Isn’t it about time for more action with Link and the fight against darkness? I’ll say it is! Because between my last update and now, I think I’ve made pretty good progress in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. And by “pretty good,” I mean that a couple more dungeons are finally in the bag. Don’t believe me?  Well, read on my fellow Hyrulians!

So…Morpheel. Oh, Morpheel, that dastardly Lakebed Temple boss. This boss battle is where I remained stuck at the end of my last update. I could not for the life of me coordinate my Wiimote movements enough with the Iron Boots and the Clawshot to get anyway with Morpheel. In fact, I became so incensed with the &^%$# Wiimote and my gaming non-skills that I had to take some time off from the game.  As is the way things go sometimes, when I came back to the game, and despite my nerves, things didn’t go all that badly. The key for me was to quit overthinking things. Like, with Morpheel’s first tentacled form, I didn’t necessarily have to be right up against his traveling eyeball to grasp it with the Clawshot. And with his second form, I didn’t have to swim up his nose (not that you could without being sucked in), so to speak, in order to latch on to make my attacks.

If you’ve not played the game, those previous sentences probably don’t make a lick of sense. Heck, they might not make sense even if you played the game! Point is…I defeated Morpheel! And the accompanying feeling was one of pure relief (over genuine happiness), because it meant that I could finally move on with the game.

After that, it was time to go get that third fused shadow from the Lanayru Spirit Spring. But instead of getting the shadow, Midna and Link had a strange and slightly scary interlude with the game’s supposed villain, Zant. The whole situation turned out surprisingly bad (or not, I guess. Zant’s a big meany, after all.) with Minda being injured and Link being stuck in wolf form. Well, boo on that. Not that Wolf Link is terrible, but…what did that mean for the game, I wondered?

Wondering though I might have, I then proceeded to wander around for a few sessions, not really sure of where to go next. This is usually what I end up doing when I don’t get much direction in games, or when I completely miss a clue, which happens very often. It’s possible that after Zant, Midna gave me a hint about what was next, but I really don’t remember.  However, something reminded me that I needed to see Princess Zelda, so I eventually ended up at Hyrule Castle. But I had forgotten that wolves weren’t very welcome among people in the game, so when I headed to its most prominent location, Telma’s Bar, I was quickly thrown out. Thankfully, Telma’s cat was in the wings to help me out.

I ended up taking a windy route, with a sickly Midna in tow, that led to getting my first Poe’s Soul, which was nominally exciting and presumably something I’d need to know about for later times in the game. After that, the trip continued and I soon faced the one and only Princess Zelda. She revealed the secret of the curse that bound Link into wolf form and said that I needed to get the Master Sword in order to break the curse. And then, in a strikingly heart wrenching move, Zelda proceeded to sacrifice herself to save Midna.

I’ll tell you, the story in the game is really something else. Completely odd at times, subtly beautiful at others, and full of dark twists.

Okay, so it was time to find the Master Sword, without which, as any good fan knows, no Zelda game is complete! This adventure took me back to Faron Woods and into a scuffle with Skull Kid and his hollow, woody followers. (Seriously, like creepy, wooden marionettes they were.) And these guys just didn’t quit! Basically, I had to locate the silly Skull Kid in various parts of the forest while being chased by these weird creatures. And every time I defeated a group of them, the same group returned. The chase eventually led to a “room” where I had to somehow defeat Skull Kid while also battling his minions.

Folks, I am perfectly embarrassed to admit how long it took me out figure out this battle! Like, I think anyone else in the world could have easily seen that the point of the whole mess was to hit Skull Kid over just defeating the minions. And yet, over and over, I kept trying to kill all the minions while missing my opportunities to get at Skull Kid. Eventually I worked things out, but it took me far longer than I would have liked.

And after all that nonsense, I was greeted with a further venture into puzzle-dom with two statutes and a “game board” of sorts around which I had to lead the statues in order to open the way to the Master Sword. Well, lordy. That must have taken me twice as long as the Skull Kid battle to figure out. But soon enough I got the statues in the right spots and had the master Sword in hand…err, paw. And then, hand, with the sword breaking the curse over link and healing Midna. As an added bonus, now Midna could change Link into human and wolf form at any time! Well, it was as good a reward as any. That and the Master Sword itself, of course.

At the risk of increasing what is already a super duper wall of text, I’m breaking this update into two posts. In two weeks — after next week’s all new “YouTube Highlights” post! Get hype! — I’ll be back to regale you with my romps through the Arbiter’s Grounds, Snowpeak Ruins, and the Temple of Time. (As of now, I’m almost through the Temple of Time, a downright fascinating space in which to play.) Oh yes, the magic of twilight will continue, so stay tuned!