The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom finally releases this week on Nintendo Switch. In the meantime, Nintendo UK has been interviewing the development team on various aspects of the title, including link (pun intended) to A Link to the Past. In Chapter 3 of the series, they confirmed dungeons in the open-world title, which are more like those in traditional Zelda titles.
Game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi said, “We haven’t talked about the dungeons yet. They’ve changed from the previous game. For example, there is a dungeon that connects directly to Hyrule’s surface. If you dive from the sky straight into the dungeon, you’ll trigger an event. We think this will be a new experience that wasn’t possible in the previous game.”
Technical director Takuhiro Dohta also confirmed that the dungeons are “unique to their respective environments,” with a “wide variety of regional characteristics.”
However, implementing that wasn’t easy, according to art director Satoru Takizawa. “Making a ‘wide variety’ was pretty challenging,” he said. “The four Divine Beasts were the dungeons in the last game, and they shared similar designs. This time, the dungeons are huge, and each carries its own regional look and feel, just like traditional The Legend of Zelda games. We think they will provide a satisfying challenge for players. They were certainly a challenge to develop!”
Considering one of the criticisms for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the lack of traditional dungeons, this is good news. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available on May 12th worldwide. Even for those new to the franchise, it will be “easy to get into,” as per the development team. Stay tuned for more details.