Having left Link on the edge of the Eldin Mountains, I decided that as I was already in the vicinity of the Gorons I might as well say hello. Whereas in Breath of the Wild the mountains were impossible to reach without the right garments or elixirs, things had cooled down quite considerably. However before I strolled on in to meet the Gorons, I took to the skies on the back of a fallen rock (here is where the recall ability is particularly useful), and unlocked a new Sky Tower as well. With more of the map revealed, I was able to find and land on a sky platform, and discovered a thrusting machine (ahem), which sent me to another platform. Once upon this platform, I was confronted by another one of these Construct enemies. This big, blocky creation initially looked like a Roblox man, and it tried to pummel me into the ground. Using the grabbing power, I was able to tear away the ‘control’ block, whereupon the Construct fell apart. After slashing the Construct’s control piece a few times, it reformed.

Its next attack was to form into a platform, and try and pancake me. This was easy enough to avoid, and once again, I would grab the control block, slash at it, and then it would reform again. The third attack involved throwing blocks at me, but these were easily dodged, and it was a case of rinse and repeat until it was destroyed. My reward for this was a green crystal, and returning this crystal to the right spot unveiled a shrine. Ironically, this was more difficult than the fight itself; I had to build a flying machine, and judging where and when to stop it required several attempts!

After dealing with this, it was back to the surface, via another Tear. This latest memory strongly hinted that Zelda had gone back in time, and there was a scene where she received the decayed Master Sword. There was also talk of becoming an immortal dragon. It was all quite strange, and I clearly needed a lot more information. After this, I climbed the mountain and found the Gorons, only they were largely disinterested in being of any help to me. All they wanted was some form of rock-roast joint, that was being mined from the depths of the mountain. They were addicted to it, and unable to do anything else. This presented a problem, for I wasn’t getting up to the top of the volcano without help. The Goron leader (and president of the company mining this ‘meal’, whose name I have forgotten) was acting weird, and was obsessed with mining for more of this rock.

It transpired that he’d been given a mask to wear by Princess Zelda, of all people, and this mask was what fuelled his change of heart from a good leader to a bad one. When confronted, he took to trying to kill me! His charging attacks ended with me destroying the mask, but whilst he was now free from the spell he was under, his people were not. We had to pay the mountain a visit, and after a lengthy train ride to the peak, we were confronted by a three-limbed, molten-rock spewing creature. Fortunately, a glider lay nearby, so we took to the skies, and the Goron leader (at my direction) used his power to destroy the ‘legs’ and send whatever was there back into the volcano’s depths. A new chasm opened up, and it was clear where we had to go.

The lair beneath the volcano was a hot, lava-lake ridden environment, populated by corrupted forms of bokoblins and moblins, as well as some lava likelikes. We picked our way through this rather hostile place, and made our way (at the beckoning of a mysterious male voice) to a hidden underground dungeon! Zelda stood by the entrance, and disappeared into a large, ominous central chamber, by a large, five-locked door barred our path.

This was sort of familiar. In Breath of the Wild, the Divine Beasts served as dungeons of sorts, but this was a bit more of a proper dungeon, albeit with beast-related ideas. The dungeon was a lot bigger than the experience of a beast, but largely devoid of enemies (save for sentinel constructs). What was key to unlocking the door keeping us from Zelda was finding five gongs, and having the Goron ring them all. Of course, things are never that simple, and the process of finding all five involved travelling up an down different levels of the lap, using mining carts on railway lines to unlock parts of the map, and making liberal use of the powers of creation bestowed by the magic hand. I got a bit annoyed with this dungeon, for there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing that I could have done without, but eventually, I got all five locks unlocked, and it was off to see what lurked in the main chamber.

Here lay a boss fight, and it was a boss fight in a slightly more traditional fashion. A volcanic form of Gohma (a recurring form of boss in Zelda games) appeared, and we did battle. It was fairly easy to kill (the goron’s power let me destroy its legs, and then I hacked away at its eye), even after it switched from scuttling on the ground to the ceiling. With Gohma defeated, a new Tear, attached to a new memory, was revealed.

It turned out the voice calling me and my Goron friend to the temple was the original Goron Sage, during the Imprisoning War. He passed on a sacred power to the Goron leader, who in turned passed it on to me. Now, many previously impenetrable walls could come down, and allow me access to new locations. This happened to include a cave near two lizard-shaped lakes, which yielded a fire-resistant helmet, shaped much like the Goron Divine Beast.

After that rather epic experience, I took to poking around again. I completed a few more shrines, did battle with pirates on the south coast (and it’s clear I need to power Link up a bit more), and picked up a few side-quests to do. From there, I headed to the south-west, where the Gerudo live, but to get there, I’m going to need some elixirs to handle the heat. Ironically, my quest for the right elixirs set me on a course for the Hebra Mountains, home to the avian Rito people.

On to Part Five

Back to Tears of the Kingdom