The Construct Factory & Spirit Temple's Segmented Structure - Dungeon Design in Zelda (TOTK) 

This dungeon is kinda crazy. It has like 4 sections. Zonai Ruins -> Dragonhead Island -> Construct Factory -> Spirit Temple.

I really love the music in this place. It really conveys the lonely patience Mineru must have struggled with between the events of the flashbacks and present day. Zelda's fate is tragic, but she was given the mercy of mindlessness when she transformed. Mineru chose to stake her afterlife on the chance that Link (a person she'd only heard about from Zelda) would find her and do the right thing. Her faith in a better tomorrow is what truly makes her beautiful.

I didn’t realize you could get rid of the storm clouds above the jungle, and did the entirety of the island, and this the temple, without being able to see (or know what was going on, considering i hadn’t reached the dungeon quest yet 😭) seeing how it was intended to be played is so fascinating to me and makes me want to start another save

The best part about Mieru's construct is hopping on it, then jumping off to perform bullet-time.

In my first playthrough, I thought Crisis at Hyrule Castle was the end of the game, so I made an effort to explore any interesting areas on the map before going in. That included the Thunderhead, which I navigated and solved while it was still storming. The low visibility is genuinely debilitating, but I just assumed that was part of the challenge, so I kept going and eventually beat the dungeon and the game without ever doing the Zonai Ruins section

This might be the best overall dungeon, experience, quest thingy in the game. It’s a good argument for how the Wild era’s dungeons can be made better by implementing a bit more structure and prerequisites for progression.

I never got any of the build up for the spirit dungeon on my first play through. I was exploring the depths and found the construct factory. The robot said to go to Dragonhead, so I grabbed a glider and dived off the south side of the tutorial islands. I just aimed for the eye of the storm and landed right next to the doors. From there I just glued the orb to a glider and skipped the gauntlet of enemies on the surface, then went and played in the construct factory. The factory itself was... I guess the word for it is "dead." By the time I started exploring the factory I was just done with the samey greys and blacks of the depths because the detour to thunderhead was a distraction from finding every lightroot. I know it's on me, but by not focusing on the main story and the memories (heck, I had done a dungeon before even going to Lookout by using a lot of zonai devices) I missed most of the hints and build up of the spirit dungeon. My first experience was feeling it was just tacked on and I had non attachments to Mineru, so her construct form was a gimmick that wore off very quickly. I did make for some very awkward cutscenes with Purah back in Lookout, since there's Mineru in her construct body fully capable of communication just being mute as Purah flails around about the zonai.

I loved the health bar going off the screen in the second part of the end. It really made him feel so powerful

A while back I mentioned that I had a whole theory regarding the Factory, the Temple, Mineru's intentions and the possible fate of the Zonai, and I wanted to see what you and others think about it since this dungeon has in my opinion the deepest lore of all of them: We know from the Ancient Tablets that Mineru had already been working on prolonging her life with a Construct body since before Zelda arrived. This shows us that she already had a strange interest in immortality. However, the question is why would you have a whole factory dedicated to making this type of Construct if you were only going to make one for yourself? We know from the Steward at the Factory that the Crafter Constructs (which is what they're called) were supposed to be delivered to Dragonhead Island, which we know is where Mineru's mask is. I believe this only became the intended destination when Mineru became a part of Zelda's plan. In fact, I'm going to argue that the original intended destination was the Spirit Temple. When looking at the interior of the Temple we can see that the walls are line with these strange shelves, some of them have Poes inside (keep this in mind for later) and some have a lid covering them. If we take a closer look at these coverings, we can see that they have the imprint of a Crafter Construct, almost like they're supposed to be slotted into them. It seems to me that this is where Mineru was originally planning to store the Crafter Constructs. This proves that Mineru was planning to mass-produce them, but why? Well, my first guess is that maybe they were also intended to have secondary use as mining tools, given how they can be piloted by Hylians and can attach multiple devices onto their bodies, hence the name Crafter Construct. This would also explain why they were being kept in the Depths, since almost all the Zonaite mining went on in there. But then something caught my eye: The Poes. There are Poes ALL OVER the Spirit Temple. I know that large groups of poes that can be found in the Depths, but why so many at the Spirit Temple? Well, maybe it's just a nod to the fact that it's the *Spirit* Temple, but then there's the Poes resting inside the the shelves on the walls. Before I notice the imprints on the coverings, I was actually under the assumption that the Spirit Temple was actually a mausoleum of sorts because of all the Poe's, and the shelves strongly resembled tombs. It would also make sense that the Spirit Temple, like the other dungeons, would have a secondary purpose apart from being a base for the Sage (Stormwind Ark is a battleship, Gorondia is a city, etc). What if the Spirit Temple is a mausoleum, and the Poes in the tombs are Zonai spirits? What of that's why the coverings have the imprint of the Crafter Constructs? What if the reason why Mineru was planning on mass-producing them was in the hopes that spirits of the Zonai in the tombs would find their way into the Constructs? That could explain why there's water at the bottom of the Temple, to catch the Constructs if they fall as they wake up. The question then becomes why? Why would Mineru want to bring back the Zonai? Well, it's made pretty obvious that out of the two siblings, Mineru had the strongest interest in Zonai history. Rauru even says so himself. And it's clear that Rauru doesn't actually seem to know much about his own people, or really care much about it. He didn't even know about draconification even though he possess a Secret Stone. Keep in mind that Mineru is also the older one of the two. Now, we don't know how Zonai age, or how much older Mineru is to Rauru, but maybe the reason why Mineru still holds on fondly to the Zonai is because she remembers them more than Rauru. Maybe Rauru was very young when the Zonai left, so he doesn't remember much, but Mineru still does, and she misses them. She misses her people. Combined with her strange fascination with prolonging life through spirit transfer, and we might have a possible motive. All of this of course hinges on the assumption that the Zonai are actually extinct, which could very likely not be the case. We know that by Rauru's time, he and Mineru were the only ones left, but it's never made clear whether they're the last Zonai in general, or just on the surface.

If you remember the trailer with recall being used in Faron, that very rock takes you directly to Minuru's front door if you use recall on the same rock as the trailer.

One of my favorite totk memories is juat randomly exoloring the sky islands and randomly finding thunderhead isles and then the temple , especially because i only had done 2 other temples

I absolutely agree with your criticisms on how mineru controls. It’s very clunky and unfun outside of the mech fight. Can’t wait to see the Links Awakening video!!

KingK said something really interesting about the Depths in his video on the game. They're not only an inverse of the Surface world, they're dark and corrupted throughout. They're Ganondorf's domain, and they represent what will become of the Surface world if he wins. That's a big part of why I love what they did with the new layers so much. The Depths are the home of the Gloom and monsters, and just as pieces of the Sky can be seen throughout the Surface, the Gloom is beginning to reach it too. I've heard that the Depths should've had a civilization living in them to make it feel more interesting, but to me the civilization of the Depths is the monsters, and the Yiga to a lesser extent. The Construct Factory is very fun and has some super creative uses of the mechanics (I completed that fan puzzle by attaching the hanger sideways to bypass the pole), and the progression being based around building a construct body for Mineru is really fitting. Mineru in general has some of the best music in the whole series, and the atmosphere while journeying to the Spirit Temple with her is so good that I could almost assume they specifically designed it with everyone's favorite Zonai enthusiast NintendoBlackCrisis in mind. I can see how making the construct too good would've lead to players solely relying on it, but it would've at least benefitted from being able to dash towards enemies with long reach like Horriblins. I also love how from a story perspective, Mineru was essentially meant to be Link's companion throughout the game, but Ganondorf's actions delayed their meeting to the end; it's a neat twist on a classic 3D Zelda trope. One has to wonder why she didn't just speak to you in spirit form after you get the Purah Pad, and although I think it's fair to assume her spirit can't fully communicate without the secret stone and she was cut off from it by the corruption of her construct, this could've been explained better. As for the ending, I think this is the best final boss I've ever played in a video game. The atmosphere as you descend to Gloom's Origin is amazing, the Demon King's Army fight builds up the ending really well, the Ganondorf fight is a fun and satisfying challenge, and the Demon Dragon fight is the perfect spectacle to end it off. Funny how this game's Ganondorf brought us both the worst final boss in the series and the best. For the reversal of draconification, it seems pretty clear to me that the idea is that Link awakened her from within the dragon with love in the same way Zelda awakened her Light power with love, but this too could've been explained a lot better.

I just want to say that I’ve been here since before the channel rightfully blew up and I am so ecstatic that all this hard work you put into this videos is paying off. You deserve so much and I’m so glad you’re finally getting the recognition you deserve!

shoutout to everyone else who also explored the thundercloud early out of curiosity and stumbled on the spirit temple that way only to find out later that the "intended" path actually clears the clouds ✌️

The reason Mineru costs battery while you ride is because she turns on the headlight when you're riding, draining your battery as much as the zonai light would.

I had quite a unique experience with this dungeon, namely in the first half (the Zonai Ruins, and Thunderhead Island). Long story short, I found the temple completely by accident. After the battle with Phantom Ganon, I made my way to the storm clouds over the jungle area. When I got up to Thunderhead, I blindly fumbled my way around the various islands because of the storm and ended up gliding blindly in one direction, giving up on whatever was going on up there. I ended up gliding right into where the mask was located and that began my quest to the 6th dungeon. I completely skipped the whole Kakariko segment and Zonai Ruin segment, which was kind of a bummer since that seemed like a cool part of the game. This was actually the moment where I realized what I didn’t like about TOTK: the game, although centered around giving the player absolute freedom, gives too much freedom to the player. Many times throughout the game I felt like whatever solution I came up with in my head was going to work, and almost always it did. There was never a time where I paused to think, or was confused as to what to do at a certain point. It made the game feel kind of… boring? Like almost like the only thing preventing me from completing a quest was my own motivation to do the quest. This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy TOTK, I think it’s a beautiful game and it’s evidence that the development team put their blood sweat and tears into making the game a good as it could be. This dungeon just made me realize what I missed so much about the old Zelda formula: the feeling of being lost.

Your channel is *exactly* the kind of content I've been looking for! Zelda is my all-time favorite game series, and I'm a huge nerd for listening to analysis of level design. Thanks so much for all the awesome videos about this game; it's a special one, and I loved hearing your takes on it! The Rauru and Sonia piece would have bothered me more if it wasn't apparent that Rauru and Mineru had a master plan and that Mineru had dedicated her life to studying both the spirits of the dead and draconification. Sonia's power is also Recall, which is what I viewed as the reason for why Zelda was able to change back into herself again. I'm fine with a few of the exact "hows" remaining a little nebulous because there are enough logically consistent pieces that my disbelief can be suspended a little, and it's an emotionally satisfying ending, seeing the two characters drift off together, leaving their kingdom in the care of Zelda and Link. I'm generally fine with plot foundation getting a little shaky for the sake of a satisfying ending in general, though.

“Don’t forget about ascend” The amount of times I forgot about ascend, I tell you. 😂

idk i just flew into the thundercloud and somehow landed right at the head of the islands, it was so magical to nonchalantly start the dungeon from there… without meeting any of the prerequisites other than the hearts… and i wont have it any other way! it was so magical to point blank start a dungeon

Legitimately so excited for this video, as much as I truly love the dungeons in this game for their spectacle (ie:storm wind ark), this dungeon’s subversion of my expectations and satisfaction at revisiting a location I had marked on my map out of curiosity… so excited to listen to and watch your in depth analysis of what is growing in the ranks as one of my favorite dungeons in the series

I definitely feel you on not upgrading your battery. I went through most of the game completely unaware that I even could upgrade my battery or even with auto build. I saw all these videos of people auto building things and I thought, "whoa, that's a cool endgame ability. Can't wait until I get ahold of that."

The melody of the Construct Factory vaguely reminds me of the Song of Healing from Majora's Mask, specifically at 15:03. It sounds like the last 3 notes of the arrangement that plays after successfully playing the Song of Healing on the ocarina. I don't know if that is intentional in any way, but it does fit the theme of "healing" Mineru's "body" and spirit.

Dude... you are REALLY good at what you do. Not only is your commentary thoughtful and insightful, but the video editing itself is top notch and fully professional. RU-vid better not sleep on the Captain

Mineru was actually my 4th sage( I really did not want to do the water temple because it looked so boring). I investigated the islands by using rockets to get to the dragonhead island. It was so cool moving through the fog(since I didn't do the inital part to clear the storm). Really incredible experience.

I experienced this Dungeon out of curiosity. Going into the deep fig was such a tough and interesting experience. I wanted to keep moving forward until I ended up into the Construct Factory. Best experience ever I'll never forget!

This was my third dungeon in my initial playthrough. I had only done the Wind and Lightning Temples and decided to head towards Lurelin because I had heard about the pirates from a good amount of NPCs, but got distracted when I saw the massive storm in the sky map. I struggled for a while, but eventually got up to basically right where the heart door was. I honestly felt bad when I realized what was going on after Hyrule Castle. The story around it is so linear, but having such a curiosity piquing thundercloud just makes players want to go for it right away. It's like they couldn't decide how they wanted this game to be structured.

I accidentally did spirit temple second so i actually have been waiting for this recap before finishing the game :) started the video this morning, paused it to avoid spoilers for the final section, went and defeated the game, and am now back here and agreeing with you that it was truly such an amazing ending vibe wise. Thank you for being such a big part of this journey for and so many others!

I always felt like the disjointed-ness of the spirit temple mirrored Mineru's construct. Similar to having rooms strung together by the energy Link exerts between them, her body consists of various parts strung together with spirit energy. And Mineru's body is another poetic representation of Link connecting all the sages, where Link is the green energy connecting them all. Great video, man!

I found this whole section of the game very odd. I did before fighting phantom ganon in the castle because I found the spirit temple icon in the depath's. I assumed I was missing something and the castle felt like the end game so I forced my way through the massive thunderstorm wearing the thunder helm because it was the only other place besides the castle I hadn't explored. I then stumbled onto the heart door and finished the quest line. It was super weird to then due the castle then everyone was talking about the 5th sage while she was with us. There was at least some unique dialogue after the cutscene & it was even stranger to do the quest to clear the thunder storm after completing the rest of the questline. I think they could have fixed it by just having the heart door not work till the storm was cleared by having it show an error message like when you tried to enter the temple of time for the first time but let you do some sort of quest in the faron region that led you to kakariko village to start the whole quest line like any of the other regional phenomenon.

I think the main problem of the dungeon is the reward Mineru. HOW CAN YOU MESS UP A MECH?!

I loved how the construct factory didn't hold my hand. It showed me four lights in the distance and let me loose. The lack of objectives on the map made me use the pins on the scope/map and made me feel like I was more in charge. The depots themselves were good, i didn't ever feel like I was being taught but I still learnt anyway. I especially liked the one with the wheels. Having to break the door you used to enter, rearrange the wheels on the box to traverse corridors of different sizes, then put the wheels back on the door at the end really made me feel like I was creatively scrounging together a solution from what I had on hand. The one with the U-block and rails was fun too. The way every depot encourages you to use what you learned to carry the part back to the hub just made me smile. Muscle memory gets in the way of using mineru at first. I found myself instinctively pressing b to run or y to attack, and pressing zl and L at the same time to attack is kind of clunky, even for someone with thin fingers like me. I can't imagine how awkward it must be for regular people. The silver enemies on the lead up to the spirit temple are pretty annoying to fight because of her low damage compared to link. Small and fast enemies like bokoblins and lizalfos are a bit hard to fight, but larger ones aren't so bad.

I was disappointed with the dungeon but your analysis did help me appreciate it more. It's just that, for me, the Construct Factory feels more like a mini dungeon preparing you for the kinds of puzzles to expect than a full on dungeon. It just left me wanting more

AMAZING video with amazing ending! I love that I found your channel! I wanted Tears of the Kingdom to be so mutch things and it failed me. But now I'm learning to admire it for what it is and your Dungeon Design series helps A LOT! Congrats on your exelent script and editing! Truly a mester piece of a series!

Even though you admit the weakness of having gone through the dungeon early, I think it shows the different but equal downside - if you reach it organically via story, you are likely almost done with the game. I for example was probably 185+ hours into a 200 hour playthrough. So gaining access to the mech was a nothing burger to me. But you also show that reaching it early hamstrings your ability to use it fully. So I don't know the best way to reach and use it. Loved your section on the ending. The last hour of this game is incredible. For as conflicted as I felt during the bulk of said 200 hour playthrough, this part was amazing. Your editing was really nice too. Link's Awakening has one or two of my favorite dungeons in the series so I'm excited to see you go through this game as well. Incredibly complex story undertones as well despite the seemingly bite sized game.

I kinda wish the Construct Factory had been more interconnected, but I agree that the different areas and puzzles really make great use of your abilities and force you to think critically. Not my favorite dungeon in the game, but still a really fun time. And while I was disappointed the Spirit Temple wasn’t its own dungeon (especially when you consider the name), the two-part nature of the dungeon was a nice twist. Controlling Mineru is a bit too slow and cumbersome when fighting smaller enemies, but taking out a Hinox with ease was very satisfying. I also really enjoyed the boss fight, thought it was a pretty creative concept and a total hoot. Gloom’s Origin was a pretty great “final dungeon.” Very much the gauntlet a lot of previous Zelda games have done for final areas. Going deeper and deeper, with the music becoming more eerie and unsettling, being told the Sages’ abilities can no longer reach you, and realizing you’re right back to where the game started…amazing stuff. Demon King Ganondorf is easily my favorite Ganondorf fight in the series. The double health meter was one thing, but when I realized he could permanently remove hearts…that’s when I knew things were serious. I wish Demon Dragon had been a bit more challenging, but I get that it’s supposed to be more cinematic in nature and perhaps be a bit of reprieve from the previous fight. Overall, great video and the editing, especially for the end, was awesome. Love this game, and have really enjoyed this series. The dungeon designs of the last two Zelda games are so different from previous entries and I get why they’re so divisive. But I appreciate how you still analyzed their designs, offered genuine praise for their strengths, and gave detailed explanations for their flaws.

Somehow i totally missed that the four elemental temples were represented here. Super cool!

Omg thank you for reminding me of the music here I remember loving it so much while playing through this area!!!! also once you pointed out how veryyy Zelda dungeon-like this temple is-I totally agree! thanks for another great vid!!! I eat these dungeon vids up every time lol

You missed the masterpiece that is the demon king’s army. Absolutely worth a listen, the second best song in the game.

This is one of the best series on youtube. I binged this series for the games I already beat. Keep up the great work Burger! Massively underrated channel lol.

Adding engagement! Keep it up! Haven't watched all you're videos but seen quite a few!

I always love the content but this has to be one of my favorite videos from your channel. The construct factory is definitely one of the most unique things about Tears of the Kingdom and the lead up to the Spirit Temple was really enjoyable.

Oh man I'm so pumped, I missed this dungeon on my playthrough and saw a poll you posted mentioned it. I managed to go back and play through it before the video!

Since you bring up the music often(as you should, it’s awesome!) my favorite thing about the OST is how they really made the OG Hyrule field theme into Link’s theme, and then only reveal it in the absolutely most important moments(only 3 times I think, 4 if you include the daytime horse theme). Especially the Final Dive, I always well up with tears of joy when we get to that part. Love your stuff captain!

First off, you legit have some of the best video essays I've seen on Zeldatube. So glad to have subscribed! On the actual subject of the video, I did this dungeon third (I was exploring after beating the Lightning Temple and was drawn to Dragonhead lol) so it was a big challenge but so much fun. Like Wind Temple, the build up really makes it for me.

I found the actual temple before doing Thunderhead isles 💀 Edit: YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO CLEAR THE CLOUDS AT THUNDERHEAD??? BECAUSE I DID IT IN THE RAIN!!

Using the charged set in the sky islands was pretty fun. Especially with all the rain and puddles scattered about.

This is by far my favorite dungeon experience, if only for the music choices (especially the Construct Factory).

Thanks for your videos. You have helped me a lot to understand the motives of the Totk's creators in this game. Thanks to you, I have decided to give a second round to this game in the order you have exposed.

Man what an incredible series. Bravo!

I agree with you so much. You helped put into words what I felt intuitively: Nintendo deconstructed the traditional Zelda dungeon design and adapted it into a truly open world dungeon, starting all the way from the Zonai ruins and up to the Spirit Temple itself. This makes me appreciate the dungeon even more. And the music for the Construct Factory and Spirit Temple is my favorite music in the entire series. This is a really underrated dungeon.

incredible series so far, also didn’t know about battery upgrades until now! serve !

Back during my first playthrough, I saw ancient Zonai ruins and immediately ran off to head under the castle because in my mind, the imprisoning chamber and the forgotten foundation counted as Zonai ruins, I somehow didn’t return was the final boss until Ganondorf started insulting me. Anyway, the fight against seized construct on foot is (in my opinion) much more fun than the construct battle, because I could use the sages and it felt like I was fighting a titan. Having to use Yunobo to stun it and then running up to smack it in the knees so hard it just flew away, it was so awesome, I just wish there were seized construct rematches so I could do both.

I went to this quest and dungeon first before going to Hyrule Castle to fight Phantom Ganon. When I went to Dragonhead Island, I accidentally found a way to navigate the mist. I used Riju's Thunder Strike field like a radar to get around while wearing the Lightning Helm.

Hahahaha the fact that water was useless for the water part lmao that got me so good

I did the thunder/dragonhead islands before the fifth sage quest and lemme tell ya, the lack of visibility you have there is INTENSE.

I loved the whole spirit temple segment! I was one of the ones intrigued by the storm on the map and located the main island nearly blind from the storm. I found the door and immediately grinded out some shrines until I could open it. I went down to the depths and paused the quest until I did more of the story since it was pretty clear it was supposed to be a later game area. I also found the temple separately as I completed the depths map.

i really dug the under the castle section of the game. It's defintely a redemption from what BotW's boss battle was. TotK provided a deep, gauntlet style, navigation based set piece leading to Ganondorf, then the final sky battle with the dragons was really cool a lot more imaginative than Dark Beast Ganon's field battle in BotW, though they're similar in terms of 'hit this section to weaken the enemy." Aside from that, weaving the dragon idea between Zelda and Ganon was a good idea. And it was really cool getting back to the beginning of the game, which was an actual place! not just a segmented place for the story, and then going even deeper than that.

Missed the premeire😢 You have some good points about the dungeon. It doesn't change how I felt playing it though. I found the factory early during depths exploration and was frustrated I couldn't do anything. Then when I did get to do it I didn't like how disjointed it felt. The boss was a fun fight though.

I also first thought of rhe zonai ruins in faron when Purah gave me the hint. But before going there, I made a quick stop at kakariko to turn in a quest and thus accidentally found the correct next quest. 😅

I beaten Tears in the Hero attire, since I keep flurry rushing Ganondorf. Plus, it's SO useful to have ancient daggers on you when you go into the Depths at Hyrule Castle.

Even though it’s funny to make fun of the repeated cutscenes that say “secret stone, demon king?” from the four main temples, I think the cutscene after completing the spirit temples deserves a lot of credit for enhancing the story. Rauru’s sacrifice and him saying “Remember this name, Link” and the Zelda main theme was just perfect and increased the stakes of the story. For me, this cutscene saved the story because I did all the temples before facing phantom ganon and the repeated cutscenes were just too annoying to care about other than Zelda’s capabilities of being a great leader. Great reviews overall and I am glad to have to watched the entire Totk series!

Don't know if you or anyone's noticed already, but the funny thing about the rail puzzle is that you shouldn't have a closed loop with the U-block since that'd get in the way of the poles holding the rails up. You want the opening of the U-block... open, so that it can slide fine.

Watching this has given me more of an appreciation for this temple! I definitely didnt like using the zonai devices at first but would enjoy it more when i replay i think.

So glad that I'm not the only one who booked it to Faron first and wound up with nothing... Then I went back to Lookout Landing, talked to a single person and went... oooh... right... Kakariko...

I continue to agree with your comparisons to LttP, those are the traditional dungeons TotK brought back. For me, the construct factory was an excellent first dungeon. I loved its Skull Woods embedding in the depths. Using Mineru's construct made a lot more sense for me since there were no silver enemies and few black enemies for me. However, my experience with the dungeon retroactively tarnished as I progressed through the game. I found out that dragonhead island was but one of a chain of sky islands. I found out that there was a whole quest leading to it starting in Kakariko and Faron. I think if I did the whole quest, I would have found it to be one of the best dungeons in the series. Instead I did that stuff later, at the end of the game, and it all went nowhere lol. I didn't mean to skip all that. When you walk around Faron underneath Dragonhead Island on the surface, there are a ton, and I mean a ton, of recall sky island blocks that take you right up to Dragonhead Island. For the life of me, I do not understand why they allow you to unknowingly skip the whole quest leading up to it. I feel like Dragonhead Island should have been in the middle of the island chain with no recall blocks spawning underneath it. It needed to be higher up in the sky, only reachable by those determined to use the vehicle building to skip through the storm clouds. If you discover the Construct Factory in the Depths first, the constructs and signs there direct you to Dragonhead Island anyway. Determined players would still be able to skip ahead with the clues given to them. Moreover, the construct factory was my third real trip to the depths, after the autobuild quest and the great plateau. The depths were still new to me and they had such variety. The Fire Temple was my fourth trip and that whole progression was great. Then afterwards there was no more unique content to find in the Depths lol. So yeah there were definitely upsides to doing this dungeon first, but I would have preferred to do its whole quest or at least skipping it all with informed intent. As for the ending, I thought the whole final gameplay bit was great. I appreciated that the final spectacle fight with the demon dragon actually used the core mechanic of skydiving. I still don't understand why Breath of the Wild didn't have us climb Dark Beast Ganon. In terms of the story, I was expecting to be able to restore Zelda at some midpoint, and have the story evolve from there. I was disappointed that didn't happen but they made a good spectacle of it. I don't think her return to humanity was bs, one of the flashbacks showed how the secret stone powers could be enhanced when used together. It would have made more sense for the sages to use their stones to power up Link's recall, but on the other hand Link and Zelda were able to recall the master sword all the way back in time at the beginning of the game. So it's like whatever, between those points Zelda being recalled back to humanity is believable.

I take the entire lead up to the Spirit Temple as the whole temple itself, and in that way i think its easily on of my favourites

I remember fighting Ganon for the first time. I was underpowered and no defense and no food. I had like 12 or less hearts. Took me like 30 minutes to fight the army and when i did, i had only 3 hearts unaffected by gloom and no way to get them back. I eventually reloaded a previous save and came back, this time with like 8-ish hearts. I was screaming in joy when I finished phase 1, just to start screaming in horror when Ganon's healthbar took up the screen. And screaming like I got shot when flurry rushed me. Ngl, I was almost happy when Ganon just started deleting my heart containers

Yeah this Ganondorf fight was epic. That lead up literally felt like you were descending to Hell and was probably the most unnerving thing I’ve experienced in a Zelda game since some of the creepier sections of TP. This is also the scariest looking Ganondorf in my opinion. You can tell they really did draw inspiration from making this a darker sequel much like MM. Even has regional phenomena just like MM. Overall, I found TOTK to be an amazing game start to finish despite some of my nitpicks. I do think I had more fun playing it than BOTW, but man I don’t think anything compares to my first ever BOTW playthrough and experiencing this new form of Zelda for the first time.

This was my SECOND TEMPLE! I deliberately made my way through the storm to get Mineru second, first Sage was Tulin and when I realized that I could actually reach Mineru’s mask I decided I had to do her temple 2nd

The ending of tears of the kingdom was great but i do agree that the reversing of zeldas Draconification fealt unearned. How i personally would fix this is taking a approach similar to what Hollow Knight did by having a default ending that is bitter sweet but not quite satisfying to the player and gives hints and clues to how to achieve a better more satisfactory ending. With this change the default ending would end with the Light Dragon bringing to Link look out landing before departing back to the skys above while Link longingly stretches his hand to the Light Dragon flying away. This would be an ending that most players wouldn't be satisfied with having so there would a secret way of changing this outcome by finding away to reverse the Draconification process. You would need to work with the many zoni servay team members to investigate multiple zoni ruins across hyrule 4 to be exact. You would trigger this quest by revisiting the famous Zoni ruins in the Faron region. You would with the help of Tauro open a secret door that leads to a mini dungeon that in the end leads to secret terminal structure that when activated makes multiple green pillars of light apear on 4 zoni ruins across hyrule some were seen in Breath of the wild meanwhile others are under underground. But withe the help of Tauro you would visit each one and open a entrance to a lengthy cave similar to the zora waterworks that ends in a zoni terminal that makes a giant mechanical Dragon head statue rise from the ground and point a lazer at a specific point in the sky(above the great plateau) After you repeated that process 4 times you woud finally see why the Dragon heads are aiming in that direction. They would start shooting blueish green lasers at that specific point in the sky revealing a castle in the sky that was completely invisibly cloaked previously but was now uncovered by the mechanism. This castle in the sky is the ancient zoni castle from the past and it now serve as the final secret dungeon of the game. After you completed all the puzzles and terminals in the dungeon you woud fight the dungeon boss which would be the Dragon construct which would be a incredibly challenging boss because it would switch between 4 elements. Fire ,Ice ,Lightning and Light. But instead of getting a reward for beating the boss you now are able to actvat a mechanism in the boss room that would suddenly deactivate the floatation technology making the castle float in the sky. You would relatively quickly descend to the surface and land back were it belongs the Great plateau were it once stood. After that point you would realize the dungeon had a second underground half to it that you now needed to go through. After you finally completed the underground portion of the dungeon you finally reach the reward room you would meet Rauru and Sonias ghosts there and you would find a secret seventh secret stone but not for a companion sage but for you After all this time. Rauru would explain how channeling his and Sonias Time and Light povers through Links arm now adorned with his secret sone powering it up could cause some sort of mega recall effect that can reverse zeldas Draconification. But not long after you got the secret stone you are attacked by a new rendition of Darklink that is made of gloom. This would be Ganondorfs attemt of stopping you from defeating him. but this time Darklink has your old gloomyfid arm attached to it. This boss woud be a dark reflection of you it has sword and gloom attacks similar to your sword attacks and zoni abilities. But because you probably already had beaten the game at that poit. Darklink can to also flurry rush you and maby even parry your attacks in his second phase. After you defeat Darklink you talk one last time with Rauru before he promises that he and Sonia will come help Link reverse zeldas Draconification. After that you'd be free to go and test out your more powerful zoni abilitys like maby recall and ultrahand now being usable on enemies and maby fuse having the ability to fuse 3 weapons together and lastly ascend now having the decend option. After all that effort you would now get the true ending with Rauru and Sonia reversing zeldas transformation. Everything would play out the same after that including the Mineru departing cutscene maby with slight mention of the secret stone making it possible. Also Mineru woud give her secret stone to her successor Purah. This is how i would fix the games ending by giving a champions ballade style adventure that leads you across all of hyrule to save Zelda from her horrible fate of remaining a Dragon for ever.

Also I love the last boss as well. I don't consider Zelda's transformation back from being a dragon to be surprising since she is shown to have the Triforce in the game, so they're basically making a wish on the triforce

the coolest and therefore best way :D to do the right leg rail puzzle is to use a stabilizer to hold the piece in place as it travels around the rail.

Honestly, i think the spirit temple being a full dungeon instead of a separated area could have been nice i mean, puzzles and challenges with the mineru consctruct would have been interesting, i even have an idea for one: you are place in a hallway (big enough for mineru to go in by the way) and said hallway has two sets of lasers, one near the floor and one near the celling, said laser turn on and off at regular intervals, thus having the player switch between using link on mineru and link alone

Great video dude

I completely agree with you in this video. The Spirit Temple/Construct Factory were great! Running around on the Mineru construct was clunky and not fun. The boss fight was great! And I disagree with the people who think that the ending was bad or that the deus ex machina "ruins" it. Zelda gave her life to save the kingdom - that doesn't change. She got it back - but WHEN she did it ... she assumed it would be permanent. So her sacrifice was still real. And leaving Zelda trapped as an eternal dragon wouldn't have gone well with the rest of the series. So it also makes sense.

i think that reversing the draconification should have been the bonus ending you get from unlocking all the memories. the reward for completing the game as intended. and that without the sages or the tears, she would remain dragon.

this dungeon makes up for hyrule castle. My favorite dungeon in the game because it was unexpected, nails atmosphere, fun puzzles, cool story and an epic boss to top it off.

You are 100% not alone in finding riding Mineru’s construct not particularly fun. I’ve seen a lot of let’s players say the same and I had the same experience of “oh? I thought it would be more awesome” totally agree that overall the structure of the Spirit temple/construct bit are good, but I didn’t look back on it fondly probably only because I was unimpressed with the mech. The boss fight was great fun however. I remember the Ganon battle being excellent and agree with you that the dragon fight felt great too. Fab vid as always ❤

This was also my favorite Ganondorf fight of the series, and like you said its one the best finales of the series. As for the construct factory, I follow the path the game wanted me to take and liked it a lot. It was great series of videos, all it did was make me want to replay the game again. It isn't my favorite, but its a really good game. I'm looking forward on what the Zelda team has for the next adventure

The songs in most of the other dungeons built up to themselves as well. It's just more difficult to notice, easiest in the firetemple and windtemple.

I had no idea i was supposed to explore kakariko before the ruins/thunderhead. Before committing to the ganon fight at the top of the castle, I decided to explore thunderhead and found the mask. It was wild to me finding out all the stuff you were expected to do after they determine you need the 5th sage. Felt so obvious to me that something was hidden in the clouds and i didnt wanna miss it. But i guess they really dont let you 😂

how I found the spirit temple: I was lightroot and shrine questing for hearts and stamina for hyrule castle, I noticed that there was a shrine in the dragonhead isle because of the lightroot below indicates of a shrine above. I legit thought the stormy weather was a challenge like the lighting trial in botw, so I took the challenge and found my shrine and another temple I didn't know about

I loved the ganon fight. I remember reaching that place at 3 am, as i was too much into this game, and as i kept digging down the depths, finding myself with no miasma healing and in front of the bossfight, made me say.. "it's time". I fought against Ganondorf and it was fire, even my Hylian Shield easily broke against his might. But i managed in one try. (The day later i wanted to fight him again, and he destroyed me, instead)

I find the construct factory has a somewhat similar setup to the water temple, however does it in a more fun way. Overall, I'd say that the Water Temple overall has a quest that ends up falling flat on replays. On the sages, I feel all sages but Tulin (and arguably yunobo) struggle with having enough time to teach you their benefits or are so distinct to base combat that it leads to them being underutilized. I personally fell prey to 'the sages are useless except yunobo and tulin' mindset, maybe in part because BOTW's champion abilities were so much easier to use.

I think you may have actually missed the intended solution for the C-Block on the rails in the right-leeg depot. It can simply be solved by turning the C-Block so that the opening in on the left side and it can freely ride all the way up the rail.

Overall, this is my favorite dungeon in the game, because it truly felt like LINK'S dungeon. I'd say this is for the following reasons. 1. The dungeon completely revolves around Link's Ultra hand ability. Heck, the factory's main objective is to build something (which is also a way cooler take on the "find 4 things" temple quest). 2. The way you can just stumble across it by accident. I know some people won't be too fond about this, but to me, it seperates the temple from the main quest in a way that makes it feel more personal to Link/the player 3. The lack of any Sages to help (besides Mineru, but I think you get what I mean). Not saying the Sages having arcs is a bad thing, but it's nice to sortoff just have a dungeon to tackle alone. 4. The way the Sky and Depths are used. I've seen people say there should be more NPCs in the Sky and Depths, but I view both areas as playgrounds meant specifically for Link, while surface Hyrule is the home of everyone else. Again, there's a sense of exclusivity there. So the Spirit Temple using both areas a decent amount outside of the dungeon itself further added to that feeling for me.

I really enjoyed this dungeon, for a few reasons, I stumbled upon it in the depths before it was story relevant and couldn't do anything here which was interesting. 2nd I didn't follow the story's intended path for getting here. I just ran into Dragonhead ruins while exploring. I saw the storm clouds and was curious if I could get inside it. I glided into it and just felt around in the dark until I found the Door and Mineru's head. Of course given that I explored way more than I followed the story I had enough hearts to open it and just found myself back in the depths at the factory I couldn't do anything before. I believe I completed this before I went to the Gerudo Town, so this was my fourth dungeon.

As much as this game fails in certain areas, I could never say its a bad game or that I hate it. Yes there are many places that could have been worked on more but whenever it does something right, it does it perfectly.

Thank you for your analysis. I've played Zelda since I was little in the 90s, and I don't understand the recent criticisms. I will say one thing I always raved about the game was how well the sages would stay out of the way, but apparently others had a harder time with them 😂

I would have love the sheikas to have more relevance and pay being a sage, they definitely deserve it (at least minoru power is super cool)

I mean I heard the word "spoilers" in the beginning but I didn't expect to be spoiled because I completed this dungeon already 😳 This is actually my favourite dungeon of the game so I was excited for this video. I found it accidentally because I really wanted to explore these curious sky islands in the eye of the storm. It was the best experience navigating through them in the storm, relying on lightnings for a moment of clarity, getting to the point where the mask is at, guessing what could it possibly be/mean, delivering it to the surface... Then continuing in the depths. And the best boss fight tbh. That was all wonderful and I had NO IDEA I was supposed to do other dungeons before and go fight Ganon somewhere???? ??? 😭 ...wait, what happens with the mystery of that circle in kakariko for me now... I was so excited to get access and see what's in there but it's just connected to the dungeon I already completed? ;_;

34:02 "Sup. How's your day goin'? Mind if I jumpscare ya real quick?"

These are great to fall asleep to.

I'm a big fan of this part of the game, I stumbled upon the factory early and explored it, then decided it may be some area for a quest later, when the mask brought me back i was really excited, The only thing I wish was different about the construct was if it could have its own separate health pool, that way it would feel more helpful as it protects you if you are on critical health or find yourself low on resources despite its clunky moveset, but agree that more speed would be nice

Notice that in the boss fight Ganondorf looks more like Demise then any if his other appearances

I skipped the zonai ruins part because after getting all the sages I was wondering where I hadnt gone to yet so I flew from the great sky islands to the dragonhead islands and stumbled through to the temple :'D I finally realized I had skipped it when I really wanted to find the clothing set but the only hint I had been given was "youll get it through story progression" but I was already almost in the Ganondorf fight

I went to Hyrule castle fully expecting to take on Ganondorf and finish the game (similar to BOTW having 4 dungeons plus Hyrule castle) but when I found out the boss to Hyrule castle was just phantom Ganon I was genuinely shocked and excited that there was one more dungeon after Hyrule Castle. I agree that Mineru's construct is lacking outside of the spirit temples boss fight but the spirit temple was really good and then the actual lead up to the final fight with Ganondorf and the demon dragon was absolutely amazing!

Great review and I agree the entire experience should be, and likely was designed to be, played and viewed as a whole. Mineru is one of those new playstyle that needs some time to get to get used to, but once you get the hang of it, it's super fun. I also found it chunky and clumsy to handle at first. But where it really shines like you said are facing enemies that are similar in size and speed. Hinoxes, Stalnoxes, Boss Bokoblins go down so easy with Mineru - block, hit back, and stun/freeze/burn as you please. It's almost feels like piloting a Gundam/Eva. I suspect that Blue Hinox placed between the Factory and Temple was the game's first try to give you a taste of this playstyle. I even fought and won against Lynels with Mineru (though less enjoyable because Lynels outspeed Mineru so easily).