The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is an action / adventure game released in 1998 on Nintendo 64, developed and published by Nintendo. This is the very first episode of the Zelda saga, created by Shigeru Miyamoto, to be in 3D. This game was reissued in the "Master Quest" version, included in the collector edition of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on Gamecube. This version proposed dungeons more difficult than in the original.
We take control of Link, a young boy living peaceful days in the forest among kokiris, eternal children living under the protection of the great Deku tree. One day the Deku tree suffering from a mysterious evil convenes Link and tells him that he is not a kokiris and had a great destiny to fulfill in order to save Hyrule. To do so he must find 4 ancestral stones in order to open the temple of time and collect a sword of legend making him the hero of time. Link then leave the kokiris' forest with the fairy Navi for an epic adventure through times in which he will have to save Princess Zelda and prevent the infamous Ganondorf to plunge the world into an era of darkness.
So the adventure begins with the young Link, discovering the vast world of hyrule for the first time. The game was notable at the time for the immensity of its universe. Hyrule is a vast country with an impressive background. Link will have to traverse a wide variety of different places, like the lost woods, the Gorons' volcanic mountain, Hyrule Castle, the Hylia Lake or the Gerudo Valley. The vast plain of Hyrule, containing many secret, is a sort of pivot of the universe, connecting different areas of the game.
This Zelda was also one of the first adventure games to propose a day / night cycle that have a decisive influence on the environment. So during night time in the plains of Hyrule skeletons come out of the ground and attack Link. Similarly, many villagers from the cities will have different activities.
There are also obviously in this episode many dungeons with lots of puzzles and monsters. Incredibly well successful and many of these towers have remained in our memories as a model of level design. Each contains an artifact enriching the inventory of the hero and the gameplay, which is essential to solve puzzles and defeat the boss at the end of the dungeon.
The game takes place on two different period of time. One when Link is a child and the other when he is an adult. The leap in time is made from the Temple of time by taking or by removing the legendary sword on his pedestal. The World of Hyrule is completely different between the 2 periods, the future of Hyrule has a darker atmosphere than the Hyrule of the beginning of the adventure.
The central element of gameplay of this episode is the ocarina, a small instrument to play melodies and various magical songs. This tool allows you to teleport to various places, and some music can have an influence on the environment by releasing secret passages, for example.
With its unequaled richness, its numerous side quests, his long and enchanting adventure, and its effective gameplay, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is considered by many players, quite rightly, as one of the best video game ever.
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