How Long Should It Take to Reach the First Dungeon?

[JamesBond007]

Ocarina of Time did this perfectly - first dungeon as a tutorial (in original OoT, Master Quest is a different story), reachable very quickly (take the sword, buy the shield and go inside).

The worst case is Twilight Princess - going to the first dungeon really takes a lot of time. Also, you must first experience being a wolf...

 

[Lord Death]

I was originally going to say that it should be similar to Ocarina of Time, where the first dungeon is the tutorial. However, thinking about it now, that wouldn't really make it a good dungeon, per se. What I mean is, I look a dungeon as having complex puzzles, a fitting and unique atmosphere, and an epic boss. If they can fit all that into one piece and still have the dungeon act as the tutorial, great! Do that, Nintendo.

But I think I'd almost rather have it like Majora's Mask... Instead of seeing the inside of a tree within your first 15 minutes, in MM you experience the atmosphere of the world. And depending on the mood and story of the Zelda game, I think that's important. Clock Town was fun and alive! You as the player knew the world was ending, but you could see all the jolly NPCs preparing for the carnival without a care in the world! The music was great and you were almost immediately absorbed in the atmosphere of that game. Maybe they could cut down the time to the first dungeon (talking about Woodfall) a little bit, but I find myself happier with that setup than with OoT's setup.

So OoT probably threw you in the first dungeon too quickly. Majora's Mask and definitely Skyward Sword probably took a little too long to get to the first dungeon. So I'd say I'd rather have the tutorial outside of the first temple if it means sacrificing the initial, immediate realization of atmosphere in a game.

 

[JuicieJ]

I hate being thrown into a dungeon within the first few minutes of the game. It wastes an opportunity to develop the plot, as well as the opportunity to have the first dungeon be more than a mere tutorial. The key is to not spend too much time before the first dungeon and to not have any of the buildup to it be padding and/or filler. That's something Twilight Princess failed at miserably. Most of the intro was completely pointless to the rest of the game, and the Twilight portions, while good, take too long to get through, plus you have to immediately backtrack through the area you just went through in the Twilight portion. Majora's Mask did it really well. The tutorial flowed seamlessly with the storytelling and the first three days, surprisingly, didn't feel forced at all.

Rambling aside, what I'm saying is that Zelda games should take their time getting to the first dungeon but in a way that doesn't feel like they're dragging on painfully slow. Skyward Sword was a step in the right direction towards this, as the Faron Woods was an masterful transition from the first overworld area to the first dungeon, but the intro had a bit of padding in it with the finding Link's Loftwing section. Hopefully Zelda 3DS and Wii U will perfect this.

 

[Garo]

Strangely enough, I prefer the Oracle games' approach to the "first dungeon". We don't want a dungeon concept and art assets wasted on a simple tutorial level, so plunging us straight into the huge, sprawling, first proper dungeon is not the best idea. Nor is spending a lot of time in the overworld being buried under exposition on exposition and fetch quest on fetch quest. The best solution? A mini-dungeon of sorts that leads to opening up the overworld. Maku Road and the Hero's Cave both served the purpose of opening access to a better way to get around the overworld and introduced the basic dungeon concepts in a way that, while still feeling like a mini-dungeon, did not feel like a wasted opportunity for devious puzzles.

Tether a small mini-dungeon like that to accessing Hyrule Field or the first major overworld area where the training wheels come off, and I think that'd be pretty much perfect.

 

[DuelMark]

Not too long. Maybe a BIT shorter than Skyward Sword for the sake of establishing Link's life and why he should go on this adventure.

 

[Zorth]

I would find it boring if we were to have a pretty medium to long introduction phase then get sent of to a dungeon that is just teaching us how to play the game. I find that OoT did something like this, the introduction was about 15 minutes and then we get sent of to a tutorial dungeon. Afterwards it's maybe 30 minutes of setting up the plot & characters when that should've been first and the first dungeon not giving us some special treatment because it's our first dungeon encounter of the game. I find that TP did this job pretty good, although the introduction could've been a little shorter. But otherwise we got to know some of the characters and see where Link was living, something bad happens and our adventure starts. Although as I said, too much pointless stuff that stretches out the game in TP. The Forest Temple was also a really good first dungeon, no special treatment or tutorials.

I think TWW had one of the worst introductions and most boring introductions out of all the Zelda games IMO. It takes us about one or two hours to get to the first real dungeon, the rest is just stretched out plot development that could've been told in 5 minutes. The entire Outset Island phase was a little bit too long, then we get another portion of stretched out gameplay which is the Forsaken Fortress (good stealth portion though), the Windfall Island chapter and at last the little dilemma at Dragon Roost. My point being that all of the stuff that was told in two hours and the events that happened to make us get to the point where we enter Dragon Roost Cavern or just to get our ship could've been done in 20 minutes or less. But then again my problem with this might be because I've replayed the game over 7 times now and maybe a portion before the dungeons this long might not be so terrible at a first playthrough and a plus is that Dragon Roost Cavern was not a tutorial dungeon.

The direction I'd like ZU going in would have to be somewhat that of MM. The introduction was great, gave us a really good picture of what is going on and who some of the characters are. The only thing that bugs me is that after we go through the 3 day cycle and return to our human form it still takes us maybe 15 minutes to get to the first temple which I personally found boring.

tl;dr

I'd like for ZU to keep the same length and storytelling as MM in its introduction only change is that they "spice" things up a little making it more interesting so it feels like my adventure has already begun as soon as I create my file and not after the first dungeon so the introduction isn't the "tutorial" part of the game.

 

[Jimmu]

I personally would prefer at least half an hour of gameplay before being thrown into a dungeon. As a few people have already stated above this gives the game more time to establish a story so that you know why your being thrown into a dungeon and also gives you some time to explore the surroundings and explore the games environment for yourself. To be honest I'd like optional tutorials that are seperate to the story so that I don't have to play through them since the controls will probably be pretty self explanatory, these "forced" tutorials can be rather annoying if you are trying to do a 2nd playthrough of the game or do a speed run. In The Legend of Zelda there is no real tutorial which isn't really a problem but there is a lack of direction and this results in the first dungeon being as long into the game as it takes you to find it, prehaps using a less linear approach to get to the first dungeon could give you a reason to explore and get to know the world (because if you don't use a guide, you are going to have to explore to find it) so early on in the game.

 

[Justac00lguy]

I think that rushing into a dungeon is never a good idea, in Ocarina of Time we were rushed into the The Great Deku Tree andi barely consider that a Dungeon just more as a tutorial....Neither do I think the first first dungeon should be far into the story!

Zelda needs to find a good balance, by rushing into the 1st Dungeon like in OoT we never get to fully understand to situation and the build up to the story can generally be ruined. Take Twilight Princess for example this game introduced a small village in the forest, we got to know the character's and their way of life. This made us care for the character's when something bad did happen and it made for a great story. However this was achieved through a lot of build up and and there was still more to do after things went wrong to actually gain acess to the first dungeon.

I think there should be a good build up where we get to know Link, his hometown, characters and learn the basic tutorials ect. The we should be presented with a mini dungeon, this should happen when a small event happens such as TP or TWW when someone Link cared for was captured. This should lead onto to the main twist inthe story....where things start to go wrong! Then there should be build up to the first proper dungeon in the game, with this the game wil be able to build up a story while giving the player experience in a mini dungeon and then allow the stroy to flow properly to the 1st main dungeon in the game.

Sorry for my rambling haha

 

[DarkestLink]

I liked MM's opening 3 days...but I actually wish it had been longer or we were given more incentive to talk to more characters. Believe it or not, when I first played MM, I didn't even know the moon was falling until after the first dungeon and I decided to explore. They showed the moon during the skull kid scene and when Link reversed time, but I didn't realize how much closer it was during the skull kid scene. I just remember the weird face the moon had and wondering why it had it.

Wind Waker had this problem too, but to a lesser extent. It didn't encourage us to talk to the characters. And MM indirectly did the opposite. Not only did I talk to very few of the characters, but I was too worried to talk to more because I was running out of time and had no idea how much there was left to do. In the end, ironically, I had loads of time and ended up having to dance with the Scarecrow 3 or 4 times.

 

[Ghirahimiscool]

I like the games better when theres more before a dungeon. I didn't really like Ocarina of Time that much when I started it because you do one thing, get the sword and shield, and then go right to the dungeon. There wasn't much at all before going there.

 

[papermaz]

I thought TP's into was a bit too long, but SS seemed even longer. Especially the conversation at the Goddess, and the other conversations with Groose in the plaza.

 

[linkypete]

Ocarina of time: About 5 minutes

Majora's mask: about 45 minutes to an hour

wind waker: about 45 minutes to an hour

Twilight princess: about 20 to 30 minutes

Phantom Hourglass: about 30 minutes

Spirit tracks: about 30 minutes

Skyward Sword: about an hour

 

[JuicieJ]

Twilight princess: about 20 to 30 minutes

20 to 30 minutes is about the length of the time spent in Ordon. Escaping Hyrule Castle takes around 30 more minutes, followed by returning to Ordron to get a sword and shield, which takes around 5 minutes. Then you have the Twilight portion, which takes around 20 minutes to complete, followed by backtracking through the Faron Woods with the time-consuming fog section, all which takes about 15 more minutes. It can take up to 2 hours to reach the Forest Temple.

 

[DarkestLink]

20 to 30 minutes is about the length of the time spent in Ordon. Escaping Hyrule Castle takes around 30 more minutes, followed by returning to Ordron to get a sword and shield, which takes around 5 minutes. Then you have the Twilight portion, which takes around 20 minutes to complete, followed by backtracking through the Faron Woods with the time-consuming fog section, all which takes about 15 more minutes. It can take up to 2 hours to reach the Forest Temple.

You're doing it wrong.

 

[Night Owl]

I think we should have an opening cutscene that leads to us starting in the first dungeon.
It would be a short 5-15 min dungeon that shows us the ropes and ends with a miniboss.

After leaving the dungeon it could have its character build up on the way to the first full dungeon.