Skyward Sword Dungeons: Skyview Temple
Posted on May 01 2012 by Axle D. Wilder
This will be the first of a series of editorials discussing the dungeons of Skyward Sword, each going into detail and discussing multiple aspects of the dungeon. We shall begin with the first dungeon of Skyward Sword, the Skyview Temple.
At first glance this dungeon appears to be pretty standard-issue. Like most first dungeons in Zelda games, it is located in the woods and is forest-themed. It is yet another “temple”, and it’s a ruined structure. It even resembles the Forest Temple from Spirit Tracks in a number of ways. Initial impressions of this dungeon say that it is a straightforward, basic, and easy dungeon, as are many of the first dungeons in a Zelda game. In terms of concept and design, one could say the development team was “playing it safe”, by not venturing outside the norm. However, Skyview Temple does break from the norm in a number of very important ways.
The first and most important is actually hidden under our noses: The fact that it’s a ruined temple. To begin with, Skyview Temple, more so than any other “temple” in the series, has a fairly obvious justification for its name. Other Zelda games use the word for any important structure regardless of religious significance — which is fine; that’s a proper use of the word — but Skyview Temple makes the structure’s purpose fairly obvious. Zelda ventures to Skyview Temple to pray at the Goddess Statue and to “purify herself” in its waters. So clearly, unlike most temples in the series, Skyview Temple was of actual religious or at least spiritual significance, and not only is that purpose established, but it was the reason it was visited at all. For once Nintendo actually had a really good justification for putting in another temple.
Furthermore, the dungeon’s atmosphere was thick. Extremely thick. This is one thing that Skyward Sword excelled at in general: Building believable and relatable atmospheres. For most of the areas in the game, the Skyward Sword development team built a thick atmosphere by combining good level design to make the area feel real, with excellent music to convey exactly the kind of place you’re in. These come together in Skyview Temple in a very big way. Other dungeons in the game (as I will discuss in the near future) also have excellent atmospheres, but it is the thickest and most impressive in Skyview Temple, and you can tell that the development team either were aware of this or were specifically going for this, as the dungeon’s song has more variations than most in the game, changing as you get deeper. The tight corridors make the structure feel legitimate, while the open lobbies sell its prior significance. The broken stone and spider webs prove that it is indeed a ruin, thereby justifying the forest themes; Skyview Temple is not a forest temple, but a shrine that declined and was overtaken by the forest.
Skyview Temple is just as well thought-out in terms of its design. As the first dungeon in the game, you’d expect it to follow Zelda tradition and be filled with easy foes and basic puzzles. However, Skyward Sword is not (arguably) an easy game, and the foes introduced in Skyview Temple are foes that will likely give you some challenge throughout the entire game. Staldras in particular remained a challenging enemy for me until midway through my second run through the game. The dungeon’s puzzles are not a cakewalk either. That’s not to say they aren’t significantly easier than those found later in the game, because they are. But they’re not child’s play, and there are moments where some thought is definitely required. This difficulty is an excellent opening for the game, as it really gives you a taste for what’s to come.
The themes I discussed before are still prevalent in the dungeon’s actual gameplay design as well. As I said, the ruined temple has tight corridors in the beginning and at several other points in the dungeon, giving you a heavy sense of delving deep into the place as you go through puzzles that mostly involve the strange sentinel-like eyes and fight bats and plants. As you get a little further, you fight insects and a handful of familiar Bokoblins as you navigate through puzzles that play off the water and the dungeon’s ruined nature in general. The puzzles make the dungeon’s themes feel legitimate. They sell its significance as well as its decline.
A miniboss fight against the familiar Stalfos is an excellent introduction to the game’s many swordsman minibosses, and he’s a cool foe who fits the ruin very well. The dungeon’s main boss, Demon Lord Ghirahim, goes a long way towards cementing the dungeon’s place in the game. I already established that Skyview Temple’s spiritual significance is the entire reason you’re lead there in pursuit of Zelda, but Ghirahim being the dungeon’s actual boss also goes along with this. This is a normal dungeon of the game that has a major plot character as its boss. This is pretty much the first time this has actually happened in the series, at least in a way this distinct and noticeable, and with Ghirahim being teased earlier as you leave Faron Woods, it really brings this whole section of the plot together and makes Skyview Temple a big part of the story. This is something that no other dungeon has quite managed to do in the history of the series.
Skyview Temple is also very unique among dungeons in the series as well as those in Skyward Sword itself by being a dungeon you must actually revisit for something plot-related. When you return to find the Sacred Water needed to heal the Water Dragon, you meet up with the Mogmas from Eldin Province and interact with them as you navigate back through the dungeon, fighting new enemies and searching for a key to unlock a door once more. Finally you must face three Stalfos at the same time; a worthy battle to cap off this brief revisiting.
Unfortunately, this revisit is somewhat obnoxious, as you spend most of it hunting for the key by digging around in patches of dirt. There’s less annoying ways they could have constructed this revisit, such as using new barriers placed by the enemies to force Link down different paths or even having previously unreachable rooms. I also have to wonder why they didn’t make it so you revisit any other dungeons. This was an intriguing idea that should have been explored further.
I think Skyview Temple, while somewhat minimalist in terms of length and new ideas, masterfully executed what it did, and expanded on an age-old idea in a big way that no other similar dungeon has matched. But how do you feel about Skyview Temple? Did you like it or dislike it, and where does your criticism or praise begin and end? Did you find the dungeon challenging, impressive, or creative? Or did you think it was easy, forgettable, and unoriginal? Be sure to tell me in the comments!
And now I will conclude this editorial by leaving you with the dungeon’s song.
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