Progression in Traditional Zelda

What is your name?

What is your quest?

What is the number of tokens required to fulfill said quest?

Every game has a goal and in case of the Zelda series this goal usually is something on the lines of "defeat the villain, save the princess, and bring peace to the people". In Breath of the Wild you can go and do just that, but things weren't always as "simple" and the game broke multiple conventions to allow this.

First, let's explore what these conventions were and how the player was progressing through Zelda games since the NES times. In follow-up posts we will then look at how Breath of the Wild has changed things and what Tears of the Kingdom could be doing differently, when it launches in less than four months.

The Legacy of the Triforce Fragments

In the original The Legend of Zelda you are only granted access to the final dungeon, Death Mountain, if you have fully assembled the Triforce of Wisdom. It was broken by Princess Zelda into eight fragments and you have to retrieve these fragments from the other dungeons in Hyrule, eight of them in total.

It was a simple construct to ensure that the player goes through all of the dungeons in the game. And this concept has been copied by the Zelda series (and other games) up until Breath of the Wild, only that the Triforce Shards were now crystals, pendants, musical instruments, medallions, essences, pearls, and so on. It's simply a quest status item that represents your progress in the game, where you have to collect a number of something in order to proceed into the final confrontation.

A Link to the Past split this up into two stages. First you had to collect the three pendants for the Master Sword, which opened the way into the Dark World, where you have to free seven Maidens from a crystal, before you can enter Ganon's Tower. This was also copied a couple of times, like in Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, or Phantom Hourglass, but others kept the simpler formula, like Link's Awakening, Majora's Mask, or the Oracle games.

Still, the purpose of this never changed and this was to make the player go through a fixed number of dungeons, ranging from four up to twelve. And the way you progress from dungeon to dungeon can actually be very different. Some Zelda games are entirely linear, others less so. With a completely non-linear dungeon order, like in Breath of the Wild, it wouldn't really matter, but no other Zelda games has that, not even A Link Between Worlds. So, there are usually a couple of mechanics in place that ensure a certain dungeon order...

Progression via Dungeon Items

This is the oldest trick in the book: in order to get to the next dungeon you need to have obtained the main item from another dungeon. The first game on the NES did this in two instances – one where you need the Raft from Level 3 to enter Level 4, and the other where you need the Recorder from Level 5 to enter Level 7.

Otherwise you are essentially free to enter any dungeon from the get-go, where you can try your luck in Level 8 right from the start. Things aren't that simple, however, because you also need the Stepladder from Level 4 to finish the Levels 5 to 7, while the Bow from Level 1 is required in Level 6. You won't know this until you've hit the corresponding roadblock, where for first time players it's best to orientate themselves by the level numbers and do them in order.

Zelda II - The Adventure of Link then tried to give this a cleaner structure by making things more linear. With one exception you need the main item from a palace to leave the current area and to proceed to the next. You (technically) need the Candle from Parapa Palace to leave Northern Hyrule, because the surrounding caves are dark. Or you need the Flute from the Ocean Palace to get to the last area. The exception is the second major area, where both the Midoro and the Island Palace reside. But here you need the Handy Glove from the former to proceed inside the latter, which is similar to the Stepladder from the first game.

Otherwise this is dungeon-to-dungeon progression in its purest form, where you would think that this became the norm for the entire Zelda series afterwards. But that's actually not the case. The only other Zelda game that has this type of progression from start to finish is Majora's Mask, where you always need one or more items from one area to enter the next.

You need the Bow from the Woodfall Temple to enter the Snowhead region. You need Epona to enter the Great Bay region, for which you need to obtain a Powder Keg from the Gorons at Snowhead first, which in the least requires you to have the Fire Arrow from the Snowhead Temple. And to get to Ikana Castle you need the Hookshot from the Pirate Fortress and the Ice Arrow from the Great Bay Temple (or only the Hookshot and some pixel perfection on the N64).

Other Zelda games only have this partially. For example, the second half of Link's Awakening works exactly like that, where you just need the Hookshot to enter the Face Shrine (Level 6). The L-2 Power Bracelet found in there then lets you move the weather vane at Mabe Village, so you can have the Flying Rooster on your side to make your way to Eagle's Tower (Level 7).

Some people like to only grab the Mirror Shield from this dungeon and the proceed right to Turtle Rock (Level 8), because the Magic Rod makes fighting the Evil Eagle much easier. And this is one of the main advantages of this method of progression: you can leave the bosses of a dungeon for a later time, if you feel like it. You could even wait with the bosses until the end of the game.

In Zelda II - The Adventure of Link this may be something you want to do intentionally, because finishing a dungeon gives you enough EXP for the next level. Plus, fighting the bosses later in the game makes them much easier to handle. A Zelda-like that has absolutely perfected this formula is Death's Door.

But what about the first half of Link's Awakening? And all the other Zelda games? What are they doing to make sure that you can't just run off with your shiny new gadget to the next dungeon?

Progression via Events

In A Link to the Past the dungeon items, like the Power Glove or the Hammer, are primarily used in order to proceed to other dungeons in the game. But there is one exception, right at the beginning; you first need to finish the Eastern Palace, before you can move on, because only then you will obtain the Pegasus Boots from Sahasrahla. They then let you obtain the Book of Mudora, which is required in order to open the Desert Temple (we're taking glitches out of the equation here).

While the Pegasus Boots are still an item that gives you a new ability, it's not the main item from the Eastern Palace. That's the Bow. So, there is a bit of a difference here from what we had in the previous two games.

And Link's Awakening really expanded upon that, where in the first half of the game you can only progress if you have beaten the current dungeon. You can leave the Tail Cave just with the Roc's Feather and go into Goponga Swamp, but this won't do you any good, because you don't have anything to destroy the plants there, which are blocking the way to the next dungeon.

You need Bow-Wow for that, but the Chain Chomp companion only becomes available after he was abducted by the Moblins. And this won't happen until after you've obtained the Full Moon Cello... Likewise, in order to get into the Key Cavern, you need to talk to Richard. But he won't talk to you, as long as you have Bow-Wow with you, where you can only return him after beating the Bottle Grotto. Convenient, right?

So, there are certain events in place, which only get activated after having beaten a dungeon. The player is not able to progress any further with his new abilities alone and must beat the next boss in order to proceed. And this has become a staple for the series, where some Zelda games do this from start to finish.

At first, Ocarina of Time only did this very partially, more akin to A Link to the Past. You can't leave the Kokiri Forest / Lost Woods, unless you've obtained the Kokiri's Emerald from the Great Deku Tree. You don't actually have to finish Dodongo's Cavern, however, you can just take the Bombs and then move on to Zora's Domain, where it's back to classic progression via dungeon items. The second half is much less linear, but there is an event-based restriction, where you can't obtain the Nocturne of Shadow until after the Fire and Water Temples are done and their respective medallions were collected.

Oracle of Ages & Seasons on the other hand completely ran with this concept for progression. For example, even if you leave Horon Village to the east, Rosa won't appear until after you've completed the Gnarled Root Dungeon. Or there is a Zora blocking the path into the Sea of Storms, who won't go away until after you've finished your business with Jabu Jabu. There are some exceptions, but for the most part this is how you're progressing through the worlds of Labrynna and Holodrum. Just having some fancy new item isn't enough.

In The Wind Waker the King of Red Lions won't let you leave Dragon Roost Island until you're done there. And the pirates won't appear at Windfall Island until after you've went through the Forbidden Woods to save Makar. And speaking of the little Korok, he will disappear in the second half of the game until you've reached the end of the Earth Temple with Medli...

Twilight Princess usually tries to find good excuses as to why you can't progress to certain areas as of yet. For example, Barnes won't have Bombs in his shop ready until after you're done with the Goron Mines and the good relationships with the Gorons are restored. So, it's not always just random stuff that just happens to happen, because you've reached a certain point in the game. But in the second half this boils down to one member of the resistance showing up at where you need to go next...

Finally, Spirit Tracks structured the whole game around clear events triggered by completing a temple. Doing so will restore power to the Tower of Spirits, which adds another section to the main dungeon. However, there is more to all this with the Rail Maps, which brings us to the next topic...

Progression via Key Items

Let's go back to the example of A Link to the Past, where you need the Book of Mudora to enter the Desert Temple. It essentially acts as a key here for the dungeon, but it's also needed to obtain the Medallions, where two of them are later required to enter certain dungeons in the Dark World...

Link's Awakening came up with a more methodical approach: just lock the entrance to a dungeon and make the player find a key, like the Tail Key or the Face Key. Then you can have a quest before the dungeon to find the required key, like getting through the Mysterious Woods. This doesn't always have to be a real key, where you could see Bow-Wow as the key to enter the Bottle Grotto.

In Majora's Mask these keys were songs, where each of the four temples can only be entered after learning a specific tune, like the Sonata of Awakening for the Woodfall Temple. Once you've learned the respective song, you can enter the temple at any time, but first you will need to go through a series of main quests in order to learn it.

The Minish Cap streamlined things to ensure a linear order with a new trick: the item that you obtain the end of a dungeon, mainly the four elements, acts as a key to enter the next area. Well, technically these elements power-up your White Sword at the Elemental Sanctuary, so that you can make more copies of yourself, which then let's you progress somewhere else. There is also a lot of event-based progression in this game, but it showed a new direction – one where the quest items that you collect from the end of each dungeon act as individual keys.

Phantom Hourglass used this in the first half of the game with its three Spirits. Well, the main way of progression is finding sea charts – similar to the Rail Maps in its sequel, Spirit Tracks. Only with the sea charts you can travel to new islands. And you will obtain them from the Temple of the Ocean King, but in its first half you will find doors that only open with the corresponding Spirit. At the same time collecting all Spirits is your first main goal to locate the Ghost Ship. So, the Spirits act as "Triforce Fragments" and as unique keys at the same time (and companions with different abilities on top). It's quite sophisticated.

Last and maybe least, Skyward Sword just ran wild with all of this. While the main goal was to find Zelda during the first half of the game, it's simply a carrot on a stick on your way through the surface areas, where you need tablets to descend through the cloud barrier. The first one, which you get right away, is the Emerald Tablet, which grants you access to Faron Woods. Both the Skyview and the Earth Temple then just give you a new tablet, which lets you proceed to the next main area, until you finally obtain the Goddess's Harp.

In the next part of the game you will then learn new songs from the Isle of Songs, which let you enter a Silent Realm, which rewards you with a new item, which then lets you proceed to the next dungeon. Each dungeon now will temper your Master Sword and afterwards you can return to the Isle of Songs for a new song. With Skyward Sword the series reached the pinnacle of being formulaic, where afterwards it took a 180° turn.

 

Ravio's Item Shop

In an effort to mix things up A Link Between Worlds experimented with how you're progressing through the game giving you access to most of the necessary tools and abilities very early. This was mainly in the form of Ravio's Shop:

Here you can rent and purchase the nine main items whenever you desire, with one exception. You will also quickly find the Pegasus Boots, the Zora's Flippers, and the Power Glove at this point in the game. Only the Sand Rod and the Titan's Mitts are out of your reach at first... This eliminates most of the usual backtracking, which occurs with obtaining new abilities, and gives you a lot more freedom overall, especially with the order of the dungeons.

But for the most part A Link Between Worlds still works like its predecessor, A Link to the Past. You first will have to clear the Eastern Palace before you can get all those items. Then you will have to collect the three pendants to obtain the Master Sword. And once in Lorule you will have to free the Seven Sages before you can enter Lorule Castle and beat the game. So, it's overall still very traditional in how you progress... but it was nonetheless paving the way for Breath of the Wild, where we will be leaving the realms of traditional Zelda. So, let's look at this game separately in the next post.

Level-Based Progression

For the sake of completeness, we should also take a look at the multiplayer-focused Zelda games, which so far all had in common that you have levels on a world map screen, similar to your typical Super Mario game. Of course you have to beat a level in order to progress, but things are actually very different between all three games. It already starts with the terminology, where "level", "stage", and "area" can mean different things...

In Four Swords there are three stages, where with each you have to play through a randomly generated level with multiple floors to obtain a key. Getting all keys grants you access to Vaati's Palace and after beating the game you can repeat the process with higher difficulties, where you have three different "epics" for the keys.

Four Swords Adventures is the most straight-forward. You have eight levels (the areas) with three stages each and you have to play all 24 stages in order. It doesn't get any simpler than that.

With Tri Force Heroes you have eight areas in total with four levels each, but you don't have to play them in a particular order and can even skip most of them. To progress to the next area(s) you will only need to beat the last level of an area, where you can freely choose between all four levels from the start. This may seem weird at first, but this was to ensure more flexibility within an online environment. And different materials for crafting outfits give you an incentive to play all the levels multiple times anyway.