The Game That Made Me A Gamer

[Retro Review] Another trip back in time to Ocarina Of Time.

There is no other title in the popular gaming consciousness that evokes the same level of reverence as The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time.

Nintendo’s legendary 3D adventure: the first such game in the Zelda franchise has an unassailable list of accolades and innovations to its name: the first game with a lock-on system, the most critically acclaimed video game of all time, a context sensitive control-scheme, the first video game to receive a 40/40 score by Famitsu, Ocarina of Time’s legacy and impact on 3D gaming cannot be measured… but I didn’t know any of this growing up. To me? Ocarina Of Time is different.

It was never a masterpiece I couldn’t criticise or an old classic I rediscovered later, this game was my childhood: the one that made me a gamer, forever. To modern gamers Ocarina of Time is history but to me? It’s home.

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker’s Limited Edition came with Ocarina Of Time and the new Master Quest mode included. This was the version I grew up with.

At age 4, I would try to play Ocarina Of Time on my brother’s GameCube, then when I had my own at age 5, I’d keep having a crack at it, my feeble child brain getting stuck in the Deku Tree. Every year, I’d turn over the little plastic hinge in my Wind Waker box and make another attempt at Ocarina instead: the more ‘adult’ and scarier brother to Waker, in my young mind. As I got older, I’d get a little further each time until one day, armed with my mum’s laptop, tempered with a bollocking for hogging it and prepared with printed out guides from zeldadungeon.net (which is still going to this day… I remember when Twilight Princess was the newest game on that menu bar, fuck, I’m getting old) I embarked with the courage of a boy about to enter double-digits on a quest that would stay with me for life.

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The Triforce Of Time

There are 3 distinct versions of Ocarina Of Time, each with its own quirks, drawbacks and benefits. I’ve played all of them and here is the rundown.

Ocarina Of Time for the Nintendo 64: the original version of the game.

Ocarina Of Time was first released for the Nintendo 64 in 1998, there are actually 2 versions of this original with the first print of the game including a later-removed sample of the Muslim call to prayer in one of its music tracks… but this print was so limited and famous among collectors that you’re unlikely to just find it by accident now.

Ocarina Of Time on the Nintendo 64 is foggy, blurry and has a lot of framerate issues but if you play this console a lot, you know that those issues are ubiquitous anyway. There aren’t really any benefits to playing on N64 today except for its historical value, it being cheap and the old Crescent of Islam-inspired Gerudo symbol not having been removed yet. This is the version of Ocarina Of Time you emulate when you boot up the game on Switch Online’s Expansion Pack.

The Gamecube Version of Ocarina Of Time. The version included with Wind Waker has the Master Quest on the same disc but a standalone disc version like this one also exists.

The GameCube version of Ocarina Of Time is probably the most obscure today, though it isn’t too expensive.

This version of the game replaces the old Gerudo symbol with the one modern Zelda fans will know, removes a lot of the blood found in a certain area and renames some of the button prompts to better fit the GameCube controller. In terms of improvements, the game runs at a buttery smooth 30FPS (in comparison to the 19FPS as standard on PAL N64 games) the resolution is doubled, the draw-distance fog is toned down and the Master Quest: a kind of new game + mode made for second playthroughs with a much higher difficulty is introduced.

Ocarina Of Time 3D was the reason I bought a 3DS in 2012.

Finally we have Ocarina Of Time 3D: the 2011 remake released for the Nintendo 3DS.

Ocarina 3D is a 1-1 remake with an updated art-style, character models and the inclusion of stereoscopic 3D for migraine-enjoyers. This version of the game includes many quality of life improvements, the Master Quest, a hint system and a boss rush mode; the fact that this version is made for a device the size of a phone also adds something to the experience. Many an illicit after bedtime Ocarina Of Time session was had in my bed with this game.

So, which version of Ocarina Of Time should you play?

My personal favourite version of Ocarina is the GameCube one: it’s the one I grew up with, it’s the one I chose to play for this review and it’s the version I’m most eager to revisit. Some of the censorship is unfortunate and the GameCube pad’s analogue sticks are a little too sensitive for the aiming and item use in this Nintendo 64 game but the Master Quest (although I’ve never actually played it much) is a great incentive and the performance is miles ahead of the Nintendo 64 original.

If you’ve played Ocarina Of Time many years ago and want to revisit it with as little friction and old game jank as possible then I recommend getting the 3DS version. You miss out on a big screen and I’m not a fan of the ‘updated’ art-style’s brightening of the game but the quality of life features are useful, it plays brilliantly and if you have one of the New 3DS consoles with better 3D then the feature does enhance the experience.

The Nintendo 64 version should only be played via Switch Online. Listen, I love the Nintendo 64: it’s my favourite Nintendo console and my 2nd favourite console overall… but Ocarina Of Time was pushing the machine to its limit and the minor bits of censorship introduced later aren’t worth reversing when the game is stuck chugging like mad.

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Breaking Point

Now we’ve covered the different versions of Ocarina, let’s get back on track: back to my usual formula for any Zelda review. That’s right, we’re off to the timeline again!

Ocarina Of Time is arguably the most important entry in the franchise from the perspective of the lore and over-arching narrative. This adventure is the origin point for all 3 of the series’ timelines.

The original idea for Ocarina was to have it be a retelling of the Imprisoning War mentioned in A Link To The Past; Ocarina Of Time from the ground up was always developed as a prequel, though the connections to ALttP were loosened as development drove on, partially because the minds behind Zelda have never chained themselves to the series’ plot orthodoxy too tightly and because the opportunity to tell a Ganon origin story was just too good to pass up. Fighting the standard Pig-Demon Ganon in a war for Hyrule in full-3D would have been cool but during development, a lot of areas had to be scrapped due to technical limitations as it was and the final product, in my opinion, has a much better narrative than that concept ever could have delivered.

What kind of power turns a man into a demon? And does Ganondorf know that you know what he’s planning? These are questions that kept me spellbound as a child and elements of Ocarina that I recognise now through the boring lens of adulthood as the developers doing a lot of good with just a little bit of solid writing and game structure.

The timeline split adds a special weight to Ocarina Of Time. During the final confrontation and even while roaming the overworld it’s always in the back of my mind that there is an entirely canon outcome where all of this: a game world I practically grew up in is completely obliterated… and that makes my inner 7 year old upset.

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A Vile Climate Pervades The Land

Absolutely weapons-grade nostalgia

Ocarina Of Time begins during a new age of peace for the Kingdom. After generations of warfare, the races of Hyrule: the Hylians, Zora, Gorons, Gerudo and Kokiri live in relative harmony as part of a unified state under Hyrule’s royal family; undead roam the fields at night and Kakariko Village Graveyard has more tombstones than the town has people, so the scars of war run deep but the realm is healing… for now.

Among the Kokiri lives a certain boy: Link. A child of murky origins and the only youngster in the village to not have a fairy yet, he is an outcast but while the rest of the Kokiri live innocent little lives sheltered from the rest of Hyrule by the Deku Tree, deep woods and perpetual childhood, Link’s young mind is not so naïve. One night, he has a nightmare: a vision of a fleeing Princess and of a sorcerer clad in black armour giving chase, then the next morning his fairy: Navi finally comes, summoning Link to the Deku Tree for an urgent meeting.

Ocarina Of Time’s opening has the perfect narrative ingredients: an unexpected journey, a dark prophecy, an unlikely hero and a somewhat unwilling partner in Navi, who scolds the Link for being lazy.

Where games like Tears Of The Kingdom felt the need to hype up Ganondorf with bombastic cutscenes, old myths and scenes of conquest, Ocarina Of Time knows that the unseen enemy is much more intimidating. Link only encounters Ganondorf twice in the entire game: once on Hyrule Field where that nightmare comes to pass and once more in the finale, yet this version of Ganon manages to feel the most cerebral in the entire series, to this day.

The Deku Tree is afflicted with a death curse and dies less than an hour into the game, when you enconter the Gorons they are starving to death thanks to Ganondorf’s seeding of Dodongo’s Cavern with monsters and Jabu Jabu: the living deity in Zora’s Domain is sick and infested with parasites; nightmares, famine, disease, Ganondorf leaves misery in his wake. This is show don’t tell storytelling employed more effectively than many modern games. We don’t need to be told he’s the ‘Demon King’ or that he means to conquer the world, we see it for our own eyes within 30 minutes of putting in the cartridge.

Ocarina Of Time doesn’t weave a particularly complex yarn but it is a game rich with lore and subtext. I’m going to talk about more dungeon-specific lore later but for now? Just know that there is no shortage of it.

Hyrule’s road network consists of a shoddy dirt path wrapping around Hyrule Field and a small footbridge across the stream into Kakariko Village.

A prominent theme in Ocarina Of Time is corruption. The Deku Tree’s insides are corrupted by a curse, Dodongo’s Cavern is killing the Gorons instead of nourishing them with food, the usually peaceful Jabu Jabu is unruly and swallows the Zora Princess Ruto and later, the 5 temples are transformed into catalysts for Ganondorf’s dark power; corruption also appears in a more administrative sense. The denizens of Hyrule Castle Town live behind sturdy walls and under guard, wearing opulent clothes and enjoying markets and amusements while Kakariko Village just a short walk away gets a token couple of guards, one of which bullies and taunts Link while suggesting he bring payment for opening the gate to Death Mountain: his only job; even within Castle Town, one of the watchmen wishes something bad would happen. The Gorons, once famed for their strength now need a 10 year old to break their Chief out of his temper tantrum and to unblock the Cavern, the Zora are ruled by a King too fat to stand and Mido: a bratty little bully bosses around the Kokiri, Hyrule has no infrastructure, the non-Hylian races are shut away in their domains and the King doesn’t care to listen to his own daughter; corruption and negligence have rotted away the Kingdom’s foundations long ago, Ganondorf need only to push the house of cards over.

I don’t think I’m spoiling it for anyone after 28 years by saying that you play as Adult Link for the latter 2/3’s of this game, during this transformation it’s made clear that even the Sacred Realm has now been corrupted and characters like Ingo and the Poe Seller: heavily implied to be the Castle Town guard wishing for trouble, relish the opportunity to grow fat off the spoils of Ganondorf’s new regime.

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The Shape Of A Legend

A remastered version of Ocarina Of Time’s trailer… for some reason, every trailer I can find and the game’s UK advert use music from Conan The Barbarian… was this really the case?

I wasn’t around yet in ‘98 so I can’t speak from experience but as I understand it, Ocarina Of Time generated a hurricane of hype before launch; everyone wanted to rent it and only a chosen few could, the game was sold out everywhere and despite the Nintendo 64’s sales trouncing by Sony’s PlayStation, the eyes of the whole industry were watching.

This era of gaming gets a lot of ridicule today for its technical issues and ugly, early-3D presentation compared to how beautiful a lot of 90’s 2D games were on the Sega Saturn and in arcades and sure, Adult Link’s long, low-poly nose is quite funny but an aspect of Ocarina’s greatness I think gets left out today is what an enormous technical achievement it was. Most ‘3D’ games on rival hardware were actually low-poly models on 2D backgrounds and this can look great too but the Nintendo 64 was the most powerful console of its day and it shows, with Ocarina Of Time looking better than virtually any game to be found on the PlayStation.

Metal Gear Solid: arguably the most advanced game on the PlayStation looks like this.

Final Fantasy 7: another PS1 staple, looks like this.

On the other hand, Ocarina Of Time looks like this:

The point I’m making here isn’t that Ocarina actually looks good and you’re wrong or that pre-rendered background are inherently less appealing than full-3D (Ocarina also uses pre-rendered backgrounds for interiors) my point is that most games weren’t even attempting to bring to life worlds of this scale and fidelity while Ocarina Of Time pulled it off, beautifully. This was before Shenmue and before Grand Theft Auto III which needed superior hardware to match what Nintendo had already done with this game.

Ocarina Of Time on Gamecube, with that console’s crisp framerates, higher resolution, support for newer 60Hz PAL TV’s and sublime video output looked and ran so good that as a kid, I didn’t even know it was a Nintendo 64 game until I was a little bit older.

Technology comes and goes and what was impressive once is now no longer but one area where Ocarina Of Time has never been surpassed in my opinion is its tone and atmosphere. This game feels magical and enthralling in a way that nothing else I have ever played has matched.

Let’s be clear, I highly enjoy modern Zelda titles too but one thing I mourn is the loss of magic and wonder in this series. Ocarina Of Time’s Hyrule is filled with hidden, otherworldly, magical fountains, ghostly Poes roam the Graveyard and Hyrule Field at night, the world relies on the Sages and their transcendence into celestial entities with ancient spiritual power in order to save it; Link doesn’t save Hyrule with a robot arm, an I-pad and a motorbike running on chu jelly, he saves it by wielding a mythical blade, forged so long ago that its origins are a mystery and by wielding the strength imbued to him by the Sages while by playing obscure melodies with secret sorcery attached.

I think my life-long love of history comes from Ocarina Of Time. This game has more urban legends and lore theories than you can count and it is that way because the world of Ocarina shows you so much but tells so little. This game invites you to be an archaeologist, a historian and a folklorist while you play and just as in real life, there are structures, disappearances and locations that cannot be explained.

The unexplainable, the shrouded, the sense of mystery, this all feeds into another part of the Ocarina Of Time atmosphere that has become notorious as well: the horror.

The Dead Hand: Ocarina Of Time’s most infamous mini-boss.

The Redead enemy shrieks to petrify Link then latches on as the player sits helplessly watching.

The late 1990’s and early-2000’s were the peak of the Survival-Horror genre of videogames, Nintendo had taken notice and began to incorporate more horror into their own titles; the GameCube launch title Luigi’s Mansion (another one I played the shit out of as a kid) was a light-hearted Resident Evil-style haunted mansion romp and Nintendo even published their own survival-horror with Eternal Darkness, also on GameCube; Ocarina Of Time and Majora’s Mask were the beginning of this push. For the first time, a Zelda game was trying to scare us… and it worked, masterfully.

Ocarina has no jump-scares or overt gore (at least not in the GameCube or 3DS versions) but as always, it succeeds through subtext and atmosphere at being deeply unsettling.

Bongo Bongo is quite clearly a strung-up man with severed hands and head.

All of this: the horror, the intrigue, the magic and the wonder is tied together by one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever recorded. I’m going to be putting each dungeon soundtrack in the next section but these are some of my favourites from the overworld areas. You are in for a treat.

The iconic Lost Woods theme is playful, energetic and alluring. The area’s sinister lore involving missing children and the need to navigate by following the melody give it an almost pied-piper feel. The tambourine, wood chimes, maracas and other shaken instruments have signified woods/Kokiri areas in Zelda soundtracks ever since, to the point that I now also associate these instruments with the woods.

The Gerudo Valley theme will forever be what Mexico sounds like in my head. This song is pretty mismatched to the area it plays in: the Gerudo are Middle Eastern and Subcontinental-themed while this song sounds like the Hispanosphere distilled into a song… but I don’t care! So catchy.

One of the most relaxing, holiday-feeling pieces of music ever put into a video game. Going to the swimming baths was a rare, few times a year sort of treat when I was young so when I wished we could go more often, I’d boot up my GameCube and swim around Zora’s Domain as Child Link to try and get a piece of that feeling. Top soundtrack for a great area to explore.

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Places Of Worship

I’m going to do something a little different for this gameplay section.

Let’s be honest: we all know how a 3D Zelda plays because it’s never changed. 3D Zelda birthed the sword-and-board, locked on blocking and striking combat that would become the norm for most melee-focused games until Dark Souls; the dungeon items and puzzle-based boss fights are all very familiar. So, I’m going to deviate from normal and rank each and every dungeon in the game, before I get into my complaints.

From worst to best, here are the dungeons and mini-dungeons in Ocarina Of Time and their soundtracks.

Worst: Inside Jabu-Jabu’s Belly

Inside Jabu-Jabu’s Belly, Ocarina’s third and final Child Link dungeon is a common pick for the worst in the game and I have to agree.

Let me front load my compliments because truly? I don’t have many. The concept of a dungeon set inside a living, breathing creature is an inherently interesting one and I like that this dungeon isn’t a complete cakewalk after the first 2. Barinade is one of the game’s better bosses in my opinion and the crush Princess Ruto develops on Link is kind of cute as well.

On the other hand, all of the enemies are really irritating until you find the Boomerang, every room looks the same, carrying Ruto around is a damn chore, the concept of the dungeon is utterly wasted on a weird coloured tumour key card system and that music… it’s awful! It’s barely even music, it sounds like unmedicated IBS.

Inside the Deku Tree

It feels a bit harsh to put the Deku Tree here because it is after all a tutorial dungeon and a pretty good one at that.

The dungeon has a signature moment with the jump from the top floor through the cobwebs on the bottom, I like the music even if it is subtle, Gohma is a solid boss fight and the rustic, woody atmosphere is just really appealing to me.

On the other hand… this dungeon is as simple as it gets, none of the enemies are a real threat, the puzzles are trivial and in the grand scheme of things, while not necessarily a bad experience, the Delu Tree just doesn’t compare to the highs this game reaches later.

Dodongo’s Cavern

Dodongo’s Cavern is my favourite of the 3 big Child Link dungeons, these are the 3 worst in the game at the end of the day but this is the one I enjoy replaying the most.

Dodongo’s Cavern has an interesting enemy roster with the titular, fire-breathing monsters and I love the Lizalfos mini-boss fights, finally getting the bombs instead of relying on the flowers always feels like a liberation and I really like the dungeon’s signature moment where you drop bombs through the rope bridge and the skull opens up.

On the other hand… the music is crap again, King Dodongo is the easiest boss in the game, dying to 2 Deku Stick jump attacks, and other than the main entrance, the entire dungeon feels like an endless carousel of muddy brown tunnels with nothing memorable.

Gerudo’s Fortress/Training Ground

Gerudo’s Fortress is the first and unfortunately worst mini-dungeon to show up on this list; this might be the only part of the game I actively dislike replaying.

Gerudo’s Fortress has a cool stealth mechanic where you can knock out guards, I always enjoy Middle east/desert themed levels in Nintendo games so the ambiance helps and duelling the Gerudo Captains with the risk of being captured makes for tense and enjoyable combat encounters. The optional Training Ground is quite fun too.

On the other hand, this place is a nightmare to navigate, rescuing the carpenters is bloody tedious and you don’t gain any kind of special item or new ability from it. The only reason this place isn’t in the worst spot is because I can’t judge a mini-dungeon to the same standards and I do give it points for getting creative.

Bottom Of The Well

Ocarina Of Time’s Bottom Of The Well mini-dungeon is infamous for traumatising kids and being filled with blood, Dead Hand and skeletal remains in the Nintendo 64 version. The long-time resting place of Bongo Bongo and implied to be the personal torture chamber and dungeon of a civil war-era Sheikah, this place is oozing with atmosphere and dark lore.

Unfortunately, The Bottom Of The Well is rendered entirely optional if you’re an advanced player with knowledge of the Shadow Temple and Haunted Wasteland layouts since the Lens Of Truth acquired here is mainly used in those places; the other loot you find here is inconsequential, most of the dungeon if you do choose to partake is pointless and falling through the floors without the Lens gets old quickly.

Water Temple

Ah the legendary Water Temple: the face of tedious Zelda dungeons, a euphemism for confusing level design and endlessly berated even by people who have never played Ocarina Of Time. A level so bad, Eiji Aonuma: senior Zelda designer and producer even apologised for this war crime. To be honest? Although this is inarguably the worst Adult Link dungeon, I don’t detest the Water Temple.

The Water Temple has amazing atmosphere. That cascading, haunting yet serene music is perfect. The fight with Dark Link, although a mini-boss, is probably the best boss fight in the entire game, as a concept I like the idea of changing the water levels and the central room with branching paths design that makes the Forest Temple so good is present here, just executed a lot worse.

I’ve played this game enough to have a rough idea of what to do every time I play by now but even so… the Water Temple is very confusing and one mistake almost always necessitating a complete start-over with the water levels is infuriating; the boss is one of the least interesting fights in the game and fighting the big clams underwater is painful. As I’ll get into next, the developers were planning another direction for this temple and had to shift later, so the lore behind this one is underbaked too.

Ice Cavern

I’m sorry this isn’t the title card, all the images were tiny.

As far as I know Nintendo have never confirmed this but all the signs: the frozen Zora’s Domain, the design of Ruto’s medallion, finds in the game’s files and this music track all point to the Ice Cavern having been the original idea for the Water Temple. This is a fan-theory with a mountain of evidence.

The Ice Cavern has wonderful ambiance, some of my favourite puzzles in Ocarina Of Time and gives not 1 but 2 useful items: the Iron Boots and the Blue Fire. I like how the whole thing is a bit of a homage to A Link To The Past’s Ice Palace.

Unfortunately it’s difficult to say much more, this is an incredibly short and syrupy sweet mini-dungeon. I’m not alone in saying that the Water Temple could’ve been the best in the game if the theories are true, instead it came to be the confusing nightmare we all know and ‘love.’

Fire Temple

The Fire Temple is a solid baseline to judge all Zelda dungeons by in my opinion, this temple does nothing wrong, it delivers everything you could want, never gets irritating and has a good boss fight… but it doesn’t excel at any one area either.

I love the mystery of the Fire Temple: it’s this structure built deep into Death Mountain, clearly designed by some race other than the Gorons and filled with dungeons and jeering faces… it’s another artefact of an ancient time, forgotten by all of Hyrule. Volvagia is a great boss fight and I love the moment when you knock down the pillar into the room below just before the end of the dungeon, it’s also an empowering moment when you realise the Goron Tunic allows you to walk on lava unharmed.

On the other hand, the original version of the music that played in the Fire Temple that I mentioned earlier was way better in my opinion, the Megaton Hammer is such a limited dungeon item that it wouldn’t be out of place in Twilight Princess and the mini bosses are annoying to fight.

This was my second favourite temple as a kid (my #1 has never changed) and I still have a big soft spot for it but objectively speaking? The Fire Temple is bang average.

Inside Ganon’s Castle

Ganon’s Castle is the final and best mini-dungeon in the game. Built floating above the swirling, dark abyss that used to be Hyrule Castle, this is the heart of darkness in Adult Link’s timeline.

Inside Ganon’s Castle is like a farewell tour for Ocarina Of Time before you face the final boss, every sage gets a themed dungeon room. This little sample platter of Ocarina dungeon design allows each dungeon item to shine one last time and I enjoy how it doesn’t outweigh its welcome. The slow realisation as you ascend the tower that Ganondorf himself is playing the organ to make this dungeon’s music is extremely clever.

I don’t want to discuss the final boss in this section but I’ll say that one half of it is a bit mundane and this mini-dungeon does lack a good mini-boss of its own.

3rd Place: Forest Temple

Oh boy, this isn’t going to be popular. The Forest Temple has been crowned time and time again online as the best temple in the game by fans and reviewers alike, I agree that it’s a great temple… but it’s not quite up there at the summit for me.

The Forest Temple is another one of those locations steeped in mystique, fan theories and horror. This mystery Hylian structure in the middle of the Kokiri Sacred Forest Meadow is haunted by the spirits of 4 sisters, garrisoned by Stalfos: the reanimated skeletons of adults who go missing in the woods and according to some theories, may have been the previous resting place of the Master Sword before the Temple Of Time. This temple has a fantastic boss fight in Phantom Ganon, excellent puzzles, tight design, fun combat encounters and the twisted hallways are iconic for being just plain cool. It is likely the most influential Zelda temple ever made.

So what don’t I like? Well, I know I’m in the minority here but I find the music gets on my nerves after a while, especially that weird chanting, other than that? Almost all of the enemies are recycled from the Great Deku Tree and I find this dungeon a royal pain in the ass to navigate; I got stuck here for a week when I was a kid and I don’t think the frustration has ever left me, I just associate this one with endless wandering, rifling through my printed guides and watching zeldadungeon.net walkthroughs.

2nd Place: Shadow Temple

The Shadow Temple is the absolute peak of Ocarina Of Time from a lore and atmosphere perspective. This temple was a concentration camp run for the purpose of torturing and executing Hyrule’s prisoners during the civil war, having seen so much death and agony it was transformed into a gathering point for evil and the suffering has become manifest in an evil spirit: Bongo Bongo who beats his execution drum on and on in the dungeon’s deepest depths.

The Shadow Temple is deeply unsettling to this day. The music opens with the starting notes to Zelda’s Lullaby: the secret melody of the Royal Family, signifying its origins, there is a sound of a distraught angel and something dark responding to her; you also hear… something, clanging against metal bars and a sound that’s suspiciously close to the Wallmaster puts you on constant edge. The Shadow Temple features some great puzzles using the Eye Of Truth, an iconic moment with the ghost ship, Bongo Bongo is an excellent boss fight and the use of guillotines and spinning blades as obstacles is highly entertaining.

What is there to complain about? Well, I don’t have a problem with it but a lot of people find the Shadow Temple too linear, after all, you are mostly just following the path downwards and there is a fair bit of platforming which has never been Ocarina’s strong suit; the Dead Hand mini-boss is reused from the Bottom Of The Well.

1st Place: Spirit Temple

I LOVE the Spirit Temple!

Ocarina Of Time’s final temple (depending on whether you choose to visit the Shadow Temple first or not) is also its best. This ancient, crumbling place of worship to a Gerudo goddess considered pagan to the rest of Hyrule is drenched in Ancient Egyptian aesthetic, has 2 halves, one for Child and one for Adult Link and features both my favourite boss fight and my favourite mini-boss in Twinrova and the Iron Knuckles. Best of all? That music… gives me goosebumps. You feel the weight of Link’s long journey here, the song sounds antique, hot and slow, as if the labours of the quest are weighing heavily on our hero as does the unanswered question of whether Nabooru even still lives. I love the Mirror Shield puzzles.

I have no complaints: zero. Sue me, if you don’t like the Spirit Temple then you need to book an appointment with your local GP, you might have something terminal.

Ocarina Of Time is my second favourite game ever and my favourite in this franchise but to be honest? The dungeons here aren’t the best. The Forest, Shadow and Spirit Temples are iconic and the Ice Cavern and Ganon’s Tower are fun as well but everything else is average to subpar in quality. You have to remember, this was the first 3D Zelda and no precedent had been set in regards to dungeon design so I don’t hold it against Ocarina, in fact, it’s a miracle that this game produced 3 of the best dungeons in the entire franchise anyway.

The biggest issue with Ocarina Of Time’s gameplay is that it is simply too easy. Any modern gamer will comfortably get through this one without dying a single time, it only gets challenging when you commit yourself to one of the torturous mini-games, especially the horse race with Ingo: an activity so bullshit that in 22 years of playing this game I’ve never found a way to win other than physically blocking his horse from moving ahead.

I have other small nit-picks: the Gold Skulltula collectible rewards aren’t worth it besides the Heart Piece, rupees are sort of useless in this game and the camera system can sometimes be finicky but this is already a mammoth review and I’m sure you’d like me to wrap it up soon.

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Twists, Soul And Skulduggery

Warning: Heavy spoilers

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The weakest part of Ocarina Of Time is the Child Link section, it doesn’t contain much plot or character development other than Zelda’s ill-informed plan to gather the Spiritual Stones and open the Sacred Realm first to claim the Triforce before Ganondorf does… Zelda is a child and Ganondorf is an expert manipulator so of course, this goes horribly wrong and I love that. As he should, Ganondorf easily manoeuvres his way around these children playing at the game of power.

There are 2 big twists in Ocarina Of Time and both are perfectly executed and foreshadowed.

As you make your way through the Child Link portion of the game it becomes clear that Ganondorf isn’t clueless: he is also seeking the stones and in the races’ refusal to hand them over, they have suffered… but why would the villain just give up? Well, as time goes on you realise that all is not as it seems. None of Ganondorf’s minions come to stop you and Ruto’s message in a bottle… is a letter the Zora princess has no memory of writing. When Link does finally encounter Ganondorf on Hyrule Field, he’s almost pleased with the boy and only gives him a small blast of magic to assert how powerless the lad is.

Link returns to the Temple Of Time, opens the Door Of Time with the 3 spiritual stones… and is sealed away for 7 years, too young to claim the power of the Triforce while Ganondorf, who has manipulated our heroes’ need to save the Kingdom against them, strolls right into the now open Sacred Realm to claim the golden triangles for himself.

In trying to save Hyrule, Link and Zelda have doomed it.

The second big twist is unfortunately ubiquitous knowledge to Zelda fans at this point: Zelda, Link and Ganondorf each own a piece of the Triforce but back in 1998 this was a new concept and the one thing that stopped Ganondorf claiming the entire power was something that nobody could have predicted: that the Triforce divides itself and seeks out those most suited to bearing each piece if an evildoer attempts to seize it.

That’s what I love about this game’s story. With a manipulative villain like Ganon you have to view their failure in terms of the mistakes they made along the way with their master plan, if a villain like this makes glaring oversights and the plan is stupid, the intrigue collapses.

Ganondorf’s only 2 mistakes are not being able to foresee how a mythical power no mortal has ever claimed will work once he reaches it and betting the future of his regime on a duel with Link, again, a reasonable decision to make given that he owns the Triforce of Power, capable of transforming him into the Pig Demon from the classic 2D games… and because in one timeline, he actually wins.

In a series that has reduced Ganondorf to a reincarnation of an older evil and an anime supervillain, I love how grounded and parallel to Link this version is. Link and Ganondorf are both outsiders to Hyrule (Ganondorf being not only a Gerudo but the first male Gerudo in centuries) both are products of war and both were raised by magical beings for a grand destiny but whereas Link was guided to a path of goodness and of light, Ganondorf covets the verdant, decadent Kingdom from the harsh, haunted desert he grew up in.

Ganondorf is chosen to wield the Triforce of Power because no man alive could have seized the Kingdom using nothing but guile, sorcery and sheer will. Link is chosen to wield the Triforce of Courage because this child rises to bear the burden and the battles of a grown man, with the world against him.

I try not to include too many images in the spoilers section in case people are scrolling past so instead I’ll put the music here and say this: the final battle of Ocarina Of Time might be my favourite boss fight ever. The dark, almost mournful music reflects both how Link may lose but also that the two are battling over the ruins of a great Kingdom; Link ahs already failed to save Hyrule.

The sight of Ganon swinging his golden swords, the flashes of lightning giving the player a brief glimpse of the monster they’re doing battle with is an unmatched spectacle. It’s a shame the fight with Ganondorf in human form is so derivative of the Forest Temple fight against his phantom.

In the end, Adult Link is sent back to his own time and forgotten from history, forever doomed to live thanklessly but reclaiming the years that the Sages and Zelda took from him. The Hero Of Time is the most tragic hero in gaming history. He either dies, loses Navi: his only friend or vanishes entirely, for this selfless warrior, there is no future, he saves the world but loses himself.

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Sealing The Door

Ocarina Of Time was surpassed long ago, first by Twilight Princess and then again by Breath Of The Wild but in my heart? No other Zelda will beat it; I cannot in good faith call this the best Zelda game anymore… but it remains my favourite and likely always will.

A Link To The Past has better dungeons and more to do, Breath Of The Wild is a greater challenge and brought millions of new fans to Zelda and the NES original is more open-ended but none of them have the soul that Ocarina does.

It’s not surprising that Ocarina Of Time is my ultimate nostalgia game… because it’s a game all about nostalgia. At its core, this is a story about growing up, how silly childhood friendships become bonds of blood and faith and how time can be corrosive if you let it but also healing and strengthening.

Ocarina Of Time is a game that always makes me stop and reflect. When I was a child, I wanted to be Adult Link and always found the ending unfair but as an adult… I see the lesson the writers were trying to convey. In the pursuit of power, you cannot fast-forward life: you cannot gain power without growing and it’s necessary to make amends with the past and your inner child to reach a greater future beyond.

The minor characters in your life might be sages later and the outsider is powerful.

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Thank you very much for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed today’s post, as always I’ll be happy to chat in the comments below and please like and subscribe to the Journal for more.

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