While the first two games certainly have their merits, I think most can agree that Link To The Past is where the Zelda series really started to come into its own, introducing many of the series' most prolific conventions and bits of iconography. And of course, that applies doubly so to the dungeon design. There's multiple floors, dungeon items, Boss Keys, a balance between more linear and open dungeons, it's all great stuff. This is the first Zelda game to really feel like I'm racking my brain while playing it, between juggling the Light and Dark Worlds, and the increasingly navigation-focused dungeon design. That being said, like with the game itself, I think there's still a fair share of weird growing pains here. Keys are often placed in enemies or under pots which makes it pretty easy to miss them, the Boss Key is used to unlock a chest with the Dungeon Item in it rather than the boss door, the Compass doesn't show you where the chests are, many dungeons still have a good amount of almost entirely useless rooms, and with a whopping 13-14 dungeons, the ratio of overworld to dungeon exploration still feels a bit off. I still really like the game though (even if I think Link Between Worlds kinda overshadows it now) and the many improvements and iterations it did make are absolutely worth acclaim, but I do think it's those little quirks that makes LttP's dungeons quite interesting to talk about.
Dungeon 0: Hyrule Castle/Secret Passage
I'm not fully sure if this section of the game fully counts as a dungeon, but I'm going to talk about it anyway. LttP has one of the coolest openings to a Zelda game, to the point where I think this is one area it even beats out A Link Between Worlds. Breaking into Hyrule Castle and freeing the princess is a fun and exciting way to kick off a game, but your first visit to Hyrule Castle also serves as a solid tutorial of Zelda's mechanics. You get a few keys and locked doors, multiple floors, a few items to immediately mess around with like the Lamp and the Boomerang, the more open castle entrance immediately followed by the more linear dungeon area, and some lever-pulling environmental puzzles in the sewers. I also really like the way combat is introduced, LttP's combat was always kind of iffy, your sword is stubby and only
does half of a swing arc if you spam attack. It's really built around
using items and everything in your environment, so I like how this area is primarily designed to encourage stealth and taking out enemies with pots, at least unless you want the Boomerang. So yeah, while I'm not sure I'll be counting this as a dungeon, it's a fantastic intro to the game in its own right.
Dungeon 1: Eastern Palace
Once again, the Eastern Palace is a solid introduction to how dungeons work in this game. It's fairly short and straightforward, but it's quite efficient as well, balancing optional exploration with a guiding hand. The main, intended path forward is fairly linear, but there are a lot of optional goodies like Rupees and the Dungeon Map hidden in side paths. Many rooms in this dungeon have multiple, often disconnected levels to them forcing you to frequently double-back to rooms you've already been to but on different paths, which in turn makes the dungeon feel more sprawling. The arguable main mechanic are switches hidden under the ground or in pots which is a fine enough way to encourage the player to explore, but it's not too remarkable. There are also a few rooms with rolling cannonballs you need to dodge and while they're easily the highlight of the dungeon, there just isn't enough of them. That being said, the dungeon item is the Bow which actually gets a decent amount of mileage here since it can help with fighting Armos Knights. Many dungeon items in LttP don't have this same level of versatility. So while Eastern Palace isn't super remarkable, it does do most of what it's trying to do pretty well.
Dungeon 2: Desert Palace
The Desert Palace is unironically one of my favorite dungeons in the game, it's got everything. The first half is incredibly nonlinear, tossing you into a large open space with a bunch of rooms to explore, while the second half is a linear, more combat-focused gauntlet. The main gimmicks here are the fact that most of the dungeon is sandy meaning enemies can often pop out of the floor, and the Beamos which swivel around and shoot lasers at you on sight. I actually really like the Beamos, they're placed pretty well here like in the room where you need to find the pot with the switch hidden under it while dodge the Beamos' shots. There are a few other memorable setpices though, like being able to briefly go outside the dungeon (something that later games start to really phase out), that cannonball run to get to the Big Key, the introduction of the floating floor tiles, and opening a path by lighting some lanterns almost as if you're a tomb raider. My only gripe is that the dungeon item, the Power Bracelet, is only used once here, but otherwise, the Desert Palace is as good as early Zelda dungeons get.
Dungeon 3: Tower Of Hera
Something you'll learn is that many of my favorite Zelda dungeons involve spatial navigation, taking the dungeon as a whole and trying to figure out how to get yourself from Point A to Point B. Tower Of Hera is probably the first dungeon to make this a focus... but unfortunately, it doesn't do that very well. Tower Of Hera introduces a few neat mechanics such as the ever reliable blue/orange switches and switches that swap the active floor tiles. Unfortunately, you're rarely ever challenged to figure out which switch needs to be pressed at which time, particularly with the former. There is a neat puzzle to get the dungeon item where you need to open up the floor at the right spot and drop down to a lower level, but that's the only puzzle like that in the entire dungeon. Speaking of which, Tower Of Hera is short, too short. Despite being a vertical climb with five floors, almost every floor is composed of a single room which means you can easily blaze through it in about 10 minutes. The concept of a vertical tower dungeon built around navigation puzzles is a great concept, but it's nowhere near developed enough in this case. Thankfully, many later Zelda games would end up rectifying this. Oh yeah, and I didn't even mention the dungeon item. It's just the Moon Pearl that stops you from turning into a rabbit. You can miss the thing completely and not notice until you get yourself stuck in the Dark World.
Dungeon 4: Hyrule Castle Tower
This is one of the more iconic LttP dungeons and for good reason. Just as the opening where you storm Hyrule Castle and break out Zelda is badass, storming Hyrule Castle again but this time getting to wreak havoc with the Master Sword is even more badass. And yes, it's incredibly cathartic and fun to take out every soldier in sight with the Master Sword, but I can't really say there's much more than that. Layout-wise, Hyrule Castle Tower is a vertical straight-shot with little deviation or exploration. It's just a bunch of rooms entirely focused on combat which once again is fun, but it's not especially engaging on a mechanical level which is why I can't really rank it above many of the more standard dungeons.
Dungeon 5: Dark Palace
And here we are, the Dark World dungeons. Overall, I'd say the Dark World dungeons are generally better and more interesting than their Light World counterparts, but on the other hand, they don't tend to require that much more work to access. So like with Zelda 1, this half of the game will mostly just have you darting from dungeon to dungeon. As such, the Dark Palace is your introduction to how Dark World dungeons work, even echoing the Eastern Palace in its first room before slowly branching out into its own thing. Dark Palace doesn't really have much of a standout gimmick, but it stands out as having some of the best dungeon design in the game. With how simple the Light World dungeons could be, the Dark World immediately amps up the complexity in pretty much every way. There's a big emphasis on blowing up walls and the floors with bombs to get to important collectibles, and I especially like how you can see the chests on a balcony next to a cracked wall, forcing you to figure out which room that wall connects to. I actually kinda got stumped at one point trying to figure out how to get to the dungeon map, simply navigating this place is a puzzle and that's what makes it so fun! I also love the dungeon item, the Hammer, which is not only pretty important for getting around the overworld, but is also thoroughly explored and utilized within the dungeon itself.
Dungeon 6: Swamp Palace
The Swamp Palace is the first of many incredible water dungeons in the Zelda series (yes, I said incredible). Like many future Zelda dungeons, the main mechanic here is changing the water level, and it's established right from the very start. I love the opening puzzle where you have to realize that you can go to the Light World and change the water level to affect the Dark World, and the game keeps expanding on this central concept as the dungeon goes on. Another highlight is a bit where the lever that you use to change the water level blocks your path so you have to figure out how to open it from the other end. I'd say the middle section is the real highlight though, it's a big open area akin to Desert Palace where you have to figure out how to get to the Boss Key. What results is a pretty complex puzzle involving dropping through a floor, dealing with a color switch, and changing the water level, and I found that really engaging. Just to sweeten the deal, the Swamp Palace introduces one of my absolute favorite dungeon items to the series, the incredibly fun and creative Hookshot. And once again, the Hookshot actually gets some use within the dungeon and, from what I can tell, is required to beat the boss. The Swamp Palace is pretty much everything a good dungeon should be. It has engaging navigation puzzles, a strong central identity, and a fun dungeon item utilized well.
Dungeon 7: Skull Woods
The Skull Woods has one of the most interesting concepts for a Zelda dungeon, as it's split between the overworld and the inner dungeon, so you're forced to constantly consider where you are in relation to both of these planes. There are several items that you can only collect if you drop into the dungeon from a specific spot, and the dungeon itself is segmented across three different entrances in the overworld. Just to spice things up further, those floor switches from the Tower Of Hera are brought back and utilized in far more creative puzzles this time around. This time, you'll often have to hit the floor switch in one room to open a path in a different room. The dungeon can feel a bit aimless due to its unique structure, but the compelling navigation makes up for any of that. However, my biggest issue with Skull Woods comes from the dungeon item, the Fire Rod. The Fire Rod is fairly well-utilized, but it can feel a bit situational in that it's hard to tell what it can or can't work on. Figuring out that you need to use the Fire Rod on that giant skeleton feels wrong since you can't actually burn skeletons in real life, and yet you can't use the Fire Rod on the vines on the walls, those need to be slashed. This dungeon also introduces Wallmasters and, I don't know, I don't love them but they're not awful enough for me to hate them. They're just kind of annoyances. But overall, despite its few issues, Skull Woods still holds up as a standout dungeon in the game.
Dungeon 8: Thieves Town
Thieves Town is a mediocre dungeon with a great twist. The first half of the dungeon takes place in this four large connected square rooms where you have to look for the major items. Finding the Big Key is a bit of a puzzle, but overall, this area of the dungeon is really repetitive to navigate since everything looks the same. The second half is thankfully a lot stronger, though it still has its issues. This area is mostly comprised of cramped hallways of varying shapes, along with a fair amount of tricky conveyor belt gauntlets. But most importantly, you get the incredibly memorable moment where you free a maiden from prison, break open the flooring from an upper level, and reveal said maiden to be the dungeon's boss, Blind. It's a super fun twist but even it's not perfect. If you try to go upstairs with the maiden in tow, she'll run all the way back to the prison which not only spoils the twist pretty blatantly but means you'll have to go back down and pick her up. In addition, after three dungeons that utilized their items pretty effectively, Thieves Town introduces the Titan Mitts which is probably the most easy to skip item in the game.
Dungeon 9/10: Misery Mire
The one thing I like about Misery Mire is that you can choose to either do it or the Ice Palace first. You're meant to do the Ice Palace first, but I did the Misery Mire first this time because it can make the Ice Palace easier... and because I wanted to get this godforsaken dungeon over with as quickly as possible. Misery Mire truly lives up to its name. It's one of my least favorite dungeons in the series, and a jarring low-point in an otherwise solid roster of dungeons. The worst thing I can say about it is that it feels like, for lack of a better word, filler. Misery Mire doesn't add anything to the game. It doesn't add any new interesting ideas, no surprising changes to the formula, even the theme of a swampy marsh makes for a visually drab dungeon. I guess you could say it introduces Wizzrobes... yay, I guess. Layout-wise, Misery Mire is a complete and utter maze which sounds like it would be right up my alley, but none of the navigation puzzles here are all that interesting. You don't have to think critically about your place in the dungeon, you just have to aimlessly wander around until you find a key, unlock the nearest door, and rinse and repeat. It also doesn't help that out of every dungeon, Misery Mire has the most completely optional and useless rooms, so fully exploring it doesn't even feel rewarding. It's just such a nothing dungeon.
Dungeon 9/10: Ice Palace
Something that you'll come to notice is that the most hated dungeons in each respective Zelda game oftentimes end up being one of my favorites, and the Ice Palace is a perfect example. This dungeon gets a lot of flack for its confusing layout and tricky ice physics, but you know what? It's my favorite in the game, and it's everything Misery Mire wishes it could be. Ice Palace is another mostly vertical dungeon, but unlike the Tower Of Hera, you're descending rather than ascending, and each individual floor is a lot more complex. From figuring out where to bomb the floor, to making sure the color switches are set correctly, some of the puzzles in Ice Palace are devious in the absolute best of ways. Of course, the highlight is that one block-pushing puzzle at the end, arguably the most complex of the game (assuming you don't play Misery Mire first). I will admit that some of the backtracking can be a bit rough, but in a similar fashion to the Water Temple's fixes, the GBA version tones it down enough to mitigate the issue. I also love the individual rooms, there's a ton of varied and memorable obstacles like firebars, conveyor belts, falling floor tiles that force you to a lower floor, and of course, ice physics. My one gripe with the Ice Palace is that one key in the hookshot room that I always miss for whatever reason, but that's more of an issue with how LttP as a whole handles chests and key hunting rather than this specific dungeon. Otherwise, I love the Ice Palace. It's still a maze, but it's a far tighter and more intricate maze than Misery Mire with more interesting and unconventional navigation. It's an honest to goodness puzzle box, satisfying to unravel, with not a single room wasted.
Dungeon 11: Turtle Rock
Turtle Rock is another one of the more polarizing dungeons for me, as it once again takes a somewhat different approach. Unlike many of the other multi-tiered Dark World dungeons which require you to jump between floors, Turtle Rock has you slowly descent deeper into the mountain floor by floor, with the only reason to go back upstairs being if you happen to miss anything. Structurally, it's actually really similar to the Shadow Temple from Ocarina Of Time, a dungeon which you'll find I have some really mixed opinions on. A dungeon being a strictly linear gauntlet means that if you happen to die, it's a long trek back to where you left off. It also doesn't help that, like the Shadow Temple, Turtle Rock is a bit of a magic sink so if you happen to run out, you're pretty much screwed. Despite this, however, I think Turtle Rock has some of the most fun single-room puzzles out of any dungeon in the game. Each floor tosses a new idea at you, from a complex web of rails that you can ride on using the Cane Of Somaria, to a surprisingly fun and intuitive pipe maze, to a complex color switch maze to unravel. The one miss for me is that pitch-black room where you have to dodge firebars while riding on those aforementioned rails, something way harder than it sounds, but overall, Turtle Rock is a fun time, structure be damned.
Dungeon 12: Ganon's Tower
Okay, so I've beaten this game before several times, but in this replay specifically, my game crashed midway through Ganon's Tower and I lost a ton of save progress. So that left a pretty awful taste in my mouth, and I'm gonna have to do some of this by memory. That being said, my own unfortunate experience aside, Ganon's Tower is a good final dungeon, maybe even a great one. Your skill is tested in pretty much every single one of the game's mechanics, from the dungeon items to the several gimmicks ranging from color switches to conveyor belts to moving spikes to Beamos. The first half of the dungeon is a complex maze at the bottom floors testing your navigational skills, and the second half is a more linear gauntlet testing your skills at combat and dodging obstacles. There's even a few boss rematches scattered around to shake things up, it's just a great culmination of everything the game has been teaching you, which is what a good final dungeon should do. As far as issues go, there are once again a few too many dead-ends in the maze area, and the dungeon as a whole lacks the strong identity or convention-breaking twists that some of the others do by virtue of being a final dungeon, but those are mostly small things.
Overall, my ranking of Link To The Past's dungeons would be:
12. Misery Mire
11. Tower Of Hera
10. Eastern Palace
9. Thieves Town
8. Hyrule Castle Tower
7. Turtle Rock
6. Ganon's Tower
5. Dark Palace
4. Skull Woods
3. Desert Palace
2. Swamp Palace
1. Ice Palace
And here's my ranking of Link To The Past's bosses:
12. Moldorm
Moldorm and I have history, I remember going absolutely crazy trying to beat him for the first time as a kid, and he still gives me grief to this day. The worst part is that it's just so simple. Moldorm is a big worm who moves around, and you need to hit the weakspot on his tail a bunch of times. Every time you hit him, he moves faster. However, the arena is surrounded entirely with pitfalls and Moldorm is very eager to bump you into them, sending you to a lower floor, and making you climb back up to start the fight all over again. Moldorm's movement gets so fast, so erratic, so unpredictable that getting good at him feels like an impossibility. Either you're lucky enough to land a hit, or you'll be spending hours climbing back up the tower over and over again trying to finally take the bastard down. If it wasn't for Smog, LttP Moldorm would've been a shoe-in for my least favorite bosses list, and he still stands out as a low-point within the entire series.
11. Vitreous
One of the easiest boss fights in the series. Vitreous starts by sending out tiny eyeballs at you to fend off, while also shooting lightning across the center of the screen, before charging at you himself in his second phase. Sounds complex... until you discover that you can stand in the corner of the room, spam your sword swings, and take out both phases without budging an inch.
10. Lanmolas
While several of LttP's early fights feel more like they're against beefed-up enemies, the Lanmolas probably get this the worst. Their attacks also don't synergize especially well, it just feels like you're fighting three entirely disconnected forces rather than a unified boss. They each pop out of the ground and shoot out bits of dirt for you to dodge, which can be a bit hard to see on the sandy ground, and aside from the last remaining Lanmola shooting out more dirt, there isn't much evolution or variation to the fight. This isn't a bad boss, but it's not especially remarkable or fun.
9. Armos Knights
The Armos Knights aren't the most impressive first bosses out there, they are pretty much just larger enemies, but their attack pattern makes up for it. They dance around the screen and even occasionally form a wall in an attempt to trap you, and once you've taken out all but one, the last Armos Knight left goes red and starts angrily trying to stomp you. It's just a fun fight and it makes good use of the Bow.
8. Arrghus
Arrghus is a boss that pretty much demands the use of the Hookshot, and that's pretty cool. The first phase is a fun time as you need to hook away the clouds surrounding its body, which looks and feels incredibly satisfying. Unfortunately, the second phase is a bit of a let-down. Arrghus starts to dart around the room, but can be easily hit by just spamming your sword swing. The fight against Arrghus is certainly enjoyable, but it's not especially complex or mechanically interesting beyond the Hookshot usage.
7. Kholdstare
Kholdstare is an interesting boss in that it doesn't really ever attack you. In the first phase, he's enclosed inside a cube of ice, and in the second phase, he splits himself in three and starts aimlessly flying around. Despite this passivity though, this is not an easy fight. Right from the start, you'll have to be dodging icicles that fall from the ceiling at a fast-rate, and once Kholdstare splits into three, the fight gets quite chaotic.
6. Trinexx
5. Agahnim
Ah, Agahnim. This is the first of many energy tennis bosses in Zelda where you need to knock their projectiles back at them, but Agahnim does a decent job of keeping things fresh. He teleports around the room, shooting at you from different angles, and also tossing in homing shots and screen-clearing lightning strikes for good measure. And his even better second encounter has you content with multiple clones of Agahnim as well, which gets incredibly manic to deal with. My one gripe with this boss is that Agahnim cycles through his attacks almost entirely randomly, meaning that you might have to wait a while before getting a shot type that you can actually hit back at him. But otherwise, this is one of LttP's better boss fights and a solid difficulty bump for the game overall.
4. Blind
3. Ganon
As a final boss, Ganon is easily the best one the series has had so far. It's a far more fast-paced and involved fight with multiple phases, and even a neat throwback to the original game's final battle. The first phase has you weave around the fire bats he shoots out as you try to land hits, and the second phase requires you to light candles to illuminate him and hit him with silver arrows. However, I do feel like this fight just almost crosses the line into being kind of annoying. Ganon has a lot of invulnerability periods, between teleporting, surrounding himself with fire, and going invisible. Even worse, if you happen to fall into the hole he creates in the second phase, you fall out of the arena ala Moldorm and have to do the fight again. But at least Moldorm is short, this just feels needlessly cruel. But despite those annoyances, you can't say he isn't immensely satisfying and rewarding to take down.
2. Mothula
Mothula is a very love-it-or-late-it boss because of just how chaotic of a fight it is. Not only do you have to deal with Mothula flying around and shooting beams at you, but you also have spiked walls slowly moving across the arena, along with the arena floor itself randomly moving in various directions. For some, it's just too much to deal with, but for me, I relish in the chaos. The fight against Mothula is fun, frenetic, and really satisfying to take down, but it doesn't feel frustrating in the way that something like the Moldorm fight.
1. Helmasaur King
The Helmasaur King is easily my favorite boss in Link To The Past, a perfect balance between challenge and fun factor. Chipping away at the boss's mask feels really satisfying, especially when you land that final hit and it blows itself apart. And the boss's design is really sick and menacing, with a technically impressive swinging tail that he uses to swipe at you and a ton of fireballs that split apart in an almost bullet hell-esque pattern. It's primarily built around the dungeon item unlike many of this game's bosses, but it also allows you to try other options, Bombs can deal some pretty hefty damage to the mask if you can use them correctly. It's just a cool concept executed pretty much perfectly.
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