Forest Temple

The Forest Temple is the name of a recurring temple that has appeared in Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Spirit Tracks.

Entrance to the Temple
Deep within the Sacred Forest Meadow in the Lost Woods lies the Forest Temple, inhabited by many fierce foes. Since the stairway leading to the temple is now broken, the only way to gain access to the temple is by obtaining the Hookshot from the Kakariko Graveyard and grabbing onto a tree branch hanging off the top of the entrance platform.

Themes and Navigation
The Forest Temple is an eerie, complex temple filled with strange puzzles and other features designed to confuse its explorers, such as an array of switches which invert hallways when pressed. Most of its rooms and corridors are covered with moss and vines, and many hold enemies like the Skulltula and Deku Baba. The dungeon's interior design is reminiscent of a mansion or castle, with portraits hanging in certain rooms and quaint red carpets decorating the floor. The temple is home to the four Poe Sisters that lurk deep inside and guard the way to its master; Link must hunt down and destroy them to complete the temple. The first two sisters can be found on the upper levels of the temple, in passageways with staircases; the third sister appears in the eastern end of the upper levels after Link solves a jigsaw puzzle, and the final sister returns to the dungeon's main chamber after the other three are defeated. The Fairy Bow is the Temple's item, and is found on the northern end of the upper level of the temple. The dungeon also features two wells that are connected to each other. It is also one of the few dungeons in the Zelda series whose structure can be altered—in this case, by twisting and untwisting hallways, revealing new paths (For another example, the Stone Tower Temple).

The temple's music will also become a monster of its very own with its eerie but gorgeous tune and unnatural sounds. It's also the first temple where Link meets the dreaded Wallmaster in Ocarina of Time, and its boss is the fierce Phantom Ganon. Link journeys here to save his childhood Kokiri friend Saria only to awaken her as the Sage of Forest. Her power helps Link continue on his journey to free the other imprisoned sages.

Master Quest
Mostly, the locations of keys and locked doors have been changed. The two Wolfos are no longer at the entrance of the Temple, but at the room where the first Stalfos was fought, who appears instead in a small connecting room and rewards Link with the map. There are two extra blocks in the room with the block puzzle, but they serve no purpose other than causing confusion. The first twisted room is straight when it is first found, and is twisted by activating a switch, not with arrows. Several puzzles requiring Time Blocks are found, too. There are more Skulltulas and Skullwalltulas in the dungeon. In the room where the Floormaster was originally found (which is now found in another room) is a single ReDead. The well is now emptied by shooting an eye with the bow.

Minor Enemies and Traps

 * Skulltulas
 * Skullwalltulas
 * Deku Babas
 * Big Deku Babas
 * Gold Skulltulas
 * Blue Bubbles
 * Green Bubbles
 * Wallmasters
 * Floormasters
 * Wolfos
 * ReDeads (Master Quest only)
 * Dropping Ceilings

Twilight Princess
"Ever since the boss went funny in the head, there have been scary monsters everywhere..."

- Monkey from Twilight Princess

Entrance to the Temple
The Forest Temple is the first dungeon in Twilight Princess. It is housed within a massive tree in the Faron Woods that some theorize to be the dead remains of the Great Deku Tree from Ocarina of Time. It houses the Gale Boomerang, which is used to defeat its boss, the Twilit Parasite Diababa.

Themes and Navigation
The temple is infested with Deku Babas, Baba Serpents, Skulltulas and Bokoblins. The Gale Boomerang is used inside the temple to manipulate wind powered switches and bridges allowing Link to access rooms deeper within the dungeon. Monkeys have been imprisoned in various locations throughout the temple by their "chief", the mini-boss Ook. They must all be freed in order to gain access to the boss's lair, which, after being cleared, is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful places in the entire game.

This dungeon is different from the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time in that it has only one level as opposed to multiple floors, and is far more organic in its design — though the first room of this temple is notably similar to its Ocarina of Time counterpart. Twilight Princess's Forest Temple is also similar to the Woodfall Temple in Majora's Mask in that a lot of the rooms seem to be very swamp-like.

If Link wants to re-visit the Temple, he will need the Clawshot to get any farther than the main room. This is because the monkeys he rescued earlier will now only help him get to the boss room. However, there are vines on the left and right side of the main room, so Link can use the Clawshot to get over to the other sides.

Spirit Tracks
The Forest Temple returns in Spirit Tracks as the first temple within the game that Link must explore in order to restore its energy to the fragmented Tower of Spirits.

Entrance to the Dungeon
The temple is located northwest of the Forest area of Hyrule, and is accessible after Link and Gage perform a Lokomo Duet in the Forest Sanctuary, which in turn is found after the young hero crosses a maze in the forest during a train travel. Left of the temple's inner entrance is a statue that teaches Link the Song of Healing.

Themes and Navigation
It has the appearance of an Aztec-like pyramid with a giant tree growing atop it. Many elements from Phantom Hourglass are present within the dungeon including the statues that reveal chests within the temple for a small fee. Items such as the Demon Fossil and Wooden Heart are found here, as well as the Whirlwind, the main treasure of the temple that is also critical to defeat the boss of the temple. Mothula serves as the dungeon's mini-boss, while the boss is a large stag beetle-like creature called Stagnox, who has stolen the temple's Force Gem from its beacon atop the temple and thus is responsible for the deactivation of the temple's energy beacon.

Link defeats the creature atop the temple by using the Whirlwind to turn its weaknesses and attacks on itself, therefore exposing it to his own attacks. Following Stagnox's defeat, the temple's Force Gem is restored to its energy beacon, restoring the temple's energy flow to the Tower of Spirits and causing a segment of the tower to reconnect to the base, completing the hero's first task to restore the tower to its original state.

In the PAL version of Spirit Tracks, this temple is named Wooded Temple instead of Forest Temple, possibly to avoid confusion with the other Forest Temples of the series.

Theories

 * The Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time bears resemblance to a vast, ruined mansion, and because of this some speculation has arisen in respect to its commonly accepted "temple of worship" title. The Poe Sisters could very well be the ghosts of the family that may have resided here at one point far in the past. However, this claim only looks at the architecture and the inhabitants of the temple as evidence, and is pure speculation.

Trivia

 * The dungeon's layout design shows that the temple exterior is shaped like a dome, in its Ocarina of Time incarnation.
 * It is believed this dungeon was originally meant to be the Wind Temple, but was changed to a forest-themed dungeon later in the development of Ocarina of Time. This belief is supported by the appearance of the Forest Medallion, which has an image somewhat similar to a wind-like vortex, and the Forest Barrier of Ganon's Tower, which is actually wind-themed. It is worth noting that the forest and wind elements are often associated with one another in The Legend of Zelda.
 * It is strongly believed by Team Beta Triforce that the Forest Temple and Ganon's Castle were Hyrule Castle at a very early point in development, due to how Ocarina of Time ' s Forest Temple resembles a castle from A Link to the Past.
 * The Forest Temple has been remarked by the fans, along with the Stone Tower Temple in Majora's Mask, to be one of the most unorthodox dungeons in the Zelda series.
 * In Four Swords Adventures, the Temple of Darkness is called "Forest Temple" by the White Maiden.
 * The music of the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time has a strings portion that is replicated by the City In The Sky in Twilight Princess.