The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)

I first played OoT back when I was 14, and now, a decade later, I felt like I should return to it and see how my skills as a player have changed, how I look at game design and how I feel about something that was made, like, what, over 20 years ago?

Turns out, even to this day, Ocarina of Time has aged better than I'd have thought. The graphics are obviously dated, but not all that bad, to be honest. I can see individual fingers and everything! And everyone has blinking animations. It's nothing you can't get used to, although this is coming from a person who's played a lot of old games, so seeing N64 era 3d-models isn't all that jarring to me. Some of the puzzles could have used some work, but that might've just been my own work-exhausted brain not realizing that I should use a certain item right here and now. Literally had to look up a walkthrough to figure out the golden gauntlets because I missed them, so. Yeah.

I also played the Water Temple without a walkthrough, and wow. That was a pain. Still not my least favorite dungeon, though. That award is, and probably always will be held by Jabu Jabu's belly.

The only thing that hasn't really been touched by time (pun intended) is the music. Koji Kondo's incredible skill at composition and arrangement is a shining beacon leading you through your adventure, perfectly matching each environment, cutscene, every little moment. Even the chest opening and puzzle solving jingles are, in fact, fantastic tiny pieces of music that, when looked at from a musical theory perspective, are more in-depth than you'd think. The man's a genius, I swear.

Anyway, while not the mind-blowing experience it's usually advertised as, Ocarina of Time is still absolutely worth playing in it's original form in 2021, and I would highly recommend it for anyone who hasn't done so yet!

Since I just realized the 20th Anniversary of Ocarina of Time has passed us, I wanted to share a story about this game.

I got Ocarina of Time when I was 5 years old and played it for years & loved it. My mom even sewed me a Link outfit so I could run around the backyard and play Zelda. Unfortunately I never beat it. Once I became adult Link it just became too hard to the point where I would restart the game over & over and play until I became adult Link and would just give up. Eventually, I got older and branched out into other games, leaving my N64 behind. It wasn't until 2015, when my Dad was moving out of my childhood home in Omaha, Nebraska that I found my old N64 in a closet along with Ocarina of Time. I hadn't seen the console in about 10 years, but I took it home to my apartment in Lincoln and vowed to finally beat Ocarina of Time.

I spent the next month playing the game & was immediately brought back to my childhood. I was amazed how well the game held up today. And I know it's not nostalgia blinding me because while the childhood portion was pure nostalgia, most of the adult portion was completely new to me, yet still managed to be just as fun.

Finally beating the game after all these years was a very emotional moment for me. My mom isn't with me anymore as she died in 2010. It seems silly how emotional finally beating this adventure made me because she knew how crazy I was about this game was when I was younger. Finally beating it felt like getting closure for a chapter of my childhood. Like Link, the task at hand was too difficult for the childhood version of me to complete. I had to wait until I was older to finish the task. Safe to say, I've never had that kind of experience with any video game, movie, song or any other form of media before or since.

At 20 years old, it still holds up as one of the greatest adventure games of all time.

What first attracted me to the game was seeing a family friend play it. Although I only watched for a few seconds, I distinctly remember him using a bow and arrow in the Ice Cavern, and the bright colours, intense combat and expansive inventory full of complex items grabbed hold of my heart and never let go.

Hyrule is a rich and wondrous land full of secrets and personality. Every zone is totally unique and populated by incredibly different beings. From the sheltered depths of the Kokiri's forest, to the Mountain peaks of the proud Gorons, every part of that wonderful land is rich in character and adventure. However in many ways it's Hyrule itself who is my favourite character; a being so vast and deep that it was my privelige to glimpse even one of her many facets. My breath still catches in my throat when I think of the peahats taking to the sky at dawn in Hyrule Field.

In terms of an adventure, the story is classic and unbeatable: Collect the gems, claim the Sword, awaken the Sages, conquer the hoard. Lay seige to the castle, duel Ganondorf, rescue the Princess and claim the Triforce. While the trope of the helpless Princess is distasteful to me now, I have to say it was somewhat mitigated by the badassery that was Sheik.

Koji Kondo's work on the score can't be overstated either. As indicated by the name, the music of Ocarina of Time was a pivotal storytelling device, and boy did Kondo-san nail it. I still have sound clips from Ocarina as my ring tone and notification tone. I've also been known to play medleys on the piano, ocarina and guitar.

I can't really begin to tell you how much Ocarina has meant to me in my life. I might mention that for a school project I wrote an entire anthology of poetry based on Hyrule. In music class I recreated an orchestrated version of Zelda's Lullaby. I wrote some terrible fanfic, tried my hand at fanart, and even began to play the game ritualistically. Ocarina of Time has been an integral part of who I am for so much of my life, it will forever have a place as one of my favourite games of all time.

Hello!

I'll writing about some of my favorite games from the past, specially from the n64/ps1 era to the actual generation ps4/x1/wii u

Today i'll be talking about one of my all time favorite games: TloZ: Ocarina of time

Listed as one of the best games ever created, and probably the best. When it was released 17 years ago it re-revolutionized the 3d adventure games, perfecting the gameplay of Mario 64, and adding a great combat scheme.

The gameplay is flawless, but also pretty much everything else in the game. No other 3d Zelda game have this immediacy, you start the game and 5 minutes later you are in the first dungeon that function like a tutorial, but never feeling like that, something that no other 3d Zelda game have accomplished since.

Also is the music, it plays a big role in the game, playing songs in your ocarina let you continue your journey, meeting great characters, especially Sheik, and in a the time were the internet was not as present in our lives as in today so it was a shock learning that she was actually Zelda for the first time.

I remember in school all in the classroom were talking about this game, giving tips and sharing rumours that we read in the magazines, making it like a collective adventure. Something that I have yet to experience again, but in the internet times is unlikely to happen again nor at the workplace lol.

The soundtrack is so good, gerudo valley, the lost woods, hyrule field theme, the ganondorf theme, specially the spooky Forest Temple theme, also that dungeon may be the greatest one in the Zelda series.

The game has so many memorable things and its great that there is a 3ds version for younger generations to experience this piece of art. I would like to see a Ocarina of Time HD, with the graphical style of Hyrule Warriors, it would be amazing.

Also is the only game that i play at least few times per year since its release and enjoy it like the first time. Probably that is the main reason that almost 2 decades after it stills resonates, Ocarina of time is timeless.