Skyward Sword Dungeons: Ancient Cistern
Posted on May 22 2012 by Axle D. Wilder
Alright, time for the fourth Skyward Sword Dungeons entry. Now it’s time to cover the Ancient Cistern, and depending on whether you’ve watched enough of my mailbags and other videos, my opinion about this dungeon may surprise you. This dungeon was the one I anticipated the most before the game came out. When Nintendo first announced the dungeon, my first thought was “meh, it’s just a pretty temple”, though I was pleased that it wasn’t actually identified as yet another temple dungeon. However, when they showed the dark underground area and the Cursed Bokoblins, I got extremely excited, and I definitely wanted to play the Ancient Cistern, expecting it to be my favorite of the game.
Funny how that goes, because it really wasn’t. Not only was the Ancient Cistern my least-favorite dungeon of the game and, in my opinion, objectively the worst, but I also think it’s among the worst of the entire series. Yes this is where my broad praise for the dungeons of Skyward Sword ends… or at least slows; I think there are issues with Skyward Sword’s second half. However, my issues with the Cistern are ones of gameplay, so before I get into them let me continue in the same format as previous posts in this series and first discuss what the dungeon did right: The concept and atmosphere. After you’re done reading, don’t forget to write in the comments with your opinion… especially if you disagree with me! I also apologize for the length… the remaining dungeon posts should be much shorter.
The Ancient Cistern is… well, it’s grand. Hidden behind a waterfall in the very distinct-looking final section of Lake Floria, the Ancient Cistern is Skyward Sword’s “water dungeon”, but thankfully it breaks out of that stereotype quite nicely. I’ve always found it annoying how some Zelda fans treat the “water dungeons” as some distinct breed of dungeon totally different from the others, and I think the Ancient Cistern really proves that idea to be wrong. The dungeon uses water for its theme and setting, but most interaction with it is highly traditional, making the dungeon feel more like any other dungeon than the water dungeons of Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask, which require a lot of thought of a different variety than you need in the rest of the game in order to navigate the underwater areas. The Ancient Cistern feels manageable.
Its grandness really comes into play because it breaks out of the water theme and has numerous other things going on. The buddhism-themed dungeon is laced with gold and filled with water lilies. It looks and feels pristine and sacred. It’s funny that the Ancient Cistern, never referred to as a temple, feels the most like an actual honest-to-god temple than any other dungeon in the entire series. This theme really contrasts with the dungeon’s underground. It’s pretty, pristine, grand, and sacred upper level is disregarded in the Cistern’s basement.
The dark basement is ugly, dirty, shoddy, and profane. It’s presented, again in contrast to the upper level’s buddhist themes, with a traditional depiction of a Japanese hell, and it’s very unique from other creepy areas in a Zelda game because of the way it feels demonic as well as hideous and profane. It feels truly evil, truly unholy. Stylistically, it’s my favorite creepy section of any Zelda game. And yet it goes perfectly with the upper level of the Cistern, and the two sections contrast amazingly for a dynamic, multiple-theme dungeon, which I always get a kick out of.
However, gameplay-wise the dungeon really falls flat. I’ve praised the Skyview Temple, Earth Temple, and Lanayru Mining Facility for original, compelling, and just highly entertaining gameplay. The Skyview Temple has a flawless connection of atmosphere and gameplay, the Earth Temple has great action sequences, and Lanayru Mining Facility is chock full of mindbending puzzles. The Ancient Cistern has… pretty much none of that.
The navigational strategy applied to the Ancient Cistern is less about putting the player through concept-relevant challenges and puzzles that make the area feel legit, and more about a leisurely stroll through a couple of rooms with nonthreatening enemies. This is ironic to say because the dungeon’s miniboss, Stalmaster, was one of the hardest fights for me in the entire game and every time I’m going to fight him I’m incredibly nervous. But aside from him nothing in the dungeon should give you any challenge, including (and especially) the iconic Cursed Bokoblins. But I’ll get to them shortly. The dungeon’s boss Koloktos is often considered the favorite for most gamers, and I agree he’s amazing — he certainly keeps up the game’s strength with boss fights — but I also think he’s the most basic. The format, flow, and progression of the fight is exactly like something you’d see in an older Zelda game. This is not inherently bad (because older Zelda games are generally pretty amazing), but it does automatically make him less “Wow wow wow, this is so incredible! Jeez, I didn’t expect this in Zelda!” for me.
Another major offender here is the puzzles. There is definitely a decent puzzle or two (like the dungeon’s first one), but like most dungeons the Cistern relies a lot on the dungeon item, which, in this case, is acquired very early in the dungeon, making it far more important than usual. Because of this, the Whip is used for a huge portion of the dungeon and it’s used completely uncreatively. You’ll use it for swinging once or twice, which is fun for sure. But the rest of its uses involve fighting the completely nonthreatening Furnixes, and yanking switches that only it can pull, making it into little more than a glorified skeleton key. Couldn’t some of the switches have required some more input, like tiny minigames? Couldn’t the Whip have been more effective against more enemies? Perhaps used to trip or avoid dangerous sentries? Why is it just a freaking key?
And then there’s the basement itself. I just don’t understand why they had to skimp on this area, because it feels like less than half of what it should have been. It was an incredibly small portion of the dungeon, barely enough to even justify it existing. It was also extremely easy. For how scary it was, for how creepy the Cursed Bokoblins were, there was very little threat down there. I wonder why they didn’t milk those enemies for more horror opportunities and made them harder. You might think that these are weird expectations to have of them in a Zelda game, but I remain convinced that this is the direction they were going for. They had the setpiece moments of climbing up the ladder and escaping from the zombies and falling roof. They made it so the Cursed Bokoblins take tons of hits unless you do the Ending Blow, and they have a special weakness to the Sacred Shield to help protect you. Clearly they wanted them to be reminiscent of a horror game, and clearly they were meant to be threatening foes. But they were easier than normal Bokoblins. They should have spawned infinitely, and been much harder to kill. Nintendo should have done more.
Part of me thinks that maybe I’m unfair to this dungeon because I went into it with a lot of expectations. I know that at least on some level that’s true, because on my second playthrough, when I knew what to expect, I had a lot more fun. The difference was that I wasn’t playing through the whole dungeon expecting bigger and better, but just enjoying what was there. That said, I think that, objectively, the problems I’ve listed with the Ancient Cistern are real problems and they held it back from being as great a dungeon as it could — and should — have been. It would not have taken much to make it nearly perfect.
Still, I cannot write it off as completely terrible. Both of its songs (the first is here) are great and carry its atmosphere quite nicely. And considering that I had some fun with it while there exists a dungeon that I’ve never had any fun with on any playthrough in any circumstance, I can’t say it’s the absolute worst. It’s good, it just should have been better.
But tell me your opinion on the Ancient Cistern. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you agree with any of my thoughts or disagree completely? Be sure to leave a comment below, as I’m happy to hear your thoughts and discuss with you! Next time we’ll talk about the Sandship.
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