The results: Your favorite Zelda dungeons of all time!

[tolu619]

           Inspired by some of the comments in Khuutra's thread, http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=130426&page=1#, I decided to start a discussion solely on zelda dungeons. Which are your favorite Zelda dungeons and why? List as many or as few as little as you want to.This was the comment that actually piqued my interest:

Helios said:
Just about at the end of Twilight Princess. I've been thinking more about the conceptual themes associated with each dungeon. The Arbiter's Grounds, for example, could be summed up as 'unearthing what is hidden.' The theme is applicable, on some level, to just about everything which happens in that temple; design, puzzle and story. The Temple of Time, on the other hand, communicates thoughts of balance, symmetry and a sense of recursion - perfectly in line with what we have been told about the way the goddesses judge merit, yes?

           Let me start off. I suppose I should say SPOILER ALERT!

1. The Temple of Time (Twilight Princess)

          One of the most beautiful dungeons in any Zelda, packed full of Lizalfos and Dinolfos(some of the toughest enemies in TP) and combines more of TP's features than most other dungeons. You need your wolf sense, arrows, spinner, hidden skills(try beating the Dinolfos or the best miniboss in the entire game, the Darknut, without them), clawshot and the 'return statue to first room' puzzle was probably the most fun I've had in a single puzzle in Zelda. Ends with an awesome boss.

2. Ganon's Castle(Ocarina of Time)

         Merges the last 5 dungeons into one super dungeon, you get to hurl around 6 stories high boulders, ends with a series of fights against the toughest enemies in the game, then you get to the final boss only to realise that he was playing the dungeon's theme on an organ all the while! Even after the final epic battle, you still get an 'escape before time runs out' scene!

3. Arbiter's Grounds(Twilight Princess)

       First half of the dungeon heavily relies on your wolf powers. Tracking down poes and discovering ghost rats was awesome. Second half heavily relies on one of the coolest items in any game ever, the spinner, which was heavily ignored for most of the game after this dungeon. As Helios said, "The Arbiter's Grounds...could be summed up as 'unearthing what is hidden.' The theme is applicable, on some level, to just about everything which happens in that temple; design, puzzle and story.

4. Goron Mines(Twilight Princess)

      Best use of the iron boots ever. Encourages sniping. Features little underwater sections in which you must watch your breathe gauge as you don't have the Zora armor yet. Nice miniboss and end boss fights, though the latter was too easy. Nice particle effects. One of the best examples of the technology featured in Zelda games, which is one thing I love about the series............technology in a magical/olden days setting.

5. The last 3 dungeons in Majora's mask - The Great Bay Temple, The Stonehedge Temple and The Snowpeak Ruins

       Majora's mask emphasized quality over quantity, hence there are only 4 main dungeons. Each was so well designed that they rank really close in my personal ratings, in the order in which I listed them. The Great Bay Temple is the best water based dungeon I've ever played, ever. Zora was awesome, ice arrows were double awesome. Stonehedge temple had fun enemies(and a few new one, even though it's the last dungeon) and a nice flip the rooms or entire dungeon upside down puzzle design but it overused the cloning ability. Maybe they should have mapped that ability to an item, not a song so the cutscene is shorter. The Snowpeak ruins has the most unique boss fight in the whole game, and somehow manages to combine a snow-themed dungeon with a lava dungeon.

6. The Shadow Temple(Ocarina of Time)

       Great atmosphere. Bells ringing while you fight a living skeleton on a ghost ship.......awesome. Scary(Wall masters or whatever they were called really helped) with tough enemies everywhere. Heavily relies on traps(putting a little prince of persia in it) and the Lens of Truth, which was the first time I ever encountered such a unique item. Lets you see invisible things AND see right through false images. No matter how well such a feature is used in a game in future, it can't leave me in awe like the first one did. One of the more innovative boss fights in the game and uses a lot of your tools too........hover boots, lens of truth, fire arrows, ocarina, bombs, hookshot.

7. The Spirit Temple(Ocarina of Time)

        Again great atmosphere and tough enemies. Also, you get to play as both the child and older Link. The use of the mirror shield for light-based puzzles was also m y first time of encountering light based puzzles in a game.

8. The House of Skulttulas(Majora's Mask)

       There are two house of skulltulas in this game. They're dungeons where you must find all 30 golden skulltulas, before the end of the 3rd day. This time limit on all dungeons in this game adds a nice challenge, but unlike the other dungeons, you can't save and return to the first day after getting the weapon then play through again(which is easier with weapon) as these 2 dungeons are side quests so you don'tget any weapon while playing through. One of them has one of my favorite puzzles of all time and I won't spoil it for anyone but for those that have completed the 2nd house of skultulla, I'm referring to the puzzle that involes your bottles.

9. Fire Temple(Ocarina of Time)

        Overall nice design. Rescuing gorons was a nice change from 'hero goes alone into empty dungeon to retrieve X, fights monsters while no intelligent creature helps or opposes him'. It felt more like a real mission than a 'its a game so play through this dungeon' mission.

10.  Twilight Temple(Twilight Princess)

       Nice atmosphere, nice fights, great use of the master sword, overall nice combination of all its v arious elements.

 SORRY, COULDN'T LIMIT IT TO A TOP TEN!

11. Snowpeak Ruins(Twilight Princess)

            Finally, a plethora of tough enemies! Also uses the wolf well and the canon puzzles were fun. BALL AND CHAIN! Worst boss in the entire game though.

THE RESULTS:

     I counted every time a dungeon was mentioned in the thread, including the guy that said "every dungeon in aLLtp". There were only a few replies to this thread so I'm listing only dungeons with 3 or more mentions, as a whole lot of them got mentioned twice. My votes are inclusive.
1. Stone Hedge Temple(Majora's Mask) 8 votes
2. Spirit Temple(Ocarina of time) 6 votes
Snow Peak Ruins(Twilight Princess) 6 votes
3. Tie between 4 dungeons 4 votes
-Temple of Time(Twilight Princess)
-Great Bay Temple(Majora's Mask)
-Water Temple(Ocarina of Time)
-City in the Sky(Twilight Princess)