Worst Zelda level
- Thread starter Phediuk
- Start date
I couldn't disagree with a post more than I can this one. I fucking loved the Zelda 2 palaces wayyyy more than than the dungeons in Zelda 1, granted I liked the game way more so that isn't a surprise to me. The bosses are great, the music is great, I do agree some later ones are a slog, but still loved them all. Except Thunderbird.....fuck Thunderbird.
It's such a bizarre dungeon too, like so much of it is both completely optional and pointless. Even in randomizers you're more likely to just skip to the back half and hope you get lucky that you find your items in the vanilla big key spot and the boss.
Tad tones were all right for me, had the freedom of If I could play faster/more efficiently I could finish faster.
losing all your shit at eldin round 2 and having to collect it all back was waaaaaayyyyy more irritating to me. Also the spirit tears in twilight princess. Every single one. Such a slog, fuck that shit.
OP named some good examples with WW's Forsaken Fortress and OoA's shipwrecked scenario. I might say the tears of light sections of Twilight Princess. I get what they were going for but they just bore me and SS's silent realms were a much more engaging execution of a similar idea.
Temple of the Ocean King in Phantom Hourglass. Timed stealth, and you have to keep returning to it throughout the game, starting from the beginning, with it getting longer each time.
After that, all the bloat in Skyward Sword.
Tadtones, Demise fights and that
After that, all the bloat in Skyward Sword.
Tadtones, Demise fights and that
flying boss fight.
Temple of the Ocean King brings you stealth and repetition, in a one two punch of "not this shit again" every time you roll back in to go one more floor deeper into a dungeon that is also just kinda boring to play anyway
And while not a problem for me personally, I'm sure the timer concept does no favours for others.
HM to Forsaken Fortress' stealth at the beginning of the game idea and as OP also mentions, those gosh darn lizards and their trading bit in OoA (I figured we were just talking dungeons, but if we get to include segments then boy do we have even more options! of which this is still the worst, give me tadtones over Tokays anyday)
And while not a problem for me personally, I'm sure the timer concept does no favours for others.
HM to Forsaken Fortress' stealth at the beginning of the game idea and as OP also mentions, those gosh darn lizards and their trading bit in OoA (I figured we were just talking dungeons, but if we get to include segments then boy do we have even more options! of which this is still the worst, give me tadtones over Tokays anyday)
I found must of the dungeons in Alttp to be a chore with unclear direction and unfair hit detection for jumping enemies, so probably one of those.
On seccond thought... delivering ICE and FISH on Spirit Tracks was awful because it was a really long segment that you needed to start over many times. And I'm not even sure if they returned you to the original spot when you wanted to retry it.
Similarly, that sneaking section in WW was pretty fun. Would have loved to have a reason to sneak in the game after you get the sword.
On seccond thought... delivering ICE and FISH on Spirit Tracks was awful because it was a really long segment that you needed to start over many times. And I'm not even sure if they returned you to the original spot when you wanted to retry it.
I always thought of the Spirit Realm as one of the hightlights of Skyward.
Similarly, that sneaking section in WW was pretty fun. Would have loved to have a reason to sneak in the game after you get the sword.
OG Death Mountain actively uses its map system to try and confuse you. Secret passages are everywhere, meaning getting close to where you want rarely means you actually are close, and taking a secret passage is almost roulette as to where you wind up unless you have a map. It is designed to look like a skull and to force you to aimlessly wander around real danger for a big chunk of time. Zelda as a series has a decent number of dungeons that haven't aged perfectly, but that's the only one I can think of whose very premise, rather than execution, is the thing that aged so much.
The final dungeons of the Wind Waker (Earth Temple, Wind Temple) were pretty dire, imho.
I usually complete as much of the Wind Waker as possible before picking Medli up from Dragon Roost Island (you can collect most heart pieces, upgrades, triforce charts/pieces, statuettes et cetera). The dungeons feel so... draining? Box-like rooms, stale surroundings, companion escorts, COMMAND MELODY, annoying enemy types with Bubbles and Floor Masters everywhere, sloooow puzzles (the light reflection room in Earth Temple and block pushing throughout most of the Wind Temple).
Ugh...
You can at least cheese through Forsaken Fortress.
Forest Temple was to difficult for me/creeped me out and I left once I got the Fairy's Bow. Fire Temple scared me as well. Hopped on over to the Water Temple and cleared it with relative ease (except for locating the small key in the flooded basement below the central pillar).
I usually complete as much of the Wind Waker as possible before picking Medli up from Dragon Roost Island (you can collect most heart pieces, upgrades, triforce charts/pieces, statuettes et cetera). The dungeons feel so... draining? Box-like rooms, stale surroundings, companion escorts, COMMAND MELODY, annoying enemy types with Bubbles and Floor Masters everywhere, sloooow puzzles (the light reflection room in Earth Temple and block pushing throughout most of the Wind Temple).
Ugh...
You can at least cheese through Forsaken Fortress.
Damn, I loved the Water Temple as a kid! It was the first Adult Link dungeon that I completed!
Forest Temple was to difficult for me/creeped me out and I left once I got the Fairy's Bow. Fire Temple scared me as well. Hopped on over to the Water Temple and cleared it with relative ease (except for locating the small key in the flooded basement below the central pillar).
The majority of OOTs temples frustrate me. Particularly the water and forrest temples. I get confused and lost while playing them and put the game down for awhile after dealing with them.
hell no. The Silent Realm sections are great.
Crown dungeon in Oracle of Ages is pretty bad. Unispired design and horrible music.
Can't believe I forgot this one, I LOATHE the segments where you ride your block platforms across the rails avoiding firebars like it's Super Mario World, except you can't fudgin' jump!
The best part about the Water Temple in OoT was having people pay me to beat it for them (in the second grade). Granted, it was only two people.
Eagle's Tower in Link's Awakening
Ice Temple in A Link to the Past
The Yeti's house in Twilight Princess
Ice Temple in A Link to the Past
The Yeti's house in Twilight Princess
Perhaps my favorite Zelda dungeon of all time. I really like dungeons that have a central puzzle that you're working toward by accomplishing each smaller goal. (In this case it's causing water to flow through pipes back to the first room so that you can reverse the main water turbine.)
It's definitely on the more complex side which is why some don't like it, but it's a great feeling when you crack what exactly is going on.
i'd be interested to hear what you like about them, compared to the first zelda or even other zelda games. it's the one that divirges completely from the formula and to my knowledge there are no real puzzles or interesting design in them, just a series of battles, map memorization, finding keys which never requires any kind of problem solving or anything remotely clever, and then some pretty much copy paste boss battles.
I'm legit curious what you like about it and what you think is better, outside of 'it's great' lol.
And it was made better with 2 very simple decisions: making the boots an item and signaling the water level in each "switch".
I'll just say that I don't enjoy a single Young Link dungeon in OoT. I'm so happy once you get to be Adult Link.
When the tad tones shit showed up in Skyward Sword and I noticed just how many I had to collect I was extremely close to dropping the game right there and then.
And the developers KNOW how shit it is given that they offer you to use dowsing to locate them halfway through lol.
Skyward Sword is such a problematic game.
And the developers KNOW how shit it is given that they offer you to use dowsing to locate them halfway through lol.
Skyward Sword is such a problematic game.
Mermaid Cave from Oracle of Ages.
A miserable dungeon who tried to do the Water Dungeon from Ocarina of Time where you need to raise and lower water. Even worse you have to do parts both in the past and present. It's confusing as all get out and if you mess up it takes ages to lower/raise the water again.
It's the soul reason I don't like replaying Oracle of Ages.
A miserable dungeon who tried to do the Water Dungeon from Ocarina of Time where you need to raise and lower water. Even worse you have to do parts both in the past and present. It's confusing as all get out and if you mess up it takes ages to lower/raise the water again.
It's the soul reason I don't like replaying Oracle of Ages.
I've found that I don't particularly like the Shadow Temple in OoT. It's neat that it's kinda split into 2 dungeons since you need to go to the BotW first, but that is incredibly short and easy. The Shadow Temple itself is so linear that it barely qualifies as a dungeon, more like a gauntlet of sorts. The best Zelda dungeons are mazes that you have to figure out like a puzzle, and really use your brain to navigate, The Shadow Temple is just a straight shot.
Keep in mind I'm only comparing it to the original so the "formula" wasn't a thing yet. There are tons of dungeons in the later games I prefer to 2. It was also my first Zelda which I'm sure is part of it, but I prefer the difficulty that the dungeons in 2 bring as opposed to the easier but with puzzle elements that are in the 1st. Also the bosses are definitely not copy pasted outside of 2, the others are unique in some way. Anyway it's just a preference, and for me personally the palaces were just more memorable to me than the dungeons in 1 but again probably just because it was my first game in the series, although I did go through it again recently and still enjoyed them just as much as I did in the past.
Reading the OP and I'm thinking... wow there really are a lot of dreadful parts of Wind Waker. I don't know if the Triforce Hunt or the Lord Jabun portion count as levels but those are other examples.
The Ganon's Tower section is bland. You mentioned the boss repeats but there's also a Lost Woods section in there that's really uninspired for a final dungeon.
The Ganon's Tower section is bland. You mentioned the boss repeats but there's also a Lost Woods section in there that's really uninspired for a final dungeon.
If I recall, the Oracle dungeons in general were pretty meh, but Ages Jabu Jabu's Belly was awful. OOT Water Temple is excellent, Temple of the Ocean King has is pretty satisfying to learn, and Zelda 2 is fun come at me, but I can't defend Oracle Jabu.
Meanwhile, Turtle Rock in Link's Awakening is sublime.
I agree though, I didn't like Turtle Rock in ALTTP. I honestly didn't like a lot of that game's dungeons.
I really enjoy Water Temple from OoT. I never understood the hate it got, but I guess everyone has different playstyles.
Collecting the tears of light in Twilight Princess. The wolf parts are the main reason I finished the game only once. They are so long and dull and I don't like the atmosphere they were going for. In Skyward Sword at least you were on the edge of your seat while collecting those things.
Shrines in BotW. I don't mind annoying, long or convoluted Zelda dungeons, but BotW shrines were pure boredom for me after the first few. I went from dreading entering in one to just skipping them late game.
This is silly. The dowsing just replaces map markers.
The Silent Realms are the Twilight Realms from Twilight Princess but actually good.
I'd say the answer is the golf shrine from BotW. It's easily the worst "puzzle" ever in Zelda. You have to use stasis to drive 2 balls into a distant hole and only a very exact sequence of hits will launch the balls the correct distance. The only way to "solve" it is through trial and error. It's like having a combination lock puzzle where the only way to solve it is to enter random combinations until you unlock it. "1111... nope. 1112... nope. 1113... nope..."
These plus the start of twilight princess and most of phantom hourglass/spirit tracks
Just not fun