(Tl;dr video companion of this article):

In the great journey of life, it’s always important to give credit where credit is due


Even if it’s one of those “silver lining” credit moments, where the credit is due to something or someone kicking the ever loving shit out of you but it made you better in the end

I go back and forth with how much I follow the general gaming media, due to…a lot of reasons, really. My hesitation to follow it sometimes, is actually more in the name of being uninfluenced by external forces where my own writing is concerned, as both going in blind and isolating myself from the larger conversation undoubtedly helps me keep a fresh, more creative perspective. On the other hand, I know how hard it is out on these writing streets, and due to my time as a writer and now video creator, I attempt to give credit where credit is due, by not only giving them the ups they deserve in internet currency, but on occasion, in the grand tradition of philosophical exchange, I will cite their work and offer a counter point, or build upon the idea, so as to help grow the conversation. Though I posed that experience as something of a binary, a trinary most certainly exists, as with the Ocarina Remake, I’m somewhat inbetween the two positions right now, as I’m more or less following the conversation through unofficial sources by en large through fan chatter, as I haven’t read any larger pieces about the game yet. Seems like a grand slam reaction all around, however, which means Ocarina is going to hold onto that GOAT status a while longer.


Everyone is just so proud of you LINK MAI BOI!

Refocusing now on my own adventure, following the past couple of days when I was just getting started, today’s session involved scaling the nefarious Death Mountain, in search of the Gorons, and their coveted Ruby, which acts as the second Spiritual Stone needed to open the door to the Temple of Time. The Remake continues to follow closely with a lot of the original games machinations, as there remains quite the reserved incline of difficulty, not truly spiking until one transcends to adult hood. Though, this is the first big part of the game one is likely to get stuck, if one is playing it for the first time, as realizing Saria’s Song is the key to making Darunia happy, which then leads to progression in the main quest, was not immediately obvious to me when I first played this game.


There could be many contributing factors for my failure to comprehend: I was distracted by being at the foot of a semi-active volcano, for example

In a fairness, I was only ten when I first played Ocarina, so it’s possible my mind was not use to such 4th dimensional thinking at the time, though I want to say the Remake definitely greases the wheels of hints and guidance way more than the original did. I feel as if lines of dialogue suggesting one seek out Saria in the Lost Woods is not only more obvious, but they’ve even gone a step further by color coding the tunnels in the Lost Woods, so that the “right” path forward not only has the music blaring way more than in the original (though this might be a side effect of the now fully orchestrated soundtrack), but the correct tunnels have a bright green glow when one gets close enough, adorned with music notes and metaphysical musical staff to go along with it, appropriately enough.


They could have put this fairy pointing to the right tunnels and it somehow would not have been more obvious visually speaking

Which…is more of an observation then a complaint….I think. Looking back on it, what I saw as the subtlety of clues involving putting two and two together to go on the proverbial hunt for Saria, while then also sleuthing the accurate way through the Lost Woods felt like quite the grand mystery, to me truth be told, and I can’t help but feel the extra window dressing to make the conclusion less obfuscated almost cheapens the experience for modern day players, which is a damn shame, as I feel very few titles these days propose a more cryptic approach in the name of challenging the player.

Gotta make sure you stay within that “Goldilocks Zone” of risk/reward to maintain that Aristotelian Means, Nintendo…

Regardless if this kind of change was anything but inevitable for a remake of this caliber in this day and age, this part of the game ends up going way faster if one already has a tour of duty under their belt, so from taking my first step on Death Mountain, to entering the second dungeon Dodongo’s Cavern, the time between these events felt like the blink of an eye. Though my progress was swift in nature, I was still quite taken with the glow-up both Goron City and the 2nd dungeon got from the Remake’s bona fide beautification process, as Goron City was injected with a lot more cultural flavor this time around, with a ton of local flair and creativity poured into making it look like the Gorons have had quite a rich history going back a long way. As far as Dodongo’s Cavern is concerned, it is perhaps due in part to the context of the level in why it looks even more impressive than a lot of other areas, as the smoke, fire, and lava effects just truly pop, due to the luminosity radiating off of any number of happenings and goings on occurring at the foot of a semi active volcano.


To say nothing of the variety of both fire breathing and exploding dinosaurs one is fighting throughout, let us not forget

Though Doodongo’s does avoid that almighty difficulty spike that occurs in a lot of other Zelda adventures during any 2nd dungeon area, Dodongo’s will still keep players on their toes, as the amount of incidental and collateral damage that can be inflicted on Link can accrue quickly, so hopefully one comes packing with at least one bottle and a fairy in tow to make one’s life dramatically easier. I was pleasantly surprised that the fights with the mini-bosses of the dungeon, both sets of Lizalfos’, seemed to be genuinely more engaging and therefore challenging than the original were, as it didn’t feel like they were complete push overs, which was a nice change of pace for once.


Skip to the loo my fucking darling

As I was habitually rolling Link to activate the shortcut to connect the two floors in the main hall, I was reminded of how the Zelda series was doing Dark Souls before Dark Souls was a thing, and that in many ways, the Souls series (understandably) takes a lot of influence from the Zelda series, and it could be why they’ve resonated so much with modern day players, as the Souls series (and related Fromsoft cousins) largely eschew modern day gaming traditions and trends, favoring the old guard approach that Zelda helped to cultivate so thoroughly throughout the years: reward through exploration and trial and error. All of this in the name of how to gain favor with the player: make them work for it, push them as hard as you can, punish them to educate, and then watch them rise to the challenge and come out on top, with a level of satisfaction most other series wish they could pull off.


I’d say this is a very Soulslike moment, but since the Souls series was influenced by Zelda, would that make this a Zeldalike moment?

The final boss of the dungeon, King Dodongo, was an incredibly detailed mofo, and his introductory cinematic felt like something out of a scene from Jurassic Park for its over the top portrayal of where larger than life beasts are concerned. Though the fight has a well appreciated tone of intimidation throughout, this fight suffers very much like the one against Gohma, to a lesser degree albeit, but still problematically easy, as the case seems to be with the Kid Link portion of the game. I almost want to say, due to the fact that the King has more or less only one move at his disposal, and that is an excessively long inhale, acting as a hilariously obvious broadcast to the player of “insert bomb here”, he might almost be easier than Gohma(?) due to how straight forward the fight is, the only caveat being you can only do so much damage to him so fast, as with Gohma, you can fuck with the hit detection system based on how you time your sword swipes to obliterate her in seconds flat.


Don’t get me wrong: this fight is fucking awesome, just you know…little too straight forward, realistically speaking

This leg of the journey has an excellent intensity it carries about it, so perhaps the fact that it feels to be over rather quickly, lends to a more impactful and punchy nature it carries with it as a result. With only one more Spirtual Stone left to go, you’d think we were only a hop, skip, and a jump away from getting into the Temple of Time…

…and how wrong you’d be. Next up, Zora’s Domain.

~Pashford