The Wind Temple

 Well, I did the first real "dungeon" of Tears of the Kingdom. And I have to say that this was a big improvement over my biggest complaint about Breath of the Wild - the dungeon had its own personality and vibe.

Now, just to be nitpicky, the design of the Wind Temple, which is essentially a giant flying airship, was fairly simple compared with previous Zelda dungeons. You hold this up to the Yeti's House or the Forest Temple and it's not quite the same.

But, unlike the Divine Beasts in Breath of the Wild, this felt like the mechanics and look of the temple were really tailored to the specifics of the story the dungeon was telling. This might be a premature assessment - after all, I haven't seen the other ones. But I'm just going to say that this one felt like fun, and I felt clever for figuring out how to take down the boss.

The Wind Temple is the dungeon associated with the Rito in the northwest of the map (it's been long enough since I played BotW that I don't know if the map is exactly the same, but the overall layout is still clearly meant to be. This is one of those unusual Zelda games that is a direct sequel to the previous one, similar to how Majora's Mask has the same Link as Ocarina of Time, but unlike that one, this is set in Hyrule once again).

There's an endless blizzard freezing the area, and so you go with a young Rito named Tulin up a massive complex of sky-islands until you finally get high enough to dive down into the heart of the storm, where you find a legendary sky-ship that was a big part of Rito culture but thought to be a myth.

The dungeon itself is basically one big multi-part puzzle, where you need to activate a number of wind turbines that Tulin's special ability lets you do. Thus, the dungeon can be completed in any order. The place has berserk Zoltai constructs and some Keeses and a few automated turrets that can ruin your day (thankfully if you're knocked off, you can teleport mid-air to the main deck.

One of the minor challenges here is that it's cold enough that you'll likely need some consumable cold resistance gear - I only ever got a set of warm leggings and boots, which was fine for most snowy areas but not here, so I had to eat up a bunch of consumables I'd made to avoid taking damage from the cold. Luckily, the interior spaces of the ship are warm enough that you can get by (at least with those leggings) so it's only a concern when you're in the outside areas.

So, once you activate all the turbines, you can open up a big gate in the main deck, and this releases a boss. The boss is a giant sky-serpent with three circular segments. The tops of these are all covered in scales, but when you fight it, the updraft lets you float up or descend, and you can shoot the icy undersides of these segments with your bow (the dungeon is very generous with arrows and doesn't seem to require using them a lot, but Din, Farore, and Nayru help you if run out.) I found myself using up a lot of Keese wings on the arrows to give myself the range to hit the icy segments - with a powerful bow I was able to crack the ice in one or two shots and then hit the tender underside.

The boss then summons whirlwinds that can knock you out and damage you, but I didn't find them too hard to avoid. And bing bang, with enough arrows the fight was over, and Tulin gained a sacred tear that allowed him to become the Sage of Wind, which included letting him create an avatar that now follows me around in the world and lets me use his special ability. I suspect that, similar to the Divine Beast-derived abilities in the previous game, you'll collect one of these from each of the dungeons.

Much as I look back with frustration at Breath of the Wild, I do remember actually enjoying it to a certain degree. And I'm having fun in Tears of the Kingdom. I'm a little worried, though, that Nintendo has effectively said that earlier styles of Zelda games are now extinct, and that this very narrowly specific Breath of the Wild-derived version is the only thing to stay. This game, from the sound effects to the cooking mechanics to the combat mechanics to the look and aesthetic of it, are all basically unchanged from BotW.

See, when they did this with Majora's Mask, I didn't have an issue with it because that game came out like a year and a half after Ocarina of Time - a, frankly, absurdly quick turnaround.

Again, I think there's a good chance that the thing hardcore fans of this style of Zelda game will always love is the ability to screw around in the game world. I suppose it might be my age, but while I definitely remember causing mayhem in various Grand Theft Auto games for hours on end, these days I want to feel like I'm getting a complete experience in a game simply by playing through the main story.

Anyway, I'm old. Grumble grumble, newfangled kids these days with their Minecrafts and their Fortnites.