Fun Club What comes after the Water Temple?

[Irene]

After defeating the evil Morpha and getting the Water Medallion from Ruto, Link returns to Kakariko Village to find the village burning - a nasty surprise. Sheik is there, but he's getting kicked around by a mysterious shadow. After everything has settled down, Sheik teaches Link the Nocturne of Shadow. Saying that Link must defeat the evil shadows in the Shadow Temple, because that's where the shadows lurk.

The writing's on the wall here, ain't it? Shadow Temple is next!

But this is all presuming you went there first.

After the Water Temple, maybe natural curiosity drove you to the Gerudo Valley. Knowing that the newly acquired Longshot would take you over the broken bridge, you get eager to explore. But you'll be stumped before you know it - after freeing the carpenters and getting what feels like a decent chunk of progress, you'll find yourself unable to cross the desert without the "eye who can see the truth".

Maybe all of this happens. And eventually, you'll end up in Kakariko Village, go through the cutscene and learn the Nocturne of Shadow. But again, you'll need the "eye who can see the truth", which you'll acquire later, at the bottom of the well. But then what? You have the Lens of Truth - but now there's two possible places to explore. Which do you pick? Both leads to a dungeon.

Nah, who am I kidding? Crazy talk, right? Shadow Temple is next, we all know that? Or?

HOWEVER!

Look at the quest status screen.

It's clear that something is seriously up here. The medallions all fill up the Quest Status screen clockwise. And yes, Spirit Medallion comes before Shadow Medallion. If you listened to Sheik and did Shadow Temple first, you might come out of it, look at the Quest Status screen and go "shit! They're in the wrong order! Did I do them in the wrong order?". But if you did Spirit Temple first, and doubt whether or not you should've done Shadow Temple first, you might get confused when you see the Quest Status screen and see that yes, they're in the right order.

It's hard to decide which one feels like the "final dungeon" too. Spirit Temple is located in the Gerudo position of the map, which makes for an impressive final area. But Shadow Temple is scarier, harder and not to mention that Bongo Bongo can be defeated easier using the Ice Arrows - who are acquired in the Gerudo Training Grounds.

What's the solution to this conundrum? What happened, really? Did something shift in the development before Ocarina of Time neared completion? Did they just forget to switch places of the medallions, or did they let Sheik play the Nocturne of Shadow in a place where he wasn't supposed to play it?

And in what order do you prefer to do the temples personally?

 

[SammyJ9]

After defeating the evil Morpha and getting the Water Medallion from Ruto, Link returns to Kakariko Village to find the village burning - a nasty surprise. Sheik is there, but he's getting kicked around by a mysterious shadow. After everything has settled down, Sheik teaches Link the Nocturne of Shadow. Saying that Link must defeat the evil shadows in the Shadow Temple, because that's where the shadows lurk.

The writing's on the wall here, ain't it? Shadow Temple is next!

But this is all presuming you went there first.

After the Water Temple, maybe natural curiosity drove you to the Gerudo Valley. Knowing that the newly acquired Longshot would take you over the broken bridge, you get eager to explore. But you'll be stumped before you know it - after freeing the carpenters and getting what feels like a decent chunk of progress, you'll find yourself unable to cross the desert without the "eye who can see the truth".

Maybe all of this happens. And eventually, you'll end up in Kakariko Village, go through the cutscene and learn the Nocturne of Shadow. But again, you'll need the "eye who can see the truth", which you'll acquire later, at the bottom of the well. But then what? You have the Lens of Truth - but now there's two possible places to explore. Which do you pick? Both leads to a dungeon.

Nah, who am I kidding? Crazy talk, right? Shadow Temple is next, we all know that? Or?

HOWEVER!

Look at the quest status screen.

It's clear that something is seriously up here. The medallions all fill up the Quest Status screen clockwise. And yes, Spirit Medallion comes before Shadow Medallion. If you listened to Sheik and did Shadow Temple first, you might come out of it, look at the Quest Status screen and go "shit! They're in the wrong order! Did I do them in the wrong order?". But if you did Spirit Temple first, and doubt whether or not you should've done Shadow Temple first, you might get confused when you see the Quest Status screen and see that yes, they're in the right order.

It's hard to decide which one feels like the "final dungeon" too. Spirit Temple is located in the Gerudo position of the map, which makes for an impressive final area. But Shadow Temple is scarier, harder and not to mention that Bongo Bongo can be defeated easier using the Ice Arrows - who are acquired in the Gerudo Training Grounds.

What's the solution to this conundrum? What happened, really? Did something shift in the development before Ocarina of Time neared completion? Did they just forget to switch places of the medallions, or did they let Sheik play the Nocturne of Shadow in a place where he wasn't supposed to play it?

And in what order do you prefer to do the temples personally?

I think it's just a little bit of non-linearity and the game giving you options. To me, though, the Spirit Temple always felt like the final dungeon and the culmination of the game: You're bridging the gap between young link and old link, bringing things full circle in a way; and the whole dungeon location, leadup, and boss fight all feel like final dungeon material to me.

That said, I think you can do the adult dungeons in any order, really, with some caveats. You have to be able to go back in time to do the Spirit Temple, so you have to do Forest first. And the Shadow Temple cutscene only triggers when you've beaten the first three.

Still, I'm boring, so I always do them in the basic order: Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow, Spirit

EDIT: Plus, like you said, since you get the lens of truth from the Well in Kakariko, it feels a bit weird to me to not just immediately go to the Shadow Temple. Especially since the first time I played the game, I only knew you needed the lens of truth after already entering the Shadow Temple.

 

[Tlozbj]

Shadow Temple then Spirit Temple. While there is the issue of the medallion order not fitting, but story-wise it flows better.

This order has Link saving the Sages he personally knows first, while ending on the note of learning more about the Gerudos and how many do not support Ganondorf's rule. While it also gives proper closure to the presence of Kaepora Gaebora. Since we see him watching over Link one last time during the whole Spirit Temple sequence. A Spirit Temple -> Shadow Temple would mess up said flow of the story.

 

[HockeyBird]

Spirit Temple is located in Ganondorf's homeland and it incorporates both Young and Adult Link. It serves as the better capping off point for the temples before heading into the Ganon's castle.

 

[Yzz]

TIL you can beat the Spirit Temple before the Shadow Temple

 

[Deleted member 540]

I've never not used the hover boots to cross the haunted wasteland.

Also, Spirit Temple seems more like the culmination ahead of the final showdown because you face off against Ganondorf's aunts.

 

[Joe]

The Spirit Temple is so climactic that it has to be the final dungeon.

The real question is which comes first, Forest or Fire?

Yes, you can do Fire first.

 

[Hermii]

The problem with doing spirit temple is that the first adult puzzle of that temple requires the floating boots which you get in the shadow temple.

 

[Deleted member 2484]

I've always wondered what kind of sequence shenanigans you could get up to if you played a dungeon as far as getting the item and then just left. I might try it when that PC port looks tasty enough.

 

[Irene]

I do think that Spirit Temple just "feels" better and flows better from the narrative and pacing perspective. But I like to do Spirit first just because I can, haha. Shadow Temple still freaks me out a bit, so I like to postpone it.

The problem with doing spirit temple is that the first adult puzzle of that temple requires the floating boots which you get in the shadow temple.

Which one are you referring to? Because when you have to reach the left palm of the statue to play Zelda's Lullaby, you can just jump over there, though it's a precise jump you have to properly nail. The button on the right that activates the elevator to the first room, though, does require the Hover Boots but it's not mandatory.

 

[Hermii]

I do think that Spirit Temple just "feels" better and flows better from the narrative and pacing perspective. But I like to do Spirit first just because I can, haha. Shadow Temple still freaks me out a bit, so I like to postpone it.



Which one are you referring to? Because when you have to reach the left palm of the statue to play Zelda's Lullaby, you can just jump over there, though it's a precise jump you have to properly nail. The button on the right that activates the elevator to the first room, though, does require the Hover Boots but it's not mandatory.

Where you have to collect a bunch of grey coins in the room with the boulder, you need the hover boots for one of them.

 

[Yoshifan31]

I think the quest status screen is kind of referring to stuff that was eventually changed in the final version of the game

Medallions were supposed to be equippable items after all, the forest one has a wind logo and the water one is ice, but both temples didn’t match those themes. The wind content end up being used in the forest part of Ganon’s Castle, same with ice (plus Ice Cavern). So I think it wouldn’t be surprising that the quest status’ screen order also reflects something that may not be the same in the final game

Shadow before Spirit makes a lot more sense as already mentioned but it probably wasn’t always going to be the default order. After all there’s a funny interaction when you hit Bongo Bongo’s hands with Ice Arrows, he’ll try to break the ice with his free hand

So the intended and most climactic order is obviously Forest-Fire-Water-Shadow-Spirit but the game actually gives you a decent amount of flexibility. The first three can be done in any order, the well can be done any time after you get to be a kid again

 

[Dcubed]

Bottom of The Well

You can do some of the dungeons out of order (just like in ALTTP), but the intended order is Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow, Spirit. There's a clear difficulty curve in place.

BTW, bit of an aside, but this is also ALBW's biggest weakness. Its focus on total non-linearity means that it has a very flat difficulty curve throughout the entire game... as such, its dungeons never really grow in complexity and remain reletively basic all the way until the end. ALTTP did non-linearity much better, because it still had an intended difficulty curve with later dungeons being allowed to grow in complexity, and becoming more interesting as a result.

 

[xghost777]

I’m surprised so many people break medallion order lol. Kind of inconceivable for me even though it’s certainly possible and weird to enter and leave a dungeon halfway through. It’s well > hover boots > spirit > shadow for me.

 

[Mekanos]

I’m surprised so many people break medallion order lol. Kind of inconceivable for me even though it’s certainly possible and weird to enter and leave a dungeon halfway through. It’s well > hover boots > spirit > shadow for me.

You mean Shadow > Spirit? Because you get the Hover Boots halfway through the Shadow Temple.

 

[xghost777]

You mean Shadow > Spirit? Because you get the Hover Boots halfway through the Shadow Temple.

I get the boots and leave. I think that’s why they put them right on top of the dungeon.

 

[Mekanos]

I get the boots and leave. I think that’s why they put them right on top of the dungeon.

Then why are you saying it's weird to sequence break? I'm not understanding your original post lol.

 

[xghost777]

Then why are you saying it's weird to sequence break? I'm not understanding your original post lol.

In most Zelda games you get your dungeon item and beat the dungeon with it. There’s no reason to ever leave a dungeon in a classic Zelda game as they are all beaten in ascending order.

What’s weird about Ocarina is that the Shadow dungeon is marked as the fifth adult dungeon going by medallion order even though you’ll want both the Eye of Truth and the Hover Boots to complete Dungeon 4. For me personally, it’s also weird to even conceive even breaking dungeon order even though it’s natural and possible to beat dungeon 5 first. To do proper dungeon order though, you have to walk into dungeon 5 to claim its item, then leave it unfinished if you want to beat dungeon 4 first which is weird.

This thread is all about the dilemma will you break dungeon order or not. Me personally, I just can’t even though you have to go out of your way for it. I’m surprised how many people do break dungeon order.

 

[Awesomegames23]

After getting the Lens of Truth I'd say it's pretty unnatural to not go straight to the Shadow Temple. You can't get to the Spirit Temple without the Lens of Truth, because you need it to see the poe in the desert. So Shadow then spirit for me. Also, I think Navi bugs you to check out Kakariko Village after the Water Temple.

 

[Undeniablybiased]

This thread is all about the dilemma will you break dungeon order or not. Me personally, I just can’t even though you have to go out of your way for it. I’m surprised how many people do break dungeon order.

Most people wouldn’t even know you could do these dungeons in different orders anyway, and they’ll just default to shadow followed by spirit. Since that’s the order the sequence of events naturally suggests. In general, people aren’t intentionally “breaking dungeon order”, so what you’re talking about has likely never crossed most peoples minds.

 

[xghost777]

Most people wouldn’t even know you could do these dungeons in different orders anyway, and they’ll just default to shadow followed by spirit. Since that’s the order the sequence of events naturally suggests. In general, people aren’t intentionally “breaking dungeon order”, so what you’re talking about has likely never crossed most peoples minds.

I expect players in general to hit Shadow first on a first playthrough since you have to go out of your way to do Spirit. This thread is on a Nintendo enthusiast forum and with people who have likely played Ocarina more than once weighing in on the way to go. That’s the context of my different expectations.

Basically 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 but you have to go out of your way to do it. Versus 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, but you have to live with yourself going out of order. I’m surprised the split here is not closer while I still understand why Shadow is ahead. I want to say the Ocarina songs are listed in the menu the same way so you are going against the songs as well.

 

[AngryAlchemist]

Since we're talking about dungeon order and the understanding of it, I'd like to bring up something that I honestly find weird: Is it just me, or is Ocarina of Time lowkey weirdly more obtuse about its critical path than A Link to the Past?

I replayed Ocarina of Time 3D recently after originally using a guide as a teenager to figure out where to go when I first played it. I remember right at the end of my first playthrough looking at the overworld map and thinking "what an idiot, how did I not realize the overworld map tells you exactly where to go!". Replaying the game though, I think I realized why I was so confused ... the game doesn't tell you which blinking dots to go to and what order. It just tells you what parts of the map have a dungeon, and worse yet the map is scaled a bit strangely so it can honestly be hard to tell what parts of the map correlate to which sub-areas within a region. Looking back on my initial playthrough, I think I honestly stopped using the overworld map very early on and completely forgot about its existence till the end of the game, at which point I'm pretty sure the game tells you exactly where to go anyways.

I'm not doing this to complain, by the way, but I do find it odd and somewhat interesting. Ocarina of Time, in a lot of ways, is arguably worse at telling the player critical information than A Link to the Past. If you want to know exactly where to go, you basically have to wait for Navi to give you a hint, which in fairness only takes a few minutes, but seems like a strange design choice. It could be argued this was to make the game more open-ended, but compared to A Link to the Past it isn't, they both have a few dungeons that can be done out of order.

What's interesting about this is that I honestly feel like it has a lot of parallels to Final Fantasy VII vs Final Fantasy VI. Final Fantasy VII is very linear and usually straightforward for the most part, but at a certain point it gets weird bout where you're supposed to go and in what order. I specifically remember being annoyed by some kind of sequence where you have to do a few events right before the digging mini-game. Final Fantasy VI's second half, on the other hand, is maybe a bit less linear than VII's, but this actually plays at an advantage because it's also more open-ended, so you aren't stopped from making progress by going to "incorrect" areas in "incorrect" orders. This means that even when you go down a different path than the developers probably intended, you're still making progress. A Link to the Past is somewhat like this as well, in the sense that almost every "sidequest" in that game is actually required, so even if you're not making progress on the next intended objective, chances are you are progressing through the story still.

I don't know ... just found it interesting, I guess. It's like both series took a step forward in linearity but somehow kind of fumbled funneling the player more than the previous entries.

 

[Leo]

I like to do Water Temple right after Forest Temple because the longshot is way more useful than the hammer.

In fact, you can do Spirit Temple as early as third temple, because you only need the longshot to access it.

Except for Forest Temple, all the temples have some requirements, but there isn't really an order:

Water Temple requires Forest Temple
Fire Temple requires Forest Temple
Spirit Temple requires Water and Forest Temple
Shadow Temple requires Forest and Fire Temple

As long as you fulfill these requirements, you can do them in any order.

 

[Diddy Kong]

I've always done Shadow before Spirit.

 

[Undeniablybiased]

I expect players in general to hit Shadow first on a first playthrough since you have to go out of your way to do Spirit. This thread is on a Nintendo enthusiast forum and with people who have likely played Ocarina more than once weighing in on the way to go. That’s the context of my different expectations.

Basically 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 but you have to go out of your way to do it. Versus 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, but you have to live with yourself going out of order. I’m surprised the split here is not closer while I still understand why Shadow is ahead. I want to say the Ocarina songs are listed in the menu the same way so you are going against the songs as well.

And my point is people in general don’t care about that, enthusiast or otherwise. It’s Occam’s razor. The game suggests that shadow is first, so people go to shadow first. What’s more likely? That Nintendo actually intended for people to do things your way, and that that they consider shadow as 5 and spirit as 4? Or is it more likely that the menu placement was accidentally messed up?

Back in the Wild West of 90s video games, it’s far more likely that something changed during development and they simply didn’t update the UI to reflect that change. It’s highly unlikely that they expect players to do shadow last. So no, enthusiast or otherwise, people are not going against dungeon order, because people do not accept that the order listed in the menu is correct in the first place.

Maybe once they know it’s possible, people will mix these things up and subsequent playthroughs. But if you ask which one is supposed to be first, it’s only natural people will assume the menu order was a mistake and say shadow is clearly first.

 

[Branduil]

As most people have already said, it's Shadow first, then Spirit. That's the intended order within the diegetic narrative of the game, both explicitly with Sheik telling you to go first to the Shadow Temple, but also because of the thematic closure of finishing with the Spirit Temple. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the freedom to change up the order, but there's a reason this order feels right to most people, even if they can't explicate it.

It's hard to decide which one feels like the "final dungeon" too. Spirit Temple is located in the Gerudo position of the map, which makes for an impressive final area. But Shadow Temple is scarier, harder and not to mention that Bongo Bongo can be defeated easier using the Ice Arrows - who are acquired in the Gerudo Training Grounds.

I can't really agree with this. The Shadow Temple is spooky for sure, but I never found Bongo Bongo especially hard, personally. But more importantly, the Shadow Temple is pretty unsatisfying as the Final Medallion dungeon, with by far the weakest narrative thread- Link has no real relationship with Impa, unlike with every other sage (not counting Rauru). OTOH, the Spirit Temple satisfies and fulfills a number of narrative and gameplay threads. The time-traveling aspect makes full use of the game's primary conceit, both sections taking place in the same temple just feels slightly more interesting than the Well/Temple split. And in terms of narrative, it just makes sense that the journey culminates with Link exploring the origins of Ganondorf, and discovering the twisted upbringing and anti-legend that makes him a suitable vessel for the Triforce of Power. Bongo Bongo is just some weird monster, it's a cool boss fight but his existence has no real meaning in the game, unlike the witches who raised Ganondorf and dominate the Gerudo.

 

[Boyfriend]

i've always thought shadow then spirit was the correct order, particularly since the game encourages you to go to it directly once you finish the first three dungeons

but i've always done spirit first and i can't really explain why. i think i just had more fun doing the gerudo valley stuff as a kid and it stuck

 

[Irene]

Where you have to collect a bunch of grey coins in the room with the boulder, you need the hover boots for one of them.

You can jump slash that one, that's what I do. But I see your point.

 

[WestEgg]

While the game very much naturally directs you towards shadow first, to the point where I believe the developers certainly intend it to be completed first on a casual playthrough, it’s definitely intentional to be able to mix up the order. You don’t need to Hover Boots at all for the Gerudo area and the Spirit Temple, they just make things a bit easier (heck you can free the carpenters and gain Gerudo membership before completing any adult dungeon, you just need the hookshot). You can also do Bottom of the Well completely independently of the Shadow Temple story lead in, you just need to learn the song of storms and beat the forest temple so you can go back in time. But yeah, the developers certainly figured that at least some people would do Shadow Temple last, as evidenced by this encounter with Bongo Bongo that you’ll need the ice arrows for.

 

[Yoshifan31]

I like to do Water Temple right after Forest Temple because the longshot is way more useful than the hammer.

In fact, you can do Spirit Temple as early as third temple, because you only need the longshot to access it.

Except for Forest Temple, all the temples have some requirements, but there isn't really an order:

Water Temple requires Forest Temple
Fire Temple requires Forest Temple
Spirit Temple requires Water and Forest Temple
Shadow Temple requires Forest and Fire Temple

As long as you fulfill these requirements, you can do them in any order.

I’m pretty sure you don’t need the bow to complete the Water Temple, I remember doing it first during a playthrough without glitches or anything like that. You can just use a bomb in the room where you need to activate a switch while standing on the water pillar. Other than that you don’t need the two keys you get with the bow, you can finish the temple just fine if you use your keys right. I think it might require some tricks like warping out of the dungeon after changing the water level, using Farore’s Wind or doing some jump from the third floor to the second but either way the point is that it’s entirely glitchless so it’s not a sequence break.

You do need to complete Water before Shadow since it requires all three in order to trigger the cutscene. Even then the game still allows you to complete dungeons in like 14 different orders, without ever glitching or leaving a dungeon after getting an item.

I expect players in general to hit Shadow first on a first playthrough since you have to go out of your way to do Spirit. This thread is on a Nintendo enthusiast forum and with people who have likely played Ocarina more than once weighing in on the way to go. That’s the context of my different expectations.

Basically 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 but you have to go out of your way to do it. Versus 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, but you have to live with yourself going out of order. I’m surprised the split here is not closer while I still understand why Shadow is ahead. I want to say the Ocarina songs are listed in the menu the same way so you are going against the songs as well.

That only applies to the quest status screen, on a first playthrough you don’t know that Spirit is marked at 4. The game itself simply leads you to Shadow first. After Water, Navi just tells you some kind of vague message about searching for the remaining sages. I’m pretty sure you can see that Kakariko is on fire from Hyrule Field so the game explicitly hints you to go there. After the cutscene the Navi message becomes about the Shadow Temple. Once you finish that Navi tells you to go to the desert which is where Ganondorf’s from. So on a first playthrough you only realize that Shadow is marked at 5 after looking at the quest status screen, otherwise the game itself leads you to it first

 

[Christo750]

The Spirit Temple is so climactic that it has to be the final dungeon.

The real question is which comes first, Forest or Fire?

Yes, you can do Fire first.

...you can?

While the game very much naturally directs you towards shadow first, to the point where I believe the developers certainly intend it to be completed first on a casual playthrough, it’s definitely intentional to be able to mix up the order. You don’t need to Hover Boots at all for the Gerudo area and the Spirit Temple, they just make things a bit easier (heck you can free the carpenters and gain Gerudo membership before completing any adult dungeon, you just need the hookshot). You can also do Bottom of the Well completely independently of the Shadow Temple story lead in, you just need to learn the song of storms and beat the forest temple so you can go back in time. But yeah, the developers certainly figured that at least some people would do Shadow Temple last, as evidenced by this encounter with Bongo Bongo that you’ll need the ice arrows for.

Wtf!?!?!?!?

 

[Joe]

...you can?


Wtf!?!?!?!?

Yep, once you get the hookshot, there is nothing preventing you from doing Fire first. The only thing you miss out on, I believe, is the dungeon map, which you need the bow to get. Otherwise, you can do the entire temple without the bow.

 

[Shadow]

 

[xghost777]

That only applies to the quest status screen, on a first playthrough you don’t know that Spirit is marked at 4. The game itself simply leads you to Shadow first. After Water, Navi just tells you some kind of vague message about searching for the remaining sages. I’m pretty sure you can see that Kakariko is on fire from Hyrule Field so the game explicitly hints you to go there. After the cutscene the Navi message becomes about the Shadow Temple. Once you finish that Navi tells you to go to the desert which is where Ganondorf’s from. So on a first playthrough you only realize that Shadow is marked at 5 after looking at the quest status screen, otherwise the game itself leads you to it first

This isn’t which one did you do first, it’s which one should be next. In other words, once you are armed with the knowledge that Spirit is 4 and Shadow is 5 how do you tackle it? Otherwise there is no debate.

I’ve never done Shadow first regardless. IIRC the Ocarina screen shows Prelude to Shadow after the spirit song means you can avoid the gotcha moment.

I thought the poll would be a 70 30 split at worst, not the 90 10 it sits at. I 100% get why Shadow is ahead, I’ve only been surprised from the start there isn’t more people here who do Spirit.

 

[kimbo99]

Your life having meaning again, that's what. If you manage to finish it, you can pretty much achieve anything in life.

 

[Deleted member 540]

This isn’t which one did you do first, it’s which one should be next. In other words, once you are armed with the knowledge that Spirit is 4 and Shadow is 5 how do you tackle it? Otherwise there is no debate.

I’ve never done Shadow first regardless. IIRC the Ocarina screen shows Prelude to Shadow after the spirit song means you can avoid the gotcha moment.

I thought the poll would be a 70 30 split at worst, not the 90 10 it sits at. I 100% get why Shadow is ahead, I’ve only been surprised from the start there isn’t more people here who do Spirit.

I think you overestimated the credence people give to a buggered up UI.

And also thinking that people feel some kind of shame ("...you have to live with yourself...") for doing dungeons in the wrong order.

Basically, most people don't agree that Spirit is 4 and Shadow is 5. And for the rest, they don't care.

 

[SammyJ9]

This isn’t which one did you do first, it’s which one should be next. In other words, once you are armed with the knowledge that Spirit is 4 and Shadow is 5 how do you tackle it? Otherwise there is no debate.

I’ve never done Shadow first regardless. IIRC the Ocarina screen shows Prelude to Shadow after the spirit song means you can avoid the gotcha moment.

I thought the poll would be a 70 30 split at worst, not the 90 10 it sits at. I 100% get why Shadow is ahead, I’ve only been surprised from the start there isn’t more people here who do Spirit.

Anecdotally, almost everyone I remember growing up with the game and people I've talked to afterward don't even know that you CAN do the spirit temple before the shadow temple. I've known multiple people (including myself) who actually thought the hover boots were required to cross the desert sand river. I only much later found out you can use the longshot to do it.

As for the hover boots... I admit, the idea of getting the hover boots and then NOT finishing the dungeon you got them in is very bizarre to me. Going into a dungeon and then getting an item from it and not finishing the dungeon before going somewhere else just really doesn't even compute in my head. You're already there, partway into it, why would you leave and go somewhere else?

 

[SammyJ9]

Bottom of The Well

You can do some of the dungeons out of order (just like in ALTTP), but the intended order is Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow, Spirit. There's a clear difficulty curve in place.

BTW, bit of an aside, but this is also ALBW's biggest weakness. Its focus on total non-linearity means that it has a very flat difficulty curve throughout the entire game... as such, its dungeons never really grow in complexity and remain reletively basic all the way until the end. ALTTP did non-linearity much better, because it still had an intended difficulty curve with later dungeons being allowed to grow in complexity, and becoming more interesting as a result.

Just wanted to +1 this post, since I feel like it's rare that someone else agrees with me about ALBW. You're spot on. The flat difficulty curve, plus the item system making the sense of progression feel lackluster, really brings down the game for me, despite it still being a fun and generally good game.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

In the 3DS port, I do the water temple first sometimes.