Writing about The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is like reviewing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Everything that can possibly be said about the game has been said and its so firmly established in the canon of ‘great games’ that any more praise is redundant. The only thing I can add is perspective.
I was an N64 owning teenager in December 1998 and like every other N64 owner this was at the top of my Christmas list. Unfortunately, copies were scarce, so I was warned in advance by my parents that while they were happy to get it I might have to wait a few weeks until it was back in stock.
Armed with that knowledge I remember steeling myself for a difficult wait. Then, come Christmas morning, there was a N64-game shaped box under the tree. Apparently my Dad had been walking through the local street market and spotted a lone copy for sale on a stall. God knows how it got there, but whatever the case, it was now mine.
I played through the whole thing in about two weeks and it lived up to its high billing. But since then I’ve avoided the various re-releases, a little scared that it’d have aged badly and a replay would tarnish my memory of it. But now I’m playing through the whole series, so I fired up the 2011 3DS remaster…
And what do you know? Ocarina of Time: still great. Replaying a game after so long was a strange experience – I hadn’t realised just how much I’d forgotten. The further I progressed the hazier things got: though the Deku Tree was burned into my brain I remembered almost nothing of the Fire or Spirit Temples.
What was strange how small things bubbled up from the recesses of my memory. Sometimes I’d walk into a random room and some neuron that hadn’t seen any action in two decades sparked to life, telling me how to proceed. Other parts of the game felt entirely alien to me, with stuff like the Gerudo Fortress or the Ice Cavern feeling totally new.
Even though I had some very fragmented memories to fall back on, some of these puzzles are tough stuff. Despite that, I’m proud to say I made it through the whole game without checking a guide – not even for the Water Temple (and yes, I know it’s bit easier on the 3DS). Maybe the design is just that solid… or maybe I’ve just gotten a lot better at 3D puzzles?
But what struck me most about heading back through was the way my perspective on Link’s time travelling had shifted. Back in 1998 I was a boy playing at being a man, so when Link plucks the Master Sword from its pedestal and jumps forward seven years to his adult body it was easy to put myself in his boots.
Now the reverse is true. I’m replaying Ocarina of Time as a man, with those splintered memories of youth dancing around me, bringing back not just the game’s levels, but where I was, who I played with, and what I was thinking at the time. It’s a disorientating experience going back to childhood. I don’t think there’s another game that’d have quite the same effect on me as Ocarina of Time.
I don’t know if I’ll ever play it again, but what a weird trip these last few weeks have been.
Next up, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
Pixel Hunted 
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