As we tiptoe ever nearer to the Ocarina of Time Change 2 launch date, my playthrough of the N64 authentic continues. Certainly, this week ideas me previous the midway level, so there is no turning again.
In the event you missed weeks one via 4, I am revisiting OoT, one dungeon per week, and sharing all of the issues I liked (and the issues I did not) on my replay.
With my all-time favorite behind me, it was time to go up Demise Mountain as soon as once more, don a special tunic, and work out what’s up with that enormous purple cloud within the sky. As all the time, I‘m going into dungeon specifics right here, so in the event you’ve by no means performed OoT earlier than and you might be saving your self for the remake, simply know that there are spoilers forward!
OoT Dungeon Crawl #5 – The Hearth Temple
I am barely ashamed to confess that, off the again of the brilliance of The Forest Temple, I all the time neglect about The Hearth Temple.
In truth, going into it this playthrough, I remembered little or no about it in any respect. You get the hammer, there is a large pillar, the boss’ identify despatched me into hysterics at age 10. However I owe it an apology as a result of my eyes have been opened this time round. The Hearth Temple guidelines.
It will get off to a easy however very pleasing begin. The opening T-shaped hall homes two doorways on the bottom degree: the left that includes a Goron and the Boss Key chest locked in a cage you possibly can’t open, and the correct caught behind an immovable pillar. Identical to that, we have now an goal (free the Goron and get the important thing) and a puzzle (the mysterious pillar). Discuss effectivity.
With no key to open the upper-right door, the designers drive you left, into its central chamber. In the event you’ve learn any entry on this Dungeon Crawl collection up thus far, you may know that I am a sucker for a central chamber (bonus factors if it has a giant previous puzzle in it), and this one is a doozy.
An introductory chat with Darunia tees up the boss location, the merchandise you may must defeat it, and your Goron-freeing principal goal. Heading left ticks the primary Goron off the checklist and descriptions that the one technique to get to the boss is to knock that large pillar down from the ceiling. All of that from one room! Once more, that is some *chef’s kiss* effectivity.
And so started my journey upwards. I’ve obtained to offer it to the Hearth Temple; it manages to make the extraordinarily complicated really feel very simple. This can be a dungeon full of ‘hub rooms’ — big areas that confide in a number of exits — and puzzles that it is advisable to bear in mind and return to later, but it surely by no means feels disorienting.
Jabu-Jabu has a way more fundamental format, on paper, however I get misplaced in these bodily tubes each time I get to it. Credit score to Darunia for adorning Demise Mountain’s corridors with such visually distinct palettes, then.
It signifies that regardless of the sheer variety of small keys and locked doorways, I all the time had a reasonably respectable thought of the place I had already been and the place I wanted to go subsequent. Issues is perhaps a bit extra complicated if each freed Goron did not include a temple tip (there are some mechanics that it might be higher to find your self, in the event you ask me), however the fixed uncaging provides the entire thing a transparent ahead momentum from one room to the following.
I notably loved the variety of puzzle field rooms this time round. There’s a respectable quantity of fight within the Hearth Temple, but it surely feels rather more thinky on the entire. Not solely is that this your introduction to crystal switches, but it surely rapidly develops your understanding of them to incorporate timers, platforming necessities and item-specific triggering. Putting a bomb to get a head begin on a timer countdown is previous information at this time, but it surely’s nonetheless immensely satisfying to drag off.
I am going to give a shoutout, too, to the flexibility of the dungeon’s unlockable merchandise: the Megaton Hammer. It is a weapon, it is an impediment remover, it is even used to unravel puzzles with these rusty switches. I am mainlining dungeons and ignoring aspect quests on this playthrough, so who is aware of, it would even come in useful within the very late sport…
It is also essential for fixing the most important puzzle of all of them. Climbing to the highest of the dungeon and navigating the hearth mazes, I knocked the central pillar free and rode it right down to the room the place it began. I can affirm, it is as satisfying a soar at this time because it was all these years in the past.
However there was nonetheless one puzzle left: that locked-up Goron and Boss Key Chest we noticed within the very first room. With hammer in hand(s), I knocked away the stone statue from the blocked door and took a brand new path round to the left, slamming the change and releasing the caged creature. God, I adore it when a dungeon goes all round.
With that itch sufficiently scratched, I hopped throughout the pillar and entered Volvagia’s chamber (with solely the slightest titter from the schoolboy in me). This seems like an encounter that may actually profit from some elevated dramatics on Change 2. I really like the idea — a lava-filled Whack-a-Dragon that steadily will increase in problem with totally different gap telegraphing and aerial assaults — however man, the massive, scary dragon certain seems to be a bit weedy in 2026.
Both method, with a number of swings of my hammer, Volvagia was down, its airborne physique dissipating into bones earlier than the cranium crashes to the ground. How splendidly horrifying.
Remake Reflections
The Hearth Temple is An Absolute Stunner™ and maybe the most important shock of my playthrough up to now. Severely, how had I forgotten a lot about this place? With some contemporary HD lava lighting and an acceptable boss ’embiggening’, this one has the potential to take a seat proper up the highest of my checklist.
It is on to everybody’s favorite location subsequent week, as I sort out the most-discussed dungeon within the sport. See you all then, and remember your spare pair of footwear!