A brave new world (The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time (N64))

Member Name: wicked_witch

Product:	The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time (N64)
Date:	23/04/04 (2160 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: captivating, cute as hell graphics, great gameplay

Disadvantages: ridiculously addictive

Note- this is my first video game op, so please be gentle!

“The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of time” has often been given the prestigious and heady title of “Best video game in the world, ever”. I’d like to second that. This game is so good its been updated for the new GameCube platform…its fairly odd for old games to get this treatment, usually they just get more and more sequels. You can now get hold of Ocarina of Time in a double pack with the fabulous new Zelda game, The Windwaker. Believe me, these games are worth getting a GameCube for, in fact the only reason I own one is because I heard the old Zelda game was being reformatted for GameCube’s cute mini disc system.

“The Ocarina of Time” is about a young boy called link, who lives in a forest called Kokiri with the residents of the forest, the eternally childlike Kokiri kids. Link is alone in his village in that he is the only Kokiri child without a guardian fairy. But this is about to change. The great guardian of the forest, the Deku tree has sensed some kind of evil descending on the land. Little Link, who apparently is destined to become a great warrior, has a guardian fairy, Navi, sent to him by the Deku tree. He must then find a sword and shield, defeat the curse that is killing the great Deku tree, a curse placed by Ganondorf, a traitor servant of the king, a man who will eventually become all-powerful and attempt to take over the peaceful world that is Hyrule. This story is told in part to him by the Deku tree and in part to him by the child princess of Hyrule, Zelda. But not if wee Link, Navi and the Sages have anything to do with it! Link must first battle through three dungeons as a child…one inside a great tree, one inside a mountain, and one inside a whale, in order to obtain the three sacred stones of Hyrule and learn the song that opens the door of time to protect Hyrule. But alas, Ganondorf manages to gain access to t
he door of time, Zelda is taken away into hiding by her warrior-like nurse, and Link’s spirit is sealed in the Temple of Time for seven years, while he grows old enough to fight the evil forces threatening the idyllic world of Hyrule. Once grown up, Link must again battle through a world of danger in order to save Hyrule, save Zelda and defeat Ganondorf’s evil reign. In order to do this, he must awake the power of the great Sages, so they can add their power to his. Along with their power, Links power and the power of the mystical Master Sword, Link will become the legendary Hero of Time. Basically it’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer with pixie ears.

You take third person control of Link. Along the many useful weapons you will get will be a sword, boomerang, slingshot and Deku sticks (as a child), a hookshot and bow and arrow as an adult. There are also millions of different items to collect which aid Link along his way. Heart pieces can be found all over Hyrule in secret places, collect four hearts and you will have an entire new life container (in Zelda you don’t have a set amount of life, only a set amount of energy and when you die you will be given the option to save and returned to your last save point), you also get an entire new life container (i.e., one heart) when you defeat a big baddie. Deku sticks can be used to fight (although swords are better and less prone to breakage) and also to light unlit torches…which often opens locked doors or gets you an nice surprise. Deku nuts can be used to stun baddies so you can smack them one, and shields are obviously of great importance. There are three shields in the game…the Deku shield is wooden and the perfect size for little Link, however if it catches fire its ruined, the Hyrule shield which is metal and really too big for little Link to use properly (he just hides underneath it), and the great and powerful mirror shield. There are lots of other nice goodies to help you o
n your way…the stone of Agony makes your joy pad vibrate in response to nearby secret, the Lens of Truth can see right through things like treasure chests, and empty bottles come in handy for all sorts of reasons. You can fill them with potion to restore energy or magic points, catch a fairy with them (fairies bring you back to life if you die) or fill them with nutritious Lon Lon milk (one swig restores five hearts, with two servings to a bottle). You can also catch bugs and fish for various reasons. The Ocarina of the title is a legendary musical instrument which you learn different songs to play on...songs to summon Epona the Horse, to change night to day, and to speak to a childhood friend.

Zelda is full of hundreds of little mini games. As a child you can join the Happy Mask Shop. Here, you lend a mask and carry it with you until you find someone to buy it. If you sell them all you will get a very special, secret mask, but finding the right people to sell to can be hard. There are shooting galleries and Bombchu bowling alleys (Bombchu's are basically moving bombs) and lots of other fun games little Link can play to earn Rupees (the currency used in Hyrule), heart pieces or great new objects. As an adult, Link must win a game to win Epona the horse, who he can then take to the Horseback Archery range or round a show jumping course, which is fantastic fun! There’s also the fishing pond, which either big or little Link can visit. The owner gives you a rod, and you fish away. If you land a Lunker (a big fish), you’ll win a prize. You need a secret weapon to land the Loach (a gigantic fish that lives in the middle of the pond), and believe me; you can waste hours on this game alone. An ongoing mini game throughout the entire thing is finding Golden Skulltullas. Skulltullas are essentially gross spider things with skull faces on their backs. A family has been placed under a curse and turned into Skulltullas, the only way to free them i
s find the Skulltullas in Hyrule, kill them and collect the tokens they leave behind…and as they are a very rich family, freeing them is to your advantage.

The plot of the game is a
s fantastical as any fairy tale, indeed it reads much like one, handsome pauper-prince saves fairy princess, but in a much cooler fashion. The plot is an involving and gripping part of the game and at points it may seem like your watching a “Never Ending Story” type movie instead of playing a game. Many of the games characters are absolutely vital to succeeding in the game, one example being a young girl who works on a ranch. You must interact with her and her cute foal properly in order to obtain Epona, Link’s horse when they all grow up. If you don’t speak nicely to the ruler of Death Mountain you’re in big trouble, and letting something slip can spoil large parts of the game. This is what makes Zelda so fantastic. An incredibly involved game, you have to do everything perfectly in order to succeed. The mini-games are an intrinsic part of the whole thing; you need many of the secret items to do well. The more time you spend coming every little part of Hyrule, the more addicted you will become, and the better you will do.

The graphics don’t betray the games difficulty. Zelda looks like a cute and simple Spyro the Dragon type game. Link himself is a cute little pixie-eared boy with golden hair and a green Robin Hood-like tunic (tights and all). The visual effects are mesmerising and there are hours of real-time 3-D animations, the graphic art is truly intricate. These days, the graphics seem a little dated compared to the positively cartoonish Wind Waker, but at the time they were state of the art and the design is still perfect. The goodies are adorable (check out the rock monster people, the Gorons on Death Mountain, or King Zora’s gorgeous and cheeky daughter); the baddies are bloody terrifying (the Poe ghosts, Ga
non in all his evil forms, and Dark Link in particular). The forests are lush and gorgeous, the mountains and deserts are barren and the final castle is truly chilling in all its terror. The soundtrack
too is important. There are creepy distant screaming noises in the dungeons, the Kokiri tune is upbeat and light, and there is a track that makes your heart pound and makes you sweat whenever an enemy comes near. The music adds to the engrossing reality of the game.

The gameplay starts out very easy but quickly becomes extremely complicated. For someone like me, not an avid video game player, the game is damn well impossible. You wouldn’t think so from the cutesy graphics, but this is one bitch of a game. Monsters get harder and harder to kill, monster ambushes become more and more likely and you can get chucked in jail, electrocuted or simply mangled by the thousands of nasty things in the supposedly peaceful world of Hyrule. Each individual enemy has a knack to killing it, the first two or three baddies are very simple to kill, and at first Zelda seems like a real kids game. But it’s a whole different kettle of fish (where does that expression come from anyway??? Do they boil the fish? Its not very nice) when Link grows up and becomes a green booted warrior! The baddies get harder, the big baddies get impossible and there are creepy things on the ceilings of dungeons that suck you into oblivion. Everything gets incredibly complicated, riding a horse while shooting arrows, keeping your eye on ALL the flaming bats (no really) at once and throwing bombs at giant dinosaurs, it can all get a bit much. When you switch the game off you feel as bruised and exhausted as if you were the own doing the fighting!

Nintendo really broke the mould with this game; it is an absolutely all-engrossing game that will have you hooked from the first minute. Zelda is a game that will suck you in and never let you go. Coming from someone who very rarely
gets addicted to video games and is not usually taken in by them, Zelda is the most brilliant, weird and fascinating game you will ever come across. After minutes of playing everything become real to you, yo
u get so wrapped in the plot you could easily be there. Even after you complete it, five years after it first came out, you’ll always come back to it.

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