RenCutypoison said:
Your definition of a zelda dungeon also lacks a mid boss =p |
Your definition makes every house and shop sound like a dungeon =P
His definition would eliminate entire Zelda games, including the original, due to no boss keys. Also compasses aren't in all games as sometimes the map just tells you everything you need to know. I think some games don't even have you collect the map. Link Between Worlds didn't even have the new item in the traditional sense. Some games have little in the way of puzzles beyond pushing one block, lighting torches with no trick to lighting them, or killing all the enemies, and that's not really having puzzles at all. Really none of his criteria are universal to all games, they're all broken at times. Zelda II breaks all of those conventions at once.
I'd say it's a separate instance of game space in which Link traverses enclosed areas (rooms) with various game mechanics driving progress through the rooms, including enemies and built in mechanisms (e.g. pushed switch, lit torch), ending in a boss fight. Non-separate or non-enclosed would make it like Skyward Sword's overworld. Lacking enemies or the other dungeon traversal mechanisms, or lacking a boss, would just be a huge disappointment for a main dungeon. Mini dungeons need not have a boss or even enemies but wouldn't be recognizable as dungeons without the other criteria, and would still need an end goal to replace the boss and define the end of the dungeon.
