WEBVTT 00:00:02.790 --> 00:00:08.210 Hi. My name’s Mark and this is Boss Keys - a series about the dungeon design in the Legend 00:00:08.210 --> 00:00:09.420 of Zelda games. 00:00:09.420 --> 00:00:11.930 We’re almost at the end of this journey. 00:00:11.930 --> 00:00:16.470 But before we finish this series - I wanted to go back to where it all began, and look 00:00:16.470 --> 00:00:18.900 at the very first two Zelda games. 00:00:18.900 --> 00:00:20.420 Well, actually I didn’t want to. 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:23.849 But, I got a lot of requests to include these games, so here we are. 00:00:23.849 --> 00:00:26.730 If this episode sucks, it’s your fault. 00:00:26.730 --> 00:00:29.090 So let’s start with The Legend of Zelda. 00:00:29.090 --> 00:00:33.710 This game was made as in attempt to capture designer Shigeru Miyamoto’s childhood experiences 00:00:33.710 --> 00:00:35.450 of exploring the Japanese countryside. 00:00:35.450 --> 00:00:40.960 So the game is mysterious and surprising - it begs you to simply wander off from the starting 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:44.150 screen and explore this strange, sprawling landscape. 00:00:44.150 --> 00:00:48.260 Oh, and hopefully find eight pieces of the triforce and save princess Zelda. 00:00:48.260 --> 00:00:50.920 You’ll get those pieces in the dungeons. 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:56.390 Yes, right back in the very first game, Zelda was split between the overworld and the underworld, 00:00:56.390 --> 00:01:00.460 and had you exploring a number of underground mazes where you’d fight a boss and get a 00:01:00.460 --> 00:01:02.420 new piece of the triforce. 00:01:02.420 --> 00:01:06.630 And these labyrinths absolutely established a lot of the ideas that would go on to define 00:01:06.630 --> 00:01:08.790 a Zelda dungeon in future games. 00:01:08.790 --> 00:01:14.890 Every one of these mazes has a boss, an item, a map, a compass, and a bunch of small keys 00:01:14.890 --> 00:01:16.430 and locks. 00:01:16.430 --> 00:01:21.381 And while almost every room is a tricky combat challenge, the real goal is just finding your 00:01:21.381 --> 00:01:22.390 way to the exit. 00:01:22.390 --> 00:01:26.950 You’ll notice that the rooms are not laid out in a linear fashion, but are interconnected 00:01:26.950 --> 00:01:30.670 and littered with locked doors and obstacles, which means you’ll need to be careful to 00:01:30.670 --> 00:01:35.000 not get lost, and must go on the hunt for things like keys and items. 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:40.080 Unfortunately, pretty much everything Zelda 1 established in terms of dungeons, was quite... 00:01:40.080 --> 00:01:41.080 unrefined. 00:01:41.080 --> 00:01:44.729 And most of this stuff would get rethought and fixed up in later games. 00:01:44.729 --> 00:01:46.799 Take the keys. 00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:48.830 Every Zelda game has small keys. 00:01:48.830 --> 00:01:53.580 They can be used on any normal door, but they disappear as soon as you use them. 00:01:53.580 --> 00:01:58.220 In a typical Zelda game, these keys are restricted to the dungeon where you find them - but that’s 00:01:58.220 --> 00:02:03.640 not true in Zelda 1, where a key can be used in any door in the entire game. 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:08.090 And, predictably, this leads to all kinds of messy situations. 00:02:08.090 --> 00:02:11.790 It most often means that you have more keys than you need. 00:02:11.790 --> 00:02:15.319 There are several dungeons with excess keys, and plenty of locked rooms that you never 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:19.359 need to unlock because they just contain optional items like the compass or a hint. 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:23.480 So that means you might saunter into a dungeon with a handful of keys already in your pocket, 00:02:23.480 --> 00:02:25.519 making the dungeon a bit of a cakewalk. 00:02:25.519 --> 00:02:29.799 That’s not ideal, but it’s much better than walking into a dungeon and finding yourself 00:02:29.799 --> 00:02:35.129 with not enough keys - which can happen if you unlock every door you come across, or 00:02:35.129 --> 00:02:36.840 don’t explore every dungeon thoroughly. 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:40.909 And there are dungeons where there aren’t enough keys in the dungeon itself to open 00:02:40.909 --> 00:02:42.109 all the doors. 00:02:42.109 --> 00:02:43.659 Take Level 6. 00:02:43.659 --> 00:02:47.980 If you walk into the dungeon with no keys, you’ll immediately pick up one key and be 00:02:47.980 --> 00:02:49.620 faced with two locked doors. 00:02:49.620 --> 00:02:54.310 The one on the right merely leads to a hint room and then... well, you’re screwed. 00:02:54.310 --> 00:02:57.709 It’s either back to an earlier dungeon to hunt down a key. 00:02:57.709 --> 00:02:58.709 Ugh. 00:02:58.709 --> 00:03:00.200 Or you can buy one from the shop. 00:03:00.200 --> 00:03:04.560 Which feels like a bit of a messy fix, and these keys are super expensive, which sucks 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:06.799 when rupees are so quite hard to come by. 00:03:06.799 --> 00:03:11.450 Ultimately, Zelda dungeons just work best as self contained spaces - so the change to 00:03:11.450 --> 00:03:15.609 restrict a small key to the dungeon where you found it, was a good decision. 00:03:15.609 --> 00:03:18.400 Here’s something else that later Zelda games fixed. 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:23.590 In Zelda 1, many dungeons let you finish the level without ever picking up the key item. 00:03:23.590 --> 00:03:28.279 In Level 1, it’s really easy to just completely miss the bow and arrow, and you might not 00:03:28.279 --> 00:03:33.510 even realise you did until Level 6, where you need the arrows to kill this spider boss. 00:03:33.510 --> 00:03:37.150 Now, the solution to this problem can be found... in the game itself. 00:03:37.150 --> 00:03:41.169 In another dungeon, the fourth one, you can’t get to the boss room because of this water. 00:03:41.169 --> 00:03:44.859 So you need to find the stepladder, elsewhere in the dungeon, to advance. 00:03:44.859 --> 00:03:50.409 It’s a simple solution to ensure that everyone who finished level 4 has found the stepladder. 00:03:50.409 --> 00:03:53.919 But this still wasn’t fully implemented even in Link to the Past where you can finish 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:56.709 the Tower of Hera without picking up the Moon Pearl. 00:03:56.709 --> 00:04:00.089 It wasn’t until Link’s Awakening that Nintendo established that you’d need to 00:04:00.089 --> 00:04:02.779 get the dungeon’s item to reach the boss room. 00:04:02.779 --> 00:04:03.959 Which makes a lot of sense. 00:04:03.959 --> 00:04:09.409 By all means, let less observant players go straight past optional items, like the magic 00:04:09.409 --> 00:04:13.469 rod, upgraded candle, power ring, bible, and magical key. 00:04:13.469 --> 00:04:17.290 But if the player needs to get an item to finish the game, then don’t let them leave 00:04:17.290 --> 00:04:20.030 dungeon three without the raft. 00:04:20.030 --> 00:04:21.480 This brings us onto bombs. 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:24.440 And this is where things start getting really messy. 00:04:24.440 --> 00:04:28.040 One complaint that’s often levelled at Zelda 1 is that you need to burn every bush and 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:29.540 bomb every wall. 00:04:29.540 --> 00:04:34.240 Unlike later Zelda games where you can clearly see which walls can be blown up, in Zelda 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:37.260 1, destructible walls just look like normal walls. 00:04:37.260 --> 00:04:41.810 And yes, it’s true that pretty much every screen on the overworld hides some kind of 00:04:41.810 --> 00:04:42.810 secret room. 00:04:42.810 --> 00:04:47.480 But there’s only one bush you HAVE to burn - the entrance to dungeon 8 - and one wall 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:52.250 you HAVE to blow up - the entrance to dungeon 9 - and they are both hinted at. 00:04:52.250 --> 00:04:54.310 Everything else, though, is optional. 00:04:54.310 --> 00:04:58.570 You do want the goodies because things like heart containers and extra rupees are tremendously 00:04:58.570 --> 00:05:00.540 helpful - but they’re not critical. 00:05:00.540 --> 00:05:03.090 In the dungeons, though, it’s a different story. 00:05:03.090 --> 00:05:07.250 So in the first four dungeons, there are walls you can blow up to make shortcuts, bypass 00:05:07.250 --> 00:05:11.080 locked doors, and even discover secret rooms like this hidden stash of rupees. 00:05:11.080 --> 00:05:12.080 That’s cool. 00:05:12.080 --> 00:05:13.970 But, again, they’re optional. 00:05:13.970 --> 00:05:18.610 But in the later dungeons, you have to blow up random walls just to get to the boss. 00:05:18.610 --> 00:05:23.190 And this can be a maddening experience of wasting bombs, and grinding for extra ones, 00:05:23.190 --> 00:05:27.140 and basically having to draw out a map just to mark down which walls you have and have 00:05:27.140 --> 00:05:28.560 not tried to blow up. 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:31.890 Now, okay, let me give Nintendo a small bit of credit. 00:05:31.890 --> 00:05:34.200 In the fifth dungeon, you get locked in this room. 00:05:34.200 --> 00:05:35.690 You get given some bombs. 00:05:35.690 --> 00:05:39.040 And you can see from the map, if you’ve picked it up, that there’s a room to your left. 00:05:39.080 --> 00:05:43.840 So the only way to advance is to figure out that you need to blow up a hole in the left wall. 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:48.700 This is basically your tutorial - a way for Nintendo to say “hey, from now on, you might 00:05:48.710 --> 00:05:51.030 have to blow up walls just to get through the dungeon”. 00:05:51.030 --> 00:05:52.500 So at least you are warned. 00:05:52.500 --> 00:05:54.640 But it’s not much of a consolation, really. 00:05:54.640 --> 00:05:58.420 In dungeon 7, you need to blow holes in four different walls to get to the boss. 00:05:58.420 --> 00:06:01.750 And the first room you blow your way into isn’t even shown on the map - it’s just 00:06:01.750 --> 00:06:02.860 a hole! 00:06:02.860 --> 00:06:06.080 This is a tremendously bad bit of design, if you ask me. 00:06:06.080 --> 00:06:09.740 And couple this with Zelda’s 1’s clumsy “puzzle” design, and I’m using like 00:06:09.740 --> 00:06:14.200 19 pairs of quotes around puzzle - where you have to push one random block in the room, 00:06:14.200 --> 00:06:17.550 but only after all the enemies are dead, and you’ve got a recipe for a dungeon that goes 00:06:17.550 --> 00:06:20.830 beyond challenging, to just unfair, and silly. 00:06:20.830 --> 00:06:26.770 Look, I’ll defend the overworld design of Zelda 1 forever, but some of these later dungeons 00:06:26.770 --> 00:06:27.770 just suck. 00:06:27.770 --> 00:06:31.310 I can appreciate this game for laying the ground work for how dungeons would work in 00:06:31.310 --> 00:06:35.520 the Zelda series - but I’m glad to see that Nintendo changed and fixed pretty much everything 00:06:35.520 --> 00:06:38.400 about them in later games. 00:06:39.500 --> 00:06:42.060 Right. Zelda 2. (Epilepsy Warning: Footage Contains Some Flashing Images) 00:06:42.060 --> 00:06:43.890 Zelda 2 is a weird game. 00:06:43.890 --> 00:06:48.610 It’s now a side scrolling platformer, with a dedicated jump button no less. 00:06:48.610 --> 00:06:53.240 Except when you’re on the top-down overworld - which has random battles, like Final Fantasy. 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:57.340 It’s got intensely precise sword fighting combat, and magic spells. 00:06:57.340 --> 00:07:01.110 There’s experience points and levelling - which inevitably means grinding. 00:07:01.110 --> 00:07:02.870 And it’s punishingly difficult. 00:07:02.870 --> 00:07:04.700 Just... brutally hard. 00:07:04.700 --> 00:07:09.280 But while pretty much everything it did would be forgotten by later games - it’s not totally 00:07:09.280 --> 00:07:11.320 unrecognisable as a Zelda game. 00:07:11.320 --> 00:07:16.180 In fact, the move towards a more linear structure and the inclusion of small quests you must 00:07:16.180 --> 00:07:19.610 complete between dungeons would filter into future games. 00:07:19.610 --> 00:07:24.680 And the dungeons are still non-linear, interconnected, and have series staples like a boss, small 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:26.830 keys and locked doors, and a key item. 00:07:26.830 --> 00:07:28.260 No map or compass though. 00:07:28.260 --> 00:07:32.360 So if we look at the first dungeon, Parapa Palace, we can see that the path to the boss 00:07:32.360 --> 00:07:37.510 room, and the path and the key item - a candle - are locked behind various doors and so we’ll 00:07:37.510 --> 00:07:40.510 need to explore other rooms to find keys. 00:07:40.510 --> 00:07:44.580 Annoyingly, Zelda 2 has a habit of putting keys off at the end of a long hallway, and 00:07:44.580 --> 00:07:47.889 then - once you get it - you just have to walk all the way back. 00:07:47.889 --> 00:07:52.740 This is the worst kind of backtracking - and would later be solved by loops in the level design. 00:07:52.760 --> 00:07:56.520 Now, Zelda 2 did try to fix a few issues from Zelda 1. 00:07:56.520 --> 00:08:00.040 Each dungeon now has the right number of keys and locks. 00:08:00.040 --> 00:08:03.740 Which means dungeons are now self contained sections, with no intention for you to carry 00:08:03.740 --> 00:08:06.101 keys from one dungeon to the next. 00:08:06.101 --> 00:08:09.460 Hey, I could even make graphs for these dungeons if I wanted to, and they’d almost look like 00:08:09.460 --> 00:08:11.070 normal Zelda dungeons. 00:08:11.070 --> 00:08:14.380 Zelda 1 on the other hand is like "what is going on..." 00:08:14.380 --> 00:08:19.190 But you can still use keys in different dungeons so if you start sequence breaking you could 00:08:19.190 --> 00:08:21.310 potentially screw things up? 00:08:21.310 --> 00:08:22.310 Maybe? I dunno. 00:08:22.310 --> 00:08:26.100 Either way, it’s still a half step towards the proper solution. 00:08:26.100 --> 00:08:30.889 Also, you can still leave the dungeon without the item in most cases. 00:08:30.889 --> 00:08:34.909 Only one dungeon, the second one, puts an obstacle in your way that forces you to get 00:08:34.909 --> 00:08:36.860 the item before facing the boss. 00:08:36.860 --> 00:08:41.089 But at least the dungeons turn to ruins on the overworld if you have both found the item 00:08:41.089 --> 00:08:45.140 and killed the boss, so you won’t backtrack into old areas unnecessarily. 00:08:45.140 --> 00:08:47.110 Again, it’s a half step. 00:08:47.110 --> 00:08:51.220 Also, Zelda 2 still lets you go into dungeons without the necessary gear. 00:08:51.220 --> 00:08:55.820 I hope you found the somewhat secret upward thrust move from Darunia Town, otherwise you’ll 00:08:55.820 --> 00:08:57.910 be screwed when you get to this room. 00:08:57.910 --> 00:09:01.649 And I hope you have the reflect spell and the thunder spell before fighting the bosses 00:09:01.649 --> 00:09:05.629 of dungeons four and seven, respectively, or it’s game over. 00:09:05.629 --> 00:09:09.890 Finally, the game has no bombs at all - so you don’t have to worry about that - but 00:09:09.890 --> 00:09:13.870 there’s still a secret wall you have to walk through because, why not, eh? 00:09:13.870 --> 00:09:17.930 Really, though, the dungeons in Zelda 2 are not all that difficult to navigate. 00:09:17.930 --> 00:09:22.499 They’re mostly quite small, and the only thing to worry about is keys and locks - there 00:09:22.499 --> 00:09:25.139 are basically no other puzzles or obstacles. 00:09:25.139 --> 00:09:29.220 And as soon as the dungeons get much bigger, you unlock a magic key which means that you 00:09:29.220 --> 00:09:31.730 don’t even need to look for keys in the last two dungeons. 00:09:31.730 --> 00:09:34.990 You may lose your bearings, simply because everything looks so damn similar. 00:09:34.990 --> 00:09:36.540 Zelda 1 had that problem too. 00:09:36.540 --> 00:09:40.519 But as long as you keep a quick map of the dungeon - mental or otherwise - I think you’ll 00:09:40.519 --> 00:09:41.540 be fine. 00:09:41.540 --> 00:09:46.100 But it’s the demanding combat, the invisible pits, getting knocked back into lava, going 00:09:46.100 --> 00:09:49.339 into pointless dead ends, and so on, that will truly challenge you. 00:09:49.339 --> 00:09:53.279 And if you die too many times, you’ve got to go all the way back to the very first screen, 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:55.029 because screw you. 00:09:55.029 --> 00:09:59.160 All of which makes you not want to explore because it’s so fraught with danger and 00:09:59.160 --> 00:10:00.160 frustration. 00:10:00.160 --> 00:10:04.329 Zelda games would eventually learn that more linear dungeons can have difficult fights, 00:10:04.329 --> 00:10:08.769 but more open and exploratory levels would have fewer enemies so as to not frustrate 00:10:08.769 --> 00:10:10.899 you during the backtracking. 00:10:10.899 --> 00:10:12.569 So, there we have it. 00:10:12.569 --> 00:10:15.990 Zelda 1 and 2 both set the groundwork for the franchise. 00:10:15.990 --> 00:10:19.720 But it’s clear that Nintendo made some mistakes when designing the dungeons for these early 00:10:19.720 --> 00:10:23.309 games - and it wasn’t until A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening that these issues 00:10:23.309 --> 00:10:24.509 were fixed. 00:10:24.509 --> 00:10:26.370 Those games added actual puzzles. 00:10:26.370 --> 00:10:29.810 They made the dungeons much more distinct from one another, and the individual rooms 00:10:29.810 --> 00:10:31.190 more unique also. 00:10:31.190 --> 00:10:35.379 And they introduced more elements to keep track of, like a big key or more obstacles 00:10:35.379 --> 00:10:38.269 that could only be overcome with the dungeon’s new item. 00:10:38.269 --> 00:10:43.100 Then, Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask brought those ideas into the third dimension. 00:10:43.100 --> 00:10:47.740 Suddenly, dungeons weren’t just sprawling mazes but intricate 3D spaces that unlocked 00:10:47.740 --> 00:10:49.430 like a puzzle box. 00:10:49.430 --> 00:10:53.970 On handheld, another developer, Capcom, confidently explored different dungeon designs in the 00:10:53.970 --> 00:10:55.999 Oracle games and Minish Cap. 00:10:55.999 --> 00:11:00.209 Meanwhile, on console, Nintendo decided to make the dungeons easier to navigate in Wind 00:11:00.209 --> 00:11:05.579 Waker and Twilight Princess, as they focused more on individual puzzles, combat, and memorable 00:11:05.579 --> 00:11:06.579 moments. 00:11:06.579 --> 00:11:11.129 The DS games followed suit, but the Temple of the Ocean King in Phantom Hourglass and 00:11:11.129 --> 00:11:15.509 the Tower of Spirits in Spirit Tracks gave Zelda players something new, with dungeons 00:11:15.509 --> 00:11:18.329 that you’d revisit over the course of the adventure. 00:11:18.329 --> 00:11:22.710 And Skyward Sword helped Nintendo return to brain-busting architectural puzzles, with 00:11:22.710 --> 00:11:27.350 places like the time-travelling Sandship and the shifting rooms of Sky Keep. 00:11:27.350 --> 00:11:31.999 On 3DS, Nintendo would start to rethink the Zelda formula entirely, with the non-linear 00:11:31.999 --> 00:11:33.190 A Link Between Worlds. 00:11:33.190 --> 00:11:37.269 Which, in retrospect, was a dress rehearsal for the most radically different Zelda game 00:11:37.269 --> 00:11:38.529 ever made. 00:11:38.529 --> 00:11:43.879 Part retro throwback, part modern masterpiece, Breath of the Wild is a complete reinvention 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:48.820 of the Zelda formula and it will be the focus of the final episode, of Boss Keys.