I had all of the items, my sword and shield were upgraded and I had all 8 instruments after completing Turtle Rock in Link’s Awakening last night. This morning, it was finally time to complete the game.
Everything I wrote about below happened on May 5th 2013.
I Entered the Wind Fish Egg
The original ocarina ballad sounds much better than the full orchestra.
I immediately went to the Wind Fish Egg and played the Ballad of the Wind Fish, taught to me by Marin, since the game told me this is the song that’s supposed to trigger the awakening of the wind fish. It worked as I expected. All the instruments appeared in a circle on the screen, there was music (I prefer the simple, ocarina-only version) and the wind fish egg cracked. Link’s Awakening was close to being done.
Time to get serious!
I went through the hole in the cracked Wind Fish egg and ended up in another dungeon, except there was no map this time. Two rooms ahead, I fell in a chasm and appeared in a simple room with four exits. The next one looked exactly the same, as did the next one and the next one.
I Solved the Maze
I hate mazes when they don’t have logical solutions. I tolerate them when they do.
I really, really dislike illusion mazes with random connections between screens. It just irks me the wrong way for some reason. The one in Vagrant Story actually made me quit the game. Luckily, this one had a solution written within the game. I didn’t think of it immediately, but once I did, solving the maze was as simple as reading. It was all written in that one book in the library I needed the magnifying lens for.
Round and round, the passageways of the egg…
◄◄▲►►▲◄▲
The final jump before the boss room.
That was it. The combination was simple, even. I followed it and ended up in a room with another chasm I jumped in. I was in the final boss room.
I Fought the Boss
The final boss had several phases with a trick for each one. The trick was to figure out which one of my items hurt it.
In the first phase, it was a blob/slime that kept jumping towards it. The magic powder worked on this one. After three or four hits, it was done.
Getting hit by the slime should not happen.
In the second phase, it was a frog-like enemy that fight like the wizard from A Link to the Past. I had to deflect his missile back at him with my sword. The problem here was that sometimes, instead of the regular missile, it would cast one I couldn’t deflect, so I had to stand far enough to be able to avoid that one, but also close enough to be able to hit him with the deflected missile before it teleports away. After 6 or 7 hits, this boss was done as well.
The frog is the hardest part before the final form. It’s hard to predict.
The third form was one of those randomly moving worm enemies with a vulnerable tail. I again used my sword here and barely got hit on most of my tries, thanks to good positioning and fast swinging. Having full health here also helps, since you can shoot your sword in that case. 4 or 5 hits on the worm’s tail were enough to get to the next form.
With some luck, the worm can be killed without moving from the spat. Just swing and turn.
The fourth form was a shadow version of Ganon. It would summon flame bats which homed in on me and throw a spear every now and then. I needed to dash him with the Pegasus Boots while holding a sword. About 6 or 7 times did the trick and with luck, I was able to do it before he even threw his spear once.
Ganon can be killed before he throws his spear. The trick is to stand close and start charging right away.
The fifth form was a smaller worm which went straight for me. I had to quickly switch to my magic rod and hit him with it once to destroy it.
I got hit by the small worm often, because I forgot to switch to the magic rod.
The final form was where the difficulty was it. It was a huge eye with two arms moving circularly around it. The arms were huge, so it was really hard to avoid them and the whole thing was moving faster and faster with every hit. The only way to hit the eye was with a bow from below, while the eye is open, which happened less and less often as the fight was advancing. Suffice to say, this was the phase that caused me issues. Everything else leading up to that was just routine.
This is the truly hard part of the battle. It get’s harder and harder as you near the end of it.
I even cheated a bit. Instead of choosing “Save & Continue” after dying, I instead reset the game after each death, in order to try again with full health and medicine. Even so, I had to repeat all of this at least ten times before I was finally able to defeat the final form. A couple of things I learned:
- The entire monster follows Link around the room at a delay. Moving from the top left corner, to the bottom, to the top right corner and back seems to be the best way to avoid getting hit and get as many hits on it as possible.
- You can keep hitting it with the bow while the eye is open, so it helps a lot if you can squeeze in 2 or 3 hits at a time. The most I managed was 4 and everything else was a waste of arrows. I recommend 3 hits to be on the save side, because…
- … you can run out of arrows. I’ve had this happen to me in the color dungeon with magic powder, but back there, a fairy would bring me more powder. This did not happen here. If you run out of arrows, it’s over. I tried all of my other items, but nothing could hurt it. I might be wrong here. Maybe bombs can do it.
Ha! I get it! The game said it’s not a fish because it’s a whale.
Eventually, I defeated it and I had 2 arrows and only a couple of hearts left. I was also out of breath and my heart was beating like crazy, but it was worth the feeling I got.
I got a few of these flashbacks, just to let the feelings sink in.
There was an ending, and it was bittersweet, heavily on the sad side. I’m not sure if I got it right, but the game sort of left room for a sequel. In any case, Link’s Awakening is over, and my Legend of Zelda Challenge is ready for the next step. When that step will be made, I’m not sure. The Hero of Time has one thing in large supplies.
Link’s Awakening. This is what the whole game was about.
