The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the much-anticipated sequel to Breath of the Wild, will bring back a classic feature of the franchise: traditional dungeons. This exciting news was confirmed by the game's key developers during the latest "Ask the Developer" session by Nintendo.
Breath of the Wild marked a departure from the series' conventional formula in many ways, one of which was the replacement of classic dungeons with the Divine Beasts. These gigantic mechanical creatures served as the game's main challenges, requiring players to infiltrate and seize control of their Main Control Units.
However, in the upcoming Tears of the Kingdom, the development team has decided to reinstate the more traditional style of dungeons, marking a return to the roots of the Zelda series. Hidemaro Fujibayashi, the game's director, addressed the change during the recent interactive session.
"We haven't discussed the dungeons in detail yet," Fujibayashi admitted. "They are indeed different from the previous installment. For instance, there's a dungeon that you can access directly from the surface of Hyrule. If you plunge from the sky into this dungeon, an event will be triggered. We believe this innovative mechanism introduces a gameplay experience that wasn't achievable in the previous title."
Technical director Takuhiro Dohta elaborated on the design philosophy behind these revived dungeons. "We've customized each dungeon to reflect its surrounding environment, which we hope will allow players to appreciate the rich diversity of the game's regional features," he shared.
Satoru Takizawa, the art director, emphasized the divergence from the Divine Beasts of Breath of the Wild in terms of aesthetics. He noted the difference in visual themes between the new dungeons and the previous installment's Divine Beasts, which shared similar designs.
"Creating a 'wide variety' of dungeons was quite a challenge," Takizawa confessed. "In contrast to the Divine Beasts from the last game, which had much in common design-wise, these new dungeons are expansive and imbued with a distinct regional ambiance, harking back to traditional The Legend of Zelda games. We believe players will find them a gratifying test of their skills. They were certainly challenging to design and implement."
After several setbacks, the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is finally around the corner. The game is set for release on May 12 for the Nintendo Switch. Anticipation is high, with fans already lining up in New York for the midnight release, some even without a ticket secured for the game's launch. It seems the return to traditional dungeons has only heightened the excitement for this eagerly awaited next chapter in the Zelda saga. One of the biggest frustrations for many (including myself) was the severe lack of dungeons in Breath of the Wild. This raises the HYPE meter to even higher levels now! ~Smash
