Twilight Princess HD: Temple 1

[torkell]

elemnar has requested a Zelda update, and in any case I'm well overdue posting them. I ought to finish at least one of the Zelda's I'm replaying before getting Breath of the Wild...

A sword wields no strength unless the hand that holds it has courage.
Hero's Shade

Let's see... I've restored light to Faron, so the next task is to deal with the Forest Temple. It is after all the traditional first Zelda temple. Of course, it's never as simple as just walking up to it - I have to do a mini fetch quest, find a way through some poisonous fog (which can be dealt with by carrying a lantern? Oh, wait, except a monkey just stole my lantern? Fine.), and splat various minor nuisances while trying not to be eaten by hidden Deku Babas. The Zelda ecosystem is weird.

Approaching the Forest Temple I get my first encounter with the Hero's Shade... in the form of a glowing golden wolf, that tries to eat me. Um. And then the wolf then transforms into a very battered zombie Darknut - time has not been kind to this former hero. Fortunately after demonstrating just how hopeless I am as a hero he then decides to train me in the Ending Blow, so at least when I manage to knock an enemy down I can make it stay down.

The Hero's Shade is an interesting character - one wonders how it is that a former Link has ended up like this? The general consensus online seems to be that he's the Ocarina of Time Link, but I don't recall him ever coming out and stating this in the game. Hmm... I wonder if Hyrule Historia has anything to say on this?

...well that would be a "not really", then. It calls him the "Ancient Hero" rather than "Hero's Shade" (the latter might well be a fan nickname, as he never names himself), and that there's a theory that he's the Ocarina of Time Link because he's left-handed (which doesn't mean much - most Links are left-handed). Timeline-wise, Twilight Princess is in the Child timeline so it's plausible - after Majora's Mask no-one knows where the Ocarina of Time Link went. In any case I think later on the Hero's Shade drops a few more hints as to his origin.

I'm probably over-thinking this, but something about the setting in Twilight Princess has always encouraged me to try and explore and find out more about it - it hints at a massive backstory in a way that few games manage to do so.

It's slightly weird, re-learning the skills with the WiiU controls. While the motion controls on the Wii were primitive (unlike Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess didn't try to interpret the motion of the Wiimote), it did all make sense. I wonder if Breath of the Wild will continue with the classic gamepad-style controls, or if it'll make use of the motion sensing in the Joy-Con controllers?

Anyway, that done it's on to the temple. This temple's particular mechanic seems to be rescuing monkeys so that you can use them as humanmonkey chains to swing from to cross gaps. For some reason this all seemed like one of the more bonkers Zelda dungeons - and yes, this is in a series where one dungeon has you wandering round inside a giant fish. Zelda games do not do normal dungeons.

I don't get a bow in this temple (I was half-expecting to on my first playthrough as Link tends to get the bow fairly early on, and as I've mentioned I always see Link as an archer), but instead after much backtracking (this temple has always felt rather convoluted with no clear route through it) and a slightly bonkers mini-boss battle involving headbutting totems I end up with a rather nifty Gust Boomerang. It turns out that there's a lot of problems that can be solved with a portable multi-targeting tornado, in particular dealing with those annoying lizard-snake things that hide underneath tiles and fling you into the water if you step on them. It's also handy for redirecting bridges, putting lanterns out, knocking pots down, and feeding bombs to gigantic Twilit Parasite Diababas.

Having finally splatted the boss, it turns into the traditional cloud of smoke and then reforms into one of the Fused Shadows, which Midna seems far too pleased about collecting. I'm not entirely convinced that letting her collect all of them is a good idea, but it's not as if I've got any better ideas at the moment. With that done, it's onwards to Eldin Province and another light spirit!

Do you remember what that spirit said? About how you had to match the power of the king of shadows? Could it really be so easy? Is this all there is to it? Eee hee hee!
Midna