The most common feedback I hear about what people want for the next Zelda game includes better dunegons. But what does “better dungeons” mean? It’s a statement that means different things to different people, and today that’s what we’re going to investigate – how exactly are Nintendo going to make the dungeons better in the next Legend of Zelda adventure.
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I’ve been looking ahead to what the next Zelda game could be, and asking the community what they want to see. Better dunegons is by far the largest topic of feedback I hear, so I thought we could dive into that topic today. “Better dungeons” is a very subjective topic though.
First of all, when I talk about “better”, what I mean is better than Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom dungeons. These are two of the best games in the Zelda franchise, there’s no question about that, but the dunegons are lacklustre. Breath of the Wild dunegons were too short, they felt repetitve and the bosses were practically all the same. Nintendo did acknowledge the feedback from the community before Tears of the Kingdom released, and even mentioned it during their developer interviews.
Interviewer: We’ve only discussed the skies, but this title has its dungeons too, right?
Fujibayashi: Yes, we haven’t talked about the dungeons yet. They’ve changed from the previous game. For example, there is a dungeon that connects directly from Hyrule’s surface. If you dive from the sky straight into the dungeon, you’ll trigger an event. We think this will be a new experience that wasn’t possible in the previous game.
Dohta: We’ve made dungeons unique to their respective environments, so we think you’ll be able to enjoy the wide variety of regional characteristics.
Takizawa: Making a “wide variety” was pretty challenging. The four Divine Beasts were the dungeons in the last game, and they shared similar designs. This time, the dungeons are huge and each carry their own regional look and feel, just like traditional The Legend of Zelda games. We think they will provide a satisfying challenge for players. They were certainly a challenge to develop! (Laughs)
Tears of the Kingdom dungeons were a little better. The build up to some of the dungeons were memorable, but the dungeons themselves not so much. I enjoyed climbing the mountain to the Wind Temple, but wasn’t a fan of the Wind Temple itself. The best dungeon for me in Tears of the Kingdom was the Lightning Temple in the Desert, I enjoyed the mirror mechanics. Otherwise I think the dungeons in Tears of the Kingdom weren’t as good as we’ve seen in other Zelda titles like Ocarina of Time, A Link To The Past, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.
It’s worth having a closer look at that word “better” again. One of the reasons why I didn’t like Dunegons in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom was the formula and the repetition. The design of the Divine Beasts felt too similar and the bosses were too similar also. While it’s easy to sit on the sidelines and criticise, it’s worth noting that much of the development went into the open-world.
Given the size and scope of Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, loads of time was taken filling that world with activities, enemies and little puzzles to solve. Tears of the Kingdom also felt formulaic, perhaps less directly repetitive but it still suffered from the same characteristics, which were doubley felt if you played the dungeons back to back. Having to watch that cutscene again at the end of the dunegons was just frustrating.
There’s a pattern here with open-world Zelda games and lacklustre dungeons, both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom likely had the majority of effort in the open-world design. That does beg the question, can open-world zelda games have good dungeons?
I think the answer is yes, but there does need to be a compromise somewhere. Perhaps a smaller open-world, allowing the team tO spend more time on dungeons and narrative. There’s a pendulum that has been swinging above the Zelda series, with Skyward Sword being the last of the traditional Zelda games with it’s linear story, hand holding tutorials and focus on narrative. The pendulum has swung over to the other side where the focus is on open-world freedom, non-linear story telling and playing around in physics-sandbox-Hyrule.
I’d like to see more dungeons than we have seen in the past few Zelda games. In Breath of the Wild we got four. In Tears of the Kingdom we got five. A Link To The Past (12), Ocarina of Time (10) and Majora’s Mask (9), Skyward Sword / Wind Waker / The Adventure of Link (7).
Here’s some example of great dunegons in the Zelda franchise and why they’re good.
Forest Temple – Ocarina of Time
The Forest Temple is the first dunegon you take on as Adult Link in Ocarina of time, plus you get the Bow, one of the best items. The central theme to the dungeon is tracking down four Poes, plus there’s some great puzzles and the overall aestheic is very memorable. Then we have a boss fight against Phantom Gannon where he tries to ride you down from a painting, making this one of the best and most memorable dungeons in the game.
Ancient Cistern – Skyward Sword
Skyward Sword’s design is clever because rather than having a difference in overworld and dunegon design, the two are blended with puzzles and enemies in the overworld sections. That means the dunegons have themes and the Ancient Cistern is a good one. The multi-level design is based on Buddhist cosmology, with different floors representing the different planes of existenace, plus it has a cyclical pacing where Link unlocks new paths looping back in as you explore.
Swamp Palace – A Link to the Past
The Swamp Palace was The Legend of Zelda’s first water temple. This also had one of the best items in the game with the hookshot. However it’s the central theme which makes the dungeon, hopping back and forth between the light and dark world. To progress in the dungeon you have to drain the flooded entry in the light world. Future Zelda games would build on and expand this design with more complex puzzles and tricks, however this goes down as the original and one of the best to this day.
Looking at some of the best dungeon designs in the Zelda series, we have a central theme. The Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time did this very well, with it’s ghost hunting theme, building up to a fight with Phantom Ganon. Central items or weapons also appear thematically important. Does having constant items go against Nintendo’s design ethos when it comes to open-world Zelda games? It would appear so with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom… but I would like to see the discovery of amazing weapons and items come back to Dunegons. You can have unbreakable weapons, just invest significantly in weapon design and make weapons in the latter parts of the game more desirable.
From the community
@JDvM98
Bringing back maps, compasses, boss keys and original mini bosses would make future dungeons better I think. The dungeons of TOTK are too open and similar in the concept of how to solve. BOTW’s Divine Beasts were fine, but too short and they lacked in distinctive personality.
I’ve played both games and I like them, but for future entries I would suggest to give us fans the best of both ‘old’ and ‘new’ Zelda.
@GamingReinvented
To me, better dungeons mean unique explorable areas with their own well designed, interesting bosses and mini bosses, a useful key item or ability that’s key to the puzzles and combat there (but still useful outside of the dungeon too), plus a wide variety of enemies and obstacles too, rather than just the same few Guardians or Constructs over and over again. So basically, how dungeons were in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, rather than in Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom.
@ancientsheikahgamer1819
The Skyward sword dungeons are by far my favorites in the entire series. The main thing they do is having a very unique theme, like the sandship or ancient cistern. Having dungeon items also help a lot.
@codster279
dungeons that aren’t repeated and consist around some sorta game mechanic or item unique to that dungeon. also make them really challenging with the dungeons getting progressively harder!!
@darkdragonmedeus705
When it comes to dungeons, Majora’s Mask and Skyward Sword had the best designed Dungeons in the series. I think Dungeons should be faithful to their respective elemental themes; whether that be fire, water, forest, lighting/electric, wind, ect. With final dungeons being ones that balance all previous into one big epic dungeon. Stone Tower Temple, Ancient Cistern, and the Sandship (Skyward Sword) are the top 3 in no particular order for Zelda dungeons done right. There should also be some clever puzzles to solve, a miniboss or 2 per dungeon, and it ends with a boss. Newer dungeons could either bring back keys (A Boss key especially), or there could be more switches similar to how Tears of the Kingdom handled the 5 switches. But instead make a couple dozen switches, with doors respectively opening up after a set number of switches are activated. And the boss door is not activated until all 30 or more switches are activated.
Gabeora
I want there to be a more grandiose feel to the dungeons as they relate to the game’s story and the series lore as a whole. The new games are missing the pageantry of old. Each dungeon had a one-of-a-kind treasure that was hard earned, but oh boy when you got it there was no other feeling
Let me know in the comments what you think about better dungeons in the next Zelda game.
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