...OCARINA... The music of the Ocarina leads...
This was a quick one. But there always has been little to do between dungeons 7 and 8, where this part of the game often feels like it's getting over too fast, especially since I've already visited the Western Tal Tal Mountains previously. But now I could finally reach the new warp point there, which is more convenient than I thought it would be. Now I can quickly get over here after Level 7 and then warp to the Chamber Dungeon afterwards. This saves some time and that's always good.
On my way there I've heard the full new theme of the Tal Tal Mountain Range for the first time, actually. It gets quite epic at the end, very amazing remix. Overall I think the music in this remake is quite excellent. Whoever arranged these re-arrangements did a wonderful job.
It's also nice how you can see now the top of the dungeon right before entering it with. It gives a nice tease of the rewards up there, even though the warp point there must seem pointless at first. But only at first.
On the way here I also could finally get that Secret Seashell that has been staring at me ever since the overview trailer from two weeks ago (see here). Now I'm only missing four Secret Seashells and I'm especially excited about these, because they have eluded me for the entirety of the game. The final four! The most secret of Secret Seashells!
My 46th one probably will be even the last seashell in the game, if you're going by order of when you can find them. And this will make the new warp point in the area even more useful, because then you could get the reward for 50 shells right before entering the eighth dungeon. And this gives me hope that the reward will be more useful than just another Chamber Stone.
The Mirror Shield got some nice upgrades by the way. Not only does it reflect the beams of a Beamos, it reflects every projectile from what it seems. So, this works a lot like the Mirror Shield in The Minish Cap, just much cooler. I also like how this looks a lot like the one from A Link to the Past. It's good to finally have the Mirror Shield back in action, too few Zelda games have it.
Otherwise I like having the Boomerang and Roc's Feather equipped at all times. The Boomerang is still super useful and your best weapon next to the sword. And the Roc's Feather is basically your jump button, so you'll need that one equipped almost all the time anyway. (I also like how both items are colored similarly.) So, I'm back to the situation, where I constantly need to access my inventory, if I need anything else, like the Shovel or the Hookshot, where it now feels like I'm swapping items as often as in the original.
Back to town, I got the Piranha Plant from the Trendy Game, of course, and know I now why they saved the Piranha Plant and the Pokey for last, hehe. This was certainly funny.
So, this is the result of my experiment, where I skipped a room in the Eagle's Tower on purpose:
It seems you are getting all chambers from a dungeon after beating it, whether you have visited them or not. So, this was luckily a false alarm and I don't think there any missable items or chambers in the game. The only reason, why you get that one room from the Tail Cave together with the Key Cavern rooms is probably because it's not ensured that you have the Bombs otherwise. But you do need Bombs to beat the Key Cavern... I'm even guessing you are getting the seashell room from the Tail Cave in any case at that point, whether you have the shell or not. I probably shouldn't have gotten that seashell so early, because then I wouldn't have worried about this at all.
And as I thought... the above chamber is now quite easy, because you can shut down the Beamos (the sound effect when they get disabled is really cool) and you can quickly put the knights in their right place. As already mentioned previously, the original version was a death trap and one of the most annoying rooms in the game.
I also like that the Chamber Dungeon lets you use this "room":
There probably will be some players who have never seen the third floor of the Eagle's Tower before it was remodeled, so this chamber might raise some question marks then. But it's another free card for challenges like "Heart Shortage" or the following one.
I only got one new challenge at this point and it was called "Sheathed Sword". It has another special rule, where you can't draw your sword. It's like the "Win without using a sword!" Drabland Challenge from Tri Force Heroes. I like these special rules, but sadly you can't select them for your own dungeons, so you're stuck with their presets. Or at least I don't think you can.
But I got the "+Hearts Effect" from it, so that's half of the previously known effects. Not sure how you're getting the others, though... Maybe through more Chamber Stones? But I haven't found many of these either...
At the same time it feels like there is only one challenge remaining for a total of 12. That would be a little bit disappointing, if there were only so few. In any case I'm expecting this to be a boss rush challenge, where Dampé uses lots of fixed boss chambers on you. If not I will be building my own, of course. In any case the final challenge needs to be fitting of a new Heart Container.
I also wonder, whether the Wind Fish's Egg's chambers will become part of the Chamber Dungeon. Of course, technically there should only be three or four: an entrance, the maze room and the boss chamber, where the latter could have an unlockable variant as a "normal" chamber as well. But the boss room alone would be something crazy to have...
This even leads to the idea that they could expand the Wind Fish's Egg to somewhat of a real final dungeon by adding more layers to it. After jumping down into the hole after the maze, it could basically "unlock" the third layer for a nice surprise for everyone, who already knows the game. But I personally doubt that this will happen and I will already be quite happy, if I'm getting the chambers from the "final dungeon" at all.
Now off to the real final dungeon in this game...
Wow, they certainly have pimped the Turtle Rock entrance fight. Now I demand that there will be a special Turtle Rock chamber on top of the one for the Lanmola! It's still quite easy, but the fight certainly looks cool and has new phase to it in the beginning. And the new version makes it even more apparent, how special this dungeon entrance actually is.
And it's an entrance to a really awesome looking dungeon. Love what they've done with the place! For real this time! A common theme in the remake seems to be dungeons with diggable floors. Tail Cave, Bottle Grotto, Angler's Tunnel, Catfish's Maw and now Turtle Rock all let you use your shovel. And the earth floor adds a beautiful contrast to the lava in this place.
The Vires are a little bit more threatening now, where it looks good for the Vire, if there ever will be remakes of the Oracle games in the same style. One Vire also keeps chasing you in the large room at the center, which is a little bit spooky. And you can't kill them quickly with the Boomerang any longer, though it's still the best weapon against them. The Boomerang also doesn't kill the Rolling Bones guy in one shot either. So, it got nerfed a little bit, but that's fine.
Interestingly, the recurring mini bosses in the later dungeons now don't respawn any longer, but this is fine as well. In the original it was a way to replay them, but now you have the Chamber Dungeon for this anyway, in absolutely all their variants even, so it's okay that they aren't constantly in the way any longer.
Otherwise, the "floor maker" thingy is now much easier to use. It doesn't disappear, if you steer against an existing floor any longer, so you can comfortably prepare its next turn. It also looks nice, like absolutely everything in the dungeon. When I first saw pictures of this dungeon, I wasn't convinced about the new visuals when compared to the GameBoy Color version, but seeing this in action had me sold.
And there is even more good news! The secret Bomb Arrow shortcuts are still there and still a secret. After the Face Shrine I was afraid that they would blatantly spoil these as well, but like in the original this remains something that only veteran players like myself would know.
And this is critical, because with these shortcuts you can get the Magic Rod very early in the dungeon. By the way, the Blaino fight is now a little bit different as well. You can't just spin-attack the guy to death this time, you have to hit him from behind. But with the Red Mail and the Koholint Sword you can best the guy in three hits... Well, see you in Oracle of Seasons, Blaino! Or in the Chamber Dungeon, if I'm in the mood...
The Dodongo Snakes, which have to be fought from an upper balcony, aren't as easy any longer as well, because it's more challenging now to throw the bombs into the right spots. So, the old warp point on the upper outside might be useful after all, if you're running out of bombs and want to quickly buy more.
But overall I'm super happy how this dungeon turned out! It looks great, feels great and plays great.
Well, normally there would be nothing to do at this point except for facing the final boss. However, in the remake there are still figurines to collect and at least on more Chamber Dungeon challenge to solve, as well as in my case four more Secret Seashells to find. I will be doing all these things, before I face the final boss.
Since I'm not using the Seashell Sensor this might take a while, so don't be surprised, if there won't be another post for a few days. I will also disable comments for now to avoid potential spoilers, sorry.
On my way there I've heard the full new theme of the Tal Tal Mountain Range for the first time, actually. It gets quite epic at the end, very amazing remix. Overall I think the music in this remake is quite excellent. Whoever arranged these re-arrangements did a wonderful job.
It's also nice how you can see now the top of the dungeon right before entering it with. It gives a nice tease of the rewards up there, even though the warp point there must seem pointless at first. But only at first.
On the way here I also could finally get that Secret Seashell that has been staring at me ever since the overview trailer from two weeks ago (see here). Now I'm only missing four Secret Seashells and I'm especially excited about these, because they have eluded me for the entirety of the game. The final four! The most secret of Secret Seashells!
My 46th one probably will be even the last seashell in the game, if you're going by order of when you can find them. And this will make the new warp point in the area even more useful, because then you could get the reward for 50 shells right before entering the eighth dungeon. And this gives me hope that the reward will be more useful than just another Chamber Stone.
The Mirror Shield got some nice upgrades by the way. Not only does it reflect the beams of a Beamos, it reflects every projectile from what it seems. So, this works a lot like the Mirror Shield in The Minish Cap, just much cooler. I also like how this looks a lot like the one from A Link to the Past. It's good to finally have the Mirror Shield back in action, too few Zelda games have it.
Otherwise I like having the Boomerang and Roc's Feather equipped at all times. The Boomerang is still super useful and your best weapon next to the sword. And the Roc's Feather is basically your jump button, so you'll need that one equipped almost all the time anyway. (I also like how both items are colored similarly.) So, I'm back to the situation, where I constantly need to access my inventory, if I need anything else, like the Shovel or the Hookshot, where it now feels like I'm swapping items as often as in the original.
Back to town, I got the Piranha Plant from the Trendy Game, of course, and know I now why they saved the Piranha Plant and the Pokey for last, hehe. This was certainly funny.
Chamber Dungeon
So, this is the result of my experiment, where I skipped a room in the Eagle's Tower on purpose:
It seems you are getting all chambers from a dungeon after beating it, whether you have visited them or not. So, this was luckily a false alarm and I don't think there any missable items or chambers in the game. The only reason, why you get that one room from the Tail Cave together with the Key Cavern rooms is probably because it's not ensured that you have the Bombs otherwise. But you do need Bombs to beat the Key Cavern... I'm even guessing you are getting the seashell room from the Tail Cave in any case at that point, whether you have the shell or not. I probably shouldn't have gotten that seashell so early, because then I wouldn't have worried about this at all.
And as I thought... the above chamber is now quite easy, because you can shut down the Beamos (the sound effect when they get disabled is really cool) and you can quickly put the knights in their right place. As already mentioned previously, the original version was a death trap and one of the most annoying rooms in the game.
I also like that the Chamber Dungeon lets you use this "room":
There probably will be some players who have never seen the third floor of the Eagle's Tower before it was remodeled, so this chamber might raise some question marks then. But it's another free card for challenges like "Heart Shortage" or the following one.
I only got one new challenge at this point and it was called "Sheathed Sword". It has another special rule, where you can't draw your sword. It's like the "Win without using a sword!" Drabland Challenge from Tri Force Heroes. I like these special rules, but sadly you can't select them for your own dungeons, so you're stuck with their presets. Or at least I don't think you can.
But I got the "+Hearts Effect" from it, so that's half of the previously known effects. Not sure how you're getting the others, though... Maybe through more Chamber Stones? But I haven't found many of these either...
At the same time it feels like there is only one challenge remaining for a total of 12. That would be a little bit disappointing, if there were only so few. In any case I'm expecting this to be a boss rush challenge, where Dampé uses lots of fixed boss chambers on you. If not I will be building my own, of course. In any case the final challenge needs to be fitting of a new Heart Container.
I also wonder, whether the Wind Fish's Egg's chambers will become part of the Chamber Dungeon. Of course, technically there should only be three or four: an entrance, the maze room and the boss chamber, where the latter could have an unlockable variant as a "normal" chamber as well. But the boss room alone would be something crazy to have...
This even leads to the idea that they could expand the Wind Fish's Egg to somewhat of a real final dungeon by adding more layers to it. After jumping down into the hole after the maze, it could basically "unlock" the third layer for a nice surprise for everyone, who already knows the game. But I personally doubt that this will happen and I will already be quite happy, if I'm getting the chambers from the "final dungeon" at all.
Now off to the real final dungeon in this game...
Turtle Rock
Wow, they certainly have pimped the Turtle Rock entrance fight. Now I demand that there will be a special Turtle Rock chamber on top of the one for the Lanmola! It's still quite easy, but the fight certainly looks cool and has new phase to it in the beginning. And the new version makes it even more apparent, how special this dungeon entrance actually is.
And it's an entrance to a really awesome looking dungeon. Love what they've done with the place! For real this time! A common theme in the remake seems to be dungeons with diggable floors. Tail Cave, Bottle Grotto, Angler's Tunnel, Catfish's Maw and now Turtle Rock all let you use your shovel. And the earth floor adds a beautiful contrast to the lava in this place.
The Vires are a little bit more threatening now, where it looks good for the Vire, if there ever will be remakes of the Oracle games in the same style. One Vire also keeps chasing you in the large room at the center, which is a little bit spooky. And you can't kill them quickly with the Boomerang any longer, though it's still the best weapon against them. The Boomerang also doesn't kill the Rolling Bones guy in one shot either. So, it got nerfed a little bit, but that's fine.
Interestingly, the recurring mini bosses in the later dungeons now don't respawn any longer, but this is fine as well. In the original it was a way to replay them, but now you have the Chamber Dungeon for this anyway, in absolutely all their variants even, so it's okay that they aren't constantly in the way any longer.
Otherwise, the "floor maker" thingy is now much easier to use. It doesn't disappear, if you steer against an existing floor any longer, so you can comfortably prepare its next turn. It also looks nice, like absolutely everything in the dungeon. When I first saw pictures of this dungeon, I wasn't convinced about the new visuals when compared to the GameBoy Color version, but seeing this in action had me sold.
And there is even more good news! The secret Bomb Arrow shortcuts are still there and still a secret. After the Face Shrine I was afraid that they would blatantly spoil these as well, but like in the original this remains something that only veteran players like myself would know.
And this is critical, because with these shortcuts you can get the Magic Rod very early in the dungeon. By the way, the Blaino fight is now a little bit different as well. You can't just spin-attack the guy to death this time, you have to hit him from behind. But with the Red Mail and the Koholint Sword you can best the guy in three hits... Well, see you in Oracle of Seasons, Blaino! Or in the Chamber Dungeon, if I'm in the mood...
The Dodongo Snakes, which have to be fought from an upper balcony, aren't as easy any longer as well, because it's more challenging now to throw the bombs into the right spots. So, the old warp point on the upper outside might be useful after all, if you're running out of bombs and want to quickly buy more.
But overall I'm super happy how this dungeon turned out! It looks great, feels great and plays great.
Well, normally there would be nothing to do at this point except for facing the final boss. However, in the remake there are still figurines to collect and at least on more Chamber Dungeon challenge to solve, as well as in my case four more Secret Seashells to find. I will be doing all these things, before I face the final boss.
Since I'm not using the Seashell Sensor this might take a while, so don't be surprised, if there won't be another post for a few days. I will also disable comments for now to avoid potential spoilers, sorry.
Current Status:
- Secret Seashells: 46 (24 old + 22 new)
- Pieces of Heart: 32 (12 old + 20 new)
- Chambers: 155
- Chamber Stones: 8
- Challenges Cleared: 11
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