The "Perfect Game": Does Ocarina of Time Hold Up?

Rated the best game of all time by numerous companies, and online creators, it's hard to escape the shadow of influence that Ocarina of Time has had on the gaming world. I’d be opening a can of worms by telling you that a 25 year old game that fits inside of Elden Ring 1875 times is the best gaming experience, and I’d be opening a can of worms by telling you that it isn’t. This is the most important episode I’ll ever write, and the story goes something, like this; Hey we’ll get right to the vide

o, I promise. But this is the longest episode of Does It Hold Up that I have ever and will ever make, and there’s a lot of information that has been omitted from the video. Because of that, if you see a little bubble in the bottom left hand side of your screen during this video it means that there is a section in the description talking about that specific thing. It will be labeled to make this easier for you, and with that I hope you enjoy the review. I worked very hard on it! We start the game

with a monologue from the “guardian spirit” known as the “Deku Tree”. The game fades into a shot of Link asleep in his bed. The Deku Tree states; “The children of the forest, the Kokiri, live here with me. Each Kokiri has his or her own guardian fairy. However, there is one boy who does not have a fairy…”. Link appears restless, shivering throughout this whole scene. As the camera pans out, we’re shown Link’s nightmare. It depicts a mysterious man chasing after two people on horseback. He stops

, and turns to Link, as it suddenly cuts over to a conversation between the Deku Tree and Navi the Fairy. “Malevolent forces even now are mustering to attack our land of Hyrule…It seems the time has come for the boy without a fairy to begin his journey…” We take on Navis' perspective as we soar into Kokiri Forest, in search of Link. Once she finds him and wakes that lazy boy up, she introduces herself, and urges Link to hurry over to the Deku Tree. As you exit your house, you run into your best

friend (Saria). She congratulates you on finally getting a fairy, and reminds you to hurry on over to the Deku Tree. On your way there you’re stopped by Mido who teases you, calling you the nickname “Mr. No Fairy”. While this seems insignificant, it highlights the fact that Link is different. Not having a fairy at his age is bizarre for the Kokiri, and it creates this sense that Link doesn’t belong where he is. Mido’s name calling and Saria’s word choice in saying that Link “finally” got his fai

ry is very intentional, as is the Deku Tree referring to Link as the “boy without a fairy”, despite knowing his name. Link’s house is tucked away, and visually different from the other houses as to further signify this separation. Even Navi struggled to find it on her first pass of Kokiri Village. Creating this sense of exclusion and turning a “grand adventure” into the likes of a hobbits “unexpected journey” is done within a matter of 5 minutes through the use of clever dialogue and environment

al storytelling only. Unfortunately we can’t get to the rest of our journey because Mido won’t let us pass without a sword and a shield. This is where some people, especially those used to newer games, will have an issue with Ocarina of Time. The issue being that this game isn’t designed for babies. Rather than being explicitly told where to find these items, you have to go ask questions and look around yourself using the clues that NPCs give you. If you go back and talk to Saria, she’ll tell yo

u that you can buy a shield at the shop and that there’s only one sword hidden somewhere in the forest. Most of the NPCs you talk to will teach you the controls, and how to navigate the menus. However, this character will tell you to go visit the forest training center on top of the hill, which is where you find the Kokiri Sword. Now we should head over to Mido to continue our quest, but first let's zoom out. There are only 3 areas we need to enter in Kokiri Forest, they are Links house, the Sho

p, and the Forest Training Center. These are the only areas which the dirt path leads to. If you’ve never noticed this, that’s okay, I didn’t notice it until this playthrough either. I just thought it was a really cool and subtle detail. After getting your sword and shield, Mido finally lets you pass, and you can head on over to the Deku Tree. He explains that he’s been cursed, and challenges you to free him of this curse as a test to your courage and wisdom. Inside the Deku Tree is the first du

ngeon of Ocarina of Time, and it’s here that many concepts are established which set the pace and expectations of future dungeons. The design of these areas almost always includes sections which are visible, yet inaccessible to the player when they first encounter it. Progression through dungeons always involves puzzle solving and often requires the use of a new item which you’ll obtain within the dungeon. Generally speaking, the only hint you’ll receive for these puzzles comes from Navi flying

over to an object of interest. And Occasionally she’ll have something to say about whatever you’re looking at, but she’ll never outright tell you what to do. One of the best examples of this comes from the following room, where Navi will point out this torch saying it looks like it was “burning not too long ago…” What you’re meant to do here, is walk into the lit torch with a deku stick, to then light the burned out one. Those who’ve played this game before may not remember that you’re never act

ually told that you can light deku sticks on fire. In fact the only place this is actually stated is in the games instruction manual, where in the description for Deku Sticks it says, “Deku sticks can also work as torches”. Sometimes, rather than using Navi to give you a hint, the game will actually use your camera to suggest where you should go next. You can see that mechanic here, where when you get closer to the edge of this platform your view will automatically move down so you can see the w

eb in the middle of the floor, as what you’re supposed to do next is jump off and land on that web to break through to the bottom section of the dungeon. Once you’re down there, you can hit this switch to light a torch. Doing so shows you that fire can burn webs down, which you use to get to the next section where you meet this infamous little snitch that tells you the only way to beat his brothers is to take them out in order. That order being 2 - 3 - 1. Twenty three is number one! After this,

you have to shoot this eyeball switch with your slingshot to unlock the next door. In this room Navi tells you how to dive underwater, which you need to do in order to hit a switch to get to the other side. Once you're on the other side, Navi teaches you how to push and pull blocks so that you can use the one in this room to progress. You do some more stuff with torches, and eventually make it to the upper area of the bottom room we fell into. There’s a block you can push down, which you use to

bring a lit torch over to this web in the middle. If you’re wondering whether or not you can burn the web upstairs, the answer is actually yes. You can also jump into the web on the lower level to break it, however I don’t know of any way to do this without cheatsc c. Once you get down to this lower section, you meet the brothers and use the order the snitch gave you earlier. After this, we enter the boss fight with Gohma. It’ll only start once you look at her using first person view or your sli

ngshot. Whenever you target an enemy you can get advice from Navi on how to defeat it. In this case, she tells you that Gohmas eye is “vulnerable when it's red”. Most bosses will integrate whatever new items you get into the fight somehow. In Gohmas case, using the slingshot on her eye when it’s red stuns her. Once you kill Gohma, freeing the Deku Tree of his curse, she’ll drop a heart container which gives you an extra health point when picked up. A shining area will appear on the floor which y

ou walk into in order to escape the boss room and progress the story. Upon exiting, the Deku Tree congratulates you for freeing the curse and tells you about the “wicked man of the desert” who cast the curse on him. He appears to be the same man that was in Link's nightmare. The Deku Tree tells you that this evil man is plotting to invade a sacred realm located within Hyrule, in an attempt to steal an ancient relic known as the “Triforce”. Despite freeing the Deku Tree of the curse, the damage h

ad already been done. He tells you to go to Hyrule castle and meet the “Princess of Destiny”, then gives you the sacred stone that the mysterious evil man was after. In his dying breath, the Deku Tree says “the future depends upon thee, Link… Thou art courageous…”, and asks Navi to help Link on his journey. As we’re crossing the bridge to leave the forest, we find Saria waiting for us. “I knew that you would leave the forest someday, Link. Because you are different from me and my friends. But th

at’s OK, because we’ll be friends forever…won’t we?”. She gives you an Ocarina, and says “When you play my Ocarina, I hope you will think of me and come back to the forest to visit.” Link is seemingly stuck in place, but despite his hesitation, he powers through to continue his journey. As we exit into Hyrule field we meet Kaepora, the owl. Many returning players find Kaepora to be annoying, as he interrupts gameplay with long sections of text. Skipping through whatever Kaepora is telling you us

ually doesn’t end well either, as he almost always asks the player if you’d like him to repeat what he just said. However, for new players, this owl is essential for understanding what you’re supposed to do. Because of that, Kaepora was an important part of my playthrough. In order to make this review fair, I decided to only go places and do things if the game suggested it to me. I did this mainly because one of the more popular complaints about Ocarina of Time is that it’s impossible to know wh

at you’re supposed to do. This is such a common problem that Ocarina of Time 3D introduced the Sheikah Stone, which plays videos showing you exactly how to do almost everything. We’ll be revisiting Ocarina of Time 3D, and other versions of OoT later in this video, but until then, we have an owl friend we need to get back to. Kaepora teaches you how to use the map, and provides you with general directions to the castle. Once you get there, you can cross the bridge in the morning, and enter into t

he town market. There’s a lot of NPCs to talk to, and even more things to do, but the NPC that stands out most is Malon. She’s intentionally placed directly in front of the fountain, so that even if you don’t speak to her, it’s impossible not to notice her. Once you reach the entrance to the castle, Kaepora meets you once again, and explains how the flow of time works in OoT (being that it’ll freeze inside of towns, but moves normally everywhere else). Afterwards, you crawl up these vines and tr

y to sneak into the castle. You’ll be thrown out at the front gate whenever the guards catch you. When you go back to try again, you’ll see Malon in front of the vines this time. If you stopped to talk to her in the market, she’ll recognize you and explain that her father hasn’t come back from the castle yet. She thinks he fell asleep somewhere, and asks you to find him, giving you the “weird egg” in exchange. If you never stopped to talk to Malon, she’ll introduce herself first and then tell yo

u about her father, which is a level of detail you wouldn’t really expect this game to have. Nice touch. Either way, we need to sneak into the castle. Through trial and error you’ll eventually make it past the first set of guards. After that, you have to swim through the moat to get past the guards at the front gate. You’ll either figure that out on your own through trial and error, or you’ll learn it from this NPC in the market who tells you to swim through the moat. Once you reach the side of

the castle, you’ll find Malon’s Dad (Talon) sound asleep, blocking your path. As the time goes from night to day, a chicken hatches from the egg Malon gave you. You can use this item to wake Talon up, allowing you to continue, but only after you tell him that Malon was looking for him and he runs off. Sneaking through the drain hole, you then make your way undetected past the guards until you reach Princess Zelda. Zelda will recognize you as the boy in a prophecy she had. She asks for your name,

saying that it “sounds somehow familiar”. Knowing she can trust you, she tells you the secret of the Sacred Realm. Zelda essentially starts where the Deku Tree led off, saying that the Triforce grants the wish of the one who holds it in their hands. “If someone with a righteous heart makes a wish, it will lead Hyrule to a golden age of prosperity…If someone with an evil mind has his wish granted, the world will be consumed by evil…That is what has been told…” You then learn that the entrance to

the sacred realm is located within the “Temple of Time”, sealed behind a stone wall called the “Door of Time”. In order to open that door, you’ll need all 3 spiritual stones, as well as the treasure kept by the royal family…”The Ocarina of Time!” Zelda expresses that she believes the dark clouds in her vision represent a man on the other side of the window in front of you. Peering in, you see the evil figure the Deku Tree spoke of. The same as the one in Link's dream. Zelda tells you this is Ga

nondorf, King of the Gerudo. She believes that he’s after the Triforce, just as the Deku Tree sensed, and asks you for your help to defeat him. To help you along your journey, Zelda writes you a letter of royal decree. As you leave you meet Impa. Impa is the last surviving member of the Sheikah tribe, and is also responsible for protecting Zelda. Impa explains that her role in Zelda’s dream was to teach you an ancient melody, passed down by the royal family. It’s a song that holds a mysterious p

ower, and has been played by Impa as a lullaby for Zelda since she was a baby, hence its name “Zelda’s Lullaby”. Quick interjection here; in a game that’s central mechanic is playing magical songs with your ocarina, it’s taken 1 hour and 5 minutes for us to learn our first song. The world record any% speedrun for this game would’ve finished not once, not twice, but a whopping 17 times by now . We’ll be discussing how this is possible later on in the video, so make a mental note of it for now bec

ause…yeah. After teaching us Zelda’s Lullaby, Impa sneaks us out of the castle and instructs us to go Death Mountain, where the Gorons who keep the next spiritual stone live. In order to get there, we have to pass through Kakariko Village. Kakariko is essential to Ocarina of Time, especially its side quests, but unfortunately if I covered absolutely everything you could do in each area of the game, this video would never end. So for now, we talk to the first guard, who tells us the trail to Deat

h Mountain starts at the north end of Kakariko. He also adds that you need the king's permission to go up the mountain. Once you get to the gate at the north of the village this guard will make fun of you for not being able to read the sign in front of the gate. The sign states “Death Mountain: No Passage without a Royal Decree”. If you show the guard Zelda’s Letter, he’ll read it out loud; “This is Link…He is under my orders to save Hyrule”, and he starts laughing hysterically. But nevertheless

he still opens the gate for you, and suggests that you head to the bazaar in the Hyrule Castle Town Market in order to buy a “proper shield”. Doing this will also give you a 50% discount once you purchase the shield, which is something I’ve honestly never noticed. The guard also asks you to get him a mask from the “happy mask shop” for his son. This is the start of young Link’s side quest which we’ll be skipping over in the interest of time. After purchasing our new shield we return to Kakariko

, and begin to head up Death Mountain Trail. Eventually you’ll find a huge boulder, with a strange yellow creature beside it. This is a Goron. Talking to him, he’ll explain to you that the big boulder is blocking the entrance to a very important place for the Gorons known as the “Dodongo's Cavern”. One day, a bunch of creatures showed up, making it very dangerous to enter. Shortly after, “a Gerudo in black armor used his magic to seal the entrance”. This Goron tells you that if you’d like to lea

rn more, you should go to Goron City, which is further up the trail. Once you get there, you’ll be met with the most lively city apart from the castle market. The Goron on the lower level will say “Big Brother has shut himself up in his room saying “I will wait in here for the Royal Family’s messenger!”. Playing Zelda’s Lullaby in front of the door will open it, leading you to Darunia, the leader of the Goron. Durinia is not happy to see you at all. He’s offended that the royal family's messenge

r is a child. Upon asking why he’s so upset, he’ll explain that the blocking off of the Dodongo's Cavern has led to starvation amongst the Gorons. Darunia is understandably in a bad mood, and doesn’t want to help you. If you exit his room, and talk to the Goron outside again, he’ll tell you that Darunia will probably get mad at you if he’s in a bad mood…which we just saw…Luckily for you, this Goron knows that Darunia secretly loves to dance, and he’s confident that he’ll cheer up if you can get

him into the rhythm. This Goron concludes by saying that Darunia “used to always listen to the music that comes from the forest”. From here, there are two options. We’re going to cover both, because the game actually acknowledges both solutions in very distinct ways. The first way is to head upstairs. This Goron will ask you if you recognize the music coming from the tunnel behind him, because all the Goron like it. You can light the bomb flowers using a torch in order to open up the path. If yo

u go through, you’ll immediately be greeted by Kaepora in the Lost Woods, who tells you where to go from there. The other option is to exit Goron city and head all the way back to Kokiri Forest. If you talk to the NPCs, they’ll tell you that Saria wanted to talk to you. However, Mido is the only person that knows where she is. From there, you can easily make your way to Kaepora, who tells you to “follow your ears, and listen to the sounds coming from the forest”. As many of you know, during this

time the Lost Woods music will get louder as you approach the correct path. If you’re playing the game with any audio setting other than mono, the music will also pan to point you in the correct direction, relative to where your camera is. Following the music, you’ll eventually reach the Sacred Forest Meadow, where Saria will be waiting for you. She asks if you’d like to play the Ocarina with her, and teaches you Saria's song, saying you can use the song to talk to her whenever you’d like. Neat

!. Heading back to Goron City, and playing Saria’s Song for Darunia, we get to witness this masterpiece. After cheering him up, Darunia agrees to give you the Spiritual Stone of Fire, but only if you destroy the monsters in the Dodongo's Cavern. To help you out, he gives you the “Goron’s Bracelet”, increasing your strength enough to pick up bomb flowers. Using this, we can blow up the boulder in front of Dodongo’s Cavern, and head inside. Full transparency, and very controversial take; Dodongo’s

Cavern, especially when using no tricks to make it faster, is my least favorite dungeon in the entire game. It doesn’t really have an overarching theme like the Deku Tree did, which makes it less interesting, and the dull color palette and lack of decoration makes it hard to believe that this is a place the Goron were forced to abandon…It feels like they were never there to begin with. Receiving a bag that lets you carry around bombs, after you just gained the ability to pick up bomb flowers, m

akes the Goron Bracelets feel useless. I’m also personally not a fan of the path in this dungeon being so straight forward. You never have to turn back, or pick a direction to go in, you always just head to the next room. There are a few redeeming parts about Dodongo’s Cavern. Personally, I like the combat rooms with the Lizalfos, and there’s no denying that exploding the staircase down is satisfying. Having to drop bombs into the skeletons' eyes to open up the final area of the dungeon is a rea

lly cool touch, we can see the use of that camera suggestion here again. I do like the idea of having to blow up the floor in order to drop into the boss fight, even if it can be easy to miss for new players, and the fight also scratches that itch of “I throw bomb into monsters mouth, make big boom!”. Once you defeat King Dodongo, and collect your next heart piece, you take the blue warp out, and get assaulted by Darunia. He’s overjoyed that you’ve made Dodongo’s Cavern a safe and accessible pla

ce for the Gorons once again. He recognizes the risk that you took, and grants you the honor of being his “Sworn Brother”, giving you the Goron's Ruby as a token of your friendship. Darunia suggests you head towards the top of Death Mountain and meet the Great Fairy, claiming that she’ll “power you up”. So we go and do exactly that. Once you reach the top, Kaepora will be waiting for you. He confirms that the great fairy lives up here, but more interestingly, he also tells you the clouds around

death mountain reflect its condition. “When they look normal, it is at peace”. This will be an important detail for later, so try your best to remember. Navi takes a special interest in this wall. Blowing it up will of course reveal the Great Fairy’s Fountain. Standing on the Triforce symbol inside and playing Zelda’s Lullaby will summon the Great Fairy. She grants you magic, which you can use to power up your sword, performing a strong spin attack that releases a wave of energy. This new magic

power will be represented by a green bar underneath your health. The great fairy also tells you to visit a friend of hers that lives by Hyrule Castle, and then vanishes. Once we exit, we can talk to Kaepora again, and he’ll fly us down the mountain dropping us on a rooftop in Kakariko. Since we aren’t told what to do from here, If we check out our map, Kakariko Village, Lon Lon Ranch, and Zora’s Domain are all highlighted. We’ll do them in that order. Starting with Kakariko Village, heading to t

he Graveyard, you’ll find a tomb with the crest of the royal family. Playing Zelda’s Lullaby will cause a thunderstorm to occur, destroying the tombstone, and opening a hole in the ground. Heading down, you’ll enter the Royal Family's Tomb, where you’ll find a poem dedicated to lost members of the Royal Family, it reads “The rising sun will eventually set, A newborn’s life will fade. From sun to moon, moon to sun…give peaceful rest to the living dead.” Inscribed next to the tomb are the notes fo

r the “Suns Song” which allows you to change the time of day. This isn’t required for beating the game, but it does help speed up certain things. “Restless Souls wander where they don’t belong, bring them calm with the Sun’s Song.” This alludes to the ability to freeze undead enemies by playing Sun’s Song. After that, I went to Hyrule Castle to find the friend of the Great Fairy, who just so happens to be another Great Fairy. This one gives you “Din's Fire”, which creates a ball of fire around y

ou. It's like having a portable torch, and is one of the items which we need in order to beat the game without glitches. Heading on over to Lon Lon ranch, we can talk to Malon who thanks you for finding her dad earlier, and introduces you to her horse Epona. If you leave and reenter Lon Lon ranch, Malon will now point out that Epona is afraid of Link. Doing this a third time, Malon will tell you that the song she’s singing was composed by her mother, and asks you to sing with her. If you pull ou

t your Ocarina, she’ll then teach you Epona’s Song. Keapora flies overhead, emphasizing the importance of this event…though it’s kind of debatable how important Epona actually is...we’ll discuss that later. For now, we’ll head over to the area of the map that Zora’s Domain is in. Once you reach the river leading up to it, which is fittingly named “Zora’s River”, Kaepora will be there to greet you. He tells Link that Zora’s Domain is located just up ahead, but their doors will not open for anyone

except those who have some connection to the Royal Family. “Let them hear the Melody of the Royal Family”. Playing Zelda’s Lullaby at the waterfall will open up a secret passage, leading to Zora’s Domain. This section doesn’t have a lot of direction. None of the Zora actually tell you anything that helps you figure out what you’re supposed to do during this time. If you talk to King Zora, the only thing that he’ll say is “oh, my dear, sweet Princess Ruto…Where has she gone? I’m so worried”. In

order to progress, you have to complete this diving mini game for 20 rupees, located in the room adjacent to King Zora. Doing so will earn you the “Zora’s Scale”, which allows you to dive underwater longer. Using this, you can enter an area underwater which will take you out to Lake Hylia. Navi will immediately take interest in a bottle under the water, so obviously you grab it. There’s a note inside the bottle, which you can read by using the item. It reads “Help me. I’m waiting for you inside

Lord Jabu-Jabu’s belly. -Ruto”. Showing Ruto’s letter to King Jabu, he’ll recognize her handwriting, and says that Jabu Jabu would never swallow anybody normally, but ever since Ganondorf came to Zora’s Domain, he’s been acting a little strange. King Zora instructs you to rescue Ruto. He keeps the letter for himself, but lets you have the bottle you found it in, and then slowly moves aside to let you pass. We are now treated with one of the goofiest video game moments of all time. And as funny a

s I think it would be to play the entire thing for you, in the interest of time, I really don’t think that I should. By the way, Ruto’s Letter being in a bottle is amazing both thematically for the Zora, but also a way to force this important item onto the player. Anyways, remember how I said earlier that none of the NPCs will give you any guidance on where to find Ruto's Letter? Well, that’s because most of them talk to you about Jabu Jabu. This Zora, standing near the fish swimming around in t

he water will tell you that Ruto prepares Jabu Jabu's meals. Heading over to Jabu Jabu, he won’t do anything. He’s pretty much just a motionless whale. If you catch a fish in a bottle, then open the bottle in front of him, he will inhale both you and the fish into his stomach where we will start the next dungeon “inside Jabu-Jabu’s Belly”. This is one of the better designed dungeons both in terms of layout, and theme. Every typical dungeon element, such as a switch or door has been turned into s

omething fitting for the space we’re in (which would be more appealing if the space we were in wasn’t the belly of the beast). There’s a lot of things that are only used once for Jabu-Jabu’s belly such as Shabooms and Biri, but Princess Ruto is the thing that stands out. Though she’s relatively useless, aside from helping you push a few switches, you have to carry her throughout the whole dungeon. If you stand still, she’ll eventually lose balance and sprawl out. This dungeon is littered with ti

ny details. The camera slowly moves around to give this uneasy feeling, there’s even these hallways which slowly move you as if you’re being digested. You’re required to backtrack a few times throughout this dungeon, giving Jabu Jabu’s belly a slight bump in difficulty compared to prior areas. The only thing holding this dungeon back is the fact that it’s insanely annoying. The enemies are annoying, carrying Ruto around is annoying, the boss is annoying. You use the boomerang a lot in this dunge

on, and by the end you’re just sort of like...eh. The best way for me to illustrate how boring this dungeon is, would be by playing a few seconds of the unedited gameplay footage for you. Yes, that is in fact me listening to “The Pretender” by the Foo Fighters while im fighting Big Octo. I will admit that I only did this because I thought I set up my audio recordings differently, but that doesn’t change the fact that this was the only time I listened to music during my entire playthrough. After

beating Barinade, Ruto will give you Zora's Sapphire as a reward, saying that she was supposed to give it only to the man who will be her husband. So now not only have we gained all 3 spiritual stones to open the door of time, but we also have a fish wife. From here, things take a turn. We have to rush to the Temple of Time, but something seems off. If you play Saria’s song to talk to Saria, she’ll tell you that she has a “feeling of dread”, and that something bad is happening at the Castle. As

we approach the castle from Hyrule field, the sun will start to set, although it's different this time. The castle gate is shut, and as you approach, a cutscene triggers. One that seems oddly familiar. Link's nightmare. As Zelda and Impa flee the castle, Zelda throws something into the moat. Ganondorf exists next. He tries to make you tell him where they fled to, but you won’t say a word. In a display of power, he effortlessly knocks Link down with his magic. Despite how far you’ve come, you’re

still nothing compared to him. Ganondorf claims he will soon rule the world, until heading after Zelda and Impa. If we go to see what Zelda threw in the moat, we obtain the one and only Ocarina of Time. Picking it up, you see a vision of Zelda. She tells you that when you hold this Ocarina, she won’t be around anymore, and leaves you a melody…The fabled song of time. Heading into the market, most of the NPCs will talk about the terrifying events they just witnessed. Yet despite that, the town is

lively as ever. If you travel to the back alley, you’ll find this guard. He tells you everything that just happened. The guard recognizes you as the boy Zelda said she was waiting for, and urges you to go to the temple of time before...Dying. This is the only moment in the entire game where we actually witness the death of a human-like character, and it’s hidden from the player. Tucked away in a back alley somewhere. Nevertheless, we head over to the Temple of Time. Playing the song of time in

front of the podium, the spiritual stones magically appear and place themselves in their respective spots, opening the Door of Time. Walking into the chamber, Navi will recognize the sword in the pedestal as the “legendary blade”, the “master sword”. Pulling the sword from the pedestal, something…unexpected happens. Ganondorf appears. He knew that you held the keys to the door of time and in this vision, thanks you for leading him to the sacred realm. Confusing, I know. Link wakes up after being

called to. He’s in a strange location. One we’ve never seen before. We’re introduced to Rauru, one of the ancient sages of the sacred realm. He warns us not to be alarmed, and asks us to take a look at ourselves. Link has grown up. Rauru tells us that only one worthy of the title of ‘Hero of Time’ can pull the master sword from the pedestal. But at the time Link had grabbed the Master Sword, he was far too young to be the hero of time. As a result, his spirit was sealed in the sacred realm for

7 years. Unknowingly, you left the door to the sacred realm wide open. Ganondorf entered and stole the Triforce. Making an already powerful villain even stronger. He took over Hyrule with his new found powers. Rauru tells us that his strength has dwindled, but if we can reunite all the sages, together they’ll be able to contain Ganondorf in the void of the Sacred Realm. Rauru grants you the “light medallion”, adding his power to your own. “Find the other Sages and save Hyrule!”. Returning to the

Temple of Time through the sacred realm, a strange figure appears. They say they’ve been waiting for us, and tell us that the five sages await us in the “five temples''. “One in a deep forest. One on a high mountain. One under a vast lake. One within the house of the dead. And one inside a goddess of the sand.” This is Sheik, “survivor of the Sheikahs”. They say “one sage is waiting for the time of awakening in the Forest Temple. The sage is a girl I am sure you know”. Sheik recognizes that you

don’t have what you need to access the forest temple yet, and instructs you to head over to Kakariko Village. Leaving the temple of time, we can immediately see that the ring around death mountain has turned red. If we look back to what Kaepora said earlier about the clouds around death mountain; “When they look normal, it is at peace”. This is our first sign that Hyrule has changed for the worse in the 7 years Ganondorf has been in power. Heading out to the market, there are no buildings remai

ning. Only rubble, accompanied by redeads. If we make our way over to Kakariko Village, this NPC in front will tell us that he saw the ghost of Dampé the gravekeeper sink into his grave. “It looked like he was holding some kind of treasure!”. Sure enough, we can find Dampé’s grave, and enter it. Here, you’ll be challenged to a race by Dampé’s ghost. So long as you complete the race, you’ll be rewarded with the hookshot. We’re now ready to go take on the forest temple. If you head over to Kokiri

Forest, you’ll see that it's been overrun with monsters. All the Kokiri have shut themselves inside. None of them will recognize you. Instead they’ll tell you that Mido and Saria have both seemingly vanished. This know-it-all brother will tell you that the Forest Temple is located in the Sacred Forest Meadow we visited earlier in the game to learn Saria’s Song. While we could head straight there, I wanna talk about this girl inside of Saria’s house. She asks you if you’ve ever met a boy named Li

nk? “Mido said that the Great Deku Tree withered because that boy did something wrong to it…Only Saria defended Link--until she left. Maybe we misunderstood…” I wanted to highlight this, because it perfectly shows Link’s relationship with the Kokiri. None of them seemed overly worried about Link. And from this line, we can tell that they may even blame him for the events that have occurred over the last 7 years. Heading into the lost woods, Mido will once again block our path, saying that he pro

mised Saria he’d never let anybody get passed. If you play Saria’s Song he’ll let you through, ending with “When I see you, I don’t know why, but I remember him…” Making our way through the lost woods, we eventually reach the top of Sacred Forest Meadow. Link will somberly stand by the stump where Saria used to sit. Sheik suddenly appears. “The flow of time is always cruel…Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it…A thing that doesn’t change with time is a memory of you

nger days…” Sheik will teach you the Minuet of Forest, which you can use to warp to the Forest Temple entrance at any time. Then they vanish into thin air. Forest Temple has a lot of pressure on it. Not only does it have to be an enjoyable dungeon compared to the previous three child dungeons, but it also has to set the pacing and expectations for the dungeons you’ll complete as an adult. These dungeons are larger, more elaborate. We now see the use of locked doors, which require you to find a k

ey in order to open. The element of design that existed in child dungeons to sort of “move you along” the right path is completely absent here. From this point forward dungeons will require backtracking, guessing, puzzle solving, and much more. The challenging part about designing a labyrinth like this, is that you have to make sure the dungeon is challenging while also avoiding situations where the player can get softlocked. Ocarina of Time does an excellent job at solving this dilemma, and the

Forest Temple is the perfect dungeon to put in front of the player first. By the time I played through this section, it’d been long enough where I actually forgot how to beat this Temple without glitches. It’s actually one of the only dungeons where I couldn’t rely on autopilot, and it took me around an hour. You have to hunt down these 4 Poe to unlock an elevator that leads you to the entrance for the boss room. Everytime you find one and kill them, you restore the corresponding colored flame

in the main room. The main area is intentionally dull in color and detail so that these flames stand out more, making this sign of progression almost impossible not to notice. My favorite rooms in this dungeon are the two twisty hallways, which will change orientation if you hit the eyeball switch on the outside of them. One of said switches is frozen in ice. The intended way to do this is by shooting an arrow through the torch, creating a fire arrow, however this puzzle can also be solved by us

ing Din’s Fire. This dungeon is beautifully designed, and as the perfect end to it, the final boss is none other than…GANONDORF?!?sss Phantom. This was an excellent choice on Nintendo’s part as it familiarizes you with the first phase of Ganondorf’s boss fight while also providing enough space until the end of the game to not make it repetitive. When Phantom Ganon's fight starts, you have to find which painting he’s going to exit from and shoot him with your bow or the hookshot. Much like the lo

st woods, you’re able to tell which painting the phantom is coming from by using audio queues. These are the only two times where audio is actually important, so even if the connection isn’t intentional I'm gonna pretend it is. For the second phase you play tennis until Phantom Ganon misses the returning swing, allowing you to attack. The optimal strategy is actually to swing a bottle, rather than your sword, as this hitbox is both larger and out for longer. Once we defeat Phantom Ganon, we’re g

reeted with that familiar blue hue and heart piece, only this time, stepping inside will transport us to the Chamber of sages. Suddenly, Saria appears from a blue warp of her own. As you’ve probably figured out, she’s the sage of the Forest Temple. She doesn’t make you explain anything to her. Instead she says that “it is destiny that you and I can’t live in the same world.” She grants you the Forest Medallion, adding her power to yours just like Rauru did. The screen fades to white, with the te

xt “Saria will always be your friend”. Returning to the overworld, you’ll be brought in front of the Deku tree and see a sprout sticking out of the ground. It suddenly pops up! This is the Deku Tree Sprout. He says that he’s able to grow because you and Saria broke the curse on the Forest Temple. He then asks “Hey, have you seen your old friends? None of them recognized you with your grown-up body, did they? That’s because the Kokiri never grow up!”, “You must be wondering why only you have grow

n up! Well, as you might have already guessed, you are not a Kokiri! You are actually a Hylian!” During a great war in Hyrule some years ago, a mother with her child rushed into the forbidden woods in search of safety. When she arrived, she was wounded past the point of saving. She left her child, Link, in the care of the Deku Tree. The Kokiri didn’t recognize you as an adult because they saw you as one of them. The only person that was ever truly rude to you was Mido. Returning to Kokiri forest

, it appears as though nature has healed and everything is back to normal. However, Mido is still waiting in the Lost Woods for Saria. If we talk to him he’ll say “oh…I see…Saria won’t ever come back…But…I made a promise to Saria…If Link came back, I would be sure to tell him that Saria had been waiting for him…because Saria…really…liked…Hey, you. If you see him somewhere please let him know…and also…I’m sorry for being mean to him. Tell him that, too.” Mido is a small, yet memorable part of thi

s game. This tiny bit of character development is done very well, and nicely wraps up this part of the game in a cute yet somber way. Let's take a moment here to look at the map screen. I know it’s very distracting, but this blinking arrow herec is actually for the adult trade quest, which is completely optional. It’s only showing up now because I had grabbed the first item from the cucco lady in Kakariko Village on my way to grab the hookshot earlier. Ignoring Kakariko, we can see that both Gor

on City and Zora’s Domain are highlighted on our map. This is important, because the order that Navi and Sheik suggests you do the temples in is Forest > Fire > Water > Shadow > then Spirit, and that’s likely the order that you would play the game in too. Despite this, Ocarina of Time still acknowledges that the dungeons can be completed in a different order. The game notes through the map screen that you could complete Water Temple and Fire Temple interchangeably, and later Spirit and Shadow Te

mple. For the sake of this video, we will be following the “hinted order” from Navi. Heading to Goron City, we’ll find that all but one of the Goron have disappeared. They’ll roll around indefinitely until you use explosives to stop them. Doing so, he’ll yell “How could you do this to me? You, you’re Ganondorf’s servant! Hear my name and tremble! I am Link! Hero of the Gorons!” This is Darunia’s son. After clearing Dodongo’s Cavern of the Dodongo Link was viewed as a hero amongst the Goron, and

Darunia chose to name his son after you because of this. Link Jr explains that one day, while Darunia was out, Ganondorf’s army kidnapped all the Goron, and brought them to the Fire Temple. Ganondorf revived an ancient dragon named Volvagia, and plans to feed the Goron to Volvagia as a demonstration of power. Darunia went alone to the Fire Temple in an attempt to save the other Goron. Link Jr asks you to help save everyone, and gives you a heat-resistant tunic to help, and opens the doors to Dar

unia’s room, and the Goron Shop. In Darunia’s room, you can pull out the statue to access a secret passage leading to Death Mountain Crater where the Fire Temple is located. Crossing the bridge, Sheik will appear once again. “It is something that grows over time…a true friendship. A feeling in the heart that becomes even stronger over time…The passion of friendship will soon blossom into a righteous power and through it, you will know which way to go.” They then teach you the Bolero of Fire, the

warp song for this area, and disappears once again. The Fire Temple suffers greatly from the same dull color palette that Dodongo’s Cavern uses, however I feel that it works slightly better here. Fire Temple is supposed to feel eerie. The music helps accomplish this goal to great effect. In the first two releases of Ocarina of Time; NTSC 1.0 and 1.1, Fire Temples music also features a reading from the Quran. The recording used was sampled from Track 76 of “Best Service: Voice Spectral Volume 1”

. Koji Kondo, the games composer, was unaware of its connection to Islam and revised the music for future versions of OoT upon learning this. You didn’t need to know that, I just found it interesting. The puzzles in the Fire Temple are okay, not really noteworthy. The only thing I deeply enjoy about this dungeon is its use of vertical space, which is arguably done better than the Deku Tree. You have to ascend to the very top of the dungeon in order to get the Megaton Hammer, which you need in or

der to get the boss key and defeat Volvagia. Falling at any point in the open spaces will lead you into the room below. There’s even a platform in this room which you need to knock down to the lower level in order to get to the boss door. Other than that, this dungeon isn’t that amazing. Once you defeat Volvagia, Death Mountain returns to normal, and you’re once again brought to the chamber of sages where Darunia has awakened as the Sage of Fire, and grants you the Fire Medallion. “Don’t Forget…

Now you and I are true Brothers!” After this, we’re meant to head to Zora’s Domain, and then to our next dungeon, however I decided that now would be a good time to visit Lon Lon Ranch. After Ganondorf came to power, Ingo took over Lon Lon. We learn from Malon that he’s abusive to the horses and is using the ranch as a way to gain Ganondorf's trust. We can talk to Ingo and pay a few rupees to ride around on the horses. Playing Epona’s song will call Epona over, allowing you to ride her. Once you

do that, you’re able to challenge Igno to a race. If you win, he’ll challenge you again, and if you win the second time you get to keep Epona…only he locks you inside the ranch. That doesn’t matter though, because Epona can jump the fence. I’ll be honest and admit that I lost the rematch and came back later, but that’s not important. Something interesting to note is that despite being featured in the intro of the game, the cover art for the 3DS version, having her own special cutscenes, and eve

n a minigame that requires her, you’re actually able to complete Ocarina of Time without Epona. You don’t even need to use glitches to do so, because the only thing Epona is actually useful for can also be completed with the use of another item. You don’t even need to learn Epona’s song if you don’t want to. I only covered this part of the game because it’s heavily implied that you’re SUPPOSED to get Epona, which is good enough reason to talk about it. From here, we head on over to Zora’s Domain

. There are no more Zora here…it’s been completely frozen over. The only person we can find is King Zora, but he’s stuck inside a block of red ice. If we go on through to Zora’s fountain, you’ll find that it’s frozen over as well. Jumping on these floating icebergs will eventually lead us to the entrance of Ice Cavern. This is one of the game's 2 required mini dungeons, and it is VERY annoying. The ground is slippery, the enemies freeze you, that’s it. It’s an ice level. In this room you’ll find

a torch of blue fire, which you can catch in a bottle and use it to melt red ice. I’m skipping through all of this because I hate Ice Cavern and it’s not important…soooo, once you get to the final room of the dungeon you fight a white wolfos. Once defeated you are rewarded with a chest containing the Iron Boots. These are essential for the next dungeon we will be heading to. After opening the chest, Sheik appears behind you and explains that the ice covering Zora’s Domain is caused by the curse

d monster living in the Water Temple. They managed to rescue Princess Ruto, but before they could stop her, she started heading over to the Temple. “Time passes, people move…Like a river’s flow, it never ends…A childish mind will turn to noble ambition…Young love will become deep affection…The clear water’s surface reflects growth”. They then teach us the Serenade of Water. This is the warp song which brings you to Lake Hylia, where the entrance to the Water Temple is. From this point, you can g

o directly to Water Temple but in order to make it just a little bit easier, we’re first going to use some of the blue fire we got in Ice Cavern to unfreeze King Zora. If you talk to him after, he’ll give you the Zora Tunic as a “thank you” for unfreezing him. This allows you to breathe underwater, which we’re going to need. It’s time for the part of the review that anyone familiar with OoT would’ve been waiting for. Notoriously the most frustrating, and confusing dungeon in the whole game, I'm

sure that a fair few were shocked earlier to hear that Dodongo’s Cavern is my least favorite, as opposed to Water Temple. Here’s my thing; Water Temple is one big puzzle, it’s purposefully designed to be challenging, which is something I enjoy. If you’re able to look past the constant pausing to equip and unequip the iron boots, this temple is actually quite good. Water Temple also allows me to talk about the 3DS version of this game for a second because it actually offers solutions to all of th

ese problems. As mentioned at the beginning of the video OoT3D has an option to watch videos showing you how to do certain things, however Nintendo also decided to add new elements and icons to Water Temple in order to provide visual clarity and make it significantly easier to figure out what you’re meant to do. They also allow you to equip and unequip your boots with the press of a button. OoT3D fans, don’t get excited, this is the only time where I’ll say this version of the game is better. Th

e main highlight of this dungeon is the fight with Dark Link, main highlight meaning I hated it so so so much. Defeating Dark Link without any knowledge of how to cheese the fight or…well hit him at all, is insanely difficult. This is also something that’s significantly easier in OoT3d…whether or not this is a good or bad thing I don’t know. Defeating Dark Link will reward you with the “Longshot” which is functionally just an upgrade to your hookshot that lets it reach further. The main boss of

this dungeon is Morpha, who is significantly easier than Dark Link, but still very annoying. Once defeated, we meet Ruto in the Chamber of Sages. She says that she senses Princess Zelda is still alive, and tells you not to get discouraged, granting you the Water Medallion. “If you see Sheik, please give him my thanks, OK?”. We warp out into Lake Hylia, and see it fill with water once again. Sheik is there. The two of you share this sort of moment where you recognize what you’ve accomplished so f

ar, until he disappears. From here, we head to Kakariko Village. When we enter, we find the town lit on fire. Sheik is standing by the well. “Get back Link!” A force throws the post from the well, and a shadow escapes attacking Sheik and Link. You wake up. It's raining. “Link…A terrible thing has happened! The evil shadow spirit has been released. Impa, the leader of Kakariko Village, had sealed the evil shadow spirit in the bottom of the well…But the force of the evil spirit got so strong, the

seal of the well broke, and it escaped into the world! I believe Impa has gone to the Shadow Temple to seal it again but…she will be in danger without any help! Link! Impa is one of the six Sages. Destroy the evil shadow spirit and save Impa!” He then teaches you the warp song to reach the Shadow Temple entrance, the Nocturne of Shadow. The door to Shadow Temple will only open using Din’s Fire, as you need to light all these torches. Heading inside you’ll be met with a wall that tells you “The S

hadow will yield only to one with the eye of truth, handed down in Kakariko Village.” Navi will tell you to go explore the well, which you can only do as a child. By the way, do you remember earlier when I said that you can do either Spirit, or Shadow Temple at this time? Well, let's say that you chose to head to Spirit Temple instead. You can either use Epona or the Longshot to cross the fallen bridge in Gerudo Valley. We will be using Epona because it’s cooler. At the top of Gerudo Valley you’

ll find Gerudo Training Ground, where the Gerudo women have kidnapped several carpenters. When you free one of the carpenters he will tell you that he overheard the Gerudo say “in order to cross the Haunted Wasteland, you’ll need the ‘eye of truth’”, so there’s no way around getting the item. What you’re meant to do is head to the Kakariko Windmill. You’ll see that the man inside seems…angry. “I’ll never forget what happened on that day seven years ago! It’s all that Ocarina kid’s fault! Next ti

me he comes around here, I’m gonna mess him up!”, if you pull out your Ocarina he’ll say “What?! You’ve got an ocarina! What the heck! That reminds me of that time seven years ago! Back then a mean kid came here and played a strange song. It messed up this windmill! I’ll never forget this song!”, you then learn how to play the song of storms. It’s pretty obvious that you are the one who played this song as a child to Guru Guru, but how is that possible if you’re just learning it now? This is a b

ootstrap paradox. There’s a convoluted solution to this involving the Zelda Timeline, and Majora’s Mask, so if you want to see a Does It Hold Up episode on Majora’s Mask with a possible solution for this paradox, make sure you headbutt the like button and subscribe while you’re down there. Heading back to the Temple of Time, as we approach the pedestal, we meet Sheik. He tells us that returning the master sword to the pedestal will send us back in time, and teaches us the Prelude of Light which

allows you to warp to the temple of time. This cutscene actually triggers once you beat Forest Temple, we just didn’t go back to the Master Sword pedestal until now, because there was no need to. Once we become a child again, we can head on over to Kakariko, and play the song of storms for Guru Guru, causing the well to drain, and allowing us to enter into our final mini dungeon: Bottom of the Well. Many people don’t enjoy this area, and to be honest I kind of agree. There’s only one reason you

would ever need to come down here outside of speedruns, and that's to obtain the Lens of Truth which is a “required item”. Other than that, Bottom of the Well is mainly just a sneaky little plot device which I’ll explain soon For now, let’s go forward through time, and head to Shadow Temple. The Lens of Truth reveals hidden and fake objects, which are abundant in the Shadow Temple. If you head through this back way, you’ll eventually find a room where you fight Dead Hand, which will reward you w

ith the Hover Boots. These will also be essential for completing the dungeon. In my opinion, Shadow Temple is very well designed. It takes the theme of a spooky, hidden, ghost dungeon and runs with it. Invisible platforms, big punishing pit falls, this spinning grim reaper thing, and a ghost boat! The only thing I don’t like about Shadow Temple is the lack of unique enemies. I also wish the Lens of Truth activated in an area that was larger than this circle, but that’s a separate complaint. I re

ally enjoy this one room where two spiked wooden panels slowly close in on you. You have to use Din’s Fire or Fire Arrows to burn down the walls, and I think that’s a really cool idea. Hi. Hello, this is editor James. Uh…ed-editor's note here, apparently you can’t use fire arrows to burn down the panels. I just kinda assumed…because it’s still fire and you can do everything else you can do with din’s fire with fire arrows. Uh…it turns out this is the only thing you can’t so…yeah. The boss fight

of this dungeon is also designed very well. Bongo Bongo is a great mix of difficulty, and design, and while a bongo playing ghost sounds a little strange for what is supposed to be the “darkest” dungeon, I actually feel like it works very well here. After defeating Bongo Bongo we’re once again brought to the Chamber of Sages where Impa meets us as the Shadow Temple Sage. She recognizes that you’ve become a strong hero, and assures you that Zelda is alive, and gives you the Shadow Medallion. “Ple

ase look out for the Princess!” The Spirit Temple is the last dungeon standing between us and Ganondorf. One final test to see if we’re ready to save Hyrule. We head back on over to Gerudo Valley, and continue into the Haunted Wasteland. Here, we have to use our long shot (or the hoverboots) to cross this quicksand pit. Once you reach the other side, you must follow these flag posts until you reach this platform. Failure to do so will send you back to the beginning of the wasteland. After you ge

t through this portion, you’ll find these ruins. On top of them, there’s a plaque that reads “One with the eye of truth shall be guided to the Spirit Temple by an inviting ghost”. Using the item will show you a hidden Poe that guides you through the secret path on the second portion of the haunted wasteland. Once through, you’ll reach Desert Colossus which is essentially just the outside portion of the Spirit Temple, so let's head in. Once you enter the Spirit Temple, you’ll be faced with a stra

nge situation…you can’t do anything here. If you read the text inscribed on the two stone cobra, they will read “If you want to proceed to the past, you should return here with the pure heart of a child” and “If you want to travel to the future, you should return here with power of silver from the past”. Okay cool, we have to go back in time…but how are we going to get here as a child? Exiting Spirit Temple, you’ll find Sheik once again. “Past. present, future…The Master Sword is a ship with whi

ch you can sail upstream and downstream through time’s river…The port for that ship is in the Temple of Time…To restore the Desert Colossus and enter the Spirit Temple, you must travel back through time’s flow. Listen to this Requiem of Spirit…This melody will lead a child back to the desert.” You then learn the Requiem of Spirit, the last song of Ocarina of Time. In this cutscene we can see Kaepora silently observing before flying off into the sky. He’s a reminder of how far we’ve come. Warping

back to the temple of time to become a child, and returning to Desert Colossus with the use of the Requiem of Spirit, we can enter Spirit Temple once again as a child. This time, we’ll find a Gerudo named Nabooru. After telling her we hate Ganondorf, she asks you to go through the hole behind her, and find the “silver gauntlets”, which she herself describes as another strength upgrade, much like the Goron bracelets. She wants to steal from Ganondorf and mess up his plans, and explains that the

gauntlets won't fit you anyways. Once you agree to help her, we can head on through. This section of the Spirit Temple is really good. There’s a few cool concepts used here, including an enemy that can only be defeated by burning them. My favorite part of this section is how they introduce you to this new type of switch. There’s a crack in the wall in this portion of the dungeon that navi becomes interested in. You can blow it up using either bombs or bombchus to reveal the sunlight, causing thi

s sun switch to activate, allowing you to progress. Once you pass through the dungeon, you’ll eventually find this room with a suit of armor sitting down. This is an Iron Knuckle. They are the new enemy for this dungeon and they hit HARD. Defeating the Iron Knuckle will open up a door that leads outside. Heading outside we will once again find Kaepora. “Hey, what’s up, Link? Surprised to see me? A long time in this world is almost nothing to you, is it? How mysterious! Even I thought that the ta

les of a boy who could travel back and forth through time were merely a legend. Link, you have fully matured as an adult. From now on, the future of all the people in Hyrule is on your shoulders. Maybe it’s not my time anymore. Here is my last advice. Two witches inhabit this temple. In order to destroy them, turn their own magic power against them. I will continue to watch you.” He then leaves, for the final time. We open the chest to find the Silver Gauntlets, being met with a cutscene afterwa

rds. We see the two witches of Spirit Temple place a curse on Nabooru before heading back inside. I suppose there’s nothing else left to do besides returning to the temple as an adult in order to complete the dungeon. Now that we’ve obtained the Silver Gauntlets we’re able to move these large blocks on the opposite side of the main room. The adult portion of the Spirit Temple is also very good. Better than the child portion in my opinion. Once we make it through to the opposite hand, we’ll find

the Mirror Shield, which can be used to reflect light and solve the sun puzzles in order to finish the rest of the dungeon. Heading through the boss door, you’ll first fight another Iron Knuckle. However, inspecting this one, Navi will react differently than with a usual Iron Knuckle. This time Navi will say “something’s strange…This is not an ordinary enemy!” Once you defeat the Iron Knuckle, Nabooru emerges from the armor. Kotake and Koume then appear and kidnap Nabooru once again, saying they

should brainwash her once more and make her continue to work for Ganondorf. After this, we can head on through to the REAL boss room, where we can fight the sisters. We do just as Kaepora told us to, using the mirror shield to reflect their magic back at them… ice hurting fire, fire hurting ice. Once you do this a few times, they’ll merge together into Twinrova. You do the exact same thing to defeat her, getting rewarded with this really funny cutscene where you watch the twins realize they’re

dead, only to start arguing about their true age. As they exit, the text “I will come back to haunt you!” appears. Spooky. Heading through the blue warp, we’ve awoken Nabooru as the sage of the Spirit Temple. While this is cool, I personally wish we had a little more of a connection with Nabooru, as the other sages are a lot more involved in Link's story. You could argue that Rauru is less significant, however, according to hints from the gossip stones and the 2011 book; “Hyrule Hystoria” it is

revealed that Kaepora, the owl, is actually the form that Rauru takes in order to communicate with Link from outside of the spirit realm. Speaking of Rauru, once we receive the Spirit Medallion, we see a cutscene where he says “Link, the Hero! Finally, all of us, the six Sages, have been awakened! The time for the final showdown with the King of Evil has come! Before that, though, you should meet the one who is waiting for you…The one who is waiting for you at the Temple of Time…” Warping back,

you’re immediately greeted by Sheik. “I have been waiting for you, Link. Link, the Hero of Time…You have overcome many hardships and awakened six Sages. And now you have a final challenge, a showdown with Ganondorf, the King of Evil…Before that…I have things I want to tell only to you. Please listen. Another unknown legend of the Triforce passed down by the shadow folk, the Sheikahs…If you would seek the sacred triangle, listen well…The resting place of the sacred triangle, the Sacred Realm, is

a mirror that reflects what is in the heart…the heart of one who enters it…If an evil heart, the realm will become full of evil; if pure, the realm will become a paradise. The Triforce…the sacred triangle…it is a balance that weighs the three forces: Power, Wisdom and Courage. If the heart of the one who holds the sacred triangle has all three forces in balance, that one will gain the True Force to govern all. But, if that one’s heart is not in balance, the Triforce will separate into three part

s: Power, Wisdom and Courage. Only one part will remain for the one who touched the Triforce…the part representing the force that one most believes in. If that one seeks the True Force, that one must acquire the two lost parts. Those two parts will be held within others chosen by destiny, who will bear the Triforce mark on the backs of their hands. Seven years ago, Ganondorf, the King of Thieves, used the door you opened in the Temple of Time and entered the Sacred Realm. But when he laid his ha

nds on the Triforce, the legend came true. The Triforce separated into three parts. Only the Triforce of Power remained in Ganondorf’s hand. The strength of the Triforce of Power enabled him to become a mighty, evil king, but his dark ambitions were not satisfied. To gain complete mastery of the world, Ganondorf started looking for those chosen by destiny to hold the two other Triforce parts. The one who holds the Triforce of Courage is…You, Link! And the other, who holds the Triforce of Wisdom…

is the seventh Sage, who is destined to be the leader of them all…” Sheik reveals the Triforce of Wisdom, until a light flashes…we hear Zelda’s Lullaby begin to play, and there she is. “ It is I, the princess of Hyrule, Zelda. I apologize for meeting you in disguise, but it was necessary to hide from the King of Evil. Please forgive me…On that day, seven years ago, Ganondorf attacked Hyrule Castle. I saw you as I was escaping from the castle with my attendant, Impa. I thought I should entrust th

e Ocarina to you…I thought that would be our best chance…As long as you had the Ocarina in your possession, I thought Ganondorf could never enter the Sacred Realm, but…something I could never expect happened…After you opened the door of time, the Master Sword sealed you away in the Sacred Realm…Your spirit remained in the Sacred Realm..and then the Triforce fell into Ganonforf’s hands. He went on to invade the Sacred Realm…Ganondorf had become the Evil King, and the Sacred Realm became a world o

f evil. All of this is an unfortunate coincidence. I passed myself off as a Sheikah and hoped that you would return. I waited for seven years…And…now you are back. The dark age ruled by Ganondorf the Evil King will end! The six Sages will open the sealed door and lure Ganondorf back into the Sacred Realm. I will then seal the door to the Sacred Realm from this world. Thus, Ganondorf the Evil King will vanish from Hyrule. Link…In order to do this, I need your courage again. Please protect me whil

e I do my part. And here is a weapon that can penetrate the Evil King’s defenses…The power given to the chosen ones…The sacred Arrow of Light!!!” The earth begins to rumble. Zelda is imprisoned in a magic prism. Ganondorf has found her. “If you want to rescue Zelda, come to my castle!” it’s an obvious trap but…what choice do we have? Heading to the castle, we can see it’s become ruined. Altered by dark magic. Approaching the large crater, the sages gather their power to create a bridge to the ca

stle. Rauru explains that inside the castle, there’s six magical barriers, preventing the sage's magic from getting in. You need to take the barriers down in order for the sages to help you stop Ganondorf. Inside the castle, you’ll find 6 rooms, all themed around the medallions and their respective dungeons. Completing these areas will present you with the respective barrier, which you must shoot with a light arrow to destroy. Once you do so, you can then head through the rest of the dungeon whe

re you’ll find several enemy rooms, each getting progressively more difficult until you reach Ganondorf’s boss door. It’s revealed that the music playing throughout the dungeon was being performed by Ganondorf the whole time, which is funny considering how long he’s been playing the same song, but is also a pretty cool detail. As you enter, the triforce on both Link and Zelda’s hand illuminate. “The Triforce parts are resonating…They are combining into one again…The two Triforce parts that I cou

ld not capture on that day seven years ago…I didn’t expect they would be hidden within you two! And now, finally, all the Triforce parts have gathered here! These toys are too much for you! I command you to return them to me!” A wave of darkness emits from Ganondorf. Navi is unable to help you. We begin our fight with the King of evil. Ganondorf’s fight is very similar to the fight you had with his phantom in the Forest Temple. Only this time, it’s harder, and after reflecting his magic back at

him, you have to hit him with a light arrow and attack to do damage. Delivering the final blow, he falls to his knees. “The Great Evil King Ganondorf…beaten by this kid?! Link…!” In a final bout of strength he destroys the castle, before seemingly falling dead. Zelda breaks free of the prism, and the tower begins to collapse. You’re put on a time limit as you and Zelda attempt to escape. Reaching the outside, the castle crumbles. From the rubble, a bang sound. Ganondorf emerges. Powered by pure

rage, he transforms into a beast named “Ganon”, weidling two blades. He knocks the master sword from Link’s hand. Navi yells “There's no way he’s going to hold me back again! This time, we fight together!” We have to use our other items to defeat this beast. Once we get him low enough, the fire wall falls, and we can get the Master Sword again. We continue our fight until he falls to the ground. Zelda uses her power to hold him, as you deliver the final blow. The six sages, and Zelda combine the

ir power to seal Ganondorf in the sacred realm. “YOU…CURSE YOU ZELDA! CURSE YOU SAGES!! CURSE YOU LINK!!! Someday..when this seal is broken…That is when I will exterminate your descendants!! As long as the triforce of power is in my hand…” We cut to Link and Zelda in a light blue sky. “Thank you, Link. Thanks to you, Ganondorf has been sealed inside the Evil Realm! Thus, peace will once again reign in this world…for a time. All the tragedy that has befallen Hyrule was my doing…I was so young…I c

ould not comprehend the consequences of trying to control the Sacred Realm. I dragged you into it, too. Now it is time for me to make up for my mistakes…You must lay the Master Sword to rest and close the Door of Time…However, by doing this, the road between times will be closed…Link, give the Ocarina to me…As a Sage, I can return you to your original time with it. When peace returns to Hyrule…It will be time for us to say good-bye…Now, go home, Link. Regain your lost time! Home…where you are su

pposed to be…the way you are supposed to be…” “Thank you…Link…Good-bye” The credits roll, and show us the many areas we’ve visited throughout the game. We see all the NPCs we’ve encountered having a great time together. We’re then shown Link returning the Master Sword to its pedestal. Without a word, Navi flys off. We get a close up of the Master Sword, presented by Nintendo. Link returns to the castle courtyard, looks at Zelda, and that’s it. The game is over, our story with Link is finished. Y

ou can’t close out of this, you’re effectively soft locked here until you either reset or turn off your console. Something about that is the perfect conclusion to this game. Early in the video I hinted that there’s a hidden plot sprinkled throughout this game. Not hidden because you aren’t supposed to notice, but hidden because much like Link, you had to go on your own adventure through time to understand. Link’s adventure starts when he’s just a child. Back then, despite having the fate of the

world placed on him, Link’s adventure was a lot brighter. The NPCs you interact with seem cheerful and filled with hope. The dungeons and challenges you face are more straightforward and centered around the idea of helping others. You don’t enter Jabu Jabu to get Zora's Sapphire, you enter Jabu Jabu to rescue Princess Ruto. It’s not until halfway through the dungeon when you discover she has the spiritual stone to begin with. Kakariko Village and the Market Square are filled with life, and many

of the darker parts of Link’s childhood are tucked away in a back alley or at the bottom of a well. Yes, Link is going through a lot especially for a kid, but others make that easier for him. It isn’t until Ganondorf begins his assault when things start to get worse. The themes of adult link are understably a lot darker, not just because Hyrule has fallen, but because Link has grown. And that's the true message of Ocarina of Time. As much as it’s a hero story, it's also a story about the tragedy

of growing up. When you awaken the sages you aren’t “rescuing them”, you’re saying goodbye. Saria tells you it’s destiny that you two can’t live in the same world, yet despite never being able to see her again, “Saria will always be your friend”. It’s not just that though; the Temples themself seem to each represent different aspects of life. The Forest Temple, with Saria, represents losing those close to you as time goes on; “The flow of time is always cruel…Its speed seems different for each

person, but no one can change it…A thing that doesn’t change with time is a memory of younger days…” Ghosts are the main enemy of this Temple. Fire Temple, with Darunia, represents the kindling of everlasting friendship; After killing King Dodongo, Darunia refers to you as his “sworn brother”. It isn’t until after you’ve helped him and his people in the future, when you become “true brothers”. “It is something that grows over time…a true friendship. A feeling in the heart that becomes even stron

ger over time…The passion of friendship will soon blossom into a righteous power and through it, you will know which way to go.” Before the Water Temple, Sheik tells you; “Time passes, people move…Like a river’s flow, it never ends…A childish mind will turn to noble ambition…Young love will become deep affection…The clear water’s surface reflects growth.” Once you defeat the temple the “clear water’s surface” rises once again, showing how much you’ve grown. Young love becoming deep affection is

more symbolic of Ruto’s one sided relationship with Link. Shadow Temple is an interesting one, as you’d think it’d be about death and the afterlife or even abandoning an old passion of…playing the bongos? But I think it’s meant to symbolize overcoming hardships and accepting them. The dark shadow you’re fighting escapes from the BOTTOM OF THE WELL, which is where you obtain the LENS OF TRUTH allowing you to see through everything. Link might as well defeat Bongo Bongo with introspection. Spirit

Temple’s medallion is a yin and yang, and the design of the temple is centered around the idea of finding balance in one's self both past and present, in order to succeed. There’s not really a big discovery to be made with this one, I think it’s the only Temple where its message and theme don’t require much speculation. Even without all these deeper connections and plot devices, Ocarina of Time is still undoubtedly a masterpiece. But if you noticed the length of the video, we aren’t quite done h

ere. There’s still plenty we have to discuss. There’s a lot of side content, but once again, in the interest of time we’re going to make this as short as possible. I did a few optional quests during my playthrough, but based on what I showed in the video; there are still 11 Items I didn’t collect, both the adult and child trading quests, 89 gold skulltula tokens, 36 heart containers, and plenty of hidden gems and easter eggs. Also in the 3DS or Gamecube versions of the game, there’s a second mod

e called “Master Quest”. This is essentially just a redesign of the game's dungeons, with an added ramp in difficulty. Replay value, replay value, they replaced the switches in Jabu Jabu with cows. Master Quest is very cool, and I definitely appreciate the ability to try a more challenging adventure, but I think the option to effectively start over keeps you from discovering all the tiny details throughout OoT. I love finding easter eggs, and things I didn’t know about before. For example, if yo

u go to Lake Hylia, to the fishing pond as an adult, the guy running the fishing pond will be wearing a hat. You can actually catch his hat from off his head, and then get it stuck in the middle of the pond. If you do, he’ll get mad at you, and take 50 rupees from your wallet, but the coolest part about this is that it also affects his appearance in the ending cutscene. As a side note, if you’re interested in the game's story, there’s actually an official Ocarina of Time manga. Apart from major

story events, there’s a lot of changes in these, some that arguably make more sense. For example; In the manga, Dark Link is actually the Shadow that escapes from Bottom of the Well. And you fight him in Kakariko, rather than Water Temple. There was a lot of care and attention to detail put into this game, but as a consequence of that many little things slipped through the cracks. There are an unfathomable amount of glitches in OoT. Perhaps the best example of how broken this game is would be th

e any% speedrun that we mention in the beginning of the video. The current world record for this run is held by Murph_E at an impressive 3 minutes, 51 seconds, starting from the moment you first control Link. The way this works is through a glitch called Arbitrary Code Execution or ACE, which in itself is an extension of glitch called Stale Reference Manipulation or SRM. The most basic explanation of these glitches is that by performing a specific set of actions, you’re able to manipulate the ga

me's memory. Let's start with SRM. In Goron City, throwing a bomb into this pot will cause a cutscene to play before spitting out a heart piece. If we do that again, but pull out a bombchu this time, the bombchu will explode during the cutscene. Since Link is frozen during this time, the game hasn’t recognized that he’s not holding the bombchu anymore, and will try to fix itself on the first possible frame. But what if a new piece of data loads into the spot where the bombchu was meant to be at

the same time? Well, the game will basically confuse the new item with the bombchu, allowing Link to hold whatever loads there even when he isn’t supposed to. With precise setups SRM can even be used to modify game files, and all other sorts of things. This glitch is so powerful that the OoT speedrunning community opted to create separate categories for runs that use SRM. The most powerful application of SRM is Arbitrary Code Execution. By modifying the game's memory in specific ways, you’re abl

e to force the game to execute code that you yourself modified through a series of specific events. In the case of an any% run you’re forcing the game to load the credits. As you can probably imagine, being able to break the game this much means the number of smaller glitches that exist is insane. I couldn’t even begin to explain everything that’s possible in this game, as much as I would like to. If you’d like to learn more about these glitches, I highly suggest watching the glitch exhibition t

hat ZFG did on GDQ Hotfix in 2021. The segment is 4 hours and 42 minutes straight of ZFG explaining a large portion of the glitches in OoT with great detail. I’ll have it linked in the description for those interested. You may be confused to see a game review show talk about speedrunning and that's because Does It Hold Up isn’t just a review show, it’s an analysis of a game's longevity. And nothing is more important to that than community. Speaking of which, another large part of Ocarina of Time

’s community today are randomizers. If you’ve never played a Zelda randomizer before, I highly recommend starting with OoT. It’s a lot of fun, and there’s a ton of settings to mess around with. The team at OoTR has genuinely doing an incredible job. As a benefit to playing randomizers it can be a great way to introduce yourself to a ton of glitches that will see use in longer speedrun categories if that’s something you’d like to explore. Ocarina of Time is an amazing game, front to back. Is it t

he best game of all time? I suppose we’ll see as this series continues, but for now I am very confident in rating OoT a perfect 10/10. I’ve played this game many times, and the fact that I’m able to discover something new in what feels like every session speaks volumes. If you for some reason have never played OoT, drop everything right now and get it. If you have access to it and prefer less of a challenge, Ocarina of Time 3D on the 3DS is the most user friendly version of the game. In my opini

on, the janky controls and dated graphics give OoT a lot of charm, so if you’d like to experience Ocarina of Time as it was originally designed; Wii virtual console is the best version, followed by either gamecube or N64. A large reason why I made this review is because Nintendo no longer officially sells any version of Ocarina of Time, so if you can’t legitimately obtain one you’ll have to do so through other means. This does come with a warning, because emulators cause all of your first person

items to move at light speed for some reason. However, it’s easier to randomize your game if you use one so…do whatever you think is right. And that is where I’d like to end this episode of Does It Hold Up. Like I said in the beginning of the video, this is arguably the most important episode of Does It Hold Up that I’ve ever worked on. To a certain degree, I don’t even care how this video performs, I’m just glad I finished it. I learned two things as I was writing this. One; maybe don’t adopt

a kitten while you’re in the middle of your biggest project. This is Mochi btw, he’s my adorable little nightmare. And two; The current format of Does It Hold Up is not sustainable. I enjoy working on videos, and streaming, but I’ve always struggled with finding a balance between consistently creating content that fits my schedule and creating content that I think someone might actually enjoy. I’d like to experiment with doing smaller things alongside bigger projects like this, but definitely no

t as long and as stressful. I really wanted this episode to be detailed and good because that's what OoT deserves. Thank you so much for watching, I will see you all again, definitely sooner than last time.