[Link shouting] I spent 24 Hours in Ocarina of Time VR… Viewing the world through the eyes of Link… And I have to say, it was a haunting experience. Think about what the worlds of video games
felt like as a kid. They were absolutely an extension of our world. And honestly, I can think of no complete world
that immediately grabbed my attention the way that Ocarina of Time did. Mind you, Super Mario 64’s world was captivating
as well, but since everything felt connected and intertwined in Ocarina of Time, it felt
like a giant expansive maze instead of separate areas connected via a hub world castle. We could go anywhere, and the journey to get
there felt long. Walking from the top of death mountain to
Lake Hylia wasn’t exactly the shortest of journeys, and there was so much to see in-between. We knew this land like it was our own backyard… And that’s exactly what brought me to this
concept. What would it be like to lock myself in this
game world for 24 hours? To see the game through the eyes of Link himself? Well, thanks to Kaze Emanuar, we can actually
do that. So a while ago I picked up a Vive and then
I utilized a special build of Ocarina of Time by Kaze to see the world of Hyrule from a
new perspective. Now, going into this challenge I knew there
were a few things that I wanted to do. First and foremost, locking yourself in a
game world and just playing the game itself doesn’t really do much. You’re so distracted by the game’s story
itself that you don’t take in what you’re experiencing fully. I’ve been through this story multiple times. I’ve romped around its worlds time and time
again. But I’ve never done it like this. So for this challenge, I only want to spend
some of the time actually progressing in the story. After a set period of time, I’ll actually
be flipping a switch and then skipping to the absolute end of the game. Because what was important to me for this
was getting a feel for this world when I don’t have an objective. But I’ll get into that more as the actual
challenge progresses… Because there’s a lot to cover… And a lot to experience. But before diving in, let’s at least cover
some of the changes that a VR setup introduces. First and foremost, you are almost always
seeing the world from Link’s eyes. The only times you don’t are in areas with
fixed backgrounds. This is because these areas are just flat
images without actual depth. This includes houses and other areas similar
to that. Second, unlike a completely rendered VR environment,
the area around us isn’t fully rendered. Games typically remove assets out of the players
field of view to keep things running smoothly. Normally in VR you could look in any direction
and see things, but given the state of this game, we’ll only be focusing on the front. Because turning around will just have everything
unloaded. Our analog stick doesn’t get influenced
by our line of sight either, so unless we’re looking forward while moving, we’re probably
going to get mixed up and confused with how we are walking. There will be a few other details too… But I’ll explain them as time goes on. And with this, we’re off… So starting in about one minute... I'm going to be going into the world of Hyrule
for 24 hours in virtual reality. I'm going to start a timer on my phone - not
sure if you can really see it. It's 2:59pm and as soon as this hits 3:00pm,
we're diving in. 3:00pm! It has started! We are now going into VR - oh this is weird. So this is the title screen... As you can see I can look around... What is that? That's a little 8... So back at the end of July, I actually had
tried Ocarina of Time VR for about an hour when my HTC Vive first came in. But it was more so to setup VR in general,
and I didn’t get to explore much. This time was much different. Right out of the gate I knew the first few
hours of my play session would be aligned to the actual storyline for the game. So I immediately took off for the Kokiri sword
and quickly realized how difficult this challenge was going to be. Navigating this world felt a lot different
than the world I knew. The reference points were the same, but it
took longer to get to places due to the increased challenge of navigating in first person. Even collecting the rupees to buy the Deku
Shield was challenging since you’d often cut grass and not know where the rupee went. It wasn’t long until I got to the Deku Tree
though… And my perception of this run changed. I guess going into it I was unsure of what
to expect, and generally I thought it’d be smooth sailing… But even simple challenges in VR can become
bothersome. You really have to align your line of sight
to match up with each of Link’s actions. For example, if you slip off a ledge and grab
the edge, your camera is flipped because Link is facing outwards. You might accidentally let go because of the
sudden shift. Or when you’re climbing, you have to look
completely upwards to see where you’re going. When you’re diving in water, you have to
be facing downwards the whole time to make sure you’re aligned properly. The controls are really finicky too, since
every subtle movement seems to bring about an exaggerated action. When I finally got the slingshot in the Deku
Tree, I learned just how difficult projectile puzzles were going to be. The aim is extremely off and it feels like
you have to aim way lower and offset to where you think the shot would actually be going. You basically have to fire tracer shots and
waste pellets just to see where you’re actually aiming, and you then adjust it from there. I will say it did feel kind of neat lighting
the deku stick on fire and carrying it like a torch in VR. But making sure you light the torches you
need to with it is again a pain due to the sensitivity of the controls. After fumbling around for a bit as I got accustomed
to the controls, I then finally made it to the boss. You actually have to manually look at Gohma
with C-Up and not the VR headset in order to start the fight. Luckily, this fight wasn’t too difficult
just because Gohma tends to walk right towards you so hitting her in the eye with the slingshot
isn’t terrible. Hitting her on the roof absolutely is though,
so you have to play a waiting game per say. With this, I cleared the first dungeon and
entered Hyrule field… And I gotta say, Hyrule Field felt massive. Walking across this field in VR was comparable
to how it felt when I experienced it as a kid. It felt way bigger than it actually was, and
since I didn’t roll at all to get to places faster, it took longer to get across. I had stopped rolling because the camera kind
of freaks out bit when you do it, and it causes a bright flash in the headset that begins
to irritate your eyes after a while. Because I was moving across the field slower
than usual, night of course set in and the Stalchildren rose. It’s actually a lot more unsettling when
you can’t see where the creatures are popping up around you. It makes the field feel more dangerous since
your skill as a player is incredibly hindered. After making my way to the drawbridge though,
I had to stop and just admire the sight. I would sit on top of this draw bridge as
a kid and just stare out over Hyrule field… And in VR, it was a surreal experience. So it's very strange kind of being up here
and looking out over the field because I used to do this all the time. But actually being able to look down and see
the bridge below me - these giant chains... It's kind of neat. When I would beat the game when I was younger,
I actually would come out here and just like, chill out here. Especially up here, this was like a secret
hideout because as a kid, when you're up here the stalchildren cannot get to you. So I would just spend a lot of time up here
just chilling, not doing much of anything because Zelda was in many ways like a digital
playground for me... Heading to Hyrule Castle was a bit interesting
for me. It’s actually a bit harder to determine
how far away you are from guards since you no longer have the 3rd person view. This only amplified the feeling of sneaking
though… And made it feel way more intimate, especially
at nighttime. Heading into Hyrule Castle, the guard area
actually does not take place in VR due to the fixed environment. So we get through this place like normal… Princess Zelda’s Courtyard was a place I
had to stop and chill in though. It’s pretty darn beautiful in VR, so I decided
to take a break here and have a snack. A picnic in the courtyard I suppose. I always really liked this room. Something about it is super relaxing. Maybe it's like, how secluded it is from the
rest of the game? The fact that you have to sneak in in order
to talk to Zelda and this is a dead end in terms of how far you can go. On the 3DS version of the game you can actually
see a hallway in the previous section when you're sneaking through that you can't get
inside. But I don't know... I always just liked this area. It's peaceful. Relaxing. The music definitely helps too. What’s interesting about VR is that we can
actually look around during cutscenes and see things we don’t normally see. Mind you, there is black letter boxing in
almost every shot to give cutscenes a film-like look, but we can still look past them. It’s neat that when we look in to see Ganondorf,
we can actually look to our right and still see Princess Zelda beside us, despite her
not being in the shot. Sometimes there’s neat details hidden around,
so it pays to explore. At this point in the game I started to notice
something about my experience. As an adult, very rarely do I have a day where
I don’t do anything. There’s always something going on whether
it be work-related, or just a general responsibility. As a kid though, we don’t have that feeling. Often times there isn’t anything being asked
of us that warrants that kind of thought process. So on my way into Kakariko Village, I found
myself climbing to the top of the tower and just staring out at Death Mountain. Because what I realized was, by being isolated
in this game - no access to email, my phone being in airplane mode, my day blocked off
completely, etc. There was a subtle feeling of wonder that
came back that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. When I started this challenge, I had my buddy
Stowgee help out for the first hour - but by this point in the process I was completely
isolated. A VR headset strapped to my face, and headphones
masking out the outside world. I think that’s why I started to feel this
way. It felt like the post-game syndrome of having
a game cleared and the freedom to do absolutely what you wanted with no worry of something
interrupting that feeling. It was a foreign feeling, but one I was familiar
with decades ago. After spending a while on this tower, it was
time to head to a place that held terrifying memories for me… The Royal Family Tomb. For those who watched my ReDead video from
over four years ago, you’ll know this place terrified me… And entering this area sort of brought those
chills back. Ohhhhh... Here we go. [laughs] This is so terrifying! I'm waiting for him to look at me. Ahhh! Yep, you still get frozen! Oh gosh that's terrifying! Alright we're getting out of here. No! That's the wrong way! I'm dead.... I'm dead! I'm dead! I'm dead! Go go go go go! [Sighs] Alright I got the ocarina out... Oh my gosh... That is TERRIFYING! With the Sun’s Song obtained, I swung on
over to grab Saria’s Song as well. Then I headed back to scale Death Mountain
to start Dodongo’s Cavern. It's currently almost 7:00pm, closing in on
the 20 hour mark. As in, we've gone through four hours not twenty
hours yet. My eyes are getting a little tender slightly? I'm going to press on for a little bit and
if I need to rest somewhere I actually scooped out some pretty cool places to rest. [Laughs] Kakariko village at night doesn't
have a lot of sound - so it will be good to lay down. I actually have a little cot over there that
I'm going to be sleeping in. Dodongo’s cavern took me a bit longer than
I had thought it would. I actually ended up dying a few times from
misjudging situations due to how close the VR camera is. It’s far easier to take damage in VR because
you can’t always tell what is approaching you to damage you. Beyond that, if you lose your footing and
fall in lava, it takes a bit longer to get oriented so you can recover before burning
to death. Utilizing the bomb flowers is a pain too because
it can be hard to tell just how far you’re throwing them. I missed a lot of throws since the camera
screws with your mind and how far you anticipate the throw will be. With some careful maneuvers we find ourselves
near the end of the dungeon waiting to fight the final boss… And honestly, I thought I was going to die
at the boss for sure. For some reason utilizing actual bombs and
not bomb flowers in VR can sometimes cause your vision to be completely blocked because
of the sparking fuse. This makes lining your throw up annoying,
and if you miss you throw, trying to get away from the king before the fire and rolling
takes place ends up being more frantic than it should. I found myself accidentally rolling into lava
a few times because I misjudged how far I actually was from it. I barely managed to beat King Dodongo with
only a sliver of health left, and at this point my head was throbbing a bit. So I left death mountain and headed out to
Kokiri Forest. I needed to find a place to rest and shut
my eyes for a bit… And honestly, I couldn’t have picked a better
place. There was something extremely surreal about
laying down on top of a roof and falling asleep under the night sky. Okay... So it's about 9:00pm. I don't know if you can see that. And... I am having a bit of a headache? So I just finished Dodongo's Cavern. I decided to come back to Kokiri Forest at
night because there is no music. It's very, very relaxing. You can only hear like the water trickling. I kind of need that. I'm going to lay down for a bit. Hopefully... I have some pressure with my eyes right now. I think it's from focusing on this kind of
blurry world? Got my YouTube Gaming pillow and I'm probably
going to lay down for an hour or two. We'll see. I'm on top of the roof that's right outside
of the forest. And, I'm kinda like, just laying on top of
the roof of this house. It's kind of a neat feeling, honestly. [Sighs] I'm just going to lay here and rest
for a bit. And then we'll pick back up where we left
off. Heading into this video, I definitely wanted
to play off some of the experiences and thoughts that YouTuber Disrupt did when they originally
made their video about spending a week in VR. That’s why I choose this game after all. It’s not so much about the gameplay as it
is about how it sort of feels like a lucid dream. I cannot accurately describe what it feels
like laying on a Kokiri roof and dosing off as the digital world before you grows more
and more dim. I’m struggling to articulate it now even
as I write this. I feel like there is honestly nothing I could
say to capture that feeling. As I woke up from this nap, I knew I was entering
the final hours of my first day before I actually went to bed for the night. And when that next day came… The second half of this experiment… Things would be completely different. So it's about midnight almost. Like 11:40, 11:41 whatever. There's about 15 hours left on the clock. Obviously, a part of that will be spent sleeping
for real. Ummm... And not so much just resting, but - we are
now leaving this roof. Jumping into my next play session, I left
the roof in Kokiri Forest and headed straight for Zora’s Domain. Navigating Zora’s River in VR was a bit
trippy because there’s a lot of jumping mechanics and sometimes ledges appear to be
higher than they actually are. I was pretty worried about the diving game
upon entering Zora’s Domain. Picking up items while diving is a bit tricky
given that you must be looking down the entire time. With a leap of faith, I jumped off the waterfall
- which was incredibly awesome, and somehow managed to get all the rupees in my first
go flawlessly. I was super surprised by this. With the silver scale, I then retrieved Ruto’s
letter and then made my way into Jabu Jabu’s Belly… And probably the worst dungeon I’ve experienced
so far. This dungeon is a pain in VR because of how
many floating enemies there are. You never know if you’re about to get hit
by a bubble or some other foe, and until you get the boomerang, you really have to conserve
slingshot ammo because it will be the only thing that will save you in complex situations. One of the worst things about this dungeon
is the fact that when you pick up Ruto, she actually obstructs your vision and makes it
so you can’t see through half your screen. This makes it problematic when enemies are
floating above you and you’re not sure if they will strike. One the boomerang is obtained, things get
a bit easier - but there’s still a few challenges. The timed room with the bubbles is a nightmare. VR makes everything you do slower given that
your viewing range for z-targeting is punched in. I died in this room because the timer would
run out. Targeting the giant worm monsters is a pain
too, because if they move up into the ceiling, it’s insanely hard to re-lock onto them
with z targeting. So you need to make sure you never lose your
lock on otherwise you won’t get it back. And last, the mini-boss in this dungeon is
by far the worst thing I’ve done in the game yet. It feels almost impossible to outrun him because
you naturally take longer turns in VR because you only move straight at all times. Moving diagonally is a gamble because you
won’t know how your control stick will respond. So basically, you will never catch the guy
unless you damage yourself. It got to the point where I decided to bring
a fairy and let him hit me each and every time. When he bumps into you, he turns around which
allows you to z-target him and then pursue him with the boomerang. I eventually beat him, but it was awful and
I felt like I cheated the boss. After this, things were generally smooth sailing. The boss of Jabu Jabu’s Belly didn’t give
me any trouble as you can just strafe with z-targeting the entire time. Upon securing the last spiritual stone, I
grabbed the Ocarina of Time from the water - which was a total pain to do, and then decided
to turn in for the night. It was past 2:00am at this point, so I headed
to Kakariko Village to find a place to sleep. Alright so we have all three spiritual stones
and I am actually going to go to sleep up there. I'm exhausted. It's about - jeez what time is it? 2:00 in the morning? 12 hours and 55 seconds left on the challenge. I'm going to sleep here and leave this running
over night in VR space. This will be my view tonight... Death Mountain. So it's just a little after 2:00am. Laying down up here. So tomorrow I will be actually warping to
an adult and beginning the second half of the challenge in kind of a unique way. I am a little bit exhausted and I need some
sleep. I need some proper sleep. That way this headache will go away. And with that... I'll see you all tomorrow. Sleeping this time knowing I was going to
try to get as much rest as possible was a bit different. I tried my best to rest well, but unfortunately
a headset isn’t exactly comfortable when coupled with headphones. You can only really lay on your back for the
most part. Morning came eventually and I felt exhausted… But with only five or so more hours, I pressed
on. So I'm sure this comes to almost no one's
surprise but trying to sleep a full night with a VR headset on is not very comfortable? I tried to get eight hours of rest but it
didn't really happen. Today now we are actually on a completed build
of Ocarina of Time. So, because when I think of VR and the capabilities
it has, sometimes there's a very existential feeling with it? Like you're bound to this universe that doesn't
really have much to offer. Now obviously in normal VR setups you have
an infinite range of things you could play but in a completed game - in a nostalgic game
where we've explored everything. It's a bit of a different feeling. And that's kind of what I wanted to accomplish. I went back to Kokiri Forest for a moment
before defeating myself on the boulder that rolls around, which allowed me to return to
the title screen without exiting the game. I then swapped from my new save file to one
from the end of the game… And suddenly I was a lot taller and standing
within Ganondorf’s castle. I exited and moved back to Hyrule Field… And that’s when the world truly became my
oyster. I made sure I had zero objectives, so I just
bummed around. Epona hadn’t been unlocked on this save
file yet, so I took off to Lon Lon Ranch and raced Ingo. Unfortunately, you can’t ride a horse in
first person unless you have a weapon drawn, so I couldn’t actually race Ingo in first
person. Despite this he was actually very difficult
to beat. I’m not sure why it gave me so much trouble,
but eventually I beat him and secured Epona. After leaving the ranch, I took off on horse
back with my bow drawn to the side and I finally got that VR horse experience I was looking
for. As time slipped by, I eventually made my way
to Lake Hylia and decided to go fishing. Fishing in VR felt very satisfying, and the
isolation of the fishing pond during the night was relaxing. I eventually made my way under water and just
hung out. Not having any place to go or any place to
be felt free. There was a subtle hint of boredom sometimes,
but because I was seeing this familiar world through VR, ever place still had a unique
twist to it. I went swimming in Lake Hylia for a bit and
then explored the bottom of the lake with Iron Boots. Watching the sky change while under water
was a really cool experience. It was at this point things felt like my childhood
again. There were some areas that I hadn’t explored
in so long, that the sense of adventure in remembering where they were was pretty captivating. Although I knew the main storyline well, I
hadn’t 100% completed the game with every collectable in a long time. So, I had forgotten where a lot of the secret
grotto locations actually were. It was fun hammering around random trees to
try to find them. This eventually lead me back to Kakariko village
at night time. I wanted to head into the most rewarding of
all grottos - which was the one in the middle of the village with two ReDeads. After this, I checked out the spider house
for a bit and just chilled. With my remaining play time dwindling to one
hour… I knew there was something I absolutely wanted
to do. I wanted to spent my last hour at the very
tip top of Death Mountain, sitting on the edge of a cliff… and working out. Yeah, I worked out on top of Death Mountain
and it was super satisfying in the weirdest way. The idea of being in VR, you know it can be
relaxing too. And the view of Death Mountain from above
is... I don't know? It's always been kind of cool because this
is like the highest point that you can go in the game? So I thought, well, if I'm living in VR, why
not try doing a workout on top of Death Mountain near the edge? So I'm going to be working out up here for
a bit. Uhhh [laughs] then I'll probably just uh,
relax up here and just take the headset off when it is all said and done. I don't know, there's just something about
working out on top of a mountain that is uh... extremely relaxing. I never thought I'd be doing pushups [laughs]
at the top of Death Mountain though. That's uh, that's a new one... After working out… There was about twenty minutes left until
my freedom. But I couldn’t actually make myself move
from the spot. Sitting out in nature is one of my favorite
things to do, so closing out my run like this was pretty special to me. Just sitting cliff side staring out beyond
the mysterious beyond. I think I got like three minutes left. And then I'm out of here. [laughs] It's so strange, using a phone to
track time but I'm holding it in my hand but I'm looking at where it should be and you
don't see it. It's very strange. Especially since like, it's kind of like vertigo
too because I don't want to drop my phone off this ledge. But it's not real? But my body still reacts as if it is real. [Phone alarm sounds] And that is it! Our timer is up! [laughs] Ohh... It is now officially time to exit - oh jeez! I purposely chose headphones that weren't
super super tight but my ears are still sensitive. Now for this bad boy... Ugh. Oh gosh It's weird because your eyes are like
adjusted to something in front of you, but it has depth, but when you take it off there's
actual real depth. [Laughs] Um... I got nothing. I'm tired... I'm really tired. I'll write my thoughts here in a bit once
I have time to collect them. So now that I’ve had time to gather my thoughts… Why do I call this a haunting experience? Because I don’t think it will be something
I’ll ever forget. I’ve always seen concepts of people trapped
in game worlds, or people dedicating themselves to stay within a game… But to think that my thought process in the
game was “I actually need to find a place to sleep tonight that isn’t noisy” is
bonkers. To think that I actually worked out on top
of a digital mountain that I’ve traveled all over when I was a kid. This whole experience felt like putting on
kid glasses again because nothing outside of my VR environment affected me. There weren’t any messages, emails, phone
calls, etc. All distractions were gone. It was just me and the game… Just like how it was when I was little. So even if the headset hurt my head after
a while… Even if I was physically uncomfortable at
parts… It was worth it. Taking a nap on top of a house in Kokiri forest
was worth it alone. And the culmination of this whole experience
will truly be something I won’t ever forget. And with that… Thanks for enduring that with me, and until
my next video, cheers!
