The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto
Producer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto
Designer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto Yoichi Yamada Eiji Aonuma Yoshiaki Koizumi
Artist(s)	Yusuke Nakano
Writer(s)	Toru Osawa Shigeru Miyamoto Yoshiaki Koizumi
Composer(s)	Koji Kondo
Series	The Legend of Zelda
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64, GameCube, iQue Player, Virtual Console (Wii, Wii U), Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch Online
Release	Nintendo 64: JP: November 21, 1998 NA: November 23, 1998 EU: December 11, 1998 AU: December 18, 1998 Nintendo GameCube: JP: November 28, 2002 NA: February 18, 2003 PAL: May 3, 2003 iQue Player: CHN: November 17, 2003 Virtual Console (Wii): PAL: February 23, 2007 NA: February 26, 2007 JP: February 27, 2007 Virtual Console (Wii U): NA: July 2, 2015 EU: July 2, 2015 AU: July 3, 2015 JP: December 22, 2015 Nintendo 3DS: JP: June 16, 2011 EU: June 17, 2011 NA: June 19, 2011 AU: June 30, 2011 KOR: September 27, 2012 CHN: October 27, 2012 Nintendo eShop: EU: October 4, 2012 AU: October 4, 2012 NA: October 18, 2012 JP: November 1, 2012 Nintendo Switch Online: WW: October 2021
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is an action-adventure video game. The game was published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was published in Japan and North America in November 1998. In December, it was published in the PAL regions. It was the fifth Legend of Zelda video game. It was the first in 3D. In the game, the player character Link goes on an adventure to save the kingdom of Hyrule from the evil Ganondorf. To save Hyrule, Link must fight against Ganondorf and all his minions. A special object in the game is the sacred Ocarina that Link can play after he learns the songs, causing different effects depending on the song he plays, such as moving him to certain places around Hyrule (making it much easier and faster to travel), and starting rain (for example to water plants or fill dry lakes).

It was included in The Legend of Zelda: Collectors Edition

Story

In the Kokiri Forest, the Great Deku Tree asks the fairy Navi to tell Link to come to him. When Link arrives, he learns that the Great Deku Tree is dying because of a curse placed on him by an evil man called Ganondorf. Link is the only one who can save him. Link must enter the Great Deku Tree in order to save him from the curse.

Although Link defeats the most of the monsters inside, he is too late to save the tree. Before the Great Deku Tree dies, he gives Link the Kokiri Emerald, a magic stone, and tells him that it was a man in black armor who put the curse on him. He also tells Link that he needs to go to princess of Hyrule at Hyrule Castle. Before he leaves, Saria, Link's friend, gives him the Fairy Ocarina, a magic instrument.

At Hyrule Castle, Link sneaks pass the guards and meets Princess Zelda. Zelda shows Link, through a window, a strange man with evil eyes. She tells Link that the man is Ganondorf. She also tells him that Ganondorf wants to steal the Triforce, a magic symbol of the Gods, and take control of the world. To defeat him, Link needs to find three magical "Spiritual Stones" (Kokiri Emerald being one of them), six great medallions and the magical Ocarina of Time.

Release

Ocarina of Time was a very popular game, and many people liked it. Five million copies of the game were sold around the world after six months, and 7.6 million copies were sold in total.

Many people were happy with this game, although there were a few, small problems. One problem was that players cannot skip through the parts where people talk. Another was that players cannot play against the boss monsters that they have already killed.

Overall, many websites and magazines think that Ocarina of Time is one of the best games ever made. GameSpot, Famitsu, IGN, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and Edge all gave the game perfect scores.

Ocarina of Time 3D Version

Master Quest for Ocarina of Time 3D is not available from the start. To unlock it, the main quest has to be completed first. Upon doing so, the player will have an option to choose between the Main Quest or the Master Quest after starting up the game, allowing a second playthrough of the game with redesigned dungeons.

This version of the Master Quest has two significant changes. The entire game has been mirrored, similarly to Twilight Princess for the Wii, making Link right-handed as well as flipping the entire overworld map and the dungeons. In addition to the game being mirrored, all of the enemies and bosses will cause twice as much damage to Link, which also applies to the Master Quest's own Boss Challenge version.

Additional Content

The disc also includes preview trailers for then-upcoming games for the GameCube and Game Boy Advance. The selection of trailers differ by region, with Japan having more trailers from different companies and promoting the "Capcom Five". The A Link to the Past & Four Swords trailer is also different, having narration and focusing more on the Four Swords in the Japanese trailer.

Europe and North America

• The Wind Waker
• A Link to the Past & Four Swords
• Metroid Prime
• F-Zero GX
• 1080° Avalanche
• Wario World
• Hot Clips (montage of footage from various games)

Japan

• Mario Party 4
• Resident Evil Zero
• Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation
• Mr. Driller: Drill Land
• F-Zero GX
• Resident Evil 4
• Dead Phoenix
• Viewtiful Joe
• P.N.03
• Killer7
• A Link to the Past & Four Swords
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Australia

• Metroid Prime
• Hot Clips (montage of footage from various games)
• A Link to the Past & Four Swords

Korea

• The Wind Waker
• Metroid Prime
• F-Zero GX
• 1080° Avalanche
• Wario World

History

In the late 1990s, Nintendo developed an add-on peripheral for the Nintendo 64 called the Nintendo 64DD. The Nintendo 64DD used magnetic disks, with a larger memory capacity than the cartridges used for the Nintendo 64, allowing for more content and improved models and textures. While Nintendo hoped that the Nintendo 64DD would attract third-party developers, they also began developing several first-party titles, one of which was Ocarina of Time. Struggling to attract interest to the platform, Nintendo moved development of Ocarina of Time to the Nintendo 64, which was released on a cartridge. At the time of this change, the game featured more content than the cartridges could hold and so parts of the game had to be removed.

Shigeru Miyamoto announced that an expansion would follow Ocarina of Time, tentatively known as Ura Zelda. The expansion was planned to include rearranged dungeons from the original game. The Nintendo 64DD became a commercial failure in Japan, and so most of Nintendo's planned titles for the 64DD, including Ura Zelda, were never released. Miyamoto insisted that the game would continue to be developed, and in August 2000 indicated that Ura Zelda had been completed for some time. Despite this, Nintendo could not decide on how to release the game, and considered different methods such as a magazine tie-in.

Remnants of Ura Zelda's 64DD origins still remain in Ocarina of Time. Several error messages exist in the game's data regarding wrong disks being inserted. A "Disk" tag can also be made to appear in the title screen by modifying the RAM addresses of the game. A save file can also be flagged as a "Disk" save and a "Disk" icon will appear next to the save file on the file select screen. The file will be permanently grayed out and inaccessible, unless the game is tricked into thinking the expansion disk is inserted. Attempting to open the file afterwards will crash the game, presumably due to the game trying to load non-existent files.

Other websites

• Official site