One thing that was a major source of criticism in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was that there were no dungeons. Instead, they were replaced by the Divine Beasts. However, the final pre-launch trailer of Breath of the Wild’s sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, contained some very brief footage that suggested that the dungeons may have been brought back.
Well, it has now been confirmed by Nintendo themselves just a couple of days before the game is slated to release. You see, the company has a series on their website called “Ask the Developer”, where they interview their team’s various developers. At the moment, they are currently in the process of releasing parts of the 9th volume, which has been an interview with multiple people involved with the development of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. There are 5 parts planned to be released, and Nintendo has posted the third part earlier today.
In the third part of the interview, the game developers were asked about dungeons being in the game. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi replied by confirming that, indeed, dungeons are in the game. He said that, although they haven’t talked about them yet, “they’ve changed from the previous game. For example, there is a dungeon that connects directly from Hyrule’s surface. If you dive from the sky straight into the dungeon, you’ll trigger an event. We think this will be a new experience that wasn’t possible in the previous game”.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom technical director Takuhiro Doht elaborated on the matter, saying that “we’ve made dungeons unique to their respective environments, so we think you’ll be able to enjoy the wide variety of regional characteristics”. Lastly, game art director Satoru Takizawa talked about the difficulty of making the dungeons. In fact, he says that “making a ‘wide variety’ was pretty challenging. The four Divine Beasts were the dungeons in the last game, and they shared similar designs. This time, the dungeons are huge and each carry their own regional look and feel, just like traditional The Legend of Zelda games. We think they will provide a satisfying challenge for players. They were certainly a challenge to develop! (Laughs)”.
I love dungeons. Because i like searching everything in tunels. Something like Oblivion/skyrim caves. But botw open world is too big :( twilight princess i love more because is possible find everything in good amouth of time.
Same.
I just wanna say; Don’t think this means we are getting traditional dungeons. Remember the developers considered the 4 Divine Beasts to be “actual dungeons” and technically they were they just weren’t very good.
Obviously we want a return to how they were in games before that time but if they are willing to consider those dungeons it doesn’t mean they are referring to tradition dungeons.
Were they though? I’m not sure Nintendo ever described divine beasts as dungeons.
“Hidemaro Fujibayashi replied by confirming that, indeed, dungeons are in the game. He said that, although they haven’t talked about them yet, “they’ve changed from the previous game.”
This quote at least implies that they’ve changed. So, they’re different than divine beasts, hopefully a bit more like traditional Zelda dungeons.
+Mike
It says in the article that Satoru Takizawa called the Divine Beasts Dungeons so yes, they do consider The Divine Beasts Dungeons.
And yeah I have no doubt that they will be different from the last game but them being different =/= Traditional dungeons.
He also says a regional feel “just like traditional Zelda’s”. I’m sure it’s not 1 to 1, but a big upgrade from Botw “dungeons”.
+Mike
Question: What exactly is a “Zelda Dungeon” to you?
Guys, how about we wait and then complain. We have no idea how those dungeons will be.
Imagine reading two people peacefully discuss their worries and cautiousness before hyping something a dev said and taking it as complaining.
How bout you ignore it lol
+TinManTim500
Abit uncalled for, not gonna lie. It’s not like we was complaining or throwing a hissy fit. Maybe just leave us be?
Why did you put that crucial spoiler in the headline? I didn’t know this. Thanks for spoiling it.
+link2metroid
I don’t get it, Why is this a big deal? Every Zelda game has dungeons.
Pretty sure at least two different dungeons were shown during that last trailer. Besides, dungeons are a series staple- have been since the beginning; I think it’s reasonable to assume they will be in any mainline Zelda.
+Brrrrrisky
Glad to see I’m not the only person here that thinks people are over-reacting.
Well, there’s a surprise ruined. Thanks for that headline.
+CFG
No way…a Zelda game has dungeons!? Who could have guessed?
Don’t be oblivious. This is a sequel to BOTW which was the first Zelda game that didn’t have dungeons. It was one of it’s bigger criticisms.
It’s OBVIOUS that people were wondering if TOTK would add dungeons back or not.
Personally, I was expecting that they weren’t and this would have been a nice surprise to discover while playing the game.
Or, worse yet, this game doesn’t actually have full dungeons again and now I’m going to be disappointed if I encounter areas like the Divine Beasts again.
To each their own but I can say that this headline has a negative impact my own experience.
You’re being dramatic. Every Zelda (including BotW) has had dungeons: shrines are mini-dungeons and Divine Beasts are a different take on dungeons in the new “open-air” format.
TotK will obviously have some kind of dungeon, so the title is far from a spoiler. I don’t know why you assumed there wouldn’t be dungeons in this game after every single Zelda game has had them.
+CFG
I’m not oblivious, Zelda BOTW also had dungeons, they were just presented in a different manner. Now were they good dungeons? Not really, not saying they were, but to be all surprised Pikachu Face about this game having dungeons is more in line with being oblivious.
I mean hell, Zelda Twilight Princess literally had a “dungeon” that took place in the sky with another taking place in a snowly mansion and yet people still considered those as “dungeons”.
The criticism for Zelda BOTW wasn’t that there was no dungeons, it’s just that the dungeons sucked, if anything you should be happy they said they are improving them, not being all mopey about it.
BOTW didn’t have dungeons. They had the Divine Beasts. I would argue that one of the core aspects of a “dungeon” in a Zelda game is that the player progresses through each one before engaging in the endgame. BOTW’s Divine Beasts were not required to progress to beat the campaign.
Let’s not be oblivious here… BOTW removed dungeons and replaced them with Shrines and the Divine Beasts. Whether that was for better or for worse is up to each player to decide.
I might add that TOTK has been shown to take place in the same Hyrule that BOTW took place in. It’s absolutely reasonable to wonder if “dungeons” will be in the sequel as that would mean additions of locations that weren’t available or even present in BOTW.
And if you play oblivious for a third time replying to this, don’t expect me to engage. Yes, if you’re going to expect everyone to automatically accept Shrines and the Divine Beasts as just “not good dungeons” instead of alternatives with significant differences to past Zelda dungeons, then you are being purposely oblivious and I can only interpret that as being antagonistic so… I won’t bother responding for a third time.
+CFG
Let me ask this; What is a Zelda Dungeon to you?
+CFG
Zelda Twilight Princess has a “dungeon” that takes place in the sky, Zelda The Wind Waker has a dungeon that takes place in a tower, and Zelda A Link to the Past has a dungeon that takes place in a Thief’s town and a swamp. If all of these, as well as many others I didn’t list, can be counted as dungeons then I fail to see why shrines and divine beasts are suddenly not considered dungeons.
And yeah, you don’t have to do the divine beasts to clear the game, I really don’t see how that has anything to do with them being dungeons. Zelda BOTW set out to break the conventions of all past games and being able to challenge the final boss right away was part of that so it really had nothing to do with dungeons. Plus, if I’m being honest, this feels like such a tacked on reason.
At the end of the day, these all share 1 simple goal; You enter an area, solve puzzles, and you get a reward.
Again, I’m not saying Divine Beasts and Shrines are good, although I personally had a ton of fun with specific shrines, but they are undeniably dungeons and even the team that made the game counts them as dungeons so I really don’t see why you over-reacted to this.
I didn’t need to read the headline to know that much, i mean it kinda goes without being said. Everythings considered a spoiler nowadays, in fact just don’t post anything about the game.
But does it have a Zelda in it?