Palace

Palaces are a recurring type of dungeon in The Legend of Zelda series.

Characteristics

Palaces are predominant in The Adventure of Link and A Link to the Past. In the former game, palaces house sacred lecterns where Link must place magic crystals that lift the seal blocking the entrance to the Great Palace, which itself houses the long-missing Triforce of Courage. In the latter game, palaces guard either sacred pendants that are the key for obtaining the Master Sword or crystals where imprisoned maidens are encased.

In The Adventure of Link, the palaces are explored with a side-scrolling format and, like the labyrinths in The Legend of Zelda, can be distinguished by the color of the bricks they were built with; they usually require Link using magic spells to be conquered, and fighting enemies is now optional (as long as they're easy to overlook, of course). In A Link to the Past, the palaces are explored in top-view perspective, and have a more elaborate interior than the previously cited dungeons, having more hazards, obstacles and traps; as with all other dungeons in the game, a Big Key is required in each palace to meet the boss.

Palaces appear to a lesser extent in other games in the series, for different purposes. The Palace of Twilight, in Twilight Princess, houses Usurper King Zant and three of the Fused Shadows.

"Palace" as a localization of "temple"

In The Adventure of Link, and in some cases in A Link to the Past, the term "palace" is used as a translation of the Japanese term Template:Japanese. At this time it was the policy of Nintendo of America to remove overt religious references from games, so the English names of dungeons containing this term replaced the term with "palace". From Ocarina of Time onward, however, this policy was no longer applied to locations in this series, and so 神殿 is given its literal translation of "temple".

List of Palaces

The Adventure of Link

As mentioned before, palaces appear primarily in The Adventure of Link, and are the dungeons of the game. In order, these are:

1. Parapa Palace
2. Midoro Palace
3. Island Palace
4. Maze Island Palace
5. Palace on the Sea
6. Three Eye Rock Palace
7. Great Palace

A Link to the Past

The term Palace is also used to refer to certain dungeons in A Link to the Past:

1. Eastern Palace
2. Desert Palace
3. Palace of Darkness
4. Swamp Palace
5. Ice Palace
6. Palace of the Four Sword (GBA remake only)

Majora's Mask

1. Deku Palace

Twilight Princess

1. Fanadi's Palace, home to Madame Fanadi, is located in Hyrule Castle Town.
2. Palace of Twilight.