anyone else getting sick of dungeons?

[mαrkαsscoρ]

Ever since I was a kid,I never liked dungeons. I just hated going through them. I can't define what makes a good or bad dungeon b/c I hate them all in general [some more that others of course].Kinda makes me wonder why I like zelda games to begin w/ if dungeons are a huge aspect of them.
However, recently playing through Oracle of Seasons, I just LOATHED going into a new dungeon.I don't know if its b/c I've been playing the games for a while now and I've been through so many, but I'm just getting tired of them.I don't even know if I want to get Ages.
For the long time zelda players,have you ever felt this way? Or is it just stemming from me hating dungeons in general?

 

[DJ Twitch]

Dungeons themselves, no. The only problem I have with them is their structure, which is

Go to dungeon
Get keys
Beat miniboss
Get cool item
Find big boss
Beat him with cool item
Find next dungeon

Thankfully, the more recent games have been downplaying their importance by giving us main story tasks outside, but I still wish the dungeons would be more creative and memorable.

 

[Link Floyd]

To be honest, I hated dungeons myself growing up. It's actually had the opposite effect, now I love dungeons!

But as of late, the newer Zelda games are lacking challenging puzzles.

 

[Mercedes]

Dungeons themselves, no. The only problem I have with them is their structure, which is

Go to dungeon
Get keys
Beat miniboss
Get cool item
Find big boss
Beat him with cool item
Find next dungeon

Thankfully, the more recent games have been downplaying their importance by giving us main story tasks outside, but I still wish the dungeons would be more creative and memorable.

Pretty much this. Lots of games basically have 'Dungeons'; you progress in a linear manner from level to level, enemies and obstacles change, what you need to do in order to progress changes, etc. There's nothing inherently bad about that, and if you boil every game down to the real chassis of the design then many will very much be like that.

But it's the extremely black and white, 0 deviation and lack of imaginative game flow which dungeons of Zelda follow which I think have made them a bit boring. I'd much rather them flow much more naturally together and just, in general, try something different. As I've said, Nintendo's development is very much painting by numbers and it'd be nice to see some amount of deviation to the flow of it.

 

[Iridescence]

I'd like to see more dungeons in the series, but I'd like for them to not follow a rigid formula.

Aka:

• Puzzles that are not torch-lighting and box-moving
• Other ways to block off and enter areas (aside from doors and keys)
• Less linearity and more open-ness (think ALTTP's dungeons)
• Discover items we haven't seen before
• Puzzles that use all items - and not just the one you recently got

 

[Batman]

I love Zelda style dungeons, actually. My favorite part of playing Zelda is going through the dungeons and solving the puzzles, getting lost, finding keys, using the maps, etc. That's extremely fun to me.

 

[Deleted member 14134]

I always thought the dungeons were the highlights of Zelda games. It's a tried but true method that just needs some new life breathed into the formula. While I do believe that dungeons should always end with a boss, I personally liked Skyward Swords method of not necessarily using the dungeons item to beat the boss.

 

[A Link In Time]

I'm not sure if the general Zelda dungeon formula has to change, so much as the dungeon locations themselves. Skyward Sword tried to "blend" its dungeons and overworld, but it didn't really succeed in this regard. Dungeons were still clearly marked temples, so to speak. I'm a fan of how the caves were set up in A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds. Caves can make for an unexpected dungeon in a heartbeat. I like the idea of a moving dungeon too. Maybe Link can battle on a boat or train that requires navigating on the outside and inside and getting rid of certain roadblocks replaces the need for locked doors and keys.

 

[Djinn]

I supposed some could be changed out in favor of mission based levels, but I might not like an entire game of that. But a region in the overworld that you play through instead of the same pattern of go to a hidden location, enter a door and then take on dungeon might be a nice change.

What I am tired of is the same old pattern of

3 intro dungeons
event-get sword
5-7 more dungeons
final boss

We have been doing this for years now, something has to change since this game is getting really really by the numbers.

 

[Shroom]

I'm sort of ify. I really enjoy Majora's Mask, but I end up dreading the dungeons for whatever reason, even though they aren't that bad when I do them, just feels like a chore.

On the flip side, I think ALBW really did dungeons well because you basically go into it with the tools you need, and so the puzzles can be more intricate right off the bat. I really had a blast with all the ALBW dungeons, and don't think I really got annoyed with them outside of one or two occasions. That combined with multiple solutions to some puzzles really kept it fresh. I would really love to see a 3D Zelda have similar dungeon designs to that of ALBW, not necessarily the same ideas (or puzzles), but more so the same mindset when designing them.

 

[HeroOfTime]

Well, I personally hate dungeons for the most part. I always end up getting lost for forever, missing some key that I can't find anywhere, or being unable to locate the chest I'm looking for. The other stuff on the overworld, and the side-quests I absolutely love, but those dungeons are the bane of my existence. That said, the dungeons in MM I actually enjoyed, they were fun without being too long or obnoxious. Most of the ones before that were too simple and dumb, and the ones afterward were too long imho.

I love Zelda games for the characters, storyline, and the overworld activities, but yeah, I'm getting sick of dungeons.

 

[SavageWizzrobe]

I definitely enjoy dungeons, especially the puzzle-solving element of dungeons. The puzzle-solving partially defines the Zelda franchise for me from a gameplay perspective, and it's something I look forward to when playing a new Zelda game.

Although, I do agree that in more recent Zelda games, dungeon structure has become a bit too formulaic (defeat miniboss, get a new item, use your new item to defeat the boss). Puzzles become very easy to figure out. As such, I welcome deviations to the formula, such as bosses that don't require you to use your newly-acquired item (Ghirahim in SS is a prime example).

 

[Djinn]

It's not just dungeon structure, the whole game is formulaic. There are complaints of all the routines of the games throughout this thread and how after the 7th time we do the exact dame thing it gets incredibly stale.

They are doing things like tweak the controls, slightly changing the game mode, and adding things like transformations but deep down the way you play the game is ultimately the same. The methodology of the dungeon, the way you fight the boss, and the pattern you have to follow to get to them in the overworld is pretty much the same thing every time.

 

[Salem]

I like dungeons, but the structure style from recent Zelda games where you get the dungeon item, use that to get the master key and then fight the boss is boring, older Zelda games had more variety in dungeons, that I liked.

 

[AncientPoe]

Short answer? "No." In fact, one of the things I actually did like about Skyward Sword were many of the dungeons.

Long answer? "No, but I am getting sick of certain dungeon/theme/location tropes." For instance, why does the Wind Dungeon almost always have to be in the sky? Why does the Fire place always have to be a volcano? A while back, I implemented my idea for a Zelda dungeon that I have as a D&D session. Essentially, it was a dungeon built into a mountain. The party had to go around opening and closing various chambers and tunnels, ultimately revealing the entire mountain peak to be one enormous wind instrument played by the continuous gales that blew through the peaks. When can we see something like that? Why does the Water Temple always sit at the bottom of a lake, or in an ocean? Why not build it into the side of a waterfall, incorporating many storied levels like a tower, forcing you to manipulate the water at each level for some end?