History ThatOneLevel / TheLegendOfZelda

* Jabu Jabu's Belly in ''Oracle of Ages'' (not to be confused with the dungeon of the same name in [=OoT=]) puts all other water dungeons in all other Zelda games to shame. Plus all the other dungeons in those games. Heck, throw in most other dungeons in all other games, too. This place is insane. It's even completely possible to get yourself stuck with no keys, no way to access the boss key, and no way to start the water levels over from the beginning to fix your mistake.

* The City in the Sky, the ''absolute'' '''''definition''''' of the MarathonLevel, often taking two to three hours, and that's if you know where you're going. Just getting to it is annoying enough, since it requires a huge FetchQuest just to start another FetchQuest. It's far too easy to fall to your death, and the level requires precise Clawshotting in order to survive. Plus, it's very easy to get lost in that huge place.

* The City in the Sky, the ''absolute'' '''''definition''''' of the MarathonLevel, often taking two to three hours, and that's if you know where you going. Just getting to it is annoying enough, since it requires a huge FetchQuest just to start another FetchQuest. It's far too easy to fall to your death, and the level requires precise Clawshotting in order to survive. Plus, it's very easy to get lost in that huge place.

* Snowpeak Ruins. The knee-deep snow, the icy floors, the Block Puzzles, the sliding ice things (you know the ones), the Freezzards... the [[AwesomeButImpractical ball and chain]] does little to abate the hurting. Plus, there's the fact that enemies didn't drop hearts ([[AntiFrustrationFeatures but you can always ask the nice Yeti for soup.]] Have fun backtracking to the same room for that, though).
* The City in the Sky. Just getting to it is annoying enough, since it requires a huge FetchQuest just to start another FetchQuest. It's far too easy to fall to your death, and the level requires precise Clawshotting in order to survive. Plus, it's very easy to get lost in that huge place.

** This level is much easier if you apply the laws of physics: wood does not conduct electricity. Therefore, before you collect the boomerang, you can just kill the enemies with a Deku Stick! You won't get electrocuted and one hit is good enough. Just make sure you bring a whole bunch with you.

[[/folder]]

* Level 6. Being the first appearance of the [[DemonicSpiders Wizzrobe]] enemy, and also swarming with shield-eating Like Likes and paralyzing Bubbles.
** This applies to the second quest as well, although levels 4 and 7 also qualify here. For these two, hopefully you brought at least 50 rupees in with you, otherwise you'll be either backtracking to get more money, or losing an irreplaceable heart container to continue through the level. Level 4 also introduces the dreaded Red Bubbles, which will jinx you (this is named in MajorasMask years later) and you won't be able to use your sword until you either use a potion or touch a Blue Bubble.

* The Great Palace is plagued with completely unconventional mechanics compared to the rest of the game, including horrid dead-ends, endless loops, and monsters with increased hitpoints relative to what they have when encountered elsewhere.

* The ''Majora's Mask'' version of Beneath the Well isn't difficult, but rather tedious and [[MoonLogicPuzzle entirely bizarre and pointless.]] Instead of having to navigate areas full of creepy monsters and fake walls, you have to... give a bunch of items to Gibdos while wearing the Gidbo Mask. You have to obtain a Magic Bean and Red Potion before you can even enter the place, which requires some backtracking. From there, you have to go all through the area trying to find all the items needed to give to all the Gibdos. ''Why is this even necessary?!'' Fortunately, after obtaining the Mirror Shield in Ikana Castle you'll never have to go through this pointless mess again to get back to Ikana Castle.

* Stone Tower Temple. The two worst parts of it are [[ThatOneSidequest collecting the stray fairies]] [[note]](For one or two of them, you have to do something deep in the temple, then go outside and flip it upside down, then do something else in the same room, then go outside again and turn it right side up just so you can get the fairy. And if you want the AwesomeButImpractical reward, you need all 15 of them)[[/note]], which, unlike the last three temples, doesn't even get you a good reward [[note]](In the other temples you get the advanced spin attack, the longer magic meter, and double defense, but the Stone Tower Temple reward is a C-item sword that does little more damage than the Gilded Sword)[[/note]]. There's also a room before you get the Light Arrows that involves a LightAndMirrorsPuzzle... except that the mirrors actually absorb light when you shine it on them, and you're supposed to use that and your Mirror Shield to reflect the light from your light source to one mirror, then to another mirror, then to a block in your way that disappears when light is shone on it. This wouldn't be so hard if not for the GoddamnedBats that respawn in the room, often messing up your aim at the mirrors. And if you stop shining light on one mirror for even half a second, you have to wait until the mirror has used up all its light before you can recharge it again. There's a GuideDangIt solution that makes it a little bit easier, but it's almost impossible without said solution.

[[folder:''Four Swords Adventures'']]

%% [[folder:''Phantom Hourglass'']] - left in case someone wants to add examples from this game
%% [[/folder]]

[[folder:''Spirit Tracks'']]
* The final floors of the Tower of Spirits are the most devious part in the game, since they're packed with a vast array of puzzles, hazards and passageways that can only be tackled by out-of-the-box methods that make use of ''all'' of the items in the inventory and clever cooperation with the various types of Phantoms Zelda can possess. At one point, Link and Zelda also have to find ''three'' keys to access three different rooms whose puzzles can only be solved when all of those rooms are available for access. Near the end, there's also an invasion of several powerful enemies (including three high-tier Geozards) where Link must triumph while avoiding a pitfall.

* The final floors of the Tower of Spirits are the most devious part in the game, since they're packed with a vast array of puzzles, hazards and passageways that can only be tackled by out-of-the-box methods that make use of ''all'' of the items in the inventory and clever cooperation with the various types of Phantoms Zelda can possess. At one point, Link and Zelda also have to find ''three'' keys to access three different rooms whose puzzles can only be solved when all of those rooms are available for access. Near the end, there's also an invasion of several powerful enemies (including three high-tier Geozard) where Link must triumph while avoiding a pitfall.

* The Ice Ruins. It's a very treacherous SlippySlideyIceWorld with very narrow pathways and tough enemies throughout the dungeon.
** The run-up to the Ice Ruins is arguably worse than the dungeon itself--first you have to follow the path to Rosso's Ore Mine to the bottom of Death Mountain in Hyrule (assuming that the player even figures out that that's where they're supposed to go, considering the game [[GuideDangIt gives zero hint that the portal is located near Rosso's mine]]) which takes you through a massive cavern that requires precise platforming all while GoddamnedBats and obstacles are trying to knock you off. The path also requires you to face [[BossInMookClothing Lynels]], who deal four hearts per hit and take eight hits from a ''fully upgraded Master Sword'' to kill. There are bosses less threatening than a single Lynel, and they roam this area in ''packs.'' Get to the bottom and you can switch over to Lorule's Death Mountain, where you then have to climb up the same cavern again, only this time with even more precise and obstacle-ridden platforming. The Lynels are gone, replaced with ice statues that can be one-shotted with the Fire Rod... but you face them on slippery icy platforms over open pits.

* [[FanNickname Solmasters]]. You have to carry a glowing orb through three rooms. A giant hand is chasing you, and if it gets too close, it will snatch the orb back, and unless you want to do the whole damn thing over, you have to grab it out with the clawshot. This requires good aim, and if there are any monsters around, you have to either kill them first or do the targeting really, really quickly. You have to put the orb in certain spots to raise platforms or stairs so that you can get to the other door, which involves leaving it unattended for the hand to grab before you can reach solid ground and clawshot it back up. Enemies can knock it out of your grip, and it likes to roll, so you have to chase it down, and most likely do the whole room over. Oh, and there's two of those orbs, each with their own giant hand. Have fun!
** While that's all true, you can also shoot the hands with the bow a couple times to stun them or make them drop the orb. That said, the stun doesn't last long and you'd better make sure you have enough arrows. You can also Clawshot the orb out of the hand's grip if it picks it up.

%% [[folder:''Spirit Tracks'']] - ditto
%% [[/folder]]

* The Lanayru Mining Facility. The enemies are a pain, the time-shifting puzzles are very tedious, and it's all accompanied with some [[HellIsThatNoise rather freaky music]]. Even more frustrating is that this is the temple after the Earth Temple, and the boss of this temple is a joke, making Scaldera seem tough in comparison.
* It doesn't help that two of the other enemies there, Beamos and Sentrobes, while being fairly managable normally, become nightmarishly intense on a [[SelfImposedChallenge No-Shield playthrough.]] And you have to carry the timeshift orbs past them, activating them while your hands are full. Oh, and LMF is actually ''longer'' than the next dungeon, and probably the one after that too. It really says something when this game's water dungeon actually inverts this trope and becomes a BreatherLevel from LMF.
* A rare non-dungeon example in the series comes later: the EscortMission at Eldin Volcano. Basically, you have to escort a robot up ''the entire volcano'', which is now swarming with Bokoblin Archers capable of hitting said robot from afar. (they also have an annoying tendancy of hitting you in the face with a point-blank shot ''just as you kill them'') I hope you've mastered the Bow, because you're going to need it here. And even then, prepared to pull your hair out in frustration as you get through a tough area only to have Scrapper shot down by an off-screen archer when you could have sworn you killed them all. Several times. And it gets worse once you reach the Summit. Think fighting two [[DemonicSpiders Lizalfos]] is hard? Try fighting two while keeping them away from Scrapper, who [[StopHelpingMe annoyingly persters you when he's under attack]] and mocks you when you fail. Even worse, plot-wise, Scrapper not pulling a LeeroyJenkins would have made things much easier.

* The Silent Realms. Similar to the Tear of Light fetching quest in ''Twilight Princess'', the objective is to run through this area and collect 15 tears and then get back to the entrance/exit circle to obtain your next PlotCoupon to get to the next dungeon. Sounds simple enough, except that the area is actually a death trap! Upon leaving the entrance/exit circle, you immediately get noticed by the realm's Guardians that will cause you to fail this test, if they manage to hit you. Obtaining a tear causes the Guardians to fall asleep for 90 seconds, but that doesn't mean much as Watchers are walking around and if they spot you and shine their light on you, the Guardians re-awaken. The music upon being chased by Guardians is terrifying...
** And once you have done the Realm for each of the corresponding areas - Faron, Lanayru and Eldin - you think you are done with them forever... you learn that you have one final, extra-hard Realm left to do, which is such a [[SarcasmMode nice]] kick in the nuts!

%% * The Tadtone collecting quest Faron makes you do before she teaches her part of the Song of the Hero. - Zero Context Example, please elaborate

* Mask Temple is also difficult due to its confusing layout, rooms not on the map and for introducing magician enemies that abuse TeleportSpam. On the other hand the mid-boss is fun and the end boss is easy, so it evens out a bit.

* The Shadow Temple deserves an honorable mention. Not because the dungeon itself is particularly difficult, but because if you die to the boss (and if you don't know what to do, you probably will) you have to go back through ''the whole dungeon'' to reach him again.

* ''Link's Awakening'''s Turtle Rock, the last main story dungeon, is an absurdly complicated and massive maze where ''every previous miniboss from the game'' appears as '''''respawning enemies'''''; the dungeon's unique miniboss is capable of knocking Link back to the dungeon entrance; one puzzle requires Link to shoot an arrow into the eye of a random statue (while this is normally a Zelda staple, this is the ''only'' time in the game this is required, and it occurs in the eighth dungeon); and, completing the dungeon requires the player to visit a hidden room whose entrances are [[GuideDangIt not even on the Dungeon Map.]]

* The Water Temple is, by far, the most infamous dungeon of the game, if not the entire series. It probably says something that in the Master Quest mode of the [[VideoGameRemake 3DS remake]], which upped the difficulty of the dungeons enormously, the Water Temple inexplicably became ''easier''. In fact, ''Ocarina'''s director [[http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2009/11/29/aonuma-apologizes-for-water-temple.aspx has officially apologized for the Water Temple.]] This was fixed in the 3DS version, where both types of boots are considered as items rather than equipment, and can thus be mapped to a shortcut button. Also, the paths leading to the altars to change the water levels have lines leading to them which are ColourCodedForYourConvenience.

* What about the Goron Maze on the Moon? You have to go high speed on extremely narrow ledges, have to bounce off objects at the perfect angle to hop onto another platform, with little room for error. Although this section becomes a joke when you realize that the way to properly do it is by not moving the control stick at all. If you just roll straight, Link will bounce perfectly off the treasure chests for the vast majority of the level.

* Jabu Jabu's Stomach in ''Oracle of Ages'' (not to be confused with the dungeon of the same name in [=OoT=]) puts all other water dungeons in all other Zelda games to shame. Plus all the other dungeons in those games. Heck, throw in most other dungeons in all other games, too. This place is insane. It's even completely possible to get yourself stuck with no keys, no way to access the boss key, and no way to start the water levels over from the beginning to fix your mistake.

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** The Eldin Silent Realm is probably the worst out of all of them. For one, it's an absolutely gigantic area. The tears are all scattered over the huge level, which is ''very'' bad if you've been spotted. And the tears on the large sand slide are the hardest to obtain, since it's a one-way side covered in Waking Water (which instantly alerts the guardians if you step in it) and it's somewhat difficult to get over to the tear by the air current-geysers. [[spoiler:Skyloft]], too, since even though [[spoiler:you've been in that place throughout the game]] you'll still easily get lost and possibly fall off the place.

* The Bottom of The Well. First off, if you even want to get into the place itself, you need to walk through a wall. That's right, you need to go through an unassuming, totally generic looking wall that has no special markings on it, and the only hint you get is Navi telling you to "see the truth." But the fun doesn't stop there; the dungeon is filled with fake floors, which drop you into a cavern filled with redeads. Like the wall, these parts of the floor aren't marked in any way, so you need either a walkthrough or ''lots'' of trial and error to get past certain areas.

It's not a secret to everybody that [[ThatOneLevel these levels]] will test even the best of [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda legendary heroes]].

* The Ice Palace can become seizure-inducing due to the tougher bestiary, obstacles and maze-like layout. In particular, there is a switch in B6 which requires hitting a red/blue switch, then doubling back several floors in order to push a block down from B5 onto the switch. Luckily, having the [[SequenceBreaking Cane of Somaria]] makes it much easier. [[note]]In fact, until the UpdatedRerelease, it was almost ''assumed'' that any player would do the dungeons out of order so that they could tackle the Ice Palace with the Cane of Somaria. When your dungeon is so hard it drives normal players to SequenceBreaking, you've definitely got a ScrappyLevel on your hands.[[/note]] Worse, the map is rendered pretty much useless due to most rooms being made up of discrete sections. Nothing worse than finally getting halfway down correctly, then remembering that warping to the beginning of the level flipped the red/blue switches.

** The main reason for the Water Temple being so hard is because of the fact that after some time exploring the temple, you will get a key that ''must'' go to a certain door, but this door is not the first locked door that you encounter and you will undoubtedly use the key on the wrong door. If you do mess up, it takes much longer.[[note]]One very persistent rumor is that it's possible to use the keys in the wrong order, and [[UnwinnableByMistake fail the whole temple]]. That's right, many players still believe you can actually permanently screw up the Water Temple. And what does that mean? Restart your file! To be fair, you ''can'' get into situations where it ''seems'' like this is the case -- you can actually still solve it if you take the right course of action, but if you can't manage to find that action, it seems like you're stuck forever.[[/note]] As if it weren't bad enough, it's possible to miss the item that makes it nearly tolerable. That's right: [[SelfImposedChallenge somebody did the whole Water Temple without the]] [[SuperNotDrowningSkills blue tunic]]. Another reason is the miniboss [[MirrorBoss Dark Link]], which due to a quirk of programming, takes much less time to beat on a three-heart run.

* Jabu Jabu's Stomach was no slouch either. Almost all enemies will electrocute you if you attack them, so most of them are either very difficult to bring down or outright unkillable until you get the boomerang.[[note]] The Zora princess herself can be thrown at the jellyfish, bubbles etc to kill them with little risk to you. When thrown, she giggles; she's immune to damage. One of the few times you can directly use an NPC *as a weapon*, and she seems to enjoy the experience. You can also make the jellyfish safe to kill by stunning them with those [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman Deku Nuts you almost never use]].[[/note]] And also the Zora princess yells at you if you leave her, even though under certain circumstances, she'll vanish all on her own.

* The Great Bay Temple features a complicated series of switches, currents, waterfalls that must be frozen and thawed, etc. The crowning evil of this dungeon would be that in the second room there are three switches. Pressing the wrong ones reverses the current in the entire level, making it impossible for you to proceed until you return to hit them again. Also of note is the fact that almost the entire level is based around hitting switches that are blocking barely visible water flow through multicoloured pipes, and you must follow the pipes to find the next switch, despite their aggravating habit of exiting through doors that can't be opened from this side. The real kicker for the Great Bay Temple (and whole game) is that you have a ''time limit'' [[note]] which can be tripled by playing the Song of Time backwards, resulting in the "Inverted Song of Time" that slows timeflow considerably for a maximum of 3 hours and 36 minutes[[/note]]. In the other games, you could just keep bashing things in different ways all night long until you got past.
* Stone Tower Temple. The two worst parts of it are [[ThatOneSidequest collecting the stray fairies]] [[note]]For one or two of them, you have to do something deep in the temple, then go outside and flip it upside down, then do something else in the same room, then go outside again and turn it right side up just so you can get the fairy. And if you want the AwesomeButImpractical reward, you need all 15 of them[[/note]], which, unlike the last three temples, doesn't even get you a good reward [[note]]In the other temples you get the advanced spin attack, the longer magic meter, and double defense, but the Stone Tower Temple reward is a C-item sword that does little more damage than the Gilded Sword[[/note]]. There's also a room before you get the Light Arrows that involves a LightAndMirrorsPuzzle... except that the mirrors actually absorb light when you shine it on them, and you're supposed to use that and your Mirror Shield to reflect the light from your light source to one mirror, then to another mirror, then to a block in your way that disappears when light is shone on it. This wouldn't be so hard if not for the GoddamnedBats that respawn in the room, often messing up your aim at the mirrors. And if you stop shining light on one mirror for even half a second, you have to wait until the mirror has used up all its light before you can recharge it again. There's a GuideDangIt solution that makes it a little bit easier, but it's almost impossible without said solution.