One of the many mysteries surrounding Breath of the Wild’s highly anticipated sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, was the lack of clarity in Nintendo’s messaging on the inclusion of traditional dungeons in the game. The marketing cycle focused more on the story and the new mechanics such as the Fusion and Ultrahand abilities, but there was little to no mention on the game’s dungeons, shrines or anything related.
In a recent developer interview, however, the team behind Tears of the Kingdom have finally revealed that yes, the game will not feature the Divine Beast format for dungeons that was introduced in Breath of the Wild, but rather more expansive and diverse dungeons with a traditional feel.
“We’ve made dungeons unique to their respective environments, so we think you’ll be able to enjoy the wide variety of regional characteristics,” said Takuhiro Dohta, the technical director for the game. Art director Satoru Takizawa followed up by adding: “Making a wide variety was pretty challenging. The four Divine Beasts were the dungeons in the last game, and they shared similar designs. This time, the dungeons are huge and each carry their own regional look and feel, just like traditional The Legend of Zelda games. We think they will provide a satisfying challenge for players. They were certainly a challenge to develop.”
Game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi provided even more details on how one of these dungeons might work, including the way Tears of the Kingdom’s sky setting might come in to play when traversing the dungeon.
“There is a dungeon that connects directly from Hyrule’s surface,” he explained. “If you dive from the sky straight into the dungeon, you’ll trigger an event. We think this will be a new experience that wasn’t possible in the previous game.”
This will surely ease many fans’ concerns as this was one of the most criticized aspects from Breath of the Wild. We will find out how complex and varied these dungeons really are when Tears of the Kingdom releases on May 12.
