Image: Jim Norman / Nintendo Life
There are just nine weeks to go before The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time arrives on Switch 2, and you better believe that the countdown has well and truly started for me.
While scanning the calendar earlier this week, it suddenly dawned on me that the time left until launch poses the perfect amount of time for a replay: nine weeks, nine dungeons.
An idea started to form in my head. What if I started a playthrough of one of my most-played games again, but only in small chunks at once this time? I’d only need to clear one dungeon a week to take me right up to the big release date, and wouldn’t it be a fun experiment to revisit some of my favourite puzzle boxes so I’m completely clued up on how and what has changed in the remake?
And so, welcome to the first of nine weekly features from yours truly, where I delve into an Ocarina of Time dungeon and note down all the things that tickled me along the way – and what I hope might get tweaked in the remake.
Naturally, I’ll be 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!
We start at the very beginning, with one of the most iconic dungeons in the series…
OoT Dungeon Crawl #1 – Inside The Great Deku Tree
I’ve made my love for this dungeon no secret in the past, so rather than bang the nostalgia drum once again, I thought I’d focus this time on everything that still makes me smile, over 25 years on.
Images: Nintendo Life
It starts with the opening. Literally. The Great Deku Tree opening its mouth and beckoning you inside remains absolutely terrifying to this day. The mythical being that speaks to me in my dreams and for whom I have literally dodged boulders and spent all my money to meet is now going to… eat me? What?
It makes the first sight after stepping inside all the more magical. The pan down from the web-covered ceiling not only highlights the infestation, of course, but it also rather beautifully tells you exactly what you’ll need to do to solve its first puzzle: the great big spider-web on the floor. This is a dungeon all about going up and down, and every time I play it, I appreciate its highs and lows (like, its actual highs and lows) a little more.
The lack of a bannister or railing on that initial ascent (a health and safety inspector would have a field day in this one) demands you pay attention to the incline. In my early days, when camera controls didn’t come naturally to me, this upward climb took ages.
I’m pleased to say that the jump to the first heart piece — which you also see from your starting position, in another great bit of signposting — wasn’t such a roadblock this time, but the whole thing still makes me, someone who gets a bit queasy looking out of a second-floor window, feel a little nauseous.
I can clear this dungeon’s puzzle rooms in my sleep at this point, but I always perk up for that jump off the top rope, piercing the web below. In a pre-Assassin’s Creed world, this felt like the biggest video game jump imaginable, and it still hits. It dawned on me this time that everything from this point onwards takes place completely underground and the whole thing started to feel a little more claustrophobic when I thought about that.
Images: Nintendo Life
This playthrough might have been one of the first times that I’ve managed all of the web burning without accidentally plunging Link into the water, putting the Stick away, or otherwise letting the flame go out. So… win for me? It’s frankly impressive how many variants of the same puzzle Nintendo squeezes out of the fire in this dungeon, and the final “twenty-three is number one!” Deku Shrub shooting still makes me smile no end.
And so I rocked up to Queen Gohma, the Parasitic Armoured Arachnid that was genuinely enough to make me drop my controller and walk away from the game in my youth. What an introduction it is to the world of Zelda bosses. Again, I can polish it off with next to no thought today, but it still strikes me as the perfect level of difficulty — easy enough to make me feel strong, slippery enough to feel like a fitting boss.
With the scary spider disintegrated and my first Heart Container under my belt, I hopped into the pool of light and was transported back above ground. The Spiritual Stone jingle still slaps, the Deku Tree’s death is still haunting. What more is there to say?
Remake Reflections
Honestly, there’s very little that I’d change about this one. We already know from the Direct that some puzzles have been slightly tweaked for the Switch 2 release (the eye target replacing the web-covered ladder), but I think this serves as a near-perfect introduction to 3D Zelda dungeons and how they work.
As long as that jump from the top level feels fittingly big, I’ll be a very happy boy.
And just like that, the first dungeon is behind me. I’m excited to head up Death Mountain next week and see if Darunia’s dance moves still make me smile (they definitely will) as I take on Dodongo’s Cavern. Until next time, dungeon crawlers.
Where does the Deku Tree sit on your OOT dungeon ranking? Let us know in the comments.
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Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since.