Ocarina of Time Master Quest: Let's get nerdy.

Title: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest (Toki no Ocarina Ura, or "Ocarina of Time Flipside")
Original Release: November 21st, 1998; Master Quest, November 28, 2002
Game #: 5
Chronologically: #1, Young and Adult Link timelines

The Hero of Time fan movie.
I think I prefer the 1998 graphics.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is considered by many gamers to be the single greatest video game ever made. I'm not pulling that out of my ass; it grabbed rare perfect scores from influential gaming mags and websites like Famitsu, GameSpot and IGN. Gamefaqs pollsters rated it as the best game ever in 2009, and it still consistently tops lists more than a decade later. You'd be hard pressed, in fact, to find a "best game ever" list in which Ocarina of Time does not come in the top five at least. It even spawned possibly the worst indie movie adaptation ever, The Hero of Time. (Look for it on torrents if you want to watch; they got a C&D from Nintendo, so it's not available on their website anymore.)

It wasn't surprising to anybody, then, when Nintendo decided to re-release Ocarina of Time for the Gamecube in 2002. This time, though, they included something new - Master Quest, which is Ocarina of Time's answer to the Second Quest in the original Zelda. Basically, Master Quest is identical to the original game except that the dungeon puzzles have been totally redone. It's famous for being incredibly difficult, unfair, and punishing, which is why I naturally have to choose this version for my playthrough.

Navi tries to wake up Link.

I have to assume for the sake of the review that some of you readers out there haven't played Ocarina of Time before, so I'll start with a little summary of the first hour or so of the game (credit to Wikipedia for a little help.)



Ocarina of Time is the first game chronologically in the series and takes place before the first four games. It is the first 3D Zelda and the first Zelda for the N64. It's set in Hyrule, like every game to this point except for Link's Awakening. Hyrule Field serves as a central hub connected to several outlying areas with diverse topography. Most of these areas are populated by the races of Hyrule: Hylians, Kokiri, Gorons, Zoras and Gerudo.



Check out that phat 3D.

Link lives in the Kokiri Forest, inhabited by child-like beings of the same name. Every Kokiri has a fairy except Link, and he's somewhat ostracized for it. He's first introduced to the player as "the boy without a fairy." The game opens as the fairy Navi awakens Link from a nightmare, in which Link witnesses a stormy night where a man chases a girl and a woman fleeing on horseback.



Navi tells Link that the Deku Tree, the guardian of the Kokiri, wants to speak with him, which is a great honor. After getting a sword and shield, Navi takes Link to the Deku Tree, who is under a curse cast on him by a "wicked man of the desert." Link breaks the curse, but cannot stop the tree from withering. The Deku Tree tells Link that the "wicked man" seeks to conquer the land of Hyrule and that Link must stop him. Before dying, the Great Deku Tree gives Link the spiritual stone of the forest, the Kokiri's Emerald, and sends him to Hyrule Castle to speak with the princess of destiny, Zelda. After that, Link leaves the Kokiri Forest and goes on his adventure.



That's a big tree.

Because Master Quest is on the Gamecube, I won't be able to take direct screenshots of what's going on in the game, but I'll do my best to take pictures when possible. It's kind of rare to find footage or pictures of Master Quest due to its relative unpopularity. In the coming posts, I'm going to discuss first some features of Ocarina of Time and its improvements and differences from previous Zelda games, and then I'm going to discuss Master Quest and its differences from the original Ocarina of Time.

tl;dr: Best game ever. First 3D Zelda. Master Quest is harder, so that's what I'm doing.

Wish me luck, and stay tuned!

ps: I checked out my stats and I realize I have a lot of readers from outside of Canada! Hello to all you fun international people, thanks for checking out the blog!