In the original game, I realized that the fight resets because in the original game, I fell several times down the chasms around Moldorm (they are not covered as in the remake; the remake is easier in some ways) and knew that the fight starts anew. So when the Eagle did not show any sign of slowing down, I knew that I had to position myself better on the tower in order to prevent Link from falling down.
The eagles tower section of Links journey is an interesting one. Armed with the truth of the island The player begins to realize something. It starts with reviving the rooster. Bringing the dead back to life is typically left to the realm of gods. Yet Like has forever changed the island in doing so. For better or worse what was set in stone is not so any more. This becomes more evident in the design of the Eagle's Tower. The Eagle's Tower is by far the most realistic and logical place on the whole island. Of all the dungeons you could pick up and place into another Zelda game and have it still make sense this is the one. Its interesting to note that even armed with the truth the game is still trying to lie to you. The nightmares are trying to cast doubt on the player. Both the words of the grim keeper and the dungeons design The Grim keeper is by far the most convincing form the nightmare has taken up to this point. If it weren't for the fact that we first meet him in a dungeon we would easily assume he was just another islander conjured by the wind fish. The only other nightmare that I feel talks as much is the genie, but he is clearly antagonistic. The Grim Keeper on the other hand feels more like he is trying to defend his home. He even goes so far as to feel sorrow when you kill his battle bat buddies. Both the nature of the nightmare and the power creep on the dungeon feed into the dungeons central puzzle. Destruction. By physically destroying the pillars in Eagles Tower Link and the player realize that they are a destructive element in the Wind Fish's dream. The revival of the rooster, the assault and destruction of Eagle's tower, the ease in which you dispatch difficult enemies, it all paints the picture that Link can not stay in the dream. His very existence there is wrong. Link has become an existential threat to everything on the island. Once armed with the truth that a dream is only a dream then the only thing left to do is wait for the dream to end. At this point the destruction of the island is only a matter of time. Link cannot stay lest he risk harming the friends he has made on his journey. There is a part just after the dungeon in the lead up to dungeon 8 that highlights this. Marin is captured by monsters. As far as I can recall no where else in the game are the islanders ever attacked or even bothered by monsters. Even in the moblin attack on Mabe village none of the islanders were hurt or taken. Only bow wow was captured as a means to thwart Link's attempt in getting into he Bottle Grotto. But here Marin is attacked and imprisoned on a bridge section. The nightmare like a panicked creature has begun lashing out at any who threaten it. Not even the nightmare can keep up the charade at this point. The very illusion the nightmare was trying to create has been destroyed. The truth and the consequences of that truth have been laid bare for all to see. The island will be destroyed, the question is on who's terms? All that remains is one final push into the depths of the dream.
The Nightmares are getting desperate, and them stranding Marin is a great indicator of that, I agree. Worth a note, that they only went after her when she sang in front of the egg, because (as the owl said) she attempted to awaken the Wind Fish herself, so the Nightmares grabbed her and dragged her away from the egg hastily. The Nightmares are scared, and they should be. Link is a force of destruction
good written this is further supportet by the fact Marin is telling in the beginning of the game. The Monsters became very active after Links arrival at the Island, before they were mostly unbothering to the other Islanders. Because with Links Arrival an Outside Force has broken into the dream and is able to change things, while all other people are bound to the dream and acting in its weavings, like Marin without Like surely wouldnt tried to wake the windfish even with her dream to leave Cocolint and sing for other people.
One funny thing about this dungeon is that, if you think about this, this dungeon is, structure-wise... a Divine Beast. And yet, it's one of the most complex dungeons in Zelda history.
I will never forget that one playhrough from my childhood where the iron ball somehow got stuck on a single pixel of ground above the chasm against the south wall in the room with the first pillar. Because it never fell, it never re-spawned, even when exiting the dungeon; there was absolutely no way to get to or move the ball. I had to erase the file and start over. I've hated this dungeon ever since.
I had a similiar problem and it took several hours to adjust Link enough to finally get the ball back. Everytime since I'm paranoid about where to put and throw the ball for exact the same reason. In my first playthrough I was annoyed as a child by the meandering level design, but now its mostly the anxiety of handle the ball that makes the tower the dungeon in the game I hate the most.
I don't think I'll ever forget the part about breaking the pillars and trying to get the ball where it needed to be. It's not into "I hate it territory," but it's up there in the amount of time it took me to get it done.
There's something about the remake occasionally using the original chiptunes as samples that make it sound even more like a dream. It feels less real. Like you're fading between reality and a simulation
Just a note, the left chest on the wall in the first floor is a secret seashell in the dx version. But if you have the level 2 sword, all seashells in chests you haven't grabbed become 20 rupees and ones in the overworld just disappear. Great video on the dungeon! It's a weird place for me. I don't love it, but it's unique and sticks out from every other dungeon in the series, so I'll stick with it.
@@micahbarrus8406 I suspect the check is if you have enough seashells to get the level 2 sword. So you can't get extra seashells by refusing to cash in your seashells progress for more sea shells.
@@suddenllybah nope, you can get all 26 of them in your inventory. It's only after you get the sword that they disappear. There's no reward past 26 either, so there's no reason to do that.
The "flying rooster" sign at 2:35 was in the original but as a plaque on the statue rather than a sign (which kind of makes more sense but is easier to miss)
Months ago when you announced this series, I commented how excited I was for my favorite dungeon of the game to be covered, Eagle's Tower! And now here we are! It's such a fun puzzle with a lot of character and really captures the moody, high-stakes atmosphere of the story at this point.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how cool of a concept it is that we cause the entire upper half of the dungeon to crash down onto the lower half, completely changing the layout of it? I mean how cool is that! I don't think there's any other dungeon in the zelda series that does anything like this. And this was on the original Gameboy no less!
I adore your dungeon design series. I discovered them when you posted your Hyrule Castle in ALTTP video! I'm actually very excited to see The Minish Cap. I vividly remember enjoying all the dungeons while playing it.
I'm curious what your ranking would be from easiest to hardest? For me it would go 1,4,3,5,2,7,6, and 8 as the hardest. The underground passages didn't bother me as much in Cat Fish Maw but I understand mentioning them in Turtle Rock.
@@CaptBurgerson For the record I love the underground passages. They're a good break from the overhead with a minor twist on the action. They employ some differences with puzzle approach as well. They can connect two fairly distant points of a dungeon together quickly. And as for not knowing which ones lead where? You hold that information in your head. It's good for your memory. And the only dungeon that is a challenge to do for is Level 8. The others don't have nearly so many to make this all that difficult.
@@hist150project5 So you think this dungeon is the toughest? The toughest part of this dungeon is knowing to throw the ball across that gap. However I find this dungeon easier to navigate then the one before it and after it. For example this dungeon gives you a key right off the bat while the one before it will have you going in circles if you don't do a pro gamer bomb switch move right off the bat or understand the eyes are also rooms.
Due to a kind of glitch (I guess) concerning the green balls, I did not finish this dungeon for sixteen years! In 2019, I finally started a new game and finished the story for the first time. Even though it challenged me for such a long time, it'll always be my favorite Zelda game of all time 💗
There's a somewhat well-known sequence break you can do in this dungeon, which I'm surprised you didn't mention. Given that the only requirement to get to Turtle Rock is the Mirror Shield, you can grab the item, leave the dungeon, pass through the flamethrower puzzle with the Mirror Shield, and beat Turtle Rock before Eagle's Tower. Come to think of it, there's surprisingly few sequence breaks in Link's Awakening and it seems the developers intended the player to beat the dungeons in a specific order for narrative purposes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but since Facade's weakness is bombs, I think you can theoretically grab the L2 Power Bracelet from Face Shrine, leave the dungeon, and perform the aforementioned Mirror Shield skip to Turtle Rock and beat the Face Shrine and Eagle's Tower after Turtle Rock as well.
If you know what you’re doing, yeah you could do that. The only thing I’m not so sure about is what the point of it would be? You just end up needing to go back to the dungeon, so there’s no way it would be faster for speed runs
@@CaptBurgersonWell, there is the fact that the item in Turtle Rock is one of the most powerful weapons in the game. If memory serves, it one-shots Evil Eagle.
@@CaptBurgerson I did in my first playthrough, because I struggled with the Boss a while, because I wasn't sure what to do against him. After finishing turtle rock I left with the staff and you can really really fast kill of the eagle with the magical fire.
If you take the time to get the Boomerang before this dungeon you can toggle the switch in the room with the Mirror Shield, letting you grab the item early and making navigation easier and cuts a lot of work out of moving the iron ball around.
Yeessss great video!! I love your music analysis, as always 😍 I feel like I would have absolutely hated how complex the multi step puzzles here are if I had played this game as a kid 😅 it was great going through it as an adult when the remake came out though! I really enjoyed that the boss fight here was outside, it was a nice change of pace 😊 Another great video, Capt! Excited for the next one 😁
I love how the reality of the game continues to become more clear in your editing lol. As far as people hating on this dungeon, I usually find dungeons where they are hard to get through (like water dungeons) to be more annoying than dungeons that are hard to figure out. Love this dungeon
fun fact: after i get the mirror shield here i make a beeline for dungeon 8 where i get the fire rod. then i trek back over to this dungeon to see if the fire rod works on the eagle. it does.
I just replayed this game recently and I had forgotten about the Iron Ball, and even missed it before fighting the Grim Creeper miniboss because I used the boomerang to hit the first gem switch on Floor 2, grabbing the Mirror Shield and heading south instead of heading north into the Iron Ball room Needless to say, I was very confused until I made my way fully around the dungeon again
This is one of the very greatest Zelda dungeons of all times. In the original game, the Eagle‘s Tower was always a challenge, especially the fourth pillar. Decades later, I played the remake and did not remember much about the dungeon‘s navigation, only that at one point I needed to throw the ball over a wall that surrounds a crystal switch. Zelda was always great at giving players something to think about, at least in the 2D games.
After playing Echoes of Wisdom I wish the developers would allow the dungeons to be complex and confusing and hard to navigate again. I liked the multi-room puzzle solving of the ice dungeon. However, thats only one dungeon, and even then they could have done even more with it. It seems like they're afraid of letting the puzzles actually be puzzling.
This was a great dungeon. It was fun to work out how to navigate around with switching blocks, the ability to drop down from the higher floor and transporting a ball around to deal with. I was disappointed that echoes of wisdom didn't include any dungeons with this kind of complexity but I recognise that it was frustrating to some people. I would enjoy if future Zelda games would feature optional challenging dungeons that you don't have to complete to beat the game.
Back in my youth, I still remember thinking this dungeon was cool because of how you actually change the dungeon by collapsing part of the tower so you can reach the roof. Plus the music felt intriguing yet ambiguous.
I love the theme in this dungeon - Link is accepting of the hard truth after the Face Shrine. Internally, it’s like Link is extremely unsettled with the fact that he’s going to push through to awaken the Wind Fish. I also love how difficult this dungeon is, so seems like we’re in the minority, Capt!
It’s probably my favorite dungeon in this game. I remember getting pretty lost in this one back in the day though. The lack of color in the switch blocks was probably what got me so lost in the gameboy version.
I always use the boomerang to get the Mirror Shield early. :D Didn't even know you can throw it diagonally until I tried right there. I love that even the second to last item is mandatory (excluding potion glitch) to get to the last dungeon. It's a shame if items are not integrated enough.
I remember being stuck in this dungeon for 3 hours I got really stuck on the last two pillars, it didn't frustrate me it i felt like I was just missing a piece of the puzzle for a bit. Though I only realized how long i was on it after I beat the boss and it was midnight.
When I was young, I couldn’t figure out for the life of me, to destroy the 4 pillars. I kept on getting stuck at that part. Eventually I did figure it out. I thought the dungeon theme was the most haunting aside from the Face Shrine. It actually freaked me out just a little bit. I always the tower should’ve been decrepit and more like an ancient ruin filled with ghosts
your comment about the underground passageways makes me wonder what you'll think of the Echoes dungeons. I haven't beaten the game yet, but so far, there's... a lot of them.
@@CaptBurgerson aye, fair enough. the maps you get are way more comprehensive then I think any other maps in the other games are. then again, I think the game started as a make your own dungeon game, so I imagine that's a carry over from that.
I felt like a moron in this dungeon because I didn't initially realize that I could carry the bolder around rooms and floors. I just assumed that I could not and it took me a while before I realized how important it was.
I hadn't picked up the Links Awakening remake, but I decided to finally do so before starting Echoes of Wisdom, and I happened to have just beat this dungeon two days ago. Good timing! I do wish I hadn't played it at night when I was tired though. I would've loved it more than been frustrated with it though
I have the exact same issues with this dungeon that you do. Those 3rd floor western rooms feel incomplete, especially with that key block that leads to nowhere (I always feel like I'm wasting a key and doing something wrong). And much of floor 1's upper rooms feel unnecesary, especially the Kirby one. But otherwise, I agree that Eagle's Tower is a memorable challenging place and navigating the Iron Ball to knock down the pillars is tremendous fun.
Imagine, if you will, how Link must have felt upon beating Evil Eagle. He is high enough to look to his right, and see the end of his journey. And everything comes rushing back to him; but, he already made his choice. No turning back now.
I remember playing this as a kid and thinking this dungeon was super hard and confusing. I replayed DX a few months ago though and it was a cake walk compared to my memories. Still a great dungeon though.
I didn't mind this dungeon because it was a harder version of Tower of Hera. The dungeon before this is way more unforgiving. You have to do a pro link to the past move on the first switch or you can't progress the dungeon. In this dungeon you are basically given a key at the start so you can progress easily.
Link's Awakening is the first game I ever played all the way through, and the pain of being a 5 year old trying to puzzle through Eagle's Tower is burned into my brain
@@CaptBurgerson As much as it always makes me feel a bit of childhood dread when I unlock it, I kind of love this dungeon for making me feel that way! I think like Ocarina's Water Temple to a lot of people, it was my first experience of any game being genuinely hard, but I have fond memories of my uncle (who owned the game) helping me beat it
I’ve been calling these things red and blue in various videos for over a year but suddenly this the video where everyone is calling me out on it 🤣 But yeah I can see it being more orangey than red
@@higurashikai09 true. Though the main point with the colours is kind of lost in the argument I think, because it’s more important to note that the colours are different from each other than anything else lol
Having just played links awakening for the first time on the switch version i really hated this dungeon. There is so much backtracking it's ridiculous. Miss a jump, back track. Explore, backtrack. Throw the ball down a hole, back track. It really goes in circles if you don't know where you are supposed to go. If you are like me and don't know immediately what you are supposed to even do with the ball, even more backtracking. You can actually complete almost the whole dungeon without destroying a single pillar where you eventually get confused by the west wing of floor 3. The color tiles get annoying after the n-teenth time looping around feeling more like a formality preventing you from quickly getting back to where you just were than a puzzle.
@@Castle4473 I disagree. It takes time to get acquainted with, but I really find it a joy to explore and comb through- but that’s literally the topic of the next video so I won’t get too much into it here haha
Thank you very much for this thorough and highly entertaining analysis! I played the original version for the first time back in the mid-90s and I absolutely loved it. This game made me cry, it made me laugh, it made me want to smash my Game Boy against the wall. (Which I didn´t, of course. Because every time I failed to solve one of the game´s many puzzles, it just made me want to try again. And boy, how very satisfying it was to finally complete this amazing dungeon!) I take my hat off to you, please keep up the good work!
I'm not gonna lie, it doesn't matter which version I play, I have never liked this dungeon, and it's funny considering others I talk with about these dungeons say this dungeon is their favorite. The layout of each level has always been a bit of a nightmare, pun intended, which is funnier since I don't hate the 8th level as much since it's even more of a nightmare. I also wish the Dungeon Item, the Mirror Shield, was used in this dungeon at all. It's literally only used for the blockade leading to Turtle Rock, which even funnier, I've always tanked through the fire to get to Turtle Rock before even touching Eagles Tower, at least in the DX Version. It's been awhile since I've played the Remake, Though I do enjoy the boss, it's almost a 2D Moldorm fight in a different perspective. I still find it funny that the highlight of this dungeon is Kirby.
@@kingpaddy9009 I don't remember how I did it exactly, but I'm pretty sure I tanked it or I abused Roc's Feather, I have a save state on my switch for the DX version where I'm at Turtle Rock without Bird Key, Mirror Shield, or the Tower Instrument. I'll check back in about 5 hours and rework it.
@@kingpaddy9009 So what you're actually supposed to do is get the potion from Crazy Tracy, or keep the one from earlier in the game, think you get it in Lvl 5, it doesn't matter, You tank the fire damage till it uses the potion, the invincibility frames allow you to pass through the fire and sequence break to Lvl 8. That's how I did it.
I spent 30 minutes fighting Evil Eagle because I didn't realise the fight resets from the beginning every time you fall off the tiny arena
In the original game, I realized that the fight resets because in the original game, I fell several times down the chasms around Moldorm (they are not covered as in the remake; the remake is easier in some ways) and knew that the fight starts anew. So when the Eagle did not show any sign of slowing down, I knew that I had to position myself better on the tower in order to prevent Link from falling down.
The eagles tower section of Links journey is an interesting one. Armed with the truth of the island The player begins to realize something. It starts with reviving the rooster. Bringing the dead back to life is typically left to the realm of gods. Yet Like has forever changed the island in doing so. For better or worse what was set in stone is not so any more. This becomes more evident in the design of the Eagle's Tower. The Eagle's Tower is by far the most realistic and logical place on the whole island. Of all the dungeons you could pick up and place into another Zelda game and have it still make sense this is the one. Its interesting to note that even armed with the truth the game is still trying to lie to you. The nightmares are trying to cast doubt on the player. Both the words of the grim keeper and the dungeons design
The Grim keeper is by far the most convincing form the nightmare has taken up to this point. If it weren't for the fact that we first meet him in a dungeon we would easily assume he was just another islander conjured by the wind fish. The only other nightmare that I feel talks as much is the genie, but he is clearly antagonistic. The Grim Keeper on the other hand feels more like he is trying to defend his home. He even goes so far as to feel sorrow when you kill his battle bat buddies. Both the nature of the nightmare and the power creep on the dungeon feed into the dungeons central puzzle.
Destruction. By physically destroying the pillars in Eagles Tower Link and the player realize that they are a destructive element in the Wind Fish's dream. The revival of the rooster, the assault and destruction of Eagle's tower, the ease in which you dispatch difficult enemies, it all paints the picture that Link can not stay in the dream. His very existence there is wrong. Link has become an existential threat to everything on the island. Once armed with the truth that a dream is only a dream then the only thing left to do is wait for the dream to end. At this point the destruction of the island is only a matter of time. Link cannot stay lest he risk harming the friends he has made on his journey. There is a part just after the dungeon in the lead up to dungeon 8 that highlights this. Marin is captured by monsters. As far as I can recall no where else in the game are the islanders ever attacked or even bothered by monsters. Even in the moblin attack on Mabe village none of the islanders were hurt or taken. Only bow wow was captured as a means to thwart Link's attempt in getting into he Bottle Grotto. But here Marin is attacked and imprisoned on a bridge section. The nightmare like a panicked creature has begun lashing out at any who threaten it. Not even the nightmare can keep up the charade at this point.
The very illusion the nightmare was trying to create has been destroyed. The truth and the consequences of that truth have been laid bare for all to see. The island will be destroyed, the question is on who's terms? All that remains is one final push into the depths of the dream.
The Nightmares are getting desperate, and them stranding Marin is a great indicator of that, I agree. Worth a note, that they only went after her when she sang in front of the egg, because (as the owl said) she attempted to awaken the Wind Fish herself, so the Nightmares grabbed her and dragged her away from the egg hastily.
The Nightmares are scared, and they should be. Link is a force of destruction
good written this is further supportet by the fact Marin is telling in the beginning of the game. The Monsters became very active after Links arrival at the Island, before they were mostly unbothering to the other Islanders. Because with Links Arrival an Outside Force has broken into the dream and is able to change things, while all other people are bound to the dream and acting in its weavings, like Marin without Like surely wouldnt tried to wake the windfish even with her dream to leave Cocolint and sing for other people.
@@CaptBurgersonLink has no other choice, of course. He would die and the Wind Fish pushes him forward to make the awakening happen.
One funny thing about this dungeon is that, if you think about this, this dungeon is, structure-wise... a Divine Beast. And yet, it's one of the most complex dungeons in Zelda history.
Imagine instead of activating terminals you’re just breaking stuff lol
I will never forget that one playhrough from my childhood where the iron ball somehow got stuck on a single pixel of ground above the chasm against the south wall in the room with the first pillar. Because it never fell, it never re-spawned, even when exiting the dungeon; there was absolutely no way to get to or move the ball. I had to erase the file and start over. I've hated this dungeon ever since.
That’s an actual tragedy
Not even exiting and re-entering the dungeon resets the ball?
I had a similiar problem and it took several hours to adjust Link enough to finally get the ball back. Everytime since I'm paranoid about where to put and throw the ball for exact the same reason. In my first playthrough I was annoyed as a child by the meandering level design, but now its mostly the anxiety of handle the ball that makes the tower the dungeon in the game I hate the most.
Ooh ouch!
I love how this game's series in particular, you also used it as a comparison between the original and the remake
I don't think I'll ever forget the part about breaking the pillars and trying to get the ball where it needed to be. It's not into "I hate it territory," but it's up there in the amount of time it took me to get it done.
2D Zelda’s always challenge players and it‘s very satisfying.
There's something about the remake occasionally using the original chiptunes as samples that make it sound even more like a dream. It feels less real. Like you're fading between reality and a simulation
Just a note, the left chest on the wall in the first floor is a secret seashell in the dx version. But if you have the level 2 sword, all seashells in chests you haven't grabbed become 20 rupees and ones in the overworld just disappear.
Great video on the dungeon! It's a weird place for me. I don't love it, but it's unique and sticks out from every other dungeon in the series, so I'll stick with it.
@@micahbarrus8406 I suspect the check is if you have enough seashells to get the level 2 sword.
So you can't get extra seashells by refusing to cash in your seashells progress for more sea shells.
@@suddenllybah nope, you can get all 26 of them in your inventory. It's only after you get the sword that they disappear. There's no reward past 26 either, so there's no reason to do that.
@@micahbarrus8406
I stand corrected.
The "flying rooster" sign at 2:35 was in the original but as a plaque on the statue rather than a sign (which kind of makes more sense but is easier to miss)
Months ago when you announced this series, I commented how excited I was for my favorite dungeon of the game to be covered, Eagle's Tower! And now here we are! It's such a fun puzzle with a lot of character and really captures the moody, high-stakes atmosphere of the story at this point.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how cool of a concept it is that we cause the entire upper half of the dungeon to crash down onto the lower half, completely changing the layout of it?
I mean how cool is that!
I don't think there's any other dungeon in the zelda series that does anything like this. And this was on the original Gameboy no less!
The increasing level of creepiness in the edit is *chefs kiss*
Amazing
I adore your dungeon design series. I discovered them when you posted your Hyrule Castle in ALTTP video!
I'm actually very excited to see The Minish Cap. I vividly remember enjoying all the dungeons while playing it.
Phenomenal video once again! Really love this series and the call out for the music on this dungeon tying it back together Mabe village, so good!
I think the remake turning the mirror shield into an actual attack reflector in function and not just visually for lasers is cool.
Well, get ready for him to complain about the large number of staircases in Turtle Rock next video.
SO MANY OF THEM
I'm curious what your ranking would be from easiest to hardest? For me it would go 1,4,3,5,2,7,6, and 8 as the hardest. The underground passages didn't bother me as much in Cat Fish Maw but I understand mentioning them in Turtle Rock.
@@CaptBurgerson For the record I love the underground passages. They're a good break from the overhead with a minor twist on the action. They employ some differences with puzzle approach as well. They can connect two fairly distant points of a dungeon together quickly. And as for not knowing which ones lead where? You hold that information in your head. It's good for your memory. And the only dungeon that is a challenge to do for is Level 8. The others don't have nearly so many to make this all that difficult.
@@zeaferjones1404 7 is definitely the hardest, and 8 is the second hardest.
@@hist150project5 So you think this dungeon is the toughest? The toughest part of this dungeon is knowing to throw the ball across that gap. However I find this dungeon easier to navigate then the one before it and after it. For example this dungeon gives you a key right off the bat while the one before it will have you going in circles if you don't do a pro gamer bomb switch move right off the bat or understand the eyes are also rooms.
My favourite dungeon in the game. Has such a unique concept of destroying the dungeon so you can access the top floor
Love the use of Tunic tracks to add that extra layer of dreamlike uncertainty and unease, like something is subtly off or wrong
Due to a kind of glitch (I guess) concerning the green balls, I did not finish this dungeon for sixteen years! In 2019, I finally started a new game and finished the story for the first time. Even though it challenged me for such a long time, it'll always be my favorite Zelda game of all time 💗
There's a somewhat well-known sequence break you can do in this dungeon, which I'm surprised you didn't mention. Given that the only requirement to get to Turtle Rock is the Mirror Shield, you can grab the item, leave the dungeon, pass through the flamethrower puzzle with the Mirror Shield, and beat Turtle Rock before Eagle's Tower.
Come to think of it, there's surprisingly few sequence breaks in Link's Awakening and it seems the developers intended the player to beat the dungeons in a specific order for narrative purposes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but since Facade's weakness is bombs, I think you can theoretically grab the L2 Power Bracelet from Face Shrine, leave the dungeon, and perform the aforementioned Mirror Shield skip to Turtle Rock and beat the Face Shrine and Eagle's Tower after Turtle Rock as well.
If you know what you’re doing, yeah you could do that. The only thing I’m not so sure about is what the point of it would be? You just end up needing to go back to the dungeon, so there’s no way it would be faster for speed runs
@@CaptBurgersonWell, there is the fact that the item in Turtle Rock is one of the most powerful weapons in the game. If memory serves, it one-shots Evil Eagle.
@@CaptBurgerson I did in my first playthrough, because I struggled with the Boss a while, because I wasn't sure what to do against him. After finishing turtle rock I left with the staff and you can really really fast kill of the eagle with the magical fire.
@@jasongodding6655 yeah exactly or took only some strikes to do so
If you take the time to get the Boomerang before this dungeon you can toggle the switch in the room with the Mirror Shield, letting you grab the item early and making navigation easier and cuts a lot of work out of moving the iron ball around.
11:40 I actually made a ROM hack for DX that color-codes the crystal and barriers like in ALttP etc. I agree that it makes the experience better.
Yeessss great video!! I love your music analysis, as always 😍 I feel like I would have absolutely hated how complex the multi step puzzles here are if I had played this game as a kid 😅 it was great going through it as an adult when the remake came out though! I really enjoyed that the boss fight here was outside, it was a nice change of pace 😊 Another great video, Capt! Excited for the next one 😁
I don't know how you did this for 3 years. I made a video just like this but for the first palace of Persona 5 Royal. Mad respect, Captain.
I love how the reality of the game continues to become more clear in your editing lol. As far as people hating on this dungeon, I usually find dungeons where they are hard to get through (like water dungeons) to be more annoying than dungeons that are hard to figure out. Love this dungeon
fun fact: after i get the mirror shield here i make a beeline for dungeon 8 where i get the fire rod. then i trek back over to this dungeon to see if the fire rod works on the eagle. it does.
I just replayed this game recently and I had forgotten about the Iron Ball, and even missed it before fighting the Grim Creeper miniboss because I used the boomerang to hit the first gem switch on Floor 2, grabbing the Mirror Shield and heading south instead of heading north into the Iron Ball room
Needless to say, I was very confused until I made my way fully around the dungeon again
This is one of the very greatest Zelda dungeons of all times. In the original game, the Eagle‘s Tower was always a challenge, especially the fourth pillar. Decades later, I played the remake and did not remember much about the dungeon‘s navigation, only that at one point I needed to throw the ball over a wall that surrounds a crystal switch. Zelda was always great at giving players something to think about, at least in the 2D games.
After playing Echoes of Wisdom I wish the developers would allow the dungeons to be complex and confusing and hard to navigate again. I liked the multi-room puzzle solving of the ice dungeon. However, thats only one dungeon, and even then they could have done even more with it. It seems like they're afraid of letting the puzzles actually be puzzling.
This was a great dungeon. It was fun to work out how to navigate around with switching blocks, the ability to drop down from the higher floor and transporting a ball around to deal with.
I was disappointed that echoes of wisdom didn't include any dungeons with this kind of complexity but I recognise that it was frustrating to some people.
I would enjoy if future Zelda games would feature optional challenging dungeons that you don't have to complete to beat the game.
Back in my youth, I still remember thinking this dungeon was cool because of how you actually change the dungeon by collapsing part of the tower so you can reach the roof. Plus the music felt intriguing yet ambiguous.
I love the theme in this dungeon - Link is accepting of the hard truth after the Face Shrine. Internally, it’s like Link is extremely unsettled with the fact that he’s going to push through to awaken the Wind Fish.
I also love how difficult this dungeon is, so seems like we’re in the minority, Capt!
It’s probably my favorite dungeon in this game. I remember getting pretty lost in this one back in the day though. The lack of color in the switch blocks was probably what got me so lost in the gameboy version.
I always use the boomerang to get the Mirror Shield early. :D Didn't even know you can throw it diagonally until I tried right there.
I love that even the second to last item is mandatory (excluding potion glitch) to get to the last dungeon. It's a shame if items are not integrated enough.
9:21 poor kirbo!
Excellent bideo!! I love how you layer the maps to show the layout of the tower. 🤌
I remember being stuck in this dungeon for 3 hours I got really stuck on the last two pillars, it didn't frustrate me it i felt like I was just missing a piece of the puzzle for a bit. Though I only realized how long i was on it after I beat the boss and it was midnight.
When I was young, I couldn’t figure out for the life of me, to destroy the 4 pillars. I kept on getting stuck at that part. Eventually I did figure it out.
I thought the dungeon theme was the most haunting aside from the Face Shrine. It actually freaked me out just a little bit. I always the tower should’ve been decrepit and more like an ancient ruin filled with ghosts
your comment about the underground passageways makes me wonder what you'll think of the Echoes dungeons. I haven't beaten the game yet, but so far, there's... a lot of them.
The very fact that they're shown on the map with connecting lines in EoW makes them so much less of an issue for me haha
@@CaptBurgerson aye, fair enough. the maps you get are way more comprehensive then I think any other maps in the other games are.
then again, I think the game started as a make your own dungeon game, so I imagine that's a carry over from that.
I felt like a moron in this dungeon because I didn't initially realize that I could carry the bolder around rooms and floors. I just assumed that I could not and it took me a while before I realized how important it was.
I hadn't picked up the Links Awakening remake, but I decided to finally do so before starting Echoes of Wisdom, and I happened to have just beat this dungeon two days ago. Good timing! I do wish I hadn't played it at night when I was tired though. I would've loved it more than been frustrated with it though
This dungeon really gives the same vibe as Sky Pillar from Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald.
Bro I already loved the eagle towers theme but holy shit I had no idea about the similarities of this theme and mabe village.
ohh yeah. now THIS is what i was waiting for!
I have the exact same issues with this dungeon that you do. Those 3rd floor western rooms feel incomplete, especially with that key block that leads to nowhere (I always feel like I'm wasting a key and doing something wrong). And much of floor 1's upper rooms feel unnecesary, especially the Kirby one. But otherwise, I agree that Eagle's Tower is a memorable challenging place and navigating the Iron Ball to knock down the pillars is tremendous fun.
Been waiting for this!
Imagine, if you will, how Link must have felt upon beating Evil Eagle.
He is high enough to look to his right, and see the end of his journey.
And everything comes rushing back to him; but, he already made his choice.
No turning back now.
20 minutes on a 2d dungeon from the gameboy era? Fills an extreme niche i enjoy, subscribed
This was a very confusing dungeon when I done it for the first time but I feel like I got the hang of it now
While Face Shrine is my favorite dungeon, this one is a VERY close second and the verticality is the entire reason why.
I find that dungeon harder than this one.
I remember playing this as a kid and thinking this dungeon was super hard and confusing. I replayed DX a few months ago though and it was a cake walk compared to my memories. Still a great dungeon though.
Truly great dungeon design
Alternate Name: The Tower of Hera 2
2 Tower 2 Hera
I didn't mind this dungeon because it was a harder version of Tower of Hera. The dungeon before this is way more unforgiving. You have to do a pro link to the past move on the first switch or you can't progress the dungeon. In this dungeon you are basically given a key at the start so you can progress easily.
Me randomly in this video: why is “Tunic” popping into my head randomly… Ohh, there’s music playing from “Tunic” 😅😅😅😅
I had a harder time with the dungeon before it. This dungeon is tough but it is also very fun.
One of the best dungeons EVER
Your correct
Link's Awakening is the first game I ever played all the way through, and the pain of being a 5 year old trying to puzzle through Eagle's Tower is burned into my brain
That sort of experience is always going to have an impact on how you view any part of a game for sure
@@CaptBurgerson As much as it always makes me feel a bit of childhood dread when I unlock it, I kind of love this dungeon for making me feel that way! I think like Ocarina's Water Temple to a lot of people, it was my first experience of any game being genuinely hard, but I have fond memories of my uncle (who owned the game) helping me beat it
9:51 thats orange and blue i'm pretty sure
I’ve been calling these things red and blue in various videos for over a year but suddenly this the video where everyone is calling me out on it 🤣
But yeah I can see it being more orangey than red
Idk. I think red is an apt description as well. It just looks very saturated and bright. @@CaptBurgerson
@@higurashikai09 true. Though the main point with the colours is kind of lost in the argument I think, because it’s more important to note that the colours are different from each other than anything else lol
Turtle Rock is gonna be an interesting one. It is, after all, the most complex dungeon in the game~
I'd argue in all of Zelda. Although I've heard bad things about Jabu Jabu's Belly in Ages.
Having just played links awakening for the first time on the switch version i really hated this dungeon. There is so much backtracking it's ridiculous. Miss a jump, back track. Explore, backtrack. Throw the ball down a hole, back track. It really goes in circles if you don't know where you are supposed to go. If you are like me and don't know immediately what you are supposed to even do with the ball, even more backtracking. You can actually complete almost the whole dungeon without destroying a single pillar where you eventually get confused by the west wing of floor 3. The color tiles get annoying after the n-teenth time looping around feeling more like a formality preventing you from quickly getting back to where you just were than a puzzle.
Whats the name of the song in the intro? It's so good, Id really appreciate it.
The song is called "First Search". It's from the very beginning of the game when you need to go retrieve your sword from the beach
@@CaptBurgerson Thanks so much!
For some reason, the music reminds me of the lost woods from twilight princess 🤔
Those switches are RED? I thought they were orange and blue.
Orange is just red that has been contaminated by yellow
@@CaptBurgerson the real red switches are the friends we made along the way
I feel like a fool. Hearing you say Tal Tal made me realize they were going for Tall Tall pronunciation wise.
Want to get the alcohol ready to drown the pain of Turtle Rock?
What pain? Turtle Rock is great
@@CaptBurgerson Pain = how confusing it is to navigate
@@Castle4473 I disagree. It takes time to get acquainted with, but I really find it a joy to explore and comb through- but that’s literally the topic of the next video so I won’t get too much into it here haha
How would you compare 6th dungeon with the 8th? I found them both to be very difficult to navigate.
Easily the best 2D Zelda dungeon in my opinion. Also one of the few Zelda dungeons that get me tripped up on repeat playthroughs.
Thank you very much for this thorough and highly entertaining analysis! I played the original version for the first time back in the mid-90s and I absolutely loved it. This game made me cry, it made me laugh, it made me want to smash my Game Boy against the wall. (Which I didn´t, of course. Because every time I failed to solve one of the game´s many puzzles, it just made me want to try again. And boy, how very satisfying it was to finally complete this amazing dungeon!) I take my hat off to you, please keep up the good work!
I'm not gonna lie, it doesn't matter which version I play, I have never liked this dungeon, and it's funny considering others I talk with about these dungeons say this dungeon is their favorite. The layout of each level has always been a bit of a nightmare, pun intended, which is funnier since I don't hate the 8th level as much since it's even more of a nightmare. I also wish the Dungeon Item, the Mirror Shield, was used in this dungeon at all. It's literally only used for the blockade leading to Turtle Rock, which even funnier, I've always tanked through the fire to get to Turtle Rock before even touching Eagles Tower, at least in the DX Version. It's been awhile since I've played the Remake, Though I do enjoy the boss, it's almost a 2D Moldorm fight in a different perspective. I still find it funny that the highlight of this dungeon is Kirby.
you are sure you can tank through? I can remember I tried it but it wasn't possible because of push back
@@kingpaddy9009 I don't remember how I did it exactly, but I'm pretty sure I tanked it or I abused Roc's Feather, I have a save state on my switch for the DX version where I'm at Turtle Rock without Bird Key, Mirror Shield, or the Tower Instrument. I'll check back in about 5 hours and rework it.
@@Luigi-jr1ji Oh Rocs Feather, yeah this could be.
@@kingpaddy9009 I'm also pretty sure they patched the trick in the Remake, but I'll get back to ya in a few hours.
@@kingpaddy9009 So what you're actually supposed to do is get the potion from Crazy Tracy, or keep the one from earlier in the game, think you get it in Lvl 5, it doesn't matter, You tank the fire damage till it uses the potion, the invincibility frames allow you to pass through the fire and sequence break to Lvl 8. That's how I did it.
Man, I played this one for the first time a few days ago. And I HATE it. I hope Turtle's Rock is better
I feel links awakening as a whole needs more multistory dungeons.
Yeah, key cavern and eagles tower are the only ones
I played A Link To The Past first so I actually find the one floor dungeons more confusing.
Yay!!!
i respect this dungeon but i do not enjoy playing it at all lol
This is your 666th video
Spooky