Welcome back to the Zelda Game Club for the Ocarina of Time Part 3. The Zelda Game Club is where we play through the Zelda series together as a community, and we’ve hid the middle part of Ocarina of Time. In the last part we transformed from child Link into adult Link and learned that Ganondorf had been using us this whole time to gain access to the Sacred Realm, steal the Triforce and now he’s turned Hyrule into the land of monsters.

Today we’re going to be going through the first few temples as Adult Link; The Forest Temple and the Fire Temple, as well as exploring the Ice Cavern. If you want to get involved then please play along, we’re going to play until we reach the entrance to the Spirit Temple. Once you hit that point, stop and comment on this video your thoughts on the game so far.

Without further delay, let’s dive back into Ocarina of Time for Part 3.

As an adult, Link steps out of the Temple of Time for the first time to see Hyrule transformed. Castle Town is in ruins and ReDeads, the awful screaming enemies, are all over the place. However, Hyrule field is slightly more calm than it used to be and we want to make our way towards Lon Lon Ranch. Talon has been kicked out of Lon Lon Ranch and Ingo has taken over. At this point we can get Epona by challenging Ingo to a race. We have to beat him a couple of times, which can be challenging and each race is 50 rupees each, so we have to make sure not to waste ourt chances. The best thing to do is stick to the inside track, look for opportunities to overtake and race to victory. Once we have beaten Ingo, then jump over the fence with Epona to freedom.

Now we have Epona, we can get around Hyrule much quicker, and our next job is getting the Hookshot before we go to the Forest Temple.

Developers notes 1 – Horseback

Eiji Aonuma and dungeon designer Eiji Onozuka both said that the reason they included the horse Epona was really because Shigeru Miyamoto simply liked horses and wanted to include one in the game that Link could ride. There weren’t any other games were the player could ride a horse, and since Miyamoto wanted this game to be unique he decided it would be a good idea to incorporate it in the game. Originally he speculated if he should just include the Pegasus Shoes from A Link to the Past as a form of transportation, though came to the conclusion that riding on something that you could interact with would be more fun.

According to Shigeru Miyamoto, he would go to riding clubs when he wasn’t working and they would give him photographs of horses so that he could reflect those designs in the game. He knew, however, that creating a horse would become a huge challenge for the developers. Though Yoshiaki Koizumi presented an experiment that he created, and it became clear that they would be able to do it. One obstacle they ran into was that in Hyrule Field there were too many trees, and that the player would often run into them while riding on top of the horse. They started to remove them, and it eventually became what it is today.

In the game the player is able to call Epona using the Ocarina of Time and playing Epona’s Song. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the player could originally use a reed pipe in the game, though because it was “too much trouble”, they eventually switched it to the Ocarina. In the end, the reed pipe wasn’t even included in the game.

We want to make our way to the Kakariko Village and find the graveyard at the back. There’s a new grave here with flowers on it, meaning we can grab the grave and slide it back revealing a secret passage. Make your way down into the passage and we’ll meet the ghost of Dampe. We have to race Dampe and at the end he’ll give you the hookshot.

Once we have the hookshot, we have everything we need for the next dungeon, the iconic Forest Temple. We have to go back to Kokiri Forest and make our way through the Lost Woods. We meet Mido again, who refuses to let us past, until we play Saria’s Song. Once we’re past Mido and through the Lost Woods we find the Sacred Forest Meadow guarded by some pretty tough Moblins. Make your way past them and you’ll meet up with Sheik outside the Forest Temple.

@dustybees6308

The forest temple has always been to me the epitome of Zelda temples. Even to this day. The atmosphere and theme is excellent. An abandoned haunted fortress. Why is this structure out here basically being over grown by a huge over whelming forest that is easy to get lost in. I remember as a kid getting so lost in this temple. Missing small keys. Not realizing you can climb past the skulltulas. Now I whip through this temple.

Forest Temple

First thing we have to get the hookshot out and use this on the branch to get in the Forest Temple. The Forest Temple is one of the most iconic temples, not only in Ocarina of Time, but in the entire Zelda series. It can be a little confusing, but a good thing to do is check the symbols above the doors, they provide you some clues as to the way forward.

In the center of the main room we see a cut scene with four Poe sisters removing their flames and running off to 4 corners of the dungeon, and we have to go and get them back. You have to be careful in this dungeon too because Stalfos are hiding in rooms. Early on we have to fight one, but later in the dungeon we have to take on a couple at a time, and things can get tricky, especially if you haven’t got the hang of combat just yet.

I love the character to this dungeon; we start outside, then inside. We have multiple floor to explore, plus the exterior to explore and climb via the vines. This isn’t a short dungeon either, the training wheels have come off the child Link dungeons and we’re fully into Ocarina of Time here. Having to retrieve the flames from the Poe sisters is very good, plus the heart pounding Stalfos fights.

The item in this dungeon is the Fairy Bow, which is a welcome upgrade to any of the weapons we’ve used so far. The sequence of shooting the arrows in the paintings and getting the Poe Sisters to appear is very cool. Then we get to the boss.

Ganondorf appears on horseback and we have to fight a Phantom version. Ganondorf rides out of the paintings at random, and you have to shoot an arrow into him. If you don’t manage to stop him then he’ll shoot lightning at you when he lands, and that can kill you very quickly. But hit him a few times and Ganondorf will praise you, saying you have grown in skill, although it’ll take more than that to beat the REAL Ganondorf.

Once we beat the final boss we meet Saria once again, who’s the Sage of the Forest and we get another medallion to add to our collection.

@dustybees6308

As we defeat Phantom Ganon, we hear Ganondorf speak to us. He appears unfazed that we are back and that we have defeated the first of his spawn. In fact he says specifically that when we fight him it won’t be as easy. He expects to fight us. Almost as if he planned this too.

Developers notes 2 – Challenges

In 2D games (including pre-Ocarina Zelda titles) the distance of a particular object or enemy is clear to the player, though in a 3D environment such as the one present in Ocarina of Time, this is not the case. The sense of perspective is lost to the player in many early 3D titles, and creating a system in which this wasn’t the case was one of the hardest challenges that the Ocarina of Time team at Nintendo had to overcome.

Another challenge was creating walls out of polygons according to dungeon designer Eiji Onozuka. According to him, Link had a variety of impressive maneuvers but unfortunately many of his moves would cause him to “clip through walls” (such as the Hookshot). According to Onozuka, the mappers of Ocarina of Time, of which there were three, had the most trouble of the entire game, and he said that there would be occasions where they would actually cry. There were many times when the designers would change the basic moves of Link, which would cause the mappers to totally redo what they had done in the maps to accommodate what the designers had altered.

Death Mountain

Now we’ve conquered the Forest temple, it’s time to go back to Death Mountain and check in on our Goron friends. We make our way inside Goron City, only to find it pretty much empty, apart from a Goron who’s rolled up in a ball patroling one floor. We have to use a bomb to stop him. He says his name is Link, and he’s named after you, plus he’s the son of Darunia. He goes on to tell us a story.

Ganondorf woke a terrible Dragon who’s now living inside the Fire Temple, and all the Gorons are going to be fed to the Dragon one by one. Once he’s finished talking he gifts you the Goron Tunic, which allows you to go inside Death Mountain Crater and not get burned to death by the intense heat. Once inside the crater we meet up with Sheik once again, and they teahc us the song to get inside the Fire Temple.

@dustybees6308

When we get to death mountain there are only 2 Gorons to be found. Medi Goron and Link the son of Darunia rolling around when we stop his rolling he tells of the resurrection of Volvagia by Ganondorf. An ancient Dragon that supposedly ate Gorons. It was defeated in the past by a Goron wielding the megaton hammer. I keep trying to find a way to convince my self that in the past perhaps Volvagia was in fact the Gorons guardian deity. But other than Valoo in wind waker I can’t seem to find basis for it. We are also told that all the Gorons were gathered up to be fed to Volvagia for standing against Ganondorf. Notice though how they haven’t yet been. Is Ganondorf holding them just to lure link?

Fire Temple

The Fire Temple is another iconic temple, this time with a new mechanic where we have to free Goron Prisoners. When we first arrive we meet with Darunia and he comments on how much Link has grown.

There are some fantastic puzzles in this dungeon, plus a very nice top down section where we have to explore a maze with big rolling balls threatening to flatten us around every corner. There are timed puzzles where we have to hit a switch and get to another part of the dungeon, often climbing up before the flames reignite. Plus the freeing of the Goron prisoners is a great mechanic.

@dustybees6308

The fire Temple is again super iconic. Freeing captured Gorons. I’ve heard the theory that this was once a place to keep prisoners of war with all the cells. As for music even though it was religious in nature I far prefer the Islamic chants of the 1.0 version of the game. Sadly all subsequent releases have all had the music changed. I get why but still love the original.

The main item in the dungeon is the hammer, which allows us to pound items into the floor, manipulating the environment and changing it, allowing Link to discover new parts he couldn’t get to before. Getting the hammer itself is an epic scene where you have to run up a thin walkway before a timer runs out, it’s great fun. The boss battle is against a dragon where we have to play a flaming game of whack a mole, with the dragon coming out of random lava filled holes. Then you have to damage the dragon and whack it with the hammer. Beat the Dragon and we see Darunia again, this time returned as the Sage of Fire.

@dustybees6308

A couple of things. You can 100 percent the fire temple without the fairy bow. Also it is totally possible to beat the fire temple without ever switching to the fire tunic. Most people throw on the tunic and never take it off through the entire temple. However there are many rooms that are not scalding hot. These are rooms where the timer isn’t displayed.

Zora’s Domain

Once we’re done with the fire temple, it’s back to Zora’s domain to check on out under-water buddies. However, there’s a problem because the whole of Zora’s Domain is covered with ice and the Zora are trapped below. We have to go through the Ice Cavern, which is a mini-dungeon, to help free the King. We need to make our way back to where we met Jabu Jabu, and then jump over the ice bergs to get to the Ice Cavern.

@dustybees6308

When we return to the zoras domain we find ice everywhere. Everything is frozen over. We see king Zora behind red ice. Beyond in the fountain Lord Jabu Jabu is no where to be seen. Though we can jump from ice burg to ice burg to reach a ledge that has actually always been there.

Ice Cavern

This is a much smaller dungeon, plus it’s quicker too and mainly filled with puzzles rather than combat. It’s a good idea to come into this place with at least 2 bottles, as the new mechanic introduced here is blue fire, which we need to trap inside a bottle to help melt the red ice. This red ice is contained within the Ice Cavern, but it’s also trapped the King of the Zora too, so save some in a bottle when you leave for the King.

@dustybees6308

The ice cavern to me has always been too short. I loved the thoughts and concepts. Here we get the iron boots and blue fire to free king Zora who tells of Ruto going to find out what is going wrong in the water temple.

Once you have completed the puzzles in the Ice Cavern, then you can melt the King and he’ll give you the Zora Tunic, and that means we are ready for the Water Temple, one of the most notorious temples in Ocarina of Time. Also, one we’re going to tackle in the next part of the Zelda Game Club.

Developers notes 3 – Characters

Yoshiki Haruhana was a character designer in Ocarina of Time. The various characters in the game caused a lot of problems. In all there were 60 in the game, which was at the time quite a lot. Each character, according to him, took around 2 to 3 days to create, and that was minor characters rather than the most prominent ones such as Link, Ganondorf and Zelda. Character designer Satoru Takizawa wanted to make the characters feel real to the player. He wanted to design them with realistic and interesting animations and give them unique emotions.

Link is obviously the main character in the game. Both the adult and child versions of Link were programmed with identical animations. According to Yoshiaki Koizumi the team involved with programming movements with to the Uzumasa movie studio in Japan to observe the sword battles and how to make certain actions look. Program director Toshio Iwawaki has stated that Link has around 1000 different animation combinations.

@dustybees6308

I have another theory I will start here and finish in the next part. The theory is that Jabu Jabu passed away in the 7 years due to the sickness caused by Barinade. And what do we actually know? That Zoras fountain is the source of water that flow down Zoras river into hyrule field. Acts as a moat for castle town. Flows into Gerudo valley and finally lake Hylia.

That’s it for part 3 of the Zelda Game Club for Ocarina of Time. We’ll be continuing with Part 4 in the next week or so, so play up until you reach the Spirit Temple, then stop, and comment on this video. Part 4 is going to be the Water Temple and the Shadow Temple, then we gear up for the final part with the Shadow Temple and the final battle in Ganon’s Castle in part 5.