Dungeon III: Lord Jabu-Jabu's Belly

So we're not really deviating from our standard here: we have a central room (the elevator room) from which all other rooms branch.  We do introduce a new element here: we have to defeat certain enemies (tentacles) to advance, and this format of dungeon is seen again in this and other titles (off the top of my head, the Forest Temple in this game and Arbiter's Grounds from Twilight Princess.)

One thing I hate about this temple is that you are "priviliged" to escort Ruto all across the place, and she has a horrible time of keeping up with you...you have to carry her everywhere, and if you lose her, well, somehow, she finds her way quickly back to the beginning so that she can scold you.  She's also terribly frightened of the worst things, and worse, this NPC has a terrible crush on Link that she's not afraid to hide...and she's terribly gross.  That's transspecies, ewww.

Our prize here is the boomerang (boom) which is the coolest item in nearly every Zelda title.  It destroys stuff, it stuns stuff, it's long distance, it doesn't use ammunition and it can hit in an arc: one of the best items by far.  Too bad only young link can use it.

But I digress.  This dungeon has on of the coolest boss fights yet, with multiple stages and we're fighting a group of ameboae which form together to combat you (a cool concept, after all, a team effort has a better chance than an individual effort.  the bad guys are starting to think now).  This is also the first boss that has a real chance at killing us: the first two were jokes.  Now, while in the moment this kind of thing is frustrating and stressful, it's part of the fun of a game: to be challenged and get our adrenaline going.  Also, the boss fight isn't impossible and the boss is kind of pretty to look at, making this cool.

Master Quest - This dungeon changes dramatically in the harder version.  While the overall layout of the dungeon changes, the general theme of the dungeon has changed greatly.  While the original dungeon centered around eliminating tentacles so that we could advance, this version retains that and only that.  The rooms of this dungeon have different enemies than before (with the exception of the bubble-things and the biri that are thematic to the place), Ruto's part is minimized (thank the heavens) as you only need her in two rooms of the dungeon, and apparently Lord Jabu-Jabu has a taste for beef because he's full of cows, which are now the central thematic hub to the puzzles of this dungeon.  This dungeon is a little more intense than its counterpart; giving that you encounter some Lizalalfos deep inside this monstrous gut; but the fight with Brinade is still cool looking...and rather simplistic.  One weird thing about this dungeon is that it gives you the dungeon map in the first room (rather convenient, and sensible) and it gives you the boomerang rather quickly as well.  This dungeon didn't step up much in difficulty (if, in fact, this one didn't step DOWN in difficulty is arguable.)