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Everyone’s favorite gravedigger is back for some hijinx in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for Nintendo Switch! That funny little pale fella with an underbite to rival even the most inbred of bulldogs has an interesting function in the latest title from the Zelda franchise. After finding him on the corner of Tal Tal Heights and Goponga Swamp, our hero, Link, is met with an interesting proposition: While traversing the dungeons across Koholint island, gather inspiration for what can only be described as Dampe’s Dynamic Dungeon Designer (which is definitely not Zelda-Maker)!
One in the Chamber Dungeon
Dampe’s Dynamic Dungeon Designer is a fun little game within Link’s Awakening in which you create your own custom dungeons based on rooms you’ve encountered across the entire game. In addition, you can find mysterious tablets, which reward you with new room tiles to use. You can even buy mysterioust tablets from the shop for approximately 1,200 rupees (or steal them, but we both know you wouldn’t do that, right THIEF?).
Whether you’re a big fan of the rooms where even the floor tiles attack you, or you’re more partial to throwing around chess pieces, Dampe’s Dynamic Dungeon Designer lets you take even the most annoying features and combine them into one giant hell-cave. Don’t get me wrong, this can certainly be accomplished with some artistry! Maybe you could create a gauntlet of themed puzzles to torment even the boldest adventurer, or some quirky avant-garde arrangement of rooms that provide a commentary about the true meaning of existence. Any way you want to slice it, Dampe’s Dynamic Dungeon Designer is your canvas, and you are the creator.
Dampe’s Ability for Replayability
Seeing as how Link’s Awakening doesn’t have much of an endgame past the final boss, Dampe’s Dynamic Dungeon Designer is an excellent way to breathe life into the title in an unexpected way. It also gives some incentive to collect all the tiles available to you, to increase the diversity of selection you have for crafting your perfect dungeon.
As one of few post-game activities in a Zelda title, this is a pretty good step towards a Mario Maker-style dungeon-architect game. Speculation would lead us to believe this might be a trial run for such an ordeal, but seeing as how limited the scope of creation is with Dampe’s Dynamic Dungeon Designer, it might be hard to gauge true interest. Ideally in a game like that, I would love to see full creative control of developing traps, puzzles and treacherous trials for my friends to conquer for bragging rights. Similar to how you could control everything down to the very sound a block would make in Mario Maker, it would be exciting and fun to be able to play a sad trombone noise when your idiot friends open the treasure chest in the center of the room that’s obviously a trap.
I know that seeing Dampe’s smiling, maybe frowning face every time Link walks into his ramshackle house brings me joy. The chaotic presence of creativity and unpredictability that the dungeon creator allows is a bit incongruous with the rigid structure and process of a traditional Zelda game (aside from Breath of the Wild, of course). Maybe it was an attempt to further justify the price tag on Link’s Awakening, but I find the dungeon designer intriguing and entertaining for now. The more time I get to spend on Koholint island, the better.
Haven’t started the latest Zelda adventure? Grab your copy of Link’s Awakening using the links above and start crafting those custom dungeons! (Paid links)
