A lesson from Zelda found in the towers

The second master in Pandora's Tower offered another heart racing challenge. This time, though, it wasn't so much the boss itself, but was the ever encroaching curse that gave me cause for anxious excitement.

I had just refreshed the curse gauge with some measly "Beast Flesh" (for whatever reason monsters were only dropping the C-grade meat until I climbed the tower to face the master), and rushed up to where the Sheerdrop Spire master awaited.

I knew I had to use what I had learned in this tower to defeat it (in much the same way that in the average Zelda game a dungeon's item is the key to defeating that dungeon's boss). Since the beast was a kind of living rock, throwing it was out - as was throwing the four rocks I found arrayed around it upon entering its chamber. So I figured that I probably needed to bind it to something. I was right, but the problem was that I was trying to bind its head to the room's rocks.

Admittedly, this sounds like a faulty plan from the outset. But, in my defense, the parts of masters that you target with the chain don't flash like the parts of regular beasts do. Your chain indicator turns red and gains some crosshairs, but there's no indication of where you're able to strike on a master. So, it took a quick turn around GameFAQs to discover that you could chain its legs (of course) and bind them to the rocks that it forms in the room (after the first four are destroyed).

By the time I'd learned this, though, the curse gauge was under 1/4 full.

Nonetheless, thanks to the chain retaining its charge even after the master breaks free of it, I was able to yank its flesh out in the end and get it to a hooded, oozing, basement-dwelling Elena in time to restore her to her normal self.

Now, in this entry and in a few others, I've compared this game to those in the Zelda series. All matters of gameplay and combat and etc. aside, this game is now more Zelda-like to me than ever before.

In every Zelda game I've played to date there's always been some boss or puzzle or item that eludes me because I simply don't try everything. I'll go to a guide, tap myself on the forehead and move on in the game, certain that I won't be so narrow- and stiff-minded in the future. Inevitably, though, come the next Zelda game, the same thing happens yet again (usually just once, thankfully).

Since that same oversight has happened in this game, it now feels like it's delivered on some unwritten adventure/hack and slash game promise: to hide things in plain sight so that, at least for me, I can relearn the need to look for the obvious before searching out the needlessly complex.