Category: Daily Debate

This week at Zelda Dungeon, we’re focusing on the many companion characters that have made an appearance in The Legend of Zelda. From Navi to Fi, each of us has had companions that we liked more than others. In the same way, each of us has had companion characters that we despised. No matter how we felt about any given companion character, each of them, unfortunately, left Link behind at the end of the game, and some in sadder ways than others. While…

We’re kicking off Companion Week here at Zelda Dungeon, which means that over the next several days, we’ll be celebrating Link’s many partners, mentors, and friends. As fans and as fellow adventurers in the Zelda world, we hold these companions with special regard; some more than others, but you get the point. There will be plenty of praise showered on these Zelda companions over the next few days, but we figured we’d start the week by looking at them in…

Whether Link is traveling by foot or on a boat, many of the games in the Zelda series have a little trick or two you can do to make traveling a little faster. The most common method is rolling. This can be done in Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker, and more. Oddly our hero has endless stamina and gets around faster by somersaulting, but you have to put up with his repeated cries each time you do it….

Zelda is no stranger to innovation in the gaming world. After all, A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time helped set the stage for many gameplay elements in a variety of genres for many years to come. But what about other games and series? Zelda isn’t the only great IP on the market and in the creative industry, everybody can benefit from a little bit of collaboration from time to time. Each genre of gaming tends to have its tropes,…

With so many entries into the franchise and decades of building and experimenting with different play styles, game mechanics, and story lines, The Legend of Zelda is a series whose very name carries a great deal of weight. But, let’s get Shakespearean for a minute here and ponder what exactly is in a name. What does it take to make not just a good game, but a good Zelda game? For example, when thinking about what it takes to make a Zelda…

Let’s talk honestly here: Breath of the Wild still remains divisive in many ways, recognized for not only all it did well, but also its flaws and stumbles. The conversation about the latest canon entry into The Legend of Zelda has yet to be silenced, constantly shifting, flowing, and turning back to every quintessentially iconic element represented – or not represented – within the game. So let’s revisit one of those topics: music. In a series known so well for music, with a…

Let’s face it. One of the most important aspects of a video game is of course, the gameplay. The Zelda series in particular has had a fair variety in its implementation of mechanics, though until Breath of the Wild the general idea remained consistent. Now with potential sweeping changes to how we view the gameplay of Zelda, we have a lot to be excited for. That being said, everybody had that one moment where they played their first Zelda game or saw a trailer and…

Maybe one of the coolest components of the Zelda series, for me, is seeing the evolution of the art style over time. With nearly every game, or every other installment, the games feature new art that is meant to evoke the themes or ideas in the game or be a response to advances in technology. Ocarina of Time beautifully blended 2D and 3D art at a time when the concept was quite new and challenging, but they forged ahead and…

Recently we talked about what our least favorite parts of our favorite Zelda games were. In that same discussion I spoke about how I felt the childhood segment of Ocarina of Time was too brief. Overall, Ocarina was pretty long for a 90’s game and had lots of content both in the main story as well as side quests. If you were to split the game however, only about about a 1/3 of it is spent in Link’s childhood. Despite it’s ranking as…

As The Legend of Zelda has evolved from pixels to polygons in its 30 plus year lifespan, a lot has evolved and a lot has remained the same. Link for example will always wield a sword of some description, or more recently an axe, a spear or even a soup ladle within Breath of the Wild. Whilst a vaster array of weapons were available, and the combat was more nuanced with split second flurry rushes and projectile deflection, and enemy…