In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for Nintendo Switch you can arrange your own dungeons in the new Chamber Dungeon feature. For the most part this is based on the chambers that you get from completing the nine main dungeons in the game, but not every room from a dungeon will become available as a "chamber".
Whenever multiple rooms on the dungeon map form one big room, where the game even keeps scrolling, these larger areas won't be available within the Chamber Dungeon... And other rooms aren't there, because they might have had weird positions for exits or GREZZO simply didn't consider them as worthwhile additions.
In this post we will try to re-create all the original dungeons within the Chamber Dungeon and see, how far we can get. With this we can calculate the "chamber rate", the number of rooms from a dungeon that were turned into chambers. The higher the chamber rate, the more beneficial the dungeon was for the Chamber Dungeon. However, the lower the chamber rate, the more interconnected the dungeon might be, which might result in a better gameplay experience overall.
With the exception of the Color Dungeon, none of the final rooms, where the Instruments of the Sirens reside, did get turned into chambers. So, that's already one room that is missing from most of the dungeons.
Every dungeon also has a number of "extra chambers" available, which get unlocked after either beating Dampé's challenges or collecting Chamber Stones. These extra chambers are for the most part modified versions of existing chambers that offer a different number or orientation for the exists. There is at least one such extra chamber for the dungeon's boss, so that the boss can be placed as a regular chamber somewhere within your dungeon. These extra chambers don't have any influence on the chamber rate, but will be recorded here nonetheless.
So, if you like numbers, this post is for you... This is pure statistics, seeing how the individual dungeons contributed to the Chamber Dungeon overall.
Level 1 – Tail Cave
- Chamber Rate: 64%
- Chambers: 16 (of 25)
- Extra Chambers: 2
The big central area around the Nightmare Key, as well as the double room with the Sparks in the north didn't get transformed into chambers, but the rest is still there. It's a simple, first dungeon overall.
Other than the boss room, there is an extra chamber of the room right before the boss, where this version adds some Keese, doesn't have any stairs and goes to the east instead of north.
Level 2 – Bottle Grotto
- Chamber Rate: 65.38%
- Chambers: 17 (of 26)
- Extra Chambers: 2
Similar to the Tail Cave, the Bottle Grotto has lots of chambers to offer for a near identical chamber rate. It has some longer hallways with crystal blocks, which didn't get turned into chambers, but the rest is all there.
Also, like the Tail Cave, it turns one of its Blade Trap rooms (in fact its only Blade Trap room) into an extra chamber, where in this case it's going straight from west to east.
Color Dungeon
- Chamber Rate: 100%
- Chambers: 22 (of 22)
- Extra Chambers: 2
Look at that! It's all blue. The Color Dungeon is the only dungeon with a 100% chamber rate and which can be faithfully reconstructed within the Chamber Dungeon. This shouldn't be surprising, however, since the Color Dungeon was entirely made out of basic square rooms, much like all the dungeons in the original The Legend of Zelda game for the NES, where the Color Dungeon pays homage to.
It even has the Great Fairy's room at the end available, which also lets you unlock a modified version of it with three exits. The extra chamber for the boss is a crossroad and you can even use that to build something that has both the boss and the Great Fairy's chamber in it:
However, in this case you'll need one more chamber from another dungeon to close the gap to the left of the additional boss chamber. And you will have to beat the same boss twice to finish the dungeon.
But all in all the Color Dungeon is the first real star of the Chamber Dungeon, where it pays to play this optional dungeon from Link's Awakening DX early in the game, since it offers many new options for arranging dungeons. However, it's also often considered as the most basic dungeon in the entire game, where it pales in comparison to the excellent dungeon design of its older siblings.
Level 3 – Key Cavern
- Chamber Rate: 42.86%
- Chambers: 12 (of 28)
- Extra Chambers: 2
The Key Cavern is the biggest dungeon so far, but only offers very few additions to the Chamber Dungeon overall. It's B1 floor actually got ported to the Chamber Dungeon almost in its entirety (it's only missing the room for the Sea Lily's Bell), but most of the 1F ground floor is absent, which includes the long corridors above the entrance and the entire large area that surrounds the mini-boss.
This creates a weird omission, because the first occurrence of the Dodongo Snakes is the only mini-boss dungeon room that doesn't become available in the Chamber Dungeon. With all other mini-bosses, even the recurring ones, GREZZO went out of their way to include them. They even modified the other Dodongo Snake chambers to make them fit, but not this one... And this is certainly strange.
Otherwise you can unlock an interesting extra chamber from the same floor. It's the room that normally leads to the large area, but this versions has three exits, multiple Arm-Mimics instead of the Zols and no stairs. The treasure chests even appears where the stairs were.
Level 4 – Angler's Tunnel
- Chamber Rate: 32.14%
- Chambers: 9 (of 28)
- Extra Chambers: 2
If you thought that the Key Cavern didn't bring much to the Chamber Dungeon table, the Angler's Tunnel is here to go down even further when it comes to the chamber rate. Only nine of its 28 dungeon rooms could be transformed into chamber material. But this is for a good reason, because a big chunk of the dungeon is basically one, large room. And it's part of what makes this dungeon very unique in this game.
After the Key Cavern didn't get a mini-boss chamber at all, this is the first time that a mini-boss gets an extra chamber, this time with three exists. Probably because there wasn't much else to work with here...
Level 5 – Catfish's Maw
- Chamber Rate: 52.94%
- Chambers: 18 (of 34)
- Extra Chambers: 2
After a low income of chambers from the Key Cavern and Angler's Tunnel, the Catfish's Maw is favoring the simple dungeon rooms somewhat more. This is mainly due to its many mini-boss occurrences, where all four Master Stalfos rooms have been made into chambers. But half of them are just simple dead-ends that offer no rewards.
The Gohma mini-boss room has been modified to offer an additional door to the south, which doesn't really fit the original dungeon layout, but still counts. It also offers an extra chamber, where the second exit is to the left instead of the right.
The three connected rooms below the first Master Stalfos battle could theoretically have been turned into chambers as well, but those have been left out for some reason...
Level 6 – Face Shrine
- Chamber Rate: 52.5% / 55%
- Chambers: 21 (of 40)
- Extra Chambers: 4
We're getting into the game's largest dungeons, where the Face Shrine has as many chambers to offer as the Color Dungeon, but is still looking at a moderate chamber rate. Most of it has to do with rooms that are connected over long ways, like the water ditch that spans three rooms.
This also offers the highest number of extra chambers yet. One is for the boss, one for the Dodongo Snakes (after they didn't make an appearance so far) and one for the first room with flying tiles, but with the exits in the opposite ends.
However, the Face Shrine also has an extra chamber for a room that isn't even featured as a normal chamber. It's the one with four torches and three Wizzrobes, which normally appears to the left of the dungeon's entrance. There is a three-way version of this room that can be unlocked via the challenges, but the original version is completely missing within the Chamber Dungeon for whatever reason. It still fits in nicely to replace the one Wizzrobe room in the east...
Depending on whether you count this extra chamber or not the chamber rate looks a little bit different. But with this particular chamber the Face Shrine would be on par with the Color Dungeon when it comes to the total number of original chambers.
Level 7 – Eagle's Tower
- Chamber Rate: 34.09%
- Chambers: 15 (of 44)
- Extra Chambers: 1
If a low chamber rate were an indicator for dungeon quality, we would be looking at one of the best dungeons in the game. Only the Angler's Tunnel has a lower rate, but the Eagle's Tower is large and therefore adds more chambers than Level 4 did. And it certainly always has been a fan favorite dungeon, where it's puzzle with the four pillars is very clever and therefore nothing that can be translated into the Chamber Dungeon, leaving a gap in its second floor.
The entire first floor, however, is entirely missing from the Chamber Dungeon as well, with the sole exception of the entrance. The intricate network of crystal blocks that is spanning most of this floor has probably something to do with it, but sadly this also means that you won't ever meet the Anti-Kirbies, who exclusively reside on this floor, within the Chamber Dungeon.
Interestingly, one of the bridge rooms from the hollow third floor actually got turned into a chamber, but not the other bridge(s) with crystal blocks on them.
It's also the only dungeon in the game that only comes with one extra chamber, the mandatory one for the boss. Not even the Grim Creeper mini-boss did get a modified version of his room, despite the fact that his current chamber is a useless dead end, because the exit to the top didn't fit...
Level 8 – Turtle Rock
- Chamber Rate: 65.22%
- Chambers: 30 (of 46)
- Extra Chambers: 5
Finally, the Turtle Rock dungeon adds a lot of chambers to your collection. In fact with a total of thirty chambers it's easily topping the Color Dungeon and Face Shrine, which have been on the top so far. It's the largest dungeon in the game, but with a chamber rate that's similar to those of the first two dungeons. And this shouldn't come as a surprise, because unlike the Eagle's Tower before, Level 8 focuses a lot on separate rooms with individual puzzles or mini-boss fights. It even has the highest number of mini-bosses in the game and all of their rooms were made available in the Chamber Dungeon, some of them even twice.
About a third of the dungeon is still missing, but most of it comes from the central area with the lava pit, as well as some other rooms that are connected in strange ways. This still didn't stop them from including the mini-boss chambers for the Dodongo Snakes and Blaino, despite the fact that they fit in very differently into the dungeon. Especially the Dodongo Snakes chamber had to be modified quite a bit, where you don't have to fight them from up above any longer. This makes it even more questionable, why the Dodongo Snakes from the Key Cavern weren't included...
Both the Blaino and the Dodongo Snakes room also offer modified versions as unlockable extra chambers for whatever reason. And there is a modified version of the room with the cracked floors and Gibdos, which used to be right to the Dodongo Snakes and which now has an exit to the top.
Interestingly, this dungeon seems to have an extra chamber for a Great Fairy, despite the fact that there's no Great Fairy to be found within the original dungeon. This is odd, but maybe this is here in case a player hasn't played the Color Dungeon, nor has access to any amiibo, but still wants a Great Fairy somewhere in his dungeons... But with this chamber there is a total of five extra chambers to be found for the Turtle Rock dungeon, the highest number of modified chambers in the game.
Totals
- Chamber Rate: 54.61%
- Chambers: 160 (of 293)
- Extra Chambers: 22
The above chamber rate doesn't include the one extra chamber from the Face Shrine that doesn't have a normal counterpart. In case you're wondering how there can be a total of 193 chambers, note that the six +Effects count as chambers as well and there are the five special chambers gotten from amiibo.
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