One of the most beloved gems of the Nintendo 64 era is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a classic if there ever was one. While I’m not normally the biggest fan of boss fights, I always enjoyed the bigger foes of the Zelda series, as they never overstayed their welcome and often required brains, as well as brawn, to overcome, seeing as you often needed to utilize your newly acquired tools to best them. I’ll be ranking all the bosses (not mini-bosses, but enemies who appear at the ends of dungeons and temples) from the most anticlimactic to the most memorable. And don’t forget to share your favorite bosses, or your least favorite, if you prefer, in the comments below! (And in case you’re interested, don’t forget my dungeon ranking.)
11: White Wolfos – This forgettable boss of the forgettable Ice Cavern was almost not even included in this list. Because even after fighting it yesterday (I wrote this post as I played through the game), I almost forgot it existed. It’s just a bigger Wolfos. That’s white. You just hold up your shield and attack after it tries to attack you. Why was this even a boss? It’s silly and lame, and it doesn’t even deserve a spot on this list!
10: Morpha – This is a sentient pool of water, oooOOOoooo! Okay, so this unassuming mass of liquid is actually a big amoeba, I guess. It’s found at the end of the Water Temple, which makes it all the more anticlimactic that I’m rewarded for my suffering with aggressive water. While one could just whip out a silly straw (don’t we all carry one of those in our wallets?) and drink it right up, Link must instead use his Longshot to pull the core of the amoeba out and smack it around a bit. After all, this method is far quicker and requires fewer trips to the bathroom… The point I’m trying to make is…Morpha is lame.
9: King Dodongo – The second boss of the game, this massive Dodongo must be defeated by throwing our newly acquired bombs into its mouth. This big lizard can also curl into a ball and roll around the battlefield, but it’s not too hard to avoid. This is a perfectly adequate early boss, but I can’t say it’s terribly memorable. What is memorable, however, is the fact that, when you defeat it, it rolls into the lava in the middle of the room and burns to death. That was brutal…
8: Gohma – Also called the Queen Gohma by one of the Deku inhabiting the Great Deku Tree’s interior, this large arachnid-esque creature lurks in a dark chamber in the deepest depths of the game’s first dungeon. She’s a pretty quick and easy boss, considering she’s the first challenge of the game, but boy, is she creepy with her large, singular eye, the ability to crawl onto the ceiling, and the babies she spawns mid-battle! Fortunately, you can eliminate her within about a minute if you just keep stunning her when her eye turns red. Easy or not, she’s a cool design, though.
7: Barinade – Although I’m not a fan of Jabu Jabu’s Belly, I did enjoy this battle against the parasitic anemone thing. It’s a more fast-paced battle than what we had experienced prior, making it the most fun boss fight up until this point of the game. First, you’ll need to sever the boss’s connection to Jabu’s innards using your new boomerang, then you’ll need to destroy the jellyfish protecting its weak spot, which you can then attack with your sword. Barinade can also shoot beams of electricity, so you’ll need to be on your toes for this one!
6: Bongo Bongo – This exceedingly bizarre dude is the boss of the Shadow Temple. Normally, all you can see are two gnarly, dismembered hands playing a giant drum upon which Link must fight. After stunning both hands with arrows, you use the Lens of Truth to see the rest of his body, which appears as some sort of monstrosity hanging down from the void above, his single red eye open wide. Shoot the eye, attack, and repeat…it’s all a pretty simple battle for so strange a foe. The battle is a tad annoying, however, due to the fact that Link is constantly bouncing atop the drum, making movement quite awkward indeed!
5: Dead Hand – This abomination against all that is good and holy can be found in both the Bottom of the Well and the Shadow Temple. Although it’s probably more of a mini-boss (like the White Wolfos), it does, technically, serve as the boss of the Well, which is why it’s made it onto this list. This pallid monstrosity is mottled with red (is it blood or merely a skin condition?) and, on the surface, appears as multiple long arms sprouting up from the soil. You know, nothing all too out of the ordinary. But once you get caught by one of its hands, that’s when the real horror pops out. This thing is just human enough to be disgusting and just monstrous enough to clearly not be human, with a long neck, large teeth (all the better to bite you with), and black, soulless eyes. Dead Hand is one of the most revolting things I’ve ever seen in gaming, and yet it also makes me miss the days when Zelda games used to be pure, unapologetic nightmare fuel.
4: Volvagia – I always thought this bug-eyed dragon was pretty cool as a duckling. This boss fight is kind of like a dragon-themed whack-a-mole where you must smack Volvagia in the face with your Megaton Hammer whenever it pops its head out from one of the holes in the ground. In between giving this dragon blunt force trauma, it will also fly around, breathing fire and making rocks fall from the ceiling. Honestly, this battle is not terribly exciting, considering about half of it is spent waiting until you can actually damage the boss. But it’s a dragon, and it’s cool, and that’s all that matters! Also, the fact that it lights itself on fire at the end of the fight and proceeds to burn to a skeletal crisp has traumatized me since childhood, so…kudos to that?
3: Ganondorf – The last boss of the game is memorable, but it could have been better for the final showdown. The first phase has us knocking this ball of energy back at Ganondorf in a manner not dissimilar to Phantom Ganon, except even easier. Whether you’re just slashing your sword to knock back a single orb or using your spin attack to deflect several, there’s surprisingly not much going on here besides the addition of the Light Arrows to knock him to the ground after he’s stunned. Then, after Ganondorf throws a fit by trying to collapse the castle down atop you and Zelda, you must face his monstrous form, Ganon, whose weak point is his tail. You temporarily lose access to the Master Sword, but it’s no big deal because you have backup options like the Megaton Hammer (or, in my case, the Biggoron Sword). Once you get the Master Sword back, just stun him with the Light Arrows, attack his tail, and he’ll be defeated in no time. It’s a cool fight and all, but I expected a lot more from the King of Evil!
2: Twinrova – The boss of the Spirit Temple was always a very cool one for me. The first phase involves a fight against the two witches, Koume and Kotake, who wield fire and ice. Using their own magic against them, you must use your newly acquired Mirror Shield to reflect fire magic back at the ice witch and ice magic back at the fire witch. (No, fire and ice arrows don’t work. I already tried.) The second phase has them merging into Twinrova, and this time, you must absorb the same elemental attack three times to then emit magic from your shield, which will stun her just long enough to strike with your sword. This was always one of my favorite battles, as I loved the bosses’ designs and the elemental, um, element to it!
1: Phantom Ganon – For me, the game doesn’t really get started until you visit the Forest Temple, the first dungeon that adult Link will need to conquer. This whole place is amazing, and it ends on an equally high note, a battle against a ghostly version of our main antagonist, Ganondorf. The first half of the battle is my absolute favorite, where Phantom Ganon rides on horseback into and out of eerie paintings, and you have to shoot the correct one with arrows, which is so cool! The second half is essentially practice for the final boss, where the Phantom will hover above you and send balls of energy towards you, which you must knock back with your sword in a deadly game of tennis in order to stun him. While that last part is nothing special, the whole vibes of this battle, and the part with the paintings, solidifies this as my favorite battle in the whole game!
Banner image is official Nintendo artwork