Level Five, you are my special bane

First things first: Why didn't we get this awesome startup screen for the U.S. version of the game? I came across this on a European gaming site, and I believe it had a comment below it to the effect that this was the U.K. version of the game. That is really awesome...

But I digress.

I can't think of any game that I've completed more times than this one -- no less than three times on the SNES, once or twice on emulator, and working on a second pass through the GBA port. There have been a few things that remain consistent through all those play-throughs:

1. The death of the flute-playing kid gets to me every time. The way the tune fades away as he turns into a tree. His final statement to the effect of "promise me you'll play for the animals in the forest after I've gone...". It really was the first time I'd felt emotional response (besides anger and frustration, that is) to a video game.
2. That arrow shooting mini-game never seems to get any easier.
3. I catch all of the crystals in the Dark World before they hit the ground. OCD, I guess.
   
4. I struggle with the fifth dungeon in the Dark World (Crystal).
   

The Crystal Dungeon seems to be designed to work completely against my higher brain functions. It's really not that difficult, but for some reason there's a disconnect in my problem solving engine when it comes to multi-level Zelda puzzles. The only other times I can recall having this much trouble with a puzzle in a Zelda game are the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time and the Zora temple in Oracle of Seasons (could have been Oracle of Ages but I keep getting them confused) -- both of these are multi-level dungeon puzzles.

Every time I replay LTTP, I end up wandering around the Crystal Dungeon for about a half an hour or more before stumbling across the solution. Once I do solve it, I slap myself in the head for being so stupid. Unfortunately my brain never seems to record how I solved it, so I am doomed to repeat my struggle. Nintendo even dumbed down this dungeon in the GBA port. No matter. This is the Crystal Dungeon. I will wander it aimlessly for at least 15 minutes.

After all, it is my special bane.