finally.
I somehow managed to take a bunch of damage from those sparks. Go me.
OKAY OMG BOSS AHEAD I'D BETTER WATCH OUT OMG OMG
...er. Boss? Hello? Where are you?
One of the pots had a fairy in. Yay healings!
DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE
There's a friendly-lookin' guy.
So. Head Thwomp. Basically, he has four faces, and is always turning to switch between them. Like so:
The terrified red face is the most important, though.
His default attack is spewing out fireballs. Easily avoided if you're on top of one of the ladders.
Chucking bombs into the top his head is the only way to attack him.
...I tend to miss a lot.
Ah, there we go. Once you get a bomb in, he closes up the top of his head and starts spinning madly, then eventually slows down...
...and comes to a stop.
And when he stops on the red face, he takes damage, AND drops a heart for you. Sweet!
But, if he stops on another face...
...he attacks.
The purple face slams into the ground and makes boulders fall from the ceiling. Not too terribly threatening, given that the terrain provides some spots that practically seem designed as shelters from such attacks. How convenient for Link. Almost as if some kind of cosmic designer was looking out for him...
But, argh, the blue face D:
He sends all these fireballs spiraling out around him, sometimes clockwise, sometimes counterclockwise. And some places are safe to stand when they're going one way, but not when they're going the other. Oh, and his fireballs do a whole heart of damage instead of half a heart. Arrrggh.
Happily, the bottom right corner is always safe.
But this time I tried to leave the safety of the corner before the attack was completely done, and took three fireballs to the face. D: Real smart.
Anyway, the best thing to do is to try throw the bomb into the top when the purple face is showing, so by the time it gets there, he will have switched to the red face. I am sometimes successful at doing so.
Like this time. I almost feel bad for picking on the one face that seems so scared. Poor guy.
He sometimes drops bombs for you to pick up along with the fireballs. Thank you, Head Thwomp, for providing me with an endless supply of ammunition. How I love it when bosses are nice like that.
Blue face again D: Whyyyyy
Green face just spews out fireballs, same as the default attack. Boring. And easy to avoid. The blue face is really the only difficult one.
I usually keep the sword equipped in the B slot, but sometimes there's no point in having it equipped. Like now. It's not like there's any use for it in this battle anyway. This way I don't have to keep bringing up the item screen.
You can see I was afraid it was gonna stop on purple here. But happily...
...it stopped on red instead.
By the way, every time Head Thwomp takes damage, he starts spinning faster. By now, he's spinning fast enough to make it very difficult to throw a bomb in with the right timing. So at this point I'm pretty much just throwing them in at random and hoping I get lucky.
Luck doesn't seem to be on my side, however.
Bomb refill.
Remember how the bottom right corner is safe during this attack? Yeah, that doesn't go for the bottom left.
A mistake I make often, and for which I nearly died. Sigh.
Nooooo not blue again!
Argh.
This battle can really take quite a lot longer than the first boss battle.
I'm feeling good about this toss.
Vwoop.
C'mon...
Stop on red...
Please...
...
YES
And then it crashes to the ground and EXPLODES! So satisfying! Just don't stand underneath if you're low on health :P
I was so happy the first time I beat this guy when I was a kid. It took me so many tries... Ha... I even remember where I was when I finally managed it. Good times, good times.
You have no idea how hard it is for me not to make an immature joke here.
Back outside, it looks like baby Maku Tree's calling.
Yes, ma'am! *salute*
Next time! Sailing Rafting the high seas!
But, hnn... I feel like the dungeon episodes are probably rather boring. I wish I could manage to make them more fun and less... walkthroughy.
Oh well, anyway, the part coming up is really quite fun, in my opinion. There's quite a bit to do before getting to the next dungeon.