Tag: dungeon week

Dungeons and Zelda go hand in hand. They are like Link and Princess Zelda, Kafei and Anju, and Revali and his pride — one would not be complete without the other! Throughout the past 37 (whoa!) years of Zelda, we have seen a plethora of unique dungeons and temples in each entry in the series. These dungeons have always been a staple throughout each adventure in Hyrule, and they often pose challenges for our favorite green-clad hero, giving him the…

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…

We’ve all been there — a frustratingly hard dungeon you’ve spent hours in and still can’t seem to get anywhere. The repetition of the music, the feeling like you’re lost in the woods, walking in circles… it’s maddening. You’ve exhausted yourself, tried everything you can think of and then again for good measure, but you just can’t solve that puzzle, find that item. Finally you cave, and look up a guide. So much for completing that without aid, right? And…

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…

Breath of the Wild took the traditional Zelda mold and flipped it on its head. Probably the biggest thing missing from Breath of the Wild were traditional dungeons. In lieu of dungeons like Eagle’s Tower, The Water Temple, or Ancient Cistern, we were given four dungeon-like beasts to tame and free from the control of Calamity Ganon. They worked more like larger Shrine puzzles in which the player had to unlock four terminals to reach the beast’s heart and then challenge…

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…

In the 2019 remake of Link’s Awakening, Nintendo added a unique feature that we’ve never seen before in previous titles. By visiting Dampe’s Shack, the game allowed players to create and customize dungeons to their heart’s content. Personally, I’m very surprised this feature never appeared before then. With the success of the Super Mario Maker titles, it seems like an obvious addition with lots of potential, especially for the 2D games. They could even make an entire game based around…

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…

The idea of completing dungeons in any order may have seemed novel in the lead-up to Breath of the Wild, but that game was not the first in the series to do it. There are quite a few titles in the franchise which allow players to tackle dungeons in various orders, going back all the way to the first. Contrary to popular belief, however, The Legend of Zelda does not allow players to complete any dungeon in any order. Level 3,…

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…