The Enigmatic Spirit Temple: Unveiling Zelda's Epic Evolution in Dungeon Design

Highlights

Expanding upon the triumph of Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom enhances the experience by meticulously refining existing features and introducing captivating new elements. This enthralling installment takes players on an unforgettable journey through ethereal skies and mysterious subterranean realms, offering a captivating and distinct land that combines familiarity with refreshing novelty.

The inclusion of Ultrahand and Side Adventures in Tears of the Kingdom had a profound effect, leaving fans wondering if future Zelda games can stand on their own without them.

One notable feature in Tears of the Kingdom is the Spirit Temple, a fully realized open-air dungeon that flawlessly combines quests and a specially designed Temple within the expansive open world. This showcases a possible advancement for future Zelda games.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom marked the next stage in the evolution of Breath of the Wild. Returning to the vast open world of Hyrule, Tears of the Kingdom built upon the successful foundation established by its predecessor. Not only did it enhance the existing map from Breath of the Wild, injecting new life into towns, fields, and monster encampments, but it also introduced aerial and underground layers. This ensured that players were not simply retracing familiar territory, but instead discovered a truly transformative landscape.

Yet, Tears of the Kingdom did not only leave its mark on the series in terms of gameplay. It introduced Ultrahand, an innovative addition that revolutionized the overall gaming experience and sparked conversations amongst fans about its indispensability in future Zelda titles. Additionally, Side Adventures offered a refreshing new format, providing lengthier and more immersive optional content. However, it is the dungeons of Tears of the Kingdom that are most likely to endure in future open-world Zelda games. The merging of the beloved Divine Beast format with classic Temples created a heightened and sustainable style of dungeons that has the potential to shape future entries in the series.

Tears of the Kingdom Experiments With What A Zelda Dungeon Is

Since the release of Tears of the Kingdom, fans have been debating whether its dungeons truly capture the essence of the Zelda series. These dungeons feature a more diverse range of visual themes compared to Breath of the Wild's Divine Beasts and successfully incorporate dungeon items while maintaining their free-form nature. However, traditional Zelda dungeons are still more linear when compared to the open-world design of both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, which allows for more challenging gameplay experiences. This clash between the theme of open-air freedom in Zelda games and the confined nature of most dungeons creates difficulties in creating restricted player solutions within them.

Various Temples attempted to address this issue, for example, the Lightning Temple was created in an enclosed environment, while the Fire Temple was accessible from the expansive Depths. However, even the Fire Temple follows the same "five terminals" format as every other Temple, and its location lacks impact as it fails to provide meaningful story progression in a subterranean setting. To fully embrace the potential of an open world, a new approach to Zelda dungeons is necessary. Fortunately, the Spirit Temple does exactly that, completely reimagining the concept of a Zelda dungeon in the process.

The Spirit Temple Is A Realized Open Air Dungeon

Players can choose to enter the Spirit Temple at any point, although they are guided towards it near the end of the main quest. This Temple is unlike traditional ones, resembling a lengthy Side Adventure that spans across the Thunderhead Isles and the Depths. Mineru, the Sage of Spirit, assigns players the task of exploring various sections of an ancient facility to retrieve parts for her robot body. Only after completing this mission does Link obtain a dungeon item and then go through a tutorial in the Depths before facing a boss in the Spirit Temple.

What distinguishes this experience is its focus on Link's abilities and the feeling of being part of the open world while still progressing through a dungeon-like setting. The seamless integration of quests, a customized Temple, and significant portions of the map make a compelling case for incorporating more open-air dungeons in future Zelda games. Similar to the Spirit Temple, these dungeons would require activation but offer a similar freedom in gameplay. By introducing clusters of dungeon segments into open-world Zelda titles, it would create an interesting evolution of the current Shrine and Temple format, making linear sequences more impactful.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now for the Nintendo Switch.