Ganon's Tower, The Final Exam - Dungeon Design in Zelda 

The best final zelda dungeon in my opinion. It's the only one, which feels like a regular huge dungeon and not like the "throwback dungeons" that came after (Ganons Castle in Oot, the moon in MM, ganons Castle in WW, Hyrule castle in TP). Therefore it will always be my favorite final challenge in a zeldagame. I love the design of the top room with the thunder and lightning effects coming from outside, it's so atmospheric to walk along the final hall to the bossroom. :) thanks for appreciating this dungeon and analysing it so perfectly!

My first Zelda game and one I will NEVER forget. My inability to follow instructions led me to wandering all over Hyrule and finding four full heart containers and the Ice Rod. Following the plot had me find more and more, and hilariously, I missed the fifth and third dungeon entirely despite going through turtle rock. Only backtracking had me find the third and I still beat turtle rock and was glaring up at Ganon's tower with no idea about the fifth. I was not the smartest teenager.

I liked the detail in the boss room where you can see the lightning flashing outside.

Those Silver Arrows really do kill everything in one hit outside of Ganon. loved the video and look forward to the next Dungeon Design series.

Nice video Burger. It is truly remarkable how big of a leap in quality this game is compared to the first two. I don't dislike either, but didn't end up playing them until a couple years ago, and upon doing so gained even more appreciation for this gem of a game. I think it has also aged quite well, but it's also the only game I've ever dabbled with in terms of speedrunning and randomizers so that's also my personal preference shining through. I wouldn't say it's my absolute favorite in the series, but it's the one I've played and beaten the most.

I want to find a way to play it, but the Palace of the Four Sword addition on the GBA I remember being challenging. I was just reading up on it and it sounds like they added puzzles based on a couple new functions in the GBA version that weren't in the Super Nintendo version. I haven't played that version in 20 years so I really can't remember but I do vividly remember the stronger versions of some bosses. That game on a pedestal feeling is how I feel about Super Metroid. I get into arguments about how great it is and start doubting it, then I play it and the other Metroids again and there is just something done so well in Super that none of the newer ones have every captured again

That was a great way to wrap up the game, and your series!! Beautiful video, as always ☺️💚🎉

I just finished your Dungeon Design series and now I don’t know what to do with my life☠️. I’ve seen it written in the comments plenty of times but these analysis videos are truly a pleasure to watch with the mix of gameplay analysis and theories. It’s clear that you have a deep appreciation for the series - phenomenal job. I would love to hear your opinions on which game is your personal favorite or which game has the best dungeons! Maybe a video ranking your favorite dungeons? Either way, wonderful stuff!

I'm wishing I had this part up for my Effective Minimalist/No Damage Run already, but real life issues want to be a nightmare. Even so, I am saying this now: Ganon's Tower is actually the Great Palace done right. Ganon's Tower is not only more interesting on a moment-to-moment basis, but also allows the player multiple options in how they want to reach the path meetup that leads to the Armos Knights rematch. It is also involving far less Fake Difficulty even if the 2 rooms on 4F that have ice flooring are absolutely evil potential of excessive RNG shenanigans if you don't cheese them. And as you point out, basically everything is able to see use just because of the dungeon's premise. I can even point out 2 moments where the Hammer uniquely helps (to be precise, the room with the 2 Guruguru Bars covering collapsing flooring by instantly destroying a skull pot, and the side room with Red Stalfos and Yomo Medusas by being able to hit the Red Stalfoses without setting off the Yomo Medusas), which is saying a lot about a 90s game making the anti-armor melee option actually do more than inflict a ton of damage. Both Agahnim and Ganon are more fair than Thunderbird and Dark Link ever were as well. Agahnim has his shadow doppelganger compromise space but they will NEVER shoot those blasted homing balls, so they're reliably possible to use against him, more than what we can say about Thunderbird the guy who forces you to spend MP just to make him vulnerable to damaging him with your attacks at all. And Ganon? 4 phases, but they are all learnable, even if the 2nd phase (the Blazing Bats ring) can involve VERY touch-and-go bat patterns. His invisibility in the last phase also avoids being bogus even if that's the result of predictable movement AI but I'll take that over the mess in Zelda 1, or for that matter Dark Link being a completely confusing mess for its own sake. Difficulty works when you get to work off of intuition and reliably available tools to achieve No Damage in the event of the game sufficiently encouraging dodging and finesse.

A great finale for both, A Link to the Past and your Dungeon Design series on ALttP. Thoroughly enjoyed it and rewatched your older ones (Twilight Princess, for example. Currently on Wind Waker HD). Thank you.

I love your voice and how your excitement comes out in it

Having only really experienced the 3D games this is the first time I’ve seen a final dungeon that’s bigger and harder than any of the previous dungeons, I hope they bring something like this back in a future Zelda game if big non-skippable dungeons ever make a comeback… 🥰🙌❤

Love your channel, these Zelda dungeon analysis are so detailed and interesting!! ALTTP is also my fave so I'm sad it's come to an end, but excited to see what's next!

Great video Captain. The amount of times those hardhat beetles knocked me over a ledge took years from my life. 10/10 game

Daniel out here with another banger! What a final dungeon this is too! 🤙

Thank you for covering pre OOT Zelda. Something so many Zelda RU-vid don't do much of but to me are the true zeldas

Link to the Past in my Favourite Zelda game. My intro was the GBA Version and I replayed, and adored it to bits. Still go back to it to this day. The soundtrack is fire, and I love how it helped establish and introduce so many staples in the Zelda franchise I do agree that the doors closing behind you made me retread so much ground and waste a lot of time. But nothing is ever as bad as having to retread the Ice Palace and all the enemies respawn and you need to defeat them all again.

The “last” dungeon before the final battle.

I always feel like I don't appreciate Ganon's Tower enough; I end up seeing is as the thing that needs doing before the "real" final battle My next playthrough I need to do the temples out of order/ get the silver arrows sooner

Dead mans volley should be in every Zelda game

I did a second playthrough recently, and this dungeon was actually really fun this time! Going in with actual preparation (and knowing magic powder on bubbles creates fairies) made this a fun challenge rather than a painful one. The Ganon fight was a highlight of both of my playthroughs. Also I'd like to point out that the Flute Bird somehow ONLY appears to take you out of Ganon's Tower. Where was this bird at any other time in the Dark World?!?!?

" i also went looking for the power of the triforce , and look what happened to me ! " 🌳

Just binged the entire series of the a link to the dungeons. Played it back then on my gba. I love that game so much and this series was an absolute joy to watch. I know its not part of the original alttp but do you maybe plan on analyzing the temple of 4 swords aswell?

Thats it, im getting back into lttp randomizers

I'm not overly enarmored with the dead man's volley mechanic simply because I always think "well, good thing the boss is a big dum-dum and keeps using attacks that hurt himself" and Ganondorf is not supposed to be some dumb animal that would never get the connection. In fact, when he doesn't bother with magic at all but comes at you swords swinging he's much more competent at it as we can see at the end of Wind Waker or the final phase of Twilight Princess.

As far as A Link to the Past as a whole goes, yeah, it's 2D Zelda working on all cylinders. I find a lot of Nintendo properties hit it out of the park in their third installments, ie. Mario, Metroid and Zelda. There's the foundational one, the weird one, then the masterpiece. Can you think of any others?

i think this is the one of the best final dungeons in the series. probably the best 2D final dungeon and the only one i rank above it is the sky keep from skyward sword simply because of its original puzzle box design.

if you love deadmans volley (i do too tbh. people not liking it is weird) you need to do a link between worlds final fight

Those green Triforce emblems tho

Nice

It's funny this vid gets released now. I was gonna unsub because all the BoTW stuff has been bumming me out for months, but now that I'll move in with my dad I can actually save money and get whatever the hell you need to play it (what are we up to now Wii 10?)

For anyone struggling with the lamps, the left one (player's left) goes out first. Light it quickly before the right one goes out (either with lamp or the fire rod), and the other lamp will stay perma lit! Love these videos - oddly enough Turtle Rock is my least fave and Ice Palace is my fave! But I loved hearing your breakdown/thoughts on them and it gave me a good alternate perspective.