I've seen a lot of people recently wanting it gone and I've been wondering why. [...] Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask (to an extent), The Wind Waker, (arguably not) and Twilight Princess uphold this tradition.
And there you have your answer. Almost all 3D-Zeldas have had those three temples, and variations are minimal. It's always the same enemies. It's always the same type of puzzles. Chop these ranks, burn that thing, change the water level or direction of water flow. It's almost like a chore by now that you have to do to get rewarded with the real, complex dungeons. The ones with the cool puzzles and unique designs.
The only 3D-Zelda that changes this formula is the one after the game that introduced it. Majora's Mask, since it didn't have a classic fire temple. And even that had a plants dungeon and a water dungeon. It also had only four dungeons in the whole game.
It just works well to have basic elemental dungeons before we get into Shadow, Spirit, Sky, etc. themed dungeons.
Forest is not an element. Few Zeldas have had Earth dungeons (WW comes to mind) or Wind dungeons (Kumula in TP), so why do we always get fire, water and forest, which isn't even an element?
Not only that, but it acts as a sort of a reference to the goddesses, with green (forest) representing Farore, red (fire) representing Din, and blue (water) representing Nayru.
That is a nice point, actually. But you have to wonder if the producers start by thinking of a reference to the goddesses and then always come up with the same Plant, Water and Fire dungeons, or if they start with unused plant, water and fire concepts from the last game and create the latest goddess mcguffins (medals, amulets, whatever) to justify the color scheme.
The Green, Red, Blue/Forest Dungeon, Fire Dungeon, Water Dungeon trio is everywhere in Zelda, and there's no reason to get rid of it.
Why do people want it gone?
Because it's everywhere in Zelda. Been there, done that, got the medallion. It's been done to death. I mean, imagine any other game franchise working like that. Imagine every 3D Super Mario game starting with variations of Bob-Omb Battlefield, Whoomp's Fortress and Jolly Roger Bay - before you can enter any other stage. Imagine Mega Man always having to defeat Wood Man, Bubble Man and Heat Man (and their respective stages) before you can enter any other stage. Imagine every Splinter Cell ever starting with T'Bilisi, the Ministry of Defense and that Oil Rig, and the height of creativity would be to have the Oil Rig first. It would get very old very soon. With Zelda, it's exactly the same. We already know between a third (TP) and half (MM) of the Dungeons in any given 3D Zelda before taking the game out of the cellophane it's sold in.
If it's just the color scheme, you can have ruby, emerald and sapphire temples. Or use the colors in the dungeon items (blue boomerang, red bow, green grappling hook or whatever). There are tons of ways to incorporate the goddesses without having to rely on the same old dungeons again and again and again. I think I'd rather have Campari, Absinthe and Blue Curacao temples before getting another Wood/Water/Fire trifecta.
I've seen a lot of people recently wanting it gone and I've been wondering why. [...] Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask (to an extent), The Wind Waker, (arguably not) and Twilight Princess uphold this tradition.
And there you have your answer. Almost all 3D-Zeldas have had those three temples, and variations are minimal. It's always the same enemies. It's always the same type of puzzles. Chop these ranks, burn that thing, change the water level or direction of water flow. It's almost like a chore by now that you have to do to get rewarded with the real, complex dungeons. The ones with the cool puzzles and unique designs.
The only 3D-Zelda that changes this formula is the one after the game that introduced it. Majora's Mask, since it didn't have a classic fire temple. And even that had a plants dungeon and a water dungeon. It also had only four dungeons in the whole game.
It just works well to have basic elemental dungeons before we get into Shadow, Spirit, Sky, etc. themed dungeons.
Forest is not an element. Few Zeldas have had Earth dungeons (WW comes to mind) or Wind dungeons (Kumula in TP), so why do we always get fire, water and forest, which isn't even an element?
Not only that, but it acts as a sort of a reference to the goddesses, with green (forest) representing Farore, red (fire) representing Din, and blue (water) representing Nayru.
That is a nice point, actually. But you have to wonder if the producers start by thinking of a reference to the goddesses and then always come up with the same Plant, Water and Fire dungeons, or if they start with unused plant, water and fire concepts from the last game and create the latest goddess mcguffins (medals, amulets, whatever) to justify the color scheme.
The Green, Red, Blue/Forest Dungeon, Fire Dungeon, Water Dungeon trio is everywhere in Zelda, and there's no reason to get rid of it.
Why do people want it gone?
Because it's everywhere in Zelda. Been there, done that, got the medallion. It's been done to death. I mean, imagine any other game franchise working like that. Imagine every 3D Super Mario game starting with variations of Bob-Omb Battlefield, Whoomp's Fortress and Jolly Roger Bay - before you can enter any other stage. Imagine Mega Man always having to defeat Wood Man, Bubble Man and Heat Man (and their respective stages) before you can enter any other stage. Imagine every Splinter Cell ever starting with T'Bilisi, the Ministry of Defense and that Oil Rig, and the height of creativity would be to have the Oil Rig first. It would get very old very soon. With Zelda, it's exactly the same. We already know between a third (TP) and half (MM) of the Dungeons in any given 3D Zelda before taking the game out of the cellophane it's sold in.
If it's just the color scheme, you can have ruby, emerald and sapphire temples. Or use the colors in the dungeon items (blue boomerang, red bow, green grappling hook or whatever). There are tons of ways to incorporate the goddesses without having to rely on the same old dungeons again and again and again. I think I'd rather have Campari, Absinthe and Blue Curacao temples before getting another Wood/Water/Fire trifecta.
