Ranking the Dungeons of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time!

[@BillySYT]

Hey all, hope these Ocarina of Time videos were worth the wait! Majora's Mask is next, which I'll be replaying over the next week or so, so expect Majora's Mask Dungeon/Boss Rankings in May ^^

[@megamasta6462]

Yes and after that in june can you do twilight princess?

[@user-pn4px5lr8w]

Putting Water Temple so high up is a scorching take. It's one of my favorites because of the Dark Link fight, and overall vibe of the dungeon, but my #1 is the Shadow Temple, especially now that I'm not a kid anymore. I'm surprised they got away with all of that, and adore the reference to the River Styx as well as the symbolism of a descent into hell/the underworld with the progression always aiming downward. The Forest Temple is a delight for everything you had mentioned too, and that haunting, disquieting theme adds to its atmosphere.

[@BillySYT]

Ocarina really popped off with it's dungeon design, which is so impressive given it was the team's first ever attempt at creating 3D Environments with so much life and energy. They took basic elements and went from there, and I'm so glad they did.

[@pigeongod3450]

Sometimes I'd just leave Link on a 100% file to stand peacefully in the Forest Temple, something about the music, the aesthetic, the feeling that someone could have actually lived in this space. It was all so liminal and enthralling to me.

[@grieferninja3864]

Nice video. Love that you’re doing zelda videos again. Our rankings are very similar. My 9-5 is the same as yours, and then it goes 4. Shadow temple (a bit too linear for my liking) 3. Water temple (I completely agree with you that it’s overheated, the 3ds version is amazing) 2. Spirit Temple (The fact that there’s a child and adult portion makes it so great imo) and then 1. Forest temple (just amazing overall).

[@thatonechick1318]

The Forest Temple has always been my favorite. I love the Water Temple but hated the mechanics of the iron boots but when it was fixed in the 3DS I had no issues with it.

[@tossingturnips]

I agree on the Forest Temple. The music alone is worth it in my opinion. However, I also found it to have a more creepy atmosphere than that of the Shadow Temple, which I felt was a bit over the top.

[@ShadowWizard224]

Forest Temple, Shadow Temple, and Spirit Temple have amazing music and lore. The bosses are also the best.

[@devonm042690]

It's not just in the Forest Temple where Navi warns you about Wallmasters. She always warns you when you step into a Wallmaster's territory to 'watch for the shadows of monsters that hang from the ceiling. Even in the Shadow and Spirit Temple.

[@SekhmetMorgan]

I totally agree with you on the water temple: I managed it as a kid and even liked it (it felt a bit longer than most and was challenging but not too hard)! And then Internet decided to turn against it and make it the worst dungeon ever, when so many Skyward Sword dungeons exist...

[@arvis4prez]

Great video! I too struggled with Dark Link for the longest time haha. I just wanna have a 1v1 sword fight, and using Din’s Fire or the Megaton Hammer felt like I was cheesing the fight. That said, it wasn’t until I saw a comment on another OoT video that said you’re meant to fight Dark Link without Z-targeting, and I tried it out, and it worked! Reminds me of those ghost enemies in Shaded Woods in DS2. Because you’re not locked on to Dark Link, you have more control over your movement, so you can slowly position yourself to his left and attack him without hitting his shield or his sword. On top of that, he can’t freeze you in place, and you can space out better so you’ve got a better chance of landing your strikes. It honestly felt super intense, as we both traded blows with each other, until I managed to fell him, and get the duel I had always wanted.

[@BillySYT]

Makes sense - Can't believe Ocarina of Time invented playing the game without targeting enemies. Soulsborne owes a lot to it xD

[@arvis4prez]

⁠Also I just realized that fighting Dark Link without Z-targeting is some subtle priming for the Ganondorf fight, since you can’t lock on to him either. I wish the game was more clear about it though, because as it is, “Conquer yourself!” isn’t very helpful lol

[@BingFox]

Din's Fire for the Stingers in Jabu-Jabu's belly and Farore's Wind in Fire Temple for falling.

[@rpgranked]

Great video! Here's my ranking 😅 12. Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly 11. Ice Caverns 10. Gerudo Training Grounds 9. Dodongo's Cavern 8. The Great Deku Tree 7. Bottom of the Well 6. The Fire Temple 5. Ganon's Castle 4. The Water Temple 3. The Forest Temple 2. The Shadow Temple 1. The Spirit Temple

[@WillWuzHere]

Fun fact about that moving wall thing in the spirit temple: The longshot is actually able to skip that entire section if you can grapple to the top wall. I found this out on the n64 app on the switch and it is so convenient

[@RecRoomPlays]

oh shoot, i've got a bunch of billy s videos to catch up on. youtube wasn't putting them in my recommends for a while there.

[@BillySYT]

It's been a bit of a slow month, not surprised. Gotta make sure you sub and hit that subscription box every Tuesday/Friday ^^

[@PresumptuousPanda]

Kind of a strange random tangent but I when I was a kid I played Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (the video game) and there was this level that took place within a giant fish. It was VERY different from the rest of the game and I was always curious what influenced it’s design. Fast forward a number of years and I play Ocarina of time on my 3ds and get to Jabu-Jabu’s belly and I realise how deeply influential Ocarina was on the game development industry as a whole, and how it indirectly affected my gaming experience as a child, despite me not being into Zelda at the time. Truly impressive influence honesty. Oh yeah and spirit temple is my the fav cause I’m a sucker for Egyptian/west Asian designs. 😅

[@LucareonVee]

The only thing that threw me about the Water Temple in the days before Gamefaqs was that they put a major secret path in the same room as the dungeon item. I grabbed the long shot and left. Subsequently, I was lost for about another day or two until I finally convinced myself to just go check that room, despite there being “no chance” that anything was there. I just happened to wonder what was up with Navi turning green and flying to the opened chest when I entered the room (she was, of course, flying behind the chest). But, I was able to target with her and read her hint… and I felt the greatest relief of my N64 gaming days. 😁 I don’t dislike the Water Temple like I used to, but the only thing about it I see as a glaring flaw is the menu change for the boots. Nintendo really should’ve been able to figure out how tedious and disruptive to the flow that was (fixed in the 3DS version, of course). Forest Temple has always been my favorite and I don’t think I’ll ever be convinced that any others are better.

[@mgeorgejags]

Subscribed. Great work!

[@raina8334]

Never been this early to a Billy S video! I love your take on boss rankings, area rankings, and all sorts of other rankings! I'd love yo see a Code Vein boss ranking someday!

[@BillySYT]

I want to try doing rankings of other Souls-likes, I'm just trying to build the channel up enough so I'd have enough people watching. Gotta make sure the audience is there for it ^^

[@Rokushi_ftw]

The boomerang puzzle on the Spirit Temple was just a massive skill issue on your part. Stand in front of the steel thingy and then align Link's head with the Crystal, and you'll always hit it no problem And personally, I despise the Forest Temple. Meanwhile it's true that its vibes and boss are immaculate, I don't like playing the dungeon, never since I got trapped there as a kid for a solid 2 weeks, wouldn't be so rough to place it as #9, but imo, the Deku Tree is a bit better My GOAT personally is the Shadow Temple, its level design and vibes are great, and meanwhile it's true that Bongo Bongo is... mid, at best, the whole dungeon is pretty much perfect

[@welshlout3400]

Medium warm take: Dodongo’s Cavern’s underrated level design would place it in the top half of most people’s lists if it had a more identifiable aesthetic. The dungeon looks far from being a purely natural environment - the dodongos are presumably the major species native to the cavern given the name of the dungeon and of course the giant dodongo skull, but they hardly stand out next to the lizaflos, armos or beamos which really don’t seem to belong there at all. It also lacks much infrastructure you’d expect to see in a functional mine (which is supposedly what it is to the Gorons). If anything the tunnel areas that actually do somewhat evoke the idea of a mine seem to be the places dodongos prefer to be, instead of the big empty chambers with lava pits where things other than dodongos show up instead. Apart, of course, from the boss room, but in that case it’s made even more obvious that dodongos aren’t well adapted to living in their own home. There’s clearly supposed to be a duality going on between the Goron-made mine elements and its status as a natural habitat for the dodongos but at best there’s no good delineation between which areas are which, and at worst it fails to really do either concept at all

[@devonm042690]

Did you know that the names of the Poe Sisters are a collective reference to a novel? It's not a direct reference because Joelle is a reference to the character Jo, which is a nickname for Josephine, but considering the character Jo from the novel was loosely based on the author of the novel from which the names were pulled I think it's poetic in a way that you encounter Joelle first. If you consider it to be a direct reference aside from that little naming difference, then Meg is the eldest (which fits considering how you find her after beating her sisters), Joelle is the second eldest, Beth is the second youngest, and Amy is the youngest (again fitting considering Amy's wide-open eyes compared to the rest).

[@BingFox]

Also, I've always used the Longshot for the moving wall in the Spirit Temple and Nayru's Love for the Iron Knuckles.

[@BillySYT]

YOU CAN USE THE LONGSHOT ON THAT WALL???? Of course you can, I'm so dumb

[@BingFox]

@BillySYT Your mention of it made me think "wait, I just replayed this a month ago, why don't I remember climbing that wall?" I've been using the longshot for so long I forgot the normal way existed.

[@randychristensen1028]

Fun fact to make your future playthroughs easier Billy. At 15:15 you can use the longshot to grapple onto the wall at the top

[@jimbo_13]

Swap your top two and bump Dodongo up one place and we're in agreement. The Water Temple never gave me trouble as a teen! People at the time thought I was crazy, but I think I was just lucky 😅

[@WarrenValion]

My List: 1: Spirit Temple 2: Fire Temple 3: Water Temple 4: Forest Temple 5: Shadow Temple 6: Ganon's Castle 7: Dodongo's Cavern 8: Great Deku Tree 9: Inside Jabu Jabu's Belly

[@blauschildyblauschildy747]

That's crazy. We have the same order (excepted my lovely Spirit Temple that is #1)

[@bt_traptune9281]

Shadow Temple is my favourite from OOT. It has an awesome atmosphere and the Boss is my favourite in this Zelda game.

[@BillySYT]

Such a unique dungeon in terms of progression from anything else in the series - And the theming is on point!

[@alexblack3200]

I'm the Spirit Temple without moving wall, you know you can use The Longshot to hook on the top of the wall

[@joshuaweston6531]

I agree that the Water Temple is underappreciated. You and I almost have the same top three, except that I'd bump Water Temple to 4th and Fire to 3rd. My top two are exactly the same. The Shadow Temple is all out creepy, complete with blood soaked floors, which I hear the 3DS version omitted which is a shame. The Forest Temple is also creepy, but in a much more subtle way. It kinda slowly gets under your skin, greatly thanks to it's music theme, as you pointed out. The Forest Temple definitely deserves top billing. It's not only the best dungeon in Ocarina Of Time, but one of the very best in the entire series. Possibly THE best!

[@J_A_M_D]

In that moving wall room in the spirit temple, you can hookshot to the top and just skip it 😂

[@devonm042690]

There's no indication that Saria would have entered the Forest Temple on her own. She entered following the call of the Sacred Realm.

[@melaniewhitt9271]

my favorite is The Forest Temple i love is puzzles boss and mini bosses

[@Save_Frog]

Ngl, putting the Water Temple is a totally based take. It's actually a masterful dungeon that is just so overhated by the Internet. But I do definitely think the Forest Temple is the best one.

[@MatSimonpillai]

My Ranking: 9. Inside the Deku Tree 8. Inside Jabu Jabu’s Belly 7. Dodongo’s Cavern 6. Fire Temple 5. Ganon’s Castle 4. Shadow Temple 3. Water Temple 2. Forest Temple 1. Spirit Temple

[@jainee4507]

The Water Temple would probably be my favourite if switching your boots was more intuitive. Otherwise my favourite would be Forest Temple (shocker!). I also like the Ice Cavern a lot despite not being a proper dungeon.

[@chrislevack405]

The real hero of time this episode: Nathan

[@chaosprime1629]

spirit temple master quest has overall a better navigational structure compared to normal quest however what holds it back are its inconsistent micro challenges and also there is one optional small key that can only be used for optional locked doors. it also has some cheap enemy placement. had the navigational structure in normal quest resulted in a similar progression layout like MQ but kept the micro challenges that were consistent i would consider it a better dungeon.

[@chaosprime1629]

also what is interesting about spirit is that while it is a very streamlined dungeon outside of the time travel, it has the highest number of dungeon rooms (or scenes) in the entire game.

[@chaosprime1629]

also the light path in ganon's castle was half baked. 2 small keys and they are next to the locked door where one of them is just padding.

[@joesheridan5562]

The other Skultollla in dekus you can get by a backflip

[@wboyajian]

the water temple was easily my favorite in the game, I played the 3ds version though.

[@BillySYT]

3DS Version takes any issues the N64 version had and fixes them - And even then I still think the N64 version holds it's own. Solid pick!

[@OmegaFox09]

Actually they’re called ReDeads and the mummies are the Gibdos

[@meatball5336]

Love me some Ocariner of Time.

[@atcandotherthings4985]

Worst dungeon: jabu jabu bellys, Best: spirit temple

[@akshatyadav8434]

Have you played any devil may cry games? If yes, dmc rankings would be fire

[@BillySYT]

I've beaten DMC 1 & 3, and my boyfriend's a massive fan of the series, he's played them all. I could consider DMC Rankings, but I'm admittedly not the best at them myself lol

[@akshatyadav8434]

@@BillySYT You should try 4 and 5!(Especially 5) The series is probably up there with soulsborne as my favourites and I only got into it at December last year!

[@terribletito11]

It’s so refreshing finding a queer content creator that does gaming videos. This video was fantastic and I’m absolutely subbed after this

[@joonaspenttila201]

came here because i just completed forest temple for the first time and hated it and wanted to find someone else hating it which i obviously didnt find here but i dont get jabu jabu hate its easily my favorite dungeon so far

[@zacharyjohnson1222]

See I think water temple gets a bad rep for challenge it's not a bad temple or design just challenging. I've always thought forest temple was the best from music to atmosphere to gimmick with the poes to the boss.

[@NorthWestViking]

Am I the only person on the planet that thinks Jabu Jabu is a whale and not a fish? He has the flat tail of a mammal ergo “whale” and not the vertical tail of a fish.

[@atcandotherthings4985]

Fire lower then water ? Naw that’s cap the donning and doffing of the boots is way too tedious, and if you use a key in the wrong area god help you

[@CorgiOfSteel]

nier automata boss rankings pls

[@ronnical2489]

You should really play the PC port, it's a million times better than the N64 version and much much much better than any emulated one too.

[@AccursedHawk]

I can somewhat respect you not putting water temple last but putting it as 3rd best is just a crime

[@Gokulosestoavirus]

Water Temple isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. If anything if you had a hard time with. You have failed as a Zelda gamer

[@AccursedHawk]

@@Gokulosestoavirus I never said it was hard or I hated it but you can’t sit there and say you genuinely enjoyed playing through it especially having to pause the game 100 times to switch your boots. Pl

[@BillySYT]

@@AccursedHawk I enjoyed it, soooooooooooooooo. And I'm also keeping in mind that the issues in the N64 version were fixed for the 3DS version - The only reason I didn't use footage from OoT 3DS is cuz I can't capture 3DS footage.

[@AccursedHawk]

@@BillySYT well sorry to tell you but because I don’t like it it means it’s bad and you can’t like it either. Lol jk love the vids

[@JDoggPokepixels]

I never really cared for OOT dungeons as a whole I think it having three of the best in the series (forest, spirit, and shadow) people forget about the atrocities of (Jabu Jabu, dodongo, and the water temple)