Shadow Temple — zelda

	Shadow Temple... Here is gathered Hyrule’s bloody history of greed and hatred.
— Unknown

The Shadow Temple ^(OoT) is the seventh Dungeon in Ocarina of Time.^[1] Located in the back of the Kakariko Village Graveyard, it can be accessed once Link learns the Nocturne of Shadow. The Shadow Temple emphasizes macabre themes such as death and fear and arguably features the most terrifying enemies of the game.

Themes and Navigation

The Shadow Temple was historically a place used by the Sheikah to interrogate enemies of the Royal Family of Hyrule. Because of the dark stain on Hyrule's history that it represents, it is taboo for the Royal Family to speak of the Shadow Temple.^[2] Consequently, some of the walls and floors are stained with blood (much like the Bottom of the Well), and torture equipment is located in several rooms.

In comparison to other temples, the Shadow Temple guides the Hero of Time through a straight route, except in some parts where the young hero has to deviate in order to find keys or an item. The temple is filled with undead creatures, deadly and twisted traps and mind-bending puzzles everywhere all designed to trap anyone who enter the temple. It is also filled to the brim with invisible walls and passageways only visible using the Lens of Truth. Many concealed Skulltulas hang in rooms and corridors within the temple's walls. Link's goal is to go to the bottom of the temple, where its boss, Bongo Bongo, is found. Because of the temple's mostly linear structure, its difficulty is based on the numerous enemies, Silver Rupee collections, invisible obstacles, and traps within. There is also a Bomb Flower puzzle similar to those seen in Dodongo's Cavern.

These are the two keys to finishing the Shadow Temple: being able to see through illusions and the adjusting of Link's weight, from lighter than air to being heavy enough to walk on the ocean floor. Without being able to do either, the Shadow Temple cannot be finished. A little used strategy in the Shadow Temple is when Link comes across the active fans in a corridor, the Iron Boots can be used to resist the force of the wind they produce. The Hover Boots, the temple's treasure item, are known by all to be used to cross large gaps otherwise insurmountable.

The Lens of Truth reduces the difficulty of the Shadow Temple drastically, including against Bongo Bongo. It allows Link to see through fake walls and holes, as well as invisible obstacles, platforms and even enemies.

At one point, a large boat referred to as "the ferry to the other world"^{[name reference needed]} must be ridden by Link on his way to retrieve the Boss Key. The ferry begins to sail when Link plays "Zelda's Lullaby" on the Ocarina of Time. During this journey, he must fight multiple Stalfos on the ship's deck. Upon reaching the end of the route, the boat will sink into the fog. This will cause Link to void out if he does not jump off in time.

The mini-boss of this dungeon is Dead Hand. It is unknown whether or not this is the same one from the Bottom of the Well, but it serves as the guardian of the Hover Boots here. The boss of the temple, as mentioned above, is Bongo Bongo, an undead monster consisting of a giant torso, single protruding eye and pair of huge disembodied hands beating on a giant bongo drum. It is never sufficiently explained why there is such a drum in the basement, though it could be an inside joke to the bosses' name by the developers. When Bongo Bongo is defeated, Impa, the Sheikah assistant of Princess Zelda, awakens as the Sage of Shadow.

Master Quest

Compared to other Master Quest dungeons, the Shadow Temple presents much less of a challenge. The main changes to the dungeon involves the type and number of enemies encountered. The number of Beamos and Keese has been increased and there are fewer Skulltulas than before. The order in which the rooms are visited is still the same, and the Hover Boots are less useful than in the original quest. Instead of a Floormaster, there are now Blue Bubbles and a Like Like in the room with invisible walls. There is now a silver Rupee puzzle in the invisible reaper room, and one of the reaper statues constanty changes the speed of its swirling scythes. One of the rooms with giant rotating skulls now contains Stalfos, which give a reward of 20 Rupees when defeated. The most notorious change is a room with several Bomb Flowers. Instead of an invisible Floormaster, a second Dead Hand with no hands now appears, defeating it awards the young hero with a bundle of Arrows.

Small Keys

In the original, there are five small keys.
In Master Quest, there are six.

Minor Enemies and Traps

Trivia

In the Japanese release, the Shadow Temple is known as the Temple of Darkness.
According to The Great Hyrule Encyclopedia, the Shadow Temple was built using the bones of Hyrule's "evil dead" and the traps within were designed to add more bodies to the crypts.^[3]

An extremely rare case in a Nintendo game, crimson-colored blood is found inside the Shadow Temple
Like the Bottom of the Well, stained red blood can be found on some floors and walls within the Shadow Temple, likely as a representation of Hyrule's dark history. Blood, however, is rarely shown in The Legend of Zelda series or any Nintendo titles in general, as examples of such violent deaths are never depicted. Even so, it normally would not be in this shade of color, as it is often used for graphic violence. Ganondorf can also be seen coughing up blood when he is defeated in the first round and bleeds in his beast form, although in later versions of the N64 game it is changed to green due to controversy. Despite this, the Temple's blood remains red even in the 3DS remake. Strangely, the blood did not affect the original game's Everyone ("E") rating by the ESRB in spite of the risk of being Teen ("T"), though Ocarina of Time 3D obtained the Everyone 10+ ("E10+") level.

Nomenclature

Names in other regions
Language		Name	Meaning
	Japanese	闇の神殿 (Yami no Shinden) ^(OoT)^[4]	Temple of Darkness
This table was generated using translation pages.

Gallery

The entrance to the Shadow Temple
Link opening the entrance with Din's Fire
The first main room of the temple
A fake wall seen with the Lens of Truth
A corridor within the temple
Fighting off Stalfos on the ferry
One of the temple's fans
The temple's boss, Bongo Bongo
The Dungeon Map of the Shadow Temple

References

↑ Encyclopedia, Dark Horse Books, pg. 149
↑ "The Shadow Temple, located in the Kakariko Village graveyard. It is a place where the Sheikah, entrusted with the lives of Hyrule's royal family, have historically taken enemies of the royal family to be interrogated or worse. Because it stands as a symbol of Hyrule's dark history, it is taboo for the royal family to speak of this temple and its horrific purpose." (Encyclopedia, Dark Horse Books, pg. 44)
↑ "Lying behind the Kakariko Graveyard, the Shadow Temple was built with the blood and bones of Hyrule's evil dead. A labyrinth of illusions and puzzles, the Shadow Temple is a tangle of illusions and puzzles, each designed to add another resident to its already overflowing crypts." — The Great Hyrule Encyclopedia, Zelda.com (Archive).
↑ Nintendo Official Guidebook—The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Shogakukan) pg. 155

Dungeons in The Legend of Zelda series

The Legend of Zelda

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