Why Ocarina of Time is Still a MASTERPIECE - 25 Years Later

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time is 25 years old… as of a few weeks ago ok I was late nobody’s perfect kick a guy while he’s down I was bUSY- For years and years this game was considered not only the best Zelda game, but one of the best games of all time. It still holds the highest spot on Metacritic, right next to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 aw hell yeah grind a rail bro. So I think it’s finally time for me to give this game the big boy treatment that I’ve given the other Zelda games. Which I’ve been a bit nervous to do because while it’s not my favourite, it was my first and it means so much to me. And I have definitely never talked about the game before in an amateurish asmr esque way no please put that video down I was 17 I DIDNT KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING- But before we dive too far into the video, I think it’d be fun to go waaaay back, 25 years ago, and see how it all began. BAM. It’s the late 90s. Wow. I wonder what it’s like to go on a plane without taking my shoes off. We truly are gaming in the Clinton years. Video games used to look like this. And if you think that’s sort of unimpressive remember that just a bit before that they used to look like this aw hell nah who invited this guy- Then everything changed when we hit… the third dimension. For a hot minute this was the wild west, with a bunch of developers throwing everything at the wall trying to find out how the hell to make a 3D game. But then, in 1996 Nintendo came out swinging, showing everyone how to properly do it, with their hit title The Legend of Zelda- oh uh I mean Mario 64. This game shattered the mind of gamers at the time. Going from just running left and right to forward and back and up and down and maybe a little bit to the left but not all the way just broke the brain of gamers. Sure there had been a couple of 3D games before Mario 64, but I think this was the first one that really grabbed people’s attention and showed them the future of the industry. Which I can only imagine is a once in a medium shattering moment that changes everything… because, say the line bart, I was barely in my dad’s ballsack back then. Which is why when Ocarina of Time did come out, it made Mario 64 almost look like a fun little tech demo of Nintendo just dipping their toes into the 3D pool. I can’t even imagine what it would’ve been like to go from A Link to the Past’s 2D world to then traversing a 3D space and being fully immersed in a way you could never comprehend prior. Which is why I find it sooooooo funny to go back to IGN’s review from 1998. And they open with what I just said “The new benchmark is here.” Looking back with all this perspective we are granted by time, the game does feel like a paradigm shift for the industry. One that IGN described as the “perfect mixture of graphics, sound, and gameplay” That’s a pretty good review hey. Where the review starts getting funny is in lines such as “To say that this game is huge is an understatement.”Huge? I know we weren’t working with much back then but I am pretty sure my toilet bowl is bigger than this entire game’s map. “The graphics are incredible.” Huh????. And then one of the funniest lines is, “the screams of the Dodongo are downright scary.” What are you talking about????? If you have time, I think it’s a nice little blast to the past to give this review a read, and get the perspective on why, to a critic at least, this was such a monumental hit, and why they gave it the score that they did. In a way I am slightly jealous of these players. To experience these perfections of the medium that we take for granted in every game ever would’ve been insane. And they had no idea what the next 25 years of the industry had to offer. So many incredible games that just keep pushing the gaming bit by bit and also they hadn’t even played Twilight Princess yet can you believe it!! But who cares about the past. We are in the now. And I am here to tell you why this is such a fun game to this very day even. And to talk about that, we have to discuss the- Usually when I talk about how a game plays it’s just simple stuff like aw you’ve got these items or it feels good to jump, but again we gotta have that context. For a biiiiiiig chunk of players, this could’ve been their first time moving about with that funky Z axis oh hello who are you? So that’s why so much of the design philosophy is about getting players used to this new way of playing a game. Kokiri Forest, your starting home town, is sort of a mini tutorial in and of itself, before you are put to the test with the dungeon a little later on. You walk outside your sick treehouse, and there’s a ladder you can climb down or if you’re cool you can do a sick backflip uh yeah Link is built like that. There’s platforms to jump across, bridges to cross, an Indiana Jones maze to crisscross. This entire area is really just a big playground, getting you used to playing in this world in a low stake’s environment. Yippee!! Two of the big features the game sported which sound very boring when you read them out loud were the context sensitive actions and the camera system. It’s interesting I promise! The first was really cool for the time! This big blue button is the A button, and before this I guess it was normal for players to think of one button performing one action like swinging a sword or using an item. But here, depending on the context that’s why its called that. It does little things. Stand in front of a sign and it does a little flIP BAM READ- Wanna push a block flip bam wow we’re pushing. PUSH!! It might sound confusing at first for a 1998 millennial brain but it becomes second nature very quickly. The second big bad innovation was the camera… I promise this is interesting!!! Back in the wild wild west days of 3D developers just did not know how to do cameras. Even Nintendo’s efforts with Mario is this frustrating mess where you press the camera button and it never gets quite where you want it to aAARRUGH- But Nintendo learnt from their mistakes and improved the camera in some really nifty ways. When you press the Z button or the Zee buton the camera always snaps behind you, which is a quick way for you to get a grasp on your surroundings. But what about when youre fighting an enemy? In games like Mario 64, it’s just kinda hard to judge and be precise when jumping on your foes. So press that Z button again and the camera locks on to the enemy!!! Isn’t that exciting??? …. guys please I promise this is cool!! Because this shows up in basically every game ever, even today. Elden Ring the camera locks on to the enemy, FF7 remake oh look where the camera is focused right now. Once you notice it, you’ll realise it’s in soooo many games, regardless of if you activate it or not. I KNOW I AM TALKING ABOUT A CAMERA SYSTEM FROM A VIDEO GAME BUT IT’S IMPORTANT BECAUSE!!!! IT STARTED HERE AND IT SHOWED UP HERE AND ITS IN EVERY GAME EVER PLEASE I PROMISE THIS IS IMPORTANT- A big chunk of this game’s formula is swapping between dungeon spelunking to overworld stumping and thumping. And it’s so fun!! Every dungeon will give you a new item, which sort of acts like a key which you can use in the overworld to unlock another piece of the giant puzzle. Like the Hookshot lets you cross big gaps you couldn’t before, or reach out of reach objects. The bombs let you blow up walls for secrets and then the Bombchus let you do that at a distance! Cool! And you use these to find every secret chest and piece of heart which add up to make a new big heart that goes in the top left! The items are used in such a fun way in and out of the dungeons and I am a big fan of them good job. But the most important item of them all, arguably, sorry megaton hammer you'll always be the shiny goat, is the Ocarina of Time. Yeah that’s what the game is named after and Zelda is the guy you play as and the Legend is how cool it was when you got up out of bed today. I’m so proud of you. You’re doing amazing. The Ocarina of Time lets you play notes on it but if you play the right notes you can do cool stuff! Like teleport across the world! Or you can change the time of day. Or call your horse yeah by the way you can ride a horse in this game and it’s sick. Except for when Link hits her to make her to faster oh my god stop hitting her Link STOP IT- The way you progress through the game while getting more and more of these songs which lets you do more things makes you feel like you are upgrading and getting more powerful and skilled, even if there isn’t an arbitrary level number to tell you that you are. I know everyone knows this and loves it but the coolest quest for sure is learning the Song of Storms as an adult and being told by the guy who learnt it 7 years prior from a kid. Soooo you go back in time 7 years and teach him the song. But, if you learnt it from him, and he learnt it from some kid, who was you… who taught him the song in the first place aaaaAAAAAH BOOTSTRAP PARADOX WHAT DO WE DOCTOR- Ironically, the one thing that the Ocarina can’t do is travel through time. Bit pointless then innit. It’s actually just a big key that unlocks the Door of Time which gives you access to the Master Sword which lets you travel back and forth between when you were a stupid little kid, to a grown up adult ooh la la. I feel like he is collectively known as Adult Link while Child Link is Child Link… or sometimes yOUNG LINK. But apparently Child Link is 10 which makes Adult Link not really an adult… But going back in time gives this game so much more depth. Suddenly you have these environments you once knew as a kid either completely changed or slightly different with new people giving you new quests. Like when you’re a kid there is this cute, fun and majestic castle that you have to sneak in and around and then frolic through the gardens of. Cool! But as an adult it’s been trasnformed into this gigantic demonic castle. Link is shocked!! I am shocked!! That’s crazy man how’d you get it to float damn can I find you on the next Vogue video? It’s a cool concept to make a smallish world feel bigger than it is that we haven’t really seen since this game and a Link to the Past and I’d love to see it done in a more modern approach. Well it’s such a big world, what if the player gets overwhelmed? That is why they added a companion to Link, in the fairy form of Navi. Growing up all I would ever hear on her was the same bland and overused joke of “aaah Navi is so annoying I wish I could kill her and shut her up” which I’ve just never got. On repeat playthroughs yeah it’s annoying when she is like “hey press A to open a door” but one you can actually skip it if youre cool and fast enough, an two, apart from that, her intrusives are very few and far between. And here is what I do when she wants to give me help. You just ignore her that’s it. She’s just a little helpful guide who points you on towards new quests. One of the best uses of time travel is the quest on Lon Lon Ranch which… didn’t I say all this in the Majora’s Mask video? Ok maybe there’s just one common denominator here hah ha no what that would be craaaaazy. As a kid you run into Malon who is the daughter of this sleepy guy who owns Lon Lon Ranch. Now they’re famous for making the best milk in all the land. But when you go you can find a quite grumpy farmhand by the name of Ingo yes they’re mario and luigi, yes you’re so smart for being able to recognise chris pratt and charlie day at a distance. But when you go forward in time, Ingo has taken over the farm and become vaguely evil and stuff. You then have to beat him in a race and then you get a horse and you jump over the wall and it lets you jump over big fences like to this lake and then you can go fishing even though it sucks and this game is so good!! Every little thing, be it the items or the songs or the time travel, unlocks another little thing that lets you do more things and it’s so addictive and fun to try and find every secret in this world. But it’s hard to talk about the gameplay here without talking about the dungeons. Cause that is the meat on the bones of this game really. Like yeah archery in the desert is fun but it’s more the chips with gravy on the side of the dish you get me? And while exploring the overworld and it’s characters and doing silly minigames in castle town are neat, the real juice of the game comes from the- So when you’re not galloping about the world, you’re spending the other half of your time in the dungeons. Which are these meticulously crafted labyrinthian mazes filled with puzzles and monster and keys oh my god so many keys for so many locked dooRS I CANT HOLD ALL THESE KEYS- Dungeons existed in the previous games of course, but adding that third axis, the Z axis some would call it, really let the developers minds explode with ideas on how to create mental challenges for the player to solve. What I find so interesting about the dungeons in this game is that they’re not only teaching the player the gameplay rules and fundamentals of a Zelda game, which are then built on and on by the proceeding dungeons, but they are also teaching players how to navigate through a 3D space. Take the first dungeon, Inside the Deku Tree which you are thrown into at a remarkably quick pace. You wake up, get a sword and shield, BAM you’re fighting spiders oooooooh- Upon walking in you see a giant cobweb on the ground. Navi’s interruption aside, you see that when you step on it the webs begin to wobble slightly. But apart from that and a few monsters, there’s nowhere else to go except up. Quickly teaching players that in a 3D space verticality is an option worth exploring. As you climb higher and higher you get to try things such as jumping and climbing in a safe controlled environment which later on in the game will be second nature to you as you traverse over perilous objects. And you climb and climb until you get all the way to the top. And now since there’s no longer anywhere to go up, you must go down. These pillars all sort of point towards their being the idea that hey you should jump off it, just like you did safely on the first level. And since you know that web went a wobbly wobbly wah- it’s something you should maybe try. And with a great leap Link has enough momentum and terminal velocity to break through the cobwebs and go vertical in a different way, downwards, to the basement…….. If it works that is. I have seen so many playthroughs or streamers who play this for the first time and mess this bit up because they dont do it the way the game precisely wants you to. Yeah ok there was an experimental jankiness that was refined out of the series as time went by. As you go through the dungeon more, the game continues to teach you the rules of the sandbox as well as how to navigate through a 3D space. Push boxes around, press buttons, light switches on fire with a deku stick, open chests that go dunna nuna dunna nun dunna nuna dunau dunna dunna unna dunna. There’s this cute gimmick in this dungeon where there are these Deku Scrubs that you have to reflect their seed back at to be able to talk to them, which is a cute way to defeat them and also again an intuitive way of the game teaching you a mechanic like uSE YOUR SHIELD WITH R PLEASE USE IT GOD PLEASE BLOCK AND DEFLECT THINGS- But then there is a room with three of them! But luckily a snitching member from earlier taught you that 23 is number 1, meaning the order is 2, 3, 1. And when you defeat them this one apologises to Queen Gohma their big baddie boss for betraying them. BUT in the Japanese version ok please hear me out ok so I learnt Japanese for a little while and I played a bit of Ocarina of Time in Japanese! Which was very cool on one hand because all my hard work and study had paid off to the point where I could sort of mostly get the gist of what was happening in one of my favourite games in its original language. But on the other hand had this weird effect where, I know it’s made by Japanese people and was originally written in Japanese, but because I’ve only grown up with it in English, characters would talk and I’d be like……. why the fuck are you speaking Japanese? But anyways this little deku scrub says Gohmannasai which is this cute little pun on the word gomennasai and the name of the boss Gohma and it’s just a cute little tidbit not many English players would know and nO PLEASE I THOUGHT IT WAS AN INTERESTING FACT IM NOT A WEEB DONT LEAVE ME- And speaking of the boss, they certainly leave a good impression. You walk into the boss room and the door slams shut behind you. But when you walk in… there’s nothing there. Except for this strange shifting sound. So you have to go into first person and look up at the ceiling. Again the game brilliantly being like HEY LOOK AROUND IN THE THIRD AXIS. IDIOT. It doesn’t feel gimmicky at all and is the first of these sorta impressive immersive moments that are throughout the whole game. Especially when your eyes lock on an eye which falls down to the floor to reveal the form of this giant spider. aaaaaaah- And now it’s time for a boss fight. One of the great things about the bosses is that they almost feel like a test. The dungeon is the coursework and you pick up new tricks and skills and a new item. And then the boss puts all those to the test to see if you’ve mastered it. So for example, in this fight against the Parasitic Armored Arachnid… a bit fancy to call yourself that innit- when it’s on the ground you use the deku nuts you got earlier to stun it so you can hit it’s eye. But when it goes back on the ceiling, what are you to do except get your slingshot out and hit it in the eye for it to come crashing back down so you can kill it off again. It’s such a fun introductory fight that becomes even more fun when you start glitching it. This game is very well made, but like many games there are a lot of little quirks and bugs players have found over the years. One of my absolute favorites is the crouch stab glitch. If you’ll bear with me for a second, basically, every attack Link does has an attack value to tell the game how much damage the enemy is to take. So a normal hit does an attack of 1, a jump attacl does 2 you get the idea. For whatever reason the crouch stab, done by crouching and then… stabbing, doesn’t have a set attack value but just uses the value of whatever the last attack was. While a jump attack does 2 damage it takes longer to do, with Link having to do this massive jump. While a crouch stab is like. So, if you grab a Deku Stick and do a jump attack which has an attack value of 4, you can start rapid fire hitting enemies with insane power at the speed of light. And this glitch lets you DECIMATE bosses in mere seconds and it is sooooooo fun. And it’s just one of the glitches in this game which I’ve sorta just incorporated into my every repeat playthrough. Earlier in the dungeon, there is this one puzzle where you’re supposed to swim down and press a button which lowers the water so you can safely travel across this platform without hitting this big spike cause that would hurt. Ouch. But I never liked the puzzle and the timing always bothered me as a kid. So I learnt this speedrun trick where if you run at the spiky pole it’ll send you flying back onto the platform, but when you stand up, you’re invincible for a second or two letting you walk right through it. Am I a genius or what? Anyways back to the boss it’s defeated BOM BOM BA BA BUM BA BABA- The game rewards you with a heart container, adding 1 to your measly 3 heart health bar and a way out. Aaaaaand basically that’s the formula for every dungeon. From now until… 2011. Walk in, suss it out. Explore a bit. Get an item halfway through, usually after a miniboss. Use that item which has recontexualised the dungeon you just walked through, get to the boss, get a new heart, rinse and repeat. It sounds like that should be boring but there is a reason it took them 5 games before they felt the need to change things up, and even then they only did so slightly. Every dungeon builds upon the last in terms of complexity, while always delivering a completely different unique feeling atmosphere and tone. It becomes so exciting to do the bits of the story that lead up to a new dungeon, and taking those first steps inside and wondering what you’re going to explore next. Like you go from this very mystical almost dreamy dungeon with the Deku Tree. Full of wood and flora and fauna and insects and metal bars in this sewer even though he’s a tree and ok that doesn’t make any sense- to the next dungeon which is in a volcanic cavern full of dinosaurs and laser shooting robots for some reason! Now that the game knows you can do this it throws so much more danger at you like lava and massive heights and bats that burn your shiELD OH GOD DAMMNIT YOU FUCK- I think Dodongo’s Cavern is a good next step up. It takes what you learnt from the last dungeon, plus a thing or two you learnt on the journey between the two, and incorporates it into some new fun but fair challenges. But the first three dungeons are sort of big tutorials really for the rest of the game. Well maybe tutorial is a harsh term but more like a slide that sort of eases you into the rest of the game. And I dunno what tutorial from other game ends with you throwing a bomb into a dinosaur’s mouth oh mY GOD HE’S ROLLING- Of the three “tutorial dungeons” the worst is definitely Lord Jabu Jabu’s Belly UGGGGGGGGGGGGH- You just walk in and immediately the vibe is off. Every dungeon in this game is so excellent at nailing its atmosphere. From its visual aesthetics to the mise en scene choice of objects and enemies, to the always deliciously ambient track, it’s one of the reasons every dungeon in this game feels so memorable and unique 25 sets of 12 months later. But Lord Jabu Jabu Belly is sounds like you went to the dentist high. What’s croaking in the background? What is that?? And the N64’s low quality textures do not do a great job at conveying the squishy meat and muscle of inside this giant fish. What’s worse is that the gimmick of this dungeon is that you must personally escort Princess Ruto around from room to room. Character wise it’s actually very cute. She’s a very brash rude spoilt brat, far contrasting the elegance seen by the human princess we met earlier - what did Miyamto mean by this? But it just means there is a lot of walk in, put her down, do the puzzle or kill the enemy, pick her up, oh you left her behind hOW DARE YOU RAAAAAAAH- Mix that in with a weak boss and an annoying octopus and you’ve got a bad dungeon. And it’s quite funny how any dungeon that is water related is weak… Hmm. But like I said, those are the baby dungeons for a bABY BOY in training. The next 5 are all for Adult Link and here is really where the game gets in its stride. The first three are good, like they’re not bad at all they are very fun but suddenly you get thrown into the FOREST TEMPLE. From the second you walk in, everything feels off, in a way that the child dungeons never got close to. You hear what sound like rattling bones before this synth comes in, smearing you in this sense of mystery before this chanting or flute eases in and out. It’s one of the most bizarre compositions of the entire game. You never quite know if it’s mystical or frightening or soothing aaaH A WOLF- What the hell man. I was explaining the ambience of your crib. Why would you interrupt like that, that’s so rude. Despite being called the Forest Temple, it’s more of a lost overgrown castle than a haven of trees. The concrete walls ooze with fog, surrounded by outside courtyards inhabited with fiends. It’s kinda spooky, but there’s something so enchanting about it. Every room has a chill to it, or feels slightly uneasy. Like this hallway that slightly twists as you go through it. Which you can then straighten out by using the bow and arrow. But even after doing that, you’ll still be visited by ghastly hands that drop down and grab you. Which freaked me out SO much as a kid. It’s not perfect, there is a block puzzle…… which is whatever. But this is just on of the most bewitching dungeons in the entire series. You’ve got this spooky vibe and ghosts that hide in paintings and the whole thing feels a bit like the castle from Ico and it’s just great. And it all leads up to one of the coolest boss fights in the game. You walk up the stairs to this circular room full of paintings. Um dipshit when you make an art gallery it’s supposed to have different paintings not just a bunch of identical ones unless this is a meta commentary on the lack of creativity and new works in the medium in which case boring I’ve heard that critique before I’m leavin- huh? You turn around and see Ganondorf oh my god!!!! Who then pulls off his face… eugh and instead it’s this bony skeletal puppet. Known simply as the Evil Spirit from Beyond, Phantom Ganon. He runs off into the paintings, and then two of them start to run at you. You have to wait until the last second to see which one is an illusion and which one is gonna come out and give you a lil bite. Shoot a few arrows into him and then it’s time for a game of tennis. It’s an old joke yeah but this back and forth of this bit of electrical power is so tense and exciting and fun and it’s just the ribbon bow thingy that ties together this entire incredible dungeon. Really good stuff. Good job. (that awkward smile breath of the wild picture) We then move on to the Fire Temple, which requires some new drip that is so hot to keep up with the hot air around you. Overall I think the Fire Temple is good, but it’s also kind of funny. The entire thing is basically going through this volcano themed maze doing humanitarian aid by rescuing a bunch of Goron’s who are locked away. Humanitarian- goron- Goronitarian aid. They’re just so funny looking. Look at them. So non-chalant about being captive. And then when you free them they give you a clue like “thank you for saving me did you know if you hold down the space bar you can move the cursor to the individual letter ok bye” …. I mean it’s helpful but a bit weird??????? The next dungeon is the Water Temple and like I mean, it’s so infamous for being absolute dogshit, but let’s be fair for a second and ask objectively. Is it? … Yeah. This shit sucks. Coming as no surprise from the guy who hates the Lakebed Temple, I think the Water Temple deserves all the slack it gets. I don’t really know what I can say that isn’t repeating what you’ve all heard a thousand times before but anyways here we go. Having to go to the menu to swap between your normal boots and your Iron Boots that let you sink down into the water is really annoying, but it’s only the sprinkling on top of the cake of reasons that this place isn’t fun. I think every other dungeon does a really good job at being laid out in a way where you almost have a grasp of everything. One of the most fun bits of a dungeon is when you get a key and you go “ooh ok I can probably use this in that room I passed a while ago and maybe that will lead to somewhere I can use the new item.” They are all labyrinth mazes, as i’ve said 7 times now, but they’re not of the sky high hedge I have no idea where ive been variety. While the Water Temple on the other hand is so confusing in it’s layout, you’re just constantly confused and turned around and lost and where am I going??? The big kicker for this is that you can change the water level of the dungeon at these certain points. One, there isn’t really any markings on the plaque that tells you what level the water will be raised to, so you just have to remember which one raises it to what and how to get there. And two, it isn’t always clear if raising the level means you need to explore on this new level or if you need it raise it at all? And then the entire dungeon feels like you're going into rooms for one thing and popping back out. In and out. In and out. Boots. No boots. Boots. No boots. Raise the water. Lower the water. Raise the water. Lower the water. AND YOU’RE ALWAYS JUST SO LOST!!! People say the saving grace is the mini boss of the dungeon. You walk into this room with an endless misty horizon. After you cross to the the other side of the room, nothing happens. But if you have a sharp eye you’ll realise as you crossed over the island your shadow disappeared from beneath your feet. When you turn around, there he is. Standing. Waiting. Meancingly. Dark Link. ……. and then the fight is shit. You’re just swinging and swinging and he just blocks all your moves and you gotta pull out the hammer and it’s not fun at all. And then the dungeon is topped off by a really awful boss fight too and god this one shit sucks! I know it’s been shat on in every conceivable way for 25 years, and I am sure it will be for another 25. But I think it’s well deserved. It’s the only one in the game that I would say is straight up bad and not fun. Every time I get up to I just follow a video guide because I cannot be bothered getting the headache that would come from trying to solve it myself. It’s just confusing and disorienting and the vibes are off and I reckon it would be really cold in there and you’d get a weird sniffle and a cough and just no. None for me. … It is funny that Ruto thinks you’re engaged though. So that’s cool. … I miss my wife guys. Next up we have a sort of two parter. The Spirit Temple and the Shadow Temple. Now they are two separate dungeons, do not get that confused, but there is an interesting sort of debate around them. Which order are you supposed to play them in? Every dungeon before this requires an item from the previous one to unlock the next one. A rule that is broken here, because the Mirror Shield, the item from the Spirit Temple is used approximately fuck all times in the Shadow Temple. And the hover boots… well I wish they were never used at all I hate floating around!! Now if you pop open the menu and look at the list of medallions in your equipment page, you see the order the game presents is Forest, Fire, Water, Spirit, and then Shadow. So that implies you should do the Spirit Temple first. But to get to the Spirit Temple you need the item called the Lens of Truth which lets you go and see things you could never see before. To get the Lens of Truth you have to go to Kakariko Village, which is where the Shadow Temple is located and then go through the Bottom of the Well mini dungeon, which may as well be an entree to the spirit temple with how gross and scary it is and is that blood!! I’m queasy and faint of heart dont show me that i’ll faint- Ahem. So the little enigma comes from the fact that yeah the list in the menu says Spirit then Shadow, but the way the lead up to the dungeon is structured, maybe implies that you should so Shadow first. Quite interestingly they structually are a little similar by having the first part of the dungeon, or entree to the dungeon, make you time travel back to your child self to complete it. Really sort of digging home the themes of the game in a more bite sized chunk. Especially in the Shadow Temple where it’s like EVERYTHING IS SCARY WHEN YOURE A KID AAAH- but it’s easier to cope when you’re an adult and the world around you feels more doable but we’ll get to all that later. But the Spirit Temple has the very last appearance of Kaepora Gaebora, which kinda feels like a nice little footnote way to send off the childhood part of your journey as a hero before you go and take on the big baddy. And just to stoke a little more coal on the fire, every map entrance in the game has a corresponding index code. Basically the game can be like yeah we’re loading up room “0028” and then it knows to load Inside Jabu Jabu’s Belly from the front door… er mouth er whatever- The Shadow Temple’s index number is “0037” while the Spirit Temple’s is “0082”. Now this could mean it’s supposed to take place after the Shadow Temple, but that doesn’t hold a lot of weight when areas before both dungeons have higher index numbers, like various entrances to Hyrule field, Gerudo Fortress, Lake Hylia and more. So these numbers could just be arbitrary or maybe they correspond to when the map was finished in development? And theeeeeen if we look at the leaked debug rom from 2005 of the GameCube’s Master Quest we can see a map select screen. If we go down to the 75th option, we find the Shadow Temple, and then down a bit more at option number 81, we have the Spirit Temple. Some more evidence that the Shadow Temple was supposed to be first? Well maybe not really. The Fire Temple which is the 5th dungeon of the game comes at 77, the Water Temple at 79, both between the Spirit and Shadow. And the highest the list goes before entering into exclusive maps left only on the debug rom are a bunch of grotto maps and then the version of Hyrule Field used exclusively for cutscenes. So it’s not like this list was about exclusive linearity, or was ever anything that should’ve ever been seen by the public sorry Nintendo!!!!!!!! Don’t sue me Aonouma please I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!- Snugboy youre just listing off numbers from inside the game’s code. Why does any of this matter? Well because it’s 25 years later and it’s one small fun thing people are still debating to this day. Debates that are full of little bits of evidence, or story analysis on why one fits better first then the other, and many many many anecdotes of people’s childhood memories of doing one before the other and why they did that. It’s such a fun discussion and one of those special things about this game. Personally, I prefer to do the Spirit Temple first. Mainly just cause I love the dungeon so much that I want to play it sooner, and also because for me I think Link’s dungeon spelunking journey ending with the creepiest most unsettling dungeon just feels climatically right. Getting to the Spirit Temple is also really fun. You have to travel to Gerudo’s Fortress which you can only get to by either using the Long Shot you just got in the last temple, or by jumping over the bridge with Epona YEEHAW- The thing with the Gerudo is that they are a race made up entirely of women, with only one man being born every 100 years. Unluckily for us, the man that was born last time was Ganondrof uh oh guys come on can you not do better than that. Also real quick, it always bothers me when people are like “oh they’re all women how can they get pregnant” MAGIC. MAGIC- It’s a game where you can teleport by playing a clay pot, you can do some yoga to set a room on fire, and people are cursed into being spiders. You don’t think two people who are deeply in love with another can’t have their love magically manifest into the pregnancy of a child they will spend the next chapter of their life raising??? Come on man stop being so planet earth human biology coded it’s pissing me off- Anyways even though I just spent a minute defending them they’ve thrown me in jail for being a maaaan… Zelda goes woke? Women are taking over??? Link is transgender? What this results in is you sneaking around the fortress stealth style, knocking out guards and trying to free these tradesmen who were working on fixing that bridge you jumped across and were unfairly imprisoned for being a bloke. Unluckily for you some of the Gerudo spot you and you have to engage in a sword fight. They are one of the only human enemies in the game that you get to fight one on one in a sword duel. And because of that I always felt their fights were really memorable. And also as a kid, the whole women only society thing didn’t really register on me. But as an adult oh my god I would do anything to be locked up by them please I will commit minor tax fraud or jaywalking lock me up please I will do the dishes I’ll mop your floors, I’ll cook your food, I’ll vaccuum the desert sand out of the rooms, I’ll paint your nails, we can watch the barbie movie together I mean I just PLEASE IT WOULD BE SO FUN AND UNLIKE THE LAST MAN YOU GUYS HAD I WON’T TRY TO KILL AND ENSLAVE THE ENTIRE WORLD- PLEEEEASE- Eventually they are impressed by your thieving sneaking skills and let you wander around freely and point you in the direction of the Spirit Temple. One ghosty sandy duney, deleted scene from return of the jediy trek later, you finally arrive. I feel like this one has one of the most impressive entrances. It feels like something that could be in real life, with that giant corroding statue overlooking you with such a grand presence. And also very smartly that statue actually comes in importance later but we’ll get to that later. Be patient. Inside the dungeon you run into Nabooru, a Gerudo thief. After checking that you don’t work for Ganondrof, she asks you to fit through this hole because you’re a tiny little kid and look for the Silver Gauntlets which you can’t even wear cause you’re a tiny little kid and you have a stupid name apparently god you’re so rUDE- So then you go through this dungeon and it’s really engaging because you’re playing as a kid in a dungeon again, but unlike the last time you did that, the game treats you competently now. So you’re in the kid body with less attack damage and a smaller arsenal of tools, but you’re fighting against adult enemies and doing puzzles that aren’t just burn a cob web or push a block…….. Ok you do still push a block but that’s more of a just this game thing ok anyway- There’s one room with a giant statue of a woman, but you’ll sort of notice that there is no way to get to the other side of the room, which looks oddly symmetrical. Anyways you do more puzzles, fight the best enemy in the game the Iron Knuckle who is this big tough guy clanged tight in a truck mass of iron armour, swinging around this heavy hitting axe at a scary speed. But lucky for you ihe’s very slow until oh god he’s runninG AAAH- Then you walk outside and guess what!! You’re on the hands of that statue. Anyways big plot twist wow the second you get the silver gauntlets, Nabooru is kidnapped by the two witches who run the plce. But what do you do now? Weeeeeeell if you remember Nabooru said that we couldn’t wear the silver gauntlets because we’re a kid. SO YOU GOTTA GO BACK TO THE TEMPLE OF TIME, GO FORWARD 7 YEARS TO BECOME AN ADULT, GO BACK TO THE SPIRIT TEMPLE AND THEN COMPLETE THE REST OF THE DUNGEON AS AN ADULT. IT’S SOOO COOL. It’s such an interesting concept for a dungeon that isn’t ever done again… ever? Just walking through the doors you walked in 7 years ago but also like half an hour ago now more physically mature and strong just clicks so well in my brain. It’s so unique and fun and mixed with the vibes of the place and the music it just makes for one of the most fun memorable sections of the entire game. And you can hookshot onto this temples’ b**bs- and you can hookshot onto this temples b**bs- what I swear to god you could do that???? When you get closer to the boss room, you once again fight an Iron Knuckle, but this time it’s head comes off to reveal that he was actually Nabooru, but under mind control. Which gives this implication that every single Iron Knuckle we’ve seen before and after are all trapped gerudo women enslaved to do evil deeds. It’s such a small little detail that doesn’t get all the attention in the world yet is so endlessly fascinating to me. And alsooooo this cutscene appears as a demo after the title screen… for some reason. Bit random innit. Then you get a cool boss that is about reflecting ice and fire damage at the respective enemy and then bing bang bom you’re done. And like can you blame me for wanting to do this one before the Shadow Temple? It’s just SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. SO GOOD!!!! I WANT TO KISS THIS DUNGEON. PRINT IT OFF STICK IT TO A WALL AND KISS IT YEAH IM NOT AFRAID FOR A NON CONFORMING TYPICAL RELATIONSHIP- The Shadow Temple in contrast is dark… literally. Every corner is gloomy and grubby and rank. And even the music is more about creepy spooky dark vibes than a hummable melody. And while it is going for horror, it never particularly scared me as a kid. “Uhhh did Nintendo know this game is E for Everyone” it’s a sentient lard of fat wiggling its way slowly across a room shut up- it’s not scary. You’re a millennial now. Pay off your mortgage. What I think is more interesting about the dungeon is that it’s based on trickery and illusions. Before the dungeon, at the Bottom of the Well you find the Lens of Truth, which as mentioned earlier lets you see things the naked eye cannot. And while it is used for fun in that mini dungeon, especially in the ways it tricks you before you have the item oh god daMN IT- It is nothing compared to what the actual dungeon does. You’ll go through rooms and rooms full of nothing but fake walls. The floor beneath you will often be a trick. Sometimes even enemies are! Compared to the start of the game where you were being taught simple things like how to create cause and effect to progress to a next room, here you really are tested as a master of the gameplay’s grammar, literally searching for invisible enemies and objects needed to progress. Overall it’s a fun dungeon, especially when you go on this cool boat woah I am fighting a skeleton! But I do think as the final dungeon it is maybe a bit disappointing? Especially when it ends with this weird hand drum guy….. This shit sucks. And that is all the dungeons! All 8 of them. There are also some optional and not so optional mini dungeons like the Ice Cavern and the Gerudo Training Ground which nets you some ice arrows ooooooh. And I know some people like to count Ganon’s castle as one but that never really felt right in my head so I don’t sorry bestie. I know I’ve spent a big chunk of this video on the dungeons, but they are the big set pieces of this game. You really can simplify the formula to get item, go to dungeon, get new item, defeat boss, explore world and then go to next dungeon, get new item, defeat boss, explore world and then go to next dungeon, so on and so forth. And while exploring the world and doing its multitude of side quests is fun in its own right, the dungeons are the MEAT of this game. Shigeru Miyamoto based the original Zelda on his childhood adventures of exploring rural areas in Kyoto, a fact that is so well known that even Jimmy Fallon knows it. And I think they captured that feeling, in a 3d space for the first time, perfectly. You explore this grand - for the time - overworld until you find a hidden away mossy temple or a stone maze sunken at the bottom of a lake, or a haunted mysterious cavern that sends chills up your spine. Are they the best dungeons Zelda ever did? No! Majora’s Mask, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword have a bunch of dungeons that are waaay better. Building on the foundation of what was started here and while doing their own unique things too! But not these two games also by the way this one disappointed me a lot especially the dungeons and I was gonna make a video on it earlier in the year but I got busy and does anyone care still do you wanna see that ok thanks- But Ocarina of Time’s dungeons still hold up in the boxing ring 25 years later. The atmosphere and puzzles and way they unravel as your journey through the game are still just really good. Aaaaand if you guys are interested here is my ranking of them. Water Temple is dead last it sunk to the bottom with the Iron Boots. Inside Jabu Jabu’s Belly is not that much fun really and I find a drag to get through on repeat playthoughs. Dodongo’s Cavern is fun but nothing groundbreaking. Although I do like this bit where you cause a chain reaction and the N64 grinds to 5 frames per seconds. The Shadow Temple is so spooky and grimey and even though youre just hovering around the place it’s still a blast. I love rescuing Gorons and running away from walls of fire in the Fire Temple. I am not going to spend more time talking about how good the Spirit Temple and it’s unique way of progressing it is, so let me just clarify that you get a mirror that reflects sunlight that looks so cool gOD I LOVE THIS GAME- Inside the Great Deku Tree is such a phenomenal introduction to not only this game, but to learning how to explore a 3D puzzle action adventure for the next two and a half decades. And then the Forest Temple is just so good. It’s oozing with atmosphere, it’s creepy in a very unique way, it’s gimmick is very fun, it’s kind of weird, the boss is great, the music is fantastic and you get to talk to your childhood friend at the start of it and oh my god! I haven’t even talked about any of that!! I have spent so long talking about this half of the game when I haven’t even begun to talk about all the stuff that happens in between. And a lot of it is quite good. A lot better than I used to ever give it credit for. So without further ado, let’s talk about the- As a kid I thought falling into this world was a marvelous treat. It set my young imaginative brain on fire as I engaged with the narrative and the characters that inhabited this world. As I grew older, and I started playing and watching and reading a lot more things, I sort of looked back on Ocarina of Time as a game with a very shallow story, that was just there to service the gameplay. And now that I’ve grown a bit older, I’ve swung back around oh my god this game’s story is realllllllllly good. I’ll tap the sign once again, Zelda games aren’t Shakespeare… except maybe this one is. After the game’s quiet introduction and one quick NIGHTMARE AAAAH- We are introduced to the Great Deku Tree, the custodian of the Kokiri, who is in the middle of talking to Navi the fairy. “well I don’t know why he’s talking to a tree. “Dost thou sense it? The climate of evil descending upon this realm…” See it’s not exactly an iambic pentameter, but they are using this old English-esque language which never appears in the series… ever again? And it’s just one character with one slightly different type of speech that makes him feel more grand and important, but it’s such a nice detail that I’ve always loved. I think a really big undersung hero of the game’s development is Dan Owsen, the localiser who is credited as the ‘English script writer’, although you may know him best as the voice of “The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace.” He adds so much character and flavour throughout this entire game, with his words really bringing these low polygonal people off the screen and to life. People like him, especially from this era are really not highlighted enough in their efforts, and are usually yelled at by weird anime fans on twitter. So I just wanna say, thanks Dan! Your writing was sick. As more and more Zelda games came out, one of the biggest criticisms they faced was the lack of voice acting. While this didn’t seem amiss on the N64, once you got to Twilight Princess and especially Skyward Sword, it was hard not to feel like something was missing. I think for ages Nintendo were just stuck on how to implement it well, and were quite possibly scared of making that jump. And while they did eventually add some in, to mixed results, I think one thing they sort of lost was the “legend” aspect of the title. Something Ocarina of Time nails is the feeling of this being a legend, a tale, a myth, a great story that you have to read with your own two eyes oooh get that into your optic nerve. The way the Deku Tree uses flowery language like “Malevolent forces”, the “Boy without a Fairy”, “The youth whose destiny it is” and then casually sprinkles in bits of lore that are never addressed again makes this feel like a rich world full of a long history, even in the first opening bits. This opening cutscene or two and then this little monologue perfectly set up the magical tone that is Ocarina of Time’s world. Now Ocarina of Time is about… time. Believe it or not. But that never really clicked properly with me until I was an adult. Because as Link is called to the Deku Tree, he goes out into the whimsical tree hut village, meets his smiling best friend,and with sword and shield in hand, he gets on his way. But the Deku Tree hits you with the first big shock. “a vile climate pervades the land”, “I have been cursed…” The first crack to your childhood begins. But it’s ok! We’ll stop the Deku Tree’s curse, and everything will go back to normal. So you go through the Dungeon, spick, spack, spock, and the curse is lifted! We did it! Time to go back to the way things were- The Deku Tree then begins to tell Link of who placed this curse upon him. An evil man shrouded in flames, looking for the divine relic full of the power of the gods, the Triforce. Suddenly we’re shown the creation of the world. How the three goddesses came together, using their power, courage, and wisdom to create the land and cultivate it with life. Leaving behind only the triforce in their wake. The Great Deku tree strictly warns Link that “thou must never allow the desert man in black armor to lay his hands on the sacred Triforce…” which is a lot of heavy stuff to be telling a kid right after the saved your life. … Except we didn’t. “Because of that curse, my end is nigh…” “I was doomed before you started…” The Great Deku Tree’s final, final wish is for us to leave the forest, go to the castle, and meet with the Princess. And then, he just dies. His colour warbles grey, his final leaves fall. And then that’s it. The Deku Tree is dead… The game immediately cuts back to the cheery whimsical music of Kokiri forest but the air feels different. Things aren’t the same as they were, and Link doesn’t belong here anymore. He has to leave, and begin his quest. Just on his way out, Link runs into his best friend Saria who catches him with a “Oh, you’re leaving…” It catches him completely off guard. And with no music and only the ambient sounds of the forest birds, the scene is devastatingly melancholic. Ocarina of Time, in a lot of ways, is about growing up. And this moment here is the beginning of the end of Link’s childhood. And even somehow on the N64, you can see the sadness in Saria’s eyes. Her best friend is leaving her, as she always deep down knew he would. She gives him her Ocarina, a parting gift for him to remember her by, and then we cut to this emotionally cold wide shot. Because there is fuck all characterisation of Link in this game, it’s hard to know exactly what he’s thinking when he stares back at his friend, before turning to run away. But I like to think that he didn’t know what to say, as it was just too sad. Which we feel as the shot dollies in on her impressively sad face, and then out on the exit of the woods. This scene has stuck with me all my life, and has only gotten more profound as I’ve gotten older. There’s something about this surprisingly sombre tone that they just nail and it’s always left me- AH alright ok??? It’s time for our great big adventure!!! Into the great big world of Hyrule!! We are ready to take our first steps into it before- fuck you!!!!!!!! I hate this owl sorry I know it’s such an overplayed joke and everyone hates him but god you don’t have to tell us what we already know, you don’t have to be so quirky with it, and you don’t have to have the yes and no prompts as little paul dano riddles for me to get through with it. Gameplay wise, story wise, it’s such a halt to the progress and is so annoying!!! Goodbye!!!! Anyways one thing I love is as you explore the world en route to your destination, by the time you get to Hyrule castle it’s night and suddenly monsters spring up from the ground that you have to tirelessly defend yourself from. If the cursed Deku Tree wasn’t a big enough indication already, then you know now that growing up is hard and the world is scary and fierce. But eventually the morning does come, paraded in by the oh so ever sweet and comforting notes of a flute oh I am so safe and sound. And then we get to enter Hyrule Castle Town. It’s such a merry and lively bunch of shoppers, merchants, and all sorts of extravagant characters. To be quite honest I am really bad at talking to NPCs when I play games. I sort of just rush through and do the main plot essentials. But this last playthrough I really took my time to try and talk to everyone as much as I could. And the characters in this area and this entire game are so fun and quirky, even if a lot of them are like “wow I heard of this INTERSTING THING SOMEWHERE ELSE HAHA GO DO IT!!” Like this one guy says the reason Hylians have long ears is to supposedly hear the godesses, which is cool! There’s this couple who won’t get a room… Eugh. And then there’s this “Man, I am SO Bored.. Things would sure be more interesting if there were more… troubles in the world…” Dude what the FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM? Hyrule Castle!! On our way. But the gates are locked. Rude. My tax rupees are going to waste on this giant affluent castle and soldiers and what do we get for it?? Huh??? HUH??? One really cool thing about this part is that you can sneak pass either of two ways. What I always did as a kid is just climb this vine and sneak around. But, and I didn’t always know this, but you can just bribe this guy with money and he lets you through?? That’s so funny and great and something the series never really did again until Breath of the Wild. Anyways sneak sneak sneak, this statue should have a penis, sneak sneak sneak and bam we’re in the Castle Courtyard. I adore this cutscene so much cause it’s just AH it’s EVERYTHING this game is about. A beautiful blue sky overlooks this gorgeous garden courtyard that feels so serene and peaceful and carefree. You walk up to this girl, a musical run plays as she shockingly turns around and aks “Qui! Qui es-tu?”- wait sorry wrong language (hits machine. “Who are you?” This is the Princess of the Kingdom of Hyrule, Zelda. … Yeah I lied before THIS is who the game is named after. She immediately knows you, which we’ve talked about a 100 times at this point, and asks if you are from the forest and possess the spiritual stone. I love the game cause it tries to give you roleplaying options sometimes which are always just yes or no and like, what if we say no. Is she gonna be like. “Oh ok…..” get tHE FUCK OUT GUARDS!!!!- Zelda begins to tell you of her dream, that showed “dark storm clouds billowing over the land of Hyrule” which is very similar to someone else’s dream of late hmmmm???? Hmmmmmmmmmm. But in her dream, a shining ray of light turned into a figure of a boy and a fairy, showing a ray of hope. She then points through the window and says that “the other element from my dream… the dark clouds… I believe they symbolize… that man in there!”- wait what Zelda what are you talking about symbolism why you analysing your own text that is my job! What won’t the royal family steal from us peasant commoners. Link takes a peek and sees Gannondorf, who we have been told is quite evil, I mean look here he is riding in fire aaaAH- but here he is politely kneeling below the off screen king. The worst crime he does here is giving us a mean look. Zelda believes that Ganondorf is coming to bring a great era of evil to Hyrule, but being a kid she is ignored by her father. And with that, the stage is set. On this peaceful, beautiful day, in this gorgeous courtyard, two hopeful but naive young kids set out to save the world, before it was ever in danger. One of my favourite pieces of art from the game is this drawing of Link and Zelda as kids. It’s got such a carefree feeling to it, and I love how the background has this water painted style look to it, which compared to other pieces of art from the game, is really unique. And makes it feel like a warm happy hazy memory from long ago. ……… Also did you know if you shoot this window a guy throws a bomb at you dude what the fuCK IS YOUR PROBLEM? But we have no time to think about that!! We have an adventure to go off onto! Get the three spiritual stones to open the Door of Time in the Temple of Time with the Ocarina of Time and get to the Triforce before Ganondorf can. So you do just that! You go up to Death Mountain and become friends with the Gorons. Go off to Zora’s domain where a bratty young princess gets engaged to us……….. I don’t think Link is into fishes nOOOOOOOO- And that’s it! Our quest is done. However when we approach Hyrule castle, things don’t seem quite right. When we get to the drawbridge thunder cracks the sky as prophesied dark clouds loom overhead. The drawbridge comes down as a White horse comes speeding past- wait haven’t we seen this before what oH WAIT IT’S OUR DREAM! EXCEPT THAT’S ZELDA AND IMPA HER GUARDIAN AND SHE JUST THREW SOMETHING IN THE WATER AND IF WE TURN AROUND THERE HE IS. Ganondorf. Something I’ve always loved about big eared Ganondorf in this game is that he isn’t a one dimensional evil monster. He is an evil guy yeah but one full of confidence and ego. When Link draws his blade, standing his ground between Ganondorf and the Princess, he quite respectfully says “You’ve got guts, kid.” and even says he likes our attitude before blasting us to the ground. The scene ends with one looooong zoom in on Link’s face which… I have no idea what they were trying to say here I mean maybe Link’s like “damn this shit is cooked actually damn alright he’s tough” But none of that matters!! Yeah he is chasing after Zelda, but that’s exactly what we want! He is being led astray Link grabs the Ocarina of Time, learns a song from Zelda and heads into town. But, what exactly just happened? There isn’t a great lot of context? And Hyrule Castle Town is as jolly as ever. Except if you go into this back alleyway you can find a wounded soldier. He recognises you and stutters as he tells you his final message. Ganondorf betrayed the King, and the only reason Zelda escaped unharmed was because Impa sensed danger and rushed them out of there. And then the soldier just dies in front of you. … oh my god But again I don’t know why everyone is so down and bummed when we’ve won! We’ve saved the day barely before it’s begun. We march up and into the Temple of Time, open the big fancy door, and things only begin to expand. Inside isn’t the Sacred Realm, but a legendary blade in a pedestal. The Master Sword. Link pulls it out and here, definitively, his happy carefree childhood ends. No more premonitions, or bad omens, dark clouds and cracks of thunder and lightning. It’s over. Because we lost. Upon pulling the Master Sword we are greeted by Ganondorf, who manipulated us the entire time into playing his cards. He knew we were the ones unlocking the door and just waited around for us to do all the hard work for him. We led him straight to the gates of the Sacred Realm, and with that the Triforce. And now he can rule the whole world. The bright and simple optimistic naivety of children condemned the world to its destruction. We lost. Or almost. Link soon wakes up inside the sacred realm and is greeted by Rauru, one of the ancient sages, who is like “hurr I am an old man anyways you’re not a kid anymore” Smack bam shock. I wasn’t being all wishy washy with my words, our childhood is over. Link is now an adult. Yes we were the worthy chosen one by the goddess to be the hero incarnate, but we weren’t old enough to be fit for it. So it trapped us within for 7 years until we were ready to fight. And in those 7 years Ganondorf has turned the peaceful world of Hyrule into a ravaged filled land full of monsters and evil. Ocarina of Time was for so many years to me a simple tale about a boy who can travel back and forth through time to fight an evil guy and save a damsel in distress. But as I’ve grown up from being that starry eyed kid to a bill paying rent slaving adult, the story and themes and text and subtext and yeah even the domtext of this game have grown on me so much. It’s about Time, yeah I know DUH, but more importantly the scarcity of it and the preciousness of youth in contrast to the scary uncertainty of adulthood. I am about to turn 22, which I am sure for a bunch of you watching is young. I’m younger than this game! But I feel like I’ve entered this period of my life where things are harder then they ever have been as I’ve hit the realization that those years are never coming back. All the times when you’re a kid and your parents say “savour your youth” or “it all goes in a flash the second you hit 21” and you go pfft yeah what are you talking about. I am now beginning to understand what they were on about. And without being too mopey, life is so hard. There’s no rulebook or guide and I constantly everyday feel like I’m treading water just to survive. And so it doesn’t feel like a simple coincidence to me the way Hyrule Castle town harshly juxtaposes between a fun, jolly, bright and cheerful hub of excitement and wonder as a child, and then a scary, desolate and horrifying ravaged place as an adult. With enemies that paralyse you in fear as you don’t know what to do. Or how challenges that were easy and fun as a kid, only get harder and more complex as you grow up. Or how you realise people in all their varied complexities, are just trying to survive. One day after the next. One year after the other. When you’re a kid, every problem seems black and white or easy to fix. And as an adult, you realise you can’t just fix things with a click of your fingers. It’s not to suggest that there is no point living without hope as you grow older, cause of course there is. There is still so much fun and adventure and wonder to be had at any stage in your life. But once those first years are gone, they don’t ever come back. And they are precious. This point is driven home even further by the character of Sheik. Who turns up before each dungeon to teach you a new magic song and as a kid that meant me going Aaaaaah i dont care skip skip skip- But again, grow a bit older, and their poetic musings carry some surprising weight. “The flow of time is always cruel… Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it…” which is already a bar in and of itself. But then they follow it up immediately with the slam dunk of “A thing that doesn’t change with time is a memory of younger days…” Which just hits like a truck what the fuck man. NONE OF THIS LANDED on my head as a kid. I was like ok cool either do cool nINJA MOVES LIKE I SAW YOU DO IN SMASH BROTHERS. OR SHUT UP. But at this point in my life, as I’ve fully excited being a “young adult”, those words ring truer than they ever had. I feel like all those points come together with such a great sense of poignancy with this dungeon in particular. The Kokiri are a race that never stop being kids, yet Link grew up. What’s up wit that? You find out shortly after the Forest Temple that Link was never actually a Kokiri boy but a Hylian who was left at the steps of the Great Deku Tree by his dying mother who fled from the last Hylian civil war. But none of that matters really except for this visual. Link, as an adult, staring his childhood friend, his childhood right in the face, as he has to deal with the responsibilities of being an adult, and being the Hero to save eveyone. … I don't know why she looks high though- Sheik is a mysterious character who keeps showing up again and again. And each time with a new bit of wisdom. At the entrance to the Fire Temple they talk about friendship and how it grows stronger through time. At the Ice Cavern they say “Time passes, people move…. Like a river’s flow, it never ends…” right after casually being like “yeah a bunch of the zoras are frozen under the ice ripperooni bro” After you beat the Water Temple, there is a moment where Sheik gazes upon Link and, it’s hard to say again because of the crummy n64 textures, but it seems to be a look of someone who knows Link more than the handful of times they’ve met him so far. The next time we meet Sheik they go WAAAaAHAAHAAAAAAAAAH- So, uh, nothing very thematic to point out here. At the Spirit Temple, Sheik once again shows up, this time without being flailed around like a Gmod prop. “Past, present, future…” they say. “The Master Sword is a ship with which you can sail upstream and downstream through time’s river…” and this repeated imagery of describing time like a river is one I really love. Even if this entire interaction, as well as a few of the others are mainly about being like “Hey by the way you can travel back in time just remember that in case this dungeon makes you do that ok ok ok thanks bye” Sheik’s inclusion in the story is such a nice delicate little bit of musings upon the grander themes of this game.. As a kid, again, I always thought they were just yapping on about nothing, but now these philosophical statements about the scarcity of time as an unstoppable river that must be learnt to be enjoyed instead of one to be fought against hits different. And in our unique position as a traveler up and down that river, it’s our duty to use that unique ability to save the world. Musings that are beautifully serenaded with this lovely bit of harp playing. But who is Sheik? Who is this mysterious ninja oracle of wisdom and knowledge and bars??? Well we find out when they come into the Temple of Time, clap their hands together and they begin to glow and!!!! IT’S ZELDA OH MY GOD……………. I wish this wasn’t spoiled for me. Growing up in the 2000s, you just came out of the womb knowing that Zelda disguises herself as Sheik in Ocarina of Time. It was all over the internet and as a special move in Super Fucking Smash Brothers. I am really envious of people who could go in blind and get this plot twist raw (game grumps clip) And reaaaaaaal quick, if you’ll let me take a sidebar for a second. If we go back in time roughly 10 years or so there was a reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaal debate on Sheik’s gender. Just endless and endless rambles of Sheik is a guy no he’s a girl because it’s Zelda. One developer would say this, another Nintendo guy would say this. It used to be a BIG talking point and with the context of today’s modern world, some of the arguments are definitely head scratching now. I always personally thought it was waaaaay cooler of an idea that Sheik was a man. If you’re a very beautiful and delicate princess being chased after by an evil King, what better disguise then to completely transform into a different race and gender into this really cool ninja guy heeeyaaa- Just having Ganondorf going completely Mulan mode being like “well I am looking for Princess Zelda and you are clearly a really cool dude fistbump hell yeah woohoo” I think the official word on it nowadays is that Sheik is a girl. “simply Zelda in a different outfit” (polygon article bill trinen quote) Which is just sooooooo much lamer in my opinion. It’s a magical world!!! Let her be a man!! “But that doesn’t make sense” YEAH AND SHEIK HAS GOT A GIGANTIC MIDDLE TOE TOO BUT NOONE EVER COMPLAINS ABOUT THAT NOW SHUT IT- Anyways so yeah Zelda is Sheik which makes all of this pixelated stare and her previous appearances make so much sense. She just wanted to guide you and point you in the right direction so you could both save the world. Like you were always supposed to do. Before she made her mistake. And in the last 7 years, while she fell down the river we rode across, she had all the time in the world to think about time. And maybe that’s why she wanted to share her thoughts with you. Her little bits of wisdom…….. oh mY GOD BECAUSE SHEIK IS ZELDA AND SHE HAS THE TRIFORCE OF WISDOM I JUST REALISED THAT JUST NOW WHAT THE FUCK?? AM I STUPID???? I know I just waffled on a lot about themes and story and characters in a N64 game that is 32mb big. But it’s one that deceived me in it’s complexity. Yes it’s not shakespeare, but it has so much more to it then I ever thought it did. If you let yourself bite into it, you’ll pick up on cool bits of subtext and worldbuilding you never noticed before. Like in this last playthrough I really picked up how Nabooru is so insistent on saying she isn’t like Ganondorf despite them both being Gerudo. Which is a kind of cool bit of character writing how she is opposed to this legendary member of their society being the man born once every 100 years and then it got me thinking about all the Gerudo and what their stance would be on the super duper evil man being that guy and like if you let it be, the game is rich!! And I’ll never know how much of it was proper narrative intent vs cool ideas they thought of to prod up bits of gameplay or tutorials which do take the priority in Nintendo's development philosophy. But that’s art innit? There could be a painting that is examined a million billion times one way when the author never thought of it having that intent. It’s all about what you get out of it. And Ocarina of Time’s story about time, and grieving the loss of childhood as you brace forward into the scary dark clouds of adulthood, it all comes together in one fell swoop in the- For faults and bits of jank the game does have, I think one of the thing it absolutely nails is it’s finale. From the second you enter Ganon’s tower you know they’ve got that shit on lock. Firstly, when you set foot in the area where his castle resides, you get this small cinematic of Link being shocked at the desecration of Hyrule Castle. That paired with the lack of music and the sounds of crows squeaking in the background, it really nails the apocalyptic nightmare tone of the place. But once you’re ready and have got all the sages they grant you with a gay bridge! And then with the fruity power of the sages at your side you enter Ganondorf’s castle. You have to go room by room and do these mini puzzles to deactivate the barrier blocking your progress. And this is sort of a cute little reminder of the entire journey you’ve been on. You go through each room reminiscent of a dungeon you’ve been throug before, until you pick up this big roCK WOAH WHAT LINK I DIDN’T KNOW YOU COULD LIFT And then it begins. The slow ascend up Ganondorf’s castle. Following the spiral staircase overlooked by stained glass windows, you can hear an organ playing a small theme in the background. As you get higher and higher, closer to the Great King of Evil, this ominous tune gets louder and louder, both increasing the tension of the situation as well as getting you excited to finally meet this foe. And once you do reach him, it turns out it was HIM playing the organ the entire time?? Damn man after we kill you I think you should definitely try a career in music, maybe hit the road I dunno. The fight begins and this insane track kicks as Ganondorf shoots these bolts of lightning at you! And you gotta swing your sword back at the lightning bolt and hey its tennis again! Real ones know you can use a bottle in this fight, which for some reason works at reflecting the lightning back at him…… ok does anyone actually know why this happens? Was this just a bug they kept in later releases as a cute little easter egg or is there some great lore significance to an empty bottle of Lon Lon Milk??? Soon the fight is over though, a bit too short to be honest, but hey it left a good last impression. Zelda is freed from her crystal and we look at the limp corpse of the evil king….. until he sTARTS TO BRING DOWN THE ENTIRE CASTLE. As it’s collapsing around you, you and Zelda have to make your way down to the bottom, narrowly escaping the destruction of the occupied castle. And I know I’ve said this a million times this video, but this is SO impressive for the N64. This large environment slowly being destroyed with so many individual parts falling down and with so much happening, I can’t believe it runs on this. But it seems like everything is over… Even Navi apologises for not being able to help much before which is nice until it’s cut off by a scary noise. You begin your approach towards the rubble left behind before a fiery wall cuts you off from Zelda. Busting from the rubble once more is Ganondorf, who uses the power of the triforce to transform into something far worse. Ganon. Unlike every boss in the game, he has no no subtitle. Really driving home the importance of this final fight. The master sword is flung behind Link, landing next to Zelda in this great dutch angle shot before the fight begins. It’s kind of insane that this 25 year old N64 game still has the best final battle in the entire series. To this day, no other final fight has come close to matching the intensity of the dire atmosphere found in this last triumphant effort. Koji Kondo once again brings out the big guns with this track, which is driven by the snare drum and choir. The track feels more hopeless than heroic, and is beautifully paired with the cracks of thunder and the shrieks Zelda gives when you’re hit. The lighting is also insanely dark, which is SO genius because one, it really hides how low poly this Ganon model is, and makes him feel way bigger and scarier than he actually is. Which is only heightened by the flashes of lightning illuminating his face for a split second. All of these elements combined just leave for an incredibly intense and dramatic final fight, one that feels so right for this game. After whacking at his tail enough with the Biggoron Sword or the Megaton Hammer, my goat, you get to reunite with the Master Sword and finish the fight off. Zelda tells you to PLEASE WRAP IT UP- You drive the sword straight into Ganon’s face. The music cuts before his dying screams flood your ears. Zelda, with the help of the Six Sages combine their powers to seal him away forever in the sacred realm. And finally, it is over. Truly over. We finally won. If for some reason the game ended right there I think it would still be such a strong finale, but it’s the next little sequence that really elevates the entire thing. Link and Zelda meet in this ethereal plane, where the two finally get a chance to properly talk. She thanks Link, but then also apologises. She blames herself for… well everything. As a child she didn’t realise that Ganondorf would see right through their plan and manipulate the two of them into doing exactly what he wanted. And she feels guilty for robbing Link of his childhood. He was just a kid who suddenly had to be thrust forward in time to save everyone. She knows the preciousness of youth, the one Link so selflessly had to give up. Even on the N64 you can see the sadness in her eyes as she admits this. And so with a heavy, she asks for the Ocarina, and with a few graceful notes, sends the hero back. Back to his childhood. And with one final thank you, she says goodbye. And then without a word of exaggeration, the best credits of maybe any game ever begin to play. As this beautiful harp begins its tune, we are shown empty locals of places we visited throughout the entire journey. We saved the day, yeah, but there is this very bittersweet feeling to it. And I think that's because, even though we were given the gift to go back in time to relive childhood we lost, Zelda and all the people we saved remain behind in that damaged future. This is the consequence for her lack of wisdom as a child. And to make amends, she sends Link back to do the one thing she’ll never get to do. Reclaim that lost time. But it’s something that doesn’t even work for Link anyways cause he ends up sadly leaving Hyrule to hang out with a scary moon in the next game aaAAH- It soon kicks into a happier tone with Saria’s Song playing to the dancing celebrating residents of Hyrule… wait the Kokiri I thought they died if they left the forest? What? To hear everyone dance and sing along gives that brief poignancy a bit of light and hope. This is what we were fighting for. These are the people we wanted to save. End it off with a sequence of the sages flying overhead, as if to show that they are going to keep watch over the land now that Link is gone. But the best part of this sequence is seeing Link return to his childhood. With her mission as your guide complete, suddenly Navi begins to fly off, and the two friends part. A moment that’s spontaneity hits you with a slight tinge of sadness. A low angle shows Link walking away from his mantle before DAN DAN. DAN DAN. THESE BELLS STRIKE, and it makes the ending to this Legend feel so grandiose. Like this game was something truly special. We then end back in Zelda’s courtyard. The young Princess, unaware of the future that awaits her, peers into the window. Link, full of the knowledge and experience and the heartbreak of the future approaches her. She turns around to look at him, and the game turns to sepia “The End” ……….. no fade to black? Just have to turn the console off ok? I can’t describe to you how much I love these credits. It really is the special kiss the special touch the special ribbon to tie this entire game together. Yes it’s old and clunky now, yes it looks pretty rough, yes there are rough parts, but the bits of the game that were magical then still feel magical now. Under strict console limitations, Nintendo were able to tell this story that has a surprising amount of emotional resonance. One that only gets more profound with time. A story about growing up, both in the escaping preciousness of youth, and the fearful uncertainty of adulthood. And how you have to appreciate one and have the courage to tackle the other. The other Zelda games do really incredible things, or perfect a certain special thing, but when I think of the classic idea of what Zelda is supposed to be, I feel like it’s Ocarina of Time. A world to explore full of mystery and magic and wonder. All tied together by an enchanting story and world that is so lovingly crafted and leaves an impact on you. And the thing about Ocarina of Time. is that it’s legacy isn’t this, but it’s this. It lead to the continued evolution and success of the best gaming franchise to exist. Without Ocarina of Time we wouldn’t have got Link’s melancholic journey through time to save the wonderful people of Termina from their terrible fate. Without Ocarina of Time we wouldn’t have gotten to sail across the vast seas of Hyrule to save our sister with a big smile on our face and a giant hammer. Without Ocarina of Time we wouldn’t have gotten the epic tale of a farmboy destined for greatness and a cursed princess teaming together to save both their worlds. Without Ocarina of Time we wouldn’t have gotten the tale of how the whole thing started. How the first Link and Zelda founded the very same Hyrule and the very same Master Sword we keep travelling through and fighting evil with today. Without Ocarina of Time we wouldn’t have gotten a fallen hero travelling through a vaaaaaast broken world rebuilding it piece by piece. And then we wouldn’t have gotten that again! But this time with cars!! Beep beep! The DNA of Ocarina of Time is in all of these. Even in the ones that reinvented the wheel again. And so without this one. This magical, beautiful, fantastic game. There wouldn’t be Zelda today, not in the way we know it now. And that is a world I don’t want to be a part of. Ocarina of Time isn’t perfect. In fact it’s far from it. I can only imagine what it felt like playing this for the first time back in 1998, but nowadays it is janky and kinda ugly and there will be some moments where you just have straight up 0 clue of where to go next. It runs at an abysmal framerate at BEST. Which by the way ran SLOWER if you didn’t live in any of these countries!! It’s small and there isn’t much to do in the overworld really except for hunt for ghosts and golden spiders. The story has gotten better as I’ve gotten older, like I just yapped about for ages, but it’s far from the best narrative you’ll ever see in the series, let alone the medium of gaming. But despite all of these little nicks and hiccups that have shown with age, I love this game. When I think about what The Legend of Zelda is, at it’s core, what it means to be a Zelda game, I think of this one. It just what Zelda is to me. And I have so many little memories and anecdotes I am going to make you listen to right now- OH WAIT I FORGOT TALK ABOUT THE MUSIC When you turn on the game you’re treated to the sounds of galloping hooves across a moonlit horizon. A peaceful bit of imagery is then greeted by these piano chords and strings. The title theme to Ocarina of Time might be one of my straight up favourite pieces of music in any game ever and this entire sequence is definitely my favourite title screen. It is so calm and relaxing, with it’s serene quiet juxtaposing so hard against the BOMBASTIC ADVENTURE OF THE REST OF THE GAME- (Hyrule Field) Koji Kondo had to hit so many different moods and genres with the score to this game, but the one he had to nail absolutely was the big overworld theme that plays while youre exploring Hyrule Field. It’s like he somehow scientifically distilled IN A LAB the pure sense and feeling of adventure and converted it into musical form. What I think is so funky about the song is that the middle bit gets really weird and oddly frightening. Why’d he do that come on man what out there is that scary you needed to do all that. One of the funniest parts of the IGN review I mentioned earlier is that they criticised the game for not using the traditional Zelda theme anywhere. My big hot take is that I think the zelda theme is a bit shit. I’ve always just found it a tad boring and dull? But this theme right here, which does give musical nod to the original might I add, this to me encompasses the feeling of adventuring giant worlds better than any other. And when played by big live orchestras it really feels like this could be the main theme of the entire series. … Or maybe this track yeah I think this sums it up. Remember how this was the first 3D Zelda and how exciting that was? Well the score masterfully reflects that. In the opening Navi flies throughout Kokiri forest looking for Link’s house. And yeah it’s just a cool way for them to show off fancy camera movements in a 3D space, but the sequence is brought to life by these magical runs. Everything is so elevated and excited by this music. Opening an item isn’t just Ok. It’s all and then When you get a heart it’s all triumphantly When the Princess turns around she doesn’t just rotate 180 degrees, but it’s all And my favourite favurite favourite is pulling the Master Sword in and out of it’s pedestal. It’s this big triumphant moment every single time and it feels SO good here!!! Yes I know it’s from a Link to the Past but sHUT UP! That’s a complaint I hear a lot about this game’s soundtrack, that “too much is borrowed from a link to the past waaaah I never learnt how to share with my friends” like what are you talking about? Who cares? It’s a series that is always borrowing what came before it to create something new. Why rewrite a beautiful town theme if that beautiful theme still works? There being a bit of connectivity between games musically has always excited me. It’s so lovely to see how old tracks get reinterpreted in new settings, by new composers. So yeah shoot Mr Kondo for reusing the whistle melody from the original Zelda and Mario Brothers 3. It’s a good set of notes! And if we’re talking of reused songs, yeah Zelda’s lullaby did originate from its console predecessor, but the theme really comes into it’s own here. The new sampling and sounds allowed on the N64 really make this feel like a properly realised track, with a harp and Ocarina bringing it to new life. What I love about the song though is how it’s incorporated into the game and it’s story. It’s your connection to everything. It’s used all the time to unlock puzzles, be it getting people to talk to you or changing the levels of thE WATER AAAAAH- But it becomes so familiar and comfortable to you that when it’s the thing that sends you back in time during the ending, it suddenly takes on this sad and poignant tone. While this isn’t my favourite rendition of the classic, it’s one that I love so dearly with all my heart. ….. And then sometimes Koji Kondo does this. Truly what was my man cooking. One thing I think that gets slept on far too much are the dungeon themes. They aren’t necessarily going to leave you humming a melody, but they do so much of the atmosphere building it’s insane. Inside the Deku Tree does this insane job at giving a track that feels mysterious but calming yet scary and you never quite know how to feel from its offbeat syndication of notes. Then Dodongo’s Cavern is straight up atmosphere_cave.mp3 and it is kinda scary. Inside Jabu Jabu’s Belly makes you wanna drop a beat like ooh yeah im link, youre a twink hey would you wanna maybe grab a drink uh- But then you go to the Forest Temple and this is where things get spooky. This one is a fan favourite and for good reason. When the notes come in with the. It just sends shivers down your spine. I think the eerie mysterious tone of this moss ridden stone tower is only enhanced when you hear. Truly spooky stuff. I touched on it earlier but the Fire Temple had this really cool chanting that was deemed a bit too religious back when the company had a strict no religion policy. But the one they ended up using in later versions of the game I think might actually fit better. The chanting always felt a tad too spooky in a temple which is about you saving goofy rock people who sleep by curling into a ball. This one I think fits better. Anyways the Water Temple sounds like. The Spirit Temple is another track which I think is just so madly underrated. You get this very cool synth intro that turns into this incredibly exotic melody. It’s just so good and one of those things I could write a million words on but not properly articulate. And then Shadow Temple is just sorta there and it’s spooky ooh ah you add voices in that slide down in pitch wow how scary- One thing I didn’t know for YEARS is that a bunch of the sounds you hear in these soundtracks, particularly in the dungeons come from sample CDs. There’s this fantastic video by gilamasan who shows off a bunch of the source samples found by various people over the years and how they are used in the game’s soundtrack (example) and you should def check it out. It’s super interesting. But also like in what world were you gonna find a useful sound on a CD called “A Poke in the Ear With a Sharp Stick 2” You’re overlooking the original!- Anyways when Kondo isn’t using samples he is going. The boss battle music in this game is so thrilling and exciting in every single instance. But especailly when you hear them orchestrated. But the cream of the crop is Ganondorf’s battle which is this super fast weirdly time signatured song like music is usually in 4/4 which means 4 beats per bar, but this one is in 23/16 whAT THE FUCK- WHY- HUH- WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT- 123 123 123 1234 123 123 1234. GOD THERE’S SO MUCH GOOD MUSIC AND I HAVENT EVEN TALKED ABOUT THE FAN FAVOURITES. Yeah Gerudo’s Valley is incredible. Song of Storms is so overrated and not that good. Lost Woods is of course an earworm and a half- ok yeah I don’t think Song of Storms is that good. Growing up people would always put this on the top of lists of the best music in this game, or make dubstep remixes of it, or wear it on funny shirts for their youtube based sketch comedy channel that they’d leave for 6 years before buying it back and becoming a part of the brand again …. or something. But I’ve just always though. It’s alright Innit? Overall this score is really incredible, and in a way almost feels a little sacred because it was the last one that Koji Kondo composed solely by himself. I’ve listened to it constantly, in and out of the confines of the game. I’ve giddily grinned listening to official orchestrations of it. I’ve gone to orchestral concerts of the stuff and beamed a giant smile. It’s captivated me so much I’ve spent countless hours in front of a piano brute force self teaching myself how to play so many of the songs buuuut you’ll have to wait to see that. I’m nervous aaaah- Anyways the music is good but sorry I interrupted myself before back to- Ok yeah bla bla bla I love this game and I have so many anecdotes of it. SO STRAP IN YOUVE ALREADY MADE IT THIS FAR- Ever since I was a kid I have always put the Ocarina in the c left spot. On every save file on every version. I know it’s a waste of a slot, but it just needs to go there for some reason. A weird tradition I have had since forever. And when I was a kid, I had a dream or maybe I just imagined this EXTRA scene after the credits where Link was riding his horse through a graveyard or something. But I guess kid me didn’t realise I made it up and then was watching the title screen scenes waiting for it to start and it juts never came. I guess I gaslit myself??? And my copy of the game was a hand me down from my cousin and her N64. And even when I’m not playing Ocarina of Time, I have that golden cartridge proudly sit in it’s slot, ready to go, with it’s sharpie written label crudely sitting on top no seriously why did you write on the top of all the cartridges why wOULD YOU DO THAT- One thing I always loved is that early on you learn this song from Saria called Saria’s song. Very modest. And whenever you do any thing in the game, you can call her and give her the gossip. Well as a kid I did this after I did literally ANYTHING. Any dungeon or quest or whatever I’d call her to see if she had something new to say. At one point in the game, she stops having new stuff to tell you. And it sort of broke my heart as a kid. I appreciate them putting so much effort into the calls you can make though. I have played this game countless times on like at least a million differennt platforms. I have it on N64, Gamecube, the Wii U, the 3DS, and if you count renting it, the Switch too. And for christmas one year my parents somehow plugged right into the matrix and figured out exactly what I would love unprompted and got me a boxed copy of the game, sealed and everything! So that’s TWO copies on N64. And I’ve only opened this bad boy up one or twice because I don’t wanna tarnish this box or god forbid rip this beautiful instruction booklet. In fact I love this game so much that I even imported a Japanese copy of the game. I talked about this in a video aaaaaaaaages ago, but god I love this box so much. The western look at Ocarina of Time is so simple but that sells its importance. The regal gold accompanied by nothing else but the logo makes it feel like “YEAH. THIS IS THE LEGEND OF ZELDA. WE KNOW WE’RE THE GOAT OF ALL TIME.” And then over in Japan we’ve got- Can we fix that? Thanks. And then in Japan we’ve got this cover which is just sooooooo cool. Link in that heroic pose hidden behind silver flames. It’s so unique to any other cover and while I don’t know if it quite matches the tone of the game, it feels so incredible all in it’s own right. Also by the way getting both these boxes with shipping fees were cheaper than getting an English copy. Cool. And then while I’m showing off cute little knick knacks I have of the game, here is this other little japanese import I have. A walkthrough guide with this insanely cool holographic cover. Like the instruction manuals for the game, this is full of cool bits of art and……. I can’t read this. I have scoured the internet my entire life looking at every corner of this game. From every version of the beta, to the promotional material which sported this insanely dramatic commercial. Certain bits of it fascinate me to no end, like, the time travel and the way the timeline splits into three also just scratched my brain in a particular way. It felt like a bunch of sci-fi elements disguised in a fantasy setting, which I loved. A lot of people complain about this, saying it makes no sense, but like, I dunno I always found it super neat and quirky and so wholly unique to Zelda. I also love that you can name your character anything you want. A little bygone from when Zelda games were sorta pretending to be RPGs, even though they’re not. I really recommend choosing my bro or my dude, it really makes the game way more chill. And there’s so many things I didn’t get to talk about!! Because I never want to make a video over an hour long ever again in my life!! Like the 3DS Version of the game which is so fantastic and there never ending rumours of a big boy proper remake and the entire history of the preleased version of the game including two giant leaks that showed us so much of it and I WILL be back to make more videos on this game. There’s more cloth to wring dry yet!! Unless you guys dont want me to… This is the Zelda game that made me fall in love with the Legend of Zelda. It captured my brain and my heart and my wild wild imagination and went running with me. After this I played Skyward Sword and fell in love with the tale of how it all began. then I played Majora’s Mask and experienced a morbid look at what the promise of death does to regular people. And then I played Twilight Peakcess for the Nintendo Peakcube and the Nintendo Piik. And then I counted down the years, months, days, minutes, and seconds until Breath of the Wild came out. And then Tears of the Kingdom. I love this franchise so much and it’s all thanks to this one. I love Ocarina of Time. … Twilight Princess is still better though by the way Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut what did you think???????? Please please please let me know your thoughts down below!! I always love the conversation and stories shared they give me a thrill like you wouldn’t believe ok wow that sounded a bit wrong I didn’t mean like that you know what I mean- And if you liked this video and want to get it early PLUS an extended thoughts video then why not consider hitting that join button and becoming a member? You’d really be helping me out buy my 3rd physical copy of the game, this time in Korean. That’s exciting. But please have yourselves a fantastic day, and stay snug. Seeya!

Channel: Snugboy

Views: 45,702

Keywords: ocarina of time 25, ocarina of time retrospective, ocarina of time review, ocarina of time songs, ocarina of time anniversary, ocarina of time, ocarina of time n64, ocarina of time video essay, ocarina of time still good, link ocarina of time, zelda ocarina of time, 25 year anniversary, breath of the wild, tears of the kingdom, link vs ganandorf, the legend of zelda, link and zelda, interview, zelda games, master sword, link and navi, retrospective, flandrew, deku tree

Id: kkF1Aqha5-Y

Length: 90min 1sec (5401 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 21 2024