Tag: Sky

Alright, well here we are. Time to review the last of The Minish Cap’s dungeons before the last hurrah in Dark Hyrule Castle. It’s not my favorite dungeon in The Minish Cap — that award still goes to the Temple of Droplets — but it is my second-favorite and it’s also the only wind-themed dungeon in the series that I like. I’m sure you’ve noticed the trend if you’ve been keeping up with my Dungeon Reflections, how I’ve bashed the…

The land of Hyrule has long been divided into various themed regions, originally with common themes such as mountains, deserts, and lakes. However, as the series developed, more distinct and fantastic regions were added, giving players a larger amount of variety. In particular, there was the relatively recent addition of a sky realm, which has brought this region of Hyrule into the mythology of Zelda. In the early games, the land of Hyrule only consisted of the overworld and the…

“Goal-oriented gameplay and environmental presence exist in unavoidable tension. In moderation, sense of purpose can make a place come alive. But when we focus on moves, strategy, puzzles, and other performance-oriented tasks, we’re left with little cognitive room to appreciate the surrounding environment.” – Douglas Wilson, “Look Before You Warp”1 The above quote is from a chapter in The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy: I Link Therefore I Am (a collection of essays, edited by Luke Cuddy) in which Wilson…

One might have expected a game called Skyward Sword, with a story that started on a floating island, to have a dense and well-developed sky world. The developers opted instead for a pared-down hub, not that dissimilar from Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time or Termina Field in Majora’s Mask.  Those games’ fields were not particularly deep or involved.  Ocarina of Time’s, specifically, lacked enemies and even secrets were sparse.  In 1998, the joy of riding Epona from one end…