Guess what's finally coming back in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Tingle of excitement.
Good, great, so if you clicked on this article, I'm going to assume you're not fussed about spoilers and that we can now continue unimpeded, no longer having to wiggle around the issue at hand. Dungeons! Mitherflipping dungeons are returning in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom!
More specifically - according to Nintendo's Hidemaro Fujibayashi, speaking in a new Ask the Developer interview - "huge", "traditional" dungeons are making their return to the Legend of Zelda series in Tears of the Kingdom after their conspicuous absence in Breath of the Wild.
Tears of the Kingdom's predecessor saw Nintendo shake up the traditional Zelda formula in a big way, not just in its sprawling open-world, but by replacing lengthy, elaborate dungeons - which have been part of the Zelda series since its inception in 1986 - with micro-dungeon-like Shrines and more expansive, although largely forgettable, Divine Beasts.
This time around, though, the development team has focused on creating a "wide variety" of dungeons that, according to Takizawa, are "huge and each carry their own regional look and feel, just like traditional The Legend of Zelda games." Takizawa adds these will "provide a satisfying challenge for players [and] were certainly a challenge to develop!".
As part of the same interview, Nintendo's Takuhiro Dohta offered a small example of the team's more ambitious approach to dungeons in Tears of the Kingdom, describing one "that connects directly from Hyrule's surface. If you dive from the sky straight into the dungeon, you'll trigger an event. We think this will be a new experience that wasn't possible in the previous game."
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - which better be good after Eurogamer contributor Omar Hafeez-Bore awarded its trailer an Essential out of five last week - launches for Nintendo Switch this Friday, 12th May.