The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's dungeon design | Boss Keys

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// This video contains footage of all four divine beasts, the final area of the game, and the dungeon from the downloadable content //
19 months, 16 games, 13 videos, and 130 dungeons later, and we finally finish our breakdown of the dungeons in the Zelda series, by looking at 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Get maps, graphs, notes, and more in this Dropbox folder: www.dropbox.com/sh/0arnq2gf89...
Contribute translated subtitles - amara.org/v/C3BEk/

[@LydCal999]

“Short, unattractive, and easy” wow didn’t know I was a Zelda dungeon

[@luigi9237]

Aiden Nelson lmaooo

[@laterskater_indiegame5369]

great comment

[@Cracker_Smacker]

Damn

[@williamhuynh869]

But hey, at least you are part of something great right

[@justmerc1642]

Ooh, self burn! Those are rare.

[@stevester9148]

The music is actually my favorite part of the Divine Beasts because of how it progresses with each terminal you turn on. Pretty cool concept, actually. When you first enter them, they are all generic one note tunes, and by the time you're ready to face the Boss, it's a full fledged orchestra epic.

[@gilb_4]

Vah Ruta is arguably one of the most hardcore and iconic dungeon music in not only Zelda but in gaming overall

[@me_when8845]

@@gilb_4 no

[@skoogadoo]

@@gilb_4 ruta's got like the most boring song though

[@TopShelfTheology]

Oh damn, I never noticed that! I'll have to pay attention next time!

[@Bored_Overthinker]

I loved that TotK continued that.

[@kimballbelliston5925]

My favorite thing about Hyrule Castle (aside from the music) is that it feels like an actual structure that fits into the world. It's designed like an actual castle, with enemies and broken architecture serving as obstacles. Contrast that with the Divine Beasts, whose interiors were obviously only designed with puzzles in mind.

[@unknownname3703]

Hyrule Castle is BotW's best dungeon, hands down

[@ArtemisWasHere]

Just think about every other dungeon in Zelda, it may appear to be a thing in the world but doesn’t make sense since the interior are also made entirely of puzzles. I really don’t get why people think the Zelda team is going to ditch shrines and divine beasts entirely for traditional dungeons, honestly it makes them look like bitter nostalgic losers. Perhaps a mix of hyrule castle and slightly more linear puzzle boxes will do the trick for the sequel, I love the puzzle box style. Also no they won’t get rid of shrines, there will be MORE

[@petery6432]

It was made to feel like an area in the world that houses the Final Boss, not a dungeon. It lacks the puzzle solving and required combat that normal dungeons have. It instead makes the whole area open to exploring, rather than having a few parts of it that can be traversed.

[@ogpandamonium]

@@petery6432 I actually just skipped all of it.

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

This is a bit of an aside, but I think these are related to ruined Hyrule Castle. The Zelda series used to have horror elements, but those are pretty much entirely gone in Breath of the Wild. BotW's Hyrule is a post-apocalyptic wasteland, yet it's a bright and vibrant place. Surely the calamity took the lives of lots of Hylians with unfinished business, so where are the Poes? Where are the ReDeads and Gibdos? Surely the ruins of Hyrule Castle, Akkala Citadel and others would be infested with ghosts, zombies, and some of Hyrule's trademark enormous spiders.

[@SirPonnd]

It's also noteworthy that Hyrule Castle kind of has a traditional mini-boss. You can fight a Stalnox in the jail area that will reward you with the Hylian Shield (which basically plays the role of a dungeon item).

[@anotherrandomcommenter4473]

Isn't there also a lynel fight halfway up, too?

[@RisingOnion]

AnotherRandomCommenter 3

[@KencoMaster]

But most dungeon items are usually required to beat the dungeon whereas the hylian shield isnt

[@caio7248]

Ruben Barber Yeah but I think he said that because of the effects of the shield like the battle against the guardians and ganon becomes very easy, some would say way too easy, if you have the shield. Definitely not a dungeon item, but the closest to it

[@acon70]

It’s the closest thing to a Zelda item in BOTW. That and the Master Sword.

[@shayfabrizio3107]

My biggest “Wow!” moment with BOTW was with the bird Divine Beast. I had taken some time off the main wuest and completely forgot yoy could control the Beasts, so I beat the “dungeon” without using the controls once, and I originally thought the beast was horribly designed. Shot arrows at bombs for them to roll, completely beat the level using only the Physics Engine, only to realize that this game is smarter than me.

[@kreb6310]

You actual god, how

[@wilsonklingelhofer1005]

@@kreb6310 it’s pretty easy honestly

[@graendread1704]

Not quite like that, but for the example puzzle in the video I also just used stasis :D

[@Ironcabbit]

Same. In the fight against Thunderblight Ganon I dumb-lucked into a win. I could barely control the large magnetic stakes and yet TBG just kept colliding into my flails like a moron.

[@TheQuashingoftheTub]

I got like 4/5's of the way through Vah Ruta with this mindset before realizing I could move the trunk lol

[@LauraPlatt]

This has been one of the most fantastic game design series on KZbin -- absolutely incredible. Thank you for helping current game designers, and inspiring so many future ones!

[@Darkside13190]

Laura Platt Your last sentence talk to me and my thoughts

[@Inogat]

I just was about to write that! Thanks!

[@ZefTillDeath8878]

So much research and editing must go into these. Hard to believe this is on KZbin. He makes me look at and appreciate these games in a way I never would have before.

[@slickl9608]

I think so too. Other shows usually just tell you what good game design is, and not why

[@odanemcdonald9874]

I legitimately dont think u shud call it one of the most fantastic game design channels cuz there's so much really good, really fantastic game design channels out there. I think THE MOST FANTASTIC game design channel is more appropriate, clearly differentiating it as a cut above the rest

[@alexale665]

While watching this video I started to notice the fact that there are multiple Divine Beast puzzles that I did not solve in the way I was “supposed to.” I know and love that everyone does things their own way, so I just think this is another great example of that.

[@GMTK]

Whoops. Turns out there's a share limit on Dropbox! Please come back tomorrow if you want to access the goodies. Sorry about that.

[@GMTK]

Actually that sucks so I paid for the better Dropbox plan. Hopefully that should fix it!

[@CheesecakeMilitia]

Or you can upload a .zip to Mediafire if you don't want to deal with pesky download limits. Here's a mirror I put up: www.mediafire.com/file/z97ef055tj5bsxy/Boss%20Keys.zip

[@Xeno87]

Why didn't you talk about Hyrule Castle? It is a dungeon and imo one of the best dungeons I have ever experienced in a Zelda game.

[@REVANSBACK]

14:48

[@KaletheQuick]

Oh, glad you got that resolved. I was gonna offer you free server space.

[@Darkloit]

-You did nothing the whole day. It's time to be productive -New Mark Brown Video -NVM

[@ArkayneShad0w]

still counts

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

I think the most valuable lesson here - maybe the most valuable lesson out of the whole series - may be that there is no one right way to design a game. I'm sure we're all looking forward to more great content!

[@OtakuNoShitpost]

All in all, I think the worst offense of the divine beasts is that they have a copy-paste formula for the dungeon progression. It's "grab the map, now go solve these 5 terminals." That layout is something I had been craving, but something only has flavor in the context of different flavors. When everything tastes the same it becomes bland. Not to mention that they fell flat on any exploration by marking the terminals on the map.

[@Joshua-dr1ev]

Despite thoroughly enjoying them due to their contex in the game world (which is also a bit copy paste) I quite agree. The pacing issues didn't bother me so much as unintentionally sloving puzzles and the repetitive design.

[@guilhemnavarette9310]

I agree that it can feel repetitive, but it adds to the overall sense of belief : they are all made by the same people with the same goal, of course they are going to work in a certain manner that is the same for the five divine beasts

[@ralphthejedimaster]

the nagging voices of the champions telling you exactly what to do each time instead of having the agency to figure it out yourself was also really annoying. what's the point of having the map be obtainable in the dungeon if you're going to be led straight to it? why not just give it to you immediately? having the terminals marked as well was a bad decision, figuring out where they are by exploring instead of looking at a point on the map and thinking how to get there would have been much more fun to solve

[@oliverparker425]

Ette Ravan defending bad dungeon design with lore is extremely bad and lazy

[@vivid8979]

@@oliverparker425 I think the devs intentionally designed the Dungeons based on the lore. Like what is said in the video all that is happening inside the Divine beasts are in real-time and making it over complicated might beat the purpose and goal that they want to achieve and that is uniformity..

[@04mnop]

I didn't realize how much I loved Hyrule Castle until this video. No matter where I am in the game, I'm always happy to go explore it and find new corners that I didn't find before

[@jaimemarrero3982]

The justification I've heard from friends when I complain that the game lacked deep and engaging dungeons is that the whole road to being able to get into the beast (the path to Zora village, the path to Goron village, going into the Yiga hideout in the desert area) made the beasts feel as the culmination of a quest, so they didn't see the divine beasts as standalone dungeons. I'm not really a fan of this idea, but it would be cool to see other people's thoughts on this.

[@DrTimes99]

I was just about to say the same thing. The lead up to the Beast could be considered part of the "overall dungeon"

[@fernando98322]

That's actually how I thought about it! Especially Vah Ruta that asks a lot for the player and it probably is the first Beast people tackle which in turn means the player is not prepared much. The rainy road to Zora's Domain took me 2 hours, honest. Sure, I was killing everything and looking for those murals and koroks. But it was a lot of fun! The next best one is Vah Naboris

[@starsroof_1633]

i feel that argument makes no sense since every single dungeon in 3D zeldas has the same "road" structura; you have to talk to and do whatever crap in rito village/goron city/zora's domain/deku tribe thing/gerudo hideout/the snow goron city in majora's mask/recovering the zora egg's in majora's mask BEFORE you can access a dungeon. i feel it is absolutely evident that for botw, they just DIDN'T have time to make the dungeons as they would have liked if they didn't have deadlines and other limitations. as simple as that. same as the repeated shrines with NO puzzles, (just the chest and monk) and the repeated "tests of strength" shrines. Why would they WANT TO make those repeated shrines? There's no other reasoning than lack of time of production.

[@HQ_Default]

You know, I can kinda see that, but the fact of the matter is that most of the other zelda games did very similar "Road to the dungeon" type stuff, so I still don't think this game can use that as an excuse, even if that part is a bit longer in BOTW.

[@Timmy2701]

I also like to see the beasts as the "final chapter" of their respective quest lines, but this enhances even more the observation, that the beast look so similar to another and not connected to their specific environment. The water wheel in Vah Ruta and the stream of water from the elephant's nose is just not enough for me to count as classic "water temple". On the other hand - I don't know if I need another one of that and I had lots of fun with BotW the way it is...

[@mothersbasement]

This little side project of yours has become my favourite thing on the channel. I'm glad you'll be doing it again.

[@RedTheMan]

Hey I've seen you somewhere

[@dinoman6481]

I feel like I am the only one who enjoyed the divine beasts quite a lot, they just fit so well with the game. EDIT: these videos were a masterpiece tho

[@rockinmusicquarterly12]

wrong, i love the divine beasts

[@thelolz2.031]

I loved the divine beasts themselves but I think the bosses maybe could have included the dungeons main mechanic in the fight. That would have been interesting

[@kelmirosue3251]

The Devine beasts were good. But just straight up solving one puzzle after another in a single dungeon with little combat gets boring after a while

[@finchhawthorne1302]

I think the divine beats are great unfortunately hardcore Zelda fans tend to recoil because of how different they are from the other 3D games.

[@voidling2632]

never played breath of the wild

[@lukethompson7083]

I think that the aesthetics of the dungeons are better than given credit. There are certainly large swaths of the dungeons that are the same, but they all have a unique theme. I think it is incorrect to state they cannot be told apart. They are themed; water, fire, wind, and lightning. I think they are easily distinguished, especially since much of the aesthetic comes from the surrounding. Being in the middle of a lake, inside an active volcano, soaring through the sky, or roaming the desert are all unique places that add a visual element outside of the Divine Beast itself. You are not meant to walk around with your eyes pointed at the floor. Medoh especially is gorgeous - it's a beautiful flying courtyard. I can see how someone could be disappointed in the appearances of the Beasts insides, but I think that is too much focus on one and not the other.

[@ichi1011]

Well said

[@CouchCit]

That's a nice, elaborate excuse. Given all that, they should've developed different internal looks/aesthetics for the beasts. The shrines are also repetitive and feel more like unfinished "virtual" dungeons that they just split up.

[@cometvaudin2850]

Vah Naboris is my personal favourite. I really, really like how you can see it moving around the section of the desert and the extra jiggling of the noodle legs to really emphasise the sheer weight and strength of the beast. The Sheikah already made beasts that can traverse the land but Naboris is so tall it would require more advanced techniques to get it to walk. Additionally, I like the palace-like design of Naboris, like it really belonged to an elegant yet strong Gerudo Chief. So, in conclusion, Naboris is great to experience.

[@NobleVagabond2552]

Botw might be the best game I’ve ever played mechanically speaking and yet I still prefer Twilight Princess for one simple reason. Atmosphere

[@fearless_cloud]

You are absolutely correct. You can't expect the beauty to be shoved in your face. It's right there, just look up.

[@fakeronjan]

I am looking forward to buying the book of graphs!! #makeithappen This was an amazing series. I can't wait for season 2.

[@Kyjor_]

You got the early bird special?

[@jacobweeks777]

I reckon a calendar of graphs would be really cool

[@McMuster]

Metroid Prime Hype!

[@subprogram32]

The visual boringness of the Beasts and shrines was my main turnoff too. I can excuse the shrines alone as part of the sacrifice of making such a huge amount of modular content for the game, but if each beast had not been the same old sheikah tech, but had instead all had their own race-unique architecture style and mechanics it would have been so much more memorable. (Vah Naboris gets to stay though. That can be the beast that stays unchanged in my ideal scenario.)

[@topichu970]

Robert Gherghe OH, DO YOU MEAN HOW THEY HAVE COMMENTED HOURS AGO? It's because of Patreon

[@BaldorfBaldorf]

While I thought the beasys were really cool either way, I agree the architecture being influenced by race woulda been really cool.

[@lifegrain6092]

i think the main problem is with the lore for that,the lore just states sheikah to be extremely advanced to the point camera on a slate is amazing to the rest of hyrule but also has magnetic rune,compendium,master cycle zero,bomb runes,stasis rune,cryonis rune,and a map lore wise,only sheikah tribe should be able to make those divine beast, it's like the original planet of the apes the fact that the apes has way less advancement in technology compared to the near-extinct race of humans if each race would've been as advanced i dont think botw would have the name "wild" in the title as it probably is more futuristic sci-fi stuff than fantasy style world

[@reNINTENDO]

Very valid complaint and one I'm hoping Nintendo addresses assuming they continue the BotW format for the time being (I definitely want them to, but I know many who are more interested in the ol' tried and true).

[@subprogram32]

I mean, even the Sheikah of 100 years ago didn't truly know their own millennia-old tech when they tried to revive it, I see no reason why the other races couldn't have decayed in knowledge over the same amount of time too.

[@agredek]

Great material, as always. BUT there are few hiccups here and there. For example, at 5:30 You say, that only way to reach one of the terminals in Vah Ruta is to leap from a high ground and slide to the platform. I've never done it this way. I always took a ride on the trunk and flew right to the top of this part. There's a hole that you can jump into and voila, you are just few steps from the terminal. The "problem" (well, it's not a problem, it's great) with "dungeons" like those in BotW is that there are almost always multiple ways to finish them. Just like the fact that you can access those terminals in virtually any order you want, there are sometimes many ways to achieve the same goal. Another example is Vah Medoh. You don't exactly need to use Magnesis to not let the fan go down the slide. I always used stasis there and it worked just fine ;)

[@gregoryfenn1462]

Yeah, I thin stasis was meant to be the "correct" solution. The holding magnesis thing works fine but feels a bit "hacky".

[@LordDumpling]

letting people find their own solution to a puzzle is great, but it does become a problem when a puzzle is *so* open that you can literally do whatever you want, and tadaa its solved. theres no challenge involved in that, the satisfaction of solving a puzzle comes from *finally* figuring out the solution for it, just throwing things to the wall to see if something sticks is less fun

[@swishfish8858]

@@LordDumpling Highly disagree. Using your knowledge of the game's high-possibility mechanics to come to a conclusion nobody expected is its own rush. I was able to get a keyball from one wing of a dungeon all the way to the other with a tricky series of tricks, and when I got it there I noticed another keyball locked behind a stupid puzzle I had no desire to attempt in the first place. I felt like such a badass, telling the game to go F itself while I figured out how to advance without its intended route.

[@jupiter6628]

ragnose1 that’s your opinion. a rather loud one, since i’ve seen multiple replies to comments pointing out features they like. it doesnt ruin pacing, because there is no pacing. that’s the beauty of the beast being completely open. engagement is completely different, not gone - a player can wander around and figure things out with trial and error, seeing how the mechanics of the beasts work, or they can look up the solution, just like every other game. yes, it relies on the player to decide what to do - that is the point. it’s open, it’s free roaming. it’s subject to how the individual plays the game and can give a completely different experience based on your choices. clearly, you don’t like that. but i do, as do many others. i like being able to do things in the order i please, without having to follow a strict formula. i dont particularly enjoy games that force chronology, i find it restrictive and it ruins the experience for me, because i can’t explore how i would if i had control of the mechanics. having several different scenarios that lead to success doesnt restrict players. these are still puzzles. i’d argue that only having one option of how to solve a problem is far more lazy, restricting the player from making their own decisions freely and taking away the sense of accomplishment they get from finding a way to solve something that is outside the norm. your thinking that players will purposefully take the easy route? that’s their own fault. the devs have given a plethora of ways to solve the puzzles, and the player has the option to explore the game, find fun ways to solve problems, and just doesn’t. that is a play style, not a flaw in game design. if someone wants to play the easy way, go ahead! if someone wants to use wind bombs to launch to the end of a shrine, go ahead! games do not have to be formulaic. games don’t have to be completely open. different players enjoy different things. but the point of BOTW is that you are free to take your own adventure, and it purposefully broke the structure of other zelda games by doing such. it is not a game meant for strict linear problem solving. the ingenuity and freedom in the divine beasts follows the theme of BOTW. if you went from being able to freely run around from one corner of the map to the other, entering the divine beasts and being forced into one particular way of taking back control would not only not fit with the rest of the gameplay and design, but would be jarring and break any degree of immersion you were experiencing. even within the great plateau, you are free to complete the area in the order you please. you don’t have to go to kakariko or hateno, you don’t have to complete the divine beasts in any particular order. you can come down to zora’s domain from the north and ignore sidon if you want. having a completely linear structure within the beasts would break from this model, the model the devs went out of their way to create so that BOTW would be unlike other zelda games. freedom is the point. creativity is the point.

[@alexale665]

Oh yes! I made a comment about how (I think it was those exact two or maybe even more) I didn’t solve those puzzles the “way I was supposed to.” But you did those the same way I did, so no one was wrong.

[@Nazareadain]

The dungeon itself is the item link is given. The tool which he uses throughout to navigate, solve, and overcome it. And its mastery becomes vital to solving it, as opposed to the ones with items, where it often becomes the solution to every puzzle, and there's not always variety in how to use them. Megaton hammer is a glorified key. "you're in the deku leaf dungeon, time to use the deku leaf shaped deku leaf on this deku leaf shaped hole." which is what most previous dungeon's "schticks" come down to. The divine beasts aren't any more "what do I use to solve this?" (the divine beast itself) but rather "HOW do I use it to solve it?" With a bow and arrow, there's not many options - it's not about how you shoot, but where the arrow shaped keyhole is. In the sandship, it's not much of a puzzle when you understand what the schtick is. Which is "find the crystal". it's about as obvious as a shrine called two bombs. I think the systemic interaction design that even bleeds over to the divine beasts to be excellent and is excellently complemented by how the dungeon interaction itself is dealt with in the same way; flexibly and with more than one solution, albeit short and repetitive if not for the time between them. I'm more concerned with flaws like how part of the fun on the overworld is paying attention to how to overcome camps via the tools you have, and resources set about - yet it loses all its value from something as simple as the monsters scaling negating the effects those strategies would have so they bake down to slap fights or carpet bombing with lynel bows and bomb arrows due to a lack of patience.

[@briancarter1597]

To be fair, BOTW's runes are keys. Cryosis is the "blue key" Stasis the 'yellow key" etc.

[@landonruiz8774]

The dungeon is the item? So you are saying I can use this "item" to get new things in the overworld, and have it permanently change how I play the game?

[@thelolz2.031]

Landon Field not the same item as the dungeon but your reward for completing them (the champion abilities/master cycle rune) certainly is a usable overworld item that completely changes the game.

[@landonruiz8774]

@A B Those abilities don't change how you play the game, they just make getting what you wanted easier. In past games, items would be required for reaching new areas or some secret location or heart piece, etc. The abilities gained from defeating divine beasts only add on things to make the game easier, not to really change anything. Examples can include gale allowing you to cover distances faster - it doesn't change anything. It just lets you do what you can already do, but faster. You don't backtrack and use it to get some cool reward. Mipha's ability is the same - you just get revived making combat even EASIER. It doesn't add anything or change mechanics, you just don't die as easily. All the abilities follow this. They don't have any outside-of-battle use to make exploring richer or more meaningful because you can already do it all. That is the burden of a fully open game.

[@PrincessFelicie]

I'll be honest, I wouldn't mind an extended analysis of Hyrule's Castle. It's so chock full of interconnected rooms, one way corridors that require thinking within the newly extended limits of the box to open, memorable fights and locations, I could talk about it for hours. You haven't done it justice, basically!

[@ichi1011]

Yes! Would love this. I thought Hyrule Castle was incredible in BOTW, by far the best iteration of it in the series to date.

[@chaosmiles07]

*applause* All in all, the entire Boss Keys project seems like an evolving idea, and we could see your evolving understanding along with it. Nicely done Mark, and hope to see you soon for Boss Keys S2. (Btw, you tease, what with that Metroid screenshot and music at the end.)

[@topichu970]

Robert Gherghe Patreon

[@ebigunso]

I'm all in for Metroid analysis!!

[@stevencooper1103]

This was another awesome video. I actually really like the music in the game. The fact that it's so understated, makes it feel more cinematic. It actually swells in combat the more you damage the enemy. It's little things like that that I love about this game.

[@BokoblinsRUs]

As a student currently studying Game Programming, it's really nice to see videos like this focusing on the design. I've followed Boss Keys since you started it, and have been watching Game Maker's Toolkit when you release them as well and can't wait until season 2.

[@AbbreviatedReviews]

18 months... what a journey. It gave me a new appreciation for every Zelda game and is going to have me going back to play the ones I never got a crack at. I'm definitely looking forward to whatever series you move on to next, though I have to say I'm hoping it's another Nintendo classic like Metroid of Mario. Even so, I'd also be interested in some shorter game series if that's something you want to do to diversify for a little while. Whatever you do though, I'm sure it will be great.

[@ikeeichenberg9068]

Personally I think he should do an in-depth analysis of the Souls series

[@88Factor]

I myself really hope he does Resident Evil, because I'd love to see an indepth analysis of the Spencer Mansion using the whole Lock+Key, Puzzle Box, or Gauntlet style of analysis, along with various other locations in that game. In addition, I wonder how he'll view how that game's puzzles may impact its pacing.

[@Wolfeur]

At the conclusion, when I heard Phendrana Drifts, I was like "Please, do Metroid Prime!" then it shows up

[@MisterHeroman]

Don't you mean saw, not heard?

[@christianschweda2530]

Same here!

[@Wolfeur]

No, heard. At 18:06.

[@crazywazy5527]

Mark should definitely do season 2 as Metroid, it's such a great series!

[@ForzaNinetails]

THANK YOU for pointing out the music/texture overuse. I loved BOTW, and I'm a long time LoZ fan, but this is one of the things that really got to me.

[@mohawkjohnson5666]

The matching temple aesthetic doesn’t bother me. I love varied dungeons, don’t get me wrong but if the Sheika built all of the divine beasts then it’s makes sense that all of it looks the same. Same race, same culture, same purpose of stopping Gannon, same architecture. It wouldn’t be realistic to have them look wildly different if the same people built them for the same reason. That would just be...weird.

[@AdamBartholomew]

@@ragnose1 Yeah, as much as I wouldn't want to sound rude, using lore to justify design choices is just cheap and bad.

[@JohnSmith-xf1zu]

As much as I like the aesthetic of the shrines and divine beasts, they really would have benefited from some better theming. Lore-wise, they could have built the divine beasts or shrines out of anything. Make Vah Rudania out of obsidian. Fill Vah Ruta with crystalline structures that look like ice. Give Vah Naboris the brown color scheme similar to a desert sands. I have to agree with ragnose1 and new channel. Using lore to justify poor design choices is not good game design. If anything, a civilization having only one design for literally everything is "weird".

[@LeBazarDeFusette]

They could just use, idk, fireproof material for the volcan's one, waterproof for the water's one, coldproof for the bird's one and idkwhatproof for the desert's one, this would at least change the color of the temple

[@Werewolf914]

The lack of traditional Dungeons (and lack of enemy variety) is what makes Breath of the Wild only my 2nd favorite Zelda, they were fun sure Divine Beasts and Shrines had plenty of awesome puzzles, but without them being unique after completing the first 2 I wasn't excited to go to the other 2 or to all the Shrines, I'd often just skip Shrines unless I felt like doing a puzzle or fighting. In other Zeldas I am always extremely excited for the next Dungeon because that means I get to see what it looks like inside, hear new music, get a new item, see new enemies including the Boss, etc. but in BOTW everything was the same so I didn't feel the need to explore and see them, it wasn't till I got tired of exploring that I'd head to the Divine Beasts or into a Shrine do a few puzzles than explore again. A Link Between Worlds is my favorite Zelda because after completing the first 3 Dungeons and entering Lorule you can enter any Dungeon in any order so long as you rented/ bought the correct item, you have the choice and semi openness of BotW but mixed with the same fun Dungeons.

[@kadiss3512]

I gotta agree. It especially doesn’t bother me since you do the dungeons so rarely. You probably have at least 10+ hours between each beast, so you it’s a big enough even that you don’t notice it

[@HenrikoMagnifico]

Been waiting for this one... It did not disappoint!

[@EsteemedKompany]

Lovely stuff as ever Mark. Thanks for a brilliant series.

[@topichu970]

Robert Gherghe Patreon

[@novastar3990]

How is your comment from yesterday when the video was uploaded a day ago?

[@EsteemedKompany]

Furyflame2 patreon

[@iceclkeyheart3060]

Robert Gherghe Your so funny mark ha ha

[@geneirai]

this series was a blast mark, it really made me think and question things and my own tastes in design, If all you did was make people think and discuss I'd say you succeeded, but you did more then that, you entertained, poked fun, had humility, answered feedback, and even did an episode on games you'd previously decided not to do just because, I'm super excited to see what you do in season 2 and hope to think as much as I did during this first season!

[@will4not]

This has been one of the best series on KZbin. I learned so much about a series I've played for 30 years. Thanks. I'm gonna miss the Zelda season, but looking forward to what comes next.

[@VincentGuillotine]

12:38 "Breath of the Wild features a whopping 120 different shrines." but there are 136. you counted the fifth divine beast, so it's weird that the 16 extra shrines that are required to get to it are ignored

[@slickl9608]

He does mention one of them I think. The trial of power he mentions I think? Idk if that one is one of the new ones though, slips my memory

[@nazek4216]

Slick L It's not

[@TheTonzLDN]

I think he just forgot because you only get 120 spirit orbs and people got used to counting them to find out how many shrines they did.

[@Yuhara_rev]

Eblo yeah the dlc dungeons are pretty cool

[@higurashikai09]

Actually after the DLC you get 124 spirit orbs.

[@MicoDossun]

I sorta feel like to an extent the ability to move the divine Beasts is functionally equivalent to the dungeon items in previous Zelda games. That recontextualization that makes Zelda dungeons great still sorta exists as well as they could within the context of BotW's mechanics.

[@GMTK]

That's a good point. If they had more gameplay before you get the map (it's very quick and easy to get to the map terminal in all the dungeons) it could have been cool. Suddenly this dormant, static beast can move, and completely changes the dungeon from that point forward. A missed opportunity, perhaps.

[@General12th]

Possibly. The developers might have tried exactly that, but maybe they realized the whole point of the experience was to enjoy a moving dungeon, so they scrapped the idea and had Link reach the first terminal right away. In that case, it wasn't a missed opportunity, but a well-considered and ultimately denied opportunity.

[@Saben.C-Spoon]

I still would have prefered to maybe go through a more traditional style of Zelda dungeon and then when you get the map, the dungeon becomes free as it is when you get the map.

[@GregTom2]

You get the map right away literally after 2 minutes. The only dungeon where you have to navigate a bit before you gain control is the salamander, which admittedly is one of the more interesting beasts.

[@globalistgamer6418]

This seems to be what the developers were aiming for, but aside from the poor pacing structure limiting how much this could be realised, there isn't much sense of discovery or achievement, as the rotation mechanic functions largely the same way in every dungeon, and doesn't permanently expand Link's abilities with ripple effects across the rest of the game. I really hope they bring back dungeon items in future, as they are sorely missed in both BotW and ALBW.

[@PlayJOY1]

I love how you're able to encapsulate my feelings on the game's approach to dungeons to a point. Thank you for your continued work, Mark. 😄

[@erinium19]

Woah. That ending was actually borderline emotional. Amazing series! I'm so ready for more of this! Bring on season 2!

[@MellowGaming]

When I was playing the shrines I kept getting the feeling that Nintendo had made a small dungeon maker toolset and the devs just all had a go at it. Like they were jamming all these ideas for dungeons out of a Mario maker style level creator. Makes me kinda want a Zelda Dungeon Maker game.

[@rayblade2721]

Mellow Gaming zelda dungeon maker would give nintendo a bad rep since players would design all sorts of cool shit and put most of the shrines in botw to shame.

[@jimmyspliff88]

My prejudice about Japan/Nintendo: their creativity is a kinda strange thing of infinity. Mario Maker is a pretty nice example imho. It's like a wet dream for their exclusive heart-core-fanbase. For me it's feeling like family friendly head-nutting, even for granny =) i love it

[@paualamar]

I remember going trough Trial of Power and thinking. "Oh man, this is so good, I bet Mark Brown is going to talk about this shrine." I was not mistaken. :)

[@smugpickle239]

This series is seriously some of the best content on KZbin, Mark Brown, your videos are entertaining, insightful, and endlessly compelling. Keep up the good work!

[@ZacJelke]

I'm finally playing through BOTW for the first time and while I can appreciate it for what it is, it doesn't feel much like a Zelda game to me to be honest. I waited to watch this video until I had played it and ironically it says everything I have been thinking. The dungeons don't tie the world together or tie everything into the lore like in other Zelda games. These shrines and divine beasts don't really have a story of their own. They just feel like check points instead of settings. I hope they go back to a more real dungeon style for the next one.

[@nuggs4snuggs516]

7.8/10 not enough graphs

[@nicolle2126]

NEVER CLICKED SO FAST

[@MosesMedinaE]

Nicolle yeah same here! I've been waiting for this eispode. Besides the classic serious I find it interesting its more along the shorter side.

[@hrdla1997]

This was, simply put, the most fascinating video series I have ever seen in my entire KZbin viewing history. And it was hell of a ride. Glad I could be a part of this. Thank you, Mark!

[@Gebohq]

I've thoroughly enjoyed Boss Keys ("Season 1" of Zelda) and how you've developed different ways of categorizing mechanics as you studied from game to game. Thank you very much for all your effort, and I look forward to the GMTK summary episode as well as season 2 of Boss Keys!

[@coryandrews9235]

Hm. I agree with you on the Divine Beasts, I think. I do like how they relate to the game as a whole--finishing them all for the endgame makes me feel like I'm getting the old crew back together... like this weird sensation of nostalgia, even though I didn't actually get to play through the prologue when they were all working together. But yeah, a little underwhelming when you compare them to the more structured dungeons of other games. I actually really loved the shrines, though--I honestly could have played a whole game that was just shrines. It made me think a little bit of Portal, with the self-contained puzzles and ponderous atmosphere, and even though the music is repetitive, that shrine theme is one of my favorites in all of Zelda now. It's also worth noting that you kind of glossed over how many puzzles and exploration bits are in the overworld itself. I know that's normally not the focus of these videos, but I wonder if the intention wasn't to design the entire world with the same kind of cleverness that most Zelda games reserve for their dungeons? I can't count how many times this game got me to actually think of creative solutions to problems, not just in the confines of a dungeon, but everywhere in the game, whereas previous Zelda games have occasionally all left me to sigh and wonder where the item I needed was. I suppose it's the difference of "how do I solve this problem?" and "can I even solve this problem right now?", and I kind of hope elements of this game get carried on in that regard. Great stuff! Love these videos!

[@pasrachilli]

"Tilting the bird" sounds euphemistic.

[@N12015]

If you ask me, the bird is constantly tilted already.

[@GetDaved]

Bravo, Mark. At about 17:00 I started feeling a pang of sadness, as I have enjoyed this series greatly, and then you dropped "season 2". And to go Boss Keys on your Boss Keys: Boss Keys has overall solid design and structure. The designer provided an obvious linear path through it all, but the viewer was allowed the freedom to complete each episode in whatever order they wish, or even skip some entirely, very much in the style of Breath of the Wild. The aesthetics were strong throughout with very clean UI and audio. As the series approached the end you could feel the escalation towards an exciting finale, and the surprise at the end was an excellent payoff for completing it. Although Mark has stated his appreciation for small keys, I enjoyed that I did not need any keys or rupees to unlock any of the videos, but appreciate that the opportunity is there for completionists who want to do the extra Patreon DLC. 10/10, very excited for the sequel.

[@TSTopShelf]

A Metroid Boss Keys series would be killer. I've enjoyed these Zelda episodes immensely and can't wait to see you expand and evolve this amazing video series.

[@hemangchauhan2864]

Since you already labeled Divine Beasts as Puzzle Boxes, I don't thinking expecting pacing out of them would be correct. Puzzle boxes are something you poke around into and find the solution for, and it takes a different pace for different player. Regardless, amazing work for the series.

[@GMTK]

That's not really true. Even the ultimate puzzle box, The Water Temple, opens up in distinct phases. You can't switch between all three water levels until you've solved a bunch of the dungeon.

[@danijonesdanijones]

EXACTLY

[@MrOAK1992]

Mark Brown That is basiclly the problem that I had with the divine beasts as dungeons. In and of itself the idea of avoiding having to give you some new item used for exploration by giving you the power to minipulate the dungeon itself like in the water temple (and making the reward at the end of the dungeon the champions blessings which helps in combat/exploration without acting as keys to some specific locks that whould imperr the open world aspect of the game) is a great one. The problem however is in the execution as you are given this power to minipulate the dungeon right at the start, rather then letting you work toward it like you would to the dungeon item in other games, or indead the valves in the water temple. As such the termineals in the divine beasts on their own don't do anyting until you hit all five after which the dungeon is basiclly over. I would much rather have seen that instead of giving Link comlete controle over the dungeon from the start they would have first let you explore a bit and make 2 or 3 of the terminals exasible without the ability to manipulate the dungeon, than make each terminal that you reach give you increasing control over the dungeon, so that after hitting each one you get exas to new parts of the dungeon or atleast can get around more easilly and actually give me the fealing that I'm progressing through the dungeon bit by bit. Anohter improvement that I would have liked is that this mechanic of manipulating the dungeon would actualy have come back during the boss fight, making you manipulate the dungeon during the battle to allow Link to get some hits in against the boss, like how in other games you use the dungeon item to beat the last boss. This would also have alowed for some more different boss designes. Please forgive my bad English/Grammes, I'm no native Enlish speaker.

[@Road_to_Dawn]

AxletheBeast | I agree with that. One of my biggest complaints about BotW, maybe the biggest I have, is the fact that there are no traditional dungeons. I like the Divine Beasts, keep them in, but also give us non-order-specific dungeons you can just stumble upon in the overworld with very little guidance on even finding them, kinda like Zelda 1 and Link Between Worlds, the latter of which had my favorite design philosophy in renting-to-own items and dungeons that you could complete in any order, I believe with one exception. Some people argue that the shrines address that issue in BotW, but I disagree. To me, 100+ bite-sized challenges don’t grant the same satisfaction of completing a full-course traditional dungeon.

[@illusionofquality979]

They still should take SOME time. The first beast I tackled was Vah Naboris and it felt a bit short but took me a bit of time to solve (that and I was playing blind on Master mode so I decided to fight Blight Ganon another day since I only had 4 hearts at the time and even if I couldn't counter him well, I wasn't doing enough damage with my weapons at all). But then I went to Vah Medoh and it took me maybe 15 minutes to solve. I basically flew from one terminal to the other without any issues so it was underwhelming. Given how crazy the Devine Beast are strength-wise, you would expect they would be more complexed. And actually working hard to get the terminals and have the past champions encourage you would have a much bigger emotional impact. The shrines are really short too so you don't need to think that much to solve them which is a bummer. At least past games made me run around in circles for a minute or two until I figured where I can go look for more clues. (still, going around, hiding from monster and exploring new places is 10/10 just not when actual dungeon crawling is concerned)

[@cameronmcintyre3799]

Really excited to see that this series is going to continue! I've been playing Okami HD recently and the structure of the game made me think about what kind of charts and/or graphs could be made for the dungeons in that game. Perhaps it could be a subject of a future episode? Either way, a great series and one I'm glad to experience.

[@WackoJacco01995]

Man I have really enjoyed these series. Thank you so much man, I've re-watched the playlist several times already ^^

[@ethanlynch3639]

This series was amazing. Between episodes i was definitely waiting with excitement and i was never disappointed when they showed up. I'm super excited for season two!

[@jjtheenton]

As cool of an idea as the Divine Beasts are, it's unfortunately only Vah Naboris that truly lives up to the potential of that idea (excluding the DLC one), and that's due to the rotation mechanic not being utilized properly. I think the fixes for these would be fairly easy, too. - Vah Ruta: Have every position of its trunk affect the movement of the cogs and/or water level in some fashion. - Vah Rudania: Have it rotate 360 degrees (staying on its belly) rather than just flip on its side. - Vah Medoh: Have it capable of tilting completely upside-down for 360° rotation. It's a shame they weren't operated at least similarly to these. There could have been so much more to them.

[@sparklesthefatcat5826]

I’m rewatching this video after finishing TOTK’s dungeons and am super curious to hear your thoughts if you make a Boss Keys video on TOTK! Personally, I found the dungeons super disappointing. While they’re arguably aesthetically more interesting (though personally I thought the atmosphere of the divine beasts, whether in the caldera of a volcano or high above Hyrule or in the middle of a sandstorm, were pretty good myself), they lose the puzzle box elements of BOTW while keeping the total lack of structure. Felt like a worst of both worlds to me. I thought the Fire Temple and Lightning Temple at least had some interesting navigational challenges, and the Wind Temple had really great atmosphere, but the Water Temple was just too easy deeply disappointing! I actually beat half the Spirit Temple early on because I fully didn’t realize it was a dungeon, whoops! Thank you for making these videos! They give me the language to articulate why some dungeons work for me and others don’t! Feels great to play with a greater understanding of game development and design! :)

[@beefknuckles]

Congrats on finishing, Mark! I thoroughly enjoyed the series and can't wait to see what's next for Boss Keys, Game Maker's Toolkit, and beyond!

[@SailorLarkspur]

Great work as always! Sad to see the end of season 1 but endlessly excited to see whats to come. Thanks for putting in the countless hours of work to provide us this excellent content.

[@lucasduberger-deret3550]

I'd certainly be down for a boss keys episode about hollow knight! Also, I'll be anxiously awaiting the game maker's toolkit episode with what you gleaned from all the Zelda dungeons.

[@silkavenger]

Similar tile sets never bothered me in Zelda 1 and they don't bother me now. I think the majority of the "market" will disagree with me on that point, but there are those of us out there that will always look at Zelda 1 (and to some extent 2) as the true Zelda and every iteration from link to the past on as being small but greater and greater departures from what Zelda originally was. Playing Breath of the Wild has felt to me more like playing the original Zelda on nes than any other subsequent entry. Another idea to consider is that tagging the divine beasts as this games definitive 'dungeons' may be a case of forcing a square peg into a round hole. Instead, it seems far more likely that the shrines, the divine beasts and hyrule castle all address different elements of what Zelda dungeons have been in the past. A direct comparison between any 3 of these 'dungeon types' in BotW and recent Zelda fare is a bit of a stretch and the video addresses that in a round about way. It raises the question: "What should it feel like to play a zelda game?" And the answer, whatever it may be, probably has to do with more than just the dungeons.

[@peterburciaga1860]

I also think he should've mentioned the champion dlc. Those are more difficult compared to most of the shrines botw and more ambitious in my opinion

[@AlphaxZero28]

I would agree with you, on the front that breath of the wild is the closest Zelda game to the original best version, but what I find is that there are still some restricting factors to the gameplay (items that have limited use, lack of challenging dungeons/shrines besides dlc) that still don't quite match what the NES Zelda stood for. I really do enjoy breath of the wild though, just for it's sheer replayability and most problems I do have with it are more like nitpicks.

[@amandaslough125]

The divine beasts should of course be considered dungeons. When the game was announced, they declared it would have only 4 "main dungeons" and over 100 "mini dungeons".

[@MrSupahLink]

I don't think the majority of the ''market'' even disagrees with you on that. It a vocal minority that demands dungeons to be designed in a certain way, but most people just enjoy the game for what it is and think of the divine beasts as ''Super Shrines'' with a large gimmick attached to them. Personally I would like to see thematic dungeons again, but the Divine Beasts didn't bother me at all in BotW tbh. Some aspects of them are even more enjoyable imo, like how they don't interrupt you nearly as often as dungeons in older games.

[@franklyfrank2657]

This whole series was very well done Mark. Great work, I enjoyed every minute of it.

[@jackm4155]

Boss Keys is officially one of my favorite youtube series ever created! Thanks Mark!

[@indigodarkwolf]

That Metroid Prime music is such a tease. I really hope Season 2 does a Boss Keys series on the Metroid franchise.

[@Tomiply]

Oh, please do the Metroid series.

[@riddleiddle]

I can't wait for Super Metroid, he'll be covering it soon :O

[@LuffyMcDuck]

I'm so glad I discovered your channel over a year ago. This has been a fantastic series so far and I can't wat for future content!

[@habeechee6623]

This whole series has been a big hit. I'm excited to see what's in store for the future, Mark!

[@Solomon7589]

Please, Boss Keys on the Metroid Series for Season 2! I want to see my favorite game series get this kind of thoughtful treatment. It would also be interesting to compare an official entries design to that of a fan made one like AM2R.

[@MrPoisonito]

Solomon7589 just have been watching the video and thinking how ' ll be great to see Mark's analytics of Metroid Prime and... the music from first Prime in the end! hope it will occur

[@AlexCFaulkner]

who is hear waiting for Tears of the Kingdom Boss Keys?

[@royn7742]

Thank you for this series Mark. I'm glad you're doing another series--I got pretty excited when I saw Metroid!

[@TheXeroLink]

This series has been awesome. Really details the whole thing, and makes me think. I'll probably re watch it all again when I go to try and make a D&D world someday.

[@rex.monsoon]

Perfect. It’s midnight, I just made a snack and cracked a beer on this balmy night, and this popped up. Thank you!

[@SupLuiKir]

You can cheese Naboris pretty hard by getting Revali's Gale first

[@SupLuiKir]

How great would it be to get a shoutout from Eiji Aonuma / NoJ? > Notice me senpai!

[@floataway3]

Yeah, I realized you could cheese a lot of the game with Revali's Gale. This was the first time I saw an actual solution to that two ball puzzle. I just jumped up grabbed the ball and came back down, paragliding around the outside rather than activating the elevators and the carriage.

[@CouchCit]

Oddly enough, I happened to get Revali's gale 1st but I barely used it in the other beasts. I guess the shrines got me used to doing puzzles without it. I admit though, I used the power more and more as the game progressed

[@remixtheidiot5771]

And that is why i never use divine beast powers ever.

[@elim9054]

I ended up doing this for that electric ball puzzle because I couldn't find the second ball. Not sure how I missed it because I felt like I looked everywhere I possibly could multiple times. :l

[@SilentOutbursts]

It's been an amazing series, Mark! I eagerly await the next game series that you analyze! Thanks for the awesome ride through these Zelda Dungeons!

[@Dryon1196]

I'd like to congratulate you for achieving this awesome series, as it represents a huge and respectable work. It has been one of the most interesting series I've seen, the fact you kept up 'til the last game is impressive. So, bravo and thank you, I wish you all good for season 2, I can't wait to see.

[@IzaakNeveln]

One aspect of the Divine Beasts in BOTW that really differentiates them from most other dungeons in the series is they actually have some good logic to the overall narrative of the game. Most dungeons exist to contain one of several tokens that need to be found that are for some reason hidden behind a series of elaborate traps. There's also a tool for some reason that specifically works to bypass the traps and even hurt the boss protecting the token. The Divine Beasts, being ancient sheikah tech, were meant to protect Hyrule and designed with elaborate safeguards that were unfortunately corrupted. There is real motivation to conquer these, to overcome the corruption, help old friends, help the new friends with the problems they are causing, and help you in your final battle (which I was hoping to be a bit more clever than just damaging the boss). The samey design is somewhat bland but makes sense thematically, and is offset by the awesomeness of actually riding around on these things through the great open world.

[@ROGUESPIRIT_]

adding a long section of boring gameplay to use as a story device is a terrible idea if you ask me.

[@N12015]

​@@ROGUESPIRIT_Not to mention other dungeons were involved in the story in an organic way. Think of almost every dungeon in Twilight princess who have something UNIQUE to say, from the mines of Gorons, a city on the sky, an abandoned mansion with bonds with the royal family, a dome with a portal to another world or said other world. Same can't be said in BotW, where the shrines and divine beast do not have something to say that the others can't, and it damages the otherwise stellar experience due to lacking culture. Heck, EVEN OOT back in 1998 was aware of those elements, in a console with heavy limitations of the visuals.

[@UnarmedCivilian_]

I don't know why they didn't make some of the divine beasts light up similar to how the guardians do. Would've helped break up the monotonous appearances of them.

[@GoodBloodGames]

What a great series! Well done, Mark.

[@Ravenpaw1313]

Thanks for this amazing Season 1! I've learned so much about game design from these videos and I am VERY excited for the upcoming seasons!

[@timotheecaron852]

The best BOTW's dungeon is the Hyrule Castle. It is exactly like ancient 2d dungeon (Zelda 1 or Alttp) He had walls to destroy, an special object (Hylian Shield), some ennemies, traps, secrets passages... Oh ! C'est dis à la fin de la vidéo ^^

[@leetri]

Along with enemy variety, this was my biggest issue with the game. I miss the dungeons with their cool key items, mini bosses and then finally a really cool and different boss. They could easily add that as DLC if they wanted to, I'd totally buy it.

[@redis.cover98]

I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the videos' quality. Very well done

[@giannipiscitelli5335]

The way you methodically break videogames down into their mechanics is just remarkable to me,especially considering that game design analyses like yours are very uncommon on KZbin,keep up with the great work Mark :) !

[@Alurith]

Did he ever make that GMT video finally wrapping up all of this? Because if he did, I can't find it.

[@deathtoll2001]

Hollow Knight is the finale of Boss Keys.

[@cannot-handle-handles]

Meanwhile there is "How Zelda's Puzzle Box Dungeons Work", which seems to wrap up the Puzzle Box Dungeons, at least: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqirooyVadOmgJY

[@LaughingThesaurus]

I had always thought of the overworld content as informally fulfilling the role of other dungeon styles. For example, the road you're pretty heavily railroaded through to reach zora's domain? That's a gauntlet. You go through a series of fights (though, there are no explicit instances of forced backtracking or puzzle solving) to reach your destination. Some fights are particularly difficult, or are really stacked against you, so you need to do something cool and creative to sneak by or deal with the enemies in some encounters. There are labyrinths which... unfortunately, typically don't have much visual variety or anything in the way of real landmarks, otherwise those could've been more like actual labyrinth dungeons. Worth mentioning, there is informal stuff meant to touch on the other styles of gameplay people may appreciate more, strewn about the open world, but it's unfortunate that the divine beasts don't hit on that much variety.

[@CouchCit]

LaughingThesaurus I've heard this point before but I think that's a real stretch. Fact is this: 1. The "gauntlet" to get to Zora's Domain is just that; you can do it and stop once you get to the city; you don't have to actually conquer the divine beast, therefore no its not part of the dungeon. 2. Other Zelda games have had similar paths/winding roads/specific things to do to reach various destinations.

[@InhabitantOfOddworld]

@@CouchCit Your first point doesn't make sense. "But you can choose to stop that journey half-way" Doesn't matter. Developers still build quests and game designs in sequence. Just because you, as a player, have the freedom to break that continuity and instead pursue side quests for (insert number of hours here) doesn't negate that design. This doesn't just apply to BoTW either. The likes of Skyrim and The Witcher 3 do the same. Fact is the road to Zora's Domain is very clearly a gauntlet that leads almost instantly to directions for Vah Ruta.

[@InhabitantOfOddworld]

In fact I'd go as far as to say one major issue with western RPGs and open-world games generally is that the story-line/quest structure doesn't reflect game freedom. You can mindlessly pursue side content for hours and the game never enforces the more pressing matters. Main quests will lead from one to the other, with never even a reminder of what's happened so far just in case you spent 20+ hours on side content and forgot what has happened. Skyrim doesn't enforce the linearity of it's main quests and BoTW doesn't enforce the fact the Zora Gauntlet leads right into Vah Ruta but this is clearly the narrative's intention.

[@TheDarkerPath]

This series was essential viewing, thanks for all the hard work! I'd love to see a similar series on the evolution of level design in the Soulsborne games :)

[@antoniobifulco623]

I sure hope the series finds new shores, I loved each single episode and would gladly enjoy more of it. Keep up the good work!

[@perrysantulli3367]

This was awesome and I'm SO down for the next season *cough* METROID PLEASE *cough*

[@fonrole]

Mark, you're not done. You forgot something: CDI

[@MisterHeroman]

There's no time, your graphs are enough.

[@TakeWalker]

I'm impressed at how fascinating this series has been, I had to sit down and watch the last ten videos or so all at once tonight.

[@BLACKDISC]

What a ride! Loved watching this series over the past year (almost 2 years!).

[@LucianoThePig]

I think you should make a special boss key video or two about how or why aesthetics are important to the Zelda dungeons.

[@bubblegumpanda9195]

CDi games when?

[@princeapoopoo5787]

Breezed through your Zelda Boss Keys videos in one sitting, and i absolutely love them! I was a bit disappointed that you didn't speak so much about aesthetic and "lore", as you mentioned in this video, but I admit that what i got was .... absolutely staggering! I didn't really notice how linear certain dungeons are until you brought them up. I wonder if I can even play and enjoy a Zelda game ever again. :P

[@YotamCohen_]

Boss keys season 1 was incredible. Really fantastic work, Mark.

[@marcstarvaggi]

I find the obsession with keys to be strange. They aren't a requirement! I understand they are a central design and they are in the title of this series, but man! Every creative design doesn't have to use keys

[@thomasfplm]

I don't think he necessarily mean literal keys, finding an item that allows you to progress in some parts.

[@marcstarvaggi]

@@thomasfplm I also meant an item that serves as a key. I don't particularly care what the shape of it is.

[@benvids]

Oh boy. I will make a hot drink and savour this. Im not even a Zelda series fan I only enjoyed BotW. But dungeons are great and these videos are top notch! edit: as others have said, you have overlooked the journeys to the shrines which (in a minority of cases) are puzzle filled and require some thinking.

[@xboxpenguin8705]

i'm so excited to see what games you're going to talk about in this series!

[@Chariot_Rider]

This is by far my favorite series about game design. I’m excited to see what you have in store for season 2.

[@TheLegendsOfTynedale]

Could you do a series on Zelda Overworlds?

[@ScriptedSloth]

I mean, to be fair, the beasts are all created by the same group. There's no reason for them to look different on the inside because they'd all be made of the same or similar materials and by the same architects and builders. Same applies to the shrines. I believe they're meant to feel as though they aren't part of the world as well.

[@theoyourecool]

lol you guys. if something that makes sense in the lore causes your game to be more boring, maybe you should change it. "the lore" isn't an excuse. you could easily say that maybe each group created their own divine beast and therefore the architecture and materials were different for each one, depending on the culture and location.

[@CouchCit]

Sam Tarly He's absolutely right tho. You don't create the lore/narrative and then craft dungeons that rigidly sticks to it, it's more so the other way around in video game development. The story isn't an excuse, and it could've been easy altered to account for different aesthetics in the dungeons/shrines. The true fact is that creating such different aesthetics takes time, and obviously they just didn't have enough time to work on it.

[@theoyourecool]

Sam Tarly, whoa dude let’s chill a bit. i never said the game was a failure lol. i’m allowed to critique games that i appreciate, and i love BotW, for so many things!! i just think this was a big flaw. art and visual design, especially in dungeons, is something i admire about the entire Zelda franchise, so it just felt a little disappointing for someone coming in from a perspective like mine to see that this game was lacking that.

[@cake6851]

Sam Tarly No. What you do is make the game first then add lore. That's the entire philosophy of nintendo dammit

[@elim9054]

@@theoyourecool As much as I love BotW (both as a game and as a story) you aren't wrong. Ironically the lore is responsible for my least favorite thing about the end of the game. It really sucks that you have to basically choose between actually experiencing the story of the game and fighting a legitimately challenging final boss.

[@phillyredsox9195]

This Zelda portion of the series was an abolutely wonderful watch and a staggeringly amazing achievement. Congratulations.

[@boulangerdelextreme]

mark you are doing such a wonderful job, I can't wait to see what will be the next step for Boss Keys