ICYMI: Yes, Dungeons Return In The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom

Nintendo reconfirms

by · Nintendo Life
Image: Nintendo

In case you missed it, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will see the return of proper dungeons.

Nintendo this week shared a feature on its official website discussing "everything you should know" about this upcoming release and one of the last questions officially acknowledges dungeons in the new game:

Nintendo: "Hold on, there are dungeons in this game?! Yep."

Nintendo elaborates on the dungeons, revealing how players will be required to "explore different rooms, defeat enemies, solve puzzles, find keys, unlock doors, and take on bosses!". So it's definitely sounding like it's got traditional dungeons!

Image: Nintendo

In our Nintendo Life 'hands on', we also spoke about the return of the familiar dungeon system in this new entry:

Later on in our play session we entered the Still World, wherein loads of people and trees, and probably financial stability, are kept in stasis, and we wandered into a dungeon. Not a Divine Beast, not an open-ended romp around floating wet platforms in the sky - a linear dungeon just like Mama used to make.

Despite our apparent flippancy, we’re huge fans of the open-ended gameplay offered in the likes of Tears of the Kingdom; it allows for some incredibly creative and leftfield gameplay and solutions to problems, but we can’t deny that it really was refreshing to come back to the old faithful designs of the past.
That’s not to say you won’t be using fun and creative ways to get through the dungeon though, no sir! Echoes are the bread and butter of the whole experience (with one exception), and every puzzle has multiple different Echoes that can help you overcome them.

So, there you go - there's a more traditional dungeon focus but it still blends in with the new mechanics like Echoes.

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Echo, Echo, Echo, what's going on here?

Are you excited about the return of dungeons in Echoes of Wisdom? Let us know in the comments.

[source nintendo.com]

Related Games
   •  The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)
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About Liam Doolan

Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. He's also got a soft spot for Sonic the Hedgehog.

Comments 27

So glad that traditional dungeons seem to be back in some form or fashion.

Fully realized dungeons > shrines in Zelda.

Cool. Mildly disappointed that Ganon is here again. I'm a little tired of fighting that guy. I hope the real bad guy is someone else. But overall super stoked for this game!

@wollywoo I feel like the villain probably is going to be something different from Ganon, given how the whole rift thing doesn't seem to be his doing- despite it stemming from his trident.

Really need a break from this “choose your own adventure” style of video game creation on the Zelda series. Having a little deviation is cool but this whole use anything anyway you want to solve it how you want in your own way is just tiring for me.

This game appears to be a compromise of both but I wish it was just traditional imo. Will still play it but I’m fairly disappointed from what I’ve seen so far.

Didn't they say this for tears of the kingdom? I don't think this should be a thing to advertise; it should be more of a thing that should be expected. Like they know we want traditional dungeons.

There better be at least 8 of them. Botw and TOTK each have only 4 propper ones unless i missed something. Heck even Majoras mask only had 4 and that was way before all this Hylians Creed nonsense. What's up with Zelda games lately skimping on the Dungeons? Nintendo running out of ideas for them or something?

@VoidofLight I hope you're right! Although not that big a deal either way.

@Truegamer79 The reason why BotW and TotK don't have 8 is because they have smaller puzzles scattered around the world that are supposed to supplement the lack of full on dungeons. It doesn't really work in my opinion, but it's the reason.

As for Majora, the four that game has is only due to how Majora's Mask was made in a very short time-span from reusing a ton of assets. They only had enough time for four dungeons in that game.

I’d rather have Link + Dungeons back and none of this Minecraft nonsense.

Please let this just be a phase.

Still shocked we ever got to the point where we'd even need an article like this in the first place. Whose bright idea was it to ditch conventional temples in the first place? Did they think BotW and TotK would be TOO good with them included?

@Truegamer79 They made Zelda games centered around classic dungeons for decades. They’re probably as tired of creating them as most of us are of playing them.

I don’t want Zelda to regress to old templates. I’ve played enough of those, and sales numbers seem to indicate that’s the predominant feeling among players too.

@RygelXVIII I personally don't want them to regress, but I don't want the temples in their current state either. I feel like the best approach would be a middleground where it mixes the non-linearity of the terminals with more classic elements. Clever puzzles that are actually designed around concepts (like with the Lightning Temple in Tears of the Kingdom), mixed with elements like having bosses that actually guard the terminals or replacements for the terminals.

@VoidofLight I am sure they will iterate on the concept, yeah. I’m personally really happy with their iterations on alternatives so far in BotW and TotK both. I was so tired of the old structure by the time of Twilight Princess that I skipped that and Skyward Sword, and when I’ve gone back to try them recently, my gut feeling was correct — I am completely over their designs, and they’re not even as traditional as what some seem to ask for.

Zelda games were always about adventures for me, and dungeons often felt like obnoxious roadblocks at the worst of times. I love it when the world itself is full of challenge and lateral puzzles to solve.

@RygelXVIII Ehh I personally loved the dungeons the most when I played Zelda titles. The intricate details and little bits of world-building with each and every dungeon. The puzzles tailor made specifically for them, along with the bosses that you could fight through the entirety of the structure.

BotW's dungeons made me feel wanting in a sense, given how much they lacked. The bosses were all the same, and the puzzles basically were a case of "If you did one of these dungeons, you did them all."

Tears of the Kingdom is an improvement, with actual unique themes for each dungeon. The bosses were also pretty unique. I just felt like what fell flat with Tears of the Kingdom was the way that the puzzles were handled in the dungeons themselves- along with the general vibe of the dungeons. The only one I genuinely loved was the Lightning Temple- since it actually managed to fuse the old structure that people loved with the new structure that BotW and TotK had. The build-up for TotK's dungeons were well done though.

I've never been able to relate to this notion of wanting the same thing over and over and over again. I'm not at that point on the spectrum.

I'm glad The Beatles didn't just keep rehashing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and tried new and different things. And I'm glad Nintendo tried new things with BOTW and TOTK. It keeps things fresh and exciting. The same thing over and over and over again is boring to me.

If I want an experience like A LInk to the Past, I will just go play ALTTP. If it's a new Zelda game then I want a new experience. So, I'm excited for Echoes of Wisdom.

@tblalande Eh, "choose your own adventure" style would be more traditional, where puzzles have a single or few solutions.

@Truegamer79 Seems a very, VERY vocal minority would be all too happy if every dungeon in every Zelda game was forest, fire, ice, wind, water, blah blah blah

@LikelySatan Personally I don't want the exact same dungeons every game. I just want something with actual well designed puzzles and thought out background lore. Something which looks like it actually existed for some sort of practical purpose. Twilight Princess did dungeons well in that regard.

I also just want mini-bosses in dungeons back.

They didn't mention items. For me the whole principle of a dungeon needs that one special item you must find in the dungeon to be able to clear it. So ... there are dungeons ... ok .. but not the ones I'd imagine.

Anyways, there seems to be enough things to do in this game already.

@Yalloo Oh wow, thinking of that reminds me something I didn't like about Twilight Princess. Many items were so dungeon specific, it was just extra baggage once the dungeon was over.

@RygelXVIII Sounds like something someone on the spectrum would say. They didn't ditch temples, they just made them objectively worse with the Ultra Beasts. Is that the revolutionary shakeup you've been dreaming of? Just shorter, watered down versions of the past without elemental themes? Genius. And then they said they heard people after BotW and wanted to include more traditional temples in TotK but they clearly dropped the ball again. The Beatles shook things up but they always stayed true to who they were, they didn't make a smooth jazz album or anything, and fans are just asking Zelda to do the same. OoT, MM, WW and SS are remarkably different from each other despite following the same structure, there are lots of ways to mix things up without completely losing your identity or killing off one of the main selling points that created your fanbase to begin with.

@SpaceboyScreams What a petty defensive response. Hate to break to ya, but BOTW is the highest selling game in the entire franchise.

The fanbase never left and is still present. It's just a tiny subset of the fanbase that thinks they speak for everyone when voicing their displeasure.

I'm just glad traditional dungeons are staying...I don't care if BotW or TotK were the best selling games ever and are considered the best Zelda games in existence...I found them to be.....VERY....boring. They had their moments, but compared to past games, I considered them my least favorite games. Took me forever to actually beat BotW because I just kept going to other games because, you know, I just kept losing interest. Despite TotK fixing some problems I had, it was still basically BotW...didn't even bother beating that one. Would rather just play an older Zelda game. Wished they would bring Wind Waker and Twilight Princess to Switch. :c

@DripDropCop146 I think you're slightly exaggerating, even the spinner was necessary to find some chest/hearts in the overworld!

I think items is the only thing that has been missing from the Zelda games since BotW.

And Twilight Princess used to be my favourite Zelda game. Before that was A Link to the Past. And now it certainly is Tears of the Kingdom.

@SpaceboyScreams As someone on the spectrum I would advise that you probably shouldn’t use that as an insult towards someone. Doesn’t do any favors in getting your point across- and it only makes it worse for people who actually have autism.

@SpaceboyScreams That kind of insinuation about someone else's neurodivergence just because you disagree with them about Zelda dungeons is completely out of line. Please stop it.

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