Level Four - The Snake

All right, so here we go into the fourth dungeon!  I feel like I just started this thing and it's already half-way over.  Either way, after some adventuring and slicing and dicing, here we are at the entrance to Level Four.

Underworld Level Four - The Snake

Yet another underworld locale...I thought the previous coloration was bad.  Yellow?  This looks like vomit.  Now I just know something bad's going to go down here...

So this is the first dungeon where things begin to get difficult.  Link encounters Like-Likes for the first time ever.  These infamous enemies, starting in this, the very first Zelda, and in countless Zeldas ever after, are one of the most irritating enemies to expunge.  Why?  They touch you, and they aren't out to destroy you, no.  They just seem to have issue with your shield.  You know, that thing that you spent a lot of money on.  And in this game, money = time.  So losing your shield means spending time to get a new one.  They're strong too (they took like five to six hits with the white sword) and seem to love to hang out with bubbles (the enemies which inhibit your sword ability).  Just plain irritating.

This dungeon offers the first sets of bombable walls and some of your first sets of off-paths, making it not straight-forward.  The infamous push-the-block and find stairs puzzles are also present too, so the game is taking it up a step in this dungeon, making things a little more difficult to find and forcing Link to deploy more devices and cunning to explore the dungeon to its fullest and exploit its troves.

The Stepladder!

Well, this is lame...a stepladder.  When will this come in useful for besting monsters?

It won't, Link.  And yes, aside from the raft, this just may be one of the lamest Zelda dungeon prizes.  Its uses are limited; however, it provides access to a heart container that we want and also, from this dungeon on there are often rivers and lava pits in rooms.  What the stepladder's hidden use is to provide a save-haven spot to fire sword-beams from, or to stab from as enemies walk by, with the only worry for Link being flying enemies.  No matter what, it seems as though every item in every Zelda has some creative useage to it (even if it is, in its design and intention, quite limited).

Monsters hording rupees in a dungeon

Finders keepers!  Though I wonder where all of this came from...who leaves money just lying around?

Another Silly Old Man

 Seriously...won't walking INTO a waterfall kill me?  Not to mention considering how many waterfalls there are in Hyrule...which one do you mean?  Cryptic silly old man...

So again we visit the cryptic old man, who proves quite silly this time, telling us to jump to our deaths in under-current water in order to find something, apparently.  He doesn't tell us what this will do for us, nor is he specific about which waterfall.  If I were Link, I'd definitely be frustrated too.  Personally, I ignored the old men since their hints were laughable and didn't provide help, just a source of amusement.  We went further in, and the enemies in this dungeon as I said were irritating, especially the Like-Likes and a new enemy, Vires.  These guys bounce everywhere and then become Keese after being hit, and they always seem to like to chill in packs.  Not fun.  This, of course, I knew (and I'm sure Link had an idea too) was leading up to something much worse.  Dungeons often do that.  Sure enough, we were right.

Gleeok is the biggest pain in the butt of a boss.  To be honest, he is more of a pain in the butt than Ganon himself, especially as further in the game he has more heads to contend with.  As you slice away at him (or fire sword beams from afar while you can) he spits fire...and his heads get chopped off one by one and float around, spitting fire and trying to do Link in.  Busy and annoying, and for some reason, Gleeok is very skillful at hitting Link.

Underworld Boss IV - Gleeok

First a dinosaur and now a dragon?!  What exactly is happening in Hyrule?  I've definitely got to uncover this mystery, if not to just make things normal again.

We managed however, and obtained our fourth piece of the Triforce, one that was more well earned than the other three combined.  So hold this one above your head high with pride, Link.  This is one dungeon we are glad to put behind us.

Triforce of Wisdom Piece #4

Another level completed, many more ahead of us (five, to count them.)