The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of the best games I have ever completed. My faint excuse is that I got very stuck, and it takes a while to figure out the dungeons. As a child growing up in rural West Wales on the internet, with sports and school taking up my time, my progress through Ocarina of Time was icy.
As I moved through this N64 game in a shattered way, my PC and original Xbox games caught my attention. Then I pulled out of my orphanage and left my N64 behind, with Link waiting to tackle the boss at the Spirit Temple. I was so close to the end, and yet so far. Until the relative freedom of university life, I always played games. Despite my bizarre approach to it, Ocarina of Time is burned into my memory.
And rightly so. At the time, Ocarina was a staggering game. Even today, it offers an experience that feels different from so many modern games that have been inspired by it.
I remember, probably with a tumultuous dose of nostalgia, from the Kokiri forest and into Hyrule field. That green space with pure blue sky and several routes to explore seemed big to my young mind – a thought that was not touched by the open worlds of The Witcher 3 and Skyrim.
The sheer amount of things to look at, explore, cut and pinch with the hook shot felt incredible at the time. And probably, they still feel incredible.
I remembered sitting on the roofs of the houses Kakariko Village, more than a decade before I cut on Dunwall’s townhouse roofs in Dishonored.
Ocarina of Time is jam-packed with the Zora gills with unforgettable moments. From getting your horse, Epona, to the zombie horror that Hyrule Castle Town becomes after pulling the Master Sword out of the Temple of Time, to the impossibly gripping theme tune of Gerudo Valley.
But more than that, Ocarina of Time feels like a properly advanced game. Not only did you have to apply a whole bunch of items to solve dungeon puzzles, but you could also use different tools, or even songs typed on the titular Ocarina of Time, to send enemies. A shot from the hook shot can stun a particularly mobile enemy so you can cut it.
The tone of Ocarina of Time was also fantastically varied, but in a way that makes sense rather than feeling unbound. The refreshing brightness of Hyrule Field during the day is set on a menacing expanse at night, with skeletal enemies rising from the ground each time.
Hyrule Castle Town is a consolation of cheers and color as young Link. But for the adult Link, it’s a ghost town filled with ReDead zombies that still give this 34-year-old writer the thrill. (And I just remembered the Wallmaster. It’s still scary.)
A whole host of exciting and clever boss battles, as well as a series of challenges, such as the one to get Biggoron’s Sword, still sprinkle magic on Ocarina of Time.
While the Legend of Zelda games have a rich history and heritage for newer titles to emulate – check out your Breath of the Wild 2 – I would argue that Ocarina of Time is one of the most influential Zelda games. There’s a clear line from Ocarina to Breath of the Wild, which is another easy contender for the best game of all time.
Thanks to Eon Gaming’s Super 64 unit, I can now run my N64 on my 4K TV. And since we’re now celebrating 35 years of Zelda, I think it’s time I got a knife on Ocarina of Time again. Now I can finally finish it.