Twilight Princess has, in my humble opinion, the best dungeon designs and atmosphere in the series. It definitely is the reason I have high standards when it comes to the dungeons every Zelda game that came after presents. Every dungeon had its own specific and unique theme that made it stand out from the rest, and the music accompanying each really set the mood.
The terrifying thing about Death Sword is that you only have to cut ONE of its bindings to free it. Powerful. That thing was always one frayed thread away from release.
Man watching this and then going back to TOTK's temples is wild! Temples are a staple of Zelda and they really dropped the ball with whatever it is they've been doing in BOTW and TOTK
They really took 5 shrines and put them in the sky for each temple and thought they'd get away with it. The bosses are even worse. I know a lot of people think colgera is good but it's just cuz of the ost. That thing took me like 3 minutes
This is my top 10 3D dungeons all time: 🛡️ ⚔️ #10 Earth Temple(WW) #9 Shadow Temple(OoT) #8 Goron Mines(TP) #7 Stone Tower(MM) #6 Spirit Temple(OoT) #5 Ancient Cistern(SS) #4 Arbiter’s Grounds(TP) #3 Sandship(SS) #2 Snowpeak Ruins(TP) #1 Forest Temple(OoT) My favorite 2D dungeons would be Dark Palace, Lorule Castle, Temple of Droplets, Palace of Winds, Eagles Tower, etc…
Twilight Princess has in my opinion the most memorable and well designed dungeons in the series as a whole roster. I am happy to see City In The Sky as number 1 cause I'm sick of it getting hated on. The atmosphere being so high up, the music, and the amazing boss battle.
I like that you mentioned the "lore" as an aspect of consideration for Arbiter's Grounds. Game-to-Game lore isn't really a common thing in most Zeldas, but it aids Twilight Princess' dungeons exceedingly. Places like the Forest Temple, Goron Mines, Lakebed, Arbiter's Grounds, and especially the Temple of Time are all connected to the fallout of Zelda's choice to send adult Link back to his childhood. Ganon's plans get outed before he's ready, He is "dealt with", and Hyrule subsequently isn't flooded but... due to averting that doom, the world regresses in different more subtle ways. Though peaceful, Hyrule in TP basically becomes an oblivious lamb, almost decadent. The "knights" of the kingdom become cowards too lazy to take action against evil, infrastructure is crumbling, the Sheikah as a people seem to go extinct, and only the Zora people seem to militarize themselves, as if they're expecting a coming calamity that was just delayed.
City in the Sky truly is wonderful. It's been 4 years since I've been through it, and I have only played it once, but it left such an impression. I still count it high on my list.
I can’t believe you’re still making videos to this day and they’re still pretty damn good. I remember being around since fuckin 2015 man and your countdowns are still just as interesting to watch
I’ve played a lot of Zelda games over the years and probably only beaten about 5 lol. But here’s my favorite dungeons in no particular order - Snow Peak Ruins - Arbiter Grounds - Shadow Temple - Dodongo’s Cavern - Ganon’s Castle - All of the dungeons in Majoras Mask - Eagles Tower - Color Dungeon is a cool little one that I found without even knowing about, proud moment for me - Wind Fishes Egg is incredible -
City in the sky is also my favorite dungeon lol, and it also has the best dungeon theme and the best setting for the main boss. Also, this dungeon is very closely followed on both quality and music (and boss) by the forest temple from OoT. Overall a really strong list!
The enemies in twilight princess like the ice based ones make me so frustrated... like in the cave of ordeals... but twilight princess overall my fav zelda game
You are my favorite dungeon countdown RU-vidr, the city in the sky is one of my favorite dungeons in the series as well, I've seen so many people saying they don't like this dungeon for certain reasons it's pretty awesome that it's the number one on the list
I have to say- Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword were some of my favorite Zelda Dungeons!!!! But Stone Tower Temple is freaking amazing and I hope they bring back some Ikana references in future games!!!
I gasped when I saw the Stone Tower so low. But I appreciate you recognized more obscure dungeons like the Sandship and Palace of Winds. Surprising to not see the Tower of the Gods, though I also love the Earth Temple. All in all, a pretty unique list. Hapoy new year!
IMO the tower of the gods is excellent in terms of theming and story significance but the dungeon itself is mechanically boring and pretty easy. It has neat concepts like using the boat in a dungeon and controlling the statues but they both are executed in annoyingly slow ways. Probably the weakest dungeon in the game, and one of the weakest in the series.
Cool list man. I'd say jabu Jabu (oracle) water temple (n64) sword/shield and ancient tomb (oracle) stone Tower (n64) thieves town (snes) stuff like that
Happy holidays! A day early, but still. For some reason this made me look back on your previous countdowns and the finesse you seem to have in this one. I've always enjoyed your stuff but this one got me to think about your growth, you've gotten really good👍
This is why i was really hoping for a 'Cave of Ordeal' style dungeon (mb from the surface to the depths). J wouldnt be able to use ascend or zonai constructions to cheese it
They need to spend less time creating a huge empty map and put more emphasis on dungeons in the next Zelda, as amazed as I was by how vast totk is I would rather have it cut in half and everything improved on instead.
That's very interesting, we have very similar taste except the very top. My list would include almost all of the same dungeons, but I haaaaaaaate City in the Sky. It gets a lot better after I get the clawshot (which is one of my favorite items), but traversing the dungeon is so tedious to me.
I'm calling the predictable outcome: Stone Tower as #1. Edit: Ok, maybe not as predictable as I thought. Still, Stone Tower Temple is overrated. Edit 2: Never mind, literally agree with everything else. Having Palace of Winds, Earth Temple, and City in the Sky on here at least makes this list more fresh.
Stone tower is definetly not overrated. It's worse in the 3ds but the n64 version specifically was amazing. Having it at number 9 and city in the sky at 1 (a dungeon with a very mediocre miniboss that gets reused, literally the worst enemy variety in the game, and awkward pacing) is quite unfair
The Palace of Winds is the only really good dungeon in Minish Cap IMO. All the other ones suffer from having horrible dungeon items. Seriously, a Gust Jar, a cane that flips things over and a regular lantern are NOT good dungeon items in the slightest, ESPECIALLY the lantern. In A Link to the Past you get this thing at the start of the game, and now I’m supposed to believe that it has dungeon item potential? Hell no. This is one of the many reasons I think Minish Cap is the most overrated Zelda game