1 00:00:00,810 --> 00:00:05,890 Hi. My name's Mark and this is Boss Keys. 2 00:00:05,890 --> 00:00:10,560 I'm researching the dungeon design in the Legend of Zelda franchise, to see how Nintendo 3 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:13,500 creates these imaginative spaces. 4 00:00:13,500 --> 00:00:18,279 This time, I'm playing the GameCube and Wii game Twilight Princess - though, I used the 5 00:00:18,279 --> 00:00:22,939 HD remaster on Wii U for this video. 6 00:00:22,939 --> 00:00:27,609 To me, the real strength of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is giving each dungeon 7 00:00:27,609 --> 00:00:32,710 a unique personality and providing iconic moments that stick in your brain. 8 00:00:32,710 --> 00:00:37,770 Moments like waking on the ceiling, skateboarding around a temple, and basically just being 9 00:00:37,770 --> 00:00:39,290 Spider-Man. 10 00:00:39,290 --> 00:00:43,620 These enjoyable moments maybe hide the fact that these dungeons have moved far away from 11 00:00:43,620 --> 00:00:46,860 the intricate level design of classic Zelda. 12 00:00:46,860 --> 00:00:51,580 Or the fact that almost all of the dungeons in this game are eerily similar in their design. 13 00:00:58,860 --> 00:01:01,690 Let me show you what I mean, starting with the Forest Temple. 14 00:01:01,690 --> 00:01:06,590 Here, you work your way into this nice central room, and find three directions that you can 15 00:01:06,590 --> 00:01:12,280 take. Left and up happen to be dead ends so you go right, and explore the east wing of 16 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:17,109 the dungeon to save a monkey. Then you come back to the central room and can now access 17 00:01:17,109 --> 00:01:21,470 the west wing of the dungeon to save more monkeys. You come back to the central room 18 00:01:21,470 --> 00:01:24,969 again, and now have enough monkeys to go up. Okay? 19 00:01:24,969 --> 00:01:32,200 Now, look at City in the Sky. It's the same. And so is Arbiter's Grounds. And Lakebed Temple 20 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:37,700 is almost identical but here, the boss door is in the central room itself. Snowpeak Ruins 21 00:01:37,700 --> 00:01:42,619 and Palace of Twilight have slightly different directions, but this knotted structure where 22 00:01:42,619 --> 00:01:46,409 you come to the central room three times is the same. 23 00:01:46,409 --> 00:01:52,280 And, so, what does this mean? Well, I'm not saying that Nintendo was lazy or that this 24 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:57,819 makes Twilight Princess crap. I mean, I never realised the full extent of their similarities 25 00:01:57,819 --> 00:02:02,799 until I started mapping the dungeons out for this series so it didn't immediately impact 26 00:02:02,799 --> 00:02:05,240 my enjoyment back in 2006. 27 00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:10,049 But it does, perhaps, explain why the dungeons all feel a bit unremarkable, and why we remember 28 00:02:10,049 --> 00:02:15,600 them for their atmosphere, boss fights, and crazy moments, instead of the actual intricacies 29 00:02:15,600 --> 00:02:16,769 of their level design. 30 00:02:16,769 --> 00:02:21,380 It also makes the game feel a bit flat, with no real progression in the complexity of the 31 00:02:21,380 --> 00:02:26,121 game's dungeons. Though, there are a few anomalies: the second dungeon, Goron Mines, is a lot 32 00:02:26,121 --> 00:02:30,240 more linear. And the final dungeon offers a bit more choice. And then there's the Temple 33 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:32,840 of Time which - well, I'll come back to that. 34 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:38,269 Now, this repeated structure - on its own merits - is actually pretty good. I mean, 35 00:02:38,269 --> 00:02:40,750 they replicated it six times for a reason. 36 00:02:40,750 --> 00:02:45,799 For one, it splits the dungeon into small chunks that can be accomplished in isolation. 37 00:02:45,799 --> 00:02:51,319 In one of these chunks you might turn a giant water wheel, track down a ghost, or play with fans. 38 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:57,519 In most cases, those chunks can then safely be ignored altogether once you've finished exploring 39 00:02:57,519 --> 00:03:03,239 that area - which stops the dungeon from ballooning out into this massively complex space that you 40 00:03:03,239 --> 00:03:07,459 need to traverse. There's nothing stopping you from going back to an older chunk, but 41 00:03:07,459 --> 00:03:09,680 nothing pushing you there either. 42 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:14,439 This structure also keeps the player focused on their long-term goal in the central room, 43 00:03:14,439 --> 00:03:18,959 which might involve pouring in water so you can swim to the boss door, defeating poes 44 00:03:18,959 --> 00:03:23,579 to light these four torches, or finding Yeta's bedroom key. 45 00:03:23,579 --> 00:03:28,090 And by repeatedly bringing the player back to that previously explored room, it feels 46 00:03:28,090 --> 00:03:32,799 less linear than just putting the chunks in a big row, one after the other - which is 47 00:03:32,799 --> 00:03:37,329 effectively how you're going to play them. But when set up like this, you get a hint 48 00:03:37,329 --> 00:03:42,689 of that lovely Zelda-like sensation of carefully unpicking a dungeon's knot. 49 00:03:42,689 --> 00:03:47,300 Now, while the layouts are similar, these dungeons do have some tweaks that make 50 00:03:47,300 --> 00:03:51,870 them feel different to play - and a lot of it comes down to the criteria I laid out when 51 00:03:51,870 --> 00:03:57,090 talking about "find the path" and "follow the path" dungeons in the previous episode. 52 00:03:57,090 --> 00:04:02,159 Well, there aren't many branching paths, outside of the multiple doors in those central rooms. 53 00:04:02,159 --> 00:04:06,219 And there aren't many choices to make, outside of some monkey business in the forest temple. 54 00:04:06,219 --> 00:04:09,739 But the backtracking and hand-holding stuff does play a role. 55 00:04:09,739 --> 00:04:14,849 So, I kinda lied about the Forest Temple. Once you get the Gale Boomerang from the north 56 00:04:14,849 --> 00:04:19,609 section, you actually do go back to the east wing to access this final chunk and fight 57 00:04:19,609 --> 00:04:25,589 the boss. And so you have to backtrack to this area and it's up to you to remember where 58 00:04:25,610 --> 00:04:31,270 However! The game does something very simple but rather clever to help you do so. Earlier 59 00:04:31,270 --> 00:04:35,950 in the dungeon, when you're trying to unlock this door, you need to divert from your path 60 00:04:35,950 --> 00:04:40,000 to get a key - which just so happens to be in a room that is otherwise 61 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:44,070 inaccessible because this bridge is facing the wrong way. 62 00:04:44,070 --> 00:04:48,880 Later, you get the Boomerang and use it to twist some bridges, and hopefully you put 63 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:54,889 two and two together and think "aha!", I should check out that room again. So the game placed 64 00:04:54,889 --> 00:05:00,090 a key to ensure every single player has visited that backtracking point, and has the opportunity 65 00:05:00,090 --> 00:05:02,340 to add it to their mental map. 66 00:05:02,340 --> 00:05:03,480 Smart stuff. 67 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:08,390 Lakebed Temple is another dungeon that trusts you to figure stuff out. And this time, it 68 00:05:08,390 --> 00:05:13,180 pulls on the stuff we talked about waaaay back in the Majora's Mask episode, about considering 69 00:05:13,180 --> 00:05:17,389 these dungeons as massive interconnected pieces of architecture. 70 00:05:17,389 --> 00:05:22,490 The central room has a staircase that can be rotated in 90 degree notches. Because of 71 00:05:22,490 --> 00:05:27,900 these walls, you need to twist and climb this staircase carefully to get around them and 72 00:05:27,900 --> 00:05:32,500 access the different doors in the central room. And you need to use the staircase to 73 00:05:32,500 --> 00:05:37,569 send water from one side of the dungeon to the other, because the water turns a waterwheel 74 00:05:37,569 --> 00:05:40,139 that was previously blocking your path. 75 00:05:40,139 --> 00:05:44,740 That's a wonderful eureka moment and part of why Lakebed is my favourite dungeon in 76 00:05:44,740 --> 00:05:45,740 this game. 77 00:05:45,740 --> 00:05:50,290 There's also a brilliant second puzzle where you deliver water to the other side of the 78 00:05:50,290 --> 00:05:54,169 dungeon but it's just for some optional item. That would have been a great place for the 79 00:05:54,169 --> 00:05:55,970 boss key, if you ask me. 80 00:05:55,970 --> 00:06:01,030 Anyway, the other dungeons are far less trusting and essentially guide you through the loopy 81 00:06:01,030 --> 00:06:05,900 structure - a lot like the Temple of Droplets dungeon from Minish Cap, actually, which also 82 00:06:05,900 --> 00:06:07,919 shares this layout. Hmmm. 83 00:06:07,919 --> 00:06:12,670 So yeah, in Arbiter's Grounds, the rooms lead you through the east wing and bring you back 84 00:06:12,670 --> 00:06:17,449 to the central room - but now on the second floor so you can hop on over to the west wing... 85 00:06:17,449 --> 00:06:20,580 where you get lead back around to the central room again. 86 00:06:20,580 --> 00:06:26,819 in Snowpeak Ruins, Yeta literally draws markers on your map to tell you where to go, and she unlocks 87 00:06:26,819 --> 00:06:32,090 one door after the other, which is all, to be honest, a bit crap. And then you get to the 88 00:06:32,090 --> 00:06:35,669 sliding block puzzles and, remind me why people love this dungeon again? 89 00:06:35,669 --> 00:06:42,539 Okay, so using the cannons to smash ice is kinda cool. And the dungeon is less obviously 90 00:06:42,539 --> 00:06:46,990 split into chunks than the others because it's laid out like an actual mansion rather 91 00:06:46,990 --> 00:06:50,340 than four long corridors like most of the other dungeons. 92 00:06:50,340 --> 00:06:55,110 So you'll find yourself skipping back over to previous chunks to pick up a cannonball. 93 00:06:55,110 --> 00:07:00,000 And then getting that cannonball to the cannon involves a tiiiiny bit of spatial reasoning 94 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:03,099 which... well, i'll take what I can get at this point in the Zelda series. 95 00:07:03,099 --> 00:07:08,310 Sadly, the cannon stuff is pretty quickly sidelined when you get the key item: the Ball 96 00:07:08,310 --> 00:07:11,730 and Chain which is used to waste enemies and smash ice. 97 00:07:11,730 --> 00:07:15,669 Generally, though, Twilight Princess does a good job of showing you the benefits of 98 00:07:15,669 --> 00:07:20,080 each dungeon's item by giving you enemies that are a pain to kill with your current 99 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:27,480 tools - and then effortless to defeat with the new item. And the item also lets you get around 100 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:31,479 the dungeon more easily: the Clawshot, for example, makes the central room of the Lakebed 101 00:07:31,479 --> 00:07:34,090 Temple easier to traverse. 102 00:07:34,090 --> 00:07:39,949 Right. Temple of Time. Surprisingly, I don't hate this dungeon! Commenters kept betting 103 00:07:39,949 --> 00:07:43,409 that I would because it is completely linear but the dungeon is interesting because it 104 00:07:43,409 --> 00:07:48,589 leans heavily into that linearity. It does something interesting with its straightforward design. 105 00:07:48,589 --> 00:07:52,900 So you go through the whole thing, solving some puzzles and killing enemies. until you 106 00:07:52,909 --> 00:07:57,480 get to the end where you kill the mini boss, get the dominion rod, and then take control 107 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:03,110 of this massive statue. Now, the goal is to bring the statue back to the beginning of 108 00:08:03,110 --> 00:08:07,250 the dungeon - now doing all the puzzles in reverse and taking into account that you have 109 00:08:07,250 --> 00:08:13,400 to guide this heavy statue. It's not massively challenging. but it is clever, it is interesting, 110 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:17,120 and by golly it is different. Lots of bonus points, right there. 111 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:21,350 And Twilight Princess does have some good puzzles! In Arbiter's Grounds it sets up this 112 00:08:21,350 --> 00:08:26,340 system where you pull a chain to lift a chandelier, and then run under it before it smashes down 113 00:08:26,340 --> 00:08:30,740 on your head. Later, you do the same thing but just wind up at a dead end. You've got 114 00:08:30,740 --> 00:08:35,440 to figure out that you need to drop the chandelier on your bonce so you can climb up on top. 115 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:40,360 That's a good'un. I also really liked these swinging platforms in Snowpeak that you bat 116 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:44,350 about with the Ball and Chain. Better than a sliding block puzzle! 117 00:08:44,350 --> 00:08:49,470 I haven't shown any graphs in this episode because, frankly, they're pretty boring in 118 00:08:49,470 --> 00:08:54,320 Twilight Princess. Forest Temple is probably the most interesting but, for the most part, 119 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:57,690 the graphs all look the same. Which makes sense. 120 00:08:57,690 --> 00:09:01,760 In the Wind Waker episode I talked about warp pots, which help you get from the beginning 121 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:06,140 of the dungeon, to the middle, or to the boss door. Twilight Princess doesn't have any of 122 00:09:06,140 --> 00:09:10,510 that stuff: probably because the looping structure means everything is pretty close to the central 123 00:09:10,510 --> 00:09:15,670 room anyway. But more so because if you die, the game just lets you retry from the last 124 00:09:15,670 --> 00:09:19,380 door you went through, rather than kicking you to the beginning of the dungeon. 125 00:09:19,380 --> 00:09:23,760 Which, well, let's not get into a whole thing on Nintendo and difficulty. But I will say 126 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:29,070 that the bosses in this game are easier than ever. They all use the key item from the dungeon, 127 00:09:29,070 --> 00:09:33,220 which makes them a bit trivial, and they all telegraph moves and highlight their weak points 128 00:09:33,220 --> 00:09:37,780 super clearly. Oh, and this one is a total Shadow of the Colossus rip-off, right? 129 00:09:37,780 --> 00:09:38,780 Bit cheeky. 130 00:09:38,780 --> 00:09:44,220 Commenters ask me to talk about the atmosphere and aesthetics of the dungeons. and so, here we go: 131 00:09:44,560 --> 00:09:48,480 They're good! Right? They look nice, they look different from one another, the 132 00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:53,060 music's good, and you can pretend that the Zelda games have some kind of connected universe 133 00:09:53,060 --> 00:09:57,560 or lore or whatever by noticing all of the interesting similarities to the Ocarina of 134 00:09:57,560 --> 00:09:59,070 Time dungeons. 135 00:09:59,070 --> 00:10:05,410 But yeah, Twilight Princess. I think these dungeons are pretty good. Inoffensive, at 136 00:10:05,410 --> 00:10:09,790 least. They hide their simplicity better than The Wind Waker, and are full of those 137 00:10:09,790 --> 00:10:10,910 memorable moments. 138 00:10:10,910 --> 00:10:16,500 But this is, ultimately, a long way from where we started. This video series is about how 139 00:10:16,510 --> 00:10:22,660 Nintendo builds intricately designed spaces, with clever architectural puzzles and interconnected 140 00:10:22,660 --> 00:10:27,360 layouts that test your spatial awareness. And at this point... finding anything that 141 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:30,540 speaks to that legacy is like picking for scraps. 142 00:10:30,540 --> 00:10:35,670 Oh well. Next time on Boss Keys, grab your sword and grab your stylus because we're going 143 00:10:35,670 --> 00:10:40,690 to find out how making your own maps affects the dungeon design of The Legend of Zelda: 144 00:10:40,690 --> 00:10:44,610 Phantom Hourglass. And maybe Spirit Tracks. We'll see. 145 00:10:44,610 --> 00:10:48,420 Boss Keys is made possible thanks to all of my supporters on Patreon.