Dungeon Week: Skyward Sword’s Sandship

When I think of a traditional dungeon in a Zelda game, I think of multiple rooms resting within some kind of structure or mountain found somewhere on the world map, places that are just sitting there, waiting for a Hero to come solve their many puzzles. While that’s all fine and dandy, and probably one of my favorite parts of the series, this formula feels a bit stale after so many visits. What really makes a dungeon stick out in my eyes is when the dungeon blends in with the environment or just feels natural to what you’re doing in your quest. Yes, once you’ve entered a dungeon, you’re in the dungeon, but that doesn’t mean a dungeon has to feel like what we’re familiar with. A particular favorite dungeon that does all this is Skyward Sword‘s Sandship.

The Sandship isn’t the first boat dungeon in the series, as seen with Phantom Hourglass‘s Ghost Ship. What makes the Sandship so special to me, though, is that it’s not special. The Ghost Ship was a major part of the plot of Phantom Hourglass, while the Sandship is just a mostly normal looking ship out in the middle of a sea of sand. A good majority of the series is chock-full of dungeons that basically tell you, “Yes, this is a dungeon, please solve our puzzles,” and there’s nothing wrong with that. But when it came to the Sandship, I didn’t even realize that I was in a dungeon my first time through the game. It wasn’t until I picked up the dungeon item that it occurred to me that this boat was the dungeon. That’s something that few other dungeons have accomplished, and should definitely be noted for future reference.

The Sandship floats about in the Lanayru Sand Sea, which according to Fi, was once filled with water. Sadly, all the water evaporated and only sand remains. The Sandship’s captain, Skipper, tells Link that the ship was made to protect the Sacred Flame and can become invisible to hide from enemies, but it was hijacked by pirates that turned on the invisibility cloak. The vessel has been lost for a very long time, but together Link and Skipper find the ship after searching various points around the Sea: Skipper’s precariously perched estate, an abandoned shipyard with a dangerous cart system, and even a pirate stronghold. I almost thought that these areas were going to be the dungeon, but there was no dungeon item to be found; for all I knew at the time, the sea itself was just a giant dungeon. Anyway, upon locating the invisible vessel, naturally the best course of action is to cannon off bombs to get rid of the invisibility. Don’t ask me why an ancient wooden ship wouldn’t splinter apart and sink with a few bomb blasts, but I suppose that whatever works, works.

Link boards the ship to discover that the place is totally empty, save for some scorpions that have taken refuge inside. He goes under the deck to find mounds of dust and sand scattered about. Exploring the aging hallways as far as he can, Link finds a small key at the bottom of the boat to unlock one of the locked doors. And upon opening that door, Link meets the miniboss: the Robot Pirate Captain, Scervo. This fight isn’t hard, but dang is it fun. The goal is to knock back Scervo into the deadly sand below whilst fighting on a rather narrow platform. When successful, Link is rewarded with a chest containing a Bow and some arrows.

The Bow can reach farther areas than the previously obtained Slingshot, making it so Link can strike a Timeshift stone near the crow’s nest. When activated, the entire ship is engulfed with the past, sending the ship back to its former glory. Outside of a new paintjob, the stone revives the robot crew members and Bokoblin pirates while opening some previously inaccessible areas. As soon as Link activates the stone however, a Bokoblin locks it up, making another strike impossible (Side Note: I understand this ship is supposed to be protecting a materialization of a worshiped deity, but you’d think Skipper would optimize the mechanisms of his ship better than this). Using your new Bow and trusty Clawshots, Link climbs the masts of the ship, defeats the remaining pirates, and unlocks the caged Timeshift stone permanently.

That stone becomes one of the main aspects of the rest of the dungeon’s gimmick. From below the deck, Link must shoot the stone to weave in and out closed doors not available in one time era, but available in another. This part of the dungeon is what I was most impressed with. The puzzles here didn’t feel forced at all, because it makes sense that certain doors and machines would function or be closed off in one time period but not in the other.

When Link inevitably unlocks the room that contains the Sacred Flame, what else would happen than tentacles suddenly penetrating the floor under his feet? Stereotypical Japanese jokes aside, the ship starts to splinter apart and sink, forcing Link to surface onto the deck. What awaits him on the deck is…kind of hilarious actually. Meet the tentacle haired, one eyed abyssal leviathan, Tentalus. Yes, I’m fully aware that this is probably among the stupidest looking bosses in the entire Zelda series and easily the worst part of the dungeon.

The fight can be fairly difficult if your reflexes aren’t incredibly quick, but will be an absolute breeze if you can stay on your toes. I’ve seen people struggle through the fight, and I’ve seen people cut through Tentalus’s smug face like butter. The goal is to Skyward Strike the tentacles piercing through the ship, shoot the giant illuminated eye with your new Bow, and proceed to spin attack the eye until Tentalus explodes into darkness. Tentacles can grab Link and throw him all over the place, and sometimes running up to slash the eye can be a bit tricky, even after giving a haircut to the monstrosity. All and all, the battle is fairly simple and very generic. It’s unfortunate that such an interesting part of the game ended on such a sour note – good thing this is “Dungeon Month” and not “Boss Fight Month.” After Tentalus bursts into purpley dark matter, Link and Fi activate a pedestal, releasing Nayru’s Sacred Flame onto Fi, and infuses another Sacred Flame into the soon-to-be Master Sword.

It goes to show that the Zelda series is capable of having very humble and semi-realistic dungeons. It’s true that the Sandship doesn’t have a ton of cultural influence (as far as I can tell), and it doesn’t provide anything spectacular to look at unless you love pirate ships. It does, however, have something that a lot of other dungeons seem to lack: simplicity. When comparing it to places like Sky Keep, the Tower of the Gods, or the Temple of Time, it’s just a ship holding the plot element that the player is looking for. While I’m totally all for jaw-dropping dungeons like the Ancient Cistern that depict more cultural references than one can count, the Sandship is on the other side of that spectrum. Outside of the boss fights, it’s a fairly calm adventure with nothing really endangering you. The player almost solely relies on their wits (or an internet walkthrough) to complete the task at hand.

Again, I’m not saying that every dungeon has to be as well blended as the Sandship. It’d kill how special it is as a dungeon. Having a few more dungeons similar to it, however, would add variety and break up the ‘normal’ dungeons that we get in every title. A balance between extravagant and humble dungeons is the key to a great dungeon setup for a Zelda game.