N64 Review: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Review by: Zero

The story of Ocarina of Time goes as such, a young boy is sleeping and wakes up. You find out his name is Link. He lives in Kokiri Forest which is protected by a giant, named the Great Deku Tree. Link goes inside this tree and kills the evil within it, although, the damage has been done and the Great Deku Tree dies. Link gets a Kokiri Emerald from the the Great Deku Tree. He then learns all about an evil man named Ganondorf, and the coveted Triforce. Link sets out to Hyrule Castle and meets Princess Zelda. He goes on a quest to get the rest of the jewels, He gets the Goron Ruby and the Zora Sapphire. He then goes 7 years in time to the future, where Ganon is in control. Then Link must pass through 7 temples, destroying the evil within. He gets inside Ganon's castle, passes all security, and ultimately fights with Ganon as the final battle.

The graphics in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are 3D. Because of the time, the graphics weren't very easy to see. However, the graphics in Ocarina of Time seem to be quite nice. In certain scenes when the camera zooms up on Link, you are able to see his face quite clearly. The weapons are very well done, as for the environment, the graphics seem to be quite good close-up but not so good from a distance. The water in Ocarina of Time looks like it does in most games, blue and wavy. However, when underwater, you can get the feeling as if he is REALLY underwater. All in all, the graphics in Ocarina of Time were quite good... for its times anyways.

The sound in Ocarina of Time was another thing entirely, beautiful songs composed by your ocarina filter through your speakers. There are many songs in the game that can sound nice/uplifting (my personal favorites are Minuet of Forest and Epona's Song). Apart from the songs, each dungeon/area of the game has its own unique music, some pleasant, jolly, energizing, peaceful while others are sleepy,dark, dangerous. Link himself makes human sounds (e.g grunting while rolling, hyaa-ing as slashing with sword). Sadly, not many of the other characters make sounds, although the sounds made by your ocarina can be experimented with and who knows, you might even come up with your own song! (Funnily enough there is something called the Scarecrow song, if you visit the Scarecrow at Lake Hylia, and play him a song, when the game ends, in the credits it will be your song playing, thus The Scarecrow Song!).

As for the gameplay of Ocarina of Time, I would have to say it is quite fun to play. It is VERY challenging and unless you can't get through the temples, you'll need to resort to some guides from GameFAQs etc. The glitches in this game are plenty. There is so much that I can't even begin to describe them. I think that the creators of Ocarina of Time sent out a new copy of the game the next year because of the glitch rate. Although, some of the glitches are quite fun. Its like, some of the temples can just send you insane and make you want to throw the controller at the damn screen! For an example, I think the most hated and hardest temple is the Water Temple. It requires usage of Iron Boots a plenty. But also, you get to face Dark Link, which for some reason is a popular boss in the game. I didn't see the fun in him much because I used a Biggoron Sword, a two-hander with incredible power that I really shouldn't have had this early in the game as it is more challenging to do things without it. Anyways, not only do alot of the time you have to use Iron Boots in the Water Temple, it still has the tasks a normal temple has. There aren't many people who can say they did this temple with no help at all. For me, I had to get help halfway through. The boss of the temple is quite easy considering how hard the temples was. Anyways, back on track, the gameplay of the bosses in this game is taken in as one entire concept considering each has their own strategy, and all are different. I mean, everyone loves Volvagia (Fire Temple Boss). He looks so cool and is quite easy to beat. Anyways, all in all, the game is fun to play and I'd suggest trying it even if you don't like this type of game.

The controls in Ocarina of Time are quite crude. When first starting the game, one must get used to having the yellow arrow buttons changed a lot to swap between weapons. The controls themselves are another matter entirely, the uncomfortable moving stick is your way to move Link. This may or may not be okay with you. I personally do not like it much because when you are pushing up it can start to hurt your finger. However, once playing the game for a good few hours you can overcome looking at that and learn to ignore the slight slight pain. The B and A buttons serve another major purpose in this game, considering they are, how you roll and use your sword. As you progress in the game, you learn new techniques to increase your power and skill and other things.(My personal favorite weapon is the bow. I do suggest you spend some time at the start of the game just getting used to the controls and how you move. If you know how to move and slash, roll, climb beforehand, you shall save yourself much grief against your first enemies. All in all, Ocarina of Time's controls are okay once you familiarize yourself with them.

I suppose after reading all this you're wondering questions like, Are the bosses in this game hard? Is this game fun to play? Well, this game is one of my favorites of all time, not just because I am a fan on Zelda and Nintendo. The bosses in this game give the biggest fun for me. I find facing an entirely new boss quite fun. Anyway, enough about me and my idioticness. If you asked me if this game has a good replay value, I would respond yes. There are many side quests in The Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time to keep you busy even after you beat the game. (e.g The masks side quest, riding a horse in Lon Lon Ranch, finding all 4 empty bottles). Not only that, you can travel to EVERYWHERE in the game, and who knows, you might even find a place you didn't know was there before.