The Legend of Zelda franchise has a storied past with many things. One of the less favorable legacies is, unfortunately, water dungeons. The era of the N64 and Game Cube struggled with the complexity that comes with three-dimensional dungeons and swimming, and the Zelda games were no exception. In fact, both Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time did away with any notion of free vertical control – instead favoring the approach of giving players the Iron Boots to weigh themselves down. Despite these troubles, one of my favorite dungeons across the franchise must be the Lakebed Temple of Twilight Princess. For me, two things are crucial to the greatness of Lakebed Temple: the Clawshot and Morpheel. The Hookshot, or Clawshot for Twilight Princess, is a quintessential Zelda item on its own, allowing for all kinds of traversal and antics – Twilight’s rendition being far superior thanks to the later Double Clawshot having its own shining moment. It’s simply coincidence that my favorite item in Twilight Princess lies behind the revolting Deku Toad, what we’re truly here for is the boss fight – Morpheel.
Entering Morpheel’s fight alone is daunting. All the traversal of the Lakebed Temple leads up to a massive plunge into a deep, dark cistern with one source of light: a massive tentacled polyp. The space is devoid of other life, the sand rests evenly, and there isn’t much of any disturbance to speak of – not even a current. The place is dead save for a creature not unlike Ocarina of Time’s own Water Temple boss, Morpha. In the dark depths, Link simply must utilize the clawshot to drag Morpheel’s eye from the amoeba-like tentacles and slash away at it, while avoiding the grasping creature and its inevitable, massive maw.
The second phase of Morpheel’s fight is where the true action is. Irate and threatened, the Twilit Aquatic rises from its place as an ambush predator. The creature now relies on its enhanced mobility and bulky size, crushing the structure and attempting to swallow Link whole. Link must dart away from this behemoth lurking in the deep, using the Clawshot to tether himself to its back like a Fremen sandrider before delivering blows from his sword into the creature’s vulnerable eye socket. I remember the excitement that came with swimming around the chamber with a massive, hungry beast, and the surge of the music as Link mounts the creature and tears into it, writhing through the water. It made the fight feel truly three-dimensional in a way even the battle against the dragon Argorok couldn’t.
The fight itself lives so perfectly in the back of my mind that it’s reshaped my opinion of underwater combat in general. It makes me wish that the Monster Hunter franchise would bring back the underwater combat of Lagiacrus, and has inspired me to make a similar circumstance appear in my own Dungeons & Dragons campaigns with a not-dissimilar Aboleth as the players’ adversary. I’d go so far as to say that it almost has me interested in TV’s Deadliest Catch, almost.
