Life’s a Water Temple

An integral part of every Zelda game is the dungeon design, and perhaps none are more renown than the Water dungeons throughout the series. As a rule of thumb, they are long, tedious, repetitive, and always involve the flow of water being manipulated in some way. Out of the bunch, none stand out more than the classic Ocarina of Time Water Temple. Why is it that I don’t hear any praise for it? Why are there so many haters of the legendary Water Temple? I think the fabled Water Temple is arguably the best dungeon in a Zelda game; ever. And the reason I say that goes beyond its interior decorations, its layout, or even its bosses. It is because the Water Temple is a reflection of life itself.

Haters of the dungeon, and even Eiji Aonuma himself before Ocarina of Time 3D was released, always mention how annoying it was having to pause to change to the iron boots, but that was a gameplay and menu design element, quite separate to the Water Temple itself. The boot issue is done and dusted, and has since been corrected for the 3DS release. That is not the issue. The issue is that Aonuma once said that the Temple was too hard and all of the haters say that there is something not quite right with it. Why is it that no-one can identify exactly what is wrong with it? I know – because it’s not the Water Temple that has problems, it’s you.

Allow me to attempt to point out all of the things that could be considered faults of the Temple, and then show how those exact things are what make the dungeon so great. How they make the temple so much much more realistic and relevant than other temples. First off, getting the dungeon item, the Longshot, is no easy task for first timers. No wonder people are so disappointed when they get nothing but a Hookshot upgrade. Disappointing, but such is life. We expect things, we are disappointed. We have to make do, and if we’re open-minded enough to see it, a lot of the time the disappointments are actually beneficial. We grow, our Hookshot becomes a Longshot and we can reach areas we never could before.

The next complaint is the repetitive nature of the dungeon. Not so much of a problem if you know what you are doing, but if you’re lost then you find yourself roaming around the same places on a massive and almost impossible-to-read map. Oh, and so’s life. We get lost, we can feel utterly hopeless and be on the brink of giving up, like we once were in the depths of the Water Temple. We mustn’t be afraid to seek assistance, in life, in Water Temples, wherever. We must strive on with hope that we will get there in the future, however we can. Yes the Temple may be repetitive to some degree, but life isn’t a straight path. You walk along the same part over and over again. Daily routines barely change. That is life, repetition. To achieve, to get somewhere, repetition is always necessary. Repetition builds. If practice makes perfect, then repetition makes it right.

Other people complain about how they overlook small keys throughout the temple, such as the ones under the central tower or the one behind the cracked wall. As I said earlier, that’s your fault, not the Temple’s. It is cleverly designed to make you look at every angle. To overlook nothing. Tried doing that in life? Because you won’t get far if you overlook everything. We’re human, of course we miss things, but we have to make up for them or go back and amend them. How many times do we reach a climax in our life’s progress only to find that we have overlooked a small key and must go back? Water Temple or life itself, we have to accept it.

Lastly I’ll mention the boss fights. The Morpha fight, people say, is quite a challenge – that is until you discover that it can’t reach you in the corners. Life isn’t as hard as it seems if you take the initiative to look around. Then there’s also the classic Dark Link mini boss fight. What can I say? As daunting as the problems around you may be, the biggest fight that you’ll ever have in your life is against yourself. And boy, when we lose don’t we notice – Game Over. But when we are victorious, we think nothing of it. It’s just a crappy Hookshot upgrade. Try to have some optimism. Reward yourself for the victories that you do gain. Not only that, but the Dark Link fight has more. We may feel like we’re fighting in the middle of nothingness, but it was nothing more than a large hall. Learn to look beyond the mirage.

Most of all, the Water Temple holds this message for us: everything can seem massive and daunting at first. But persevere, push onwards and beyond. Then you’ll find that there never was anything wrong with the Temple – you were just too young and naïve to understand. Now you have grown. You stand strong and can look back at the Water Temples of your life and see how truly easy they now are. You wonder how it ever was such a hassle for you in the first place. The first time it took me months to persevere through the dungeon, now it is a quick 30 minutes tops. Making mountains out of molehills, much? It was hard. Now it’s second nature. Being able to look back at the Water Temple 15 years later and remember the stress it caused compared to what it is now – that is inspiring. That is accomplishment. Nostalgia.

Look at this from whatever angle you will. Perhaps it is just that I’m sick of seeing people badmouth the Water Temple that I love so much. Perhaps this is a matter of it’s just a game so stop applying it to your life like a Bible. Perhaps this even has nothing to do with the Water Temple, and is just some guy wanting to vent his feelings on life. However you take it, the point is this: when some challenge in life arises do we all run to Aonuma and ask him to make it easier for us in the next release? Because that rerelease is never coming. Life itself is one goddamn massive Water Temple, and if you can’t find some way to deal with it, you’re going to find yourself forever lost in its depths. Don’t let the Water Temples in life consume you.