Twilight Princess Commentary 04
Mar. 31st, 2008 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
riariVictoly! Finished Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Man, that was awesome.
So much has happened since I last posted. So this post is going to be long! Also, if you haven't noticed from the last post, the dungeon parts are just going to be comments only. I'm not summarizing those. I did tell more about the battle with Ganondorf though. It's the last battle, and very epic.
Last post, I just finished the Gerudo desert prison and found out about Ganon. Shards of the Mirror of Twilight are hidden around Hyrule. "One is in the snowy mountain heights, one is in an ancient grove, and one is
in the heavens."
So, off to talk to Telma's friends again. To Hyrule Castle town! (I also spent time running around getting heart pieces, golden bugs and poe's souls.)
-Castle Town is pretty neat. And reactive too. If you turn into a wolf where it's quiet (like in front of Jovani's house) and run out into the main aisles, people scream and run. If you go back to that quiet spot, Midna won't let you transform back and suggests you leave town for a little while until it quiets down.
-There's little doggies you can play fetch with. If you throw the bone into an alleyway of grass, they bring back hearts or rupees. So cute!!
-There's a fruit vendor near the South Gate that you can pick an apple up at. But then it mentions, "hmm, there's another vendor over there. Let's compare sweetness." And when you go back to the spot you first picked up the apple, it says you got the apple, then it says the ones over there are sweeter so lets put this one back. Haha. You can do that with over booths along the row. The game keeps coming up with reasons why you should put it back. No one manning the booth, it costs too much, the other ones over there look sweeter, etc.
-Hee, its so cute when wolf Link accomplishes something, he turns around in a happy circle. (He's been doing this a while. This is just the first time I commented on it.)
Ashei is currently investigating Snowpeak, which is next to Zora's Domain. When we arrive at Zora's Domain, all the Zoras are talking about a suspicious person poking around and a beast has been coming to the village. Taking the path to Snowpeak, we find Ashei has been staking out the area and watching for the beast. She made a sketch of it even! We take that to the Zoras and they point out the Reekfish and mention that Prince Ralis was the only one to catch those. Said prince is currently at Kakariko so over there we warp to.
Prince Ralis gives you his coral earings, which you can catch the Reekfish with since they're what the fish eat. He also decides to go back home to his people! Yay! So warping back to Zora's Domain, we fish up a Reekfish and remember the scent. Now its tracking time.
Snowpeak is currently covered in a blizzard. If you don't know your way, you can get lost. Thankfully, we have the trail of a fish that we're tracking through a blizzard. The fun never stops here! At the end of the trail, is a Yeti! He's found a mirror piece and has invited us to his house.
-Via Snowboarding! I suck at that too. Mostly. :> But now we're at a new dungeon/ruins. Iiinteresting.
And the Yetis have found a piece of the mirror, but its making the wife sick and the husband was getting fish from Zoras' Domain for its nutritional value. Of course, they locked it up. And we get to find it. So the wife tries to remember where the key for that door is... The husband is in the kitchen fixing soup. You can take some in a bottle to heal hearts.
-And pumpkin! An Ordon pumpkin from where you grew up at. Awww... Hey wait. Where's the key?
-Woo! The Ball and Chain. Excellent. Take that freezing chunks of ice.
-And goat cheese! This cheese is made from milk from Ordon goats. Damn. Still no key.
-Goat cheese, pumpkin, fish and some other ingredients make for an awesome soup that heals eight hearts. Excellent.
-Found the key! Finally!
-Oh damn, now we have to fight the Yeti's Mirror possessed wife. Crap.
-Awww. That's touching, how Yeto (the husband) says to Yeta (the wife) that they don't need a mirror.
So, the Mirror piece is ours, the Yetis' are lovey dovey, and we're fleeing this joint. Off to the next place the Mirror pieces reside. (With the usual searching for pieces of Hearts, Poe's Souls and the last two bugs I need. Yay!)
Part 4
The Sacred Grove is probably where the next Mirror piece is hiding. "...one is in an ancient grove..." A quick trip to Telma's bar lets us find out that Rusl is investigating the Sacred Grove. Ashei is back and mentions that we're mysterious because our name keeps showing up on these events. Off to N. Faron Woods!
We meet up with Rusl, who comments that it has been a while since they walked through these woods. We use his partner, a golden chicken (...what?), to cross the gap between the ledge and the entrance to the Sacred Grove. The ancestors of the Hylians created it and their ancient technology can help save Hyrule.
-And the Skull Kid from Majora leads us on a merry chase through the Sacred Grove. Again. Arrrggh. Love the music here though.
-But, yeah! Warp point now to the Sacred Grove thanks to some shadow beasts.
-Occoo is from the ancient race of sky beings... Huh.
-The Temple of Time. The foundation of which in current reality is a broken and overgrown place. But through a certain door, becomes a tower for us to fight through. Man this entrance place looks familiar. I wonder if this is the same place where we found the Master Sword in Ocarina of Time.
-The Dominion Rod! So I can animate statues now. Cool.
-Giant spider defeated....mostly. Just as Link was doing his end of the battle pose, the spider exploded to leave a giant eyeball looking spider and lots of little spiders. What a silly ending. Those are much easier to take down though.
After recieving the Mirror piece, Midna suggests that we might have to destroy the Mirror later. It is a dangerous thing. Once we leave the Temple of Time, the Dominion Rod is no longer working. Ooccoo wanted the Rod to get back to her home but the Dominion Rod is overworked and aged. Oh bother. Now I need to find a way to get that rod working again. That's what happens when you take things from one time to the next. But there is a spell that would give it a magic boost. Of course we have to find it.
A letter from Renado, the Kakariko Shaman, tells us to come to him. He wants to tell us something important about Ilia's memory. But first, a quick trip to Telma's bar to talk to Shad the scholar. Who of course, isn't there. He's in Kakariko. Well, two birds one stone.
Some Gorons are there, the patriarch and an elder. They found out that Ilia's memory was gone and since Link helped them, they wanted to help. Renado tells us that it is looking good for Ilia's memory to return. We just need to trace her trail and see if we can spark something. Shad is downstairs in the basement looking at statue there. Renado gives us a letter to take to Telma, as he can't abide Telma's company. Which is hilarious since she was so interested in him when they came by to bring the Zora prince to the shaman. Hilarious. But! We have a chance to get Ilia's memory back!
Back to Telma's bar, where she sends us to talk to the doctor who was the person to bring Ilia to her bar. The doctor had a wooden statue from Ilia but spilled medicine on it. He put it outside to dry but it was stolen. So, we find the medicine scent, go outside of the Castle town to change and then back to hunt the scent!
Man it is so fun to see the Castle Town people's reactions to wolf Link running around the town. I'm singlemindedly after a scent and everyone is screaming and cowering. Even the Guardsmen. No wonder the townspeople call them cowardly.
Louise, the bar cat that helped us before, had stolen the statue, but she was attacked by skeletal dogs and they took it. We take it back and go to Ilia. She remembers being confined somewhere and the person with her gave her the statue and freed her. The elder Gor Coron remembers that a tribe that protected the Hylian Royal Family long ago is who the statue belongs to. Their numbers had dwindled during the wars. Their village is hidden and blocked by a landslide.
The patriarch Darbus heads off to clear the rockslide, where we meet up with them. Ahead is the village. There are roughly 30, no 20 of them ahead, underlings that attack and plunder incessantly. We must defeat them all and destroy them before they spot us.
-Hehehe, a western shootout complete with music. Excellent.
And we meet Impaz, named after a great leader of her tribe who built the village. She knows our name, and gives us a charm that Ilia left with her. Ilia remembers when shown this charm. Hooray! She tells us that Impaz can't leave her village until she imparts a message for the messenger to the heavens with the Dominion rod. Guess where we're going now?
Impaz gives us the Ancient Sky Book, though an important word is missing characters. (Of course it is.) She tells us that the rod was handed down from the Oocca back when they kept contact with the Royal Family. The Messenger was to carry the rod with him when the Royal Family needed to communicate with the Oocca. We go back to Shad who tries to awaken the statue he was looking at with the book. But, it doesn't work. He goes off to visit the other statues, and we find out that it worked but it worked on the Dominion Rod. So we go around Hyrule visiting Owl Statues to find characters for the missing word.
-*dies laughing* Okay, when the shootout happened. It was with a western themed music, with dramatic camera angles for the door we were heading for.
The play with the cats mini-game is using the same exact thing. hehehe Play this in the Hidden Village.
With the word completed, Shad tries again. The center disappears but nothing else happens. So he goes off to think and we move the statue with the Dominion Rod. He finds us again in the room with a huge cannon. We can take this up to the City in the Sky! But it doesn't look like it will work at the moment. So we take the cannon and warp to Lake Hylia, where there is someone there who can fix it.
300 rupies later, we're blasting off!
-City in the Sky. Huh, interesting. Full of Ooccoos. And incomplete floors. I see me redoing several rooms more than usual because I fell.
-And the dragon we're supposed to save the city from just destroyed my hard earned bridge! Bastard!
-One flying Lizardos later, we have the Double Clawshot! Well, it's another Clawshot but combined with the one we got from the Lakebed Temple. Woo!
-Flying dragon battle, and lots and lots and lots of using the Double Clawshots. Why is the last dungeon for getting the last piece of something so damn tedious? I mean, the Lakebed Temple for the Fused Shadows and the City in the Sky for the last piece of the Mirror of Twilight. Both very tedious. And very long in how long I took to get through the dungeons. Bah.
-Now we have all four pieces of the Mirror. Since Zant could only shatter it and not destroy it, it proves he's not the true king of the Twili.
-Back to the beginning of the City in the Sky. And a chance to get back without leaving a dungeon in the middle. I never thought I would be so, so damn happy to get back to regular land.
Part 5
A quick visit back to Telma's bar sees all four helpers back in place. Telma's happy to hear Ilia's memory is returned and Shad is pouring over his notes. Time to put the Mirror back together.
Midna mentions that the Twilight Realm isn't all bad. It's more like sunset in our world. The world of shadows just gives it a bad name. Well, it was like that until that evil power spread through the realm. The sages appear and apologize for that. It was their doing of pushing Ganondorf into the Twilight Realm that caused it. They call Midna, the Twilight Princess.
WOAH! Midna's the Twilight Princess! You know, that makes sense for why Zant wants her power, why she couldn't go back to Twilight without Zant's power, why Zelda got along with her and gave up her energy for her... Some of the other things said in game makes sense that way. Huh.
Midna seems sad that they figured it out. She tells us the story of how she got involved with us. She wasn't always in this small form we knew. Midna was cursed and tossed out of the realm. But she had a stone cap. And oh isn't that the most evil grin. Midna: "In our world, we've long believed that the Hero would appear as a divine beast." That's why she followed us when we were first captured as a wolf and freed us.
Midna didn't really care about the Light World but her mind was changed when she saw Link's and Zelda's sacrifices. She's all for trying to get back into the realm. That's the feeling I got from Midna in the beginning. I knew she was helping us only because we could help her. But that's changed. Definitely. Aww, and Link looks so sad before Midna said that her mind was changed about helping the Light World.
Onto the Palace of Twilight!
-The Twilight Realm. Man, I kinda missed running around in Twilight...a little bit.
-Midna's still within my shadow. But that's okay. She cursed to be a small imp that we've always seen. Though the Twili... Not shadow beasts, but they look like them. Midna tells us not to attack them. They're not doing anything.
-Black fog made out of Zant's shadow crystals. The ones that stole the light from people. We immediately turn into a wolf when we touch them. But Midna
can still turn us back into our normal form. Though why are we in human form
in the first place in the Twilight Realm? Master Sword maybe?
-Zant illusions to battle. Tough but not bad. The freaking hand that held the Sol? HOLY CRAP. I have to knock out a flying hand that's creeping after me! Repeatedly! Damn I bet I'm going to have nightmares after this one.
-Yay! Both Sols in place! (After many hand knocking outs. *shudder*)
-And they charged up the Master Sword! It glows!
-You know, Zant seemed a much more terrifying and fearsome foe...if he had not gone on this spree of speaking about resenting the royal family where he did weird twists and noises. So not so fearsome after that. And of course Ganondorf is his god. It completely figures.
-Aww, even beating up Zant doesn't remove Midna's curse. But it does look like she has the Fused Shadows again. And she has access to her Ancestor's magic. To which she used just a fraction to destroy Zant. Wow.
After taking down Zant, he reveals that his god has descended and has been reborn on our world. Midna's curse is unbreakable, put there by Ganon. So that's why she didn't return to her normal form. From the guide I'm using: "There's always a way to break a curse in a Zelda game, even if it takes several dungeons to do it." So true. We'll find a way.
So, back to the Light World. We've done what we can for the Twilight Realm. On to Hyrule Castle. It's time to break that barrier.
Midna dons the Fused Shadows and is thrown around a bit. She turns into this huge spider thing and pierces the barrier. One explosion later, and Midna wakes up in Link's arms.
-Woah. Midna's been wearing part of the Fused Shadow mask all this time. I
figured it was something like that, when that cut scene showed the mask. And
it would make sense for Midna to grin so evilly when she realized she had a
part of that mask.
-And man that's a scary giant spider thing. But Midna broke the seal to the
castle.
Oh, just to say this, because my guide didn't, now would be a great time to go do other things. I mean you can leave the castle later, but if you want to focus completely on the castle itself without leaving before the ending, go do things now!
Now with out of the way, Link and Midna storm the castle.
-Uh...what just happened here? I mean, that kidnapper we've been going against all game, just showed up, said he wanted to play. We fought, then he gave over the small key, and told us that he always followed the stronger side. That's all he knew. And he rides off. Midna was just very, very surprised that he spoke. I mean, yeah me too, but what just happened??
-Aaaaaaahhhhh! Freaking scary soldier ghosts all just pointing at things they want me to do!! *shudder* Scary! (You can only see them when you're using your wolf senses.)
-Finally! We get to enter Hyrule Castle itself. We know we're near the end at this point.
-And as with every Hyrule Castle, we have a dungeon-like thing to go through.
-Wooo! Those guys we've been helping for Hyrule showed up just at the best
moment!
-Ugh more ghost soldiers. Somehow dealing with these are scarier than when it was just little spirit flames. But they point out the best way to go through a drop block maze.
We reach the top, the stormy top. Just before this, the music was so loud but now its quiet. There's a severed statue head on the ground and we look up to see the Triforce statue sculpture damaged. And Zelda is in the center of the sculpture.
Ganondorf makes his presence known when Link tries to go to Zelda. He belittles the Twili, calling them pathetic to go against the gods with petty magic. But he used them to revive by feeding on their hatred. The Twili lacked power, True Power, the power of those chosen by the gods. Once again Ganondorf mocks us with the Triforce brand on his hand. I wonder if he even knows Link has one of those. Ganondorf of course wants to rule the world, by bringing Light and Shadow into Darkness.
Midna denies him and intends to stop him from doing so. "Shadow has been moved by light," Ganondorf observes. Which is very true. Midna tries to defend a comatose Zelda against Ganondorf but the shadow just goes past her. Zelda wakes up, possessed by Ganondorf.
We fight her off and Midna puts on the Fused Shadows to drive Ganondorf out of Zelda. Ganondorf appears and turns into a giant boar and attacks. Midna points out that he's changing his tactics and since he is a beast, we should turn into a wolf to fight "evil beast against sacred beast."
-Woo! Fighting Ganon with our wolf form! Take that, dark creature!
Midna helps us against the dark beast Ganondorf and afterwards Ganondorf is covered in a golden gas. Zelda's energy leaves Midna and returns to Zelda, who wakes up! Zelda was one with Midna and empathizes with her. Ganondorf turns into a fiery ball, Midna pulls out the Fused Shadows again and sends us out of the castle to Hyrule Field. Though Link tried to stop her, before she sent him away.
Oh, Midna... *sniff* Alone, Link and Zelda see an explosion at the castle. Ganondorf appears on his horse...with Midna's helm! Bastard! Ganondorf charges at us along with ghostly riders, but Zelda prays to the Light Spirits who nick them away just in time. The Light Spirits give them golden arrows.
-Hey, light arrows! I know you!
Kickass. Zelda'll be firing Light arrows while we're trying to get close to
Ganondorf on Epona. She's riding pillion and man can she stay on the horse
well! She stays on when Link gets knocked off. I do like Ganondorf's horse though. A black Gerudo stallion and he's huge. Must be a warhorse/drafthorse size.
After enough hits, Ganondorf falls off his horse. Laughing, he draws his blade, the same one the sages tried to use against him. He wants to use the blade to blot out the light out forever. A barrier pops up and its just Link and Ganondorf to fight alone. Now it's just us and Ganondorf. Man to dark lord.
This battle is tough, but by now Link has gone against enough tough sword enemies to help. Still takes a bit though. You can also lock blades and if you're fast enough, you can fight him back.
When Link beats him, he threatens, "Do not think this ends here... The history of light and shadow will be written in blood!" A weird scene happens Zant appears, sans helm, and snaps his own neck. Ganondorf is dead.
The Light spirits reappear and bring Midna back! And break her curse! Yay!
Link runs up to her and Midna's changed! She's taller, with flaming red hair, dressed in fancy garb. Wow. Still the same old Midna though, when she teases us that we can't say anything. Link doesn't say anything throughout the game. Not onscreen anyway. That's just mean.
The credits roll for a while, with scenes of Hyrule and the people we met and helped along the way. The jousting enemy we fought so often is running around with his friends. The kids from Ordona returns to their village. Thinking about it, damn did Malo really built up his stores. Geesh.
We see Link, Zelda, and Midna at the Mirror Chamber at the top of the Gerudo Desert. Midna reminds them that light and shadow can't mix, but there's another world bound to this one. Zelda says they need each other to exist and she realizes why the goddesses left the Mirror. So that the two worlds would meet.
Midna cries a tear while saying goodbye to Link and then pushes that tear to the Mirror, which destroys it. Link tried to stop her before she did that. Poor boy. He's always doing that and it never works. She stands in the beam and disappears back to the Twilight Realm. Probably forever since the link is now gone.
Though I wonder, why? Why did Midna destroy the Mirror? Besides that proving that she is the true ruler of the Twili, why did she do that? To keep her realm safe? Though she did mention earlier that they would probably have to destroy the mirror. It is dangerous and puts her realm into danger.
More credits roll, and we see the Master Sword has been put back. The group from the bar is investigating the Sacred Grove, and all is safe and
peaceful again. We see Link's house briefly, with a Triforce banner, and Ilia standing at the path out waiting. Link is riding back (or from) the village.
The end.
Well, actually, while it is the end of the story, there's still lots and lots to do. I still have the Poe's Souls quest to finish, the Cave of Ordeals, and so on. I did finish the Golden Bug quest though. This game still felt like a far distant sequel to Ocarina of Time. Possibly because I recognized some of the lore that was used. Though I will say, Link as a wolf was a nice surprise and Epona was well done.
Twilight Princess comes very, very highly recommended. I really enjoyed playing it. The story was really great and well executed. Probably why I plowed through it so fast. I'm a sucker for good stories. I think I finished the game at 50 hours or so. I don't remember exactly and I would have to load the game back up to check. But this is exactly what I was waiting for. Too bad I waited so long to play it.
Seriously, I don't know how this plays on the Wii but the GameCube version was great. Now if they would release a soundtrack for the game. *pokes Nintendo* The great guide I used for this game is here.
So much has happened since I last posted. So this post is going to be long! Also, if you haven't noticed from the last post, the dungeon parts are just going to be comments only. I'm not summarizing those. I did tell more about the battle with Ganondorf though. It's the last battle, and very epic.
Last post, I just finished the Gerudo desert prison and found out about Ganon. Shards of the Mirror of Twilight are hidden around Hyrule. "One is in the snowy mountain heights, one is in an ancient grove, and one is
in the heavens."
So, off to talk to Telma's friends again. To Hyrule Castle town! (I also spent time running around getting heart pieces, golden bugs and poe's souls.)
-Castle Town is pretty neat. And reactive too. If you turn into a wolf where it's quiet (like in front of Jovani's house) and run out into the main aisles, people scream and run. If you go back to that quiet spot, Midna won't let you transform back and suggests you leave town for a little while until it quiets down.
-There's little doggies you can play fetch with. If you throw the bone into an alleyway of grass, they bring back hearts or rupees. So cute!!
-There's a fruit vendor near the South Gate that you can pick an apple up at. But then it mentions, "hmm, there's another vendor over there. Let's compare sweetness." And when you go back to the spot you first picked up the apple, it says you got the apple, then it says the ones over there are sweeter so lets put this one back. Haha. You can do that with over booths along the row. The game keeps coming up with reasons why you should put it back. No one manning the booth, it costs too much, the other ones over there look sweeter, etc.
-Hee, its so cute when wolf Link accomplishes something, he turns around in a happy circle. (He's been doing this a while. This is just the first time I commented on it.)
Ashei is currently investigating Snowpeak, which is next to Zora's Domain. When we arrive at Zora's Domain, all the Zoras are talking about a suspicious person poking around and a beast has been coming to the village. Taking the path to Snowpeak, we find Ashei has been staking out the area and watching for the beast. She made a sketch of it even! We take that to the Zoras and they point out the Reekfish and mention that Prince Ralis was the only one to catch those. Said prince is currently at Kakariko so over there we warp to.
Prince Ralis gives you his coral earings, which you can catch the Reekfish with since they're what the fish eat. He also decides to go back home to his people! Yay! So warping back to Zora's Domain, we fish up a Reekfish and remember the scent. Now its tracking time.
Snowpeak is currently covered in a blizzard. If you don't know your way, you can get lost. Thankfully, we have the trail of a fish that we're tracking through a blizzard. The fun never stops here! At the end of the trail, is a Yeti! He's found a mirror piece and has invited us to his house.
-Via Snowboarding! I suck at that too. Mostly. :> But now we're at a new dungeon/ruins. Iiinteresting.
And the Yetis have found a piece of the mirror, but its making the wife sick and the husband was getting fish from Zoras' Domain for its nutritional value. Of course, they locked it up. And we get to find it. So the wife tries to remember where the key for that door is... The husband is in the kitchen fixing soup. You can take some in a bottle to heal hearts.
-And pumpkin! An Ordon pumpkin from where you grew up at. Awww... Hey wait. Where's the key?
-Woo! The Ball and Chain. Excellent. Take that freezing chunks of ice.
-And goat cheese! This cheese is made from milk from Ordon goats. Damn. Still no key.
-Goat cheese, pumpkin, fish and some other ingredients make for an awesome soup that heals eight hearts. Excellent.
-Found the key! Finally!
-Oh damn, now we have to fight the Yeti's Mirror possessed wife. Crap.
-Awww. That's touching, how Yeto (the husband) says to Yeta (the wife) that they don't need a mirror.
So, the Mirror piece is ours, the Yetis' are lovey dovey, and we're fleeing this joint. Off to the next place the Mirror pieces reside. (With the usual searching for pieces of Hearts, Poe's Souls and the last two bugs I need. Yay!)
Part 4
The Sacred Grove is probably where the next Mirror piece is hiding. "...one is in an ancient grove..." A quick trip to Telma's bar lets us find out that Rusl is investigating the Sacred Grove. Ashei is back and mentions that we're mysterious because our name keeps showing up on these events. Off to N. Faron Woods!
We meet up with Rusl, who comments that it has been a while since they walked through these woods. We use his partner, a golden chicken (...what?), to cross the gap between the ledge and the entrance to the Sacred Grove. The ancestors of the Hylians created it and their ancient technology can help save Hyrule.
-And the Skull Kid from Majora leads us on a merry chase through the Sacred Grove. Again. Arrrggh. Love the music here though.
-But, yeah! Warp point now to the Sacred Grove thanks to some shadow beasts.
-Occoo is from the ancient race of sky beings... Huh.
-The Temple of Time. The foundation of which in current reality is a broken and overgrown place. But through a certain door, becomes a tower for us to fight through. Man this entrance place looks familiar. I wonder if this is the same place where we found the Master Sword in Ocarina of Time.
-The Dominion Rod! So I can animate statues now. Cool.
-Giant spider defeated....mostly. Just as Link was doing his end of the battle pose, the spider exploded to leave a giant eyeball looking spider and lots of little spiders. What a silly ending. Those are much easier to take down though.
After recieving the Mirror piece, Midna suggests that we might have to destroy the Mirror later. It is a dangerous thing. Once we leave the Temple of Time, the Dominion Rod is no longer working. Ooccoo wanted the Rod to get back to her home but the Dominion Rod is overworked and aged. Oh bother. Now I need to find a way to get that rod working again. That's what happens when you take things from one time to the next. But there is a spell that would give it a magic boost. Of course we have to find it.
A letter from Renado, the Kakariko Shaman, tells us to come to him. He wants to tell us something important about Ilia's memory. But first, a quick trip to Telma's bar to talk to Shad the scholar. Who of course, isn't there. He's in Kakariko. Well, two birds one stone.
Some Gorons are there, the patriarch and an elder. They found out that Ilia's memory was gone and since Link helped them, they wanted to help. Renado tells us that it is looking good for Ilia's memory to return. We just need to trace her trail and see if we can spark something. Shad is downstairs in the basement looking at statue there. Renado gives us a letter to take to Telma, as he can't abide Telma's company. Which is hilarious since she was so interested in him when they came by to bring the Zora prince to the shaman. Hilarious. But! We have a chance to get Ilia's memory back!
Back to Telma's bar, where she sends us to talk to the doctor who was the person to bring Ilia to her bar. The doctor had a wooden statue from Ilia but spilled medicine on it. He put it outside to dry but it was stolen. So, we find the medicine scent, go outside of the Castle town to change and then back to hunt the scent!
Man it is so fun to see the Castle Town people's reactions to wolf Link running around the town. I'm singlemindedly after a scent and everyone is screaming and cowering. Even the Guardsmen. No wonder the townspeople call them cowardly.
Louise, the bar cat that helped us before, had stolen the statue, but she was attacked by skeletal dogs and they took it. We take it back and go to Ilia. She remembers being confined somewhere and the person with her gave her the statue and freed her. The elder Gor Coron remembers that a tribe that protected the Hylian Royal Family long ago is who the statue belongs to. Their numbers had dwindled during the wars. Their village is hidden and blocked by a landslide.
The patriarch Darbus heads off to clear the rockslide, where we meet up with them. Ahead is the village. There are roughly 30, no 20 of them ahead, underlings that attack and plunder incessantly. We must defeat them all and destroy them before they spot us.
-Hehehe, a western shootout complete with music. Excellent.
And we meet Impaz, named after a great leader of her tribe who built the village. She knows our name, and gives us a charm that Ilia left with her. Ilia remembers when shown this charm. Hooray! She tells us that Impaz can't leave her village until she imparts a message for the messenger to the heavens with the Dominion rod. Guess where we're going now?
Impaz gives us the Ancient Sky Book, though an important word is missing characters. (Of course it is.) She tells us that the rod was handed down from the Oocca back when they kept contact with the Royal Family. The Messenger was to carry the rod with him when the Royal Family needed to communicate with the Oocca. We go back to Shad who tries to awaken the statue he was looking at with the book. But, it doesn't work. He goes off to visit the other statues, and we find out that it worked but it worked on the Dominion Rod. So we go around Hyrule visiting Owl Statues to find characters for the missing word.
-*dies laughing* Okay, when the shootout happened. It was with a western themed music, with dramatic camera angles for the door we were heading for.
The play with the cats mini-game is using the same exact thing. hehehe Play this in the Hidden Village.
With the word completed, Shad tries again. The center disappears but nothing else happens. So he goes off to think and we move the statue with the Dominion Rod. He finds us again in the room with a huge cannon. We can take this up to the City in the Sky! But it doesn't look like it will work at the moment. So we take the cannon and warp to Lake Hylia, where there is someone there who can fix it.
300 rupies later, we're blasting off!
-City in the Sky. Huh, interesting. Full of Ooccoos. And incomplete floors. I see me redoing several rooms more than usual because I fell.
-And the dragon we're supposed to save the city from just destroyed my hard earned bridge! Bastard!
-One flying Lizardos later, we have the Double Clawshot! Well, it's another Clawshot but combined with the one we got from the Lakebed Temple. Woo!
-Flying dragon battle, and lots and lots and lots of using the Double Clawshots. Why is the last dungeon for getting the last piece of something so damn tedious? I mean, the Lakebed Temple for the Fused Shadows and the City in the Sky for the last piece of the Mirror of Twilight. Both very tedious. And very long in how long I took to get through the dungeons. Bah.
-Now we have all four pieces of the Mirror. Since Zant could only shatter it and not destroy it, it proves he's not the true king of the Twili.
-Back to the beginning of the City in the Sky. And a chance to get back without leaving a dungeon in the middle. I never thought I would be so, so damn happy to get back to regular land.
Part 5
A quick visit back to Telma's bar sees all four helpers back in place. Telma's happy to hear Ilia's memory is returned and Shad is pouring over his notes. Time to put the Mirror back together.
Midna mentions that the Twilight Realm isn't all bad. It's more like sunset in our world. The world of shadows just gives it a bad name. Well, it was like that until that evil power spread through the realm. The sages appear and apologize for that. It was their doing of pushing Ganondorf into the Twilight Realm that caused it. They call Midna, the Twilight Princess.
WOAH! Midna's the Twilight Princess! You know, that makes sense for why Zant wants her power, why she couldn't go back to Twilight without Zant's power, why Zelda got along with her and gave up her energy for her... Some of the other things said in game makes sense that way. Huh.
Midna seems sad that they figured it out. She tells us the story of how she got involved with us. She wasn't always in this small form we knew. Midna was cursed and tossed out of the realm. But she had a stone cap. And oh isn't that the most evil grin. Midna: "In our world, we've long believed that the Hero would appear as a divine beast." That's why she followed us when we were first captured as a wolf and freed us.
Midna didn't really care about the Light World but her mind was changed when she saw Link's and Zelda's sacrifices. She's all for trying to get back into the realm. That's the feeling I got from Midna in the beginning. I knew she was helping us only because we could help her. But that's changed. Definitely. Aww, and Link looks so sad before Midna said that her mind was changed about helping the Light World.
Onto the Palace of Twilight!
-The Twilight Realm. Man, I kinda missed running around in Twilight...a little bit.
-Midna's still within my shadow. But that's okay. She cursed to be a small imp that we've always seen. Though the Twili... Not shadow beasts, but they look like them. Midna tells us not to attack them. They're not doing anything.
-Black fog made out of Zant's shadow crystals. The ones that stole the light from people. We immediately turn into a wolf when we touch them. But Midna
can still turn us back into our normal form. Though why are we in human form
in the first place in the Twilight Realm? Master Sword maybe?
-Zant illusions to battle. Tough but not bad. The freaking hand that held the Sol? HOLY CRAP. I have to knock out a flying hand that's creeping after me! Repeatedly! Damn I bet I'm going to have nightmares after this one.
-Yay! Both Sols in place! (After many hand knocking outs. *shudder*)
-And they charged up the Master Sword! It glows!
-You know, Zant seemed a much more terrifying and fearsome foe...if he had not gone on this spree of speaking about resenting the royal family where he did weird twists and noises. So not so fearsome after that. And of course Ganondorf is his god. It completely figures.
-Aww, even beating up Zant doesn't remove Midna's curse. But it does look like she has the Fused Shadows again. And she has access to her Ancestor's magic. To which she used just a fraction to destroy Zant. Wow.
After taking down Zant, he reveals that his god has descended and has been reborn on our world. Midna's curse is unbreakable, put there by Ganon. So that's why she didn't return to her normal form. From the guide I'm using: "There's always a way to break a curse in a Zelda game, even if it takes several dungeons to do it." So true. We'll find a way.
So, back to the Light World. We've done what we can for the Twilight Realm. On to Hyrule Castle. It's time to break that barrier.
Midna dons the Fused Shadows and is thrown around a bit. She turns into this huge spider thing and pierces the barrier. One explosion later, and Midna wakes up in Link's arms.
-Woah. Midna's been wearing part of the Fused Shadow mask all this time. I
figured it was something like that, when that cut scene showed the mask. And
it would make sense for Midna to grin so evilly when she realized she had a
part of that mask.
-And man that's a scary giant spider thing. But Midna broke the seal to the
castle.
Oh, just to say this, because my guide didn't, now would be a great time to go do other things. I mean you can leave the castle later, but if you want to focus completely on the castle itself without leaving before the ending, go do things now!
Now with out of the way, Link and Midna storm the castle.
-Uh...what just happened here? I mean, that kidnapper we've been going against all game, just showed up, said he wanted to play. We fought, then he gave over the small key, and told us that he always followed the stronger side. That's all he knew. And he rides off. Midna was just very, very surprised that he spoke. I mean, yeah me too, but what just happened??
-Aaaaaaahhhhh! Freaking scary soldier ghosts all just pointing at things they want me to do!! *shudder* Scary! (You can only see them when you're using your wolf senses.)
-Finally! We get to enter Hyrule Castle itself. We know we're near the end at this point.
-And as with every Hyrule Castle, we have a dungeon-like thing to go through.
-Wooo! Those guys we've been helping for Hyrule showed up just at the best
moment!
-Ugh more ghost soldiers. Somehow dealing with these are scarier than when it was just little spirit flames. But they point out the best way to go through a drop block maze.
We reach the top, the stormy top. Just before this, the music was so loud but now its quiet. There's a severed statue head on the ground and we look up to see the Triforce statue sculpture damaged. And Zelda is in the center of the sculpture.
Ganondorf makes his presence known when Link tries to go to Zelda. He belittles the Twili, calling them pathetic to go against the gods with petty magic. But he used them to revive by feeding on their hatred. The Twili lacked power, True Power, the power of those chosen by the gods. Once again Ganondorf mocks us with the Triforce brand on his hand. I wonder if he even knows Link has one of those. Ganondorf of course wants to rule the world, by bringing Light and Shadow into Darkness.
Midna denies him and intends to stop him from doing so. "Shadow has been moved by light," Ganondorf observes. Which is very true. Midna tries to defend a comatose Zelda against Ganondorf but the shadow just goes past her. Zelda wakes up, possessed by Ganondorf.
We fight her off and Midna puts on the Fused Shadows to drive Ganondorf out of Zelda. Ganondorf appears and turns into a giant boar and attacks. Midna points out that he's changing his tactics and since he is a beast, we should turn into a wolf to fight "evil beast against sacred beast."
-Woo! Fighting Ganon with our wolf form! Take that, dark creature!
Midna helps us against the dark beast Ganondorf and afterwards Ganondorf is covered in a golden gas. Zelda's energy leaves Midna and returns to Zelda, who wakes up! Zelda was one with Midna and empathizes with her. Ganondorf turns into a fiery ball, Midna pulls out the Fused Shadows again and sends us out of the castle to Hyrule Field. Though Link tried to stop her, before she sent him away.
Oh, Midna... *sniff* Alone, Link and Zelda see an explosion at the castle. Ganondorf appears on his horse...with Midna's helm! Bastard! Ganondorf charges at us along with ghostly riders, but Zelda prays to the Light Spirits who nick them away just in time. The Light Spirits give them golden arrows.
-Hey, light arrows! I know you!
Kickass. Zelda'll be firing Light arrows while we're trying to get close to
Ganondorf on Epona. She's riding pillion and man can she stay on the horse
well! She stays on when Link gets knocked off. I do like Ganondorf's horse though. A black Gerudo stallion and he's huge. Must be a warhorse/drafthorse size.
After enough hits, Ganondorf falls off his horse. Laughing, he draws his blade, the same one the sages tried to use against him. He wants to use the blade to blot out the light out forever. A barrier pops up and its just Link and Ganondorf to fight alone. Now it's just us and Ganondorf. Man to dark lord.
This battle is tough, but by now Link has gone against enough tough sword enemies to help. Still takes a bit though. You can also lock blades and if you're fast enough, you can fight him back.
When Link beats him, he threatens, "Do not think this ends here... The history of light and shadow will be written in blood!" A weird scene happens Zant appears, sans helm, and snaps his own neck. Ganondorf is dead.
The Light spirits reappear and bring Midna back! And break her curse! Yay!
Link runs up to her and Midna's changed! She's taller, with flaming red hair, dressed in fancy garb. Wow. Still the same old Midna though, when she teases us that we can't say anything. Link doesn't say anything throughout the game. Not onscreen anyway. That's just mean.
The credits roll for a while, with scenes of Hyrule and the people we met and helped along the way. The jousting enemy we fought so often is running around with his friends. The kids from Ordona returns to their village. Thinking about it, damn did Malo really built up his stores. Geesh.
We see Link, Zelda, and Midna at the Mirror Chamber at the top of the Gerudo Desert. Midna reminds them that light and shadow can't mix, but there's another world bound to this one. Zelda says they need each other to exist and she realizes why the goddesses left the Mirror. So that the two worlds would meet.
Midna cries a tear while saying goodbye to Link and then pushes that tear to the Mirror, which destroys it. Link tried to stop her before she did that. Poor boy. He's always doing that and it never works. She stands in the beam and disappears back to the Twilight Realm. Probably forever since the link is now gone.
Though I wonder, why? Why did Midna destroy the Mirror? Besides that proving that she is the true ruler of the Twili, why did she do that? To keep her realm safe? Though she did mention earlier that they would probably have to destroy the mirror. It is dangerous and puts her realm into danger.
More credits roll, and we see the Master Sword has been put back. The group from the bar is investigating the Sacred Grove, and all is safe and
peaceful again. We see Link's house briefly, with a Triforce banner, and Ilia standing at the path out waiting. Link is riding back (or from) the village.
The end.
Well, actually, while it is the end of the story, there's still lots and lots to do. I still have the Poe's Souls quest to finish, the Cave of Ordeals, and so on. I did finish the Golden Bug quest though. This game still felt like a far distant sequel to Ocarina of Time. Possibly because I recognized some of the lore that was used. Though I will say, Link as a wolf was a nice surprise and Epona was well done.
Twilight Princess comes very, very highly recommended. I really enjoyed playing it. The story was really great and well executed. Probably why I plowed through it so fast. I'm a sucker for good stories. I think I finished the game at 50 hours or so. I don't remember exactly and I would have to load the game back up to check. But this is exactly what I was waiting for. Too bad I waited so long to play it.
Seriously, I don't know how this plays on the Wii but the GameCube version was great. Now if they would release a soundtrack for the game. *pokes Nintendo* The great guide I used for this game is here.
