Which first, Shadow or Spirit?

[Axle the Beast]

I don't know if anyone else knew this...

But I was playing through OoT recently. Of course you know that the order you do the Temples in (once you go to the future) is Forest, then Fire, then Water...

But did you know you can do the Shadow and Spirit Temples in either order?

I had the theory for a little bit, and I decided to try it out this playthrough. You can do the Gerudo Fortress right after the Water Temple, but you can't get through the Haunted Wasteland (in order to reach the Spirit Temple) until you get the Lens of Truth from the Bottom of the Well. But you can still do the Spirit Temple before the Shadow Temple. The order I did it in was:

Gerudo Fortress --> Bottom of the Well --> Spirit Temple --> Shadow Temple

Now, there's a few things I noticed...

The Spirit Temple is more interesting in that there's more talking. You meet Nabooru, then Twinrova. And Twinrova talks alot. But in the Shadow Temple, the whole thing is harder, and Bongo Bongo is widely considered the hardest boss in OoT, an opinion I agree with. Also, the way Impa talks when she becomes a Sage, it's almost as though they intended her as the last Sage for you to rescue.

Not to mention that the Shadow Medallion, and the Nocturne of Shadow, are listed before the Spirit Medallion and the Requiem of Spirit on the Quest Status Subscreen.

So, all in all, it really seems like you're intended to do the Shadow Temple last, but everywhere I go, everyone does the Spirit Temple last.

And once again, there's so much more happening, and more plot involved, when you do the Spirit Temple...

Thoughts?

[Josh]

I don't exactly know about the theory thing, since my theories are crap, but I have noticed that. I do tend to do the whole let's end with Ganondorf's place temple so then we could have some kind of order.

So I vote Shadow temple first.

[Hylian Hobbit]

But don't you have to have the Hover Boots to get across the Desert Wasteland? So how can you do the Spirit Temple before the Shadow Temple?

And after you beat the Water Temple, the next time you go to Kakariko Village it is on fire and under attack by an invisible shadow monster. Which is what Bongo Bongo is. Link is knock out, and when he wakes up, Sheik teaches him the Nocturn of Shadow. So I think it's pretty safe to say that the Shadow Temple comes first.

And I thought Bongo Bongo to be one of the easiest bosses in the game.

[Axle the Beast]

But don't you have to have the Hover Boots to get across the Desert Wasteland? So how can you do the Spirit Temple before the Shadow Temple?

And after you beat the Water Temple, the next time you go to Kakariko Village it is on fire and under attack by an invisible shadow monster. Which is what Bongo Bongo is. Link is knock out, and when he wakes up, Sheik teaches him the Nocturn of Shadow. So I think it's pretty safe to say that the Shadow Temple comes first.

And I thought Bongo Bongo to be one of the easiest bosses in the game.

No. You don't need them to get through the Haunted Wasteland at all. You can actually do them in either order.

True, but once again, Shadow Temple is essentially listed first on the Quest Status Subscreen.

[MrMosley]

No. You don't need them to get through the Haunted Wasteland at all. You can actually do them in either order.

True, but once again, Shadow Temple is essentially listed first on the Quest Status Subscreen.

Wrong. The Ocarina song as well as the Medallion for the Spirit Temple come first in the quest subscreen. The song for the Shadow Temple and its Medallion are depicted as being the last in the series of medallions and ocarina tunes.

I often used to wonder about this subject as well because of the quest subscreen showing these two things. Every time I have ever beat Ocarina, and there have been many times, I always do the Shadow Temple first.





(by the way, the above pic is merely to show the Ocarina songs in the order they come in. The lit up triforce part is fake.)

[Onilink89]

Yeah i noticed that. from my first time till now, i always complete the spirit temple first before shadow temple for some reason. maybe that because i got used to it since my first try.

[Matt]

Navi tells you to go that way. Besides, there is a room in the Spirit Temple that is really hard to beat without the Hover Boots. It is the one that has the rolling rocks and the silver rupees. You can't get the last one without doing an unorthodox trick. That is either letting yourself get hit by the rock, or by swinging your sword at exactly the right time. It is hard and would take many tries to do. That makes it obvious that the Shadow Temple goes first.

[Onilink89]

Navi tells you to go that way. Besides, there is a room in the Spirit Temple that is really hard to beat without the Hover Boots. It is the one that has the rolling rocks and the silver rupees. You can't get the last one without doing an unorthodox trick. That is either letting yourself get hit by the rock, or by swinging your sword at exactly the right time. It is hard and would take many tries to do. That makes it obvious that the Shadow Temple goes first.

oh yeah, thats right. but that would be the only thing that you may need the hover boots for. I normally get that rupee by running and rolling of the edge and at the last moment, draw the sword for a jump attack.

[Y2K3]

I honestly don't remember the order in which I completed them. I think it was Shadow then Spirit though. I used to wonder which one was supposed to come before the other as there were things that had me confused, but I can't remember them at this time.

[Welbanks]

Ive always believed that the shadow temple came first, mainly because thats where navi tells you to go after the water temple, plus the things that happens in kakiriko just makes it seem like thats what you have to do next

[owenshev]

Ive always believed that the shadow temple came first, mainly because thats where navi tells you to go after the water temple, plus the things that happens in kakiriko just makes it seem like thats what you have to do next

Same here. I always did Shadow next because Kakariko is on fire and I just go there naturally (after the Well)

[Kybyrian]

I always did the Spirit Temple first and then the Shadow Temple, though a few times I've done the Shadow Temple first.

[blackice_cc]

Well, I've only completely gone through the game once, but I did the Spirit temple first.
Actually though, I'm pretty sure you can go through the Forest, Fire, and Water temples in whatever order you want, after you get the Hookshot.

But don't you have to have the Hover Boots to get across the Desert Wasteland? So how can you do the Spirit Temple before the Shadow Temple?

No, you don't. You can Hookshot onto the flag poles to cross the gaps of bad sand.

Besides, there is a room in the Spirit Temple that is really hard to beat without the Hover Boots. It is the one that has the rolling rocks and the silver rupees. You can't get the last one without doing an unorthodox trick. That is either letting yourself get hit by the rock, or by swinging your sword at exactly the right time. It is hard and would take many tries to do. That makes it obvious that the Shadow Temple goes first.

All I did there was get in the correct position, target the vine wall behind the Silver rupee, let loose, and viola, easy way to get it =D.

[Axle the Beast]

Wrong. The Ocarina song as well as the Medallion for the Spirit Temple come first in the quest subscreen. The song for the Shadow Temple and its Medallion are depicted as being the last in the series of medallions and ocarina tunes.

I often used to wonder about this subject as well because of the quest subscreen showing these two things. Every time I have ever beat Ocarina, and there have been many times, I always do the Shadow Temple first.

Oh, crap. >_<

Typo. I meant that the Shadow Temple was listed last. Which implies that it was intended to be done last. Sorry. >_<

I know what you mean, though. I always used to wonder why, and always did the Shadow Temple first just like you. This last time through the game was the only time I ever did the Spirit Temple first.

Navi tells you to go that way. Besides, there is a room in the Spirit Temple that is really hard to beat without the Hover Boots. It is the one that has the rolling rocks and the silver rupees. You can't get the last one without doing an unorthodox trick. That is either letting yourself get hit by the rock, or by swinging your sword at exactly the right time. It is hard and would take many tries to do. That makes it obvious that the Shadow Temple goes first.

Actually, I managed to pull off that trick fairly easily... I also just heard in the last post that there's a way you can use the Longshot to get it.

Actually though, I'm pretty sure you can go through the Forest, Fire, and Water temples in whatever order you want, after you get the Hookshot.

I thought about it for a moment, and yeah, I think you're right. I can't think of a single item that you need to get, other than the Hookshot, to enter any of those Temples...

[Welbanks]

^ You need the arrows from the forest temple or else you cant beat the fire temple, not fully sure if you need arrows for the water temple as well, but i would assume