Seeing as this is my first game review for The Scribe, I wanted to choose a special game to review, and I can’t think of a game more special than The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.  This is one of my favorite games of all time, and my second favorite Zelda game, just behind Twilight Princess. I grew up playing this game, and I find myself coming back to it quite often. However, putting my personal bias aside, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Ocarina of Time is not only the best Zelda game of all time, but one of the best games ever made.

There are a LOT of factors that make Ocarina of Time such a perfect game, but first, some background information about Zelda games. From the start, The Legend of Zelda games on the surface have been known for combat, puzzles, and exploration. While some games may focus on one aspect more than the other, they all lean into these key elements to make a fun and enjoyable experience (besides Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, we don’t talk about that game). For the most part, the games follow a boy named Link who is the destined protector of Hyrule. He is a strong, courageous warrior who wields the power of the Tri-Force of courage. In every game, we see a version of Link protect the land, grow stronger, learn, and show great feats of both strength and bravery. Usually, the main antagonist of these games is the evil king Ganondorf/Ganon, who has such a cool lore behind him, by the way. In some games, there are exceptions to this, but overall, that is the main story the games follow. However, there are a lot of other things that make a Zelda game a Zelda game, and Ocarina of Time is a great example of this.

As I mentioned before, Zelda games have a big focus on combat, puzzles, and exploration, and Ocarina of Time is no exception. While pretty simple, the combat in this game is fun and charming, especially with all the items you're able to get, which is another big factor for the Zelda franchise. Every Zelda game has a new roster of items, and they’re all very fun to use and usually very creative. For example, Ocarina of Time has two main swords: the Kokiri Sword, found right at the start of the game, and the Master Sword, which has appeared in every mainline Zelda game. However, if you go out of your way to find and complete a side quest, you will be rewarded with one other sword Link can use. While it’s a somewhat tedious trading sequence, the reward is pretty worth it, giving you the Biggoron Sword. This allows Link to wield a sword that does more damage, but in turn makes him unable to use his shield, another important item in the Zelda franchise. Not only does this add more to combat in the game, but it also adds to the exploration.

Ocarina of Time has a big map to explore, and while it’s not nearly as big as others in the series, it still feels fun to explore it, whether it be on foot or horseback (with Epona, Link's horse). However, what makes the map so fun to explore isn’t just the fact that it’s big, but also because you're rewarded for exploring it. Going back to the Biggoron Sword side quest, the game doesn’t force you to get it; it’s completely skippable in the game. That is what makes it so fun to find and get, you're rewarded for not just following the story and instead exploring this world for yourself, finding secrets, and having fun completing side quests. On the topic of side quests, Ocarina of Time is full of them, and what makes them so good and memorable isn’t just the side quest itself, but the characters and the amount of effort that's put into them. 

The Biggoron Sword side quest starts not by finding Biggoron, but by finding Medigoron. By blowing up a secret wall in Goron City and buying it from Medigoron, you get the Giant's knife, which is a hilarious prank item that breaks after using it three times. After it breaks, you need to find Biggoron, who turns it into the Biggoron Sword after you complete a trading sequence. There isn’t anything to really point you to this, so again, it feels very rewarding after you do figure it out, acting as a long puzzle in a way. They didn’t have to do this, though. They could have just made Medigoron give you a sword, and that's it, side quest over, but that doesn’t make you feel as accomplished as completing all the other parts of the Biggoron side quest do. It’s not just this side quest that does this, either. 

Take the Spider House side quest. In this side quest, you find a family that has been cursed and turned into spider abominations. Throughout the overworld are gold skutula (spiders) you have to kill, and when you kill enough of them, you are rewarded. But that's not all there is to it. You listen to the families' back stories and what they went through, you have to explore the overworld, finding all these skutula to help cure them, you get rewarded with items that can help you progress, which aren’t always necessary. They didn’t have to put all the effort in to make these characters or quests, but the creators did to breathe life into the game. 

Throughout this whole game, you meet lots of important characters, like Raru, Princess Zelda, the Great Deku Tree, Impa, etc. But you also meet lots of side characters that have interesting dialogue, quests, and details that didn’t need to be put in, but make the game feel fresh, vibrant, and alive. There's even a secret dialogue that I haven’t seen because there are such specific conditions and things that need to happen to get it, and yet they still took the time to put it in. The creators of Ocarina of Time added so much detail into the game that makes it fun to play and replay, making it interesting to explore the game, and lead to unique puzzles and fun combat. That's not even mentioning the rest of the gameplay.

For instance, throughout the Zelda games, you have to play through dungeons and temples to progress through the story, get new items, and obviously give the player something to do, a reason to play through the game, and have a fun experience. I personally think Ocarina of Time has some of the best temples in the Zelda franchise. While some of these temples are admittedly weak, most of the temples are iconic and fun to play through. On top of that, all the temples are very unique, feeling very different from one another, and each is able to stand out for different reasons.

I think I’ve been yapping too much about this, so let's run through some other quick things that make this game amazing. The setting of the game looks good, and the layout adds a lot to the exploration and traveling part of the game. The visuals, while outclassed compared to newer entries, are still charming. The mood of the game is also really good, especially when it switches up throughout the game. You start as a young kid running around nice, whimsical areas, but as you enter a temple, it switches to being pretty dark and mysterious. In this game, Link can travel through time, being the main gimmick of the game. When he becomes an adult, things get a lot darker and stranger. A good example of this switch is seen when you compare something like the Deku Tree, the first dungeon of the game, to the Shadow Temple, one of the last temples you run through, taking place in a sort of haunted torture structure built underground. The adventures hold more stakes and risk in them, and things become a lot more serious. And of course, one of my favorite parts of every Zelda game, the music. Every OST (Original Soundtrack) for Zelda has such good music to listen to. It’s able to make you feel, and they vary from being calm to having more emotion and being upbeat. 

There's also a lot that this game did outside of just being a video game. It was the first Zelda game to be in 3d, which is obviously very revolutionary, and also led to its direct sequel, Majora's Mask, another amazing Zelda game.

On top of everything, though, I think the main thing that makes this Zelda game the best is its emotional storyline. Just close your eyes and picture this. Nevermind don’t do that because currently, as I’m typing, I realize if you do that, you can’t read. Anyway, just picture this. You're a child, and you have been different for all of your life leading up to this point. After being given a task and finding a companion, you set out to do this task, and you're on track to do it too. You complete every quest, slay every boss put in front of you, and you're about to do what you think will defeat the person you need to. Then you watch as it doesn’t work…and you're not there to stop it. This is the exact thing Link goes through as you play this game. His companion, a fairy named Navi, helps guide him on his quest after he leaves his old life behind to do something bigger than him. As he does this, he's transported seven years into the future. The only thing that stays the same is his goal and Navi being by his side. Our hero is forced to leave his childhood behind and fight to save Hyrule. He has to go through dangerous, dark places, fight giant bosses, witches, god even, and somehow make it out alive. All the odds are seemingly stacked against him; he’s never even trained for this. Yet he does it…He steps up to what he needs to do and doesn’t even give not doing this a second thought. We witness him go through loss, but also witness his triumphs, and we get to feel it too. We stand there as we fight the final boss, quite literally a huge, hulking, horned beast with two golden blades in hand, losing our main weapon and being isolated to just us and the boss. Even after that…we prevail. We beat the boss, we save Hyrule…but that doesn’t change what happened. As we seal the Master Sword back where we found it (Temple of Time) we watch as Link is transported back to a kid. But he won’t get that time back, and the people he lost, they stay dead. But the impact he had lives on. He did exactly what he needed to: he brought peace back to Hyrule. Through the end credits, we watch everyone celebrate, but the creators do something else as well. They don’t just show all the side characters we’ve met along the way, celebrate, live their lives, go on with their own story…we see them hurt, too. We watch some sit, looking at the stars, mourning the lives they never got back. We watch as some go back to their lives, while others have to rebuild. They don’t just brush over what happened, pretending like the losses didn’t matter or weren’t important, because they were. They show people honoring what happened. They show the sages (Very important people I sort of brushed over, my apologies) coming back one final time to be proud of what they accomplished, before fading away. They show the good, and they show the bad. Even in life, there can’t be good without bad, and that's the same thing here. And in the last minutes of the game, we see Link in the Temple of Time with Navi. He isn’t celebrating with everyone else, but rather saying goodbye. And as the main theme of the game, a slow, nostalgic, somber yet not depressing tune starts to play, we watch Navi, the companion that was by our side until the very end, say goodbye, and fly away.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a 10/10 game.