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General Zelda What is It About Water Themed Dungeons?

Justac00lguy

BooBoo
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Gender
Shewhale
The Water Temple -- An infamous name, maybe there are some people who found this Dungeon not so challenging, but general consensus seems to label this Dungeon as the hardest in the series. The Great Bay Temple -- Sometimes overshadowed by its counterpart in Ocarina of Time but nevertheless, this Dungeon is still perceived as one of the more challenging in the series. The Lakebed Temple -- In a game that was labeled to be the "easiest" in the franchise, or one of, this Dungeon seemed to stick put and challenge even the best of Zelda players.

Now there have been some other challenging water based Dungeons but these are the stand out three in my opinion, when you think of infamous Dungeons. So what is it about the water theme? Of course it could just be one big coincidence but I find it unlikely. If it's one thing that Zelda games have showed, it's that themes can affect multiple different aspects.

Maybe some of you argue with this idea, but by popular opinion, it seems that a lot have this view, so just what is it about this theme?
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
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Akkala
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Hylian Champion
Water themed dungeons are intricate. Water themed dungeons have a lot of distractions in the foreground as well as the background. And most of all, water theemed dungeons have depth. Almost always, you can expect to explore not one, not two, but three or more floors within a water dungeon. You can almost always expect to be manipulating pathways. Biggest part of manipulating pathways is that you have to keep the whole dungeon in mind in addition to what's staring you in the face. You simply don't do this stuff in most other themed dungeons - at least not to the extent of, say, the Great Bay or Water Temples.
 

Gomp

Love, loving life!
Joined
Feb 25, 2013
Location
Norway
The Water Temple -- An infamous name, maybe there are some people who found this Dungeon not so challenging, but general consensus seems to label this Dungeon as the hardest in the series. The Great Bay Temple -- Sometimes overshadowed by its counterpart in Ocarina of Time but nevertheless, this Dungeon is still perceived as one of the more challenging in the series. The Lakebed Temple -- In a game that was labeled to be the "easiest" in the franchise, or one of, this Dungeon seemed to stick put and challenge even the best of Zelda players.

Now there have been some other challenging water based Dungeons but these are the stand out three in my opinion, when you think of infamous Dungeons. So what is it about the water theme? Of course it could just be one big coincidence but I find it unlikely. If it's one thing that Zelda games have showed, it's that themes can affect multiple different aspects.

Maybe some of you argue with this idea, but by popular opinion, it seems that a lot have this view, so just what is it about this theme?

I think it is the effects .. What I found hard with the OOT one, was that one key .. As I did not reflect on there being something under, what floats up ..

Same thing can be seen in the first ALBW demo.. Many people missed the fairy room, that was under a platform that raised up ..

I think the water theme just makes for very different puzzles, having to think way out of the box compared to "normal Zelda puzzle solving" ..

Hence a new water dungeon, might just not be so confusing to old fans, as one are trained to think outside the box by past games ..

IOW: Water adds a extra dimension, of sorts! :D
 

Beauts

Rock and roll will never die
Joined
Jun 15, 2012
Location
London, United Kingdom
I think back in the days of OoT, swim dynamics in all games were terrible, which made water dungeons like 10 zillion times harder than they needed to be. In addition to this, I found (and still do) find the Water Temple disgustingly hard, either because I'm dumb (lol) or because everything looks the same (in the N64 version anyway). I always forget keys, Dark Link is difficult to take down, and stuff just jumps out at you. Even just tektites. I also think it was a pain in the *** because of the changing of the water levels, the fact the dungeon was huge, and the constant equipping and de-equipping of the Iron Boots wears on your patience. Saying that, the boss was easy. It was getting through the dungeon that bit you.

As for the 3DS version, pff. Kids these days have it so easy.

Great Bay Temple was hard, but in a different sense. The excellent swim dynamics of the Zora mask made it a lot more fun than the OoT counterpart, but it challenged in other ways, such as the fact the puzzles themselves required more thought.

TP, well... I'm not sure this even measures on the same scale in terms of difficulty, but it was a pretty challenging dungeon all the same. At this point though, I think maybe the joke is on us. Nintendo must know how legendary the Zelda water dungeons are for being harder than the others. It's not like TP was born at a time that technology didn't enable decent swim dynamics or whatever. Miyamoto is laughing at us on his piles of money, methinks.
 

ihateghirahim

The Fierce Deity
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Inside the Moon
I personally never found the Great Bay Temple that hard. It's simply the job of getting the swimming down. Once you have that, it's simply a matter of completing the puzzles and the enemies systematically. It's not an easy dungeon, but it sure ain't the Water Temple or even close to that.

I also enjoy the Water Temple in OoT. It's hard, but not more than a few hour's work. I view it as just another unique aspect of OoT that makes it legendary. It's great, and an epic blow to the gamers of today who face ease and hints at all turns. Let the Water Temple rock!
 

CynicalSquid

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Water themed dungeons are extremely over exaggerated. They are usually just time consuming and take a little more though, but they are not as hard as people say they are.

I beat the Water Temple when I was 6 with no walkthrough. It's not hard.
 
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Joined
Nov 26, 2012
Location
Somewhere over the rainbow
Water dungeons always have swimming and frankly it's always annoyed me. Not until skyward sword did I feel they got the mechanics right...you didn't need iron boots to swim down you just.....swam down. Simple
 
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The Jade Fist

Kung Fu Master
Joined
Jul 17, 2012
I think back in the days of OoT, swim dynamics in all games were terrible, which made water dungeons like 10 zillion times harder than they needed to be. In addition to this, I found (and still do) find the Water Temple disgustingly hard, either because I'm dumb (lol) or because everything looks the same (in the N64 version anyway). I always forget keys, Dark Link is difficult to take down, and stuff just jumps out at you. Even just tektites. I also think it was a pain in the *** because of the changing of the water levels, the fact the dungeon was huge, and the constant equipping and de-equipping of the Iron Boots wears on your patience. Saying that, the boss was easy. It was getting through the dungeon that bit you.
As for the 3DS version, pff. Kids these days have it so easy.

Great Bay Temple was hard, but in a different sense. The excellent swim dynamics of the Zora mask made it a lot more fun than the OoT counterpart, but it challenged in other ways, such as the fact the puzzles themselves required more thought.

TP, well... I'm not sure this even measures on the same scale in terms of difficulty, but it was a pretty challenging dungeon all the same. At this point though, I think maybe the joke is on us. Nintendo must know how legendary the Zelda water dungeons are for being harder than the others. It's not like TP was born at a time that technology didn't enable decent swim dynamics or whatever. Miyamoto is laughing at us on his piles of money, methinks.

Ya the TP lakebed temple, I got stuck in, but only because I was too stupid to realize I already had the key to the door in the middle.

But every one who complains about the Water Temple in OoT clearly has not played Oracle of Ages Jabu Jabu, maybe it was just harder for me cause its easier to get turned around in a 2d dungeon then a 3d one. But it took the water level changing of OoT and pushed it even further as you had to revisit that switch room several times, and each time required you to go at it from a different angle depending on the current water level.

Water dungeons always have swimming and frankly it's always annoyed me. Not until skyward sword did I feel they got the mechanics right...you didn't need iron boots to swim down you just.....swam down. Simple

Majora's Mask did swimming right too, I mean Skyward sword feels very inspired by the zora swimming mechanics, complete with that spinning dash.
 
Joined
Jun 16, 2013
Location
Desert Wastlands
I really like the Water Dungeons. I thought the Great Bay Temple was way harder then the Water Temple from OOT was. The Lakebed Temple was a good challenge to me also. I say, for me, the easiest water dungeon would be the Ancient Cistern from Skyward Sword, if you consider it a water dungeon.
 

Beauts

Rock and roll will never die
Joined
Jun 15, 2012
Location
London, United Kingdom
But every one who complains about the Water Temple in OoT clearly has not played Oracle of Ages Jabu Jabu, maybe it was just harder for me cause its easier to get turned around in a 2d dungeon then a 3d one. But it took the water level changing of OoT and pushed it even further as you had to revisit that switch room several times, and each time required you to go at it from a different angle depending on the current water level.

Actually, I have played that I just kind of forgot about it because I haven't played it in a long time. I wouldn't say it was much harder than OoT, but I did find it worse because constantly having to revisit the same room was annoying. But then I hate when things get repetitive. That's why I don't like the OoT one too, I think. It makes me switch off, and it would be more fun and less hard for me if it didn't.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
Joined
May 5, 2012
Location
American Wasteland
the water temple wasn't much of a hassle for me really,and thats kinda saying something b/c mt first time playing oot,i had to look up walkthroughs every single second [even dodongo's cavern...];the water temple was the few where i didn't look up some sort of guide

the great bay facility [that is not a temple of any kind] was pretty challenging,especially the stupid cheap boss

i absolutely LOATHE the lakebead temple,in fact ever since i found out about the early boss room glitch,every single time i play through twilight princess,i always attempt to perform that glitch as opposed to going through the actual dungeon
 
Joined
Nov 26, 2012
Location
Somewhere over the rainbow
The lakebed temple has got to be my least favorite dungeon in TP and one of my least fav dungeons EVER. I hate that main staircase with all my heart. I don't necessarily hate multilayered dungeons but they're more often than not confusing. That's another reason ancient cistern was nice. It was multilayered but wasn't REALLY. it's a sign that nintendo is listening.
 
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