A Tribute To The One Section In 'Ocarina Of Time' I Will Always Despise

Link's quest is one of hope: a classic, epic story of good emerging victorious against overwhelming odds. I recently started replaying it as part of an ongoing mission to complete every Zelda game in chronological order, and it's been an absolute joy to be swept back up into its world.

That was until I remembered The Bottom Of The Well.

If you've never played Ocarina Of Time, or if you're just having trouble remembering because you repressed the experience, The Bottom Of The Well is a sub-dungeon that Link must explore as his younger self before moving on to the next temple. It is f*cking horrifying, and it comes out of nowhere.

Let's just start with the name, shall we? The Bottom Of The Well. Even before you head inside, you just know that nothing good is going to be down there. Nothing good could ever possibly be waiting for you at the bottom of a well, unless somebody had planned a surprise party for you and had chosen to host it at the bottom of a well. But nobody would do that. Because it's the bottom of a well.

The well itself sits in the middle of Kakariko Village, which up till this point in the game has remained the final safe space in Hyrule. Your home in the forest is overrun by monsters. Ganondorf has reduced Castle Town to a zombie-filled ruin. Kakariko Village is safe. Untouched. A place to sit back and rel- oh, now it's on fire and the demon that slept underneath the well has escaped. Awesome.

Having established that the well was the former resting place of a demonic entity, Link now gets to go down there. Double awesome.

It turns out that the well leads into a claustrophobic series of chambers filled with rotting corpses and sadistic torture equipment. The whole of Kakariko Village is literally built on top of dead victims of some unspeakable horror. Kind of like America, actually.

Everything about The Bottom Of The Well is designed to unsettle the player. Invisible walls and enemies immediately mark it out as entirely different from any of the previous dungeons. Rotting hands drop down from the blood-splattered ceiling and ReDeads lurk around every corner. All the while, what can only be described as a satanic choir chants in the background accompanied by otherworldly groans. This shit gave me nightmares as a kid, and I'm willing to bet all my Rupees I'm not the only one.

But as bad as navigating The Bottom Of The Well is - and it is never anything less than harrowing - it's what waits at the very end of the dungeon that stays with most players: Dead Hand.

Upon entering the final room, an emaciated and ghostly pale monster emerges from the ground. Link is immediately ensnared by one of the many skeletal hands that have sprung up around the creature. Unable to move, Dead Hand writhes towards Link and slowly unhinges its jaw.

I mean, what the hell? There are some creepy monsters in Ocarina Of Time, but Dead Hand takes the piss. It's like a monster that got rejected from Resident Evil for being too scary fell backwards through time and into Nintendo's "family-friendly" adventure game. It's certainly easy enough to beat when you know how, but that first encounter leaves most of us utterly traumatised. I couldn't get out of that damn well fast enough.

It's no secret that Ocarina Of Time takes the player to some dark places. The first few hours of the game offer up a fairytale-esque adventure in which a younger Link embarks on a quest to gather the three Spiritual Stones. The stakes feel lower and the world feels that much more friendly. Brighter. There's a swashbuckling joy to it all.

Opening the door of time, claiming the Master Sword, and jumping seven years into the future represents a shift from light to dark that makes perfect sense! But mother of all that is holy does The Bottom Of The Well take that darkness over the line and into full-blown horror.

What really gets me is the fact Link is forced to visit this wretched place as his younger self. That means the darkness underneath Kakariko Village was always there. It existed before the seven-year jump, and had nothing to do with Ganondorf. Evil older and more terrible than Ocarina Of Time's main villain was actively biding its time during a period of supposed peace and happiness. All that time Link spends running around Hyrule as a child in what's supposed to be a happy fairytale, the horrors lurking in the depths of the well were there too. Waiting. That, to me, is probably the most disturbing thing of all.

For my money, Zelda has never done anything as outright grim as this entire sequence since. I do think that's a shame in some ways - although I'm definitely not in a rush to head back down that well anytime soon.