Thanks for watching folks! What did you think of the Wind Temple? DID YOU KNOW YOU COULD DIVE THROUGH COLGERA? I did not know this until the comments below decided to blow my mind Stay cool ✌
The irony of this dungeon... It is the only one without a sub-boss unless you count the flux construct... The Lightning temple has the town defense/second boss fight, and bazaar defense. A Sub boss easily could have been used to make the puzzles here feel linear/connected without being REQUIRED linearly.
I didn’t know I could use arrows the first few times I fought him. I feel like nobody figured out both ways, and Nintendo could have made it cooler and clearer to use both together, like diving through one dive-only weak spot to reveal an arrow-only one.
Diving through the ice should be the base way to kill Colgera, it's way cooler, you're literally DIVING DOWN TO THE BEAST AND BREAKING THROUGH IT THROUGH THE SHEER POWER OF YOUR OWN HANDS AND GRAVITY. That's all kinds of epic. It also utilizes a mechanic previously shown in the build-up to the dungeon!
I assumed diving was the intended way, given how often the weak points are level with the ground, and based on the game and dungeon's focus on your aerial movement. Plus diving down while dodging the spikes it fires feels way cooler and at least a bit more challenging than just... Shooting it with a bow.
Nothing will compare, to me, to the moment when that title card first appeared. About halfway up the climb I literally gasped and said “this feels like a dungeon! Is this going to be a dungeon??” And when that title card showed up I was just so dang excited.
Everything from the Rising Island Chain to Colgera is peak atmosphere building. The only other part of the game that comes close is the descent to Ganondorf.
If the dungeons going forward are going to be fairly short, I do hope there's at least more of them in the next 3D game. I thought the Kakariko ruins was leading up to a Shadow Temple with Paya as a Sage.
We got a sort of hearty meal - but really they could have given Us the full lavish Banquet quite easily. While I will always love Tears of the Kingdom, there were _so_ many missed opportunities. Nothing was stopping them for giving Us that Great Ancient Zonai Palace way off in the Sky (that would point towards a later gameplay run Area) or, Talented players could 'cheese' it by flying there with 100s of Zonai charges etc lol. The Palace would have housed that amazing Light Force Sonia & Rauru themselves used to fight off that Molduga invasion. Then of course, it could have house a ton of actual Lore, really filling Us in and a reward for the ppl who went out to discover it: the Sage - would have led to have been,, Link! 🐉
Great analysis! I love how you explained the lack of difficulty increase. That never occured to me, but makes sense. I do have one gripe though, It's clear that the lead up to the dungeon was meant to be considered part of the dungeon experience. The desert temple has a linear section at the beginning of the pyramid which closely resembles the linear climb up to the Stormwing Ark. Additionally, the aethetic of the climbing section closely resembles that of the Ark itself which implies it is a part of the same environment (compare that to the Forest Temple and Lost Woods which feel entirely different). Aside from that, I am on board with the rest of the video. Nice job captain!
Fully agree. Those pieces are meant to be part of the dungeon. Nothing changes if "the Wind Temple" triggered when you first hit the islands going up. Heck, you could considered it all "the dungeon" with the last part being the "temple" to release the boss
Weirdly, for a game that's known and rightfully praised for giving its players ultimate freedom, I think that the linear ascend towards the Wind Temple might be the single best section of the game, (and if it isn't, it's bested only by other linear sections). It is genuinely phenomenal and I can't think of anything wrong with that section.
Yes, so much more atmosphere can be created through these largely scripted, streamlined moments. My favorite parts of the game were the beginning descent with Zelda and then the descent at the end of the game that echoes this opening. They’re so atmospheric, and it’s something that was in a lot of the older Zelda games and I wish there were more moments like this in the recent games.
i think colgera is my favourite boss between both botw and totk even with the fight being so short and easy, especially for me who did it as my third boss in the game but it felt unbelievably cool hanging out in the sky way above colgera, dodging tornadoes while waiting for it to fire it's spikes, then having to dodge and weave between those until smashing right through it's body like the human missile i loved that so much and i'm a little sad that i probably won't get to see another fight like it for a while
Colgera is amazing if you play it like that. I accidentally found out the undersides are vulnerable and thought I had to shoot it from below....I beat it in 1-2 minutes. I feel like it would've been better to patch that hole so you had to actually engage more...
The crazy thing is this dungeon spawns one of the best bows infinitely close to the transport point, yet this boss doesn't actually require a bow and the power changes nothing to kill it, this boss has strict shatterpoints, not HP. Edit: lol, my autocorrect had broken "shatterpoint".
Colgera is probably my favourite in TOTK. I liked fighting Wind Blight the most between the two games though. Funny how they’re both in the Rito plot line
As an intro dungeon, The Wind Temple is the best in the series imo from its atmosphere, setting calling back to the sandship in SS, introduction to dungeon puzzle design in the game, and music with surprising length considering most intro dungeons are about 10-15 mins max to complete.
The Sandship has a great run up phase but the ship Itself went on a bit too much and became a little too bland and repetitive. And then of course, the ahem 'boss' was atrocious!!
My favorite temple is the Thunder Temple, but the the Wind temple has my heart as far as music and Boss!! Colgera is SO MUCH FUN!!! I fought it so many times now in the dephs, it's INCREDIBLE! When I first fought Colgera I didn't use any arrows 😅 I made Link throw his whole body thru him! Idk why didn't think to use arrows, but it made it so much more for me, yes he is easy, but so much fun!
That is kind of the problem with TOTK dungeon order, they point you toward the Wind Temple first, but the way to the dungeon and boss fight are the most spectacular and memorable in the ggame, the dungeon in itself being the only part that is outclass by another dungeon. The game throw everything at you right at the start but does not go above it after that.
I feel like in TOTK the lead up to the dungeon is part of the experience, at least for me. We have the location itself (for example, Hebra) that we can explore; but then the way to the dungeon is a separate part; and it has it's own "puzzles", gimmicks, gameplay. I think the interesting question to explore is "what do we consider a dungeon in general" because TOTK to me personally felt like there were many elements of the dungeon mechanic implemented throughout the world (inside the shrines, for example, we have a few with doors and keys, we have puzzles; we have caves; dragon ball gacha items are replacing our regular zelda items that help in exploration and combat; etc). Maybe the idea is to have a whole world give that exploration + dungeon experience, with small detailed sprinkled in and a few temples with more concentrated "dungeon" experience. The bosses made me happy simply because they weren't the same shadow Ganon, but different monsters actually reminding me of Zelda enemies from previous games (and they added a lot of that throughout the world too). So, perspective and expectations play a huge part in this 🤔
Hands-down the most disappointing part of this game's dungeon design is the names. They created unique dungeons with all different aesthetics and histories from each other, and yet all of them are just called generic elemental temples in the area titlecards? The Stormwind Ark, Gorondia, and the Great Wellspring are all great and unique dungeon names - so why are they relegated to subtitles? The Lightning Temple at least hasn't been used before in the series, but they still could have come up with an actual name for the pyramid. I can maybe excuse the Spirit Temple since it's a separate location to the Construct Factory, but even that's clearly some kind of warehouse for the factory complex. I get that these places have been turned into temples to protect the secret stones, but why should that overwrite the original location names? They're already using subtitles for the dungeon names, so why not just flip them around? "Stormwind Ark: the Wind Temple" flows so well and is much more descriptive as a title.
Ughh I hated everything about the water temple 😭 especially the boss fight, I left after a few attempts and then didn't come back to it until after doing the Wind and lightning temple
3:09 Whoa, that's me! But anyway I agree with you 100% on the dungeon design of this game and you pretty much said what my thoughts are. While yes they are visually better than BOTW and the terminal activation makes more sense, the isolation and simplicity of the puzzles to activate said terminals just isn't as interesting as the lock and key design of the old games. The lock and key design was one of the things that made me fall in love with this franchise and while i still enjoyed these dungeons (most of them) they still don't really live up to the pre switch era dungeons.
The terminal activation stuff does not make sense in totk though. It's less sensible than rooms gated off by keys or any other objective. Terminals make sense in botw, because they're just massive robots, you activate and regain control of the parts of the robot with shiekah magic draining the bad stuff. In this game? It's just so dumb. Extremely painfully obvious lazy dungeon design. They're not even that big nor interesting to begin with (though imo Thunder and Fire temples get a pass but just barely on the Thunder one) Solve a crossword puzzle so big vase 1 can pour in the water temple!! Why is the source of water of the Zora a bunch of big vases set up like a xylophone? Who knows! This game was such a let down, I had high expectations, but I didn't expect it to just be worse than botw in every aspect besides gameplay.
Some people complain about the Fire Temple but I really enjoyed it. It had the most complicated puzzle and that really seemed to take an inspiration from tradtional past Zelda dungeons. If you dont try and "cheat" by climbing or making a flying device, then the rail track puzzle is pretty fun and satisfying to complete. Lighting Temple was also good. Wind Temple had a good atmosphere and aesthetic but it was too easy. Spirit Temple/Construct Factory had a unique gimmick but it was too short. Water Temple was very disappointing.
I wasn't really disappointed by any of the dungeons myself (though I do wish Spirit Temple/Construct Factory was a bit longer, which is why I do generally consider the lead-up to the dungeons in TOTK to be part of the dungeons here, even though I don't for other Zeldas), but I agree with the Fire Temple being a fun complex puzzle, and made a point not to climb or build a flying device either.
The problem though is that it’s just so easy to cheat. Ascend alone breaks the entire dungeon which could’ve been fixed if they had just changed the architecture a bit. There are small platforms on the columns in the Fire Temple which you can stand on to use Ascend, otherwise the ceiling is too high up to use it. Just remove those platforms and the player is encouraged to engage with the puzzle.
The lead up to the wind temple is the best part of TotK IMO. It reminds me of a classic linear 3D dungeon itself. We truly didn’t know what was coming, and the reveal didn’t disappoint. The dungeons are overall an upgrade from BotW but I feel like we traded the move-the-beast-around mechanic for unique atmosphere. Botw dungeons were (almost) literally alive. The wind temple is the closest we have to this in TotK.
In a game so large, I personally needed a nudge towards which way to go because the number of decisions I could have made was overwhelming (in the BEST way). And there's something about hearing one of the happiest songs of my childhood in a sad, minor key that hit me SO HARD. But then hearing it again during the boss fight in that triumphant way had me squealing like a kid again!!! 😃 Great job as usual!! ❤
Wonderful wonderful video! The dungeons were definitely improved upon from BotW, and that was such a cool and happy realization for me when I experienced this dungeon in particular. I really liked your critiques too, but knowing that nothing can be perfect, I can accept those few things :) So glad this part of the series is underway! You got us all hooked Capt! XD
I did the wind temple first, which is interesting because I also usually do Vah Medoh first in BotW. For me, I got a line of dialogue from an NPC saying that the Rito were all starving due to the storm, which heavily motivated me to rush there and save them. This is one thing I think TotK does better than BotW; motivation. With Vah Medoh, the Rito admit they can avoid it by just walking but that it hurts their pride. In TotK, though, it feels like their lives are more at threat. Similar things apply to the other dungeon quest lines; in general, TotK makes it feel like an actual current emergency whereas in BotW it feels like a mere inconvenience or a potential future emergency. I actually care about their struggles, and it always feels like I really changed each major town, which was really cool.
I did the Wind Temple 4th just to spite the game for telling me to go there first. I went to Water Temple first because of the order in Breath of the Wild (which is why I wasn't as disappointed by that one as many others seem to be), then to Lightning Temple because I thought it'd be funny to do the presumably hardest dungeon next, then to the Fire Temple before finally doing the Wind Temple. The funny thing is, this order meant I first did the two dungeons that have four locks and then the ones that had five locks, so I actually wondered whether the increasing number of locks was dependant on the order in which you do the dungeons.
I didn’t realize you were supposed to use the bow in this fight until I got to the depths version 😭 I was just skydiving through their weak points (which imo is the correct way)
I only learned about the skydiving method from comments here (it is mentioned in the next video too) but tbh since learning about that I can’t look back. Skydiving is WAY more fun
I loved the stormwind ark. The puzzles were nice, Tulin is amazing, colgera was a nice boss that’s a perfect early game challenge. I just wish it was larger scale. It felt cramped, and I was on my feet far more than gliding. I enjoyed it, but it felt like it wasn’t built to really take advantage of Gliding and Tulin’s gust. The chain of islands is a great way to introduce you to the uses of his ability, however limited, and I enjoyed them. Probably my favorite part of the early game
I did do the Wind Temple first, but only after running around a bit to stall, cause the game SO CLEARLY wanted me to go to Rito Village that I stubbornly wanted to go elsewhere first. But the game did a great job of making me WANT to go there first after all, not because of the blizzard, but because of the Lucky Clover Gazette. I just couldn't wait to see Traysi at her new job and see if I could help out as a reporter! Once I'd done the first geoglyph with Impa, I figured, okay FINE I'll just go to the Rito since I'm on the way (and I like to limit fast travel). Also am I the only one who realized we could use arrows AND diving through Colgera? I used arrows when shooting the underneath weak points, and dove from above whenever possible, and I had a GREAT time
Great video! I'm surprised you never dived directly through Colgera using Link's body as the actual projectile. But that's the beauty of this game - you play how you want!
In terms of how quickly you can defeat Colgera, I was fortunate enough on my first playthrough to have chosen the single most time-consuming method of defeating him, which is to use Link as a living projectile by having him dive through his weak points after he's launched all his spikes. I feel this is actually the method the designers meant for you to use as well. I also repeated this method on my second save file of the game because I wanted to enjoy the atmosphere of the fight. I only use the arrow method on Colgera when I'm re-fighting him in the depths.
I went to the wind temple first because I figured I’d get a movement ability similar to Revali’s Gale. And I wanted all of my movement options available ASAP
There were three parts of totk that made me really love the game. 1.Wind temple+the way to reach it This is the first "big moment of totk" and, it is, for me, for the most part due to its formidable soundtrack, and the fact that i beat Colgera by skydiving, and not using bow and arrows. I didn't think about using them, since in the ascent there were many iterations or circular ice walls, that could be broken right with a dive. SPOILER 2. Light dragon reveal, and its leadup. I went first, to the deku tree, and there, it was the first time i found out of the phantom ganon of this game. The dive into the tree plus the unexpected bossfight then, lead me towards the big discovery of the master sword. I connected the dots for the scene right after the tutorial, and i tought it was a great idea. Then i finished the memories, and i found out the truth. It was THE second moment, everything made sense. This moment everyone finds about it differently, but o think, the intended way was deku tree->sword->memories, in this order, for me, kept the mistery troughout most of my main playtrough. 3. Final boss fight. This was the best ganondorf fight i played, and by linking itself with the draconification, it only gets more value for the game themes. And by story beats, there, the english version did you dirty guys, since in my language (italian) they kept a most faithful approach to adapting and translation. It was great seeing Ganondorf talking about, the triforce of courage, making quotes of demise, sacrificing the soul (key price of draconification)!, and bringing link down to hell with him. On the music there finding the army theme recalling ganon theme in lttp, the first ganondorf phase having the percussion rithm of twilight, and the second phase theme having the melody of the ocarina fight. With the many recalls of botw main theme and calamity ganon theme, the music in this game, is a great protagonist
The Wind temple/ark looks INCREDIBLE and the sequence before getting to it is exhilirating, but... it's just empty when you get inside. Like. There's just NOTHING. I expected something like Skyward Sword's Sandship, a unique sealed off environment with history. But its just a flying boat with shrine puzzles. The divine beast formula was fine in botw because theres not supposed to be much environmental storytelling, its a robot with switches. But in totk? That formula falls HARD and it is painfully obvious.
Great job witht the video. I personally despise the laziness of copying BotW dungeon progression of pressing terminals/locks to open the path to the boss. The old dungeon designs were the number one thing I needed from TotK and was greatly disappointed.
Yeah i had a very unique experience in that as soon as i landed on the surface i b-lined straight for Zoras Domain because, yaknow, fish prince is best boi and i gotta check up on him, see how he's doing So i need you to picture an extremely stubborn Link, with no glider, trail and error his way to Zoras Domain, including death by landing on sludge water and zonai device shenanigans, seeing theres a serious problem and going "yeah lets handle this first" There was even a point where i realized i couldnt do the towers til i activated them through Purah, and i was getting annoyed with the lack of map, so i went, did all that, was told i should go see the Rito and went "nah, i already had plans with the Prince" and went BACK to Zoras Domain
I find it surprising that no one has drawn the comparison between Colgera and Morpheel from TP. To me, their battles share the exact same problem: Great atmosphere, super fun to play, but essentially nothing is happening. The boss is just swirling around, it's so difficult to get hurt by it.
I spent most of my early time in the depths so first dungeon i found was fire temple and i got excited for a few seconds before i cheesed around through the thing and realized it wasn't active yet. It was cool finding it dormant and having to figure it how to open it, but the traversal felt like a let down Then i went to Zora's and did the water temple
In case you didn't notice already, I just wanna mention that it seems pretty obvious what the intended order of the game is: In lookout Landing, after you complete one of the four main dungeons, a few characters from the race move to the town and their flag is raised. These flags are on a line, not in the order of completion but in a set order that lines up pretty well with where you seem to be guided: Rito, Goron, Zora and Gerudo. And awesome video as always, this may just be my favorite series on youtube!
Oh, so that's how you are supposed to get the chest in that barred chamber. I just. Kind of. Kept trying to glide into the hole by jumping from walls until I eventually managed to crawl through it.
I feel like they shouldve implemented a game mechanic that restricts you from climbing and using the sage powers inside of dungeons like you walk through a curtain of gloom and it takes those away and then build the dungeon off of that
one of those things i DO love about TOTK now that i FINALLY got a chance to play it is its sheer freedom. as much as i love TOTKs and BOTWs sense of freedom and exploration, i appreciate how they kinda push you towards starting with the wind temple over outright forcing you to start there.
At the same time, every time I watch ANY of Capts dungeon design videos and play a Zelda game for myself, I’m reminded that the Goods and bads of a games linearity is a double edged sword, especially comparing TOTK/BOTW to the typically thought of as linear games in Zelda, specifically TP. On one end, a player won’t be forced/confined to the story. On the other end, it means you have to make sure the player knows where they could/should be doing. Which is why I like BOTW/TOTW. It gives you freedom but it nudges you in the right directions. That’s the rock and hard place between our companion games. They were there for the story (MIdna, KORL) but also there to teach you about the game (Navi, tatl) but in BOTW/TOTK, it’s mostly all you. It’s not Zelda 1 or adventure of link but that’s the confliction. Zelda likes most franchises in 2024, has to both be welcoming to new players while still being challenging for veterans. It has to balance those that want complete freedom and those that want to be hinted at where to go. Which is why Navi 30 years ago was so monumental. Now, most of the time I’d absolutely look at walkthroughs but nothing beats solving a puzzle by yourself. To a vet, most of Zelda’s puzzles are a minor annoyance. But to someone like me, it’s EXTREMELY satisfying to solve a puzzle/shrine in BOTW/TOTK. Which is the confliction about TOTKs temples with the water temple and wind temple. To someone that played the game 3straight times, of course it might come off as underwhelming, but someone playing this game for the first time would think it’s the greatest thing Zelda came up with. But that’s just me. When we think about how many games Zelda has and how long this franchise has existed, it’s natural fans would be this divide. To me, I appreciate the games sense of freedom but let’s understand that every dungeon has to be dark souls. Not every dungeon has to be OOTs water temple. Last thought: sitting here as someone playing TOTW for the first time, I love it. I think it’s a great MM to its OOT. After playing these games, I’ve slowly becoming a fan of TOTKs/BOTWs freedom and satisfaction of figuring something out for myself. That the biggest divide we live with. Those that think of this as another game and those that think of this game as a puzzle box experience.
If anything TotK make these dungeons stand out more because they visual look more like dungeons of old. The new lick of paint though doesn't hide the fact that these are just divine beasts, you could replace the textures with divine beast textures and they'd feel the same. The lead up to the Wind Temple is better, but its also annoying with companions abilities just being tedious to use.
TotK dungeons are worse then BotW. Every ‘negative’ aspect of BotW was increased 10 fold in TotK. The whole game plays like a cheap knockoff. It feels like a very fan servicy mod that disregards pre-established aspects of what it claims to be the sequel of. It is not darker then Majora’s Mask and it’s way to easy. The depths are not scary like they should be and the dungeons are more boring then ever. Ofc the story is the worst in the entire series and the game is too open. The UI is garbage and the gameplay is stale. Half of the items are removed from the game and you don’t cohesively get stronger weapons are you progress. You have to go out of your way to get then from the depths then beat strong enemies for fusion items. The Champion abilities are some of the worst game design ever. They were literally only designed with their dungeon in mind unlike in BotW. They’re unplayable when turned on. They move away from you when you need them and despawn/destroy your items when you go to pick them up. It’s unnecessary, especially when you have a hover bike.
Yes the dungeons have more enemies but they were placed without any thought. Never are the enemies a threat. It’s nice that they’re there but they’re so forgettable it makes no difference.
The dungeons all share the same Zonai design. They differ slightly due to their regional affiliation but are noticeably similar. They are also very ugly and confusing to navigate. BotW is better in every comparable way.
Very accurate analysis, but how can you say no one is arguing that passing those moblins isn't part of the Forest Temple? It is part of the experience, undenyably. And the build up to the Stormwind Ark fits even more as part of the dungeon, because it is in an incredibly open game, and still it only leads you towards one location: the Wind Temple. In my opinion, of course.
It is certainly not an argument if heard until after the video premieres haha! I agree it is part of the experience, the lead up to a dungeon is inherently tied to the dungeon. They’re related, but they’re also a bit separate. The forest temple starts when you enter the temple. How you got there still matters, but that doesn’t make it part of the temple as a structure in the same way that a prologue in a book matters, but is not part of that book’s Chapter 1
@@CaptBurgerson Yeah, I understand that it is not really part of the actual dungeon, but I always consider the whole experience when I want to rank dungeons or stuff like this. But I can't ignore the fact that you actually talked about this part in the video and that's really important.
21:58 when I first got to the wind temple (which was also my first dungeon) I remember having my bf on the phone and my brother was on the couch next to me and telling them both word for word “I’m betting everything I can’t climb this- HOLY SHIT YOU CAN CLIMB THE WALLS IN THIS GAME” 😂
I agree that the escalating melody for this dungeon (and the other dungeons after) was amazing. Using the Devine Beasts plus Champions and location themes mixed into each corresponding dungeon was perfect. And I love these dungeons better than BotW.
I had interest in the wind temple first because I was spoiled for what Revali's gale would be replaced with, figured I HAD to at least check it out Ended up getting to the archery range first, then traveled to the Rito Village. "Huh? The elder's running the range?" i said Didn't even recognize who Tulin was, i guess i missed him entirely Climbing up i felt FUCKING STUPID for not remembering I had Ascend. Spent multiple cooking pots trying to build stamina in order to climb a pillar, only to fall down because you can't stick to horizontal ceilings... had to look that up I remember also that i put my Switch to sleep upon landing. I had to go to work the next morning, so i turned in. It was a rough day at work, and when i pulled out my switch, i was like "I do NOT have the mental capacity for this" and came back to it like 3 days later The Wind Temple should have been like 3x larger. Like, Smash Run sized. Throw in locked rooms. Let you enter from multiple spots like the current version, but make each section either ineterconnected or separate (pick one) and let the player explore quite a bit in each area There should have been more preamble in the Rito Village before heading up. They shoulda did something different than the 5 terminals. The boss was underwhelming, but an ok specticle fight. The platforms leading to the wind temple was the highlight.
One of the MANY problems with this game was the surface attempt to appease Zelda OGs with seeming "dungeons" that broke the conventional structure and experience of actual Zelda dungeons. Nintendo HAS to solve the creative challenge of how to make linear object gated dungeons work in an open world setting for their next release. Period. Enough excuses. Enough obfuscating. Deal with it. Second, the Wind Temple was the only temple in the game that really worked. Water was trash. Fire was miserable and just incentivised players breaking it so as not to have to deal with its godawful layout. Spirit was an afterthought. Lightning was thematically the strongest but too small. And frankly the map reuse killed what was the strongest element of BOTW which was exploration. If I had to rank the most disappointing at release Zelda games, TOTK would top the list. A 6 year wait only to fight your obvious and immediate disappointment. The next release is going to be critical to sustaining their 20+ year hardcore player base and I think they need to ditch Hidemaro Fujibayashi. Sorry, but the dude has derailed the series in all honesty. Zelda needs a new director. I can remember the smallest detail from Witcher 3 yet I can barely remember a single supposed "hero" gameplay or plot moment from TOTK. It's the most forgettable game in the entire franchise, and I put 250 hours into it praying my feelings about it would change at some point. This is the first Zelda title where I'm genuinely calling shenanigans on the 10/10 reviews. It's a disappointment and a 7/10 at best. Glorified and apologetic DLC that's objectively weaker than BOTW. If you haven't played either and are looking to choose one, it's clearly BOTW.
I hear what you are saying but I think you are too quick to throw one particular person under the bus here. Fujibayashi is the director and made many creative decisions here, but he did not make the game solo. The man also worked on Minish Cap, the Oracle Titles, Phantom Hourglass, and Skyward Sword. I think he knows his way around Zelda at this point, but he has become more of a figurehead recently along with Aonuma, so people want someone to point the finger at. Just keep in mind that he is one cog in a well oiled machine.
@@CaptBurgerson I totally respect that the Zelda title is too big an IP to fall to a single individual under an Auteur fetish like Kojima. However, Fujibayashi has clearly had an agenda across games starting with SS, which was about rebooting the series. In that respect alone I think he has had a positive impact on the history of the franchise as a voice that's injected innovation and challenged Nintendo to break with supposedly immovable conventions. If BOTW is all he's remembered for then that's still a monumental creative achievement. However, if he's stood up in the room at Nintendo and offered himself as being the visionary to bring Zelda into the context of contemporary open world games, I'm sorry but he's failed. I get that Nintendo are always going to be seeking a broader player base with a more diluted critical and contextual awareness of what's going on across the industry but at what point does that become an apologetic for them falling behind and hiding behind outdated hardware strangling the creative potential of their development team and losing their innovative positioning. BOTW genuinely added something to the open world genre conversation, TOTK simply doesn't. Nintendo simply has to recognise that their loyal Zelda base has stuck with them across 13 years of transition but in that period they have failed to land on a new model for the game that retains the core DNA of the series while modernising it. I'm not suggesting there is a simple or easy answer to that. I'm just saying this is their biggest and imho most important priority to get right with the next title on Switch 2. I get they need to onboard new players, but at the moment they're gradually alienating the people like me who have been onboard for 20+ years. Where's the triforce? Where's the core lore integrity? Where's them doing something we haven't seen. Jeez, at this point I'd be FULLY up for them going sci-fi and delivering the alien invasion experience they teased in the concept art for BOTW. Simply adding a new patented "move through solid objects" gimmick with a weak story and superficial sidequests isn't enough. Compare TOTK with Witcher 3 and honestly tell me you think TOTK is better. It just isn't. Nintendo need to up their game.
@@amandaslough125 I'm assuming you mean the IGN one? Fujibayashi's comments in that just underscore he doesn't get the core Zelda audience. Taking the fact that (I would confidently hazard) a very slim minority of players created fuse builds and drove buzz online as a marker of success is, to me at least, ridiculous. Games don't exist to drive IG posts and TikTok videos. The vast majority of players will have had a middling to indifferent to frustrating experience of that whole aspect of the game. Zelda has always been about storytelling and yet the team still managed to make that not matter in BOTW because the thrill of discovery through unguided exploration was so utterly unfamiliar. If his, and Aonuma's, point is that gimmick gameplay mechanics are more important to them than actual depth of experience then I simply disagree. TOTK was a beautifully presented and technically accomplished exercise in surface. Nintendo have a history of being dazzled by the newness of their own inventions (Virtual Boy, Wii U... Motion control that doesn't map accurately to player gestures - see Matthewmatosis Skyward Sword retrospective...) and not stopping to consider the actual user experience. We don't play Zelda to giggle and drool over patented new physics systems. We play them to be excited, emotionally moved, enthralled. TOTK failed. I still enjoyed the time I put into it but I will forever remember it as the disappointment of the series and in 20 years a Zelda game has never left me with that lasting memory. And Aonuma's dismissive remarks about nostalgia don't really merit a response. You can't just ignore a huge voice in your player community because, as I stated above, they've failed to solve the challenge of incorporating linear dungeon lock and key gameplay within an otherwise open world. Stop messing around with adding Roblox elements to Zelda and start focussing on answering that design problem for the Switch 2 iteration please Nintendo.
This temple was an AWESOME start to exploring the dungeons! ...Then I did the Water Temple right after... Edit: I feel so dumb! I didn't use arrows on colgera! I waited till he shot his spikes, then I dove through him lol!
I have no idea why arrows didn't come to mind! I think once he shot his spikes my brain thought, "oh! Wait for him to attack so he becomes vulnerable, then dive right through him." XD @@CaptBurgerson
I did that too lmao, I learned during the dungeon lead-up that you could dive through ice so I thought OOOOH DIVING PUZZLE. I'm kinda sad that arrows are even effective in the first place, could've made it a more unique fight if this was the required method.
Personally I did the dungeons Water Fire Spirit Wind Lightning, Because I Made sure to do it (besides spirit which I just found the door and wanted to open) in the order you did in breath of the wild
In my first playthrough, I did the wind temple first, then fire then water and lightning. On my 2nd playthrough, I went reverse. The build up to the Wind Temple was amazing. I loved travelling up the Sky islands. I was wondering how high are we even going
34:55 - 35:30 After hearing this part, it will be interesting to know what are your toughts on the Spirit Temple, considering that its gimmick is to hand over the dungeon experience to the Construct Factory, rather than showcase it by itself. =P (But to be fair, the Desert Palace in A Link Between Worlds did something similar, as it moved its boss to Misery Mire in Lorule, rather than having it inside its structure)
I always thought that the Wind Temple theme, before you activate the first terminal, sounds like something ripped out of either Naruto or Okami. Plus, I LOVE the boss theme!
Ok, sooo I heavily have to disagree with the "cheesabilty-workarounds" you mentioned because you can literally activate every windmill without having to open a single gate😂😂 I kind of found this out by accident because one of the first sections I went to was that one in the back where you have to dive through and break a sheet of ice to reach a small pool of water and an adjoined room with a chest, I noticed the bars behind it with the terminal and wondered "huh, since this isn't a solid wall I wonder if I can just use Tulin's gust through the spaces between the bars" and lo and behold I stack some ice platforms on top of each other because Link is too smol to reach 😂 I use Tulin's gust and boom Terminal activated and the gate suddenly opens on the other side. I was sooo confused because since this was the first terminal I cleared, I thought "oh okay I guess that is the intended solution" until I stumbled on the gate puzzles later and found out I unintentionally skipped them somehow😂 (I have never seen that propeller you assembled in the video before lol xD) I was honestly flabbergasted and wanted to see how far they would let me get away with this, so I stubbornly and gleefully ignored every puzzle afterwards (the only terminal you technically have to physically stand in front of is the one on the lowest floor, but that can hardly be called a challenge) I just made sure to stand in the right spot/angle and activated Tulin's gust through the bars for every single one. I honestly don't know what to think of this because while yes, commiting to the bit was a hilarious experience, I can't help but think this is a huge design oversight that could have been fixed if they just fell back on the good old locked solid door and key technique (if I remember correctly, the water temple at least safeguarded against this possibility right?) This would also finally give all those goddamn chests scattered around the dungeons a purpose to exist. It's suuuch a pain to backtrack for them sometimes in hopes of getting anything worthwile only to be rewarded with the same useless crap you found in the overworld a gazillion times and probably can't pick up because your inventory is full.
I got to the ship without Tulin, and spent an hour running around wondering what to do... I figured the game wouldn't let me reach it if I shouldn't be there yet... I wish it was completable without Tulin, or if Tulin was just there waiting for you.
I personally think that this dungeon could have done with a moment where your paraglider was taken away and you had to take like a leap of faith towards some ice, thereby forcing you to learn that you can skydive through the ice safely without getting hurt, so you're inclined not to miss out on the nice Colgera battle music because you beat it too fast. Everyone says its the best boss battle theme in the game, and were it not for me not realizing you could skydive through ice, thereby getting it done in less than a minute of player input, I would have agreed.
If you want to make colgera harder beat him with just sky diving I didn't even realize you could shot his weak points from underneath until my second playthrough Instead I waited for him to shed his spikes which he shoots at you then dived trough each of his cores
Yeah I did lightning temple first because I was most curious about the temple rising out of the sand from the trailers. Did the other three in this same order though. Kind of wish I had done lightning last since it's the best though lol, might have enjoyed the game slightly more that way.
Binging your content, as I've said.. The Wind Temple was my first. The pre-dungeon is fine. The food shortage doesn't feel as desperate a situation as the dialogue tries to make it out to be. A couple rito just given up to sitting in the snow as they're half-buried, grumbling about starvation, jumping out of the snow and eating food if you drop it in front of them. A couple rito like that would definitely help push the dire need for food as the blizzard chokes everything. For the dungeon itself.. the airship was nifty but felt small and lacking. It's just too empty to feel like what the lore says it was. So make it bigger. Add some side rooms that are ancient and abandoned sleeping chambers. Add a gallery where rito gathered and ate... just some environmental storytelling. You could add puzzles having to unlock bulkheads or more rooms to progress. Let Link move ancient furniture around to make paths and find switches and levers and keys. Heck, maybe expand the dungeon into more arks. One large one flanked by two minor ones players explore for keys to unlock rooms on the main ship. Maybe make the arks the original ships the zonai used to come to hyrule. Add in ancient rito writings for best boy Tulin to read. Maybe the zonai were responsible for militarizing the rito that were just a tribe of hunter/gatherers, using the rito as soldiers to fight in the war with the demons before Hyrule was a thing. Maybe the ark could have signs of being repurposed from a colony arks into warships. The warships that are being used against the rito right now. This furthers the idea of the zonai united the races, but paving over old traditions. And that Ganon is using the zonai changes against them, using the airborne military as a weapon against the very people that serviced.
Watching the Colgera fight just sparked an idea. What if the zonai harnessed the power of colgera to create the cloud barrier? Ganon corrupted the colgera in the ark ship, turning it ravenous and expelling the blizzard. Heck, show how cold the air coming from the colgera's prison is by having you able to ride the updraft, but it immediately tanks the temperature gauge to the lowest it can go... that gust of freezing air is really really really cold. There could have been a colgera young as the boss for tutorial island. The fight with the young could have been what finally shattered the master sword during a final blow cutscene, having gave link a corrupt and on the cusp of breaking master sword the whole time... a weapon nothing can be fused to because the damage to still inspire you to pick up a stick here or a club there to make other weapons. That way when you finally encounter a full grown colgera and you realize your fabled weapon broke on just a young... it would add to the initial worry and spectacle as you scramble to break the ice and damage the beast and realize you have grown from those few hours ago when you just started.
Yeh I agree, good but short, great atmosphere, easy boss and I still find the dogma of requiring every aspect of a dungeon to be achievable in any order to needlessly harm the feeling of progression and the feeling of a difficulty curve as you say.
Anyone else not realize you could shoot Colgera from underneath?! I waited for him to shoot all his spikes then just nosedived straight then revealed ice chunks.
Having fought Gleeoks out in the wild? I’m pretty sure that most people would wait until having at least two sages before going after any Gleeoks. I know I waited for quite a while before defeating the Gleeok on the Bridge of Hylia and opening the southern part of Hyrule. I had at least Tulin and Yunobo with me.
I went rito first because of how much i loved the rito, ever since windwaker the rito and their culture have pulled me in, might be because they are evidently based around north americans my own people
Just out of interest, I believe the "correct" dungeon order for both BOTW and TOTK is divulged via the order that the respective outfits are shown in the menu. For BOTW, it is Zora, Goron, Rito, then Gerudo. For TOTK, it is Rito, Goron, Zora, then Gerudo. Hence, the dungeon order for BOTW is: Vah Ruta, Vah Rudania, Vah Medoh, then Vah Naboris. For TOTK, the dungeon order is: Wind Temple, Fire Temple, Water Temple, then Lightning Temple. In both games, the fifth dungeon (Final Trial in BOTW and Construct factory/Spirit Temple in TOTK) are "supposed" to come last. Final Trial isn't even available prior to the four Divine Beasts being completed, and all the questing for the Spirit Temple in TOTK comes after you've completed the four elemental temples, assuming you follow Purah's story.
That is fully the order I believe as well for both games. Though I hadn’t taken that inventory stuff into account! (Though the champion abilities and sage vows also reflect this order in your inventory screen!) In other words, counterclockwise out from the great plateau in BOTW, and clockwise out from Lookout Landing in TOTK
There is one thing you forgot to mention about Colgera: It turns out that the intentional way to beat it is by *skydiving into its weakpoints!* Tulin even hypes you up as you're diving down into them. Admittedly, it's definitely not made super obvious since while his weak points look just like the breakable ice you could dive into, the dungeon itself doesn't make much if any use of that mechanic so it's something you'll have to remember from the dungeon lead-up.
@undergroundhiphopfan6335 it's because they're only on the lead-up that they're not so obvious because many players aren't going to remember them immediately, especially because typically a dungeon boss uses the gimmicks of the dungeon/storyline itself. Keep in mind that the other dungeons made sure to point out the specific weaknesses of each boss (the marbled rocks are breakable, gibdo hives are weak to lightning, etc) but the game never really points out what you can do with the ice, which is why some people won't really remember it and just use arrows.
I was going to do the wind temple first, but ran into impa on the way, and proceeded to get all the memories before any main dungeons, so maybe it wanted you to do on or the other
So before watching: my 1st dungeon was the Water Temple as now that I realized that the regions are in much more trouble than ever before, I wanted to help my Zora Brethren as soon as I could, and when I reached the Zora's Domain, that new muddier, darker theme left me shook as it actually felt like thier very civilization was on the verge of collapse and I had to do something right away. My complete order was Zora, Rito, Goron, then Gerudo (the last one was because of my memory with Vah Naboris, and I was right to assume, that dungeon's boss was extremely tough, far more chaotic than thunderblight) Yes I saw the storm, yes I was curious towards it, I even tried to put a beacon in it....and failed, BUT the Zora was my number 1 PRIORITY
The biggest issue with this dungeon in my opinion is the fact that it requires you to jump off the side to get into the interior. I spent a good 15 minutes looking for an entrance on the top before deciding to jump off and finding the side entrance. And I think thats 100% normal. Games as a whole, including this one, have ingrained in the minds of gamers that jumping off a platform into the void is a bad idea and usually leads to death or loss of progress. However, here the game requires you to do this in order to progress. Its not a puzzle or anything, since the game never hints or implies that this is what you’re supposed to do. It just expects you to go against your instincts and do something that you know from experience usually results in death. Its not a puzzle, its the game failing to communicate to the player. The entrances should have either been on the top or the game should have guided the player to the windows on the sides of the boat. Maybe by placing a chest or other important object on one of the oars to show the player that it is safe and beneficial to jump off. That one tiny change would have probably saved me 10-15 minutes of wasted time. Also one other tiny nitpick. Colgera is an awesome boss, but its tornado attack is stupid. Sometimes it will do the tornadoes when link is in a position in which it is pretty much impossible to avoid the attack. It resulted in multiple deaths that I believe were not in any way my fault, but rather the fault of unfair game design.
Counterpoints: 1) Jumping from high places has been reinforced to not result in death in this game. You’re equipped with a paraglider and are spending a lot of the game jumping from high places. Sky islands, down chasms, etc. 2) Those lower deck entries from outside are marked on the map 3) There’s two small sky islands with bright lights and treasure chest visible from the main deck within gliding distance. You’re meant to be drawn in there, and from those treasure chests you can see those side entrances clearly.
I ended up doing the Water temple first because I wanted to see my Boi Sidon! Next I did Gerudo cause I was hoping for a similar atk power but also because I genuinely loved that area. Its definitely my favorite dungeon lead up in the game I loved actually helping the gerudo against the Gibdo Siege the stakes felt very intense. Next I forcefully stumbled into spirit then did wind temple last. I think if they scaled the bosses upwards as you completed dungeons that would be a pretty solid way of improving the difficulty of them. As for Colgera itself I think the underbelly should be far more durable on its second phase. Maybe a very strong shield with its own hp bar rather than just a single thing of ice or just immune in general forcing you to have to dive through him or snipe him after his topside is revealed. The latter is probably less fun because it makes things a waiting game though so I think the underbelly having a shielded HP of its own would be a great way to improve the second part of the fight. Overall I agree its my favorite boss fight I loved the spectacle and music so much
One of the things I didn't like was this is the only time one of your previous companions doesn't become a Sage. Nothing against Tulin, but it just seems odd.
I guess so but I think Tulin is better than Teba, Teba just wasn’t really an interesting character in botw he always felt the side character while the other companions had personality, pushing Teba to the sidelines in totk was best in my opinion, it also wouldn’t make sense for Teba to have a new ability randomly especially after becoming chief and nit training but tulin makes sense he is the child of a skilled warrior and was younger in breath of the wild it makes more sense for him to get an ability
As someone who hasn’t played any Zelda game besides botw+totk, I don’t get the hard on for adding keys and locks that he keeps mentioning. Can someone explain the appeal?
Have you ever played a Metroid or Metroidvania game? There’s something inherently satisfying about hitting an obstacle, and then having to look for the means of overcoming said obstacle. Metroidvanias tends to do this using abilities. In hollow knight for example you may find a ledge too high up to reach, only later to find a new ability that grants you the ability to double jump and reach that ledge. There’s a catharsis, an “aha!” moment to be had for working for it. Zelda dungeons traditionally have done this both with key items (say the hookshot which would allow you to grapple up said ledge you couldn’t previously reach) or more often keys and locked doors. The keys needed hunting for, and that often was a puzzle in and of itself
lol. Near the end when he was showing pulling out the chest with icicles stuck to it, then getting damaged by the icicles after he dropped it --- I did the exact same thing (damaged myself).
I think the main thing that drove me and everyone else to the Rito first was the fact that the stakes were so much higher for them. They were starving. Zora were covered in goop, Gorons were acting weird, Gerudo were dealing with a storm but presumed fine. All those are bad but can be dealt with later. Lack of food us super important to deal with quickly. Also, I did dive througg Colgera and I liked how it made it similar to previous Zelda bosses and brought back the 3 hit rule lol.
Great video! Totally agree with your analysis, a little too easy. They forgot how to make the dungeon itself part of the puzzle. I think part of that is the new abilities too which let you cheese through many sections of these dungeons and access the puzzle-lock without necessarily traversing the intended path. I go back to those Aonuma Majora’s Mask dungeons and think about how he was a puppet make before that-someone who makes a lot of moving parts all work in unison-and these “dungeons” just feel a bit disjointed imo.
This was in my brain and I want it in others' brains too, there's a melody in the Wind Temple music, specifically in the french horns, where they very nearly accidentally recreate the Elfsong Tavern theme from Baldur's Gatw: Dark Alliance
something the wind temple has is the ambience. I felt so excited when I first landed. I also liked the dungeon puzzle in this temple but then when I saw it was the same puzzle four times I thought it was stupid. I came into the game having read TOTK was gonna give us classic Zelda dungeons back. But they kinda were the same to BOTW where u found a few pillars to activate then fight the blight. it worked in this dungeon but after I wanted something else
I remember my first time doing this dungeon. I was very active in the Lazerpig military enthusiast discord server, particularly the war ship section (it was at the time designated as one of the server’s cesspits). Being a part of that sub community made me enjoy the wind temple a lot.
I liked the dungeons (for the most part), but I think that for the next game, Nintendo should stick with the open world, but go back to linear dungeons with different puzzles in each one
19:55 I would have made the water temple a giant wounded fish but like somehow it’s like it’s wounds are always being kept from pain from the water coming out of it and it’s spots on its body like Vah Medoh’s body, then it could have had flooded levels and sections like jabu-jabu’s dungeon design.
Thanks for watching folks! What did you think of the Wind Temple?
DID YOU KNOW YOU COULD DIVE THROUGH COLGERA? I did not know this until the comments below decided to blow my mind
Stay cool ✌
The irony of this dungeon... It is the only one without a sub-boss unless you count the flux construct... The Lightning temple has the town defense/second boss fight, and bazaar defense.
A Sub boss easily could have been used to make the puzzles here feel linear/connected without being REQUIRED linearly.
I didn’t know I could use arrows the first few times I fought him. I feel like nobody figured out both ways, and Nintendo could have made it cooler and clearer to use both together, like diving through one dive-only weak spot to reveal an arrow-only one.
Diving through the ice should be the base way to kill Colgera, it's way cooler, you're literally DIVING DOWN TO THE BEAST AND BREAKING THROUGH IT THROUGH THE SHEER POWER OF YOUR OWN HANDS AND GRAVITY. That's all kinds of epic. It also utilizes a mechanic previously shown in the build-up to the dungeon!
I assumed diving was the intended way, given how often the weak points are level with the ground, and based on the game and dungeon's focus on your aerial movement. Plus diving down while dodging the spikes it fires feels way cooler and at least a bit more challenging than just... Shooting it with a bow.
I didn’t know you could shoot it
Nothing will compare, to me, to the moment when that title card first appeared. About halfway up the climb I literally gasped and said “this feels like a dungeon! Is this going to be a dungeon??” And when that title card showed up I was just so dang excited.
Same here!
For me*
@@jarlwhiterun7478don’t be that guy
I still remember that moment too for myself too, knowing that I was gonna enjoy the HELL out of this game
Every totk dungeon is EXACTLY what zelda fans asked for, completely linear but it lets botw fans cheese how they feel
Everything from the Rising Island Chain to Colgera is peak atmosphere building. The only other part of the game that comes close is the descent to Ganondorf.
If the dungeons going forward are going to be fairly short, I do hope there's at least more of them in the next 3D game. I thought the Kakariko ruins was leading up to a Shadow Temple with Paya as a Sage.
God I wish
Oh damn that would've been so cool
We got a sort of hearty meal - but really they could have given Us the full lavish Banquet quite easily. While I will always love Tears of the Kingdom, there were _so_ many missed opportunities. Nothing was stopping them for giving Us that Great Ancient Zonai Palace way off in the Sky (that would point towards a later gameplay run Area) or, Talented players could 'cheese' it by flying there with 100s of Zonai charges etc lol. The Palace would have housed that amazing Light Force Sonia & Rauru themselves used to fight off that Molduga invasion. Then of course, it could have house a ton of actual Lore, really filling Us in and a reward for the ppl who went out to discover it: the Sage - would have led to have been,, Link! 🐉
Great analysis! I love how you explained the lack of difficulty increase. That never occured to me, but makes sense.
I do have one gripe though, It's clear that the lead up to the dungeon was meant to be considered part of the dungeon experience.
The desert temple has a linear section at the beginning of the pyramid which closely resembles the linear climb up to the Stormwing Ark. Additionally, the aethetic of the climbing section closely resembles that of the Ark itself which implies it is a part of the same environment (compare that to the Forest Temple and Lost Woods which feel entirely different).
Aside from that, I am on board with the rest of the video. Nice job captain!
Fully agree. Those pieces are meant to be part of the dungeon. Nothing changes if "the Wind Temple" triggered when you first hit the islands going up. Heck, you could considered it all "the dungeon" with the last part being the "temple" to release the boss
Weirdly, for a game that's known and rightfully praised for giving its players ultimate freedom, I think that the linear ascend towards the Wind Temple might be the single best section of the game, (and if it isn't, it's bested only by other linear sections). It is genuinely phenomenal and I can't think of anything wrong with that section.
Yes, so much more atmosphere can be created through these largely scripted, streamlined moments.
My favorite parts of the game were the beginning descent with Zelda and then the descent at the end of the game that echoes this opening. They’re so atmospheric, and it’s something that was in a lot of the older Zelda games and I wish there were more moments like this in the recent games.
i think colgera is my favourite boss between both botw and totk
even with the fight being so short and easy, especially for me who did it as my third boss in the game
but it felt unbelievably cool hanging out in the sky way above colgera, dodging tornadoes while waiting for it to fire it's spikes, then having to dodge and weave between those until smashing right through it's body like the human missile
i loved that so much and i'm a little sad that i probably won't get to see another fight like it for a while
Colgera is amazing if you play it like that.
I accidentally found out the undersides are vulnerable and thought I had to shoot it from below....I beat it in 1-2 minutes.
I feel like it would've been better to patch that hole so you had to actually engage more...
The crazy thing is this dungeon spawns one of the best bows infinitely close to the transport point, yet this boss doesn't actually require a bow and the power changes nothing to kill it, this boss has strict shatterpoints, not HP.
Edit: lol, my autocorrect had broken "shatterpoint".
You can fight Colgera and all of the bosses again in the Depths
Colgera is probably my favourite in TOTK. I liked fighting Wind Blight the most between the two games though. Funny how they’re both in the Rito plot line
Well not too tough a choice , seeing as Botw barely had any actual Bosses!
As an intro dungeon, The Wind Temple is the best in the series imo from its atmosphere, setting calling back to the sandship in SS, introduction to dungeon puzzle design in the game, and music with surprising length considering most intro dungeons are about 10-15 mins max to complete.
Glad I'm not the only one who remembers sand ship, I'm def bias with storm wind since sand ship was my favorite one from SS
The Sandship has a great run up phase but the ship Itself went on a bit too much and became a little too bland and repetitive. And then of course, the ahem 'boss' was atrocious!!
My favorite temple is the Thunder Temple, but the the Wind temple has my heart as far as music and Boss!! Colgera is SO MUCH FUN!!! I fought it so many times now in the dephs, it's INCREDIBLE! When I first fought Colgera I didn't use any arrows 😅 I made Link throw his whole body thru him! Idk why didn't think to use arrows, but it made it so much more for me, yes he is easy, but so much fun!
I used arrows but the killing blow was me landing on its weakpoint😂
That is kind of the problem with TOTK dungeon order, they point you toward the Wind Temple first, but the way to the dungeon and boss fight are the most spectacular and memorable in the ggame, the dungeon in itself being the only part that is outclass by another dungeon. The game throw everything at you right at the start but does not go above it after that.
I feel like in TOTK the lead up to the dungeon is part of the experience, at least for me. We have the location itself (for example, Hebra) that we can explore; but then the way to the dungeon is a separate part; and it has it's own "puzzles", gimmicks, gameplay. I think the interesting question to explore is "what do we consider a dungeon in general" because TOTK to me personally felt like there were many elements of the dungeon mechanic implemented throughout the world (inside the shrines, for example, we have a few with doors and keys, we have puzzles; we have caves; dragon ball gacha items are replacing our regular zelda items that help in exploration and combat; etc). Maybe the idea is to have a whole world give that exploration + dungeon experience, with small detailed sprinkled in and a few temples with more concentrated "dungeon" experience. The bosses made me happy simply because they weren't the same shadow Ganon, but different monsters actually reminding me of Zelda enemies from previous games (and they added a lot of that throughout the world too). So, perspective and expectations play a huge part in this 🤔
Hands-down the most disappointing part of this game's dungeon design is the names. They created unique dungeons with all different aesthetics and histories from each other, and yet all of them are just called generic elemental temples in the area titlecards? The Stormwind Ark, Gorondia, and the Great Wellspring are all great and unique dungeon names - so why are they relegated to subtitles? The Lightning Temple at least hasn't been used before in the series, but they still could have come up with an actual name for the pyramid. I can maybe excuse the Spirit Temple since it's a separate location to the Construct Factory, but even that's clearly some kind of warehouse for the factory complex. I get that these places have been turned into temples to protect the secret stones, but why should that overwrite the original location names? They're already using subtitles for the dungeon names, so why not just flip them around? "Stormwind Ark: the Wind Temple" flows so well and is much more descriptive as a title.
The water temple was the only one that disappointed
Honestly that one was my favorite I love the anti gravity mechanic
water temple was the only one where i didnt have any trouble with a puzzle
it’s was literally just a bunch of sky islands with shrine puzzles 😭
Going to go against the grain. But that one was fun. The cheese factor with the low gravity was just a blast. It didn’t overstay its welcome.
Ughh I hated everything about the water temple 😭 especially the boss fight, I left after a few attempts and then didn't come back to it until after doing the Wind and lightning temple
The blender model is breathtaking every time I see it!!!
3:09 Whoa, that's me!
But anyway I agree with you 100% on the dungeon design of this game and you pretty much said what my thoughts are. While yes they are visually better than BOTW and the terminal activation makes more sense, the isolation and simplicity of the puzzles to activate said terminals just isn't as interesting as the lock and key design of the old games. The lock and key design was one of the things that made me fall in love with this franchise and while i still enjoyed these dungeons (most of them) they still don't really live up to the pre switch era dungeons.
You are famous!
@@TheBreadPirate Indeed!
The terminal activation stuff does not make sense in totk though. It's less sensible than rooms gated off by keys or any other objective.
Terminals make sense in botw, because they're just massive robots, you activate and regain control of the parts of the robot with shiekah magic draining the bad stuff. In this game? It's just so dumb. Extremely painfully obvious lazy dungeon design. They're not even that big nor interesting to begin with (though imo Thunder and Fire temples get a pass but just barely on the Thunder one) Solve a crossword puzzle so big vase 1 can pour in the water temple!! Why is the source of water of the Zora a bunch of big vases set up like a xylophone? Who knows!
This game was such a let down, I had high expectations, but I didn't expect it to just be worse than botw in every aspect besides gameplay.
Some people complain about the Fire Temple but I really enjoyed it. It had the most complicated puzzle and that really seemed to take an inspiration from tradtional past Zelda dungeons. If you dont try and "cheat" by climbing or making a flying device, then the rail track puzzle is pretty fun and satisfying to complete. Lighting Temple was also good. Wind Temple had a good atmosphere and aesthetic but it was too easy. Spirit Temple/Construct Factory had a unique gimmick but it was too short. Water Temple was very disappointing.
I wasn't really disappointed by any of the dungeons myself (though I do wish Spirit Temple/Construct Factory was a bit longer, which is why I do generally consider the lead-up to the dungeons in TOTK to be part of the dungeons here, even though I don't for other Zeldas), but I agree with the Fire Temple being a fun complex puzzle, and made a point not to climb or build a flying device either.
I'll take "things that are incorrect" for 1000
The problem though is that it’s just so easy to cheat. Ascend alone breaks the entire dungeon which could’ve been fixed if they had just changed the architecture a bit. There are small platforms on the columns in the Fire Temple which you can stand on to use Ascend, otherwise the ceiling is too high up to use it. Just remove those platforms and the player is encouraged to engage with the puzzle.
The lead up to the wind temple is the best part of TotK IMO. It reminds me of a classic linear 3D dungeon itself. We truly didn’t know what was coming, and the reveal didn’t disappoint.
The dungeons are overall an upgrade from BotW but I feel like we traded the move-the-beast-around mechanic for unique atmosphere. Botw dungeons were (almost) literally alive. The wind temple is the closest we have to this in TotK.
In a game so large, I personally needed a nudge towards which way to go because the number of decisions I could have made was overwhelming (in the BEST way).
And there's something about hearing one of the happiest songs of my childhood in a sad, minor key that hit me SO HARD.
But then hearing it again during the boss fight in that triumphant way had me squealing like a kid again!!! 😃
Great job as usual!! ❤
Wonderful wonderful video! The dungeons were definitely improved upon from BotW, and that was such a cool and happy realization for me when I experienced this dungeon in particular. I really liked your critiques too, but knowing that nothing can be perfect, I can accept those few things :) So glad this part of the series is underway! You got us all hooked Capt! XD
Dungeeeeeon Design Baaaaangers are back!! 🔥
This was a wonderful first video! You deserve so many more views on these. The quality is superb.
I did the wind temple first, which is interesting because I also usually do Vah Medoh first in BotW. For me, I got a line of dialogue from an NPC saying that the Rito were all starving due to the storm, which heavily motivated me to rush there and save them. This is one thing I think TotK does better than BotW; motivation. With Vah Medoh, the Rito admit they can avoid it by just walking but that it hurts their pride. In TotK, though, it feels like their lives are more at threat. Similar things apply to the other dungeon quest lines; in general, TotK makes it feel like an actual current emergency whereas in BotW it feels like a mere inconvenience or a potential future emergency. I actually care about their struggles, and it always feels like I really changed each major town, which was really cool.
I did the Wind Temple 4th just to spite the game for telling me to go there first. I went to Water Temple first because of the order in Breath of the Wild (which is why I wasn't as disappointed by that one as many others seem to be), then to Lightning Temple because I thought it'd be funny to do the presumably hardest dungeon next, then to the Fire Temple before finally doing the Wind Temple.
The funny thing is, this order meant I first did the two dungeons that have four locks and then the ones that had five locks, so I actually wondered whether the increasing number of locks was dependant on the order in which you do the dungeons.
I didn’t realize you were supposed to use the bow in this fight until I got to the depths version 😭 I was just skydiving through their weak points (which imo is the correct way)
I only learned about the skydiving method from comments here (it is mentioned in the next video too) but tbh since learning about that I can’t look back. Skydiving is WAY more fun
This is by far the best dungeon, section, of the game in my opinion. Though, I’ve only done the Wind and Water Temples.
I loved the stormwind ark. The puzzles were nice, Tulin is amazing, colgera was a nice boss that’s a perfect early game challenge. I just wish it was larger scale. It felt cramped, and I was on my feet far more than gliding. I enjoyed it, but it felt like it wasn’t built to really take advantage of Gliding and Tulin’s gust. The chain of islands is a great way to introduce you to the uses of his ability, however limited, and I enjoyed them. Probably my favorite part of the early game
I did do the Wind Temple first, but only after running around a bit to stall, cause the game SO CLEARLY wanted me to go to Rito Village that I stubbornly wanted to go elsewhere first. But the game did a great job of making me WANT to go there first after all, not because of the blizzard, but because of the Lucky Clover Gazette. I just couldn't wait to see Traysi at her new job and see if I could help out as a reporter! Once I'd done the first geoglyph with Impa, I figured, okay FINE I'll just go to the Rito since I'm on the way (and I like to limit fast travel).
Also am I the only one who realized we could use arrows AND diving through Colgera? I used arrows when shooting the underneath weak points, and dove from above whenever possible, and I had a GREAT time
Great video! I'm surprised you never dived directly through Colgera using Link's body as the actual projectile. But that's the beauty of this game - you play how you want!
Haha I only learned about that thanks to the other comments here! Wish I’d known because that is WAY more fun
I'm sad I never tried it either
@@mbii7667 you can rebattle Colgera and try it in the Depths!
@@al3220 I already fought it in the Depths lol. But maybe I'll go for round 3.
@@mbii7667 haha okay! Remember there are 3 of Colgeras in total... And technically infinite of them since they all reset after a blood moon!
In terms of how quickly you can defeat Colgera, I was fortunate enough on my first playthrough to have chosen the single most time-consuming method of defeating him, which is to use Link as a living projectile by having him dive through his weak points after he's launched all his spikes.
I feel this is actually the method the designers meant for you to use as well. I also repeated this method on my second save file of the game because I wanted to enjoy the atmosphere of the fight. I only use the arrow method on Colgera when I'm re-fighting him in the depths.
Wow, I'm not the only one who got reminded of Ori when listening to this temple's Music!
I feel like they're really underrated games.
The ori games are fantastic
I went to the wind temple first because I figured I’d get a movement ability similar to Revali’s Gale. And I wanted all of my movement options available ASAP
There were three parts of totk that made me really love the game.
1.Wind temple+the way to reach it
This is the first "big moment of totk" and, it is, for me, for the most part due to its formidable soundtrack, and the fact that i beat Colgera by skydiving, and not using bow and arrows. I didn't think about using them, since in the ascent there were many iterations or circular ice walls, that could be broken right with a dive.
SPOILER
2. Light dragon reveal, and its leadup.
I went first, to the deku tree, and there, it was the first time i found out of the phantom ganon of this game. The dive into the tree plus the unexpected bossfight then, lead me towards the big discovery of the master sword. I connected the dots for the scene right after the tutorial, and i tought it was a great idea. Then i finished the memories, and i found out the truth. It was THE second moment, everything made sense. This moment everyone finds about it differently, but o think, the intended way was deku tree->sword->memories, in this order, for me, kept the mistery troughout most of my main playtrough.
3. Final boss fight.
This was the best ganondorf fight i played, and by linking itself with the draconification, it only gets more value for the game themes.
And by story beats, there, the english version did you dirty guys, since in my language (italian) they kept a most faithful approach to adapting and translation.
It was great seeing Ganondorf talking about, the triforce of courage, making quotes of demise, sacrificing the soul (key price of draconification)!, and bringing link down to hell with him.
On the music there finding the army theme recalling ganon theme in lttp, the first ganondorf phase having the percussion rithm of twilight, and the second phase theme having the melody of the ocarina fight. With the many recalls of botw main theme and calamity ganon theme, the music in this game, is a great protagonist
I don’t think these are even debatable as the best parts of the game
The Wind temple/ark looks INCREDIBLE and the sequence before getting to it is exhilirating, but... it's just empty when you get inside. Like. There's just NOTHING. I expected something like Skyward Sword's Sandship, a unique sealed off environment with history. But its just a flying boat with shrine puzzles.
The divine beast formula was fine in botw because theres not supposed to be much environmental storytelling, its a robot with switches. But in totk? That formula falls HARD and it is painfully obvious.
I didn't do any of these starter quests until I finished 3 of the temples 🤣
I started Fire just cause I wanted to play out of order.
Great job witht the video.
I personally despise the laziness of copying BotW dungeon progression of pressing terminals/locks to open the path to the boss.
The old dungeon designs were the number one thing I needed from TotK and was greatly disappointed.
Path to the dungeon? Amazing!
Dungeon visual look and feel? Incredible
Actual gameplay? Meh.
Yeah i had a very unique experience in that as soon as i landed on the surface i b-lined straight for Zoras Domain because, yaknow, fish prince is best boi and i gotta check up on him, see how he's doing
So i need you to picture an extremely stubborn Link, with no glider, trail and error his way to Zoras Domain, including death by landing on sludge water and zonai device shenanigans, seeing theres a serious problem and going "yeah lets handle this first"
There was even a point where i realized i couldnt do the towers til i activated them through Purah, and i was getting annoyed with the lack of map, so i went, did all that, was told i should go see the Rito and went "nah, i already had plans with the Prince" and went BACK to Zoras Domain
I find it surprising that no one has drawn the comparison between Colgera and Morpheel from TP. To me, their battles share the exact same problem: Great atmosphere, super fun to play, but essentially nothing is happening. The boss is just swirling around, it's so difficult to get hurt by it.
I spent most of my early time in the depths so first dungeon i found was fire temple and i got excited for a few seconds before i cheesed around through the thing and realized it wasn't active yet.
It was cool finding it dormant and having to figure it how to open it, but the traversal felt like a let down
Then i went to Zora's and did the water temple
In case you didn't notice already, I just wanna mention that it seems pretty obvious what the intended order of the game is:
In lookout Landing, after you complete one of the four main dungeons, a few characters from the race move to the town and their flag is raised. These flags are on a line, not in the order of completion but in a set order that lines up pretty well with where you seem to be guided: Rito, Goron, Zora and Gerudo.
And awesome video as always, this may just be my favorite series on youtube!
Yes, thank you. The intended order is something I'll be continuing to touch on with each dungeon's video
The lightning temple was the only one I didn’t completely hate.
Yes, the rest of them were so lackluster in comparison!
All the temples (especially lightning) is memorable to me
The only reason a temple as bad as spirit does is funny mech fight
Oh, so that's how you are supposed to get the chest in that barred chamber. I just. Kind of. Kept trying to glide into the hole by jumping from walls until I eventually managed to crawl through it.
I feel like they shouldve implemented a game mechanic that restricts you from climbing and using the sage powers inside of dungeons like you walk through a curtain of gloom and it takes those away and then build the dungeon off of that
Designing around your abilities is far more interesting than just taking them away imho
Great analysis, but it's missing some Colgera screaming
one of those things i DO love about TOTK now that i FINALLY got a chance to play it is its sheer freedom. as much as i love TOTKs and BOTWs sense of freedom and exploration, i appreciate how they kinda push you towards starting with the wind temple over outright forcing you to start there.
At the same time, every time I watch ANY of Capts dungeon design videos and play a Zelda game for myself, I’m reminded that the Goods and bads of a games linearity is a double edged sword, especially comparing TOTK/BOTW to the typically thought of as linear games in Zelda, specifically TP. On one end, a player won’t be forced/confined to the story. On the other end, it means you have to make sure the player knows where they could/should be doing. Which is why I like BOTW/TOTW. It gives you freedom but it nudges you in the right directions. That’s the rock and hard place between our companion games. They were there for the story (MIdna, KORL) but also there to teach you about the game (Navi, tatl) but in BOTW/TOTK, it’s mostly all you. It’s not Zelda 1 or adventure of link but that’s the confliction. Zelda likes most franchises in 2024, has to both be welcoming to new players while still being challenging for veterans. It has to balance those that want complete freedom and those that want to be hinted at where to go. Which is why Navi 30 years ago was so monumental. Now, most of the time I’d absolutely look at walkthroughs but nothing beats solving a puzzle by yourself. To a vet, most of Zelda’s puzzles are a minor annoyance. But to someone like me, it’s EXTREMELY satisfying to solve a puzzle/shrine in BOTW/TOTK. Which is the confliction about TOTKs temples with the water temple and wind temple. To someone that played the game 3straight times, of course it might come off as underwhelming, but someone playing this game for the first time would think it’s the greatest thing Zelda came up with. But that’s just me.
When we think about how many games Zelda has and how long this franchise has existed, it’s natural fans would be this divide. To me, I appreciate the games sense of freedom but let’s understand that every dungeon has to be dark souls. Not every dungeon has to be OOTs water temple.
Last thought: sitting here as someone playing TOTW for the first time, I love it. I think it’s a great MM to its OOT. After playing these games, I’ve slowly becoming a fan of TOTKs/BOTWs freedom and satisfaction of figuring something out for myself. That the biggest divide we live with. Those that think of this as another game and those that think of this game as a puzzle box experience.
If anything TotK make these dungeons stand out more because they visual look more like dungeons of old. The new lick of paint though doesn't hide the fact that these are just divine beasts, you could replace the textures with divine beast textures and they'd feel the same.
The lead up to the Wind Temple is better, but its also annoying with companions abilities just being tedious to use.
lol I only did the wind temple first because I wanted extra mobility, and in BOTW We had revailis gale. I thought there may be a similar reward
TotK dungeons are worse then BotW. Every ‘negative’ aspect of BotW was increased 10 fold in TotK. The whole game plays like a cheap knockoff. It feels like a very fan servicy mod that disregards pre-established aspects of what it claims to be the sequel of. It is not darker then Majora’s Mask and it’s way to easy. The depths are not scary like they should be and the dungeons are more boring then ever. Ofc the story is the worst in the entire series and the game is too open. The UI is garbage and the gameplay is stale. Half of the items are removed from the game and you don’t cohesively get stronger weapons are you progress. You have to go out of your way to get then from the depths then beat strong enemies for fusion items. The Champion abilities are some of the worst game design ever. They were literally only designed with their dungeon in mind unlike in BotW. They’re unplayable when turned on. They move away from you when you need them and despawn/destroy your items when you go to pick them up. It’s unnecessary, especially when you have a hover bike.
Yes the dungeons have more enemies but they were placed without any thought. Never are the enemies a threat. It’s nice that they’re there but they’re so forgettable it makes no difference.
The dungeons all share the same Zonai design. They differ slightly due to their regional affiliation but are noticeably similar. They are also very ugly and confusing to navigate. BotW is better in every comparable way.
Also, Tulin is the only character who got aged up in terms of a redesign, which is dumb and weird.
Very accurate analysis, but how can you say no one is arguing that passing those moblins isn't part of the Forest Temple? It is part of the experience, undenyably. And the build up to the Stormwind Ark fits even more as part of the dungeon, because it is in an incredibly open game, and still it only leads you towards one location: the Wind Temple. In my opinion, of course.
It is certainly not an argument if heard until after the video premieres haha!
I agree it is part of the experience, the lead up to a dungeon is inherently tied to the dungeon. They’re related, but they’re also a bit separate. The forest temple starts when you enter the temple. How you got there still matters, but that doesn’t make it part of the temple as a structure in the same way that a prologue in a book matters, but is not part of that book’s Chapter 1
@@CaptBurgerson Yeah, I understand that it is not really part of the actual dungeon, but I always consider the whole experience when I want to rank dungeons or stuff like this. But I can't ignore the fact that you actually talked about this part in the video and that's really important.
Yeah, it is always something I discuss in these videos, and always will
21:58 when I first got to the wind temple (which was also my first dungeon) I remember having my bf on the phone and my brother was on the couch next to me and telling them both word for word “I’m betting everything I can’t climb this- HOLY SHIT YOU CAN CLIMB THE WALLS IN THIS GAME” 😂
leggo bb! ill comment more after i finish watching ❤
I agree that the escalating melody for this dungeon (and the other dungeons after) was amazing. Using the Devine Beasts plus Champions and location themes mixed into each corresponding dungeon was perfect. And I love these dungeons better than BotW.
I had interest in the wind temple first because I was spoiled for what Revali's gale would be replaced with, figured I HAD to at least check it out
Ended up getting to the archery range first, then traveled to the Rito Village. "Huh? The elder's running the range?" i said
Didn't even recognize who Tulin was, i guess i missed him entirely
Climbing up i felt FUCKING STUPID for not remembering I had Ascend. Spent multiple cooking pots trying to build stamina in order to climb a pillar, only to fall down because you can't stick to horizontal ceilings... had to look that up
I remember also that i put my Switch to sleep upon landing. I had to go to work the next morning, so i turned in. It was a rough day at work, and when i pulled out my switch, i was like "I do NOT have the mental capacity for this" and came back to it like 3 days later
The Wind Temple should have been like 3x larger. Like, Smash Run sized. Throw in locked rooms. Let you enter from multiple spots like the current version, but make each section either ineterconnected or separate (pick one) and let the player explore quite a bit in each area
There should have been more preamble in the Rito Village before heading up. They shoulda did something different than the 5 terminals. The boss was underwhelming, but an ok specticle fight.
The platforms leading to the wind temple was the highlight.
One of the MANY problems with this game was the surface attempt to appease Zelda OGs with seeming "dungeons" that broke the conventional structure and experience of actual Zelda dungeons. Nintendo HAS to solve the creative challenge of how to make linear object gated dungeons work in an open world setting for their next release. Period. Enough excuses. Enough obfuscating. Deal with it. Second, the Wind Temple was the only temple in the game that really worked. Water was trash. Fire was miserable and just incentivised players breaking it so as not to have to deal with its godawful layout. Spirit was an afterthought. Lightning was thematically the strongest but too small. And frankly the map reuse killed what was the strongest element of BOTW which was exploration. If I had to rank the most disappointing at release Zelda games, TOTK would top the list. A 6 year wait only to fight your obvious and immediate disappointment. The next release is going to be critical to sustaining their 20+ year hardcore player base and I think they need to ditch Hidemaro Fujibayashi. Sorry, but the dude has derailed the series in all honesty. Zelda needs a new director. I can remember the smallest detail from Witcher 3 yet I can barely remember a single supposed "hero" gameplay or plot moment from TOTK. It's the most forgettable game in the entire franchise, and I put 250 hours into it praying my feelings about it would change at some point. This is the first Zelda title where I'm genuinely calling shenanigans on the 10/10 reviews. It's a disappointment and a 7/10 at best. Glorified and apologetic DLC that's objectively weaker than BOTW. If you haven't played either and are looking to choose one, it's clearly BOTW.
I hear what you are saying but I think you are too quick to throw one particular person under the bus here. Fujibayashi is the director and made many creative decisions here, but he did not make the game solo.
The man also worked on Minish Cap, the Oracle Titles, Phantom Hourglass, and Skyward Sword. I think he knows his way around Zelda at this point, but he has become more of a figurehead recently along with Aonuma, so people want someone to point the finger at.
Just keep in mind that he is one cog in a well oiled machine.
@@CaptBurgerson I totally respect that the Zelda title is too big an IP to fall to a single individual under an Auteur fetish like Kojima. However, Fujibayashi has clearly had an agenda across games starting with SS, which was about rebooting the series. In that respect alone I think he has had a positive impact on the history of the franchise as a voice that's injected innovation and challenged Nintendo to break with supposedly immovable conventions. If BOTW is all he's remembered for then that's still a monumental creative achievement. However, if he's stood up in the room at Nintendo and offered himself as being the visionary to bring Zelda into the context of contemporary open world games, I'm sorry but he's failed. I get that Nintendo are always going to be seeking a broader player base with a more diluted critical and contextual awareness of what's going on across the industry but at what point does that become an apologetic for them falling behind and hiding behind outdated hardware strangling the creative potential of their development team and losing their innovative positioning. BOTW genuinely added something to the open world genre conversation, TOTK simply doesn't. Nintendo simply has to recognise that their loyal Zelda base has stuck with them across 13 years of transition but in that period they have failed to land on a new model for the game that retains the core DNA of the series while modernising it. I'm not suggesting there is a simple or easy answer to that. I'm just saying this is their biggest and imho most important priority to get right with the next title on Switch 2. I get they need to onboard new players, but at the moment they're gradually alienating the people like me who have been onboard for 20+ years. Where's the triforce? Where's the core lore integrity? Where's them doing something we haven't seen. Jeez, at this point I'd be FULLY up for them going sci-fi and delivering the alien invasion experience they teased in the concept art for BOTW. Simply adding a new patented "move through solid objects" gimmick with a weak story and superficial sidequests isn't enough. Compare TOTK with Witcher 3 and honestly tell me you think TOTK is better. It just isn't. Nintendo need to up their game.
@@consumeproduceHonestly, after the interview this week, I think Aonuma needs to be looked at as well.
@@amandaslough125 I'm assuming you mean the IGN one? Fujibayashi's comments in that just underscore he doesn't get the core Zelda audience. Taking the fact that (I would confidently hazard) a very slim minority of players created fuse builds and drove buzz online as a marker of success is, to me at least, ridiculous. Games don't exist to drive IG posts and TikTok videos. The vast majority of players will have had a middling to indifferent to frustrating experience of that whole aspect of the game. Zelda has always been about storytelling and yet the team still managed to make that not matter in BOTW because the thrill of discovery through unguided exploration was so utterly unfamiliar. If his, and Aonuma's, point is that gimmick gameplay mechanics are more important to them than actual depth of experience then I simply disagree. TOTK was a beautifully presented and technically accomplished exercise in surface. Nintendo have a history of being dazzled by the newness of their own inventions (Virtual Boy, Wii U... Motion control that doesn't map accurately to player gestures - see Matthewmatosis Skyward Sword retrospective...) and not stopping to consider the actual user experience. We don't play Zelda to giggle and drool over patented new physics systems. We play them to be excited, emotionally moved, enthralled. TOTK failed. I still enjoyed the time I put into it but I will forever remember it as the disappointment of the series and in 20 years a Zelda game has never left me with that lasting memory. And Aonuma's dismissive remarks about nostalgia don't really merit a response. You can't just ignore a huge voice in your player community because, as I stated above, they've failed to solve the challenge of incorporating linear dungeon lock and key gameplay within an otherwise open world. Stop messing around with adding Roblox elements to Zelda and start focussing on answering that design problem for the Switch 2 iteration please Nintendo.
This temple was an AWESOME start to exploring the dungeons! ...Then I did the Water Temple right after...
Edit: I feel so dumb! I didn't use arrows on colgera! I waited till he shot his spikes, then I dove through him lol!
LOL THAT IS AN INCREDIBLE WAY TO FIGHT HIM. I didn’t even know you could do that hahahah
I have no idea why arrows didn't come to mind! I think once he shot his spikes my brain thought, "oh! Wait for him to attack so he becomes vulnerable, then dive right through him." XD @@CaptBurgerson
@@TheGeekApprentice I wanna try that so bad next time I fight him hahah
@@CaptBurgerson it’s actually quite fun lol!
I did that too lmao, I learned during the dungeon lead-up that you could dive through ice so I thought OOOOH DIVING PUZZLE. I'm kinda sad that arrows are even effective in the first place, could've made it a more unique fight if this was the required method.
Personally I did the dungeons Water Fire Spirit Wind Lightning, Because I Made sure to do it (besides spirit which I just found the door and wanted to open) in the order you did in breath of the wild
In my first playthrough, I did the wind temple first, then fire then water and lightning. On my 2nd playthrough, I went reverse. The build up to the Wind Temple was amazing. I loved travelling up the Sky islands. I was wondering how high are we even going
34:55 - 35:30
After hearing this part, it will be interesting to know what are your toughts on the Spirit Temple, considering that its gimmick is to hand over the dungeon experience to the Construct Factory, rather than showcase it by itself. =P
(But to be fair, the Desert Palace in A Link Between Worlds did something similar, as it moved its boss to Misery Mire in Lorule, rather than having it inside its structure)
I always thought that the Wind Temple theme, before you activate the first terminal, sounds like something ripped out of either Naruto or Okami.
Plus, I LOVE the boss theme!
My one beef with this dungeon is i was so proud of myself when i got the cannon to destroy itself with recall. I wanted a reward though.
Ok, sooo I heavily have to disagree with the "cheesabilty-workarounds" you mentioned because you can literally activate every windmill without having to open a single gate😂😂 I kind of found this out by accident because one of the first sections I went to was that one in the back where you have to dive through and break a sheet of ice to reach a small pool of water and an adjoined room with a chest, I noticed the bars behind it with the terminal and wondered "huh, since this isn't a solid wall I wonder if I can just use Tulin's gust through the spaces between the bars" and lo and behold I stack some ice platforms on top of each other because Link is too smol to reach 😂 I use Tulin's gust and boom Terminal activated and the gate suddenly opens on the other side. I was sooo confused because since this was the first terminal I cleared, I thought "oh okay I guess that is the intended solution" until I stumbled on the gate puzzles later and found out I unintentionally skipped them somehow😂 (I have never seen that propeller you assembled in the video before lol xD) I was honestly flabbergasted and wanted to see how far they would let me get away with this, so I stubbornly and gleefully ignored every puzzle afterwards (the only terminal you technically have to physically stand in front of is the one on the lowest floor, but that can hardly be called a challenge) I just made sure to stand in the right spot/angle and activated Tulin's gust through the bars for every single one. I honestly don't know what to think of this because while yes, commiting to the bit was a hilarious experience, I can't help but think this is a huge design oversight that could have been fixed if they just fell back on the good old locked solid door and key technique (if I remember correctly, the water temple at least safeguarded against this possibility right?) This would also finally give all those goddamn chests scattered around the dungeons a purpose to exist. It's suuuch a pain to backtrack for them sometimes in hopes of getting anything worthwile only to be rewarded with the same useless crap you found in the overworld a gazillion times and probably can't pick up because your inventory is full.
FYM players have already beaten Gleeoks before their first temple? I've completed all four, and I still don't know how to tackle those damn hydras...
I got to the ship without Tulin, and spent an hour running around wondering what to do... I figured the game wouldn't let me reach it if I shouldn't be there yet... I wish it was completable without Tulin, or if Tulin was just there waiting for you.
I personally think that this dungeon could have done with a moment where your paraglider was taken away and you had to take like a leap of faith towards some ice, thereby forcing you to learn that you can skydive through the ice safely without getting hurt, so you're inclined not to miss out on the nice Colgera battle music because you beat it too fast. Everyone says its the best boss battle theme in the game, and were it not for me not realizing you could skydive through ice, thereby getting it done in less than a minute of player input, I would have agreed.
If you want to make colgera harder beat him with just sky diving I didn't even realize you could shot his weak points from underneath until my second playthrough Instead I waited for him to shed his spikes which he shoots at you then dived trough each of his cores
Yeah I did lightning temple first because I was most curious about the temple rising out of the sand from the trailers. Did the other three in this same order though. Kind of wish I had done lightning last since it's the best though lol, might have enjoyed the game slightly more that way.
Binging your content, as I've said..
The Wind Temple was my first. The pre-dungeon is fine. The food shortage doesn't feel as desperate a situation as the dialogue tries to make it out to be. A couple rito just given up to sitting in the snow as they're half-buried, grumbling about starvation, jumping out of the snow and eating food if you drop it in front of them. A couple rito like that would definitely help push the dire need for food as the blizzard chokes everything.
For the dungeon itself.. the airship was nifty but felt small and lacking. It's just too empty to feel like what the lore says it was.
So make it bigger. Add some side rooms that are ancient and abandoned sleeping chambers. Add a gallery where rito gathered and ate... just some environmental storytelling. You could add puzzles having to unlock bulkheads or more rooms to progress. Let Link move ancient furniture around to make paths and find switches and levers and keys. Heck, maybe expand the dungeon into more arks. One large one flanked by two minor ones players explore for keys to unlock rooms on the main ship.
Maybe make the arks the original ships the zonai used to come to hyrule. Add in ancient rito writings for best boy Tulin to read. Maybe the zonai were responsible for militarizing the rito that were just a tribe of hunter/gatherers, using the rito as soldiers to fight in the war with the demons before Hyrule was a thing.
Maybe the ark could have signs of being repurposed from a colony arks into warships. The warships that are being used against the rito right now.
This furthers the idea of the zonai united the races, but paving over old traditions. And that Ganon is using the zonai changes against them, using the airborne military as a weapon against the very people that serviced.
Watching the Colgera fight just sparked an idea.
What if the zonai harnessed the power of colgera to create the cloud barrier? Ganon corrupted the colgera in the ark ship, turning it ravenous and expelling the blizzard. Heck, show how cold the air coming from the colgera's prison is by having you able to ride the updraft, but it immediately tanks the temperature gauge to the lowest it can go... that gust of freezing air is really really really cold.
There could have been a colgera young as the boss for tutorial island. The fight with the young could have been what finally shattered the master sword during a final blow cutscene, having gave link a corrupt and on the cusp of breaking master sword the whole time... a weapon nothing can be fused to because the damage to still inspire you to pick up a stick here or a club there to make other weapons.
That way when you finally encounter a full grown colgera and you realize your fabled weapon broke on just a young... it would add to the initial worry and spectacle as you scramble to break the ice and damage the beast and realize you have grown from those few hours ago when you just started.
Funny how Teba is the only New Champion from BotW who doesn't become a Sage in TotK. Rather, his son, Tulin, does.
Yeh I agree, good but short, great atmosphere, easy boss and I still find the dogma of requiring every aspect of a dungeon to be achievable in any order to needlessly harm the feeling of progression and the feeling of a difficulty curve as you say.
Anyone else not realize you could shoot Colgera from underneath?!
I waited for him to shoot all his spikes then just nosedived straight then revealed ice chunks.
I agree with you completely, together with the build up, this temple is amazing, but alone it’s good.
Personally, I did regions in the same order I did the Divine Beasts in during Breath of the Wild. Zora, Rito, Goron, Gerudo.
Having fought Gleeoks out in the wild? I’m pretty sure that most people would wait until having at least two sages before going after any Gleeoks. I know I waited for quite a while before defeating the Gleeok on the Bridge of Hylia and opening the southern part of Hyrule. I had at least Tulin and Yunobo with me.
I fought the one at the coliseum WAY early in the game. The feeling of triumph was unreal tbh
I didn't enjoy the temples in this game. I felt like all they were was bigger divine beasts. I miss the classic dungeon/Temple design
I went rito first because of how much i loved the rito, ever since windwaker the rito and their culture have pulled me in, might be because they are evidently based around north americans my own people
The dungeon build-ups mirror Majoras Mask's dungeon build-ups really well.
I startet with the Fire Temple because I don't like most fire temples in Zelda games. Do the worst first and save the better ones for later...
Whoooa new introduction. 🤘 🔥
Another great dungeon breakdown!
Just out of interest, I believe the "correct" dungeon order for both BOTW and TOTK is divulged via the order that the respective outfits are shown in the menu. For BOTW, it is Zora, Goron, Rito, then Gerudo. For TOTK, it is Rito, Goron, Zora, then Gerudo.
Hence, the dungeon order for BOTW is: Vah Ruta, Vah Rudania, Vah Medoh, then Vah Naboris.
For TOTK, the dungeon order is: Wind Temple, Fire Temple, Water Temple, then Lightning Temple.
In both games, the fifth dungeon (Final Trial in BOTW and Construct factory/Spirit Temple in TOTK) are "supposed" to come last. Final Trial isn't even available prior to the four Divine Beasts being completed, and all the questing for the Spirit Temple in TOTK comes after you've completed the four elemental temples, assuming you follow Purah's story.
That is fully the order I believe as well for both games. Though I hadn’t taken that inventory stuff into account! (Though the champion abilities and sage vows also reflect this order in your inventory screen!)
In other words, counterclockwise out from the great plateau in BOTW, and clockwise out from Lookout Landing in TOTK
Definitely my favourite temple, all for one reason-it's _so_ fun to do paragliderless. :D
Colgera is way more fun to beat when you dive through the rings instead of shooting arrows at them
There is one thing you forgot to mention about Colgera: It turns out that the intentional way to beat it is by *skydiving into its weakpoints!* Tulin even hypes you up as you're diving down into them.
Admittedly, it's definitely not made super obvious since while his weak points look just like the breakable ice you could dive into, the dungeon itself doesn't make much if any use of that mechanic so it's something you'll have to remember from the dungeon lead-up.
I didn't realize until watching this that there other ways to do it other than diving into the weak points...haha
It is quite obvious since there are so many ice platforms you dive through on the build in fairness.
Build up*
@undergroundhiphopfan6335 it's because they're only on the lead-up that they're not so obvious because many players aren't going to remember them immediately, especially because typically a dungeon boss uses the gimmicks of the dungeon/storyline itself. Keep in mind that the other dungeons made sure to point out the specific weaknesses of each boss (the marbled rocks are breakable, gibdo hives are weak to lightning, etc) but the game never really points out what you can do with the ice, which is why some people won't really remember it and just use arrows.
I was going to do the wind temple first, but ran into impa on the way, and proceeded to get all the memories before any main dungeons, so maybe it wanted you to do on or the other
I found it funny that i did the wind temple last. And by last like 50 hours put into the game to actually start it
You sound like you're addicted to opening locks in a good chunk of this video.
I found it amusing.
i visited the air temple first because revali's gale was so useful and I'd hoped the rito power was just as useful here
So before watching: my 1st dungeon was the Water Temple as now that I realized that the regions are in much more trouble than ever before, I wanted to help my Zora Brethren as soon as I could, and when I reached the Zora's Domain, that new muddier, darker theme left me shook as it actually felt like thier very civilization was on the verge of collapse and I had to do something right away.
My complete order was Zora, Rito, Goron, then Gerudo (the last one was because of my memory with Vah Naboris, and I was right to assume, that dungeon's boss was extremely tough, far more chaotic than thunderblight)
Yes I saw the storm, yes I was curious towards it, I even tried to put a beacon in it....and failed, BUT the Zora was my number 1 PRIORITY
The biggest issue with this dungeon in my opinion is the fact that it requires you to jump off the side to get into the interior. I spent a good 15 minutes looking for an entrance on the top before deciding to jump off and finding the side entrance. And I think thats 100% normal. Games as a whole, including this one, have ingrained in the minds of gamers that jumping off a platform into the void is a bad idea and usually leads to death or loss of progress. However, here the game requires you to do this in order to progress. Its not a puzzle or anything, since the game never hints or implies that this is what you’re supposed to do. It just expects you to go against your instincts and do something that you know from experience usually results in death. Its not a puzzle, its the game failing to communicate to the player. The entrances should have either been on the top or the game should have guided the player to the windows on the sides of the boat. Maybe by placing a chest or other important object on one of the oars to show the player that it is safe and beneficial to jump off. That one tiny change would have probably saved me 10-15 minutes of wasted time.
Also one other tiny nitpick. Colgera is an awesome boss, but its tornado attack is stupid. Sometimes it will do the tornadoes when link is in a position in which it is pretty much impossible to avoid the attack. It resulted in multiple deaths that I believe were not in any way my fault, but rather the fault of unfair game design.
Counterpoints:
1) Jumping from high places has been reinforced to not result in death in this game. You’re equipped with a paraglider and are spending a lot of the game jumping from high places. Sky islands, down chasms, etc.
2) Those lower deck entries from outside are marked on the map
3) There’s two small sky islands with bright lights and treasure chest visible from the main deck within gliding distance. You’re meant to be drawn in there, and from those treasure chests you can see those side entrances clearly.
I ended up doing the Water temple first because I wanted to see my Boi Sidon! Next I did Gerudo cause I was hoping for a similar atk power but also because I genuinely loved that area. Its definitely my favorite dungeon lead up in the game I loved actually helping the gerudo against the Gibdo Siege the stakes felt very intense. Next I forcefully stumbled into spirit then did wind temple last. I think if they scaled the bosses upwards as you completed dungeons that would be a pretty solid way of improving the difficulty of them. As for Colgera itself I think the underbelly should be far more durable on its second phase. Maybe a very strong shield with its own hp bar rather than just a single thing of ice or just immune in general forcing you to have to dive through him or snipe him after his topside is revealed. The latter is probably less fun because it makes things a waiting game though so I think the underbelly having a shielded HP of its own would be a great way to improve the second part of the fight. Overall I agree its my favorite boss fight I loved the spectacle and music so much
One of the things I didn't like was this is the only time one of your previous companions doesn't become a Sage. Nothing against Tulin, but it just seems odd.
I guess so but I think Tulin is better than Teba, Teba just wasn’t really an interesting character in botw he always felt the side character while the other companions had personality, pushing Teba to the sidelines in totk was best in my opinion, it also wouldn’t make sense for Teba to have a new ability randomly especially after becoming chief and nit training but tulin makes sense he is the child of a skilled warrior and was younger in breath of the wild it makes more sense for him to get an ability
As someone who hasn’t played any Zelda game besides botw+totk, I don’t get the hard on for adding keys and locks that he keeps mentioning. Can someone explain the appeal?
Have you ever played a Metroid or Metroidvania game? There’s something inherently satisfying about hitting an obstacle, and then having to look for the means of overcoming said obstacle. Metroidvanias tends to do this using abilities. In hollow knight for example you may find a ledge too high up to reach, only later to find a new ability that grants you the ability to double jump and reach that ledge. There’s a catharsis, an “aha!” moment to be had for working for it.
Zelda dungeons traditionally have done this both with key items (say the hookshot which would allow you to grapple up said ledge you couldn’t previously reach) or more often keys and locked doors. The keys needed hunting for, and that often was a puzzle in and of itself
The fact that you don't have more subscribers is criminal
I did the Fire Temple first because Gorons > Rito!
lol. Near the end when he was showing pulling out the chest with icicles stuck to it, then getting damaged by the icicles after he dropped it --- I did the exact same thing (damaged myself).
I think the main thing that drove me and everyone else to the Rito first was the fact that the stakes were so much higher for them. They were starving. Zora were covered in goop, Gorons were acting weird, Gerudo were dealing with a storm but presumed fine. All those are bad but can be dealt with later. Lack of food us super important to deal with quickly.
Also, I did dive througg Colgera and I liked how it made it similar to previous Zelda bosses and brought back the 3 hit rule lol.
Great video! Totally agree with your analysis, a little too easy. They forgot how to make the dungeon itself part of the puzzle. I think part of that is the new abilities too which let you cheese through many sections of these dungeons and access the puzzle-lock without necessarily traversing the intended path. I go back to those Aonuma Majora’s Mask dungeons and think about how he was a puppet make before that-someone who makes a lot of moving parts all work in unison-and these “dungeons” just feel a bit disjointed imo.
This was in my brain and I want it in others' brains too, there's a melody in the Wind Temple music, specifically in the french horns, where they very nearly accidentally recreate the Elfsong Tavern theme from Baldur's Gatw: Dark Alliance
something the wind temple has is the ambience. I felt so excited when I first landed. I also liked the dungeon puzzle in this temple but then when I saw it was the same puzzle four times I thought it was stupid. I came into the game having read TOTK was gonna give us classic Zelda dungeons back. But they kinda were the same to BOTW where u found a few pillars to activate then fight the blight. it worked in this dungeon but after I wanted something else
I remember my first time doing this dungeon. I was very active in the Lazerpig military enthusiast discord server, particularly the war ship section (it was at the time designated as one of the server’s cesspits). Being a part of that sub community made me enjoy the wind temple a lot.
I liked the dungeons (for the most part), but I think that for the next game, Nintendo should stick with the open world, but go back to linear dungeons with different puzzles in each one
19:55 I would have made the water temple a giant wounded fish but like somehow it’s like it’s wounds are always being kept from pain from the water coming out of it and it’s spots on its body like Vah Medoh’s body, then it could have had flooded levels and sections like jabu-jabu’s dungeon design.
But make it to where the find dorsal and sides etc and the head and the body were segmented still
Could have done it like the dragon isles above the Faron region