The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. N64

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Zelda Rating: 9.5/10
Difference from Prior Zelda Titles: Entered the 3rd dimension, Target System, Fishing, Ganondorf
Using the Console: Another Item slot due to controller increase, Z-Targeting

Boy do i remember purchasing this game. Well, by purchasing i mean getting the game from my sibling from a blockbuster bin. Yes, this game, this holy grail of game, one that you find in a retro game store, cartridge only $50+, was in a bargain bin for $15 at Blockbusters. This is why i feel sad when i hear blockbusters is gone. 

Enough of sentimentalism for a video store off to the game! By now, if you've followed and read the other entries i've done, you can kind of understand the rating system, and see that this one scored a 9.5, why? Because it's my favorite Zelda title, ever.

It gives the Demon a face, Ganon, great pig monster, is seen as a man, a man who thrived for power. But a man non-the-less. Ganondorf. Now you may not think much of it because so many games these days have seen it happen, Ganondorfs a human/pig monster ect. But this one show's the current evil happenings of Ganondorf. During the game he kills, steals and freezes the people Link saves, except for the one he killed... sorry deku tree.

Probably one of the few real sad moments of the game, your surrogate father just died even though you saved him...

In the first three games, even the show that isn't canon, show Ganon as a pig monster, no human feature, wielding a trident like spear, on occasion. Whereas this game changed all that. They gave the monster a face, a background a History. 

Ganondorf, scary looking yes, but now i'm going to tell you how tall he is. 7"6.

Ganondorf is born into a tribe of thieves called The Gerudo. Now, this tribe is all women, and once every 100 years a boy is born among this tribe. BUT WAIT WHAT?! How can a tribe of only women give birth or even have children? Geeze c'mon this isn't earth where we discriminate because of race. The gerudo's occasionally went away from their tribe to find boyfriends. Because of this i'm sure you can put two and two together. 

So eventually, Ganondorf is born, and when a male is born among the Gerudo tribe, the male becomes King of the tribe. Having this taste of power from ruling the gerudo tribe, Ganondorf seeks out more power, Hyrule. Ganondorf begins to cozy up to the king, and learns of the secrets of the Temple of time, and goes throughout Hyrule, his first stop, the Great Deku Tree. 

Ganondorf curses this tree because it refuses to relieve itself of one of the keys to the door of the Temple of time, for behind the door lie two things, one, the Master sword, and two, the sacred Realm, and within that realm, the Triforce.

The Spiritual stones, three magical keys that open the Door of Time.

And this Ladies and Gentlemen is where Links story begins. He destroys the curse on the Deku tree, clears out a cave of monsters for some rock eating Mountain creatures, called Gorons, and rescues the fish people's, called Zora's, Princess.

So because of Links adventures and saving people, he was given the magical keys to the Temple of time, Link opens the door and see's only the master sword, he goes in pulls it and is forwarded 7 years...

Now when you play the game, you just find out you've been sleeping for 7 years and the game continues, and you eventually, bit by bit find out what happened. I will tell you, because it's all really trivial.

After link opens the Door, it stays open, like no security or anything, and Ganondorf goes in, and finds the "sacred realm" which quite honestly i don't believe exists because in that room there was only a sword... so i don't know how Ganondorf found the triforce... 

Anyway, he found it, and it split apart because of the many rules of the triforce.

1. The one who lays his or her hand on the triforce will have their wish granted, whether it be good or evil
2. If one who touches the Triforce does not have their will's   in order, Power, courage and wisdom, The Triforce will split and the person will only inherit the piece they believe in the most.

So Ganondorf touches it, it splits up, and Link gets the Triforce of courage and Zelda gets wisdom. 

You may be thinking now, this is a review of OOT, where's the review. And all i've got to say to that is, There are tons, TONS of generic reviews, Link does this, and link does that and gameplay.

No Love for Link...

From what i've reviewed, you can in the least understand that this game is heavily story driven. I've barely talked about Link and the multiple Dungeons and Temples he goes in. And trust me, i can talk about a single dungeon and the mechanics behind and niche with them for a good while. And i chose to review this game by talking about Ganondorf, why? Because when i get to Wind Waker (Gamecube/Wii U) i'll bring it full circle.

And now a brief paragraph on Gameplay. The game brings back many items from previous titles. Hookshot, bow and arrow and bombs. But because it's in the Third dimension, things have to be changed. So Link enters first person when using the Bow and Hookshot, which is quite nice, or if you wanted you actually can be in third person when using them, though strictly to combat.

The controls are well done, and i find are well suited to this kind of game. Z targeting works because the Z button you use so often, is right in the place your finger lands on by simply holding the controller. 

Three spots to hold the controller. GENIUS. if we had 3 hands.

The only area, which personally i never had a problem with, is the water temple. Theres a way to actually never be able to finish that temple, by using the key in the wrong door. This was fixed in the 3DS release of the game. Which was a perfect remaster for anyone considering it.

And the reason that, for me, the water temple is my favoite, is battling Dark Link. It's just a shame that he's only a mini-boss...

The final boss of Zelda II, becomes the mini-boss of not even the final temple.

Pros:
-Ganondorf is created, background given
-Easy target lock system made for the 3rd enviorment
-Detailed storyline
-Diverse npc's
-A lot of Sidequests (Not covered in the review)

Cons:
-Water Temple
-Some, camera problems
-Dark Link reduced to Mini-boss

And now i leave you with the average players final fight with Ganondorf.