Ocarina of Time

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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Japanese: ゼルダの伝説: 時のオカリナ, Zeruda no Densetsu: Toki no Okarina) is the fifth entry in the Legend of Zelda series of video games, released in Japan on 21 November 1998, in North America on 23 November 1998, and in Europe on 18 December 1998. It is the first of the series to be released on the Nintendo 64 and is the first 3D Zelda game.

Within five months of its release, Ocarina of Time sold over five million copies, and a total of 8.6 million copies have been sold worldwide. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest electronic games ever made.

In 2003, Ocarina of Time was re-released as a bonus disc for those who pre-ordered The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The bonus disc also included the Ocarina of Time Master Quest, a version of Ocarina of Time previously unreleased outside of Japan, with redesigned dungeons and boss monsters and an increased overall difficulty. Later that year it was included as part of The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition for the Nintendo GameCube, given as a limited-time promotion. This disc also included The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, as well as the first two games in the series, (The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link), originally made for the 8-bit NES.

Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Ocarina of Time title screen from the N64 version. Ocarina of Time: Ura title screen (Aka Master Quest, released on the GameCube).The game opens in the depths of the Kokiri Forest with our hero, Link, being summoned to the Great Deku Tree by the fairy Navi. Upon his arrival, Link is told about how a mysterious man in black armor put a curse on the Great Deku Tree. The only one who can help is Link, due to his extraordinary amount of courage. He enters the Tree and battles many creatures, including an enormous monster known as Queen Gohma. The curse is now broken, but it came too late and the Tree dies anyway. Before passing away, the Tree gives to Link the Kokiri Emerald, or the Spiritual Stone of the Forest. He then sends him to meet Princess Zelda, a "princess of destiny", at Hyrule Castle.

Link easily sneaks past the guards of the castle to reach Zelda, who tells him that she has been having prophetic dreams about the future of Hyrule, and foresaw his arrival. She believes (correctly) that Ganondorf, a man who works for the king, is really a Gerudo thief. (Ganondorf turns out to be the same man who put the curse on the Great Deku Tree.) The princess believes that he wants to get hold of the Triforce; a legendary item that is rumored to be so powerful that anyone who controls it can control the world. To obtain this, however, one must first have three Spiritual Stones and the Ocarina of Time. She already possesses the Ocarina, and asks Link to obtain the other two Spiritual Stones so that they can get to the Triforce first.

Link first heads to Goron City, where he believes the Spiritual Stone of Fire is. The city's leader, Darunia, tells him that Ganondorf had already been there. He filled the Dodongo's Cavern (where the Gorons get their food) with monsters and then sealed it, causing the Gorons to starve. Link then opens Dodongo's Cavern and destroys, among other creatures, King Dodongo. Darunia is so relieved that he hands over the Goron's Ruby. With two down and one to go, Link travels to the Zora's Domain, the alleged site of the Spiritual Stone of Water. He discovers that the princess of the Zoras, Ruto, has disappeared. After an investigation, Link finds a note describing how Ruto was swallowed by Lord Jabu-Jabu, the Zora god and protector. He quickly decides to follow. Upon searching the inside of the gigantic fish, he finds that Jabu-Jabu was also cursed by Ganondorf, and like the Deku Tree, is filled with enemies. He searches all over and eventually finds the hotheaded princess. She refuses to leave until she finds her mother's stone. When she finds it, however, she is attacked by a monster. Link kills Barinade, a large anemone animal, effectively ending Ganondorf's curse. Ruto is thoroughly impressed with Link's abilities and hands over her mother's stone -- the Zora's Sapphire, her engagement ring.

Now that he has all three, he heads back to the castle, but returns to find things much worse than when he left. Apparently, Ganondorf has become tired of waiting and choose to exert his power upon the castle. He sees Zelda and her attendant, Impa, fleeing from Ganondorf. Zelda has time to drop the fabled Ocarina of Time into the moat surrounding the town as she disappears into the night. Link does his best to hold off the evil wizard, but he is clearly no match for him. Ganondorf easily knocks Link down and continues his pursuit of the two escapees. Link retrieves the Ocarina and heads to the Temple of Time, where the door to the Triforce is supposed to be. Using the three stones and the ocarina, he opens the Door of Time. Inside, instead of finding the Triforce, he finds the legendary Master Sword stuck into a pedestal. Link pulls out the sword, and is suddenly swallowed up without a trace into another world, the Sacred Realm, where he is frozen. Ganondorf soon enters this world and, with no one to stand in his way, he claims the Triforce for himself.

Link awakes to find himself suddenly fully-grown. He is met by a mysterious man named Rauru. He tells Link that the Master Sword chose him to wield it and battle it forces of darkness as the legendary Hero of Time. But, since he was too young, he was frozen in time for seven years. Rauru reveals himself to one of the ancient Sages, the protectors of the Triforce. He explains that the world they are in is the Sacred Realm, the land of the Triforce. More specifically, they are in the Chamber of Sages, which is inside the Temple of Light- the area Rauru is protecting. He tells Link that if he can find the five other sages, then they can defeat Ganondorf. Each Sage has a Temple of residency, similar to Rauru's. As an odd twist, each is unaware of his or her true identity because of the evil now dwelling in each Temple.

Link returns to Hyrule to find it far different from how he left it. Ganondorf, with the power of the Triforce, was free to roam the country and he transformed it into a land of pure darkness. Seeing how the world has changed is all Link needs to devote himself to fixing things. With the occasional help of a mysterious young man named Sheik, Link visits begins his quest to awaken the Sages. He heads first to the Kokiri Forest to find that his childhood friend, Saria, has gone to the temple to try defeat the evil inside. He then enters the Forest Temple, kills the leader, a puppet named Phantom Ganon, and is transported back to the Temple of Sages where he finds Saria. She tells him that she is the Forest Sage and gives him the Forest Medallion.

Next he heads to Death Mountain. He finds that all of Gorons, except Darunia's son, were rounded up to by Ganondorf's minions to be fed to an ancient dragon named Volvagia. Also, Darunia went to save them. Link enters the Fire Temple, kills Volvagia and discovers that Darunia is the Fire Sage, who gives Link the Fire Medallion.

Then he moves on to Zora's Domain and finds it completely frozen over. All the Zoras, save Princess Ruto, were frozen in the ice. Link heads to Lake Hylia, where the Water Temple resides. He enters, kills the evil creature Morpha and discovers that Princess Ruto is the Water Sage. She gives him the Water Medallion and sends him on his way.

After that he heads to the village of Kakariko. A dark presence is coming up from the depths of the well and is terrorizing the people. Link learns that he needs something valuable from inside the well to defeat the evil, but the well is inaccessible. He returns to the Temple of Time and places the Master Sword back into the pedestal. He finds that by doing this, he can travel back and forth between the two time periods. He enters the Kakariko well as a child and find the Lens of Truth, a tool devised to show invisible things. He retrieves the Master Sword and enters the Shadow Temple. He kills the evil creature in the temple, Bongo Bongo, and finds the Shadow Sage, Impa, princess Zelda's former attendant. She gives him the Shadow Medallion and he heads to the final temple.

Link goes to the desert and finds the fortress of the Gerudo thieves. At first they imprison him because they are a strict female-only group, except for their leader. They imprison him, but he breaks free and gains their acceptance. They let him continue through the desert to the Spirit Temple. He discovers that he can only enter as a child unless he has the "power of silver". He leaves and returns as a child to find Nabooru, the second in command of the Gerudos. She tells him that she disagrees with Ganondorf's style and wants to stop him. She asks him to bring enter the left side of the temple, because only he can fit, and bring back the Silver Gauntlets. She tells him to bring them to her so she can use them to get to the other side of the temple. Of course, he is too small too use them, so they agree to work together. Link enters and kills an Iron Knuckle, the guardian of the gauntlets. After finding them, he witnesses a pair of witches kidnap Nabooru. With no other options, he turns back to an adult and uses the gauntlets himself to enter the other side of the temple. The two witches confront him and send another Iron Knuckle on him, who turns out to be Nabooru under a spell. He kills the witches, who form a being called Twinrova, and finds that Nabooru is the Spirit Sage. She gives him the Spirit Medallion and he prepares for the final battle with Ganondorf. (Note: If you have the PAL version of the game, the Spirit Temple is considered to be before the Shadow Temple. There are a lot of reasons why.)

Eventually, Link returns to the Temple of Time in the future, where Sheik meets him once more. Sheik reveals that he is actually Princess Zelda in disguise. Zelda is also the seventh sage and the leader. She tells him that when Ganondorf took the Triforce, his heart was not in balance, so the Triforce split into three pieces. He kept the Triforce of Power, while Zelda gained the Triforce of Wisdom and Link, the Triforce of Courage. Unfortunately, the meeting is observed by Ganondorf, who captures Zelda, but not before Zelda is able to give Link the magical Light Arrows needed to defeat the Lord of Darkness. Ganondorf takes her prisoner in his huge dark tower "Ganon's Castle", which has replaced Hyrule Castle, hoping to lure Link there, reunite all three Triforce pieces and thus gain unlimited power.

The remaining six Sages help Link enter the tower by creating a bridge. Link then destroys the barrier that is preventing entrance into Ganondorf's Lair by completing every mini dungeon in each room, and freeing each sage completely. Link then finds Ganondorf and engages him in battle. With all his strength, his beats Ganondorf and rescues Zelda. But Ganondorf tries to finish them with his last breath. He causes the tower to crumble, forcing Link and Zelda to escape. While standing among the fallen rubble, Ganondorf rises again and reveals his final form: Ganon. Link fights him and, with the help of Zelda and the other sages, he defeats Ganon for good. Zelda and the sages then use their power to lock Ganondorf away in the Sacred Realm where he will stay for the rest of time.

In the aftermath, Zelda plays the Ocarina of Time one last time to send Link back in time to become his child self, the way he is supposed to be, before any of the events of the game happened. Link goes to meet the younger Zelda in the castle courtyard once more, and there the game ends.

Spoilers end here.

Gameplay

Ocarina of Time is a third-person adventure game which takes place in the fictional kingdom of Hyrule. As in previous Zelda games, Hyrule takes the form of a large, fully connected overworld containing several dungeons — large self-contained areas with a single entrance in the overworld. Within most dungeons, Link must battle and puzzle his way though, finding items such as a Dungeon Map and Compass to aid him. A dungeon typically contains a special weapon, often needed to defeat the boss at the end, which can be reached by finding the Boss Key and using it on the door to the boss's lair.

Ocarina has nine major dungeons: Inside the Deku Tree, Dodongo's Cavern, Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly, the Forest Temple, the Fire Temple, the Water Temple, the Shadow Temple, the Spirit Temple, and Ganon's Castle, in intended order of completion. (The PAL version's intended order has the Spirit and Shadow Temples' positions swapped.) The first three dungeons each yield a Spiritual Stone; the next five, a Medallion representing an awakened Sage. There are also three mini-dungeons: the Ice Cavern, the Bottom of the Well, and the Gerudo Training Ground, which yield useful items.

Items

Main article: Ocarina of Time weapons and items

The titular Ocarina of Time is a magical wind instrument on which melodies can be played at any time to various effects - changing day to night, causing rain to fall, warping to new locations and so on. A total of thirteen songs can be found throughout the game.

Reappearing from many earlier Zelda games is the Master Sword, a legendary blade with the power to repel evil. In this game it can be used to travel through time in the Temple of Time, though it is primarily used for regular combat.

Many less important items appear. Link is able to use different tunics, boots, swords and shields. Items re-used from other Zelda games include magic arrows, the Hookshot and the Hover Boots (formerly Pegasus Boots) appear alongside new items such as the Lens of Truth, which shows things which are otherwise invisible.

Locations, races and characters

Main articles: Ocarina of Time places, The Legend of Zelda series races, Ocarina of Time characters, Ocarina of Time enemies

The Kingdom of Hyrule is inhabited by six different humanoid races.

The Hylians look basically human, except for their pointed, elf-like ears, and mostly live in Hyrule Castle Town. They are ruled by a king (unseen in the game), whose daughter is Princess Zelda. The Kokiri are forest children who were created by the guardian spirit of Kokiri Forest, the Great Deku Tree. They never age and can never leave the forest. Link, the hero of the game, lives among them at the start of the game. His closest friend is a Kokiri named Saria. Link is not a true Kokiri but a Hylian, abandoned and orphaned in the forest as a baby, and raised by the Great Deku Tree, who sensed Link to be a child of destiny. The Kokiri are led by Mido. The Gorons are fat, brown, rock-eating creatures that vary immensely in size and live in Goron City, halfway up Death Mountain, an active volcano. They are led by Darunia. The Zoras are blue fish-like creatures, who live at the top of Zora's River, the kingdom's source of water, which runs all the way through Hyrule to Lake Hylia at the very opposite end of the kingdom. The Zoras are ruled by King Zora who has a daughter, Princess Ruto. The guardian spirit of Zora's River is Lord Jabu-Jabu, an immense fish. The Sheikah, sworn guardians of the royal family, appear to be Hylian and live in Kakariko Village, at the base of Death Mountain. Impa, Zelda's bodyguard, is a member of the Sheikah. Some Sheikahs have red eyes. The Gerudo are an almost entirely female race of thieves who live in the desert to the west. Only one man is born to the Gerudo every hundred years, and he is supposed to become their king. The most recent of these is Ganondorf, a man with black armour and "evil eyes" who acts as advisor to the king of Hyrule. Ganondorf is the primary antagonist of the game. The Gerudo, however, are supposedly led by Nabooru, who refuses to acknowledge Ganondorf as her king. Other notable characters in the game include Link's fairy companion Navi, his horse Epona, the twin witches Twinrova (Koume and Kotake), and ranch hands Talon, Malon and Ingo. Talon and Malon are highly reminiscent of the characters Marin and Tarin in the previous title in the series, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.

The kingdom of Hyrule is connected to a mythical Sacred Realm which holds the Triforce, an object left behind by the creator goddesses of Hyrule after they finished creating it. The Triforce is capable of granting whoever holds it their heart's every desire. The Triforce, and Hyrule's door into the Sacred Realm, are protected by the Door of Time in the Temple of Time, which was built many ages ago by a group of ancient Sages.

Music

Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time Hyrule Symphony (1999) Link playing the Ocarina.Ocarina of Time's music was composed by Koji Kondo, Nintendo's famed in-house composer. Music plays a great part in the game - aside from the background themes in the overworld and the dungeons, Link is also able to learn to play songs on his Ocarina. These songs can be played during the game, with various effects.

The background music from the temples and dungeons of the game is mostly nameless. The Hyrule overworld tune from past Zelda games, which is considered by most fans as the "official" Zelda tune, is not in Ocarina of Time, although an element of it is subtly present in the Hyrule Field theme. This marks the only time in the series where the overworld theme has been absent.

One of the songs, the original theme for the Fire Temple, angered the Muslim community, who felt that it was based on an Islamic prayer chant. In response, Nintendo redid the Fire Temple theme for later cartridges. Many fans prefer the original theme to the new one—the premium placed on the NTSC gold cartridges is in part because those cartridges have the original Fire Temple theme.

Critical reception

Reviews and awards Publication Score Comment Famitsu 40 of 40 First perfect score awarded IGN.com 10 of 10 Editor's Choice GameSpot 10 of 10 Editor's Choice Edge 10 of 10 Compilations of multiple reviews Game Rankings 98 of 100 (based on 31 reviews) Metacritic 99 of 100 (based on 22 reviews) Awards 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards Game of the Year Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design Outstanding Achievement in Software Engineering Console Game of the Year Console Adventure Game of the Year Console RPG of the Year Ocarina of Time is widely regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time. Ocarina of Time was ranked second in IGN's "Top 100 Games of All Time and second in its "Readers' Top 99 Games". Nintendo Power called Ocarina of Time the greatest game to ever appear on a Nintendo console.

As a result of these and other high scores, Ocarina is placed first on both Metacritic and Game Rankings , sites which rank games by averaging review scores from many sources.

Nintendojo.com infamously originally gave it a score of 11/10 but has since been changed to 10.

Very few were disappointed with the game, a startling rarity in gaming. Critically the game was commended as a seamless transition from 2D to 3D in the Zelda series, as it supported the main feel and many details of the previous flagship Zelda: A Link to the Past. Many gamers, especially Nintendo fans, would argue that no game since Ocarina has matched its classic standard, even Nintendo's own GameCube titles. Ocarina of Time became the standard by which all future Zelda games were measured; Majora's Mask and The Wind Waker have both received comments that they fail to match the "newness" of Ocarina of Time, sometimes receiving lower scores as a result.

Ocarina of Time itself gained a very large amount of hype before release, resulting in only those who pre-ordered the game getting a guaranteed copy. The game also gave the Nintendo 64 a lot of extra support, coming at a time when the lack of games for the system was becoming a big problem for Nintendo. Much like A Link to the Past before it, it helped Nintendo sell more consoles after the hype from the launch game, in this case Super Mario 64, had finally died down.

Some minor flaws in the games that have kept the game from obtaining perfect scores include the inability to fast-forward text and cutscenes (which total over 1 hour in the game, and players may not wish to rewatch them on a second playthrough) and the inability to refight defeated bosses and reclear completed dungeons.

Triforce rumors

The Triforce from an early version of Ocarina of TimeA very early work-in-progress screenshot of Ocarina of Time shows Link receiving the Triforce itself from a treasure chest. Such a scene never occurs anywhere in the final game, and the plot as it stands does not appear to allow for Link to gain the Triforce at any point. Despite this, there has been great speculation as to whether the Triforce exists in Ocarina of Time as an obtainable item, as it does in other Zelda games, rather than simply being referred to in the storyline.

Doctored screenshots and theories continue to appear every so often in the Zelda fan community, often displaying no small amount of creativity. Most notably, Nintendo themselves even claimed to have a way to do it, as part of a Nintendo Power April Fool's joke in 1999. One more popular theory holds that while the Triforce is unobtainable in the final game, it was possible to obtain it at one point in Ocarina's development history, and relevant code therefore still exists unused in the game's memory. Based on this theory several people claim to have found reference to the Triforce by using a GameShark. In addition, the Quest Status Subscreen shows the Triforce emblem in the middle of the Sage medallions which is a possible indication that perhaps at some point during the development of OoT the Triforce may have been obtainable.

One incident where the Triforce was "found" was created by Ariana Almandoz, who allegedly had a foolproof way to make it to the future (the adult Link time) without opening the seal, and accessing the Temple of Light, where the sage Rauru would show young Link the Triforce, with pictures as proof. Amid controversy, the pictures were found to be fakes after a few weeks, and statements made by employees of Nintendo of America refuted the story. Roughly one month later, Almandoz refuted her story as a hoax. Here is an archive of the issue.

Despite all this, no proposed method has ever worked. However, it is perhaps a testament to the staying power of Ocarina of Time that it can continue to capture the imaginations of gamers so long after its release, to the point where some even refuse to accept that every nook and cranny of the game's world has been thoroughly explored and mapped.

Cartridge color

Ocarina of Time Collectors Edition gold cartridge.The first two Zelda games released for the NES had golden cartridges, rather than the standard grey-colored cartridges used for almost every other licensed game for the console. Keeping with the tradition, pre-ordered copies of Ocarina of Time were also golden. Also, the box cover had a thick, plastic card glued over the original cover. However, this was not the case in Europe where the game had a standard grey-cartridge owing to Nintendo of Europe (although there were actually some gold cartridges, they were only available very briefly). A possible incentive was an economic one, as standard grey cartridges are inexpensive compared to custom made golden models. It should be noted that Australia (which is, like Europe, part of the PAL region) had golden cartridges. Also, the sequel to Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, had a golden cartridge in Europe (and in the US).

Ocarina of Time Collectors Edition box.PAL cartridges are very noticeably different from NTSC cartridges. PAL, having a golden "Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" picture with a black background on a grey cartridge, and NTSC having a normally colored "Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" picture with a goldish background on the noted grey, or golden cartridges.

The game also came out in different software release versions. All of the Gold Cartridge games that came out in November of 1998 are version 1.0, and some grey cartridges released soon after were also version 1.0. Version 1.1 grey cartridges began to be released in early 1999, in which Nintendo fixed a number of bugs and glitches from the first version. This was followed by a version 1.2.

European version box artThe most notable difference between version 1.0 and the following versions is that version 1.0 contains a trick that allows one to play the game without Link's sword, which in turn allows one to use any item on Epona. Version 1.1 is a lot like version 1.0 except people cannot do the above trick (there is a different known method that works on all versions, including GameCube ones). Ganon's blood at the end of the game appears red in versions 1.0 and 1.1, but was changed to green in version 1.2. Finally, the original theme for the Fire Temple angered the Muslim community, who felt that it was based on an Islamic prayer chant. In response, Nintendo replaced it in version 1.2 with a new theme in later cartridges, considered by many to be inferior. Nintendo was later forced to change the crescent moon and star symbol of the Gerudo to an original design in the GameCube re-release, again due to Muslim protest.

Leftovers

Ever since its release, Ocarina has been examined by members of the ROM and emulation community to find any leftovers in the game. So far, several major items have been found. While some have been found only through a GameShark, the leftovers indicate that various revisions (Older, incomplete areas) have been left in the games code, and can be accessed by hacking them back in the game (Or at least temporarily, with the GameShark and other cheat devices). The following has been found inside the Ocarina ROM that shows proof of unfinished concepts that were lost over time.

Leftover text (in Japanese) in the coding reveal that there were two usable medallions (ALA: A Link to the Past) called the Wind and Ice Medallions at one point in development (It appears on the item selection screen, and in different slots). An ocarina pedestal (not found anywhere else) can be loaded into the area where Jabu-Jabu is if a specific GameShark code is used. However, the area around Jabu-Jabu itself is very buggy, and people cannot get close enough to do anything (due to a loading problem that causes four Jabu-Jabu actors to load, causing the game to freeze). A red ice platform (used to block access to a chest) can be found in the Ice Cavern by using a specific GameShark code. However, the same item can be found in the GCN release of Master Quest while doing the same dungeon. However, it does not appear in the same area it once was in. Various areas throughout the game that were slightly modified before release, or have various NPC normally not seen in that area. The areas with minor differences are: Kakariko village (Adult), Lon-Lon Ranch (Kid), and Goron City (Either). By using the GameShark and the Expansion Pak, people can search through the data loaded into memory when playing the game. Several text "strings" are there, making reference to the Expansion Pak (which was required to use the Nintendo 64DD) and inserting an expansion disk (again referring to the planned 64DD expansion that became the "Master Quest" on the GameCube Zelda preorder disc). There is a path on one side of the Temple of Time which cannot normally be accessed, as it is blocked by four gossip stones. These could not be blown up because no item (other than the Mask of Truth) can be used in the area. Using the moonjump code, it is possible to go behind the gossip stones and walk around; however, nothing else will happen.

The hidden Star Fox ArwingRecently, a Gameshark code was discovered by JayTheHam of ZSO that replaced one of the boys in Kokiri forest with any actor in the game. Therefore, it is possible to take nearly any non-world mesh from the game and place it in place of the boy. Examples include various enemies, Ganondorf's organ, Dark Link, and even portions of Dark Link's "Illusion Room." Among these actors was found a fully coded Arwing enemy. The enemy has a full attack and movement AI programmed, shooting at Link with lasers with original sound effects. When destroyed, it crashes to the ground resulting in unpolished explosion and flame effects. A similar code can be found in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

Written by: Admin-Alx