Miserable Little Pile Of Secrets
Chapter 3: Midnightmare over Hyrule
Level 15: Castle Dedede
Play as: Waddle Doo
Waddle Doo, the captain of Dedede's Waddle Dees, is seen training them, having them practice their skills with their spears. One of the Waddle Dees brings out a parasol, and Waddle Doo smacks his hand over his giant eye of a face and uses his beam on him to punish him. The Waddle Dee runs off crying, and Waddle Doo, annoyed, continues the training of the troops. This training is interrupted though by the forces of Sauron and Ashencroft barging into the castle, fighting each other and raiding the castle at the same time. Waddle Doo motions his troops forward to attack, but they run away in terror pathetically, doing nothing to defend the castle of their beloved king. Waddle Doo continues flailing his arms about at the, to bark out orders, but to no avail, and is left with no choice but to fend off the attackers himself.
You play as Waddle Doo in a battle against the enemies. The enemies are quite tough and very numerous, and you only have one stock to deal with them. Under normal circumstances this would be very tough, but Ashencroft's troops and Sauron's orcs will be fighting each other, seemingly not being allied. A Waddle Dee or two will also ocassionally also lend a hand to help defend the castle, but this is rather rare.
After Waddle Doo fends off the forces that went off the main course of their travel, he wipes that sweat off his brow, relieved. He looks back to his cowering men and puts his hands on his hips, sighing and giving them orders to clean up the mess with hand motions. However; Waddle Doo's problems are far from over as Nightmare enters the castle, letting out a massive roar. The Waddle Dees run in terror while Waddle Doo gets ready to defend the castle, but this time you play as the intruder, Nightmare.
After you defeat the captain of Dedede's guard, he casts him aside and absorbs the souls of the bodies of Ashencroft and Sauron's forces who lie on the floor, feeding off them, saying "SOOOOOUUUULLLLSSSSS. . .". Waddle Doo, finally having cracked, cowardly flees away from Nightmare, preparing to get the troops to evacuate. Nightmare finishes absorbing the souls and looks at the pathetic Waddle Dees and lets out an evil laugh, then proceeds further into the castle. You play as Nightmare for a level of going through Castle Dedede, the Waddle Dees being little to no threat. The main enemies who will give you problems are Kirby mini bosses (Demoted to generic enemy status here) such as Bonkers or Mr. Frosty, as well as gordos.
After the level, a cutscene goes ahead to show Waddle Doo entering King Dedede's throne room far ahead of Nightmare, being more agile and the guards not being hostile to him. Inside, King Dedede is layed out lazily in his crouch pose, being fanned by Waddle Dees. Waddle Doo hastily runs up to his king and frantically motions out to the sounds of Nightmare saying "SOOOOOUUUULLLLSSS" and his sword clashing against Dedede's guards. The self proclaimed king shows little interest in his captain's report, yawning casually and motioning for him to leave. Waddle Doo becomes furious at this and attempts to drag him out, but to no use, as Dedede is too heavy while Waddle Doo is too weak. The king just laughs at this while Waddle Doo smacks his hand over his gigantic eye of a face, then Nightmare bursts in, yelling "SOOOOOUUUULLLLSSSS" yet again. Dedede's exspression instantly changes to a look of sheer terror and he goes to flee, Waddle Doo leading him down a secret emergency evacuation route built into the castle. The route closes behind them as they go down it, Nightmare smacking into it and falling over. He angrily slashes at the entry way, but to no use, the castle having been well built. Shaking his fist in hatred, Nightmare leaves the castle, while Dedede lets out a sigh of relief and pats his captain of the guard on the back. Waddle Doo gets a happy "^" in his eye, but Dedede wipes this "grin" off his face hastily and motions out to Nightmare. Waddle Doo sighs and nods to his king, then goes to leave to take out the threat to his king's rule.
Level 16: Hyrule Field
Play as: Teigen
The scene shows a excellent view of Hyrule Field, including Castletown in the middle. Castle Dedede and Fort Walker are the only structures out of place here, being in the distance of Hyrule Field. What's more out of place though is Ashencroft and Sauron having made camps on the northern and southern cliffs sorrounding the field, and are sending troops down towards Castletown on a regular basis. The screen splits to show both Sauron and Ashencroft barking out orders in their respective camps, organizaing their attack forces the best they can. The camera zooms down to the middle of the battlefield where the forces of the two warlords are fighting each other in an epic massive scale battle, Sauron's orcs fighting to the death against the forces of Ashencroft. The camera zooms in on Teigen, who is caught in the middle of this conflict and is just trying to get out of it alive. Her raptor, Tsaa, does her best to defend her, but they are clearly very outmatched.
You play as her for a level, and instead of starting at the left and going to the right, you start in the middle of the level, getting in the way of the enemies which are attacking each other. The amount of troops here is insanely massive, and you must make your way to either the right or left as you see fit, getting out from the insane amounts of never ending enemies alive. If you go to the right, you'll have to deal with Sauron's orcs as they come in, while it'll be the other way around if you head left. There are also enemy catapults that will regularly be firing and doing massive damage, as if things wern't hard enough.
Afterwards, another cutscene makes it look as if Teigen is just about to get out of the ceaseless conflict, but Nightmare steps up in front of her and yet again yells "SOOOOOOUUUUULLLLSSSS!", severely startling her. Tsaa gets up in front of her to defend her, and a battle follows. You must deal 150% damage to Nightmare, who has permanant super armor and there being no edges to be killed off the sides of of, meaning it's impossible for the computer to accidentally stupidly kill itself.
After the battle, Teigen is severely beaten, Tsaa seeing this and mounting her up on herself, taking her away from the dreaded azure knight. Nightmare ignores what he considers a weak soul and charges into the battle Teigen just fled from, letting out a battle cry. You play as Nightmare in the same level you just went through as Teigen, but instead start at the right or left of it, depending on which direction you fled the battle from as Teigen. Once you get to the middle where you started as Teigen, you must defeat a certain amount of enemies to clear this part of the level in a battle.
After playing as Nightmare, Waddle Doo is seen struggling to defend himself against large amounts of Sauron's orcs, and Bass passes the battle by without a second thought. Waddle Doo cries out for help, but Bass just casts him aside, considering him too weak to be worth helping, shaking his head in annoyance. Ty sees this and is angered at Bass, going up to him and pointing towards the Waddle Doo in need of assistance, but Bass just fires his guns in Ty's face. Ty, while wanting to battle Bass in his anger, goes to save the Waddle Doo, shaking his angrily back at Bass as he goes to help the circular creature. Bass just chuckles and heads off towards Hyrule Castletown where Sauron, Ashencroft and Nightmare are going. You must go through a battle against a set number of Sauron's orcs as Ty and Waddle Doo.
After Ty is introduced, the next cutscene shows Yoda overlooking the battle from a cliffside on the outskirts of Hyrule. He sees the armies all heading towards Hyrule Castletown and rubs his chin, pondering over it. His gaze turns to Nightmare next, who is in the middle of the battle, killing enemies left and right, and he is even more perplexed. Having done enough thought, Yoda heads down off his cliff for the battle. You go on a downwards climb through Hyrule Field towards the battle, playing as Yoda. Due to being a fair ways away from the battle, the enemies are those who inhabit the field in the various Zelda games, such as Moblins and what not. This level focuses more on platforming then combat.
After going through the outskirts level, Yoda will find Crono, Garet and Llyod Irving back to back teaming up against a large amount of Ashencroft's army. They're doing decently well, but are starting to go down due to the sheer number of enemies. Just when it looks like things are getting bleak, Yoda leaps in to the middle of the circle to fight alongside them, and a large battle starts against Ashencroft's minions, you playing as all four characters.
Now that Llyod, Garet and Crono have been saved by Yoda, they curiously go up to their savior. Crono chuckles slightly and pets him, much to Yoda's annoyance, while Llyod takes his light saber from him. Llyod chuckles slightly, the light saber being small so Yoda can wield it, it being like a butter knife. Yoda, very angered at his "allies" insulting him as such, hops up at the lightsaber to try to get it comically, but Llyod just raises it up out of his grasp. Yoda decides to be finished with the games and kicks Llyod in the crotch, causing him to drop the light saber and it to fall in to Yoda's grasp. Garet smacks his hand on his face and sighs as Yoda gets in a battle ready position, and you play as him against the Crono and Llyod in a two on one battle, Garet disgusted with the idiotic petty differences of the characters.
After the battle, Crono and Llyod look humbeled, and Yoda chuckles, turning off his light saber. He motions off towards Castletown for the other two to nod in submission, and they then head off towards the city about to be layed under siege, fighting their way through a couple of stray troops. They notice Ty and Waddle Doo also heading towards the destination and they join up, starting to gain ground on Nightmare, who is almost to the city (The meat of the two armies being behind them). When they're just about to catch up to Nightmare, though, they see Bass being attacked by a large amount of troops, having trouble. They go up to help him fend off the troops, scaring them off with their numbers and superior skill, but Bass looks more annoyed then thankful, motioning them to leave "his battle". Yoda's party annoys this and finishes up the remaining enemy troops to save Bass and then head off towards Nightmare. Waddle Doo stays back to see how the injured Bass is doing, motioning towards the capital of Hyrule, but Bass angrily smacks him away and gets up, jetting off in his own direction. Waddle Doo sadly goes back to join the rest of the group, and the level ends.
Level 17: Hyrule Castletown
Play as: Nightmare
Nightmare is seen coming up to the capital of Hyrule, the guards at the gate running in terror from the azure knight. Nightmare just lets out an evil laugh at how easy his take over is, and proceeds to rampage through the city to get to his destination, Hyrule Castle. Being a good deal ahead of Yoda's party due to them having stopped to help Bass, this is not a problem in the slightest. You play through the level slaying guards, and can get weak item drops from killing the fleeing villagers. Some of the villagers will be more smart and will hide from Nightmare, if you kill these you'll get trophies/stickers.
After your slaughter fest as the azure knight, the next cutscene will show Yoda's party arriving in Hyrule's capital, having been delayed by the enemies attacking Bass. They look over all the people who Nightmare's slaughtered in shock, and see him in the distance at Hyrule Castle continuing this. The characters go to go after them, but Yoda shakes his head and points back at Sauron's and Ashencroft's forces arriving, getting in a fighting stance. The others turn back to defend the city from the two armies, and a battle begins. There are no guards to help you due to Nightmare having slain them, and the amount of enemy forces is truly massive, the bulk of them getting put into this level. Thankfully, they're still hostile to each other and will attack each other as they charge the city, making your job easier for you. Don't think you can sit back and relax though, as there's little room to hide and you are their biggest priority.
Level 18: Hyrule Castle
Play as: Nightmare
A brief cutscene shows Nightmare walking into the castle and easily cleaving away the guards with his sword. He clenches his fist and it glows with darkness, and he looks up to the top of the castle, letting out an evil laugh. What could the azure knight really want here? In any case, you must play through the Twilight Princess version of Hyrule Castle. It's not under Ganon's control though, so the enemies are actual Hyrule guards, and there are plenty of more innocents to finish off for more optional rewards. The main threat of the level is puzzeles, there being puzzeles similiar to those present in Twilight Princess in the castle.
After going through another slaughter fest as Nightmare, you once again resume play as Yoda's party. The cutscene shows them becoming somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of enemies, it looking like they can't hold on much longer. Yoda motions off towards the castle where Nightmare went and they head off towards it, but the armies continue to chase them without cease. You play through Hyrule Castle again, but the puzzeles are solved and it's now a chase level as you flee from the armies of Sauron and Ashencroft. If you get caught in the army, you'll be whisked off away in it off the side of the screen somewhat like the water in Jungle Japes.
Upon getting to the top, Nightmare will be seen having entered the throne room where Link batteled Ganondorf in Twilight Princess. Zelda is seated on the throne, and is shocked to see the azure knight. Nightmare just walks towards her in a zombie like fashion saying "SOOOUUUULLLLSSSS. . .", while Zelda gets up and uses Din's Fire on the azure knight. Due to Nightmare in reality being a living entity of flame known as Inferno, it has no effect, Nightmare laughing evily as he comes ever closer to his prize. Zelda backs up against a wall, then Nightmare grabs her with his monster arm. Seizing her hand with the triforce on it, he squeezes it painfully, a cracking noise being heard, causing the triforce to come up out of her and knocking her out. He uses the mouth in his chest to absorb the triforce, laughing evily, going through a massive transformation. The camera cuts away from Nightmare to show Yoda's party coming up to the throne room to stare at Nightmare in awe, it cutting back to him to show that he's transformed into Night Terror. The beast lets out a massive roar, the camera cutting to Bass who hears this and is able to even see it due to Night Terror's size. He rockets up to the top of the castle with hit jets while Night Terror caves in the entrance to the throne room on the armies of Ashencroft and Sauron, and a boss battle begins.
Boss: Night Terror
Play as: Yoda, Crono, Llyod Irving, Garet, Ty, Waddle Doo, Bass
Night Terror isn't as insanely huge as some of the other bosses, being the same size in his final smash. He's around 1.5X bigger then the normal Nightmare, which is still plenty to easily distuingish him from playable characters. He doesn't have nearly as much of an insane amount of health as the other bosses due to your smaller roster of playable characters, but it's still FAR above the level of those in Brawl on intense. His basic stance is like Ridley, he hovers on one side of the platform, flapping his wings, facing the opposite direction, some of his attacks causing his stance to switch to the other side.
Attacks:
Soul Devour: This works just like Nightmare's move of the same name. Night Terror flies to to the center of the screen and lands, then turns to face the camera. The mouth opens up wide and starts doing a chomping motion, while the red orb in the mouth starts sucking foes towards Night Terror. If you get caught in the mouth, it'll chew you up for massive damage, then spit you up off the top of the screen for massive knockback. The range on the suction is massive due to Night Terror's size, and it's pretty powerful, you having to run in the opposite direction to keep from being sucked up. While he's chomping on you, Night Terror will also recover some of his health.
When at 50% health or lower, Night Terror will mix up the attack to confuse you, also increasing the duration of how long the attack goes on. Sometimes he'll start pushing in the opposite direction without warning, and if you're not careful you'll get pushed off the stage due to you running in that direction in addition to the strong winds.
Soul Laser: A laser around twice as big as Rob's come out of Night Terror's mouth in his chest, richocheting off anything it hits before it goes off screen. Doesn't do much knockback, but does multiple hits of damage and is good at racking it up. Night Terror can do other attacks while the laser is still going around, so this can stun you while the azure knight prepares for a bigger attack.
Bladestorm: Night Terror lands from his basic position and extends out his arms, his gigantic cleaver being in one of them, then spins around rapidly and goes to the opposite side of the arena. Any foes hit by the attack will be dealt decent damage and large knockback, and the azure knight will also hit anybody hanging on the ledge he came to at the end of the attack. Night Terror is very wide, meaning you can't simply roll past the attack, the only safe way to dodge the attack being to jump over it.
Monstrous Mutation: Night Terror borrows another of his attacks from his normal moveset, extending out his monstrous arm to try to grab the player. The arm extends out pretty fast and goes straight for the position of the player, the best way to dodge the grab being to air dodge or roll. After the dodge though, Night Terror will still keep chasing after the player with the arm, them having to dodge the grab three times. If Night Terror successfully gets the player in his grasp, he'll retract the arm back to himself and squeeze the player for massive damage, then throw them forwards for good knockback. Due to throwing them towards the opposite side, the move has little kill power, but is still a big damage dealer.
Soul Shockwave: Night Terror flies slightly higher then his standard position, then goes down and plunges his sword into the ground to create a shockwave which goes accross the length of the arena. The shockwave works like Ridley's tail in the ground attack, meaning it does damage and can catch foes in it, but Night Terror can do other attacks while the shockwave goes accross the arena. The attack is a good damage at racking up the damage, but little else.
Soul Shoot: The mouth in the Night Terror's chest opens wide, then a bunch of souls (Large green orbs) get shot out at the enemy. They go very quickly and are shot in rapid succession, meaning it's hard to dodge them all unless you jump over the attack. The first few souls are just for racking damage, the last one does a slight amount of knockback.
Attacks added at 50% health:
Terror Flame: Night Terror goes to the center of the screen, turning to face it, then a massive fire blast comes out from the mouth in his chest. It covers EVERYTHING above him and to his sides, but due to Night Terror still hovering with his wings there's a small section below him where you're safe. If you're a short character like Kirby you can crouch if you to avoid the flames if you aren't directly underneath him. After Night Terror finishes the attack, he'll stomp down, so be sure to roll to the side once he's finished. The flame does massive damage and decent knockback while the stomp does average damage and good knockback.
Rain of Fire: Night Terror roars, and ten pillars of flame come down shortly after in quick succession. The pillars go accross the entire screen, meaning they're undodgable except through rolls/sidesteps. Basically like Tabuu's Red Rings of Death, but the flames only do slight damage and very little knockback. If you get hit by any of the attacks though, you'll be hit by all the following ones, which means you'll get heavy damage racked up if you aren't careful.
Soul Beam: Night Terror hovers up slightly higher then his standard position, then fires a massive beam at the center of the arena, covering about half of the playing field. The attack comes out fast and still does big damage/knockback, but is easy to avoid if you see it coming. This move is actually in Night Terror's Soul Calibur 3 moveset.
Level 19: Hyrule Castle Throne Room
Play as: Yoda or Sauron
At long last, Night Terror is defeated, Zelda's triforce of wisdom coming up out of him. Yoda's party are all very tired from the battle, but Yoda himself goes up and claims the triforce, it healing him enough to give back his strength. Where one would normally enter the throne room there is a large gap due to Night Terror, and the armies of Sauron and Ashencroft have fallen into the pit. However; Sauron himself is seen coming up to see what's happened. He uses the power of the ring to warp accross to the throne room, appearing next to the throne and sitting in it. Sauron motions for Yoda to come to him, laughing, Yoda drawing his light saber and taking a mighty leap towards the lord of the rings, a epic battle starting. Choose your character for a Sauron vs Yoda match where Link and Ganondorf once fought in Twilight Princess.
As the battle rages on, Yoda uses his tiny size to take advantage of Sauron's massive size, getting in lots of little "poking" attacks while Sauron is unable to keep up with him. It looks like Yoda's going to win, when suddenly Ashencroft appears from the other side of the pit and knocks Yoda out from behind. Sauron doesn't have any thanks for his savior, and instead swings his massive weapons at the demon escaped from hell. Ashencroft blocks and goes to attack, and another battle follows, you once again getting to select your character.
The battle is still going on in the cutscene, it appearing to be decently even as the two warlords square off against one another. Ashencroft though isn't interested in the meaningless conflict, and instead motions towards the other characters waking up from their unconcious state. Ashencroft extends out his hand, wanting to forge a temporairily alliance between the two armies, and Sauron decides to comply. . .For the moment. They both turn to the other characters who fought against Night Terror, Ashencroft cracking his knuckles while Sauron gets his huge weapons ready. You play as the two warlords against Crono, Llyod Irving, Ty, Waddle Doo, and Bass.
After defeating the remaining members of Yoda's Party, the two warlords let out evil laughs together. After their triumphant victory, Ashencroft points out to the distance towards Fort Walker, clenching his fist. Sauron nods, and both warlords go to the edge of the castle and look down to see their troops still fighting against each other. They let out loud cries down to their troops, causing them to stop what they're doing, then they both motion towards Fort Walker. The two armies join forces and start heading towards the place as Sauron uses the ring to teleport both warlords down to oversee their armies. The camera zooms in on Fort Walker, then the level ends.
Level 20: Fort Walker
Play as: Chris Lionheart, Teigen
Teigen is finally seen again, now concious after the long ride to Fort Walker. Due to her battle wounds, her raptor, Tsaa has been doing the work for her master, taking her there. Upon getting inside, Teigen hastily looks around for the person in charge of the fort to find Chris. A medic or two come up to offer her healing, but she wants little to do with the people here, ignoring them, only wanting them to fend off the coming attack. She motions off frantically in the direction she came from for Chris to go look for himself. He puts his hands over his eyes to get a good view, then sees the massive combined army of the two warlords slowly forming. Alarmed, Chris starts barking out orders to his troops to get ready for battle. Once everybody's busy to get ready for preperation, Lionheart goes over to Teigen and puts his hand on his shoulder to thank her, but she just shrugs it off, annoyed. She goes out with her pet raptor to make a stand against the combined might of the two armies, while Chris just sighs and does the same. After this time, they're now a good deal closer, them able to get a better view. Chris stares at Ashencroft and clenches his fist while Ashencroft just laughs and extends out his arm, telling his troops to attack.
The level is another defense level, and the amount of troops are truly massive, greater then the amount in any of the other levels. However; you actually have some help for once this time around, the troops from your fort backing you up. While the footmen while die off quickly, they respawn at a regular rate, and there are invulneable archers mounted on the walls who will fire down at your enemies. This is far from a cakewalk though, as due to the armies having merged together as one force they won't attack each other.
After you do your best to put up a good defense, the cutscene shows the combined might of the armies breaking down the gate of the fortress and rampaging in, destroying the guards in their wake. Chris fights as well as he can, defending Teigen, but is ultimately overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. Just when a blade is about to behead him, Ashencroft blocks it and steps over him. He laughs evily and motions for Chris to get up, getting in a fighting stance. Chris gets up to fight what seems to be his last battle, clashing weapons with the demon. The dark forces sorround the battle to watch, cheering on their master, Teigen being held tightly by Sauron. Teigen is constantly trying to break free, biting at Sauron's arm, but this has no effect due to Sauron's impressive armor. You play as Chris against Ashencroft, all the earlier mentioned people being seen in the background.
Level 21: Palace of Twilight - Exterior
Play as: Chris Lionheart and Teigen or Ashencroft and Sauron
The cutscene picks up where the last level left off, the cutscene showing Chris knocks Ashencroft to the ground and puts his sword to his neck. Ashencroft's minions as well as Sauron are shocked at this, the minions going up to break the duel to free their master, but before anything can happen a massive dark portal suddenly opens. This portal is not one of Dracula's, as nothing comes out of the portal. Instead, this portal sucks the characters of the fort into it, where they are greeted by a large amount of shadow beasts in the palace of twilight. The soldiers hastily go up to attack the beasts out of fear, and the beasts go to defend their territory. Chris ignores all of this and heads for Ashencroft, who he intends once again to finish off. Ashencroft is no longer pinned down though, and parries Chris' attack with no troube and proceeds to continue their duel. Sauron comes over to help his fellow warlord while Teigen goes to Chris' side, and another battle starts, you getting to choose which characters you use. All four characters are on the screen at once, your partner being computer controlled. The forces of Sauron and Ashencroft can be seen fighting the Shadow Beasts in the background, and ocassionally one of the shadow beasts will come out from the background and interfere with the fight.
After the gameplay, the battle is seen raging on between the four playable characters. However, they are once again cut short as the shadow beasts have finished off the remainder of the armies from Hyrule. The Shadow Beasts start latching onto the playable characters and force them to have to join forces to defend themselves. A battle starts against the shadow beasts, you getting to play as all four characters.
Level 22: Palace of Twilight - Side Branch
Play as: Yoda, Crono, Llyod Irving, Garet, Bass, Ty, Waddle Doo
Back at the throne room of Hyrule Castle, another massive dark portal opens, sucking in the warriors who fought Night Terror as well as the beast himself. They get spit out of the portal in a more calm section of the palace, inside of it and unable to hear the battles the other group are going through. They all get up weakly, tired from the battle they've just gone through, although Nightmare is far too exhausted from having been Night Terror to regain conciousness. The group starts going further down into the palace together, having no other direction to go. Bass is frustrated about having to team up with the other characters and keeps his distance from them, folding his arms.
The level is a downward climb deep into the palace, there being a lot of the shadow like material that damages you over time (2% per second) and prevents you from jumping while in it. Due to this shadowy substance, you cannot do any back tracking, as you cannot jump back up to the platforms you came down from. The level for the most part is decently straight forward getting in, it not being particularly challenging.
At the bottom of the level, there will be a pedestal shaped like a hand holding a light orb. Upon going to take it, a illusion of Zant will appear and block you from taking the orb. The Zant illusion will either let out a massive amount of shadow beasts, shadow bats, or shadow deku babas, then go hover at the top of screen out of your reach. Once you destroy the wave of enemies, the Zant illusion will come down to open another portal, letting out another wave of enemies, in which it can be attacked for about 10 seconds. The illusion has 200 stamina, and after it's defeated you can take the orb off the pedestal. Upon taking the orb, the pedestal will uproot itself and start floating in a stance like Master Hand in it's hand like shape, levitating towards you.
You must now go through the level again, but this time you're going back to the entrance. Your character will actually be carrying the orb, which prohibits you from using anything but special attacks while wielding it, much like a dreaded trophy stand. The hand will come through the wall and start chasing you, but this isn't the usual chase level. It will very slowly come to where you are, and once it does it will smack down on you, causing you to lose the orb. The hand will attempt to pick up the orb whenever you're not holding it, and then will head back to the start of the level. If it ever gets back to the very start, you must start this section of the level over. To make it drop the orb, you have to deal it 50% worth of damage. There will be holes in the ground you can place the orb in to open doors to get trophies or stickers, but you must leave the orb in while you go to get said trophies/stickers, leaving it vulnerable. The orb dispels the shadowy mist that plagued you on the way inside, and thankfully there aren't that many enemies since you've already gone through the place once. At the exit there will be a decent few though, and you must defeat them for the door you need to exit to open, the hand trying to get the orb all the while. Once you defeat the enemies guarding the door and have the orb there, the hand will fight you, being a reskinned version of Master Hand. Once you defeat it, the door will open and the level will end.
Level 23: Palace of Twilight - Shadow Steeple
Play as: Bass
The characters will come out of the side branch of the palace of Twilight to see Chris, Teigen, Sauron and Ashencroft struggling to defend themselves against the hordes of Shadow Beasts. They rush up to lend aid to the other warriors, wanting to take the bigger threat out before they fight each other. They start fighting, except for Bass, who doesn't want to waste his time with the petty minions. He fires shots at Ashencroft and Sauron to catch their attention and they both charge at him, causing Bass to go in a 2 on 1 battle against them, the other characters being seen in the background fighting the shadow beasts. After the battle, no cutscene is shown, you jumping directly into the next section. You play as the seven other characters against the shadow beasts horde in a battle for your lives, after which you're finally free from combat for a while.
After the battle, the characters all look exhausted. Ashencroft and Sauron are seen knocked out on the floor, the arm cannons of Bass smoking. He blows them off contently, while the other characters just glare at him, him having not helped in their battle against the Shadow Beasts. Bass just shrugs and motions to the warlords he's defeated for Chris to notice them and hastily run up to Ashencroft. Chris goes to behead the demon, but Yoda blocks him from doing so with his light saber, not wanting him to give in to his hate. Yoda goes in front of the other characters and motions extends out his light saber towards the palace, and the characters charge towards it.
The level is a romp through Zant's palace, there being some more puzzeles as well as combat. The enemies are Wizard's Heads (Floating heads of Zant that shoot projectiles), and of course Shadow Beasts. At the end, you go up the steeple to Zant's throne room, it being a long upward climb. You have to place orbs of light in sockets in the ground to create moving platforms to proceed, although they hastily disappear a few seconds later. If you fail to get to the next solid platform in time, you'll have to go back to the orb and reactivate it. The platforming gets quite tricky as you go higher and higher, and at each solid platform you'll have to dispose of some wizard heads to spawn the next orb of light. The wizard's heads will hover in the air, having no solid ground above them, so you'll have to either use projectiles or jump over to them and use aerial attacks and then shortly return to the platform (Which has grabbable ledges, thankfully). Each time you get to a new platform the camera will zoom up instantly so that you can't see anything below the platform, and if you fall below it you'll die.
Upon getting to the top of the steeple, the characters will be in front of Zant's "boss door" from Twilight Princess. They enter the throne room to see Zant seated on his throne, and proceed to run up to attack him. Before they can do anything though, Zant snaps his fingers, causing some shadowy figures to come out from behind the curtains behind the usurper king's throne. They come out to reveal themselves as Cervantes, Andy's Toys, Sin Paw Dip, Metal Knuckles, Doopliss and the Grim Reaper, going up in a defensive stance in front of Zant. What are they doing here? Why are they on Zant's side? For now you don't know, and have no choice except to defeat them. You must defeat each of Andy's Toys, meaning it's a 9 vs 9 battle. Zant will be seen in the background on his throne, applauding when his servants get in powerful attacks or you get KOd.
After defeating the characters seemingly loyal to Zant, Sauron, Ashencroft and Nightmare arrive in the room, going up to attack Yoda's giant party for their revenge. You play as the three bad guys against the nine characters you just previously played as, amusing Zant all the more. Zant claps for both sides during the battle, occassionally sending a shadow beast or two to interfere or sending a couple of weak projectiles into the battle to stir things up. After the battle, the cutscene shows the battle raging on, but Zant seemingly tires of his entertainment. The usurper king desires to enter the battle himself, opening a massive portal which sucks everyone in the room into it, causing a boss battle against him to start.
Boss: Zant
Play as: Yoda, Crono, Llyod Irving, Garet, Ty, Waddle Doo, Bass, Chris Lionheart, Teigen, Sauron, Ashencroft, Nightmare
Phase 1:
This boss battle has an impressive length, you'll most likely be down to the last of your 7 characters by the end on your first try. You'll find yourself in the Forest Temple mini-boss room, which is a small room with a bunch of totem poles. Two Totem poles will actually be on the playing field with the others in the backgorund, and Zant will stand on top of one of them, firing shadow projectiles at you, too high for you to reach. Zant will first fire three weak fast homing ones and then one massive powerful slow one. You must deal 450 stamina worth of damage to the totem pole Zant's standing on then strike him, after which he will teleport on top of the other totem pole and you must repeat the process again.
Phase 2:
After having done this, Zant will turn the screen black, going back into the dark void, your character being unable to move, and the huge portal will suck you both into itself. You'll find yourself in the Goron Mines mini-boss room, which is a giant platform over some a pit of lava. Zant will jump up and down rapidly, stunning you if you're on the ground when he lands and causing the arena to tilt like crazy. Zant will still be firing his projectiles during this, and you must come up to him and deal 300 stamina worth of damage to him before he'll teleport to the opposite end of the arena, where you must repeat the process.
Phase 3:
After this phase of the battle, Zant will open up a portal which will suck the both of you in and spit you out at the water temple boss room. You'll be underwater here, but you'll still be able to move around as normal, albeit more slowly. Two massive Zant helmets will emerge on either side of the screen, and the mouth pieces of one of them will open to reveal Zant inside who will continue firing his barrage of shadow projectiles. After two barrages of projectiles (Three weak and one powerful), the helmet's mouth will close and the other will open, Zant having teleported to that one instead. You must deal 600 stamina worth of damage to Zant in this state, and the best way to do so is to just stay by one of the two helmets as it takes too long to go from one to the other due to being underwater.
Phase 4:
Next, Zant will take you to the Snowpeak Ruins boss battle room, which is a circular icy room. Zant will grow huge here and levitate above the ground, you only having a view of his feet. He will send down icicles at you which you must dodge, then stomp up on the ground rapidly, dealing large damage to you if you're on the icy floor. Zant will take a short period to rest after this, his feet on the ground, being vulnerable. Hit his feet with a single attack for Zant to turn tiny, hopping on one foot in pain, now being vulnerable to having his life meter taken down further. Zant will grow big again in 10 seconds, after which you must repeat the process. You must deal 600 stamina worth of damage to Zant in this state to proceed.
Phase 5:
For the final arena, Zant will take the characters outside Hyrule castletown. Zant will teleport about randomly, firing his barrages of projectiles each time he stops, being very hard to hit due to how fast he disappears and reappears. After 5 teleports, Zant will teleport onto the ground and take two blades out of his sleeves and flail them about wildly, running from one side of the screen to the other at high speed. Zant is vulnerable from behind here, and this is your main chance to attack him, although if you get hit by his blades in the front you'll be dealt severge damage. It takes 800 stamina to finish Zant off for good here, the grand total being 3500.
After the lengthy boss battle, yet another dark portal appears and sucks the characters into it, spitting them back out at Zant's throne room in the palace of twilight. Chris goes to finish off Zant, Yoda unable to stop him in time, but his loyal allies come to block the attack for him, having recovered in the time Yoda's party was busy fighting Zant. Zants gets up and dusts himself off, then flails his arms about to signify he's explaining something as a flashback starts.
First, Dracula is shown being reawakened by Grim Reaper and Doopliss, then the flashback cuts to after he's defeated and he turns the characters into vampires. However; the scene goes on beyond it, showing that Metal Knuckles, Doopliss, Sin Paw Dip and the Grim Reaper were unaffected by this, due to already being undead/mechanical. Dracula keeps biting into them, trying to turn them into vampires, but to no use, and is left with no choice but to throw them into a cell. It next cuts to the end of chapter 2 where Dracula turns the pirates into vampires, but goes on to show Cervantes and Andy's Toys being unaffected due to being undead/mechanical. Dracula, angered at more unconvertable minions, sends them into the cell with the other hopeless characters to rot, paying them no further mind. At this point, though, one of Zant's dark portal appears in Dracula's prison, sucking them up and spitting them out at Zant's palace of twilight, where Zant bends down and extends out his hand to help them up.
The flashback ends, and Zant motions out to all of his dead shadow beasts, putting his hands on his hips, annoyed at them having a mess of his palace. He then sighs and motions for them to follow him, putting his hands behind his back and leading them into another room. Inside this room is a caged random vampire, and Zant extends out his arm to reveal a dark skull artifact in it. The artifact glows and cures the vampire back to normal human status, impressing the other characters exceptionally. Zant gives the artifact to Chris Lionheart, who nods and pockets it away, much to the anger of Ashencroft, Sauron, Cervantes and Nightmare. The usurper king sighs and shakes his head, then moves on and opens a even more massive portal. Inside the portal, Dracula's Chaos Citadel is seen, and Zant extends out his arm towards it, motioning his allies to go attack it to defeat Dracula. The characters charge into the portal, and the screen slowly fades out for the end of the chapter.
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