The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Retrospective | Defining a Genre 

Correction: Eiji Aonuma didn't actually work on the Zelda 1. Ocarina of Time was the first game in the series he worked on.

Every reviewer who makes a video on oot puts the title cut scene as their intro because it is that iconic

My parents let me play OoT when I was around 6 or 7 (it was a few years old at this point) if I promised to read everything out loud for them. This game literally taught me how to read and will forever be my GOAT I think

Oh hell yes I never get sick of OOT retrospectives

Ganon: *Knocks the Master Sword out of Link's hand.* Younger me: *Screams in unison with Zelda.*

Was born in 1997 I grew up watching older brothers playing this game and it is so nostalgic for me. The game started the formula for 3d Zelda’s and is just so mysterious and perfect

Egraptor's Sequelitis video pissed me off when I saw it lol. As someone who plays randomizers and has a pretty deep understanding of all the mechanics of the game... I do not see his video as an "Opinion". He outright states things about the game as if they are fact, but in actuality, it is his lack of understanding of game mechanics. It's been a long time since I watched his video, but I specifically remember him pointing out that he hated how long you have to wait for enemies to do certain things before you can attack them. He showed examples of the Poe Sisters when they turn invisible and you have to wait until they become visible again. This is not true... if you throw a Deku Nut they INSTANTLY reappear. If you know this, the entire fight with this Mini Boss type enemy takes 10 seconds. He also shows examples of the Stalfos and says you can only attack when they lower their shields. It is possible to crouch stab at angles they are not shielding to attack them at any point without any waiting whatsoever. It is also possible to stun them with Deku Nuts. You can easily hit them anywhere once they are stunned. Criticizing games is fine. But that criticism needs to be grounded in factual statements. The Game Grumps are known for never paying attention or reading anything in their playthroughs. Eren was made fun of in every single episode for never once using his shield in his entire playthrough. That's completely fine for a casual playthrough. You can play the game however you want. However, playing games in the ways that they do makes them entirely unqualified for reviewing games. How can you do such an indepth critique of a game when you don't even pay attention to it during your playthrough to the point of where you never even learned how to use the shield by the end of the game?

I see many expressing how Ocarina of Time doesn't deserve the love it gets and that people only love it out of nostalgia. Although I did grow up playing Zelda games, I did not grow up with Ocarina of Time. I only got to play it when I was 26 years old two years ago and let me tell you this game stole my heart. The music, the characters, the gameplay, the story, all of it. It's one of the greatest games of all times yet also recieves extreme hate which is sad. But I'll always love it with all it's awesomeness and imperfections. Ocarina of Time is timeless to me (pun intended). This video deserves more views and comments! i just subscribed, ill go watch the other retrospective videos now

I love that everytime a RU-vidr I watch finishes a retrospective on a Zelda series another one appears

I just found your channel and you’re seriously underrated! Can’t believe how many subs you have for the quality content you’re putting out. Hoping to see you grow in the future!

The amount of lies and rumors that were told about this game was nuts. My first memory is of playing it at a friend's house and they told me that "at night, the Big Dodongo appears and will kill you if you get caught." I finally got the game later on and was always terrified to be out at night, until I found out that not only is there no instant kill enemy, but the Big Dodongo was just a pushover early game boss. Also, Master Quest has some really cool and tricky puzzles, especially in the adult dungeons. Never gotten really stuck in a Zelda game except MQ.

The treasure box game has 5 50-50's for a 1/32 chance of randomly guessing, which is actually well within Brute forcing territory. To this day, I still regularly play the game this way. Usually only takes 20 minutes tops.

I've watched a ton of oot and majoras mask reviews/retrospectives and this is one of the only ones that actually describes the in depth mechanics and technology as well as the lore and how important and equally impactful both of those things are. Very high quality man, great vid!

I managed to 100% ocarina of time 3ds once, I’ve never done it again because of that damn fish

I really appreciate the dedication to the ganondorf sound clip bit

Always love the PGReview Retrospectives! Great job on the video man! Ocarina of Time will always be the game I consider closest to home for the Zelda world, that’s why it has such a special place in my heart.

I love your videos man, you're doing great. Thank you.

Another fantastic retrospective! Ocarina of Time was my first Zelda game, and the fact that it still holds up today is super impressive. I played the 3DS version, and I actually didn't know that it was an old game. That just goes to show how well it holds up. The dungeons and music are still some of the best in the series, and the whole game just has so much personality. So glad you're covering the 3D Zelda games, and great job with this massive video!

I remember my brother being 10, I was 8 and we got an n64 with Zelda and Golden eye for Christmas. It was the best Christmas ever!

I really like you stuff man, keep it up! (the Ganondorf soundbite joke was really good but maybe use it just twice, or use a different soundbite every time)

Loving your videos, very relaxing

I'm excited for this series of retrospectives! This is such a special game to me. Any track from it instantly transports me back to my buddy's basement, with him showing me all of the cool stuff in the game. Great memories.

- Link: Zelda, i killed him, i killed Ganon. - Zelda: Good 😎.

Just found this channel from the samus returns retrospective and I gotta say you absolutely deserve more subs

Found this channel while browsing Metroid-adjacent content with the re-release of Prime. Great stuff brother, subbed!

Good work as always. Nice to see another take on ocarina of time that feels refreshing in spite everything everyone else has said on it

Well done! Loved the video

I appreciate the specific mention of how much of the atmosphere of the fight with Ganon is taken out on OoT3D. That version is over all the best one, but my single issue would be that. Bottom of the Well/Shadow Temple could, and should, be scarier too, but I'm not that nitpicky. The N64 Ganon fight though? It's one of the most intimidating bosses I've ever fought. One of my strongest memories left from my childhood playthroughs of the game is being legitimately nervous and even scared of Ganon. It's fine on 3DS. Just a shame is all.

Glad to discovered this channel a while ago. Awesome content mate! ❤. I still remember playing jabu jabus belly at my mates hous back then, no clue what to do. Good memories!

OoT retrospectives never get old. Thank you for taking me back to my childhood.

I remember when Ocarina was released but I didn't see it advertised. Just stumbled on to it one fine day in the electronics section at Target blown away exploring the Kokiri Forest as young Link. Used to record my progress on VHS because I didn't own the game and had to keep renting it. The first time I visited Zora's Domain, I thought I was at an indoor waterpark. And of course King Zora!

Man, I'm glad as hell I found your channel! Just watched the Twilight Princess vid which was awesome so I subbed and watching this now. What a journey! Seriously though, although that Sequelitis vid by Arin Hanson really did say a lot I didn't agree with nor do I still today, it's still a fantastic bit of content that is still funny as hell. Also, there are some pretty bitter pills to swallow in there but still.....fuck'em lol I love this game. Can't wait to binge out on your stuff, the effort you put in shows and is most highly appreciated!

youre really good at this!!! Keep going youre gonna make it big!

thanks for posting this! very timely, i've been playing the hell out of botw and thinking about what the next one is gonna be like lately.

Loving your vids mate, the Melee GANONDORF is killing me

Looking forward to this awyeahhhh

Man im binging your Zelda vids and idk if anyone has ever told you this but you HAVE the voice for this sort of thing. Like when i first opened your twilight princess video and i got this warm deep welcoming voice i was like "oh yeah, these are gonna be good". Somethin about it, like you were made to tell me intriguing opinions and stories about the zelda franchise... anyway, love listening to your stuff while I work, keep up the great work

One nitpick: there are actually subtle hints for who wants which mask, so you only need to talk to every single NPC once, take note of anything they say about things they want, and then cross check with the mask descriptions looking for a match and hope you don't miss anything...

Seeing the young version of Link playing the ocarina of time reminds me of an episode from Dora The Explorer called "Pablo's Flute".

I thought you would make the joke of calling the Master sword “The Master Sword of Time” because of all the times you said “of time” when you were recapping the story

I never played a zelda game despite owning GBC, SNES, and N64. Im loving your retrospectives, however. Please keep them up!

I remember having to ask my dad for help with the Redeads as I was terrified of them and while I didn't put a TON of thought into the Scarecrow's song (I just reversed Epona's Song) I was incredibly surprised and excited when it became the the Song of Healing in Majora's Mask 😅

A Link To The Past will always be my top Zelda game. Is the one I grew up and fell in love with. Thank you for recognizing the huge impact this game had for the future installments, especially OOT...as many reviewers seem to miss that detail.

Great video on one of my favourite games!

Loved the retrospective, but I have to say, why does everybody forget about deku nuts?? You bring up the point about wolfos and stalfos taking too long, but you can just stun them with deku nuts and the hook shot. Over 20 years and people still don’t know haha. Jokes aside, one of the best Zelda retrospectives I’ve seen.

It was such a touching moment when Link played "Never gonna give you up" at the end.

This is the first vid of yours I've had recommended and it's an injustice you only have 6k subs. You have one more now:)

Great retrospective! I will say that Bongo Bongo goes from decently easy to very threatening if you do a 3 heart run. OoT is one of my favorite games to do such a run.

Nobody: PGReviews: gAnOnDoRf

Hell ya! Ocarina of time was one of the best things happened to my childhood 😂 Another comment: I do reviews on my channel myself. I found out that my videos get a higher watching retention, if I start directly with the topic instead of doing explanatory intros. So you could consider to cut the intro, and start directly at 2:36. Your videos should have way more views, the passion and effort you put in your videos is insane!

OoT was the first game I ever felt hyoe for pre release. I saw a TV commercial and knew I wanted to play this game. Badly! So I saved on my pocket money. I was so, so happy when I was able to purchase the game close to release. I still remember the excitement I felt when I entered the castle gardens and met Princess Zelda for the first time! And theeeeeeen I broke my arm on the way to school and wasn't allowed to play anymore (It was a rather complicated fracture and for some reason I wasn't allowed to move my thumb more than necessary). Boy, was I disappointed... However, looking back to it now I'm actually quite glad that happened. Of course it sucked hard at first but it lead to some of the fondest memories surrounding my mother I have. Although she surely had better things to do, she took the time to play the game with/for me ("Just tell me where to go and what to do."). Because of that (and the fact that I most likely would have never met my husband if there was no OoT) OoT will always have a very, very special place in my heart. It's not my favourite part of the series anymore but it's the one that means the most to me.

"A genre" Bro. You mean the whole video game industry.

6:22 - I was 9 when this came out, so I feel *old* when I hear from adults who weren't even alive at the time talking about it. But also pleased to see the youngins appreciate this masterpiece! It's cool to hear your perspectives coming to the game later. Reminds me of my generation enjoying 80s games that predated us slightly. I can confirm this game was hype as fuck around the time of release. The jump from 2D-3D era in general honestly. Though as a 9 year old with only Nintendo consoles, it was hard to compare with PS1/Saturn/etc. Access to info was very limited back then, I'm not even sure if I saw video of the game until after release. EDIT: The Shiek/Zelda reveal being spoiled by Smash Bros is something I'd never even considered. A perk of playing OoT before 2001 lol.

If you play Saria's Song on the Ocarina of Time right after you get it, Saria even notes the fact that the Ocarina sounds different. Hyrule Warriors Legends somewhat addresses this issue as well. Skull Kid is supposed to have been pulled from the events of Majora's Mask. His first tier Ocarina is the Fairy Ocarina, implying that Link _did_ keep it and Skull Kid stole it from Link along with the Ocarina of Time. Its a cute little touch.

On one hand, LttP really needs a retrospective. It defined the series all the way to BotW. On the other hand, GANONDORF

I was 12 when OOT came out. I remember how much I enjoyed LTTP and I will never forget the awe and wonder that this game made me feel. I had AOL at the time but really the internet was still kind of new thing at the time. There was no looking up information or talking about it on forums. We would get stuck and talk about strategy and such at school the next day. This made the game last for such a long time for me. We played the game for months before we finally beat it. I will never forget how many hours I dropped getting stuck in the water temple.

I have this game number 3 all time in the franchise and I have no nostalgia bias toward this franchise and yes the 3D version is my preffered way to play it.

I never had problems with the Water Temple as a kid tbh... I was stuck way longer in the Fire and Forest Temple as I was missing keys.

When I first played this, it was 1999. Finding the sword was a fun little way to break you into the environmental mechanics and the shield mission rewards you for exploration. We expected A Link To The Past but in 3D... We got something WAY better.

As another lover of both Zelda and Metroid games, I very much appreciated the Super Metroid escape music played over tower collapse escape. I literally LOL'd XD

I was 14 when this came out, the hype was real. I picked up my copy at midnight and missed the next day of school playing all night. Blew my mind.

I was 12-13 when it came out. Trust me in my eyes, it has earned the top dog mantle 💪🏻

Let's goooo

14:00 Hey, that's how I first played it! And I still think the muted colors look good ok? 😂

Where can I watch the Zelda theories you talked about in this?

This was really great, I'm super excited for the rest of this series. Ocarina of Time is phenomenal, and yet I still personally place it on the lower end of the 3D Zeldas in terms of quality. Just a testament to how great the series is. As for the video itself, I agreed with the majority of your points. Good work!

The first time I ever played Ocarina of Time happened before I went to school and learned how to read, and I played that game for way too long on the difficulty mode called “this idiot doesn’t know he can lock onto shit”. Also you should wear the hover boots when you fight Bongo Bongo, it makes it a lot easier to make your shots on his hands.

I'm surely not the only one who, as a kid, was more frightened by the Forest Temple than the Shadow Temple 😂😅

For the fishing hole.. did you get the upgraded fish hook?

Why spend the intro dating this video, a timeless game, deserves to be a timeless retrospective.

Watching this on November 21st, 2023. Happy birthday to my favourite Zelda ❤

11:09 my heart! This is so cute and heartbreaking!

If you want to replay original oot patch a rom with redux mod gives you so many quality of life improvements and you can ramp the difficulty up

Is a link to the past one of these???

"I wasn't even alive when Ocarina of Time came out." * gasps and disintegrates in Old Age remembering when Ocarina of Time came out when I was a kid *

this was the game tat got me into Zelda.... first play it during 99 and back then.... but was stuck in the Adult Link Ghost temple.

I was old enough to appreciate the transition from 2D to 3D in the mid 90s (12-14 years old) and OoT time is, in estimation, the greatest game I ever played. I still play it on occasion via the 3DS. Majora's Mask is also fantastic and it doesn't get enough recognition because I think a lot of people were experiencing Zelda fatigue still, even 2 years after the release of OoT. It would like if we got TotK in 2019 instead of 2023.

Damn twinrova was my favorite boss fight and that temple is my favorite temple

after the 14th ganondorf joke i checked out

45:35 speaking of that hole… In the original thats where the infinite gold skulltula exploit can be performed.

24:55 Missed one.

Oh hey, I was also not alive when Ocarina of Time came out. My birth year game was Four Swords Adventures. Oh and The Minish Cap.

53:51, I, literally, laughed out loud.

Bongo Bongo becomes far less annoying to beat once you slowly figure out you're supposed to fight em with the hover boots on

Whats funnier about the gorons is that they’re not in danger of starvation. They just can’t access the rocks they’re addicted to, because they refuse to eat any other rock.

I don't know. Definitely think that despite menu placement, the Spirit Temple is meant to be last. Requires Young and Old Link to be used to pass. And like the Shadow Temple, is lore heavy and tied to the main villain. But also the boss(es) being characters rather than just average bosses and even have their own distinct theme.

I know you didn’t want the vid to spark negative say on egoraptor, but “I went from loving this game, to hating it, to loving it again when I stopped being a jackass and looked at it fairly” is the most accurate description of egoraptor’s opinion of Zelda if you removed the final bit. That video of him criticizing OoT is fine, he can have his own opinions and some of his criticisms are pretty solid, but other criticisms of his are straight up unfair cause he had the tendency to purposely sabotage himself when playing by ignoring mechanics and features then blaming the game for it. Had a buddy of mine literally avoid the game because of the video and when I advised him to truely try it out, he found it much more enjoyable then he thought he would

The OG Ocarina of time came out b4 Smash Bros was even a thing so no it isn’t a spoiler that Sheik is Zelda

3:50 - While the translation for games back then were.. pretty rough, that particular screen is actually correct. (But his friend actually got his name messed up, which ruined the joke when you looked at them both in the translation.) 18:19 - I'd say it was less that it had "cleaner graphics" and that it was more of a "lighting issue", at least for that fight. It's kind of a consequence for being on a hand-held, they boosted the overall lighting and it hurts the atmosphere of some places. (This applies quite a bit more to Majora's Mask 3D too.) 58:20 - This is more Trivia than anything, but you can also use the Ice Arrows to freeze Bongo-Bongo's hands. It even has its own unique animation for doing that. Of course, considering the timing, most people would never see it. The Fire Arrows have slightly more use since you can light torches with them, handy if you're low on magic at least.

I miss the round-eared Gerudo, they were actually Different

I have an idea for a new title…. Legend of Zelda: The Beacon of Hope The game would have a dark western theme like twilight princess but have the vast open layout like breath of the wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The land will be scattered with different ranches, animals, characters, etc… Basically, instead of scattered shrines you will have huge ranches, farms, and villages scattered throughout the land that will be apart of the main story but also used for side quests and item fetching for certain goods that you will need throughout the game. Link is considered an average worker until the story and game progresses and by the end of the game he becomes a true leader that saves the land and his people from outside intruders. Dungeons will take place outside of the mainland and into certain areas like forests, mountains, swamps, lakes, caves, etc… Lastly, it will have a dark western theme. Like a combo of Zelda and Red Dead put together!!!! New enemies would include alligators and snakes in the deep swamps and giant polar bears in the high snowy mountains. Opening cutscene will have Link getting his ass beat in a fist fight by the toughest rancher and he has to go back to work the next day with a black eye. In the middle of the game Link will have a rematch which will establish himself as head rancher and that moment will be the equivalent to him growing up in Ocarina of Time by pulling the master sword. Main characters will follow you throughout your adventure and help you along your journey. Some of them will even die during the dungeons and it will be emotional because even though they died you have to keep moving forward. The main premises of the game will be about family, loyalty, hope, trust, hard work, and sacrifice.

I don't care if I played the game a million timesヽ(*￣▽￣")ノ Your narration and scripting makes it worth for a retold of one of the most iconic histories in gaming Is funny how this game stays true to it's title and manages to defy time itself to still stay in the hearts of players even to this day Can't wait for the majora's mask review! :D since that is my favourite one ^w^ I would love to hear your opinion and experiences on it

Zelda is one of my favorite protagonists. He's just so cool

I have never understood the gripe with fishing. I never saw it as a hard or tedious thing to do and I hate fishing IRL.

It was a flute in A Link to the Past.

OOT and MM deserves a true Console Remake

Was that paul rudd in that commercial.??! Lmao

I love the n64 version but man the 3ds version is way better to me now

I usually don’t follow the “well everyone loved it so of course it’s critically acclaimed” ….but yeah it’s really that good and I’d wager 99%of people that played it really love it.

I bought a Nintendo 64 near launch, because of the Zelda tech demo. Then literal YEARS passed and, no Zelda. So I sold it. I didn't get to play Ocarina until they ported it to GameCube.