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Do You Want Shrines to Return?

Joined
Jul 7, 2014
Having a bunch of mini-dungeons scattered throughout the massive overworld of BotW provided a lot of incentive and reward for exploration in my eyes. Most of the physics based puzzles were really fun to play with and figure out. However, while part of me really enjoyed them and would like them to return, the fact of the matter is that their inclusion was part of the reason that we only had 4 short "dungeons" (Divine Beasts) instead of a larger number of full sized dungeon experiences.

So, with that in mind, would you like to see Shrines return? And if so how many do you think would be a good number?

Should they be modified in any way?

Would you want the combat and/or blessing shrines to return?

Let me know what you think!
 

DekuNut

I play my drum for you
Joined
Jan 30, 2011
Location
Tangent Universe
While I enjoyed shrines, I think keeping them more along the lines of TP - random caves scattered around. Your comparison to Elder Scrolls is about what I'm looking for. That said, fewer than most ES games. The thing I missed the most about BotW was the lack of regular dungeons. Most of the shrines had a very similar atmosphere. While that was purposeful, I feel like we could get more interesting puzzles and design from varied dungeons like in regular Zelda games.
 
Joined
Feb 13, 2019
No, No. most of them were Major Test of Strength and you don’t need many hearts after you get the Master Sword and you don’t need many energy bars after Revali's Gale.
(Also Dekunut is right about the atmosphere, it gets boring)
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Location
England
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Absolute unit
I disagree that they provided incentives for exploration. What they contained was often useless as the weapon Breaking mechanic discouraged fighting enemies. I found if I didn't fight much then my weapons didn't need replacing much.

These shrines therefore offered little of use and did not contribute to the story of the game.

I actually think a lot of the puzzles were good but doing puzzles for puzzles sake does not appeal to me much I like a good reward like a boss and to further the plot at the end of my puzzling so I hope shrines do not return in the form they appeared in BoTW.
 

Azure Sage

March onward forever...
Staff member
ZD Legend
Comm. Coordinator
I wouldn't mind them returning, but we definitely don't need 120 of them again. Instead of them being the way to increase your stats and warp points for fast travel, they could serve as proper mini dungeons with material rewards. And honestly, in my opinion they would have to be given a complete thematic makeover. Shrines outside of the context of BotW don't really fit in, so they would have to be different kinds of shrines. Fewer and bigger would be better in that case, hidden underground in caves and in deep forests and ruins and stuff. That would be cool. So yes, I wouldn't be opposed to shrines returning, but having them be the way they are in BotW wouldn't feel right.
 

DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
So, by caves do you mean elder scroll's style "dungeons." And if you don't want the underworld split up, do want the caves to all be interconnected?

No. I mean more like Hyrule Castle's indoor interiors. They've shown they're capable of pulling it off, there's no reason to be lazy and forego it. If not that, I'd settle for previous Zelda's caves.

And I mean I don't want it needlessly split up. There doesn't need to be one single underworld section, but the more you split it up, the more you turn a seamless overworld's strength into a weakness. The strength of a seamless overworld is that you never need to load between areas. The weakness is that it takes awhile for the initial load when you start the game. However, because the underworld is so segmented, you're constantly getting interrupted and constantly need to load in and out of the overworld. This is especially bad because the loading times are so long. Ironically, BOTW is the only Zelda game where loading screens are a genuine annoyance. This could have been prevented if shrines were part of the overworld (caves) or they merged them into a few large dungeons.
 
Joined
Jul 7, 2014
Can't say I'm too surprised by peoples responses so far.

Although I understand why Nintendo used the same outward structure design for each Shrine (to make them easily identifiable in the over-world), it would still be for the best if they were more organically incorporated into the world as caves and other unique structures (the HD rumble, which could be turned on/off, could still be used to help identify when your close to one). This would also solve the issue of the interior design always being the same, which as everyone has noted was way too repetitive.

As for combat shrines, I wouldn't mind seeing them return if they each had unique enemy sets and room layouts (the tests of strength were way too copy pasted). Maybe they could even be mini versions of the Trials of the Master Sword in that you temporarily lose most of your gear and have to rely only on whats inside. Also, part of the reward for these could even be new combat moves like in TP.

Blessing "shrines" could return, because overworld puzzles were fun, but once you solve them there is no need for a structure to show up that you enter to acquire the reward.

And for the love of god, no more motion control based shrines. I don't know how those even made it into the final game.

Overall I'm thinking maybe half the amount we had before would be good (especially if the overworld ends up being smaller/quality over quantity next time, which would be nice). Also, they should still serve as warp points.

I actually think a lot of the puzzles were good but doing puzzles for puzzles sake does not appeal to me much I like a good reward like a boss and to further the plot at the end of my puzzling so I hope shrines do not return in the form they appeared in BoTW.

That's where we differ. Puzzle's are probably my favorite part of the series, and a lot of the satisfaction for me simply comes from the process of solving them, as opposed to whatever the reward is. That said, I do prefer to have most of those puzzles in actual dungeons though, because it is more satisfying for it all to be followed up with a boss and story progression. So I agree with you there.
 
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Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Location
Netherlands
I think I've chanhed my mind since my last post. I actually do like the shrine system. I think hiding them in caves will result in weird peices of geography being shoved where they don't belong.

I would rather them simply elevator you down rather than put you in a loading screen, however it's difficult to know if this is even possible with the Switch having such limited power.
^This. The idea of shrines were quite neat, but they were so separated from the "real" world that it takes you out of your flow while playing. Most shrines feel like a mini-game, and I feel like that should not be the case.
Some kind of interconection between (some) shrines could be really nice as well and help avoid the feeling mentioned above.
 

DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
the HD rumble, which could be turned on/off, could still be used to help identify when your close to one

I'd rather this be removed, personally. Let us explore and find things organically. Yes, yes, it's optional, but the problem is that developers design games based on the features. If you have dowsing/sensors, the developers will design the game to assume you're using these tools. If these tools are unavailable, the developers have to build the game to assume you're not using them and get feedback based on gameplay without them, which means you need to find them through other ways, i.e. environmental hints, treasure maps, historical clues, or maybe some NPCs will tell you about hidden areas they've heard about from time to time, i.e. if you rescue them during random encounters.
 

DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Well I figured the ideal exploration system was one where you weren't truly "looking" for anything. Rather you had a destination in mind, but got side tracked by several adventures along the way. Stumbling across caves you weren't looking for, but are glad you found.
 

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