Breath of the Wild is not only one of my favourite Zelda games, it’s one of my favourite games of all time. For a series so close to my heart to completely change direction and absolutely nail the execution was incredibly exciting, and I’ll never forget my first time jumping into Hyrule on the Nintendo Switch.
I can recall a thousand beautiful memories it spawned, from the subtle score blossoming as I found the ruined Temple of Time for the first time, to seeing Dinraal glide around a mountain peak when I had no clue dragons were even in the game. Clambering through the ruins of Hyrule Castle felt like I was reliving my childhood, those 2D locations I remembered so well from the Game Boy brought to life better than any 3D Zelda before.
The one thing I don’t remember so fondly are the Shrines. I don’t hate them, some of the puzzles are even quite fun. They’re short enough to not be too tough, but sufficiently satisfying to complete. There are secrets to find in dark corners and challenges that utilise all your Sheikah Slate abilities, but they’re not dungeons. Not really.
Zelda dungeons are sunken palaces, great beasts’ internal organs, and mighty coliseums. But more than the aesthetics of classic dungeons, they follow a certain set of design rules, too. You need to collect the compass and the map to help you explore. You need to find small keys to progress. You need to beat a series of minibosses ahead of the final challenge. It’s a tried and tested formula that rarely feels old, and it’s the only ‘classic Zelda’ trope that feels conspicuously absent in Breath of the Wild.
I understand the decision to remove classic dungeons, don’t get me wrong. Shrines are the perfect marker to tease you across the open world: little glowing points to entice you in every direction. They help Hyrule feel curated and intentional rather than aimless and empty, and the game wouldn’t work without them. But we could have had proper dungeons as well, no?
“Listen here Ben Sledge, stupid idiot Features Editor of The Gamer!!” I hear you shout, or would do if we had a comments section or I read my Twitter inbox. “You forgot about the Divine Beasts!!!1!” Firstly, it’s TheGamer. No spaces. Secondly, no I didn’t.
The Divine Beasts are bigger Shrines, sure. They hold more complicated puzzles with many moving parts and a final boss to wrap things up. They’re more akin to a classic dungeon than anything else in the game, but they’re still not quite there. You can argue that the Sheikah Slate replaces keys, but that’s a boring argument. Call me old school, but I like finding a little chest, opening it to that iconic little jingle (you know the one), and equipping the little map so I can better navigate whatever tower or tunnels Link currently finds himself in. The mini-Ganons that protect the Beasts are also uninspiring bosses. They’re no Helmasaur King or Stallord, that’s for sure.
Tears of the Kingdom has a chance to fix that. We haven’t seen much gameplay from under Hyrule yet, the very area in which Hyrule Castle has sunk and where we saw Link and Zelda explore in the first trailer. I’m reaching, and I’m well aware of that, but this could be the Switch’s first traditional dungeon.
We’ve seen more of the aerial sections, which makes me think that we won’t have a Twilight Princess-esque City in the Sky, instead more of a parallel with Skyward Sword up there in the clouds. Despite the fact that the latter is one of my least favourite Zelda games, I’m okay with Tears of the Kingdom taking inspiration from it. It looks to be pulling from all manner of sources – Majora’s Mask for the story, maybe even The Wind Waker for its transportation – and I just hope that it honours Zelda tradition when it comes to deeper, more explorable dungeons.
Tears of the Kingdom isn’t the surefire game of the year that many expect it to be. It’s got a lot to live up to, and it’ll be a challenge to match the magic of Breath of the Wild, let alone surpass it. It can’t just retread all the steps that its predecessor trod – although that would probably still lead to 10/10s across the board – and paying homage to classic dungeons is one way it can tap into our collective nostalgia and improve upon its forebear.
It wouldn’t have to be completely traditional. The dungeons could be reimagined, with new spins on the old school formula to keep us on our toes. But imagine a Sky Temple in the clouds, an Earth Temple underground, and a Water Temple, well, in the water. Proper temples, intensive mazes filled with puzzles, keys, dead ends, and all the rest. A return to the past, but renewed and revitalised for a modern audience. Breath of the Wild rewrote what it means to be Zelda, and Tears of the Kingdom could do it all over again, this time with dungeons.