After seven years, you come back to a place that almost seems like you’ve been there mere days ago. You’ve been told that someone you know has been trapped inside the temple and that she needed help getting back out because of the evil inside. Obviously, you’re up to the challenge! C’mon, this is Zelda we’re talking about! Saving people is what Link does best, isn’t it?

 

Now, get yourselves situated as we continue Zelda Re: with the first dungeon in the Adult Link portion of Ocarina of Time, the Forest Temple.

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Good Morning, Sleepyhead! 

 

Well, you’ve just woken up from your seven-year slumber, and you make your way toward the entrance of the Temple of Time, itching what to see what has become of Hyrule during your absence. However, something stops you: a ninja! Whaaaaat!? Yes, that’s right. The ninja we Zelda fans all know and love, Sheik, interrupts your exit to tell you about the new phase of your mission to save Hyrule.

 

Save the Six Sages, he says to you. The first on your list, assuming you’re a linear player like I am, is the Forest Temple, and the Sage that needs to be rescued is a girl that apparently we all know. Unfortunately, much of the equipment that we got as a child can’t be used from here on out for no adequately-explained reason. (Seriously, we have a tunic and hat that didn’t shrink on him and tights and earrings that magically appeared, and yet, no items we got as a kid? Huh, the Sacred Realm is a strange place, isn’t it?) Plus, even with the stuff we obtained thus far, we wouldn’t be able to enter the temple at all!

 

So then we’re sent on our way to Kakariko Village to find what is referred to as a “treasure.” From what we learn, Dampé the gravekeeper died and was holding up said treasure, the Hookshot. Now what do we do? Well, we dig up the dead guy’s grave, go inside, have a race with him, get our prize, and end up in the windmill. Now why would Dampé’s grave be connected to the windmill, I wonder? Eh, use your imaginations, kids.

I sure hope we don't get a Tomb Raider plagiarism suit from this...

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Home, Sweet Home

 

Now, with the Hookshot in hand, now we make our way toward the Lost Woods and reach the Sacred Forest Meadow. In seven years, however, the monster infestation in the maze changed from a Mad Deku Scrub one to a giant-Moblin-that-wants-to-charge-into-you-and-kill-you-if-they-see-you one. Personally, I’d prefer the former, but since it’s the latter, you’ll need to use Z-Targeting techniques to get through without getting har

med.

 

If you survive that, prepare yourself for a humungous Moblin wit

h a large club waiting for you in the corridor that leads to the stump that Saria had been sitting on seven years prior. When it sees you, it

somehow manages to create shockwaves that rush forward at you, and you need to strafe around them and move forward, rolling by the huge Moblin to prevent yourself from being thrown backwards if necessary.

 

Making it past that, you find Sheik again, he’ll teach you a song to warp you back whenever you want, he leaves, and you can finally Hookshot yourself up to the Forest Temple by using that overh

anging branch. You make your way inside...

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Into the Temple…

 

Now, if the music that soon plays doesn’t captivate you or change your mood in any way, shape, or form…wow. You have my congratulations…and also one of my deepest sympathies. Just by walking into the temple, and assuming you don’t walk into the trap of a pair of Wolfoes waiting for you by the door, you’re welcomed by the beats of strange, xylophone-esque instruments, soon followed by an eerie chorus of woodwind-like vocals. After a while, the music is decorated with what sounds like Link grunting and yelling in the background.

 

Now if the music hasn’t frozen you in place with wonder and worry, you make your way forward to the giant central room of the temple ahead. Walking in, you see four torches, each one lit with a different colored flame. As pretty as this looks, the flames then become stolen by four ghosts with the same color as the flame that’s taken respectively from each. The torches act like a switch of sorts, keeping the elevator in the center above the ground. Since the flames are gone, however, there’s no elevator that can be used, so you’re stuck in the top floors of the temple until you can find the four flames again.

 

Other than the inconvenience of the four ghosts taking the flames and blocking your only way of getting to the boss, you can’t help but notice the scenery to complement the music. The atmosphere is mysterious and nearly delving into the supernatural. The whole dungeon appears to have taken the shape of a giant, abandoned fortress. Considering that this is in the Lost Woods, and since any outsider who goes into the woods will become a Stalfos or a Skull Kid, I question the necessity of a fortress in the woods. Possibly, centuries back, it had been a centerpiece of a large war? It may have been likely, considering in the courtyard of the dungeon (with the giant Deku Babas and Octoroks), when you look up at the top of the aged, stone walls, you see crenellations. Crenellations are often a distinctive feature of castles and fortresses, and it wouldn’t be a long shot to assume that archers were once stationed in the temple.

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Little Ghosts

 

One thing I personally find interesting about this dungeon is the four ghosts that you need to defeat in order to get the four flames back and to access the elevator in the center room. According to Navi, the four ghosts are named Amy, Beth, Meg, and Joelle—all of them sisters, if you can believe it.

 

Yeah, yeah, I know what you might be saying to yourself, guys. “Oh, my gosh, MagmarFire has gone nuts! All these ghosts are good for is just to kill to keep going through the dungeon! Besides, most of this stuff I already know!”

 

What’s interesting about these four ghosts, though, is that they’re a reference to Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women. If you’re one of those gamers who has been sitting under a rock and hasn’t at least seen a play of it (admittedly, I am one of those people who have been before spring of this year  ), you might as well stick yourself in the freezer until you learn your lesson!

 

Ah, but you might wanna finish reading this first… Bah, whatever.

 

Anyway, moving on, save for the inaccuracy of Joelle’s name in the book (she’s actually named Josephine or Jo, for short), this is actually quite a nice parallel reference to the novel. Why, you ask? Well, not only does it have an accurate color for Joelle’s personality (in the play I went to, she was quite the tomboy and, needless to say, quite violent; red fits her quite well, I’d say), Zeldapedia also says that the ages of the Poe Sisters accurately matches the ages of the four sisters in the book: Meg as the oldest, Joelle as the second-oldest, Beth as the second-youngest,  and Amy as the youngest.

 

I’ve always been a big fan of references to culture and cameos (heck, I would love to see a Zelda cameo in a future Pokémon game), and this is one of those moments in Zelda history where I can look back and say, “You know, Nintendo should put more cameos in their games.” I hope I’m not the only one who thinks this.

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Sorry, M.C. Escher, wrong house!

 

Yes, this section is for you, Hi no Seijin!

 

A freaking awesome, albeit confusing, part of the Forest Temple is where you come across these mysterious corridors that are strangely twisted, as if space and gravity itself warped it into a coil. It really is odd because as you go through the corridor, you still keep your footing on the red carpet. You don’t set foot on any of the walls at all, as you would expect to have happen if gravity were actually normal. No, magic is certainly at work here, and this magic appears to have corrupted the gravity so that you can access the room ahead in different ways—and the room ahead also needs to receive credit for violating laws of physics.

 

If you take the time to look around and not get grabbed by those annoying Wallmasters in the process, you’ll notice a hole leading to another room and, most of all, the Boss Key chest, both on the wall! This isn’t really much of a problem if you can successfully control the switches in the dungeon and twist the corridors around to your benefit, but it still makes you wonder if Nintendo’s a big M.C. Escher fan…

Look familiar, Nintendo?

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The Boss

 

Finally, after defeating the Poe Sisters, getting the flames back, and obtaining the Fairy Bow, you’re ready to step through that elevator and go down to the bottom floor. The room you end up in is, yet, another strange room, though it seems more mechanical than magical. To find the room of the boss, you need to push the large “tabs” in the wall in order to have it rotate. Activate a few switches that are revealed from turning the wall like a merry-go-round, and you’re at the boss’s doorstep.

 

You find yourself in another dark room, one with a small staircase leading up to a large central platform surrounded by old paintings. The fence then closes on you, trapping you. Behind you, you see Ganondo

rf on his horse, smiling at you. Sure, this should freak you out because, c’mon! This is Ganondorf! He’s the evil guy that you need to defeat!

 

Fortunately for you, though, it’s soon revealed that he is not Ganondorf at all, and is, in fact, his phantom. He makes it…rather evident by pulling off his face as if it were a mask, revealing a skull. His horse rears and jumps into one of the paintings, marking the beginning of the battle.

 

Sounds to me like Phantom Ganon has a bit of a Charlie Bone fetish… He hides inside the paintings, creates a copy of himself in one of them to trick you into thinking that it’s the real one, where the real one c

reates a purple vortex before jumping out and casting an electrifying spell at the ground that shocks you if you’re hit.

 

The trick here is to stand on one of the Triforce symbo

ls at the edge of the platform, aim your bow toward where Phantom Ganon will pass through when jumping over you, and firing at him when he does. That way, you won’t have to worry about getting shocked from his attack and can just stay in one place until he starts fighting you without his horse.

 

This marks the second phase of this boss. He starts casting spells at you, and you need to hit them back at him. Yes, this is basically tennis, only without the net. Please stop laughing at me. >_>

 

After hitting him with enough orbs of magic and striking him enough times with your sword, you’ll have defeated Phantom Ganon, saved Saria, got the Forest Medallion, and beat the Forest Temple! Congratulations!

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It’s Over…Almost!

 

The Forest Temple is a dark, mysterious place, but it’s always had a special place in my heart, much like the Spirit Temple does. The music, the foresty castle atmosphere, the references, and the battles are enough to drive many people to love this place…and at the same time, they’re enough to make other people hate this place, or at least be apprehensive about it.

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Statistics

 

Gameplay: 8/10

Exp: A good dungeon, in my opinion, and the puzzles are pretty neat, like with the twisted corridors and using arrows. Could’ve had more, but I still love this place.

 

Originality: 10/10

Exp: C’mon. It has twisted corridors and ghosts named after characters from a novel. There is a lot of originality in this dungeon that lets it stand out among others.

 

Detail: 9/10

Exp: I love how the designers gave it the feel that it’s an ancient, untouched, spiritual place. You see vines growing on the walls to signify age, and the stone certainly doesn’t look new. Ancient + spiritual = excellent combination. Plus, I personally love the courtyard room in the dungeon, where you can see the sky and crenellations. It reminds me that we really are in an ancient place in a Middle Ages setting, and that’s a part of what makes Zelda…Zelda!

 

Overall: 9/10

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Final Thoughts

 

And now Issue Three of Zelda Re: comes to a close. I hope you found enjoyment reading this and maybe even rediscovered any love (or hate…) you have for this dungeon. Come again next month for what our beloved Zelda has in store for us! If you have any questions, drop a line either at the forums or send me an e-mail at . Or just leave a comment! That would actually be a lot easier, wouldn’t it...? And it would let me know that there are people reading this…

 

Now then, until next month! And for those of you who need to be punished, there’s a freezer in the back that you can use. Ignore the ReDead I have in there; he’s been lonely lately and may need a…hug.