In this exposition heavy episode Link faces off against the subject of his nightmares, what we now know as The Imprisoned, and manages to re-seal it in the Sealed Grounds. Afterward, despite Link’s great feat of heroism, the Old Woman informs him that his sacred sword just isn’t quite up to snuff yet and needs to be tempered by Sacred Flames. Link is pointed back to Skyloft to find information on the Three Sacred Flames, so that we can unlock the Goddess Sword’s true power. What we learn leads us through the Thunderhead and to the Isle of Songs.
Listen in as we struggle to play the Goddess Harp, politely smile at Fi’s amateur rendition of the Ballad of the Goddess, and take yet another step on our road to securing Zelda’s safety. And also maybe save the world or something.
Some fun gifs from this section:
Shownotes
These are our literal shownotes and may not reflect the content of the final episode in full.
Last Time
Last time on Tandem Legends we completed the Lanayru Mining Facility, received the Gust Bellows, and once again caught up with Zelda.
Our meeting was cut short by the arrival of Ghirahim. Zelda quickly passed the Goddess Harp to Link, saying he’ll need it where he’s going. Impa and Zelda managed to escape into the Gate of Time, just before their final departure Impa instructed Link to visit the Old Woman at the Sealed Temple.
Ghirahim left the scene in frustration, too busy to deal with Link just yet.
PART ONE
Today
During the first part of gameplay we’re discussing today, Link descends through the cloud barrier toward the Sealed Temple and is intercepted in the sky by Groose! After a moment of confusion, Groose attempts to take charge of the situation on the surface only to be rebuffed by the Old Woman. Link uses the Goddess Harp to summon a Gate of Time. Immediately the ground begins to shake, and Link rushes outside to see that the Seal in the pit outside is breaking. An enormous monster reffered to as “The Imprisoned” begins its plodding journey towards the Sealed Temple. Link manages to deplete its strength enough to temporarily seal it away once more.
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General Discussion – Part 1 (Groose, Old Woman, Imprisoned)
Groose as a character
Changes in his demeanor and expression
What his actions say about his perspective on himself, Zelda, and Link
Groose seems to begin to see Link as more capable than himself, and is frustrated with how useless he felt during an emergency
Imprisoned Battle
Joe wasn’t big on the Imprisoned’s design. Still aint. And the weird bubble toes are a bit.. Off putting?
Yes, bubble toes?
Pacman! Has… legs? And multiple rows of teeth?
What’s with the sealing spike sticking in the head of the monster??
The final sealing move though!! Yowza!
General Story beats/new lore?
Another gate of time?? Oooo!
How was that original seal made and why did it break?
Mechanics of playing harp/impressions
I suck at playing the harp..
Music:
Out of the Blue
Starts like it’s going to be another epic/exciting entrance into a new area, turns comedic as the trumpets start to blare and Groose comes tearing in from the sky, great scene.
Grooseland
Takes Groose’s theme, mostly the lone trumpet, and gives it a sort of dazed and slow feel to it. Like when you’re so overwhelmed your brain can’t process things very quickly.
Harp “Ballad of the Goddess” w/o Fi’s accompaniment
Glissando ,
Gate of Time
I don’t know if it is a harp, but the slow plucking strings reminds me of one. It’s a good calm before the storm sort of theme I think. The snare drums that jump in every so often give it something of a preparation for action feel.
The Seal Breaks
The ocean begins to churn and bubble, a figure appears out of the water, a head, a face, it’s Ghirahim! And he’s.. riding Godzilla’s snout side saddle? — I do feel like you pick up something kind of circusy, so Ghirahim, initially, but it becomes this larger more dangerous theme by the end.
The Imprisoned
Lots of call backs to Ghirahim’s theme in this. Tone down some of these trumpets and spooky strings and I feel like it wouldn’t have been out of place as the background to one of our Ghirahim encounters. Definitely as a monster movie feel.
Sealing Spike
It’s interesting where they decide to put these “harp” instruments.. I thought this was a good place because you are pretty much using the Goddesses power to seal away the imprisoned once again. Odd combination of carefree and triumphant?
PART TWO
After “The Imprisoned” is sealed, the Old Woman informs Link that in order to activate the Gate of Time, and find Zelda, that the Goddess Sword must be tempered by three sacred flames hidden on the surface. Link returns to Skyloft and receives clues from Gaepora who shares the lyrics to the Ballad of the Goddess song. After reactivating an Ancient Robot named Scrapper for assistance, Link is able to use Skyloft’s windmills and a peculiar duet with Fi to gain access to the Isle of Songs. Here Link learns Farore’s Courage, a song necessary to gaining access to the first flame residing below somewhere in Faron Woods.
General Discussion – Part 2 (Flames, Skyloft, Scrapper, Isle of Songs)
Scrapper
Scrapper is delightful. I love his attraction to Fi and Fi’s general bewilderment
Where did he come from really? Why is he so different from other ancient robots?
Skyloft Oddities
Windmills that can move laterally? Huh.
Falling debris attitude
Fi doesn’t scare residents?
Lifetime of residents and how that informs or affects timeline of Hylia’s rebirth
Gaepora withholding info
General story beats and new lore?
Sacred Flames!
Joe: We’re getting a few more connections to Zelda lore with the “three flames”. Anytime there’s a three it’s probably Nayru/Din/Farore related
Gorko! I need more Gorko always.. Like more cowbell but… better
Isle of Songs
In general, why is there a huge storm around a tower?
Weird bird dragons?
Puzzle mania
SINGING STATUE (need I say more?)
Music:
Scrapper
Cheeky
Reminds me of Animal Crossing. A silly fun theme for a deceptively rude character (so mean.)
Doesn’t really seem to borrow from any of the Lanayru themes we heard, which is interesting. I suppose Scrapper is the most developed of the Ancient Robots character-wise. Makes sense he’d get his own theme.
Vaguely digital/pipey sounding, breathy. Actually reminds me of a calliope, a steam powered organ
Harp “Ballad of the Goddess”
Hm. This is complicated. Because this is very much the orchestral version of Ballad of the Goddess, which i love, but with this crazy fast harp glissando and Fi’s “voice” dominating the melody. To be honest this felt like a complete break of the “style” that I felt emerged up to this point. Too peppy, fast, and electronic sounding
The instrument focus should have been the harp. Think about the first few notes at the beginning of the Wind Waker theme.. Simple but memorable. For all its featured the Harp might as well not exist and just have Fi “dodododo” everything for us. No i was kidding please don’t do that.
Isle of Songs
This the same song that’s playing at the foot of the Goddess of Hylia statue in Skyloft? No wonder we couldn’t find it earlier.
Folksy
Farore’s Courage (Goddess)
I like this, reminds me of Link using the Wind Waker in.. wind waker. But it was kind of spoiled by animatronic Hylia in the back. I can’t decide if that bothered me or if I found it amusing. I go back and forth.
Farore’s Courage
Again this song sort of feel like it pull away from whatever theme has been established mood wise in this game. Especially when you think about how all of this was probably done with Hylia on the verge of death and the surface nearly overrun by demons. “I’ve got this little diddy in mind.” Kinda feels like the opening to a Miyazaki movie. Where’s the little kid running on dirt roads over rolling hills?
Closing
Joe:
This is definitely an exposition heavy segment, minus the battle with the Imprisoned, but I really enjoyed everything we saw
Music: SO. This game has a harp in it, likely taken from Sheik’s harp in Ocarina of Time yeah? Where’s the harp music? We’ve played two “harp” songs and the harp is mostly just there in the back. I get it’s not a super strong instrument, but they managed to use it extensively in Ocarina of Time with Sheik teaching Link the warp songs. I feel like they missed the mark on this.
Looked it up: The composer for this, Shiho Fujii, also did the other songs we’ll learn for the Harp. BUT.. she also did the Skyloft theme, Earth Temple, Batreaux’s theme, scrapper’s theme, and a bunch of other great ones.. So generally I like her style, these ones just felt like outliers.
Shannon:
I love Scrapper as a new character but it leaves me wondering more about the overall continuity of Skyloft and its history.
The theme music for this podcast, Overworld, was created by Kevin Macleod of incomepetech.com, licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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