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I've been feeling nostalgic for Ocarina of Time recently, so it's time to rank the dungeons!
My rankings:
- Great Deku Tree
- Dodongo's Cavern
- Jabu-Jabu's Belly
- Forest Temple
- Fire Temple
- Water Temple
- Shadow Temple
- Spirit Temple
- Ganondorf's Castle
- Ice Cavern
- Inside the Well
My rankings:
- Great Deku Tree
This dungeon is the perfect intro to the game -- maybe any game. It taught you so much you needed to know to progress through the rest of the game: looking around the room in 3 dimensions to find hidden switches (pretty revolutionary at the time), thinking vertically, using fire to light torches and burn webs. Jumping onto the web from the top floor to break it was such an "Aha!" moment. It was like the game was breaking the rules of video games, and doing something I'd never really seen before. It was very cool. Epic first boss, too. - Spirit Temple
I'm not sure EXACTLY why I love this temple so much, but I'll try to explain. Switching back and forth from Young Link to Adult Link breaks the pacing up a bit, but it adds so much cool factor to the temple, that it's worth it. Temples were only supposed to be for Adult Link! You mean I have to travel through time to beat this as both kid and adult??? Dope. The music is excellent. It just makes the temple feel epic, and historic, and REAL, in a sense. The mirror shield, too, is awesome, the Iron Knuckle fights are tense and incredible, and you really get a feel that the adventure is winding down in a way that is bittersweet. The boss is very involved and fun to fight as well. - Forest Temple
The first temple you visit as Adult Link, and it really makes you feel like you're venturing somewhere sacred, forgotten, and dangerous. The temple is bigger and more complex than anything you've seen at this point by far. The music is appropriately haunting and unnerving, without being textbook spooky. The enemies are more dangerous. The interactions you have with the dungeon -- twisting the hallways themselves and straightening them to reach new areas and new treasures -- is so unique. And fighting Ganondorf right off the bat as your first adult boss? Mind blowing. - Shadow Temple
The game takes one of its very few dark and unexpected turns here. It ventures into gothic horror, with torture devices laying around, blood splatters everywhere. The death cruise at the end with the sinking ship is seared into my memory. Admittedly, this is probably the dungeon I remember in the least detail, but I do remember the hidden passages and the gruesome atmosphere and the extremely unsettling music. Chilling. I forget the name of the boss, but it was pretty badass. - Dodongo's Cavern
I don't have too much to say about this dungeon. It's just solid and well-designed. A bunch of new enemy types, some nice mechanics with the bombs, and an unforgettable boss battle. - Inside the Well
Spooky atmosphere, but very repetitive. Still, the first glimpse at horror in OoT was pretty great, and Dead Hand is unforgettable. The music is so goddamn unsettling, holy shit. - Fire Temple
Very cool dungeon with some great music. I love freeing the gorons from their prisons and hearing of Darunia delving deeper and deeper into the cavern. There are some annoying parts though. There's one specific jump that looks too high for Link to make. My brother and I were stuck at this section for days. It's the only route ahead, and when you finally commit to a jump that looks like you're just going to fall into lava, Link magically teleports a couple of feet upwards and grabs a ledge. Annoying. The fire wall maze is annoying, too. Volvagia was a pretty cool boss fight, too. - Ice Cavern
Short, but sweet. Great atmosphere and aesthetics -- especially the final room. Sliding block puzzles can get a bit annoying, though. - Water Temple
The most controversial dungeon. Admittedly not that confusing -- except for the central pillar which never occurred to me might have a chest inside of it after raising the water! Switching between boots can be annoying though, and there's nothing particularly exciting this dungeon does, except for some decent platforming/hookshotting. Dark Link is unforgettable though. The room before the fight, the battle itself, the room after the fight. It's art. Morpha kind of sucks, though, but the intro cinematic is great. - Ganondorf's Castle
Kind of just an average series of minigame-like rooms, each based on a temple's theme. None of them executed particularly well. This one was kind of a flop -- especially for the final dungeon. The final battle is epic though, and the escape sequence is nice. - Jabu Jabu's Belly
This one kind of just sucks. Escorting Princess Ruta around is obnoxious. The hallways are boring and repetitive. The miniboss is an annoying fight. I just don't like this one at all. The fact that it's inside of a giant whale is really cool though, and I liked how you entered it.
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