The Legend of Zelda: The Most Dangerous Worlds, Ranked

The Legend of Zelda: The Most Dangerous Worlds, Ranked


Summary

  • The Silent Realms in Skyward Sword test Link’s spiritual growth with weaponless challenges.
  • The World of the Ocean King in Phantom Hourglass is a time-bound trial with relentless phantoms.
  • Subrosia in Oracle of Seasons is an underground wasteland ravaged by volcanoes, making travel treacherous.

The Legend of Zelda series is known for exploring both the light and dark sides of fantasy, sending players through beautiful realms that are often wrecked by creatures of darkness. While Hyrule is often the centerpiece world, many of Link’s adventures push him into more dangerous territories like apocalyptic parallel dimensions or haunting spirit worlds.

Some of these worlds teeter on the edge of destruction, and others are ruined lands or open seas with dangerous places scattered in between. The following are the most dangerous worlds in The Legend of Zelda series, ranked by their hazards, creatures, and overall sense of doom.

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10

The Silent Realms (Skyward Sword)

The Silent Realms are locations in Skyward Sword that have different mechanics than the overworld. Within the Silent Realm, Link is weaponless and is in spirit form, sent on a quest to collect Sacred Tears. The moment Link steps beyond the protective circle within the Silent Realm entrance, the Guardians of the Silent Realm awaken and begin to seek Link.

Similar environmental hazards from the overworld exist here on top of being chased by spirit guardians, making it a rather stressful journey to collect the Sacred Tears. This place is not apocalyptic, but it offers a challenge for Link in the fact that he must navigate it defenseless.

9

World of the Ocean King (Phantom Hourglass)

Time-Bound Trials And Relentless Phantoms

Set some time after The Wind Waker, the story of Phantom Hourglass introduces the World of the Ocean King, home to the Ocean King and his spirits. The recurring dungeon known as the Temple of the Ocean King houses some of the hardest challenges in the game, and presents a dangerous challenge for Link to pursue.

The Phantom Hourglass is a central item obtained within the Temple of the Ocean King, and if this item runs out of Sand, Link’s Life Force will get sucked away. On top of time management and the need for stealth when moving around the Temple of the Ocean King, the World of the Ocean King contains threats lurking in the seas in between sixteen islands.

8

Subrosia (Oracle Of Seasons)

The Underground Volcanic Wasteland

The land of Holodrum is already a dangerous place in Oracle of Seasons by the time Link arrives, but General Onox ravaged the land and caused the Temple of Seasons to sink into Subrosia. Subrosia is the subterranean lava world located beneath Holodrum, and after the sinking of the Temple, its lava levels rose and created instability in the land’s volcanoes.

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The world of Holodrum is relatively uninhabited, so traveling the lands above and below ground with monsters in between makes for a treacherous journey. It isn’t until the completion of the game that Holodrum’s four seasons can be restored and players can watch the world grow from desolate to colorful.

7

Ruined Past Labrynna (Oracle Of Ages)

A Future Shattered By Corruption

In Oracle of Ages, Link finds himself in a world similar to Holodrum, aptly called Labrynna for the labyrinthian way Link travels this world. Link encounters this world in both its past and present, seeing the waterlogged ruined Labrynna in the past and a colorful overgrown present day.

The evil Sorceress of Shadows, Veran, is sowing chaos in Labrynna from the past, forcing Link to enter a time portal to chase after her. Link must manipulate the past in order to reach areas in the future. What Veran leaves behind for Link is many monsters in dungeons and wrongs to right.

6

The Great Sea (Wind Waker)

The Submerged Kingdom And Vast Oceans

The Great Sea is the main setting for Wind Waker, which features a flooded world with a sunken Hyrule. This is the timeline where the Hero of Time did not stop Ganon’s forces, so the Gods flooded everything as a last resort to stop Ganon. As a result, The Great Sea itself houses gigantic monsters like Big Octos in between various islands differing in danger levels.

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Several islands, like Fire Mountain, Ice Ring Isle, and Gale Isle, consist of volatile weather conditions. The world of Wind Waker changed so much from previous games that the Zora could no longer thrive in the illusory waters of the Great Sea, so the Rito appeared in their place.

5

Hyrule & The Twilight Realm (Twilight Princess)

The Perpetual Twilight World

The world of Twilight Princess takes a step up in darkness and maturity, featuring the land of Hyrule taken over by the Twilight Realm. Walls of Twilight segment the world and within the realms lie great threats like Shadow Beasts sent by Zant, the Usurper King of Twilight.

Whenever Link enters the Twilight Realm, he is transformed into a wolf due to Zant’s curse. While in wolf form, he cannot carry items, and so traveling this dimension itemless proves to be a challenge. The outside world is fairly dangerous too, as ancient structures filled with monsters exist, like the Forest Temple or Arbiter’s Grounds.

A Cursed Monstrosity

As one of the original concepts of the Dark World or Evil Realm in The Legend of Zelda series, this twisted dimension runs parallel to the kingdom of Hyrule. The Dark World in A Link to the Past may be one of the most volatile versions of the Dark World, featuring an era in which the Hero of Time was defeated in the events of Ocarina of Time.

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The evil wizard Agahnim, working under Ganon, captured the descendants of the seven sages and sent them to the Dark World, where Link must go to rescue them. The world’s inhabitants warped into monsters and anthropomorphic animals like foxes or as objects like trees. Even the Cuccos take a sinister form here.

A Crumbling Kingdom And The Upside Down

A Link Between Worlds features an alternate world to Hyrule known as Lorule. While it’s not like the Dark World in the sense that it’s a twisted version, Lorule was an alternate world with its own incarnation of the Triforce. However, the people of Lorule lusted for the Triforce’s unlimited power. A war broke out and resulted in the destruction of their Triforce.

When Link arrives in Lorule through 2D fissures, he finds a crumbling world deep in disrepair. The danger of Lorule stems not just from its enemies or dungeons, but the instability of the world due to gigantic dark canyons erupting everywhere.

2

Hyrule (Tears of the Kingdom)

Post-Apocalyptic World & Underworld

Tears of the Kingdom’s version of Hyrule is a world that has been wrecked by the hand of Ganondorf, who sent a surge of Gloom that caused Hyrule Castle to ascend into the sky. Following this, he fell deep underground and revealed a massive underground world. This world features a ruined world with floating chunks of land in the sky and a gloomy underworld, with monsters and ancient technology scattered about.

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Nearly everything outside of civilization is trying to kill Link, and there are dangerous legendary beasts like Lynels and Dragons that roam about. The bosses of every Temple are massive, and some have the ability to manipulate the very environment around them. The best way to survive the dangers of this world is through utilizing the new and ancient technologies at Link’s disposal.

1

Termina (Majora’s Mask)

A Doomed World Facing Inevitable Destruction

Termina is a parallel world to Hyrule, created by Skull Kid wearing Majora’s Mask. This place is inhabited by races and people constructed from Skull Kid’s memories and imagination, giving off a macabre theme of playfulness mixed with impending doom. Each year, the citizens of Termina hold a festival in Clock Town in order to celebrate ancient traditions. However, when Link arrives, he finds that Termina is in great danger. The Moon is about to crash into Clock Town and destroy the world.

Majora’s Mask as a game gives Link three in-game days to solve puzzles by exploring the doomed world and attempting to prevent the Moon from falling. Termina is perhaps one of the most twisted worlds in The Legend of Zelda series, and exudes an air of imminent danger at all times.


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