The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time | Retro Review | Nintendo 64 - TheFamicast.com: Japan-based Nintendo Podcasts, Videos & Reviews!

No matter how many years pass, some games remain timeless. While they may have shown signs of aging or the particular series has moved on in a technical perspective, some experiences are still a joy to go back and play. This remains mostly true with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64. Like many of you, after getting the game at Christmas in 1998, Ocarina of Time has remained one of my favorite titles of all time. Some games have passed it in my personal top game list, but the impact that the title had on gaming is unquestionable. Today, we’re diving back into the game to talk about what makes it so endearing and if it’s worth playing today. Let’s get into it.

Release

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time had a pretty lengthy development period and was originally shown off in a tech demo video at Shohinkai (Space World) in December 1995. After numerous delays, including moving the game from the company’s ill-fated 64DD add-on to the base console, Ocarina of Time released first in Japan on November 21, 1998 and was followed by a release in North America on November 23, Europe on December 11 and Australia on December 18. Since then, the game has seen re-releases on various consoles, including the Ocarina of Time/Master Quest bonus disk on the GameCube, The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition on the GameCube, the Wii Virtual Console in 2007, the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015 and the Nintendo Switch Online/Nintendo Classics lineup in October 2021. Of course, there is also the 2011 release on the Nintendo 3DS and the 2026 remaster on Nintendo Switch 2, but those are the topic of discussion for another time. When it was all said and done, the original Nintendo 64 version of the game sold 7.6 million units worldwide, making it the fourth best selling game on the platform of all time behind Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64 and Goldeneye 007.

Story

Ocarina of Time revolves around the story of Link, this time around initially portrayed as a young boy from the mysterious Kokiri Forest. After a troubling dream with a gruff looking man chasing down a princess, as is Kokiri custom, a fairy goes to our young hero on the behest of the Great Deku Tree. It’s there that the adventure begins taking Link across the realm of Hyrule in an effort to thwart the evil Ganondorf in his plans from obtaining the Triforce. There are many locations to visit, characters to meet, dungeons to explore and more on this journey across the realm and time - a concept that allows for players to explore Hyrule as both a child and a young adult. It’s not going to blow you away, and even at the time it wasn’t considered high brow narrative or anything like that. You could even say that it takes quite a bit from its predecessor, A Link to the Past, in many regards. Personally, I always thought the story was fine, but the gameplay and world take center stage in this adventure.

Gameplay

Nintendo took what worked with Mario 64 and adjusted things quite a bit to get the gameplay to fit The Legend of Zelda series. Link can use his sword to attack with B, interact with items/doors/etc. with A and block with R. The C-buttons are put to good use in the game with C-Up being used to switch to a first person perspective to look around and the remaining C-buttons used for equipment. In terms of additional items, these all feel pretty nice to use and are brought to life together in 3D really well. Things like the Hookshot are super fun to use while more conventional weapons like the Bow/Slingshot and the unpredictable Bombchus are enjoyable. Several mini-games are also thrown into the mix over the course of the game, including the awesome fishing hole which I spent countless hours at in my playthroughs.

The jump from 2D to 3D and to a larger world brings up the question of traversal. As young Link, you’ll have to hoof it (no pun intended) across Hyrule Field to get to where you need to go. However, the introduction of the horse Epona changes this when you play as an adult. Keeping Epona limited to adult Link was perhaps intentional as it essentially requires players to familiarize themselves with the world at hand. By the time you get Epona, you know your way around, but likely just want a faster way to get across the map. Epona definitely alleviates this and is also just fun to control. Warp elements are also introduced into the game with songs you learn from Sheik which are another great way to travel once you have them unlocked.

Not only does the ocarina play an integral role in the story, it also plays one when it comes to gameplay. While a bit more passive than standard weaponry, playing songs with the ocarina can open passageways, make blocks appear, change the days to nights, allow for time travel through obtaining the Master Sword and more. Speaking of time travel, playing as either young or adult Link bring different things to table. Adult Link is definitely stronger, has more abilities and equipment at his disposal, but there are some secrets and activities that you can only do while playing as Young Link. A good chunk of the main story revolves around the later time period and both are fun, though I prefer the older version of our hero.

Making the leap to 3D and coming off of Mario 64, many fans were upset at the initial news that Ocarina of Time did not include a jump button, but would rather have Link jump automatically in these situations. I was also a little worried about this aspect of the game before it released, but I found and still find it to be usually okay. There are some times when you will jump off of a ledge if the camera is at an odd angle or if you’re in a hurry, but it’s mostly fine. With the emphasis here not being on aggressive platforming or jumping throughout the adventure, the decision makes sense, though some may bemoan the lack of mobility. You can perform backflips and lunges with your sword, but these are not quite the same as a dedicated jump.

The usage of the Z-button is one of the highlights of Ocarina of Time. This can do two things - center the camera behind Link or lock on to items, NPCs and enemies. This is contextualized from a story perspective with the fairy Navi being the basis for this. This lock-on mechanic was quite the revolution and has been copied by many 3D games since. While the series (and several others) could have excluded this in the overall game, it can be very helpful when dealing with picking off enemies one by one or talking to other characters far away.

Speaking of battles, although exploration plays a big part in Ocarina of Time, battling enemies is equally as important. They can be found in both the overworld and, of course, dungeons. The variety here is pretty good, with the introduction of several new enemy types to the series, and then some returning ones as well. It’s a bit odd that Moblins are very few and far between (maybe that would have slowed down the game if you had to fight a group of these every so often in the overworld) but I like what’s on offer. The dungeons themselves are also varied, well designed and do a good job at bringing the traditional dungeon formula into 3D. Not every one of these is a hit - the Water Temple is still a bit rough, but nonetheless interesting and Jabu Jabu looks a bit too similar in places, making it a bit confusing. Still, I enjoy the dungeons overall. The bosses are also pretty cool, albeit a bit easy. I really enjoyed the battle with Dodongo and Phantom Ganon quite a bit. Simply put, these are some of the biggest spectacles that the game has to offer and give you a look at how 3D style bosses in the series started and evolved over time.

Camera

Going back a bit, perhaps the only thing about the gameplay that might take a bit of getting used to is the camera system. As a product of its time and with only one analogue stick used for controls, you are able to recenter the camera behind Link with the press of Z. If you’re used to modern controls with full camera control, this might be a bit off-putting, but after a little bit of time with the game, you’ll get used to it. Interestingly, game producer Shigeru Miyamoto had this to say in an IGN interview in 1999:

“Before making Mario I noticed that the camerawork in video games could reflect the game creator's will. Or in other words, the camera angles are created so that you can have the view which is considered to be the best and most convenient view by the creators. For Mario 64 we wanted to change that. In that game, the player himself controls the camera and can decide to choose whatever angle he wants to play. After Super Mario 64, we decided that we wanted to do something else in Legend of Zelda. In the case of Mario 64, Mario himself was the center of the attention, in the case of Zelda, it's different. The center of the game is not Link, but rather the world which he lives in is a base for making the total world, the total gaming world, and the camera work has been designed in a way to reflect that concept.”

Generally speaking, the camera does a pretty good job at giving you the angles you need for fighting enemies and traversing the world. There are some areas that give players forced perspectives (Hyrule Castle Town, the inside of some buildings, etc.) but for the majority of the time, you have some element of control. It would have been interesting to see how the game could have turned out if Nintendo went with locked camera perspectives, but I think it’s quite clear why they didn’t - they wanted to put players closer to the world and show off the 3D engine that they crafted. A fixed camera system would potentially diminish this. It’s not perfect, but it still shows Nintendo’s fantastic work with this mechanic despite not given gamers complete control over the camera (a la Mario 64).

Visuals, Audio & Performance

Ocarina of Time was easily one of the best looking games in 1998 on Nintendo 64 (though, Turok 2 looks a bit better in my opinion!). The scope of the game was something that is kind of hard to understand these days, especially when comparing it to modern titles. But back then, there were (and still are) several “wow” moments - stepping out onto Hyrule Field for the first time, roaming around Hyrule Castle Town, Zora’s Domain, scaling Death Mountain - there were a lot of cool moments. Again, the world is quite small by today’s standards. Additionally, you could argue that the world itself outside of the towns is actually quite empty. I don’t disagree with that, but in the context of the world, the open areas not being populated with tons of enemies or NPCs makes sense (this is my coping mechanism here!). Opinions on this will vary.

Character animations, while an early example of 3D gaming, still look quite nice. Idle animations for Link and his attacks, the various NPCs and others are pretty good. One other thing that Ocarina of Time had going for it was the real-time cutscenes versus pre-recorded and pre-rendered 3D videos found in games (mainly) on other platforms. While FMVs were quite impressive at the time, I always thought they were a bit of a dishonest way to rope players into buying games. Sure, there are instances where they can enhance storytelling, but they do a bad job of giving players an idea of what the expect from games while actually playing them. Ocarina of Time does this differently by doing all of the cutscenes in-engine, with a variety of camera cuts, pans and tweaks to animations. It’s a great system, it isn’t taxing system or storage resources and conveys the story.

The music is absolutely fantastic and still holds up as one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time. Dynamic tracks that start up when around enemies are also a great touch and helps players feel the heightened sense of danger. While the game is missing the iconic overworld theme that the series is known for, what’s on offer here is pretty good with composer Koji Kondo delivering a good mix of new and revamped music.

Revised Content

It’s interesting to note that some elements of Ocarina of Time have been changed since its initial release - some of these even shortly after launch. While there are websites dedicated to ALL of these in detail, there were just a few that I wanted to point out. The ones I am bringing up here can be found in version 1.0 and 1.1 NTSC (North American and Japanese) carts. You can tell if you have one of these by looking at the cart itself and checking for a pressed number code on the sticker on the back of the cart. 1.0 will contain just two random numbers, while 1.1 will have two random numbers and the letter “A.” Version 1.2 will contain two random numbers and “B.” PAL versions of the game are all based on version 1.2 and contain all of the bug fixes and and changes that are found in the current version of the game. It should be noted that these versions were all completed before the official launch of the game. The reason why the earlier versions were even put out into the wild was due to the company making sure they had enough copies printed for that holiday season. For more, be sure to check out Zelda Speed Runs page on all of the differences here.

version 1.0 cart

version 1.1 cart

version 1.2 cart

Outside of numerous bug fixes, one thing that Nintendo changed in the game was the the Fire Temple theme song. The version available now is somewhat of a remixed version from the Spirit Temple. The original was quite different and quite a bit more foreboding, featuring what sounded like Islamic chants. The original “reason" for the removal floating around the internet was a result of public outcry from concerned parents. Well, having lived through the time, I don’t remember that happening at all. No stories in the papers or in the newspapers. Nothing. And there’s a good reason for that - the outcry never happened. In fact, thanks to some digging by GameTrailers in a 2013 video (you can watch that here), there is an official answer from Nintendo. They said that the background chants were:

“...originally chosen from a library of commercially available music and sound effect programs. Our game developers did not know that the sounds used in the game had Islamic references. Once we were informed that there were real Islamic musical references in this section of the game, the music was removed from all subsequent production runs of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.”

I have a few carts that contain this music and you may, too. It’s definitely worth checking your carts!

Another interesting alteration to the game has to do with blood. While it’s quite rare to see in the game, there are two specific instances that the game has where Ganondorf and then Ganon both show blood on the screen in the final battles. This was changed from red to green in version 1.2 and later releases of the game. There was never a specific reason given for this, but it was likely done to ensure that the game retains a more family friendly game rating in all regions. It should be noted that all re-releases of the game (GameCube, Wii & Wii U Virtual Console, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2 Nintendo Classics) are all based on version 1.2. For more about differences in the game versions, you should check out ZeldaSpeedRuns.com to see everything that they have found over the years. Again, these aren’t the only guys who have uncovered things like this in the game, but I want to give a shout out to the Zelda community for all of their hard work finding information like this over the years.

Collector’s Corner

With Ocarina of Time being on of my favorite titles on the Nintendo 64, I have several copies of the game from both North America and Japan, including the gold cart version which I got from a friend back in the day (complete with box) and my original box (standard edition, not with my original cart). I also have two Japanese versions of the game that I picked up during my time here in Japan. My boxes are all in pretty good condition and have held up quite nicely over time. The gold foil on the special edition version still looks pristine and is one my favorite items in my collection.

As you can tell, the Japanese version has quite different box art with a black background, a silver flame, and then the game’s logo and Link riding Epona in the center. The same key art was used in the Japanese release of the Ocarina of Time / Master Quest on the GameCube, albeit in color. Regardless, the Japanese N64 box art is probably my favorite that Nintendo came up with. Sure, the North American box offers me (and I’m sure you guys as well) more of a blast of nostalgia, but that Japanese one is very classy.

One other item I got from my buddy back in the day when I bought his N64 and Ocarina of Time from him was this Ocarina of Time binder that holds up to four games, has a slot for accessories (mainly memory cards) and slots for something as big as a strategy guide. I’m honestly not too sure where this was available at in North America, but it’s a pretty interesting piece. I also have a cool N64 cart carry case that I also go from my buddy and my original Prima guide for the game that I picked up back in the day. Do any of you out there have any of these? I’d be interested to hear your stories about these cases or your own personal copies of the games in your collections. Like I mentioned earlier, I got this for Christmas in 1998 alongside some other bangers like The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, WCW/NWO Revenge, Pokémon Red and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron - probably my best holiday haul ever! Let us know yours in the comments!

Conclusion

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64 stands the test of time but isn’t without flaws. Upon release, many aspects of the gameplay helped set the stage for many other titles that would come after it. Things like the introduction of the Z-targeting system is something that is still used liberally in many games today. Although many games have taken what Ocarina of Time introduced and evolved, you can’t ignore the impact that the game had on 3D action games as a whole. Of course, there are more technically sound games to play and maybe even more interesting ones from a narrative perspective. However, for games from the era, you will be hard pressed to find other titles that play, perform and look as good. If you’re looking to go back to the N64 version of the game for the first time or the fiftieth, there is still quite a bit to like with this classic.

But let’s turn things over to you. What do you think of Ocarina of Time? Did you play it during the holiday season in 1998 or did you tackle the game at some point afterward? What’s your favorite Zelda game of all time? For me, it used to be Ocarina of Time for quite a long time, but I honestly think that Majora’s Mask topped it with a very different take on the series. Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are also very high on my list. Anyway, be sure to sound off with any and all comments down below. We’d love to hear from you.

by Danny Bivens