Goron Mines

After the wife went to sleep last night, I found myself with some available TV time and decided to continue my Zelda play through.

When I stopped on Sunday, I had just finished the Forest Temple and was in the middle of the twilight surrounding Kakariko village trying to find all those little darkness bugs. I've really found myself enjoying the twilight segments that have you playing as wolf; they provide a nice diversion from the rest of the game. While I certainly wouldn't want to be in wolf form all the time, the back and forth works out very nicely. My biggest problem with these segments so far is that I spend nearly all my time with my senses turned on, trying to see the bugs and places to dig. This is a problem because I've actually missed obvious things (like a crawl space into a building) because of my limited field of vision while in sensing mode. I suppose that that exists to keep me from having it turned on all the time, but which ever mode I'm in, I tend to always feel like I'm missing something.

Anyway, I finished clearing the twilight and started making my way up Death Mountain to straighten out the Gorons. I was quickly sent back to my home village to find out how to best the Goron strength. I thought it was a little early in the game to be getting the Power Glove, but didn't think much of it. Once back home, I received a sumo wrestling lesson from the mayor... something which I found was surprisingly difficult until I realized I could basically just mash the 'A' button and win nearly every time. He then provided me with the Iron Boots so that I wouldn't be moved as easily by the Gorons. Huh... no Power Glove for me.

I made my way back to Death Mountain and up to the Goron lair. Another mash 'A' sumo wrestle later and I was granted access to the mines. I wasn't too surprised to be in here, seems like the fire dungeon is always the second one (I'm guessing it'll be water next).

I wasn't quite sure how the Iron Boots would be used in the mines (I was expecting to use them to sink to the bottom of water, which I did), but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure where I was in the mine, but I found myself standing on a switch which needed more weight to depress it. I quickly tossed on my Iron Boots and was ripped towards the ceiling! I'm sure I made some sort of little squeal of delight as I'm prone to do.

The rest of the dungeon had some great puzzles and segments that involved using the Iron Boots to magnetically attach myself to walls and ceilings and get to places I couldn't normally get. I thought it was a VERY nice touch and something I had never seen in a Zelda game before.

I finally reached the mini-boss and was given my new dungeon item: the Bow. I was sort of expecting it, but admit I was a little disappointed as it didn't make much sense to have the Bow in the middle of a Goron mine. The game explained it by saying that they were guarding the weapon of the hero of legend or something like that. It felt weak to me. It was like they wanted this dungeon to be the second one and also wanted to give the player the bow at this time, but couldn't really come up with anyway to tie the two together.

Regardless, the rest of the dungeon was pretty short and the final boss had a great kill mechanic that involved my Bow and my Iron Boots. It was ridiculously easy, but still quite enjoyable. Once back outside, I did little more than buy a bomb sack (I CAN MAKE BOMB ARROWS!?!) and then call it a night.

I must admit I'm pretty impressed with the game so far; they have done an excellent job of making a game that fits the Zelda mold so closely, yet still seems to throw some new and interesting things at me. Can't wait to see where I end up next.