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The best dungeon in the Zelda series?

Anything from Skyward Sword. Specifically Sandship (and the stuff leading up to it).

The only Zelda game where I loved every fucking dungeon, and the only Zelda game where I looked more forward to the dungeons than anything else in the game.
 
The Mana Legend said:
Anything from Skyward Sword. Specifically Sandship (and the stuff leading up to it).

The only Zelda game where I loved every fucking dungeon, and the only Zelda game where I looked more forward to the dungeons than anything else in the game.
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If Zelda U can maintain the design, scale and atmosphere of the TP/SS dungeons while implementing a content filled overworld, it would be glorious.
 
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I'm honestly shocked at all the people saying Forest Temple. I had no idea it was so well regarded. I don't even like it, let alone like it enough to put it in my Top Ten. And that's putting aside my 3D Zelda hate... The boss for that dungeon was really awesome, though.

If I actually made a top ten, they'd probably all be from Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, haha. Oh, well, there might be one or two from Wind Waker.
 
kittens said:
I'm honestly shocked at all the people saying Forest Temple. I had no idea it was so well regarded. I don't even like it, let alone like it enough to put it in my Top Ten. And that's putting aside my 3D Zelda hate... The boss for that dungeon was really awesome, though.

If I actually made a top ten, they'd probably all be from Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, haha. Oh, well, there might be one or two from Wind Waker.
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I don't get it either. Forest Temple is pretty boring. Spirit Temple is the best OoT dungeon.

I think Arbiter's Grounds is one of the best in the franchise. Lanayru Mining Facility is great, too.
 
AniHawk said:
city in the sky

i love you, twilight princess.
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Absolutely fantastic dungeon. This gets my vote.

The snow dungeon in TP is also a runner up, along with OoT's forest temple, and the fourth dungeon in MM (the one that flips around... I can't remember the name). I have no doubt I'm forgetting a few other great ones that I'd recall if I read through the thread. (Edit: Oh yeah, Ancient Cistern is probably in my top 5 as well.)

I feel like the 2D Zelda dungeons had a lower variance in quality than their 3D counterparts, but I always notice on these lists that as far as a really high quality dungeon experience goes... it's always a 3D Zelda that wins, although I feel their that the quality of dungeon design in any single 3D game has much higher variance the top-down ones. I'm kind of interested in seeing how many of the top-down Zelda dungeons are listed in this thread.
 
Gun to my head? Ancient Cistern. The boss seals the deal. But there are way too many good dungeons for me to actually rank the top ones.
 
I always liked the swamp dungeon in LTTP. Either that or the final dungeon in the original Zelda, first or second quest, both were great.
 
Vulcano's assistant said:
scarier than the shadow temple?
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Absolutely. The Shadow Temple and the Bottom of the Well just feel like they're trying too hard--all those spikes, blood, zombies, torture chambers, it just feels like the game is repeatedly telling you "look at how scary this place is." The Forest Temple just feels... off. There's just something incredibly unsettling about the empty rooms, twisted corridors, and relatively mundane interior design set to that bizarre music.

I think, looking back, ALTTP has some of my favorites in terms of sheer gameplay. The Dark World dungeons in particular (save for Turtle Rock, which is oddly disappointing).
 
Forest Temple, you don't expect it to be scary but it just is eerie, with that music, the reverb in the room, the mist... shadows...

Shadow Temple you know what to expect, so you brace yourself for it... it's still scary but Forest Temple is just you are not ready
 
While hardly the best, the Arbiter's Grounds and Water Temple from Twilight Princess were both really well-designed and had great visual aesthetics.
 
Green Mamba said:
I think, looking back, ALTTP has some of my favorites in terms of sheer gameplay. The Dark World dungeons in particular (save for Turtle Rock, which is oddly disappointing).
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Yeah, I agree, Turtle Rock was probably the weakest. All the gimmicky on rails stuff. But at least it was interesting and challenging! Maybe Tower of Hera was worse. That dungeon always felt rather mediocre to me. And the moon pearl is the most disappointing dungeon item in the game, haha.

My favorite LTTP dungeon is probably the Ice Palace. It stumped me for several weeks as a kid, but once I figured it out, it was really satisfying. The design was really smart. Fun boss, too.
 
Forest Temple only scares me when you get to the Wallmasters. (But they scare me in every dungeon they're in, so yeah. I hate them so much...)

Bottom of the Well is the only dungeon that, to this day, I only go straight to my destination and straight out while skipping everything else. However, if I give it another chance, I know I'll get used to the hidden traps and Skulltulas popping out of nowhere and stuff.

kittens said:
Yeah, I agree, Turtle Rock was probably the weakest. All the gimmicky on rails stuff. But at least it was interesting and challenging! Maybe Tower of Hera was worse. That dungeon always felt rather mediocre to me. And the moon pearl is the most disappointing dungeon item in the game, haha.
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I actually liked Turtle Rock more than most LttP dungeons because it looked different. Most of the dungeons all look the same to me except that and Ice Palace (my favorite in the game).

Weird complaint from someone who grew up on Zelda 1, I know. lol. But I only played LttP after playing other Zelda games like OoT, LA, and the Oracle games.
 
I wouldn't consider them the best but some stand-outs included the Temple of Time in TP and Great Bay Temple in MM.

I disliked the Temple of Time at first for its simple design but it's pretty cool that it forces you to backtrack but you tackle the same rooms in a different manner on the way back. I loved the music as well. The boss was a joke though. Not very many people probably liked the Great Bay one but I liked that the ice arrow is actually useful. It's a dungeon that, at a glance, looks extremely complex but the design is actually quite simple and best approached one moment at time otherwise it can get too overwhelming if you try using a guide or even looking at the map. I feel like that can be said about most of MM as a whole.
 
Although I do love the Forest Temple, the three child dungeons in OoT have always stood out to me. Sure they are less complex than the adult dungeons, but the atmosphere in all three is fantastic. I also think it is more engrossing to play as a young kid embarking on a grand adventure than it is to play as a seasoned bad-ass doing bad-ass things. In my opinion, of course.

And yes OoT and MM were both scary as hell, as my avatar references :p
 
Forest Temple for me. Dat music, dat atmosphere. The ghost conceit was pretty cool, and I liked the twisting room.

Stone Tower is very interesting as well.
 
Shadow Temple

Just feel like the dungeon did such a good job with forcing you to use all sorts of items acquired earlier in the game.
 
silkysmooth said:
Shadow Temple

Just feel like the dungeon did such a good job with forcing you to use all sorts of items acquired earlier in the game.
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I didn't think of it as using all of the items, but I do hate the fact that you need the Fire Arrows for that one part. Too many times I'd forget the arrows and have to leave, get them, and return.

Also, it's a very linear dungeon, which is often seen as a downside (though I personally don't mind it).
 
Why would you do that? said:
I didn't think of it as using all of the items, but I do hate the fact that you need the Fire Arrows for that one part. Too many times I'd forget the arrows and have to leave, get them, and return.

Also, it's a very linear dungeon, which is often seen as a downside (though I personally don't mind it).
Click to expand...

If you're talking about the entrance I always used Din's Fire.
 
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE TRUE KING:

The Legend of Zelda II: The Great Temple:
Click to expand...

Do you want to be lost forever in the hardest dungeon in the series? LOOK NO FURTHER! And before anybody QUESTIONS that claim, I ask you: what dungeon could POSSIBLY be harder than the one that lies at the end of the valley of horrible painful death? Get through the fire and flying eyeballs and horrors and you STILL have to face this baby.

And she has secret passages, instant death pits, monsters like, everywhere, and TWO FINAL BOSSES waiting to WRECK YOUR SOUL at the bottom. You have exactly 3 tries to beat it before you have to start it over (if you failed to make it to the place in 3 tries God help you), you have an incredibly limited magic pool, even at max level, one to two healing spells, nevermind the fire, thunder, shield and jump spells you will NEED to beat it.

Assuming you make it all the way to the bottom you have to fight two bosses in rapid succession. One requires you use ALL your magic at the beginning of the fight just to be allowed to hurt it. The other is you except actually good at this game.

The dungeon has a kick ass theme song.

It is the ONLY SAVE POINT IN THE GAME. Which is only as long as you don't shut the thing off.

If you beat it, you don't get any lame-ass essence of nature or piece of shadow or crystal. YOU GET THE MOTHER FLIPPING TRIFORCE OF COURAGE. SUCK ON THAT WW'S TRIFORCE QUEST. Oh, and did I mention? You actually get to kiss Zelda when you finish it, Link!

Yeah, what other dungeons reward you accordingly?

In conclusion, BEST DUNGEON EVA!
 
Ooo, Eagle Tower is a good one. Had me stumped for a long time when I was younger.

Master Quest Jabu's Belly is worth mentioning for COW SWITCHES
 
I remember being really creeped out by the Forest Temple from OoT. The atmosphere, the music, the ghosts... all of it. Looking back I really do love that temple. Plus the corridors that twist and lead to different walls in their connecting rooms is still one of the coolest thing I've seen in a game.

But I think the Great Deku Tree's insides were a great introduction to the game and my foray into 3D adventure games as a whole. It had a level of creepiness to it, but not nearly to the degree of the later forest dungeon, and presented the mechanics that you needed to use to progress into the game. Love it.

Snowpeak Ruins and the Sandship are great because they don't feel like dungeons. In that sense it makes exploring them all the more interesting to me. The felt like lived-in places, like Hyrule Castle does in a way, and feel all the more memorable for it.

And this part might just be me but I'll throw it out there: the 2D Zelda dungeons don't feel all that unique or memorable to me outside of the Tower of Hera and a few moments in Turtle Rock. I mean, I liked some of the mechanics in the DS games but I can't think of any truly great ones off the top of my head. Maybe it's time to give them another go.

Also, I think that the Sky Temple in Twilight Princess and Stone Temple in Majora's Mask were neat conceptually but I didn't really like playing through them. Stone Tower especially since it took too long to make the lifeless statues.
 
Speaking of Dungeons that are creepy but shouldn't be as much

Jabu Jabu's Belly for some reason

Why is the inside of a giant Windfish so perfectly laid out like a Dungeon?
 
For me, it's a cross between LA's Eagle Tower and OoT's Forest Temple. I can't remember a single dungeon from TP and SS's dungeons were mostly underwhelming (although I did like the Cistern).

I've never played Majora's Mask. One of these days, I should change that.
 
Man, I know SS gets a lot of hate on GAF and in general, but it has some amazing dungeons. The whole Lanayru area is just perfect! The mine, the cave, the mining facility, the harbor, the sea, and the ship are all amazing areas!

It would be a complete shame if the team in charge of those areas don't get more control over the next Zelda.
 
CorvoSol said:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE TRUE KING:

The Legend of Zelda II: The Great Temple:


Do you want to be lost forever in the hardest dungeon in the series? LOOK NO FURTHER! And before anybody QUESTIONS that claim, I ask you: what dungeon could POSSIBLY be harder than the one that lies at the end of the valley of horrible painful death? Get through the fire and flying eyeballs and horrors and you STILL have to face this baby.

And she has secret passages, instant death pits, monsters like, everywhere, and TWO FINAL BOSSES waiting to WRECK YOUR SOUL at the bottom. You have exactly 3 tries to beat it before you have to start it over (if you failed to make it to the place in 3 tries God help you), you have an incredibly limited magic pool, even at max level, one to two healing spells, nevermind the fire, thunder, shield and jump spells you will NEED to beat it.

Assuming you make it all the way to the bottom you have to fight two bosses in rapid succession. One requires you use ALL your magic at the beginning of the fight just to be allowed to hurt it. The other is you except actually good at this game.

The dungeon has a kick ass theme song.

It is the ONLY SAVE POINT IN THE GAME. Which is only as long as you don't shut the thing off.

If you beat it, you don't get any lame-ass essence of nature or piece of shadow or crystal. YOU GET THE MOTHER FLIPPING TRIFORCE OF COURAGE. SUCK ON THAT WW'S TRIFORCE QUEST. Oh, and did I mention? You actually get to kiss Zelda when you finish it, Link!

Yeah, what other dungeons reward you accordingly?

In conclusion, BEST DUNGEON EVA!
Click to expand...

I didn't actually remember this dungeon until I listened to the music you linked and holy hell, it all came back to me.
 
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