I couldn’t begin to tell you why The Legend of Zelda just wasn’t a bigger thing for me as a kid. I don’t know if it was basic indifference to the marketing (none of those gold boxes really spoke to me), a counter-culture “Why is everyone telling me to like this game?” backlash response, or just a general lack of exposure to the games themselves (I played the original at a friend’s house for about 10 minutes and “The Adventure of Link” at a different friend’s house for another 10 minutes … and that was it for me until the 2000s). But for whatever reason, I just sort of missed Zelda’s beginnings and really didn’t feel I was worse for that.
That all changed for me when I was able to play my brother’s copy of Ocarina of Time for the first time.
Within an hour or two, I was hooked, and it was because of the emotional connection to the material. It kind of sounds nuts to type it out, but yeah, so at the beginning of this game, a tree dies, and it’s a pretty big deal. From there, it’s a near constant stream of gutting reveals and little emotional experiences that add up to provide one of the most affecting games in existence.
This game makes you feel.
A fairly linear progression in the early going quickly gave way to an expansive, immersive experience. And yeah, I think as these games go, a lot of people would put Ocarina more in the “on rails” sort of play, as it does have a pretty point-A to point-B methodology to its story-telling. But the sheer scope of this story, and one’s ability to get lost in this world map (playing mini-games, riding your horse around, and even just exploring every nook and cranny one can find) exceeded basically every game that had come before (and certainly within the Zelda franchise itself).
I think this is a main reason the emotional beats hit as hard as they do — you really get pulled into the whole experience. And once you’re in, you’re susceptible to getting led down that emotional path.
Hook, line and sinker.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Genre: Adventure
Released: 1998
Platform: N64
Metacritic’s Greatest Game of All Time
Yes, that was an intentional fishing joke, as one of the many mini-games this game became well known for was a fishing experience, which was enjoyable enough on its own merits to be worth a play for its own sake. Many of the smaller side-quests were like this, rewarding continued play and practice with eventual success (and significant upgrades as a form of incentive/reward).
Naturally, those side quests were less the point than the main quest, but fortunately, that primary story line sailed as well. In addition to the aforementioned stirring of feelings the story engendered, the plot also did a good job of expanding upon previous mythology into a coherent story. It also was very smart in recycling its previous “multiple worlds” motif from “A Link to the Past,” and doing it here in a new way. I don’t much care for spoilers, so I won’t reveal too much here (even over 20 years later, a person should have the option of experiencing this for themselves), but suffice it to say, there are a couple of jaw-dropping moments here that change the game’s objectives in a significant way.
Does it connect with the other games? Does it really matter? I don’t think anyone can sit down and say, “All the Zeldas line up perfectly” anymore, and that’s fine, because the point is less about telling one bigger story and more about telling good individual ones. More of a DC or X-Men approach to movie-making than a Marvel one. And that goal was achieved here – you don’t need to play the other Zelda games to enjoy this one on its own merits.
So yeah, as an extension of a franchise, I didn’t (and don’t) have much of an opinion on it. I just didn’t have enough of a frame of reference to want to compare/contrast it to previous entries upon first play. And thinking back to that time period, it seemed perfectly natural that a game would want to get bigger, bolder, and more graphically interesting, and to make the jump to 3D.
Said jump to 3D was probably necessary.
Many people have a lot of different feelings on 2D vs. 3D. My personal take remains that there’s a place for both kinds of gaming (and I’m not really special or controversial in that regard). What’s interesting is when you’re dealing with highly successful franchises that have “made the jump” from 2D to 3D, you’re put in the position of trying to pick nits in determining which style just works better. This can be subjective. As you can probably surmise from my list of favorites, which so far lists a singular 2D Mario title and a singular 3D Zelda title, I tend to think that Zelda transitions into 3D better.
Why?
Well, to put it simply, Mario got its start as a platformer, whose focus was on precise inputs (specifically, jumps) to advance, and this just isn’t how Mario plays anymore in 3D. The requirements of the format have changed. Precision is gone in favor of more trial and error. Meanwhile, Zelda was ALWAYS about exploration and finding things … a perfect transition to the more open world of 3D.
Bomb a wall. Find a secret cavern.
That works really well here. Credit the intuitive controls for part of that, the mostly welcome and elegantly implemented tutorials for some more, and the nature of the 3D switch for the rest.
Consider the aforementioned fishing game. The control stick and launch trigger provide a natural-feeling experience — after you get a handy tutorial, of course — and it wouldn’t work in 2D. Or think of the ocarina from the title of the game. It’s introduced gradually, and as it becomes more important to the overall telling of the story, the gamer is given the opportunity to succeed with it through some hand-holding and intelligently provided guidance (such as the songs being listed in your inventory). It all really comes together in the way that it needs to.
And don’t get me wrong, because as I said, I believe both formats have merit, and as this feature progresses, we’ll get to 2D and 3D examples in both series (among others). But distill Mario and Zelda down to their original intent, and I believe this becomes as good a way to compare and rank individual entries as any. It’s why the 3D Zelda experience in general ranks highly with me and why this Zelda entry in particular is perhaps the best of all time. It did “exploration in 3D” first, and it did it so successfully, Zelda didn’t much stray from the formula for 20 years.
That’s as good a recommendation as anyone can make, methinks.
So what makes it worth playing today?
It’s widely considered the greatest video game of all time.
Not the best Zelda game, or best N64 game, or best game produced by Nintendo.
The best video game of all time.
Period.
I don’t give it quite that much credit while simultaneously acknowledging that such a designation is subjective to begin with. I recently replayed the game over the course of a few weeks (thanks to my amazing wife who kept her copy from college) and really only got annoyed with it once or twice (WHY do they not warn you that if the big fish gets away, that you HAVE to leave the lake and come back to get it????). Which is to say that it holds up magnificently. There are little things about it that I can nitpick to death (such as how cryptic some of the puzzles are and the overall “boxy” graphical presentation which is very much of its era), but that would be silly of me.
The point is this is one of the best games a person can play, and everyone should play it.
Dave’s Score: 10/10
Check out the whole Retro Gaming Essentials list here!
How to play
- Original hardware (N64)
- Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition (Gamecube)
- Wii and WiiU Virtual Console
- Nintendo 3DS (remake)
- Nintendo Switch Online