I always felt like the Shadow and Spirit temples were on a whole other level to the rest of the game’s dungeons. Two of the most nostalgic dungeons in Zelda history for me.
I'd pick the Shadow Temple over the Spirit Temple for one reason only: the final boss. Bongo Bongo is actually a real threat and will kill you VERY easily if you don't know what to do or you don't line up your shots quick enough. His attacks deal massive damage and he moves insanely fast. In fact I'd even go as far as to say aside from the Iron Knuckle, he's the second most dangerous enemy you encounter in the game. Twinrova, on the other hand, is laughable. This fight is literally a "hold the shield button" simulator. There's no other way to put it.
The absolute magic of figuring out you can't complete the temple without going back in time and coming back as a kid tho. And you can only get there as a kid by remembering the song you learned as an adult because no route is possible. Magic
I feel like Shadow Temple is very mediocre. Apart from the atmosphere and the boss, it's kinda boring. It's linear, it's easy and there's not much complexity. I think it's the weakest by far of the older Link dungeons.
@@Al-ji4gdI think the bottom of the well just before puts the table just before and helps giving it some depth and worldbuilding. But if you just watch the level design, it is boring yes. I suggest Boss Key on UA-cam that talks about it
My ranking for the OoT dungeons would be: 1. Forest Temple - every room is memorable and it was the most fun dungeon to navigate 2. Spirit Temple - switching between young and adult Link created an interesting story and great puzzle variety 3. Shadow Temple - uses many different items in combinations to create a level that’s more like a fun obstacle course 4. Fire Temple - rescuing the Gorons was a nice change to the formula, but most rooms look the same 5. Water Temple - the most challenging dungeon in the game by far in somewhat of a good way, but missing a key is infuriating 6. Ganon’s Tower - the puzzles are okay, but the climb up the stairs while the organ is playing is amazing 7. Inside the Deku Tree - jumping through the spider web to reach the basement is the one cool puzzle 8. Dodongo’s Cavern - there’s only combat and it’s not that interesting 9. Jabu Jabu’s Belly - it looks disgusting and Ruto was raised to be a spoiled brat
Spirit Temple is probably my favorite dungeon in any video game, ever. I just love how "final" it feels. It's located in the one area of the game you likely had not visited before, so it has that uncharted feel. While it doesn't have to be done last, it is requiring the use of both child and adult LInk gives it that finality that the other dungeons lack. I love the dungeon theme, it's on another level compared to the other ones. And I just have a strong love of desert themed areas in video games. The first time I played OoT, I was blown away at how much I enjoyed the Spirit Temple. I'd sometimes just stand in a room for minutes at a time and listen to the theme.
If you use the boomerang on the octo mini boss you'll have a much easier time, just keep spamming it until hes facing away from you, one jump slash with a deku stick and hes dead. Also if you wear the hover boots in the fire room in Ganon's castle the platform wont sink into the lava.
This game is perfect. Just hard enough as a kid to keep struggling to figure it out, and the atmosphere is unrivaled with how immersive it is. However, Majora's Mask as a kid was too hard and had to come back as later for that one. Also master quest on 3DS was a good challenge, I swear the hardest part was figuring out how to proceed a door in Jabu, and after trying everything it turns out the door opened from shooting a cow on the wall 🙃
Forest Temple bothered me because it didn't feel like a temple at all. It was more a country manor, and was frankly more ghost-themed than anything else. I think Twilight Princess did a much better job of a "true" Forest Temple, actually making use of trees, vines, things like that.
I think it was just a fun intro into how eerie and cinematic the game would get. I remember feeling like the stakes were raised. hard to keep that suspense/intrigue as the game goes on. the game sorta devolves into, "okay, which temple has the best item and best boss".
Great video, Alex! Ocarina is my personal favorite Zelda game (as well as the game that really got me into the franchise), and its dungeons are a large part of that (although I think Twilight Princess has the best overall dungeon roster). It speaks to how much I love the 5th generation of gaming that Ocarina doesn't even crack my top 10 favorite games of that era. My personal ranking: 1. Spirit Temple 2. Forest Temple 3. Shadow Temple 4. Fire Temple 5. Inside the Great Deku Tree 6. Dodongo's Cavern 7. Ganon's Tower 8. Water Temple 9. Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly The Spirit Temple is incredible, and the concept of having to visit the dungeon as both young and adult Link is brilliant. I actually love the Forest Temple, too. It has a very unsettling atmosphere, my favorite dungeon theme in the franchise, some awesome and memorable moments, and it provided a welcome difficulty spike over the child dungeons. I also find it interesting that Ocarina and Thief: The Dark Project both came out in 1998 and both included a memorable twisted hallway. I actually wasn't aware that a lot of people hate the Shadow Temple because I tend to see it listed amongst people's favorites. The Water Temple and Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly definitely seem to be the most despised by fans in general. I've never been a huge fan of these types of final dungeons that just clumsily recycle assets from the previous dungeons. I don't find Ganon's Tower atrocious, but it's very lackluster in my opinion. However, I do think that style of final level has been handled much better by other games -- notably, the Interdimensional Rift in FF5 (where it made more sense, as a lot of the areas of the game were sucked into a void) and the Chaotic Realm from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (which was more like a parallel dimension, in the vein of the Twilight Realm from Twilight Princess). Levels set inside of organisms can be pretty tough to pull off well, and Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly definitely fails in my opinion. I have a similar problem with The Body of the Many from System Shock 2 and In the Flesh from Blood. Anyway, I'm enjoying your content as always and look forward to your future uploads!
I always felt like the first 3 dungeons were “tacked on.” Like, they weren’t as beautiful and thought-out as the temples you play as adult Link. I agree with your ranking of Ganon’s tower. The rooms were kind of annoying and uninteresting.
I would argue that they were designed to be easy as this is one of the first 3D games. The first 2 dungeons at least serve as very simple games that try to show off 3D puzzles in some of their executions (Falling on the web, how you are suppossed to bomb flower dodongo's from a vertical location. The verticality of both dungeons and the boss fights which use the 3D space (A spider on the ceiling, A Dodongo that uses the space of the area). They are easy and thus not very memorable today, but I also realize they were awe inspiring as someone who played 2D and then played this as one of the first 3D games. I would also point out that verticality is in other dungeons, but it is not showcased to the same extent.
Thanks so much for the video! Definitely haven't heard this type of humor before, enjoyed it! I'm glad I'm not the only one not worshipping each and every one of these dungeons...
i literally would turn the game on and pause it in the Spirit Temple just to listen to the music in my living room - back before i discovered i could download the track on limewire.
Im subscribed to less than 10 people and I religiously am on UA-cam. You had me at old people being senile and watching jeopardy reruns. The real life comparison smart ass comments I love it.
Ganon's Castle was a huge disappointment when I got to it. It was just recycled content and way too short. Not to mention it looked pretty boring on the inside. It was mostly empty. I was expecting loads of guards and living quarters fit for a false king of Hyrule. The Spirit Temple is also my favorite dungeon of the game. How cool is it that both young and grown up Link get to go through it? The puzzle solving requires skill but it isn't overly tedious. And it's just cool looking in general. I love going out on the hands of the desert colossus and overlooking the scenery.
One thing that I think is really neat about OoT dungeons is their spatial design. Except for the Shadow Temple, all of them can be physically mapped out in the overworld. Spirit Temple is the most obvious, as you are ascending the Desert Colossus from the inside, and the two dungeon items are on the hands. Fire Temple is also fairly obvious because you can see the spires of Spectacle Rock in the crater, and the Fire Temple is thus inside the rock. Water Temple is inside the large island in Lake Hylia, and the Forest Temple is understood to be a large manor in the woods. This was something that later dungeons didn't do as well, they didn't seem to play with the overworld as much. They were more complex, but usually this was accomplished by just hiding the entire dungeon underground or something.
i replayed this game recently for the first time since childhood and, as somebody who usually feels contrary about a lot of zelda’s most hated dungeons, i struggled SO MUCH with the water temple. i kept getting lost and frustrated and i even ended up going through 3 bottled fairies on the Morpha fight. I’m sure if i went through it again i’d have an easier time but jesus Morpha beat me up
I swear the horror asthetic of n64 games is unrivaled regardless of how horrifying or realistic a modern horror dungeon is. my guess is how ugly the textures looked and the twilight lighting giving it a sort of uncanny valley limbo between realism and fantasy
100% with you there, imo its basically impossible for a game to be remotely unsettling if it has graphics that look more modern than like 2001 or something
For me and i may be a bit cray cray but... 1. Shadow Temple 2. Fire Temple 3. Water Temple 4. Spirit Temple 5. Forest Temple 6. Dogondo cavern 7. Deku tree 8. Jabu jabu
puzzle-wise, I think Jabu-Jabu’s Belly is actually probably the best of the child dungeons… it’s just the atmosphere that’s gross. a little trial-and-error to solve a puzzle never hurt anyone 🤷🏻♂️
Agreed on the Spirit Temple being the best. I loved the different approaches you had to take with the Iron Knuckles depending on if you were Child or Adult Link. Fighting them with the Biggoron sword was awesome.
Really enjoyed the video. I'd probably put Shadow temple at number 1 personally because I love the horror aspect and it's something I wish Nintendo did more of for modern Zelda games. Twilight Princess I guess got close with Arbiters grounds but still not as creepy in my opinion. Also my personal favorite Zelda game is Twilight Princess. I know many people have fond memories of Ocarina Of Time or love Breath Of The Wild's open world but to me Twilight Princess was peak Zelda for me and I think it had the best story and partner in the series being Midna. The dungeon's I would consider to be some of the best and on par with Ocarina's dungeon quality.
There's been a lot of videos done on this topic, but you have such a fresh take and one of the most entertaining deliveries that I've seen that I had to subscribe! Superb work here, Cytonox! :D I really miss stuff like the blood in the Shadow Temple, too. The dark fantasy style Zelda games were so good, and I wish Nintendo would experiment with it again.
My ranking 9: Jabu Jabu 8: Deku tree 7: dodongo's cavern 6: Ganon's tower 5: Water temple These final 4 are really close 4: Shadow temple 3: Spirit temple 2: Forest temple 1: Fire temple
I had this game both on Wii Virtual Console and the 3DS, but man it's a good thing the original graphics are what is remembered. It has a cool aesthetic for the tech it has with the jank adding to it. You're right about the Fire Temple though, I was just thinking about another Zelda video where he said that is was completely inferior to the Forest Temple. Spirit Temple fucking mogs everything, and it's a rare example of a gimmick in a Nintendo game being underutilized to a good effect. It's cooler to have one dungeon swap between time periods than to have every dungeon do it to varying degrees of quality. The Mirror Shield is really cool, praise Allah.
Yeah the n64 graphical style is great, I played the 3ds version first as a kid but once I got an actual n64 and tried it there it was crazy how much better it looked to me. That + Majoras Mask 3d was dogshit as a port so I finally had a way to play it that was tolerable
For me is: 9. Inside Jabu Jabu’s Belly 8. Ganon’s Tower 7. The Great Deku Tree 6. Forrest Temple 5. Dodongo’s Cavern 4. Shadow Temple 3. Fire Temple 2. Spirit Temple (only here for the Twinrova death cutscene) 1. Water Temple
The water temple was always challenging to me and the shadow temple creeped me out. But it also meant I had the spirit temple (my favorite) to look forward to after the fact.
Fantastic vid, probably one of my all-time favourites of yours. The writing is so good, really witty and funny, and your love for the game really shows, great job! I'm slightly sad that I'm mostly spoiler-free regardin' the RE games, cuz I do intend on playin' 'em someday and so I haven't been able to check out your recent vids on the series yet ; _ ; (still let a full watch play out for ya tho ofc 👍)
@@Cytonox Idk how you do it lol, I've only just finished the script for that Hi-Fi Rush vid I mentioned about a month ago x.x Really impressive how quickly you guys work.
I actually agree with this a lot although I probably would have put the forest temple above the shadow temple but that's mostly because when I first played oot as a kid the shadow temple spooked me a crap ton.
I will say, most issues with backtracking in any of these dungeons gets easily solved by farore’s wind. I always pop that bad boy down upon entering the forest temple wallmaster room, that way if the wallmasters or stalfos get me I can just zip back
You snapped on the writing for this one. Idk if you felt like you really tried to make this a banger but I'm expecting something like this going forward. Interestingly enough if you had continued playing KH1 you would have found yourself inside of Monstro the Whale. You could easily get lost, there's like a thousand holes (err, doors) that circle back on itself (mf has NOT been eating healthy) and just looks dull. You dodged a bullet fr
I was definitely pretty happy with the writing for this one, glad you enjoyed! I am somehow less than shocked that KH1 would go on to become even worse than what I already experienced, lol
My major grip with the Spirit Temple & Shadow Temple is how they rehash the Silver Rupee puzzles thrice in each dungeon. The dungeons have other flaws, but the Silver Rupee puzzle just pisses me off. Imagine having a Block pushing puzzle or a Torch puzzle in each dungeon….
Personally never had a problem with the downsides you mention for the Water & Forest temples and found some of the more involved gameplay of Fire & Shadow temples specifically to be pretty unintuitive and unnecessarily frustrating. Still enjoyed all the adult Link dungeons though.
I have a list of suggestions for games or series of games to rank bosses. Spider-Man Crash Bandicoot The Punisher Metal Gear X-Men Origins: Wolverine SpongeBob Spyro Far Cry Uncharted Destroy All Humans Ratchet and Clank Jak and Daxter Sly Cooper A Plague Tale Ghostbusters MediEvil Bendy Assassin’s Creed Tomb Raider
i mean the inspirations for the dungeons are fantasy rpgs that came before it, the inside big monster dungeon has been done before i believe by dragon quest & final fantasy 2 where you go inside leviathan. Thats why they made Jabu Jabu, its generic though.
In fairness to Ruto, throwing her at the jellyfish and other annoying enemies of that dungeon is a great way to deal with them before you get the Boomerang.
Awesome, can you make a list for the Master Quest dungeons as well or are they too similiar? I thought some dungeons were more annyoing in the master quest variant, while some were more interesting.
I dunno, I thought the stress of the Jabbu Jabbu set the bar high for the rest of the game. the only real challenge after that was dealing with how tedious the water temple is.
"Very average dungeon, comparable to eating a piece of bread without butter or jam". Lmao you are an eloquent fellow My ranking: 1- Fire Temple 2- Forest Temple 3- Spirit Temple 4- Water Temple 5- Shadow Temple 6- Inside the Deku Tree 7- Dodongo's Cavern 8- Inside Jabu-Jabu
ikr. its genuinely so fuckin simple its insane. You will never once get lost, most of the puzzles are shit like block pushing for hours, or things that at that point in the game you'd figure out in 0.1 seconds like using a boomerang to hit a switch lmao
I do like the Master Quest version. It's a bit more complicated as it has more time-based puzzles requiring child and adult Link. It also has you play the adult Link portion backwards. It's not really harder, but at least feels quite different from the original, which I like.
My borderline insane ranking of the dungeons: 8. Jabbu Jabbu’s Belly 7. Dadongo Cavern 6. Fire Temple 5. Great Deku Tree 4. Shadow Temple 3. Forest Temple 2. Spirit Temple 1. Water Temple Edit: ok after watching the video my list does not seem that crazy. Spirit Temple rules
just completed forest temple for the first time and came here to see if people hate it as much as I do clearly not but even more surprising is that jabu jabus belly is not liked cause its the only one so far that i didnt actively dislike
@SamMikas-m9q why dont you like it? For me its was top 3 it had a story with the gorons you saved and lot of the rooms were actually fun and nothing was really hidden in a unfair way
The forest temple is my favorite amongst them all. However, every time I played it, I get stuck at one spot. Which is a missing key, and that freaking key comes from outside of the dungeon. That to me is a big annoying thing, why the hell would a key be OUTSIDE the dungeon. I kept looking around the dungeon not finding that key.
I'll see if we match. (Edits ❌✔️) 1. Temple of spirit ✔️ 2. Temple of forest ❌ 3. Ganon's tower ❌ 4. Deku tree❌ 5. Ice cavern❌ 6. Temple of fire❌ 7. Temple of shadows❌ 8. Dodongo's cavern❌ 9. Gerudo's training❌ 10. Lord Jabu Jabu❌ 11. Temple of water❌ 12. Bottom of the well 💀❌ We only agree on the best. Cool.
The only ranking I completely disagree with is the placement of the Shadow Temple. It is the worst of the Adult link temples. The dungeon is way too linear and lacks the intricate puzzle design of the other dungeons. Other than that. Your list is my list. And Koji Kondo is a genius!
I was unhappy waiting on the Water temple to show up but then you put Shadow and Spirit in the first two spots. You can now do no wrong as far as I'm concerned.
It's funny. I used to hate the Spirit Temple due to Invisible Floormasters and Wallmasters (the ones that fall on you) including ones that spawn if you hit an incorrect sun switch, but having played Master Quest, they completely butchered it my dude. Every fake Sun Switch including blocks spawn Wallmasters (what you call Floormasters) meaning anyone who doesn’t know how to kill them is going back to the start a hell of a lot of times. Forest Temple may have introduced those menaces but the fact they are abused to hell and back in Master Quest just irritates me. Also my name's Alex too.
While I hate Jabu Jabu's belly dungeon, it was a nostalgia trip for me as I was stuck in the dungeon for days when I first played through OoT on the 3ds bc it was soooo confusing n difficult for my kid brain which causes me to have so much nostalgia for the dungeon lmaooooo My nostalgia for the dungeon makes me have a soft spot for it even tho I absolutely fucking hate it
From most rankings that I have seen, I think everyone agrees that Jabu Jabu's Belly is the worst dungeon in the game. It's by far the worst Child dungeon. Deku and Dodongo are actually great introductory dungeons. I think Forest gets a ton of love simply because it's the first Adult dungeon you go into and the nostalgia hits. Spirit is also my favorite.
Wait...this game was made half a decade BEFORE you were conceived?! Holy crap, you're young! Judging by your voice I would've thought you were 10 years older than you are!
@@Cytonox Yeah, you're at a great place in life to start! Plus, there are people well into their 30's (the decade I'm in) and 40's who are still going along strong!
Fun fact - my dumbass kid brain (Ocarina came out when I was 7) couldn't figure out you have to shoot the Poes in the paintings in the Forest Temple, so I was stuck there until replaying the game at 15 and figuring it out. Good times.
Don't feel bad. I was playing Tears of the Kingdom, and I was stuck in the Wind Temple for over an hour because I didn't realize you were supposed to use the sage's abilities to activate machinery. I kept trying all my items, bombs, etc. It was such an obvious thing to overlook, too.
From best to worst-1:Fire Temple 2:Water Temple 3:Spirit Temple 4:Shadow Temple 5:Forest Temple 6:Dodongos Cavern 7:Jabu Jabu-jabu's Belly 8:Great Deku Tree 9:Ice Cavern 10:Bottom of the Well 11:Ganon's Castle
Huh, I loved Jabu Jabu's dungeon, and it's fine for kiddie games to be "gross", this game was made in the 90s after all. My pick for worst dungeon is the water temple for sure, the ideas were great but the execution was poor and amateurish, it felt out of character for this game to drop in design quality so quickly
What the heck is going on with UA-cam? It says there are 27 comments on this video, but I’m not seeing any. Edit: Okay. Apparently, they only show up when I set them to newest first for some reason. Edit 2: Ok, now the comments are still there when I switch back to top. Wtf is going on here?
I have to say I'm not a fan of Jabu-Jabu. Not only is it visually disgusting but the enemies are just plain annoying and same with the puzzles. Nothing about the dungeon excites me. I may even dislike it more than the water temple. Actually the water temple isn't so bad once you get the hang of it
I agree with the rankings, but my one criticism of this video is the overacting on the "pretending to be mad" bits. It's really forced and inauthentic. I have no doubt that these temples frustrated you, they frustrated me, but pretending you're mad while recording a video is just off-putting and made the video hard to get through. The "wHaT wErE tHeY tHiNkInG?! DiD tHiS fUcK tHeIr MoM?!" character you put on really pulls down the video as a whole. The more analytical parts were REALLY GREAT!! But drop AVGN impression and you're golden.
I always felt like the Shadow and Spirit temples were on a whole other level to the rest of the game’s dungeons. Two of the most nostalgic dungeons in Zelda history for me.
I'd pick the Shadow Temple over the Spirit Temple for one reason only: the final boss. Bongo Bongo is actually a real threat and will kill you VERY easily if you don't know what to do or you don't line up your shots quick enough. His attacks deal massive damage and he moves insanely fast. In fact I'd even go as far as to say aside from the Iron Knuckle, he's the second most dangerous enemy you encounter in the game. Twinrova, on the other hand, is laughable. This fight is literally a "hold the shield button" simulator. There's no other way to put it.
The absolute magic of figuring out you can't complete the temple without going back in time and coming back as a kid tho. And you can only get there as a kid by remembering the song you learned as an adult because no route is possible. Magic
I feel like Shadow Temple is very mediocre. Apart from the atmosphere and the boss, it's kinda boring. It's linear, it's easy and there's not much complexity. I think it's the weakest by far of the older Link dungeons.
@@Al-ji4gdI think the bottom of the well just before puts the table just before and helps giving it some depth and worldbuilding. But if you just watch the level design, it is boring yes. I suggest Boss Key on UA-cam that talks about it
@@AdrianDelorme Yeah I've seen those videos and I agree.
My ranking for the OoT dungeons would be:
1. Forest Temple - every room is memorable and it was the most fun dungeon to navigate
2. Spirit Temple - switching between young and adult Link created an interesting story and great puzzle variety
3. Shadow Temple - uses many different items in combinations to create a level that’s more like a fun obstacle course
4. Fire Temple - rescuing the Gorons was a nice change to the formula, but most rooms look the same
5. Water Temple - the most challenging dungeon in the game by far in somewhat of a good way, but missing a key is infuriating
6. Ganon’s Tower - the puzzles are okay, but the climb up the stairs while the organ is playing is amazing
7. Inside the Deku Tree - jumping through the spider web to reach the basement is the one cool puzzle
8. Dodongo’s Cavern - there’s only combat and it’s not that interesting
9. Jabu Jabu’s Belly - it looks disgusting and Ruto was raised to be a spoiled brat
Finally a level ranking for this game where someone points out how both the forrest and water temple has the same problem. Small keys.
Spirit Temple is probably my favorite dungeon in any video game, ever. I just love how "final" it feels. It's located in the one area of the game you likely had not visited before, so it has that uncharted feel. While it doesn't have to be done last, it is requiring the use of both child and adult LInk gives it that finality that the other dungeons lack. I love the dungeon theme, it's on another level compared to the other ones. And I just have a strong love of desert themed areas in video games. The first time I played OoT, I was blown away at how much I enjoyed the Spirit Temple. I'd sometimes just stand in a room for minutes at a time and listen to the theme.
If you use the boomerang on the octo mini boss you'll have a much easier time, just keep spamming it until hes facing away from you, one jump slash with a deku stick and hes dead.
Also if you wear the hover boots in the fire room in Ganon's castle the platform wont sink into the lava.
This game was made 5 years before you were born? I was in high school when it came out.
God, I feel ancient now...
I thought the same lol
Damn unc
if it makes you feel any better the game came out only 4 years before i was born 😄
as soon as i saw you started the list with jabu jabu's belly, i knew this deserved a thumbs up
This game is perfect. Just hard enough as a kid to keep struggling to figure it out, and the atmosphere is unrivaled with how immersive it is. However, Majora's Mask as a kid was too hard and had to come back as later for that one.
Also master quest on 3DS was a good challenge, I swear the hardest part was figuring out how to proceed a door in Jabu, and after trying everything it turns out the door opened from shooting a cow on the wall 🙃
Finally, someone who talks about the Forest Temple's shortcomings and doesn't put it #1.
As a huge fan of the Forest Temple, it hurt to watch, but he's spot-on.
Still my favorite temple. 🤷🏼♀️
Forest Temple bothered me because it didn't feel like a temple at all. It was more a country manor, and was frankly more ghost-themed than anything else. I think Twilight Princess did a much better job of a "true" Forest Temple, actually making use of trees, vines, things like that.
I think it was just a fun intro into how eerie and cinematic the game would get. I remember feeling like the stakes were raised. hard to keep that suspense/intrigue as the game goes on. the game sorta devolves into, "okay, which temple has the best item and best boss".
@@drygnfyrethis is why I love it so much
the shadow temple goes so hard in every way imo. and dead hand is just nightmare fuel
I still think redeads are far worse.
Great video, Alex! Ocarina is my personal favorite Zelda game (as well as the game that really got me into the franchise), and its dungeons are a large part of that (although I think Twilight Princess has the best overall dungeon roster). It speaks to how much I love the 5th generation of gaming that Ocarina doesn't even crack my top 10 favorite games of that era.
My personal ranking:
1. Spirit Temple
2. Forest Temple
3. Shadow Temple
4. Fire Temple
5. Inside the Great Deku Tree
6. Dodongo's Cavern
7. Ganon's Tower
8. Water Temple
9. Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly
The Spirit Temple is incredible, and the concept of having to visit the dungeon as both young and adult Link is brilliant. I actually love the Forest Temple, too. It has a very unsettling atmosphere, my favorite dungeon theme in the franchise, some awesome and memorable moments, and it provided a welcome difficulty spike over the child dungeons. I also find it interesting that Ocarina and Thief: The Dark Project both came out in 1998 and both included a memorable twisted hallway. I actually wasn't aware that a lot of people hate the Shadow Temple because I tend to see it listed amongst people's favorites. The Water Temple and Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly definitely seem to be the most despised by fans in general. I've never been a huge fan of these types of final dungeons that just clumsily recycle assets from the previous dungeons. I don't find Ganon's Tower atrocious, but it's very lackluster in my opinion. However, I do think that style of final level has been handled much better by other games -- notably, the Interdimensional Rift in FF5 (where it made more sense, as a lot of the areas of the game were sucked into a void) and the Chaotic Realm from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (which was more like a parallel dimension, in the vein of the Twilight Realm from Twilight Princess). Levels set inside of organisms can be pretty tough to pull off well, and Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly definitely fails in my opinion. I have a similar problem with The Body of the Many from System Shock 2 and In the Flesh from Blood.
Anyway, I'm enjoying your content as always and look forward to your future uploads!
Water Temple is the best temple by far.
Nice ranking my guy! Cool to see the Fire Temple actually end up in someone's top three! Definitely underrated!
Most of the complaints would be solved by just not having a skill issue.
I always felt like the first 3 dungeons were “tacked on.” Like, they weren’t as beautiful and thought-out as the temples you play as adult Link. I agree with your ranking of Ganon’s tower. The rooms were kind of annoying and uninteresting.
I would argue that they were designed to be easy as this is one of the first 3D games. The first 2 dungeons at least serve as very simple games that try to show off 3D puzzles in some of their executions (Falling on the web, how you are suppossed to bomb flower dodongo's from a vertical location. The verticality of both dungeons and the boss fights which use the 3D space (A spider on the ceiling, A Dodongo that uses the space of the area). They are easy and thus not very memorable today, but I also realize they were awe inspiring as someone who played 2D and then played this as one of the first 3D games.
I would also point out that verticality is in other dungeons, but it is not showcased to the same extent.
Skipped to the end to find out he's... wrong?! Push that water temple back to where it belongs my friend!😂
Thanks so much for the video! Definitely haven't heard this type of humor before, enjoyed it! I'm glad I'm not the only one not worshipping each and every one of these dungeons...
i literally would turn the game on and pause it in the Spirit Temple just to listen to the music in my living room - back before i discovered i could download the track on limewire.
Ha ha, I just made the same comment! I was the same way. I'd just stand in the temple and let the music loop, it's such a great theme.
I was wondering why the video got removed when I was halfway through
just fixxing a zoom issue, it’s better now
I'm more interested in whose idea it was to front load 4 ads into the first 7 minutes of the video
Im subscribed to less than 10 people and I religiously am on UA-cam. You had me at old people being senile and watching jeopardy reruns. The real life comparison smart ass comments I love it.
honored! happyto be of service!
Ganon's Castle was a huge disappointment when I got to it. It was just recycled content and way too short. Not to mention it looked pretty boring on the inside. It was mostly empty. I was expecting loads of guards and living quarters fit for a false king of Hyrule.
The Spirit Temple is also my favorite dungeon of the game. How cool is it that both young and grown up Link get to go through it? The puzzle solving requires skill but it isn't overly tedious. And it's just cool looking in general. I love going out on the hands of the desert colossus and overlooking the scenery.
Hi cytonox I really enjoyed the video
One thing that I think is really neat about OoT dungeons is their spatial design. Except for the Shadow Temple, all of them can be physically mapped out in the overworld. Spirit Temple is the most obvious, as you are ascending the Desert Colossus from the inside, and the two dungeon items are on the hands. Fire Temple is also fairly obvious because you can see the spires of Spectacle Rock in the crater, and the Fire Temple is thus inside the rock. Water Temple is inside the large island in Lake Hylia, and the Forest Temple is understood to be a large manor in the woods. This was something that later dungeons didn't do as well, they didn't seem to play with the overworld as much. They were more complex, but usually this was accomplished by just hiding the entire dungeon underground or something.
i replayed this game recently for the first time since childhood and, as somebody who usually feels contrary about a lot of zelda’s most hated dungeons, i struggled SO MUCH with the water temple. i kept getting lost and frustrated and i even ended up going through 3 bottled fairies on the Morpha fight. I’m sure if i went through it again i’d have an easier time but jesus Morpha beat me up
I love jabu jabu imo, its super fun to blast through, cutting the wires are fun and i love carrying princess ruto.
Your narration during the shadow temple has earned my like
I swear the horror asthetic of n64 games is unrivaled regardless of how horrifying or realistic a modern horror dungeon is. my guess is how ugly the textures looked and the twilight lighting giving it a sort of uncanny valley limbo between realism and fantasy
100% with you there, imo its basically impossible for a game to be remotely unsettling if it has graphics that look more modern than like 2001 or something
Awesome video. Watched the entire video 5 times already.
For me and i may be a bit cray cray but...
1. Shadow Temple
2. Fire Temple
3. Water Temple
4. Spirit Temple
5. Forest Temple
6. Dogondo cavern
7. Deku tree
8. Jabu jabu
puzzle-wise, I think Jabu-Jabu’s Belly is actually probably the best of the child dungeons… it’s just the atmosphere that’s gross. a little trial-and-error to solve a puzzle never hurt anyone 🤷🏻♂️
Agreed on the Spirit Temple being the best. I loved the different approaches you had to take with the Iron Knuckles depending on if you were Child or Adult Link. Fighting them with the Biggoron sword was awesome.
Really enjoyed the video. I'd probably put Shadow temple at number 1 personally because I love the horror aspect and it's something I wish Nintendo did more of for modern Zelda games. Twilight Princess I guess got close with Arbiters grounds but still not as creepy in my opinion. Also my personal favorite Zelda game is Twilight Princess. I know many people have fond memories of Ocarina Of Time or love Breath Of The Wild's open world but to me Twilight Princess was peak Zelda for me and I think it had the best story and partner in the series being Midna. The dungeon's I would consider to be some of the best and on par with Ocarina's dungeon quality.
Twilight Princess is my favorite Zelda game also, best dungeons and it isn’t even close. Glad you enjoyed the video!
There's been a lot of videos done on this topic, but you have such a fresh take and one of the most entertaining deliveries that I've seen that I had to subscribe! Superb work here, Cytonox! :D
I really miss stuff like the blood in the Shadow Temple, too. The dark fantasy style Zelda games were so good, and I wish Nintendo would experiment with it again.
This is the most balanced water temple review ive ever heard
I didn't know the shadow temple was hated. Its actually one of my favorite temples in this game between this and spirit temple.
My ranking
9: Jabu Jabu
8: Deku tree
7: dodongo's cavern
6: Ganon's tower
5: Water temple
These final 4 are really close
4: Shadow temple
3: Spirit temple
2: Forest temple
1: Fire temple
I had this game both on Wii Virtual Console and the 3DS, but man it's a good thing the original graphics are what is remembered. It has a cool aesthetic for the tech it has with the jank adding to it. You're right about the Fire Temple though, I was just thinking about another Zelda video where he said that is was completely inferior to the Forest Temple.
Spirit Temple fucking mogs everything, and it's a rare example of a gimmick in a Nintendo game being underutilized to a good effect. It's cooler to have one dungeon swap between time periods than to have every dungeon do it to varying degrees of quality. The Mirror Shield is really cool, praise Allah.
Yeah the n64 graphical style is great, I played the 3ds version first as a kid but once I got an actual n64 and tried it there it was crazy how much better it looked to me. That + Majoras Mask 3d was dogshit as a port so I finally had a way to play it that was tolerable
@@Cytonox I dropped the 3DS version of Majora's Mask around the Zora level which is the famous "changed too fucking much" point of that remake.
I agree with your placing of inside jabu belly, but the boss i actually think is awesome
For me is:
9. Inside Jabu Jabu’s Belly
8. Ganon’s Tower
7. The Great Deku Tree
6. Forrest Temple
5. Dodongo’s Cavern
4. Shadow Temple
3. Fire Temple
2. Spirit Temple (only here for the Twinrova death cutscene)
1. Water Temple
The water temple was always challenging to me and the shadow temple creeped me out. But it also meant I had the spirit temple (my favorite) to look forward to after the fact.
Fantastic vid, probably one of my all-time favourites of yours. The writing is so good, really witty and funny, and your love for the game really shows, great job!
I'm slightly sad that I'm mostly spoiler-free regardin' the RE games, cuz I do intend on playin' 'em someday and so I haven't been able to check out your recent vids on the series yet ; _ ; (still let a full watch play out for ya tho ofc 👍)
glad to hear it! I’m definitely pleased with how this one came out despite working on short notice to get it out
@@Cytonox Idk how you do it lol, I've only just finished the script for that Hi-Fi Rush vid I mentioned about a month ago x.x Really impressive how quickly you guys work.
I actually agree with this a lot although I probably would have put the forest temple above the shadow temple but that's mostly because when I first played oot as a kid the shadow temple spooked me a crap ton.
I will say, most issues with backtracking in any of these dungeons gets easily solved by farore’s wind. I always pop that bad boy down upon entering the forest temple wallmaster room, that way if the wallmasters or stalfos get me I can just zip back
I have yet to meet anyone who enjoyed jabu’s belly. Theres something just not fun about it.
You snapped on the writing for this one. Idk if you felt like you really tried to make this a banger but I'm expecting something like this going forward. Interestingly enough if you had continued playing KH1 you would have found yourself inside of Monstro the Whale. You could easily get lost, there's like a thousand holes (err, doors) that circle back on itself (mf has NOT been eating healthy) and just looks dull. You dodged a bullet fr
I was definitely pretty happy with the writing for this one, glad you enjoyed! I am somehow less than shocked that KH1 would go on to become even worse than what I already experienced, lol
@@Cytonox You also avoided having to play through Atlantica, which is arguably even worse than Monstro.
good list im glad to see someone else with a spirit shadow fire top 3
My major grip with the Spirit Temple & Shadow Temple is how they rehash the Silver Rupee puzzles thrice in each dungeon. The dungeons have other flaws, but the Silver Rupee puzzle just pisses me off. Imagine having a Block pushing puzzle or a Torch puzzle in each dungeon….
Personally never had a problem with the downsides you mention for the Water & Forest temples and found some of the more involved gameplay of Fire & Shadow temples specifically to be pretty unintuitive and unnecessarily frustrating. Still enjoyed all the adult Link dungeons though.
Your joke @ 12:20 made me lol, good stuff sir 🫡 edit: and then you doubled down @ 13:09 😂👏
Awesome Video Bro!
This is so unhinged lol, just subscribed
9) Jabu Jabu
8) Fire Temple
7) Ganon's Tower
6) Dodongo's Cavern
5) Deku Tree
4) Forest Temple
3) Water Temple
2) Shadow Temple
1) Spirit Temple
"finding hay in a used needlestack" lol
Ugh twice I had a glitch were ruto disappeared and never reappeared. I have
Anxiety everytime I replay that section
I absolutely agree with the Nr. 1 choice. I fucking love the spirit temple
"Better than the opposite, i suppose"
Subtle and dark. Nice. I imagine most of your viewers didn't catch that
thanks, i still wonder how many people actually pieced together what i meant there lol
Damn straight the Spirit Temple is #1! That is ALSO my favorite temple of Ocarina of Time!
I have a list of suggestions for games or series of games to rank bosses.
Spider-Man
Crash Bandicoot
The Punisher
Metal Gear
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
SpongeBob
Spyro
Far Cry
Uncharted
Destroy All Humans
Ratchet and Clank
Jak and Daxter
Sly Cooper
A Plague Tale
Ghostbusters
MediEvil
Bendy
Assassin’s Creed
Tomb Raider
i mean the inspirations for the dungeons are fantasy rpgs that came before it, the inside big monster dungeon has been done before i believe by dragon quest & final fantasy 2 where you go inside leviathan. Thats why they made Jabu Jabu, its generic though.
Barinade wasn’t that confusing
How have y’all been playing all the same games as me recently
Jabu-Jabu is a reference to Pinocchio, when Geppetto was eaten by the giant whale.
In fairness to Ruto, throwing her at the jellyfish and other annoying enemies of that dungeon is a great way to deal with them before you get the Boomerang.
A 30 year old n64 game shouldn't have better dungeons than divine beasts but it does
this video is fucking comical i love it
its something you would expect from 2010
nice
Thats my secret goal, glad you enjoyed!
Awesome, can you make a list for the Master Quest dungeons as well or are they too similiar? I thought some dungeons were more annyoing in the master quest variant, while some were more interesting.
I dunno, I thought the stress of the Jabbu Jabbu set the bar high for the rest of the game. the only real challenge after that was dealing with how tedious the water temple is.
"Very average dungeon, comparable to eating a piece of bread without butter or jam". Lmao you are an eloquent fellow
My ranking:
1- Fire Temple
2- Forest Temple
3- Spirit Temple
4- Water Temple
5- Shadow Temple
6- Inside the Deku Tree
7- Dodongo's Cavern
8- Inside Jabu-Jabu
Your commentary is incredible 😂😂😂
The Spirit Temple felt like a temple they made at the end of the development cycle and just wanted to get done.
ikr. its genuinely so fuckin simple its insane. You will never once get lost, most of the puzzles are shit like block pushing for hours, or things that at that point in the game you'd figure out in 0.1 seconds like using a boomerang to hit a switch lmao
I do like the Master Quest version. It's a bit more complicated as it has more time-based puzzles requiring child and adult Link. It also has you play the adult Link portion backwards. It's not really harder, but at least feels quite different from the original, which I like.
My borderline insane ranking of the dungeons:
8. Jabbu Jabbu’s Belly
7. Dadongo Cavern
6. Fire Temple
5. Great Deku Tree
4. Shadow Temple
3. Forest Temple
2. Spirit Temple
1. Water Temple
Edit: ok after watching the video my list does not seem that crazy. Spirit Temple rules
Poor jabu jabu
just completed forest temple for the first time and came here to see if people hate it as much as I do clearly not but even more surprising is that jabu jabus belly is not liked cause its the only one so far that i didnt actively dislike
@SamMikas-m9q why dont you like it? For me its was top 3 it had a story with the gorons you saved and lot of the rooms were actually fun and nothing was really hidden in a unfair way
The forest temple is my favorite amongst them all. However, every time I played it, I get stuck at one spot. Which is a missing key, and that freaking key comes from outside of the dungeon. That to me is a big annoying thing, why the hell would a key be OUTSIDE the dungeon. I kept looking around the dungeon not finding that key.
damn love inside jabu jabu belly. Creative as hell every concept of it its a dungeon in zelda you wont forget cus its literly one of a kind.
I'll see if we match.
(Edits ❌✔️)
1. Temple of spirit ✔️
2. Temple of forest ❌
3. Ganon's tower ❌
4. Deku tree❌
5. Ice cavern❌
6. Temple of fire❌
7. Temple of shadows❌
8. Dodongo's cavern❌
9. Gerudo's training❌
10. Lord Jabu Jabu❌
11. Temple of water❌
12. Bottom of the well 💀❌
We only agree on the best. Cool.
The only ranking I completely disagree with is the placement of the Shadow Temple.
It is the worst of the Adult link temples. The dungeon is way too linear and lacks the intricate puzzle design of the other dungeons. Other than that. Your list is my list.
And Koji Kondo is a genius!
I was unhappy waiting on the Water temple to show up but then you put Shadow and Spirit in the first two spots. You can now do no wrong as far as I'm concerned.
Forest Temple still slaps imo
It's funny. I used to hate the Spirit Temple due to Invisible Floormasters and Wallmasters (the ones that fall on you) including ones that spawn if you hit an incorrect sun switch, but having played Master Quest, they completely butchered it my dude. Every fake Sun Switch including blocks spawn Wallmasters (what you call Floormasters) meaning anyone who doesn’t know how to kill them is going back to the start a hell of a lot of times. Forest Temple may have introduced those menaces but the fact they are abused to hell and back in Master Quest just irritates me. Also my name's Alex too.
the water temple is really good just not in the original version because of the iron boots
Yeah that key in the start of the forest temple is straight up bad design especially since there were no key dungeons up to this point
While I hate Jabu Jabu's belly dungeon, it was a nostalgia trip for me as I was stuck in the dungeon for days when I first played through OoT on the 3ds bc it was soooo confusing n difficult for my kid brain which causes me to have so much nostalgia for the dungeon lmaooooo
My nostalgia for the dungeon makes me have a soft spot for it even tho I absolutely fucking hate it
3:45 Hover Boots, no sinking
Ill take them all over any "dungeon" from botw. The thunder temple and wind temple were cool in totk
From most rankings that I have seen, I think everyone agrees that Jabu Jabu's Belly is the worst dungeon in the game. It's by far the worst Child dungeon. Deku and Dodongo are actually great introductory dungeons. I think Forest gets a ton of love simply because it's the first Adult dungeon you go into and the nostalgia hits. Spirit is also my favorite.
Spirit and Forest are my favorites.
Wait...this game was made half a decade BEFORE you were conceived?! Holy crap, you're young! Judging by your voice I would've thought you were 10 years older than you are!
Yup, I'm 19 lol. A spring chicken! Plenty of time to move up in the old UA-cam world before I'm past my prime
@@Cytonox Yeah, you're at a great place in life to start! Plus, there are people well into their 30's (the decade I'm in) and 40's who are still going along strong!
The Shadow Temple scared me into quitting after i Beat the game twice! LMAO
Fun fact - my dumbass kid brain (Ocarina came out when I was 7) couldn't figure out you have to shoot the Poes in the paintings in the Forest Temple, so I was stuck there until replaying the game at 15 and figuring it out.
Good times.
Don't feel bad. I was playing Tears of the Kingdom, and I was stuck in the Wind Temple for over an hour because I didn't realize you were supposed to use the sage's abilities to activate machinery. I kept trying all my items, bombs, etc. It was such an obvious thing to overlook, too.
You are freakin hilarious dude
i try!
Just finished Lord Jabu Jabu in like 10 minutes
You're Hillarious!!! LMAO. The nursing home comment!! RFLMAO!!!
From best to worst-1:Fire Temple 2:Water Temple 3:Spirit Temple 4:Shadow Temple 5:Forest Temple 6:Dodongos Cavern 7:Jabu Jabu-jabu's Belly 8:Great Deku Tree 9:Ice Cavern 10:Bottom of the Well 11:Ganon's Castle
@Cytonox who's the most annoying NPC before Ruto?
Kaepora Gaebora
Huh, I loved Jabu Jabu's dungeon, and it's fine for kiddie games to be "gross", this game was made in the 90s after all.
My pick for worst dungeon is the water temple for sure, the ideas were great but the execution was poor and amateurish, it felt out of character for this game to drop in design quality so quickly
What the heck is going on with UA-cam? It says there are 27 comments on this video, but I’m not seeing any.
Edit: Okay. Apparently, they only show up when I set them to newest first for some reason.
Edit 2: Ok, now the comments are still there when I switch back to top. Wtf is going on here?
I have to say I'm not a fan of Jabu-Jabu.
Not only is it visually disgusting but the enemies are just plain annoying and same with the puzzles. Nothing about the dungeon excites me. I may even dislike it more than the water temple.
Actually the water temple isn't so bad once you get the hang of it
I agree with the rankings, but my one criticism of this video is the overacting on the "pretending to be mad" bits. It's really forced and inauthentic. I have no doubt that these temples frustrated you, they frustrated me, but pretending you're mad while recording a video is just off-putting and made the video hard to get through. The "wHaT wErE tHeY tHiNkInG?! DiD tHiS fUcK tHeIr MoM?!" character you put on really pulls down the video as a whole. The more analytical parts were REALLY GREAT!! But drop AVGN impression and you're golden.
Jokes in here are hilarious
Forest temple is always 1. Its a matter of fact.
Supportive comment