Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Most Hated Dungeon Gets Reworked in Remake
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is rightly praised as one of the best games ever made, but that exalted status has always come with a caveat: the Water Temple stinks. It seems that the people working on Ocarina of Time ’s imminent remake are very much aware of this.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is rightly praised as one of the best games ever made, but that exalted status has always come with a caveat: the Water Temple stinks. It seems that the people working on Ocarina of Time’s imminent remake are very much aware of this.
In an interview as part of Nintendo’s “Ask the Developer” series, longtime Zelda producer and developer Eiji Aonuma was asked whether the remake’s dungeons would change — for context, Aonuma designed these areas in the original game.
“I had some overdue homework: I wanted to do something about the Water Temple I created 28 years ago,” Aonuma said, then laughed. “Since it became well known for its difficulty in the original game, I had the team make some adjustments in this version.”
Why is the Water Temple so widely hated?
For those unaware, the Water Temple is infamous for combining slow underwater movement with confusing area layouts, resulting in a slog. You have to constantly pause and open menus to put on and take off a pair of Iron Boots that let you sink in water, making it even easier to get disoriented.
Aonuma explained why he wanted to build this area in the first place. “When I designed the Water Temple all those years ago, I wanted to create an experience where simply being underwater was fun," he said. "It was a time when there were very few 3D games that even let players go underwater. I enjoy freediving, and what I find fascinating about being underwater is how different everything feels. The sounds change, and it feels like you’re in a completely different space. I wanted to create a place where players could experience those sensations.”
“However, with the dungeon’s complex structure and a lot of item toggling involved, you often had to open the menu screen repeatedly, making it hard to keep track of where you were and which way you were facing,” he said, acknowledging the area’s flaws. “We addressed those issues in this version.”
“In this version, we’ve made item toggling much easier,” game director HokWai Ng added. Instead of navigating menus, the remake lets players quickly swap items with the d-pad. “We also changed some of the walls that made it easy to lose your sense of direction to lattice-style structures, making it possible to see the rooms beyond them and get a better sense of the overall space.”
The developers said they hope that the remake sparks conversations between young and older players about their experiences with Ocarina of Time. “You know, your Dad got stuck in the Water Temple plenty of times back in the day,” Ng said as an example. Aonuma responded, “Then kids playing this version might say, ‘Come on, it’s not that hard.’ Poor old Dad might end up feeling deflated.”
Early hands-on previews of the remake have been quite positive, and we won’t have to wait long to see how the final version lands, Water Temple 2.0 included. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is out on Nov. 5, exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2.