Game:

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011)

Duration: 3:49

148 views

7

Golden VGM is not ranked in any order, it is simply a list of the best music.
____________________________________________________________

The Ancient Cistern is my favourite dungeon in the Zelda series, and quite possibly one of my favourite levels ever.

First off, it's one of the few water dungeons in the series that is actually good. It looks amazing, the music is rather peaceful, and the idea of mixing the water-themed dungeon with a spooky-themed section is actually rather fascinating, and something that we may not have seen in a Zelda game before.

But what really interests me about this area is the fact that the structure of the dungeon is based on an old Buddhist fairy tale called "The Spider's Thread". IN it, a thief is sent to hell for all his misdeeds and wants to escape into the lotus flower-filled paradise above. A spider from the paradise lowers some of his thread for the thief to climb on and into the paradise, because the thief chose not to squash it while he was still alive. But as he's climbing the thread, the dead bodies grabbed on to him to not let him escape and pulled him down, severing the thread, and thus cutting off the exit to paradise completely.

Sound familiar? Yep, that section where you have to climb a lone white thread into a heavenly light while Zombie Bokoblins are climbing towards you to pull you back down; there was a reason for it. It is all based on this tale. Obviously the upper part of the dungeon is meant to resemble the lotus flower-filled paradise, and this also might explain why there's a lot of Skulltulas in this dungeon.

I love the idea of a level being based off of a fairy tale, not in a literal sense, but in how it affects its design. And the Buddhist imagery really adds to the dungeon's inspiration.

Also let's not forget, this dungeon's boss is Koloktos; everyone's favourite Skyward Sword boss.

- DEVELOPED BY: Nintendo

- PUBLISHED BY: Nintendo

- DIRECTED BY: Hidemaro Fujibayashi

- PRODUCED BY: Eiji Aonuma

- DESIGNED BY: Ryuji Kobayashi

- COMPOSED BY: Hajime Wakai | Shiho Fujii | Mahito Yokota | Takeshi Hama

- PLATFORM/S: Nintendo Wii

- GENRE: Action-Adventure

- WHERE MUSIC PLAYS:
[LEVEL] - Ancient Cistern