Saturday, July 7, 2012

The End of the End

Okay, got healed up and equipped with magic lifebringing water and returned to the Eye. In doing so, my controller ran out of batteries so I had to switch to my old Gamecube controller. It was NOT MADE for 1-dimensional movement, I can tell you that. Neither the stick OR the d-pad are working as well as the wiimote's d-pad did. But never mind that.
After killing the Wizards in the Eye Room, the compass shows up out of nowhere! Hurrah for that! I now know what I already proved in the last entry, that the princess is in the Left Eye Room! It also makes the dungeon look like a Terminator. Or the guy from Treasure Planet.
I am now stuck. Patra is yet to be seen with the map, even though I've been told he has one. I refuse to believe that this quote is a useless one since NOBODY would let such a thing slide. There must be some more rooms. Luckily skulls have a specific shape, and since the dungeon is clearly meant to be symetrical, I think I know where these extra rooms would be.
I am correct, and THERE'S PATRA. COME HERE YOU LITTLE BITCH. CONTROLLER, DON'T FAIL ME NOW.
DOWN GOES PATRA, HERE COMES THE MAP! HUZZAH! And it looks like there's ANOTHER room above me! This skull has bigger cheeks than I thought. Someone needs to go on a diet.
The wall goes down, as do I. This controller is shitting me to death. I get back there (drink a potion) and defeat them ALL. Nothing happens, though. I'm beginning to doubt my own brain, here. If a room doesn't have any closed doors, there's really not much point in clearing them of enemies. There's nothing to gain and everything to lose.
UNLESS. HOLD ON. THERE COULD BE A SECRET ROOM. They've been throwing bombs at me this whole time and this dungeon seems to have a fetish for bombable walls. This room can't not have a purpose.
I bomb the wall... SOMETHING THERE! WOOHOO! Enemies, but also stairs! They nearly kill me but I get through and find... a Red ring?
RED RING. LESS DAMAGE. EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL. I look like Santa, now!
All that's left to do is check the rooms on the far left. Dying another time, I make my way there. It takes a while. I take half damage, though, so wizards are less of a pain. As are most others, come to think of it. It's awesome.
I get to below the unseen rooms, but bombing them doesn't do anything. I'll try going from the right... the first one doesn't open from the right, either. Maybe the room above it can be entered? Nope. The one above that? There is no one above that. I bomb it anyway, but I guess the secret corner room was a right-side specific thing. I guess there's a staircase somewhere I haven't gone into. But I've been to EVERY OTHER ROOM!
I just looked back through my notes and realized there was a staircase in a Patra room that I never actually went through. Clever work, Sean. Good on you. I find it again and go through, coming out in a Wizard  room with no doors. Oh, wizards. Oh, walls. I remember when you were both things that could stand in my way. Wizards die, walls explode.
I enter the next, final undiscovered room and find an annoying combination of wizards and Bubbles. They die, but then what is there to do? There must be a secret staircase.
I push some blocks until I find something that gives, opening a staircase in the corner. Inside, another arrow. This one's a different colour, though. Must be an upgraded version. Gee, thanks for giving me a new weapon in the final dungeon, game. I really needed that.
Wait. Maybe I DO need it. Maybe it's like the Light Arrows in the other games, and Gannon needs to be hit with one to be damaged.
THEREFORE.
I AM PREPARED.
TO FACE THE BOSS.
I look back through my last post and find what path I took to get to the boss, running through it again. It's all about to end, readers. I'm about to take on Gannon.
Here we go.
I ENTER. I hold up the Triforce and he appears to ominous music, only to vanish again. I attack the thin air. It's working this time! I don't know what's changed, maybe now I'm actually aiming properly. I attack again and again, all the while avoiding his fireballs.
Finally, I hit him and he turns brown! Is this it? Is this his defeat? I attack, but nothing happens. The arrow! Equip, shoot...
GANNON EXPLODES INTO DUST, LEAVING HIS PIECE OF THE TRIFORCE ON THE FLOOR. I PICK IT UP, OPENING THE DOOR TO THE NEXT ROOM, WHICH I RUN THROUGH. ATTACK THE FLAMES.

THE PRINCESS IS SAVED!
"THANKS LINK, YOU'RE THE HERO OF HYRULE."
"FINALLY, PEACE RETURNS TO HYRULE. THIS ENDS THE STORY."

Music plays and I lie back on my bed in my mother's house, a large grin on my face. I've beaten The Legend of Zelda, one of the most important games to have ever be released on the NES. I started this quest in another suburb, when my parents were still married. Since then I've lost and gained a number of new friends, attended university, and stopped playing video games altogether. I've just been sitting on the internet, doing almost nothing important.
But today I did something. I played a video game and beat it after starting it nearly two years ago. Not only that, but I've blogged about it since day negative 62 or something. Now, the story is finished, and I can rest knowing that I've actually finished a project I started on. Maybe I can get started on finishing all the others.
And now, readers, I thank YOU. The ones who read this. Whether you followed this story from the beginning, somewhere in the middle, or you're reading it now, after its completion... thank you. Thank you for taking your time to read the bloggings of a geeky kid who strived not to achieve greatness, but to finish something for once in his life. This has been more than just a playthrough of Zelda for me, and I hope that it's been more than that to you, if only because of the personal touch added to these posts through my own personal writing style and numerous curse words.

Now, I will leave this blog and its 32 posts in cyberspace, for anyone else to read and as a memorial of this particular event in my life, however insignificant.
Once again, thank you.

 - Sean Mackey, Gamer.

P.S: Fuck the Second Quest. Just no.

The Beginning of the End

AND HERE WE GO!
First off (after digging out my map again), go to the Fairy Fountain and Potion shop, via warps. Then, back to Spectacle Rock to take this mother down.
... I have no idea what to do next. I guess I'll revisit the rooms I can until I find bombs to attack the walls with. I should probably go BUY some, but that takes too much time and I've already braved the mountain once.
WHELP 1.5 ROOMS LATER AND I'M ALREADY DEAD. This is going so fucking well I can't believe it.
And again.
And aga-MOTHERFUCKER THIS IS WHY I GAVE UP FOR SIX MONTHS.
One more death before one of the wizards gives me a Clock and I can actually get past the room that's killed me four times already. In the next one, I get some bombs. This is going a little bette-never mind, the snakes in the Eye room killed me.
Although NOW I can start bombing the walls to get to the other side of what I'm assuming is a skull-shaped dungeon (moreso the stereotype of villainous abodes than the currently explored region of the map).
I bomb that room, that room, tha-WHY THE FUCK DID THE WIZARDS RESPAWN!? LITERALLY NO OTHER ROOMS HAVE HAD THEIR ENEMIES RESPA-it's those FUCKING BUBBLES. Rooms don't respawn if they have at least one living enemy in them, don't they. Well shit.
I bombed the wall before they killed me, but no luck anyway. In the next one there was nothing, but I DID get more bombs, so I can go through the stairs in the Eye Room to check the walls in the other rooms.
... died in the process, but I got to the last room I could. Past the guy that said "GO TO THE NEXT ROOM". Thanks, old man. I would never have done it without you.
None of the rooms could be bombed out of the way, but I DID find a staircase by pushing a block in the last room. I don't know why I missed it last time, but there you have it.
I emerge in a room with three locked doors. How adorable. I unlock all three with my Skull Key before even going through any of them. Then I go up.
Bad idea. Try left... much better. Room of bats, easily killed. Left again... a staircase, another Patra and a key (how cute). Destroy Patra and his posse and check up (leave the staircase for later). LikeLike room. TO the left... Slimes and a locked door upwards. Past that, a pretty basic Wizard room (2 of each type), then another with Blades and a secretly accessed Staircase. I've gone as deep as I can go door-wise, so I take the stairs.
OOH, THIS ROOM IS TERRIBLE. Blocks in the way, wizards all up in my business and Blades in the corners. Not to mention this room has NO DOORS. I could bomb them, but... actually yeah I'll do that. Yay, a room to the left! More stairs, to another FUCKING PATRA. Kill it, then go up...
... why am I holding up the Triforce? What's happening? HOLY FUCK IT'S GANNON WHAT HAPPENED OMFG WHAT DO I DO KILL IT
... HE'S INVISIBLE WHAT EVEN HOW DO I UGH FORGET IT JUST STAB WHERE THE THINGS COME FROM IT'S NOT WORKING FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK
Okay I died. That was WEIRD. Only about 3/4 of the dungeon explored and I already find him? And where was the Map or the Compass? The special item? Is there even a special item in the final dungeon?
I'mma explore some more.
After healing/buying potions.
Okay I'm back.
I head to the Eye Room (which isn't really an eye but I've been calling it that since the beginning of this post) to get to the upper-right dungeon quadrant to the to the lower-left quadrant.
In the room where I could've taken three previously locked doors (hahaha locks), I went down. More wizards and a locked door to the right. In there, two REALLY fast blue snakes. The wand makes it easy, but they still took off quite a bit of life. Down the staircase I go.
I'm in the lower-left corner of the map. Man, I could've WALKED here. Thanks a lot. Now to try the door UP from the locked trio.
FUCK IT'S INSANE IN HERE fuck I'm dead. Dammit, I should've drank the damn potion. I get back there and thoroughly whoop them all. There are no doors here, but there's a blank space on the map up from here. Bombing the wall shows an old man.
"PATRA HAS THE MAP". Which one, old man? Which bloody one?
Off I go to uncover the rest of the map. My search leads to a room of LikeLikes and Blades. Pretty simple stuff. Up again and there're more wizards. Killing them and going up.
ANOTHER PATRA. Maybe THIS is the one with the map... nope. Hey, the doors are closing behind me and aren't opening up! What's going on here?
Next room, more blue snakes! Drink a potion and wand that shit up. I get Bombs and the door below me opens, as does the one ahead. Right of that room is an old man.
"EYES OF SKULL HAS A SECRET."
Who taught these hermits grammar? I could have guessed there'd be secret rooms in the skull's eyes, but it's good to be reminded. The eye on this side is three rooms down. First, a red Snake. Then some assorted low-level enemies. Bomb the lower wall, and... nothing. Didn't expect it to. Let's try the room to the right of it.
Oh hey, this is the room I couldn't get to from the other! Cool! It's a bit of a letdown, though. Not much there but some enemies.
Well where the hell do I go now? I've got an idea. The map is asymetrical, but it doesn't look like it should be. There's got to be some extra rooms over there. But first, how do I get out of this area? After the run of closing doors I'm trapped up here. Maybe some walls are bombable? Not one that leads into a closed room, though, so maybe... THIS one?
Success! The wall to the right of the room with inaccessible doors across the lava (only they're accessible from THIS side). And I'm on the right side of the dungeon, now! Find the room that lines up with the asymetrical part on the other side, bomb... yes! New room!
With a firebreathing statue. Nice. Down, and there's a key (awwww) with other enemies.
Down again, and wizards are all up in there. I'm nearly dead, and I ran out of potion. I try to fight, but... ugh death.
What the hell now? I've checked every room in this place and not a single Patra has given me the map. Is this another one of those hints that don't mean anything? No, not one that specific. Wait, I missed the Eye on the right! I just have to bomb my way through!
... crap, the only wall I can't try is one where the middle third is blocked off by blocks (haha). Maybe I have to bomb into that room, too? So try the room above it.
Hey, it worked! I can get into the Eye room!
... wizards. Well, I managed to get that far with only 3 hearts. Just gotta go heal and potion up and then I'll get right back on that horse.
In the meantime, I'll post this so you know I'm actually doing something. I'm still playing, just breaking up the post. This is intended to be the finale, after all!

Friday, July 6, 2012

Let's End This

Nearly half a year has passed since I last looked at this blog. I had completely forgotten about it, to be honest. Now, after a comment has reminded me of the gaping hole in my gaming knowledge, I return to Hyrule to finish this thing once and for all.
... once my brother gets off the damn TV.