The last time I set sail across the Great Sea, I found myself trying to outbid NPCs and win prizes at an auction house. When I first started playing this game that I inherited from my best friend, participating in auctions was way down on the list of things I thought I would be doing on my adventure. The Wind Waker really is full of surprises, and that’s what makes it truly special and unique. So now let’s see where the journey takes me today.
One thing I love about the Zelda series is the fact that, most of the time, you find yourself in a vast expanse of land that’s just waiting to be explored. In this game, the world of Flooded Hyrule is seemingly endless, packed with so many Treasure Charts, Big Octos, and islands that any player could spend countless hours searching for goodies or getting lost. I have no intention of covering every single Rupee and Treasure Chart that I find throughout my journey, or else we would all be here for hours. I recently took a much-needed break from the main quest and spent some time just exploring the ocean, but now I will be getting back on track.
My first stops were the three Triangle Islands, where some statues were waiting for me to give them the Pearls I acquired from Valoo, the Great Deku Tree, and the Great Jabun. I sailed to each location, and just as I finished positioning the third Pearl, some very intense music began to play, and the statue began to shine. I literally laughed out loud as the frightened Link instinctively dove away from the statue, sensing some kind of impending doom. When nothing happened, he crawled back onto the island and stood near the statue, only to be met with a huge explosion! The poor kid shot through the air, and as the dust settled, I noticed that the statue had completely changed. It now resembled Princess Zelda (at least to me), and a beam of light shot straight out of the Pearl. The cutscene showed the other two statues doing the same, and at last, all three beams connected to form a triangle. This part reminded me of when the four Divine Beasts all focus their lasers on Hyrule Castle in Breath of the Wild.
Inside the triangle, a castle with a large tower rose up from the depths of the ocean, and then I got to witness the best part of the entire cutscene: Link falling helplessly and splatting against the exterior wall of the structure. This game continues to surprise me with these goofy little details. It’s clear that The Wind Waker doesn’t take itself seriously at times, which is something I absolutely love. Not to mention that the cartoony art style is just so perfect for silly moments such as these.
Once all the excitement died down, the King of Red Lions informed me that I had just erected the Tower of the Gods and would now have to face a trial to test my courage. The music you hear while in this dungeon is so spooky, with a choir ominously chanting the entire way through. It was bad enough that, for most of this trial, I was all alone in this creepy tower solving puzzles, but with this eerie music playing in the background, the whole thing was downright scary. But perhaps the worst part for me was the water constantly rising and falling as I attempted to traverse the dungeon.
Let me explain. When I was around 13 years old, I went to Alberta Beach with Nate, the same best friend that I inherited this game from, and visited a lake called Lac Ste. Anne. I’ve never been a very good swimmer, so when we decided to swim to a dock floating in the middle of the lake, I had to doggy paddle the entire way — and even then, I almost didn’t make it. At the dock, another teenager we didn’t know was making a game out of kicking and throwing the other children into the water, which completely terrified me. I was certain that if he did that to me, I would drown. He playfully knocked my friend into the lake, and since Nate was actually a good swimmer, he thought it was a blast! I, on the other hand, didn’t want to take the risk, so I eased myself back into the water before the kid could target me next. I started swimming back to shore, taking the shortest route possible, but I quickly exhausted all my energy and found that I couldn’t swim any further. I actually started sinking! Luckily, I was still able to jump up and gasp for air every time I went under, and all the while, I kept inching closer and closer to shore. Eventually, the water was shallow enough that I could just walk the rest of the way. This incident caused me to develop a crippling fear of water, and while I have since taken swimming lessons and now feel confident enough to get in the water with a snorkel vest and fins, the memory will haunt me for the rest of my life.
So now that you know all this, you can probably understand why the changing water level in the Tower of the Gods frightened me so much. Even though I knew this was just a video game and I was not in any immediate danger, this part of the game prompted me to relive that horrific day at the lake. And when I stopped to think about it, I realized that I had been actively trying to keep Link on land and away from open water. I prefer to stay on the King of Red Lions as much as possible because I don’t want Link’s swimming stamina to deplete, the way mine did back in Alberta Beach.
Anyway, back to the dungeon. The Tower of the Gods doesn’t skimp on the number of fun and unique challenges it throws the player’s way. I particularly enjoyed the part where I had to guide three hopping statues across obstacles in order to reach their respective pedestals. The way that Link waved to the statues whenever he called them made me smile — and he had to call them a lot, because I constantly missed the mark when tossing the statues across chasms and had to keep starting over (I did eventually learn that I could just jump over the gaps while holding on to the statues). Puzzles such as these are just so creative and charming, I can’t help but love them. And I even got to use the Wind Waker to mind control the statues for a bit, which was pretty cool!
The final part of the trial involved an extremely fun battle against Gohdan, a literal floating head with two hands. The music that played during this boss fight was so epic, like something I might hear in a Castlevania game. After knocking out the hands with arrows and bombing the head a few times, a voice told me to proceed with caution along the path that was chosen for me. Another beam shot up, and given what had happened on the Triangle Islands, I was expecting Link to get blased by another explosion. But instead, he started to dance with glee.
Afterwards, Link proceeded to swing on a rope to ring a giant bell atop the tower, and a portal opened up outside the entrance. The King of Red Lions told me that jumping into the colorful ring of light would send me to my next trial, so I let him know that I was ready, and together we descended down into the ocean. What surprises await me on the next leg of my journey? We’ll just have to wait and see!
Catch up on the previous chapters in this series with the links below!
