Through the looking glass? Let's Play The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past!

Edit: What Octopus Prime said. Though it's worth noting that there's a glitch on Death Mountain that lets you get into the dark world without it, as well as another that lets you fight with the sword in bunny-form...

No, you said this:

You might have meant to say "stop making new threads", but this can easily be interpreted as "stop working on the threads that are already active."

And I felt bad since mine was the most recent, fearing my straw was the camel-back-breaking one.

Then I realized it was more of a "6 is plenty, 'kay thanks", and that bolstered my withered spirits.

And that Bolstering went away as soon as I went to get the magic wand. Level 6 sucks so bad. The things I do for you people.

Nich and Tomm are mad at me and they worked on Persona 3.

Oof. The Palace of Darkness is harder than I remember it being. It should be up soon though.

Every time I see his name, I think "Shalashaska". Now I feel like there should be a telephone call after the credits in LttP, where you find out he was secretly manipulating everything.

"Don't worry. You can depend on me...

...Mr. Mask Salesman."

DUN DUN DUUUUHN!!

Ha ha, he'd have Ganon's severed arm and try to hijack the Four Giants to sell 'em on the Hyrule-Termina arms market.

Finally finished it! The dungeons are starting to get longer, so updates may be a little more sparse than usual.

Anyway, last we left off, Agahnim had succeeded in his plans of breaking the seal on the dark world, and though we managed to defeat him we were drawn into the dark world as well. Our only clue now is to search out the Palace of Darkness and save the maiden inside in the hopes that we'll learn something.



Fortunately, it's not too hard to find - even though we have signs like this pointing us in the right direction, the mark Sahasrahla left on our map and a basic understanding of Hyrulean geography tells us that it's exactly where the Eastern Palace used to be.



However, it's no picnic getting there - compared to the dark world, the light world's monsters might as well be fluffy kittens. Some of the monsters here are strong enough to take off half your health, so be careful while travelling about.



Be especially careful of the Hinox - these guys can take a beating unless you have bombs on hand.

Speaking of which, we need to pick some up, don't we? Back to the light world!

*woowoowoowahwahwoowoowoo*



Unfortunately, it seems the castle's strengthened the arrest warrent, as pretty much everyone and their dog is out to get me at this point. And you know what that means - it's time to run for it.



Yeah, I bet you guys were wondering why I left these behind, weren't you? Anyway, know that we've stocked up, it's time to head back to the dark world.

*woowoowoowahwahwoowoowoo*



En route to the Palace of Darkness, we run into a stumpy looking Sahasrahla-wannabe, telling us his tale of woe in the dark world. However, make a special note of that last word he mentions.



At least, I think we're on the right track.



After passing through some dense shrubbery, we discover that Kiki the monkey has tagged along for a bit. 10 rupees isn't much, so we give them to him to get him off our back.



Of course, that only encourages the little bastard to extort even more money out of us, and since we need to get inside we're forced to pay. Thankfully, the palace is chock full of treasure to be had, so it's no skin off my nose.

Anyway, time to head inside.

Looks familiar, doesn't it? However, the similarities are only superficial at best - the dungeon's a lot more abusive than the one you remember.

In any case, the first thing we're going to do is go key-hunting in this dungeon. Let's head through the left door first.



Our first stop is down here. We're gonna need all the keys we're going to get.



Next, head through the right path and step on the warp.



According to Zelda, she's fine, but maybe we should hurry to stay on the safe side.



Goryia see, Goryia do.



The bari are a bit of a nuisence thanks in part to their ability to shock you when they're stricken, so time your strikes accordingly.



By the way, this is where we'll be needing the bombs, as the left crack leads to a treasure chest with a key. After you grab it, head back to the entrance and go through the middle door this time.



Watch out for turtles. You can't kill them yet, so just run around them for now.



Here we'll be needing the bombs again. Blow up the floor and jump down below, then take the stairs back up again.



Now that we have the Big Key, it's time to make some actual headway into this place. Jump off the side for now.

Watch out for the monster brigade when you pick up this key and head for the nearby warp. Head back to the room from before and take the right path this time.



A lot of keys this time, eh? Like I said, the dark world's a whole new ball game, as even the dungeons get more complex.



And the traps sneakier. Watch your step!



Head into the left room and circle around through the maze. Grab the key and blow up the nearby wall to find the palace treasure.



This is probably my favourite weapon in the whole game. Though it tends to pale in strength late-game when you get the Golden Sword and Silver Arrows, the hammer is the strongest weapon in the game for a long period of time, dealing roughly twice as much damage as the Master Sword or Bow & Arrows. However, it has a short range, so be sure to use discretion with it.



Another neat feature is the fact that it can flip over those turtles we saw before, exposing their fleshy underbelly. And that's just one of its many uses.



Be sure to head down here to grab a quick buck. Be sure to take a look at the panel in front of the boss door. Looks ominous, doesn't it?

Anyway, it's time to move on. Head back to the room with the hardhat beetles and head right this time.

It looks like the game's trying to "switch" things around. Anyway, head through the door to move on.



For the longest time, I could never figure this puzzle out. Where's the door? How do I get by? What the hell am I supposed to even do? To this day I still remember the frustration I went through when I was a child.



Of course, if you've already played Link's Awakening, this one should be a no brainer. Shoot the eye to make the wall move to reveal a staircase.



Use #3 of the hammer involves smashing down stakes that get in your way, though in the dark world they seem to use, uh...

......

What the hell are those things, anyway?



I guess tonight I dine on turtle soup.



Anyway, we've now reached the main event. That's right, it's time for a boss fight.

Introducting the Helmasaur King. Unlike the last four bosses, this guys a lot more difficult, as not only can he take one hell of a beating, but can take off a large chunk of your health as well. The biggest threat is that tail of his, which is hard to avoid and takes off two hearts if it connects.



There are generally two approaches to fighting the Helmasaur King. The first way is to try and take off his mask using bombs. It's the more inaccurate method and requires a great deal of precision, but three or so bomb blasts are enough to take off that mask of his.



The second approach is to try using the hammer we got from earlier. It's easier to land hits using the hammer than it is the bombs, but it also takes roughly three times as long to break off that mask of his as well. So although it's easier to hit the boss with it, you also run the risk of draggin the fight out.



Once you knock off that mask however, the fight kicks into high gear. Switch to the Bow & Arrows and alternate between using that and your sword to knock off his HP. Try to finish him off as fast as you can at this point, as he'll be combining his tail attack with his fireballs now to try and kill you.



In a minimalist game, the Helmasaur tends to be a breaking point for some. Unless you have his patterns memorized, there's not much you can do except rush in and hope you kill him before he kills you as the lack of hearts at this point in time makes a battle of attrition all but impossible.



In any case, the second battle goes much more smoothly this time, mostly on account of having five hearts instead of three this time around. After a tense battle, the Helmasaur King finally goes down and I grab the first crystal.





As you can see, the maidens that Agahnim sent over to the dark world have transmogrified into crystals, much in the same way as Link was turned into a rabbit when he first got sent over. After a brief bit of dialogue and a word of encouragement, the first maiden marks down on our map the locations of the six others and sends us on our way.

Next time: The Swamp Palace and the Thing That Goes BOING!

Yeah, the crystals don't drop until you pick 'em up. Though I'm not complaining, since things are only going to get more brutal for me here on out. :/

You remember those shitty paperback books about how to "win at nintendo games" or whatever they were called? I remember they used to have "tips!" like "if you want to be be better at Castlevania, use only your basic whip!" I remember thinking that was the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

Well, I still think that's true. You're crazy, Pappillon Reel. I like you, but you're crazy.

Edit:


I remember one of these had tips for Amagon. Man! That would be a top strategy for the hottest games!

I so had those books as a kid. My "favorite" was the Mario one. It gave blow-by-blow accounts of the levels in Mario 3 up until World 5... when you actually started to need them. After that, you were lucky if you got more than one sentence for each level. Drove me crazy.

Maybe they didn't get past World 5.
"Strategy guides written by the guys that need them" sounds like a brilliant approach.

I used to have a similar book for Gameboy games that I LOVED reading because it was pretty big and I got to read a little bit about all sorts of games I'd never play and knew nothing about.

Yeah, I had the first two or three of those. It was awesome reading about games I didn't have. Jeff Rovin could make Amagon, Wizards and Warriors, and even Deadly Towers seem interesting.

And oh what a danger it is. It took me a dozen goes to avoid getting knocked off the edge there.

They're Whack-A-Moles. Hence why you hit them with the hammer.

Miyamoto: Ver-i-sim-i-li-tude? Wassat?

Well, it's the Dark World. Some people become trees. Some become bunnies. Some become whack-a-moles.

I know "Sahasrara" is the true name for the chakra, but when I play Digital Devil Saga, I always have to fight the urge to think "Sahasrahla."

You've now gotten as far as I ever have in LttP. Looking forward to seeing what happens from here, but not at all interested in doing so myself!

I remember my brother once bought a guide like that for the PS1, but we couldn't really use it because we didn't own any of the games. Still, it was fun learning about Monster Rancher, Alundra or some of the other games that were in there.

...Seriously?

I remember when I was a kid that I couldn't even remember his name. :P My brother and I used to keep on calling him Samsara or Sarsfala or Sarsfkaflksa all the time instead of writing it down. Though in my defense, I was only four years old at the time.

I never knew you could use the hammer! That's awesome...

Yeah, I had assumed as much. I always had a hell of a time with Gannon unless I abused the cape. Even if you stick with the lamp I bet there's a nice squeeze on your MP at the end there with no bottles and full cost to light both torches...

The punnery is killing me, but I'm digging the hell out of this.

Even though it's 2 am, I think you guys wouldn't mind an update. Hell, it's not like I could sleep anyways.

Last we left off, we had just finished the Palace of Darkness, acquiring both the hammer and the first crystal from it. We had also received information from the captive maiden regarding the other crystals, so it's time to set out and find them all.



The hammer is a huge help here, as we can now hammer away those stakes that were blocking off our progress.



For anyone curious, the dark world version of Link's house has turned into a bomb shop. Though the selection isn't that good to be honest.

But before we do anything else, there's one thing I've always wanted to try.



Though you technically don't have to do this, you can actually have your shield stolen from you at this point in the game. Though this is normally a bad thing, for the hardcore minimalist this means that we're losing excess baggage instead. I mean, it's not like you actually need the shield to beat the game, right?



But enough of that, we have a dungeon to conquer.



That is, if we could even get inside it.



Thankfully, Sahasrahla gives us a hint, telling us that the light world's building should affect this one as well.

Since we don't have any other leads, we might as well head on over.

*woowoowoowahwahwoowoowoo*



Oh, hey! I remember this place.



Time to pull the switch and release the floodgates. Wait, water? I've got a bad feeling about this...



Oh no.

Thankfully, we can put off exploring the water temple for now, since we can't really swim yet.

However, I know of just the thing.

Welcome to Zola's Domain. Here's where we'll be finding the item we need.



Be careful of Zola ambushes though. They can be fierce.



In any case, a brief chat and 500 rupees gets us the Flippers we so desperately need. With these things we'll finally be able to swim! If only it were that easy in real life...



Well, back to exploring the water temple, I guess...



Unlike the last temple, the Swamp Palace is more of a test of endurance than anything. Since the majority of monsters here drop either rupees or nothing at all, hearts are pretty scarce for large periods of time. Couple that with an endless onslaught of monsters and you're in for a rough time.



Another recurring theme in this palace is the use of switches like the one shown. Since we rely on water to get around, opening up the drains and flooding certain areas is necessary to proceed.



Notice the big chest? Unfortunately we can't open it yet, since we don't have the Big Key yet. I know, annoying isn't it?



Fortunately the puzzles aren't too hard, as even the most casual Zelda fan shouldn't have trouble figuring them out.



Time to move on up. Let's head up to the next floor first.

Oof. Just looking at this room makes me queasy. Notice the fireball spewer in the corner? And the crawfish? And that spinning pillar of fire?



Thankfully, we don't have to stay in there long since our goal was to get over to this side.



Here it is, the Big Key. And you know what that means: treasure time!



Presenting the most popular Zelda item ever, the Hookshot! BOING! Even if you haven't played a Zelda game, you should still be able to recognize this.



BOING! As you can see, the Hookshot's main ability is to grab onto objects and either pull you or them closer together, making normally impassible gorges easily accessible. Handy for those times when you can't make the jump.



Now that we have the treasure, it's time to finish things up. Head through this door.



Notice if you had went through either of the other doors, you wouldn't have been able to trigger this switch to drain the water.



But be sure to head down the other staircase anyway for some mad lootz.

Head through the secret passage in this waterfall to move on - the other door just leads to a dead-end.



This is it, the last room before the boss. Though you can't tell from the picture, the water is flowing at a rather rapid pace, so be careful not to be pushed into the wandering crawfish.



Also be careful not to be trapped on land, either.



Well, here we are. Let's do this.



Introducing Arrghus, the boss of the Swamp Palace.



In order to defeat him, you first have to find a way to separate him from those puffballs around him. Use the hookshot (BOING!) to pull them away and keep killing them until there's none left.



Once you kill the last one, Arrghus will leap into the air and slam back down, then proceed to chase you around the room. Slash at him when he gets close, then move out of the way when he jumps again. After eight slashes, he should go down.



Boss beaten, it's time to grab the crystal. Mission accomplished!

Next time: Skull Woods! Like a Moth to the Flame!

But first, time to get some sleep. ZZZZZ...

For some reason, I hate Skull Woods. I always save it for right before the Turtle Rock dungeon.

(I also always do Misery Mire before the Ice Palace so I can ignore the block puzzles, but I think that's pretty common. In any case, the end result is Misery Mire--->Ice Palace--->Skull Woods--->Turtle Rock. I recommend this for everyone.)