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Things all Zelda games seem to have.


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#1 ShadowTiger

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Posted 02 April 2020 - 09:53 AM

This is more of a generic topic of observations regarding most Zelda games, or heck, many RPGs in the first place.

 

1)  Dungeons seem far more dynamic than they normally seem.

For one, why are they called temples?  You've got your fire temple, your water temple, your forest temple... so if they're a temple, who prays in them?  Where?  Are there prayer books and a pulpit?  Is there some dais where someone leads prayers?  Is there some sacrificial pit where a lamp is sacrificed to appease the deities?  Who built the temple and with what funds? 

 

  Who keeps a map in a chest on a high-up area?  Who stored a compass in a hidden chest behind some vines?   Why are so many doors locked?  Who's scattering these keys in different areas of the dungeon rather than them being on a keyring by a maintenance fellow?  Who cleans these temples?  Who gets hazard pay because the temple is flooded or filled with lava?  Where's the accountant?  Where's the storage room?

 

2)  Same dungeon, different dungeon.

Everyone has a fire temple, an air temple, a forest temple, etc.  It's just what you do.  But they're always different, but it's the same world.  Has there EVER been a series where a temple or dungeon is the same between games, and you're visiting the same instance of the dungeon only with slight differences?  I think the only occasion I can really remember is how in Deus Ex 1, the first area you visit,  Liberty Island, is the last area you visit in the sequel, Invisible War.  That gave me awesome shivers.  But that's about it.

 

Why do they keep needing to rebuild them, anyway?  Does the geography of the area shift around SO MUCH that they have to rebuild and rebuild these temples, and even in a different location?  Sometimes the land mass doesn't become volcanic or get flooded.  Why not make a building a historic monument?  But seriously, who is getting paid to build these things?!  Is it slavery?  We all definitely take it for granted that the buildings simply exist.

 

3) There's treasure under those leaves!

Why is it that when we slash a bush,  it practically explodes and drops a rupee or some weird heart thing?  Why is it that when we slash a pot, it drops money?  How clumsy are people that they're dropping single or 5 coins worth of money in them all the time?  Maybe even arrows?!  What's up with THAT?  Who just walks around with arrows and is constantly dropping them into pots?!

 

4)  Monster gates?!  More like monster mysteries.

How the heck does a door slam shut when there's a monster that you have to kill.  Who designed these massive complexes with some kind of trigger that detects one kind of life but not another kind of life.  It's not like it's usually a force field generated by some dormant but still attentive deity, either.  It's an actual gate that locks or drops down and only unlocks when you've killed the monster.  Plus, the monster was already there in the first place, and the gate was open!  It only closes when you yourself enter.  It's like it knows that you're a hero and you're the only thing that can cleanse the threat.  So, who's watching that function of the dungeon or temple?  Is it the deity?  Or is it the maintenance person?  Maybe they're just shy and don't have a speaker system to communicate with you.

 

I think if I ever make a ZC quest, I'll have a maintenance guy chat with you as you're walking around the dungeon.  I think that would be a fun idea.  Don't you?  Just general chatter, actually!  "I'm so lonely.  Want to talk about food?  My favorite food is pizza.  I make it right here in the dungeon."   Then there's actually a real room you can walk into that has a few ovens and scattered ingredients.  "Whoops, must've just missed you.  I'm in my private washroom right now.  It's real  fancy in here.  ... Don't come in though.  I don't want you touching anything with your bloody hands."


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#2 Titanium Justice

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Posted 02 April 2020 - 10:34 AM

Also, why is it that people dont seem to mind when you barge into their house uninvited and smash open their pots and stuff? That, my friends, is what we call vandalism.
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#3 Lordkronos

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Posted 02 April 2020 - 11:41 AM

Well to the Temple Question In The Early Games they were Caled Indeet Dungeons Which has Made Them a well more Darker Place Like the Statue Dungeon in ALTTP There even is the Boss behind a Prison Cell :D

 

To the Temple think i Have my Own Theory The Meaning of Temple in Zelda Games is not meant like in a Church who is Everyone gives Prayers i think its more Meant to be a once Holy Important Sacred Hidden Place who not Everyone had Acces to it Its a Place to Hide most Important Relics or a Place for The 7 Sages wehre his Might could be the Strongest but are this Places mostly Attacket and Infested by Evil Forces.

 

But yeah if we Talk on Thinks all Zelda Games Have then its Keys Keys which Always so there that Outsiders come in for a Place were Important Thinks are Hidden would it make not more Sense that the Dungeon Master had a General Key and only Him so no one Could Barge in.

 

to the Smashing Pots in Houses its always fun to See when Some Npc Indeet React to it when you Smash them :D


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#4 Avaro

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Posted 02 April 2020 - 12:50 PM

Get your logic out of the way please!

 

In seriousness, you just need some suspense of disbelief. It's mostly for gameplay. And some zelda games do have really interesting in-world lore about some of their dungeons. Besides, with BotW they have been making an effort fixing the logic errors, although I think it's part of the reason why the game is lacking dungeon-wise.


Edited by Avaro, 02 April 2020 - 12:52 PM.

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#5 ShadowTiger

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Posted 02 April 2020 - 12:58 PM

Get your logic out of the way please!

 

In seriousness, you just need some suspense of disbelief. It's mostly for gameplay. And some zelda games do have really interesting in-world lore about some of their dungeons. Besides, with BotW they have been making an effort fixing the logic errors, although I think it's part of the reason why the game is lacking dungeon-wise.

I just want to make sure that you fully understand the nature of this topic and why it's not meant to be asking legitimate questions. :P


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#6 SkyLizardGirl

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Posted 02 April 2020 - 03:59 PM

I have two particular answers for pretty much everything Zelda ... 
  

Spoiler
 


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#7 Anthus

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Posted 02 April 2020 - 05:49 PM

 

Where?  Are there prayer books and a pulpit?  Is there some dais where someone leads prayers?  Is there some sacrificial pit where a lamp is sacrificed to appease the deities?  Who built the temple and with what funds?

 

If I had to guess the boss rooms would function as this in most cases. Like with WW's Temples, the sage's descendants do actually pray in the boss rooms since the evil entity has been cleared/ temple restored/ whatever. Forest Temple (OoT) is more of a mansion though, for example. It has paintings and ornate torches everywhere. It's also clear it has sat abandoned for quite some time as there are ghosts, and giant spiders inhabiting it. Then there's the boss room. A buried gallery in a room with a Royal symbol. Obviously Phantom Ganon did some rearranging of the gallery's catalogue, but I do wonder what those original six paintings may have been of. Old sages? Old princesses? Old Sheikah? Oh, and that room also has a nifty portal to the gap between dimensions?! I think it has to be exclusive to that room, cause otherwise, if Ganondorf has the power to remotely spawn portals that casts its victim into the gap between dimensions, why wouldn't he just do that all time? Just yeet Link out the map remotely, problem solved. So I think it's a one off portal in that room. Kind of like the portals in Ganon's Tower in WW. Well that deviated quickly.

 

 

Why are so many doors locked?  Who's scattering these keys in different areas of the dungeon rather than them being on a keyring by a maintenance fellow?  Who cleans these temples?  Who gets hazard pay because the temple is flooded or filled with lava?  Where's the accountant?  Where's the storage room?

 

I've thought about the key thing too. If the villain is able to go through the dungeon, how would he be able to lock doors behind them? How would they get out? Maybe they make some sort of master key like the Magic Key in Z1. Then you have Darunia. He's like "Yeah I'mma need you to get a hammer don't mind me, oh this boss key? Yeah sorry no, it's mine."

 

 

How the heck does a door slam shut when there's a monster that you have to kill.  Who designed these massive complexes with some kind of trigger that detects one kind of life but not another kind of life.

 

My best guess is, it's something like MGS1 where the doors can detect both Link, and the enemy's body salts or whatever. If it is both, shut door. If it is one or the other, open door. Still makes no sense from a "trying to stop the hero" point of view. You know, playing as a temple maintenance guy during peace times could be an interesting "captain toad" like spin-off idea for Zelda. They can call it Peace Sweepers.

 

Wanna know something else all Zelda games have? Hearts. Even Z2. It has Heart Containers at least. And Octoroks. They appear in some form in every single mainline Zelda. Stalfos as well. They kind of went overboard with the -Stal prefix in BotW.

 

 

EDIT: Can we also talk about how wildly dangerous a fully functioning hookshot would be in real life? What if Link lost his grip, would it just fly out of his hand and be stuck in the wall forever? How does he land safely? Wouldn't you just kinda ram into the wall uncontrollably, possibly breaking your wrist, or arm?



#8 Old-Skool

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Posted 02 April 2020 - 07:50 PM

a note on #2: 

This gets particularly egregious in A Link Between Worlds. The three Light World dungeons of A Link to the Past all explicitly return in this game, and although they are quite similar to their old selves aesthetically speaking, their layouts have all inexplicably changed

 

 

Does the geography of the area shift around SO MUCH that they have to rebuild and rebuild these temples

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Naaaaaaahhhhhhh...


Edited by Old-Skool, 02 April 2020 - 07:51 PM.

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#9 Lüt

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Posted 02 April 2020 - 08:28 PM

Also, why is it that people dont seem to mind when you barge into their house uninvited and smash open their pots and stuff?

Hyrule is actually Canada.


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#10 Rambly

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Posted 02 April 2020 - 09:31 PM

I've noticed that most Zelda games seem to have Link in them


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#11 Haylee

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Posted 04 April 2020 - 11:32 AM

I've noticed that most Zelda games seem to have Link in them

Bless your heart for this. ❤️

They also tend to have Zelda too in the adventure of Link. :>
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#12 Soga

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Posted 07 April 2020 - 02:44 PM

1)  Dungeons seem far more dynamic than they normally seem.

For one, why are they called temples?  You've got your fire temple, your water temple, your forest temple... so if they're a temple, who prays in them?  Where?  Are there prayer books and a pulpit?  Is there some dais where someone leads prayers?  Is there some sacrificial pit where a lamp is sacrificed to appease the deities?  Who built the temple and with what funds?

 

They could also just be temples in a more Eastern sense, where they're less houses of active worship and more structures built to house holy grounds. I don't know why the grounds are holy in Hyrule, but they do seem to serve very important roles geographically. Also, it may be worth noting that almost every temple has skulls lying around, so it could also be a sort of booby-trapped burial place.

 

2)  Same dungeon, different dungeon.

 

We don't know how many years pass between each game. It could be thousands of years, so I would imagine structures collapse, Hylian regime change, famine and plague cycles, wars (e.g. civil wars) etc. would result in neglected maintenance. So on another turn of the civilizational cycle, some really pious King of Hyrule decides it's time to rebuild the sacred buildings that have fallen to ruins. Incidentally, have you noticed that in pretty much every Zelda game ever, the story takes place at a time when Hyrule is either really decadent and thus, poorly able to defend itself, or is in a post-collapse state?

 

Which brings to hand a very interesting question: is there an unbroken line of Links, fathers to sons, or is Link born to a virgin when Hyrule needs (or is about to need) a hero? Have we ever actually encountered a direct paternal ancestor of Link in any of the Zelda games? It's always been grandmother or well, nobody (where has his mom ever been?)

 

3) There's treasure under those leaves!

 

This is actually kind of where the temples as burial places theory makes its strongest case. Pots containing rupees and arrows wouldn't be unusual for a burial place for warriors, priests, and kings (or any multi-classed combination of those). As for hearts, maybe the hearts are metaphors for Link munching on fruits from a bush? I mean, I don't remember hearts being in BotW, so maybe that's where they made that more explicit...

 

And rupees in leaf piles? Obviously, rupees must be ChuChu droppings!

 

4) Monster gates?!  More like monster mysteries.

 

My guess is that Ganon booby traps the door to shut on you to force you to fight the monster in hopes of getting you killed, and my guess is that defeating the monster liberates enough of the power in the temple that the sage's spirit that watches over the temple graciously opens it for you. Again, this goes back to the theory that the temples house holy grounds, which are somehow tied to the temple's sage. You also see this play out in Skyward Sword with the Sealed Grounds, which is basically kind of the aftermath of the divine event that resulted in the creation of the flying islands, so there is obviously a kind of "residual" power that is tied to specific locations. The opposite of this was also introduced in Wind Waker (in the Rito temple), but you know it from BotW: Malice.


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