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So, I'm having a lot of really amazing feelings playing through The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time who what I'm going to call my first genuine time playing it. THREAD.
I call this my first genuine playthrough because I am now currently farther in it than any playthrough I ever did as a child. How far am I, you ask? I just pulled the Master Sword out of it's pedestal. I never got past Jabu-Jabu as a kid.
There were two things that held me back from ever really getting into Zelda in my life: 1) I really did not like Puzzles. I had the temperament to only enjoy things I was an Instant Expert on. If I actually had to sit down and think things through, it was not for me.
This is why a lot of my favorite games growing up were platformers. Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie always ran on a logic I instantly understood. I had a small tool set of moves that instantly made sense to me, rather than the slowly growing kit a game like Zelda features.
2) Ocarina of Time is a SCARY GAME. I'm currently sitting in the Temple of Time, inspired to write this because I'm genuinely nervous to go out into the ReDead infested remains of Hyrule Castle Town. More than two decades later, those things still scare the daylights out of me.
Even the dungeons you enter as a kid are creepy and unsettling. Deku Tree has a constantly creepy spider motif going on. The first time a Gorma Egg falls from the ceiling scared me half to death. Dodongo's Cavern is dark and burns your shield off, then makes you pay for it.
And what the HELL IS UP WITH JABU-JABU. I hate it. The squishy walls. The tentacles. Everything hurts you until you find the Boomerang. It's a wonderful test of your abilities as you round out the opening dungeons, but my heart was racing the whole time.
But what I'm finding the most is how much I am loving this game. It is so much more expansive than I remember it being. Even in 1998, the things to do in it were constant, with Pieces of Heart and Skulltulas to find all over the place. Solving puzzles feels so fresh.
I don't think I could have ever truly classified myself as a Zelda fan until now. I have never finished one, and I might make it a goal to finish all the 3D entries before the end of the year. Even when I said Majora's Mask was a favorite of mine, that was more because I liked...
... the game's themes and it's strange structure. I got far in Wind Waker when I was younger, but lost interest at the Triforce Quest. I have played maybe an hour of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword combined. And BOTW is a game I liked, but kept putting down for other things.
What I'm trying to say is... I'm loving Ocarina of Time and I think my Scared Of His Shadow Ten Year Old Self is going to be very proud of me as soon as I work up the courage to leave the Temple of Time. The End.
