Who’s up for a Swim?                                                

                The Water Temple is arguably the most difficult/irritating dungeon or series of dungeons in the Zelda franchise, with its confusing puzzles and altered physics. Google it, and the first item that pops up (for me, anyways) is a site that says that there was a poll on Everything Zelda64 saying that the Water Temple was voted the hardest level in Ocarina of Time. This site also goes so far as to basically saying that you’re screwed if you’re stuck. Well, that’s pretty fun, isn’t it? Starting the game days before, you come across this place, and then you find that you’ve taken a wrong turn in the temple and gotten lost. Huh. That was a good twenty bucks well spent.

                The site also says, however, that the going will only get easier from then on, which would make sense, because if the Water Temple is the hardest, logically everything else would have to be easier. So if you beat the Water Temple, you’re ready for anything! Heck, you might as well just go to Ganon’s Castle right now, knock on his door, and flick the chip off his shoulder.

                “Hey, what are you doing here?” he’ll say. “You didn’t save the other two Sages!”

                “Hah! I don’t need to save them!” Link will say with pride. “I beat the Water Temple!”

                Now, for the first issue of Zelda Re:, we’ll be taking a gander at some of the issues that gamers everywhere have had trouble from floors, to features, and to bosses. You’d best prepare yourselves.

In We Go!

All right, you’ve just gone into the temple, and the first thing you need to do is take the Iron Boots off and float to the surface. Easy enough, right? I mean, you don’t have to wear the Iron Boots in the temple ever again, right? Huh, WRONG! Turns out that you have to keep pressing Start, go to the Equipment Subscreen, and equip and reequip the Iron Boots when you need them. From what I remember, you need to do it dozens of times, and when having to go underwater and going back above water, you’d think that there’d be a much quicker way to do it. A shortcut, maybe? *neon sign points to C Buttons*                                

If only this were a C item... -->     

As seen in The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, you can set your Iron Boots to the X, Y, and Z buttons (except for Twilight Princess, of course, where you have to use Z for Midna’s advice), thereby greatly increasing the efficiency as to how many times you can go through the  “Iron Boot Cycle,” as I call it, within a certain amount of time. An excellent addition on Nintendo’s part, I say. However, for some reason, this was not in Ocarina of Time. Why? From what I see, it possibly could have cluttered the Items Subscreen, and since the items are in an array, adding an item row or column would create “empty spots” in the subscreen that quite possibly would be too difficult to fill with more items. After all, there are a limited number of dungeons and side-quests and time to make the game. In this case, this is understandable, but it still increases the time you’ll make your stay in this temple…

“Miyamoto, what does the temple say about its water level?”

                It's over nine thousand, right?

                Anyway, as the title would suggest, another irritating part of the dungeon was going back to the three Triforce symbols on the walls in order to change the water level, as it was obviously a major part of the dungeon to have water in certain areas and to have certain areas be dry. Those of you with good memory could exploit this pretty well, as you’d have to remember where each of these symbols was to begin with in order to change it; if you could not remember where it was…well, sucks to be you.

                You’d have to do a bit of finding, making it feel a bit repetitive to go through the dungeon, having to raise and lower the water level only for one puzzle or other. This is another reason why this temple can take quite awhile to go through. And it’s the finding your bearings part of the dungeons that make many water-based dungeons feel very difficult. If you have a map on you—and a compass, for that matter—use it well!

Shadow Duel

                Yes, for all you Eloze fans out there, as quite awesome as he is, Dark Link can really be considered a pain in the fanny in the Water Temple. Whatever attack you use on him can be parried, blocked, and countered easily, certainly making it seem like Dark Link is a cheap miniboss. On the other hand, Link himself has something that Dark Link does not: Din’s Fire. Yeah. Shweetness. If you have magic, you can beat him a lot more easily with this simple spell. Then you may have to finish him off with your sword if you run out of magic…and that’s quite a difficult feat, too. Green Potions would be handy here, I say. And if you decided to not be completely nonlinear according to the order of dungeons, then you can attack him Donkey Kong Arcade style: Megaton Hammer!

Wow... I really need to lay off the Chateau Romani...

The Boss

                This thing is just bizarre! It has a nucleus that can control water (ala Avatar: The Last Airbender) and can strangle the crap out of you if you get caught in it. What’s more, if you seek refuge on the outer rim of the room you fight in, you have to watch out for spikes, and since the Longshot you get in the dungeon doesn’t home in on the nucleus, grappling it can be difficult, too. At least two arms can form from the nucleus’s rotating in the water, and these arms…well, they’re a bit too friendly, if you ask me. I think they’ve been in there way too long and just want a hug. If you’re not careful, you’re going to get a hug, all right—and it’s going to hurt!

This is what happens when Miyamoto watches The Abyss...

It’s Over! (Almost)

                There you have it: some of the plethora of things that lead gamers into the Wacky Shack. What was Nintendo thinking when putting the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time? People want puzzles: you get puzzles. They want gameplay: you get underwater fights (underwater clam fighting, for the win!). Still, you’d think that the formula for water-based dungeons wouldn’t be hard. It’s just that it’s a unique combination of puzzles and corridors that somehow just want to make you hit someone over the head with a sledgehammer. The reputation of the Water Temple is pretty negative for many people, and this review may point out some of the reasons why. I know I’m not too fond of the rooms of the vortices and changing the water level like a green-clad plumber. Really, that should be Mario’s job! However, once you get through it, once you overcome the Start button mashing, once you conquer Dark Link, once you pulverize Morpha into a…whatever water becomes when it’s pulverized, you’ll know you’re ready to beat Ocarina of Time. Ganondorf, watch out!

Statistics

Gameplay: 4/10

Exp: Repetitive to go through due to water level changes, and the battles can get quite annoying. It’s a good dungeon to play, nonetheless.

Originality: 10/10

Exp: It may be annoying, but you have to admit, this dungeon boasts massive originality. You have to go through certain levels, solve puzzles, and accommodate those puzzles accordingly with water changes.

Graphics/Detail: 9/10

Exp: Being able to travel through water like in Super Metroid and fight underwater beasties and notice the changes in sound every time you go under is pretty awesome, indeed. The whirlpools, although annoying to me, looked pretty sweet. And look at that—they have dragons there, too! ^^

Overall: 7.7/10

Final Thoughts

Here we are! The first issue of Zelda Re:! Enjoyed it? Hated it? Ignored it? Regardless, it's up! I'm sure at least some of you will agree with some of my points on here, and if you did enjoy it...well, this will be a monthly or bi-monthly column here at TDC, so check here every so often to see whatever the ol' Mags (okay, I'm not that old  ) has to say about whatever blows through my mind regarding Zelda. I'll also do requests if I feel up to it, and if you do have a request, either send me an email at magmarfire7@yahoo.com or send me a PM at the forums. I'll be looking forward to any you might have. So here's to the first issue! Time to conclude...with...uh...

>.>

<.<

 *points* Hey, is that a demonic duck of some sort!? *flees*

I feel so used...

Special thanks to Area 51 for information, to various sites for the pictures, and to Dan Shive for getting me out of an awkward silence. Also thanks to Baka Nezumi for pointing out the tip about the Megaton Hammer.