A Brief History of Time (Ocarina of Time)

Episode 1: A Brief History of Time

4 and a half billion years ago, there wasn’t a hell of a lot to do in the universe.

The Solar Nebula, a huge mass of gas and dust left over from when the Sun was formed, came together to form the planets of the Solar System. It took a few million years to happen, but eventually the Earth formed. It took many more millions of years for the planet to become suitable for life. Vats of microorganisms were the first forms of life. The atmosphere eventually became oxygenated for a variety of reasons that I don’t thoroughly understand. The microorganisms continued to grow and evolve. Fish, lizards, plants, dinosaurs! A large variety of species came and went with the passage of time.

After several million years of evolution, the first form of man came to be 2 million years ago (give or take). Man as we know him now came into existence just 200,000 years ago. Since then, life has been a constant struggle for resources and technology. Civilizations formed in response to the hardships of life, but that brought a whole new set of problems. War, famine, starvation, and the ever present fear of death weighed down heavily upon humans and continue to do so to this day.

You reading this text, like myself, live a blessed life. You have a computer, can go to a store to simply buy food (as opposed to devoting your entire livelihood to growing your own), and have an army that is pledged to defend your country should the unthinkable happen. You don’t have to work just to survive like our predecessors...but with a modern society like ours comes a whole new set of problems. Stress from work, expectations of friends and parents, loneliness, regret, depression…the list goes on.

The simple truth is that life is a never ending struggle with the unavoidable. It’s either pure luck or divine intervention that caused mankind to be. The constant threat of death looms over us. We are weak and fragile creatures, victims of circumstance and chance heading towards an uncertain future.

Not Very Maudlin At All

As such, man always sought a way to escape the horrors of reality…even if only temporarily. This is why the arts have always been important to humanity. Plays, books, music, movies, television…they all allow you to escape your life and take a trip somewhere else. You can be a superhero, a star crossed lover; whatever your heart desires! The imagination has within it the incredible power to ease the pain of life.

The newest and most modern form of escapism is that of the video game. If you’re reading this text on this forum, then there’s an extremely good chance you already know what those are. The history of video games is no different from the history of any other media. Just as literature has had watershed moments in storytelling and movies have had breakthrough moments in special effects, video games have seen their fair share of classics as well.

The year was 1998. I had just turned 14 years old, and Christmas was right around the corner. I had had my Nintendo 64 for almost two years at that point and was eagerly waiting to receive the copy of Rogue Squadron I had asked for Christmas. Despite my love for the Zelda series, I was incredibly skeptical of the series’ newest entry, Ocarina of Time. “Zelda? In 3D? It’ll never work!” I scoffed. Shortly before Christmas, I had played the game at a friend’s house.

I was wrong. I have never been so wrong in my entire life.

I managed to scrape some money of my own together before Christmas and bought my own copy of the game. I’ve never looked back. At the time I knew that OoT was something special but now that I’ve had ten years to mature and look back on what was I can see just how special it truly is. Narrative, technical proficiency, atmosphere, exploration, character progression, a 3D game with a lock-on system that isn’t completely backasswards…it all blends seamlessly in a beautiful, perfect package. Games since OoT have taken what it’s done and improved upon it. Twilight Princess took OoT’s basic framework and gave it a “new-gen” coat of paint, while expanding the narrative aspects of the series. Other games look better, other games have “better” action sequences, other games have bigger worlds to explore, other games have better puzzles, and other games have deeper ways to modify your character.

But none of them are Ocarina of Time. No game before or since has done so many things right on so many levels. No game since has affected the medium as a whole like Ocarina has. Ocarina of Time is, without any shadow of a doubt, the best video game ever created. It pushed the medium forward in so many ways that the ripples of the splash OoT first made a decade ago are still being felt today.

The world is harsh and unrelenting. There is no future. You are going to die. Everyone dies; there’s no escaping it.

…But you can lose yourself in another world for a time. You can lose this terrible place, and find yourself lost in the magical forests of the Kokiri. You can traverse the plains of Hyrule and find hidden treasures in caverns that reach far below the surface. You can climb the treacherous Death Mountain and plunge to the depths of Lake Hylia. You can be someone else for a while and live in a world of magic and fantasy.

So come along with me as I journey yet again through the land of Hyrule. Leave your problems from this world at the door, and prepare yourself for the adventure of a lifetime.

Oh, and please leave all of your Zelda Timeline Discussion crap at the door too. I know I’m not going to get through this LP without us getting into it at some point, but please try not to get into it until I cover the topic in my LP.

A Notice to the Reader

- I don’t have that much time to update these days, but my goal is at the very absolute least to update once a week. Realistically I should be able to put down two or three, but I’m not going to set a goal that I can’t meet. So to be safe, I’m going to say once a week.

- This is not a tutorial or FAQ. I won’t be covering every single detail of every single thing. I’m going to be fairly thorough, but I’m also going to edit things a bit. You'll notice more of this once we get past the first few dungeons.

- Unless you all object, I won’t be getting the fourth bottle. It’s tedious to get and you can get the first three extremely easily, so it’s never really needed. If you all want me to I will, but please. I really dun wanna. [/tantrum]

- I will be getting the Ice Arrows. That dungeon kicks ass.

- I will be sequence breaking as much as possible. Alas, it’s not very possible in this game…but there is one place in particular that I will be doing it. So that's something, eh?

That said, let's get started!

A Kinder, Gentler Opening Movie

Games today are all about pomp and circumstance. The “game opening” has become the stuff of legend. FFVIII’s opera and cherry blossom fueled adrenaline rush, FFVII’s terrorist attack, Call of Duty 4’s panic filled escape from a sinking boat, Bioshock’s terrifying plane crash; games love to have “big” openings and they have for quite some time.

But not OoT. OoT has the most subtle opening of all time.

Given the rising popularity of the “game opening” in 1998, everyone and their mother expected OoT to begin with explosions and horse back sword fights between Ganon and Link.





Instead, we got Link riding a horse around a field at the break of dawn while soft music plays in the background.

It was an absolutely brilliant move. The N64’s cart format meant that Nintendo couldn’t have made an awesome CG intro even if they had wanted to. Instead, Nintendo gave us a window into Silent Protagonist Extraordinaire Link’s relationship with his trusty steed, Epona.



While the camera gives us a relaxing virtual tour of Hyrule, Link rides Epona to nowhere in particular. The duo stops at a stream which Epona then drinks from.



With a neigh as loud as thunder, the pair rides off-screen to adventures unknown.

The intro not only showcases how massive and impressive looking the overworld is, but it also showcases the game’s horse riding feature and highlights the importance of the relationship between Link and Epona. It’s beautiful in its simplicity and more than a bit touching (it helps that the music in this scene is one of the best uses of the N64 sound chip in the system’s lifetime). It defied everyone’s expectations. A one-two punch of uniqueness…and the game hasn’t even started yet! Who knows what else the game has in store for us?

First thing’s first. To the options screen!



The game’s default option for Z Targeting is set to “Switch”. All subsequent Zelda games that use the same targeting system (Wind Waker, Twilight Princess) have had “Hold” as the default option. This should tell you something. I’m going to get into the particulars of Z Targeting in a bit, but trust me when I say that Hold is the way to play.

Now that that’s done, it’s time to name our file. When I was a kid, I would always name my file Alex since my sister and father would typically play the same games that I did. I had to know what file was mine, after all. Since then, I’ve switched to naming my files Link so NPCs will call me Link whenever they talk to me. But this is an LP. We need to something…special.



Good morning, Cr- nah, screw it. I don’t want to make bad Chrono Trigger jokes this whole LP.



Hmm. Nah, not enough party members.



This…this is the most appropriate name for OoT Link ever. For more reasons than I can count.

After selecting your file, the Great Deku Tree introduces himself (he’s “the guardian spirit” of…uh, something) and gives some much needed backstory. Somewhere in the forests of Hyrule, the Great Deku Tree sits around and strokes his giant tree moustache. Since he’ll occasionally get bored, he somehow created a village (Kokiri Village) of children to keep him amused. They do all sorts of things like stand, talk, and have shaggy haircuts.



Sometimes they even hump rocks!

But another thing that all Kokiri have is a guardian fairy. It’s never really made clear just how a Kokiri gets one, but everyone has one. It’s also never really made clear if the Kokiri ever age or die, but you know what? Don’t worry about it. The Great Deku Tree (GDT) explains that there is one child who somehow does not have a fairy…

Let’s Have a Prophetic Vision!









Hmm. I wonder who that was. I hope it’s not some bitch that is accidentally going to enable the destruction of the entire world.







Christ, look at that nose!



I mean SRSLY

All kidding aside, this scene does showcase one of OoT’s biggest innovations. The facial animations look rudimentary by today’s standards, but seeing characters blink, smile, sneer, cry, scream etc. was a big deal back in 1998. It wasn’t the first game to have characters react to the situations around them, but it certainly was the best. OoT set the standard for facial animations. You kids today are spoiled with your characters that have lip synced dialogue and what-not. You have OoT to thank for that, you ungrateful whippersnappers!

Also, get off my lawn!

You know, no pressure or anything. The GDT tells Navi that some sort of great evil is rising and to go find The Boy Without a Fairy. We are treated to a first person view of Navi flying around the village. It’s a creative use of the game’s camera (Navi “decides” which house to go to by looking around and nodding and runs into a fence), but it basically makes no sense to see it in screenshot form. Just trust me, it’s “cute”.



All silent protagonists are heavy sleepers. ALL OF THEM.



Now, let’s go save Hyrule! Again, no pressure or anything.



Who the hell uses “Yahoo!” as a greeting?





This is our pseudo girlfriend, Saria. You can tell she’s our pseudo girlfriend because 1) she’s a girl and 2) she talks to us.

Notice the lighting in this shot. In the first shot, Saria’s fairy is right in front of her and her face is brightly lit. In the second, the fairy is behind her and her face is darker. Again, lighting physics in a 3D game might not seem like a big deal to you today, but back in 1998 this was so hot that it burned.

Let's Explore Kokiri Village! (AKA Pedophile Paradise)

At this point in the game, you’re finally given control of Blondie. You could roam around the village and talk to people (this serves as the tutorial for the game), but we don’t need that. I’m an expert!

First order of business: I need a sword. I can’t save Hyrule unless if I have a pointy to stabbity with. At the southern end of Kokiri Village lies the Forest Training Center, also known as A Few Signs in the Ground. Nestled amongst the signs lies the world famous Hole of Z.



Yes, let’s!



Notice that when I stand in front of the Hole of Z, the A button icon at the top of the screen changes. That’s because the A button in OoT serves dozens of purposes. Its main purpose is to use Blondie’s evasive maneuvers both in and out of Z Targeting, but it can do a variety of other things depending on the situation. Screw you, Resident Evil 4. This is where context sensitive button presses got its start (I didn’t mean it RE4, I still love you).



Also notice that when I crawl in the hole, the game shifts to first person view. OoT is interesting in that while the bulk of the game is spent in third person, it’s possible to use a first person view at certain points. At any time, you can stop and take a look around by pressing C Up. We’ll talk about more uses for first person view as it comes up.



Once inside the mighty Hole of Z, Blondie is temporarily transported to that one scene from the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. After skillfully dodging a giant boulder, Blondie discovers…



The game’s first chest! Who knows what mysteries lie inside?!



AH FUCK I’M BLIND

...but I’m also heavily armed. The Kokiri Sword is the first of four swords we’ll be getting in this game. It’s really only a very large knife, but since Blondie is (generally accepted to be roughly) ten at this point, it’s big enough for him to use as a sword.

Alright, second order of business. I need a shield. After all, if I’m going to save Hyrule, I need something to block all the bad stuff monsters are going to throw at me. Hey, the local shop sells one! I just need 40 rupees.

Guess what gang? It’s time to do the closest thing to level grinding any Zelda game has done ever!



After walking through some grass…



…throwing some rocks…



…and taking out his boredom and frustration on signs, Blondie finally has enough money for a Deku Shield!



See? I told you. Alright, third order of business. Time to teach you all how to fight! Please watch the video below.

Video Challenge: The Basics of Combat

Yes, I said video. This is mostly a good ol’ text/picture LP, but thanks to the mad video skillz I picked up doing my Star Fox 64 LP (special thanks again go to Gredlen), I’ll be throwing in some video here and there too.

Let's Watch Some Combat Training! Hooray!

Anyway, I think that’s quite enough for a first update, wouldn’t you say?

Next Time on A Brief History of Time:

Our first dungeon! The Great Deku Tree is in trouble, and it’s up to Blondie to save him! Blondie learns the hard way that venomous spiders are total assholes and that you should never trust a giant tree with a mustache.

Alright man chill out a little there.

Set the standard for facial animation my ass! Mega Man Legends (which arrived well before Ocarina) not only had more expressive characters with far more expressions, but everyone even had accurate lip-synching to actual voiced dialogue. (Something not even Metal Gear Solid managed to do.) Nintendo was already falling behind the curve for presentation with Ocarina.

That honour clearly goes to some game you've never heard of.

The only game to give me a migraine with how aggressively brown and green and blurry it is, even with the damned mem expansion.

Majora's Mask was the one that used the expansion, unless older games somehow were able to use it without me knowing.

The N64 is capable of rendering 100,000 polygons per second.

OoT is a fantastic game, and to me at least every bit as enjoyable to play now as it ever was, but it's not quite the best game ever. Nope, it's a solid third, behind Mario 3 and Suikoden 2. And I'll cut anyone who disagrees with me.

This is fact. You'll notice that the screenshots in this LP are far, far, FAR less blurry than they would be if I used an actual N64. The N64 is one of the rare cases where emulating the system seems to actually improve the quality of the game's graphics. The only problem is that sometimes it flat out doesn't work (Hey, Gamecube Compilation version of Majora's Mask! I'm talking to you!)

Alright, fine. It was really good at it, and I never had a Playstation until I got my PS2 and I never bothered to check what Mega Man Legend's release date was. Furthermore, we've only begun to scratch the surface of what this game is capable of in regards to presentation so...yeah!

No way. That game is way overrated. I know you say it's good, but as a matter of fact, it isn't very good at all. It might even be bad!

Oh, and I know you're all taking issue with this "Best Game Ever" thing, but my entire world view is centered around this, so please stop trying to convince me I'm wrong. You won't.

I think we can agree that it was good enough for the series to coast along on its formula for a solid decade.

Hooray?

!!!

I've been naming Link to "Blondie" for as long as I can remember -- a habit which even transferred over my Pokémon Trainer. Good call, sir.

I'm okay with you skipping a bottle as long as you get all 100 Skulltulas.

This game and Majora's Mask are the only 3D games that make me physically ill.

I'm fine with anyone calling it the best game ever, it just gets weird when you declare it as so without any doubt.

Haha. I use the glitch.

It blew my mind that you could cut down signs the first time I played this game. If you cut them down near water, the pieces will even float.

If I remember correctly, if you cut a sign horizontally in half and then play a certain ocarina tune, the sign will magically reassemble itself. Interesting stuff.

I don't know how anyone could call this the best game ever with how empty it is. Also, the lack of the main Zelda theme.

You guys that keep saying this are such wussies.

Let's get this started properly.

AUTOJUMP = GENIUS

Except the Hyrule Field, I think it's plenty full.


I never even noticed.

I find the persistent complaints about Ocarina lacking the Zelda theme to be groundless. Koji Kondo put all kinds of variations and allusions to it in the game instead of just mindlessly repeating the piece in its entirety. Which is what a good composer would do.

I'd continue on with the reasons I don't like OoT as much as the games that came before it, but I don't want to sully Alixsar's LP. Needless to say, the games that followed it have continued on with a lot of the same things I didn't like about Ocarina (foremost being an insufferable supporting cast [excluding Midna]).

I love this game more than almost anything. But not Majora's Mask. Or Super Metroid. Or Link's Awakening.

Hell yes.

Love me some Zelda LPs! I'm curious to see how you'll make this special (since I played the game about twice a year until Wind Waker came out!).

Something deep inside this Jewish heart really, really, wants to say "Man he looks Jewish!" What's with us and big noses? Is Miyamoto some kind of anti-semite?

Good start! My relationship with OoT is skewed- I played it after Majora- but it should certainly be interested to see what was originated in OoT.

And hey, your Ogre Battle and Star Fox LPs were great too! Sorry about the flying comment in the Star Fox one by the way >_>. I misread the disclaimer there. And Majora was so much better XD

Ever had a look at some of the hi-res texture packs you can plug into your emulator? They replace any textures in the game with custom ones up to four times bigger in each dimension. Not nearly as blurry that way.

Obviously, with this game you might prefer to be more purist about it. Especially because the Ocarina of Time one is still not done. But it may be worth checking out.