Here’s a little anecdote of some pretty neat Zelda design I noticed while we wait for TOTK.
I’ve just finished the 8th dungeon (of the final Zelda game I have yet to beat) Oracle of Ages - the Ancient Tomb.
The boss, Ramrock is the epitome of the Zelda “puzzle” boss. It has 4 phases, each requiring a different item
- The first phase requires you to play a little sword tennis and shoot the fists he flings at you back at his body
- the second phase requires bombs to blow him up when he makes an opening to try and crush you
- the third phase requires your seed shooter To ricochet off a wall to hit him in the back as he puts a shield on his face
- the fourth phase requires the power glove to pull back his attached arm and let it spring back at him.
But the room before the boss, containing the boss door, is what I found interesting. Can’t find an exact screenshot of it, so just scroll down
the Zelda Dungeon guide to the part right above the boss fight section.
It’s a seemingly innocuous “puzzle,” certainly much easier than the rest of the dungeon. Just a matter of clearing some obstacles before the boss door. Oh, and it’s one of those puzzles that resets every time you die. So I’m like “this is so random, why is this even here and why am I doing this every time I die to the boss?” This dungeon put a bunch of link’s items to the test, so it wasn’t THAT weird, but still something was just funny about it to me.
Well, let’s look at Zelda Dungeon’s quick little description of how to get through the room.
Notice anything?
This little clearing of obstacles that you’re forced to do every time you die to get back to the boss uses the exact order of the items link uses to beat the boss. Almost like a subconscious way of hinting to the player without directly spelling it out.
Anyway, I thought it was super neat, and that I’d share it with y’all as we bear this grueling 48 hours together lol
)
