Does Tears of the Kingdom's depths succeed as an open world dungeon crawler?

[amara]

An open world dungeon crawler sounds very interesting and innovative but does it work well in execution? For me, dungeon crawlers are defined by two things: danger and the unexpected. Do the depths succeed in conveying these feelings? Outside of the first couple hours of exploration, I would say no. Once you learn about the terrain and enemies in it, there is almost nothing left to surprise. Not to say that I'm completely disappointed in it. I find the idea behind it to be wonderful and full of potential. Maybe they will try again in the next 3D Zelda!

 

[Skoje]

I don't think so. To me it was pretty boring

 

[Uzumaki Goku]

After a while, I got pretty burnt out.

 

[Cudpug]

I found it to be a largely boring, bland experience where it gets super repetive throwing those light seeds around. There's barely anything substantial to discover outside of a couple of dungeons, it is way too big, and once you've explored it for a couple of hours you've seen 80% of what it has to offer.

Don't understand why it was a whole map when it could have just been a few select interesting areas you go underground for.

 

[Belphegor]

No it felt like a total waste specially when it only has one brand new enemy type. You have a giant underground area and it's filled with the same enemies you encounter in the surface.

 

[OrakioRob]

I think it was good, but it could be great. Nintendo would have to go a bit harder on the difficulty and tension to make it really shine, but maybe it fits the game better as it is.

 

[Phendrift]

The Depths were my least favorite area in Totk, though I did still like them. They have their place in the gameplay loop, but I would never explore them for long stretches of time.

Just needed more environmental variety and unique enemies down there and I would've considered it a huge success tbh. The concept was brilliant, and flipped the "exploration by seeing points of interest" design of the overworld on its head.

 

[Minthara]

If it had light down there and wasn't so repetitive, maybe.

 

[Lexad]

I know they wont but I really wish they would leave botw style world design behind. Not everything must be open world. the depths just compounded it further

 

[Alent]

I really enjoyed it and explored it all thoroughly, but they're pretty dang barren. Needed more places of interest. And the danger does drop off significantly, as you say.

 

[Odinsmana]

Only for the first hour or so. When you get used to it and realize how little unique stuff is down there and how annoying it is to navigate without flying vehicles it becomes a chore.

 

[Dice]

The Depths were my least favorite area in Totk, though I did still like them. They have their place in the gameplay loop, but I would never explore them for long stretches of time.

Click to shrink...

Funny enough I'd get gloomy down there after a while lol

I loved what it was. I WISH it had a little more (a few more secrets, a few more unique/lore locations), but the game was already delivering so much nearly everywhere else.
It was basically (literally?) a hard mode of the overworld.

BOTW/TOTK is not a game for completionists. It fills the world with content but wants you to move on.

 

[Agni Kai]

The only area in the game that deserves to be hoverbike'd from root to root without looking back.

 

[ghostemoji]

Surprised about these responses. The depths were probably my favorite thing about TotK.

 

[the_wart]

The only area in the game that deserves to be hoverbike'd from root to root without looking back.

Click to shrink...

That is literally the point of the depths though.

 

[DonFreecs]

Prefer Botw because the depths are the most boring shit ever. The novelty wears off way too quick.

 

[Pargon]

There were parts of it that I enjoyed - though it was easy to get burned out quickly there.
I'd never have called it an "open-world dungeon crawler."

Don't understand why it was a whole map when it could have just been a few select interesting areas you go underground for.

Click to shrink...

They literally just inverted the height of the overworld map.

 

[Greywaren]

I loved it, but it's definitely something to do in short bursts.

 

[julia crawford]

I thought it was just too big. I really like the idea that it is an inverse of the normal world, that bellow the land that everyone knows there is in all directions an equivalent expanse of dark and strange that survives in it's own way, and whose strangeness reflects the world above but changed. Also very admirable from a tech point of view. The landmass is there and you populate it with a different biome. But otherwise... the actual doing of the place doesn't really feel like that most of the time. I really enjoyed that you have to light your way, but to be honest i just avoided the fights and didn't find much of interest to explore. There is no culture down there, there is even no new evil. Just some new enemy types. All that exists in the depths is what can't escape them, and what can't escape them just mills about. The mines are probably the most interesting bit (and there is also something down there that i won't spoil which is honestly very cool in terms of scale) but that's like some interesting spots in a massive open area.

 

[Cudpug]

There were parts of it that I enjoyed - though it was easy to get burned out quickly there.
I'd never have called it an "open-world dungeon crawler."


They literally just inverted the height of the overworld map.

Click to shrink...

Yes but my point is it didn't have to be and I don't think it gained anything by being so large. If it had just been a few interesting areas you go underground for I'd have found it way more engaging and necessary.

 

[Aniki]

The depths were pure awesomness. Spelunking down there never got old and i actually had to force myself to get back to the overworld, because i had so much fun. The different atmosphere compared to the overworld gives it a completely different vibe.

 

[Doggg]

Didn't like it. It lacked the appeal of the above world for me.

 

[Pargon]

Yes but my point is it didn't have to be and I don't think it gained anything by being so large. If it had just been a few interesting areas you go underground for I'd have found it way more engaging and necessary.

Click to shrink...

It would have been a lot more work to create bespoke areas than inverting the height value of the existing map. I'm sure it would have been better though.

 

[Jakisthe]

Why on earth would anyone be doing anything even remotely like dungeon crawling - like, what, staying on the ground, exploring on foot? That sounds horrendous. Between the red goop everywhere, annoying enemies, complete darkness, and nigh-total emptiness, there is absolutely no point in engaging with the depths at all which isn't handled better from the back of a hoverbike.

 

[Derkon]

I don't think so. Just too big and boring.

 

[ErichWK]

Not really. I never felt it satisfying Cause I never got any interesting or cool treasure.

 

[random88]

It was cool at first, but stopped being when I realized everything is the same.

 

[Fuchsia]

Weakest part of the game easily. Once you've spent an hour down there you've sort of "gotten it." Becomes a grind to explore it and it's rather unfulfilling due to everything having a very similar aesthetic no matter where you go.

Personally wish that effort had gone to changing the OG overworld to be even more different than it was in BOTW as the ground level overworld is still the best part of the game easily.

 

[pioneer]

I loved the depths! I didn't 100% them, but I did come close. They're definitely kind of rough at first, but once you have more resources and light & transportation aren't as much of an issue I think it's really fun to explore while still feeling dangerous. If one layer from TOTK is a miss it's the sky islands for me.

 

[Roytheone]

Great vibes, but after a while I just built airplanes to fly over everything because it got really boring.

 

[Grue]

I mostly treated it as an Ubi style 'get to the towers' experience.

It looks dull and it's not full of any real variety.

I don't hate its existence, but I found it perfunctory, whereas the overworld map is enjoyable.

 

[Serebii]

There needed to be more variety in it. Other than the volcano in the north east, it was all very samey. I felt little compulsion to explore

 

[Kuro]

Nah. Its pretty bland.

 

[giapel]

In an ideal world the depths would have had unique areas to discover with particular traversal or combat challenges and an abundance of loot. But with finite dev resources it ended up a bit undercooked. There's a strong foundation there though and could certainly be fleshed out more in another game.

 

[Unknownlight]

I liked it. I wish it had more environment variety (only the Death Mountain region has a different environment, and it's clearly only because the Fire Temple is there), but I never really went down there for long stretches of time anyway, so it didn't matter as much.

 

[Kadzork]

I paced myself by doing a couple of roots below and going to the surface for a while so I found it enjoyable.

 

[Mekanos]

I enjoyed it quite a bit even though there could have been more variety for sure. I found walking through it therapeutic.

 

[Vaenyr]

Not at all. The general idea was neat, but the execution was found severely lacking. Far too big, with far too little variation. There were barely any surprises. The boss rematches for example were a cool idea, then there was the Yiga sidequest. Beyond that, you were basically doing the same thing for a map the size of BOTW's. More or less the definition of wasted potential.

 

[Ananasas]

No

 

[Spinluck]

In some ways I think so.

I enjoyed exploring down there for the most part. Like when I'd see things I'd get curious and I remember some of the discoveries being dope.

While most of it was often just the and shit. But it was a change of pace that I kept coming back to and really fit the overall gameplay loop I think.

Cool concept on paper but the depths feels like that thing in a game that gets worse the more you found out about it.

 

[SupersonicHypertonic]

It's not a dungeon crawler though since you're not expected to go through most of the depths outside important sections like the construct factory or fire temple nor are you expected to rerun the same areas for loot.

I found it amazing at first when it was more like a survival mode area but as time when on I became super powerful and nothing posed much of a challenge. Ultrahand could negate most terrain too and there was plenty of zonite to keep making stuff. More importantly there wasn't enough to do down there like special locations or even different zones, there was a fire area but that was about it for variety. Still mostly had a fun time there in between doing activities Hyrule or sky, sort of like a palette cleanser.

 

[Bengraven]

The only thing that never got boring was shooting one of those light blooms far off into the dark and seeing it suddenly burst into light.

So satisfying.

But yeah, the gloom poison and confusing layout of some parts kind of dragged it down. Thankfully I have all the amiibos so I can just swipe that old gear into my collection. lol

 

[Cronogear]

Going down the depths a few times made me feel like I had already seen it all. Which stinks since it's the only way to get battery, so I was low on battery for the whole game.

It would have been cool to see underground villages with new races, or simply more variety in general.

 

[Atom]

The Sky and the Depths are probably the most disappointed I've been in a game in a while. Just completely wasted potential.

The best part of TotK (the surface) was done 6 years prior in BotW and TotK adds....a nuts and bolts mode. It's a really good nuts and bolts mode and it affects how you interact with the game in many ways, but it's still a nuts and bolts mode.

 

[Entropic]

Yeah I agree with the rest of the thread. It sucked pretty hard and looked boring.

It compared especially unfavorably to Elden Ring's underground/secret sequences.

 

[revengeofgibbon]

I found it deathly boring, but I also know people who spent dozens of happy hours down there. So, no for me but yes for them, like any of these questions.

 

[SwampBastard]

It was the worst part of a game I didn't like.

 

[ASilentProtagonist]

It was really cool at first, but then you realize how barren and uninteresting most of it is

 

[Kain]

It was an unnecessary drag. The game would've been better without it.

 

[Nigel Tufnel]

The depths are my least favorite part of the game, HOWEVER, I still think building contraptions to get around down there is fun. I think it would work if there were more interesting places to find down there.