Top Ten Favorite Legend of Zelda Dungeons

help give kids an extra life by donating today to help sick and injured children link in the description and pinned comment below the most important thing about the master sword is it will kill [Music] [Music] bye you know it's funny in the more than nine years that i've been making videos i've dedicated videos to most of my favorite franchises but i've never made a video strictly about the legend of zelda one of nintendo's biggest franchises it's a favorite of many people including myself the adventures the characters the lore it's also fascinating and while a few of the people i know well have talked extensively about this series i haven't really dedicated anything big to it and this is coming from literally the only guy on youtube who made a countdown dedicated to arcana heart of all things but with zelda's 35th anniversary in full swing i figured now is the right time to dive headfirst into the best that hyrule has to offer and for me one of the highlights of the typical zelda game is the dungeons they tend to be where a lot of zelda's key gameplay elements come together exploring puzzle solving and combat so when a dungeon really hits the mark it can really make the game that much more memorable a lot really goes into making a dungeon special whether it's the atmosphere the layout how well it uses the items you get for example so i've gone through the archives in my brain to pick out 10 dungeons one per game that stuck out to me the most while i'm talking shop here i'd like to know what your favorite dungeons are once i'm done talking hey engagement is fun okay let's get down to some legend it's game time with most of the talk i hear about the zelda series a lot of it tends to focus on the 3d titles granted that doesn't surprise me considering the impact of games like ocarina of time and breath of the wild at the same time however i hear less about the more 2d games and almost no discussion about the ds titles i don't even remember the last time someone talked about spirit tracks that being said i didn't find most of the dungeons in the game to be that memorable with the exception of course of the hub of your whole adventure at first the tower of spirits may bring back bad memories of a certain dungeon from phantom hourglass yeah i'm talking about the temple of the ocean king i'm not even gonna try to hide it but unlike that dungeon there are some things about it that make it actually work for one thing with each time you revisit the tower to grab another rail map you can skip the floors you've already completed second no time limits third and most importantly is that this is where zelda's ability to possess phantoms comes into play the princess's little ghost trick lies at the crux of most of the puzzle solving here and the results can be pretty damn creative not to mention the boss fight with burn was pretty solid and took full advantage of zelda's abilities honestly this feels like the temple of the ocean king done right and considering how many degrees of [ __ ] that was all i can say is thank hilia [Music] you want to know one thing that typically sucks in video games escort missions more often than not they suffer from some common flaws dumb ass ai strict penalties if your charge gets injured and possibly most irritating of all how difficult it can be to keep your escortee safe and zelda is no stranger in this at least a link between worlds provides an escort mission that's actually decent in the form of the thieves hideout the dungeon as a whole takes some of the best advantage of the ability to merge into the walls to be perfectly honest i can't think of a better approach to stealth of course you don't really have to worry about stealth that much instead the game's key mechanic gives you the perfect way to sneak through bars and obtain treasure across gaps to reach other areas of the dungeon and most importantly locate the thief girl in order to bust her out and thus begins the escort mission itself so why does said escort mission not suck in regards to the three pain points i mentioned earlier items one and three are well accounted for the girl's actions are basically red light green light there's a switch here red light doors open light screen let's move let's move move move granted if the girl gets hurt it's back to the cell so that's a bummer but keeping her safe isn't completely aggravating thanks to the level design in nearly every room with enemies there's a safe spot for your tag-along or a means to prevent the enemies from getting near her also big ups for both the first theme of the dungeon and the change in music during the escort mission and the fight with style blind at the end continues the creative use of the wall merging mechanic for about a third of the fight at which point it returns to wait for the boss to expose himself then wail away well at least we can give the monster credit for being smart [Music] it goes without saying that the final act of a game is one of the most important parts after all everything you've done throughout your entire adventure has been leading up to the climax all the exploring all the side quests you've done all the bosses you've taken down all for that one moment nailing the grand finale can really make a game that much more memorable and a link to the past manages to pull that off after saving the seven maidens they use their power to break the seal on ganon's tower where agonym is waiting and if you think he'd make it easy for you think again this is a dungeon that's going to test you to the hilt everything will be tested in here from your combat skills against a wide assortment of enemies from throughout your adventure to your puzzle solving skills as you try to figure out the best way to navigate the tower's traps to your mastery of several of the game's items you'll also face a rematch with each of the bosses from the light world dungeons in here each with their own little twist but none of which should hinder you if you have the right strategy in fact with your sword powered up to the highest level here moldarm goes down in two hits this is also the longest dungeon in the game clocking in at seven floors plus the basement so it's a test of your endurance and will as well though to be fair you're likely to spend a lot of time in the lower levels because that's where most of the treasures are including the big key you'll need to reach the top as well as the red mail which redoubles your defenses all that leads up to your big rematch with agonym a frantic game of magical tennis against not only the wizard but his two shadow clones come to think of it a link to the past is where the whole ping-pong against ganon started this my friends is how traditions are born [Music] it's hard to dispute the notion that breath of the wild is the most ambitious zelda game to date it forward most of the traditions of past zelda games instead going for a vast open world with scale that few games can match on the one hand it allows for an amazing sense of freedom letting you do things in whatever order you choose on the other hand its attempts at original dungeons may seem a bit jarring nintendo kinda tried to have its cake and eat it too with the dungeons whether it's the bite-sized shrines or the big divine beasts nearly all the dungeons didn't feel like a part of the world itself kinda makes it difficult to put a dungeon from this game on the list little did i realize there was an answer staring me in the face the whole time hyrule castle rarely disappoints and this is no exception mainly because it's the only dungeon in the game that organically fits into the open world theme in fact this feels like it lays the blueprints for a whole new type of dungeon because of how open-ended it is from the moment you sail down from the great plateau the questions of when and how are up to you to answer and the only great is whether or not your approach works infiltrate the castle from the basement sure use the most to find an entrance after freeing the beasts and maxing out your gear go for it go leroy jenkins with three hearts in your skivvies hope you have chicken the only constant is your destination not to mention there's lots of ground to explore some interesting lore and the game's toughest monsters out for your gore all this is underscored with an incredibly grand and ominous theme playing honestly gives me kills hearing a theme that incorporates ganon's light motif and the theme of the whole series honestly i'm hoping to see more open-ended dungeons like this in the future that is if open world is going to be the standard for the franchise from now on now if only the final battle with calamity gannon didn't drop the rupees [Music] why why why don't i hear more people talking about the minish cap as the prequel to the four sword saga it's honestly the best thing to come out of the three-game zelda collab between nintendo and capcom it takes full advantage of its gameplay hooks mainly honey i shrunk the hero and link's shadow clone q2 that gets stronger as you gather the four elements throughout the dungeons oh that's right the dungeons are pretty good in this game too each of them handles the game's mechanics well heck two of them are actually miniature dungeons where you go through them as mini link but i feel the palace of wins handles things best as the home of the last of the four elements you need to max out your clone power this dungeon is actually built up in the second half of a game seeing that it's hinted at when you complete the third dungeon the fortress of winds where you get a bog standard dock arena when you thought you'd be getting the wind element the death in itself has the right mix of action and puzzles and the level design will test your abilities to a great extent not to mention this is the duncan which contains the rock's cape which i feel is the single best item in the whole game you would not believe how liberating it is to be able to jump and glide in a game where you're normally confined to the ground and the dungeon takes advantage of this and how it integrates platforming into the level design where it normally would be impossible oh and i almost forgot about the fast one this temple pulls on you don't you find it weird that you find the big key before the map or the compass yeah that big door doesn't lead to the boss there's still a mini boss and another three floors before you wrap up by the way the york pair is a great boss fight that actually takes advantage of your cloning it's frantic and exciting and a much better york battle than majora's mask if i do a worse dungeons list expect no mercy on that people are probably already asking for that list it's inevitable wind waker is one of my favorite games in the series and i'm glad that it eventually got the recognition it deserved given the initial reaction of a lot of outlets as for the dungeons i felt that most of them were simply okay as for the one that stood out that would be the midpoint dungeon the tower of the gods which was the reason that you were going around collecting those pearls in the first place i can only imagine the oysters that pearls like those would have come from well if i didn't know that they were divine treasures of course after the rising of the tower which is admittedly both epic and hilarious at the same time seriously toon link has the worst luck with getting launched into the distance you learn that this tower was built to test the courage of men and let me tell you it lives up to that reputation first part is just outside the main tower where you have to synchronize your progress to the ebb and flow of the tide it's nothing too complicated unlike the water temple so you shouldn't have too much trouble then you enter the main part of the tower and this is where the atmosphere really struck me it's so majestic and the theme sounds so ghostly next part is a series of clever statue puzzles this is where you'll learn the command melody which will come in handy later in the game and you'll use it here to take control of statues and navigate them back to the center for quite the family reunion this is also where you get the all useful and all iconic heroes bow which is just the thing you need for dealing with all these keys and it's guarded by the imposing and equally iconic dark nut which you'll be facing many times from here on out by contrast the chamber of the boss godan has a strange high tech feel to it pretty impressive for another head and hands boss but the real reward is when you finally get to see 50s tv hyrule and get your hands on the master sword and to think all this happened because a giant bird stole link's sister things we do for family i swear [Music] ocarina of time was a landmark for this series and that's a term i don't use lightly bringing the series into 3d and making it work introducing us to more of the races of hyrule and fully establishing ganon as something more than a big scary pig monster you couldn't pay me to eat those pork chops but i think one of the coolest things about ocarina of time is what it did for dungeons not just in the level design but in the atmosphere as well as a result most of the dungeons in the game are really memorable some for better reasons than others this was honestly a difficult decision here but i felt that the most complete package from this game was the penultimate dungeon the spirit temple first thing i love about this dungeon is the atmosphere it really feels like something out of ancient egypt with its aesthetic the ancient script on the walls even looks like hieroglyphics not to mention the music it's just so eerie and yet majestic all at the same time but the other thing i really like about this dungeon is that it kind of feels like two dungeons in one since you visit this place as both young link and adult link first time you go through this place you meet naburu the gyarado thifu is actually the only sage you don't meet prior to your dungeon run and she figures you might be able to help her find the silver gauntlets for her yeah no trouble some standard combat some puzzles that introduce how light can be used later and oh crap it's an iron knuckle they're actually not that bad and once you get the gloves you get your first look at the dungeons bosses dragging your sage into a sandpit seven years later now that you can actually use those gauntlets yourself you've got part du where your introduction to light puzzles pays off when you get the beautiful mirror shield the twist with that last iron knuckle really made me want to cut a witch or two good thing the fight with the twin rova sisters is one of the best boss fights in the game i really do appreciate how the spirit temple takes advantage of both time periods and combined with the atmosphere it's a highlight of an already iconic game time travel what i see this is an absolute win [Music] water dungeons why just why i know water levels tend to be problematic but they seem to be especially bad in the zelda series why did they make the water temple about constantly changing the water level and getting lost half the time why do they make the great bay temple such a confusing mess dictated by the flow of currents why does the temple of droplets have to combine water with ice physics can i get just one good water dungeon [Music] praise pizza hylian for she had granted us the gift of sword scored the second half of skyward sword granted length of power to actually swim properly granted twilight princess gave you items to swim but the related dungeon didn't do nearly as much to take advantage of that as the ancient cistern first off oh my goodness this place is beautiful the grand golden chamber which greets you as you enter serene music that plays throughout the place and that gigantic and imposing buddha statue that dominates the chamber in fact this whole place is just smothered in buddhist symbolism i mean the grandiose atmosphere of the upper floors kind of feels like heaven doesn't it and then you have to go into the basement and there's poison water and cursed picolins and the music suddenly takes an eerie turn it's like you've ended up in hell and you gotta climb up there by a rope that eerily resembles a spider thread while being chased by more of those cursed bokoblins this is actually based on a buddhist story symbolism for the win you can't go wrong well the whip isn't exactly an item that gets me making noise but they do manage to put it to good use here from flipping lily pads to snacking keys from behind gates the water doesn't even really dominate the level and even when you do venture underwater it feels good to do so not only because the transition is so smooth but because the swimming controls don't feel like a slog and to top it all off it wraps up with one of the best fights in the game and the franchise colloctos a six-armed mechanical monstrosity which is modeled after ashura giving us more buddhist symbolism not to mention it feels satisfying as hell to tear off its arms and tear it apart with its own gigantic swords now that is how you do a water dungeon so how is breath of the wild gonna handle its water dungeon yeah no that ain't it chief [Music] one thing i've learned about the zelda franchise not only from playing the games themselves but also watching dungeon analysis and theory videos is that there's some pretty freaking dark [ __ ] going on ocarina of time shadow temple could only be described as a goddamn torture chamber the same game's bottom of the well is home to one of the most disturbing bosses in the series the ghost chip in phantom hourglass is well a ghost ship and a kind of canyon and majora's mask yeah that pretty much speaks for itself it does seem like most zelda games have at least one area with dark and disturbing undertones so where does twilight princess fit into this well the game as a whole is what i can best describe as moody the game's tone and atmosphere lend itself to a game that's decidedly gloomy and can sometimes be downright unsettling quite a shift compared to wind waker but can anyone be surprised after the initial reaction to wind waker's art style fans can be really fickle i swear one place in particular really cranks up this feeling and that my friends is the arbiter's grounds built in the northern area of gyarados desert as a prison for hyrule's most dangerous criminals though this place looks more like a coliseum from the outside you can already tell this is going to be some creepy ass stuff going on in here it's like the spirit temple and the shadow temple did the hyrule shuffle i swear i can hear bongo bongo playing the drums that back the theme and as one would expect for a prison of the dead this place is chock full of undead enemies stall children stalfos gibdos pose that look more disturbing than ever you have to worry about their souls mind you and let's not forget you being slowed down by ghoul rats so highly other everywhere while there are dark areas in this dungeon which i normally hate they're actually handled well because there's a place to refill your lamp oil later on you'll find a ghostly swordsman for the spinner and then the rest of the dungeon becomes a playground for one of the most fun items in the series if not also one of the most underutilized it honestly would have been nice if this thing got more used throughout the rest of the game than it got oh well at least they made use of it in hyrule warriors as for the boss the fight with stellard is just awesome starting out as the most badass game of beyblades ever and ending with a thrilling chase up the walls of the chamber an awesome capstone to a great dungeon that's both creepy and fun oh and there's also that bit about ganondorf and some divine prank but yeah demon lords aren't exactly that easy anyway am i right okay before we get to number one here are a few honorable mentions the great palace from zelda 2 the adventure of link the lenairu mining facility from skyward sword the forest temple from ocarina of time the snoke peak ruins from twilight princess and low rule castle from a link between worlds and now let's see what our followers have to say with this month's patron picks thieves down from the link to the past it's a really good dungeon to explore with a fun boss to fight despite this dungeon being infamous for plenty of reasons i like how it's used as a plot point throughout the game most dungeons in the legend of zelda series you just complete once and never come back the fire temple from ocarina of time let me tell you something this temple is amazing the key item here is a big stinkin hammer which you can then use to engage a dragon in a game of whack-a-mole on steroids at the end who could like who could ask for anything better at that point in my opinion [Music] now there's one fondly remembered game that has yet to be mentioned on this list and yeah i was gonna get to it eventually but i'm gonna be real here for a moment i don't think most of the dungeons in majora's mask are really that special both the woodfall temple and the snowhead temple i found to be largely unmemorable most of the mini dungeons didn't get me excited and i'd rather eat an octorock than subject myself to the great may temple ever again but then again maybe they were saving all their good ideas for the fourth and final temple region remember what i said about akana canyon earlier yeah featuring such things as the father who's being turned into a mummy the haunted ruins of a fallen kingdom and a temple that's been brought up repeatedly on lists like this now i could just be a contrarian old [ __ ] or i could take the high road and say well there's a good reason that the stone tower temple has been mentioned so often it's just that damn good a literal giant among dungeons in the series this place has it all variety challenge atmosphere awesome rewards and even some thought-provoking design simply getting to the entrance to the temple is a clever challenge involving climbing the tower's exterior while setting up creepypasta fuel to solve some block puzzles to make your way up and once you get inside it is simply and beautifully haunting the architecture feels grandiose and imposing at the same time some say it was built to mock the goddesses with a hand putting up in particular seeming to say tonight you and the haunting yet strangely upbeat theme that plays throughout and the level design will test your mastery of all links forms normal link and his arsenal and especially the mirror shield deku link and his flower power gliding from one spot to the next goron lincoln his monster strength and his ability to go hot tummy and lava and zoro link in his underwater prowess but things really get interesting once you defeat the garo master and obtain the light arrows allowing you to literally turn everything on its head suddenly this place almost feels like two dungeons in one and when you think about it this could be seen as the goddess's way of saying no you and turning the people's hubris into a one-way ticket towards hell kind of reminds you of the tower of babel doesn't it of course this could all be a bunch of theory bait but hey it's fun to speculate now that you have an upside down tower to traverse things get even creepier with the music changing tone and another mini boss who's basically the grim reaper not to mention you'll be flipping the tower back and forth quite a few times here it's a mixture of excellent design clever puzzles a boss fight where ultraman fans can live vicariously through the giant's mask and symbolism that sparks the imagination this place is the total package offering so much for a dungeon in fact it almost makes going to the great bay temple worth it almost meanwhile we have the sequel to breath of the wild still in development no doubt having run into setbacks through the and i can only hope that it'll have the kind of dungeons that can really get me excited at least mr aonuma was transparent about there being news about it later this year my money's on the season of e3 which i'm figuring is going virtual this year it'd be better than last year when it was just canceled right i'm the quarter guy and until next time the arcade is closed [Music] teenage mutant ninja turtles teenage mutant ninja turtles teenage mutant ninja turtles qg at the arcade coming april [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Quarter Guy

Views: 21,603

Keywords: The Quarter Guy, Quarter Guy, Quarter, Guy, Video Games, Gaming, Zelda, The Legend of Zelda, 35th Anniversary, Nintendo, Link, Ganon, Dungeons, Top Ten, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Breath of the Wild, Skyward Sword, Spirit Tracks, A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds, The Minish Cap, The Adventure of Link, Phantom Hourglass, Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, Link's Awakening

Id: dQqFKdpfRg8

Length: 24min 46sec (1486 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 26 2021