The legend of Zelda tears of the kingdom, a very long awaited sequel to what is considered one of the greatest games ever made.
With that hype behind it, some were definitely skeptical, worrying about how it could just be “$70 dlc”, and it wouldn’t live up to BOTW, which is fair, so how do you make one of the greatest even greater……..well Nintendo’s answer is this game.
This game is fucking incredible, it literally improves on every single aspect of BOTW, so much so that it makes that game look like a $60 tech demo for this one, Nintendo didn’t just knock it out of the park, they knocked it out of the galaxy.
let’s not make this intro any longer, here’s why I love this newest Zelda game.


Out of every Zelda game, this game by far is the most fun, and that is because of two simple things: zonai devices and ultrahand, these two things alone are about what half of mine, and many others playthroughs are mostly made up of, in my time with this game I made many cars, planes, motorcycles, machines of death and destruction, mechs, attack helicopters, a lot of dicks, and so much more, these mechanics just add so much more content in this game through the sheer creativity you can manage alone, I completed many shrine puzzles in ways that weren’t intended with these abilities.
One thing I forgot to mention in my list of things I did with ultrahands and devices is torturing koroks, we all hate these little fuckers now cause of the 900 seeds you collect in the last game, and literally every reward just being that got on our nerves, and now there are a 1000 of them in this game and many of us are fed up with them.
I tortured many koroks, in total of like the fucking 50 of them I ran into, I helped maybe 3 of them reach their friend, I ignored like 15 of them, but the rest I crucified, grilled, waterboarded, the Geneva conventions went beyond just the Geneva suggestions, I tore koroks apart, and I could talk about the shit I did to them all day but we got other fun things to talk about in this game.
Ultrahand is the definitely the best new ability, but don’t sleep on the other ones, fuse is very cool, I liked fusing random fucking things together to see what random weapons I could create, and fusing a rocket to a shield is a nice replacement for revalis gale (RIP champion abilities, the one thing BOTW did better).
Ascend is a neat ability, for about the first 1/3 of the game I forgot it existed and got confused on what to do in multiple shrines before I just realized I needed to use ascend, but once I started using it more, it became extremely useful, especially for stone talus’ and going up the asses of statues.
Recall is also very cool, not much else to say about it, I basically just made a bunch of elevators and it was the main thing that helped me break some shrines and complete in non intended ways.
Lastly autobuild, more of an extension to ultrahand but I probably would’ve gone insane without it so, very cool.


Moving on from the abilities and war crimes, let’s talk about this game’s biggest jump up in quality from BOTW, that being the variety, more variety on the shrines, more variety in a good chunk of the korok (well the ones I actually did at least), WAY more variety in the enemy department, and just far more variety when it comes to approaching things in this game.
Let’s talk about that enemy variety cause holy fuck they brought so much more in compared to the last game, of course you still got your enemies from BOTW like bokoblins, lynels, hinox, stone talus’, all of them are still here, but the amount of new enemies they added is more than I think any of us could’ve expected, horriblins, gleeoks, gibdos, froxs, the gloom hands, the zonai constructs, the like likes, and even more, it’s seriously impressive how much they were able to add, this goes even further with the main temple bosses, which I’ll get to later.
Shrines to me feel far more alive this time, they really take advantage of every ability you have, I don’t have much else to say, they’re all pretty great.


Moving on from that, another thing that has majorly improved from BOTW is the temples, now I don’t think these temples aren’t as strong as some of the temples from the other Zelda games, but in my opinion, they knocked it out of the park for the temples and the build up for them specifically, I’ll start off with the wind temple, and holy fuck this is definitely the best one (well, tied with another for the best), the build up just to get to the wind temple is one of my favorite parts of this entire series, the slow gradual climb up to the giant boat, getting higher and higher as the surface seems to fade, culminating in a dive into the storm itself, this then leads to the temple itself, which I’ll say right now is alright, it’s clearly supposed to be the tutorial temple so it’s nothing too complicated, but after completing it, this leads to the 2nd best boss fight in this game, the fight with Colgera is a serene cinematic set piece, I was out of arrows by this point so I had to do the whole diving strategy, and that made the fight far more fun, the atmosphere of the fight, the really cool boss design, THE MOTHERFUCKING SOUNDTRACK JUST BLASTING DRAGON ROOST ISLAND, THAT SHIT HAD ME ASCENDING, this part of the game is just incredible, not much else needs to be said here.
In comparison, I sadly have to say that the water temple did not even come close to the wind temple’s quality, to start off with the quest to get to the temple is kinda dull, you learn that Sidon has a fiancé and now you can’t marry him……..what a sad reality, anyways after that betrayal you just do some stuff around zora’s domain, and it’s just lame until you get to the whole secret underground zora ruins and of course the sky section, which is pretty good I’ll admit, I was excited to see what the temple was like and it’s…….fine I guess, I like how open it is but the temple is just kinda underwhelming, and doesn’t really have the atmosphere of the others, plus the boss is just eh, pretty underwhelming compared to the previous temple.
In comparison, the fire temple was a big improvement, starting off with helping yunobo and scaling death mountain was fun, the boss at the top of it was cool, and then going into the depths was a nice twist compared to the two previous sky ones, and the temple itself is pretty cool, again not super difficult but the mine cart system was a neat little puzzle, and finally it ends off with a Gohma boss fight, an enemy we haven’t seen since twilight princess, it’s a pretty easy boss but it’s fun, overall I like this part way more than the water temple, but doesn’t come close to the wind section of the game.
Now the lightning temple on the other hand is my other favorite temple in this game, the build up is already super cool, showing a gerudo desert surrounded by sandstorms of some kind, and gibdos are everywhere to be seen, after a bit of stuff you help gerudo town fend off a gibdo attack, and then you gotta find the temple itself, which involves a neat light puzzle around the desert, then after that comes the temple itself, which is definitely my favorite of the actual temples in the game, it’s got an old ancient temple atmosphere to it, the surprise fight with the boss at the start is really cool, the puzzles are fun, it feels the most like a classic Zelda dungeon and it caps off with a really good boss too.
Hyrule castle, well, it’s not really a temple like the others, the search for Zelda around the castle and the reveal that the Zelda you’ve been chasing all game is actually Phantom Ganon is cool, plus the phantom ganon boss itself is very fun, but nothing else much to say about it aside from that.
Spirit temple is weird, considering that it’s only a boss room (though it is quite a fun boss) it shouldn’t really count here, the robot factory part is cool but isn’t necessarily part of the dungeon, boss fight is cool and it’s the only part of the main story (aside from the fire temple part) to use the depths so that’s cool.
Overall I think the temples and general phenomenas were very fun, still not at classic Zelda dungeon level but we’re getting there.


Speaking of the depths, they’re very cool, as well as the sky islands, it adds a great deal to the map and makes the game even bigger, I would go into more detail buuuuuuut, I don’t feel like it, I just really like them.



The last thing I’d like to talk about is the overall story of the game, cause wow it has majorly improved from BOTW, the voice acting sounds better, the memories are used a lot better than they were in the previous game, in my opinion the characters are more interesting, and the motivation to push through is generally way stronger than what BOTW provided.
One last major thing this game improved on, and I’d probably say this is the thing they improved the most.
In botw, calamity Ganon was a mildly interesting force of nature antagonist, but thanks to no real personality connected to it, Calamity Ganon ends up becoming one of the less memorable things about the game as it goes on, doesn’t help that the final boss in that game is disappointingly easy, however in TOTK, THEY BROUGHT BACK THE FUCKING GOAT.
Ganondorf in TOTK is not only a massive step up form Calamity Ganon, but he’s also just a spectacular return to form for this character, we’ve seen pig Ganon a bunch in the games recently, but we haven’t fully seen Ganondorf himself in a mainline game since twilight princess, IN 2006, 17 YEARS, and oh boy he delivers a plate of absolute devious villainy.
Ganondorf is an absolute menace in this game, in the opening of the game he literally hurts link’s arm so bad that it not only has to be amputated but also nearly kills Link, SHATTERS THE MASTER SWORD LIKE NOTHING, and then taunts both Link and Zelda, HE FUCKING WOKE UP AND IMMEDIATELY BROKE THE ANCIENT SWORD FORGED BY GODS, this is just the start, I didn’t even mention the fact that Calamity Ganon, the force of nature that caused the fucking apocalypse in the last game, was just his leaking malice coming from his body………BRO CAUSED AN APOCALYPSE FROM JUST HOW MUCH HIS ANGER AND HATRED BUILT UP DOWN THERE, THE CALAMITY WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A BEEFED UP PHANTOM GANON.
This is just the start of the game btw, we next see him trying to take hyrule by force, failing but then swearing his allegiance to the royal family in the most disrespectful and evil way possible, he just doesn’t give a fuck, he literally just fucking exerts evil, this is the ganondorf that channels Demise the most.
Now this next part is fucking mind blowing, so he tries to kill Queen Sonia while disguised as Zelda, but the actual zelda ends up stopping him, but then he pulls a little deceptive trick and kills Sonia, now he doesn’t just kill her by stabbing her or something, no, HE PUNCHES HER, LITERALLY ALL HE DID WAS PUNCH HER AND IT FATALLY WOUNDED HER, he grabs the tear from her falling body, and as Zelda mourns Sonia and cries, GANONDORF PULLS OUT THE MOST DEVIOUS SMILE EVER AND JUST LAUGHS, after that he puts the stone in his head and within seconds becomes the anti-Christ and spawns an army that sweeps over hyrule within a matter of seconds, LIKE HOLY SHIT BRO IS HIM.
After some time he ends up battling the sages, a fully powered Zelda, and two descendants of gods all at once, AND HE FUCKING WINS WITHOUT EVEN GETTING TIRED OR INJURED, however he’s then sealed for god knows how long and that ends his reign of terror………for that time at least.
Back to the present, Ganondorf uses phantom Ganon to fuck with all of hyrule by disguising as Zelda once again, and he causes some mass trickery, leading to every race getting fucked over in some way.
After all the phenomenas have been cleared and link beats phantom Ganon in hyrule castle, Ganondorf proceeds to show them what he’s gonna do to their world, scaring basically every sage and causing them to go and find the fifth sage to ultimately take down Ganon.
Now up to this point Ganondorf has proved that he is the ultimate menace, but does his fight live up to that hype?……….yes, fucking yes, in fact I’d say it’s the best Ganondorf fight in the series, and easily the game’s best boss fight.
It starts off with a simple fight against his gerudo form, he has some basic attacks that you’ve seen from the phantom ganon fights, but it’s more difficult and harder yo focus because Ganondorf’s muscles, they’re……..they……..the—, oh my lord bro………uh anyways, after this phase Ganondorf upgrades into Demise anti-Christ form and makes his new health bar, which fills up, and fills up……….where’s it going……..WHY IS IT GOING THAT FAR TO THE RIGHT, WHAT THE FUCK, dude that moment had my jaw dropping on the floor, and just a few seconds after that I entered a flurry rush with his attack, AND HE FUCKING DODGED AND FLURRY RUSHED BACK, that shit had me going insane, and this continues and the fight is way harder on this phase, he throws all this shit at you, switching between all types of weapons and eventually summoning those gloom spirit balls that not only take away your max hearts permanently, but also CAN BREAK A FULLY UNDAMAGED HYLIAN SHIELD IN TWO HITS, it’s insane.
They brought back Ganondorf in such a good way in this game bro, I love how Nintendo just went all out on making him an absolute menace, it’s just beautiful.
This leads to the final phase, which yeah is basically just a dragon version of the dark beast Ganon fight from the last game, but to be fair this one’s a lot cooler, Zelda actively has a role in it, it has call backs to the beginning of the game, uses the element of skydiving which you’ve been doing a lot throughout the game, it’s just all around better even if it is still really easy.
I especially forgive it cause the cutscene after I just absolutely adore, the ending cutscene in BOTW was kinda just eh, Zelda doesn’t really say anything noteworthy and doesn’t even seem happy that she just beat the beast that trapped her for 100 years, here though, this one’s just cool, after Rauru and Sonia’s spirits free Zelda from dragon form, you’re sent into a skydiving sequence, in which you need to catch Zelda, this part is generally just cool and has a really nice callback to the beginning of the game when Link couldn’t catch Zelda from falling, but now here, thanks to player input, he does save her, and they both land in water, the part after this is genuinely so fucking good, mostly cause of Zelda’s reaction to Ganondorf being defeated, she’s completely stunned and almost on the verge of crying tears of joy, it really just delivers that this ancient evil is truly just gone, and caps this masterpiece off wonderfully.


And that’s about all I have to say, well not everything but most of the major stuff, this is a truly beautiful game, and an absolute improvement from BOTW, it’s basically just superior in every way and I don’t see myself going back to replay BOTW with this game now being in existence, now is it the best Zelda game? Idk, I praised it to all hell but like most things, I’ll need time for my thoughts on this game to fully flourish.


Speaking of time, I recently got an itch to replay Ocarina of Time, I don’t know why, but imma go do that………..see y’all

In the many years I’ve played video games, I’ve noticed that I’ve always liked the…….weirder or divisive sequels more than their less divisive and more critically acclaimed predecessors.
MGS 1 and MGS 3 are perfect bond like action games with a simpler but in many ways complex story, they are simply phenomenal games, however, MGS 2 and MGS 5, the (timeline order) sequels to the former and the latter, are far more weird and overall considered divisive (more so in the case of MGS 5) than their predecessors……….but I still love these two more.
The Last of Us 1 is one of gaming’s true perfect stories, a perfectly paced emotional adventure that almost anyone can enjoy, however, the sequel is far more divisive and generally hated by a lot of people……..yet me and all my insanity love it a hell of a lot more.
Ocarina of Time is a perfectly paced adventure, treating us to the true whimsical beauty of what the Zelda series truly is…….and yet, the much weirder, much MUCH darker sequel I vastly prefer.


Majora’s Mask by all means should’ve been a failure, the game only had one year in development and reused a lot of assets from OOT, most games with that short of a development time are either broken buggy messes or just plain uninteresting, and reused assets can always make a game just not stand out from its predecessor.
The game had many experimental ideas going in, and since there was no time to question anything, they went all in with every idea, by all accounts, this game should’ve been a disaster……….but, Eiji Aonuma and the rest of the team behind the game tapped into something magnificent, in letting the game take its own form, the game truly became something unique, something awe-inspiring, something bizarre, and something very……VERY dark.

The game immediately opens with a bleaker scene than the rest of the series, instead of a great tale being told or a charming little intro in the opening area, it begins with Link getting knocked out, robbed by skull kid, falling into a very big tree, and being painfully transformed into a deku scrub.
Once the game takes off, it doesn’t really stop with its overall bleak atmosphere, you’ll find people in trouble or in pain all across termina, most of it skull kid inflicted.
The story and structure of this game are very much different compared to the rest of the series, the way the game uses the 3 day cycle is really good, it basically causes you to plan your every move, and execute it all in a timely manner, the cycle never feels too long or too short. The game uses this greatly with its story, while it is a lot simpler in premise compared to OOT, but it uses this simplicity to flesh out the world, the characters, and the side quests.
Speaking of the side quests, this game definitely has the overall best in the series, the amount of great stuff you can do off to the side is just incredible, Romani ranch and the Anju and Kafei quests are the highlights, I can almost say it’s just necessary to do them when playing this game, and thanks to the notebook, you can keep track of every character’s schedules, which greatly adds to the whole planning and three day cycle routine. These side quests also really help flesh out the world, and what a world it is.
Termina is a far greater overworld than the ones most of the other games have, it’s not too big so it’s easy to travel around and comes packed with a lot of content, I also lobe how unique each section is compared to other Zelda games, the swamp takes elements from kokiri forest but it builds on them and does a lot of things on its own, snowhead is probably the only big mountain area in the series that doesn’t include a volcano, great bay is fun to swim around in with the Zora mask, and ikana canyon is one of my favorite locations in the entire series, the dark atmosphere, tone, the music, all are wonderfully dead.
I have been forgetting to mention it in my other reviews, but the soundtrack in this series is phenomenal, and even better in this game. Let me talk about a few of these tracks, starting with the clock town theme, on the first day, the music is more festive, not a care in the world that a moon is hurdling towards earth, it’s very much a warm welcome in the form or music, the second day is more laid back, being more relaxed and less festive, and it even has a tiny hint of worry, now it feels like the moon is noticed but only thought about a little, the third day however is far more sinister, the music is fast and kinda messy, it’s like the music is freaking out and panicking, along with it is some evil sounding synths playing in the background, all throughout the day, the moon has definitely been noticed by now, and of course, the final hours, my god that score is a 10/10, it truly feels hopeless, you’re not panicking anymore, you’re just accepting fate, it is masterful. I’d also like to talk about the individual area themes, all of them are kinda the same, but many different sounds and notes make them all feel different, the swamp has a more serene feel, you kinda feel gross listening to it, perfectly representing the poisoned swamps, the mountains are more tame, and feel more winter like, obviously representing the frozen mountains, the great bay feels far more tropical, but like, tropical while a thunderstorm is fucking up the area, which obviously represents the polluted waters, then you have ikana canyon, my god, every single little note in this version has been made far more haunting than the ones before, then once the main chorus comes on, it truly feels dead and lifeless (in a good way obviously), but even through all the dreariness you hear little notes of Romani/Malon’s singing, representing the little hope that is still left with the girl and her father there…….what a pleasant area :). One last song I’d like to mention is the song of healing, it’s a simple short track that kinda perfectly represents what this game is, it’s a somber tune, one that’s very sad sounding, which makes sense considering what it’s used for.

Alright let’s talk about all the dark shit, how about Epona being dead, oh you think Epona’s fine? Skull kid simply put her in Romani ranch, a loving home for a horse? NOPE, Skull kid 100% killed the real Epona and the one you see later is just the termina counterpart, I know it’s a theory technically but the fact the game STARTS OFF with this is crazy, and it doesn’t stop there, Southern swamp? FUCKING POTENTIAL WAR, Snowpeak? ICE AGE, great bay? POLLUTED AND BABIES THAT HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED, ikana canyon? THE DEAD CAN’T REST.
What I’m basically saying is there’s tons of dark stuff all throughout the game, but the most impressive part is how the game balances them extremely well and it never really feels like it’s in your face, the game just has a natural way of delivering it, in fact let’s go over a few of my favorite dark moments from this game.
The implication and realization of the deku butler’s son, unlike everything else in the game, he’s the one thing you can’t save.
“They” from Romani Ranch, a completely unexplainable enemy in the series, it’s especially fucked up what they potentially do to Romani, part of me wants to know what they did but a bigger part of me never even wants to think about it.
The little girl and her father in ikana canyon, both of them alone and afraid, completely surrounded by the dead as one of them is slowly turning into one of the monsters outside.
There is more, but I’ve gone on long enough.
I think what balances all the darkness out is that, you can help almost everyone in this game, you can cure the poison of the swamp and stop the war, you can bring spring back to snowhead, you can bring clean waters and rescue the babies in great bay, you can lay the dead to rest in ikana canyon, you can protect the ranch from “them”, you can save the girl’s father in ikana, you can do almost everything………..but, no matter what victory you achieve, what life you save, you’re always reminded of one constant thing no matter where you are at in the world, all you need to do is look at the bottom of the screen, or hear the bells of the clock tower, or of course, look up, and you’ll see it.
The moon, the end of the world, the fate that you must stop in order to save everyone, no one will truly be safe unless you stop this thing from hurdling towards termina, and the game makes you just feel helpless against it for like 90% of the game, always turning back time any time it gets close to those final hours…………..until you play a certain song, an oath to order.

This is one of my favorite scenes in not only this entire series, but in video games in general, the camera shows us the moon hurdling towards termina, hopeless as it has been the rest of the game………….then a somberly triumphant theme starts playing, it swells up as one giant appears, then two, then three, then four, and finally, once they’re all there, they put their full power and strength into holding the moon, and after a struggle………….it stops, the one threat that has been haunting you throughout every mission………stopped……….OR SO YOU THINK.
Majora’s Mask is its own being bitch, it flies up into the moon and then the moon starts moving again, but you triumphantly step into the moon, no more will you hide from this mask, you take the fight DIRECTLY TO ITS BASE, DIRECTLY TO THE………the………nice tree and open field?
I’m gonna admit, I obviously didn’t get this on my original playthrough, and I still don’t know now……….anyways, this leads to a final battle with the mask itself, and the fight is pretty fun, I mean it’s not ganondorf in OOT and the fight is basically trivialized by the fierce deity’s mask, but it’s a cool fight, the game isn’t really too strong in the boss department, everything else is just so spectacular that the boss aspect kinda falters.
After beating Majora, the moon disappears into the sky, the giants leave, and everyone celebrates.


It’s a dawn of a new day.


Link leaves termina as everyone there celebrates, including many musical performances, a fun time at the carnival, and of course, a wedding……….link is last seen in the lost woods, and finally continues off to find his old friend……………and he’s sadly never seen again.


And that is Majora’s Mask, a far more unique game than most, it was really fun to replay, and it’s still just as mesmerizing and beautifully dark as I remember, I hope one day I can write a longer and more in-depth review than this one, cause this game is just so good, it’s one of my two favorite Zelda games, and the other one? Well…


Next up is Wind Waker, very excited to replay this one, I just adore the art style so much man.

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.