Dungeon items were a staple of The Legend of Zelda series for many years, until Breath of the Wild switched directions leaning into open-world mechanics to promote exploration. Today I want to take a closer look at dungeon items, why they are important for the Zelda franchise, plus discuss how Nintendo could evolve dungeon items in the next open-world Legend of Zelda game.

The Golden Age of Dungeon Items

For many years dungeon items were central to the design of Legend of Zelda games. At the start of the game Link’s inventory would be empty, and you’d see empty spaces for all the dungeon items you would collect on your adventure. Link would use these dungeon items to help him complete dungeons, plus new places would open up in the overworld.

The example that immediately comes to mind when I think about dungeon items is the Hookshot from A Link To The Past. This can be found in the Swamp Palace, and allows Link to attack enemies from a distance, but also traverse around the Swamp Palace by grappling onto pots or chests and get over gaps. Roc’s Feather is another good example, found in Tail Cave in Link’s Awakening. This allowed Link to jump over gaps, not only in Tail Cave, but also on Koholint Island.

There’s something about dungeon items that are special, and it’s tied to the structure of Zelda games of the past. Link would start weak, and through exploration and ultimately conquering dungeons he would get stronger, and his inventory would expand through these weapons and tools. The dungeon you find the specific item teaches you how to use the item, but once Link is done there he can go out into the Hyrule and find all manner of uses for these items.

Over the years combinations of items have been used to great effect. For example, in Link’s Awakening you could use the Pegasus boots and Roc’s feather together to jump over large gaps. The Pegasus boots allowed you to run fast and Roc’s feather allowed you to jump. Until then we were conditioned to only use the sword, shield and an item. Combining two items together seemed like a crazy concept, but it worked so well. Other items have been combined to great effect like Bomb Arrows, that are still used and loved in modern day Zelda games.

The Decline and Open-world Shift

Skyward Sword release in 2011, and while the reviews were great, some players were tiring of the linear Zelda formula that included a linear story, traditional dungeons and the same dunegons items they had been collecting for 25 years. Granted, it wasn’t everyone, but it must have been enough feedback for Nintendo to change direction and move into the open-world formula.

Speaking to Polygon back in 2016, Eiji Aonuma, Legend of Zelda Producer, described the Zelda team’s design goals at the time with their new Zelda game.

“A lot of the fans that played Skyward Sword said that they were really bummed out that they couldn’t find the hidden element of the game,” Aonuma told Polygon. “A lot of the users, when they looked at the map, they said, ‘OK, there’s these places I can go, but how come I can’t go over here?’”

Breadth of the Wild was a huge change for the series, replacing the linear gameplay with a much larger open-world.

“A lot of Zelda fans are the type of people that really like to explore those hidden elements,” he said. “I realized that creating this bigger world and letting them freely play may be the solution to all of that.”

“I’ve always thought that when creating a 3D game where it’s easy for users to get lost, it’s really important to tell the users what they need to do,” Aonuma said. “But then, after creating this larger world, I realized that getting lost isn’t that bad. Having the option to do whatever you want and get lost is actually kind of fun. I think fans that enjoy a more linear type of gameplay will also enjoy this type of gameplay.”

Many of the features of classic Legend games were gone in Breath of the Wild. The linear path through Hyrule was replaced with the open-world, traditional tent-pole dungeons were replaced with smaller Shrines and some dungeon-like Divine Beasts, and dungeon items like weapons and tools were removed in favour for something else completely. Link would start the game on the Great Plateau being given all his abilities, and weapons could be found in the open-world, or taken from enemies, but they would degrade and break. Given Link’s weapons would break, then you would be compelled to explore the open world to find more.

Whether this change was a success or not is up for debate, however, Eiji Aonuma has commented on the future of the series relatively recently. Following the release of Tears of the Kingdom in 2023, he said traditional linear Zelda games are “games of the past”.

“It’s interesting when I hear people say [I miss traditional linear Zelda], because I’m wondering ‘why do you want to go back to a type of game where you’re more limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?’”

“I do understand that desire that we have for nostalgia,” he added, “and so I can also understand it from that aspect. I also think with the freedom players have in the more recent games in the Zelda series… there is still a set path, it just happens to be the path that they chose.”

Could dungeon items work in an open-world?

I would like to see traditional items make a return in the open-world Zelda. First of all, remove weapon degredation completely, I don’t want that in the game at all. I understand the concept promotes exploration, but if you made the weapons more powerful and interesting in design there’s going to be a desire to explore and get these weapons. Elden Ring did this very well, and there is a lot the Zelda team could learn from that game.

We could have a massive open-world, with more traditional dungeons. These dungeons could be similar to Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. Perhaps you need an item found in the open-world or previous dungeons to get in. Or you could have multiple ways to get into these classic dungeons. Link could explore some of the dungeon but you need a specialised item to fully complete the item, and perhaps you have to go back outside to find it. These new items could also have more uses in the open-world, whether it’s puzzle solving or traversal. I’m convinced there is a way to bring back classic dungeon items, while retaining the open-world design philosophy of modern Zelda games.

Whether or not dungeon items will return is up to Nintendo. They are likely grappling with that very question right now. Tears of the Kingdom is behind them, they are likely developing the next Zelda game for Switch 2, and I hope we see classic dungeon items return, just evolved and adapted in the right way so the discovery still has an impact, and I can carry these key items all throughout my adventures in Hyrule.

I’m interested to know what you think. As for some classic dungeon items or series favourites, I did ask the Triforce Times community and got a pretty good response, so let’s get into some of your favourite dungeon items from the Legend of Zelda series next.

Community Comments

@zarinblade5936
The dominion rod, the 2nd half of the Temple of Time is one of my favorite parts of Twilight Princess thanks to this item.

@chuckolator1859
Switch Hook is so underrated. One of my favorite items in the series. It’s just plain cool, and it was used for some really neat puzzles.

@Romulus879
Difficult question. Of course I like the hookshot etc. but I‘m a big fan of very creative items, that made some games very special and unique. Like the switch hook for Oracle of Ages, the magnetic gloves from Oracle of Seasons, the Cane of Pacci from Minish Cap,…

@jimmann1680
The Hooshot was always a fav. But actually each item as they were obtained were all a welcome addition to the tools etc. Allowing you to progress and sometimes needing to revisit and backtrack to places you have already been to. But now know with the new item I can now access this area better. The Metroid games were also like this as well.

@darkdragonmedeus705
My favorite would be the Double Clawshot. Literally, Hookshot is by far the most popular and typical answer for the question. And that includes varients such as the Switch Hook from the Oracle games. But the there is a saying; two heads are better than one. Which the Double Clawshot defines that statement. Being able to hop from platform to platform in games like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword has always been a boss mechanic.…Read more

@MartKart8
I liked things like Megaton Hammer, because you can flip Textites upside when I hit the ground with the Megaton Hammer and watch them wiggle. I also liked the animation of stunning a redead with the mirror shield, item found in the Earth Temple, I would use the grabble to take the Redead’s ruppes first.

@zarinblade5936
The dominion rod, the 2nd half of the Temple of Time is one of my favorite parts of Twilight Princess thanks to this item.

@TheRealPSKilla502
No LoZ game is complete without bombs, bow and arrow, some kind of grappling item, and something like a boomerang

Let me know in the comments what you think.