LogFAQs > #980031336

Watching this video made me realize why the Water Temple is so hated:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42SDc2Fhkm8

It's an interesting video that's worth watching in full, but the takeaway from it for this post is that game puzzles are divided into two phases: The part where you figure out the solution to the puzzle, and the part where you execute the solution to the puzzle, after which the game rewards you. The main sense of satisfaction and accomplishment comes from figuring out the solution, though, so if the execution phase takes too long, you create too much separation between the satisfaction of figuring it out and the satisfaction of having the game validate your achievement. That kind of disjointedness can really take the wind out of the sails of a puzzle game, so it's important to avoid it. Some puzzle games like Portal achieve this by having the execution be entertaining in its own right (it doesn't matter that you figured out how you have to jump 10-15 minutes before you complete the jump, because flying around through the portals is just plain fun and keeps the energy up through that delay), others do it by having smaller puzzles to solve as part of executing the solution (like Factorio has larger-scale logistics puzzles to solve to figure out what items you need to produce at a given moment, but executing that solution consists of a series of small-scale spatial puzzles that are more immediately satisfying to solve), and others do it by just having the execution be quick enough to not lose steam, but however it happens, it's important that the game rewards you in a timely fashion for figuring out the puzzle.

In the case of OoT's Water Temple, the central puzzle for the temple is the changing water level. You have to figure out where to go to get different water levels, then bounce between them as needed to get where you need to go. The problem, however, is that once you've found the adjustment spots, there isn't much of a challenge left. In every instance that follows, whenever you reach an obstacle and ask "what level do I need the water to be?" you solve that puzzle almost immediately. The execution, however, is then to backtrack through areas you've already completed to reach the adjustment spot and change the water level to what you need, which means it's often several minutes of unexciting walking between figuring out the solution and being rewarded with being able to move forward. Get it wrong (the door you thought you had to reach wasn't actually the way to go), and it's a few more minutes of walking to try a different option.

In practice, once you have some idea what you're doing and know what to look for, the Water Temple is actually pretty linear and it naturally guides you to the adjustment points when you need them, but if you don't catch that guidance it can result in quite a bit of backtracking, which is both tedious and can be disorienting in a way that makes it harder to find your way through (made even worse by the fact that it is actually possible to run out of keys and brick the temple if you do things wrong enough).