Each of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s dungeons is punctuated with a boss, often one that requires you to use whatever item you got in that temple and show the game what you’ve learned. Going back to them 28 years after the game first came out does reveal that a lot of them are pretty simple fights, but even if they aren’t mechanically demanding, they still each have a menacing vibe that reminds you that, despite the childlike wonder of the Zelda universe, things are dire in the kingdom of Hyrule. We decided to rank them from worst to best, and included a couple of the game’s memorable mini-bosses for good measure.
King Dodongo
All you ever really hear about Dodongo before meeting him is that he likes to eat, so I guess it makes sense that he wouldn’t even think twice about eating an explosive over and over. A 3D throwback to a boss from the original Legend of Zelda, he has a one-track mind: He’s a hungry boy who indiscriminately sucks up whatever’s in front of him. Hope he likes gunpowder. You’re telling me the Gorons couldn’t figure out how to beat this guy? Y’all sell these things in packs of five. — Kenneth Shepard
Morpha
This is my personal least-favorite boss. I have no idea what its backstory is. It’s visually unimpressive, and trivially easy to defeat in both the original and the remake. Literally just a little ball. Who cares? —Rebekah Valentine
9. Gohma
As the first boss in Ocarina of Time (and another boss who first appeared in the original LoZ), Gohma is pretty unremarkable compared to the monsters Link will face as the game goes on, but at least he’s a big ol’ creepy crawly that looks like it could have infected a giant tree god and it has a giant red eye that’s just begging to get shot. Maybe put on a goggle next time you hear Link’s little boots stomping around, my dude. — Kenneth Shepard
8. Barinade
Like most things inside Jabu-Jabu, Bariande is kinda gross to look at. It’s looks like a growth you’d see in a medical textbook growing on the inside of someone who’s about to be possessed by a fungus or virus, and defeating it basically requires Link to be a living, tunic-wearing, sword-swinging, boomerang-throwing dose of Pepto-Bismol. All its attacks look like radioactive bodily fluid being slung Link’s way, and I simply don’t like to look at it, so clearly, we must kill it. — Kenneth Shepard
7. Dead Hand
Now we’re talkin’! I love the pacing of this fight. Entering the room, nothing. Just an ominous mist. Then, as you tentatively explore, a hand rips its way out of the ground. You approach to fight, only for it to grab you and hold you still while the actual monster, a gruesome death blob creature, lurches toward you for an attack. It’s horrifying! Best part, though: you get to fight it a second time as adult Link, this time knowing what’s coming, and absolutely thrash it. — Rebekah Valentine
6. Volvagia
The boss fight with Volvagia, who first appeared in Zelda 2, is a fiery game of whack-a-mole with a dragon that has luxurious locks and performs some of the fiercest hairography in all of Hyrule. Even as it’s dying, it swerves and slides around in the air like it’s in the club dancing to a sick beat. A slay. — Kenneth Shepard
5. Bongo Bongo
It may not be top of this list, but it’s at the top of my list for being absolutely effed up. This is seemingly the body of someone the Sheikah tortured and killed, its hands chopped off and its head apparently gone too, replaced by a freaky eye thing. There’s so much going on in this fight. You need the magic lens(es) to even see what’s going on, arrows to shoot down the hands when they attack, and the hover boots to keep your footing steady as Bongo Bongo bongos the floor to the rhythm of the music. Stressful, chaotic, and disturbing, this is the perfect fight after the grim connotations of Bottom of the Well and Shadow Temple. — Rebekah Valentine
4. Twinrova
The sorcerer sisters Kotake and Koume are some of the only bosses Link fights in Ocarina of Time that aren’t merely monsters. By the time you actually face them and their contrasting fire and ice magic, you’ve had more than enough time to hate their guts for their constant belittling and mocking of you across the past and present of Ocarina of Time’s story. If the fact that they raised Ganondorf wasn’t enough reason to want to wipe their smug faces across the Spirit Temple floor, their constant patronizing gets them there. The actual battle against them is one of the more clever ones in Ocarina of Time, requiring you to use the mirror shield to reflect the spells of one back on the other, as each is vulnerable to her sister’s powers. Eventually, the two fuse into Twinrova, a super-witch that has all the strengths of both. Unfortunately for them, Twinrova also has their weaknesses, and a well-timed deployment of the Mirror Shield can send their magic back where it came. Even death cannot stop them from bickering, as they float toward the light swearing they will haunt Link one day. — Kenneth Shepard
3. Dark Link
To this day, Dark Link remains a fantastic example of Nintendo being undefeated at predicting how players will approach even the simplest environments. The pacing this room creates: you enter, pause, crossing to see what’s on the other side, finding nothing. You turn around confused, and then see…something, by the tree…ah! What a fantastic surprise in the middle of a grueling dungeon, and a genuinely difficult fight as you’re faced with all your own moves, perfectly timed to counter you. Best of all is when you attack and he just jumps on your sword, mocking you. What a badass. —- Rebekah Valentine
2. Phantom Ganon
Phantom Ganon may just be a puppet for Ganondorf to control from a safe distance, but it’s one of the most striking examples of the shift in Ocarina of Time’s tone once Link is all grown up. He’s already walked through the terrifying streets of the broken-down Castle Town, so there’s no mistaking that the world of childlike innocence he once knew is gone, but perhaps he can escape it, however briefly, by going back to his childhood home of the Kokiri Forest. But no, Ganondorf’s corruption has taken root and spread throughout the wilds he once knew. Phantom Ganon is just an imitation of the evil Link knows is out there, but it’s no less imposing as it rides Ganondorf’s steed into paintings of withered forests with Ganondorf’s castle looming in the background. Taking down this imposter will not stop Ganondorf, but it feels like the first time since Link has awakened in this post-apocalyptic future that he might be able to win this fight after all, and a harrowing reminder of what will happen if he doesn’t. — Kenneth Shepard
1. Ganondorf/Ganon
After you’ve already fought a facsimile of him, Ganondorf has a lot to prove when it’s finally time to take the fight to his doorstep. As you climb to his lair at the top of Hyrule Castle, you hear ominous organ music playing in the background, as if the embodiment of pure evil awaits you. And, it turns out, Ganondorf himself is playing this foreboding piece as he waits for Link to bring him the final piece of the Triforce. It’s all so theatrical. Ganondorf is certainly one with a flair for the dramatic.
The initial fight is relatively straightforward, though it has the added challenge of Navi being unable to give you any insight, so you have to figure it all out yourself. You play a game of fireball tennis once more, with the new wrinkle of having to fire Light Arrows at him to get your slashes and stabs in. At first, he seems to go down pretty easily, and it feels like the Great King of Evil might have been all bark and no bite. It’s not until he rises from the rubble of Hyrule Castle and his true inner evil comes to the surface as he transforms into Ganon, a pig-like monster wielding two giant blades that towers over Link, that he becomes a true threat. Like most Ocarina of Time boss fights, there’s a pattern to recognize and a weak point to strike, but the feeling of an incoming cataclysm as you fight in the ruins of the castle and the desecrated Hyrule is rained down upon by a dangerous storm is unmatched, ending the game in a desperate, perilous brawl between the forces of light and darkness. — Kenneth Shepard
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