Poll: Do you like dungeons in Zelda?

Akiraking

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I know this sounds a weird question. It must sound like I am saying do you like shooting in Halo or jumping in Mario. Basically I am asking this question as I have been playing through Twilight Princess recently and I got the same feeling that I got in Wind Waker. That feeling was why do I have to go into this dungeon area for an hour of my game time.

The main hub/open/whatever you want to call it world of Zelda has so many things in it. Wind Waker has all these islands to explore and Twilight Princess has secret caves hidden about it. Also there are towns and different races to meet but the game throws up the dungeons as a sort of gate that you must get past to continue the story and get more gadgets to access more of the world and its secrets.

I don't dislike the dungeons in the game, at times they are very creative and fun but I just find that I spend most of my time roaming the open world in search of secrets that the dungeons are kind of against this. They are locked up, offering limited choice in how they are solved and while there is a cool toy to get in one, the actual item is more fun to use when you backtrack to that cave you could not get into or that building you could not climb up.

So do you like the dungeons in Zelda or like me would you prefer if they just dropped the dungeons or built them into the world itself.
 

madwarper

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Yes, I do like the dungeons of Legend of Zelda. If I wanted to play a Metroid-like game, I'd play a Metroid.
And, I do, but that's no reason to try to turn the Legend of Zelda into a Metroid-like game.
 

brtt150

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Generally, I'm okay with them. But I don't like feeling that the bulk of my time is spent in dungeons.
 

Silvanus

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I like them quite a lot, except for those few that infuriate, or drag. I'd count Thieves' Town (of A Link to the Past) and the Water Temple (of OoT) in that category. The Temple of the Ocean King (of Phantom Hourglass) would have been good, had it not forced you to replay sections you've already completed several times throughout the game.

Generally, they're great, and give a good sense of accomplishment upon completion. Those in Skyward Sword seemed rather less fun than those that have come before, but I'm not sure what it was about them.
 

MysticSlayer

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Generally speaking, I'm not a huge fan of the first few dungeons in any Zelda games, but once they get past the whole "training" aspect and excessively short nature of the early dungeons, I really enjoy them. They always offer some really interesting, directed challenges that provide a good distraction for me when I don't feel like exploring the world for a little bit.
 

Scarim Coral

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I'm ok with them eventhought at times it doesn't make sense as in the dungeon should be a fortress to give Link at bay, not his personal playground when he got the new item to test it with!
 

RaikuFA

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Varies. The Water Temple or any variation like in SS or TP or the first half of the Tower of the Gods in WW is just... bad. Some of my favorites have been Misery Mire from LttP, the Forest Temple in TP or nearly all the ones in the Oracle games.
 

Roxas1359

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I love the dungeons in Zelda games, bar a few of them. The Water Temple in Twilight Princess and the Great Bay Temple in Majora's Mask can go and die in a fire; to contrast those two though Stone Tower Temple from Majora's Mask and the Temple of Time from Twilight Princess are some of my favorite dungeons in the series. Skyward Sword had excellent dungeons as well, only marred by either the boss fight or the fact that there was way too much padding in between dungeons.

Overall though, there is always one or two dungeons that I'm not a fan of in Zelda games, but there are mainly ones I enjoy. The only ones I can say I despise more than I like are the ones from The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: Adventure of Link if only because those two games have aged the worst in the entire series in general.
 

Hairless Mammoth

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The dungeons are the meat of a Zelda game. In most of my play throughs, over have the time is spent inside them. I do play some the more rewarding and fun side quests/mini games, especially most of Majora's Mask since that's the one game that dramatically reverses the dungeon/side quest ratio. The mini games and side quests are many times pointless or annoying, unless you either are trying them out for the first time or are going for 100%. (The last 50 Gold Skultulas are the most obvious example. Why spend even more time finding the harder to find gilded arachnids just to get free money at the point where money is worthless? If you need to buy a blue potion or two, you can kill some skull kids for 50 or 100(I forgot which) rupees each or run around collecting money for far less time than it takes to find just a few of the creepy-crawlies.) I only play Twilight Princess's STAR game a second time because I'll pass by it anyway, it's surprisingly easy, and Link gets squeeing fangirls afterwards. I rarely use the extra arrows gained from it.

The overworlds give you a big area to explore and adds life to the game, but the dungeons add the majority of the variety to the game. You spend just enough time in them in the dungeons to absorb the mood they wanted to give off and move to the next area before it gets old. (Well, it might get old if you get stuck.) The overworlds just have 3 or 4 distinct looks to it and they will get old fast without a clear goal for you since more was time spent on details in the dungeons than overworlds. Wind Waker jumps around with this. The Great Sea is big and boring alone, but if you're willing to sail to whatever you see on the horizon, you'll find a smorgasbord of small islands, caves, outposts, and submarines that add some more variety to the endless waves.
madwarper said:
Yes, I do like the dungeons of Legend of Zelda. If I wanted to play a Metroid-like game, I'd play a Metroid.
And, I do, but that's no reason to try to turn the Legend of Zelda into a Metroid-like game.
This right here was the problem with Skyward Sword (besides crappy motion controls fighting you most of the way.) In order to make the overworld more dungeon-like, they had 3 major areas with a bland hub world in the sky connecting them. Even worse, they recycled themes for both dungeon sets that already had aspects from the overworld areas.(Ancient Cistern at least was a prettier water filled temple decorated with lush plants and a contrasting hellscape theme in the basement, compared to Skyview Temple's flooded ruins with overgrowth inside. It got more obvious when the Sandship used the timeshift mechanic and techno-desert motif from the region and Lanaru Mining Facility. Earth Temple and Fire Sanctuary were the worst, being nearly identical. Both are lave filled ruins that could have been one huge complex. The only key difference was you rode a ball lumberjack style in one and rode frozen chunks of lava across the flows in the other. And to put the cherry on top, there was one more mini dungeon that combined them all into 8 rooms, ugh.) They also had to pad out the main quest with stealth, escort, and fetch quest sections in those areas, thanks the the lack of variety.

Having a small number of visually distinct areas works for the Metroid games because a lot of detail is put into them, it adds the overall series' feeling of isolation and the player will usually come back to previously explored rooms with newer abilities to check out those details they couldn't reach before. Skyward Sword tried that but fought with the series' past and failed to have fully utilized Links arsenal, instead opting for those story mandated annoying sections I mentioned. They could have made it work great but, by the end of development, they would have just made a Metroid game with a fantasy theme and an elf in the lead.

On the other side of the fence, one thing that I didn't like about Metroid Prime 2 and 3 (and a little bit of Fusion now that I think about going to each sector one by one) was the repetitive, once an episode structures that most Metroidvanias lack. You go explore a new area, maybe jump back to an old one once you hit a roadblock, if you are not just beginning the game, then work to unlock the boss area (Dark Temples/ Leviathans), fight the boss and get another upgrade immediately afterwards, and then go the next new area that upgrade unlocks. Then at the endgame in all three Primes you had to collect some macguffins to unlosk the final area. (Yes, Prime 3 eased up on it, and a vet could get many off them before they are supposed to start looking.) They basically became Zelda games, just with more death rays and you know where the ancient technology comes from. That didn't make them bad games, but did kinda upset my inner Metroid fan because I had a generally good idea where I'd be going soon when I've never played the game before or seen a guide.

TL;DR: Big N is confusing its franchises' key characteristics again.(Also: Sorry, madwarper, for replying with a wall of text. You just sparked some things in the back of my mind.)
 

giles

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In every Zelda game there is "that one dungeon" I really don't like. I still finish them anyway, though.

Are the dungeons the best part? That's hard to say. Some of them are quite fun to progress through and the game might feel silly without them, but the thing I enjoy the most in any Zelda game is exploring the world. That's why Majora's Mask is my favourite Zelda game. The world is just so rich and full of fun characters I enjoyed simply running around town at different hours to see what everyone was doing.
 

Fox12

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There are a ton of memorable moments in Zelda games. I remember saria in the forest. I remember approaching hyrule castle for the first time, and hearing Malon singing. I remember being locked out of the city on the first night, and getting attacked by zombies. I remember getting eponia, and meeting Zelda, and growing up. In major as mask I remember the side quests and masks. I remember getting the moons tear, and trying to collect everything before the moon fell the first time.

Do you know what I don't remember? The swamp temple, or the water temples, or the generic forest temples. The only moments I remember from them is shadow link and the shadow temple. I wouldn't say I hate the temples, but they're not why I play the game.
 

Guffe

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Well then you will be happy about the new Zelda which apparently will be open world! hoping hoping hoping!!

But yes I like the dungeons, especially the ones that make me think, there are a few I've spent several hours on just trying to find out what to do. Mainly because I didn't read everything some character said or just missed a small deail.

The thing I dislike about them though is when I in the first or second dungeon see a small area somewhere, and then think for myself: I could reach that with a hookshot. Knowing I will have to come here again, that sucks, because often it is only a small chest or then a new boss with just a small corridor leading there and no new challenges.
 

StormShaun

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Feb 1, 2009
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Eh.
Now that is a good question indeed.
From my best experience with a Zelda game, which was Twilight Princess, it was about 50-50.

Many of the dungeons were really fun. I know for a fact that I really liked Lakebed Temple, Arbiter's Grounds, and Snowpeak Ruins. They all had their best parts. Most of the others had their moments but were so-so. The ones I didn't like were the first two, of course this is because it was early in the game. To be honest though, a lot of the fun I had was out of the dungeons. The exploring, the environment, the setting, and characters made it all very good.

I'm going to admit. I want a new Zelda game (on both Wii U and 3DS for fairness) that is mostly like Twilight Princess, but maybe a bit more. All I know is that Twilight Princess was damn good when it came to everything but the controls. Especially the boss battles.

Fun fact: When I first played the game (around the time the Wii just game out), I got to the Faron Woods but stopped for a couple of days when I encountered a Baba Serpent. When I did pick it up, it really felt like a heroic moment when I defeated it. Especially since Link has the Tri-force of courage.
 

Auron225

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All in all, I do like them.

I like them for the intellectual challenge they offer - particularly when great portions of the temple are like a giant puzzle itself (for instance, the Water temple in Skyward Sword was great for that).

I found the DS Zelda dungeons a bit more tedious. They were too easy - each room was a separate challenge from the rest and so it was impossible to make them all that complicated. Also, sometimes the dungeons suffer from another problem - like the Water Temple in OoT. Most of my issues with it stem from the fact that you have you go in and out of the menu every single time you want to float up or sink when in water.

But in general - yeah, I like them.
 

The Squid King

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I overall like the dungeons in the Zelda games. While it is nice to be able to explore a vast world, I also like the more focused, compact challenges that dungeons provide. Dungeons also tend to be more experimental in regards to game mechanics and puzzles than anything found outside of them.
 

MHR

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I often find the puzzles in zelda games tedious. I eventually figure them all out, but it's all a means to get to the boss fight for me.

I consider myself fairly intelligent, I just look forward to seeing the end of the puzzles rather than actually doing them.
 

Liquidprid3

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The dungeons are verrrry hit or miss for me. My main problem is that most if them seem to drag on for far too long. Even the ones I like are dungeons where you need to speed an hour to get any progress, and you can easily fall off a ledge and have to re do a section. This are one of the main reasons that I'm not a big fan of the 3D Zelda's. (I still like them though.)
 

Hero of Lime

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I love them! Not only do they do make them great, but Zelda games are pretty much the only games to have dungeons made around combat, puzzles, and navigation. Which is unfortunate, but I guess it would be hard to compete with at this point. You can just tell a lot of effort goes into most of the dungeons, not all are amazing, but you can find something good about most of them.

I can say the only dungeon I hate in a Zelda game is Jabu Jabu's Belly in Oracle of Ages. It makes the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time look like the Deku Tree in comparison.
 

Rayce Archer

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I like them, except the ones I hate.

Interestingly I really enjoyed the water temple but the forest temple pissed me off super hard. Dunno why. I liked all the dungeons in Majora's Mask. LTTP had OKAY dungeons, although the ones in Awakening were similar but largely better.