History ThatOneLevel / TheLegendOfZelda

* The Temple of Droplets. SlippySlideyIceWorld? Check. MarathonLevel? Check. The puzzles there caused many players frustration. It's also full of annoying puzzles, especially after you get the dungeon item.

* 2-2 of Hero's Trials in the Anniversary Edition. This is true ''especially'' if you're playing solo and your DSi's/3DS's L and R buttons do not work. Door two, up until level 3, is a remake of Talus Caves. While Talus Caves is mildly difficult, this gets ridiculous on the second section, where the majority of the level is basically ice. Add on Moblins at the beginning that can snipe you. Add on Ice Wizzrobes. Add on Darknuts. Add on Ball-on-Chain Darknuts. Add on very narrow paths at critical portions. You will cry.

* The Water Temple is, by far, the most infamous dungeon of the game, if not the entire series. The first reason has to do with the primary concept of rising and lowering the water level. Since Link can only walk underwater when he wears the Iron Boots and float back to the surface when he puts them away, the player has to pause and equip/remove them repeatedly, which is made more jarring by the slow transition between the item menu and the resumed playthrough. 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]] (which means Link, in this case, is always on a permanent risk of drowning and dying if he's unable to get on a nearby surface in time). The boots' issue was fixed in the 3DS version, where both types (Hover and Iron) are considered as regular items rather than equipment ones, and can thus be mapped to a shortcut button.

* The Water Temple is, by far, the most infamous dungeon of the game, if not the entire series. The first reason has to do with the primary concept of rising and lowering the water level. Since Link can only walk underwater when he wears the Iron Boots and float back to the surface when he puts them away, the player has to pause and equip/remove them repeatedly, which is made more jarring by the slow transition between the item menu and the resumed playthrough. 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]] (which means Link, in this case, is always on a permanent risk of drowning and dying if he's unable to get on a nearby surface in time). The boots' issue was fixed in the 3DS version, where both types (Hover and Iron) are considered as regular items rather than equipment ones, and can thus be mapped to a shortcut button.\\
** The second reason for the Water Temple being so hard is because, after some time exploring the temple and dealing with the different levels of the water's volume, 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! 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]] The key in question is most likely the one in the basement area of the temple's central pillar/tower-like structure. In a vertical area filled with spikes, narrow walkways and floating platforms, the natural thing is to go up, riding the floating platforms as you make the water level rise. It's not at all apparent that the player must then jump back into the water and swim down into the nest of spikes, which will reveal a hole that was previously blocked and obscured by the previously mentioned floating platform. Finding this key makes the temple significantly easier, and since the player always seems to be missing just one damn key, the shortage of keys situation is far less likely to happen when this area is fully investigated. They also attempted to rectify this problem in the 3DS version by changing the cutscene when you raise the water level to make it more obvious that a new path was opened up beneath the floating block.\\
** The third 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 (his HP is equal to that of Link).\\

The second reason for the Water Temple being so hard is because, after some time exploring the temple and dealing with the different levels of the water's volume, 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! 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]] The key in question is most likely the one in the basement area of the temple's central pillar/tower-like structure. In a vertical area filled with spikes, narrow walkways and floating platforms, the natural thing is to go up, riding the floating platforms as you make the water level rise. It's not at all apparent that the player must then jump back into the water and swim down into the nest of spikes, which will reveal a hole that was previously blocked and obscured by the previously mentioned floating platform. Finding this key makes the temple significantly easier, and since the player always seems to be missing just one damn key, the shortage of keys situation is far less likely to happen when this area is fully investigated. They also attempted to rectify this problem in the 3DS version by changing the cutscene when you raise the water level to make it more obvious that a new path was opened up beneath the floating block.\\
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 (his HP is equal to that of Link).\\
It probably says something that in the Master Quest mode, which upped the difficulty of the game's other dungeons enormously, the Water Temple inexplicably became ''easier'' (if you can find the [[PixelHunt torches embedded in the walls]]). 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]]; he was finally able to set it right with the 3DS remake, which, in addition to the altered mechanics of the Iron Boots mentioned above, added color-coded lines marking the paths to the three Triforce symbols that let you change the water level.

* The City in the Sky is a MarathonLevel that takes an average of four to five 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.

* ''Twilight Princess' '' version of the Water Temple (which, incidentally, [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on the infamy of '''the''' Water Temple mentioned above). If Midna is talked to while in the Lakebed Temple she'll comment on how large the dungeon is and how hard finding all the keys needed to progress will be. Thankfully there's not nearly as many keys in this version. That said, they brought back the annoying key puzzle: You get a key, you open the door, you see nothing but an open space, and you realize you just used the key for the dungeon item on the wrong door. Good luck figuring out the [[GuideDangIt backup]] Nintendo had set up for you in case you did that. Also, you can glitch your way onto the correct door by jumping from just the right angle.

* 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''. And you're going to make a good use of the Bow 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.

* Catfish's Maw, where a miniboss [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy steals the dungeon item]] and requires you to pursue it all over the damned dungeon to its hidey-holes. The last one is extremely difficult to find, as it is ''very close to the entrance'' in an area the player has likely long since visited and won't think to go back to.

* The defending of the caravan. A combination of the Gale Boomerang, needed to put out fires, having next to no range, fast-moving targets, pterosaurs dropping bombs on everything and the fact that Epona handles like she's drunk makes it impossible to beat.

* The IcePalace 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.[[/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.

* Even later, Lanayru Gorge has a case of That One Room. It's filled with Technoblins, Beamos and Sentrobes, all of them either GoddamnedBats or DemonicSpiders, and you have to follow a Timeshift Stone in a moving mining cart to avoid falling in [[QuicksandSucks sinksand.]] Fall in, and you don't take damage, but you'll be returned to the start of the room ''WITH ALL ENEMIES RESPAWNED!'' Attempting to put an arrow in a Beamos' eye, missing by millimeters and proceeding to get knocked into the sinksand by its beam... pretty much speaks for itself. What makes this place truly maddening is that its situated after five or so ''incredibly easy'' rooms... but [[CheckpointStarvation there are no checkpoints between them.]] Having to go back through those easy rooms again ''every time you die'' will drive you insane.

* ''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 [[MookBouncer 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.]]

** 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; but then you learn that you have one final, extra-hard Realm left to do in [[spoiler:Skyloft]].

It probably says something that in the Master Quest mode, which upped the difficulty of the game's other dungeons enormously, the Water Temple inexplicably became ''easier'' (if you can find the [[PixelHunt torches embedded in the walls]]). 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]], hence the intention to make it more tolerable with the easier boot equipment mechanic and giving the paths leading to the altars to change the water levels lines leading to them which are ColourCodedForYourConvenience.

* The City in the Sky is a MarathonLevel that takes an average of 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 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.[[/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 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.

* Face shrine is also difficult due to its confusing layout, rooms not on the map and for introducing Wizzrobes 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 Water Temple is, by far, the most infamous dungeon of the game, if not the entire series.
** The first reason has to do with the primary concept of rising and lowering the water level. Since Link can only walk underwater when he wears the Iron Boots and float back to the surface when he puts them away, the player has to pause and equip/remove them repeatedly, which is made more jarring by the slow transition between the item menu and the resumed playthrough. 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]] (which means Link, in this case, is always on a permanent risk of drowning and dying if he's unable to get on a nearby surface in time). The boots' issue was fixed in the 3DS version, where both types (Hover and Iron) are considered as regular items rather than equipment ones, and can thus be mapped to a shortcut button.
** The second reason for the Water Temple being so hard is because, after some time exploring the temple and dealing with the different levels of the water's volume, 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! 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]] The key in question is most likely the one in the basement area of the temple's central pillar/tower-like structure. In a vertical area filled with spikes, narrow walkways and floating platforms, the natural thing is to go up, riding the floating platforms as you make the water level rise. It's not at all apparent that the player must then jump back into the water and swim down into the nest of spikes, which will reveal a hole that was previously blocked and obscured by the previously mentioned floating platform. Finding this key makes the temple significantly easier, and since the player always seems to be missing just one damn key, the shortage of keys situation is far less likely to happen when this area is fully investigated. They also attempted to rectify this problem in the 3DS version by changing the cutscene when you raise the water level to make it more obvious that a new path was opened up beneath the floating block.
** 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 (his HP is equal to that of Link).
** It probably says something that in the Master Quest mode, which upped the difficulty of the game's other dungeons enormously, the Water Temple inexplicably became ''easier'' (if you can find the [[PixelHunt torches embedded in the walls]]). 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]], hence the intention to make it more tolerable with the easier boot equipment mechanic and giving the paths leading to the altars to change the water levels lines leading to them which are ColourCodedForYourConvenience.
* 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 Ice Cavern. It's frozen water. And horrible. The constant falling icicles are annoying, and so are the ice monster ... things; but the level can be done fairly quickly if you know the right route, and the wolf at the end is an AnticlimaxBoss.

* The Tadtone collecting quest Faron makes you do before she teaches her part of the Song of the Hero. Since all of Faron Woods is flooded by then, it's easy to get lost while looking for all 17 groups of Tadtones scattered through the huge underwater area; so [[GuideDangIt unless it comes to your mind the idea of bringing an upgraded Air Potion and drink it while having the Potion Medal equipped in your Adventure Pouch to prolong drastically your oxygen meter]], you'll spend more time trying to survive from being drown than looking for the Tadtones.

* Face shrine 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 first reason has to do with the primary concept of rising and lowering the water level. Since Link can only walk underwater when he wears the Iron Boots and float back to the surface when he puts them away, the player has to pause and equip/remove them repeatedly, which is made more jarring by the slow transition between the item menu and the resumed playthrough. 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]] (which means Link, in this case, is always on a permanent risk of drowning and dying if he's unable to get on a nearby surface in time). The boots' issue was fixed in the 3DS version, where both types (Kokiri and Iron) are considered as regular items rather than equipment ones, and can thus be mapped to a shortcut button.

* The OOT expansion [[NintendoHard Master Quest]] turns most of the dungeons into this, but the Fire Temple will probably make you [[RageQuit prematurely finish your game]] if you've come this far. Irritating use of fire, frequent use of lighting torches by firing arrows in front of them (to the point where it's better to [[SequenceBreaking beat the Water Temple first and get the Fire Arrows]]), maze-like layout, and probably one of the most frustrating puzzles in the series. This puzzle involves trying to get to a key by pushing a switch, quickly running to a hookshot target, and trying to get to the chest before the fire rises. Thing is, the switch has an improbably short fuse, so unless you learned the scarecrow's song, [[ThatOnePuzzle good luck.]]

** The second reason for the Water Temple being so hard is because, after some time exploring the temple and dealing with the different levels of the water's volume, 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! 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]] The key in question is most likely the one in the basement area of the temple's central pillar/tower-like structure. In a vertical area filled with spikes, narrow walkways and floating platforms, the natural thing is to go up, riding the floating platforms as you make the water level rise. It's not at all apparent that the player must then jump back into the water and swim down into the nest of spikes, which will reveal a hole that was previously blocked and obscured by the previously mentioned floating platform. Finding this key makes the temple significantly easier, and since the player always seems to be missing just one damn key, the shortage of keys situation is far less likely to happen when this area is fully investigated.

* Snowhead Temple isn't terribly difficult, just a giant pain in the ass and a huge drain on time, even in Inverted Song of Time play. Examples of the frustration this temple offers are: A) extremely disorienting minibosses, good luck actually hitting them in any of the 4-8 directions they'll be in, and that's ''before'' they fill the area with speeding images of themselves, all of which they will take advantage of to freeze you dead. B) Flat-out confusing temple design, involving a lot of Deku Flower-ing and trying to find the right staircase and the right room. C) Notoriously confusing switch puzzles that ''seem'' like they should be simple. And D) The massive pillar that just decides to screw with you right when you thought you had the place figured out. Extra fun if E) you want that last fairy, which requires you to climb to the very top of the Temple, locate a precise angle and Deku Flower down the wall (and deal with the nightmare camera and movement controls if you screw up) for about five minutes, then precisely jump into an invisible hole in the wall and do it all over again if you're even a tiny bit off. The things redeeming this temple is its rather cool design and extremely fun boss. But this sums it up pretty well:

* 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, [[GuideDangIt 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.
** The big gimmick of the Well is that you don't know what to do with yourself. The biggest trick is that it cleverly hides the boss [[spoiler:at the start of the level]]. Bosses aren't moved in Master Quest, so the Well should be no trouble, right? Guess what sucker: they moved the item you're trying to retrieve instead. The boss only drops the Compass, to move on you're going to have to [[spoiler:blow up a pile of detritus in the corner and get a hidden key]].

* 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. Just ''getting'' to the place is a nightmare that requires constant mask-switching, Elegy of Emptiness-playing, and endless cutscenes of blocks moving, in which the slightest slip-up could cost you great amounts of progress or even start you from the beginning. 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.
* The Goron Maze on the Moon requires you 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.
* The 3DS remake of the Zora maze on the Moon made several arbitrary changes to the level design, most of which only serve to make the section drag out longer than it needs to. Previously just an underwater maze, the revamped version adds several timed switch gate sections, branching underwater tubes, and ledges that can only be reached by dolphin-jumping out of the water with impeccable timing, something that the rest of the game almost never requires you to do. To make things worse, missing a jump warps you back to the beginning, and several pipes lead to dead ends, with the correct route vaguely hinted at by a small fish. It doesn't help that Zora Link's swimming controls were completely reworked so that he goes a dozen times slower without using his magic barrier, and you'll ''have'' to use this to get past the timed gate sections, which means veering into pots containing magic power while worrying about everything else. Lastly, just to throw completionists off, [[LastLousyPoint one of the dead ends contains a heart piece.]][[/folder]]

* 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, which upped the difficulty of the dungeons enormously, the Water Temple inexplicably became ''easier'' (if you can find the [[PixelHunt torches embedded in the walls]]). 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.
** 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.
** The key in question is most likely the one in the basement area of the temple's central pillar/tower-like structure. In a vertical area filled with spikes, narrow walkways and floating platforms, the natural thing is to go up, riding the floating platforms as you make the water level rise. It's not at all apparent that the player must then jump back into the water and swim down into the nest of spikes, which will reveal a hole that was previously blocked and obscured by the previously mentioned floating platform. Finding this key makes the temple significantly easier, and since the player always seems to be missing just one damn key, the shortage of keys situation is far less likely to happen when this area is fully investigated.

* 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, 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.

* 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, and in order to continue the game from this point, you must perform the [[GoodBadBugs Veran Warp]], which can corrupt your saves, but allows you to make skip anything after the Tune of Ages, including this level.

* 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, and in order to continue the game from this point, you must perform the [[GoodBadBugs Veran Warp]], which can corrupt your saves, but allows you to skip ALL of the level.

* 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, and in order to continue the game if you made this mistake, you must perform the [[GoodBadBugs Veran Warp]] used in the World Record run, which can corrupt your saves.