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General Modern Savage Labyrinth Vs Cave of Ordeals Vs Take 'Em All On

Not Take Mirror

Sage of Ice
Joined
Dec 8, 2012
Location
Minneapolis, MN
Which one of the three did you enjoy the most?

Which one did you find the most challenging?


I enjoyed the Cave of Ordeals in Twilight Princess the best. That one had the best sense of dark and foreboding atmosphere and the best enemy design, including the best darknuts. It offered a good challenge and was one of the hardest parts of TP, especially the second time through.

Second would be Take 'Em All On in Spirit Tracks. That also offered a good challenge and you got to refight bosses. It didn't seem as atmospheric as TP's Cave of Ordeals though. The fights didn't seem as fun to do either. Maybe it was just the stylus controls.

Third would be the Savage Labyrinth in Wind Waker. That seemed too easy to really feel threatening. It had a layout and setup quite similar to the Cave of Ordeals but I think Cave of Ordeals improved upon it.


From most to least challenging I'd say: Take Em' All On (level 3) > Cave of Ordeals > Take Em' All On (level 2) > Savage Labyrinth > Take 'Em All On (level 1)
 

Random Person

Just Some Random Person
Joined
Feb 6, 2010
Location
Wig-Or-Log
(Any particular reason you left out Lanryu Challenge from SS, the dream challenge from MC and the Waterfall Challenge from MM?)

I enjoyed the Cave of Ordeals more, simply because I enjoy TP fighting more than I do any other Zelda combat. Not to mention, you have many ways of defeating foes (with the exception of blizzafoes).

I don't remember the WW's ordeal so either I didn't play it, or it didn't leave a big impact on me.

Take Em' All On was the hardest, no doubt. I never finished it. (Hmm... don't know how I feel about that)
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
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Based on trouble with the actual foe? I'd say Cave of Ordeals was the hardest, but none of those gauntlets were particularly challenging based on foes alone. The hardest one for me was Take 'Em All On, and that's merely because of the stylus controls.
 

DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Cave of Ordeals>Lightning Round>Take Em On>Savage Labyrinth

I just find Cave of Ordeals to be the most fun and the best to self challenge yourself in. Lightning Round was more challenging, didn't offer as much self challenge, and was fun, but not as fun as CoO. Take em On was pretty good and offered the best of both worlds with bosses and enemies and while I enjoy Spirit Tracks combat, it's still not as good as TP's and SS's. Savage Labyrinth is last and has the most inappropriate name. Not only is it not a Labyrinth in any sense of the word, but nothing is savage about that...even if you don't have light arrows yet. WW enemies are patronizingly easy with very slow attack speed on par with SS's...but at least the enemies in SS would block. And, of course, WW enemies also drop their weapons almost instantly. This, coupled with the unforgivable friendly fire, the invincible parry, and the even more invincible light arrows...this thing is a joke.

I would also comment on OoT's Boss Gauntlet, but I haven't actually gotten around to doing the MQ challenge version....it's nice to see that they beefed up Bongo Bongo though. He was a joke in the original.
 
Joined
Oct 16, 2011
Location
Ohio
Based on trouble with the actual foe? I'd say Cave of Ordeals was the hardest, but none of those gauntlets were particularly challenging based on foes alone. The hardest one for me was Take 'Em All On, and that's merely because of the stylus controls.

Yep. The thing that made it hard in ST is the controls. Cave of ordeals is much harder to survive than savage labyrinth.

MM's trial doesn't count to me. SS is greater than oot3d's
 

Curmudgeon

default setting: sarcastic prick
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Savage Labyrinth was a joke... I at least had to use a potion in the Cave of Ordeals.
 

Justac00lguy

BooBoo
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Shewhale
For me I would definitely go eith the Cave of Ordeals from Twilight Princess...

This side quest/minidungeon was one of the greatest showcases of skill required in any Zelda game to date, which is a good thing as Zelda games rarely offer any aspects or gameplay elements that require actual "skill". In a a game that most people see as the easiest Zelda title this gameplay segment had some of the most skill and strategy required combat needed, you would have to efficiently defend your heart's early ondue to the challenge and number of enemies would get harder as you progressed.

Since Twilight Princess had some of the best combat elements I have seen in Zelda game due to the variety of offensive weapons combined with the learing of the 7 hidden skills, the Cave of Ordeals was the perfect place to put your combat skills to the test. I found myself tactically defending, using a variety of weapons and different sword techniques in order to advance to the next stage and the final stage consisted of 4 Darknuts...a true test of anyone's ability. So even though there was no satisfying reward once of finished the Cave of Ordeals it was satisfying on a Zelda player level, a sort of personal achievement and you could alter the challenge if you so insisted like going in without potions/fairies or aith limited Heart containers.
 

JuicieJ

SHOW ME YA MOVES!
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
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On the midnight Spirit Train going anywhere
Given that the Lightning Round isn't a choice (for whatever reason), I'm gonna have to go with the Cave of Ordeals. This was one of the few parts of Twilight Princess that wasn't predictable, easy, and bland. It was always impossible to know what was going to happen next, and many of the rooms were extremely dark, making things more threatening. The amount of enemies was often overwhelming, to boot. Even if they were easy individually, the sheer swarm of them practically ensured damage.

It's just a fun time.
 

Not Take Mirror

Sage of Ice
Joined
Dec 8, 2012
Location
Minneapolis, MN
(Any particular reason you left out Lanryu Challenge from SS, the dream challenge from MC and the Waterfall Challenge from MM?)

I enjoyed the Cave of Ordeals more, simply because I enjoy TP fighting more than I do any other Zelda combat. Not to mention, you have many ways of defeating foes (with the exception of blizzafoes).

I don't remember the WW's ordeal so either I didn't play it, or it didn't leave a big impact on me.

Take Em' All On was the hardest, no doubt. I never finished it. (Hmm... don't know how I feel about that)

Oops! I can't believe I forgot to mention Thunder Dragon's Lightning Round in Skyward Sword. I'd say that one is the hardest, especially if you do it in Hero Mode. I've never gotten all the way through myself, even in normal mode. I do enjoy it though, but Cave of Ordeals is my favorite.

I've never played Minish Cap so I've nothing to comment on about the Dream Challenge.

I don't remember anything like this in Majora's Mask. Isn't the Waterfall Challenge just the race with the Beaver Brothers?
 

DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Oops! I can't believe I forgot to mention Thunder Dragon's Lightning Round in Skyward Sword. I'd say that one is the hardest, especially if you do it in Hero Mode. I've never gotten all the way through myself, even in normal mode. I do enjoy it though, but Cave of Ordeals is my favorite.

I've never played Minish Cap so I've nothing to comment on about the Dream Challenge.

I don't remember anything like this in Majora's Mask. Isn't the Waterfall Challenge just the race with the Beaver Brothers?

I think there's something in Ikana were you face the mini bosses again...but...it's a one time thing, and...yeah...you only fight them one at a time and you can go at your own pace.
 
I didn't enjoy the Savge Labyrinth or Cave of Ordeals due to the bland, repeating room design.

While the Take 'Em All On challenge was nowhere near as difficult as its predecessors, the difficulty curve progressed nicely and room feature different backgrounds. Fighting past bosses was also appreciated. Although the battle against Dark Link at the end is underwhelming, I appreciated the cameo nonetheless.
 

DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Well just did MQ Boss Gauntlet. I'll put it between Take em All On and Savage Labyrinth. It was more fun than Savage Labyrinth but man was that easy....the fake difficulty by giving us 3 hearts didn't make it any harder...it just made me more alert.
 

Shadsie

Sage of Tales
I definitely most love - and was most challenged by - The Cave of Ordeals. My last playthrough of Twilight Princess (100% !) I did that thing twice - with the extra Darknuts and tougher bokoblin-types. That thing was a fifty-level HELL COURSE - that I enjoyed.

One thing I would like to see in future titles, especially "serious" future Zelda installments is a lesson from Spirit Track's Take 'Em All On - While I found the smaller enemies easy in that and I didn't find it too difficult (the parts I bothered to do, anyway), I liked the fact that Bosses were there. The Cave of Ordeals and Savage Labrynth (to my memory) didn't involve any revisits of the massive dungeon-bosses. (That's my favorite thing to do in my completed save file in Majora's Mask - go back and insta-challenge all the bosses)! The Thunder Dragon Boss Rush of Skyward Sword was pretty cool in that respect, too, but I rather liked the balance between mooks and bosses in Take 'Em All On. We should be able to do that again.
 
Joined
Jan 30, 2013
Location
Australia
For me the cave of ordeals provided the only challenge combat wise on the 3D Zelda titles (apart from the odd boss). I thoroughly enjoyed it but was
dissappointed to see That SS didn't improve upon it. As for the savage labyrinth I thought this was a tedious task and somewhat of a joke considering it was nothing at all like a labyrinth.
 

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