The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening's dungeon design | Boss Keys

Translator: Chu Tiankuo Hi, I'm Mark Brown, welcome back to Boss Ke

ys Did you know that *The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening* is one

of my favorite games? It brought so much to the Zelda series: Catc

hing chickens and flying? From *Link's Awakening* Trading sequences

? From *Link's Awakening* Playing different songs with an ocarina?

From *Link's Awakening* Fishing, mini-bosses, jumping? These all tr

ace back to this wonderful green game. Only, this time we're playin

g the GBC remake, *The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX*. It's

basically exactly the same. But if you're interested, there's a lin

k in the video description listing all the differences. *Link's Awa

kening* was basically created by the same team behind *A Link to th

e Past*, but it's a handheld game, so the developers had more freed

om to experiment and try new things. In an interview a few years la

ter, director Takashi Tezuka said it "felt like a Zelda fanfic." As

ide from some bizarre changes, like those from *Mario* and... The c

haracters in *Kirby's Awakening* *Link's Awakening* made some funda

mental changes that I think are very beneficial to the Zelda mode

especially the dungeon sections I focused on in this show For exam

ple, the compass now shows the location of treasure chests on the m

ap and plays a melody when you enter a room containing a key Thes

e features reduce the fatigue of tracking down lost keys making fi

nding the compass more worthwhile These bird statues serve the sam

e purpose as the Sahasrahla stones in *A Link to the Past* but you

must find the stone beak first to hear the hint Yes Another thing

the designers hid, but the biggest change is the function of the

large key. Let me explain. In *A Link to the Past*, the large key

could open treasure chests containing dungeon items. This was a br

illiant design. You felt genuinely surprised. You rushed back to th

e chest you'd seen before, eagerly opening it to see what was insid

e. Sometimes this required backtracking, but it was a meaningful a

nd motivated backtracking. You excitedly returned to the chest. B

ut in *Link's Awakening*, the items are in ordinary treasure chests

that can be opened without a key. This is basically the setting a

fter the Zelda series. The chests containing key items are sometime

s larger, but still unlocked. The Grand Key can also open doors in

the dungeons of *A Link to the Past*, generally leading to the sec

ond part of the palace. In the Painful Swamp, the Grand Key takes

you to a more linear second-level basement area. In Thieves' Town,

the Grand Key leads you to a maze-like open area to explore the re

st. In *Link's Awakening*, and basically every game after it, the

Grand Key—now called the Nightmare Key—opens doors to boss rooms.

But don't think this makes *Link's Awakening*'s dungeons less fun!

Wrong! Because Link's Awakening doesn't open the second part of t

he dungeon, but rather the second phase. This is accomplished thro

ugh key items in the dungeon. In all the dungeons, except for Eagl

e's Tower (we'll talk about that later), the rooms are full of obst

acles you can't overcome. For example, the holes in the floor of t

he Trace Cave, the heavy pottery in the Bottle Cave, and the deep w

ater area of the Fishing Tunnel. After you obtain the key items: T

he Roc Feather allows you to jump over these holes, The Power Glove

s allow you to lift these pottery, The Flippers allow you to swim i

n the deep water. The dungeon immediately changes. Previously inacc

essible areas are now open to you. That urge to return to the treas

ure chests reappears. You excitedly return to these areas to see wh

ere they lead. Perhaps this... The excitement of knowing you're ab

out to get new items can't compare, but it's still a proactive step

back. Although, it's a little different. Because the Grand Key c

an only open one locked door, items like the Flame Staff and Pegas

us Boots allow you to overcome many obstacles. This changes the en

tire understanding of the dungeon, like a mini Metroidvania. It br

ings more things to think about and remember while exploring. It a

lso gives each dungeon a real sense of progression. In each dungeo

n, except for the Eagle's Tower—which I'll mention shortly—the firs

t thing to do is find items. Then you can get the Nightmare Key.

And finally, you can fight the boss. This model might be a bit far

-fetched, considering there are already so many Zelda games… 16 ga

mes? Or count it however you like, but this suited *Link's Awakenin

g* perfectly at the time. In *A Link Between Worlds*, there were pl

aces where you needed to backtrack to overcome obstacles while carr

ying new items. But these situations were rare and the locations we

re too far apart. Take the grappling hook in the Swamp Palace, for

example: you needed to use it twice in one room to complete the dun

geon. Take the same item in the catfish's stomach in *Link's Awaken

ing*, for example: it could be used to collect two small keys, obta

in the Nightmare Key, reach the boss, and obtain optional items. Th

is focus on items also extended to boss design. In *A Link Between

Worlds*, only a few bosses were afraid of items in dungeons. Arrghu

s was the only boss that required a key item to defeat. In *Link's

Awakening*, almost every dungeon had a boss or mini-boss that requi

red a key item to defeat. In this Game Boy game, you could carry qu

ite a few small keys and decide which door to open. This truly gave

you the choice of how to proceed. The route through the dungeons.

Unlike *A Link Between Worlds*, this game's layout isn't as chaoti

c. Even in the first dungeon where you can carry three keys simult

aneously, or in the second dungeon where you have to choose from t

hree locked doors to reach the next world, in my analysis so far,

I've found that when you encounter multiple locked doors, you can

always find the same number or more keys in the dungeon. But in th

e Key Cavern, you find yourself facing four locked doors with only

one key. Finally, you discover that three of these doors lead to a

single room—two are meaningless, and the other is optional. But t

his is an interesting way to make the dungeon more complex than it

actually appears. You can retrieve the key from all three rooms.

But the most astute players will realize that if you leave these th

ree doors until the end, you'll have run out of keys. To prevent t

his, since some people feel they have to enter every room, the Key

Cavern contains nine keys and eight locks. Simple and straightforw

ard. Before I talk about *The Eagle's Tower*, let me share some ra

ndom thoughts. These playing card enemies are great, but those hors

e heads are really annoying. The dungeon maps all seem to form some

thing, which is interesting. This also relates to the "eye" puzzle

in the Temple of Faces. I like this puzzle with the cracks in the b

lastable wall that can only be seen from a high vantage point. The

additional colored dungeons aren't worth elaborating on. The Eagle'

s Tower is really fantastic. It's the only dungeon in Link's Awaken

ing with multiple levels, but it really makes good use of that. The

re are parts like in the Temple of Hera where you jump from one lev

el to another. Oh, and there's a fourth level that falls down onto

the third. To accomplish this, you need to pick up this giant metal

ball and throw it at these four pillars. This is easy to see becau

se you can't go down or jump while holding the ball. This is anothe

r type of key: you need to think about how to move it. To move it i

n the dungeon, you need to throw it first, then run around and pick

it up. This forces you to think about where to pick up the ball an

d how to keep Link and the ball together. This dungeon, and later t

he Turtle... The game also uses a lot of one-way doors, so you can'

t just wander around the dungeons randomly. You need to understand

the spatial layout and make thoughtful choices about your routes. M

y only complaint about the Eagle's Tower is that you don't need to

visit the third floor at all, making it easy to overlook. Parts of

the dungeon are completely altered by your actions. As we can see,

Link's Awakening dungeons are entirely based on keys and locks. Sma

ll keys are many-to-many. Nightmare keys are one-to-one. Items are

one-to-many. You can even count crystal switches, which simultaneou

sly raise and lower all the blocks in the dungeon, like many-to-one

keys. And there's the iron ball, which is one-to-four, but it's he

avy, so, well, you know what I mean. This allows Nintendo to create

a lot of truly non-linear dungeons for us. I think Link's Awakenin

g marks the pinnacle of Zelda dungeon design. So, we'll have to see

what happens next... Thanks for watching. Next episode: Boss Keys

is going into 3D, traveling through time, and we're going to... the

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