ScrewAttack’s Top 10 Worst Water Levels

It may be the most common thought that the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time is unnecessarily long, but Craig and Nick from ScrewAttack have found 5 additional levels that are worse than the Ocarina of Time Water Temple. Right above the Ocarina of Time Water Temple at number 5 was the Great Sea from The Wind Waker. Read on to see my take on the two selections.

The Water Temple is infamous for requiring players to continuously return to the menu to change between boots, drilling the pause menu sound deep into the heads of players. Thankfully, specialty boots are treated like items in the 3DS version of the game–an idea that originated in The Wind Waker. Is the Water Temple really that bad? I certainly do not think so. The Water Temple contains the most memorable mini-boss of the entire series, and has the longshot, one of the most used item upgrades in the game. It is a shame however that the only way to challenge Dark Link again is to go all the way through the Water Temple. I can side with Craig and Nick and agree that the original Water Temple in Ocarina of Time is one of the worst water levels.

Water levels typically have a higher level of difficulty, and require a greater degree of focus to emerge victorious. The Great Sea from The Wind Waker was just a disappointment for me. If I could choose two words to describe the Great sea they would be expansive and empty. Craig and Nick mention in the video that in the 10 minutes it took them to traverse the overworld (top to bottom) they ran into absolutely nothing. They argue that players don’t get the ability to warp until far too late into the game, and that “the damage has already been done”. I disagree with that point as you can obtain the Ballad of the Winds right after completing the Tower of the Gods (3rd dungeon). Imagine how frustrating the Triforce hunt would be without the Ballad of the Winds.

Completing the Tower of the Gods is like taking the training wheels off a bicycle. At this point in the game you are diving deep into game’s plot and are given complete freedom to move about the overworld. It’s best to compare the first three dungeons of The Wind Waker to Ocarina of Time. You had limited mobility in the overworld, no warping songs, and gameplay mechanics were being introduced with smaller penalties for failure.

Was the Great Sea that bad? Yes, I think the Great Sea turned out to be a massive turn off for casual fans of Ocarina of Time. Your mobility in this game was greatly reduced, and you became completely reliant on using your boat to get around the overworld. Combine that with links complete inability for link to tread water, and you have a recipe for frustration.

Do you think that either of these games deserved to be on this list? What is your worst Zelda experience? Let us know in the comments below!

Related: Ocarina of Time Walkthrough, The Wind Waker Walkthrough

Source: ScrewAttack