Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is remembered fondly by nearly everyone who has played it. Many believe it to be the greatest video game ever created, though some don’t look back at the 1998 release with such rose-colored glasses. Regardless of how you feel about the game itself, you can’t deny that is remembered as one of the most influential video games of all time. Many video game developers, including Nintendo, have taken their cue from the game’s cutting-edge (at the time) graphics, control schematics, open world gameplay, and level-building.
Many of the game’s most dedicated fans like to consider it as the perfect game, but is it really? It’s hard to imagine a video game built on 1998 technology being considered perfect. It’s also worth noting that perfect can mean different things to different people. It holds perfect scores from many of the industry’s top gaming publications, and the original Nintendo 64 version still sits atop many aggregated rankings list from Metacritic and GameRankings. However, is the game’s praise a testament to how good the game really is to this day, or just a product of intense nostalgia that we’ve all collectively decided to ignore? Here are 15 more reasons why Ocarina of Time might not be as perfect as you remember it being.
15 Once You Go Big, There’s No Reason To Go Back
Ocarina of Time is often described as a game set between two worlds, like the Dark World and Light World in A Link to the Past. Instead of different universes, it’s different timelines. Only by traveling between both time periods can you hope to beat the game. While this is technically true, it’s a bit of an exaggeration because there’s almost no reason to go back to the past.
Sure, you need to be Young Link to make it through the Spirit Temple, but it’s hard to say that you need to visit both worlds in much the same you did in ALTTP. Usually, the only reason to go back in time is so you can uncover some secret you didn’t already get before you pulled the sword. It’s a nice way to backtrack, but there really isn’t much balance to the two eras.
14 It Was All Her Fault
For some reason the entire plot of the game revolves around a 10-year-old child of the forest listening to the orders of a prepubescent princess. We may want to believe that Zelda knows what she’s talking about, but it’s only in the end that she basically led Link, and all of Hyrule, into a nightmarish apocalypse.
Ganondorf is searching for a way into the Sacred Realm, but the only way to get there would be to gather the Spiritual Stones and pull the Master Sword from the pedestal—something an evil man would not be able to do. Your whole quest to stop him basically gives him what he wanted. Zelda even acknowledges this was her fault, which is why she sends you back in time. You would think the best game ever would have a better handle on its own story.
13 This Quest Is A Waste Of Time
Zelda games are known for their sidequests that give the player some key item or power upgrade. Ocarina of Time has the highly involved trading sequence for the Biggoron Sword, but one of the game’s other sidequest just isn’t worth it. Don’t bother collecting the 100 Gold Skulltulas spread across the game because you’ll just be left disappointed.
By collecting a total of 50 tokens, you can obtain rewards at the House of Skulltula that are actually useful, including the Adult’s Wallet, Stone of Agony, Giant’s Wallet, and a Heart Piece. When you get all 100, you basically get infinite rupees, but by that point the game is nearly over, so what are you really going to buy? It’s an incredibly difficult task to complete, so why go any further than 50?
12 These Places Were Far Too Drab
Ocarina of Time gave us immersive 3D locations to explore that truly helped to bring Hyrule to life. The N64 lacked the technology to truly create realistic textures and characters, but what it did give us was revolutionary at the time. Many areas in the game were given unique coloring patterns to help give each region more distinct—except for the dungeons.
Each of the game’s dungeon is color coded based on the medallion you receive from finishing it. This means the Forest Temple is very green, the Fire Temple is very red and the Water Temple is very blue. It’s fine to color code them, but it’s also pretty lazy when the color pallet of each dungeon was basically one color, and brown. They tried to make each place very natural and earthy, but it comes off as muddy and generic.
11 There Was Nothing To Do Here
Hyrule Field was just too big and empty in Ocarina of Time. Nintendo wanted to make each realm of the game connected by one expansive overworld, but the problem with doing that is you end up with an empty area in the middle. They couldn’t add too much into Hyrule Field, otherwise it would lose the effect they were going for.
How many times did you feel like it took far too long to get from one realm to the other, with absolutely nothing going on in between? The game had Epona and the Bunny Hood to make the ride more palatable, but it still felt like a giant waste of time. They could have added a few more elements to make it more interesting without sacrificing aesthetic.
10 Some Of Them Mattered More
For a game made in 1998, Ocarina of Time had some powerful storylines running through it. Unfortunately, not every story was created equally. Consider the stories around the Sages. You spend a lot of time with Saria, Darunia, and Ruto, so that their ascension to Sagehood feels meaningful (and sometimes even sad).
Then look at how the game handles Impa and Nabooru. Neither play much of a role in the game, and you spend very little time with them on screen. It almost feels like Nintendo needed more dungeons, but didn’t have much of a narrative to go along with either. There’s somewhat of a plot involving the Sheikah Tribe and the Shadow Temple, but the Spirit Temple is just there to fill a quota. It’s a disappointing balance in the game’s plotting.
9 Why Even Include These Items?
Everything in a video game should serve some kind of a purpose, otherwise you have to ask why the programmers even put it in there. Ocarina of Time has several cool items to collect over the course of your adventure, but there are a few mixed in that basically serve no purpose.
Deku Nuts, the most basic weapon in the game, can only be used to stun certain enemies. It’s a pretty pointless inclusion, and you can make it through the whole game without ever needing one. Bombchus are fun but also unnecessary. You can win some prizes at the Bombchu Bowling Alley, but that’s it. The Ice Arrows are super tough to get, but they don’t really do much for you. It’s pretty dumb that Nintendo would just have these items floating around.
8 Don’t Use This Item Unless You Absolutely Have To
Some of the most important items in the game should work to improve gameplay, but in Ocarina of Time, this doesn’t really work when it comes to the Hover Boots. Found inside the Shadow Temple, these boots help Link hover over wide gaps to make it through the dungeon. He needs them on several occasions to reach paces usually unreachable, but they don’t exactly make the game easier.
The Hover Boots are wild and unruly, often causing more trouble than they are worth. They speed up your pace, but also make you hover off any high ground, whether you want to or not. It’s something that has led to many problems in the most dire of situations. You need them to beat the game, but they are not fun to use at all.
7 This Part Of The Game Takes Forever
It’s not something you would notice on your first playthrough, but if you ever wanted to replay the game, you have to sit through the entirety of the opening sequence. We see the nightmare Link has, Navi traveling through the forest, Link taking a ridiculously long time to wake up, and then you have to get over to the Great Deku Tree.
The game takes far too long to get going, and when you are finally allowed to play, it’s an incredible amount of tutorial work you have to go through. It’s obvious that Nintendo wanted to give players time to acclimate themselves to a 3D universe, but they could have done a better job than what we ultimately got in Kokiri Forest. A skip function would have been nice too.
6 How Were You Supposed To Figure This One Out?
Even with all the tutorials in regards to gameplay, you still have to figure out how to use items in the game on your own. One of these items that Nintendo offered no instructions on was the Deku Stick. On the surface, it looked like the worst possible weapon in the game that will break after one hit, but they end up being more useful as torches.
The only problem with that is there’s no way to discover this without accidentally lighting one on fire. Without the game helping you out, there’s no way to know that you can actually use these torches to burn through the spiderwebs in Inside the Great Deku Tree. You end up stuck in a dead end before eventually figuring out what to do through pure frustration.
5 The Money System Was A Mess
One thing all Zelda games have in common is that the Kingdom of Hyrule uses Rupees as their currency. While the physicality of how these jewels fit into a wallet is never truly explained, the games usually have a monetary system in place that makes some sense. Ocarina of Time, on the other hand, does not.
Rupees are widely available out in the wilderness to the point where you can easily refill your wallet after a few minutes of gardening. It’s to the point where rupee prizes are nice, but also utterly worthless. Even the shops are messed up. You can buy a red or green potion for 30 rupees, while a fish is 200!? Meanwhile, the Hylian Shield is only 80? Who set these ridiculous prices?
4 This Was An Incredibly Lazy Design
In a game that takes advantage of its 3D world at every turn, it’s extremely questionable as to why Nintendo would then design Hyrule Castle Town like they did. While all the other cities in the game are fully explorable with all camera angles available, Hyrule Castle Town limits you to an awkward side view with no ability to zoom in.
It doesn’t exactly have a negative effect on the gaming experience, but the Kingdom’s most important city should have been given a grander depiction in Ocarina of Time. Being able to fully explore the town would have added some much needed depth, and would have only served to enhance the utter devastation of the destruction seen in the Adult Timeline. It’s a huge missed opportunity on the part of Nintendo.
3 You Know You Hated This Character
The absolute worst character in the game has to be that damn owl that always talks to you when you’re a child. Kaepora Gaebora always seems to find you at the most inconvenient of times, and he won’t ever stop talking, even when all you want to do is play the game. What’s worse is that if you happen to not be paying attention, you could accidentally ask him to repeat his story, and you’re stuck there even longer.
Nintendo had a habit of holding the player’s hand at all the wrong times throughout this game. The addition of an animal guide is a nice touch, but the amount of exposition this guy relates to you is uncalled for. Thankfully you never see him again once you become an adult.
2 Some Of The Townsfolk Look Really Bad
Not every character in Ocarina of Time was created equally. Some characters, like the key ones that are important to the story, are rendered decently well and Nintendo actually put detail into their polygon lives. Characters like Zelda, and Ganondorf are covered in intricate details, while lesser townsfolk not integral to the story are merely decked out in colored shapes.
The Prancing Man in Hyrule Castle Town and the Running Man seen in Hyrule Field, meanwhile, only have a basic color scheme. You might say it’s a sign of status, but Malon’s design also includes more details than other characters. It just feels like some of these characters were mere afterthoughts, instead of well-rendered extensions of Nintendo’s vision. If everyone was given the same amount of detail, the world would have felt that much more immersive.
1 Time Paradox Headaches
Throw out all the split timeline theories at the moment. For a game that is said to be perfect, the main plot is certainly more than a little confusing. At the end of the game, when you go back in time to relive your childhood, when exactly are you brought back in order to warn Zelda?
If you return to the exact point in which you left, Ganondorf is already inside the Sacred Realm, which he managed to reach when you pulled the Master Sword from the pedestal in the first place. If you come back sooner, wouldn’t there be two Links running around? One who is still waking up in Kokiri Forest about to go to the the future and one who just came back?
Do you want to point out any other flaws in the game? Let us know about them in the comments.
