Through the four Zelda games I've played so far, I've went through 24 dungeons, though I beated 23 (I still haven't beaten the Great Bay Temple).
So far, the toughest dungeons/temples haven't been too tough, but tough enough to make me play them actively, and still be a lot of time stuck in them (with the exception of one I'm going to mention later...). These are the dungeons/temples that I've found to be the toughest I've played so far, taking me from one week to months:
Forest Temple (OOT)
Didn't see it coming, huh? The Forest Temple isn't famous because of it's difficulty, mainly because people find it in a medium difficulty, though my lack of experience in Zelda made this temple feel like a medium-difficult temple, taking me a week to beat. Let's all admit it: if your first game is ocarina of Time, and you play through the Forest Temple in your first playthrough, you will find yourself in a totally different place from the dungeons that you had previously played, that is, Inside the Great Deku Tree, Dodongo's Cavern and Inside Jabu Jabu's Belly. While these dungeons had some easy puzzles, combined with some easy and easy-medium enemies, the Forest Temple presented you a new level in terms of dungeon, including hard-to-figure puzzles and hard enemies, with your first encounter against the Stalfos, with which you die a lot if you fight them for your first time. The place was big and felt like it was non-linear, like there were a lot of different routes you could take that lead you to the boss. That, added to it's confusing structure, made it difficult already. It had hard enemis to beat, like the Stalfos, and some puzzles many times harder than the ones you had played before, like the pull-the-blocks puzzle, or the one with the twisting corridors. You even had to solve a puzzle to fight with a poe (the green one). The place seems crazy, and you don't have a clue of what to do: you didn't have the help of Navi you had Inside the Great Deku Tree, or the easy puzzles of Dodongo's Cavern, or the almost linear structure of Inside Jabu Jabu's Belly. You were alone, without any help, and without knowing a bit of what to do. Is it strange to see the Forest Temple in one of these lists' Yes it is, but, is the reasoning strange, weird? I think not.
Water Temple (OOT)
We all saw it coming. The Zelda players worst nightmare. The Water Te`mple. The puzzling temple. The confusing temple. The tedious, annoying and extremely difficult temple. This one took me three weeks, though I'll explain why later. This temple is unarguably the most difficult temple of all Ocarina of Time, because of it's extensive backtracking, confusing structure, hard enemies and puzzles and the reason that is the most criticized one: changing the Kokiri Boots to the Iron Boots, and viceversa. This temple is very hard, mostly because of it's structure: you have to get keys by doing a lengthy backtracking, going from room to room, then change the water level, and then explore all the accessible rooms. This kind of tedious exploration stressed a lot of people, having to search room to room in order to get a bunch of keys and be able to proceed through the temple. You had to through ten rooms, to realize you hd the wrong water level. Then you forgot where you had to change the water level, and went through all of the accessible rooms again to find where to change the water level. Then again, the tedious exploration. This repetitive exploration quickly makes the Zelda player to choose one of two options: to love it or to hate it, most people choosing the latter option, being angered because of this temple. And, of course, with the tedious exploration you had the Iron Boots, by which you had to constantly press START, go to the menu and change the boots, having to change them between some seconds to a few minutes. Thi wasn't a nice idea from Nintendo, I must admit. In fact, I kind of hated the Iron Boots system, but never been so frustrated about it that shouted in anger each time I had to change Link's boots. My actual opinion of the Water temple is that it is a medium difficulty temple, if we exclude what kept me playing it for so long time: the little details that require little to no thinking, like exploding a part of a wall that is darker than the others. In this kind of moments, I was thinking all kind of solutions to be able to pass through the point in whcih I was stuck, to find the answer to the problem was incredibly easy. This is what raise the temple to having the position as the toughest temple of all Ocarina of Time.
Moonlit Grotto (OOA)
This is, pretty much, one of the most puzzling dungeons in all Oracle of Ages, which is already a complex Zelda game. This dungeon has all kind of different and hard-to-solve puzzles, like trying to access to different portions of the dungeon by going through a room that connects four areas, though you only can go to one area when a 'wheel' in the middle of the room indicates you you can go to the certain area you want to, which you have to do by going through that room multiple times, and doing certain things I won't mention to not spoil the puzzle's answer. Tjhis dungeon I can't remember exactly how much time I've spent in, but I can remember it took me between one week and one month. The place has a bunch of puzzles you have to solve without any help at all, and they aren't as easy as the game's first dungeon's puzzles. You have to think a lot to go through this dungeon, and it can stuck you a lot of time when you don't know what to do or where to go, which happens very often. Still, I think of this dungeon as one of the most entertaining dungeons I've ever played, being extremely fun in my eyes. A cool, but hard dungeon.
Jabu Jabu Belly (OOA)
This is the dungeon I think took me the most time. Ever. I've been stuck in this dungeon for like, three months, to find the answer to the puzzle I was stuck in was pretty much very simple. This dungeon is a water-based dungeon, having two (or is it three?) water levels, and being very difficult because you have to go to certain rooms at certain water levels, but accessing certain portions is the hardest part, as, by raising or lowering the water level, you have to go to a certain area using a certain route you could take before, but that now is impossible to access because you now can't float over holes, or can't do certain other things. You also have the problem that you can't pull things while underwater, so sometimes you have to lower the water level and then go to certain areas, getting confused while trying to go to them. There are a lot of areas that seem like they are impossible to pass, or certain puzzles you just can't figure out what to do, and then come the water levels, raising and lowering them, and then trying to go to the area you were before, find it inaccessible to get to, and get stuck. I still remember my exhausting search to find the dungeon's item, the Hookshot LV2, to find out that wasn't the solution to all of my problems. After some time, I realized all I had to do was to change the water levels, and then found out that wasn't the solution to all of the dungeon's puzzles, as backtracking through the dungeon isn't as easy as it seems. All in all, a very difficult dungeon, havign to change the water levels a lot of times and backtracking oto go to certain areas you now find inaccessible. This dungeon I also find very entertaining, but also very confusing: if only the water levels wouldn't be there...
That's the final of my list. Four dungeons/temples from two games, as Majora mask's dungeons I still don't find too difficult, and Link's Awakening dungeons being so easy I've beaten most of the dungeons I've played through in less than a day (I mean, each dungeon in less than a day).
Hope you enjoy (if you enjoy these kind of posts...)!
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The Jabu-Jabu's Belly in Oracle of Ages is the hardest dungeon ever created. It would eat the Ocarina of Time's water temple for breakfast! SERIOUSLY, it is the most complexed and longest dungeon I've ever seen! As soon as you get far in to it you will never be able to find the entrance.
