Eerie Entertainment: Our Pitches For a Horror-Based Zelda Game

October rolls around but once a year, and it’s during this all-hallowed month that Zelda fans who love a good fright really appreciate the darker side of the series. Players might revel in the haunted desolation of Majora’s Mask’s Ikana Canyon, taking in the ghastly sounds of Gibdos as they linger evermore in that cursed land. They might glory in the strange and soulless faces of the maniacal Link and Ilia from the Interloper scene in Twilight Princess. Those playing Tears of the Kingdom might even savor the sudden, unsettling emptiness of the once bustling Gerudo Town, and then lap up the following frantic onslaught of the winged undead.

One thing is for sure: when Nintendo injects a bit of horror to a Zelda game, it does it right. But then again, one could argue that there isn’t enough of the scary stuff to satisfy a true horror buff! As such, the staff at Zelda Dungeon took it upon themselves to pitch their very own horror-based Zelda game. If you’re searching for sinister scenarios and psychological terror with a sprinkling of your favorite fantasy flavor, then look no further!

The Legend of Zelda: The 100 Year Prayer

Kat Vadam (Social Media Manager) plots a psychological horror as she pitches a game of emotional torture, where the player is doomed to await the heroics of another protagonist. You might have tried to imagine what Princess Zelda went through as she held Calamity Ganon at bay for a century, but Kat’s game would take you through every moment of that living nightmare.  

A psychological horror game set during the 100 years Link sleeps through before Breath of the Wild. You play as Zelda, trapped with the Calamity and struggling to keep it at bay, while it progressively breaks you further and further down.

The game opens with Zelda fighting her way through the screams of a burning Castle Town into the castle itself. She’s only just discovered her power, driven by the agony of losing her knight and her kingdom. Everything around her has been desecrated by monsters and Malice. She’s finally strong, but she knows her strength is not enough. She knows that only Link, who sleeps on the brink of death, can wield the weapon to bring this Calamity to its demise. She knows that she heads to a precipice, where she will stand until the hero wakes, to hold the Calamity at bay and defend what remains of her land and people.

Despite these fears, Princess Zelda defeats every foe who dares stand in her way, her determination to avenge Link driving her to destiny — to the very incarnation of hatred.

Within the castle, she spends the next 100 years facing the Calamity and its visions of death and destruction. And all she can hear is its laughter and the cries of her people. All she can see is every life lost placed at her feet as she moves through the crumbling halls of what was once her home, fighting the Calamity and its minions. She has to struggle to find what is real and what is just a nightmare as her power and mind progressively fade, hoping and praying to Goddesses who never listened before that she can hold on just a little longer.

The Legend of Zelda: Bazaar Escape

Josh Wittmershaus (Junior Editor) follows suit with a psychological horror, and sets the opening scene of a game that forces the player to make devastating decisions that will dictate how the narrative proceeds in a post-apocalyptic Hyrule. Can the player really find friends when everybody could be an enemy? 

A young Gerudo soldier named Leevrohak is too afraid to defect, and is wrongfully imprisoned in Kakariko Village’s Well during the Hyrulean Civil War. She tries to escape, and figure out whether to head home or to join the other side. (It’s disclosed later in the game that this woman is the older sister of Nabooru).

Leevrohak stares at the small hole she dug in the corner of her cell as she tries to recall her way back through the dank, harrowing prison and up to the light that shone above the well in the Sheikah village. She curses the war and she curses her race; she curses all races and she curses Hyrule. How could Hylia allow such tragedy? she thinks to herself. She watches the guard rotation, then makes her move. It feels like the dead of night, but this far underground, it always feels that way.

Leevrohak – now controlled by the player – tries to escape the prison. She knows that should she be found out, it would mean certain relocation to the more terminal prison behind the graveyard nearby (this can trigger a considerably different playing experience). The Sheikah are the opposite of clumsy, and the idea of her stealthing past the stealthiest class in Hyrule isn’t something she wants to think about right now.

Once escaped, the player navigates an apocalyptic and war-torn Hyrule, where they must build trust – or in some cases, break it – and make a series of decisions that dictate the remainder of the game. The horror is psychological, as the consequences of the choices the player makes are often Phyricc in nature, causing death and destruction no matter what. The entirety of the game, Leevrohak and the player are looking over their shoulder, dodging capture, and talking their way out of tricky situations. In many parts of the game, everyone the player encounters is an enemy.

The Legend of Zelda: The Endless Night of the Blood Moon

Sean Gadus (Senior Editor) thinks Tears of the Kingdom could do with some horror-based DLC and sets the scene during an unending Blood Moon. He imagines the stakes being higher than ever, with some of the freakier monsters from the game taking center stage. What’s more, he even includes mini-dungeons! 

Tears of the Kingdom has some horror elements, but the bright color palette used in many areas outside of The Depths and character dialogue in the game dampens the overall effect of these darker elements. My dream experience is a game mode for Tears of the Kingdom or DLC that puts more of an emphasis on the horror elements and danger that is present in The Depths and other dangerous areas. 

This special mode is an expansion for Tears of the Kingdom that remixes the game and provides challenges for existing players who have beaten the game. The DLC takes place during a cursed, unending Blood Moon. Throughout the entire experience, the whole world of Hyrule would be bathed in the eerie light of the Blood Moon and the sun wouldn’t shine at any point. Additionally, a flood of Malice has risen out of The Depths, and it has made the world much more difficult and dangerous to traverse. Many parts of the world are covered by a layer of Malice, and Link must use a Stalhorse to traverse the corrupted landscape. All enemies in the game are now Malice enemies. All items, foods, or potions that protect against Malice no longer work.  

In order to bring an end to the endless Blood Moon Night, the player has to complete six extended quests across the world. Each quest would include an enemy encampment that must be cleared so the player can activate a new mini-dungeon. At the end of a mini-dungeon, the player must face off against a Malice-themed boss (including a Gleeok, Molduga) and it would culminate in a specially designed final-boss encounter against Gloom Spawn and Phantom Ganon. 

The Legend of Zelda: Curse of the Violet Moon

Kristen G. Rosario (Junior Editor) decided to add some lore to his horror-based Zelda installment. Choosing the Gerudo Desert as his primary setting, Kristen creates history but shrouds it in the creepy cover of mystery. 

I see this game set between the events of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. A group of Gerudo guards have mysteriously vanished during a routine night patrol of the desert, leaving behind an ancient piece of Gerudo fabric from a centuries-old village thought lost long ago as the only clue to their whereabouts. Link and Princess Zelda are very intrigued by this and are more than willing to help Chief Riju get to the bottom of the mystery.

Not too long after heading into the desert, Link and Princess Zelda stumble upon the deserted town of Otomiya. The village appears to be mostly intact, aside from a few deteriorated buildings. Upon entering Otomiya, the sky turns a purple haze as our heroes unknowingly set off a trap. The moon turns a dark-violet color, and Gerudo-clad ReDead and oddly dressed Yiga surround them both. Unable to move because of the ReDead, Link cannot unsheathe the Master Sword, and Zelda must watch in horror as a Yiga soldier makes Link vanish with a single touch. Fortunately, Zelda is saved from the same fate thanks to the power of her Triforce of Wisdom, which helps her break free and escape. As Zelda starts running away, she hears one of the Yiga’s yelling, “She must not escape! The prophecy requires her sacrifice!”

The basic gameplay would be Zelda mixed with titles along the lines of Alan Wake and Dead Space, wherein it is a third-person horror game. Because of the violet haze, Zelda’s Wisdom/Light-based attacks aren’t powerful enough to defeat the enemies but can stun them, leaving an opening for the player to equip the bow and finish them off. However, if you can save up enough of your Wisdom magic, you choose your own way of dismembering an enemy. Either pick them apart piece-by-piece just to hear them scream in agony, or simply go for the gory, quick kill. 

Princess Zelda may be the curious, courageously headstrong woman that Link trusts, but she’s a survivor first and foremost. This is why it shouldn’t come as a surprise that she is willing to step up and not only find Link and the Gerudo guards, but also figure out what happened to Otomiya Village. Because I’m leaning a bit more towards survival horror, searching the village homes for clues is key to not only discovering the truth, but also the only way you are going to make it out of this town alive. You must be careful too as any damage Zelda takes not only appears visually but will also affect her movement speed. As for items themselves, it is key to remember that not every fight has to be won as resources are very limited. Music is also a key to your survival, as the softer the music, the farther you are from the enemies, but the louder it is, the more danger Zelda is near.

The Legend of Zelda: Twinrova’s Curse

Charles Xavier (Senior Editor) is asking all the right questions with his horror-based Zelda pitch. How did Ganondorf become the vessel for Demise’s hatred? Could his fate be changed? You’d find out depending on which of the multiple endings you achieve in this game!

My pitch for a Zelda horror game would conceptually delve into the birth of Ganondorf as the vessel of Demise’s Hatred. Was this just a coincidence? I think not. This would be a stealth horror game taking place inside the Gerudo Colossus/Spirit Temple from Ocarina of Time. Players are a Sheikah spy tasked with investigating the witches Koume and Kotake. As you explore deeper into the temple, you find texts delving into Demise and his Demon Tribe, and eventually unravel that the witches have found a way to use black magic to create a sort of lightning rod to a chosen infant for the hate curse to easily cling to.

In terms of gameplay, I’m imagining it as a semi-linear gauntlet filled with enemies such as Gibdos and other spooky enemies from the Zelda series. The goal is to enter, gather intel, and then escape out from deep within the temple to contact the rest of your reconnaissance team. Somewhere along the way, you read one of the texts on the Demon Tribe, and this places a curse on you that can only be broken by finding the rest of the texts, each one transporting the character into a dark realm where they’ll have to fight a demon of the demon tribe. Only after defeating all of the demons will the curse be broken. As the character explores on, they begin to lose orientation, and their sanity slowly erodes as well after each ordeal.

Eventually the character does gather enough evidence to report, but upon escaping, they are found by the witches. One final battle will determine whether they can escape or not. The canon ending is of course to lose, and this is the most likely outcome. However, by thorough investigation of the temple before a certain point in the game, perhaps there will be a way to thwart Ganondorf’s corruption. 

The Legend of Zelda: The Day Without a Hero

Chakell Herbert (Associate Editor) presents us a survival horror game that pays homage to the events that preceded The Wind Waker. Chakell’s game focuses on seeing and hearing, forcing the player to be extra-careful as they proceed. Put a toe out of line and you’re dead!

Imagine a survival horror game where you play as a young teen Hylian girl named Meryll. The entire game spans through a single long, dark day that changes the Kingdom of Hyrule forever. Meryll begins in the Castle Town marketplace, when suddenly, the earth begins to quake, the sky turns red, and she witnesses the return of an ancient evil king who was sealed away long ago by the Hero of Time, Princess Zelda, and the Seven Sages. Countless monsters are unleashed, mowing down Hylians and unprepared soldiers alike. Having no fighting skills of her own during this once peaceful era in the kingdom, Meryll must use means of stealth and smarts to make it back to her home and her family — all while every monster imaginable prowls the entirety of Hyrule. 

On her deadly journey, Meryll has to stealthily maneuver through different obstacles. Some enemies like Floormasters are sensitive to sound and can be triggered to chase if the player is too loud. ReDeads will continuously stalk Meryll and can freeze her with their piercing screams if she lets them get too close (she will have to use Light-based tools to keep them at bay as she continues forward). If Meryll is injured, she will move slower and blood from her injuries can draw even more monsters to the area, making for extra-stealthy strategizing. Sometimes even puzzle-solving in a time-limit will be required to make it to the next area. 

Along her journey, Meryll witnesses key events in the Zelda timeline, where Hylians pray to the Goddesses for help, others who plead for the Hero of Time to return, and even the King of Hyrule and Princess Zelda fleeing the castle, breaking the Triforce in Wisdom into two pieces. Eventually Meryll finds her younger sister and her family’s shield (an heirloom that has been passed down in their family since the era of the Hero of Time). She and her sister flee on their beloved horse, dodging enemies until they come across Ganondorf, who attempts to strike Meryll and her sister down without hesitation. The player will have to use the shield to deflect Ganondorf’s blows and dark magic with precise timing.

Just as Ganondorf is about to land a killing blow, the King of Hyrule arrives, managing to hold the Evil King back long enough for Meryll and her sibling to escape. His booming voice echoes as he instructs the fleeing Hylians to make their way to the mountain tops. Cue a time-limit test to reach heights above the ensuing Great Flood, where Meryll has to employ all the stealth she’s learned to beat the game. At the end, the player’s reward is Meryll’s survival and the knowledge that she will pass her precious shield down to the next hero in her family.

The Legend of Zelda: Cult of the Triforce

John Furby (Junior Editor) introduces us to a game set in a brand new timeline. He’s got religious wars, an army of the undead, and a heroine struggling with her own internal battle. Is our protagonist possessed, or are her demons the answer to everything? Read on to find out!

This would be a 3D, third-person Zelda game but with a combat system more like Assassin’s Creed and with a very survival-horror atmosphere highlighting that the main protagonist is lone warrior in a hostile and twisted world. The game is set in a dark timeline after the events of Ocarina of Time where war after war has devastated the once peaceful and prosperous society of Hyrule. The final battle was waged by a cult of zealots rebelling against the religion of the three Golden Goddesses and Hylia herself. Prayers to these deities went unanswered and the zealots were victorious, driving out the religion that had existed in Hyrule since time immemorial.

Over several generations, the people of Hyrule succumbed to this new norm, becoming followers of a religion which punished those who opposed it. Witch hunts ended in the deaths of thousands of the Triforce-faithful until there were none left who would speak their faith aloud. The land withered and died, and the cult grew powerful and rich from the suffering of its people. The protectors of the land were corrupted by the cult’s terrifying power. The Deku Tree soiled the Lost Woods and spread its disease through every plant in the land. The water guardian Lord Jabu Jabu poisoned the waterways. The ancient dragon Volvagia scorched the skies.

Deep in the desert, a child named Zelda is born to a group of nomads under an astronomical event in the shape of three bright stars. Her Sheikah guardian trains her in the ancient ways of the forgotten Sheikah. When she comes of age, the two Gerudo Priestesses who lead the nomads bless the young warrior with an ancient ritual of protection. Resolute in her destiny, Zelda sets out on a quest to rid the land of the influence of the Zealots and reclaim the forgotten birthright of the Royal Family in her blood by bringing the Word of the Triforce back to the non-believers.

Unfortunately, the zealots know she’s coming, alerted by the same sign in the stars. They begin searching for an answer to her rebellion and unearth the souls of a hundred dead heroes ready to rise and fight under their power. These undead swordsmen hunt Zelda mercilessly, undeterred by the wilds, the wind, or even time itself. But Zelda is not alone. Every clue to the old ways of the Triforce she uncovers, something awakens in her, an evil her descendants long fought to destroy, brought back by the trickery of the Priestesses. A thief dwells within her, consuming her very soul. A demon gives her power she shouldn’t embrace but may be her only hope of ending the plight of Hyrule and returning the land to its former golden glory.

The Legend of Zelda: The Darkness of Stone Tower Temple

Michaela El-Ters (Senior Editor) gives us a game with all the classic fantasy that one might expect from a Zelda game, and even takes us back to familiar ground. But that doesn’t mean she’s skipped the horror! If you’re looking for gore and a grim ending, you’ve come to the right place.

Set before Majora’s Mask in Ikana Canyon, players take control of a rookie guard named Akier who has just joined the force under Captain Keeta. Reports of growing unease and death have swept the region. Akier is posted to guard the Ancient Castle of Ikana, and as the sun begins to set, he sees smoke rising from Stone Tower Temple in the distance. Captain Keeta tasks Akier with investigating the cause while he works to fortify the castle and help nearby residents evacuate. As Akier journeys to the temple, he quickly learns that the situation is dire. The darkness sealed within Stone Tower Temple has been unleashed and has started transforming residents and temple worshippers into Stalfos. The main objective becomes reaching the temple and closing the temple doors. 

Akier is equipped with a short sword, bow and arrows, a single potion, and a torch. Players will control him using the third-person, over-the-shoulder camera viewpoint. As night falls, players will have to rely on stealth and torchlight to navigate. Ikana Canyon is larger than seen in Majora’s Mask, peppered with villages to travel through. Players can find unturned residents hiding and have the option to help them escape for rewards. ReDeads and Stalfos will relentlessly hunt the players and try to stop them from reaching the temple. Akier’s weapons start out very weak and arrows are incredibly scarce, so resource management is a must and players are encouraged to progress using stealth kills. 

Over time, as Akier becomes afflicted by the darkness, his strength and movement speed decreases, his visibility and psyche worsens (represented to the players in gameplay as sudden landscape and audio changes, hallucinations of enemy attacks, viscous gore running down the screen, etc.), and his appearance changes. Eventually, Akier reaches the Stone Tower Temple. Deep within its dizzying corridors, he discovers Twinmold about to break free from the alternate plane it’s trapped in, along with the considerable dark power of Majora seeping through. 

Realizing Majora’s influence is responsible for the doors opening, players fight Twinmold (enhanced by Majora’s power) as the final boss with the Light Arrows they find in the temple. The arrows subdue Twinmold and Akier rushes to close the doors, but not before Majora’s power fully escapes. Akier hopes that he saved the rest of Ikana Canyon from its grim fate before succumbing to his transformation into a Stalfos. While the credits roll, players watch as Ikana Canyon is completely overtaken by Majora’s darkness, and all the remaining living become mindless Stalfos. The sun rises the following morning on the desolate castle and players see the Stalfos forms of Captain Keeta and Igos du Ikana stalking the halls. In the final scene, a single Light Arrow remains within Stone Tower Temple, pulsing with an ethereal, hopeful glow.

The Legend of Zelda: Temple of Torment

John Piland (Junior Editor) isn’t the biggest horror fan, but he sure knows how to combine The Legend of Zelda with the scary stuff. He plays on Sheikah history and torture elements seen in pop-horror to bring us a disturbing installment full of gruesome challenges.

I’ll be honest, I don’t play many horror games. The most experience I have would be shooter games like Resident Evil at arcades. That said, I’ve recently become a big fan of the Saw franchise, from which two video games have been produced. Ocarina of Time introduced us to the Shadow Temple, a place of torture and punishment. So I got to thinking: What if we took Saw, but put it in the Shadow Temple?

For those who don’t know, the Saw franchise is a series of movies where people have to complete grueling tasks in order to survive. The films are much more than that, but long story short, think of them as torture-fests. The games feature the player making their way through a maze of traps (torture tasks) to make their way to freedom. Essentially, my idea boils down to someone working their way through the Shadow Temple and a number of devious traps to their freedom. The temple isn’t subtle with how gruesome Sheikah torture can be. Taking a look at Earth’s own history, there’s no shortage of insane and disturbing torture methods the human mind can come up with. With the supernatural elements of Zelda, like Dead Hands and ReDeads, and complex puzzles, you’re in for a thrilling, horrifying game. 

The Legend of Zelda: Crimson Prison

Brandon Schmitz (Senior Editor) pitches a game that utilises claustrophobia to evoke fear in the player. And although he retains some fantasy elements, Brandon promises to scare the player on the flipside. Imprisoned crazy axe murderer? Incarcerated criminal masterminds? They’re all coming for you in this game!

As I reflect on the horror game genre, I find that many of my favorites are those that imbue their settings with a sense of claustrophobia. From the cavernous halls of Dead Space’s USG Ishimura to the creaky corridors of Resident Evil 7’s backwoods house, there’s something about that double-whammy of not only being trapped in a narrow space, but also being stuck in the middle of nowhere, that just terrifies me! 

With that said, Twilight Princess’ Arbiter’s Grounds – my favorite dungeon in the series – is the ideal locale for a horror-based Zelda game. As far as the narrative set-up is concerned, I envision something similar to Batman: Arkham Asylum, in which the Dark Knight is tasked with stopping a coup from within the titular facility. Along the way, he crosses paths with generic criminals and iconic foes alike; and though it isn’t a proper horror game, Asylum definitely flirted with psychological terror through its famous Scarecrow sequences. 

Despite being among Hyrule’s most notorious prisons – or perhaps because of their notoriety – the Arbiter’s Grounds seem virtually abandoned by the time we reach the events of Twilight Princess. Certainly, a survival-horror game set in their ruined state would work wonderfully, given how much of an impression the dungeon has already left on me.

However, I’d prefer to see this hypothetical game set during the prison’s “heyday,” so to speak. Put us in the boots of a Hylian soldier who finds themselves caught up in the middle of the prisoners’ uprising. Throughout the journey, he’ll be tasked with dispatching the coup’s ringleaders, each of whom have taken over a particular section of the Grounds. Naturally, this would culminate in a fight against Stallord — or rather, whomever Stallord was in life.

The Legend of Zelda: A Bloody Demise

Judy Calder (Managing Editor) takes us back to before the legend began and sends the player on a hunt for the original big bad. A true fan of the official Zelda timeline, she does her best to stick to canonical events while walking the thin line of classic fantasy-horror.

I think there are several in-universe settings that would be perfect for a horror-based Zelda game, but one stands out the most: Skyward Sword’s Hyrule, except before Demise broke through that legendary fissure in the earth. I imagine the Goddess Hylia sending her champion into the realm beneath that fissure, where blood-thirsty demons prowl the shadows and monsters are gathering in garrisons to prepare for their call to ascension. The condemned dead, robbed of their sight and cursed to wander the depths of hell, blindly hunt the light they sense emanating from the hero’s soul — their only means of escaping damnation. Link’s mission? To find the Demon King and stop his ascent to the world above. 

Stealth would be an important element in this game since Link can’t just go charging into fortified strongholds on his own. As such, he would rely on knives as well as his sword. He would have all of his usual weapons and tools, like the Hookshot, bow and arrow, and some Goddess spells similar to Din’s Fire for when he’s drawn too much attention to himself and needs something big to distract his enemies. To replenish his magic for spells, Link would need to capture the essence of slain demons. And to save your progress, Link would need to find certain rooms within garrisons or small campsites to rest.

Importantly, this game would be played in first person so that we see everything through Link’s eyes. When an enemy gets too close, or suddenly notices Link and attacks in a rush, the player would see the horror in the same panicked light as Link. When Link gets injured, his peripheral sight would be bloodied, and if he dies, the game would show a gory replay of how it happened. Notably, any hit that Link does take will inflict more than minor damage and the player will grasp that Link can’t just let an attack roll off him like we see in normal Zelda games. When Link uses his weapons, we’d see them in his hands right in front of us (which I think would be super-cool with dual knives). Link would even be able to use his fists to keep enemies at bay. 

In the end, Link would face Demise and his hordes on the Surface, after they have ascended the fissure. The final battle would be frantic, with enemies seen previously throughout the game clamoring to inflict damage. We’d see Link and Hylia work together to bring Demise down, but the task is so bloody that the Goddess would decide entrapment is the only way to best him — for now. With the the binding completed, the cinematic credits would show a battle-weary Hylia using Goddess Magic to bless the sword of a notably missing Link, before enshrining it for the future Hero and looking wistfully towards the sky.

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So, what do you think of Zelda Dungeon’s horror-based Zelda pitches? Is there one that scratches your terror-loving itch? And which one do you think would be perfect to play in the spookiest month of all? Let us know in the comments below!

Featured Image: Heather Beard (Zelda Dungeon Art Director)