Zelda Informer Versus: Best Dungeon Tournament – Round 1 – Tower of Spirits Vs. Ancient Cistern

Our Best Dungeon tournament continues with two new titles. As Death Mountain and Eagle’s Tower duke it out in yesterday’s poll, the winning dungeons of Spirit Tracks and Skyward Sword step into the fray.

Tower of Spirits (Spirit Tracks) Vs. Ancient Cistern (Skyward Sword)

In a very smart move, the Zelda team took complaints aimed at Phantom Hourglass‘s Temple of the Ocean King to heart when constructing its successor in Spirit Tracks. Where the Ocean King’s temple’s layout was seen as tedious and frankly not fun by many fans, the Tower of Spirits improved upon almost every aspect set up in the prior game. Progressing further into the tower was fulfilling, the puzzles were inventive, and the teamwork with Phantom Zelda was a complete blast.

Anonymous: “Tower of Spirits, by far. And that’s saying something considering the quality of the other dungeons. It improved damn near everything about the Temple of the Ocean King. The soundtrack as you climb is awesome. The co-op puzzles with Zelda are some of the coolest in the game. Some of the coolest in the series imo. And that final battle with Zelda and Byrne….just great stuff all around. It was a legitimate pleasure revisiting the Tower. A stark contrast to PH”

The Ancient Cistern was the standout dungeon of Skyward Sword, earning a healthy victory in our Round 0 poll. The cistern is especially effective in its atmosphere and presentation, drawing influences from Buddhism and other eastern mythologies. This dungeon tells a story; like the classical Buddhist tale The Spider’s Thread, Link travels deep into the bowels of the earth and climbs his way back up from a single strand of rope. The architecture, the puzzle-box design, and the memorable boss encounter makes this a frontrunner in our tournament.

Dylan: “AC is pretty great and has a memorable boss battle as well.”

So, it’s time to decide which is the better dungeon: Tower of Spirits or Ancient Cistern

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Here’s some important tournament information:

• If you receive a “Failed to Verify Referrer” message and you are logged in to a version of WordPress, try logging out.
• We will post a new Round 1 voting page each day, Monday through Friday.
• Voting for each game will be open for exactly one week.
• Every Saturday, we will post a wrap-up article explaining the results of the prior week.
• Once voting pages for all Round 1 bouts have been posted, there will be a one-week break before Round 2 begins.

See you tomorrow!