Link goes to the minish woods not stopping for anything. Which is a good thing considering the town happens to be blocked off by several conveniently placed NPC's. There is one new enemy that I have not seen in other games it looks like several mole-like enemy's stacked on top of each-other in a tower formation. They are rather slow and rather easy to knock down either with the sword or the shield. Other than that nothing unusual between the castle and the woods.
In the woods link finds the poor minish cap be Molested Attacked by octorocks. being as he is link dispatches the octopi with ease and then gains a free hat! This isn't just any hat it actually helps Link shrink down using various portals throughout the land. Anyone who has played Oracle Of Seasons might recognize the "Portals" are in fact logs, Rocks, anything big and shiny with cracks in it.
The minish village is just across the pond from the log. Nothing exciting besides link getting a jabber nut (Basically the ability to talk to minish) And also getting information on the Mac Guffins needed to rebuild the piccori sword. They are four crystals spread across the land, Each one located in a monster infested shrine. conveniently enough the first one is located right outside of minish town To the shrine!
The first dungeon looks pretty interesting its foresty themed with cobwebs, mushrooms, water, a large barrel and standard LOZ architecture. The enemies consist of Slugs and Nigh unkillable shrooms (will get to them later), and flying insects. the puzzles mostly revolve around the barrel and getting around the puddles of water everywhere. a pretty easy dungeon when it's all said and done.
The major treasure from this dungeon is a nifty device. It's called a gale jar it sucks in things and shoots out a gust that knocks enemies back. the jar can be used on enemies that are normally immune to attacks (Like the shrooms) and turns pots into large projectiles. also it is used in some puzzles for wind related activities. Finally this jar can suck up spiderwebs and patches on the ground for loot.
I would like to pause to point out that there are a lot less random drops in this game than other LOZ games. This is most noticeable with health drops being rather sparse to say the least. instead of having drops from almost every enemy item drops are very rare. This is probably to make the game somewhat challenging.
The boss of this dungeon annoyingly enough happens to be a normal enemy that manages to sneak into the shrine. at least it was normal when Link was normal sized. However since Link is now MINISH SIZED things become a little more tricky. The giant Chu-Chu doesn't have much of a strategy it walks towards you and tries to jump on you. the only way to damage it is to suck up its base with the Gale jar till it tips over from the imbalance. at that point Link can slash away till it gets back up repeat until dead. for a warm-up boss this was pretty decent and the boss music is pretty awesome. When next we meet ONWARD TO THE MOUNTAIN!
