Dungeons have always been a central element of the Zelda universe. The original NES game coined them "levels" and the basic navigation from listless room to listless room albeit with different color backgrounds was the same with all nine. Zelda II: Adventure of Link took the franchise design along a completely new route but did little to alleviate this problem. It's with A Link to the Past that things started to spice up. No longer were the interiors of dungeon bland but desert, ice, cave, forest elements were included. Ocarina of Time took this evolution to the next level with a variety of themes like forest, fire, water, ice, dark, and light just to name a few. That template would be followed by most installments to come with one particular element coming to mind when traversing through a dungeon.
Enter Skyward Sword. The first Wii exclusive Zelda title kept golden on Nintendo's promise to alter the traditional series formula and blend dungeon with overworld. The overworld was filled with more puzzles and enemies than ever before whereas the dungeons felt more open. Skyward Sword also added its own twist to the mix by combining multiple themes so to speak in each dungeon. This was particularly well demonstrated by the Lanayru Mining Facility as well as Ancient Cistern which boasted desert/mechanical and water/"undead" zombie elements, respectively.
With yesterday's creation of the Zelda 3DS and Wii U subforums, it's never too early to start thinking about upcoming titles for the franchise. Most seem certain that the next installment will be for the Nintendo 3DS since that would logically follow seeing as how the last was for a home console. The ideas presented in this thread will therefore apply to the 3DS hardware. A mechanical theme comes to mind, twisting cogs into place with the stylus, perchance something along the lines of the fuse boxes in Resident Evil: Revelations. Perhaps a steam punk inspiration could be applied to this idea or perhaps an enemy lair on a moving contraption as a wheel or train.
It'd be splendid to revisit an ice theme as it was blatantly missing from Skyward Sword. A cue could be taken from SS's Skyview Temple by returning twice to this lair. Twist is the dungeon interior drastically changes with the seasons. During the spring/summer it is a water dungeon and when colder days strike in autumn/winter the lair transforms into an icy domain.
My final idea is to revisit the size shrinking gimmick of The Minish Cap and further defy reality by toying with gravity. Titles like Half-Life and Super Mario Galaxy negated the traditional laws of physics and were all the better because of that. Although no specifics come to mind, it's not a far stretch with previous arsenal like the Hover Boots already twisting reality 180 degrees.
Those are some of my notions but I'm certain you'll be able to conjure even greater contraptions with the genius of your whit. What dungeon themes would you like to see in the next Zelda game (presumably for 3DS)? What unique features of the 3DS hardware could be harnessed in future dungeon designs?
Enter Skyward Sword. The first Wii exclusive Zelda title kept golden on Nintendo's promise to alter the traditional series formula and blend dungeon with overworld. The overworld was filled with more puzzles and enemies than ever before whereas the dungeons felt more open. Skyward Sword also added its own twist to the mix by combining multiple themes so to speak in each dungeon. This was particularly well demonstrated by the Lanayru Mining Facility as well as Ancient Cistern which boasted desert/mechanical and water/"undead" zombie elements, respectively.
With yesterday's creation of the Zelda 3DS and Wii U subforums, it's never too early to start thinking about upcoming titles for the franchise. Most seem certain that the next installment will be for the Nintendo 3DS since that would logically follow seeing as how the last was for a home console. The ideas presented in this thread will therefore apply to the 3DS hardware. A mechanical theme comes to mind, twisting cogs into place with the stylus, perchance something along the lines of the fuse boxes in Resident Evil: Revelations. Perhaps a steam punk inspiration could be applied to this idea or perhaps an enemy lair on a moving contraption as a wheel or train.
It'd be splendid to revisit an ice theme as it was blatantly missing from Skyward Sword. A cue could be taken from SS's Skyview Temple by returning twice to this lair. Twist is the dungeon interior drastically changes with the seasons. During the spring/summer it is a water dungeon and when colder days strike in autumn/winter the lair transforms into an icy domain.
My final idea is to revisit the size shrinking gimmick of The Minish Cap and further defy reality by toying with gravity. Titles like Half-Life and Super Mario Galaxy negated the traditional laws of physics and were all the better because of that. Although no specifics come to mind, it's not a far stretch with previous arsenal like the Hover Boots already twisting reality 180 degrees.
Those are some of my notions but I'm certain you'll be able to conjure even greater contraptions with the genius of your whit. What dungeon themes would you like to see in the next Zelda game (presumably for 3DS)? What unique features of the 3DS hardware could be harnessed in future dungeon designs?