The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 10th Anniversary appreciation thread

[Regulus Tera]

(For Nintendo 64, GameCube, and Wii)

Ten years ago, on November 21st 1998, one of the most influential and revered games was launched. With the tagline of "the most anticipated game of all time", Nintendo set The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time upon the masses, under a hype blanket scantily matched by other games. The title could have fallen inside the abyss of disappointment at that moment.

My memories with the game are very different from the usual Ocarina remembrances. I didn't play the game until near the start of the GameCube era. Although I bought it when it came out, the Deku Tree's innards scared me with its haunting music and somewhat dark colour palette. I sold the game to a friend, and didn't even think about it for a long time until after Super Smash Bros. came out.

Link was my favourite character. I didn't care that he sucked arse in the game; his fighting style was fun and he seemed to have a certain air of mystery around him. Alas, easily swayed by my gullibility, I bought the game again and played it with my cousin for a long time.

The Shadow Temple was fucking creepy and I couldn't advance for months. Shut up.

What I love about Ocarina is that, in every single replay I did for the following years, there was always something that drew you into exploring the environment. The vastness of the world and the cities, although barren at times, felt like a character of their own, exuding charm and personality from their lowly polygonal frames. Fifth summarised such experience perfectly when describing Dragon Quest VIII's world:

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend

The whole thing actually feels like a world, in a way I haven't really seen since, shit... Ocarina of Time? Moreso than that, it's that your experience of that world isn't constrained to whichever path your quest demands. It's not what you get from a lot of games, where they come up with the quests and slap down the bare minimum of world around it, it feels like they came up with a world, and then wove your story into it.

The openness of it is almost offensive, like the gamemakers are taunting you or something. "Hey are you sure you want to just head on to the next town like that, goin' along, following that plain ol' road there? Maybe you should dick around in this big-ass field for the next hour and a half - maybe you could find big fancy secret treasure up there! Or maybe you could find jack shit. Maybe you could find jack shit because you were supposed to spend an hour and a half dicking around in the forest right next to you. Maybe you just fucked, Yankee pig!"

While the A Link to the Past had a balance between action and exploration, Ocarina skewed more towards the latter element. This did not mean, however, that the game was easy. It featured a rather challenging level of difficulty, and sported a relatively primitive but varied style of combat, thanks in grand part to the Z-locking targeting system. It was no coincidence that almost every action and adventure game after it copied it to distinct levels of success.

I could talk about the story, a standard fairy tale in which a kid without a fairy dreams about a girl and has to save her in an adventure spanning seven years and the whole world. I could also expand on the music, which is objectively the best in the series despite not featuring the Zelda main theme at all. I could describe the feeling of tension present all over the game, a sensation sadly lost in the following installments (Majora's Mask nonwithstanding). I could also go on and on about how the Water Temple is in fact very clever and fun and how Navi was cute and all you bozos suck shit for hating her.

But frankly, I think I already sound a lot like a fangirl. There's just so much dorkiness one can display before proclaiming The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the Best. Game. Ever.™ after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time and the Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents series. Not a small feat whatsoever, eh matey?

So yeah, appreciation thread is go. Share your memories about Ocarina or whatever. You can also discuss Master Quest, a "remasterisation" of Ocarina that was available only through pre-orders of The Wind Waker. And if you don't like the game, feel free to share your disagreements. Just don't try to convert this thread of love into a thread of malice. We ain't got no light arrows around here to dispel that.

BONUS: Gametrailers did a retrospective on the game a while ago. Watch it, as it is a heartwarming trip down memory lane.

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by Regulus Tera

But frankly, I think I already sound a lot like a fangirl.

Silly, RT. You always sound like a fangirl.

I'll forgive you this time, though.

My fondest memory? 100% both Ocarina and Majora's Mask, by calling Ren (ex-girlfriend, now friend) and playing through it on my game as she played through on hers, and alerting each other to any spiders, etc. that we happened to find. Good times, that. And all without the use of a guide.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

The only Zelda games I haven't played are OOT and MM. Does that make me a bad person?

[Mirai Gen]

I appreciate it immensely when everyone says hey, I'm a big fan of Zelda, and when I ask which one, they look at me and say, "There were ones before the N64?"

Good times.

But yeah, OoT was pretty classic. Funny enough my friend and his girlfriend just got their old N64 working and started up on OoT like two days ago. One hell of a coincidence.

[Lost in Time]

Fuck the Water Temple.

Everything else in that game is golden.

[Roland]

Honestly, despite being the game that really brought me into the series*, I don't have much to say about it other than "loved it to hell when I got it, but then they made something better**".

That said, I still have a lot of memories about it, fond or otherwise. I remember getting stuck in Goron City and having to buy the official guide (which, despite all the cool lore, was really bad at giving advice and in one case was even missing a key in the Shadow Temple).

I remember refusing to advance in the game because my curiousity got me face-raped by what turned out to be a Redead and my guide had been kind enough to inform me that Castle Town would be full of them the second Link became an adult.

I remember having a remarkably easy time with the Water Temple, and the amazing and frustrating Dark Link, who ended up completely ruined because of all the cheap tricks you could do to get out of a swordfight.

I remember sequence breaking because I really wanted to avoid the Shadow Temple, clearing the Spirit Temple before it, then returning and mistaking the Gibdos for generic misplaced mummies. And getting face-raped because of it.

I remember killing an invisible Floormaster, then waiting for said not-in-the-guide key to appear, then getting face-raped by an invisible enemy. Which turned out to be a tiny Floormaster. Argh.

But most of all I remember crapping myself at the thought of doing the Bottom of the Well as Young Link, then looking at my guide and realizing I could get the Eye of Truth without fighting anything other than the dungeon's boss. He probably face-raped me, though. That seems to be a common theme among the undead enemies.

*Played Zelda 2 and aLttP before it. Sucked at both. Eventually beat aLttP, still can't beat Zelda 2.
**Majora's Mask. I'm sorry, but it's my favorite and nothing's ever gonna take its place for me. Sadly I can't play it any more, but I totally would.

[BitVyper]

My dream game would have elements from both OoT and Wind Waker (and a bunch of other games that I won't bother to list).

[pochercoaster]

I remember how overjoyed I was when I found the sinking lure (yes it exists, although that was probably cleared up a long time ago.) In total I found it three times. That indicates the number of hours I spent on this game. It never got old.

[CelesJessa]

Oh man. My favorite Zelda game ever. I can't believe it's been ten years. I feel so old. I was seriously eleven when I first played it? Huh.

I remember when it was first coming out, it had the best commercial on TV. It would be the classic kind of awesome-scenes split by words kind of thing. And one part it was like "Willst Thou Soar? Or Willst Thou Suck?" I don't know why, it was just epic. Ah hah, found it.

I remember spending a ton of time trying to get inside Gerudo desert as a child (other than the temple). I even tried to memorize the path that you use to get to the temple as an adult, and follow it backwards as a kid.

The best scene ever has to be the end where Ganondorf turns into Ganon. That is just purely a crap-your-pants moment (at least for Link)


Lame true story: Sometimes I would make my own "music video" type things to OoT, where I would put on a CD and then perfect a certain way of going about things that would match up with the music just right.

Maybe I'll play some Ocarina of Time this weekend, in celebration.

[phil_]

I, too, got the sinking lure and caught a Hylian Loach. This prevented me from getting the heart piece for fishing, since I didn't catch a 20lb fish first. It was pretty cool to see that those idiots on GameFAQs weren't lying. Ah, the hours Mike and I have wasted in that pond. It's truly bizarre how much more engaging that fishing game was than the more fleshed out fishing pond in TP. It's probably just because I was a stupid kid.

Really, that's all I have to talk about. I was scared of the Shadow Temple, and I spent most of my play time fishing. Hours and hours of fishing.