How Long Does It Take To Get To The First Dungeon in EVERY Zelda Game?
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- Sometimes #zelda games like to throw you right into the action and some Legend of Zelda games like to take their sweet time. In this video I time how long it takes to get to the first dungeon in every Zelda game. #breathofthewild
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Maybe a hot take but I love Twilight Princess’ intro. I could do without goat herding but I like everything else. Its sets up a good contrast between the mundane everyday life Link lives and when all of the sudden shit hits the fan.
Cool intro for the first time.
But it's painful when you replay the game.
Absolutely, I love TP, aside from BOTW it's my favorite zelda game, the intro is long but it doesn't feel like filler (aside from goat hoarding)
You do so much in that intro, imma end this comment now before I gush over TP to much
My problem is that its all mandatory tbh I understand your point of view on a conceptual level, and I remember enjoying the intro in my first playthrough where I went in effectively blind, but in subsequent playthroughs it just feels like unnecessary hand holding.
@@princeapoopoo5787 I get that. I’ve enjoyed it on every playthrough myself because I just kinda like to see link chilling and living a normal life. The game doesn’t tell you “link is just a normal kid who goes on an epic adventure”, it lets you live that out. Show don’t tell
I was about to say… even the goat herding 💀 but yeah it is really good
This is the most "here's a video to watch between 1-4am" content that I think I've ever stumbled upon. That said, great work and great video.
u explained it perfectly lmao
Watching this at 3am rn
I gotta be up at 7😭
yep watching at 2 am, I got work at 6:30 in the morning lmaoooo
Why is this so accurate, it's 2:02 am for me rn
It’s funny that it’s 3:30 am for me rn lol
9:24 that transition made it look like after link saw his sister get taken away, he was just like “ENJOY YOUR TRAVELS!!”
I thought I was the only one who thought that lmao
Honestly I like Twilight Princess' intro, the same way I like Red Dead Redemptions final act (the period after the showdown with Dutch and the final confrontation with the law). It's a mundane, mellow atmosphere that makes you feel like Link is finally resting and getting to live normally, only to be dragged back into the conflict dramatically. TP is actually my favorite Zelda game, it has a charm and aesthetic I can't get over.
I feel like the issue is more on subsequent playthroughs, where you know all this already and just wanna get to the main stuff already.
... And then the yeti rears her ugly head.
That's the same reason I love Wind Waker
@@brolytriplethreatThis is a question I find myself thinking about a lot, what’s more important? An intro/tutorial that helps settle players into the gameplay and story at the risk of being slow when you don’t care, or an intro that can be blown through by players who already know how to play but risk becoming more of a tell not show beginning with text and cutscenes telling the story instead of actions, or even risk a lack of story set up at all? (I think a decent or at least easily comparable example of each of these would be TOTK vs BOTW openings)
It's crazy how fast your could get to the first dungeon in the original games!
Also, I'd like to defend Twilight Princess's length.
Even though it takes 1:30 Hours to get to the Forest Temple, there are many other locations before that which act like dungeons. Namely, the mission to save Talo and the Wolf Link Sewer section. Both are small, but have elements of dungeon exploration (ex. keys, monsters, mazes.)
Yeah back when you couldn't tell a story in game, you just booted it up and tried to figure it out.
I've just played Zelda 1 and it took me like an hour to find the first dungeon. It's easy once you know where it is but for a new player you're told nothing and you will likely get lost or explore the world. I pretty much explored all the map going east, north, south, at the center...there was this old man at the top right corner... and an old woman at the bottom left... many bearded dealers in between... a gambling addict... Finally, after having run out places, I went west and there it was beyond a small bridge lol. It's more hard to calculate times in open world games like this one or BOTW.
@@marcospina162to be fair the players were expected to read the manual that came with it at the time.
@@Jester_Jingles True, but nobody read it before playing the game xD. I read the manual online because I found every dungeon but the 2nd lol (and 7th but I'm not there yet).
I feel like most Zelda fans hate the DS titles for the exact reasons you mentioned (the microphone stuff, the stealth, the general gimmick-y stuff). But I've always loved both of them. I grew up playing them religiously on my DSi with my sibling, so I'm immune to their stupidity.
I like Phantom Hourglass, I do not like Spirit tracks as much but it does have a wonderful ost.
I haven't seen anyone else mention this, but you can count the Temple of the Ocean King as the first dungeon for Phantom Hourglass. Granted the first trip is really short, and it doesn't properly open up till later. Still, I imagine you could cut off 5-10 minutes.
Similarly, I would count the Tower of Spirits to be the first dungeon for Spirit Tracks. Even the first visit feels a lot more like a dungeon, and I imagine that would cut off 20-30 minutes.
I love Spirit Tracks for some reason, I think I just enjoyed the world. PH i liek less but it was still enjoyable.
Spirit Tracks Zelda is legit the best Zelda we've had(BOTW/TOTK is really good too tho, and I would count Tetra but sadly she gets pushed to the side in the middle of the story)
Controls add to it but my main things are in phantom hourglass the dungeon theme is not only repeated for every single dungeon but it's like literally just 2 f*cking notes and spirit tracks is super slow to get anywhere or do anything 100% wise the hardest in the series the control scheme just amplifies how annoying it is then both have beautiful parts and can be fun but are easily the least enjoyable and least repayable in the series. I had an argument with my brother about whether spirit tracks or zelda ii was harder and he claimed zelda ii until he played them both back to back.. lol
I really thought MM was much closer to TP! You progress so much in MM until the first dungeon, can't believe that's still shorter than TPs tutorial
I think because most people do way more content before the first dungeon, it feels like it should be longer.
@Game Essays yeah you're probably right. In MM I never felt the need to get to the first dungeon asap because there's so much freedom in what you can do, while in TP you're pretty much forced to get the intro over with
I thought the same but with Wind Waker. I guess all of the stuff before Dragon Roost feels longer than it is.
Good point! But yeah in MM you can do 100 other things before the first dungeon. In TP there isn’t much freedom
@@Beefnhammer wind waker is so boring for the first 2 or 3 hours.
I decided to check speedrun times of the various glitchless speedruns for the 3D zeldas, to see how long it takes to enter a dungeon as fast as possible with high optimization (so cutscene skips included for example). This is what I got:
- OoT3D: 5:35
- OoT (N64): 6:00
- TWWHD (Forsaken Fortress 1): 17:18
- TWW (Forsaken Fortress 1): 21:42
- SSHD: 23:24*
- SS: 29:44*
- TPHD: 30:42
- TP (GC): 33:25
- MM (N64): 35:34
- MM3D: 36:54
- BotW (Vah Medoh): 38:18
- TWWHD (Dragon Roost Cavern): 38:43
- TWW (GC, Dragon Roost Cavern): 43:24
*Skyward Sword doesn't have a glitchless speedrun, but the No BiT category only contains one glitch before skyview and it saves one minute at most.
SS and TP take so long to get to the first dungeon solely because of cutscenes. If you can skip cutscenes, they're suddenly not as bad. TWW is the most hurt from unskippable cutscenes. These speedruns don't necessarely all try to enter their first dungeon as fast as possible though, since they may do some detours to make the overall route faster (I would guess MM and BotW could be faster in that regard).
It's amazing how optimized speedrunners have made it. My experiment was more in the spirit of a casual player seeing which generally take longer to get going when they want to casually replay a Zelda game. Thank you for sharing!
"If you can skip cutscenes, they're suddenly not as bad."
It's not because it's long it's necessarily bad...
@@OnACloud They're bad in a speedrunning sense, a speedrun wouldn't want the cutscenes to be too long because, well, you would have to watch them every attempt. The cutscenes are great the first few times but the 100th time you would rather get to the meat of the run lol.
I never meant it in another way, I love these games and some cutscenes are quite memorable.
@@azer67 Oh okay, sorry, you're totally right then! I'm just sick of people hating on long introductions. They can be great if done well, which is globally the case for these games
@Adriyin Both Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess have very effective introductions on a first playthrough, but it's undeniable that they suck hard for replays.
Even beyond the cutscenes, adding a lot of time, there's a pretty good amount of fluff you need to wade through that ultimately doesn't even matter to the overall story (especially in Twilight Princess.)
Dang Essay. I knew it was Twilight Princess... Everyone did. Good stuff dude. Close to 5K subs!
Nah I thought it was gonna be Skyward Sword. I stayed up so long playing that intro on Wii.
@@neonmenace1592 Nah. It was obviously going to be TP. The only thing slowing SS down is the slower text speed; TP has you do so much more before Forest Temple.
TP: Get Epona, herd goats, find cradle, fish, fish, slingshot, slingshot and sword tutorial, find kids, herd goats again, escape from Hyrule Castle, get sword and shield, collect tears of light, follow slow monkey, go to Forest Temple.
SS: Go to Zelda, go to Knight Academy, find loftwing, loftwing tutorial, Wing Ceremony, follow Fi, go to Faron, hit stake, go to temple, find kikwi, go to Skyview Temple.
I stayed in line for 8 hours to get a Wii and play Twilight Princess and after racing back home and completing that slog of an intro I slept for like half a day, lol.
@@Argorox There’s also the fact that the intro of SS just flows so much better than the intro of TP. So while TP may take around an hour and a half and in actuality isn’t much slower than SS, it feels like it takes an eternity compared to SS because of how much random inconsequential shit it forces you to do before the first dungeon. Seriously, herding goats twice???
@@Argorox I've played both games, and while the intros are both very long, there was a lot more that kept me occupied in TP rather than in SS. It should however be said that the first dungeon in SS was a lot better than the first one in TP.
This is the deal... Twilight Princess is a Masterpiece... I'm glad I waited for Skyward Sword HD and we needed it during that Zelda drought. Lanayru is amazing, and so are the silent realms... Skyloft... Awesome!!! Wait a second I love all the Zelda games... even romhacks... you guys should watch some Zelda romhacks on my channel.
I'm curious how much TP would go down if you removed the center Ordon section with the kids. Orignally, the beginning was supposed to be talking with Rusl, getting the assignment to go to the castle, Link going to bed, and then the village gets attacked the next morning (I guess horseback training would still be there because you need the fence hopping drama to be there at the spring). The entire slingshot segment with the kids and such was entirely added becaue the game was delayed to become a Wii launch title and they wanted to make sure players could understand motion controls.
Didn't know that! That would've helped the pacing to have that removed
@@GameEssays even tho it hurt the pacing a bit i feel like saving the kids and Ilia wouldnt really matter if we didnt experience their relationship before everything goes bad so I like this intro a lot anyway
There's actually several other things that were removed from TP. The most well-known one was that you were supposed to sumo each of the Goron elders for their key piece.
@Urayi I mean honestly aside from maybe Illia the kids genuinely are all uninteresting as fuck anyway. I love Twilight Princess to death, but you could easily have removed every one of them from the story aside from Illia and nothing really significant would have been lost (they have basically no screentime passed the prologue anyway.)
Literally, the most memorable one is Malo and that's not because he's an interesting character, but because he's the most mature one despite looking like a literal infant (which looks extra creepy in TP's psuedo realistic artstyle.)
This is a very cool idea for a video, and well executed. I definitely laughed hearing how much you had to do in Twilight Princess. The Breath of the Wild results are kind of fascinating.
I definitely went over TP in more detail than most to emphasize how much you have to do lol
@@GameEssays I thought SS was gonna be longer.
@@Stinkyremy there's only about 10 things you have to do before the first dungeon, and half that is just the tutorial.
Breath of the Wild doesn’t have dungeons. “Divine Beasts” and shrines aren’t dungeons. Just one of many reasons why it’s the worst 3d “Zelda” game of all time.
@@holleringsmith3837 that's not what the sales said. Also they're technically dungeons. However, they don't compare well to the traditional dungeons.
I cant believe you did the TP intro TWICE… anyone who watches this should subscribe out of sympathy lmao
I had to mentally prepare myself for that one
@@GameEssaysdo yall find tp that bad? It’s in my top 3 with Majoras mask and botw
@@Luca.Bianconeri Its not that its bad, just that the intro before the first dungeon is long
@@Luca.Bianconeri It's less about the game being bad, and more about the fact that the intro takes a long time in comparison to other LoZs
@@Luca.Bianconeri it's easily the most pretentious Zelda title. It has a whole ass Guillermo Del Toro introduction like it's the fucking hateful 8 six hours in and nothing happens
I forgot just how long Wind Waker was because it all felt so natural and fun vs the other games with such long intros.
I think it has a nice balance or story and fun gameplay even if it takes long to get to the actual dungeon.
@@GameEssays agreed 100%
People complain about the slow starts of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, but I think The Wind Waker has the worst pacing of any 3D Zelda game. The game takes a really long time just to get to the sailing. And even then, the amount of exploring you can do while sailing is heavily limited for a good deal longer. I like the Forsaken Fortress, but stripping Link of his sword for a lengthy stealth section after only fighting like three enemies is just strange. It’s not until the back half of the game that it really starts to deliver on its promises. Slow as they can be, at least TP and SS are getting you into the basics of the adventure much earlier.
wind waker is just a blast to play
Yes. The annoyingly long stealth dungeon is SO much more fun...
I'd argue that in Link to the Past, the palace IS the first dungeon. It has a map, a major treasure, a boss, and a Big Key. The eastern palace is the second dungeon.
Thing is, the boss (Agahnim) is fourth after you get the Master Sword, and you only explore the first half, so it's actually the 4th dungeon. Same with Forsaken Fortress
Not to necro, but I would have to disagree. It's missing one critical component, a story progression item (pendant or crystal). In pretty much all Zelda games there is some passive item unlocked after you complete the dungeon. Aside from this you can tell that in spirit the palace is the first dungeon.
@@mrlizard6529 Considering the 7 Dark World dungeons have you collect the maidens, you could consider Zelda to be that item
@@mrlizard6529 the boomerang and zelda could be considered those items.
@@skc4188 @mrlizard6529 boulder guy is the boss that protect the passive item, Zelda., Agahnim tower is yet another dungeon, as is Ganon Tower, making 13 dungeons in total.
19:20 Believe me, as a kid I struggled with this section of the game. Anything that really required control of Zelda was always so annoying but rewarding. This game is a gem that needs more love. Also, the Lokomos having names based on parts of a train was such a cool detail that I missed as a kid.
The 2 DS games and the Oracles would really deserve a remake
@@stratonikisporcia8630if they remake the ds games, I NEED the temple of the ocean king to have warp points to skip past the parts you've already done. Literally the one thing that prevents me from playing phantom hourglass 😭
I genuinely never knew about those yellow rupees at the start of tp I just always picked up rocks until I could save enough lolll
Omg same, that was the most educational thing in this video for me lmao
Great to see a video on this topic. What interested me most is how comparable the opening times for "Skyward Sword" "Twilight Princess" and "Breath of the Wild" are, as the first two introductions are generally reviled and the latter generally revered. Of course, that defines the opening as the time before reaching the first dungeon, which isn't always fair.
Personally, I like it when gameplay feels intertwined with progressing a story, so I don't necessarily mind when it takes a while to reach the first proper dungeon on an initial playthrough. Having said that, I feel that "Ocarina" has the best template for the series to follow. You can talk to NPC's, explore the Lost Woods, and follow the tutorials if you want to. But if you know what you're doing you can skip most of that, acquire the sword and shield and start the first dungeon within ten minutes. The flaw with "Twilight Princess'" introduction isn't that you can herd goats, it's that you must herd goats.
Well said!
Pretty much. I love both skyward sword and TP, but I never play them from the beginning and have a save file I copy over from that skips all the tutorial shit.
@@youtube-kit9450 I did that with Skyward Sword. Never replayed the game enough to use the short save file though.
I REALLY don't understand why people hate Twilight Princess' intro.
I always find it fun and it sets up the normal life that Link has to protect.
On a first playthrough, its really neat. If you ever want to play it again its agonizingly slow and repetitive.
I don't truly hate it (though it can certainly be a bit of a drag on replays)...but I do have a hilarious story on how it screwed over my plans.
So my friend and I, both huge Zelda fans, were super hyped for Twilight Princess and decided we were gonna have a release party where we both buy a Wii and TP and I bring my TV over to his place to set it up right by his and experience the game together.
I knew If likey have to camp out for a Wii, but figured if I just went after I got off of work that evening we'd be good...not so much. Already there were long lines and signs claiming limited supplies of only a few available consoles.
Somehow, miraculously, right when we were on the cusp of giving up after checking the GameStop at the mall, we happened upon a sign on the doors to Sears claiming they'd have 2 Wiis tomorrow morning...and no line. Perfect! We camp out, get our Wiis, and prepare for epic Zelda adventure!!!
Yeah yeah, the intro is a bit slow, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was the new motion controls and mandatory fishing part. Which is to say...we legit couldn't figure it out. We both got stuck trying to catch a fish for hours with no progress, and as the game was brand new the internet didn't have much help.
So after all that our planned epic party ended up as a disappointing "play half the tutorial and then get stuck for an hour and give up" party lol. I'll always have a bit of a personal grudge against it for that.
(And of boy how frustrating it was to discover you just had to hold the Wiimote straight up for a few seconds. We kept trying to flick it quickly, or even try a reeling motion.)
@@Sdogofdoompersonally I really don't find that, I really like playing Zelda games for the story as well as the gameplay and the intro to Tp really helps get you invested in what link needs to protect and to show that this boy wasn't raised special at all
@@Gamemaster6400 That is definitely understandable, I tend to play games for the story the first time and the game itself for subsequent playthroughs, especially if i fully remember the story. I played TP the first time as a kid, and so when i picked it up again a decade later, I had fun with that first segment, but on a third playthough i couldn't stand the like 4 hours it takes to properly start the first dungeon.
I have great memories of it but in my 4th playthrough i really wished we could speed things up... Like a lot
I liked the Wind Waker dialogue on the GCN. The way the text moved, it was done so well, I always felt as if I was listening to a text version of someone's speech patterns.
Rather than the text being splattered onto the screen at once, or scrolling by at a general pace, it felt like for some of the NPCs, their mode of speech was coming across quite well.
You don't get that often in games these days, most non-voiced text is just thrown out there for convenience, and I can hardly blame anyone for it.
But it's really special and artistic when text is portrayed like it was in the original Wind Waker.
Great point! Some artistic things like that get lost when newer generations just want faster text.
Same with things like auto-save etc
Same it was very clean. I miss the GC version
Isn’t TP also like that ? Probably the best text box I ever saw.
Although it’s not by the numbers the longest, the SS intro definitely FEELS the longest. TP manages to feel shorter because I think some of the introductory segments are a lot more engaging. I’ve always loved the part where you first become a wolf, the monkey chase, and the sneaking around Ordon Village to steal a sword and shield. The forced sword and slingshot tutorials, goat herding, and fishing could really be done without though.
What this video made me realize is there's a huge difference between intro sequences that feel like "events in your life," intros that feel like "early pieces of an adventure," and intros that feel like "the game doesn't want me to go ahead yet, and it's drilling all this into me because there's going to be a test tomorrow"
My favorite part of the series is seeing the changes and similarities of the topography between games.
Like how TP's water dungeon is OoT's Zora's Domain (but a few decades built-up before then being abandoned)
Pretty sure it's just oot's water dungeon. both being underneath lake hylia and all. unless we look into the idea of hyrule kingdom expanding north and moving their capital in 100 years.
@@voltrainer wouldn't that have to be the case? The Temple of Time in both games is in a completely different location, one near the castle and one all the way in the forest to the south. Unless I'm forgetting some dialogue explaining the temple moved for no reason.
@@midnightbloomofeorzea7182 well in the forest grove lies the old ruins of OoT’s castle town so the temple of time itself didn’t move it was castle town, so something did happen (there are many theories) but the castle did indeed move north
@VoltaireSurge maybe I'm thinking of the wrong name, but it's the one you enter by swimming from Lake Hylia's shortcut tunnel in the stone platform, right at the beach on Hyrule Field's side.
In Ocarina of Time, it's a shortcut from Zora's Domain to Lake Hylia/vice versa.
In Twilight Princess, it's the entry from Lake Hylia to the water temple.
And you get to actually swim through the tunnel in TP, which was cool cuz in OoT, it fades to black, so it was real surreal to swim through there knowing you're seeing the same thing the other Link saw a dozen times and about to enter Zora' Domain. Then you emerge and it's so vastly different you have to question if it's the same one, how much time has passed, how good of Masons the Zora are, was it abandoned or was it repurposed, and etc.
But if you swim back outside and look around, you pop on OoT and take a look. You compare map geography. And there's no doubt about it that it was once Zora's Domain but its now the Water Temple
i wish a video about that existed
Funny thing: the route you took for Breath of the Wild, going straight to Zora’s domain was the EXACT route I took for my first ever play through
I think that's deliberate. I didn't realize it until finishing the game, but in both it AND tears of the kingdom, they herd you a lot. Invisible herding, but powerful herding. Medoh is the easiest, but not the most straightforward to get to, so it rewards people who saw a big floating thing in the sky and went "yes. that. that first." while Ruta is the most logical progression of events for people who follow direction and don't mind going with the flow, since you go to Kakariko, see the wetlands, and naturally want to go explore.
It's amazing how the designers pull you from place to place without you realizing how you've been pulled, how it fits in with your playstyle based on what pulled you, and how hard it makes it to put the game down since it keeps tugging you along to the next thing on the horizon XD.
@@KairuHakubi and then there's me... Where the first thing I did was get the fierce deity set because I happened across it and felt like searching for it xd
@@SnowFaceChamcham I do like when some of them make sense for where you find them. I want to say that set is in the depths versions of coliseums?
@@KairuHakubi lol I went to gerudo
@@drieshuybens4594 people like you get my respect. though the game does leave that available by gently giving you a peek of the baobab valley, beckoning only the most stout-hearted to give that place a shot.. but it's also deliberately discouraging to anyone who'd rather do easier parts first, seeing as you come across the giant horse (whom you cannot have enough stamina to ride right away AND who is hard to get safely to the nearby stable even IF you knew it was there), and a freaking Lynel, the first one you've come across if you go to Gerudo first.. and then you're hit with two different temperature issues, requiring a LOT of prep to get around..
I had a feeling it was Twilight Princess, and I had a feeling that the first dungeon would be where you're imprisoned in the sewers which are *literally* a dungeon, but you took the extra credit approach.
In ALttP you also rescue Zelda from a literal dungeon in the beggining
This video made me realize just how little the top down Zelda games mess around. The shortest times were consistently the top down ones!
they were my fav, oracle of seasons was so good
Despite how long TP cut scenes are, i really liked the world building from peaceful happy village to cursed twilight realm. The very beginning part of the twilight realm is genuinely terrifying, especially the Shadow Beasts were really hard at the beginning. When most of the other games already have a world ready for us with some odities but our entire world gets overturned in TP.
Man the chill way you drop in that Tingle is a criminal and that the NPC from Spirit Tracks looks like Bob Ross really got me. Lol, great video.
I already knew that it took around an hour thirty to get to the first dungeon in Twilight Princess.
It is my favorite of them all.
For applicable games, I count the first dungeon as the first area you go to that has a Dungeon Map. So I not only count the Forsaken Fortress as the first dungeon, but also A Link to the Past's Hyrule Castle. I haven't gotten that far in the video yet, but for Breath of the Wild I'd time how long it takes to get to the dungeon that is the fastest to reach, since they can be done in any order, and any of the Divine Beasts can be skipped. Hyrule Castle is the fastest to reach. It has a 3D map like the Divine Beasts, so it counts. The map comes preloaded, but it's still a BOTW Dungeon Map.
Here's hoping for some temples in Tears of the Kingdom.
@@Sir_Adam great news!
@Tired Potato eh. Kinda
@@johnnyguitar8067 What about them makes it only kinda? They're dungeons designed with BotW/TotK's freeform exploration gameplay foremost in mind.
@@devonm042690 they're very short (15 mins tops) and extremely easy. Just a big room connected to 5 small rooms where you solve the same puzzle 5 times in a row to unlock the boss fight.
They're okay. But not really what I was expecting after 6 years.
The thing I was most excited about in the BOTW section was the comparison of all 4 Dungeons, but I guess I can understand not wanting to spend another 2-3ish hours timing the other two for this video. Would you ever consider including them in a follow-up video, like potentially packaged with a TotK dungeon video?
I definitely would consider it! I would have to really think about the best route for those two since it gets a bit more complicated.
@@GameEssays especially when you consider the environment issues... you learn about managing cold on the great plateau, so it's different with tabantha and hebra, but eldin's fire gear can be really expensive, and the elixers you get at the foothill stable aren't enough for death mountain's peak (i think). and then of course gerudo requires a base minimum of 600 rupees to buy link's gerudo vai set.
all in all, i think that it sounds like a really interesting idea! i went straight to gerudo on one of my first playthroughs, but i noticed that things like yiga clan hideout and attacking vah naboris could be difficult for people who hadn't mastered the mechanics of the game yet.
@@karoo_hoo2811 Going up to death mountain first would probably see you camping out at the bottom of the mountain hunting lizards to make elixirs, and even then you're only looking to make enough to reach Goron village to buy the gear which would still need rupees. This is ignoring the multiple guardians you'd find on the path toward the village, and even after you reach the village you still have to free Yunobo and escort him up the mountain. There is literally nothing about this divine beast that is remotely fast. Even doing the Yiga clan hideout for Gerudo would be faster.
You can easily shave time off of Wind Waker. Saving Tingle is not required to get to the first dungeon, and neither is learning the Wind’s Reqium.
I love the TP intro, even though it's long. It sets the atmosphere and gives more depth to Link and his close ones.
I also only had the Wii as far as Nintendo consoles go growing up, and played TP at least 5 times on it. It was really exciting when I got my hands on a GameCube to play other games. First thing I did was try TP and oh boy, I struggled the whole game with the directions 😂
"I fear no man. But that thing...
*GOAT IN!*
It scares me."
(I'm actually perfectly fine with the TP intro, I like how it sets up Link's life in Ordon before his adventure, but did we *really* have to do the goats twice?)
And why did he get 10 more goats? Where did he get then from? How did he get them there in literally a day when you have to pass Link's house to enter Ordon?
I have never played Twilight Princess but holy shit it's like 47 fetch quests just to get to the dungeon 😭
Twilight's intro may have been long, but it gave you time to love the kids of Ordon who end up in Kakariko, and without it, the story with them (Saving Collin and Ilia losing her memory) wouldn't have been as heartwarming
Wow, Ages and Seasons are very far apart in time! I guess that makes sense. I always preferred Ages because it is much more of a puzzle game than Seasons is. Seasons, being more action-oriented, just throws you into the dungeon right away.
THat's the reason I like Ages LESS lol. It's fine at first but some of the later dungeons have some weird and difficult bosses.
That's because Seasons is a remake of the original game with dungeon locations and treasures, just with an actual story. Ages is an original game thus making it the better of the 2.
@@Logicalleapingthis is completely false. Seasons has quite a few references to tloz1, mainly in the dungeons, but the actual map and items and how you get around are not at all similar. Even if you go by the absolute loosest possible definition of a remake, seasons doesn't come close to qualifying.
And even those similar elements aren't that similar. The bosses are almost all fought in very different ways to the tloz1 bosses, and the dungeons are only vaguely similar.
Really cool video idea! This just goes to show that in the older games, you'll basically be in a dungeon as often as in the overworld
@Game Essays For A Link to the Past, Hyrule Castle is a dungeon, it has a Compass and a Map, and is considered a Dungeon by the Death Log at the end of the game.
Same thing for Forsaken Fortress in Windwaker lol
I always thought that the Minish cap was a really underrated Zelda game which I find really sad but these past days I see a lot of youtubers mention and reference minish cap in their videos and it warms my heart to know that my favourite and the first Zelda game that I've ever beaten is really popular
I'm actually working on a Minish Cap review as part of my ranking every Zelda series. Should hopefully be done before TOTK
I loved it, only hand held zelda I've played so far
I kinda like the long intro in twilight Princess. Unlike most Zelda games, Twilight Princess uses its npcs to the fullest, making the average player care about who they’re saving. And making link a average guy helping out the people in his village is really beautiful
Yeah. I really like it. It makes you WANT to save the world versus feeling like you HAVE to save the world.
“Monkey Moses” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
You can skip Sidon harassing you on the way to Zora's Domain if you glide to the other side of the bridge that Sidon is at. Then he won't constantly stop you on your way to the domain
Idk why but this is FAR more intersting to me than the 'touch grass/ water/ fire' videos.
Because it puts into perspective the actual intentions and design routes taken with the game
Zora's domain could be reached faster if you avoid sidon, since he won't talk to you along the route
There's chests that contain shock arrows on the way too. So there's no need to go visit the lynel
I don't care ! Twilight Princess has the best intro in the series.
Every single interaction helps build Link's character or his relationship with the other characters.
Even the CAT is relevant later as you speak to him in wolf form later.
It feels like Tears of the Kingdom switches up the two places. The game leads you towards the Wind Temple at Rito Village, which takes a bit of time, but I feel that Zora's Domain takes much less time if you know where you're going
I think I'll eventually time each one. I feel like Goron will be the shortest.
@@GameEssays Fair enough, with some good Zonai machines you could probably get around much faster
I was really surprised by that, yeah. They seemed to learn a lot and deliberately made things different from the last time we were in this familiar map. An area that was formerly raining and thus restricts you to the path, is now.. not raining, and the path is strewn with goo, so you kinda HAVE to take a shortcut. the tower is easy to get to, and once you do, the entire area is at your disposal because it shoots you up so high.
I think that in totk getting TO the dungeon is faster for the rito simply by the fact that tullin helps your speed more than Sidon will and the Zora domain's unlocking quest's verticality is harder to deal with since you need to go out of your way for zonai devices or have AMAZING timing to get to fish island with just the starting stamina.
Before watching:
Twilight Princess should take a while, probably the longest. Maybe Skyward Sword. Unless you count BOTW's dungeon as Divine Beasts, which would take even longer.
I was surprised at twilight princess's actual length, it feels so, so much longer than an hour and a half. One of my only complaints with that otherwise masterful game is just how much that intro draaaags, especially on replays, but I do think it pays off in the end to spend that much time setting up link's life and home.
I think in general it takes longer because most people are not just barreling through doing exactly what's required. It usually takes me about two hours when I'm casually playing
@@GameEssays fair point! Probably closer to 2, 2 and a half hours for a normal playthrough if you're talking to everyone, exploring, getting lost, etc.
I think without getting to know the people in the village the story later on wouldn't work that well, especially for the first time.
Damn, enjoyed this concept, twilight princess didn't really shock me considering it's my favourite game and I've beaten it so many times
What's neat about A Link to the Past is that, the first time you play it, the Hyrule Castle segment in the beginning feels dungeon-ish, although I agree that most people who've played further wouldn't consider it a proper dungeon. Even just the storm going on makes it feel like things are already happening as soon as the game starts.
Awesome concept for a video! Great job!
Watching this made me wonder how long it takes to get from beating the Deku Tree to Dodongo's Cavern in Oot. Mostly since the quest with Zelda & Saria in between takes some time. With all this said, I'm curious what it would look like measuring the time between each Zelda dungeon for every Zelda game. It would be interesting to find the average, min, and max for each game. Calculating this numbers could help find which Zelda game has the "best pacing" from dungeon to dungeon. I'm assuming the list would still look pretty similar to this one though.
I will say don't feel obligated to do a video like that because I imagine it would take a VERY long time to make :P It was just a random idea that popped up.
If you open up the lost woods shortcut in Goron city by using deku stick torch on the bomb flowers, you can cut the time down a lot.
@@GameEssays Yeah! This is something I really appreciate about Oot in general. A first playthrough doesn't feel too short with it usually lasting 25+ hours (according to google at least), but on subsequent playthroughs you can speed through the game fairly quickly. For me as an example, I can beat the game in roughly 8-10 hours if I rush objective to objective using no glitches.
For other 3D Zelda games this doesn't seem to be the case. There always seems to be 3-5 things you need to do before entering a dungeon with no skips or shortcuts. Maybe I don't know how to optimize those games as well, but it feels that Oot is the only 3D Zelda game that excels at this (except for BotW)
So this may be a slightly more advanced strat, but for Oracle of Seasons you may be able to save 1-2mins by making a linked game, that cuts out the heroes cave trip entirely from the opening.
In that case I would count the entire Oracle of Ages playthrough as preparation for the first Oracle of Seasons dungeon 😅
@@AbeM. not really as there is a functional password generator that can cut out Ages or Seasons entirely if you'd want to.
@@TheBitishDragon then I’d count the time it takes to generate and input the code.
@@AbeM. sure you can if you want, but in the video he stated that time starts when he leaves the file select screen and thats what I was going off.
I am going to guess Majora's mask
Edit: I could not be more wrong. Twilight princess is so long, and what's weird is I played this game like 2 days ago. It feels faster than it is because it's actually a fun game
Debatably wouldn't Hyrule Castle count as the first dungeon of A Link to the Past? True it doesn't contain a traditional boss, but it does have keys, items, a miniboss and heart container as a reward for completing it.
Also a map
For MM did you use grandma and the scarecrow to skip 2 1/2 days for your final time? Might be able to save a lot of time if you didn’t.
I used the scarecrow, I might just be slow lol
doublet is pronounced dub-let.
great content! was interesting to see how much of a difference there could be between all the different games.
I know you didn't mean the names that way, but the Deku Tree saying "Then enter, brave sub" at 4:41 will never not be funny
Temple of the ocean king counts as a phantom hourglass dungeon 😂
True lol
C'mon now. Ocean King Temple is a dungeon.
I feel that since this video is just about how long it takes to get to a dungeon, Forsaken Fortress in Wind Waker should count since it does serve as a proper dungeon later so just because you don't finish it the first time doesn't mean that you didn't enter the dungeon. Same for Hyrule Castle in Link to the Past, it is a dungeon you enter, you just don't complete it on the first visit. In fact there seem to be many times where you go through a dungeon but ignore them because you don't finish them on the first visit despite this video being just about time to enter a dungeon.
Exactly! Although the only other instance I could see was in the DS titles.
TOTK is the longest because Zelda just won't stop talking, HELP!
In case you are curious, doublet isn’t pronounced “doo-blay“ but “duhb-let”. NBD, but thought you might want to know
Ya know, I first called it "duhb-let" for years then I heard someone call it "doo-blay" and I thought I was wrong all this time. Guess I wasn't lol
@@GameEssays You call it doo-blay if you folow the French pronunciation
I learnt this way from witcher 3 cutscene lol
For BOTW I would say the fastest dungeon you can get to is Hyrule Castle, did you consider that one? I personally would understand if it's against the spirit of the game but also when I make a fresh start in BOTW Hyrule Castle is always my first visit after great plateau. I also did it the first time I played the game too since someone told me you can beat Ganon straight away and I wanted to see if it was true
I did mention Hyrule Castle in the video. Because spirituality it is not the first dungeon I didn't do it, but I'm sure it is the fastest since it doesn't have any requirements to enter.
@@GameEssays I would love for you to time it anyways. I am really curious now. You could probably include it In the Tears of the Kingdom video.
I’m guessing twilight princess gonna be long
Just curious, for Majora’s Mask, on the first 3 day cycle when you’re stuck as a Deku, did you talk to the Scarecrow in the Observatory to skip to the night of the last day? Or did you just wait through the 3 days? It can potentially shave off 5-10 minutes. Great video!!
A cycle is 54 minutes (with the first cycle actually running faster, though I can't find anything to back that up I heard it from speedrun commentary) so I believe they used all the time skip shenanigans (btw using the flower next to the inn to get in the 2nd floor door and talking to grandma, you can skip the first 2 days of the cycle before ever entering the observatory)
@@Chizypuff oooooo yeah I forgot you could talk to the grandma and skip that way, good point!
It probably is Twilight Princess.
Or perhaps Breath of the Wild. -Finding a Dungeon at all in the first place is a tall order...-
But for funzies I will throw my guess for the second longest time with Majora's Mask.
Edit: So my Terminal Second Suggestion was way off date.
It would be the longest if you don't know the game allready
@@hackfleischking5162 By that logic any game has the potential to be the longest though.
@@catriamflockentanz not any game. Some are very obvious for the first dungeon. If you play it for the first time but fokus is on getting to the first dungeon, most of the games guide you very strong to the first dungeon. In majoras mask you can waist many cycles before reaching the dungeon even if you fokus on it
Twilight Princess has the worst intro ever in the series. Literally the reason why I've never went back to ever play it.
GOAT IN! GOAT IN! GOAT IN! GOAT IN! GOAT IN! GOAT IN! GOAT!
Skill issue
And this is why TP is heavily criticized for its long and boring intro duration.
It's not that long and definitely not boring
This is a really cool video! Twilight Princess is so funny to me, it takes so long to get to the dungeons but they're all really good once you do get to them
I absolutely love TP, including the opening. I love the idea of living a normal life then it flipping. Regardless, every time I forget you don’t actually start the forest dungeon right when rescuing the kids. Which always confuses ne
The ds microphone is such a good gimmick I love it
You got my sub! Really well made video!! Keep it up and I’ll be here to support!
I did not remember Twilight Princess's intro taking that long.
Spirit tracks time is strictly wrong because the Spirit tower is a dungeon but it is a reoccurring dungeon. That takes multiple trips to complete.
Just started playing twilight princess yesterday, played for about an hour and still on the part where you first meet midna 😂
Still an amazing game!
What I always find funny is that EVERYONE says “dead uncle” for Link to the past, but I’m pretty sure he is alive in the credits once you beat the game
Links wishes him back with the triforce
I always thought he broke his leg on the fall down because he was older than link but that might be the childhood innocence I had from when I originally played it.
Love this! Amazing job as you throughly explained how to get to each dungeon in the game.
My favorite tloz is a tie between link to the past and tp. I tried to get into breath of the wild and it bothers me because it feels like I have so little direction…I get trying to figure things out sometimes but I guess it was too open world for me
same here, i played and actually enjoyed both botw and totk but twilight princess stays on top, i’ll take the long intro over the great plateau/sky island any day
Awesome concept for a video enjoyed this one a lot!
Haven‘t watched the video yet.
But my guess is „Majoras Mask“ will take the longest.
You have to go through an entire 3-day-cycle and after that the entire swamp level, with tons of steps you gotta do until you can reach the temple.
However, MM earns the right of doing that by being really different from the other games. With only 4 dungeons (ignoring some smaller mini-dungeons), that game is all about exploring the actual overworld, not a really dungeon heavy game.
Lol, my guess on the longest two were Twilight princess and Skyward sword which were close!
28:46 Link casually phases through a deer
😂
Outcomes that surprised me, TP intro being longer than SS, WW intro being not as shorter than TP as I initially though it would be and how long ST intro was.
The weirdest takeaway from this video is I only just noticed that Impa's skin is blueish when possessed, I know I was just a kid when I played these games, but surprised I never noticed before now
in my nopinion the Castle Escape in alttp counts as a dungeon. you have a Map you have keys you have a master key, something like a boss and you even get a heart container after you reaced the sanctuary.
Before watching, I'm actually curious about the Touch a Dungeon guideline, since you visit the exterior of the first dungeon in Twilight Princess before getting a chance to enter it. And then you get transported to Hyrule Castle, which is a dungeon (and you're also in the dungeon of it).
Might be able to cut some time in wind waker by not learning the song and instead just time the changing wind. Of course if you don't do it your first try it might take longer doing it that way.
twilight princess has the best opening. i love it.
I thought the TP intro would have been like three hours. It’s not so bad considering it’s only a little longer than Skyward Sword and Spirit Tracks
the big surprise for me has to be spirit tracks, i remember feeling like the game dragged but wow i didn't realize it was "on par with the later 3D games" long.
25:22 "Who we LET stay in our house"
You do not need to lie, Ravio can't hurt you anymore, we all know he gave you no choice.
Oot is my favorite cause it’s the first Zelda game I’ve beat but spirit tracks and skyward sword also has a special place in my heart
Phantom hourglass should've ended at the temple of the ocean King...
You should’ve clarified with PH and ST that you weren’t counting the Temple of the Ocean King and Tower of Spirits as dungeons
I'm gonna say it's Twilight Princess. There's so much stuff you have to do before getting into the first dungeon. I thought about Wind Waker, but I consider Forsaken Fortress the first dungeon, and then DRC as the first proper dungeon.
Edit: So I just saw the rules and it said no cutscene skipping. So it's definitely TP.
I always thought the temple of the ocean king in phantom hourglass should count as a dungeon considering it fulfills the requirements and is officially stated to be one. But maybe he only counts going deeper in it as a dungeon?
Maybe I am overthinking it bc I am biased to root for phantom hourglass which is for some reason one of my favorite zelda games.
In my head, I was like “It doesn’t take too long to get to the first TP dungeon. You just run through the forest to rescue Talo and the monkey.” I completely forgot that you don’t actually enter the dungeon until after your first transformation 🤯
Shorter Zelda games with less dungeons tend to stretch out the gameplay more with side quests and have parts of the map cut off until certain goals are met in order to pad the game out. Makes sense. Both Majora's Mask and MInish Cap do that.
What a fun concept for a video!
I did actually like Spirit Tracks, so i have great knowledge of it, and getting hit by the Phatom when it first appears basically acts as though you ran away, so that may shave off a couple seconds.
Ive never had a goat go red and knock me off my horse in TP! didn't even know that was a possibility.
Really enjoyed the video!
Technically, the first dungeon in LTTP is Hyrule Castle/Waterway heading to the Sanctuary when you save Zelda.
And, yes, even by your definition, it counts because you acknowledge the Forsaken Forrest in Wind Waker with going through it twice. The only difference is in LTTP and going back to Hyrule Castle is you go through the top floors then, which is a totally different set of puzzles and challenges compared to when you first go through the bottom floors.
Now you can make the argument of not having a boss at the beginning of Hyrule Castle, and that's the reason for not including it, but alot of people, including speedruners, say this is the first dungeon in LTTP.