SQ Level Five - The Z

SQ Underworld Level V

I was wondering when the Second Quest would start throwing Like-Likes and Wizzrobes at us.  In all reality, it's not that much before the game unveiled them in the First Quest (there, it was in Level 6...here it is Level 5).  The difference is that for some reason, in the First Quest, the game decided that leaving those enemies concentrated in those locations was a good idea.  The Second Quest however gives you a healthy sampling of both starting in the fifth level and they appear in good numbers every level afterwards.  Lucky us, right?  Teleporting magic users and hungry shield eaters!  : )

Something interesting to note is that for those of us who are paying attention, the underworld dungeons in the second quest are shaped as English alphabet letters.  Why?  Scrambled, they spell out "Zelda."  I guess that whoever made the underworld of Hyrule knew that Zelda would be a key part of Hylian mythos so he spelled out her name.  Of course, if you believe in the chronology, you know that very few Zeldas actually are sequels to Zelda I (Zelda II, Windwaker, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks being the only ones that didn't precede the game.)  So I'm sure that Hylian archietects knew all about the name "Zelda," and as the story progresses (especially in the next game) more is revealed about the history of that name.

On another note completely though, I wish orange hadn't been an option for dungeon paneling because it is absolutely hideous and distracting.  Perhaps that was the intent of the programmers, but one way or another while the game is fun these levels make me long for the stories with sixteen-bit graphics and higher.

The only other thing I can say about voyaging through this level is that it was short.  The shape of a Z isn't too much of an improvement over the L, it just makes one of the forks a little bit longer and complicated to explore.  However, the action level in this dungeon more than makes up for its levity in puzzle complexity.

Triforce of Wisdom Piece #5