I left last week's Ocarina of Time feature feeling like I might have been a little too negative about the whole thing. Three weeks into my playthrough, and I had just poo-pooed back-to-back puzzle boxes. Well, fear not, because I'm swinging in the complete opposite direction this time.

This is part four of my Dungeon Crawl series, where I revisit one OoT dungeon each week in the run-up to the Switch 2 remake. Just as with the previous three editions, I'm going into dungeon specifics here, so if you've never played OoT before and you are saving yourself for the remake, just know that there are spoilers ahead!

OoT Dungeon Crawl #4 - The Forest Temple

With Link all grown up, it was time to head back to Kokiri Village and see what had been going down in the home town during the seven years he was away. Being my umpteenth playthrough, I knew what was waiting at the end of that log maze, of course, but I was looking forward to it, nonetheless, because the Forest Temple might just be my favourite Zelda dungeon ever.

A bold claim, I know, but need I remind you that this is the temple with the twisting corridors? The Wallmasters? One of the most haunting boss fights in gaming? Yeah, it rules.

I always forget that the Forest Temple starts from its exterior entrance. Those pesky Wolfos felt far easier on this playthrough than before, but perhaps playing this alongside Elden Ring is to blame for that (pfft, could you make your attack telegraphing any more obvious?). As happens every time I play through the dungeon, I forgot all about the key in the tree before you enter the temple proper, and spent a good half an hour wandering around like a wally, convinced there was some kind of dungeon 'hard lock' if you use the keys incorrectly before I remembered. Sigh.

Outside of that minor hiccup, I had a typically excellent time with this one. It's a culmination of everything that I liked (or wanted) from the previous dungeons. It has the central hub room of Dodongo's Cavern, the puzzle-solving of The Great Deku Tree, and a big central challenge (lighting the four torches) that holds the whole thing together — something I craved in Jabu-Jabu.

It feels like the most open dungeon of them all at an initial glance, with the central chamber opening up in five different directions, though it's actually surprisingly linear — most of these doors are either locked or otherwise blocked off until you've thoroughly explored the other corridors first.

Most rooms are home to an inaccessible entrance on first visit, in fact, though each of them are easily seen from the more obvious route. I'm thinking of the high-up doorway in one of the outside rooms that Navi so cockily taunts you with as a potential Scarecrow spot, the heart-covered pillar walkway of the other, or even the balcony door in the opening room — the only one of the five that you're not getting into from the lift-side.

Much like the looping walkways that I praised in Dodongo's Cavern, the way that all of these secret doors are just out of reach makes eventually walking through them feel all the more satisfying. My lost key shenanigans meant it took ages before I could face that darn Deku Baba on a garden room's high-up walkway, but man, did it feel great when I finally cut it down.

Getting to all of these areas isn't just a simple case of exploration, either. The Forest Temple is a dungeon that really makes you think. More than any other I've revisited up to this point, this is a puzzle box that forces you to understand how it works before you can explore any further. Be that in the iconic twisting corridors (which I love how you have to twist and then untwist to progress) or in the looping walkways, success in the Forest Temple is all about understanding how its rooms connect and finding a path through. The feeling of finally getting the Bow so you can go back and hit all the eye switches remains unmatched.

I'll give a quick shoutout to the liminal vibes of the whole place, too. If the Creepypasta phenomenon had been as full of movie-spawning potential in the late '90s as it is today, there's no doubt in my mind that some indie filmmaker would have transformed the Forest Temple's long, empty corridors, falling checkered ceilings and Wallmasters into a full-blown horror. The looping music is still enough to get under my skin; I don't need to see it realised in any other way, thank you.

Having solved the four torch puzzles and taken the lift down to the basement, it was time to once again face some childhood trauma: Phantom Ganon.

The first time I attempted this boss on the N64, I cried. Seeing the Demon King peel off his face at the start of the fight was enough to bring me to the edge, then the ensuing back-to-back battle phases (the two toughest that the game has thrown at you so far) were enough to tip me over.

Even playing it now, it still sends a shiver down my spine. If the sense of anticipation in watching the running paintings, paired with the rudimentary camera controls, wasn't tense enough, it's followed by the ever-increasing back-and-forth of the power bolt 'tennis match', which always lasts one hit longer than I'm expecting.

Don't even get me started on the brief Ganondorf speech that taunts Link at the end before his phantom form is trapped in another dimension. Damn, I was far too young the first time I played this.

Remake Reflections

It's an absolute stunner, but I'm not quite willing to slap a "10/10, no notes" on it just yet. Some shortcuts to the later winding pathways would be a welcome change in the remake, as would a slightly more detailed map to make parsing the entrances and exits a little easier.

Otherwise, slap those sweet new camera controls on the boss fight, and we're onto another winner.

Things are hotting up next week, as I take another trip up Death Mountain. I'll see you all then — remember to pack a change of Tunic!

What do you make of the Forest Temple? Twist your way down to the comments and let us know.