The Dark World

After a number of unsettling events, Link finds himself in the world of shadow...a place just as real as Hyrule, but not as brightly lit. You’ll soon meet Midna, who frees you from your chains. To reach the other side of the bars, stand near the junk in the corner of your cell and attack it while standing still and holding Z, or just by moving the Wiimote around. Doing so will reveal a small gap in the bars. Use the d-pad to Dig under it, and you’ll be free!

Yep. You’re a wolf. Why? It never really gets explained, as far as we can tell.

Move into the other cell here, hold Z to target the chain, then hold A to jump at it. That’ll open the gate leading on. Head downstairs and use your animal senses to talk to the soldier’s spirit. There are a couple of chains in this area; biting them will open up the corridors nearby, and one of them will raise the water level, allowing you to pass over the spike trap. In the next area, you’ll have to find another chain to bite to lower the water level again, allowing you to pass under a gate and regroup with Minda. Be mindful of the enemies here, as they take off a full heart when they hit you, and you only have three to work with. The tight quarters make combat somewhat difficult, and you can’t attack in the water, so try not to get too frustrated if you die once or twice.

Enter the small passageway on the left side of the floor near the grate after the water’s been lowered to reach Midna. The spiral staircase nearby is going to feature some rocks that break underneath your feet, but Midna’s the girl you need to get up top; when you hear her voice prompt on your Wiimote, press up on the d-pad, target her with Z, and hit A to warp to her position. Keep repeating this until you reach a rope, which you’ll have to tightwalk across.

At the top of the stairs, you’ll have to kill a couple of bats. There’s some stone rubble nearby; get on top of it and Midna will warp you up to the flapping door up top.

The Upper Reaches

You’ll come out to the upper reaches of what is quickly revealed to be a warped version of Hyrule Castle. You have to head across the spires here, fighting off vicious birds. The birds are best tackled with your Z+A lockon leap attack; wait until they get low before striking them, and make sure you don’t fall off the castle! When you reach the tiled roof on the far side of the area, stick to the middle of the roof and climb up to move on.

Inside the castle, you’ll meet up with who else but the Twilight Princess. She’s basically an exposition machine for the moment, as she’ll give you the rundown on what precisely happened to Hyrule to turn it into such a nasty place. She’ll ask you to leave before the guard returns. After heading down the stairs, you’ll automatically get warped back to Hyrule.

Back To Reality

Get close to these guys, but not too close, to overhear their conversation.

But...oh, dip! Midna didn’t change you back into human form! That little rat. She wants you to find her a sword and a shield before she changes you back. That little extortionist. Nothing to do but head back towards Ordon Village. After you kill off the enemies outside your home, you’ll be told, by a squirrel of all things, that you now have the ability to talk to animals.

Head into the village proper to learn that all of the children have been kidnapped. Sucks to be them. Anyway, to find the sword and the shield, you’ll need to head towards where the Mayor and the idiot are talking, in front of the house with the waterwheel on it. To overhear their conversation, you have to creep up slowly towards their location and hit the A button to listen in every couple of steps. If you listen from too far away, you won’t be able to hear anything; if you get too close, they’ll spook, run inside, and won’t return until you leave the area.

The Shield

After overhearing the conversation, you know that you have to get into the house with the waterwheel. Unfortunately for you, one of the villagers is going to be guarding the waterwheel itself by standing on one of the pillars and throwing a hawk at you. You’ll show him who’s boss, though...you’ll show all of them! Get a start by running over to the shop and stand on the small rock near the pet door; this is where Midna needs you to be before she can get you up on top of the house. Jump from there to the pillar where the man is standing, and he’ll be scared off into the night, where some other monster will undoubtedly rip him limb from limb.

Head into the house here and drop down to the living room. If you stand on the table, Midna will get you up to the upper level of the house. Dash into the wall underneath the shield a couple of times to knock it off the wall, then grab it and climb out the window nearby to get out of the house.

The Sword

The sword you need is in Rusl’s house, where you delivered the basket to the pregnant woman earlier in the game. Rusl will patrol through the town, very slowly, at this point. He’ll attack if he sees you, and will warp back to the house if you scare his wife. No matter, though. Head around to the southern side of his house and use your Senses to check for a weak spot in the ground near the lumber pile; digging there will net you access to the house. Grab the Ordon Sword from the couch, then dig back outside.

Get used to using this B-button power to finish off shadow beings.

Midna wants you to head back to the woods at this point, so do so. When you reach the spring, though, you’ll be called by the spirit of the wood, which will force you to face off against a demonic creature of the dark in one-on-one combat. Nothing too difficult here: just lock on with Z, press A for a jump attack, then repeatedly hit A to gnash away at the beast while you’re grappling it. Be sure to avoid its slashing attacks, but that shouldn’t be too hard since they’re so slow.

With the beast out of the way, you’ll be confronted by Ordona, one of the four light spirits of Hyrule. (We heard she tried out for the latest Miyazaki movie but got turned down and had to do this game instead.) She’ll set you on your task: find the three other light spirits and help restore their light, which has been stolen by the shadow beings. We were hoping she would tell you to find some nice female wolf and settle down, make a family, but apparently that’s not in the offing.

With that interlude in the past, head down to the twilight door and proceed through, courtesy of Midna.

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