Zelda dungeons are, as a general rule, extraordinarily well-designed. Everyone knows that. What you might not know is just why they’re so well-designed.
For a few months now, critic Mark Brown has been putting out a great YouTube series called Boss Keys. In it, he digs into Zelda dungeons and tries to figure out what makes them work. So far he’s covered Link’s Awakening, Ocarina of Time, Link to the Past, and Majora’s Mask—all worth watching.
This week’s episode, ostensibly about the underrated Zelda pair Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, actually covers a whole bunch of games, complete with fancy graphical dungeon layouts (see above). It’s also a good reminder that both of those games were brilliant in many ways, thanks to a clever library of items and some really cool dungeons including one that changes in the present based on your actions in the past.
Watch here: