Ganondorf Battles - Spectacle over Adversity
After several 3D Zelda games and perhaps years of denial, I think I understand what the intent is behind these epic Ganondorf battles in The Legend of Zelda series. After making my way through Tears of the Kingdom, I’m concluding that Ganondorf battles are mainly intended to be extravagant set pieces the player is supposed to win.
To make this case, I’m only considering the following titles:
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Each of these titles features Ganondorf as the main villiain. Any of the Ganon/Beast Ganon/Pig Ganon forms as his sole incarnation of Demise’s rage will not be counted (so games like NES Zelda, ALttP, and the Ocarle games are out). And obviously, any game that does not feature Ganondorf in any form at all are not counted (i.e. Majora’s Mask, The Minish Cap, etc). Breath of the Wild could count for this but since I’m omitting Ganon in all forms (Calamity or otherwise), I’ll leave it off since we never get Ganondorf in that game - only Calamity Ganon (an evil spirit and Gerudo-inspired Guardian).
Part of this idea comes from my overall dissatisfaction with the difficulty in the Zelda series overall once it went full 3D. My frustration could be divided into two parts - lack of combat challenge and ruining tough puzzles on purpose (looking at you, Fi). This post will focus moreso on the former, as a lack of combat difficulty in 3D Zelda games was the reason I felt as though Ganondorf was not much of a challenge at all in OoT, TWW, and TP. Then Breath of the Wild and Twilight Princess came about. Combat is more stat-based these two titles, leaving more room to adjust certain values and make fights tougher; and maybe Calamity Ganon and re-hydrated Ganondorf would be trouble for some if you go in unprepared. But I found both fights to be pretty sweet (if you take the time to grind hearts and stamina, level your armor, flesh out your inventory spaces, and rescue all four Divine Beasts - Link becomes an unbeatable God and half of Calamity Ganon’s HP is taken off before Link even begins the fight - a purposeful pushover).
I still find Ocarina of Time’s final battle endgame sequence to be the most epic in the series. Everything from the setting, the atmosphere, and the music made it absolutely spectacular. However, the actual fight against Ganondorf and his second form, Ganon, were not very challenging at all. It doesn’t help that the game is easy overall from a combat perspective; for example, enemies usually only take a quarter to half a heart of damage in general. Add in the defense upgrade and fairies and there’s no way the player loses the final battle if s/he has any modicum of skill.
Again, while the actual battle was no challenge at all, the build up, atmosphere, and experience was incredible. I was always disappointed with the lack of difficulty in this fight though; despite being a fantastic sequence.
The Wind Waker is by far the easiest and most brain dead of all 3D Zelda games - puzzles designed for babies (not seasoned Zelda players), easy combat with enemies that do little damage, simple dungeon designs, etc. It remains my least favorite 3D Zelda for those reasons, despite it being a great game. I did enjoy the game a lot more my second time through. The final battle build up wasn’t as awesome or epic as Ocarina of Time, but it was still pretty cool. In terms of challenge, like the rest of the game, it was very much a pushover. However, it was still a very nice end-game sequence all the same.
Twilight Princess’ end-game sequence was definitely a huge step up from The Wind Waker’s and also rivals Ocarina of Time’s. Though a bit derivative of that game’s ending sequence to begin, it does a great job of implementing many of the gameplay mechanics from the game into the fight (such as Wolf Link and horesback combat). The atmosphere, the music, everything about it was just amazing! This time, Ganondorf has four forms (Possessed Zelda, Dark Beast Ganon, Horseback Ganondorf, and a fair one with Ganondorf himself) and each of them are a lot of fun, built up with cool cutscenes and and an awesome score. Again, with Twilight Princess, Nintendo was still making Zelda games for newbs - as enemies didn’t take much damage and you rarely ever die; but the puzzles and dungeons were much better this time around. I would’ve loved the ending sequence to have been more challenging from a combat perspective, of course, but it was a great end-game sequence - one of the best in the series!
We do not get another proper Ganondorf fight until Tears of the Kingdom. The game design in open-world 3D Zelda games is more stat-based; which could give the devs more room to make the fight more challenging. And this fight could be challenging depending on how soon you take it on! I was well over 200 hours in with over 30+ hearts, max stamina, a maxed out armor set, plenty of weapons and shields, nearly maxed out battery, and the master sword - I was ready. But I think the devs wanted this fight to be a nightmare for anyone who didn’t go around the map powering Link up; perhaps a built-in deterrent to encourage folks to go see more of the game before finishing the story.
It was this boss battle that made me understand what Nintendo’s intent is with Ganondorf battles. I do not think they’re supposed to be hard at all. Sure, each of the featured games are more cakewalk Zelda games - enemies do very minimal damage, including Ganon/dorf, but the way these battles are designed make it seem as if Nintendo wants you to win in the moment and enjoy the climax they set up for you. For example, the ‘Dragondorf’ phase of the battle is a complete pushover. I don’t know if you can even die during this phase. It felt like the Monster Forces battles and one-on-one battles with Ganondorf were supposed to be the parts that could challenge the player. The final boss dragon form gave me ‘you’ve already won, now let’s finish it!’ vibes during the end-game sequence.
In conclusion, with all this said - I’d love for Nintendo to switch it up and design a Ganon/dorf battle that is EXTREMELY hard; even for season Zelda players! It would be a nice troll, and a cool change of pace.