Finally Finishing Ocarina of Time, Pt. 1: My White Whale
[dc]I[/dc]t is amusing that the day I finished reading Moby Dick, I decided to play Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time again.
It is a valid question. Photo by me, via my Flickr photostream.
The game is my own White Whale.
I have started Ocarina of Time on several occasions, but never finished. And it tasks me. Yes, it does. There is an emptiness inside me for never having finished this game, like if someone grew up next to Andrew W.K. and had never heard Party Hard.
Rubbing salt in the wound is the fact I have owned the game for ten years, and it was the main reason I even got a GameCube: the system came packaged with a Legend of Zelda collection, and having never owned an N64, I had a chance to finally play Ocarina of Time.
And for being as big as a Legend of Zelda fan as I am, never finishing Ocarina of Time would be like a Tony Danza fan never watching Who’s the Boss?
At least, that is what the thousands of articles on the game’s supremacy would have me believe.
Having blogged my way through a few other games (Final Fantasy VII, EarthBound, and Cave Story), I felt a similar feat for Ocarina of Time would keep me on track.
At the very least, it will allow me to vent about Navi and her constant pestering.
By the time I get around to buying a PlayStation 3, Sony will have released PlayStation 5, and will already be talking about 6. This should give you an idea about how often I buy a new gaming system (which is slightly more often than I buy a new pair of shoes). In a way, this will help my ‘retro’ experience of Ocarina of Time, as I’m not overly accustomed to the fancy graphics of modern games like Halo 4, Mass Effect, or LEGO Anna Karenina.
When I started my new game, I groaned: it meant having to go through all the opening movies, expositions, and tutorial stuff again. Once more with the Deku Tree and his verily and thous. Again with the Navi and the ‘Hey! Listen! Wake up!’
But, (minor) complaints aside, I love the storytelling and world building of the Legend of Zelda series. It certainly influenced my own fantasy writing.
There could be fewer talking fairies though. Like, zero, total.
The Z-targeting system in Ocarina of Time holds up extremely well, as does most of the play control. I do wish there was a ‘walk only’ button (or a ‘run’ button), as crossing the narrow bridge in the Kokiri village at a full run was super-annoying. It probably took me about five tries to get across the bridge without falling off. Yes, you can apply less pressure to the analogue stick to make Link walk, but my meat hooks aren’t up for such a delicate task.
While I probably spent more time listening to various Kokiri, Navi, and the Deku Tree than actually playing, my first session with the game was fun. I bested the first boss Gohma, which is still a great boss fight, and called it a day.
Gohma is an interesting boss, as its strange, almost Lovecraftian design, is a big contrast with the more-or-less ‘cutesy’ characters I experienced up until that point.
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