Because I loved The Legend Of Zelda: The Ocarina Of Time so much when I was younger, I recently started replaying it. The original game was released on the Nintendo 64 in 1997, and then thankfully re-released on the Gamecube, packaged with the harder version of the game — Masterquest¹ - on the same disk. I haven't yet played Masterquest, so this review will be about Ocarina Of Time.
Background story
Zelda games usually unfold like this: the wise and magical Princess Zelda is kidnapped, captured, or otherwise detained in a plot to take over Hyrule, the land Zelda's family rules. The brave young warrior Link (who may or may not be romantically involved with Zelda...games are suggestive but vague on this fact) goes to rescue her, often with assistance from Zelda herself. Oooh, mind powers! Link eventually kills whoever is holding her hostage, and the world is saved again. Of course, there are always variations on this plot. No game, however, is bereft of fun, beautiful graphics (for the time period), more fun, good dialogue, puzzles, and the satisfaction of beating the game. In this game and its sequel, Majora's Mask, the ocarina is a valuable item. With it, you can play songs that alter the world around you, warp you back and forth across the world or through time, or unlock secrets. The Ocarina Of Time does most of the warping, however, and replaces the Ocarina you get earlier in the game.
The game is divided into two phases: Young Link and Adult Link — a difference of about seven years. As Young Link, you see some strange things about the world, and hear of things that might happen and have not yet come to pass. As Adult Link, you see both the effects of what Young Link did and new things happening to the land. As Young Link, Lake Hylia might be full and clean. As Adult Link, the waters are partially drained, necessitating him to purge the Water Temple of its evil creatures to turn it back to normal. Friends you make when you are a child stay with you when you're older. And of course, Link has a veritable harem of female companions, and even more if you count the all-female Gerudo tribe (they're like Amazons...the boss of this game, Ganondorf, is the male "King Of The Gerudo"). It's like idealized life, as all games I've played recently are.
Most of your fighting within this game will take place in temples, or on the way to temples. There are six temples — five that you actually fight in — Light, Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow, and Spirit. Your purpose in clearing these temples (other than winning the game) is to free the Sages who have gone in to try to clear the evil on their own. These Sages will later help you in your final battle when you need them most, as well as along the way. The temples are frustrating, primarily because I wanted a perfect record — zero deaths — which I had previously accomplished when I was ten. Since I can't do it now, I'm wondering if my gaming ability has decreased since that early age...I'm more than certain that it is. Needless to say, here's my review of all five temples (Light is a freebie. The Sage Of Light, Rauru, instructs you to save the others) ... and how much some of them suck.
Note: Everything beyond this point concerns Link's adult phase, and the temples he has to go through. If you're not at that point in the game, please go straight to the comments section (link above) to avoid spoiling the game for yourself. The write-up of the dungeons is actually more of a summary than a FAQ of any kind, but the boss fights are listed in detail. Careful!
Forest Temple
The Forest Temple has always been my favorite. It's easy, the boss is fun, and I get my favorite item, the Fairy Bow, from this location. This time, however, I went downhill from the Forest Temple. Early on, you're going through passageways, defeating fairly easy enemies, scaling garden walls, finding keys, and generally trying to hope that you aren't wasting any of your keys. Thankfully, you can't really do that in Zelda. Once you find another key, you can keep moving on. That is...if you know where you're going. At the beginning of every temple, you have to find your Dungeon Map — which shows which rooms you have been in — and your Compass, which indicates where you are and what treasure chests you might find in upcoming rooms. Without those, you can wander blindly around the temple for hours without finding certain things. Anyone can get a head start, but finishing any temple requires a little bit of effort.
Because the Forest Temple is so easy, you won't ever need a FAQ for it (in case you want one anyway, GameFAQs is the best). You can plow through with moderate amounts of thinking until the boss.
Ah yes, the boss.
The boss of the Forest Temple is Phantom Ganon. He's basically the spirit form of Ganondorf, the aforementioned Prince of Evil, King of the Women-People, and Giant Asshole. The stage is a circular dais inside a room. The dais' edges are roped off. On each of the four walls is a large painting of the same scene — a lonely tree with a dark and gloomy background. As the fight begins, Ganon's spirit will fly into paintings and ride off into the distance. At some point, he'll turn around and come back through another painting. So will a clone Ganon that turns around as the other one emerges from the painting. When he emerges, you're supposed to shoot him with your bow. If you're not fast enough, he'll fly into another painting. You have to hit him the second you see him emerging.
My aim is terrible; I can admit this freely. I managed to hit him several times with my bow initially, but I wasted arrows in the process. Therefore, at the last of three (?) hits, I was out of arrows and had to use my Hookshot. After you hit the spirit however many times, he dismounts and flies around the center of the dais. He will hurl a magic ball at you which you have to hit back. It's like baseball...with a catch. If you don't hit it at the right time, it will hit you instead and it hurts. Upon realizing this three times in a row, I died.
Again.
And again.
My perfect record is inextricably bound to failure, with three deaths on the list. Therefore, instead of consigning myself to this, I beat his ass. It was thorough enough that I completed the dungeon, sad but victorious. Would all the dungeons be like this? I hoped not.
Fire Temple
The Gorons are a friendly race of mountain people. They're very round and can curl into balls that roll around for transportation. Majora's Mask gives you a firsthand experience of being a Goron, via the Goron's Mask. Anyways, the synopsis of this temple is that a giant dragon is living inside Death Mountain (it's called this even when it's not evil...but they're right. I hate it!). The most annoying part of the Fire Temple was the endless...fire. There were lakes of lava, fire curtains, rolling boulders, bombs, flaming bats (I HATE BATS), and keys to find! Oh boy! The dungeon itself is fairly simple. You enter to find four doors - two of which you can't get to just yet (one is locked, one is hidden) — and two objectives:
- Save the imprisoned Gorons unless you want them to be eaten by the dragon, Volvagia
- Kill Volvagia and thereby beat the temple.
Like I said, it's easy. The boss fight is a giant game of Whack-A-Mole, with one exception. Volvagia is a flying dragon. Volvagia is on fire. After one death, I hammered him to death with my impressively named Megaton Hammer. Two down, three to go.
Water Temple
There is nothing I hate more than the Water Temple. The temple is a giant box, with various room extensions. You're primarily working off of this three-story central column with doors and targets to get to other doors...it's so simple that it's annoying. The only way to navigate it is by changing water levels. There are three switches. One will drain water completely and allow you access to the bottom floor of the temple, as well as other areas that are normally flooded. Another fills the water to the second floor. The third —necessary to get to the boss — fills the temple to the third and final floor. Mainstays of this temple are Iron Boots and the Zora Tunic which allows you to breathe underwater (I should also mention the Goron Tunic of the previous temple keeps you safe from the searing temperatures of the temple, and also protects you from some fire damage).
So. Annoying. Someone shoot me. After searching for chests, and going backwards, and killing meaningless and annoying enemies, I found myself face to face with two truly hard things — Dark Link, Link's atrophied motions, and Morpha, the boss. Dark Link is basically your clone, in silhouette form. He copies all of your actions except for magic abilities, special item usage, and spin attacks. He is a total pain to kill, let me tell you. Some attacks don't hurt him at all, and others he reflects right back at you. Perseverance and one more death got me through this fight. After a little more movement, I flooded the temple and went to take on the boss.
Almost. The hallway before Morpha is slanted upwards. Moving metal blades move back and forth across the floor. The sides, although some guides recommended them, are slicker than the center track. The obvious solution would be to run, run, run, oh god, why am I not running?! run...but as I found, I'm not so good at the simple things. After numerous attempts to thwart these minuscule and indestructible enemies, I entered the boss's chamber.
Morpha really isn't that hard, as I told my little neighbor (who was chanting for Link's almost inevitable demise the whole time — he wanted to play Smash Brothers). The "brain" of this water-tentacle monster bounces around. If you can drag it out of the tentacle and slash it a few times, you're done with the fight. This is assuming you watch out for the spikes around the edge of the room (except the corners — I LOVE CORNERS —, the fact that falling in the water pretty much leaves you asking to be thrown into said spikes, and the second tentacle that spawns with the sole purpose of grabbing you, flinging you, and clapping in glee when you crash into the spikes. My strategy kept me a turn away from the eye - near enough that I could attempt². Three down, two to go.
Shadow Temple
Creepy. That's just it. The temple is composed of using the Lens Of Truth to find hidden passages and avoid gaping holes, killing all varieties of unsavory dead things, and flying like Winged Victory with your Hover Boots. One of the enemies, the Dead Hand, is actually not a dead hand. It's more like...four to six of them, sprouting from the ground, long, pale, and gruesome stalks of absolute terror. Being grabbed by one of these hands involves the hand holding onto your head, and something else popping out of the ground. This something is the most frightening thing I've encountered in this game — something that looks like a dying white slug (but twice as tall as you), with a head that oddly resembles Michael Jackson. Then, you, see the horrendously large jaw, and the teeth coming towards you. It's like a puppet opening its mouth and closing it on you. Two little white arms sashay from side to side with this abomination. Slash the head when it comes down to nibble you — nine times total — and you're free to go. Free, with the memories.
Another monster, the Wall Master, is a disembodied (or so you hope) scaly hand that watches you from the ceiling. Your fairy, Navi, informs you of this before you enter a room that contains them. When you walk through the room, if you're staying in one place or not moving fast enough, a round shadow will start to descend upon you, growing larger as it nears. This is the Wall Master coming down to grab you. Being grabbed results in having to start the room over, minus one heart. I think we broke it with the suspense of "Will I be grabbed, will I not be grabbed?". The other version of these creatures are more annoying than scary. If a Wall Master falls and misses you, it becomes a Floor Master temporarily, until it flies back to the ceiling. Floor Masters scuttle around on the floor, and upon being hit, split into three mini Floor Masters. Any one of these could grow into an adult version. You have to kill them before they start to grow. Occasionally these turn green and fly at you. Backhand slap: 1. Link: 0.
The boss of the Shadow Temple, Bongo Bongo is a lot like Andross from the StarFox series (also N64, also fun) and Donkey Kong. Two disembodied hands dance around on a large drum — the stage — and the Lens Of Truth shows you a glowing red eye when the hands are disabled. I waded through this fight. It was a little scary, almost running out of arrows, but I made up for it by hitting the boss as many as six times at once. I was pretty proud, at least.
The rest of the game
I'm not done yet, but I know what's coming. The next part of the game occurs in the desert — the music is beautiful. I had never heard a Spanish guitar before this point (first time, I was 7, remember?), and I was thrilled. I realized I wanted to marry Spain and its music. So wonderful!
The Spirit Temple contains the final Sage, Nabooru, a Gerudo warrior. The temple requires you to go back and forth through time to complete various things. It's the only temple that Young Link can participate in. The bosses are probably my favorites. Two twin witches (I've forgotten their names [EDIT: Apparently, it's Koume and Kotake - thanks, Aaron]), one fire and one ice, will fly around a room with many even platforms. Your task is to hit one witch's magic into her sister. After some battery, the sisters combine to form Twinrova, who operates somewhat differently. Charge your blade with three of the same form of magic in a row, and you can hit it back at her (I think this is how she works). Then, you slash her until she's dead. The witches call each other hags and similar things as they rise. Fun and inventive!
The Sages help you get into Ganon's castle where you must fight through mini stages of each temple. As you clear each stage, a similarly colored link will break off from the center of the room, signifying that Ganon is no longer able to take that element's power. Ganon, who holds Zelda captive in a huge pink crystal, plays an organ (PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, EVERYBODY!) and challenges you to a fight. The fight, like the last Ganon, involves arrows and baseball. Hit him with the Light Arrow to stun him, and then beat him up with your sword. Eventually, you get to play baseball with him and his magic energy. This baseball fight, because of the camera angles, is actually a lot easier — but more intense — than the last one. The game concludes triumphantly with the destruction of Ganon's castle (as you flee it) and a celebration of life, involving everyone you saved. Yes, even Zelda. The two of you talk for a little while and I'm not sure how it ends, but for all of us romantics, it's not quite how we'd like it to be! It's a great game. I sincerely recommend it to anyone who loves having fun.
Sidequests
You'll need to look for Heart Pieces and Gold Skulltulas throughout the game. Heart Pieces add 1/4th of a heart (technically) to your health, but the extra health only shows up when you've recovered four such pieces — one Heart Container. Skulltulas are the embodiment of greed, in insect form. They are called Spiders of the Curse because of one family in Kakariko Village, who through their greed were transformed into half-spider, half-human abominations. To free them from the curse, collect Skulltula Tokens, one-hundred in all. At certain milestones, you get very nice rewards!
Also, you'll need to get some items on your own. Certain weapon upgrades and spells need to be found. It's also important to look for Fairy Fountains (fairies are like 1-Ups. When you die in battle, they'll resurrect you with full health to continue the fight, with no death penalty. You can hold as many as you have bottles for.) and Great Fairy Fountains (certain upgrades).
Footnotes
- I've always wondered why they didn't package Majora's Mask with Ocarina Of Time. That would have been a lot more handy for me, so I don't have to dig out another system and cartridge to play the sequel. But I guess...revamping Zelda is also cool, when you get over the fact that you're missing out on a very intense game. «
- The Gamecube controller is a bit harder to manipulate than the N64 controller. I think my hand was molded by the pain of using the latter so that everything seemed to fit nicely. The C buttons were also more efficient, for me, than the C stick on the Gamecube controller. For example, now it's incredibly easy to mess up songs on the Ocarina, by simply moving the stick a little too far. The hole that the stick is set in is octagonal, so every corner that you bypass might actually play the wrong note.
R-targeting cost me my perfect record. Had I been able to target Phantom Ganon and fire my arrows at him while he was in the air, I would have been able to avoid unnecessary humiliation. I mean, I could do this when I was seven! Why not now? Every time I tried to target him, I could never hit him. I blame this (and other mishaps) time and time again on my fairy. Navi also has the annoying habit of changing colors at certain spots without telling me to Look! Listen! Watch out!. And nothing happens. So I'm left in the dark a few times. Thanks a lot :( «
Note
This post is about 3,500 words long...my longest yet, and so easy to write. Why can't I do this for my novels?!
Read 10 comments (Leave a comment?)
Claudia said:
Wow! I never managed to write such a long entry. Congratulations. And it was quite interesting as well. My sister had the old Super Nintendo (SNES) back then and the Zelda Game for that as well. I loved it! I am not sure about the differences between that and Ocarnia of Time. But the latter sounds good.
Posted on January 4, 2007 3:33 PM; Permalink
Ranjani said:
I think all of the Zelda games have been great, but Ocarina was the first one I could play on my own (7) and could hook onto. The graphics are/were just so appealing, and compared to the SNES graphics that I grew up with, I just wanted the shiny one better!
Majora’s Mask is a great sequel to Ocarina, but it’s very time consuming and complicated. It’s fun, but I could never muster the patience to finish it. Maybe when I get around to beating it at last, I’ll write another review :)
Posted on January 4, 2007 6:16 PM; Permalink
Melinda said:
Ooh, I loved the The Ocarina Of Time! That game was awesome :). But I found it so hard though x(.
Posted on January 5, 2007 2:23 AM; Permalink
John said:
I remember when zelda first came out and all the kids in elementary school were obsessed with it. haha I’ve only played him on Super Smash Brothers.
Posted on January 5, 2007 4:39 PM; Permalink
Ranjani said:
I was one of those kids :)
Posted on January 5, 2007 5:39 PM; Permalink
Lori said:
Lol I love Zelda, I had it on gameboy but I lost it -hit self- I seriously loved it! I really wanna get a Zelda game on some other console but my parents wont let me lol. Zelda games are just so smart xD
Posted on January 5, 2007 7:50 PM; Permalink
Mithraugion said:
Ehe… I still haven’t gotten past “Jabu Jabu” on OoT. I’ve gotten so frustrated I just throw Ruto right into danger.
Personally, I’ve always preferred the “overhead view” type Zelda games more than the 3D versions, but hell, Twilight Princess just takes the cake. Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening are now shifted to second and third in my book.
I still get shivers in my spine when I hear the Ballad of the Wind Fish. I only have the first… 10 notes for my ocarina. But I’ve successfully learned Song of Time and Serenade of Water (google “Songbird Ocarinas”… And if you get one, get the XL version. The regular version is NOT BIG ENOUGH).
I wish I hadn’t resubscribed to Nintendo Power so early… they had the Collectors Edition Zelda for Gamecube a month after I did, and when I could resubscribe again, they took down the offer.
I also am curious about Majora’s Mask, given that I never owned a Nintendo 64. And probably won’t get a Wii either…
P.S. I didn’t read all of your entry just in case some spoilers were included.
P.P.S. Philip won’t be traveling through time any time soon (he was playing on my ocarina on his birthday).
Posted on January 7, 2007 2:19 PM; Permalink
Ranjani said:
Yeah, Jabu-Jabu was a real pain. That was the first time I had to use a FAQ, and I wish the last time as well. Remember that throwing Ruto into enemies is a one-hit-kill! Once you get the Boomerang though, things are a piece of cake.
Do not randomly jump anywhere when you’re inside his belly. I hate that fish!
Spoiler warning now included!
I still maintain that Ruto is the creepiest girl in Link’s harem. She’s incredibly annoying.
I have the Collector’s Edition for the N64, of both versions. Leave it to my brothers to get the best games :)
NOOOOOO! You never had a 64? Shame on you! And you really should get a Wii. The pros on both system outweigh the cons (if there are any). It’s much different from having different versions of the PlayStation. For the PS, you’re upgrading graphics slightly, getting a sleeker console with more lights, getting the 20th game in a series…but Nintendo is all about evolution. I gamed my heart out on the NES, SNES, 64, and Gamecube. I’m ready for the Wii, all the way! I like how Nintendo doesn’t release new consoles sporadically. Nintendo’s always been about the fun, and I respect them for that.
I still love Sony (they made my indestructible CD player!), but sorry, PlayStation! I’m a Nintendo fan all the way :)
Posted on January 7, 2007 2:34 PM; Permalink
Mithraugion said:
Well… I’ve seen worse on the internet… (stupid fangirls/fanboys) I mean… NAVI? How does that even work!?
…huh? I was talking the collection for the GCN.
Amen. However, during N64 era, my dad maintained that my PSX, SNES and computer were “enough.” The only reason why I have a GCN? My friend showed my mom Animal Crossing and she kept begging (really unfair… I was even saying I’d pay for it myself and he buys it for her?). XBOX was for free from a raffle. PS2? My PSX was bugging out so I had to get another one, so I figured to get the PS2.
But yeah, I’ve always liked Nintendo more. I mean, in terms of games, Nintendo comes out with more of the innovative stuff, but really games that are fun shouldn’t be grounded to “oh, this system sucks cuz this game is on different system.” But in terms of the actual system hardware themselves, although Nintendo isn’t the most powerful in that respect, they’re always pretty much the most innovative.
I don’t know why people didn’t like the GCN that much. It’s still one of my favourites.
I like Sony as well but…
Sorry Playstation, but I just don’t have enough money to support a greedy whore like you anymore.
Posted on January 7, 2007 6:27 PM; Permalink
Ranjani said:
Playstation: FEEEEED MEEEEE.
Posted on January 7, 2007 7:33 PM; Permalink