Four Swords Anniversary Edition, Final Round

100%. Like in the original game you get a nice golden Four Sword icon on your save file if you've beaten Vaati's Palace using the Hero Keys. I don't know if you also have to beat the Hero's Trial to get the icon, but I guess not.

First of all, I want to say that the new total Rupee counter is a nice thing. Not only is this a good alternative way of unlocking the Hero's Trial (normally you would have to collect 5 Medals of Courage to unlock it, which isn't possible in singleplayer), it also ensures that beating a stage is never for nothing. For example if you try to get a Hero Key, but weren't able to collect 5000 Rupees, the Rupees at least get added to your highscore. Or simply replaying a level also adds to the score, which adds a little bit to the replay value. I already got over 130,000 Rupees by now and this score will be growing. But it's a shame that the Hero's Trial is the only thing that gets unlocked by the Rupee highscore. They could have added some other extras.

Now let's talk about the interesting part: how to farm Rupees. Without Rupee Fever it is impossible to get 5000 Rupees in a normal stage, so all you can do in singleplayer is farming Rupees by slaying the respawning monsters. Preferably monster that drop those large Rupees worth 50, 100 and sometimes even 200 Rupees. Those are Bow Moblins, Spear Moblins, all types of Wizzrobes, Gibdos and Darknuts. Not the nicest selection, I know. The easiest to kill are Gibdos and Bow Moblins, so aim for those. Spear Moblins have better defense and offense than their bow brothers and can hurt you quite badly. Wizzrobes can be annoying and cast fire or ice on you, both aweful stuff. Well and Darknuts usually disappear before you can defeat them. And they are super rare. So, the best options are Bow Moblins and Gibdos.

The first stage, where I got a Hero's Key, was surprisingly Death Mountain. That was the stage that always came last when we played the GameBoy Advance version. First I tried farming with Fire Wizzrobes, which was a terrible idea. So, I headed on and the next floor turned out to be the ideal farming spot. It started with a minecart and Boomerang pedestals. Take those Boomerangs and head on. There will be an area, where only Gibdo spawn. Stun them with the Boomerang and kill them for lots of easy money. I also got two Razor Seeds, which fastened the process.

At the Sea of Trees search for Bow Moblins, because they are easy to defeat. I used the area, where the entire floor is surrounded by a ledge with lots of grass and treasure chests on it. You start in the Northwest, right near the goal, next to some Pegasus Shoes. In the northern lower area the Bow Moblins would spawn. This place was ideal, because there were plenty of grass to heal yourself. Not that the Bow Moblins made any real damage...

I guess you could look for Gibos in Talus Cave, but I found a nice spot, where farming with Wizzrobes actually works great. It's a small room north of the goal with normal Wizzrobes (red ones that shoot beams instead of fire) and these weird floor tiles that only one Link can see. There are four pathways made of these tiles leading to treasure chests and one is nearly completely surrounded by blocks. Stay there, the blocks will keep you safe from the Wizzrobe fire. As soon as one Wizzrobe spawns on the pathway I attacked him with the Hurricane Spin Attack. This is probably the safest way of using Wizzrobes to farm Rupees. Worked fine for me and I hate Wizzrobes. UPDATE: I found another nice spot to farm Rupees in Talus Cave using Bow Moblins. It's a spot, where the goal is on higher grounds surrounded by bushes. At the west side Bow Moblins will spawn.

There are some other details, which I have noticed. Rupee Wraiths were dumbed bown big time. They only steal three Rupees from you and then vanish, you can entirely ingore them. They might take more, if you happen to run into more than one Rupee Wraith on the same floor, but overall they are not as annoying as in the multiplayer. This is understandable, because they are a pure multiplayer element. It's about passing the Rupee Wraith to another player, so that he is busy losing Rupees instead of you. There's no point in having Rupee Wraiths in singleplayer, but at least they got a small appearance. In multiplayer I would use them to double the amount of Rupees I lose by recollecting them during Rupee Fever. That way a Ruppe Wraith actually turned out to be useful. However, there is no Rupee Fever in singleplayer and you can't use this technique. So, it's good that they didn't make the Rupee Wraiths stop you.

And Rupee Shards are definitely too rare. In most cases I couldn't get a full set. They should have made sure, that you get a number that is divisible by four in a stage setup. Or at least four shards per stage. It's stupid that you can only find three Rupee Shards during one stage, even if you turn every stone and cut every single straw of grass. I sometimes have the feeling that they replaced the Rupee Shards with fairies. There are so many fairies hidden in singleplayer (at least in the normal stages, in the Hero's Trial you're lucky if you find a single heart), it's excessive and absolutely unneeded. There were never so many faires, when we played the multiplayer on the GBA. But there were lots of Rupee Shards hidden under grass and rocks.

There's also a nice easter egg. When you replay one of the three key stages, the Great Fairy at the end will be replaced with a Great Fairy from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask in all her glory. I don't think this was the case in the GBA version and although I actually prefer the Great Fairy design of Four Swords and The Minish Cap, it's nice to see that something from the N64 Zeldas made it into the Anniversary game.

So, that's about it. Another Zelda game completed 100%. Only Ocarina of Time 3D missing. And Skyward Sword. I had a lot of fun and trouble with this game and I will definitely return to it regularily to replay some levels. It's perfect to satisfy a small Zelda hunger. Expect a detailed review of the Four Swords Anniversary Edition soon here on Hyrule Blog! Unlike other sites I only review a game after fully beating it. Some sites didn't even know about the Hero's Trial...

Robin and Zelda Williams Four Swords Commercial

Didn't see that coming. Hilarious.



I love these commercials. I guess now, Skyward Sword will get one, too. Can't wait to see Robin Williams swinging the Wiimote.



Yet he smiles... but wait until he discovers the Hero's Trial. :D

Four Swords Anniversary Edition, Round 4: End of Hero's Trial

Yeaaahhhhh! I did it! I've beaten the Hero's Trial!! I can't tell how relieved I am that this is over. This was the toughest and most enduring challenge in the entire Zelda series yet. Forget the Great Palace or the Cave of Ordeals. If you want a real challenge, play the Hero's Trial.

Well, my playthrough of door 3 took a very similar course to my playthrough of door 2. I somehow got through the first two floors and saved 2000 Rupees. Then I had to retry the final floor about four times until I finally did it. If you know the traps, you can prepare yourself and take many precautions in this floor, which makes things easier. The final room with dozen Eyegores was really fun. They were easy to beat, just gang them up and then switch between both Links. They dropped many Rupees, which really helped in the final fights, lots of Darknuts and Ball & Chain Troopers. Best way to deal with this is equipping both Links with Bombs when you enter this room. After you've defeated the Eyegores pick up the bombs again and start blasting. It's your best weapon in this situation. I'm actually surprised that they didn't also add some Wizzrobes to screw you up even harder. But I guess that even for the Hero's Trial this would have been too cheap.

Right before the goal there was another switch, but I already expected that this one will trigger fairies like in floor 1-3. And that was really nice, though I had enough Rupees left to survive even more terror. While I slashed myself through the faires I said to myself "I did it!" multiple times. Ahhh, this felt so good.

Now all that's left is the Hero's Keys. But this should be a breeze compared to the Hero's Trial and very relaxing. The Hurricane Spin Attack is lots of fun to use, it might happen that I will replay even some parts of the Hero's Trial using this.

Ocarina of Time 3D Quest Log, Day 2

Today I've beaten Dodongo's Cavern and I finished most sidequests before Jabu Jabu's Belly. Like catching a big enough fish or getting the Pieces of Hearts in Gerudo Valley, planting Magic Beans, etc.

There's still the secret spot behind the lava fall inside Dodongo's Cavern, where you fight the first two Lizalfos. I thought this was cool. Also, the 3DS version of the game now features the longer version of the song, that is played inside Dodongo's Cavern. On one of my older Ocarina of Time soundtrack CDs the track was longer than in the game and featured some different sound effects at the end. That was never in the N64 version and it's nice to hear the full track now in the 3DS version.

Well, after I've beaten Dodongo's Cavern I could take a good look at some nice 3D effects.The Goron Ruby looked really impressive, it popped out of the screen, it felt like it hovered in front of me. 3D effects are a nice thing. And yeah, I actually didn't have to buy DOA to see some boobs in 3D, it was Great Fairy time. Though her model looked too much like the N64 version, they could have added some more polygons to maker her look rounder.

The Bombchu Bowling got a little bit easier, because the collision volume of the big Cucco seems to be smaller. And the Bombchus look really cool.

Last time I forgot to mention that playing the Ocarina is quite different from the N64 version. You play it with the L, R, X, Y and A buttons. A doesn't correspond to the same note A would play on the N64. It's actually the highest note now. To play Zelda's lullaby you have to play X, A, Y, X, A, Y. You basically have to learn all songs from new. But I don't have as many problems with this as I thought I would. Earlier I would just play by sounds, but now I got the hang of it. I could even play songs from Majora's Mask out of my head with the new play style. And it seems that the button placement was modeled on a real Ocarina. It's a good thing they didn't make you blow into the mic though.

I also checked out the hidden grotto at the beginning of the Sacred Forest Meadow. The one with the two Wolfos coming at you. I thought this might be the place, where we saw young Link fighting two Wolfos inside a room that looks like it's from the Master Quest version of the Forest Temple. This one. I don't know if this is somewhere in the game, but it's certainly not this grotto. This one now got a stunning look. They really pimped those crystal walls, it looks amazing. And this for a simple hidden grotto that you might miss with the Stone of Agony.

Talking about that, I got the Shard of Agony by now and it looks great. They should add this item in Majora's Mask 3D. Majora's Mask originally got the Stone of Agony as a default ability, which never gets mentioned in the entire game or the manual. I think for the 3DS version they should hide it somewhere, for example as the reward in a new Skulltula House, that would awesome. However, there where only two places in Majora's Mask where the Stone of Agony resonated...

I noticed two odd changes today. One is that you can't recollect bugs after placing them on soft soil to reveal the Gold Skulltula. In the old version I would release the bugs and swiftly catch one again. That way I don't have to go find new bugs afterwards, I basically reuse the same bug again and again. That didn't work in Majora's Mask and it now also doesn't work in Ocarina of Time 3D. And what's also weird is that those square torches don't stay lit. Like the ones in Goron City near the gateway to the Lost Woods. Or the torch down the stairs from the throne room in Zora's Realm. In the N64 version they stayed lit forever once you activated them, didn't they? But not in the 3DS version.

Four Swords Anniversary Edition, Round 3: Hero's Rising

Zelda II is officially not the toughest challenge anymore, which the Zelda series has to offer. The Hero's Trial in Four Swords AE is the new king of the hill. But it shouldn't be proud, because all it does is abusing the game's mechanics to create cheap death traps. It's cheap, it's cruel, it's relentless and it's never ending (or at least feels like it at the moment). And it's our own fault. Zelda fans kept whining over the years how easy the new games were. And this is Nintendo's answer. "You want some challenge? How about this?"

All I played today for hours was the Hero's Trial. I've finally beaten the second door only to get my ass kicked again behind the third door. Well, you have to see what's coming and prepare yourself, if you get surprised all the time it doesn't help. Though the level of surprise gets lower. You know it won't stop until they at least spawned some Ball & Chain soldiers. It's actually surprising if not all hell breaks lose after stepping on a big switch.

I was really looking forward to the Hero's Trial, because I expected something like the Hero's Cave in the Oracle games. Some really good puzzles that can keep you trying and thinking for hours, some stuff where you have to show your skills and some badass fights. It should challenge you, but it also should be fun. The Hero's Trial, however, is just torture. I'm torturing myself with every second I spent in this dungeon. It's very repetitive, all you basically do is step on switches and expect to get swarmed by countless tough enemies. There's some platforming between the fights, but nothing exciting. The puzzles are no-brainers, if there are any. It's all about the aweful enemy combinations in the worst possible places.

Well, my second attempt on the second door went quite well until floor 3, the sky palace one. I died a couple of times during the first two floors, but I also collected 3000 Rupees. Door 3 then really tested my patience, I had to repeat it like five or six times until I finally got to beat it. Luckily there's the new Retry function that let's you reset a floor. Otherwise I probably would have gone crazy already. What gave me huge trouble were dozens of skeletons throwing bones at you while you navigate platforms and try not to get thrown into the pits by air currents and to dodge Spiny Beetles. At the end of the stage naturally they had to spawn two Ball & Chain Troopers and several Fire Wizzrobes on a small platform over the air. Everything else would have been ridiculous. Interestingly there seems to be a swarm of fairies like in the credits at the end of each door. Imagine that you get killed at the end, because one of the these faires pushed you into the abyss. I would have gone so mad...

Door 3 takes place at ... surprise, surprise... Death Mountain. The first floor focuses more on platforming, which was a nice diversity. And the second floor is actually the first non-linear dungeon design that Grezzo offered so far. There's a large room with a lot of fumaroles and locked doors. There spawns a key in the center each time after completing a section. It's not the most innovative non-linear design, but it's better than everything the new stages offered so far. Well, I was careless, died a lot and Ball & Chain soldiers killed me at the end. I will try again tomorrow and hopefully close this insane chapter of Zelda.

But I've heard that the Hurricane Spin Attack makes the Hero's Trial very easy. Just keep spamming the Hurricane Attack. Well, it was basically the same in The Minish Cap. Nothing could stop you after you got the Great Spin Attack. The Dungeon Simulator minigame also played with insane enemy combinations, but the Great Spin Attack made everything easy. So, I'm looking forward to abuse the Hurricane while replaying parts of the Hero's Trial. All those Darknuts, Ball & Chain Soldiers, Gibdos and Wizzrobes are going to get their asses kicked! Look forward to my revenge, game.



I also replayed the A Link to the Past level in the Realm of Memories. It's not as fun as the Link's Awakening stage though. If I had to rank them, I would say Link's Awakening is the best, A Link to the Past second and the NES Zelda stage third. This one I haven't even replayed yet.

Ocarina of Time 3D Quest Log, Day 1

Hello, beautiful. Ocarina of Time 3D is out since June and I didn't get to play it until now. And I've been missing out. I wasn't really interested in this game, because it didn't offer any new content unlike the Four Sword Anniversary Edition. But after the torture that is called Hero's Trial I'm actually not sure if I want Grezzo to make any more dungeons, lol. Well, this is mostly a visual update of a classic. It's reexperiencing the game in a new way. And it really takes me back. The new visuals are simply stunning, it inspires aww all the time. Normally, when I replay Ocarina of Time, it's just routine. "Go to the tree, roll against it, get the Skulltula, now collect the chicken and bring it to Anju, ..." You just complete the tasks and you do not take the time to look at things. To explore things. You've seen it all already. But not in Ocarina of Time 3D. It all feels so fresh, it's the same old game, but there's something new to discover in every corner. Especially the insides of houses look great, there are tons of new details like the additional masks in the Happy Mask Shop, one looks like the Mirror Shield for example. Or Kakariko at night, where lights shine out of the windows, does not only sound atmospheric, now it also looks atmospheric. This new version really takes me back to the time when I first played this game in 1999. It's magical.



The 3D of the 3DS works great for me. The comfort window is very small though. By now they developed 3D screens that allow multiple angles and I'm guessing the next version of the 3DS will have one of those. But overall it looks very clear. And some of the effects are stunning, for example the lens flare of the sun comes in 3D now and when you play songs on the Ocarina Link got this shiny aura, which is different with every song. It looks amazing. What also made me marvel was collecting a red Rupee from a chest (in the grotto in Kakariko Village behind the fences). It just looked gorgeous. And the smoother frame rate feels nice. Before I got my 3DS I was replaying Majora's Mask on the Virtual Console, which likes to judder, so this felt like a vast improvement already. They should make Majora's Mask 3D for the better frame rate alone.

The new visuals also come with some advantages. The most noticeable thing was that you can now see through the grass. That way you can discover hidden grottos like the Forest Stage below grass if you look closely. Well, if you look closely, you will also see that not everything was modeled in 3D. There are still some 2D graphics present in the game, mainly the grass. But for example the fence at the Hyrule Castle ditch is a sheet. The fence on Lon Lon Ranch, however, was completely modeled in 3D and looks nice.

In the Royal Tomb they added a door right after the beam of light. That was not there before, in the N64 version you would walk down a long corridor into the rooms with all the skeletons and Keese. I don't know why they added this, but I thought that the original was "scarier".

They also changed some sound effects. Like when you smash a pot or when the Stalkids spawn in Hyrule Field. But it's not as many changes is in the Four Swords Anniversary Edition and the new sound effects aren't bad. It's just noticeable.

And for some reason you can't deactivate the minimap, which is present in the lower-left corner of the 3D screen. I don't know why you even need a minimap on the topscreen, when you actually got a second screen. All it shows is the stupid world map. The D-pad doesn't seem to have any function. They should have used it for going into first person, activating the Ocarina and toggling the minimap. I do not like touching the touchscreen with my fingers. Actually I hold the Stylus in my right hand while playing and use it each team I need to go into the menu. I'm that kind of person... it's just that I want my shiny new 3DS to stay clean and shiny. So, using the D-pad for shortcuts would have been a welcomed addition.

As of now I entered Dodongo's Cavern. Right before that I made a nice new stunt. Remember the Piece of Heart right above Dodongo's Cavern? Normally you would have to plant a Magic Bean and get it as an adult. However, I was able to get on the ledge by using a sidestep jump from the place, where you throw the Bomb Flowers down. I don't know if this was possible in the N64 version, I did this for the first time.

Four Swords Anniversary Edition, Round 2: Hero's Hell

By now I've beaten the game on gold level. Getting the Golden Keys without Rupee Fever went surprisingly smooth. I had to farm some Rupees killing Rupee Likes and Fire Wizzrobes, but it wasn't that bad. And I don't worry too much about the Hero's Keys. It will take it's time, but it's manageable. It would be a lot more fun with Rupee Fever, but I can't help it right now. Unless Nintendo hears the voices (I'm not the only one complaining) and releases a small patch, there's no other way.

It also seems that Rupee Shards got rarer. This makes sense, because normally you would have to share the Rupee Shards with others. If there are four Rupee Shards and player 1 got three, but player 2 got one, you don't get anything. One player must assemble four shards, it's even a "common" multiplayer strategy to leave the shards to the player, who needs them the most, if you find them under bushes for example. Since there are no other players, it would be probably too easy, if there are too many shards. But Grezzo made them a little too rare. I only managed to complete a golden Rupee once so far... however, while Grezzo made it generally harder to collect Rupees, the lowest time bonus is now actually 50 Rupees. You always get 50 Rupees at the end of a floor. In the GBA version if you took too long, you would only get 2 Rupees, one per player.

Vaati's fight was very different from last time. He didn't use the Patra form, but the arm form and the volleyball form. It's the first time that I managed to beat Vaati using the volleyball form, in multiplayer we never could do it. That's how smooth the singleplayer works. I got really good at using two Links.

And there's a reason for that. Called the Hero's Trial. Or how I call it, the "Hero's Hell". I was always asking for some more challenge in Zelda games, because for a Zelda veteran the last games were a mere routine. However, you should always be careful with your wishes, because what Grezzo delivered here might be over the top. Even as someone, who likes playing Zelda II - a game that gives other Zelda fans nightmares -, I'm right now quite frustrated by this stuff.

Well, let's start with the basics. I was expecting some new settings and visuals, but there aren't any. It uses the graphics and everything from the original four stages. However, it now looks all gloomy. The forest stage looks wintery, but there's no snow, it's just that they added a different color tone to everything. The ice in the ice cave looks black for example. I guess the looks were inspired by the Silent Realm from Skyward Sword, the visiuals are quite similar. And considering that this game was made within three or four months, expecting all new graphics might have been too much. Well, the first door offers two floors in the forest and one in Vaati's Palace. And the second door offered two floors inside the ice cave... I haven't reach floor 2-3 yet, so I can't tell how it looks like. But I'm guessing the third floors always take place in the sky dungeon.



The first time I played the Hero's Trial it kicked my ass. It's main feature are mass enemy fights. Something you didn't get in the original stages, because the GameBoy Advance only could handle so many enemies at the same time. But the enemy combinations can be aweful and your biggest enemy is collision damage. I already complained about the enormous collision damage while playing the GBA version, if an enemy corners you, it's a safe death. There is litte invulnerability time and the enemies like to ran into you. That got me killed multiple times in the first door. The room, where four Darknuts spawn at once then gave me the rest, I managed to beat them, but I lost all Rupees during the process. Then the whole floor went crazy, respawning flying floor tiles everywhere, all hell was loose. That killed me in the end. The problem with the mass enemy fights is that you're all alone. Normally there would be three other Links helping you out, Four Swords Adventures style, but here you can only fight using a single Link. And you have to be very careful.

Well, the new singleplayer offers a nice tactic for being cornered, namely switching between both Links strategically. Let one Link rest in a corner (he can't be hit while he waits) and as soon as you get yourself trapped, switch to the other Link and attack from behind. You basically use one Link as bait and the inactive Link as your safety anchor. After I learned how to do this, the first door went down quite smoothly. But of course this was only hell's warmup...

Welcome to the Frozen Hell behind the second door! Navigating on ice floors in Four Swords is aweful, in no other Zelda game walking on ice floors feels so terrible. And this level abuses this big time. It adds Moblin archers to screw you hard while you try to walk on the ice... but the worst part are the enemy combinations. Ice Wizzrobes and Ball&Chain Soldiers for example. The Ice Wizzrobes freeze you and the Ball&Chainers give you the rest while you can't move. Not fun. And as soon as you die it's one giant downward spiral. You lose all your powerups, so it already gets much harder. And with each death you have to pay more. Before you know it, you lose 500 Rupees per death, which gets you a Game Over easily. And naturally there aren't too many Rupees in the Hero's Trial stage. Or health. In the normal stages you can find more fairies then you can count. Now a fairy is a rare sight in the Hero's Hell, if you're lucky you'll find a single heart inside a treasure chest...

Well, with four players the Hero's Trial probably would be easier. Because dealing with so many enemies at once using only one fighter is really hard. An alternative would be the Hurricane Spin Attack, using it could be very helpful inside the Hero's Trial. Unfortunately you have to beat the Hero's Trial to get the Hurricane Spin Attack! That's another Circus Leader's Mask. Remember that one from Majora's Mask? It's only use was to stop the Gorman Brothers from attacking the carriage. However, to get the Circus Leader's Mask you have to defend the carriage first. It feels similar, because you don't really need the Hurricane Spin Attack in the other stages. Maybe I'll replay the first door using the Hurricane Spin Attack, if I manage to beat the Hero's Trial. But right now I don't feel like replaying any of it.

While I think it's great to get some challenges and evil fights, the main problem is the length of the floors. They are massive and they go on forever. And Grezzo's level design is aweful, they are all very linear and all you do is running from one big switch, that rains enemies down on you, to the next. You get sick of this easily. And I hate the mere thought of having to go through any of this again. Luckily there's the new Retry function, which lets you reset a floor in case you've screwed up, however, both times I completely lost motivation to go on and didn't bother... I was looking forward to some challenge, but I wanted it to be fun. Not frustrating and demotivating.

However, there's a nice easter egg at the end of the first floor of door 1. They made a large 25 out of bushes on an island in the water. As in 25th Anniversary. I've heard that there are other 25s hidden, but I have yet to see one.

I also replayed the Link's Awakening level just for fun today. I just love how they made it, there's lots of cool stuff. For example where you would fight Moldorm in the Tail Cave, it spawns a Mini Moldorm. I thought that was funny, but it definitely fits.

Well, I hope that I can somehow beat the Hero's Trial. I've heard, that there are some hidden shortcuts, which make the floors easier. That would be totally awesome. But right now I'm taking a vacation in Ocarina's 3D Hyrule, it's very relaxing to play Ocarina of Time 3D after burning inside the Hero's Hell.