1 00:00:01,079 --> 00:00:04,990 Hi. My name's Mark and this is Boss Keys. 2 00:00:04,990 --> 00:00:11,009 So, I make a YouTube show called Game Maker's Toolkit and an episode I've wanted to make 3 00:00:11,009 --> 00:00:16,080 for a long time is a breakdown of the dungeon design in The Legend of Zelda games. 4 00:00:16,080 --> 00:00:23,619 I think these things are fascinating. They're these twisting, contorting, non-linear maze-like 5 00:00:23,619 --> 00:00:29,090 puzzles boxes filled with enemies and traps. They have terrific boss fights and unique 6 00:00:29,090 --> 00:00:35,440 architecture and the best ones are these gigantic mechanical riddles for you to solve. 7 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:40,409 But if I want to do this episode properly, I'm going to need to revisit every major Zelda 8 00:00:40,409 --> 00:00:45,250 game, and that's going to take hundreds of hours. Which is a lot of research for just 9 00:00:45,250 --> 00:00:46,400 one video. 10 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:51,470 So I thought it might be fun to release a bunch of spin-off episodes as I go. One video 11 00:00:51,470 --> 00:00:56,650 on each Zelda game I play, with my thoughts and findings on the dungeon design in that 12 00:00:56,650 --> 00:00:57,400 game. 13 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:01,460 If you want to follow along, that's cool. If you prefer the more thoroughly researched 14 00:01:01,460 --> 00:01:06,370 and bite sized episodes I usually make, just wait a few months and I'll do a proper episode 15 00:01:06,370 --> 00:01:11,670 of Game Maker's Toolkit featuring everything I've learnt on this subject. 16 00:01:11,670 --> 00:01:17,530 I'm kicking off with The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It's the third Zelda game 17 00:01:17,530 --> 00:01:22,660 but it's where Nintendo really established the formula, and introduced iconic elements 18 00:01:22,660 --> 00:01:26,790 like the master sword, heart pieces, and the hook shot. 19 00:01:26,790 --> 00:01:32,370 Let's start by talking about linearity. Do the dungeons usher you from room to room, 20 00:01:32,370 --> 00:01:37,970 or let you explore their layouts in any way you desire? The answer is that some dungeons 21 00:01:37,970 --> 00:01:43,060 do the former, others do the latter, and some lie in the middle. 22 00:01:43,060 --> 00:01:48,140 Those in the middle include the Eastern Palace: the first proper dungeon in the game. 23 00:01:48,140 --> 00:01:52,710 What you'll notice is that there is only one path you can take through the dungeon. You 24 00:01:52,710 --> 00:01:58,560 have to go up here past these boulders, then around in a big loop to get to this room, 25 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:03,170 then across to this area to get the big key, then it's off to the item chest to get to 26 00:02:03,170 --> 00:02:05,860 the bow, and upstairs to fight the boss. 27 00:02:05,860 --> 00:02:11,690 But the dungeon feels less linear than that, for a number of reasons. One is the number 28 00:02:11,690 --> 00:02:15,880 of optional rooms - this one contains the dungeon map, which isn't essential. And this 29 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:18,290 one just contains a bunch of rupees. 30 00:02:18,290 --> 00:02:22,910 Those rooms - plus the ability to visit rooms that you'll come into later such as this area 31 00:02:22,910 --> 00:02:28,670 where a pair of blocks make a one-way path - give the dungeon a large explorable 32 00:02:28,670 --> 00:02:32,440 space. There are lots of rooms and doors to choose from. 33 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:37,530 Also, keys force you off the critical path. You can't get through this door until you 34 00:02:37,530 --> 00:02:42,920 make a detour off into this room to find a key. Nintendo can modulate difficulty by moving 35 00:02:42,920 --> 00:02:45,540 the key further away from the door. 36 00:02:45,540 --> 00:02:51,950 And finally, the path crisscrosses over the entire dungeon. The bridge is over the boulders 37 00:02:51,950 --> 00:02:57,250 you dodged earlier, the excursion to get the big key sends you in a huge loop around the 38 00:02:57,250 --> 00:03:00,870 dungeon, and the big key makes you backtrack to this room with the giant chest. 39 00:03:00,870 --> 00:03:07,620 All of this obscures the critical path, forcing you to explore to find it. So while the dungeon 40 00:03:07,620 --> 00:03:12,130 essentially guides you along one path, you get the sense that you're making your own 41 00:03:12,130 --> 00:03:14,000 route. Clever stuff. 42 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:19,150 Other dungeons are less prescribed in the way you solve them. The Palace of Darkness 43 00:03:19,150 --> 00:03:23,709 - the fifth dungeon - will see you holding more than one key in your pocket for the first 44 00:03:23,709 --> 00:03:28,650 time in the game. And you can use those keys on multiple locked doors. 45 00:03:28,650 --> 00:03:33,290 What this means is that you can proceed through the dungeon in a truly non-linear way. For 46 00:03:33,290 --> 00:03:38,370 this door, you could use this key, or this key. And then you could open this door or 47 00:03:38,370 --> 00:03:42,239 this door, and use this key, this key, or either of those first two keys. 48 00:03:42,239 --> 00:03:46,940 There's still a predetermined set of rooms you have to visit but having some agency over 49 00:03:46,940 --> 00:03:51,520 your route gives you the real sense that you're making decisions, and you find yourself 50 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:53,580 hitting fewer dead ends. 51 00:03:53,580 --> 00:03:59,170 What's surprising is the number of optional rooms in dungeons of this design. Take this 52 00:03:59,170 --> 00:04:04,810 main floor of Ganon's Keep: you don't need to go in any of these rooms to finish the 53 00:04:04,810 --> 00:04:05,700 dungeon. 54 00:04:05,700 --> 00:04:10,190 And in Misery Mire, there are five keys to find but you can actually solve the entire 55 00:04:10,190 --> 00:04:12,849 dungeon with just two if you know what you're doing. 56 00:04:12,849 --> 00:04:17,459 Of course, you rarely know what you're doing so these unnecessary rooms must be there to 57 00:04:17,459 --> 00:04:23,069 make the dungeon feel bigger and tougher than it truly is, giving you so many keys and locks 58 00:04:23,069 --> 00:04:27,589 and rooms to explore that you feel like a champion puzzle solver when you finish. 59 00:04:27,589 --> 00:04:33,180 Turtle Rock is another dungeon that feels harder than it is. This room has a crazy spaghetti 60 00:04:33,180 --> 00:04:39,029 junction of pipes but in reality you only need to keep track of two of them to succeed. 61 00:04:39,029 --> 00:04:44,270 Some dungeons are completely linear. Especially in your return to Hyrule Castle. You move 62 00:04:44,270 --> 00:04:48,610 from room to room, and all the locked doors are unlocked with keys found in the exact 63 00:04:48,610 --> 00:04:49,490 same room. 64 00:04:49,490 --> 00:04:55,330 But that fits the tone of the story. At this point, Zelda has been kidnapped (again) and you're charging 65 00:04:55,330 --> 00:05:00,389 up Hyrule castle's tower - slashing everything in your way. This is the time for a gauntlet 66 00:05:00,389 --> 00:05:05,169 of enemies as you chase after Zelda. Not pensive puzzle solving and getting lost. 67 00:05:05,169 --> 00:05:09,659 This is the only dungeon like that but you'll find that some dungeons are halfway between 68 00:05:09,659 --> 00:05:15,369 two styles. Desert Palace, the second dungeon, starts relatively non-linear with this massive 69 00:05:15,369 --> 00:05:20,439 opening chamber that has a whopping seven doors to explore, and one more to unlock. 70 00:05:20,439 --> 00:05:24,180 But after that it turns into a straightforward path to the boss. 71 00:05:24,180 --> 00:05:29,270 This gives a sort of ramping tension. You rarely just stumble upon the boss door while 72 00:05:29,270 --> 00:05:34,699 exploring: you get there after a section where you have to move quickly from room to room, fighting 73 00:05:34,699 --> 00:05:39,369 baddies, and amping up the stakes before you go head-to-head with the final monster. 74 00:05:39,369 --> 00:05:43,830 There's a nice moment in The Tower of Hera which reminds us that while Zelda wouldn't 75 00:05:43,830 --> 00:05:49,919 go 3D for seven more years, dungeons in A Link to the Past were already making us think about 76 00:05:49,919 --> 00:05:52,990 the space as a building with verticality. 77 00:05:52,990 --> 00:05:57,749 Because to get to the Moon Pearl, which is in this big chest on floor four, you have to 78 00:05:57,749 --> 00:06:06,439 drop down from the exact right spot on floor five. This puzzle won't bust your noggin, 79 00:06:06,439 --> 00:06:11,699 but it will get you to think about these dungeons as actual 3D spaces. 80 00:06:11,699 --> 00:06:15,279 It's a shame that there aren't more dungeons that really make you think about how they're 81 00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:17,599 put together, in order to navigate them. 82 00:06:17,599 --> 00:06:22,229 But here's a nice set-up that does just that. In the Palace of Darkness you need the orange 83 00:06:22,229 --> 00:06:26,990 blocks to be lowered to get up this staircase. But if you drop them by hitting either this 84 00:06:26,990 --> 00:06:33,559 switch or this switch, it will also raise the blue blocks and stop you getting 85 00:06:33,559 --> 00:06:39,479 to the staircase. So you have to go in a loop around the dungeon and come up from the room to the south. 86 00:06:39,479 --> 00:06:43,759 It's simple but it's an elegant piece of design that encourages you to understand the layout 87 00:06:43,759 --> 00:06:46,319 of the level and it promotes some forward thinking. 88 00:06:46,319 --> 00:06:51,800 A more complicated version of this puzzle comes in the long and winding Ice Palace. 89 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:55,569 It's perhaps the hardest dungeon in the game and then when you finally get to the end you 90 00:06:55,569 --> 00:07:00,020 realise that you need to push this block down the hole and - this time - you need to lower 91 00:07:00,020 --> 00:07:04,789 the blue blocks but that will lift the orange ones and block you. And this time the route 92 00:07:04,789 --> 00:07:08,119 back around is a lot harder to find. 93 00:07:08,119 --> 00:07:12,179 Another dungeon worth mentioning is Skull Woods, which takes place both underground 94 00:07:12,179 --> 00:07:17,960 and overground. It's interesting to see Nintendo toying with the dungeon formula so early in 95 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:23,770 the game. Likewise, Thieve's Town has you leading this girl to a room bathed in light, 96 00:07:23,770 --> 00:07:28,259 where she'll transform into the dungeon's boss, Blind. 97 00:07:28,259 --> 00:07:34,969 So there we have it. 12 dungeons - some straightforward, some twisting, some non-linear. They ask you 98 00:07:34,969 --> 00:07:40,649 to understand the way the dungeon is put together, and they surprise you by breaking with convention. 99 00:07:40,649 --> 00:07:43,050 Overall, it's a strong start for this series. 100 00:07:43,050 --> 00:07:47,740 And the question is - where to next? On to Link's Awakening, or do we jump to Ocarina 101 00:07:47,740 --> 00:07:51,209 of Time? Let me know your thought in the comments below. 102 00:07:51,209 --> 00:07:55,569 Thanks for watching. Boss Keys is made possible thanks to the fine folks at Patreon who are 103 00:07:55,569 --> 00:07:59,339 somehow happy to fund a several month long project to make a 10 minute video about Zelda 104 00:07:59,339 --> 00:08:01,139 games. What a bunch of cool weirdos.