Previously on Legend of Zelda, Skyward Sword…
Link gathers the Triforce, as a result of which the entire Goddess Statue falls on the Imprisoned One, rather like Dorothy’s house falling on the Wicked Witch. But although Ghirahim’s evil lord and master may have curled up his toes in the present, Demise is still alive and kicking in the past. Thus, Ghirahim kidnaps Zelda and bolts through the Gate of Time, whereupon the Old One exhorts Link to race through the gate as well. In our upcoming episode, Link charges through the Gate of Time and –
Um, not so fast. How about a few potions for the road?
For our showdown with the Demon Lord Ghirahim, we packed two regular heart potions; one amped-up heart potion; and a Guardian potion, which, for three minutes, limits by one-half the amount of damage Link sustains. (We did not know that there is a Guardian potion Plus, which prevents all damage for the same time, but likely it would not have mattered; the upgraded potion requires assorted insects we’re pretty certain we don’t have, given Itzal’s limited proficiency with the butterfly net. Shoot, it can take him three minutes just to locate the net, let alone swat it about futilely, by which time any butterflies and beetles in the area have all scattered.) (Itzal denies these charges, of course.)
Zelder Tip #1: If you have the Sacred Shield, don’t waste your rupees buying a heart potion that includes shield repair. Instead, opt for the most hearts you can get in a potion and keep an eye on your shield’s recovery rate.
Back to our irregularly scheduled program.
Upon emerging from the Gate of Time into the past, we found Impa lolling on the ground in the Temple of Hylia, admitting that she’s not perfect – and about time, too; we haven’t forgotten how insulting she was to Link upon first acquaintance! Since Impa has fallen down on the job, in this case literally, she urges Link to hurry through the double doors of the Temple to see if he can catch up with Ghirahim before the latter can begin his dastardly deeds.
We did indeed catch up with the Demon Lord, but not before he had already begun dastardly-deeding. When we first spied him at the bottom of the Sealed Grounds area, he was doing a creepy dance around a prone Zelda. The way he was twirling about our poor heroine reminded us eerily and unnervingly of Fi, when she figure-skated around us inside the Statue of the Goddess.
Speaking of reminding us of things: the whole evil ceremony, rite, or ritual – whatever you call it – is reminiscent of Peter Pettigrew (aka Scabbers) cutting off his hand to give corporeal form to Lord Voldemort. In this Potterish parallel, Pettigrew is Ghirahim and Zelda, in some part, is Harry, from whom something is taken to restore an evil lord. But Link is also Harry, since he is not about to go down without a fight, while Zelda spends most of her time floating around insensible.
Perhaps our metaphor isn’t a perfect match, but suffice it to say, when the Demon King Demise (not to be confused with the Demon Chief Lieutenant, Ghirahim) is finally resurrected, Demise isn’t any kinder to Ghirahim than Voldemort was to Peter Pettigrew.
But we are way, way, ahead of ourselves. Let’s back up to where Harry – er, Link – races through the double doors into the Sealed Grounds and spies Ghirahim down below performing an evil ritual on Zelda. Ghirahim doesn’t like the interruption, so he tasks his minions to prevent Link from stopping the ritual. Link must descend to Ghirahim’s level, which is never a good idea as it pertains to the moral high ground, but needs must in the case of evil rituals.
Ghirahim has a lot of minions, have we mentioned that? Let’s mention that now. Minions abound in the form of “regular” Bokoblins, red Bokoblins, bomb-carrying Bokoblins, a blue Bokoblin, and Bokoblin archers. Oh, and there’s one Bokoblin that carries a horn – be sure to take that one out before he blows said horn, because his horn signals more Bokoblins. And, really, we had plenty with the Bokoblins that were already milling about. Inviting more to the party was not our idea of fun. What we didn’t have was a lot of screenshot photos of all the minions; we are certain you understand why. (Even if Demelza bemoans the lack.)
Zelder Tip #2: You can, and for heaven’s sake, you SHOULD, sprint past as many Bokoblins as you can, running in zigzag fashion through the green energy bulbs along the way to keep your speed up. You do not want to run out of energy and stand there panting, palms on thigh tops, as hordes of Bokoblins swarm you. Not that this happened to us, mind.
Zelder Tip #2.5: The Bokoblins that Link defeats seem to leave more than the usual recovery hearts. But in our estimation, the cost in hearts lost to defeat them – depending on the variety of Bokoblin – is not worth the hearts you gain in battle. We definitely had a hearts-lost to hearts-recovered deficit. Which brings us back to Zelder Tip #2: Run, if you can. However –
There are certain phases in the descent to the bottom in which it is not possible to run. You’ll know these when you encounter a fence of lights preventing Link from progressing until he’s dealt with whatever enemies are before him. In addition to Bokoblins of various types, enemies include Moblins and shield Moblins. Maybe there was a Stalfos or two also. Maybe not. When you’re being assailed on all sides, do you really stop to appreciate the difference between a Stalfos and a shield Moblin? We did not.
Eventually you sink to Ghirahim’s level – topographically, if not ethically – but he’s not done with unleashing minions yet. The final horde of Bokoblins is daunting, to say the least, but we persevered and, for our valor, we were rewarded with a fight with the evil lieutenant himself.
In our opinion, Ghirahim was easier to deal with than the minion hordes. Initially, you don’t fight him in ordinary, swashbuckling fashion – rather, while swashbuckling, you must knock him off the edge of the fighting arena to a platform on a lower level. (It’s the sort of thing flailing is made for, and we do so like a good flail.) Then, when the villain is splayed out on the lower level, deal a fatal blow.
Once Ghirahim is finished falling off platforms, he’ll draw a sword and challenge you to a good old-fashioned – if obviously unfair – duel. There’s no knocking him off the platform here. He’ll send ray beams at you, and you must parry them back at him. When he takes damage, run on over and strike at the weak point in his chest.
In due course, the demon lord pulls out another, bigger sword, and this new weapon needs to be weakened. Think of your strategy as attacking the sword, not the guy wielding it. If you are too slow, the sword will regenerate, so attack hard and fast and furious. You’ll get it (and ‘im) eventually.
Unfortunately, that isn’t the end of things. While you were fighting hordes of Bokoblins and then the demon lord, the evil ritual was continuing, and the Beast Formerly Known as the Imprisoned One emerges, intent on sucking the soul out of Zelda. He pulls a sword out of the body of his own minion, Ghirahim, once again reminding us of an ungrateful Voldemort.
Gone is the lumbering Cousin Itt of earlier meetings. The Demon King looks like a giant troll doll, like the ones we remember from our childhood, with a huge tuft of orangey hair. Er, we have no further comment on that point, but it bears noting that unlike the cute dolls of our childhood, one does not rub Demise’s hair or his belly for good luck. Besides, he looks too much like a BOTW Lynel for that sort of thing.
Demise was kind enough – or rather, condescending enough – to advise us not to follow him, to cower as (apparently) is our kind’s wont. Naturally, we didn’t heed his warning. We did, however, go back through the Gate of Time to take a good long break to refresh our potions, both in-game and IRL.
Returning to the present, there’s a stool near where Link planted the Tree of Life. We needed more assistance than sitting on a stool would provide, however. For Link, we suggest more heart potions and, if you’ve got the requisite insects, a Guardian Plus potion. For you, during your fight with the Demon Lord, we recommend our take on a Devil Margarita. Although Devil Margaritas may take different kinds of red wine, we opted for a Zinfandel. You may find the recipe here.