We're finally getting to the dungeon design that defines 2D Zelda. A Link to the Past is an absolute blast & has aged like fine wine, so let's discuss why the lowest scoring dungeon on this game is still a solid 6 or 7 out of 10.
In Turtle Rock's defense, the first thing you find in the dungeon is a telepathic tile where Sahasrahla stresses the importance of having magic for it, advising that Link have some Green Potion.
Kudos for your top pick. It's probably my most hated dungeon for various oft-cited reasons. My favorite has always been the Eastern Palace, as it is the true start of the adventure. Plus, the light world dungeon music is much better than those from the dark world.
My 7 year old self did think to throw the skull in for the Quake medallion lol unfortunately prior to that I was 4 months (maybe longer) being stuck in the Tower Of Hera looking for the Moon Pearl. 32 years old now and I often think of that moment I was finally able to travel to the Dark world and tackle the rest of the game.
At 21:14 or so you state that you have to use the Cane of Somaria to hold open the door with the button. Nope - all you do is step on the button and then head to the door; it stays open.
I realized that while I was re-watching the video post-edit. I think I just recalled me trying to use the cane, to the point where my mind just convinced me that was the solution (even though I finished the dungeon so I had to know otherwise lmao)
It’s been a while since I’ve played Alttp, but here’s my ranking from the best of my memory! 12: The Ice Palace 11: Misery Mire 10: The Eastern Palace 9: The Desert Palace 8: Hyrule Castle 7: Thief’s Town 6: Ganon’s Tower 5: Tower of Hera 4: Skull Woods 3: Swamp Palace 2: Dark Palace 1: Turtle Rock I made this list before finishing yours, so I wouldn’t be influenced by yours too much.
It was pretty cool when my child self thought “what if I take her to the boss room where there wasn’t originally any light”. What made that dungeon great for me is that it gave you subtle hints that something wasn’t right with her and that you needed to go upstairs first
This video made me want to replay ALttP again ❤ The dungeon that I remember the most is Skull Woods, mostly due to the love/hate relationship I have with it 😂 As someone that was drawn to your channel due to your TotK videos, I just love the way you're tackling the series. Zelda is very dear to my heart and seeing how much care and depth you put into these videos really brings a smile to my face. Keep up the good work! Already looking forward to the next one 🎉
My favorite dungon is thieves town, it’s a short romp, but the theme, layout, challenge, and boss are all spot on. Also it is one of the most memorable dungeons because of the girl you meet locked up
I remember as a kid finding the quake medalion, just looked at the skull and was like I want to throw this ooh look a target! let's pollute the river. BAM fish show's up and I'm like wtf uh oh I triggered a boss. ooh just one of these silly medallions.
Not only have I now discovered a new favorite Souls-tuber, but I also find that they have rankings of one of my absolute favorite childhood games. A Link to the Past is a gem I don't hear about enough anymore. Love the content!!
Crazy how much nostalgia. I always liked the desert palace. But the dark palace, and thieves dungeon were my favorites. That reveal, as a kid, was amazing
As someone who's played this game a ton since release and then came back to play it randomized and even done speedruns of it... this list is very nearly exactly what I rank the dungeons. I personally would put Swamp above Ice because I find Ice a little too fiddly whereas Swamp feels more slick and streamlined. Anyway, you got yourself a new subscriber. Kudos and thanks for the content!
With the Quake medallion, it does help that there's a sign right by that spot that says "Curses to anyone who throws something into my circle of stones" basically daring you to do it lol I know this is way late now, but fun trick for Turtle Rock in the platform maze: using the hookshot makes you invincible, so if you time it you just basically phase through the fire bars
get the cane of byrna and sprinkle magic to get your magic usage 1/2 and then buy magic potions every boss fight turn on the cane or cape u can get early and GG
what is really cool (no pun intended) about the ice temple is that you don't need the hookshot to complete the dungeon. what i cannot defend is that the dungeon does punish you if you miss out on a small key and end up in the hookshot check room where you need to warp out and must grab the key again. also bombos can be used in place of the fire rod. so while ganon's tower does reuse enemies, it does have a variety of micro challenges and does make use of the invisible paths which only appears in an optional cave.
Wowwwww, Ganon's Tower is probably my FAVORITE dungeon in the whole game. It's so cool and you get to feel like a baller as you rock n roll through the toughest enemies the game can throw at you
Great video Billy! Fun seeing your number one dungeon ranked there when so many people have it much lower. I think it gets a bad rap. But these videos have been great. Keep it up!
I think of the hook shot as kind of the boomerang on steroids. It's way more versatile than the boomerang, but can do pretty much the same stuff the boomerang can as well. The upgraded boomerang can be thrown further though.
The last dungeon (Ganon's Tower) would have need a different music track in addition of new ennemies to makes it really feel like the final test like in Zelda 1 et Zelda 2. The only thing that make it stand out are these Ganon statues and the fact that it is pretty big. I love how the ice dungeon is complex and ask you to use spacial awareness/memory to make the right backtracking or going around by the other side to go forward. It's pretty smart. I hope that the next Zelda will bring back that. I like the water temple from OOT too for that among other things. They are pretty much those which still offer a challenge when you replay the games because of their complexity. I was very disppointed with the last two 3D Zeldas concerning the dungeons. When everything is open with no restrictions, the puzzling navigation go out of the window and you come up with more of a Mario 3D sandbox level, replacing stars by 4-5 terminals, than a Zelda dungeon. ;) You need to feel lost and alone until finally finding the path in these places. Zelda is pretty much dead for me with TotK. I play Zelda first for the dungeons/temples and not just for 4-5 just looking like classic dungeons in a 150 hours game. Anyway great video! :)
The most egregious thing about the Tower of Hera is the dungeon item. I completely ignored it by accident as a kid and was stuck for weeks after beating Hyrule Castle, as a result. I even looked up walkthroughs and was confused as to why Kiki the monkey wasn’t showing up. I think this could’ve been remedied if the dungeon had balcony sections that required you to enter and exit the Dark World and had the chest in a spot that wasn’t easy to overlook.
i'm not completely sure I agree with your placement of the desert palace, but it is refreshing to see somebody who didn't put dungeon five of the dark world the ice palace in the bottom position. Most people seem to rank at the lowest and I know it goes fairly low on the totem pole, but I don't think it's the worst.
They're weak to spin attacks? i never knew this and Ice Dungeon was a huge difficulty spike for me. I love every dungeon in this game though. It's so fun! There's a reason this and Link Between Worlds are my favorite 2D (and potentially my favorite Any D) Zelda games. They're good! Incredibly charming, fun, and creative dungeon designs. Can't wait to hear about the bosses!
The pengators can also be oneshot by the hookshot. I found this out decades ago and still have muscle memory of disposing them this way and still use it playing the randomizer. I still need to complete Link Between Worlds, such a fun concept. Cheers!
20:20 erm Achktually ahem, theres a small fellow in a cave by the ice palace that tells you theres a mysterious circle at the top right that you can throw a stone into. 🤓🤓
I have a weird relationship with the Ice Palace. To be honest i have no idea how to beat the dungeon, my dark world dungeon order is always 1, 4, 2, 3, 6, 5, 7. Since i have the cane when I do ice palace i always cheese that final puzzle.
I've heard that complaint about final dungeons being uninteresting boss rushes, recaps, or what have you. Personally, by the time I am set to face Ganon, I like to get on with it. I'm ready to end the game, so I don't want a super complex or unique dungeon. I just want to get to Ganon (or whoever the final boss is).
This has got to be the most opposite list I've ever seen to pretty much any other ranking. I genuinely enjoy playing through all of the dungeons in LttP but ice palace is the only one that I just get through as quickly as possible to get it over with. I'll do misery mire first so I can get the cane of samaria though. Personally I find back tracking in 2D dungeons to be very annoying, and that block puzzle where you have to back track is not fun to me. Really cool design of LttP overall though in letting the player complete the dungeons in any order they want, as long as they have the required item.
So it seems clear to me you didn’t play this game at the time it came out - correct? You played it years later cuz you’re young? That makes much more sense given the bizarre rankings Ranking the palace of darkness/eastern palace so low? Nuts
So it seems clear to me you didn’t play this game at the time it came out - correct? You played it years later cuz you’re young? That makes much more sense given the bizarre rankings
So it seems clear to me you didn’t play this game at the time it came out - correct? You played it years later cuz you’re young? That makes much more sense given the bizarre rankings Ranking the palace of darkness/eastern palace so low? Nuts
We're finally getting to the dungeon design that defines 2D Zelda. A Link to the Past is an absolute blast & has aged like fine wine, so let's discuss why the lowest scoring dungeon on this game is still a solid 6 or 7 out of 10.
In Turtle Rock's defense, the first thing you find in the dungeon is a telepathic tile where Sahasrahla stresses the importance of having magic for it, advising that Link have some Green Potion.
Kudos for your top pick. It's probably my most hated dungeon for various oft-cited reasons. My favorite has always been the Eastern Palace, as it is the true start of the adventure. Plus, the light world dungeon music is much better than those from the dark world.
My 7 year old self did think to throw the skull in for the Quake medallion lol unfortunately prior to that I was 4 months (maybe longer) being stuck in the Tower Of Hera looking for the Moon Pearl. 32 years old now and I often think of that moment I was finally able to travel to the Dark world and tackle the rest of the game.
Ah, yes the first Zelda game that still holds up! Love it!
Easily one of the most replayable Zeldas, and has so much varied content compared to the last two games.
At 21:14 or so you state that you have to use the Cane of Somaria to hold open the door with the button. Nope - all you do is step on the button and then head to the door; it stays open.
I realized that while I was re-watching the video post-edit. I think I just recalled me trying to use the cane, to the point where my mind just convinced me that was the solution (even though I finished the dungeon so I had to know otherwise lmao)
It’s been a while since I’ve played Alttp, but here’s my ranking from the best of my memory!
12: The Ice Palace
11: Misery Mire
10: The Eastern Palace
9: The Desert Palace
8: Hyrule Castle
7: Thief’s Town
6: Ganon’s Tower
5: Tower of Hera
4: Skull Woods
3: Swamp Palace
2: Dark Palace
1: Turtle Rock
I made this list before finishing yours, so I wouldn’t be influenced by yours too much.
I remember as a kid I kept trying to take the maiden out the front door of the thieves hideout. Couldn’t figure out why she kept going back 😅
Yeah what a twist hey
It was pretty cool when my child self thought “what if I take her to the boss room where there wasn’t originally any light”. What made that dungeon great for me is that it gave you subtle hints that something wasn’t right with her and that you needed to go upstairs first
Misery Mire is my favorite. Not a common favorite amongst fans but its my favorite.
29:26 you can one-shot those green penguins with the hookshot
This video made me want to replay ALttP again ❤ The dungeon that I remember the most is Skull Woods, mostly due to the love/hate relationship I have with it 😂
As someone that was drawn to your channel due to your TotK videos, I just love the way you're tackling the series. Zelda is very dear to my heart and seeing how much care and depth you put into these videos really brings a smile to my face.
Keep up the good work! Already looking forward to the next one 🎉
The Zelda series is just special, so I want to make sure I do all these games justice. Glad to see it's working out so far ^^
Ok, color me surprise for putting the Ice palace that far up. Also i think you need the cane of somaria for one switch in misery mire.
Right, the one room in the dark. Still, it's a bit of a let-down item-wise when its only use is in one room in it's home dungeon.
Do you think Desert Palace has wifi?
Must have been a brutal time to rank these. None of the dungeons in this game are less than great
100% - Even the Desert Palace, my least favourite, is at least above average as a dungeon goes.
@@BillySYTi think that the biggest weakness of all alttp dungeons that all of them use their items pretty badly
My favorite dungon is thieves town, it’s a short romp, but the theme, layout, challenge, and boss are all spot on. Also it is one of the most memorable dungeons because of the girl you meet locked up
@@aranryan-9440 It us the worst dungeon for me.Short,with bad layout and unfun boss.Ice palace is really nice
I remember as a kid finding the quake medalion, just looked at the skull and was like I want to throw this ooh look a target! let's pollute the river. BAM fish show's up and I'm like wtf uh oh I triggered a boss. ooh just one of these silly medallions.
Interesting to hear your thoughts on the specific dungeons, thanks for the vid
Not only have I now discovered a new favorite Souls-tuber, but I also find that they have rankings of one of my absolute favorite childhood games. A Link to the Past is a gem I don't hear about enough anymore. Love the content!!
Crazy how much nostalgia. I always liked the desert palace. But the dark palace, and thieves dungeon were my favorites. That reveal, as a kid, was amazing
Bro your channel just gets better and better every week. It is a delight to watch these.
I appreciate that you called it thieves town and not “””gargoyles domain”””
I honestly don't know which is the "correct" term, but I know Thieves Town is used in most official wikis, so ^^
Thieves town is a way cooler name anyways
@@OrbitalFrog_ agreed
As someone who's played this game a ton since release and then came back to play it randomized and even done speedruns of it... this list is very nearly exactly what I rank the dungeons. I personally would put Swamp above Ice because I find Ice a little too fiddly whereas Swamp feels more slick and streamlined. Anyway, you got yourself a new subscriber. Kudos and thanks for the content!
Started my Zelda journey and Fandom with this SNES game.
With the Quake medallion, it does help that there's a sign right by that spot that says "Curses to anyone who throws something into my circle of stones" basically daring you to do it lol I know this is way late now, but fun trick for Turtle Rock in the platform maze: using the hookshot makes you invincible, so if you time it you just basically phase through the fire bars
Nice video ❤ Definetly agree with this ranking
I really need to play this game sometime
Yes you do. Did you play it?
@@dvsdez no, I forgor :(
get the cane of byrna
and sprinkle magic to get your magic usage 1/2 and then buy magic potions
every boss fight turn on the cane or cape u can get early and GG
I had the exact same experience with the Ice Temple. I absolutely hated it my first play through but really enjoy it on additional play throughs.
Damn what are the odds playing the first Golden sun just released on switch and watching this video 😂
I disagree with most of your opinions, but I enjoyed the video nontheless!
what is really cool (no pun intended) about the ice temple is that you don't need the hookshot to complete the dungeon. what i cannot defend is that the dungeon does punish you if you miss out on a small key and end up in the hookshot check room where you need to warp out and must grab the key again. also bombos can be used in place of the fire rod. so while ganon's tower does reuse enemies, it does have a variety of micro challenges and does make use of the invisible paths which only appears in an optional cave.
Wowwwww, Ganon's Tower is probably my FAVORITE dungeon in the whole game. It's so cool and you get to feel like a baller as you rock n roll through the toughest enemies the game can throw at you
Such an under-rated track is the dark-world theme be-fore you get the
Moon-Pearl Lmao It-Is Soooooo GOOD . But damn , you never hear a-bout- it …………….
I thought I was the only one who loved the ice palace!!!
Great ranking. I agree with all the placements in your assessment.
Great video Billy! Fun seeing your number one dungeon ranked there when so many people have it much lower. I think it gets a bad rap. But these videos have been great. Keep it up!
love this game left a big like
In the ice palace in A Link to the Past you can also use the bombos medallion on the boss instead of using the fire rod.
I think of the hook shot as kind of the boomerang on steroids. It's way more versatile than the boomerang, but can do pretty much the same stuff the boomerang can as well. The upgraded boomerang can be thrown further though.
I actually wouldn't mind the rehash of things experienced in the old dungeons as long as it was mixed with new content.
In Turtles Rock 🐢🪨 when you're in the dark maze you don't have to hold the switch down with a Cane of Somaria block. 21:15
The last dungeon (Ganon's Tower) would have need a different music track in addition of new ennemies to makes it really feel like the final test like in Zelda 1 et Zelda 2. The only thing that make it stand out are these Ganon statues and the fact that it is pretty big.
I love how the ice dungeon is complex and ask you to use spacial awareness/memory to make the right backtracking or going around by the other side to go forward. It's pretty smart. I hope that the next Zelda will bring back that. I like the water temple from OOT too for that among other things. They are pretty much those which still offer a challenge when you replay the games because of their complexity.
I was very disppointed with the last two 3D Zeldas concerning the dungeons. When everything is open with no restrictions, the puzzling navigation go out of the window and you come up with more of a Mario 3D sandbox level, replacing stars by 4-5 terminals, than a Zelda dungeon. ;) You need to feel lost and alone until finally finding the path in these places. Zelda is pretty much dead for me with TotK. I play Zelda first for the dungeons/temples and not just for 4-5 just looking like classic dungeons in a 150 hours game.
Anyway great video! :)
Here’s my ranking.
12. Desert Palace
11. Hyrule Castle
10. Tower of Hera
9. Ganons Tower
8. Eastern Palace
7. Skull Woods
6. Thieves Town
5. Misery Mire
4. Dark Palace
3. Swamp Palace
2. Ice Palace
1. Turtle Rock
The most egregious thing about the Tower of Hera is the dungeon item. I completely ignored it by accident as a kid and was stuck for weeks after beating Hyrule Castle, as a result. I even looked up walkthroughs and was confused as to why Kiki the monkey wasn’t showing up.
I think this could’ve been remedied if the dungeon had balcony sections that required you to enter and exit the Dark World and had the chest in a spot that wasn’t easy to overlook.
Honestly valid complaint. It bucks the trend of Dungeon Items having any use within their dungeon for no reason other than to fuck with the player.
i'm not completely sure I agree with your placement of the desert palace, but it is refreshing to see somebody who didn't put dungeon five of the dark world the ice palace in the bottom position. Most people seem to rank at the lowest and I know it goes fairly low on the totem pole, but I don't think it's the worst.
They're weak to spin attacks? i never knew this and Ice Dungeon was a huge difficulty spike for me. I love every dungeon in this game though. It's so fun! There's a reason this and Link Between Worlds are my favorite 2D (and potentially my favorite Any D) Zelda games. They're good! Incredibly charming, fun, and creative dungeon designs. Can't wait to hear about the bosses!
Mhm - Die in one hit to the spin attacks, as long as you have the Tempered Sword upgrade - Makes them, and the dungeon as a whole, waaaay easier.
The pengators can also be oneshot by the hookshot. I found this out decades ago and still have muscle memory of disposing them this way and still use it playing the randomizer. I still need to complete Link Between Worlds, such a fun concept. Cheers!
I find it amusing that both of the mountain dungeons require you to use the other world to enter them
If you use the good bee on Mothula, you'll get a much different experience.
20:20 erm Achktually ahem, theres a small fellow in a cave by the ice palace that tells you theres a mysterious circle at the top right that you can throw a stone into. 🤓🤓
I completly forgot about the pipes
I have a weird relationship with the Ice Palace. To be honest i have no idea how to beat the dungeon, my dark world dungeon order is always 1, 4, 2, 3, 6, 5, 7. Since i have the cane when I do ice palace i always cheese that final puzzle.
I've heard that complaint about final dungeons being uninteresting boss rushes, recaps, or what have you.
Personally, by the time I am set to face Ganon, I like to get on with it. I'm ready to end the game, so I don't want a super complex or unique dungeon. I just want to get to Ganon (or whoever the final boss is).
You have Ganon’s tower 2nd last?????!!
wtf dude
This is THE best ganon’s tower in the whole series and one of the best dungeons in the game
I never found the flying tile rooms fun. If you ask me those are the worst part of any dungeon
This has got to be the most opposite list I've ever seen to pretty much any other ranking. I genuinely enjoy playing through all of the dungeons in LttP but ice palace is the only one that I just get through as quickly as possible to get it over with. I'll do misery mire first so I can get the cane of samaria though. Personally I find back tracking in 2D dungeons to be very annoying, and that block puzzle where you have to back track is not fun to me. Really cool design of LttP overall though in letting the player complete the dungeons in any order they want, as long as they have the required item.
So it seems clear to me you didn’t play this game at the time it came out - correct? You played it years later cuz you’re young?
That makes much more sense given the bizarre rankings
Ranking the palace of darkness/eastern palace so low? Nuts
So it seems clear to me you didn’t play this game at the time it came out - correct? You played it years later cuz you’re young?
That makes much more sense given the bizarre rankings
So it seems clear to me you didn’t play this game at the time it came out - correct? You played it years later cuz you’re young?
That makes much more sense given the bizarre rankings
Ranking the palace of darkness/eastern palace so low? Nuts