The Shadow Temple, Childhood Nightmares! - Dungeon Design in Zelda (Ocarina Of Time)
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2024
- The Shadow Temple (and the Bottom of the Well) are the most terrifying locations in Ocarina Of Time, but that all just overshadows what is really quite an easy dungeon. Let's take a closer look.
0:00 - Intro
0:33 - Getting to The Dungeon
2:17 - The Bottom of the Well
6:58 - Progression
14:48 - The Dungeon Boss 
Игры
Knowing what's below the well and the theories behind its use, you start to wonder if the people in Kakariko actually drank water from there and if they did, how many had some sort of disease or intoxication thanks to it coming from an actual torture chamber... Yikes... Suddenly I'm more grossed out by that concept than by Jabu Jabu's belly
Man I remember the Shadow Temple as a kid. The first corner at the entrance to the temple, where there is a gap and then you see that face. That along with the music was enough to make me turn around, and get the hell out of there.
For the Dead Hand battle in the Shadow Temple, once you have the Lens of Truth, you can turn it on and see a round shadow on the ground where Dead Hand is hiding and you can then place a bomb there to pull him out instead of getting grabbed by one of the hands.
As a person who loves scary stuff, this dungeon is my favorite
You can make leaving the Well even faster by save quitting to be at the entrance.
Shiek looks like someone is doing the crooked cartridge glitch on her in that fire scene
Maybe they are?
Idk if anyone has mentioned this but once you get The Eye of Truth use that when you fight dead hand you’ll see where it’s hiding then use a bomb where the shadow is and it’ll pop up. Makes things so much easier.
Holy shit. I bought the game on launch, and own EVERY version of it, carts included for 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, GC editions, and 3DS. I have played through countless times and thought I knew it all... and THAT is new to me. Woah.
@@FuzedBox it was a trick my cousin taught me because being 8 years old when it was released bottom of the well and shadow temple scared the shit out of me. Once I was brave enough to beat it without him doing it for me he told me about it and been using it ever since because fighting dead hand really is a pain in the ass
The Shadow Temple...
I'll just go ahead and say it right away. After the confusing mess that was the Water Temple, this dungeon's linearity was a HUGE breath of fresh air for me. Despite that, this dungeon constantly had me on edge with all of its traps and creepy enemies. I'm honestly not sure which one gets to me the most, but the wallmasters certainly made me jump when I first encountered them back in the Forest Temple. If only they had first been introduced here to make the place even more unpredictable and frightening... actually, scratch that, it's probably for the best that they were introduced earlier. Dead Hand is also the stuff of nightmares and I hate it.
Aside from the enemies though, the fact that such graphic imagery of torture was put on full display in a Nintendo game of all things still surprises me to this day. If Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask were given a teen rating, I honestly wouldn't argue with it. These games can get shockingly mature for Nintendo titles. The one thing I vastly prefer about the original N64 versions of these games is how much more dark and gritty the presentation is, and the Shadow Temple and the Bottom of the Well are the perfect examples of this. Underneath their child-friendly facades, these games hold some twisted stuff.
Now I want to talk about Bongo Bongo. This... thing definitely raises the most questions out of any of the bosses in OoT. I personally subscribe to the theory that Bongo Bongo is an amalgamation of the spirits of all the prisoners who were tortured by the Sheikah within the Shadow Temple and the well. It's also possible that Bongo Bongo is the ghost of the man who invented the Lens of Truth, as he once lived atop the well and Bongo Bongo is sealed below it for the majority of the game. Also, for most of its fight, Bongo Bongo can only be seen with the Lens of Truth. Both are interesting and equally possible explanations if you ask me.
The one thing we do know about Bongo Bongo is that his fight is the only practical application for ice arrows in the entire game. While I personally agree with you that the Shadow Temple comes before the Spirit Temple narratively and thematically, if you do complete the Gerudo Training Ground and get the ice arrows first, you can actually freeze one of Bongo Bongo's hands, forcing him to try and shatter the ice and leaving his eye(?) open to attack. Kind of interesting, but also pretty weird given the location in which you obtain the ice arrows and how little practical use they otherwise have in this game. As for the fight itself, I personally found it pretty janky using the hover boots while trying to shoot his hands, but it's definitely an appropriate level of challenge for this point in the game, and especially this dungeon.
Writing this comment out, I just realised that the Water Temple and the Shadow Temple are pretty much opposites of each other. The former is complex and has a simple boss while the latter is straightforward and has a challenging boss. Maybe that explains why I like one and not the other.
I was of the first to see this video before release because Daniel loves me mostest
🤫🤫
😭😡🤣😂🤣
Till this day...I cry when I go to fight deadhand. Every. Single. Time.
I started playing Zelda when I was three. RATED E MY BUTT! What the heck, Nintendo? XD
Couple more pieces of evidence that the spirit Temple was probably intended by the game to be before the Shadow Temple is that Nayru love spell and the ice arrows are actually really useful in the fight against Bongo Bongo I don't know how people discovered that ice arrows have a special animation on him but there you go XD
I like how these videos also serve as a walkthrough for the game. It's more helpful for me to hear someone explain what to do than to just read a guide.
Glad to see I wasn't the only kid who got in, grabbed the Lens of Truth in the least amount of steps possible, then left. The bottom of the well creeped me out way more than the Shadow Temple, and I think that's because I sympathized with young Link being near my actual age, therefore, holding my fears. An adult can handle creepy stuff, so the Shadow Temple is not sweat.
You got it exactly right, the Shadow Temple is great because of its atmosphere. I always hate when I watch dungeon analysis videos that declare the Shadow Temple a terrible dungeon because of its linearity and low difficulty, but even as a kid it was obvious to me that the point of the Shadow Temple was never to be a difficult dungeon. It was built to be a haunted house, for each room to be more shocking and interesting than the last. I don't think they slapped an extremely easy-to-dodge gigantic grim reaper scythe in the middle of the room expecting it to give people a challenge, I think they put it there to unsettle people and make them think it is cool.
If every dungeon was like that there would be a problem, but I think the Shadow Temple being linear to serve the spectacle is great because of the fact it is the only dungeon in the game like that, and arguably the only dungeon in the series like that until the Ancient Cistern, which catches similar criticism.
A couple fun facts: First, if you use the lens during the dead hand fight, you can actually see his location before the hands grab you, which is pretty helpful in the rematch. Second, if you place a bomb where dead hand is before a hand grabs you, dead hand will actually appear without the hands grabbing you. Third, Bongo Bongo has a unique interaction with ice arrows. If you freeze one of his hands, his other hand will start punching the ice to break it free. During this, his eye actually opens allowing an easy stun. It's most common for me in randomizers, and next time I play through the game, I am definitely going to the training grounds before beating the shadow temple. And fourth, Bongo Bongo is tied with Barinade as my favorite fight in the game.
I always felt the spirit temple was last
I love dark creepy stuff and very few thing hit that mark for me. That is why I like majora's mask more then OoT.
Zelda is always the best of games! I have loved it so much I named my cat Zelda!
Oh my god , this entire time it was just the order of doing temples which caused the scene where that black creature escapes from the well to be shown.
This entire time I tried triggering that scene on original Nintendo 64 and wasn't able to do it I began thinking that I must have dreamed it or something , because I remember that thing giving me spooky vibes as a kid ..
Thankfully I was too stupid to get any further in the game than the water temple with my brothers and my mom as a child so I hadn’t become completely traumatised from this (I was about 4 or 5 when I played it and couldn’t even read English yet, so my mom did most of the translating).
But what’s to say about this game is that even now as an adult, I STILL try to get my butt out of the shadow and forest temple as fast as I can, it’s so haunting! It just feels like every second not absolutely required to get through it would be too much to spend time around here, like the place itself is just giving you the message to get out ASAP.
Not because you’d get killed or something but just because it doesn’t feel right to stay there a minute longer than absolutely necessary.
i don’t know how to explain it but it’s different to me than other nightmare places I’ve seen in other games.
And again, I didn’t see this place until I was older so I can’t say it’s due to nostalgia that I feel this way comparison wise!
Another great video, Burger!! The Shadow temple is so creepy... I don't think I ever got past the water temple as a kid, but as an adult going through this temple still really got to me a bit. 😅 I think what you said about the linear progression of the temple really does add to the creep factor: that coupled with the music, the enemies, and the entire theme of the dungeon being a place for the royal family to hide past secrets really does add to the horror!! It could have been a bit more difficult, but honestly the creepiness makes it more difficult imo. 😅 Again, another great installment and i can't Wait to see the next one!!
Love the creepy music in this dungeon
I never realized that the royal family was behind all this. Now I NEED to hear some theories...
Also I’m glad it was a bit easier because it felt like playing Resident Evil as a seven year old lol.
The prevailing theory is that the Sheikah used it during the Hyrulean civil war as a base of operations/prison/interrogation/torture/black site sort of deal while working as agents for the royal family. Then once the war settled they buried the truth of the shadow temple by sealing it off. It’s all a big yikes
Fun fact, you don't need the Lens of Truth to beat the shadow temple, if you know the location of all the invisible enemies and objects, you can beat it, same goes for Spirt and Ganon. However, I'm not certain if you can follow the Desert Poe's path without it, I should try that sometime.
I didn't even know of Ocarina of Time until I was 22, which was about 10 years ago. Had I played this as a kid, I wouldn't have been scared.
Ngl these videos are so close to walkthroughs you're making me want to replay the game now.
i feel like the drumming is doing the same thing that the drums in jabus belly did
its meant to represent a beating heart
and with the dark aesthetics of the shadow temple
it leans more into the death or dying side of a heart beat
Great video bro
I been really loving your dungeon design series. I'm glad the algorithim showed me your channel haha. Really great work here. I also remember the Shadow Temple creeping me out too ahha. Even as an adult in my 30s I'm somewhat dread having to treck through it. (I can't imagine what poor Link must be feeling while in there though). But I do enjoy darker aspects in media and story telling, it always fascinates me. Plus the lore with the Shadow Temple is so cool and interesting too - adds a lot of darker layers to Ocarina's story.
"Scared the begezus" is verbatim how I describ the bottom of the well and the shadow temples effect on me as a kid.
In theory, if you knew the dungeon well enough by playing this game countless times, could you beat it without even getting the Lens of Truth?
I suppose in theory if you knew all the puzzles and stuff well enough yes. However beating the boss would be darn near impossible without it.
On the 3DS version, Saria actually points you to the shadow temple first.
Good to know! It makes way more sense anyways haha.
This specific temple ingrained in me that I hate horror lol
I've tried to play actual horror games and I still feel the same way about this place that I do about any spooky house or whatnot. Ambience tells a LOT about your surroundings. At the very least, I learned how important sound development is when it comes to providing the right emotions to a scene or location.
Oh boy does this game know how to work it’s sound design right too.
This dungeon is underrated
People talk about how linear this dungeon is. But consider what it would have been like if it had been as complicated as the Water Temple...and had all those traps, hidden walls, invisible pits, and general creepiness.
They call this "the Silent Hill Level." But it could have been so, so much worse.
Oh this temple. THIS TEMPLE. And the well! Imagine coming across Dead Hand IRL...big yike, haha! Awesome video, Capt :) My favorite part of the Shadow Temple is the ferry/ship/boat/whatever you call it. Coming across it for the first time was surprising and totally unexpected. Like, how did an entire ship get down there?!?! It made the mystery of the place so much more powerful. Zelda does mystery right :)
You’re damn right it does!
This is my favorite temple. A shame they toned it down just a wee bit for the 3DS. Horror/dead themed levels are my favorite, alas there wasn’t another temple/palace/dungeon like Shadow Temple.
Arbiter’s Grounds I guess would come in second. And possibly Earth Temple (WW) in third. Don’t know of any other dead themed dungeons
Shadow temple really feels like a place that ur not supposed to really be and I think that's what scares me most about it
I loved to defeat the shadow when I was a child .Bongo-bongo was difficult at first but now as an adult he’s easy.
2:04 I think the well was drained more so by the storm than the rain, which made the wind mill go faster. Not sure about the mechanics behind that though...
It could make sense if the well were able to refill faster than the mechanism would normally release it....though it's certainly a strange choice.
You don't drain the well by making it rain, the windmill is attached to some sort of pump, and the Song of Storms gives the windmill a LOT of extra windpower (and dome rain, I'll admit) to overcharged the pumps and drain the well
I know this, the line about making it rain was a joke
Definitely the most terrifying Zelda Dungeon and certainly one of the most terrifying in gaming history ever but fascinating when going through this dungeon (this will probably be a lengthy comment).
My award to the most terrifying Zelda Mini-Boss in The Zelda Series still goes to 'Death Sword,' however 'Dead-Hand' comes 2nd to me. There's so much mystery surrounding The Shadow Temple and the Kakariko cutscene just adds to the intrigue as well as the old man in blue who tells you the story about the man who had the ability to 'see the truth' who's house stood by the well that it deserves more of an explanation in the game but it's never fully explored and there are only hints of a 'Bloody History' by the spirits inside the Temple... The Bottom of the Well and the Temple are obviously thematically linked and they share the same mini-boss (perhaps they could have been more creative with the mini-boss in the Shadow Temple?). The Shadow Temple seems to be the most linear of all the dungeon designs in the game. The music itself is definitely the most aurally uncomforting by design and ritualistic especially through the drum beats which could be played by Bongo Bongo itself and its name seems to be a reference to 'the bongo drum' (perhaps intended for a dark sacrifice?).
The Ferry and The River, I think are symbolic Greek references to the ferryman that leads newly deceased souls to the underworld (Hades) via The River Styx, which is clever considering all the floors are 'basement floors' as you pointed out - the idea of descent away from the world of the living. There's an odd detail above the guillotines (reinforcing the idea of punishment/torture for bad souls?) as you can see rats at either end. The boss is weirdly abstract by it's introduction (an implied invisible mass that had been sealed in the town well by Impa breaks the seal after seven years and after a warning by Sheik to Link throws Sheik and Link away with ease) its design is realised by using the lens of truth - a disembodied, nightmarish, demonic monster. I think many fans including me have a lot of questions about everything surrounding this temple and its boss. (apologies for the very long comment)
No need to apologize! Thanks for that comment! I always love seeing these well thought out musings. I agree with a lot of it. I missed mentioning the ferry in more detail here, but the fact that it had the Triforce symbol and is activated by Zeldas lullaby has a dark implication as far the royal family’s connection goes.
Thanks for watching! Hope you enjoyed the video!!
@@CaptBurgerson I love the videos, keep it up and please do an analysis of Majora's Mask's Temples afterwards - that would be awesome. I agree with you on that point about the Royal Family Connection - it seems like something big went down before the events of Ocarina of Time and I suspect it might be tied to the civil war but of course it's speculation until Nintendo confirms anything. I'm one of those fans who desperately hopes for a third hero of time game, which would hopefully tie things together lore-wise.
@@hambartha you and me both. And yes, definitely Majora’s Mask is next!
Wouldn't surprise me if they swapped Spirit and Shadow for the sake of pallet cleansing. Ganon's Castle wouldn't really hit the same if the dungeon just before hit a similar chord. Ganon's Castle is menacing and has "Finality" to it but wouldn't really hit as hard had they not changed the order. That's what I think anyway.
Was never much a fan of making the Hoverboots slippery to make them more "balanced." Personally I think it would've been cool if they functioned like the Pegasus Boots where You charge and then run at a decently high speed. Hovering for a few seconds once You fall off a ledge. The dungeon would still work even with this change. Maybe activate it by holding Shield + A for a second or so.
You finally got to the creepy dungeon in the game. lol
Edit: For dead hand you can use the lens of truth to find its shadow and use a bomb on the shadow.
You don’t have the lens of truth by the time you fight dead hand in bottom of the well.
@@1993Southparkfan I think he was referring to the second fight.... as adult Link in the Shadow Trmple
Wanted to like it so much it breaks my heart. But honestly I'd feel safe going there in real life and not get hurt or lose my way
Oh I've always done it I did the boss and then and got the lens of Truth and then did the rest of the bottom of the well and got the rest of the chests
Damn. 90's Rated E was like 80's PG... They didn't fuck around back then.
I never noticed until now that Bongo Bongo sorta resembles the demogorgon from Stranger Things.
Why does this Zelda have to be so scary⁉️
A bit of scary can sometimes be fun
I think i like shadow temple the most but spirit temple a close second if not first
Aha! Good thing that one is coming soon! Spirit Temple is fantastic
I wish they made games like this. Link looks so much better like this
The Shadow Temple is the only one I know what it's like to feel fear. I recently an interesting Analysis video of the Shadow Temple from ocarina of time from a youtuber called 'Macintyre' on how much influence of Ancient Greek Roots is a part of the temple!
ruclips.net/video/KoL5xfqrItI/видео.html
I'm also curious about how the Japanese lore of this game view this temple as well!
Kind of tired of people mentioning how its weird the well drains because it rains.
The well drains because the windmill speeds up and pumps too much water out of it.
Is that really so hard to understand?
I barely mention it and it was a joke but yeah man
Haha never liked this place a child myself😂
How many times have you completed ocarina of Time
Honestly I have no idea. Didn't have a huge selection of games as a kid so I played this one start to finish A LOT of times. Even now I still give it a go through probably one every year or two.
@@CaptBurgerson Did you beat the whole game 100%? I am on Majora Mask, but it is a lot harder since you have to reset time, then you have nothing save with your weapons, so you have to get the stuff again unless you slow time. The fish boss is fun but a pain.
@@adamdavis5383 many many times over yes
Was to me the weakest dungeon. Way too linear and too easy, but some nice mechanics here and there.