The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past's dungeon design | Boss Keys

Hi. My name's Mark and this is Boss Keys.

So, I make a YouTube show called Game Maker's
Toolkit and an episode I've wanted to make

for a long time is a breakdown of the dungeon
design in The Legend of Zelda games.

I think these things are fascinating. They're
these twisting, contorting, non-linear maze-like

puzzles boxes filled with enemies and traps.
They have terrific boss fights and unique

architecture and the best ones are these gigantic
mechanical riddles for you to solve.

But if I want to do this episode properly,
I'm going to need to revisit every major Zelda

game, and that's going to take hundreds of
hours. Which is a lot of research for just

one video.

So I thought it might be fun to release a
bunch of spin-off episodes as I go. One video

on each Zelda game I play, with my thoughts
and findings on the dungeon design in that

game.

If you want to follow along, that's cool.
If you prefer the more thoroughly researched

and bite sized episodes I usually make, just
wait a few months and I'll do a proper episode

of Game Maker's Toolkit featuring everything
I've learnt on this subject.

I'm kicking off with The Legend of Zelda:
A Link to the Past. It's the third Zelda game

but it's where Nintendo really established
the formula, and introduced iconic elements

like the master sword, heart pieces, and the
hook shot.

Let's start by talking about linearity. Do
the dungeons usher you from room to room,

or let you explore their layouts in any way
you desire? The answer is that some dungeons

do the former, others do the latter, and some
lie in the middle.

Those in the middle include the Eastern Palace:
the first proper dungeon in the game.

What you'll notice is that there is only one
path you can take through the dungeon. You

have to go up here past these boulders, then
around in a big loop to get to this room,

then across to this area to get the big key,
then it's off to the item chest to get to

the bow, and upstairs to fight the boss.

But the dungeon feels less linear than that,
for a number of reasons. One is the number

of optional rooms - this one contains the
dungeon map, which isn't essential. And this

one just contains a bunch of rupees.

Those rooms - plus the ability to visit rooms
that you'll come into later such as this area

where a pair of blocks make a one-way
path - give the dungeon a large explorable

space. There are lots of rooms and doors to
choose from.

Also, keys force you off the critical path.
You can't get through this door until you

make a detour off into this room to find a
key. Nintendo can modulate difficulty by moving

the key further away from the door.

And finally, the path crisscrosses over the
entire dungeon. The bridge is over the boulders

you dodged earlier, the excursion to get the
big key sends you in a huge loop around the

dungeon, and the big key makes you backtrack
to this room with the giant chest.

All of this obscures the critical path, forcing
you to explore to find it. So while the dungeon

essentially guides you along one path, you
get the sense that you're making your own

route. Clever stuff.

Other dungeons are less prescribed in the
way you solve them. The Palace of Darkness

- the fifth dungeon - will see you holding
more than one key in your pocket for the first

time in the game. And you can use those keys
on multiple locked doors.

What this means is that you can proceed through
the dungeon in a truly non-linear way. For

this door, you could use this key, or this
key. And then you could open this door or

this door, and use this key, this key, or
either of those first two keys.

There's still a predetermined set of rooms
you have to visit but having some agency over

your route gives you the real sense that
you're making decisions, and you find yourself

hitting fewer dead ends.

What's surprising is the number of optional
rooms in dungeons of this design. Take this

main floor of Ganon's Keep: you don't need
to go in any of these rooms to finish the

dungeon.

And in Misery Mire, there are five keys to
find but you can actually solve the entire

dungeon with just two if you know what you're
doing.

Of course, you rarely know what you're doing
so these unnecessary rooms must be there to

make the dungeon feel bigger and tougher than
it truly is, giving you so many keys and locks

and rooms to explore that you feel like a
champion puzzle solver when you finish.

Turtle Rock is another dungeon that feels
harder than it is. This room has a crazy spaghetti

junction of pipes but in reality you only
need to keep track of two of them to succeed.

Some dungeons are completely linear. Especially
in your return to Hyrule Castle. You move

from room to room, and all the locked doors
are unlocked with keys found in the exact

same room.

But that fits the tone of the story. At this point, Zelda
has been kidnapped (again) and you're charging

up Hyrule castle's tower - slashing everything
in your way. This is the time for a gauntlet

of enemies as you chase after Zelda. Not pensive
puzzle solving and getting lost.

This is the only dungeon like that but you'll
find that some dungeons are halfway between

two styles. Desert Palace, the second dungeon,
starts relatively non-linear with this massive

opening chamber that has a whopping seven
doors to explore, and one more to unlock.

But after that it turns into a straightforward
path to the boss.

This gives a sort of ramping tension. You
rarely just stumble upon the boss door while

exploring: you get there after a section where
you have to move quickly from room to room, fighting

baddies, and amping up the stakes before you
go head-to-head with the final monster.

There's a nice moment in The Tower of Hera
which reminds us that while Zelda wouldn't

go 3D for seven more years, dungeons in A Link
to the Past were already making us think about

the space as a building with verticality.

Because to get to the Moon Pearl, which is in
this big chest on floor four, you have to

drop down from the exact right spot on floor
five. This puzzle won't bust your noggin,

but it will get you to think about these dungeons
as actual 3D spaces.

It's a shame that there aren't more dungeons
that really make you think about how they're

put together, in order to navigate them.

But here's a nice set-up that does just that.
In the Palace of Darkness you need the orange

blocks to be lowered to get up this staircase.
But if you drop them by hitting either this

switch or this switch, it will also raise
the blue blocks and stop you getting

to the staircase. So you have to go in a loop around the
dungeon and come up from the room to the south.

It's simple but it's an elegant piece of design
that encourages you to understand the layout

of the level and it promotes some forward
thinking.

A more complicated version of this puzzle
comes in the long and winding Ice Palace.

It's perhaps the hardest dungeon in the game
and then when you finally get to the end you

realise that you need to push this block down
the hole and - this time - you need to lower

the blue blocks but that will lift the orange
ones and block you. And this time the route

back around is a lot harder to find.

Another dungeon worth mentioning is Skull
Woods, which takes place both underground

and overground. It's interesting to see Nintendo
toying with the dungeon formula so early in

the game. Likewise, Thieve's Town has you
leading this girl to a room bathed in light,

where she'll transform into the dungeon's
boss, Blind.

So there we have it. 12 dungeons - some straightforward,
some twisting, some non-linear. They ask you

to understand the way the dungeon is put together,
and they surprise you by breaking with convention.

Overall, it's a strong start for this series.

And the question is - where to next? On to
Link's Awakening, or do we jump to Ocarina

of Time? Let me know your thought in the comments
below.

Thanks for watching. Boss Keys is made possible
thanks to the fine folks at Patreon who are

somehow happy to fund a several month long
project to make a 10 minute video about Zelda

games. What a bunch of cool weirdos.