Forest Temple

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

Ocarina of Time
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.

Concept
The Forest Temple is an eerie, complex temple filled with strange puzzles and bewilderment, such as an array of switches which invert hallways. Most of its rooms and corridors are covered with moss and vines and 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 in passageways with staircases (where the Fairy Bow can also be found), the third sister appears after Link solves a jigsaw puzzle and the final one returns to the dungeon's main chamber after the other three are defeated. 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. It appears instead in a small connecting room. 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.

The Forest Temple 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 since Nintendo has not confirmed any connection between the above, this statement is pure speculation.

Trivia

 * The Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time is known as the "topsy-turviest" level in Zelda history, followed by the Stone Tower in Majora's Mask. Nintendo Power also mentioned this once.
 * The dungeon's layout design shows that the temple exterior is shaped like a dome, in its Ocarina of Time incarnation.
 * The Forest Temple was originally the Wind Temple but was changed later in the development of Ocarina of Time. This can also be noticed by the Forest Medallion which has an image somewhat similar to a wind-like vortex.
 * 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.
 * Unlike the other four temples in the game, the Forest Temple does not seem to have a recurring statue found throughout the dungeon. There is the totem pole, dragon, raven and snake statues within the Fire Temple, Water Temple, Shadow Temple and Spirit Temple, respectively. These statues could indeed represent some sort of temple guardian, but if that is true, the Forest Temple is left without any representation. Despite the lack of statues, however, Link does come across several paintings of the Poe Sisters, the temple's mini-bosses. Seeing as the Poe Sisters act as guardians of the Forest Temple in their own right, this could indeed make them the Forest Temple's complement to the other temples.

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

- Monkey from Twilight Princess

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. 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.

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. 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. The boss in this dungeon 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.