Crystal II - Watergate Dungeon

"The Curse"

On our way to the Watergate Palace, we shall stop off to a small cave located by the blacksmith's house.  Here, we find nothing but a green fountain.  Doesn't seem like much, does it?  Some magic powder later, and a bat appears and "curses" us.  Well, this curse that he lays "halves" our magic power.  Well, some semantics later and we find that "halving" our magic power means that now our magic consumption has been cut in half, not our magic ability.  Awesome!  While it's not required to visit this bat to finish the game, it makes life so much easier.

Bombos Medallion

Back in the Desert of Mystery we do some hoping and skipping around and make our way to the green plaque on the hill that has tormented us for awhile yet.  After translating the text, Link holds up the Master Sword and receives the Bombos Medallion.  This medallion isn't a requirement to finish the game, but again it makes life one hundred times easier.  Why?  It destroys every enemy on screen.  Yes, my friend.  Powerful magic.  It's like light arrows, only found far earlier in the game and not as stupid.

The Connection

So in the lake region in Hyrule, we enter the shrine where Sahsrahla tells us something we've known for quite awhile now: that the Light and Dark world are connected, and what happens to something in the Light World affects its twin in the Dark World.  This is told to us because this is the solution to finding an entrance to the Watergate Dungeon, however, we should already know the two worlds are connected given that the Dark World looks like the Light World it only has a few different features, enemies and the landscape is opaque.  So we hop, we skip, we jump and pull a switch to let the water flow and boom!  We have access to the Watergate Dungeon.  Now, this is, as you may have guessed, the water theme dungeon to this game.  This is the start of the "water is my enemy" schema in the Zelda series.  How do I mean?  Well, the puzzles that water dungeons offer, on top of the irritating enemies that call the water dungeons home in this title and its successors, make water dungeons the most dreaded and the most irritating to traverse.

The Hookshot

The prize of the Watergate Dungeon is the Hookshot.  This useful item allows us to cross gaps, pulls items to us, and has other several neat features as an offensive weapon.  However, its major purpose is to traverse gaps and open up new areas for Link to explore.  It does prove very useful in defeating this dungeon's boss, however.

Arrghus!

Arrghus is the boss of the Watergate dungeon.  This boss is where we start to develop a pattern where the bosses start to become easier and easier...to a point.  There are, as always, exceptions to rules.  However, Arrghus is a matter of pulling his eyes off his body which act as his shield, defeating them, and then defeating the main body as it jumps around the room, trying to crush you (which its not very good at, I might add).  He doesn't have much of a defense and goes down in very few hits, and then the second crystal falls from the ceiling.

Crystal II!

The second maiden tells more about Ganon and the Golden Land, and mentions an event known as the Great Cataclysm.  You are starting to realize more and more about your destiny as the Hero of Time and how, from the very beginning, you were tied to the events that were happening in the tower and in the Dark World, because after all, only you can defeat Ganon and restore order to the Golden Land.  So don't mess it up!