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davidcarlton

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Reply with quote  #1 
This thread is for your experiences in the region off of the east exit of Termina Field, before Stone Tower Temple.
sparky

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Reply with quote  #2 
The game's trend of extending each dungeon's prologue culminates in the byzantine quest to begin the quest of the Stone Tower Temple. The reason the seemingly useless Garo mask is required for entering Ikana canyon is quickly explained: without the hints from the Garo this area would be incredibly frustrating. To clear the various undead out of the barren, apocalyptic landscape of Ikana canyon the player must conquer two mini-bosses in the graveyard, figure out how to infiltrate the music-box house, gather bribes for all the redeads in the well, gain the mirror shield, access the castle, defeat more mini-bosses, go back to town and get a powder keg, and then finally put the undead king to rest. Your reward: a song that gives you the power to create statues of your various forms. This song allows you climb the stone tower and finally (phew) access the temple.

Whereas the other parts of Termina require Link to solve the problems of the living, Ikana almost exclusively asks him to ease the remorse of the dead. It's clear that this idea has significant resonance with the Zelda designers -- it surfaces in Ocarina and Twilight Princess, and is a principal theme of Wind Waker. Here, I feel it accentuates the impression that Termina's problems are intrinsically unfixable. Moreover, it reminds us that Link, too, is haunted, for his various forms are empty shells made from the souls of the dead.

Earlier portions of the game teased us with occasional flashes of grotesquerie, in some cases inherited with character models from Ocarina and in others designed anew (e.g. the Goron elder and the torso-less giants). From here it becomes a near constant, as there will be no way to avoid the screaming face of the mirror shield. The statues, too, are disturbing constructs. The statues of the alternate forms stand blank-eyed and screaming, while Link himself is rendered with a distorted and frankly hideous expression.  The exaggeration of ordinary features to the point where they become ridiculous or frightening is a common motif in masks of all purposes. Is it also a key characteristic of Termina?

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Marceux

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Reply with quote  #3 
Tips for this area:

  • The Redead "bribes" only require you to leave the area to open up the first two doors, everything else can be found in the area.
  • Make sure you have a powder keg before you enter Ikana Castle.

LouisF

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Reply with quote  #4 

Quote:

  • The Redead "bribes" only require you to leave the area to open up the first two doors, everything else can be found in the area. 

  • Yes, I wish I had realized this earlier. In fact, I would have liked the game to hide this hint somewhere, by defeating one of the many Garo fighters for instance (and maybe it did, I couldn't say). Furthermore, it surprises me that this kind of demanding and pretty cumbersome quest was made mandatory for story progression. I appreciate the idea of the restless souls awaiting comfort, but this theme is not very well developed by the writing (they do this by... begging for items?), and completion isn't rewarded with an artifact that allows it to resonate and reach closure ; a "Mask of Regrets", for example. Instead, you get the unrelated Mirror Shield and move on to the next level, which is decent but doesn't benefit from anything that came before. It ends up feeling disconnected, and unsatisfactory.

    The idea of the statues as "hollow shells", however, was quite neat, although not explored by the narrative nor exploited sufficiently as a gameplay element in my opinion (even if playing the same song and watching the same animation over and over does get on the nerves...). The healings of the ghost and father, like most of the healings in the rest of the game, were also handled competently, although I felt that what I previously referred to as "restraint" was perhaps just a veil for a certain lack of substance. Maybe I was just in an average mood and feeling more critical that day, I don't know... But on the whole, despite several head-scratching design choices (which I am sure that MoriartyL will be quick to pick out ), I can say that I enjoyed the rendering of the barren Canyon and its atmosphere of dread and solitude. I simply think it had the potential to be more cohesive and powerful.

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    AutomaticJack

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    Reply with quote  #5 
    This area throws Link down the Uncanny Valley and pushes boulders on top of him, in an effort to make him more resemble the dead that have recently re-inhabited Ikana Canyon.  Every possible creature you can think of that looks just human enough to disturb the heck out of you is here: Mummies, zombies, ghost ninjas, stone statues with empty eyes and mouths agape, animated skeletons and horrifying copies of yourself that make you wonder just what sordid reflections are being pulled out of your soul to create them.  Overall, the keyword is grim; even the Music Box House's incessant playing only heightens the contrast with its cheery carnival song that fades in and out of proximity like Silent Hill radio static, calling to mind images of hellish clown faces that seem more befitting a Stephen King novel than a circus tent.  Given the doomed celebrations being prepared for in Clock Town, it makes sense that this area would seek to preserve MM's proclivity for subverting the festive atmosphere.

    The actual layout of this area in terms of gameplay is pretty haphazard.  Huge, empty spaces are punctuated at random intervals by spots of activity- Here, the entrance to a cave, there an enormous castle door, a "spirit house", a well.  The entrance to Stone Tower is almost right next door to Ikana Castle, and I wander inside without realizing what it is.  Still, Ikana Canyon has more history than the rest of Termina put together, and it's quite a thrill to listen to these cheerfully deceased skeleton warriors tell me of their past exploits, as if they were a WWII vet relating war stories to their bright-eyed grandkids.  Such is the nature of Zelda games- the emptier the area, the harder my imagination works to fill in the gap.  So caught up in their narrative, I find myself reluctant to do any actual puzzle-solving or sword-swinging, and I fumble through the Graveyard and Castle portions without much memory of what I did there (the dancing Gibdos, I reckon, would make quite a tourist attraction if the place wasn't such an abysmal drain on the canyon's property value). 

    Essentially the place is rich with atmosphere and story content, and somewhat lacking in design inspiration.  I would say that the former makes up for the latter, as it's easily the most memorable region with the sort of creepy undertones that stick in my mind the way only low polygon-count Re-Deads can.  It's one of those moments in the game where MM feels less like a Zelda game than a subversion of it, with half-hearted mazes and item trading giving way to the dense hopelessness of my mission.  The longer I stay in Ikana, the more my frustrations and apathy build, until I have to put down the controller and take a break from the headache the game is giving me.  Sure, I felt the same way about certain sections of Woodfall and Snowhead, but here, it's culminating with an environment that is utterly hostile to my survival, and the combination is finally too much to take. 

    Aside from Tingle and the inhabitants of the Music Box House, neither of which make for engaging interaction, my only companions are the "empty warriors" granted to me by a certain Elegy.  At one point, I placed all of my possible selves in one spot, as if they were having a camp-out together.  The result seemed so perverse at the time that I stopped playing, each of them wore the sort of nightmare expression that lingers on the fringe of consciousness, a twisted expression of yourself that you don't want to examine too closely for fear of seeing the truth.  Finally, I realized that three of my empty shells- Deku, Zora, and Goron- are in fact already deceased.  Seeing my true, human self placed physically among their lot put an end to that experiment quite quickly- although part of me can't wait to try to form barricades around some characters in the midst of their premeditated schedules.


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    Marceux

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    Reply with quote  #6 
    I'm doing this from memory, as I completed the region earlier this week, but isn't the order of completion for this region, something along the lines of...
    • Defeat Miniboss
    • Get Mask
    • Use Mask to Open Pathway on all three days
    • Learn Song
    • Use Song to Open Pathway
    • Get Mask
    • Use Mask to Open Pathway
    • Earn Shield
    • Use Shield to Open Pathway
    • Defeat Miniboss
    • Learn Song
    • Use Song to Get to Temple
    It sounds simple, and I don't mean to take away from the experience or make fun of it, but when compared to other regions (even the South and Western regions convoluted [I didn't like the Western Region] quests) the Eastern Region takes the cake as the most to do before entering a temple; while the others I can complete in a cycle, and maybe still have time to even complete the temple, there is no way you could do that in this region (...maybe, now that I think of it, but you'd have to do it from the very beginning of the cycle).  Just an observation.

    I loved the Music House sequence, and especially Tatl's intervention during a moment that I logically would have ruined, but in-game and in other situations I would have expected some sort of text.

    This entire region is about death and healing, and a couple moments of forgiveness.  It seemed poignant.

    Also, did anyone find it strange that one of the ghosts straight up mentioned "selling souls to the devil."  I was kind of surprised to find that exact wording in a Nintendo product.  I wonder if it alludes to the Skull Child, or maybe that's just me adding more unnecessary ties to that little imp.

    I thought Ikana was an interesting area, and a really cohesive one as there is so much to do.  Very fun.  So many mini-dungeons.

    MoriartyL

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    Reply with quote  #7 
    I came to Ikana in the second day (As noted in another thread, the game demanded that I finish the Ocean Spider House in the first day). Time ran out on the third day as I was trying to maneuver Dampé. I don't know what else I'm going to see, because I have no memory at all of this area. So my impressions are purely based on what I've seen in the past two game-days.

    This is the absolute low-point of the game so far. In my time so far in the area, there hasn't been even the tinest bit of gameplay which was anything but tedious.

    The cutscene with the big skeleton felt very forced. It had absolutely no connection to the gameplay which preceded it. I woke up the skeleton, started running toward it, and hit a sudden wall. I fought two skeletons, and hit a wall. I fought two skeletons, and hit a wall. I fought two skeletons, and hit a wall. I fought two skeletons... and so on. And then I hit the big skeleton a few times with my sword, on a ledge which seemed too small for the fight. This sequence of events evoked no emotions except boredom. It didn't seem to be trying to evoke any emotions but boredom. And then I'm told that this string of meaningless gameplay was actually about a soldier's duty? Give me a break. I did nothing to earn that salute.

    They then follow up on this Very Special Cutscene with the opportunity to smash a grave. Yay, Link! I don't think I like the symbolism there...

    So then I go underground, in what is a poor imitation of the weakest part of Ocarina of Time ("Under the Well"). It seemed very much like it was thrown together in a half hour or so.

    And then I waited around doing nothing until the third night, so I could get someplace more interesting. I was rewarded with one of the most poorly conceived bits of gameplay I've ever encountered in a Zelda game: guiding Dampé around.

    I don't understand why they thought it was a good idea to begin with. It's loosely based on the "grave-digging tour" from Ocarina of Time, which was hidden away and optional specifically because there was nothing interesting about it back then. Did one of the developers love the idea of watching Dampé dig so much, that he wanted to base a whole room off of it?

    And it's a darn ugly room. It looks like one of those beta-testing rooms they make to test out their game engines before actually working on any levels. That's the sort of aesthetic it has going: random objects thrown around in no particular pattern, just so that there should be gameplay.

    All this would be fairly irrelevant if the gameplay were good. The gameplay is atrocious. I don't know if I'm missing something, but I'm finding Dampé very hard to work with. Sometimes I'm standing two steps away from him, and he starts walking the opposite way. The excuse given for Dampé's blindness is that it's a dark room. Trouble is, it isn't. It's bright as day down there! When he said he needed light, I thought that meant I'd need to use a torch. But there's nowhere to light a torch, so I guess he's talking about Tatl. And Tatl really isn't lighting up the room at all. So the whole justification for this awful gameplay is totally implausible. I led him onto a ledge, than walked three steps away, and watched as he walked straight off the ledge. And then I needed to go herding him around from scratch. I'd like to just take his hand and lead him around, but that would take an animation which wasn't in Ocarina of Time so of course the developers wouldn't think of it.

    Blecch.

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    Marceux

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    Reply with quote  #8 
    <3 Mor.
    MoriartyL

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    Reply with quote  #9 
    [fidgets awkwardly] Um, okay.

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    MoriartyL

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    Reply with quote  #10 
    Now that I've finally (after three failed attempts) passed the bit with Dampé, I realize I made a few big mistakes. First, it took me a while to figure out that if I Z-targeted Dampé, I could move around more and he'd still follow. Second, that hole underneath the moving platforms is not a secret passageway I'm expected to find, it's an empty hole that resets the area. Third, and most importantly, everything in the graveyard after the first day is totally optional. Since I hadn't seen the way to Ikana Canyon yet, and this was the direct continuation of the skeleton stuff, I thought this was the only way forward. If I'd known this was only thrown in to give completionists more to do, I wouldn't have been half as harsh.

    So, sorry Dampé. You seem like a nicer guy than I gave you credit for.


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    RapturousRaptor

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    Reply with quote  #11 
    With so many meandering things to do in the eastern region, it's taken me quite a long time to pull all my thoughts on it into a cohesive statement - but, at last, here it is...

    The eastern region is most striking for its barren landscape and the attention to detail necessary to make steady progress through it.  Such attention is necessary, not only because the terrain offers so few clues as to how Link should traverse it, but also because many of the region's inhabitants are so absorbed in their desires and purposes that they rarely render deliberate help to Link.

    For instance, if players were simply to charge into the Ikana Kingdom and ignore the advice of the Garo Robes they can confront, they would find themselves stuck at the Spring Water Cave.  Instead, they must enter the Ikana Graveyard, a seemingly optional area that contains a critical side quest - confront Skull Keeta so that Link can assume its identity, then order the Stalchildren to open Flat's grave, thereby freeing him to vent his anger at his brother - and, as a result, learning the Song of Storms.

    That Link can enter the Ikana Graveyard during Interlude 3 is fascinating, and could be taken as an indication of Link's growing maturity (as I argued could occur at that time) - particularly as the problems faced by each region, in order of the time Link can explore them thoroughly, have tended to become more severe.  It seems to indicate that Link is ready for a foretaste of what he will encounter in Ikana Canyon.  What is it?  Is it death - something that not only characterizes many of those he meets in Ikana Graveyard, but also looms over the Zora eggs?  Yes, but Link has already experienced this in his transformation masks, which let him incarnate dead people.  In Ikana Canyon, however, Link must converse with those already dead, often without the filter of species transformation (he uses no less than three masks to contact various forms of unlife).  This is too much, too soon - but if Link is as traumatized by his Zora form as I argue, Ikana Canyon's horrors might seem mild by comparison.

    This is a strong statement, because the eastern region's wide swaths of cracked, nearly barren land and legions of spirits give it a distinctly post-apocalyptic atmosphere - as if this were a window into a future after the moon's crash.  There is no luxury of selfless action here - those he encounters all act to satisfy their own desires, including the Garo Robes (they surrender their information and vanish when defeated, all according to their tradition), and even including many of the living (Sakon is a thief; Pamela guards her secret).

    It is when Link reaches the Spring Water Cave and plays the Song of Storms in front of Sharp that we first learn of the region's malady.  A "trick of the masked one" causes the dead to linger, and if he would stop it, he should seek the King and sever the curse's source in the Stone Tower.  It's worth noting that Flat makes no mention of this curse, except as it relates to showing his anger to his brother - so it would seem that the ability to cut through selfish action relates to learning its root cause.

    This lesson on hand, Link can then infiltrate the Music Box House and lift the curse on Pamela's father.  He, it turns out, is a "famous academic" on "supernatural phenomena," and his insights into some of the spirits that haunt Ikana Canyon confirm that their desires are often self-centered.  Of the Garo Robes, he notes that they are the shells of spies who carry out their work even in death; and of the Gibdos, he says that they are the spirits of treasure seekers who continue to desire things from the well in which they were mummified (this is one of the hints that players have to explore the well).  In this way, Link's purpose is allied with Pamela's father's - but while the former uses it to put the spirits to rest, the latter is keen primarily on the abundance of creatures available for study.  Perhaps this is why Link is able to succeed Beneath the Well (besides the more obvious reason that he now has the Gibdo Mask)?

    The well itself, certainly, encourages such a covetous attitude.  Filled with a vast array of objects common (Bombs, Deku Nuts, etc.) and obscure (Milk, Fairies, a Big Poe, etc.), Link could spend considerable time stocking up on many of his items (additionally, there is a surprising diversity of enemies to face).  Although the Gibdos that guard the exits to the first room ask for items found outside the well (as if they were least affected by the well), all others ask for items within - often, items so useless that the Gibdos seem to want them for the sake of wanting, having forgotten what first drew them to the well.

    If they had only reached the Mirror Shield!  Although its ability to reflect and concentrate light is useful, it seems more important to note that the Shield has a screaming face emblazoned on it, which the reflection carries.  It may be that stare, as much as the light itself, that slays the undead so effortlessly.  Link will have such opportunity to do so in Ikana Castle.  Interestingly, Deku Link has a substantial role in the north wing (raising floors and crossing chasms), and the Powder Keg makes a surprise comeback for blasting a hole in the castle roof (interestingly, Zora Link has no role, and would even be a liability in fighting the south wing's fire-wielding Wizrobe).

    Once Link confronts and defeats the King, his Royal Guards bicker over their perceived weaknesses, only to be silenced by the King - he sees that such squabbling led to the Kingdom's downfall and present haunting.  Certainly, Link has witnessed such behavior throughout the region; but the King's words seem to indicate that this has long been the case.  Is this the work of the "little imp" from so long ago?  And the Elegy of Emptiness, which allows Link to create shells of his various forms (though dark and twisted, some scarred in the image of their graves) - is Link's stepping out of himself to gaze upon himself somehow equivalent to the illumination the spirits undergo?  That the shells hold a mirror to him, a walking dead in his own way?

     
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    fleacircus

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    Reply with quote  #12 
    A couple interesting things about the mirror shield:

    1. A mirror is itself a thing that you look in to see your twin, and the game has plenty of twins/siblings. The dancers and jugglers, Sharp and Flat, Tatl and Tael ... Link and Skull Kid?

    2. When in the light, the shield is projecting a face, and one of the primary uses of it is to put that face onto the faces of the sun blocks and sun sigils -- it's a "mask of light".
    MoriartyL

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    Reply with quote  #13 
    Is the well mandatory? It seems very sidequest-y, but every other direction seems like a dead end. I don't really feel like hunting down a bunch of random items for mummies, so I'd like to know if I absolutely have to. (I'm not going to make the same mistake as before.)

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    LouisF

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    Reply with quote  #14 
    Just as I predicted.

    Yes, it is mandatory, but be sure to read Marceux's tip from a few days ago. I too think that this section feels "side-questy", and I'll be curious to see what you have to say about it.

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    Marceux

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    Reply with quote  #15 
    What exactly makes it feel side-questy?

    Is it the fact that there is no central-tying storyline going through it?

    I mean, it has nothing to do with Ikana Castle, and it really has nothing to do with the Daughter/Father storyline either; or the Sharp/Flat storyline, or anything for that matter.  It's sort of just there.  Greedy little Gibdos.

    MoriartyL

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    Reply with quote  #16 
    There's no story-significance, like you say, and there's nothing suggesting that I should be going there except that there's apparently nothing else to do with that mask. The actual dungeon is right here, and there's no suggestion that the way in is specifically down the well. The well basically just seems like it's off in the middle of nowhere, design-wise. Then when you actually go down, you find out that it's about going all over the world for random and arbitrary items, which is almost always side-quest territory. The gameplay of it is really repetitive and simple, and we're coming right out of another bit (the graveyard) which was repetitive and simple because it wasn't really part of the game so much. And what you're asked to do in it doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense, which is yet another usual indicator of stuff thrown in for completionists.

    Everything about the well screams "optional". It honestly surprises me that it isn't.

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    LouisF

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    Reply with quote  #17 

    I'm with you there.


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    sparky

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    Reply with quote  #18 
    The weird thing is that most of the well actually is optional. Unfortunately this isn't made clear at the outset, and as noted, it's not particularly clear that you really need to go in. There's nothing to really recommend this dungeon, unfortunately. It's not a very interesting space to move around in, and the desires of the redeads are so trivial (and there are so many requests to fill) that the theme of laying the dead to rest gets lost in the minutiae.

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    fleacircus

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    Reply with quote  #19 
    Oh c'mon, the Gibdos well is cool.

    Frankly I was much more surprised that the Gorman race and the graveyard (on day 1) turned out to be necessary. As for the well, one of the Garos says there's a secret way into the castle, and by process of elimination the Well is pretty much it. Getting the Gibdos mask removes all doubt.

    Perhaps there's the feeling that something around there's gotta be a side-quest, darnit!

    ...

    When I wrote in the thread of the northern region about the themes of family (especially negligent parents) and death that were coming to a crescendo, I sort of remembered the Great Bay region, but I didn't remember the eastern region at all. So as I explored this area I was gratified to see that this region cranked it up to the max.

    The Deku King, Lulu's (and Mikau's..) eggs, the Goron elder and his son, now the music box house father -- Link sure is stepping in to heal a lot of parent-child responsibility problems on the mandatory path of the story.

    It extends all the way to the to the relationship between the skull Kid and the giants (and what are adults to children but giants? Long legs, foreshortened bodies, voices like the adults in Peanuts.)

    Link is a character of action and the game has a strong vein of encouraging Link to take responsibility and fix things where the responsible adults have failed. It seems to be sort of what the whole game is about, which sounds very new-agey and wimpy but the rest of the game is also pretty brutal with the death imagery.

    There's also a lot of missing mothers. Missing women, for that matter. Sometimes in my darker moments I feel like the tagline of this game is Mom's Dead... Deal With It.
    Marceux

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    Reply with quote  #20 
    I don't think the intention was, "these are negligent parents, please fix their relationship with their children" it was more, "these are some of the most important relationships in a person's life, how can you make it better?"

    In the case of the Deku Palace, when you return the Princess, I don't you've healed the relationship but rather just kind of rectified the mistake the Deku King made of imprisoning the monkey.

    With the Goron Elder and his son, I think the Elder made a very adult and responsible choice in risking his life in order to save the rest of the tribe.  It wasn't negligence as much as it was, "my tribe needs me to do this, and I'd like for my son to have a chance at a life without winter."  Link filled an important role in solving the problem of the continuous winter, and in that he "saved" the relationship by keeping the Elder from risking his life heroically.

    Lulu's (and maybe Mikau's) eggs were stolen.  I don't think the families of kidnapping victims can all say they were negligent.

    The music-house family is a special case in that the daughter did her best to save and be a responsible adult.  She locked her father up, and she kept outside forces from getting in.  While the exact cause of the curse is uncertain (as I recall) all Link did was flip the relationship from the daughter acting out the parental role to the father.

    Link is just a band-aid for these people while he gradually gets closer to solving the bigger problem: the falling Moon.

    In retrospect, there are a lot of things you can pick up in the well that are very very cool.  The fairy fountain, the milk, etc.  If you have 4+ bottles, and if you plan on completing the Well and going through Ikana Castle and the Temple in one cycle it should make it all easier.

    Also, if you activated the owl statue in this area (Ikana Canyon) you can now complete Anju & Kafei.  Just sayin'.

    Stefan

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    Reply with quote  #21 
    I think I'm well and truly stuck for the first time. I cleared the graveyard section without much problems and then went on to explore the Eastern region but there is *nothing* I can do there. From time to time Tatl tells me to search for something or other and I've met the thief who tried to steal my sword. I've found the entrance to some area which is blocked off by a stone I remember to be movable using the Mirror Shield which I don't have yet. I entered the well but couldn't do anything. The music house is locked and even setting off a bomb doesn't do anything (even though the gossip stone told me it would lure out the inhabitants). The witch mini game was too hard for me, and when I entered the area to the north with the composer I lost a little bit of health every second or so. I tried playing the Song of Storms but it didn't do anything.

    Bored and confused I decided to stop playing, that was about a week ago. I've been pretty busy lately but I will try again later this week. Not sure about all this, I remembered Majora's Mask to be much more enjoyable than it actually is. Maybe Zelda games need to be played in a more focused way, a couple of hours every day. Spreading it out like this doesn't do much for my motivation to persevere.
    fleacircus

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    Reply with quote  #22 
    I don't want to start splitting hairs on the meaning of 'negligent'. I think there's clearly a sharper theme along the main line of plot than: "Fix some of the most important relationships in a person's life".
    Marceux

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    Reply with quote  #23 
    @ Stefan:

    Are you sure you played the Song of Storms in front of the ghost composer North of the music house?  Because, that is exactly what you're supposed to do, and it should start water flowin'.

    MoriartyL

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    Reply with quote  #24 
    When did the game explain how to milk a cow? I knew how to do it because I know how it's done in Ocarina of Time, but I imagine I must have read that on a website many years ago, since I don't remember any part of Ocarina of Time actually stating it. It was more of an easter egg. Now, I find it very hard to believe that even this Zelda game would require such obscure knowledge, so the game must have said how you do it at some point and I just didn't see it. So out of curiosity, when was that? If I didn't already know how it was done, how would the game have clued me in?

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    Marceux

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    Registered: 04/15/09
    Posts: 62
    Reply with quote  #25 
    I don't think it even does if you visit Romani Ranch, but I think if you talk to the cow with the Mask of Truth it tells you a hint like, I'd like to be reminded of the ranch.
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