What's So Great About The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time? - Adventuring in Real Time 

what blows my mind about super mario 64 & ocarina of time, is how nintendo not only nailed 3d gaming on their first attempt ... they created the blueprint that all games, even today, still follow.

Christmas 98 will Forever be a favorite of mine. Getting this game and staying up late or enjoying a snow day while on a landline telephone with friends while trying to figure out what to do next is a memory I’ll cherish forever. How incredible was it to have this game, Pokémon red and blue and game boy color all on the same Christmas break. I was a lucky kid.

You have to take yourself back to 1998. This game was one of the most impressive things I had ever seen. This is the first game as a kid that I remember being completely blown away with the visuals.

I like the fact you actually explain the context of this game within its time of being made.

I’ll never be able to recapture the nostalgic feeling of this video game… but I remember it was the greatest time of my life. Thank you for the nostalgia trip ❤️

The score of this game was perfect. You could feel the game intensifying as you get closer to danger. I remember that Forest Temple being so spooky and so odd. Then they added time travel which was different from a Link to the Past’s dimensional travel. I hope TOTK has dimensional travel.

Want to know what the funniest thing about OOT is? That game had cut content. There was supposed to be a "wind temple" and a full temple of time dungeon. If you look closely above the door in the forest temple, there's wind symbols, so I'm guessing thats where the wind temple was originally supposed to be located. Basically, OOT is like 85% finished, and its still one of the best 3D and N64 games out there.

I remember that first time you leave the forest, and the camera pans across Hyrule Field. Games during this time period generally did not have the same feel of vastness

The Hero Of Time is my favorite Link. His voice and design take me back 😌

"Best" is completely subjective. I consider this the best game ever made. Played it through more than any other. You really highlighted how limitation led to innovation and personality in regards to character design. OOT will forever be a game fondly remembered for so many of us.

that's so cool that the fairies, goron rolling into a ball and Zora's popping up from under water was a creative way to fit on the hardware.. it comes off so naturally

Ocarina for 3ds was my obsession for a solid 5 years as a kid, and I’m currently replaying it. It’s been really fun to go back to a simpler time

No game has ever gave me a huge sense of adventure than OoT. It was so new for it's time. After the N64, I ended up getting a PS2 and the closest game that ever gave me a good sense of adventure was probably Shadow of the Colossus... but not in the way Zelda: Ocarina of Time did. Sometimes, I'll watch live streams of this game and it gives me a good sense of nostalgia, but it will never be the same as when I was a kid playing this for the first time. I almost feel bad for the kids growing up now with video games because they didn't get to experience it

PlayStation owned most of the mountain, but Nintendo owned the top.

What? No mention of Ocarina of Time 3D for the 3DS? It's the absolute best way to play this game. The second screen is a stroke of genius (and means you can have 4 active items equipped instead of 3), tilt aiming is a dream come true, and they made the Iron Boots and Hover Boots items instead of equipment, so you can just toggle them on and off without pausing. Basically every major flaw with the N64 original was corrected, and it's a straight-up masterpiece.

I think this is the best video game ever made. It has everything in one game. I love many games, but I still have not played a game that gave me the ultimate gaming experience as this game did. If I had to pick one game to keep, it would be this game.

You know why this game is still great even by today's standards? Because it doesnt have any bullshit. It doesnt have a giant empty open world that takes 200 hours to explore, no 45 minute cutscenes, no overly convoluted story a fandom tries to make sense of, no tutorials 15 hours into the game, no mindless sidequests that just serve to waste time, no generic user interfaces that all look like the same boring stuff Ubisoft has been shitting out for the past decade, no microtransactions, no 3 games sold seperately, it doesnt outstay its welcome, it is just a great compact package, an enjoyable fully fledged experience all around, just a great fucking videogame. That's why.

The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 had a slew of great games that came out at the end of the millennium. You had Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2, Syphonfilter, GoldenEye 007, Silent Hill, Super Mario 64, and The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. There were others obviously but those were the big 7 in my opinion. OOT was groundbreaking when it came out and I was blown away by the graphics and game play in 1998. Gen Y, Gen X, and Xennials had the best child teen years of all time!

Atmosphere and Sound Design are honestly pretty unmatched with this game, even to this day it still boggles my mind how crazy well this game Develops it's Atmosphere and the devs were so careful with how they engineered the Sound design...it still outclasses games even today with those elements, among other things. Masterpeice.

I was 6 years old when ocarina of time came into my possesion in 98'. I probably have not been more musically influenced by anything and I am a huge music nerd, but those beautiful melodies that were present built the foundation for me of emotion in music.

This video most certainly deserves a lot more views than the actual sequelitis by Egoraptor... You obviously put so much more effort into representing the game fairly than he did. Great job. 👍

This game is so good that simply by having the game's soundtrack playing in the background as you talked lent the weight of nostalgia to everything you were saying. The only part I disagreed with was regarding 'Dark Link' whose difficulty I think was both perfect and important. Dark Link, a mirror reflection of real Link, being strong meant Link was also strong. Add to the horror of your mirror reflection coming to life, and the uncanny valley that was Dark Link's battle arena, I always considered Dark Link to be something of a secondary antagonist in OoT

What can I say that hasn't been said before? I like how the torches crackle. Most nostalgic sound. I'm disappointed they don't make any noise at all in BotW and TotK.

Wow, with so many OOT reviews on RU-vid, this one stands out. You pointed out several things about this game I’ve never noticed. Great analysis

I’ve been playing videogames for over 20 years now and nothing comes close to the sense of awe and wonder I felt at experiencing this game for the first time as a kid. Thank you Nintendo.

I remember playing the game my first time and when I pulled the Master Sword was totally blown away to find Link 7 years older. Also the Water Temple for me was one of my favorite temples ever.

For me it's the hidden grottos, the lost woods, the way things are hidden cleverly that are so satisfying to find

I really want a remastered OOT with modern graphics and improved gameplay mechanics while still staying close to the source material, I think it would be really cool to see and it would be a good opportunity for newer fans to play it without needing an n64/3ds

I owned an n64 as a kid but never played Ocarina of Time. I just completed a few days ago my first playthrough and man I missed out big time as a child. This game is still great. I had always heard tons of bad things about the water temple and yes the iron boot issue was a bit annoying but overall I still thought it was a fun temple. I definitely see why this game even until this day is considered one of the best games of all time. Great video too, subscribed for more content!

17:05 It DOEs work. This fight is not supposed to be cheesed with the Megaton Hammer. You're supposed to alternate between horizontal and vertical swings. After 8 or 9 clashes of swords, Dark Link will stagger a little longer than usual, which will allow you to hit him with your next swing. If impatient players (Arin Hanson, I'm looking at you) took 5 freaking seconds to actually listen to Navi for a change they would know this: "Conquer yourself!" This is a yin vs yang trope. It's said right from the beginning that you're supposed to beat Dark Link with nothing but the Master Sword.

It's so good, we're still talking about it to this day.

Navi doesn't get the credit she deserves. Name a single OoT player who doesn't love Z targeting. Without Navi, no Z targeting. You learn that vs Ganondorf at the end of the game.

LoZ OoT is the best game of all time I fell in love with the game the moment you hear the opening melody and see Link riding his horse across Hyrule Field.

Todays generation will never get it. And how could they?When you grew up when things got invented and you lived through all these marvels it was unique. Today everything is there and standard. How will a generation understand what a leap the first Mario was, the first 386er, the first IPhone or Mario 64? They can’t understand. They live in a highly technologically world were everything is possible. I was born 72. I saw everything and I’m happy with that. I witnessed everything and it was a wild ride.

One of the best retrospective analysis of this game I've heard so far. I couldn't agree more. It was a technological marvel combined with remarkable contextual music and imagination. It's an exemplary work of art in this medium and despite it's limitations compared to modern hardware it still retains it's own unique charm. Timeless!

This channel has some of the best gaming retrospectives I've seen on this site, and I've seen a whole lot more than I'd normally want to admit at this point. Very few go into this level of analysis of the mechanics and how it relates to the worldbuilding, story and characters, not to say placing them in their proper historical context with technical limitations etc. And it's refreshing to not have the usual "yeah, I know what you're thinking, but hear me out..." and constant reference, repeat and/or rebuttal to some percieved shared consensus around how one ought to feel about a game. Just open-minded, sharp immersion into a lens of how the design process might have played out.

I only started playing OoT late last year, and the thing that struck me immediately is how you can actively use the shield. In pretty much every other game I've played the shield is just there, you press block and the guy raises the shield, and maybe you can bash with it as well. But OoT lets you move the shield around as long as you're not locked on, which led to some of the most epic combat I've ever had in a game as I frantically angled the shield to ward off multiple attacks.

Underrated channel.

That water dungeon did me dirty as a kid lol i always felt like someone was always sabotaging me but looking back at it , it just made me panic a lot , plus i didnt have the best concept of videos games always getting more challenging, i didn’t expect challenges after challenges to that extent

While other Zelda games [or other games I guess], do some things better than Ocarina, this game is in my top 3 for how much it managed to do for its time and link everything about the world, puzzles and so on so organically and just make it generally fun to play. Even after completing it once again for a Viddy Plays project, it still is amazing.

This video is really awesome but I just need to say this... 17:17 > "Having all of your defensive moves and more, Dark Link far outmatches the player in terms of capabilities." This, to me is what makes Dark Link such an amazing fight. But to each their own of course. Loved how you compare the UI and gameplay mechanics to games coming out today and being the similar. Really really cool video

The writing in this video is exceptional. Crazy how few subscribers you have - this literally is better than an IGN title. Excellent work, good sir :)

This game is so much legendary, that even I, a boy of the year 2000 who didn't grow up with the Zelda franchise through his childhood, felt nostalgia when I first finished to experience the game through the 3DS remake.

Oot was my first game that got me absolutely hooked to gaming. Was not my first game played but man it was definitely my absolute favorites. And I was so young it took me sooooo long to beat it for the first time. Plus the first year or 2 of playing it I had to rent it on the weekends. Then just dream of it for the rest of the week until I finally got it for Christmas. Then.... RuneScape 2 came out on internet and in 2004 it sealed my fate. Just pure nerd for ever 😅

Thank you for this. You explained soo well why this game was soo revolutionary in its time. People often misunderstand this and dismiss our appreciation as nostalgia.

There were so many moments in this game that made a huge impact on me as a child. Everything from the scope, story, sense of adventure, and feeling anything was possible. Endless possibilities and beautiful/breathtaking landscapes that captured my imagination. It is one of the reasons why I, too, this day love going out in the woods or open fields and go off on one of my own adventures. This game will never age as it is timeless.

I think it's pretty important to highlight what was said here: 8:00 - 8:45. I think a LOT of today's more action-adventure focused games just don't do what Zelda OoT did nearly as well. That positive reinforcement. Not only are most of the game's mechanics easily practicable in a variety of intelligent ways (through mini games) to help you master them, but the positive reinforcement ensures you're always willing to retry and engage with it without sheer frustration setting in. Most of those minigames and side activities always reward with something (usually rupees) but if done well give even better rewards. This gives a sort of interesting illusion that a lot of modern games kind of fail to get. Like yes, you "pay" to play these mini-games often times, but what you pay in you often get back or more, even if you technically fail as long as you do decent enough. This means that you have a "technical" fail state, but it's seldom ever really consequential and so most people get that sense of stakes but without the really harsh and annoying penalty of having to go farm to try again. Personally, I think many games, even some of the more popular ones these days just don't do this or do so pretty poorly. It's either a completely trivial tutorial that's almost meaningless and doesn't represent what the game will throw at you or some ridiculous challenge that's completely binary with no in-between positive reinforcement mechanism to avoid frustration. So often what happens is you'll have people drop them half way through or else just say those games are too frustrating to finish. Because they often take the stick approach (negative reinforcement). I think it'd be really helpful and more enjoyable to see more games integrate sidequests as more obvious, meaningful ways to improving the player's experience and skill with a game's mechanics while also implementing these kinds of interesting, well-thought out positive reinforcements. The reason this works in OoT and not some other games that do attempt it is because the "positive reinforcement" is often some form of MTX money which isn't really immediately useful until you've grinded it for dozens of hours. In OoT the amount is always immediately useful either to retry, raise more than you lost to get some other item(s) at a nearby shop or gain some powerup when you do succeed, thus completing the activity while also preparing you for other things in the game.

Legend of Zelda is one of the greatest works of art that humanity has created.

I remember playing this game on Christmas break 1998. Didn't know anything about Zelda, had zero expectations. Fast forward to today, it's my favorite game of all time. That was probably my favorite Christmas break of all time, too. Thanks for the video.

Never have I heard such a reasonable and well worded take on the "best game ever or not" part of this games legacy, I think that just about anyone that has played it can agree with what you said. Loved the video! Just started replaying it after years and I don't even notice the older graphics because the atmosphere (mostly due to sound design in my humble opinion) is just so gripping

This game absolutely blew my mind and earned a place in my heart.

As a kid who stood in line for 2 hours to play 10 min before launch back in 1998- its very hard to explain the insane hype of the game. Just here in Sweden I had only seen 3-4 screenshot of the game itself. I think people forget that sometimes. We had no idea how it would sound or look while playing it or how it would actually play now in 3D. And yes, it was eye candy for its day- the wow factor of the graphic is not to be dismissed. But I also think it ties into with it, just like final fantasy 7 was in europe, a christmas game.

Great video, agreed with all your points! Navi becoming a meme really underscores how much of a genius idea her inclusion was. She's your companion character, your quest log, she sways your attention towards characters and secrets, but most importantly using her as a targeting system for combat allowing to focus on enemies one at the time, also deepening the move set that Link has while fighting was MASSIVE for 3D gaming. Like you said, from OoT to Elden Ring 25 years later, countless games decided to make use of the targeting system that was introduced here. Just amazing! Plus, I dunno for you guys, but as a kid when I picked up the master sword and realized what Hyrule had become, I was kinda glad she was with me. Nintendo really are the masters of game design when it comes to implementing new and fun mechanics in an intuitive immersive way. I couldn't imagine the N64 Zelda titles without fairies, just as Mario Odyssey wouldn't be a thing without Cappy!

The soundtrack 😍😍😍😍😍😍

One thing I’d love to experience again is playing these games for the first time.

You're back!!! I always get excited whenever your uploads pop-up in my feed, because the amount of love you put in your videos can be seen from a mile away.

12:29 i would say the tutorial in general started getting better by majora's mask

Ocarina of time IS the greatest game ever made and will always remain so. It established practically every element of future video games. It wrote the textbook on how 3D games should function.

Seriously the only thing wrong with this game is that Link’s sword bandolier isn’t there for some reason. It was there in majoras mask tho.

I love finding small channels that are absolute gems like yours! :D

I remember getting this for Christmas as a kid. Christmas break I was getting up at 4am to start playing. I think this and Symphony of the night were my favorite gaming experiences.

OMG thank you for not ripping the water!!! 🎉 I liked the design and I always thought princess ruto was such a trip 😂 I grew up w girls like that

I remember back in the day early websites actually had real life music that was translated into the game's C button system so you could play pop/rock music on your Ocarina. You can also change the pitch etc by using the joystick when playing.

im really surprised this doesn't have more views.

One that was incredible about the ocarina is it was actually fully functional. Not only did you have all necessary notes, you could bend those notes to sharps, flats, or neutrals with the directional stick. Completely uncessary, but shows how thorough that team was.

Although I had a very good childhood, the N64, especially Ocarina of Time and Mario 64, were still the best part of it

Ocarina of time is the game that changed everything and brought the standards up

The day/night cycles in real time were also revolutionary for the era. Contributed to the feeling of a real world.

This game holds up so well for the most part. If they were to remake it for the switch all they would really need to do outside of graphics is add analogue control for the camera and a few QoL changes.

how are you not more popular? great video and amazing script, nice work with this. OOT is a piece of art that changed the genre forever

Z targeting, as it was called, Was a complete revelation. It’s in every adventure game that’s ever been made since.

Not sure if it's been mentioned but the b roll of the windmill when you mentioned don quixote was a nice touch

What kept me going back again and again as a kid was the rumour that the Triforce was hidden somewhere in the game. It gave me a sense that the game would never really be finished. As an adult I still go back to the game occasionally, but it feels a bit "hollow" now.

mentioning don quixote while showing the windmill got my sub lol

The magic, the original HYPE. The new Nintendo system. Like Stephen King always writes about. As we get older we lose our memories and our childhood gets locked away as we fall further from it. Nostalgia is perfect to counter it. This was one of those experiences that was nothing short but “MAGICAL”. Being a perfect age and playing this was an experience words cannot express.

Ocarina of time, in it's day, was amazing. It was an adventure. Mario 64 was great but oot was out of this world

For the channel size and thumbnail quality, i was expecting a terrible video, but i was thoroughly impressed. Very measured, professional speaking voice, clear audio quality with well-balanced bgm, and even-handed, objective critique of the work, relative to the industry at time of release. Super impressed, great video dude

Iron Knuckle was in the Spirit Temple, not Shadow Temple. I disagree with Dark Link, he was a memorable fight and done well.

The secret to beat the dark link easily is the goron sword.

Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time were the fathers of modern 3D gaming, specifically for 3rd person perspective games. In an era where 3D games were polygons moving on 2D pre-rendered backgrounds (Final Fantasy, Resident Evil), or isometric perspective (Diablo, Sonic, Baldur's Gate, Fallout) or fixed camera (Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot), these two games set a innovative take on 3D design that became a standard since then. That's why it is very easy to go back to them and play them even today. Modern hitters like Elden Ring (or Dark Souls), Witcher, Assassin's Creed, Red Dead Redemption, GTA, Shadow of the Colossus, Horizon, Monster Hunter, Ghost of Tsushima, Kingdom Hearts, and even modern entries of older franchises that had a hard time jumping to 3D like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, SMT, Persona, they all follow the 3D game design pioneered by Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. It's hard to think of other game that had such an impact that permeated almost every genre of the industry as much as these two games.

You're absolutely right that most people remember Navi being so annoying because they spent their time wandering around instead of going to the next objective. But with a world that big and immersive (for the time), you can't really blame gamers in the 90's for wanting to explore every corner of it. I remember spending hours fishing, looking for gold skulltulas or wearing different masks while talking to NPC's just to see their reactions. And throughout all of that, Navi kept popping up and telling me what I ought to be doing instead.

I can't say what made this game so good outside of the obvious, it's one of those releases that captured my imagination and blew my mind way back then. Coming from being obsessed with A Link to the Past on the SNES as a kid, this game had huge shoes to fill for me, and it went beyond that. The only game that's really given me the same kind of feeling on release as OoT since was Red Dead Redemption 2.

To pull from this video's narration as well as my own thoughts and summarize, What's so great about Ocarina of Time is the combination of unprecedented mechanics and world design, side-quests, games and even whole dungeons that function simultaneously as didactic rites of passage and opportunities to progress and upgrade, and the features of revolutionary fighting mechanics and usage of music as elements in the game. On top of that, the time travel mechanic, epic cinematics, realistic, relatable characters and well-put together story all combine to create one heck of a masterpiece. The final Ganon fight, although super easy once you figure it out (and able to be cheesed if you just roll under him), is likely one of the best fights in video game history cinematically speaking.

I used to wake up early, play this for a couple of hours, go to school then when I got home I’d continue into the night, stopping only for dinner until I finished it. Who else did that too?

its a masterpiece of 3D gaming. Plus it still looks decent / plays decent compared to other 3D games of the time. And its LInk's first quest in 3 dimensional polygons. Also timeline wise, this is the splitting point.

Thank you for a wonderful video.

Great video, glad you mentioned the water temple - I could not work out the Geography as a kid, this temple really frustrated me (& my mates) at the time.

This beeing a pioneering game I find it very impressive and blew me away as child aswell. Knowing what a know now in technical difficulties, design. I have so much more respect for this game.

I love OoT, but i also hate it because of how many zelda games that came after that were so locked into its pattern.

Can we get a “what's so great about Majora’s Mask”? Such a masterpiece!

This channel is going places man. Great quality video making right here. Saw your video on DQ3 a few months ago, loved that one too.

I usually have more trouble with the forest temple than I do the water temple

Minor correction regarding the Iron Knuckle enemy. They are located in the Spirit Temple, not the Shadow Temple.

17:25 you made a mistake there, it's not the shadow temple, but the spirit temple :)

Generations of gamers over several decades have rated it as the best game ever made. That says a lot.

Amazing and fair review!! Very underrated channel and great videos!!

My n64 is arriving tommorow and i cant wait to experience these ground breaking games of oot and mario 64 golden eye etc for the first time

You knew the game was great when you realized that after you finished it, there was literally nothing else like it on the market at the time.

The soundtrack alone is a masterpiece. To this day I still can’t get the music out of my head.

Ocarina of Time is Miyamoto's masterpiece.