Link is blessed to inherit the divine Triforce of Courage not because he is a “chosen one,” but because he’s the only person around with the balls to fight back. And the game teaches us that anyone can do it. When the odds are stacked against us, and the world seems hopeless, all we can do is be brave.
And rather than give an explanation for the world, the game gives an answer for how to deal with it: through courage. The questions of the world confuse and overwhelm the player in the same way they do Link.
The world is dark and ambiguous because Link is still too young to understand it. In Ocarina of Time, Link must reconcile with death and evil on an unprecedented scale. In the case of Stand By Me, four young must reconcile with death after finding a corpse.
Their previous worldview is shattered, and a piece of their innocence is lost as they come to understand the hard truths of the existence. The finest coming of age stories (I’m looking at you Stand By Me) take place when a child is faced with an aspect of the real world that is far larger and far darker than what that child can understand. Link is a child who quite literally forced to grow up. Ganondorf has laid waste to the places he knew in his childhood, and the evils of the world have had seven years to fester and grow stronger. The world is suddenly bigger and more terrifying. He wakes up in a 19 year old’s body but internally he is still 12. But when he pulls the sword out it sends him forward in time 7 years. He fights his way through some serious nightmare fuel monsters in order to find the Master Sword and use it against Ganondorf. His parents died in the Hylian Civil War (another barely explained conflict) and he is raised by a tree spirit, who tasks him to save the world from evil. Link is a 12 year old Hylian (for lack of a better term “human”) boy that lives in a faerie village. In a way, this leads into the second part of why this game is so brilliant. Why is the Forest Temple a mansion haunted by named ghosts? Did someone used to live there? What happened to the people of Castle Town when Ganondorf rose to power? Did he murder them all and turn them into horrifying zombies? What in the actual fuck is the Shadow Temple and why is there a Medieval torture chamber buried under Kakariko village? The game never tells you. There is so much in Ocarina of time and its sequel Majora’s Mask that is never explained. My favorite aspects of these old Zelda games are their comfortable relationship with ambiguity.
The game is fully of mystery, terror, and a hell of a lot of subtext. The magic of both stories is not the plot but the way it’s told. Like Gatsby, the story is simple: Fight the evil guy, save the world (okay that’s not the plot of Gatsby, but Gatsby is equally simple). Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a great game the way The Great Gatsby is a great novel. But if you really want me to take your hand and lead you into the weeds about why I love this game, then by God I will. And my God, they knocked it out of the park.īetter/smarter/prettier writers than I have been analyzing the brilliance of the game for decades. She was not only one of the first 3D Zelda games, but one of the first 3D games that Nintendo ever made. She was a triumph of game design, story, character, and music. Okay so we knew this Zelda was coming, but only because she deserves it. Ocarina of Time (1998) (image credit: nintendo) All things that Breath of the Wild, dare I say it, could improve on. They have gorgeous music, high drama, and well-thought out characters. they’re certainly more lore based and mysterious. They’re certainly darker, they’re certainly scarier. These Zeldas, in my opinion, may EVEN SURPASS Breath of the Wild as games. They put respect on the Royal Family name. They were trendsetters, trailblazers, real innovators. They walked so she could run and ran so she could fly. That’s why I don’t want to talk about her anymore. I LIKE HER, OKAY? YES her voice acting is questionable at times, YES I wish she had a bit more variety when it came to enemy types, YES I think that she has an underdeveloped bad guy. She’s funny and popular and the worst part is she’s actually really sweet and you just can’t help not liking her. She’s got banger DLC and a sequel coming soon. I’m sick of hearing about Breath of the Wild.