Welcome to Rupee Shards, my own little world for whatever I feel like writing about. (Gosh!) For those who don't know me, I'm an administrator of OtakuBoards and a theOtaku chat moderator, and I've been hanging around here since September 2001. I'm an avid gamer and anime fan so most of what you'll see here will relate to one or the other.
Nintendo WFC Friend Codes
Wii Number: 8387-7566-7057-0450
Super Smash Bros. Brawl: 1504-5385-2566 (Des)
Rock Band 2: 4667-9521-5706
Mario Kart Wii: 4124-7294-7708
Animal Crossing: Wild World: 4553-2727-4864 (Desbreko in Kakariko)
Now here's something a little more fun. Hyrule Castle is pure combat all the way up the tower to Agahnim so I get to show off my leet sword beam spamming skillz. I always abuse sword beams to the max in Hyrule Castle because I've just gotten the Master Sword and need to get that godlike feeling out of my system. But I probably won't use them as much in the Dark World dungeons because 1) I'll actually be getting hit in them due to their higher difficulty and 2) it's unlikely that most people will be able to stroll through dungeons with full hearts.
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Zelda A Link to the Past - Hyrule Castle
My complete Hyrule Castle walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Played in real time on Snes9x v1.43+ with re-records used to optimize video length.
Equipment checklist: 9 Hearts, Bug-Catching Net
You can get the Bug-Catching Net from the sick kid living in the house just north of the bar in Kakariko Village.
[00:06] Sword beams
The Master Sword shoots sword beams when you have full hearts. Abuse this power whenever possible.
[01:48] Red guards
Be careful around the red guards; their tridents have longer range than your sword.
[02:28] Statue blockade
The blue guards' arrows can't pass through the statues from the front but they will go through from the side. Swing your sword as soon as you enter the room to alert them, so that they won't circle around and flank you.
[03:24] Boss: Agahnim
Agahnim can only be hurt by reflecting his own red fireballs back into him with either the Master Sword or the Bug-Catching Net. Always stand to the left or right of him so that if he throws a blue fireball ring it will be blocked by your shield after you split it with the Master Sword. If Agahnim moves to the top-center and faces downwards, run up beside him because that means he's about to use his lightning attack.
Only one more Light World dungeon left, and it's very short. And Agahnim is stupidly easy. I should be able to get the video for it up tomorrow and then we'll get to the good part.
Again, not much to say about this dungeon because it's easy. The only parts that aren't straightforward are knowing to leave the red blocks down and which holes to drop down. The Moldorm can be a pain, though, and it managed to get a hit on me. I was just a split second too late charging up the spin attack and couldn't block it in time. However, I did the entire dungeon and boss without using any re-records this time which was pretty awesome.
I changed how I encode my videos with this one, which will make the high quality versions look better. I think it may have also reduced the quality a bit on the standard version but it's hard to tell if that's due to the encoding difference or simply because of the Mountain Tower's floor tile pattern. LttP doesn't encode into FLV too well (which is what YouTube standard quality videos are) because of all the small details on the floor tiles combined with lots of full screen scrolling. In any case, it was about time I stopped being lazy and got MeGUI instead of using the Video for Windows version of x264 for encoding.
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Zelda A Link to the Past - Mountain Tower
My complete Mountain Tower walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Played in real time on Snes9x v1.43+.
Equipment checklist: 8 Hearts, Flippers, Magical Boomerang, Red Shield
The Flippers must be bought (for 500 rupees) from King Zora in Zora's Waterfall, in the far north-east corner of the overworld. Once you've obtained them you can then access the Waterfall of Wishing, just outside Zora's Waterfall, where a great fairy will upgrade your boomerang and shield.
[00:36] Flying floor tiles
Don't bother trying to dodge these or time your sword swings to cut them out of the air, just hold your sword out in front of you and the tiles will shatter on it without being able to reach you.
[04:02] Hidden fairies
These fairies will re-appear as many times as you need them.
[04:08] Heart reserves
Each pot enclosed in the orange switch blocks contains a heart, which is why the orange blocks should be left down while climbing the tower.
[04:13] Boss: Moldorm
This huge worm can only be damaged on its tail and touching its body will bounce you away. Be careful not to get knocked off the edge or it will regain its full health when you climb back up. Spin attacks are effective due to their wide range, plus Moldorm won't damage you if it runs into your sword while it's held out.
Another day, another video; I'm going to try to keep up that pace. ... It would be nice if I could keep up that pace. ... I probably won't keep up that pace once I get into the Dark World dungeons. ... Who am I kidding, the Ice Palace and beyond is going to be a bitch and take at least two days each.
Yeah, another easy dungeon here. There's a couple tricky parts in the Desert Palace but still nothing bad if you know how to handle them. After a couple test runs I went through the entire dungeon without using any re-records, used one to cover a stupid pause mistake outside the boss room, then used two more to get a good take of the Lanmolas, for a grand total of three. At least the Pegasus Shoes let me zip through it fast.
Edit: Wow, I must still have Super Metroid on the brain. I wrote "Ice Beam" in the Lanmolas strategy instead of "Ice Rod."
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Zelda A Link to the Past - Desert Palace
My complete Desert Palace walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Played in real time on Snes9x v1.43+ with re-records used to optimize video length.
Equipment checklist: 6 3/4 Hearts, Ice Rod
The Ice Rod can be found in a cave on the north-east shore of Lake Hylia.
[02:32] Piece of Heart
This is why I recommend having 6 3/4 hearts before you enter, so that you can complete your 7th mid-way through the dungeon.
[03:07] No place to hide
Be quick about getting through this room because the only safe point is behind the statue at the very bottom. Just keep running even if you get hit.
[03:49] Boss: Lanmolas
The Ice Rod will make quick work of these giant sand worms—if you can hit with it. The Ice Rod's shots travel very slowly and the Lanmolas can only be damaged on their heads, which makes timing your shots difficult. Otherwise, use your sword and remember that the dirt clods will always fly out diagonally until there's only one Lanmola left, at which point they'll fly out in all eight directions.
New video project, yay! I decided to play through Zelda: A Link to the Past again (for, like, the fourteenth time) and record walkthroughs for the dungeons. The first dungeon here is easy, to the point that I rarely even get hit in it, but you gotta start somewhere. Once I get into the Dark World dungeons the videos should be a lot more interesting.
I'm also now encoding my videos so that there will be high quality versions available.
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Zelda A Link to the Past - East Palace
My complete East Palace walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Played in real time on Snes9x v1.43+ with re-records used to optimize video length.
Equipment checklist: 5 Hearts, Magic Powder
To obtain the magic powder, go to the Lost Woods, find the mushroom, and bring it to the witch living across the river to the east of the graveyard.
[00:13] Running the gauntlet
Duck into one of the side alcoves if a large ball comes out.
[04:33] Anti-fairy into fairy
Sprinkling some magic powder on an Anti-fairy will transform it into a normal fairy, which can be a great source of hearts in dungeons.
[05:23] Boss: Armos Knights
Use your new bow and arrows on the Armos Knights and they'll die in three shots each. Retreat to a bottom corner of the room to avoid getting hit when they spread out into a ring and punch a hole through their formation when they form a line at the top of the room.
I also have another no damage video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA57EPQxoaY
Someone asked me about this boss in the comments on my D-Rex video so I decided to make a video for it. I hadn't played Mega Man X in quite a while so I was a bit rusty at first (accidentally doing regular wall jumps instead of dash wall jumping got me killed a fair bit...) but playing through the first two Sigma levels to reach Rangda Bangda got me back into the groove. Though it helped that this boss doesn't require especially fine control.
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Mega Man X - Rangda Bangda - No damage
Rangda Bangda beaten without taking damage using the X-buster. Its weakness is the Chameleon Sting.
Rangda Bangda is made up of three parts—two eyes and a nose—which will take turns attacking. While one is active the other two can neither take nor cause damage so don't worry about them. And, while there's only one life bar on screen, each section must be destroyed separately. Rangda Bangda's attacks themselves are not very powerful or hard to avoid but it's instant death if you get knocked onto the spikes in the center of the floor.
The eyes have three ways of attacking, which you'll be able to tell apart by their color when they open. Blue means that it will fly out in a straight line towards you, which is easily dodged. Green means it will shoot a single fireball directly at you, which is also easily avoided but doesn't allow much time to counter-attack. Red means it will shoot a spread of three fireballs at you and sometimes also fly towards you at the same time. There are a number of ways to dodge the blue and green attacks, depending on where you are in the room, but for red attacks you should always stay on the opposite side of the room so you'll be able to slip between the fireballs.
The hardest part of the fight comes when the nose attacks. It will close the walls in on either side of the room so that the only floor left is covered by the spikes, forcing you to cling to the wall. It will then move around in one of two patterns. To dodge it as it moves, stay in the top-right corner and watch the direction that the nose moves in first. If it moves left first, immediately drop down to a lower position on the wall and then jump back up after it's vacated the corner you were in. If it moves right first, stay up in the corner until it bounces off the wall below you, then drop down until it's bounced off the right wall again before climbing back into the corner. There are a few different times when you can attack it during this, though I find it easiest to fire as I drop down from the corner.
While all three parts are alive, Rangda Bangda's attacks are fairly random so watch the eyes and walls carefully to see what it will do next. Once one eye has been destroyed the other will almost always use red attacks. If both eyes are destroyed, the walls will close in permanently until the nose is destroyed. If the nose is destroyed before both eyes then the walls won't close in anymore.
