Major Spoiler: The Third Dungeon of Skyward Sword Is…
Posted on October 25 2011 by Nathanial Rumphol-Janc
So far we’ve seen a countless amount of impression pieces as Skyward Sword became more and more accessible on various conventions and events. But as the saying goes, beauty’s in the details, and various people drop various details, of varying significance. This particular detail will set everyone’s theorizing wheels into overdrive as it is potentially gigantic. A French preview has dropped the name of the third dungeon in the game, the one right before Link catches up with Zelda and ans obtains the lyre, as seen in the last trailer.
As a matter of fact, that very scene shown in the trailer might be happening in that dungeon, giving the huge cogwheel behind Zelda a very different meaning. So what is this dungeon?
The preview mentioned can be find here, completely in French. This paragraph is the interesting bit however:
Prémices d’une aventure grandiose
Plutôt confinés et faciles à déjouer, les deux premiers donjons prolongent encore l’impression d’introduction et d’épisode à contre-temps qui s’installe pendant les 3-4 premières heures de jeu – soit moins d’un 1/5ème de sa durée totale, si l’on en croit sa durée de vie annoncée à 30 heures. Sympathiques variations sur le thème de la forêt et du feu, les premiers temples déçoivent par leur petite mécanique ronflante et segmentée, loin de la sophistication architecturale des meilleurs donjon de la série.
Soulagement : le troisième temple contredit totalement cette impression mitigée, malgré une direction artistique moins heureuse… un faux-pas esthétique qui n’empêche pas le level-design de jouer brillamment avec la notion de l’espace-temps, thème central du donjon qui préfigure de très belles idées pour la suite. Nettement plus complexe et retors, l’architecture y fonde quelques moments de l’ordre de la pure magie, où s’entremêlent émerveillement ludique et esthétique. Pour la brillance de certains passages et le tournant génial esquissé lors de ce temple du Temps, on vous invite fortement à ne pas quitter cet épisode des yeux : il pourrait bien vous surprendre…
The paragraph translates as follows (Thank you MDK!):
Beginnings of a great adventure
Rather confined and easy to beat, the first two dungeons further prolong the feeling of introduction and of an episode delayed that are present during the first 3-4 hours of play – being less than a fifth of the game’s total duration, if we are to believe the 30 hour lifespan announced.
Close variations on the theme of forest and fire, the first temples disappoint with their small whirring and segmented mechanics, far from the architectural sophistication of the best dungeons in the series.
Thankfully, the third temple totally contradicts this lukewarm impression, despite a less fortunate artistic direction… an aesthetic faux-pas that doesn’t prevent the level design from playing brilliantly with the notion of time and space, the central theme of the dungeon, which suggests very some very nice concepts for later on.
Much more complex and devious, the architecture there creates a few moments of pure magic, where it wonderfully entwines gameplay and aesthetic.
For the brilliance of certain sections and the superb twist outlined during the Temple of Time, we strongly recommend that you don’t take your eyes off this episode; it could well surprise you…
That’s right folks, the Temple of Time is a dungeon in Skyward Sword. I’ll let our resident theorizing folk process that information in due time, and I will focus on what I do best in the meanwhile – rants. The comment about the first two dungeons caught my attention – it seems to be an indirect confirmation to my earlier difficulty concerns. Whether or not this also means that the dungeons following the first two will be harder remains to be seen. Skyward Sword is right around the corner.
We’ve also updated our core Skyward Sword Walkthrough page to reflect this new discovery. As always it’s only tentative until we can confirm this, but if you head on over to the page you can see how we think this dungeon’s going to be framed in the context of the game.
Thanks to commenter “Makak” for the tip!
