The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (ゼルダの伝説 時のオカリナ) (Old Hylian: ) is the fifth installment in the Legend of Zelda series, developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 as a part of Nintendo's critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda series. It was followed by a direct sequel, Majora's Mask. Ocarina of Time was also the first 64bit installment of the Legend of Zelda series.

The game begins with the series' trademark protagonist, Link, in the land of Hyrule. Link sets out on a quest to stop Ganondorf, the Zelda franchise's prime antagonist, from obtaining the Triforce. To stop Ganondorf, Link travels back and forth between a period of seven years using the Master Sword.

Ocarina of Time enjoyed wide critical acclaim as well as commercial success. It has sold over 7.6 million copies over its lifetime, and was the best-selling game in 1998 despite its November release. It also received perfect scores from numerous gaming media publications, most notably Famitsu, and went on to place highly or top several "greatest games of all time" lists, including those from Gamespot, IGN and Nintendo Power Magazine. Ocarina of Time remains, over ten years after its release date, to possess the highest average score of all professional video game reviews. RPGamer editor Zachary Lewis gave the GameCube re-release a 2 out of 5, writing in his official staff review, "Sadly, the game goes steadily downhill by today's standards after the well done menus, battle system, puzzles, and localization. Because of the frustrating nature of the game in general, replaying the title will likely be distant in your mind."

Ocarina of Time covers certain parts the events of the well-known conflict known as the Imprisoning War, a conflict first mentioned in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and involving Ganon's sealing into the Sacred Realm by Seven Sages, although it may instead cover the back story of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, in which references are made to the Hero of Time's defeat of Ganon.

On April 1st, 2008, IGN released a trailer for a film adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Although meticulous and convincingly real, the trailer was revealed to be an April Fools joke on the same day.

The game began a tradition in the Legend of Zelda series; a major item or person in a game featured in the game's title.

Gameplay
Ocarina of Time is a 3D action-adventure game with role-playing and puzzle elements. Ocarina of Time is known for its mysteries, deep story, gameplay and some controversy. The player controls Link from a third-person perspective using a control scheme that is common today, but was considered revolutionary at the time. Link primarily battles with a sword and shield, but he can also use projectile weapons such as arrows, bombs, and magic spells. When battling, the player can cause Link to focus on an enemy through a new feature called "Z-targeting" (or "L-targeting" in the GameCube edition). When using this technique, the camera will follow the target and Link will constantly face it. Projectile attacks will be automatically directed at the target and do not require manual aiming. Although much of the game is spent in battle, some parts encourage the player to use stealth – an uncommon situation for the series. Link must avoid guards at times in both Hyrule Castle and the Gerudo Fortress. If spotted, Link is thrown out or imprisoned, and thus forced to start over.

Link gains strength and new abilities through the collection of items and weapons found in dungeons or in the overworld. Not all are required – like all games in the series, Ocarina of Time has several optional side quests, minor objectives that the player can choose to complete or ignore. Completing the side quests usually results in rewards, normally in the form of weapons or abilities. In one side quest, Link trades items he cannot use among non-player characters. This trading sequence features ten items and ends with Link receiving Biggoron's Sword. In another side quest, Link can acquire a horse. This allows him to travel faster, but attacking while riding is restricted to arrows. This mechanic was expanded for future games and is now common in the Zelda series.

Link is given the Fairy Ocarina near the beginning of the game, which is later replaced by the Ocarina of Time. Throughout the game, Link learns twelve melodies that allow him to solve music-based puzzles and to teleport. The Ocarina of Time is also used to claim the Master Sword in the Temple of Time. When Link takes the sword, he is sealed during a period of seven years so that he may be prepared for his upcoming quests and becomes an adult. Young Link and Adult Link have different abilities. For example, only Adult Link can use the Hookshot, and only Young Link can fit through certain small passages. Link can travel freely between the two time periods by replacing and taking the sword.

Setting

 * Further information: Races, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time characters, List of locations in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Ocarina of Time is set in Hyrule. Hyrule Field serves as a central hub connected to several outlying areas with diverse topography. Some of these areas are populated by one of the races of Hyrule: Hylians, Gorons, Zoras, Kokiri, and Gerudo. Each race generally stays within its region of Hyrule and is led by its own ruler.

Outset
During the events of a massive conflict known as the Hyrulean Civil War, a woman escaped the ravages of war with her child. The woman was gravely injured, but managed to reach Kokiri Forest, a sanctuary that deters all outsiders. Before passing away, she left the child in the care of the Great Deku Tree. The boy was to be raised as a Kokiri, and would remain unaware of his destiny, until one day, when the Gerudo King of Thieves appeared in the forest and demanded a Spiritual Stone from the Great Deku Tree. The mighty guardian tree refused to give it to him, sensing his evil intentions, and in return had a death curse put on him.

The Great Deku Tree entreats Navi, a young fairy of Kokiri Forest, to take the boy, known as Link, to the Great Deku Tree. After obtaining a sword and shield, he approaches the Deku Tree. The tree tells Link of the curse on him, and the brave youth enters the Deku Tree to break the evil curse. Link successfully defeats the enemies inside, but the Deku Tree reveals that it was already too late for him even before he entered. In his last moments of life, he tells Link of the creation of Hyrule and the Triforce that Ganondorf desires. He reveals that it is Link's destiny to thwart the great evil and restore peace to Hyrule, and gives him the Spiritual Stone, a key to unlocking the gates to the Sacred Realm, where the Triforce is kept. He is to seek out Zelda, the Princess of Hyrule. The Great Deku Tree, his purpose now fulfilled, withers and dies.

The Great Cataclysm
Link sneaks his way into Hyrule Castle and meets the Princess. She had prophesied that a hero clothed in green would appear holding a Spiritual Stone to thwart an impending evil. Link shows her the Spiritual Stone, and the two devise a plan to defeat Ganondorf. Link must collect the two remaining Spiritual Stones and open the Door of Time in the Temple of Time with the help of the Royal Family's hidden treasure, the Ocarina of Time, in order to obtain the Triforce before Ganondorf. Link travels throughout Hyrule and gathers the two remaining Spiritual Stones. However, when he returns to Hyrule Castle Town, he sees Princess Zelda escaping the castle with her attendant, Impa. Ganondorf had caught wind of their plot and had attacked Hyrule Castle in order to stop them. Before she vanishes out of sight, she throws the treasured Ocarina of Time in the moat surrounding the gates to Hyrule Castle Town to avoid it being taken by Ganondorf. The King of Thieves appears shortly thereafter, not considering a young boy a threat to his impending conquest of Hyrule. He knocks Link off his feet with a powerful magic spell and chases after Zelda and Impa.

Link retrieves the Ocarina of Time and opens the door to the Sacred Realm with the Spiritual Stones and the "Song of Time". Inside, he finds the mythical Master Sword, a legendary blade with the power to undo evil. When he pulls the sword out of the Pedestal of Time, however, he is sealed inside the Sacred Realm. Ganondorf, aware of their plan all along, enters the forbidden Sacred Realm and touches the Triforce. The powerful relic recognizes the wishes of Ganondorf's evil heart and turns the bountiful land of Hyrule into a haunted land rampant with evil monsters, of which he crowns himself King. Link is sealed within the Sacred Realm for seven years, as he was too young to be the legendary Hero of Time, the only one worthy of wielding the Master Sword. Link is awakened by Rauru, a Sage, who relates to him what happened to Hyrule while he was sealed away. Rauru reveals that the only way to thwart the King of Evil is to awaken the five other Sages sealed away in the five dungeons of Hyrule.

Awakening of the Sages
Link is transported back to the Temple of Time, where he meets a mysterious figure known as Sheik, a descendant of the mysterious Sheikah race. Sheik aids Link throughout his quest in the ruined Hyrule. Link, one by one, awakens the Sages, who appear to be friends he knew from Hyrule seven years prior to its destruction. Link, after awakening all five sages, meets up with Sheik in the Temple of Time. Here, Sheik reveals that "he" is really Princess Zelda, the Seventh Sage, in disguise. She tells Link that when Ganondorf touched the Triforce, it shattered into three pieces representing Courage, Wisdom and Power, because the three virtues were not balanced within him. The Triforce of Wisdom was given to Princess Zelda, and the Triforce of Courage to none other than Link. She presents Link with the powerful Light Arrows, which have the power to destroy Ganondorf. As they are about to leave, however, Ganondorf's sinister laughter is heard. Having found them out, he encases Princess Zelda in a crystal prison, and spirits her away into Ganon's Castle, challenging Link to meet him.

Final Battle
Link, with the help of the Six Sages, enters Ganondorf's huge stronghold. Here, he finds that the entrance to Ganondorf's throne room is sealed by six barriers. The Sages dispel the barriers with the help of Link and his Light Arrows, and he enters the inner sanctum of Ganondorf's Castle. After ascending the dangerous main tower, he finds Ganondorf. Ganondorf tries to convince Link to give him the Triforce of Courage, and later tries to force it away from him, but to no avail. The confident and powerful King of Evil then challenges Link to a battle. Link turns Ganondorf's evil magic upon himself and after a long and hard-fought battle, Ganondorf is defeated and drops to the ground. Princess Zelda is released from her crystal prison, and all seems to be well. However, with his last remaining strength, Ganondorf tries to destroy his own castle, in order to crush his foes. Link and Zelda both make it out barely in the nick of time, as the castle is undone right before their very eyes.

When the Evil King seems to be finally defeated, the pair hear a sound from the ruins of the castle. Ganondorf, using the true power of the Triforce of Power, transforms himself into a powerful entity known as Ganon, the embodiment of his evil heart. He knocks the Master Sword out of Link's hand, and Link is forced to fight him with other weapons. After damaging Ganon enough, Link retrieves the Master Sword, and with the help of Princess Zelda, deals a finishing blow to the monstrous creature. The Six Sages, along with Zelda, use their power to seal the King of Evil away. With peace having been restored to Hyrule, Zelda returns Link to his own time with the Ocarina of Time. After the free people of Hyrule celebrate their liberation, Link returns the Master Sword to the Pedestal of Time. The game ends with Navi flying away from Link in the Temple of Time, and shows the scene where he meets Zelda in the courtyard with the knowledge of what would happen, implying that he would tell Zelda of Ganon's plans and stop them from ever coming into fruition.

Development
Ocarina of Time Trailer rzhw_jxWJoU Ocarina of Time was first shown as a technical demo at Nintendo's SpaceWorld trade show in 1995. Nintendo originally intended the game for the Nintendo 64DD peripheral, but later decided to release it on a cartridge. At 32 megabytes, it was the largest game Nintendo had created at the time. The development crew involved over 120 people, including stuntmen to capture sword fighting and Link's movement. A minute long commercial was also released and shown on TV. During the commercial one of the original titles read "Willst Thou Get The Girl, Or Whilst Thou Play Like One?" this was removed and replaced with the "Willst Thou Soar" title due to the slightly sexist humor.

Customers who pre-ordered the game received a limited edition box with a golden plastic card affixed reading "Collector's Edition." This edition contains a gold-colored cartridge, a tradition for the Zelda series that began with the original game released for the NES. Demand was so great that Electronics Boutique stopped pre-selling the title on November 3, 1998; IGN reported that some retail employees were unsure if Nintendo would be able to fulfill the initial demand.

Ocarina of Time contains development code and text that is not used in the finished product. An Arwing enemy can be found in the game code, with the attack and movement AI fully programmed. The model, sound effects and animations are taken from Star Fox 64. Also, the collector's edition retained the Fire Temple chant and had different symbols for the Mirror Shield and the banners in Gerudo Fortress, though some early non-Collector's editions had the same ones.

Re-releases and sequels


Ocarina of Time was rereleased for the Nintendo GameCube in both the The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest and The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition compilation discs as an emulated ROM.

The game was released in Europe and Australia for the Virtual Console on Nintendo's Wii console on February 23, 2007, for 1000 Wii Points. It was released in North America on February 26, 2007, and in Japan on February 27, 2007. The only absent element is the rumble feature, which includes the use of the Stone of Agony. The Wii is capable of playing the GameCube versions of the game with the rumble feature working properly. The Virtual Console is Version 1.2 of the original game with the exception of the crescent moon and star symbol of the Gerudo, which was changed to a new design and the exception of the original Fire Temple chant.

Ocarina of Time was followed by four direct sequels: Majora's Mask is a story of the same Link from Ocarina of Time as he travels to a parallel land of Hyrule known as Termina. The Wind Waker is set one hundred years after Ocarina of Time, on a timeline that follows on from the devastated world of adult Link, long after Hyrule has been flooded due to the return of Ganon. The DS game Phantom Hourglass takes place shortly after The Wind Waker and features the same Link and Zelda characters. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess takes place an indefinite amount of time after Majora's Mask and parallel to The Wind Waker, on what is called the 'child timeline', back in Hyrule. Since many details about the time line are not supplied by Nintendo, it is impossible to say exactly what order it comes in, or how many years pass in between each one. It has been said directly by creator Shigeru Miyamoto, however, that Ocarina of Time is the first in the storyline.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest is an alternate version of Ocarina of Time. A bonus disc containing both versions was available as a pre-order bonus for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. In Europe, the disc came in the same case as The Wind Waker. The Master Quest basically contains the same storyline as the original, but includes altered dungeon layouts and more numerous enemies. The alterations concerning the dungeon maps contain slightly different room layouts (items are placed on different locations, and puzzles have to be solved in another manner). In many cases, knowledge of the original game can be a hindrance rather than a help, and trying to solve puzzles the way they are done in the original leads only to a trap, or a meager prize of no more than five rupees. The game was originally developed as a 64DD add-on cart for the Nintendo 64 version of Ocarina of Time code-named Ura Zelda.

Triforce rumors
A very early work-in-progress screenshot of Ocarina of Time shows Link receiving the Triforce itself from a Treasure Chest. However, such a scene never occurs anywhere in the final game, as the plot itself does not correspond to this event. 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. One website went through a very complex hoax, complete with screencaps, from a reader who claimed to have found the obtainable Triforce.

Audio


Ocarina of Time ' s music was composed by Kōji Kondō, a composer famous for his work on some of Nintendo's key titles. The music is inspired by a wide array of influences, as exemplified in its diversity from cartoon-like music in the Kokiri Forest to Spanish flamenco in the Gerudo Valley. In some locations, the music is a variation of an important ocarina tune related to that area. Ocarina of Time's soundtrack has been one of the biggest influences on the soundtrack of all subsequent Zelda titles. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess contains several of the songs learned in Ocarina of Time, present as background motifs, as well as when using a Howling Stone. The soundtrack was released in Japan on December 18, 1998, and featured 82 tracks. The music from Ocarina of Time was praised by many critics, and GameSpot considers it one of the top ten video game soundtracks as of 2001.

Reception and impact
Ocarina of Time met with both commercial and critical success. Reviewers praised the graphics, soundtrack, gameplay, and story. It has been inducted into the #1 spot in GameSpot's "Greatest Games of All Time" list as well as being GameSpot's first game to get a perfect 10 out of 10, and is ranked fourth on the 2007 edition of IGN's top 100 games of all time list. It is also the first game to receive a perfect score from Famitsu. It has also won GameFAQs' 2009 Best. Game. Ever. competition.

In 1998, Ocarina of Time won the Grand Prize in the Interactive Art division at the Japan Media Arts Festival. It also won six awards at the 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards including "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", and "Console RPG of the Year". The game also went on to become number one on Nintendo Power magazine's "Top 200 Nintendo games of all time", even rivaling Resident Evil 4. The British Offical Nintendo Magazine placed Ocarina of Time second in their " 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time". It also recently came second in their "50 greatest Nintendo Moments of all time ever".

Despite being available for only the last 39 days of the year, it was the best-selling game of 1998, with 2.5 million units sold. It went on to sell a total of 7.6 million copies worldwide.

Criticism of Ocarina of Time started to appear regarding the game's re-releases, with reviews for Master Quest and the Virtual Console version considering the graphics and sound technologies dated. The most recent Gamespot review awarded a score of 8.9 out of 10 for these reasons. RPGamer editor Zachary Lewis gave the re-release a 2 out of 5, writing in his official staff review, "Sadly, the game goes steadily downhill by today's standards after the well done menus, battle system, puzzles, and localization. Because of the frustrating nature of the game in general, replaying the title will likely be distant in your mind."

Since the game launch, over 10 years ago, Ocarina of Time is the highest rated game of all time according to Guinness World Records Game Edition and Game Rankings. It also has a metascore of 3.46 out of 4 on TopTenReviews.com, ranked number 66.

Versions
There are four main versions of Ocarina of Time, which are described here:

Version 1.0
This is the Japanese version for Nintendo 64. It was also released in North America at launch date and was available for a short while afterward. Most of them were released on Gold Carts; however, there are some Grey Carts of V1.0 as well, which are very rare.

Version 1.1
This version started being produced in North America shortly after V1.0, and some copies were made for Europe. These are also somewhat rare. Two glitches were removed from the game: a way to un-equip your sword that allows you to use any item while riding Epona, and a way to steal the fishing rod from the fishing pond. However, there is a way to do these glitches in any version, though it is tougher to accomplish.

Version 1.2
This version was produced in North America and Europe quite a while after V1.1. It is the most common version, and the most heavily edited. The glitches removed in V1.1 are still gone, Ganondorf's blood has been changed from red to green, and Nintendo removed the original Fire Temple chant due to Islamic elements.

Version 2.0
This was the GameCube version of the game, released in 2003 as a bonus disc for those who pre-ordered The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The Zelda GameCube bundle also uses this version, as does the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console release. Some things in the game have been further changed in all regions since V1.2, including the removal of the original Gerudo Symbol, which also has similarities to Islam. The Virtual Console edition seems to be based on this.

Other minor text changes and translation clarifications were done between versions. For more information on those, check out this FAQ.

A way to tell which version of the US N64 cartridge you have is to check the product number. It'll be on the front label, near the bottom, right underneath the red Nintendo oval.

Adaptations


Pathways to Adventure is a literary adaptation of Ocarina of Time, written by Jason R. Rich.

A manga adaptation by Akira Himekawa was published in the US by vizkids. The manga adaptation takes several liberties with the storyline of the game; for example, Link does not meet Zelda at the Courtyard for the first time. Instead, during Link and Zelda's first encounter in the novel, Link did not know who "she" was. Included in the second volume is a bonus chapter which does not tie in with the original game's storyline.

The Hero of Time is an independent film loosely based on the events of Ocarina of Time. It was developed by the independent company BMB Finishes, and stars David Blane as Link. Principal photography began in 2005 and the film was released publicly in Atlanta, Georgia on June 6, 2009. The film was taken down at the end of the year upon Nintendo's request.