In the early days of video games, before walkthroughs and guides were a click away on the internet, players had to rely on their own curiosity and ingenuity to unlock the secrets of a game. Occassionally the games themselves would provide hints to the player, available for those hitting a point of frustration or those low on time. Perhaps most nostaligic for fans of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the Fortune Teller. The wacky little sprite bobs…
We’ve all been there — a frustratingly hard dungeon you’ve spent hours in and still can’t seem to get anywhere. The repetition of the music, the feeling like you’re lost in the woods, walking in circles… it’s maddening. You’ve exhausted yourself, tried everything you can think of and then again for good measure, but you just can’t solve that puzzle, find that item. Finally you cave, and look up a guide. So much for completing that without aid, right? And…
Just imagine. It’s the late 90’s, and you’re just a kid playing through your first ever Zelda game — Ocarina of Time — on the Nintendo 64. For the most part, things haven’t been too difficult! You’ve conquered The Great Deku Tree, snuck past the guards at Hyrule Castle to meet Princess Zelda, received the Goron’s Ruby, and painstakingly carried Princess Ruto through the disgusting depths of Lord Jabu Jabu. And here you are — ready for the next big…
Breath of the Wild took the traditional Zelda mold and flipped it on its head. Probably the biggest thing missing from Breath of the Wild were traditional dungeons. In lieu of dungeons like Eagle’s Tower, The Water Temple, or Ancient Cistern, we were given four dungeon-like beasts to tame and free from the control of Calamity Ganon. They worked more like larger Shrine puzzles in which the player had to unlock four terminals to reach the beast’s heart and then challenge…
The Legend of Zelda is a series filled with wonder, beauty, and lore. These are some of the key elements that make Zelda games so special, and they’re woven through the fabric of every character, enemy, musical score, and dungeon the player comes across. The result of such weaving is a stunning architecture of distinctive environments and unforgettable encounters. And there are few more memorable and more haunting architectures than that of the Arbiter’s Grounds in Twilight Princess. Hyrulean…
Zelda fans looking to spice up board game night need not look far, as an awesome Zelda-inspired tabletop RPG is just beyond the horizon. Heroes of Cerulea is an upcoming tabletop role-playing game that draws heavy inspiration from the Legend of Zelda series, particularly the 8-bit and 16-bit classics The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past, and Link’s Awakening. Set in a fantasy world threatened by an evil Shadow King, Heroes of Cerulea will let you and your…
Since it’s Dungeon Week here at Zelda Dungeon, there’s no better time than the present to get your Gooey’s Dungeon Dive fix! Over the holidays, Zelda Dungeon’s Gooey Fame released another episode of Gooey’s Dungeon Dive, which is now well into its ninth season focusing on The Wind Waker. This time around, the series takes us into the Tower of the Gods. Once again, Corey Richmond joins the fray as the pair of hosts discuss the dungeon’s Indiana Jones-eqsue vibes,…
For all my talk of Ocarina of Time being an overrated Zelda game, it’s definitely not without good qualities. The most prominent one that comes to my mind is versatility. Not only has the 1998 title stood the test of time by remaining an accessible and playable classic to this day, it makes a fantastic canvas for randomizers and various modded versions. Vidya James, a Zeldathon member and Twitch streamer, recently showcased a version of Ocarina of Time where young…
In the 2019 remake of Link’s Awakening, Nintendo added a unique feature that we’ve never seen before in previous titles. By visiting Dampe’s Shack, the game allowed players to create and customize dungeons to their heart’s content. Personally, I’m very surprised this feature never appeared before then. With the success of the Super Mario Maker titles, it seems like an obvious addition with lots of potential, especially for the 2D games. They could even make an entire game based around…
The original Link’s Awakening, a game released in 1993 for the Game Boy, had every appearance of being the first happy-go-lucky adventure of the Zelda series. The stalwart loneliness of the 1986 Zelda and the unforgiving bleakness of The Adventure of Link had made the series one of survival; adventure yes, but Hyrule was expansively sporadic as far as a lived-in kingdom. Understandably due to the constraints of technology, it wasn’t until 1991 that Hyrule felt more substantial. A Link…
