Fire Temple

The Fire Temple may be the simplest of the dungeons adult Link faces.  Straightforward and with minimal action, nothing about this temple screams "difficult."  Not to mention, and I will say this over and over again (and is part of the reason why for most of the remainder of the quest, he's going to wear it) Link is smoking hot wearing the Goron Tunic (red's definitely his color!).

This dungeon has an interesting layout: from the very first room, you can see the boss' chamber, and Darunia, the fire sage, greets you (somehow he manages to enter the boss' chamber without a key or anything...he's got skills).  The entire dungeon is focused around this beginning room, and your goal is to make it possible for you to traverse the gap by exploring the rooms around, below and above this one.

The prize for this dungeon is the Megaton Hammer.  In reality, this item only comes in useful in this dungeon and in a few other places (and in one key fight in the next temple).  So I don't really like it too much (some have cited it as a good alternative weapon to the Master Sword, but the sword itself is just as powerful...)

The boss here is Volvalgia.  While he has a simple strategy (like whack-a-mole, but with a dragon) this boss is the toughest one that we've faced yet.  He does a great deal of damage to us, his fire attacks are a pain in the butt to avoid and not to mention he enjoys rough-housing the ceiling.  Not to mention the way he looks, this thing is more like a fire snake than a dragon, and it also looks like it's having a bad hair day too!  Either way, smashing its face in and slashing away it proves true, and then the Fire Medallion is ours.

Another aside - the Bolero of Fire, the warp song for this area, is one of the best sounding warp songs by far.  It makes me wish we had to use it more (but alas, we only really need to use it once or twice).

Darunia is awakened as a sage, and acknowledges you as his full "brother."  That's pretty cool, the Gorons are completely on our side now!  Darunia pretty much has the biggest heart of the sages, and he's the most child-like too (with the exception, maybe, of Saria).  After some words of wisdom and thanking you graciously, we are encouraged to go on with our journey...we're no where near the end yet!

Master Quest - The Fire Temple was simple and straightforward in the original title and in the bonus, it could be considered even easier: the puzzles are more straightforward, the game offers you a few cop-outs and the action level is definitely toned down.  I have a bad feeling about this given that the water temple is coming up soon, but we shall see.  (I figured this ease out by the fact that you receive the Megaton Hammer very early in this version of the dungeon.)