Category: Editorials

Breath of the Wild is filled with stunning landmarks and locations that can elicit an emotional response from the player. Whether it is the sun-drenched Gerudo Town, the frigid majesty of the Hebra Mountains, or the tranquil Zora’s Domain, the game is full of inspiring and imposing landmarks. Despite the numerous honorable candidates for the most important and iconic landmark in the game, one location stands above the rest: Hyrule Castle. The decaying ruin is the geographical and narrative heart…

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…

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…

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…

During this Dungeon Week, my first as a staff writer for Zelda Dungeon, I find myself in the middle of playing through The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons. As noted in Zelda Dungeon’s 2022 Best Zelda Ever feature, not only does Seasons seem doomed to live in the shadow of its more generally-loved sister Oracle of Ages by way of constant comparison, it’s also chronically underplayed. With several of the “lesser” titles not yet under my belt, I’m attempting…

There are two things in my life that I’ve always enjoyed: art and writing/storytelling. As both an artist and writer, when I evaluate games outside of just gameplay, the main two things I care about are whether there is a meaningful story being conveyed, and if there is a strong visual language/art direction being utilized. The Legend of Zelda series has many games that excel at this criteria, but perhaps among the best is Twilight Princess. It has a unique…

The Zelda series’ reputation for expertly crafted dungeons and puzzles that cleverly incorporate important key items is unparalleled in the video game industry. So much of what makes the series special is the emphasis on coming up with creative solutions and thinking outside the box, and these principles are perfectly encapsulated in Zelda‘s dungeons.   What Makes a Dungeon Good? There isn’t just one thing that makes a dungeon memorable and fun to explore. There are many factors that come…

What makes a satisfying dungeon is a great question for Zelda fans to discuss. This is a complex discussion because the elements that make a great early dungeon and the elements that make a great late-game dungeon are quite different. The early dungeons in Zelda games are often designed to teach the player the language of puzzle solving and to serve as tutorials for how to navigate a complex collection of rooms and floors. Yes, these early dungeons still need…

We’ve made the list, we’ve checked it twice. Now we’re going to truly find out who is naughty or nice. The Zelda Dungeon writing team plays Santa in this December feature. Given a list of Zelda characters who are not only fan-favorites but tend to be morally ambiguous when it comes to their actions and intentions, each writer has chosen a character and decided if they are “naughty” or “nice”. Is Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time misunderstood? Are there character…

Another spin around the sun has come and went, and with it, the latest installment of Zelda Dungeon’s proudest yearly tradition: Best. Zelda. Ever! 2022 marked the first year in quite some time where we had no real Zelda activity. No new games were released, no new projects were announced, it was… quiet. Although we got a title for the long-awaited sequel to Breath of the Wild, 2022 seemed like a year that could best be described as the calm…