YMMV / The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

For YMMV items related to the manga adaptation, go to this page.

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• Accidental Innuendo:
  • A certain line in the Spirit Temple:
    Nabooru: Will you go through this tiny hole and get a treasure that's inside?
  • The carpenter boss in Kakariko Village says this when you're wearing the Spooky Mask:
    Carpenter Boss: Hey, you have some good, quality wood there, kid!^note This line was actually altered in the 3DS remake to "Hey, that mask is some good, quality wood there, kid!"
  • The one Kokiri trying to lift the rock looks way too much like he's trying to hump it instead. Plenty of GIF-makers had a field day with this one.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • If you go back to Mido after clearing the Forest Temple, Mido, upon hearing that Saria, the one person he liked, has accepted her destiny as a Sage and they'll never see each other again, asks you to apologize to Link on his behalf if you see him again. Does he really not recognize Link, or is he just pretending for the sake of his pride? ^note You have to prove that you know Saria by playing your song, and he's aware that she only teaches the song to friends.
  • It's popular fanon that Dark Link is a generic doppelganger who shapeshifts into a duplicate of whoever he's fighting. It's partially confirmed by a glitch that lets you enter the Water Temple as a child and fight Dark Link as a child.
  • Link gains King Zora's permission to see Lord Jabu-Jabu after he finds a note addressed from Ruto asking for help to escape Lord Jabu-Jabu. However, once Link meets with Ruto she denies ever writing a note and asking to be rescued. Is this Ruto's typical tsundere behavior, or did Ganondorf forge the note to further his plan to let Link collect the spiritual stones so he could gain access to the Sacred Realm?
  • When Ingo took over Lon Lon Ranch, was he brainwashed by Ganondorf, or did he do what he did of his own free will? The manga says it's the former, but things are more ambiguous in the original game.
  • Do the Scrubs inside the Great Deku Tree surrender to Link because they're cowards who don't want to die? Or are they taking the opportunity to jump ship because they were forced to fight for Queen Gohma against their will?
  • If a ReDead is killed, other ReDeads in the vicinity will shuffle over and huddle around it. Fans have interpreted this as the ReDeads either mourning the loss of one of their own, or them cannibalizing it.
  • Why does Navi leave Link at the end of the game? Her reason for doing so has never been stated in canon, and - Navi being something of a Flat Character and Link an outright Heroic Mime - there's a lot of room to interpret what their relationship was actually like. Some view Navi as aiding Link moreso out of a sense of duty rather than kinship, and once they accomplished their goal of saving Hyrule, she saw no reason to stay with him. Others view her as lacking self-worth, believing Link had outgrown her and (incorrectly) assuming that he wouldn't want her around now that he no longer needed her. More fantastic ideas are that she was secretly in love with Link, but knew there was no future in it for various reasons, and left due to finding it too painful to be around him. Or that forcing her way through Ganon's evil magic during the final battle actually mortally wounded her, and she left to spare Link the pain of watching her die.
  • Nabooru explaining that, despite being a thief, she is not evil like Ganondorf, because the latter steals from women (alongside stealing from children and killing people) is rather unusual, considering she's from a Lady Land, with strong women and no men, making it seem bizarre that she would consider stealing from women evil yet stealing from men acceptable. The Doylist explanation is that the writers were invoking "women and children" without considering whether it would make sense in context. In-universe, the most likely solution is that Nabooru is fully aware that women in other tribes (like the Hylians) are more vulnerable and dependent then her own tribe. Another interpretation is that, being a Lady Land, the Gerudo hold women in high regard and so stealing from them more of an affront then stealing from men. Although this is unlikely, as the whole point of Nabooru's speech was to explain why she's not evil, despite being a thief, and saying "I only steal from those I consider worthless from birth", isn't exactly going to help her case, especially since she's trying to win over a male Hylian.
• Alternate Self Shipping: Sheik/Zelda is popular despite Sheik literally being Zelda crossdressing (many fanfics ignore this and write her as being her own character, and—for her OoT incarnation, at least—often male). Super Smash Bros. added fuel to the fire by separating Zelda and Sheik in the fourth title; at least one fic has shipped them as OOT Sheik and TP Zelda (although that one makes some actual sense, since they're different Zeldas from different eras rather than the exact same character).
• Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • Ocarinas existed before this game's release (though they did become more popular afterward, to the point where you can buy ones that look just like Zelda's).
  • The rotating ice floes found by Jabu-Jabu's altar in the adult timeline also happen to be an actual and naturally occurring phenomenon.
  • Blue Fire is also a real thing, but it's hotter than normal red or yellow fire.
• Annoying Video Game Helper:
  • Infamously, Navi, who is a common in-joke amongst gamers for fairly frequently exclaiming "Hey!" or "Listen!" when she wants the player to listen to her tips or hints. You hear her even when you're out adventuring and doing side-quests. In the 3DS remake, she's reminding you every ten minutes to check the Sheikah Stone for tips or asking if you need to take a break from playing.
  • Kaepora Gaebora, due to his long speeches, his "Do you want to hear everything again?" question being set to 'Yes' by default while you're mashing the A button to get through it and the fun that he occasionally asks "Did you understand?", meaning you need to answer Yes to continue instead. Shame that the cursor defaults to 'No' in this scenario.
  • No one in Kakariko Village or the Shadow Temple seems to be capable of shutting up about the Lens of Truth once it's mentioned, even if you already have it.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Ganondorf, who you fight the same way you did Phantom Ganon earlier, except even easier at this point. While he hits hard, you can get a buff that halves the damage you get, and it's easy not to get hit at all if you know what you are doing. His next form of Ganon, who is very challenging for beginners, also qualifies for experienced players who know what they're doing.
• Awesome Ego: Particularly in this game, Ganondorf is very boisterous and boasts about his power a lot, frequently taunting and talking down to the heroes. He's got the smarts and power to back it up.
• Awesome Music: This game is responsible for many of the most famous tunes in gaming, and takes up much of the series' own page.
• Awesome: Video Game Levels:
  • For many players, the Forest Temple is when the action, tension and atmosphere in the game start to crank up, with its vast size compared to the Child Link dungeons and its creepy music and vibe, culminating in one of the best-remembered boss fights in the game.
  • The Fire Temple is loaded with puzzles and tricky navigation, and works as an effective Rescue Arc as Link saves each of the Gorons from a fiery demise.
  • While it gets some flak for its linearity, the Shadow Temple is still considered to be a memorable dungeon due to its spooky aesthetics and loads of action.
  • Gerudo Valley and the Spirit Temple. Music aside, the quest is one of the most vast and involved in the game, with several stages as both Child and Adult Link, and also exposes the player to the rather interesting Gerudo culture that raised Ganondorf.
  • The Water Temple in the 3DS remake, due to the iron boots being mapped to button controls, meaning significantly less time wasted fiddling with the menu. With that major flaw out of the way, the Water Temple, despite still being massive and puzzling, becomes a creative and challenging level nonetheless.
• Badass Decay: Zelda was hit with this the moment she was kidnapped by Ganondorf after revealing herself to Link, for no explained reason; especially if you take account that she spent seven years as a Sheikah warrior. She only regrows her spine once you beat Ganondorf the first time.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Princess Zelda. Particularly her secret identity as Sheik, which depending on how you chose to read that plot point (especially whether you consider them the same character or not), you will think she's one of the best incarnations of the character ever or a painful example of wasted potential. Supporters point out that she was, by far, the most active and driven Zelda the series had ever had at the time (she's even more active than many incarnations that came after). Plus, although nowadays it's extremely hard to not know it beforehand, the reveal of her identity was genuinely shocking, a compelling plot twist and a great subversion of the usual Zelda plot (the story was NOT saving her from Ganondorf, since she wasn't kidnapped in the first place, but rather saving Hyrule). Detractors, on the other hand, get very frustrated because she never gets to actually do anything badass as Sheik (particularly those who got introduced to the character through the Super Smash Bros. franchise, where she has one of the most visually impressive move sets of the franchise), and that her most impressive feat, i.e. being able to survive on her own during Ganondorf's reign, happens completely off screen. But more than that, the fact that she gets kidnapped right after she reveals herself, which to them completely ruins the aforementioned plot subversion (even if the kidnapping is actually very short, especially when compared with other entries, both before and after Ocarina of Time). To a lesser degree, there's also if she's really partially responsible for Ganondorf rising to power, and/or if she actively ruined Link's childhood:
    • Detractors point out that her plan is flawed from the getgo, since it requires opening the Sacred Realm in the first place, which is exactly what Ganondorf is trying to do. Not to mention she never tries to consider any contingencies in case Ganondorf catches on to her plan, or considers that she's being watched (especially given that she's protecting the Ocarina of Time, which she knows Ganondorf is after.) Zelda herself seems to fall into this camp, as she actively blames herself for the pain Hyrule has suffered.
    • Defenders point out that Ganondorf was already trying to gather the Spiritual Stones, and so Zelda felt as thought she had to move quickly. Further, she had already tried going to her father, only to be dismissed. Also, Zelda wouldn't have had any way to know that the Master Sword would seal Link in time, and expecting her to guess that is Fourth Wall Myopia.
  • While she was once near-universally hated for her perceived overinsistence, Navi has become this over time. Critics of Navi are still quite vocal, since rather than simply trusting the player to press a button that allows you to talk to Navi when you need to (a solution implemented in the 3D Zelda games from Wind Waker onward), the game has Navi constantly shouting “Hey!” as a frequent reminder that she is there to give advice. Her detractors also tend to note that Navi has little defining personality compared to succeeding expository companions, contrasting the snark and growing appreciation of Link displayed by Tatl and Midna, the elderly wisdom and regrets of The King of Red Lions and Ezlo, or even the analytical seriousness of Fi. On the other hand, Navi has many defenders who see her annoying reputation as overblown, seeing as during dungeons, her only real gameplay interruptions are upon entering Wallmaster rooms for the first time, and even her periodic "Hey!" notifications outside of dungeons never truly interrupt gameplay and disappear over time; defenders note that while later games implemented a more elegant "advice" button, Ocarina of Time's nature as an early 3D exploration-based game meant that Navi's notifications were a case of Early-Installment Weirdness born out of game design standards being in relative infancy. Fans of Navi also appreciate her (as well as Tatl) for being the in-universe basis of the Camera Lock-On, giving the mechanic much more personality beyond being a flashing arrow in later games both within and outside of the franchise.
• Best Boss Ever: Phantom Ganon, Twinrova and Ganondorf himself are among the highest-regarded bosses, while Dark Link is chosen as this among the minibosses.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Dark Link is a famous example. He has nothing to do thematically with the Water Temple, yet he suddenly appears out of nowhere to be its miniboss, without any explanation before or afterward.^note Although eagle-eyed players will notice that before the boss, Link's water-reflection disappears after he passes the small island, so it is possible that it turned into Dark Link… maybe. All in an illusory room that appears to be a vast, foggy expanse of ocean at first, which turns back into an ordinary dungeon room after he's defeated. He isn't mentioned anywhere else in the game, by anyone or anything. He just is. Unlike most examples of this trope, Dark Link is beloved specifically because of this mysterious trait, even becoming an Ensemble Dark Horse within the fandom.
• Breather Boss:
  • Morpha is a ridiculously easy boss when you know the trick to beating him and have the Biggoron sword (stay off the platforms, longshot him and then slash him as fast as you can) and is downright cathartic considering the temple you had to get through to reach him.
  • Twinrova can easily be beaten without taking damage, since you only have one magic beam headed toward you at a time, and the battle requires that you have a shield up for the entire duration.
• Breather Level:
  • After the lengthy and maze-like Water Temple, the linear Shadow Temple is a straightforward gauntlet instead of a brainteaser. The mini-boss, Dead Hand, and the dungeon item, the Hover Boots, can be found very early on as well.
  • The Water Temple in Master Quest, unlike the original game, is the easiest dungeon for Adult Link, and also easier than the original, being shorter and with less frustrating puzzles.
• Broken Base:
  • Whether the game has aged well or not, a debate that got more prominence when series overseer Eiji Aonuma took sides. Although in terms of graphics the general consensus is that it hasn't (particularly because of the sluggish framerate by today's standards, and the fact that SD games in general don't look good on HD screens doesn't help), when it comes to gameplay the debate is much less cut and clear. On one side you have those who think Ocarina of Time is a clear case of Once Original, Now Common and that, despite being a key game in the evolution of the medium, nowadays it only has nostalgia value. On the other, you have those who insist it still holds up, and many elements are still much better than detractors give them credit for. Ocarina of Time 3D gives the game a notable graphical upgrade and a smoother framerate, which leaves only the gameplay to debate on.
  • The Water Temple. For a lot of fans it's the ultimate example of That One Level in the game as well as the series. However, there is another big part of the fan base that consider it the Best Level Ever of the game, stating that it's an awesome mental challenge, and its difficulty just makes it all the more satisfying when you beat it.
  • The altered Fire Temple music has divided fans, with some fans respecting Nintendo's decision to avoid offending those of Islamic faith ^Explanation The phrases heard are from the Qu'ran and to have any thing else playing when hearing the phrases is considered blasphemous. and/or simply preferring the new music, and others accusing Nintendo of submitting to Political Overcorrectness and deriding the altered track as a low-quality, hastily assembled substitute.
  • Another one, that albeit appears less often, is quite persistent, is the "there's too much waiting in Ocarina" criticism, which was popularized by YouTuber Egoraptor in his diatribe against the game. The argument goes that too much of Ocarina of Time's gameplay, both in combat and puzzle solving, but specially the former, relies on the player waiting for to the right time to do what's required of them, rather than the game allowing the player to dictate the pace of the gameplay. That, coupled with short unskippable cutscenes in instances like opening chests, warping, or the speed of text boxes,^note This one applies to the N64 version, since it was sped up in the 3DS remake. make detractors accuse the game of "disrespecting the player's time". The most extreme cases even say that this makes the game utterly unworthy of being considered a masterpiece at all, even by 1998 standards. On the flip side, defenders of the game accuse these detractors of misrepresenting the game's gameplay, since there are a variety of tools that allow the combat to be more fast paced, such as Deku Nuts, that detractors tend to fail to mention. The counter argument for things like chest opening cutscenes is that, not only they are only a few seconds long, but they tend to be fairly far in between, so complaining about those feels arbitrary at best, and a desperate attempt to find flaws at worse. Some people go as far as to accuse this argument of being only detractors trying to pass as objective criticism what in reality is only petty impatience.
  • Whether the N64 version or 3DS remake is superior. Many of the arguments for the former are marred in self-admitted nostalgia in that it helped pioneer 3D adventure games. Whereas the latter's defenders consider it a Polished Port with a few nice bonus features and better overall graphical fidelity; but a big sticking point with players being the lighting in certain scenes that can be distracting when compared to the N64 original.
  • Whether The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has taken the mantle of best game in the series from this game or not has torn the fanbase asunder. While there's absolutely no question that Breath of the Wild completely surpasses both the original and 3DS versions from a technical standpoint, many people prefer the more traditional gameplay style of Ocarina of Time over the Wide-Open Sandbox and Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay of Breath of the Wild and feel that Ocarina is still the benchmark game that laid the foundation for every Zelda game (and its genre) after it and should be respected in that context, while others feel that Wild has built on what Ocarina established while also improving on it so much that it basically superannuates whatever its predecessor has accomplished. There are some people who appreciate both games, enjoying Ocarina for its timelessness, classic characters and story and role in gaming history, and Wild for providing the biggest, most polished and most engaging evolution of the series' exploration factor. Then, of course, there are the camps that would go so far as to say Ocarina of Time never held the 'mantle' at all, particularly 2D fans who feel that everything it did, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past did earlier and often better ("Ocarina is just A Link to the Past in 3D!" is far from an uncommon sentiment), some of whom feel no 3D Zelda title will ever surpass the series' 2D roots.
• Character Perception Evolution: Navi has undergone a re-evaluation since being near-universally hated for a few years since the game's release. She was originally the butt of many jokes regarding insistent assistance in video games and was seen as The Scrappy for many. In the years following Ocarina of Time's release, the games that came out after and until Breath of the Wild had what were considered far worse examples of assistant characters when it comes to handholding. Navi is typically seen in a much better light nowadays, especially when compared to the worst example, Fi. While she is still thought of as mildly annoying, her advice is never truly overbearing and her interruptions are generally limited to rooms containing Wallmasters, which even then is considered a very helpful interruption. Furthermore, after hearing so much about Navi being hyped up as the most Annoying Video Game Helper ever, newcomers to the game can find that she's not nearly as intrusive as her critics make her out to be, leading to a Critical Backlash.
• Common Knowledge:
  • The game is not the Imprisoning War mentioned in the opening of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. While developer interviews at the time of its release indicate that this game was initially intended to depict that, the current official timeline states that the events of this game are what led to it, and furthermore, The Imprisoning War is now the result of an alternate ending to the game that the player can't achieve in the game itself (as in, a timeline where Link is defeated by Ganon in the final battle)
  • Most fans treat it as a fact that Link was teaching Saria's Song to the Skull Kid by playing it for him, which also ties loosely into the plot of Majora's Mask. In actuality, Skull Kid's dialogue confirms that he already knew the song before then; he just took Link also knowing it as a sign that they should become friends.
  • Many players have fond memories of finally catching the Hylian Loach, the huge fish in the fishing pond...except that the fish's name is actually the Hyrule Loach◊. The "Hylian" Loach appears only in Twilight Princess.
  • Its commonly thought the ReDeads in Hyrule Castle Town can't paralyze you with their scream because the pre-rendered background won't allow the camera to zoom in when they do it, but the real truth as revealed by hackers is that they are a separate variant of Redead within the game data that cannot paralyze Link.
  • Many dislike Navi for how constant chattering, but in truth, she doesn't show interrupt gameplay all that much, especially if you continue the story. The only times she pops up is when she has to speak on behalf of Link or warn him of something, such as when entering a room with Wallmasters. Not to mention whenever she has something to say, she won't interrupt gameplay unless the player presses the C-Button to let her talk. Otherwise, she just says incredibly brief voice clips.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Floormasters, especially the invisible variety. Killing one will cause it to split into three miniature copies of itself and scatter about the room; failing to kill these miniatures quickly enough can result in one latching onto your throat, draining your health and then growing back to normal size and starting the fight over again. Invisible ones are worse both for the obvious reason and because using the Lens of Truth to make them visible disables your magic-enhanced spin attack, which is far and away the best method of dispatching the miniature ones before they can scatter. It also doesn't help that, being giant, grisly-looking severed hands, they're also creepy as all get-out.
  • Stalfos. They use a lot of the same fighting moves that Link does, including shield-blocking and jump attacks (and yes, those jump attacks do double damage, just like Link's). It gets worse when you have to fight two at a time, since if you defeat one, it doesn't really die until the second one is destroyed also. Too slow? The first one revives at full health, basically starting the fight all over again, less whatever health you've lost. On Master Quest, in some rooms you have to fight three at once...
  • Any enemies that deal over half a heart of damage become this on a 3 Heart run, since every heart container is precious and taking 1 entire heart of damage can put the player at a serious disadvantage, and yes, the above enemies do one entire heart of damage.
• Die for Our Ship:
  • Excepting only the Link/Zelda shippers, the Link/Sheik shippers are probably the most vocal in the series, which is odd when you remember that Zelda and Sheik are the same person.
  • Shippers vilify Zelda as a selfish, spoiled snob, and often characterize Link as resenting Zelda for manipulating him into saving the world and having him travel through time... the end goal of this characterization is usually to hook him up with the Girl Next Door, Malon or Saria.
  • Shippers will also turn Ruto into a Stalker with a Crush that tries to force Link to marry her.
• Difficulty Spike: Most players who played this game as kids would agree that the first couple of dungeons are relatively straightforward, and the bosses both have a single, exploitable weakness. Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly is the first dungeon where it isn't as clear as to which direction to head and takes a bit more intuition.
• Digital Destruction: While the updated 3DS version has mostly gotten praise for upping the graphics, there are moments in the game where fans feel the colors and/or lighting missed the mark when it came to the atmosphere that was there in the original. One moment in particular that is criticized a lot is the final battle against Ganon.
• Draco in Leather Pants: There is no indication that Dark Link is anything but a malevolent force bent on killing Link, yet a lot of the fandom likes to portray him as sympathetic, even woobie-like, helped (or not) by the theories that he's always been trapped inside his room in the Water Temple and his desire is to see the outside world.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Dark Link, consistent with most of his appearances where he only appears for maybe ten minutes as a whole yet is disproportionately represented in fan works.
  • The cute, innocent farmgirl Malon is a darkhorse among shippers who insist that the Hero of Time married her instead of any of the other ladies. The fact the Link from Twilight Princess is the direct descendant of the Hero of Time and a farmer boy lends credence to this theory. For a character who is almost completely irrelevant to the main story, this is quite impressive.
  • Kotake and Koume. They are just so funny you want to beat them over and over. If Betty White and Julia Roberts were in Hyrule, they would be Twinrova.
  • Saria is fondly remembered by fans, especially thanks to being Link's first friend, being cute as a button herself and having a very catchy song. The fact that it's impossible for them to become an item following the adventure, despite the subtle-but-definitely-there romantic elements, only fuels her popularity and has led to the creation of hundreds of fix fics where the author uses one Deus ex Machina or another to allow them to be together. Many fans are still sore that Saria was excluded from Hyrule Warriors and effectively replaced by Lana.
  • There are some that remember Volvagia, Dead Hand, and Bongo Bongo to this day.
  • Nabooru is a standout among fans for being a notably attractive (at least by the standards of N64 graphics) Amazonian Beauty Action Girl, who is also a Token Heroic Orc among the Gerudo that adds some great nuance to the Hyrule races by showing that not all Gerudo necessarily support Ganondorf. Similar to Saria, a lot of fans are still sore that Nabooru was excluded from Hyrule Warriors. She would later get a Suspiciously Similar Substitute in Urbosa, who would be playable in the second Hyrule Warriors game.
  • The Kokiri girl with the hair puffs, Fado, has a following because of her unique design, creepy personality, and various Epileptic Trees involving her and her developmental counterpart.
• Epileptic Trees: This was the game that kick started the speculations about the timeline of the franchise throughout the fan base. Nintendo, on top of massively expanding the lore and mythos of the series, put references to previous titles that, albeit extremely subtle, weren't unnoticed by fans, especially in the long run, like naming the sages after the towns from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. That, coupled with the similarities between the story of the game and the back story from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, started the whole trend. The rest is history.
• Evil Is Cool: Ganondorf is regarded as one of Nintendo's coolest and most powerful villains, and Ocarina of Time is the game that put him in this position. He's a very threatening Wicked Cultured Genius Bruiser Evil Sorcerer with fun boss fights in both of his forms; on top of that, he's one of the very few video game villains to truly defeat the hero depending on the timeline.^note Since Link winning and losing to Ganondorf are both canon and result in separate branched timelines.
• Fan Nickname: "Aria" is the nickname given to an NPC from Zelda 64. She's a brunette woman with a green dress and is the earliest known NPC from the game.
• Fanon
  • Some fanworks depict Adult Link as having the mentality of his child self, as he was asleep for 7 years.
  • Zelda's unidentified Sage Element is usually assumed to be Time by fans, because Zelda herself states that it is her powers as a Sage that allow her to send Link back in time at the end, and as they are both destined holders of a Triforce piece the Sage of Time is the logical counterpart title to the Hero of Time.
  • Many fans believe that Malon's mother is/was a Gerudo, based on a comment Talon makes if Link talks to him while wearing the Gerudo mask, combined with her red hair.
  • Nabooru is often claimed to have been Ganondorf's lover before turning against him in fan works, presumably due to how dramatic the idea is. The narrative itself never explains what their relationship was like in the past.
• Faux Symbolism: Gerudo culture drew comparisons to Islamic cultures — rather than this being an example of the Gerudo being an alternate version of Islamic nations, Nintendo stated that they simply drew inspiration from Arabic cultures, without realizing the religious implications.
• Fetish Retardant: Oh, the poor Great Fairy. She's supposed to be a gorgeous Statuesque Stunner wearing nothing but make-up and a collection of leaves that leaves little to the imagination. Unfortunately, the N64's jump to 3D did a notoriously poor job of conveying this: the make-up on that blocky face looks almost monstrous, and the poorly-rendered leaves look more like a terrible skin disorder (something the 3DS' remake's leotard did surprisingly little to fix). Combine this with that screaming laughter as she appears, and what was supposed to be a calming encounter became shockingly creepy.
• Franchise Original Sin: Some of the perceived problems of this game's sequels prior to Breath of the Wild have origins in this game, but Ocarina of Time's general acclaim usually dismisses them as minor annoyances in this game compared to later ones:
  • One major complaint about post-Ocarina of Time games is being forced to run around previous areas to unlock the next. In hindsight, the trip back to the Lost Woods to learn Saria's Song foreshadows this issue, as there is no real reason as to why Saria couldn't teach Link her song right when they said their supposed "goodbye." This issue is mitigated by putting a shortcut to the Lost Woods in Death Mountain, which is the area which triggers the quest. Also, nearly every dungeon in the Adult arc involves revisiting some previous area, but this sort of Backtracking is largely tolerated since these revisits largely do not involve any lengthy quest required to open the next dungeon, and the seven-year Time Skip where Ganondorf has ruled Hyrule means many of these locations are very different from how they were the first time players visited them, even if just in atmosphere.
  • Another complaint about post-Ocarina games is poor item planning; in other words, the relative lack of use for items outside their dungeons and/or their pre-made, purposed targets. A few of this game's later items, especially those found after the Water Temple, see similar limited use, most blatantly the Golden Gauntlets and Ice Arrows with the Iron Boots, Hover Boots, and Lens of Truth only faring a little better. But the Golden Gauntlets are literally found halfway through the final dungeon in the game anyway, and the Ice Arrows are strictly optional, rather than being found early and only used once outside their designated areas.
  • Many of the later 3D Zelda games are criticized for having an empty overworld with little to see, do and fight. However, Ocarina of Time also suffers from this issue compared to some of its 2D predecessors. Hyrule Field's enemies are limited solely to Stalchildren and Peahats in the past and Big Poes in the Future, and the only places to use items in the field are a few spots where hidden grottoes can be found. But in these early days of 3D gaming, it gave the game a tangible sense of "bigness," without being so large that it couldn't be traveled across very quickly, especially as an adult on horseback.
  • This was the game that started the timeline debates and eventual canonization of the series splitting into multiple timelines from this game. It was meant to be a prequel to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past yet contradicted the backstory and events leading up to that game,^note Namely that Ganon only had the Triforce of Power when he got sealed away in contrast to A Link to the Past which depicted Ganon having the whole Triforce at hand. and its enduring popularity with fans meant that Nintendo started making sequels to Ocarina of Time... during a time when they were starting to take continuity seriously. Many fans feel such an explanation is unnecessary and would be perfectly happy to accept each game that explicitly ties to each other in-game as its own "timeline", rather than trying to tie them all together in a confusing way.
  • Furthermore, when placed in context with the backstory and lore provided by A Link to the Past, the story can come across as "fanfiction" than something official. The inclusion of Link in this era, the fact he wields the Master Sword, the new rules regarding to the Master Sword and the Triforce, and the fact the ending implies the bad future would be averted through time travel; all bear similarities to Zelda games (and other Zelda media) being accused by fans to be just fanfiction than the "real" lore. The only reason why Ocarina of Time doesn't get much accusation like modern Zelda games is because it was just the 5th Zelda game released as opposed to something like the 20th, and it was the first Zelda game that many modern Zelda fans played in their childhood.
• Game-Breaker: Has its own entry in the series page.
• Genre Turning Point: This game was not only one of the most successful jumps from 2D to 3D ever, but was a major key game in the development of the 3D Action-Adventure genre and even 3D games as a whole. Although it achieved it thanks to many factors, it's particularly noteworthy for its Camera Lock-On system. It was implemented by so many different games afterwards, it's practically impossible to imagine the gaming landscape without it now.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • In Master Quest, there's a glitch that allows you to get through the locked boss door of the Water Temple using a jump attack. Since the Longshot was moved to a room you can get into almost immediately after entering the level and you'll be done in less than 10 minutes (you'll probably spend more time on the boss than on the level itself).
  • In the sink hole alongside the Castle gate there is a Gold Skulltula which you can kill, catch its token with the boomerang, and then go to the exit before the game can register that the Gold Skulltula has been killed while you still get to keep the token you received. As frustrating as it can be to find all the Gold Skulltula in the game this can be quite a relief for gamers who just want to get the 100 Skulltula requirement out of the way as fast as possible.
  • Catch something in a bottle. Just as the bottle comes in contact with the bug, fairy, fish or whatever, pause the game and switch the bottle with a different item. This will replace that item with a bottle, permanently. While it can make certain quests or the game itself Unintentionally Unwinnable if you lose an important item,^note Though if the item is a collectible, collecting another of those items will restore the item. there are many items you can safely trade in that way. The Claim Check has basically no use at all once you get the Biggoron Sword, masks are entirely cosmetic once you finish the Chain of Deals with them, and after planting all the Magic Beans, their slot is basically wasted, making these the three most commonly replaced items. Farore's Wind is also victim to this sometimes, given its lack of utility outside of dungeons. Doing this near the end of the game means having 8 bottles, and combined with the final Great Fairy's blessing gives Link 20 hearts, half damage, and 8 free revives with full health each time.^note But you must use the Fairies from glitch bottles yourself, they do not automatically heal you when you die. Also, if an item can only be used as Child Link, the bottle replacing it cannot be used as Adult Link, and vice versa.
  • In the 3DS remake, it's surprisingly easy to enter Lord Jabu-Jabu as an adult. So easy, it humorously implies he wasn't killed or frozen, just hiding in plain sight. Compare with the original N64 source-code where said glitch was almost impossible to pull off.
  • The Goron Tunic doesn't actually distinguish between floor damage caused by fiery surfaces and floor damage caused by other hazards like spikes or poison, making it more useful than you'd expect in places like the Shadow Temple.
  • In the N64 original, it was possible to permanently miss Dampé's Piece of Heart if you leave the graveyard without grabbing it after he digs it up. The 3DS version tries to fix this by making it so that the Heart Piece is not removed from the digging prize pool if you fail to grab it, but the game also bizarrely fails to actually remove it after you do pick it up. Which means, with a lot of patience, it is possible to earn 20 hearts purely from Dampé.
  • One room in the Spirit Temple features a climbable wall with shifting sections that are surrounded by spikes on each side, making the climb to the top fairly challenging and requiring good timing. However, the devs did not account for the fact that most climbable walls in the game can be Hookshotted, and Link can instead simply Longshot his way to the top of the wall and skip the difficult climb entirely.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Getting a Game Over against Ganon can become this thanks to the release of the official timeline, in which the timeline leading to A Link to the Past involves Ganon defeating Link.
  • As of Breath of the Wild, the reason why Link was put to sleep becomes this: if it weren't for Fi putting Link to sleep, the Master Sword would have killed young Link right then and there.
  • During the sidequest for Biggoron's Sword, a Kokiri girl tells Link that all non-Kokiri who enter the forest will eventually become Stalfos. In Twilight Princess, Link's form as the Hero's Shade heavily resembles a Stalfos, which is confirmed in Hyrule Historia, suggesting that he fell victim to this curse himself.
  • At one point, you make friends with a Skull Kid, and teach him Saria's Song. He thinks your Skull Mask might make him look tough, and you don't hold it against him that he doesn't pay full price for the mask. Then Majora's Mask comes along, and that same Skull Kid has somehow become an unstoppable malicious being that transforms Link, and takes him to a new land that he's actively threatening to sic the moon on.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The Final Battle was originally planned to feature a giant Link would fight while climbing onto it. That was such a cool idea that Team ICO made an entire game based around that. Nintendo themselves did it later with a boss in Super Mario Galaxy (Megaleg). The Zelda series itself would eventually use the "climbing the boss" strategy with the Stone Taluses in Breath of the Wild.
  • Small one, but the Zoras in the adult era are trapped in red ice, which is destroyed by cold flame, implying it's somehow hot. Meanwhile, on a certain horror writers' wiki...
  • Just try to picture the Great Fairies these days without suspecting they've had makeovers from Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Yes, they pre-date the former character.
• Hype Backlash: Due to the countless praises heaped upon this game, it's rather to be expected, especially because video games age more noticeably than any other medium. Several factions in particular view Ocarina in this light.
  • Younger fans (especially those who never grew up with a Zelda game) tend to label the game as "overrated" due to Once Original, Now Common, with many games (Zelda or otherwise) taking the innovations that Ocarina brought to the game world and building on them. Within the franchise, some fans of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (i.e. the fans who don't appreciate both games) believe that Breath has unequivocally dethroned Ocarina as the best 3D game in the series, and that there is no reason for it to be held in such a prestigious light anymore apart from nostalgia.
  • Some fans who grew up with The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past prefer it over Ocarina, and treat it as the Zelda franchise's biggest turning point rather than Ocarina itself, finding that much of the praise towards Ocarina can also easily apply to ALttP.
  • There's also a third camp who contend that it's not even the best N64 Zelda game, and that The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is better due to being a significant departure from series conventions in a franchise believed to have grown stale and predictable over the years.
• Iconic Character, Forgotten Title: Ocarina of Time itself is not forgotten, but still, many of Sheik's fans find her much more famous in the Super Smash Bros.. series, especially because she only appears in her home series in this game and Hyrule Warriors, while she's been part of the Smash Bros. roster since Melee.
• I Knew It!: Hyrule Historia eventually confirmed that Rauru and Kaepora Gaebora were the same person, though this was already strongly hinted at by a gossip stone within the game.
• Iron Woobie: Zelda herself. Her mother is never mentioned and is presumably dead, then she has a prophetic dream that entails evil overtaking the land. When she tries to warn her father about Ganondorf, he doesn't heed her advice. Then her father is murdered in front of her and she has to flee from her own castle with Impa, and gets separated from Link and everyone she ever knew for seven years, while a murderous evil sorcerer is constantly on the hunt for her.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Those who expected more changes and additions to the main game, just like Nintendo did with Super Mario 64 DS and Game Freak with Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, were a bit disappointed with the Nintendo 3DS remake, even with the fixing of the Water Temple and the inclusion of the Master Quest mode.
• It Was His Sled: Sheik's true identity is a well-known spoiler in the gaming community. The Super Smash Bros. series doesn't even bother to hide it, to the point that in Melee and Brawl Zelda's down-special turns her into Sheik and vice versa.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: It's not hard to see why—Link is surprisingly the recipient of quite a bit of flirting from many different women, and he's shipped heavily with all of them (plus some men). Notably, there's the daughter of the ranch owner, the fishwoman princess, the childhood friend, the classic princess, the Gerudo leader who opposses Ganondorf.
• Love to Hate: Ganondorf firmly established himself with the trope in this game. A Large Ham Smug Super who always manages to ramp up the tension when he's around, proved to be quite intelligent and cunning when dealing with Link and Sheik despite his eventual defeat, and gave us a hell of a set of final boss battles. Later games would build off of this portrayal, with Wind Waker toning down his arrogance and large ham tendencies, making him a much more sympathetic and Tragic Villain, whereas Twilight Princess would go the opposite route of keeping him hammy and arrogant, but making him more menacing about it.
• Magnificent Bastard: Ganondorf is the charismatic King of Thieves who seeks to steal the Triforce and conquer Hyrule. Falsely swearing allegiance to the King of Hyrule on behalf of the Gerudo, Ganondorf enacts his plan by manipulating the naïve Link and Princess Zelda into gathering the three Spiritual Stones and opening the door to the Scared Realm, allowing him to claim the Triforce of Power and take over the kingdom, even imprisoning the Sages and stifling any potential opposition afterwards to secure his rule. Upon Link's return seven years later, Ganondorf allows him to rescue the Sages in order to lure out the missing Zelda, immediately capturing her and seizing the Triforce of Wisdom when she reveals herself. Challenging Link to face him in his castle with the Triforce of Courage, Ganondorf calmly awaits Link's arrival while playing the organ before engaging the hero in an epic final battle that ends with his transformation into the demonic Ganon. Despite his defeat, Ganondorf inevitably bounces back in all three timelines, solidifying himself as one of gaming's most celebrated villains.
• Memetic Badass:
  • The Marathon Man, who will always beat you by 1 second, even if he has to violate time and space to do so.^note Use a cheat device to get a time of 0:00 and he still wins.
  • Malon. Upon beating the record she set at Lon Lon Ranch, she delivers a cow to your house in Kokiri Forest. This would imply that A) she's pure-hearted enough to enter the Forest despite being a Hylian adult, and B) strong enough to carry a cow one-handed up a vertical ladder.
  • The bottles, simply because by the very nature of Ganondorf's Tennis Boss design, almost anything that has to collide with something can deflect his energy balls. This includes smacking a charge of dark and evil magics that can shape the world with an empty glass bottle.
• Memetic Loser: Morpha, the Water Temple boss. The being that ruins both Lake Hylia and Zora's Domain is... a little ball in a pool, has just one or two attacks, is a Breather Boss even without the Cheese Strategy that can beat it in seconds, gets overshadowed by both its dungeon and its miniboss, and tends to rank last in lists of the bosses; as a result, it's often seen as an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain instead of a creepy Eldritch Abomination. That said...
• Memetic Molester:
  • Morpha, by virtue of being a monster who can shape the water to form tentacles. To say nothing of its tentacle grab attack. Naturally, it's been the butt of countless jokes about hentai.
  • Rauru ("So, how was Adult Link clothed...?")
  • The ReDeads, whose attack is to grab Link from behind in a straddle while moaning and shrieking and thrusting.
  • Nabooru, thanks to the undefined "reward" she offers Link and her complimenting his adult look, the internet has labeled her a pedophile.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Hey! Listen! Hey! Listen! Hey! Listen! ^ExplanationThe level of irritation caused by Navi is considered the standard by which all annoying video game sidekicks must be judged.
  • Don't tell my father. ^ExplanationRuto goes into a dungeon alone in Ocarina of Time. Contrary to her wishes, you must tell her father in order to continue.
    • There's also the Zora King taking at least a half-minute to move so that Link can pass, and the "Ouweep...ouweep....ouweep..." sound he makes while moving.
  • WHAT A HOT BEAT! ^ExplanationDarunia of the Gorons has a dance sequence. That's all the context you're getting.
  • HOLY CRAP! THERE'S AN UPSIDE-DOWN TRIANGLE ON LINK'S SHIELD! THE FOURTH PIECE IS OUT THERE!
    • Even the rumor of finding the Triforce in Ocarina of Time is memetic. But we all know what happens to those who say things like this... ^ExplanationIn-game, it is stated that the Triforce of Courage resides in Link's heart. There is no physical Triforce in the game.
  • Did you get all that?/Do you want to hear what I said again? ^ExplanationKaepora Gaebora in Ocarina of Time goes on long-winded speeches... and frequently tricks the player into listening to them more than once. This made the character garner an infamous reputation, with he and his dialogue being parodied many times.
  • Song of Storms. ^ExplanationA song that has become famous for being addicting to hear.
  • Link finds [x]. ^ExplanationA YTMND fad where Link opens a chest in the game and finds different items.
  • I beat the Running Man! ^ExplanationAs Adult Link, one of the optional minigames you can do is race a running man from Gerudo Valley to Kokiri Forest. No matter how fast Link runs, the running man will always beat him by one second, even if the player uses a cheat device to trick the game into registering a time of 0 seconds. Naturally, rumors spawn about supposedly beating him, but they have all been proven false.
  • DAMN YOU WATER TEMPLE! / Iron Boots on, Iron Boots off. ^ExplanationThe Water Temple is the most hated level in Ocarina of Time due to the fact that many players spend hours there and the fact that you need to repeatedly put on and take off the Iron Boots (which, in the original version, involved repeatedly going into and out of the pause menu, eating up even more time; the remake allowed the player to assign the Iron Boots to a button, making it much simpler to take them on and off).
  • Meme Speedrun Categories:
    • Ouweep%. ^ExplanationA meme catagory where the goal is to reach King Zora sliding over as fast as possible.
    • Dank%. ^ExplanationAnother joke catagory created by the YouTuber EZScape where the goal is to use the Ocarina items glitch on a burning Deku Stick (which makes Link look like he’s smoking a giant blunt) in record time.
  • Ocarina of Time speedrunners hate the game. ^ExplantionIn response to an IGN article of the demo included in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (which gives a pitiful 5 minutes of playtime) being beaten using a glitch, people in the replies accused speedrunners of hating the game because they aren't taking time to enjoy the game and are being spiteful to the devs. People pointed out that not only is this not true, it doesn't make any sense to put thousands of hours into perfecting the speedrun of a game you hate.
  • SOLD OUT. ^ExplantionAn often little-noticed "item", which appears in your inventory after you've sold a mask but have yet to return to the Happy Mask Salesman. The item's image, which is simply text reading 'SOLD OUT', is often used as an emote or reaction to, what else, being a Sell-Out.
  • If the Great King of Evil, Ganondorf did [x]/If the Great King of Evil, Ganondorf was in [x] ^Explantion A recurring gag on the internet was taking various videos or memes and inserting Ganondorf in them by having a render of him on the video and the voice of a person in the video pitched down to resemble Ganondorf's deep voice to comedic effect.
• Memetic Troll:
  • Within the game's speedrunning community, Dampé. He is the mastermind behind the Heart-Pounding Gravedigging Tour, which in 100% runs is required to be played in order to find a Piece of Heart. Unfortunately for runners, this is completely RNG-dependent. Each digging attempt brings a 10% chance that he will dig up the piece, which combined with how long it takes to retry the minigame means that it can take several minutes for an unlucky player to finally find the item. Worst of all, in many routes the Gravedigging Tour was placed deep into the run; having a good run going after 2+ hours only to fail because Dampé refused to dig up the Piece of Heart is extremely frustrating. For this reason, Dampé is something of a pariah among the game's runners and treated as a character who deliberately seeks to obstruct and kill runs.
  • In general, Kaepora Gaebora. His lengthy speeches followed by "Did you get all that?"/"Do you want to hear what I said again?" have tricked many a player into mashing the "A" button and accidentally selecting the default option to make him repeat himself. As a result, Kaepora Gaebora has been branded a troll by the fandom. It doesn't help that the game never tells you that you can press the "B" button to skip the repeatable section of his speeches.
• Moe: Malon, the cute Farm Girl who has an implied crush on Link, thanks to her appealing design and personality. It’s especially impressive that she very easily still qualifies after growing up in the Crapsack World that is the Time Skip.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Ganondorf, being the self-proclaimed "Great King of Evil", naturally commits a lot of crimes against the people of Hyrule over the course of the game. However, many consider his absolute lowest point to be his attempt to round up the Gorons and feed them to Volvagia as punishment for rebelling against him.
  • Koume and Kotake well and truly cross it by brainwashing Nabooru for seven years, with further dialogue revealing that they've been doing the same to numerous other Gerudo during Ganondorf's absence.
• More Popular Replacement: Phantom Ganon is a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Agahnim from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, being another magic decoy for Ganondorf, but he's been retooled and reintroduced repeatedly, even playing an important role in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • The Rupee sound effects are unique to this game, and still sound oh-so-sweet every time you get them.
  • The fanfare that plays after defeating a boss... followed by the Heart Container get fanfare.
  • The sound the Mirror Shield makes when absorbing the power of Twinrova's spells in her second phase. It gets more intense as for each spell accumulated, adding to the feeling.
• Narm:
  • Not entirely the writers' fault and moreso the game not editing capital letters the player's name in order to match the rest of the sentence, but Ganondorf says this line after his defeat:
    Ganondorf:: CURSE YOU SAGES! CURSE YOU ZELDA! CURSE YOU Link!
  • In fact, naming Link something ridiculous can quickly turn a lot of lines hilarious.
    Navi: Wake up, Dirtbag!
    Zelda: "Dirtbag"... it has such a nice ring to it.
  • The destruction of Ganon's Castle. The escape sequence is epic, but then you're treated to a long shot of the castle slowly sinking into the ground, leaving the area perfectly level with the top of the roof areas flat against the ground. It looks more like a model or a pop-up book being folded in on itself than it does a massive castle collapsing.
  • In updated versions of the game, Ganondorf's Blood from the Mouth after you defeat him is censored to be bright green. This has the unfortunate effect of making him look like he's coughing up a massive loogie.
  • "Jabu-Jabu" is the Japanese onomatopoeia for splashing. In other words, the Zoras' patron deity is effectively named "Lord Splish-Splash".
  • For young first time players when the game originally came out, who hadn't played any Zelda game beforehand, were likely to have initially put their name as "Zelda", not knowing the hero is actually Link. This would lead to Princess Zelda eventually saying:
    Princess Zelda: "Zelda"... it has such a nice ring to it. And yet strangely familiar to me.
  • A consequence of Gameplay and Story Segregation — after Phantom Ganon's defeat, Ganondorf gives him a You Have Failed Me "The Reason You Suck" Speech. But since many see Phantom as a harder and more-versatile version of Ganondorf (namely his first fight), some have joked that it feels more like Ganondorf is just salty at being pre-upstaged by his own "worthless creation."
  • Navi apologizes that she will be unable to target or analyze Ganondorf before his first phase, due to the waves of darkness that he summons before the battle. But then once he transforms into Ganon, she proclaims "There’s no way that he’s going to hold me back again! This time we fight together!" It’s set up as an epic moment of friends teaming up to take down the Big Bad together. But then what does Navi actually say when you ask for her advice during the ensuing battle? "I have no idea what his weak point is!" Well, great to see Navi finally became useful. It’s even worse that this "mysterious" weakpoint on Ganon is a glowing rainbow-colored tail, meaning that Navi somehow overlooked something completely obvious. At the very least, it's moreso implied that she means that she is able to target him unlike most of the previous fight, but most players are going to assume she means hints.
• Narm Charm:
  • Some of the enthusiastic item descriptions are fairly endearing:
    • "You found the Megaton Hammer! Use C to smash and break junk!"
    • "You found Bombs! You can equip it to C, C or C! If something looks suspicious, bomb it!"
  • Okay yeah, so Phantom Ganon being a Tennis Boss for the second half of the fight can bring to mind him and Link enjoying a harmless tennis match. But damn if kicking his ass in this manner doesn't feel awesome.
    • Ditto for the first phase of the fight against the actual Ganondorf, which has a similar Tennis Boss mechanic. Is it silly that Link and Ganondorf’s epic showdown mostly boils down to who can win the tennis match with Ganondorf’s energy ball? Yes. But is it awesome? Also yes!
  • Ganondorf's cape looks more like an Arabian carpet than an actual cape. That doesn't make him look any less badass.
• Never Live It Down:
  • While Navi interrupts you often in the early game portions, and her "Hey, listen!" can be annoying as well, you don't have to listen to her pieces of advice unless she actually does interrupt you, which she does far less often as the game goes on. However, some fans make her sound worse than she really is, by making it sound like she interrupts you nearly every two minutes, and goes out of her way to annoy you every two seconds with her "Hey, listen!". Also she technically never even SAYS "Hey, Listen!" She'll call out to you with a "Hey!" to get your attention, which you are free to ignore. It's only if you ask her to speak that she'll say "Listen". Also if you're targeting something she has advice on, she'll even say "Watch out!" or "Look!" depending on if it's a monster or a thing.
  • Even though Ruto grew out of her bratty behavior and knew that being a Sage was more important than being with Link, fans act like marrying Link is all she thinks about.
• Nightmare Retardant:
  • One of the sounds in the otherwise unnerving Forest Temple theme sounds an awful lot like the sound Yoshi makes when jumping.
  • The Shadow Temple is the most disturbing dungeon in the game, filled with Wallmasters and Dead Hands, and complete with a ride on the River Styx. The boss's name is Bongo Bongo. Although the atmosphere is so creepy you might not care anyway.
  • The Dead Hands' animation as it waddles towards you makes it look like it's doing a little jig.
  • The sounds the Wolfos makes sounds more like an adorable beagle howling than a Savage Wolf.
  • The first half of the Phantom Ganon battle consists of trying to find Phanton Ganon as he comes out to attack you from portraits. The second half? Link takes on Phantom Ganon in the Hyrule Open. It's even funnier if you use an empty bottle instead of the sword.
  • Falling into lava would be a terrifying experience if Link didn't inexplicably teleport back to safe ground every time he falls towards it, with only a little bit of health lost.
    • Going into lethally hot areas like Death Mountain Crater can be tense, watching that timer tick down to the moment you spontaneously conflagrate and die on the spot... until you realize, paradoxically, actually falling in the lava is not only far less lethal, but resets your timer.
  • ReDeads are blind and are unable to detect you if you walk by them slowly enough. You can make sneaking past them particularly easy by equipping the Iron Boots. While the boots technically do force Link to walk slowly, seeing him sneak right past ReDeads while accompanied by the loud clanging noises of the Iron Boots is a little silly.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Some newer fans don't realize Dark Link existed prior to this game.
  • Many newer fans believe both Zelda's Lullaby and Ganon's theme debuted in this game. The two themes actually first appeared two games prior. "Zelda's Lullaby" was originally called "Princess Zelda's Rescue", from the scene when Link rescues Zelda at the start of the game.
  • This game is credited for greatly expanding the lore of Zelda by showing information on the three goddesses, how the Triforce and Hyrule were created, about the Golden Land, and how Ganon was once a human thief named Ganondorf. All of these story elements were introduced in Link to the Past. The detail lore specifically came from the instruction manual of that game. The one bit of lore the game added was the Triforce breaking apart if the person's heart was imbalanced.
  • The idea that Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf represent different pieces of the Triforce. Although this game made it explicit, this detail goes all the way back to the original Zelda and Link II. In the original game, Zelda was the keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom, while Ganon took the Triforce of Power. In the second game, Link goes on a journey to reclaim the Triforce of Courage, which was stated to be his destiny.
  • The sages' names originated as names of towns in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Chronologically, the towns are named after the sages.
  • Young Zelda wears a hood. No other Zelda in the games wore one prior, however Zelda in the manga adaptations have worn similar garments.
  • This is not Impa's first in-game appearance; she had previously appeared in the CD-i games.
  • Contrary to popular belief, the 3DS remake was not the first to use the new Fire Temple theme, as it is actually a higher quality version of the music used for version 1.0 of the PAL version of the original N64 game. Dated November 10th, 1998, which was a week before the Japanese release date of November 21st, 1998.
• Once Original, Now Common: Though the game continues to be held up in high regard, there are some elements that definitely haven't aged well:
  • Back in 1998, no adventure game had a 3D open world with such a huge scale and depth like this game. It showed how new technology at the time could give action-adventure games immersion like never before. Also, it had the most well written and complex story yet for the Zelda series. However, many younger gamers will find it to be a good, yet bare bones 3D Zelda experience compared to later games that improved upon the formula. They will never know how important this game was for creating a living 3D adventure, making it one the classic examples of a "You had to have been there" story. In late 2009, the designer Eiji Aonuma addressed this in an interview when he said the game wasn't aging very well. This can be seen in fandom debates on how OoT holds up compared to newer Zelda games (with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess being the most similar); fans are generally split between whether OoT is better than newer games due to it introducing many of the innovations of modern 3D gaming and the newer games not being as ground-breaking, or whether newer games are better than OoT because they took everything that made OoT good and improved on it, reaching the zenith of such with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
  • One element that suffers heavily from this is the game's Camera Lock-On. Back then, this sort of gameplay innovation was a huge step forward for not just the series, but for action-adventure games in general. Consider that before this, most games didn't give players very many options in real-time combat, and many had to resort to aimlessly flailing away at the enemies in order to take them down. Ocarina of Time's introduction of this feature made said combat not only more accurate, but also allowed for a level of strategy not seen in the genre before then. Nowadays however, with so many games having since refined and expanded upon that system (such as Devil May Cry and Shadow of the Colossus), including several later Zelda titles, the system seen in Ocarina of Time can come across as rather clunky and unintuitive.
  • One other reason why this game had such an impact with the franchise is that it was a major change-up to the series' Status Quo. Think about it: This game has both a Child and Young Adult Link, Impa is no longer a frail little old lady but a noticeably younger (and somewhat muscular) woman, Ganon is no longer a big blue Pig Man; but a tall, buff, somewhat Middle Eastern-looking humanoid (most of the time; he does become a Pig Man when the plot calls for it but he's much more beast-like than earlier incarnations) and Zelda actually gets to be involved in the action (granted, it's usually when she is disguised as someone else but still). When Ocarina first came out it was a fairly substantial departure from what the Legend of Zelda series was like at the time. But nowadays people often like to complain that Ocarina of Time became the series' new Status Quo and that most of the 3-D Zelda games are not different enough from it.
  • The visuals aged pretty poorly, particularly because the 3D visuals were a factor in the game's framerate being in the teens (as opposed to the 30-60 that's commonly used); furthermore, in addition to low texture resolution, the N64 typically saved memory by having a comparatively limited color rendering palette, so compared to modern games, N64 Ocarina can look distinctly "washed-out". The 3DS version is considered a vast improvement in this respect, with much cleaner and more recognizable character models, a higher framerate, and enough RAM and processing power to use a more vivid color palette.
  • The real-time day-night cycle was the first time a system like that was ever used in a believable way. For a while it became a must-have in newer games, but eventually fell out of favor where a system like this doesn't affect the gameplay. It's still so ubiquitous that new players barely notice it, until they get stuck outside at night.
• One-Scene Wonder: Dark Link shows up as a mini-boss in the Water Temple with no prior foreshadowing and is never mentioned again afterwards, yet he's left an impression on several generations of gamers.
• One True Threesome: There are multiple fans who ship Link with both Zelda and Malon, due to the former being one of his staunchest and most important allies and the latter having a pretty cute dynamic with him.
• Paranoia Fuel: Any time the Hyrule Field theme switches over to the battle variation or the battle theme takes over the current music (if any) but you can't find the enemy that's triggering the music change.
• Player Tic: Most players will come up with a very simple song for the Scarecrow's song (such as left-right-left-right-left-right-left-right). Or use the Konami Code.
• Porting Disaster: The Nintendo Switch version, via the Nintendo Switch online's Expansion Pack. Although it was fixed later on by multiple patch updates, at launch it was notorious for a baffling amount of issues that no other version up to that point ever had, such as atrocious input lag, crashes (mainly if you exploit glitches which has become frustrating for speed runners), and bad texture & fog rendering especially in the room you fight Dark Link in.
• Remade and Improved: The 3DS remake substantially refines the now-archaic graphics of the original game while still remaining faithful to the art direction of it, keeps the classic gameplay completely intact (save for a few minor tweaks) and leaves the iconic music score untouched—it's such a faithful port, that they even kept in or recreated as many of the game's glitches as they were allowed to (save the ones that completely broke the game). On top of that, it makes the infamous Water Temple much easier to navigate, and it includes the Master Quest mode from the Gamecube rerelease of the game as an extra! Most players admit that, while the original version is still an important title and many still replay it due to nostalgia, the 3DS remake is the definitive licensed version.
• Ron the Death Eater: When Link first met Ruto, she was a Royal Brat who made him carry her through Jabu-Jabu's belly and was a bit of a Tsundere. In the future, she was much calmer and, while still in love with Link, realized that saving Hyrule and her duties as a sage were a higher priority. However, some people portray her as completely obsessed with marrying Link, to the point of killing his other love interests and that Link flees in terror whenever she comes around.
• Sacred Cow: Because Ocarina of Time is widely considered to be the greatest video game of all time, some people believe it to be above any form of criticism. Even the notion of whether the game is outdated in any way can result in heated debate.
• The Scrappy:
  • Kaepora Gaebora is disliked for similar reasons to Navi. The owl spams a series of Wall of Text messages whenever he shows up, and he ends his unnecessarily long spiels with Shall I Repeat That? The cursor starts on "Yes", making it very likely that an attempt to skip what he says will cause him to repeat himself several times instead. He does have a catchy theme song, at least.
  • Mido, for being a Green-Eyed Monster Jerkass to Link who does nothing but literally get in your way during the prologue section, never mind he blames Link for the Great Deku Tree's death after you did what you could to save him and gives Link no chance to explain the reason. He does at least have some Character Development and acts nicer to Adult Link, which softens his reputation to some fans a little, though for others the damage is already done.
  • Princess Ruto, pre-timeskip; she's an obnoxious Bratty Half-Pint who demands that you carry her through the third level (wich has the side-effect of making several sections of the level far more difficult than they need to be). Her expressing interest in marrying Link after the level, while maybe her way of finally trying to show some gratitude, instead comes off to most players as simply adding to her annoyingness. This is probably why she is definitely the least popular girl to ship Link with, seeing as she’s up against several genuine Nice Girl options while she definitely was not. Though most of her despisal is directed, again, to her pre-timeskip counterpart; her adult self isn't disliked as much since she's mellowed down since then.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Part of what makes Navi so annoying is that she starts trying to get the player's attention whenever Link gets too far away from the most recent objective, which comes across as berating the player for exploring. New to The Legend Of Zelda is the ability to survey the environment through a first-person perspective, a button Navi takes over while reminding the player to Continue Your Mission, Dammit!, ensuring that the player will have to read her message again and again if they like getting a good look around while exploring. Had it been possible to ignore Navi without also ignoring a novel new feature, she wouldn't be nearly as hated.
  • The Iron and Hover Boots are assigned via their own equipment menu, rather than used as C-button equippable items. The Iron Boots in particular need to be turned on and off frequently when navigating Water Temple, leading to constant pausing and heavily contributing to why people hate the place. Later games and the 3DS remake fixed this by making the Iron Boots a face button item. Many fan-produced mods for this game also introduce the ability to tie the Iron and Hover Boots to the D-Pad, making them far more accessible.
  • All warp points have their own specific ocarina songs instead of a single universal warp song, needlessly complicating fast travel. Not helping matters is that none of the songs are easy to remember offhand due to being written a little more intricately than the other songs. Later 3D games addressed this: Majora's Mask and The Wind Waker have each a single song that works for all warp points, while Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild have means of warping unrelated to music at all.
  • The Fence Jumping mechanic is a benign but frustrating problem that occurs when you're riding Epona. Basically, you have to approach a fence at a near-perfect, perpendicular 90-degree angle at high speed to make Epona jump over it. But if you're approach at low speed or at a bad angle (like 84-degrees from perpendicular) then Epona gets stuck on the fence which forces you to stop and back up. If this occurs during a race, it's very much an automatic lose as you'll never be able to catch up.
• Sequel Displacement: Many started the series with this one. It even lead Majora's Mask to be called "Zelda 2" by a few back in the early 2000s. It is recommended that this be not said in public. This got to the point where Nintendo's official description for the Ganondorf amiibo describes his role in this game, even though the figure is based on his Twilight Princess appearance.
• Shipping: This game is one of the more popular ones in the franchise in this regard, simply because of the choices available.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: This was the game where this trope started to get real steam, and it later on became a staple in the series. The main contenders are:
  • Princess Zelda. She and Link are the "de facto" ship of the franchise, even back in 1998, so it is expected. However, her case in this game is very unique due to her identity as Sheik, and whether or not people consider them the same person or different identities altogether. Although canonically it's the former, some people prefer the latter. Supporters liked how both characters develop an actual relationship throughout the entire game, which was a first in the series, and they become closer even than some later incarnations. They are also the couple with more Ship Tease moments in the game itself. Particularly noteworthy one such moment coming from Link himself. Namely when, after finishing the Water Temple, Ruto figures out that Link is looking for her, despite the fact that that's actually not his mission (waking up the sages and defeating Ganondorf is, and Link doesn't know Zelda is supposed to be a sage at that point yet). Detractors, on the other hand, find the interactions with her as non-romantic, which takes an even stronger sense if you separate Zelda and Sheik as characters, and deem the Ship Tease moments to be too little and/or too late. Then we have Sheik him/herself. Interestingly enough, people who separate both characters almost unanimously ship Sheik with Link... with all the Mind Screw that it presents.
  • Malon. She was one of the most popular contenders when the game first came out, in great part due to her cheerful personality and cute design. Plus, her background as a rancher gives her a compelling Girl Next Door appeal that the other girls lack. However, nowadays the biggest argument from supporters doesn't come from the game itself, but from Twilight Princess and Hyrule Historia. Namely that the Hero of Twilight is supposed to be a descendant of the Hero of Time, and that hero starts his story as a goat shepherd. Malon supporters see this as an extremely strong hint that the Hero of Time ended up with her, since they argue she is the only viable option for the Hero of Time having a farmer descendant. Otherwise, they claim, the Hero of Twilight would have had a very different background. Detractors on their side see that reasoning as flimsy at best, and pure Shipping Goggles at worst, since Malon doesn't show any romantic interest in Link in-game, and the only real Ship Tease moment is just Talon jokingly asking Link if he would like to marry her (although the player CAN answer "yes", which gives the moment real gravitas to Malon supporters). Malon is also by far the least plot-relevant contender, which doesn't help her case either.
  • Saria. Another popular contender, due to she and Link being very close Childhood Friends, which is particularly endearing considering Link is implied to have been an outcast in Kokiri Forest due to being the only boy without a fairy. Also, Mido hints that she had at least a crush on Link. They both share some of the most touching and iconic moments, not only in Ocarina of Time, but in the Zelda franchise as a whole. Against the ship though, there's the fact that Saria, being a Kokiri, is to be a child forever and never leave the forest, which for detractors renders her as a total non-option, Link being a Hylian who does grow up, gets old, and can leave the forest at his leisure.
  • Princess Ruto. The only contender who personally and explicitly states having feelings for Link in-game, going as far as proposing to him by giving him the Zora Sapphire. Her being the first NPC that Link actively interacts with inside a dungeon makes her very endearing to her fans too. Her story became pretty iconic in the series, to the point that Breath of the Wild directly references it and even partially reproduces with Mipha. On the flip side, detractors insist that both the game's subtext and Link's own body language reactions heavily imply that Ruto's feelings are a one-sided childhood crush that she eventually grows out of.
  • Nabooru. Another character that attracts fans thanks to both her personality and looks, being a Dark Action Girl with a more straight attitude than other contenders, along with the Amazonian Beauty physique from the Gerudo race. Particularly noteworthy is the... interesting subtext of some of her dialogue when Link is an adult. Although their interactions are quite limited throughout the game, which makes her somewhat less popular than other contenders.
• Shocking Moments:
  • It's hard to imagine looking back on it today, but many of the game's dungeons and levels were quite mind-blowing to first-time players. The Shadow Temple's ghost ships come to mind: the temple itself is creepy enough without this boat appearing. You board it, and it moves. Suddenly, Stalfos! You begin to fight them, exchange a few blows, when the entire boat starts to tremble and shake! What is going on? Games don't do this! Holy shit, it's sinking!
  • The boss battles were also made to wow players, what with each having spectacular set-pieces and creature designs as well as clever strategies. The Final Boss still regularly pops up on Top Ten Lists for "Greatest Boss Battles of All Time".
  • As usual in the Zelda series, the whole climax, from Sheik's reveal to the "The End" screen. Make sure you have time to spare, because your hands will be glued to the controller (or to the 3DS) the whole way through.
  • Using the Gold Gauntlets. Link picks a pillar that's several stories tall and tosses it away like it's made of cardboard.
• Signature Scene: This game has some of the most iconic moments, not only in the series, but in video game history.
  • Link's first meeting with Ganondorf at the gates of Castle Town. Notable for being the game's first scene, and the start of the two characters' long enmity.
  • Link both pulling out the Master Sword as a kid AND putting it back in its pedestal as an adult. Both images became so iconic that many later games in the series unabashedly replicate them.
  • The Great Deku Tree's death. Although this wasn't the first time death appeared in a Zelda game (e.g. Link's uncle in "A Link to the Past"), this was the first time they did it with a character that the player has at least the chance to form an emotional connection with, making it a genuine Tear Jerker.
  • Link and Zelda's first meeting in the Hyrule Castle Courtyard.
  • The entire Wham Episode of Link transitioning from a child to a young adult for the first time.
  • Sheik's It Was His Sled moment.
  • Link and Ganondorf's duel. Although some elements were introduced in A Link to the Past, like the "magic tennis match", this is the game that made them stick in the collective memory.
  • Link opening a chest and showing off the item over his head.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: While not as criticized for this as Twilight Princess, several players consider the Child arc of the game rather unexciting compared to everything that comes afterwards. The first half hour of the game consists of a fairly long, unskippable intro cutscene, a few minutes of you learning the basics of the gameplay, and then searching for the Kokiri sword and having you farm rupees so you can buy a shield. After that, you get some exposition from the Great Deku Tree, and you experience your first dungeon—but after that, you have to go on a long trek to Hyrule Castle to meet Zelda that'll take you at least another half hour if not longer to complete before you can even get to Death Mountain. Then you have to backtrack all the way to Kokiri Forest to learn a song from Saria that will eventually lead you to getting the ability to throw bombs and thus enter the second dungeon. This isn't factoring in all the sidequests you'll undoubtedly be doing along the way. Getting into the third dungeon is quicker than the first two, thankfully, and the game's pacing really picks up once you travel into the future, get the Hookshot and Epona, and learn all the warp songs Sheik teaches you.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • In the original N64 release, the epic climactic battle with Ganondorf was slightly ruined by his tattered cape clipping through his body as he collapses afterward. Thankfully fixed for the 3DS remake.
  • For whatever reason, the developers of the 3DS remake neglected to make a new model for the Longshot, so even after you've upgraded, Link is carrying the original Hookshot for the entire game.
  • Rather embarrassingly, they also didn't bother to update the flat ramp staircases.
• Squick: More than a few people have seen the Great Fairies' skimpy attire not as leaves but as their bodies rotting. Made worse in the remake where the leaves were replaced with leopard print bikinis... that look like a skin disorder. Their heavy amounts of makeup and creepy laugh also unnerve quite a few people.
• Surprise Difficulty: Dark Link on your first play-through if you come completely unprepared. Once you're over the initial shock of fighting an enemy who mirrors all your swordplay, and Navi being unhelpful, the shadow enters its Turns Red mode, and is absolutely determined to make sure it will hit you before taking a hit itself.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The Lost Woods melody is nicked from the Jupiter movement of Gustav Holst's Planets suite.
• Tainted by the Preview: The revelation that Ocarina of Time 3D wouldn't have updated music was a deal breaker for those who were on the fence of getting the remake.
• That One Boss:
  • The Iron Knuckles minibosses are without question the nastiest enemies in the entire game, and each encounter with them is harder than most of the actual boss fights! They may move slow, but they have a very fast and absolutely brutal axe attack that will knock four hearts off you in one swing and send you flying across the room. Even if you have every heart upgrade by the Spirit Temple, you can only take five hits from them total (if you're attempting a Minimalist Run with only three hearts, that means you die in one hit), and your shield is absolutely useless against their attacks. Making matters worse is that they only have a small window for you to attack them before they attack you, and unless you have the Biggoron Sword, they are insanely resilient and take a lot of time to bring down. Once you damage them enough, they'll start running and swinging at you even faster. It is strongly advised that you bring a few Bottled Fairies with you in these fights — yes, you fight five of them in the game, and the last two are fought simultaneously!
  • Dark Link is a pain due to turning Z-Targeting against you, when you've likely been conditioned to use it liberally, by being a Mirror Boss who blocks and interrupts nearly all of your attacks while targeted; it's possible to beat him this way, but not at all practical. In a casual playthrough you'll deliberately have to find an Outside-the-Box Tactic, like using the Megaton Hammer or Biggoron Sword to get through his defenses, fighting him with a broken Giant's Knife (so he falls off whenever he tries to Blade Run), or spamming Din's Fire over and over (which will require a Green Potion or three).
  • Phantom Ganon (on his horse) can be really tough and brutal if you don't know how his lightning attack works. Basically, if you haven't mastered the aim of your Fairy Bow or if you don't know about the triangles within the room, you can be in a serious world of hurt, and the lightning attack does 2 hearts of damage, which is a pretty huge chunk at your current health if you haven't been collecting any Heart Pieces other than the ones you got after defeating the other 3 bosses. Once you take out his horse, his Final Boss Preview form is easier.
  • Bongo Bongo can be pretty frustrating. It's difficult to aim with the constant bouncing, which can only be lessened by equipping the Iron Boots and slowing your movement down or running to the edge of the drum and making yourself vulnerable to being knocked off and into the caustic substance that surrounds it. On top of that, he has a lot of health, his hands do a lot of damage, and once you've stunned both hands you need to have the Eye of Truth active to actually see him prepare to attack you, which means either leaving it running and draining your magic, or hoping you can pull it up quickly enough.
  • Twinrova can be an extremely frustrating fight unless you know exactly what you're supposed to do. You have to use the Mirror Shield to redirect one witch's elemental attack onto the other in the first phase, and in the second you have to make the Mirror Shield absorb three attacks from the same element and then redirect it onto the merged form of the witches. In case you're not positioned properly to absorb or redirect the next attack, it's best to dodge it altogether and wait for the next attack, because both the fire beam and the ice torrent deal a lot of damage, and spread through a huge part of the floor in case they don't hit you.
• That One Level:
  • The Water Temple has a confusing layout that gets further complicated by the changing water level mechanic. There are also multiple stretches of underwater traversal, requiring you to repeatedly pause the game and fiddle with the menu system in order to equip and un-equip the Iron Boots to switch between being submerged and surfaced. Finally, these underwater segments occasionally have combat, wherein your options are restricted entirely to the unwieldy Hookshot.
  • Gerudo Fortress. While only a mini-dungeon at most, the fact that everywhere looks almost exactly the same makes it easy to get lost, especially if you get caught and end up forgetting what doors you took. There are guards patrolling everywhere, often around corners where you can't see them until it's too late. The fact that it's a Stealth-Based Mission is also a problem, as there hasn't been one in the game since you infiltrated Hyrule Castle at the beginning, which was significantly easier. Rescuing the four carpenters becomes a pain considering they all require a miniboss battle against a Gerudo soldier who's always blocking or dodging except after she attacks, takes loads of hits to defeat, and can defeat you and send you back to jail with just a few hits (or one hit, if they land a spin attack) no matter how much health you have, and there are four of them.
• That One Sidequest:
  • For those wishing to get 100%, the fishing hole. Up for grabs, a Heart Piece (as a child) and the Gold Scale (as an adult). The only thing standing in your way? Actually catching a fish, which is made all the more difficult since A: It's a Luck-Based Mission even getting one on the line, B: There's no way to tell ahead of time how much a fish weighs (you need one that weighs 10 pounds for the Heart Piece and one that weighs 15 pounds or more for the Gold Scale respectively), C: It takes a ludicrously long time to actually reel them in once you do get them on the line, and, best of all, D: Sometimes, for no explained reason, the fish will just randomly get away. The Gold Scale is actually required to receive another Heart Piece (from Dr. Mizumi at the Lakeside Laboratory, where you have to dive to the bottom of his measuring pool which is about nine meters).
  • Dampé's Heart-Pounding Gravedigging Tour, which is a pure Luck-Based Mission. Ask him to dig up a hole in the graveyard, and there is a 1-in-10 chance of him giving you a Heart Piece instead of rupees. It is not uncommon to try this over and over for several minutes before getting the item for 100%. It's telling that a very common feature among mods for the game is to guarantee that a Heart Piece will always be the first thing he digs up
  • The Big Poes. You have to use your horse and start in a specific location in Hyrule field and head in a specific direction to make the Poe even appear, and you have to chase - at high speed - said Poe and shoot it twice on horseback before it disappears. You have to defeat all ten this way to have access to the final empty bottle. One in particular near Gerudo Valley has a nasty habit of vanishing into a wall almost instantly. Regular Poes, for which you only get a measly ten Rupees for catching, will show up in the exact same spot immediately after the Big Poe gets away. This means unless you're following a guide or otherwise know what to expect, you might think you actually did catch the Big Poe that first appeared.
  • The Frog's bug eating mini game is horrible on both the original and 3DS remake without use of a strategy guide. The positions of the frogs and their colors have no correspondence to which buttons you press to eat the bugs. You're not allowed to make a single mistake. Worse still, the game punishes you for taking too long with your inputs.^note 3-4 seconds at the beginning, and 1 second at the game's end, meaning there's no margin for error.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some fans consider the N64 version of the fight with Ganon superior to the remake. The N64 version has the entire scene in shadow up until the end, thus players only see Ganon in shadow, seeing just his Glowing Eyes of Doom and quick glimpses of him when the Dramatic Thunder strikes. In the remake the lighting makes Ganon fully visible at all times, which not only detracts from the atmosphere, but also leads to Special Effects Failure since players clearly see parts of Ganon (particularly his horns and swords) "grow" into existence on his model.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: As beloved as Ocarina of Time is, there are some characters that could've been handled better. Some of this can be blamed on technological limitations at the time:
  • Sheik doesn't actually do a whole lot on her own terms in the game. Adult Link enters a new area for the next dungeon or just finished said dungeon, Sheik appears and either gives him vague advice on how to progress the plot or a warp song, and then runs off. The one time in the game the story tried to act like Link and Sheik would fight together (something even artwork in the official strategy guide seemed to promote), Sheik is immediately and unceremoniously tossed aside and injured by an invisible Bongo Bongo, forcing Link to deal with the Shadow Temple on his own. Finally, near the end of the game, Sheik is revealed to have been Zelda all along, which would bring a lot of potential considering all the years Zelda had to spend as a Sheikah warrior; but then Ganondorf kidnaps her in a blatant Diabolus ex Machina, giving no chance to display any combat skills she may have learned during that time.
  • Koume and Kotake, particularly in light of later evil lieutenants such as Zant and Ghirahim being much more fleshed out. When you face them in the Spirit Temple, Navi informs you that they're Ganondorf's surrogate mothers in addition to the ones brainwashing his people to serve him, but we never get to see what kind of relationship they have with their adopted son other than being fanatically loyal to him. Also unexplored is the notion that having a pair of Wicked Witches as surrogate mothers might have had some effect on how he turned out. Instead we're just left with a pair of ordinary dungeon bosses who could have added a lot more intrigue to the story.
  • The Moblin enemies appear alot in promotional material such as the artwork of Sheik helping Link fighting a giant army of monsters mentioned above and have a club wielding variant that is identified as a King Mook in the Japanese version. Despite this, in the actual game, Moblins and their club wielding variant only appear in one single area, and only for Adult Link at that. Even with this, Mobins have a much more basic AI compared to other enemies and the regular spear variant can be defeated in one hit despite their exaggerated muscles. Given their iconic enemy status even back then, one would expect Moblins would be a recurring miniboss type similar to the Stalfos and Lizalfos.
• Tough Act to Follow: This is that tough act, for the Zelda series, for Nintendo, and for gaming in general. Especially true when said act is widely considered to be the greatest video game of all time. To date, only one game in history (Nintendo's own Super Mario Galaxy) has managed to beat OoT as the best-reviewed game on GameRankings to this day. Within the Zelda series, every game after Ocarina has attempted to establish itself in some way, to varying levels of success; it took 19 years for Breath of the Wild to finally provide a new tough act to follow in the series that would break the "Zelda Cycle" and continue garnering high praise years after its release.
• Ugly Cute: For short, long-snouted dryad-like creatures and malevolent ghosts, both of which are trying to kill you, Deku Scrubs and Poes are both awfully adorable.
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • Fire and Ice arrows. The Fire arrows are not required to beat the game, and for the vast majority of the game, they play second-fiddle to the wonderful screen nuke that is Din's Fire. Ice arrows are not required either. They would've been perfectly ideal to use in the fight against Twinrova, faster and more accurate alternative strategy than the Mirror Shield.
    Gossip Stone: They say that the treasure you can earn in the Gerudo's Training Ground is not as great as you would expect, given its difficulty!
  • The time travel itself. Once you unlock the ability to jump ahead in time, if you've been diligent pre-time travel with collecting everything as early as you can, there's little reason to travel back in time outside of the two major story beats that prompt you to do so; and even then, they're rather brief, with only one real dungeon themed around traveling through time to solve its puzzles.
  • Epona is pretty useless too, considering how much the horse mechanics were advertised. You can't ride her at all as a child, she can only be ridden in select areas as adult Link (primarily Hyrule Field), and you can just use the warp songs to teleport to most of the places you'd want to go anyway. Except if you want to go for the powerful, but optional Biggoron's sword (since parts of the sidequest are timed and you automatically fail with warping). But you can still beat the game without ever using the horse.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Ingo, the sour employee at Lon Lon Ranch. His Jerkassery stems from strong resentment towards his employer Talon for being lazy while he himself is a hard worker. While Ingo's mistreatment of Talon's daughter Malon after he takes control of the ranch after the Time Skip is inexcusable, and he joins Ganondorf, which is just as bad, he isn't wrong about Talon; even Malon acknowledges that Talon really is lazy and does little to no work at the ranch, and Link almost always finds him snoozing.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • Sheik is presented as male, but with an androgynous design and a female voice actor. Ruto does use "man" at one point when describing Sheik, but Sheik turns out to be Zelda, which only confuses the viewers more. Of course, it's possible Ruto was simply mistaken, since she and Sheik didn't really interact with each other closely. That said, other appearances by Sheik in games like Super Smash Bros. and Hyrule Warriors generally tend to present her as unambiguously female (mostly through not even bothering to hide her identity as Zelda).
  • Epona the horse was often mistaken as a male, especially in promotional material, despite being canonically female.
• Vindicated by History: The game's narrative. When it first came out, it wasn't considered bad, but it didn't receive the same amount of praise as other elements like game mechanics or graphics. Partly because, next to some of the other narrative milestones of its day, like Final Fantasy VII or Metal Gear Solid, it was considered too simple or even too "kiddy". Nowadays it's much more praised, and it's widely considered a magnificently executed Coming of Age Story. Things like the rivalry relationship between Link and Ganondorf, how it massively expanded the franchise's lore, or how themes like the loss of innocence, the end of childhood and the uncertainty of the future are represented are common praise points. There are even those who now consider it more successful than its aforementioned peers as a piece of narrative in video games, since it achieves everything without relying nearly as much on dialogue or cinematics. The particularly snarky might also say OoT has one particular thing over FFVII: a coherent translation.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: While now outdated, the graphics were amazing for their time and gave a real sense of scale and character to the game. The 3DS version's graphics are also among the prettiest graphics seen on a Nintendo handheld, and retain all the color and character of the N64 original's while adding more detail and giving the characters more charm and better facial expressions.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Mass graves, a city of the dead, death, war, hideous monsters, a giant monster collapsing into a heap of pulsating flesh before your very eyes, green blood (and a little red blood). You know, for kids! At least the 3DS remake got an E10+ rating from the ESRB (the E10+ rating was not around when the game originally released on the N64), which is roughly equivalent to a PG rating for films. Much more accurate to the game's content than the N64 version's E rating, which is basically the equivalent to a modern-day G rating.
• The Woobie: Link. After his seven years of slumber, he's forced to deal with seeing Hyrule (including his home forest) turn from a charming, colorful land into a monster-filled Crapsack World, as well as the fact that one of his closest childhood friends is confined to an eternity of having to guard the Sacred Realm, never mind the fact that she is a member of a race that isn't able to grow up. Add all of that onto the fact that Link is essentially a child in a grown man's body during the future part of the game and, suddenly, watching his guardian deity die and learning that he's not a real Kokiri are the least of his problems. The manga makes him even more of a Woobie by making him kill his own pet dragon.
• Woobie Species: The Gorons are a peaceful race of rock people that face the threat of extinction at the hands of Ganondorf twice. When he demands they hand over the Spiritual Stone of Fire and they refuse, he blocks off Dodongo's Cavern, cutting off their food source so that they'll starve to death. Things become even worse for them seven years later, as it's revealed that Ganondorf has revived the Goron-eating dragon Volvagia and has imprisoned all the terrified Gorons to feed them to it as a showing of his power. Fortunately, Link is able to save them both times and is rewarded the title of 'sworn brother' for his troubles.
• Writer-Induced Fanon: Many characters who were unnamed in this game got Legacy Character counterparts in later games who were named (ie. The Boss of the Carpenters is named Mutoh in all four of the games he appears in after this one). Fans (and some official Players' Guides too) figure they might as well retroactively use those names here. The Cucco Lady (a.k.a Anju) is perhaps the most well-known example of this thanks to her Terminan counterpart's famous sidequest in Majora's Mask.

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