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Continuing on my minimalist game of Zelda: A Link to the Past, I made more progress in Level 7: Turtle Rock while riding home on the bus today. I got all the way through finally, after discovering a good way to kill those tall, hopping monsters that take four hearts per hit and normally require a whole lot of slashing to kill. That is, I've got a weapon -- that's required to beat the game, otherwise I wouldn't have it -- that's more powerful than the Lv.4 Golden Sword. That's right, Silver Arrows work wonders against those buggers; if you hit them in the right spot, you can take out the whole thing in one shot.
So I managed to get past that room with two of those hoppy enemies and a fireball statue, skipped the Mirror Shield, and continued down to the second to last basement floor. Now, if you know your way around Turtle Rock, you'll know that the first room on that floor is a large maze that you have to nagivate on one of those floating platforms, in the dark, while trying in vain to avoid fireball chains and projectile fireballs. First you have to find the switch to open the door to the next room, and then you have to find the door itself.
Quite the nasty room, right? Well, there's actually a very simple method of getting to the switch, which I made sure to memorize after finding it during one of my earlier play-throughs of the game. That is, as soon as the platform starts moving, hold right for the first turn, and then just hold in down constantly, and you'll go right to the switch. Getting to the door is a little trickier, but I know my way around in there pretty good after doing it so many times, so I got away with only four or five hearts worth of damage taken.
Now, if I had to go through all of this, from the start of the dungeon every time I tried to get to the boss, it would be near impossible. Thankfully though, there are three "pitstops" that you can use to save at and then continue from in the GBA version. Those pitstops are the three exits that take you out onto ledges on Death Mountain; when you go through one and out of the dungeon, then go back in and save your game, you'll continue from where you last entered the dungeon if you restart instead of the beginning of the dungeon. Very hand, especially since the last one is very close to the boss room and, if you warp to the Light World while on the ledge, there's a cave with two fairies in it.
So basically, once you get to this point, you're home free for getting through the rest of the dungeon. Notice, however, that I do not mention Trinexx, the boss, in that statement. Getting through Trinexx is a different matter entirely, and is proving to be the most challenging thing I have yet to encounter in this game. Maybe the end fight with Ganon will be harder, but that's not exactly saying much, heh. Like the title says, Trinexx is an absolute biatch.
To tell the truth, in the three times that I attempted the battle while riding on the bus, I never got past the first stage of the battle. I came close, but no. . . . They just had to make you rely on the Fire and Ice Rods, didn't they? Really, the issue is not so much running out of life, but running out of magic power. I run out of magic power long before I run out of life, simply because I only get about ten shots from the Fire/Ice Rod without the 1/2 Magic upgrade, and I have no Bottles in which to store potions.
Now, normally, I have the Lv.4 Golden Sword for this fight and killing off the fire and ice heads is no problem; I can do the fight with a single magic meter's worth of magic power. But no, I only have the Lv.2 Master Sword, so instead of each head taking only three hits with the sword after being stunned with the Fire/Ice Rod, they take nine. Nine freaking hits each, when I can only get in, at max, three hits per stun. That may not sound too bad, but I'm usually only able to get in two hits each time unless I want to get hit, and the Ice Rod is also just dang hard to hit with because its shots are so slow moving.
Anyway, I start the fight off by taking out the ice head. This is because it's easier to hit with the Fire Rod, and also because you do not want to let the ice head get an attack off. If it does, it makes a patch of floor icy, and therefore slippery, which makes the rest of the fight so much harder. Quick movement is key to this fight, both for killing the fire head and for killing the main head after that. Getting slowed down by ice, especially when you can only take three hits and the fourth kills you, means certain death.
It seems like I can usually take out the ice head in four shots from the Fire Rod while only taking one hit myself. That leaves about six shots left for the Ice Rod, and two more hits that I can take myself. (A couple more if they're shots from the fire head, but only two from actually touching the boss). I usually end up missing with at least three of those Ice Rod shots just because the fire head likes to dodge a lot, and it's dang quick. And when I do manage to stun it, I don't dare try for more than two hits with my sword because otherwise the main head is likely to smack me. (It watches you the whole time you're fighting the fire and ice heads, and periodically extends its neck out to try and hit you). This usually leaves me with two or three hits left on the fire head when I run out of magic power.
So what do I do if I've run out of magic power and can't do any more damage to the fire head? I wait and dodge, that's what; the shots (read: streams of fire) that the fire head shoots sometime leave behind small Magic Jars, which refill enough magic power for one Ice Rod shot each. So I dodge back and forth, trying not to get cornered by the fire while in range of the main head's attacks, waiting for my chance to use the Ice Rod again. While dodging I can usually survive quite a while, but it's when I finally do get to attack that I've always been killed so far. The reason being, I have to get in range of the main head in order to have any chance at all of hitting the fire head with an Ice Rod shot. And then if I do manage to stun it, I have to stay in its range while I'm attacking with my sword. This, combined with the fact that the main head likes to wait until you step into its range to attack when the fire head only has a couple hits left and the problem of me only being able to take three hits, invariable results in Link spinning around and falling face down -- dead.
I will say it again: Trinexx = biatch. I'm kind of doubting I'll be able to make it past this fight, considering I haven't even made it to the second stage where I usually end up taking more damage than the first stage in normal games. If I do, it'll have to be due to an almost flawless performance on my part, which is exceedingly hard to pull off when fighting A Link to the Past's bosses. . . . But then again, I have actually beaten several of the Dark World bosses without getting hit, it just took me three or four tries. (The time where I managed to beat them, I beat them without taking any damage at all). So who knows, I may end up beating it on my next try. Certainly my skills can't be too lacking if I've made it as far in the game as I have with only the required items; I may just need to get better at this particular boss fight.
Well, I'm going to go try my hand at the fight again. I'll edit this if I manage to beat it.
Edit:
Five deaths and one very pissed off Link later . . . I finally beat it. For my death record to be accurate, though, I'm going to have to add 10 just from this fight. (Resetting is quicker than saving and continuing, because then I start at full life and don't have to go get those two fairies every time). But really, I never expected to die any less than 20 times on this play-through. I mean, I may be able to consistantly get zero deaths normally, but it's my first time playing through the game with the bare minimum of items and hearts; let's see how well you do when you first try this, heh.
If I ever play through like this again, though, I'd be willing to bet my number of deaths would drop substantially. Now that I know, first off, to be careful of the stupid Anti-Fairies in the first dungeon, (I'm still ashamed that I died in the stupid East Palace), and also just various stategies to use against the bosses. (Instant message me or something if you want to hear a funny story about my fight with Vitreous, the boss of Level 6: Misery Mire).
Level 7: Turtle Rock has been conquered -- now on to Level 8: Ganon's Tower, the final dungeon. I'm actually expecting Ganon's Tower to be a walk in the park compared to Turtle Rock, though. From previous experience in the dungeon, I've found that I can get through the first floor/basement while taking very few hits, and not too many more while climbing up to the top floor. Not to mention that there are several "restock" rooms with fairies in them along the way. And Agahnim, the boss, poses no threat to my mad fireball batting skills, heh. Ganon in the Pyramid of Power, though . . . I'll have to see about Ganon.
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