Tears of the Kingdom will Feature “Traditional” Zelda Dungeons

With just two days left to go until the highly anticipated release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo has dropped the first three parts of an Ask the Developer interview session with game developers. Much has been revealed, including more information about the expansion of Hyrule and the all-new Sky Diving feature. Now, we can add dungeons to the list.

In the Q&A session, the team of developers confirmed that dungeons are making a long-awaited comeback. Tears of the Kingdom will feature “huge” and “regional” dungeons throughout, delivering what franchise fans have long been hoping to see return to the franchise.

In reference to the last installment, Breath of the Wild, art director Satoru Takizawa cited the implementation of dungeons as a huge challenge. However, Tears of the Kingdom expands these locations beyond the four Divine Beasts, coming full circle to the traditional dungeons we’ve seen in older Zelda games.

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! (Laughs)

Satoru Takizawa, Art Director

Nintendo followed up the third installment to the Ask the Developer interview session with a Tweet summarizing the reinstatement of dungeons. However, the news was met with surprisingly mixed feelings.

It’s no secret that dungeons have been number-one on every long-time player’s wishlist of features they’d like to see return in Tears of the Kingdom. With that, the addition is huge news for franchise fans who have dearly missed these challenging in-game locations.

While the vast majority of fans expressed excitement regarding the return of the classic Zelda staple, others were less than thrilled to receive such a massive spoiler so close to the game’s launch — through its publisher, no less.

Despite the controversial delivery of the news, dungeons remain a huge draw to the Legend of Zelda franchise and now to its latest entry, Tears of the Kingdom. The final two parts of the Ask the Developer interview session will be released tomorrow, just in time for the new title’s launch this Friday. Look for updates in our The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom hub.