Number 1 Part 1Section 2: Ocarina of Time

Well as soon as I said I was going to do a top ten list everyone who knows me knew this

game was going to be number one. I mean I don't know why its not like its been my favorite game for well ever. Not only was it my first Legend of Zelda game I every played and was instantly in love. Its not an easy game (well it is for me now after a dozen or so play throughs) when I first played it though I couldn't figure it out for a while. Now however I can walk through most of the dungeons/temples except for the water temple of course (I hate that place). The story is amazing even if it is kind of generic. For the time the graphics were amazing. The combat was simple and fun. The item were useful compared to other games (Twilight Princess im talking to you) . The music was iconic and really set the tone for the different locations. The music for the inside of the Deku tree made it feel like you really were inside a tree. The music for the Dodongo's Cavern makes you feel like your in a volcanic cavern. What was rather impressive was how well the music and the sound effects for Jabu-Jabu's Belly made it seem like I was really inside a giant creature. The music is also great in the Shadow Temple making it seem like you were in this dark and evil place of the dead. Then there are the Ocarina songs that were so amazing some of them so festive and lively to others that were sacred and mystical. Unlike other games in the series the music was a main focus especially when it came to you Ocarina (hence the title).

Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask are said to be the best the Legend of Zelda series has to offer. Seeing as the franchise has spanned several decades that is quite the accomplishment. This game has more to offer then just amazing music though the graphics were great. Now Super Mario 64 may have launched Nintendo's leap into 3D but many people say Ocarina of Time perfected it. Now obviously as technology evolved so did the graphics but for the time it was very impressive and it sucked you into the kingdom of Hyrule.

The game play was simple but fun. The games controls were easy to get used to and the level design was great. From levels with invisible walls in floors (that you could only see with a special item) to lava spouts that well send platforms rising in the air. This game was designed perfectly (in my opinion). Even after so many play throughs I can still play the game and have fun with the levels. This game makes the uses the term nothing is as it seems with great levels like the Inside of the Well, The Forest, Fire, Shadow, Sprit, and even the Water temples. With area manipulation, invisible things (enemies, Platforms, items, and hidden holes), Changing of water levels, Time travel, Fake doors, and dimensional warping (or whatever you want to call the changing of the level layout in the Forest Temple.

The enemies were creative and fun to fight (ok the Deku Baba is a piranha plant clone). The Stolfos are a lot of fun having to find an opening to attack and guard against its attacks and in a game with so many items having an enemy that the only effective weapon is your sword (and maybe bombs if your lucky). However if a Stolfos is a fun enemy then the Iron Knuckle is the ultimate mini boss. With there giant axes that will make mince meat out of you hearts (life gauge if you somehow don't know). Its power and strength will make your shield useless. The Iron Knuckle is heavily armored and hard to even hit (if you have some bombs/bombchu are effective in his first form) however things get worse when you knock his armor off. He will be weaker but he will also be a lot faster. Those are just two of my favorite small enemies I won't get into the bosses until I talk about the levels themselves.

Now enough about me just telling you why I love this game and let me tell you about the game itself. Now I know the Zelda time line is very scrambled but this is said to be the third earliest game in the time line. With Minish Cap as the first game in the time line. It is also stated the Ocarina of Time also creates a split time line due to whole time travel element something that I don't really buy but I guess they made it official (I can find a starting point and an ending point as one time line with Minish Cap starting it Sprit Tracks to end the time line until another game adds onto it). This is also one of the few Legend of Zelda games to have a direct sequel Majora's Mask which I will talk about next time.

Ok let me finally get into the story of the game. When you start the game you are in the Kokiri Forest home of the Kokirie who are people who will always remain as children no matter how lod they are. The Kokirie all have a fairy partner except one that goes by Link (or what ever name you give him). You will see the Great Deku Tree talking with Navi the fairy telling her about a dream he has had of a great darkness that will cover the land. He tells her to find "the boy without a fairy". So Navi flies off to find our hero and on the way pass some of the other Kokirie including one that kind of looks like he is humping a rock (He is really trying to remove it but it does look like he's humping it) Then Navi will find her way to Link's house. She will wake you up and then be a continuous pain in your butt. Ok I'm half joking she will tell you that you need to go see the Deku Tree. He will tell you that a great darkness that will cover the land. He tells about an evil man named Ganondorf (The Geurdo King of Thieves). He had visited the Great Deku Tree demanding the Spiritual Stone of the Forest. The Deku Tree refuses to give it to him Ganondorf places a curse on the Deku tree which will eventually lead to his death. There is a monster that has taken up inside the Deku Tree as wall as other creatures.

Now the Deku wants you to go inside and defeat the large monster inside of him. This will be used as a test to see if you are ready to fulfill your destiny. You will enter the giant tree and everything about it will make you feel like you are in a tree the look the sound even the enemies fit the area. Most of the enemies in this dungeon fit the inside of a tree. Will killer plants, spiders, bats, and insects. Now seeing as this isn't a strategy guide I am not going to do a step by step breakdown of the levels but I will mention a couple cool features the item you get in the level. So lets start off with the item in this dungeon the Slingshot. Ok this isn't the most interesting item in the game it is useful. Also using the slingshot is the only way to leave the room having to shoot down a ladder to get to the door. The next cool part is a moving platform over a body of water with a rotating spike trap (ok a spike trap inside of a tree doesn't make any sense but shut up). Now this dungeon is mainly just a large tutorial its still fun to play through. Now on to the boss after fighting a Deku Scrub that will give you a code saying 23 is number 1 which you will need to remember when it comes to fight the bosses guards who you have to defeat in a certain order before you can go fight the boss Queen Ghoma. Now Ghoma is an over used enemy (none of them are exact clones but there a lot of insect bosses named Ghoma). This fight is obviously the easiest boss fight but its still fun and when a boss gives birth during a fight (when she goes on the ceiling eggs will fall from the ceiling and hatch and attack you). Now like a theme with Zelda bosses now a days is the weak spot is the eye (This happens a couple times in this game as well) so you shoot her in the eye with the slingshot then slash at her. So after a while she dies and the victory music plays and you are rewarded a hart piece and transported out of the tree a hero. You won you beat the evil monster your the hero and everyone loves you right? WRONG!!!!!! You get out side of the tree and he will talk to you and then give the the Spiritual Stone of the Forest and then he will die. Thats right the Deku tree who is the guardian of the forest just died. So yea thats sad and then some snot nosed punk makes you feel bad about it the nerve of some people. Any-who before he died the Great Deku Tree told you to go to Hyrule Castle and find the Princess of Destiny. This however is a little bit of a shock because the Kokirie are not allowed to leave the forest because they will die if they do. You place that fear in the back of your head and leave the forest. Before getting all the way out of the forest though you will run across Saria (AKA love interest number 1). She will give you the fairy Ocarina (that for most adventures seem out of place but will come in handy for you). Now the Fairy Ocarina is an item that is rather important to her and she wants you to have it because you are important to her.

So with that you will walk out of the forest and into Hyrule field and introduced to a helpful and also annoying character Kaepora Gaebora. Kaepora is a talking owl who will often appear and give you advice (some of which ranges from helpful to stuff you already know. In the Ocarina of Time Abridged series by Adamwestslapdog he has a joke where Kaepora is telling a long winded story about his cross-dressing uncle Albert). He will talk your ear off for a while about princess Zelda (the princess of destiny) which you already know. So after he leaves you will make your way to Hyrule Castle Town but you better be quick because you don't want to be in the massive Hyrule field after dark. However its not easy to get there on foot before the sun goes down. The towns drawbridge goes up stranding you outside. The earth tears open and evil skeletons pop up and attack (they are called Stalchilds). These enemies are not very smart or strong but the attack and pairs and will keep coming out of the ground as long as its night time (If you slash one horizontally right away you will cut its head off and it will still attack you while headless). Now unless you have no idea how to fight (if so how did you make it this far) then you will survive the night (also you can hide in the river and they can't get you). Now when the morning comes any Stalchilds that are on the surface will die and the drawbridge will be lowered. You will be able to enter Hyrule Castle Town which is a very lively town with lots of people, movement, and the lively music (yes I love the music in this game). The town holds several shops (potion, Weapons, and masks yes masks I know it sounds funny but just wait). Now there are two main locations in this town Hyrule Castle and the Temple of Time. Even though the Temple of Time is useless at this moment but you should remember where it is because it will be very important later. However you have to head to the Castle you will run into Malon (love interest number 2) who will mention that her dad went to deliver milk from there ranch to the castle and might of fallen asleep. She will give you an egg that will hatch the next morning.

Now you will have to sneak into the castle avoiding the guards who will throw you back outside (Now if you come back with bombs you will see a large boulder that you can bomb to open a hole you can crawl through and you will be in a great fairy fountain after playing Zelda's Lullaby on the Triforce mark she will come out of the water and give you a magic ability called Din's Fire which will surround you in a fire ball and then it will expand out burning everything around you). So once you get to the mote (or river) you will be able to swim along it until you find a large man sleeping near two milk crates (This is Talon Malon father who looks like a bigger Mario). Now If the egg hasn't hatched yet you will have to wait until the next morning . Once the egg hatches select the rooster and then use it next to Talon. The rooster will crow waking Talon up. You will tell him that Malon is waiting for him and he will run home. You will then have to push the first crate off the edge onto a small platform then push the second on top of it climb up and then jump to the ledge on the other side of to mote. You need to crawl inside and then sneak around the courtyard avoiding the patrolling guards and eventually make it to Princess Zelda (AKA love interest number 3). She will tell you a dream she had about a great darkness covering the land of Hyrule and a green shining light coming from the forest carrying the Spiritual Stone of the Forest and defeating the darkness. She believes that you are the shining green light from the forest and that the darkness represents a man by the name of Ganondorf (I love that guy). She will ask you for your help in protecting the world from Ganondorf. She wants you to go find the other two Spiritual Stones one which is protected by the mountain dwelling race called Gorons and the other protected by the water dwellers known as Zoras. Zelda gives you her autograph which will let you get into place other people would not be allowed to go. You are told to go see Impa who is Zelda's attendant. Impa will teach you Zelda's Lullaby which is a song that will let people know that you are with the royal family (this will come in handy a throughout this adventure).

Impa will help you back outside and instruct to head to Kakariko Village which is where Impa grew up. Now Kakariko Village is smaller then Castle Town. It is a small town with only a handful of people. There is a building that is currently under construction as well as another house that looks old and abandoned. There are a couple important places here the abandoned house, the grave yard, and the entrance to Death Mountain. So lets head to the house. Inside the building is creepy and looks like no one has been there for years however as you walk closer to the center of the room a giant spider will descend from the ceiling. Wait a minute that spider is part human. What happened to this person you wonder as you see there are more in this house. You brave up and try talking to the biggest spider in the center who will tell you that him and his family were cursed and in order for them to be freed the Gold Skulltula need to be hunted down and killed. He also said that you will be rewarded well for every one of his family you free. The rewards are rather good including rupees, a wallet, hart piece, a hart container, and the Stone of Agony which will alert you to an hidden areas underground (if you are playing the versions released for the Gamecube or Virtual Console then then your controller will vibrate or rumble when you are near an opening but if you are playing the N64 version you will need to buy rumble pack just like I did). Now this sets up a side quest you can compleat through out the game. Now let us go over to the grave yard (during the day a child will be walking around wishing he could look scarier so he could be like Dampe the grave keeper this will be important if you decide to do the mask side quest.) Now you will go to the back of the grave yard and you will find the royal grave with the mark of the Triforce on the ground. Play Zelda's Lullaby here and the grave will be struck by lightning opening it. You will drop down into the tomb and you will be surrounded by a very dark and creepy place with skeletons and bones laying around. There are also bats (keese) flying around that will attack you (just pick them off with your slingshot). Once you are free from the keese you will go through a door that will lead you to a maze of platforms and zombies and acid. Oh yes I said Zombies they are called ReDeads and they are one of the creepier things ever. If they see you there will be a blood curdling scream and you will be frozen in your tracks. It will slowly approach and if you can't free yourself quick it will jump on you and start sucking the life right out of you (by doing something that looks like humping your head) if you manage to get free and attack one then prepare for a lot of slashing because these freaks take forever to kill. Once you do kill one it will slowly fall to the floor and unlike other enemies who will instantly dissappear the ReDead will just lay there (ugh so scary) One of my friends who shall remain nameless was so terrified by these creatures he stopped playing for a long time (You know who you are haha). Once you get past the ReDeads you will see an alter that has what looks like a musical scale and notes. You take out your Ocarina and you will learn the Suns Song (the greatest weapon against ReDeads). This song will turn it from day to night and night to day. Playing the Sun Song will freeze ReDead in their tracks allowing you to either sneak by them or attack them with out having to worry about them attacking you. So now we are done in the grave yard for now lets head up to Death Mountain.

Now if you didn't already do this when you were in Castle Town then you should go back to Castle Town and go to the weapons shop and buy the Hylian Shield (this shield is to heavy for you to use normally but if you have it equipped it will stay on your back and you can use it to guard from attacks that fall from the sky. So back to Death Mountain you will have to show the guard the paper from Princess Zelda who will let you up the Mountain path. The path is dangerous crawling with Tektites. Once you climb up to the upper part of the Mountain which will lead to the Goron City.

Now Gorons are large rock like creatures that will often curl up into a ball and roll around. Now there isn't much to do here just a shop and a blacksmith Biggoron (do I have to explain what this ones like). He will start making you a sword which will honestly take an extremely long time. Now you will head to the door that has the Triforce on the floor in front of the door. Play Zelda's Lullaby and the door will open for you to enter. You will meet Darunia the leader of the Gorons. He is upset because Ganondorf had came demanding the Goron Ruby (Spiritual Stone of Fire) when Darunia refuses to give him the stone Ganondorf causes a giant boulder to fall from the mountain blocking off the entrance to Dodongo's Cavern which is where the Gorons get their food. So Darunia is not happy and will not treat you well until you cheer him up. You are supposed to play him Saria's Song (Which she will teach you in her favorite spot in the lost woods). Darunia will start to dance and rock out (oh yea rock on shake that thing work it you go Goron sorry I couldn't resist). He will be as happy is a pig in mud and will give you a special arm brace that will somehow increase your strength allowing you to pick up bomblowers as well as other things.

You will use this to throw a bomb flower at the giant boulder that blocks the entrance to Dodongo's Cavern (why they couldn't have done that themselves I don't know. Now we enter the large cave and the second game dungeon so like before I will talk about the item one cool thing about the dungeon and then the Boss. So lets start with the Item for this place it is the simple Bomb. Nothing special but it is effective all you have to do is place it and then it will eventually detonate. There are actually two really cool moments in this place one is setting off an explosive chain reaction which will lower giant stone steps. The other cool moment here is the one when you are on top of a giant dinosaur head and you have to drop a bomb into both of its eyes which will cause the mouth to open revealing a door. Now on to the Boss King Dodongo. He is a giant dinosaur like creature that looks like a giant Stegosaurus. King Dodongo will attack by inhaling and then breathing fire and he will also curl into a ball and try to roll over you with its spiked back. Now all you have to do is throw a bomb or bombflower inside its mouth when it inhales and then once it detonates you will be able to slash its belly repeat until it dies. You will be reworded with a heart container then once you leave the dungeon Darunia will give you the Goron Ruby and will then tell you to head up the mountain to go see the Great Fairy. She will grant you magic power which will let you use magical attacks (like Din's Fire I talked about earlier).

Now you are done in Kakariko Village for now so leave and follow the river to Zora's Domain. Now to enter Zora's Domain you will have to play Zelda's Lullaby on the Triforce carving in front of a waterfall. The waterfall will slow down allowing you to enter the cave on the other side. You will find yourself inside Zora's Domain which is a cool place filled with water (even though it will get even cooler later). Now here you can do a couple thing play a diving mini game which if you are successful you will receive the Silver Scale which will let you dive rather deep and breath longer in the water. Use this item to enter an underwater warp gate which will take you to Lake Hylia. Under water in the lake you see a bottle that has a message for King Zora. Go back to the Zora's Domain and show this to the king who will read it finding out that his daughter Princess Ruto has been eaten by Lord Jabu Jabu who has been acting funny since Ganondorf visited him (see a connection).

Now you need to go inside and rescue her by getting a fish in a bottle and placing it in front of Lord Jabu Jabu (who is a giant whale) he will then eat you and you will find yourself in Jabu Jabu's Belly. Now you will soon find Princess Ruto (Love interest number 4). Now for the item, the cool moment, and the boss. The item in this dungeon is the Boomerang (why a whale has a treasure chest with a boomerang in it inside of him I will never know) The item is effective for or killing most enemies. Now the cool moment is the fight between the first Mini Boss of the game which is a giant Octorock. Now this is annoying fight but its still cool. Ruto will find the Zora Sapphire (Spiritual Stone of Water) and will run to get it but the platform it is on will rise to the floor above. Then it will come back down with a giant Octorock on it. This thing will chase after you with the center platform reviling spikes around it. The Octorock will chase you around and try to run you over. Its weak spot is its butt (yes its butt haha thats funny to me). Now what you have to do is use the boomerang to strike its butt so it will freeze it allowing you to slash at it butt (hahahahahahahahahahahaha). So this will defeat the Octorock. This will then lead to the boss fight against Brainard. Now Brainard is kind of an annoying boss but its also a fun one. Brainard will start spinning using large Jellyfish like characters to hit and electrocute you. You need to use your boomerang to hit Brainards body which will cause him pain. After a while you will free him from the connection to the top of the room. He will then start spinning around freely you have to repeat the attacks with the Boomerang. Now you have just defeated Brainard and will receive a hart container and then Ruto will give you the Zora Sapphire. She will then tell you that it is symbolic as the Zora wedding ring. So you are ten years old and you are engaged to a fish woman you freak.

Well that is all I am going to do for this installment I will split up the Ocarina of Time Review in two parts. So stay tune for Ocarina of Time part 1 section 2.