Charged up my 3DS last night, played through the entire battery life in one sitting this morning. The way things are going so far, I'd be surprised if this wasn't my favorite Zelda by the end of the game. It's just lovely.

I just finished up the "Gales" dungeon. I actually got somewhat stumped at one point, but I was able to persevere and eventually made it through. The boss was pretty good too - almost had me on the ropes, but I figured out the pattern and overcame it.

This has been such a joy to play, I'm smiling the entire time I'm playing!

I'm about to enter the Tower of Hera. I'm looking for the guy I'm supposed to give some milk to first. I can't find the way to him, though.

@sirmastersephiroth

You need to use the hookshot to cross the bridge east of the entrance to the Tower of Hera. You'll need to go through the giant lava cave; he's just outside of one of the exits.

I laughed out loud the first time I used the Sand Rod on the Mud Men in the desert!

If they do a sequel to Majora's Mask I hope they do a 3D remake ala OoT first.

Secret_Tunnel said:

@sirmastersephiroth

You need to use the hookshot to cross the bridge east of the entrance to the Tower of Hera. You'll need to go through the giant lava cave; he's just outside of one of the exits.

I already had that. I just hadn't realized that the cave with the Centaurs had 3 different walls you could merge and reach platforms from.

I'm in Lorule now. The Dark World theme rocks!

@deathly_hallows

I'll be shocked if they don't do MM3D. Easy profit, little work... and fans are clamoring for it.

Hinph said:

@deathly_hallows

I'll be shocked if they don't do MM3D. Easy profit, little work... and fans are clamoring for it.

Sounds like all the reasons why it won't come out, because Nintendo is Nintendo.

Hah. True.

So I've completed the game pretty close to 100%. I missed 5 heart pieces that you probably get from completing the mini-games and such and I have one open inventory slot. No idea what that could be.

I loved it, but I can confirm that my biggest fear of the rental system was not unfounded... tackling the dungeons in any order and designing them around a specific item has made for a much easier game overall. I didn't fall in battle once, nor did I use a single potion or fairy. Hero mode can thankfully solve that problem, but why not offer a harder difficulty right from the start? I would have enjoyed the game that much more if the enemies did two to three times as much damage and made me feel a sense of danger. The dungeon design also seemed a little dumbed down overall from LTTP, mostly due to the fact that they weren't designed to force you to use your whole arsenal of items to solve puzzles. Perhaps a better system would have been to give the player a choice of 2-3 items and dungeons that they can complete at a time before offering a tougher wave. That way, a more natural difficulty curve could have been designed in while still offering a little more freedom. The rental system was neat in the sense that it made this game unique from the rest of the series, but I don't want to see it return unless they can design around these flaws.

Gripes aside, it's the best Zelda game I've played since the 90's. Instant top 5.


To those who haven't started yet or aren't very far, I'm going to make a suggestion. Learn which dungeons have the blue and red tunics in them. Don't collect them at all. That should bring the combat difficulty more in line with LTTP.

@Hinph

I'm sensing from your post that you think A Link To The Past was this difficult, fairly challenging game. I don't really think it was...from what I recall, it was a pretty easy stroll of an adventure. I don't think I died once during my first play-through. The dungeons weren't even all that difficult or confusing. They were all pretty short too, compared to the games that came afterwards.

I've come pretty close to dying in A Link Between Worlds, and the threat of losing all my weapons/tools make this far more risky of a game compared to the SNES one. I'll see how the difficulty ramps up later in the game I suppose, but so far this isn't too out-of-line from other Legend of Zelda games.

Out of curiosity, how old were you when you first played A Link To The Past? Games can often seem more difficult when we are younger, and I'm wondering if the SNES game seemed harder to you because you were younger (and thus a less experienced gamer).

@GameDadGrant

I beat LttP maybe a week before this game came out and it is harder. Though still not a very hard game though. ALBW is pretty easy so far in comparison. My one complain I have with most Zelda games, and even Mario games too, is that boss battles always end before it feels that they even start. I hope that the hero mode offers more challenge though. Definitely still an incredible game and probably my GOTY but I do hope they find a better way to balance difficulty for more experienced players.

Oh and the one complaint I have about the new design is that having the freedom to do dungeons in any order is nice but I feel that it really defeats the purpose by immediately showing players where every one is located. I was let down when I saw them all marked on the map

@VofEscaflowne

The dungeons were shown on the map in A Link To The Past too though, right? I seem to recall that being the case. Not showing where the dungeons are at all would be a huge call back from the original Legend of Zelda...!

And yeah, the couple of boss battles I've done, seem to be over before they begin. Of course, I've only faced two bosses so far, but still. These bad guys are no match for Link.

@GameDadGrant

Yeah they were shown in LttP as well. It's nice to have the freedom but it doesn't force the player to really explore to reach their goal. I'm sure some prefer this design but the hardcore Zelda fans find this way too easy

Yeah I hear ya. Still I gotta admit that being able to explore - completely unhindered - is a nice change of pace for the series.

I'm kind of excited to try out Hero Mode. Has anyone attempted that yet?

What does Hero mode do, exactly? Less hearts and more enemy damage?

Hero Mode makes the enemies cause more damage, and hearts are less common in bushes and pots and stuff. I think, anyways.

@GameDadGrant
If it's like Hero Mode in Wind Waker HD, enemies do double damage and there are no recovery hearts. The only way to heal is using potions or fairies.

When/where do you get the ability to lift big rocks? I'm putting off the collection quest until I get that, but I'd rather have it sooner than later so I don't have to keep marking every big rock. Anybody got a nice, vague hint for me? Maybe general location or something?