This review contains spoilers
Years ago I first played this game, I really enjoyed but thought the constant praise of it being the greatest game ever made wasn’t deserved, hell, younger me got so annoyed at how much people praised this game that I kept on saying outlandish takes to make people angry, like saying TP is better, or saying skyward sword is better, basically saying any Zelda game was better than this.
Yet, as the years went on, I grew to appreciate the game more and more, and now that I’ve finally replayed I’ll say this, I still don’t think this is the greatest Zelda game, and definitely not the greatest game ever made, BUT, i can completely see why it’s considered that now, and I love the game a lot more now.
Ocarina of Time is a grand adventure, from the small beginnings of the Kokiri forest all the way to the grand final battle against Ganon, it’s all phenomenal.
It’s a game that perfectly transitioned Zelda into 3D, bringing in all the great gameplay elements from every game before it, and with the jump to 3D, a ton of things are improved.
Combat has been majorly improved, allowing for different ways to dodge enemy attacks, newer ways to attack like with many of the sword attacks, a bigger variety in weapons, and just so much more, it makes every encounter feel way more memorable.
The dungeons especially have been improved tenfold, the deku tree is a phenomenal introduction, a perfectly small dungeon with not too many threats, and then on the dungeons mostly improve, Dodongo’s cavern is a lot more complex compared to the deku tree but it’s still easy, Jabu-Jabu’s belly is probably my least favorite in the game, luckily it’s pretty short, but the dungeons quality majorly improves when link is an adult, the forest temple is a phenomenal dungeon, perfectly paced, a haunting and mysterious atmosphere, and all around great puzzles capped off with a great boss, the fire temple isn’t as good but it’s still a great time, the water temple…….is actually pretty great, it’s fun figuring out what level the water needs to be and it’s got a great mini-boss, but much like how it affects, the iron boots really just sink this dungeon down, seriously who the fuck decided to make the iron boots only equipable from the pause menu, anyways, the shadow temple is my favorite dungeon in the game, I love the atmosphere, the build up with the help of the kakiriko well, and I just generally love a lot about it, the spirit temple is pretty creative, using child link and adult link was pretty great, and I love the whole section before it with sneaking into the gerudo base and going through the desert, and finally ganon’s tower, it’s pretty short, but it is a fun little gauntlet to test everything you’ve learned throughout the game, and it ends with a great final boss.
Speaking of bosses, they’re pretty good here, some are just kinda ok like with all the child link bosses and the water temple’s main boss, but the others are great, phantom Ganon is fun, volvagia is simple but also fun, bongo bongo I personally felt was really creative, and twinrova is a nice “final” boss to fight before the game’s big finale, there’s also the final boss, which I’ll talk about later, most of the mini bosses are pretty good but the two that really stand out are dead hand (for reasons I’ll go over later) and dark link.
One thing the N64 version of the game has over the 3DS version is the lighting and general atmosphere, OOT uses the N64’s limited draw distance to its advantage, making dungeons and general places in the game feel more magical and non general just atmospheric, the 3DS over brightens a lot of things and it makes everything just look kinda standard in comparison to the original.
This game made many gameplay improvements, but it also made many story improvements as well, the story in this game is incredible, and I don’t think enough people appreciate some of the finer details of it.
This game is about growing up and accepting responsibility, to face the horrors of the world and strive through to ultimately make things better.
You start off as a child, and have a very childlike adventure, a big tree tells you that you are the hero who’s destined to stop evil, and then you start you adventure, then the princess of the kingdom sends you on a quest to find three items in order to stop the evil king, so you go on and meet new friends and it’s all very whimsical and fun, much like how most of the things you do when you’re younger are, it’s all a big adventure about stopping the bad guy, then once you finally get the gems you head back towards castle town to succeed in your adventure………….then everything goes dark, the gate opens, and Zelda is being taken away to safety, and behind you stands the evil king, after you pull out your sword, he basically pushes you aside to chase after the princess, but the truth of this adventure hasn’t hit you yet, so you grab the ocarina of time and go to get the master sword to stop the bad guy……….then the bad guy wins.
Link is sealed in the sacred realm for seven years, in that time he matures to adulthood and everything dawns on you, this isn’t a silly game, this journey and your actions have major consequences, you step out of the temple of time to find castle town destroyed and abandoned, with only redeads remaining, this is one of three of my favorite moments in the game, the pure devastation you see castle town in, and the realization of what your adventure truly is, just like that, you gotta grow up and face this darker world.
You go out and explore, and realize what ganondorf winning truly did to the land, your home kokiri forest is infested with monsters, with the children all trapped in their homes fearing the monsters outside, the gorons have been completely imprisoned inside their own mountain, terrorized by a threat thought long dead, and the Zoras home is all frozen and there’s no sign of any of them as far as you can see, but despite all this, link goes on, and frees everyone from their torment, but at one point in his journey, Link must go back in time to discover something at the bottom of kakariko’s well, so he goes back 7 years, back to his child form, and what does he find in the well?……….complete and utter atrocities, corpses everywhere, blood stained throughout the place, torture chambers that looked very much used, and at the end of it all, dead hand, a horrifying nightmare creature that is almost too much to quantify. This is my second of three favorite moments in the game, the realization that you can’t every truly go back to being an innocent child again, you now know the horrors of this world and can’t just simply go back to a peaceful time, so you tread on, accepting your responsibility and fighting through this dark world, conquering your fears, and finally freeing the sages.
This leads you to ganon’s castle, and after some puzzles, you head up the main tower.
And this is my other favorite moment I was talking about, that moment being the entire last part of the adventure, everything you’ve fought for has lead to this, all the people who’ve suffered is because of the man at the top of the tower, Ganondorf, the king of evil, he must be stopped.
As you climb up the tower, you hear music playing, and the farther you go up, the louder and louder the music gets, then finally, you reach the top room, and Ganondorf, along with the trapped Zelda, is waiting for you………..silence befalls the room, before Ganondorf says some things and starts the fight.
This part of the fight is mostly similar to the phantom Ganon fight, however it’s still very much fun here, and after the fight, link comes out victorious, and then all three of the triforce holders are sent to the top of the tower, Link and Zelda seem safe, until with his last breath, Ganondorf collapses the tower, Link and Zelda narrowly escape the crumbling castle, finally at peace knowing that the demon king is g—
rumble
………
You run towards the wreckage of the castle………and then Ganondorf bursts out of it, with pure malice and hatred in his eyes, he uses the triforce of power to turn into a hideous monster, in the process, swatting away the master sword and leaving Link unarmed, the hulking beast roars and prepares to battle with Link.
I used to not really like this boss fight, and I completely blame the 3DS version of the game for that, seriously the brightened up arena completely ruins a lot of the intense feeling from the fight, in the original, Ganon is completely surrounded by shadow, only his eyes are visible, and you only see his full form a few seconds whenever the lightning strikes, this adds so much more to the fight, you truly feel like you’re fighting a demon of malice, every time you’re hit Zelda cries in agony, you feel overwhelmed by this beast, but, eventually you get the master sword back, and finally take down the demon, and with the strike of his sword and the power of the sages, Ganondorf is sealed away, his evil gone from hyrule………..for now.
Link and Zelda share a final moment together, and after a bittersweet goodbye, she sends link back to his time.
In the credits, you can see a celebration from the people and the sages overlooking the world, hyrule has been broken for many years, but it can finally begin healing.
Link places the master sword back in its pedestal, and then Navi flies away………you are no longer just a buy from the forest, not a child any longer, you are a man, a myth, a legend.
You are, the hero of time.
Yeah, ocarina of time is a phenomenal game, has some hiccups here and there, but it’s ultimately an incredible experience…………but I do like the next two games more.
Speaking of that, Majora’s Mask is next, I’ve always liked this one better than OOT, but we’ll see if that changes on this playthrough, and like OOT, this’ll be my first time playing the N64 version.
Yet, as the years went on, I grew to appreciate the game more and more, and now that I’ve finally replayed I’ll say this, I still don’t think this is the greatest Zelda game, and definitely not the greatest game ever made, BUT, i can completely see why it’s considered that now, and I love the game a lot more now.
Ocarina of Time is a grand adventure, from the small beginnings of the Kokiri forest all the way to the grand final battle against Ganon, it’s all phenomenal.
It’s a game that perfectly transitioned Zelda into 3D, bringing in all the great gameplay elements from every game before it, and with the jump to 3D, a ton of things are improved.
Combat has been majorly improved, allowing for different ways to dodge enemy attacks, newer ways to attack like with many of the sword attacks, a bigger variety in weapons, and just so much more, it makes every encounter feel way more memorable.
The dungeons especially have been improved tenfold, the deku tree is a phenomenal introduction, a perfectly small dungeon with not too many threats, and then on the dungeons mostly improve, Dodongo’s cavern is a lot more complex compared to the deku tree but it’s still easy, Jabu-Jabu’s belly is probably my least favorite in the game, luckily it’s pretty short, but the dungeons quality majorly improves when link is an adult, the forest temple is a phenomenal dungeon, perfectly paced, a haunting and mysterious atmosphere, and all around great puzzles capped off with a great boss, the fire temple isn’t as good but it’s still a great time, the water temple…….is actually pretty great, it’s fun figuring out what level the water needs to be and it’s got a great mini-boss, but much like how it affects, the iron boots really just sink this dungeon down, seriously who the fuck decided to make the iron boots only equipable from the pause menu, anyways, the shadow temple is my favorite dungeon in the game, I love the atmosphere, the build up with the help of the kakiriko well, and I just generally love a lot about it, the spirit temple is pretty creative, using child link and adult link was pretty great, and I love the whole section before it with sneaking into the gerudo base and going through the desert, and finally ganon’s tower, it’s pretty short, but it is a fun little gauntlet to test everything you’ve learned throughout the game, and it ends with a great final boss.
Speaking of bosses, they’re pretty good here, some are just kinda ok like with all the child link bosses and the water temple’s main boss, but the others are great, phantom Ganon is fun, volvagia is simple but also fun, bongo bongo I personally felt was really creative, and twinrova is a nice “final” boss to fight before the game’s big finale, there’s also the final boss, which I’ll talk about later, most of the mini bosses are pretty good but the two that really stand out are dead hand (for reasons I’ll go over later) and dark link.
One thing the N64 version of the game has over the 3DS version is the lighting and general atmosphere, OOT uses the N64’s limited draw distance to its advantage, making dungeons and general places in the game feel more magical and non general just atmospheric, the 3DS over brightens a lot of things and it makes everything just look kinda standard in comparison to the original.
This game made many gameplay improvements, but it also made many story improvements as well, the story in this game is incredible, and I don’t think enough people appreciate some of the finer details of it.
This game is about growing up and accepting responsibility, to face the horrors of the world and strive through to ultimately make things better.
You start off as a child, and have a very childlike adventure, a big tree tells you that you are the hero who’s destined to stop evil, and then you start you adventure, then the princess of the kingdom sends you on a quest to find three items in order to stop the evil king, so you go on and meet new friends and it’s all very whimsical and fun, much like how most of the things you do when you’re younger are, it’s all a big adventure about stopping the bad guy, then once you finally get the gems you head back towards castle town to succeed in your adventure………….then everything goes dark, the gate opens, and Zelda is being taken away to safety, and behind you stands the evil king, after you pull out your sword, he basically pushes you aside to chase after the princess, but the truth of this adventure hasn’t hit you yet, so you grab the ocarina of time and go to get the master sword to stop the bad guy……….then the bad guy wins.
Link is sealed in the sacred realm for seven years, in that time he matures to adulthood and everything dawns on you, this isn’t a silly game, this journey and your actions have major consequences, you step out of the temple of time to find castle town destroyed and abandoned, with only redeads remaining, this is one of three of my favorite moments in the game, the pure devastation you see castle town in, and the realization of what your adventure truly is, just like that, you gotta grow up and face this darker world.
You go out and explore, and realize what ganondorf winning truly did to the land, your home kokiri forest is infested with monsters, with the children all trapped in their homes fearing the monsters outside, the gorons have been completely imprisoned inside their own mountain, terrorized by a threat thought long dead, and the Zoras home is all frozen and there’s no sign of any of them as far as you can see, but despite all this, link goes on, and frees everyone from their torment, but at one point in his journey, Link must go back in time to discover something at the bottom of kakariko’s well, so he goes back 7 years, back to his child form, and what does he find in the well?……….complete and utter atrocities, corpses everywhere, blood stained throughout the place, torture chambers that looked very much used, and at the end of it all, dead hand, a horrifying nightmare creature that is almost too much to quantify. This is my second of three favorite moments in the game, the realization that you can’t every truly go back to being an innocent child again, you now know the horrors of this world and can’t just simply go back to a peaceful time, so you tread on, accepting your responsibility and fighting through this dark world, conquering your fears, and finally freeing the sages.
This leads you to ganon’s castle, and after some puzzles, you head up the main tower.
And this is my other favorite moment I was talking about, that moment being the entire last part of the adventure, everything you’ve fought for has lead to this, all the people who’ve suffered is because of the man at the top of the tower, Ganondorf, the king of evil, he must be stopped.
As you climb up the tower, you hear music playing, and the farther you go up, the louder and louder the music gets, then finally, you reach the top room, and Ganondorf, along with the trapped Zelda, is waiting for you………..silence befalls the room, before Ganondorf says some things and starts the fight.
This part of the fight is mostly similar to the phantom Ganon fight, however it’s still very much fun here, and after the fight, link comes out victorious, and then all three of the triforce holders are sent to the top of the tower, Link and Zelda seem safe, until with his last breath, Ganondorf collapses the tower, Link and Zelda narrowly escape the crumbling castle, finally at peace knowing that the demon king is g—
rumble
………
You run towards the wreckage of the castle………and then Ganondorf bursts out of it, with pure malice and hatred in his eyes, he uses the triforce of power to turn into a hideous monster, in the process, swatting away the master sword and leaving Link unarmed, the hulking beast roars and prepares to battle with Link.
I used to not really like this boss fight, and I completely blame the 3DS version of the game for that, seriously the brightened up arena completely ruins a lot of the intense feeling from the fight, in the original, Ganon is completely surrounded by shadow, only his eyes are visible, and you only see his full form a few seconds whenever the lightning strikes, this adds so much more to the fight, you truly feel like you’re fighting a demon of malice, every time you’re hit Zelda cries in agony, you feel overwhelmed by this beast, but, eventually you get the master sword back, and finally take down the demon, and with the strike of his sword and the power of the sages, Ganondorf is sealed away, his evil gone from hyrule………..for now.
Link and Zelda share a final moment together, and after a bittersweet goodbye, she sends link back to his time.
In the credits, you can see a celebration from the people and the sages overlooking the world, hyrule has been broken for many years, but it can finally begin healing.
Link places the master sword back in its pedestal, and then Navi flies away………you are no longer just a buy from the forest, not a child any longer, you are a man, a myth, a legend.
You are, the hero of time.
Yeah, ocarina of time is a phenomenal game, has some hiccups here and there, but it’s ultimately an incredible experience…………but I do like the next two games more.
Speaking of that, Majora’s Mask is next, I’ve always liked this one better than OOT, but we’ll see if that changes on this playthrough, and like OOT, this’ll be my first time playing the N64 version.