Ocarina of Time: Why It's the Best Game I've Ever Played
Jan 30, 2014 14:06:11 GMT -5
JMMREVIEW and Lenrat117 like this
Post by Blade Runner 07 on Jan 30, 2014 14:06:11 GMT -5
The problem I find with so many open-world games is that I often find myself stopping to look around the world, about mid-way through the game, to realize the disappointing fact that everything I have done, hasn't effected the world for better or worse whatsoever. This is a side of reality that I hate to see in the games I play, a side that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time goes through great lengths to never show us.
Accept these guys never stay dead!!!
While having a chance to finally play the 3DS version of this N64 classic, I was brought to realize these dramatic changes as the key to what makes Ocarina of Time such an enduring adventure. So much has already been said about this game via reviews, tributes, and top ten lists, having seen so much praise, I was surprised that the deeper, more human elements that make this masterpiece have been only glazed over a few times in the last 15 years.
In Ocarina of Time, you start as a child and as you progress through your adventure you grow, and the world changes around you. Once you clear the third dungeon your time as a child is over and you are unknowingly launched 7 years into the future to be met with a world devastated in your absence. This is a clear metaphor for the cynicism many attain when growing up, and the decay our perceived world goes through when we fail to slow down, and take care.
The forests, once rich with life, adventure and mystery become rife with danger, disease, and darkness. Mass bodies of water, once presenting fun activities such as swimming, diving, and fishing, become shallow cesspools you would fear to dip a toe into. The open fields cease to be vast playgrounds, once presenting miles of possibilities and become cold, empty, and lonely. The people we grew to know would become older, and less optimistic when they once seemed as excited about your own future as you were.
Ultimately, Ocarina of Time is all about how we spend the time we have and the changes we experience, inside and out. What we take out of our adventure as Link is the idea that we can and will fix everything that "went wrong" with the world. We can turn back the clock and make everything right. The magic and mystery will return and we will all be safe and sound once again.
Master Sword included!
While in real-life, things don't really work out that way. Sure we get bigger and stronger, with more responsibilities. We gain some perceived level of power but too often, when we stop to look around, we don't see the world as we did as children. It's changed, not all for the better. We end up wondering where the time went. The world isn't necessarily as good as it once was and everything we have done up to this point hasn't added up to much.
Ocarina of Times' contrast to this feeling is what makes it such a great video game. It not only flawlessly presents us with the possibility of turning back time to correct the wrongs in the world, but also gives us the opportunity to do all these things ourselves, as an otherwise ordinary person. Many of us wish we could stop the clock and call upon infinite resources to make our world a better place and in-turn reap the rewards of our deeds and feel we lived a full life, leaving behind us a legacy free of regret, ultimatly facing death with the knowledge that we did everything we could. In Ocarina of Time we are rewarded with an ultimate means to an end that you can face knowing that the world really is better because of you, and not worse.
Ocarina of Time is a personal adventure. It's about the player, about discovering the world one way and in getting caught up in the quest to achieve our goals losing track of time and realizing that the world has changed before out very eyes. It mirrors our reality. We endure these hardships and try to make the best of what we are left with after the damage has been done and hopefully find success in the elements we value most.
Then Zelda plays the Ocarina.
This is where the game hits that place of "perfection" that so many see it at. In the end, while caught up in the journey to defeat evil, things get worse. You do everything within your power to make things right, and you succeed, but the journey is not over. The game leaves you as a child immediately after panning over the world as the various NPCs celebrate their liberation from evil in thanks to you.
Link runs out of the Temple of Time without his fairy to guide him, and returns to Hyrule Castle with the knowledge to prevent Hyrules destruction. The game ends with Link and Zelda meeting, before a word is spoken, the picture freezes.
I see this as the real message in Ocarina of Time.
Always try to do the right thing with the time that you have. Bad things will happen along the way and it's our responsibility to make due with the hand we are dealt. Ultimately it's the decisions we make and the care we take that makes our own adventure a successful one and these are choices we make on our own. No fairy to guide us. Just the courage to do the best we can. To avoid being met with a terrible fate.
Accept these guys never stay dead!!!
While having a chance to finally play the 3DS version of this N64 classic, I was brought to realize these dramatic changes as the key to what makes Ocarina of Time such an enduring adventure. So much has already been said about this game via reviews, tributes, and top ten lists, having seen so much praise, I was surprised that the deeper, more human elements that make this masterpiece have been only glazed over a few times in the last 15 years.
In Ocarina of Time, you start as a child and as you progress through your adventure you grow, and the world changes around you. Once you clear the third dungeon your time as a child is over and you are unknowingly launched 7 years into the future to be met with a world devastated in your absence. This is a clear metaphor for the cynicism many attain when growing up, and the decay our perceived world goes through when we fail to slow down, and take care.
The forests, once rich with life, adventure and mystery become rife with danger, disease, and darkness. Mass bodies of water, once presenting fun activities such as swimming, diving, and fishing, become shallow cesspools you would fear to dip a toe into. The open fields cease to be vast playgrounds, once presenting miles of possibilities and become cold, empty, and lonely. The people we grew to know would become older, and less optimistic when they once seemed as excited about your own future as you were.
Ultimately, Ocarina of Time is all about how we spend the time we have and the changes we experience, inside and out. What we take out of our adventure as Link is the idea that we can and will fix everything that "went wrong" with the world. We can turn back the clock and make everything right. The magic and mystery will return and we will all be safe and sound once again.
Master Sword included!
While in real-life, things don't really work out that way. Sure we get bigger and stronger, with more responsibilities. We gain some perceived level of power but too often, when we stop to look around, we don't see the world as we did as children. It's changed, not all for the better. We end up wondering where the time went. The world isn't necessarily as good as it once was and everything we have done up to this point hasn't added up to much.
Ocarina of Times' contrast to this feeling is what makes it such a great video game. It not only flawlessly presents us with the possibility of turning back time to correct the wrongs in the world, but also gives us the opportunity to do all these things ourselves, as an otherwise ordinary person. Many of us wish we could stop the clock and call upon infinite resources to make our world a better place and in-turn reap the rewards of our deeds and feel we lived a full life, leaving behind us a legacy free of regret, ultimatly facing death with the knowledge that we did everything we could. In Ocarina of Time we are rewarded with an ultimate means to an end that you can face knowing that the world really is better because of you, and not worse.
Ocarina of Time is a personal adventure. It's about the player, about discovering the world one way and in getting caught up in the quest to achieve our goals losing track of time and realizing that the world has changed before out very eyes. It mirrors our reality. We endure these hardships and try to make the best of what we are left with after the damage has been done and hopefully find success in the elements we value most.
Then Zelda plays the Ocarina.
This is where the game hits that place of "perfection" that so many see it at. In the end, while caught up in the journey to defeat evil, things get worse. You do everything within your power to make things right, and you succeed, but the journey is not over. The game leaves you as a child immediately after panning over the world as the various NPCs celebrate their liberation from evil in thanks to you.
Link runs out of the Temple of Time without his fairy to guide him, and returns to Hyrule Castle with the knowledge to prevent Hyrules destruction. The game ends with Link and Zelda meeting, before a word is spoken, the picture freezes.
I see this as the real message in Ocarina of Time.
Always try to do the right thing with the time that you have. Bad things will happen along the way and it's our responsibility to make due with the hand we are dealt. Ultimately it's the decisions we make and the care we take that makes our own adventure a successful one and these are choices we make on our own. No fairy to guide us. Just the courage to do the best we can. To avoid being met with a terrible fate.