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The Day Ocarina of Time Got Me Kicked Out of History Class

Posted by Nadia Oxford

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time hit ten years of age last month, and I am so proud of it. The day I got the game, I skipped half a day of school, brought it home and forgot school even existed until my mother made me go back there the next morning. Once in class, I couldn't stop talking about Link's first 3D adventure. I bounced off the walls so hard that the teacher sent me out.

Why this story is magical: I was eighteen at the time and attending grade 13, a "preparation" year for college. And I had been exiled to the hallway for disturbing the class like an eight-year-old with a pocket full of fart bombs.

Ocarina of Time hasn't aged well in ten years. If I encountered a hermit scratching moss from behind his ears and blinking at the sunglight for the first time in two decades, I'd direct him in his video game education thusly: skip Ocarina of Time and go straight for Twilight Princess or even Majora's Mask. Link's first N64 outing was lacking in swordplay, no thanks to a barren overworld bristling with a few fences and peahats, maybe a leever or two.

But if this hermit told me some manner of centipede god had told him to emerge into the world strictly to study game history, I'd tell him, "Oh shit dude, Ocarina of Time all the way." Ocarina of Time is a pioneer. Bare fields were a small tradeoff for playing the Zelda series' classic puzzles in 3D for the first time. Light a torch with a lantern? Yeah, if you're a sissy. Light a torch by shooting an arrow through a living flame and sparking the cold sconce on the other side of a pit? Awesome.

(In fact, Nintendo loved this puzzle so much that the same one has revisited the 3D Zelda games several thousand times!)

The presence of a story in Ocarina of Time also startled us nerds. Hyrule had always had a history, but Link was a flesh puppet with a sword and interesting taste in hats. Ocarina of Time gives him the spark of life: Link goes from being a robot boy who had materialised out of the air one day to a real boy who was left orphaned when his parents died in some war somewhere. It's an exciting revelation! Link took the necessary steps to file for his generic JRPG Hero pedigree!

Link also inspires a man who keeps ghosts in a jar to consider prostitution. I think someone on the Nintendo Censorship Assembly Line fell asleep or stumbled off to hang a rat at this point.

Incidentally, Link's bleak awakening to a busted-up Hyrule ruled by Ganon is done really well. The previously la-la Hyrule Castle Town becomes a dead zone, and in the distance a halo of fire circles Death Mountain's peak. You think, "Oh God! What happened? Did I do the right thing? I gotta keep playing. Quit biting my leg, dog, I'll feed you next week."

If all game developers master such a degree of suspense, no one will ever go to school again, ever. Then our brains will die and aliens will vacation on Earth to play soccer with our empty heads.

Related Links:

Faster, Link! Kill! Kill!
The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask: Why I Let Termina Go Squish
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Stupidity

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Posted Dec 02 2008, 08:00 PM

Filed under: nintendo, legend of zelda, ocarina of time, n64, nostalgia, anniversary, nadia oxford

Comments

Roto13 said:

"If I encountered a hermit scratching moss from behind his ears and blinking at the sunglight for the first time in two decades, I'd direct him in his video game education thusly: skip Ocarina of Time and go straight for Twilight Princess"

I said something similar on Joystiq the other day and was asked for proof of age and called an idiot.

But you get me.

December 2, 2008 9:23 PM

Amber Ahlborn said:

I've said this very thing before. If somebody told me they had never played a 3-D Zelda game and wanted the Ocarina of Time experience, I'd point them to Twilight Princess as the better choice. Then I'd send them to Majora's Mask to try something really unusual. Ocarina of Time would be there for the history lesson. And uhh, Wind Waker for the cartoon eye candy I guess.

December 2, 2008 10:54 PM

LBD "Nytetrayn" said:

You know this already, but OoT never really drew me in as I had hoped it would. Twilight Princess all the way.

And I don't mean the tramp that hangs out with vampires, either.

December 3, 2008 12:46 AM

Demaar said:

Yeah, I completely agree. OoT was a hoot (sorry, I had to) but pales in comparison to even its direct follow up. In fact, I know many long time Zelda fans that fell out of love with the series because of OoT's vast empty fields, but fell back in love again with later installments.

It definitely has reason to be remembered and thanked for what it did right, but it's hardly the high point of the series.

December 3, 2008 6:13 AM

AlexB said:

I was a little sad to realize that a lot of why I like OoT was due to nostalgia more than the game's actual quality. That's no to say it's bad, and it's certainly a milestone. No matter how they approached their first 3D Zelda, the first was destined to be inferior to its follow-ups.

What made OoT so special to me was how engrossing it was. I don't really know how to explain it...the story is standard fare, it almost feels like a 3D remake of A Link to the Past...I guess it's the pacing and cinematography more than the text itself. It just had a lot of nice moments, like when Link leaves the forest and Saria is left on the bridge by herself, and how Link meets Zelda (twice, technically) in her garden. It's all very sweet, and makes you forget how empty that version of Hyrule really is.

I'm glad that Majora's Mask is getting the recognition it deserves. At the time of its release I remember a lot of skepticism over whether or not the game could be as good as OoT. As a game, it's most definitely superior to OoT in almost every way (I wish it had more proper dungeons). But as a memory, OoT will always have a higher place than any other in the series.

December 3, 2008 11:00 AM

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