I was surprised to see the water temple at #8 - I loved that temple - I thought it was so difficult. The ongoing raising and lowering of water was such a cool feature. It's a challenge - which is what the temples should be.
The water temple is my least favorite...Its just annoying to constantly change your boots from the usal ones to the iron ones. That just kills the gameflow. This temple has great potential but didnt take any use of it. Besides its Boss is a complete joke lol
@@KingJohnson1985 Add to that that if you forget a key (and you will the first few times you play the game) then you have to go through a long backtrack section were you have to lower and rise the water again to continue.
When I saw that you put Dadongo's Cavern as low as you did I thought "really, that low?" but then soon realised how hard it must have been to rank the others. A true testimony of how fun this game is.
I'm so happy the Spirit Temple topped the list. I really enjoy that dungeon a lot. It's really just a lot of fun. It balances challenge and humor well.
Yea i also like the Spirit Temple the most. It has a great Soundtrack which fits the theme of the temple very well and the fact you have to return as child to begin the temple is revolutionary.
Great list! I'm actually a big fan of the water temple. I can't disagree with the sour points, but I find the cohesive design of the dungeon to be more enthralling than most of the dungeons in the game.
I'm not a good puzzle solver and the although Ocarina of Time is possibly my favourite game ever, maybe about equal with Goldeneye... the water temple caused me to give up when I was a youngster 😞 After a couple of years with the N64 as my console, I gave in to the temptation of the ps1 with its larger game selection and those games were cheaper too. I handed down my N64 to my little brother (he still has it 20 odd years later) and the combination of being frustrated to death with the water temple and then having a ps1 as my main console... it was 2-3years until I returned to finish Ocarina of Time.
Same here. I've seen it played on a different system (possibly the Nintendo 3DS) and it looked better with updated graphics, along with the ability to toggle the Iron Boots using the press of a button.
same here. in all the zelda games i played i actually found the water temple to be my favorite. especially in majoras mask. the water temples are always so unique as well as challenging, feel rewarding when you get past a difficult puzzle, look awesome visually and one point that is very important to me, the music is some of my favorite in video games in general. (yeah ik im late lol)
It was relatively fixed in the 3ds version but it can’t be understated how annoying having to pause and unpause the game to equip and unequip the iron boots is and how much it kills the pacing of the dungeon
I'm a huge fan of the spirit and fire temples. I love volcanic aesthetics, with you actually climbing the interior of death mountain, with magma, fire everywhere and boulders that make it as intense as you would think being inside an active volcano would be. I especially love where you can see how far you have climbed up throughout the dungeon in certain rooms, to show how huge the volcano really can be. The spirit temple has the best theme, with the back and forth of child and adult link being really memorable. You get to defeat ganondorf's surrogate mothers in his own home turf! I mean how high up can you go before defeating the demon king of thieves himself?
My fav temple was the forest one because it was the first one we play as Adult Link. The whole adult part got me hyped af in general when I played Ocarina of Time for the first time decades ago
I believe this is the greatest game ever created. I don’t believe any game will ever top it. Maybe that’s just the nostalgia talking but whatever the case may be, this game is just special and I hope to be able to play it again one day. My ranking would be 1. Spirit Temple 2. Forest Temple 3. Shadow Temple 4. Fire Temple 5. Dodongo’s Cavern 6. Great Deku Tree 7. Water Temple 8. Ganon’s Castle 9. Jabu Jabu‘s Belly
I hope Nintendo eventually remakes OoT, like Capcom did with RE2. I wouldn’t mind if they expanded the game to more fully capture their original vision.
@@mrrolo873fun fact this is actually because dark link only has your sword and shield. You can use any other weapon you have and he can't copy it because he doesn't have the weapon lol. Could be cuz Gannon more than likely doesn't know what weapons are obtained in each dungeon and therefore cannot replicate it in dark link.
I really enjoy the forest temple. It’s the first adult Link temple which gives the game an interesting newness the first time you play it. The music and color palette are calming and sets the stage
I do agree with you that the Bottom of the Well makes you feel a bit more helpless in that you revert to being a child, where your puny Kokiri Sword requires EIGHT regular strikes just to take out a Gibdo. But granted, you're still a more experienced hero, having done all three main childhood dungeons and at least the Forest Temple (and saw what a hellhole all of Hyrule becomes in the future) before you're capable of entering the place. Not to mention increased surviveability due to several Heart Containers and potentially multiple bottles filled with either fairies or potions (which is WAY better than I could say about my first experience entering the Royal Tomb, which I did before Dodongo's Cavern). Plus, if you know what you're doing and you're not interested in 100%ing the Skulltulas, you're not even required to go through more than the well's main corridor and the boss room with Dead Hand (Master Quest is a different story, though). Still, even if you are taking on the Shadow Temple as a seasoned adult (and it might've even been originally planned to be the final dungeon before Ganon, if the menu placements are anything to go by), it's still a sufficiently disturbing environment, and it does feel as if the stakes are raised both due to the sheer scale of the temple as well as the showdown with Bongo-Bongo. For that matter, Bongo-Bongo itself helps serve to make the Shadow Temple (and the well, for that matter) mysterious as it is creepy. From a narrative perspective, it's interesting to think that the Shadow Temple was possibly the only adult temple that wasn't directly influenced by Ganondorf, making the thing a place of evil all its own (and it is suggested to have had a dark history). Though, it is possible that Ganondorf's influence over Hyrule may've indirectly helped to weaken the seal on the well (depends how this particular seal works, but generally in fiction, they are effected by negative emotions, which future Hyrule is certainly full of), but it only leads to the question of who or what even is Bongo-Bongo (also, considering you visit the place as a child, where in the well was he even sealed?). I also find it worth mentioning how heavily the Shadow Temple and the well contrast with the otherwise peaceful Kakariko Village, in which both dungeons are situated, leaving a disturbing sensation of people going about their happy lives despite the terrifying secrets that lie mere meters beneath their feet.
I must've missed this comment when you posted it, but great analysis and awesome point about the contrast between the Shadow Temple/Well and Kakariko Village.
for me its 1.) Spirit Temple 2.) Forrest Temple 3.) Fire Temple 4.) Ganon's Castle 5.) Shadow Temple 6.) Water Temple 7.) Dodongo's Cavern 8.) Inside The Great Deku Tree 9.) Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly What makes this game so great is the dungeons and music that comes with each one. I just love the designs of every single one
After my first play-through, I generally bee-line to the Fire Temple after the time-skip. I know you can't go back in time until after the Forest Temple, but gosh darn it the Fire Temple is just so much fun to puzzle through (and who can resist carrying around a big hammer and playing whack-a-mole with it?). Same for Dodongo's Cavern and bombs; I usually can't wait to get the bombs because blowing things up in the game is so satisfying. So I would rank those two first, but otherwise I agree with the order of your list: 9.) Jabu-Jabu's Belly (confusing and annoying) 8.) Deku Tree (too simplistic for my tastes) 7.) Water Temple (see Jabu-Jabu's Belly) 6.) Shadow Temple (fun, but the aesthetic was too dark to see half the time) 5.) Ganon's Castle (great to puzzle through, but long and time-consuming) 4.) Forest Temple (fun puzzles, but the backtracking can get tedious) 3.) Spirit Temple (love the storyline and Twinrova, but a little dull with all the block-pushing) 2.) Dodongo's Cavern (who doesn't like blowing stuff up?) 1.) Fire Temple (BIG HAMMER = SMASH!!!!!!)
I really, really love the Spirit Temple. It really feels like a test of all the abilities that Link has learned throughout the game, both as a kid and as an adult. It is my favorite dungeon in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The puzzles in this dungeon felt difficult yet solvable. Twinrova was maddening to fight, yet enjoyable once you defeated her.
Thought about the Water Temple, there was a massive missed opportunity here. The water level could have been changed by using the Song of Storms (raise via rain), and the Sun Song (lower via evaporation). That, with making the Iron Boots a C item would largely fix the dungeon. Sure the dungeon might need a bit of a layout change to accommodate being able to freely change the water level, but I think that'd make for a very interesting dungeon.
Here’s my ranking (note, this *is* coming from the POV of only playing OOT 3D) Jabu-Jabu Dodongo’s Cavern Water Temple Deku Tree Ganon’s Castle Fire Temple Spirit Temple Shadow Temple Forest Temple I ADORE the Forest Temple, one of my favorite dungeons in the entire series. That first wallmaster room is legendary
I think the Great Deku Tree is just about the perfect introduction temple. This is an open world game and much of its players were/are children, and those of us who were children at the time of its release and still go back and play it through nostalgia. Anyway, the Deku Tree is about getting used to the game, getting an introduction to the story, and getting an early feeling of achievement before getting out into the bigger land of Hyrule. As a kid playing the game back in the day, that quick progress through the Dungeons and Temples slowed dramatically for me after getting out of the forest! It wasn't just the dungeons but also the tasks in between just to get into the dungeons. This certainly added to the exploration and adventure of open world gaming, but it could be frustrating when there was something I just couldn't figure out. Legendary as the game is, Nintendo are preoccupied with selling and developing the new games and Ocarina of Time was on the 3ds (which I've never played) the game hasn't been available for a TV console gaming experience since the Gamecube... kids love the latest and greatest, that's just the way it is. It's the responsibility of the old Ocarina of Time kids to keep the old consoles and cartridges in good condition, clean them inside out, refurbish/restore games and consoles if/when they stop working... then introduce your children to video gaming via these old classics, because the your children will want what's trending at the time and they aren't likely to appreciate a step backwards in quality... I know, I started out with a Sega master system and mega drive at friends houses, and once the 3d consoles came out none of us kids ever looked back! Ok, it's a bit different because the jump in quality and overall experience going from 2d to 3d was a huge thing.. a much bigger deal than just slightly improved graphics and faster loading speeds! But the point is still valid. To summarise: N64 fans... don't let the classics die! The manufacturers will gladly let these old games disappear so that sales of new games are maximised... it's up to the old fans to keep the classics alive forever!
What honestly would've been really cool is if there was another point to the Bottom of the Well where you actually have to open up the Shadow Temple as a child, connecting the 2 dungeons. Like say upon first entering the Shadow Temple, you actually can't get into the first room as the doorway is caged off, upon looking through the bars; you see a switch that could likely open the bars, but you can't activate it from where you are. Then upon getting the Lens of Truth at the Bottom of the Well, you discover a hidden ladder at the bottom floor of the dungeon, branching like the one in Majora's Mask. It would answer the question as to why there would apparently be an upper floor in the dungeon. Upon reaching the top of the ladder, you go through a cave doorway leading into the Shadow temple, and get through a crawlspace to reach the Switch that opens the dungeon for Adult Link.
Forest Temple is #1 for me. It's hard to choose what's the best temple when the game is perfect in every single way. Long Live the GOAT, Ocarina of Time
The Spirit Temple is my favorite dungeon in this game. Glad to see someone liking it as much as I do. And I never actually do those puzzles with the mummies, you can cheese those with Din's Fire and Fire arrows.
I honestly loved the water temple. Once you figure out the mechanics it'd really simple. I even drew where stuff was when I was a kid cause I kept getting lost lol. Favorite is spirit temple followed by the forest temple. Though I don't really have a least favorite the one I don't get as excited about is the shadow one. Though it is still a good one
Right, I’m sitting here screaming at my phone for no reason at these reasons everyone hates it. It sounds like one influencer said it and everyone else was like “yah! Fuck going one more step into the menu. We are too simple minded for complex water level designs that make you remember shit” It’s not my favorite dungeon but damn man, that band wagon needs to roll off a cliff
Also same on the shadow temple. Something about that one made me roll my eyes (in a sense) to do when I as a kid. I’d have to play it again to figure out why it annoyed me though
Thanks for the amazing video. A small bit of criticism, the transition sound between each dungeon was insanely loud. I just about jumped out of my seat every time 🤣
Great list! Found the Banjo lists first and I’m loving this series! One question though.. why the Chrono Trigger music when you were discussing the Fire Temple? I was so confused lol.. you made a great case for the Fire Temple and actually helped me appreciate it a bit more, bc it’s always been one of my least favorites.. probably bc it’s the one I get lost in the most 🙃
I remember for some reason I didn't like how the fire temple music sounded in the background and the Chrono Trigger music fit it in my head. Plus, it was the first dungeon I edited, so I think when I finally finished all the other ones I was too lazy to go back and change anything lol
@@MrDrBoi ooh gotcha lol.. well I appreciated it! OoT is my favorite game of all time and Chrono Trigger is my second fav.. so I was smiling the whole time 😊
My List: 1. Forest Temple 2. Spirit Temple 3. Shadow Temple 4. Fire Temple 5. The Great Deku Tree 6. Water Temple 7. Dodongo's Cavern 8. Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly
I am a big surprised you have the shadow temple as high as it is! In my opinion, it’s my least favorite temple! Main reason being is because there’s this one room with a wooden cross torture device and a brightly colored blood stained floor in that room that both scared and scarred me as a kid! How does that clear as an E rating back in the 90’s? Still hate the Shadow Temple as an adult, but the 3DS remake of the game makes that temple much easier to get through as there’s no bright blood
For some reason, the water temple dungeon in 3D master quest I end up liking more than the original OR the 3ds version of the original. To this day I hardly have any idea why, when the puzzles are far more cryptic. My favorite dungeon in the game is the Shadow Temple. No matter how much "better" the other dungeons are at testing your ability to backtrack and memorize layouts and solve puzzles, I always appreciate this dungeon in its atmosphere and how haunting it is. The music, the enemies, the obstacles being literal torture chamber devices... it all makes this dungeon memorable and different than all the others. It's as if the game is telling me: "If you cannot handle the horrors of Hyrule's secrets, how can you hope to conquer the darkness of evil itself?" And playing it on the gold cartridge makes it so much better. Especially when you finally figure out after 11 years that you can use the lens of truth + bombs to snuff out the deadhand. I don't like those arm pillars grabbing me. ;_;
Excellent list..i like to see unique point of views. Here is my OOT dungeon list ranked and with One Word that describes them. Last- Fire Temple- Its average and dragged on. Dodongos Cavern- like it for nostalgia reasons but not the best dungeon. Deku tree- fine for a First dungeon.. i like the fact you acually feel like your in a tree. Jabu jabus belly- frustrating but unique. Ice cavern- nice music but tricky Bottom of well- was not expecting the scary theme..prepares you for Shadow Temple. Shadow Temple- scary and intimidating. Water Temple- fantastic mini boss Ganons castle- brilliant design Spirit Temple- well made..like the change between young and adult link. Forest Temple- best Zelda dungeon level ever.
Great video! I disagree with you on a lot of points, but I really enjoyed hearing you make your case for each dungeon. One suggestion though would be to decrease the volume of the "Zelda secret" transition sound that you used for each number on the list. It's much louder than the rest of the video and it scared the crap out of me every time. Lol
Today i like every dungeon but as a kid i think that the forest dungeon was very scary. Every time i played trough the game my father played this dungeon😂
Though I don't agree with everything here, (for example, Jabu Jabu is my personal favorite of the 3 child dungeons) this is a very respectable list! It's insane how even the weakest dungeons still have qualities to them that show the potential of being a great dungeon. It's a really strong testament to just how smartly designed the dungeons of OoT are.
I could NOT disagree more about the Water Temple- it’s puzzle wise the only temple in OoT & one of the only in all of 3D Zelda that really even comes close to the puzzle intricacy of the 2D games
I’m going to post this at the beginning and edit later, but Water Temple had better be one of the top picks. Edit: well that didn’t take long. How in the actual Hell was Water Temple NOT top 3? One of the best designs, one of the very very few dungeons in OOT that actually has a somewhat challenging puzzle, yet is still not a very difficult or long dungeon. The back tracking isn’t even that much nor does it take very long at all.
This video was amazing man, I love the words you used, tho it’s a long video I can’t see myself ever getting bored of it. Thanks for watching my ranking!
I had no real basis for judging dungeons, when I first tried this game out. Being so new to Zelda traditions I found most of them frustrating, for how often I had to look up a walkthrough, and the Spirit Temple was probably the only one straight-forward enough for me to enjoy. Revisiting it now, I got way different credentials, and I can't pretend Mark Brown's Boss Keys series hasn't had an influence on my tastes.
My puzzle solving abilities are rubbish, I was asking people how to do this and that... I was a kid at the time so I won't be too harsh on myself - BUT... I didn't get Majora's Mask until I was a young adult already and I can't make any progress with that game at all !!! I want to feel some achievement of figuring it out for myself but I gave up on it about 10years ago and haven't attempted it again since.
@@aaronroberts7047 I possibly gave up too soon. I will return to it though, just don't know exactly when. Part of the problem Majora's Mask has with winning me over is that I love Ocarina of Time and it's difficult to accept a Zelda game that's not as good. Also the 3 day time loop really got on my nerves. From what other people have said and written, it's just a game that requires a lot of repetition and learning the movements of all the characters over the 3 days. For most people progress is going to be slow - it certainly felt slow to me.. I didn't even get into the first dungeon. If I'd got the game when I was much younger I would've put more time into it, but the terribly slow progress would've bugged the hell out of me. As a kid I was more relentless than patient with these things.
@@aaronroberts7047 sorry I thought you had replied to my comment. Anyway keep in mind that however difficult Ocarina of Time feels, Majora's Mask is so much worse.
I know it's alot shorter lived, but can you do one of these for Majora's mask? I'd really like to hear your input on the temples. Excellent video, keep up the good work!
Yes, the Water Temple is very frustrating at times but at other times the puzzlebox character of its awesome design is only matched by Stone Tower Temple in Majora's Mask. This is why I will always defend it.
Forest Temple has always been my favorite. The music, atmosphere, and Phantom Ganondorf is a pretty intimidating boss fight. I love the design of the Water Temple and it's music. I just hated the original mechanics of the temple for N64. The 3DS version made it a much better. Also I don't know why but despite playing/beating this game so many times I lost count, I always forget one key somewhere and have to back track. Overall Ocarina of Time is one of my absolute all time favorite games.
I like the detail you go into for each of your reviews. Even for your lowest ranked dungeons, you still enthusiastically sing their praise. For each entry you mention all the good and all the bad and explain why you ranked them above or below others. I like how you'll even go into broader contexts. E.g. for your Wind Waker list you still have your complaints about your favourite dungeon and you contrast to dungeons in other games.
Thanks! I probably put more thought into these lists than I should, but it's fun to be thorough and express all my thoughts. Glad you've been enjoying them!
Always fun to see people rank OoT temples. I'd rank then Spirit, Forest, Water, Shadow, Fire, Ganon Castle, Deku Tree, Dodongo Cavern, and then Jabu-Jabu Belly.
I love this list! I think in general people are partial to the games earlier dungeons due to the familiarity and especially more casual players who may not have completed multiple play throughs. I will say the water temple is legendary for it’s difficulty and I love the shadow temple for the creepiness.
Darunia survives the fight with Volvagia (all the Sages are still "alive"). How he survived I don't know, but since he can open a boss door without the boss key he's got skills lol.
For Dodongo's Cavern (particularly the part where the sign told you to make the skull see red): This game was originally made for kids in the 90s. I first played it at 6 years old; at that part in the cavern, I zoomed past the sign and onto the bridge, then spent ten minutes jumping around the bridge with no clue before reading the sign. After reading the sign (which just tells you to make the skull "see red", I went up and down for the next half-hour dropping bombs in front of the skull, blowing up beamoses, and basically blowing up anything and everything I could see before it occured to me to drop bombs on the skull itself. Remember: kids are dumb, and don't have as much gameplay experience as you. A sign like that is useful to get them on the right track, but then they still need to figure out what it means, and it's not as obvious to a six-year-old to drop bombs onto a giant skull that was previously a part of the scenery when the riddle is to make it "see red". "Seeing" usually implies "in front of", not "on".
I think part of my frustration with the sign actually stemmed from the fact that I also played this game when I was very young and this puzzle always stood out to me because it is one of the first that I can remember figuring out on my own. I definitely exaggerated how obvious the sign makes the puzzle, but it was disappointing to know that something I felt so good about figuring out on my own could've been potentially cheapened.
@@MrDrBoi Fair enough. I just don't think it's cheapened just because it's obvious after you figure it out; it wasn't nearly as obvious when you didn't know the answer, and that was the point of including it.
I just noticed something with the Forest Temple. When you realize that you can't progress further a new player would probably get grabbed by a Wallmaster and be placed at the start and with the compass in hand you would see the key immediately.
Great Dungeon ranking list mate, although my personal order is completely different: 1. Spirit 2. Water 3. Forest 4. Jabu-jabu 5. Shadow 6. Deku Tree 7. Fire 8. Dodongo 9. Ganon's Tower
The Water Temple is without a doubt the most frustrating dungeon imo. I remember as a kid, I was stuck on it for so long and without the access of RUclips, there was no guide for me. I have a Nintendo Switch and have recently played OOT again and still needed help from RUclips to get past the Water Temple.
You've done a good job with this video. I disagree with your list but thanks to your talking along with appropriate footage made it very fun to watch :)
Calling Big Octo intense is a bit of a stretch. Walk up to it, get bopped once, throw a boomerang, and then jump slash with a stick. It literally dies to one stick.
I feel like I'm a little more forgiving of that Dodongo Eye Bomb puzzle. The tablet that explains it at least makes it a little vague. Better than the one that explains the Ancient Cistern's solution, anyway.
When I was younger I really loved the spirit temple, but the more I play it, the more I find it to be tedious. Partially this is maybe because I normally play the master mode these days which I think did favours for the Water temple and a disservice to the spirit, but I just find it long, samey and not difficult enough to be challenging, but too difficult to breeze through either. So, I don't know, interesting perspective I guess. I agree with what you said about the Dodongo's cavern, and I have two really simple things which would have completely fixed the issue. First, put the stone tablet where the bemos is at the start so that it's underneath the Giant Dodongo skull. That way you get the clue at the start of the dungeon and are looking for a way to get up to the walk way the entire time, and you don't yet have the bombs, meaning that it's less clear how you will do it. Second, move the bridge slightly, and fill in the holes so that you instead have to drop the bombs of the side of the bridge
Missed this comment, but I really like the first idea for Dodongo's cavern. Personally, I think it's fine to have the holes on the bridge because that's how I intuitively figured this puzzle out originally.
Great list. I personally feel like the consequences for falling down a hole in the fire temple are waaaay worse than in Jabu-Jabu. I'm slightly biased though as I enjoy the Jabu-Jabu dungeon a lot, but the frustration of falling in Jabu pales in comparison to falling down the megaton hammer pit... But you did a great job on the video
I fell asleep to this video at dodongos cavern. Not because it was boring, but because i was tired. Not sure why i felt the need to mention that but i watched the rest this morning and great vid.
This was a good and fun list. I did have some issues with the sound though, the voiceover was too quiet so I had to turn up the volume, but the item chime sound when a number was shown was incredibly loud in comparison making watching the video difficult and a juggle between turning the volume down for the numbers and back up to hear the voiceover.
Great list! Wasnt able to watch ALL of it on my break, but it's well done! My top 3 dungeons would be: 1) Forest Temple 2) Shadow Temple 3) Fire Temple
1. Spirit Temple 2. Forest Temple 3. Shadow Temple 4. Ganons Castle 5. Deku Tree 6. Fire Temple 7. Dodongo's Cavern 8. Water Temple 9. Jabu Jabu Bonus: GTG 5th, Bottom of the Well and Ice Cavern last 2 in that order if they were included
*_It is_* one of the greatest games ever released. It set the baseline for many future Zelda games. Its soundtrack is the most iconic: you still hear variations of said music in subsequent Zelda games to this day. It was also the game that invented Target-Locking (at the time it was called Z-Locking). It also introduced the technique of Context-Sensitive Actions. BOTH THESE TECHNIQUES ARE PRACTICALLY STANDARD IN ALMOST ALL VIDEO GAMES TODAY. It's not controversial. This is a fact that it is one of the greatest games and you have to give the Devil his due. Anyone who says it isn't is just objectively wrong. There is no discussion - they're wrong.
Man, I must be the odd one out if I was one of the few who actually enjoyed the Water Temple back in '98 when most people say they hated it. I agree that the iron boots thing was annoying though. Also, the slope just before the boss is really easy once you figure it out. Keep in mind that this is coming from someone who got stuck in one of the early rooms inside the Deku Tree because I didn't know you could light the tip of a stick on fire.
1. Fire Temple 2. Shadow Temple 3. Forest Temple 4. Spirit Temple 5. Dodongo's Cavern 6. Water Temple 7. Great Deku Tree 8. Jabu Jabu's Belly 9. Ganon's Castle (excluding final boss fight. That whole battle is awesome)
I just played through this again on stream and, honestly, the Water Temple isn't as bad as people make it out to be. The biggest issue for me has to be the equipping/unequipping of the Iron Boots. Other than that, it's not bad.
Really great video and list. Totally agree Water Temple was just a few tweaks away from being one of (if not the) best temple in the game. I played through it recently on a randomizer (which also allowed the boots to be equipped as an item) and it was probably my favorite temple to playthrough this time around. Great atmosphere (in my opinion), and all around a really cool design. Monster Maze has a great video on the subject that echoes what I'm saying. That said, Forest Temple is BY FAR my favorite, and is overall one of my favorites places in videos games period. In my opinion it's basically perfect (or at least perfect for me, as it checks all the boxes I personally enjoy).
I think that the water temple is one of the most clever dungeons in Zelda history, the problem stems from people playing it incorrectly and rushing through the floors instead of fully exploring every every floor. If played correctly, you only have to do the water switch sequence once. The problem is, nobody bothers to play it correctly. People always blunder keys and have to redo the water switch sequence, whereas if they just explored correctly the first time, they wouldn't have to deal with all that.
I like your thinking, but I don't think that there's one correct way to explore. Going through rooms to figure out how far you can go before getting stumped is valid, and of that means you need to backtrack, so be it. The real problem with the dungeon imo is that it's BORING. The monsters are all more of an annoyance than a challenge because of the limited underwater combat, and the scenery is generally all the same, being either the same style platforms/walls or water. Because there's nothing to keep your focus on, people instead focus on the other annoyances of having to backtrack through boring scenery and having to keep opening your menu. Compare it instead to The Deku's tree's webs and vines, water, fire, and wildlife. Jabu Jabu's insides were certainly fresh as well. The slow sinking/rising through the water, combined with the slow menu opening, navigation, and use, and the lack of anything stimulating except the puzzle itself ,which you can only see a small part of at a time, makes this dungeon feel like a slog. Yes, that can be mitigated by systematically exploring each floor first, but there's no way to know that's what you could be doing to make it better until it's too late. The mechanics themselves are fine, but it's lacking the execution and the polish and shine to make it truly be amazing.
1. Water Temple (i was dreading it on my first playthrough but it was really satisfying to work out, mini boss is awesome) 2. Spirit Temple (Just epic asf, like with all the story moments) 3. Forest Temple (Fun) 4. Shadow Temple (Super atmospheric, kind of linear) 5. Fire Temple (Really annoyed me on my first playthrough but its growing on me) 6. Deku Tree (Perfect start, but not that much content) 7. Jabu Jabu (too easy but still fun) 8. Dodongos Cavern (wayy too easy, not that atmospheric. I enjoyed the boss fight and most of the puzzles tho) i dont rlly wanna count ganons tower cos it didnt feel like a dungeon
9. Fire Temple 8. Jabu Jabu's Belly 7. Shadow Temple 6. Dodongo's Cavern 5. Hyrule Castle 4. Inside the Deku Tree 3. Spirit Temple 2. Forest Temple 1. Water Temple That's my list, anyway. I loooove the Water Temple. I think it's got a meditative atmosphere, and that's complemented by the difficulty of the puzzle solving. And the music is so fucking good. The boss sucks, yeah, but I think most bosses in the game suck, to be honest. Fire Temple and Shadow Temple both have actually good bosses to make up for the lacklustre dungeon layouts. But man do I really dislike the layout of the Fire Temple. And the Shadow Temple is just confusingly designed, but not in the difficult way. Just like in the "why did they make this pointless room" kind of way.
Other than the audio balance being off, I enjoyed your video. I weirdly liked the lower res of the footage quality. Rather than an emulator in HD, it felt like I was watching your CRT footage
1. Forrest Temple. The atmosphere is the best of any game. I still get goosebumps from that place. Great use of vertical space in the new era of 3D consoles. Twisted corridors blew my mind when I first experienced it. The sense of exploration is top notch. 2. Spirit Temple. Basically what you said in the video. 3. Water Temple. Again, great use of vertical space, they whole dungeon is a puzzle. I really dont get how second dodongos cavern got such a high rank, it's, personally speaking, one of the most dull ones.
I've always wondered why the energy bolt speeds up with each volley during the Phantom Ganon fight but doesn't speed up between volleys while facing the real Ganondorf. Yeah, a spin attack will speed up Ganondorf's bolt considerably, but I feel the speeding up feature should have been standard in the real thing. It doesn't make sense for it to only happen on what is essentially the practice round but not on the real fight.
Great review! A couple things, I think there's a couple of puzzles you showed that I never did! I wonder how it's possible that I missed some puzzles? ex. @ 26:51 and @22:37. A separate point I actually had difficulty figuring out to shoot the Poe paintings in the Forest Temple, did anyone else have that issue? So I thought your comment about Dodongo's dungeon and the sign telling you to drop the bombs in the eye was interesting. Lastly, I understand why water temple might be frustrating at times, but nevertheless think it's great because water is such an appealing medium to interact with, so its temple has a wonderful mystic feel. Thanks for the video!
Is this running on N64 hardware in widescreen? I assume you used a modified ROM or some kind of AR code, but did you then have to stretch the image either on your TV or in post after you captured it?
I have a AV to HDMI upscaler so I can play on my living room TV that doesn't have the right ports for old consoles. In this video I didn't stretch it, but nowadays I'll scale it slightly, to like 105, to fill the screen with no black bars at the top/bottom.
I've never heard "King Dodongo" and "tough" in the same sentence before lol
Really? I've heard it a lot. As in "Don't worry, King Dodongo isn't tough at all."
Cool mechanics. Not tough though
My guy doesn't know about the safe spot on the lip on the side of the lava pool
I assume they meant in comparison with Queen Gohma, lol
Lord Jabu Jabu was more annoying and Dodongo's Cavern is easier. "Tough" ain't it though
I was surprised to see the water temple at #8 - I loved that temple - I thought it was so difficult. The ongoing raising and lowering of water was such a cool feature. It's a challenge - which is what the temples should be.
Based, however that shit sucks on the OG n64 but playing it on 3DS it’s my second fav (spirit temple 1 for vibes). The music is also 👌
The water temple is my least favorite...Its just annoying to constantly change your boots from the usal ones to the iron ones. That just kills the gameflow. This temple has great potential but didnt take any use of it.
Besides its Boss is a complete joke lol
@@KingJohnson1985 Add to that that if you forget a key (and you will the first few times you play the game) then you have to go through a long backtrack section were you have to lower and rise the water again to continue.
Best dungeon in the series by a long mile
When I saw that you put Dadongo's Cavern as low as you did I thought "really, that low?" but then soon realised how hard it must have been to rank the others. A true testimony of how fun this game is.
Didongo
Doodango
Lord Jabu Jabu's belly should be dead last.
@@LinktheDragonslayer Dahooogooo?
I'm so happy the Spirit Temple topped the list. I really enjoy that dungeon a lot. It's really just a lot of fun. It balances challenge and humor well.
Agreed, I always think of Twinrova's banter after the boss fight and the Iron Knuckle forgetting to spawn its weapon as much as anything else.
im glad this comment topped the list 10 seconds into the video
Yea i also like the Spirit Temple the most. It has a great Soundtrack which fits the theme of the temple very well and the fact you have to return as child to begin the temple is revolutionary.
Great list! I'm actually a big fan of the water temple. I can't disagree with the sour points, but I find the cohesive design of the dungeon to be more enthralling than most of the dungeons in the game.
I'm not a good puzzle solver and the although Ocarina of Time is possibly my favourite game ever, maybe about equal with Goldeneye... the water temple caused me to give up when I was a youngster 😞
After a couple of years with the N64 as my console, I gave in to the temptation of the ps1 with its larger game selection and those games were cheaper too. I handed down my N64 to my little brother (he still has it 20 odd years later) and the combination of being frustrated to death with the water temple and then having a ps1 as my main console... it was 2-3years until I returned to finish Ocarina of Time.
Same here. I've seen it played on a different system (possibly the Nintendo 3DS) and it looked better with updated graphics, along with the ability to toggle the Iron Boots using the press of a button.
Water temple is a thing that grew on me over the years. And now it’s one of my favorites 😄
same here. in all the zelda games i played i actually found the water temple to be my favorite. especially in majoras mask. the water temples are always so unique as well as challenging, feel rewarding when you get past a difficult puzzle, look awesome visually and one point that is very important to me, the music is some of my favorite in video games in general. (yeah ik im late lol)
It was relatively fixed in the 3ds version but it can’t be understated how annoying having to pause and unpause the game to equip and unequip the iron boots is and how much it kills the pacing of the dungeon
I'm a huge fan of the spirit and fire temples. I love volcanic aesthetics, with you actually climbing the interior of death mountain, with magma, fire everywhere and boulders that make it as intense as you would think being inside an active volcano would be. I especially love where you can see how far you have climbed up throughout the dungeon in certain rooms, to show how huge the volcano really can be. The spirit temple has the best theme, with the back and forth of child and adult link being really memorable. You get to defeat ganondorf's surrogate mothers in his own home turf! I mean how high up can you go before defeating the demon king of thieves himself?
Spirit Temple has not only the best concept, but best theme as well.
My fav temple was the forest one because it was the first one we play as Adult Link. The whole adult part got me hyped af in general when I played Ocarina of Time for the first time decades ago
I like that even the lower rated dungeons aren't just a big complain-fest in your analysis. Great video.
I believe this is the greatest game ever created. I don’t believe any game will ever top it. Maybe that’s just the nostalgia talking but whatever the case may be, this game is just special and I hope to be able to play it again one day.
My ranking would be
1. Spirit Temple
2. Forest Temple
3. Shadow Temple
4. Fire Temple
5. Dodongo’s Cavern
6. Great Deku Tree
7. Water Temple
8. Ganon’s Castle
9. Jabu Jabu‘s Belly
I think the Spirit Temple, Forest Temple & Shadow Temple fluctuate depending on the playthrough but the rest of your list is 100% accurate.
I hope Nintendo eventually remakes OoT, like Capcom did with RE2.
I wouldn’t mind if they expanded the game to more fully capture their original vision.
this. 100% agree with your list
It is the best game ever imo
List is 100% accurate
Actually, the Dark Link fight is a really fun challenge, the trick is to not Z-Target him.
And to charge with the biggorons sword
Just like ornstein and smough
I never had a problem with it personally I guess I just got lucky
@@mrrolo873fun fact this is actually because dark link only has your sword and shield. You can use any other weapon you have and he can't copy it because he doesn't have the weapon lol. Could be cuz Gannon more than likely doesn't know what weapons are obtained in each dungeon and therefore cannot replicate it in dark link.
Ackshually 🤓☝️
I love that you put the Spirit Temple at #1 and the Fire Temple at #2. Thought I was the only one in the world to rank them at the top of my list 😉😉
I really enjoy the forest temple. It’s the first adult Link temple which gives the game an interesting newness the first time you play it. The music and color palette are calming and sets the stage
I do agree with you that the Bottom of the Well makes you feel a bit more helpless in that you revert to being a child, where your puny Kokiri Sword requires EIGHT regular strikes just to take out a Gibdo. But granted, you're still a more experienced hero, having done all three main childhood dungeons and at least the Forest Temple (and saw what a hellhole all of Hyrule becomes in the future) before you're capable of entering the place. Not to mention increased surviveability due to several Heart Containers and potentially multiple bottles filled with either fairies or potions (which is WAY better than I could say about my first experience entering the Royal Tomb, which I did before Dodongo's Cavern). Plus, if you know what you're doing and you're not interested in 100%ing the Skulltulas, you're not even required to go through more than the well's main corridor and the boss room with Dead Hand (Master Quest is a different story, though).
Still, even if you are taking on the Shadow Temple as a seasoned adult (and it might've even been originally planned to be the final dungeon before Ganon, if the menu placements are anything to go by), it's still a sufficiently disturbing environment, and it does feel as if the stakes are raised both due to the sheer scale of the temple as well as the showdown with Bongo-Bongo. For that matter, Bongo-Bongo itself helps serve to make the Shadow Temple (and the well, for that matter) mysterious as it is creepy. From a narrative perspective, it's interesting to think that the Shadow Temple was possibly the only adult temple that wasn't directly influenced by Ganondorf, making the thing a place of evil all its own (and it is suggested to have had a dark history). Though, it is possible that Ganondorf's influence over Hyrule may've indirectly helped to weaken the seal on the well (depends how this particular seal works, but generally in fiction, they are effected by negative emotions, which future Hyrule is certainly full of), but it only leads to the question of who or what even is Bongo-Bongo (also, considering you visit the place as a child, where in the well was he even sealed?). I also find it worth mentioning how heavily the Shadow Temple and the well contrast with the otherwise peaceful Kakariko Village, in which both dungeons are situated, leaving a disturbing sensation of people going about their happy lives despite the terrifying secrets that lie mere meters beneath their feet.
I must've missed this comment when you posted it, but great analysis and awesome point about the contrast between the Shadow Temple/Well and Kakariko Village.
for me its
1.) Spirit Temple
2.) Forrest Temple
3.) Fire Temple
4.) Ganon's Castle
5.) Shadow Temple
6.) Water Temple
7.) Dodongo's Cavern
8.) Inside The Great Deku Tree
9.) Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly
What makes this game so great is the dungeons and music that comes with each one. I just love the designs of every single one
After my first play-through, I generally bee-line to the Fire Temple after the time-skip. I know you can't go back in time until after the Forest Temple, but gosh darn it the Fire Temple is just so much fun to puzzle through (and who can resist carrying around a big hammer and playing whack-a-mole with it?). Same for Dodongo's Cavern and bombs; I usually can't wait to get the bombs because blowing things up in the game is so satisfying.
So I would rank those two first, but otherwise I agree with the order of your list:
9.) Jabu-Jabu's Belly (confusing and annoying)
8.) Deku Tree (too simplistic for my tastes)
7.) Water Temple (see Jabu-Jabu's Belly)
6.) Shadow Temple (fun, but the aesthetic was too dark to see half the time)
5.) Ganon's Castle (great to puzzle through, but long and time-consuming)
4.) Forest Temple (fun puzzles, but the backtracking can get tedious)
3.) Spirit Temple (love the storyline and Twinrova, but a little dull with all the block-pushing)
2.) Dodongo's Cavern (who doesn't like blowing stuff up?)
1.) Fire Temple (BIG HAMMER = SMASH!!!!!!)
I really, really love the Spirit Temple. It really feels like a test of all the abilities that Link has learned throughout the game, both as a kid and as an adult. It is my favorite dungeon in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The puzzles in this dungeon felt difficult yet solvable. Twinrova was maddening to fight, yet enjoyable once you defeated her.
If I ever do a full 3D Zelda Dungeon ranking, I already know the Spirit Temple is gonna be Top 5 easy. Such a phenomenal dungeon.
Thought about the Water Temple, there was a massive missed opportunity here. The water level could have been changed by using the Song of Storms (raise via rain), and the Sun Song (lower via evaporation). That, with making the Iron Boots a C item would largely fix the dungeon. Sure the dungeon might need a bit of a layout change to accommodate being able to freely change the water level, but I think that'd make for a very interesting dungeon.
I missed this comment originally but I actually really like that idea!
Yeah i really love the Water temple despite the Iron boots being annoying
Here’s my ranking (note, this *is* coming from the POV of only playing OOT 3D)
Jabu-Jabu
Dodongo’s Cavern
Water Temple
Deku Tree
Ganon’s Castle
Fire Temple
Spirit Temple
Shadow Temple
Forest Temple
I ADORE the Forest Temple, one of my favorite dungeons in the entire series. That first wallmaster room is legendary
Forest Temple is my fav too. The music, the overgrown aesthetic, the item you get in the dungeon. It's awesome
I think the Great Deku Tree is just about the perfect introduction temple. This is an open world game and much of its players were/are children, and those of us who were children at the time of its release and still go back and play it through nostalgia.
Anyway, the Deku Tree is about getting used to the game, getting an introduction to the story, and getting an early feeling of achievement before getting out into the bigger land of Hyrule. As a kid playing the game back in the day, that quick progress through the Dungeons and Temples slowed dramatically for me after getting out of the forest! It wasn't just the dungeons but also the tasks in between just to get into the dungeons. This certainly added to the exploration and adventure of open world gaming, but it could be frustrating when there was something I just couldn't figure out.
Legendary as the game is, Nintendo are preoccupied with selling and developing the new games and Ocarina of Time was on the 3ds (which I've never played) the game hasn't been available for a TV console gaming experience since the Gamecube... kids love the latest and greatest, that's just the way it is. It's the responsibility of the old Ocarina of Time kids to keep the old consoles and cartridges in good condition, clean them inside out, refurbish/restore games and consoles if/when they stop working... then introduce your children to video gaming via these old classics, because the your children will want what's trending at the time and they aren't likely to appreciate a step backwards in quality... I know, I started out with a Sega master system and mega drive at friends houses, and once the 3d consoles came out none of us kids ever looked back! Ok, it's a bit different because the jump in quality and overall experience going from 2d to 3d was a huge thing.. a much bigger deal than just slightly improved graphics and faster loading speeds! But the point is still valid.
To summarise:
N64 fans... don't let the classics die! The manufacturers will gladly let these old games disappear so that sales of new games are maximised... it's up to the old fans to keep the classics alive forever!
Huh? Didn't OoT come on virtual console
Yeah, this is exactly the kinda video I needed at 4:50 AM.
Happy to provide in a time of need haha
What honestly would've been really cool is if there was another point to the Bottom of the Well where you actually have to open up the Shadow Temple as a child, connecting the 2 dungeons. Like say upon first entering the Shadow Temple, you actually can't get into the first room as the doorway is caged off, upon looking through the bars; you see a switch that could likely open the bars, but you can't activate it from where you are. Then upon getting the Lens of Truth at the Bottom of the Well, you discover a hidden ladder at the bottom floor of the dungeon, branching like the one in Majora's Mask. It would answer the question as to why there would apparently be an upper floor in the dungeon. Upon reaching the top of the ladder, you go through a cave doorway leading into the Shadow temple, and get through a crawlspace to reach the Switch that opens the dungeon for Adult Link.
Agreed, anything to connect them more would've been great.
OoT, ALTTP, MM, Twilight Princess all had masterful dungeons.
Well deserved first place for Spirit temple. It is by far my favourite dungeon of the entire Zelda franchise
It is definitely one of my top 3, potentially even my favorite as well!
Forest Temple is #1 for me. It's hard to choose what's the best temple when the game is perfect in every single way. Long Live the GOAT, Ocarina of Time
No Bottom of the Well?
The Spirit Temple is my favorite dungeon in this game. Glad to see someone liking it as much as I do.
And I never actually do those puzzles with the mummies, you can cheese those with Din's Fire and Fire arrows.
Yeah I've definitely done the Din's Fire trick before too. As a kid I spammed that move everywhere lol
@@MrDrBoi Didn't know it was considered a puzzle. I just stand in the middle of the room and din's fire hits all at once.
I used fire arrows
I honestly loved the water temple. Once you figure out the mechanics it'd really simple. I even drew where stuff was when I was a kid cause I kept getting lost lol. Favorite is spirit temple followed by the forest temple. Though I don't really have a least favorite the one I don't get as excited about is the shadow one. Though it is still a good one
Right, I’m sitting here screaming at my phone for no reason at these reasons everyone hates it.
It sounds like one influencer said it and everyone else was like “yah! Fuck going one more step into the menu. We are too simple minded for complex water level designs that make you remember shit”
It’s not my favorite dungeon but damn man, that band wagon needs to roll off a cliff
Also same on the shadow temple.
Something about that one made me roll my eyes (in a sense) to do when I as a kid. I’d have to play it again to figure out why it annoyed me though
The boss in the shadow temple is so cool tho
@@loowisk1113 bongo bongo? He was definitely unique but compared to shadow Gannon he just seems meh. But cool design and idea. His moves just bore me
@Duality333 Bongo Bongo feels too similar to Phantom Ganon. Both ghost like bosses and apparitions.
I miss old school Zelda dungeons
Thanks for the amazing video. A small bit of criticism, the transition sound between each dungeon was insanely loud. I just about jumped out of my seat every time 🤣
Haha sorry about that, it's definitely not as loud in other videos!
Great list! Found the Banjo lists first and I’m loving this series! One question though.. why the Chrono Trigger music when you were discussing the Fire Temple? I was so confused lol.. you made a great case for the Fire Temple and actually helped me appreciate it a bit more, bc it’s always been one of my least favorites.. probably bc it’s the one I get lost in the most 🙃
I remember for some reason I didn't like how the fire temple music sounded in the background and the Chrono Trigger music fit it in my head. Plus, it was the first dungeon I edited, so I think when I finally finished all the other ones I was too lazy to go back and change anything lol
@@MrDrBoi ooh gotcha lol.. well I appreciated it! OoT is my favorite game of all time and Chrono Trigger is my second fav.. so I was smiling the whole time 😊
@PastorDoostyn we literally have the same 2 favorite games just reversed. I have chrono trigger 1, OOT 2
Calling morpha the easiest boss is crazy
My List:
1. Forest Temple
2. Spirit Temple
3. Shadow Temple
4. Fire Temple
5. The Great Deku Tree
6. Water Temple
7. Dodongo's Cavern
8. Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly
My list exactly 👍🏼
I am a big surprised you have the shadow temple as high as it is! In my opinion, it’s my least favorite temple! Main reason being is because there’s this one room with a wooden cross torture device and a brightly colored blood stained floor in that room that both scared and scarred me as a kid! How does that clear as an E rating back in the 90’s? Still hate the Shadow Temple as an adult, but the 3DS remake of the game makes that temple much easier to get through as there’s no bright blood
For some reason, the water temple dungeon in 3D master quest I end up liking more than the original OR the 3ds version of the original. To this day I hardly have any idea why, when the puzzles are far more cryptic.
My favorite dungeon in the game is the Shadow Temple. No matter how much "better" the other dungeons are at testing your ability to backtrack and memorize layouts and solve puzzles, I always appreciate this dungeon in its atmosphere and how haunting it is. The music, the enemies, the obstacles being literal torture chamber devices... it all makes this dungeon memorable and different than all the others. It's as if the game is telling me: "If you cannot handle the horrors of Hyrule's secrets, how can you hope to conquer the darkness of evil itself?"
And playing it on the gold cartridge makes it so much better. Especially when you finally figure out after 11 years that you can use the lens of truth + bombs to snuff out the deadhand. I don't like those arm pillars grabbing me. ;_;
You know I'm not sure if I've ever tried that bomb strategy, definitely gonna give it a go on my next playthrough!
Excellent list..i like to see unique point of views. Here is my OOT dungeon list ranked and with One Word that describes them.
Last- Fire Temple- Its average and dragged on.
Dodongos Cavern- like it for nostalgia reasons but not the best dungeon.
Deku tree- fine for a First dungeon.. i like the fact you acually feel like your in a tree.
Jabu jabus belly- frustrating but unique.
Ice cavern- nice music but tricky
Bottom of well- was not expecting the scary theme..prepares you for Shadow Temple.
Shadow Temple- scary and intimidating.
Water Temple- fantastic mini boss
Ganons castle- brilliant design
Spirit Temple- well made..like the change between young and adult link.
Forest Temple- best Zelda dungeon level ever.
I don't have much to say, I love every dungeon in this game, but, tbh, Spirit Temple it's probably the best in the entire series, great video!
It's definitely in contention! Thanks!
Great video! I disagree with you on a lot of points, but I really enjoyed hearing you make your case for each dungeon. One suggestion though would be to decrease the volume of the "Zelda secret" transition sound that you used for each number on the list. It's much louder than the rest of the video and it scared the crap out of me every time. Lol
Thanks! And sorry about that haha, it's definitely fixed in my others videos!
Thanks for the nostalgia trip! I obviously had my least favorite, and my favorite, but I had never thought of ranking them all.
Today i like every dungeon but as a kid i think that the forest dungeon was very scary.
Every time i played trough the game my father played this dungeon😂
Haha I have a similar memory of having my older brother beat the Shadow Temple for me when I was like 6 or 7
Though I don't agree with everything here, (for example, Jabu Jabu is my personal favorite of the 3 child dungeons) this is a very respectable list! It's insane how even the weakest dungeons still have qualities to them that show the potential of being a great dungeon. It's a really strong testament to just how smartly designed the dungeons of OoT are.
Yall just haters, the water temple is amazing and I will never change my mind about it
I could NOT disagree more about the Water Temple- it’s puzzle wise the only temple in OoT & one of the only in all of 3D Zelda that really even comes close to the puzzle intricacy of the 2D games
I’m going to post this at the beginning and edit later, but Water Temple had better be one of the top picks.
Edit: well that didn’t take long. How in the actual Hell was Water Temple NOT top 3? One of the best designs, one of the very very few dungeons in OOT that actually has a somewhat challenging puzzle, yet is still not a very difficult or long dungeon. The back tracking isn’t even that much nor does it take very long at all.
I played ocarina of time 3d and the water temple is legitimately my second favorite dungeon behind only the forest temple.
I think a big part of the Forest temple is it theme music !!
🎶 🎶 🎵 🎵 🎶 🎶 🎵 🎵
Ruto after watching the lowest two rankings:
"WTF, man!"
LOL
When I was a little kid, I was stuck in the water temple for 2 years
This video was amazing man, I love the words you used, tho it’s a long video I can’t see myself ever getting bored of it. Thanks for watching my ranking!
My favorite dungeons in descending order:
- Water Temple
- Shadow Temple
- Dodongo's Cavern
- Jabu Jabu's Belly
- Deku Tree
- Forest Temple
- Fire Temple
I had no real basis for judging dungeons, when I first tried this game out.
Being so new to Zelda traditions I found most of them frustrating, for how often I had to look up a walkthrough, and the Spirit Temple was probably the only one straight-forward enough for me to enjoy.
Revisiting it now, I got way different credentials, and I can't pretend Mark Brown's Boss Keys series hasn't had an influence on my tastes.
My puzzle solving abilities are rubbish, I was asking people how to do this and that... I was a kid at the time so I won't be too harsh on myself - BUT... I didn't get Majora's Mask until I was a young adult already and I can't make any progress with that game at all !!!
I want to feel some achievement of figuring it out for myself but I gave up on it about 10years ago and haven't attempted it again since.
honestly I get stuck so often. Probably my fault rather than the game's, it's just the little environmental stuff that I keep missing
@@aaronroberts7047 I possibly gave up too soon. I will return to it though, just don't know exactly when.
Part of the problem Majora's Mask has with winning me over is that I love Ocarina of Time and it's difficult to accept a Zelda game that's not as good. Also the 3 day time loop really got on my nerves. From what other people have said and written, it's just a game that requires a lot of repetition and learning the movements of all the characters over the 3 days. For most people progress is going to be slow - it certainly felt slow to me.. I didn't even get into the first dungeon. If I'd got the game when I was much younger I would've put more time into it, but the terribly slow progress would've bugged the hell out of me. As a kid I was more relentless than patient with these things.
@@aaronroberts7047 sorry I thought you had replied to my comment.
Anyway keep in mind that however difficult Ocarina of Time feels, Majora's Mask is so much worse.
@@wolfpackpete6408 Oh lord I was planning on moving on to Majora's after this
I know it's alot shorter lived, but can you do one of these for Majora's mask?
I'd really like to hear your input on the temples.
Excellent video, keep up the good work!
I definitely plan on doing one for Majora's Mask in the future!
@@MrDrBoi I'll look forward to it.
Subbed, I'll go through your videos over time and have a look at them all.
Yes, the Water Temple is very frustrating at times but at other times the puzzlebox character of its awesome design is only matched by Stone Tower Temple in Majora's Mask. This is why I will always defend it.
Yeah, I feel like without its infamous problems it'd be one of my top Zelda dungeons just based on design.
Forest Temple has always been my favorite. The music, atmosphere, and Phantom Ganondorf is a pretty intimidating boss fight. I love the design of the Water Temple and it's music. I just hated the original mechanics of the temple for N64. The 3DS version made it a much better. Also I don't know why but despite playing/beating this game so many times I lost count, I always forget one key somewhere and have to back track.
Overall Ocarina of Time is one of my absolute all time favorite games.
Phantom Gandondorf was always my favorite when I was younger, that boss fight was just so cool the first time around.
@@MrDrBoi I also thought he was fairly difficult with the multiple stages! It's an obvious foreshadowing of the final fight with the real Ganondorf.
I like the detail you go into for each of your reviews. Even for your lowest ranked dungeons, you still enthusiastically sing their praise. For each entry you mention all the good and all the bad and explain why you ranked them above or below others. I like how you'll even go into broader contexts. E.g. for your Wind Waker list you still have your complaints about your favourite dungeon and you contrast to dungeons in other games.
Thanks! I probably put more thought into these lists than I should, but it's fun to be thorough and express all my thoughts. Glad you've been enjoying them!
Always fun to see people rank OoT temples. I'd rank then Spirit, Forest, Water, Shadow, Fire, Ganon Castle, Deku Tree, Dodongo Cavern, and then Jabu-Jabu Belly.
I love this list! I think in general people are partial to the games earlier dungeons due to the familiarity and especially more casual players who may not have completed multiple play throughs. I will say the water temple is legendary for it’s difficulty and I love the shadow temple for the creepiness.
Thanks! There's definitely an awe and wonder to the child dungeons, but I've always leaned to the adult dungeon side of things.
Darunia survives the fight with Volvagia (all the Sages are still "alive"). How he survived I don't know, but since he can open a boss door without the boss key he's got skills lol.
Darunia just pulled a Leroy Jenkins on Volvagia
For Dodongo's Cavern (particularly the part where the sign told you to make the skull see red): This game was originally made for kids in the 90s. I first played it at 6 years old; at that part in the cavern, I zoomed past the sign and onto the bridge, then spent ten minutes jumping around the bridge with no clue before reading the sign. After reading the sign (which just tells you to make the skull "see red", I went up and down for the next half-hour dropping bombs in front of the skull, blowing up beamoses, and basically blowing up anything and everything I could see before it occured to me to drop bombs on the skull itself.
Remember: kids are dumb, and don't have as much gameplay experience as you. A sign like that is useful to get them on the right track, but then they still need to figure out what it means, and it's not as obvious to a six-year-old to drop bombs onto a giant skull that was previously a part of the scenery when the riddle is to make it "see red". "Seeing" usually implies "in front of", not "on".
I think part of my frustration with the sign actually stemmed from the fact that I also played this game when I was very young and this puzzle always stood out to me because it is one of the first that I can remember figuring out on my own. I definitely exaggerated how obvious the sign makes the puzzle, but it was disappointing to know that something I felt so good about figuring out on my own could've been potentially cheapened.
@@MrDrBoi Fair enough. I just don't think it's cheapened just because it's obvious after you figure it out; it wasn't nearly as obvious when you didn't know the answer, and that was the point of including it.
I just noticed something with the Forest Temple. When you realize that you can't progress further a new player would probably get grabbed by a Wallmaster and be placed at the start and with the compass in hand you would see the key immediately.
This video is amazing, there really are so many great moments in the Spirit Temple
Great Dungeon ranking list mate, although my personal order is completely different:
1. Spirit
2. Water
3. Forest
4. Jabu-jabu
5. Shadow
6. Deku Tree
7. Fire
8. Dodongo
9. Ganon's Tower
The Water Temple is without a doubt the most frustrating dungeon imo. I remember as a kid, I was stuck on it for so long and without the access of RUclips, there was no guide for me. I have a Nintendo Switch and have recently played OOT again and still needed help from RUclips to get past the Water Temple.
I remember getting stuck in the Water Temple for so long as a kid not realizing there was a key in that central chamber.
Can you rank the dungeons in master quest?
Very thought out video. There are so many oot videos, but yours kept me engaged the whole time. Gj, subscribed
You've done a good job with this video.
I disagree with your list but thanks to your talking along with appropriate footage made it very fun to watch :)
Calling Big Octo intense is a bit of a stretch. Walk up to it, get bopped once, throw a boomerang, and then jump slash with a stick. It literally dies to one stick.
Spirit Temple has always been my favorite. Glad you agree!! Man of taste
I feel like I'm a little more forgiving of that Dodongo Eye Bomb puzzle.
The tablet that explains it at least makes it a little vague. Better than the one that explains the Ancient Cistern's solution, anyway.
When I was younger I really loved the spirit temple, but the more I play it, the more I find it to be tedious. Partially this is maybe because I normally play the master mode these days which I think did favours for the Water temple and a disservice to the spirit, but I just find it long, samey and not difficult enough to be challenging, but too difficult to breeze through either. So, I don't know, interesting perspective I guess. I agree with what you said about the Dodongo's cavern, and I have two really simple things which would have completely fixed the issue. First, put the stone tablet where the bemos is at the start so that it's underneath the Giant Dodongo skull. That way you get the clue at the start of the dungeon and are looking for a way to get up to the walk way the entire time, and you don't yet have the bombs, meaning that it's less clear how you will do it. Second, move the bridge slightly, and fill in the holes so that you instead have to drop the bombs of the side of the bridge
Missed this comment, but I really like the first idea for Dodongo's cavern. Personally, I think it's fine to have the holes on the bridge because that's how I intuitively figured this puzzle out originally.
Yoooo Chrono Trigger music during the Fire Temple segment. Two of my all time favorite games coming together!
Great list. I personally feel like the consequences for falling down a hole in the fire temple are waaaay worse than in Jabu-Jabu. I'm slightly biased though as I enjoy the Jabu-Jabu dungeon a lot, but the frustration of falling in Jabu pales in comparison to falling down the megaton hammer pit... But you did a great job on the video
I fell asleep to this video at dodongos cavern. Not because it was boring, but because i was tired. Not sure why i felt the need to mention that but i watched the rest this morning and great vid.
Never ever seen someone put the fire temple so high. I respect your opinion but I've always thought that temple was doo doo.
23:48 EXACTLY!! For me, Forest and Desert hands down!! Soooo unique!!
This was a good and fun list. I did have some issues with the sound though, the voiceover was too quiet so I had to turn up the volume, but the item chime sound when a number was shown was incredibly loud in comparison making watching the video difficult and a juggle between turning the volume down for the numbers and back up to hear the voiceover.
Thanks and sorry about that, none of my newer videos have issues like this anymore!
I have tears running down my face with a nostalgia and me and my mom playing this when I was a kid..
R.I.P. MA I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S BEEN 20 YEARS..😢
Great list! Wasnt able to watch ALL of it on my break, but it's well done!
My top 3 dungeons would be:
1) Forest Temple
2) Shadow Temple
3) Fire Temple
Thank you!!
@@MrDrBoi You're welcome! Finishing the last few minutes now on the Fire Temple and Spirit Temple!
The fire temple is the only one where I missed picking up the compass. Good challenge.
When I clicked on this video I was thinking to myself “this dude better put jabu jabus belly last” and you did. Great minds think alike 😂
Great list, probably the only person to not put Forest Temple at 1 (which I would lol).
Haha it does feel like that is the consensus #1 among commenters. Definitely an amazing temple!
1. Spirit Temple
2. Forest Temple
3. Shadow Temple
4. Ganons Castle
5. Deku Tree
6. Fire Temple
7. Dodongo's Cavern
8. Water Temple
9. Jabu Jabu
Bonus: GTG 5th, Bottom of the Well and Ice Cavern last 2 in that order if they were included
Great video man!
*_It is_* one of the greatest games ever released. It set the baseline for many future Zelda games. Its soundtrack is the most iconic: you still hear variations of said music in subsequent Zelda games to this day. It was also the game that invented Target-Locking (at the time it was called Z-Locking). It also introduced the technique of Context-Sensitive Actions. BOTH THESE TECHNIQUES ARE PRACTICALLY STANDARD IN ALMOST ALL VIDEO GAMES TODAY.
It's not controversial. This is a fact that it is one of the greatest games and you have to give the Devil his due. Anyone who says it isn't is just objectively wrong. There is no discussion - they're wrong.
Man, I must be the odd one out if I was one of the few who actually enjoyed the Water Temple back in '98 when most people say they hated it. I agree that the iron boots thing was annoying though. Also, the slope just before the boss is really easy once you figure it out.
Keep in mind that this is coming from someone who got stuck in one of the early rooms inside the Deku Tree because I didn't know you could light the tip of a stick on fire.
1. Fire Temple
2. Shadow Temple
3. Forest Temple
4. Spirit Temple
5. Dodongo's Cavern
6. Water Temple
7. Great Deku Tree
8. Jabu Jabu's Belly
9. Ganon's Castle (excluding final boss fight. That whole battle is awesome)
I just played through this again on stream and, honestly, the Water Temple isn't as bad as people make it out to be. The biggest issue for me has to be the equipping/unequipping of the Iron Boots. Other than that, it's not bad.
It definitely grows on me each time I play it!
Really great video and list. Totally agree Water Temple was just a few tweaks away from being one of (if not the) best temple in the game. I played through it recently on a randomizer (which also allowed the boots to be equipped as an item) and it was probably my favorite temple to playthrough this time around. Great atmosphere (in my opinion), and all around a really cool design. Monster Maze has a great video on the subject that echoes what I'm saying.
That said, Forest Temple is BY FAR my favorite, and is overall one of my favorites places in videos games period. In my opinion it's basically perfect (or at least perfect for me, as it checks all the boxes I personally enjoy).
I think that the water temple is one of the most clever dungeons in Zelda history, the problem stems from people playing it incorrectly and rushing through the floors instead of fully exploring every every floor. If played correctly, you only have to do the water switch sequence once. The problem is, nobody bothers to play it correctly. People always blunder keys and have to redo the water switch sequence, whereas if they just explored correctly the first time, they wouldn't have to deal with all that.
Facts
@@Historicutuber thanks. I really wasn't expecting to have anyone agree with me 😅
I like your thinking, but I don't think that there's one correct way to explore. Going through rooms to figure out how far you can go before getting stumped is valid, and of that means you need to backtrack, so be it. The real problem with the dungeon imo is that it's BORING. The monsters are all more of an annoyance than a challenge because of the limited underwater combat, and the scenery is generally all the same, being either the same style platforms/walls or water. Because there's nothing to keep your focus on, people instead focus on the other annoyances of having to backtrack through boring scenery and having to keep opening your menu. Compare it instead to The Deku's tree's webs and vines, water, fire, and wildlife. Jabu Jabu's insides were certainly fresh as well. The slow sinking/rising through the water, combined with the slow menu opening, navigation, and use, and the lack of anything stimulating except the puzzle itself ,which you can only see a small part of at a time, makes this dungeon feel like a slog. Yes, that can be mitigated by systematically exploring each floor first, but there's no way to know that's what you could be doing to make it better until it's too late. The mechanics themselves are fine, but it's lacking the execution and the polish and shine to make it truly be amazing.
@@lukeburris1011 Yeah, you see, I hate combat, and I LOVE puzzles, so yeah, this is my cup of tea
1. Water Temple (i was dreading it on my first playthrough but it was really satisfying to work out, mini boss is awesome)
2. Spirit Temple (Just epic asf, like with all the story moments)
3. Forest Temple (Fun)
4. Shadow Temple (Super atmospheric, kind of linear)
5. Fire Temple (Really annoyed me on my first playthrough but its growing on me)
6. Deku Tree (Perfect start, but not that much content)
7. Jabu Jabu (too easy but still fun)
8. Dodongos Cavern (wayy too easy, not that atmospheric. I enjoyed the boss fight and most of the puzzles tho)
i dont rlly wanna count ganons tower cos it didnt feel like a dungeon
9. Fire Temple
8. Jabu Jabu's Belly
7. Shadow Temple
6. Dodongo's Cavern
5. Hyrule Castle
4. Inside the Deku Tree
3. Spirit Temple
2. Forest Temple
1. Water Temple
That's my list, anyway. I loooove the Water Temple. I think it's got a meditative atmosphere, and that's complemented by the difficulty of the puzzle solving. And the music is so fucking good. The boss sucks, yeah, but I think most bosses in the game suck, to be honest. Fire Temple and Shadow Temple both have actually good bosses to make up for the lacklustre dungeon layouts. But man do I really dislike the layout of the Fire Temple. And the Shadow Temple is just confusingly designed, but not in the difficult way. Just like in the "why did they make this pointless room" kind of way.
Other than the audio balance being off, I enjoyed your video. I weirdly liked the lower res of the footage quality. Rather than an emulator in HD, it felt like I was watching your CRT footage
Wow, I decided when I clicked if Jabu Jabu wasn’t he worst (it still not being that bad) I’d be disappointed in your standards. Great video!
1. Forrest Temple. The atmosphere is the best of any game. I still get goosebumps from that place. Great use of vertical space in the new era of 3D consoles. Twisted corridors blew my mind when I first experienced it. The sense of exploration is top notch.
2. Spirit Temple. Basically what you said in the video.
3. Water Temple. Again, great use of vertical space, they whole dungeon is a puzzle.
I really dont get how second dodongos cavern got such a high rank, it's, personally speaking, one of the most dull ones.
Playing the Chrono Trigger music instead of the AMAZING Fire Temple theme bothers me to no end
11:42 the problem is people like egoraptor exist. You can give him step by step instructions and he still screws it up.
I've always wondered why the energy bolt speeds up with each volley during the Phantom Ganon fight but doesn't speed up between volleys while facing the real Ganondorf. Yeah, a spin attack will speed up Ganondorf's bolt considerably, but I feel the speeding up feature should have been standard in the real thing. It doesn't make sense for it to only happen on what is essentially the practice round but not on the real fight.
Great review! A couple things, I think there's a couple of puzzles you showed that I never did! I wonder how it's possible that I missed some puzzles? ex. @ 26:51 and @22:37. A separate point I actually had difficulty figuring out to shoot the Poe paintings in the Forest Temple, did anyone else have that issue? So I thought your comment about Dodongo's dungeon and the sign telling you to drop the bombs in the eye was interesting. Lastly, I understand why water temple might be frustrating at times, but nevertheless think it's great because water is such an appealing medium to interact with, so its temple has a wonderful mystic feel. Thanks for the video!
Thank you! And yeah I'm not sure, because I'm pretty sure the one at 26:51 is required to beat the Forest Temple.
Killer channel, glad this popped up. Video essays are my shit
Thank you, hope you enjoy!!
I also picture the Forest Temple when I think of this game :)
Is this running on N64 hardware in widescreen? I assume you used a modified ROM or some kind of AR code, but did you then have to stretch the image either on your TV or in post after you captured it?
I have a AV to HDMI upscaler so I can play on my living room TV that doesn't have the right ports for old consoles. In this video I didn't stretch it, but nowadays I'll scale it slightly, to like 105, to fill the screen with no black bars at the top/bottom.
1. Spirit Temple
2. Water Temple
3. Shadow Temple
4. Fire Temple
5. Ganon's Castle
6. Jabu-Jabu's Belly
7. Forest Temple
8. Great Deku Tree
9. Dodongo's Cavern