PLEASE READ I accidentally discovered this years ago playing Master Quest (I think?) I'm 99.99% sure this is how the developers intended the fight to play out, like other boss fights there is a puzzle element in play and this video demonstrates this. I made this video because I cannot find any others that show this, in my opinion this is the most fun way to fight against Dark Link. What is happening? Basically Dark Link has Robotnik Syndrome and will stagger for longer after taking 8 hits, but the hits have to alternate from horizontal to vertical and vice versa. If you hurt him with a horizontal and start the next chain with a vertical it will take 8 hits to open him up. If however you hurt him with a horizontal and start the chain with a horizontal it will take only 7 hits as I have purposefully demonstrated.