Highlights

  • Snowpeak Ruins in Twilight Princess is a standout dungeon due to its unique design and mysterious elements.
  • The opulent mansion atop the snowy mountaintop, inhabited by friendly yetis, offers rich storytelling.
  • A potential remaster of Twilight Princess should focus on enhancing the enigmatic nature and secrets of Snowpeak Ruins.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess features some of the franchise's most iconic themed dungeons, and the mysterious Snowpeak Ruins is perhaps chief among them. If a remaster or remake of Twilight Princess ever gets released, it needs to do right by this location, honing in on the elements of level design, atmosphere, and environmental storytelling that make it so special.

Snowpeak Ruins is often considered the best dungeon in Twilight Princess, beating out stiff competition like Palace of Twlight and that game's rendition of the Temple of Time. The level's success lies not just in its spectacular boss encounters and puzzles, but in its overall design and the ways in which it distinguishes itself from the rest of the game. As the name suggests, Snowpeak Ruins is nestled atop a hostile, snowy mountaintop yet, somewhat contrary to its name, it is not exactly in ruins. Rather, it is an opulent mansion that is inhabited by two friendly yetis. This premise alone is enough to make Snowpeak Ruins a dungeon to remember, but it's all the little details and irregularities that make it truly special; these are the areas a potential remaster must hone in on.

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A Twilight Princess Remaster Needs to Focus On the Enigmatic Nature of Snowpeak Ruins

Snowpeak Ruins Is Full of Secrets

There have been other ice-themed dungeons in Zelda games, but Snowpeak Ruins does a lot to stand out among them. The location is rich with mystery, with the rich, almost gaudy design of the mansion being at odds with the heavy-grade military weaponry such as cannons found within. Of course, like the majority of Hyrule in Twilight Princess, it has been taken over by the Twilight, but the strangeness of the mansion stretches beyond these immediate events.

Perhaps the most enduring and overarching mystery surrounding Snowpeak Ruins is its very existence: the mansion appears to be in keeping with Hyrulean architectural standards, but its placement at the top of this inhospitable mountain, with no other structures nearby, seems odd. Moreover, its yeti residents, while refreshingly heartwarming in an otherwise dark Zelda game, don't quite fit in the home. Yetis are far from common in Hyrule, so it seems unlikely that a Hyrulean architect or contractor would build the mansion for them. If the yetis built the mansion themselves, which also seems unlikely, that would raise even more questions, as the inclusion of Hyrule iconography and photos of the Hyrule royal family are inexplicable in this context.

How a New Twilight Princess Should Handle Snowpeak Ruins

When looking at Nintendo's catalog of Wii games, few seem more ripe for a remaster or remake than Twilight Princess. If Nintendo does choose to remaster this game, it would behoove the company to take a good look at Snowpeak Ruins, either adding more context to the mystery or simply polishing said enigmatic elements. In the case of the former approach, Nintendo could offer a more consistent, though not necessarily definitive, narrative about the mansion via new visual details or pieces of dialog. If a Twilight Princess remaster or remake is less thorough and more faithful, then it should at least retain these mysterious aspects, ensuring that they are still a significant part of the dungeon.

Whether Nintendo had any grand designs regarding the lore of Snowpeak Ruins during development, the location itself is rich with suggestion and features some of the strongest imagery in the Zelda franchise. Considering this, a remake or remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is in a perfect position to either expand or refine its inherent, alluring storytelling.