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Favorite/Least Favorite Dungeons

Jimmu

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Now with Breath of the Wild out it's time to remake these threads to get some renewed discussion and opinions which take into consideration the newest titles too.

Discuss your favourite and least favourite dungeons of the Zelda series below.
 
I've always been an overworld kind of gal, that's why Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild are so special to me, big open worlds, fewest dungeons. Not surprising that my favourite dungeon list will be much shorter than my least favourites list.

Favourite
  • Hyrule Castle (Breath of the Wild)
  • Hyrule Castle (Twilight Princess)
  • Hyrule Castle (A Link to the Past)
  • Temple of the Gods (Wind Waker)
  • Temple of Time (Twilight Princess)
Noticed a trend there....


Least favourite
  • Every dungeon from Majora's Mask
  • Forest Temple (Ocarina of Time)
  • Nearly every 2D dungeon
  • Lakebed Temple (Twilight Princess)
  • Vah Naboris (Breath of the Wild)
 
Joined
Feb 7, 2014
Location
Ohio
Gender
tree
Favorite:
Snowhead
Shadow Temple
Forest Temple (OoT)
Water Temple (screw you guys, I loved it)
Lakebed Temple
Great Bay Temple
Stone Tower Temple
Goron Mines
Forbidden Woods
Snowpeak Ruins
City in the Sky

Least Favorite:
Wind Temple
Forest Temple (TP)
Twilight Realm
 

Mellow Ezlo

Spoony Bard
Joined
Dec 2, 2012
Location
eh?
Gender
Slothkin
My absolute favourite dungeon in the series is the Stone Tower Temple in Majora's Mask, very closely followed by the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time.

My least favourite dungeon is the City in the Sky in Twilight Princess (and yes, this does include the 2D games). This has absolutely nothing that I look for in great dungeons. Bad design; no overly difficult puzzles; it's excessively long while being extremely non-dynamic; the puzzles it does have are repetitive; clawshotting the moving fans is really annoying and tedious; the wind is annoying; Argorok is a cool boss, possibly having the best presentation of all the bosses in the game, but he's not even remotely difficult, which is a shame for the last of the main story dungeons (not including the two "final" dungeons). Overall, I never find myself enjoying this dungeon. It's easily the odd one out in a game that I think did the best job overall with its dungeons.

In the 2D world, my least favourite dungeon may actually seem rather random. It's the Maze Island Palace in The Adventure of Link. This dungeon is eeeaaasyyyy. As the fourth Palace in a game that is widely regarded as the most difficult Zelda game, it is extremely disappointing. It's the only Palace in the game that really didn't give me any trouble at all. Even if you get lost, it's fairly easy to get back on track, and its toughest enemies are simply slightly stronger versions of enemies you've been fighting all game (which, with an upgraded sword, are no trouble at all). Let's not even get started on the overly excessive amount of lava rooms. It's also a pain to get to, and its boss is pathetically easy and unsatisfying to kill. The dungeon item is pretty cool, but that's really its only saving grace. The colour is also terrible.
 
Joined
Jun 6, 2017
My least favourite dungeon is the City in the Sky in Twilight Princess (and yes, this does include the 2D games). This has absolutely nothing that I look for in great dungeons. Bad design; no overly difficult puzzles; it's excessively long while being extremely non-dynamic; the puzzles it does have are repetitive; clawshotting the moving fans is really annoying and tedious; the wind is annoying; Argorok is a cool boss, possibly having the best presentation of all the bosses in the game, but he's not even remotely difficult, which is a shame for the last of the main story dungeons (not including the two "final" dungeons). Overall, I never find myself enjoying this dungeon. It's easily the odd one out in a game that I think did the best job overall with its dungeons.

I really liked it. Interesting that you and I have such a different opinion about it. Although, before BOTW Twilight Princess was my favorite Zelda game and I really liked all of the Dungeons except the Temple of Time, which I rate at the absolute bottom along with OOT Water Temple.
 

YIGAhim

Sole Survivor
Joined
Apr 10, 2017
Location
Stomp
Gender
Male
My favorite Dungeon? Easy. The FOrest Temple in Ocarina of Time. It has a lot to do with nostalgia, and remembering doing the dungeon for the first time with the windows open, and me feeling the breeze, and not being able to trigger the boss fight for some reason, and taking forever on the puzzles. It had great music that very well fit the dungeon, I liked the idea of finding and fighting the Poe sisters, and it had some decent puzzles. The boss wasn't the best, although I admit seeing Ganondorf pull off that mask was really creepy. It was simply, a great dungeon.

Honorable mentions:

Stone Tower Temple (MM): It was hella easy, but I loved the idea of flipping the dungeon upside-down, and the music was great. I took forever on the boss, though...

City In The Sky (TP): Yes, it was pretty flat, but the reason I like this one is much more about my real life. When I did this dungeon (And really all of TP), I was doing it with a close friend, and we were figuring it all out together, and taking turns, and all of that stuff. Now, the dungeon was really easy up until towards the end, where we spent hours scouring the dungeon for the boss key that we had missed... I kinda hated the music, but the boss was cool, and I liked the rest of the dungeon, so it was all good to me.

Arbiter's Grounds (TP): SO COOL! Reminded me of the Forest Temple from OoT, and my friend and I had a lot of fun exploring, and solving the dungeon. We both agree the theme was great, the puzzles were pretty good, and the boss was AWESOME. The music was great too, as it took the motif from Volvagia (OoT), and reimagined it (I always liked the Volvagia boss theme).

Death Mountain (LoZ): It was just soo big, and really fun to navigate.

Shadow Temple (OoT): Dark, creepy, exciting! Sounds like MM. Well, what I liked about this one, is the creepy theme. It was a very well made dungeon, and I give a lot of credit to the OoT staff. I also like the mystery of the whole place, sice it clearly has an interesting story behind it that is not certain, but is more clouded.

Sand Ship (SS): This temple, was amazing. The bow, is a classic dungeon item, put to use very well in the dungeon. The theme, was very good, and the puzzles were interesting. The boss? Eww, I didn't know I was in "Monster's Inc.". Either way, it's on my list.

Vah Nabooris (BoTW): Meh except for one key thing. The challenge. Clearly the hardest dungeon, clearly the hardest boss.

Great Bay Temple (MM): Difficult, well paced, exciting, with good music, nice puzzles, and an ok boss in terms of design, and music. The boss WAS named pretty poorly, though, and the fight itself was lame (Phase one), and frustrating (Phase two).

Least Favorites:

Jabu-Jabu's Belly (OoT): Just Gross.

Lakebed Temple (TP): While I liked the idea of the water, and the stairs, I just thought the dungeon was lacking in a lot of places, and was pretty boring...

Ice Cavern (OoT): Yeah, it's not a dungeon, but I hated it too much to have it not be on the list. I just thought it was unnecessary, and a waste of time, and I just want to get to the Water Temple...

Woodfall Temple (MM): Really boring. Not at all challenging, and I'd rather just sit in the Deku Palace, and listen to the music there... It had an awful boss at the end, which would have been ok, but the AWESOME boss music from MM was constantly interrupted with some kind of weird tribal-chant thing from the boss...

Forbidden Woods (WW): I forgot to save after beating this temple on on of my playthroughs, and had to redo it, which brought my respect for it down even further than it was already. Very easy, dumb boss. The boomerang controls in WW are so ****ed up...........

Forest Temple (TP): After OoT's Forest Temple, this one was a letdown. I liked the idea of finding the monkeys, but it was poorly done to me, and had a "Most underwhelming" boss fight, despite having the music from the Stallord boss fight.

The Twilight (TP): Oh god, it was so dull, and repetitive... I always stop my playthroughs right there, that's how much I dislike it. To be honest, I didn't like the Zant battle much, either, although the idea was cool. Also, the Twilight theme (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvrdSj0F-QA) was really sad compared to the GOOD Twilight theme that appeared earlier in the game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUwkjIXaHEI).

Hyrule Castle (TP): Yeah, just boring.

Tower of The Gods (WW): I liked it a bit, but people got me too excited for it, and it ended up not being like I thought it would be. They all said it would be "Really hard", and "one of the hardest things in all of Zelda", but really, it was one of the easiest Dungeons in WW, and I would NOT call it "Difficult". I had something similar with STT from MM, where everyone called it really difficult also, but that was a dungeon I enjoyed much more, despite the fact that it was pretty easy.

Snowpeak Temple (TP): I liked it, and thought it was good, but I think it's given too much credit (Like how I feel wioth ALttP). Also, it was pretty gray and dull most of the time, but sported fine puzzles, and a fun location (A mansion)

While it seems like I'm hating on TP, I'm not. The rest of it was lovely, and I probably put TP in my top 3 Zelda games.

Eh.... I'm probably missing some stuff here, but this is the base of how I feel. I would also like to point out that all of the SS dungeons are also held in very high regard as well.

Least favourite
  • Every dungeon from Majora's Mask
  • Forest Temple (Ocarina of Time)
  • Nearly every 2D dungeon
  • Lakebed Temple (Twilight Princess)
  • Vah Naboris (Breath of the Wild)
Really? I happened to very much like the MM dungeons (Maybe not the Woodfall one), and Vah Nabooris, and I'm sure you know how much I like the FOrest Temple from OoT. I do agree with you when you say the Lakebed Temple is one of your least favorites, though... That one, I really dislike.
 

Ninja

Well well well
Joined
Jul 5, 2017
Favorites:

Fire Temple (OOT) - Darunia is my favorite Goron. This is why. And Volvagia was a pretty fun boss fight.
Shadow Temple (OOT) - The music made this dungeon all the more eerie, as well as Bongo Bongo being seriously fun.
Stone Tower Temple (MM) - Great dungeon concept, stumped me as a child. Giant's Mask at the time was awesome, the best part was the music.
Dragon Roost Cavern (WW) - Kickass fire Gohma.
Snowpeak Ruins (TP) - Unique design. I didn't even feel that it was a dungeon at first. Yeta transformation was seriously creepy and it was hilarious having to use "a ball and chain" to defeat her.
Divine Beast Vah Ruta (BOTW) - Aside from fishwaifu bias, this was my first dungeon, and using the beast mechanics (the trunk) to get to terminals was pretty cool. Not to mention that with each terminal activated, the music gets more sinister, revealing the horrifying truth about the Champions.

Least Favorites:

Great Bay Temple (MM) - Even with the reverse Song of Time slowing things down, this dungeon is a huge pain in the ass, followed up by a demon grouper.
Inside Jabu Jabu's Belly (OOT) - Don't know why but this dungeon creeps me the hell out. The weird sound of the electric jellies slowly coming after you, and the Giant Octorok with the vulnerable butthole was just offputting.
City in the Sky (TP) - Didn't enjoy the Oocca's too much. Double Clawshot is pretty neat, but the whole dungeon reminds me of the Water Temple, just tedious.

Honorable mentions: All of SS's dungeons were pretty decent, nothing stands out as being terribly good, or bad.
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2015
My Favorite Dungeon in all of The Legend of Zelda is the Spirit Temple from Ocarina of Time. I love the tone and location and the theme for the temple is one of my favorite tracks in all of Zelda. Some of it is nostalgia and some of it is the fact that it is the final temple before getting to Ganondorfs Castle and it feels like a climax for you getting stronger and becoming the hero that you are destined to be and confront Ganondorf for all of the devastation that he has cause upon Hyrule. Also it was a lot of fun and had some really cool mechanics and enemies that lurk within it.

As for my least favorite Dungeon that would have to be the lakebed temple from Twilight Princess. I just didn't find it interesting and found it kind of tedious. People complained for years about the water temple in OOT but I never had a problem with it. But this dungeon kind of bores me a bit and it frustrates me constantly moving the staircase and playing with the water controls. I think this is the truly annoying water dungeon. I mean its not terrible in design but the boss battle with Morpheel is really easy and not fun to fight. I think it could have been implemented much better.
 

el :BeoWolf:

When all else fails use fire
Joined
Feb 5, 2016
Gender
Centaleon
Favorite dungeons would be OoT Forest Temple, TWW tower of the gods, MM Stone Tower Temple, TP Temple of Time, and TFH Palace Noir

Least favorite dungeons are ALBW Ice Ruins, MM Great Bay Temple,
 
Joined
Aug 28, 2017
Favorite:
Forest Temple (Ocarina of Time)
Water Temple (Ocarina of Time)
Stone Tower Temple (Majora's Mask)
Dragon Roost Cavern (Wind Waker)
Wind Temple (Wind Waker)
Divine Beast Vah Naboris (Breath of the Wild)

Least Favorite:
Inside Jabu Jabu (Ocarina of Time)
Everything Else (Wind Waker)
Divine Beast Vah Ruta (Breath of the Wild)
 

Majoras-Light

Gatekeeper
Joined
Jul 2, 2013
Location
Termina
Favorites:

Shadow Temple(OoT) : An overall great dungeon with a great creepy factor. Seriously, screw those wall/floormasters.
Snowpeak Temple(TP) : The soup making factor was just fun and kinda cute. The boss fight didn't stick out to me as one of the more fun ones, though.
Stone Tower Temple(MM) : No explanation needed.
Divine Beast Vah Ruta(BotW) : The first dungeon I played in the game, the new mechanics were a fresh and fun spin on the dungeons.

Least Favorites:

The first 3 dungeons in OoT
Great Bay Temple (MM)
Lakebed Temple (TP)
Spirit Temple (OoT)
Divine Beast Vah Naboris (BotW)
 

YIGAhim

Sole Survivor
Joined
Apr 10, 2017
Location
Stomp
Gender
Male
I actually really liked the Great Bay Temple. I agree with you on the Spirit Temple from OoT though. I think it's VERY overrated
 

Majoras-Light

Gatekeeper
Joined
Jul 2, 2013
Location
Termina
I actually really liked the Great Bay Temple. I agree with you on the Spirit Temple from OoT though. I think it's VERY overrated
Finally someone agrees with that, nearly everyone I've met thinks it's one of the best and it's always been one of my least favorites.
 

Alita the Pun

Dmitri
Joined
Oct 6, 2016
Location
Nintendo Memeverse
Gender
A Mellophone Player... Mellophonista?
Fav: the Elephant thingy from BotW if that counts. if not, Hyrule Castle from BotW

Least: literally any water temple ever besides the elephant lol
 

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