#60 - Why Ocarina of Time will forever be the best video game

Why Ocarina of Time  relates to learning and development. 

Hello Readers!

I hope everyone is doing well. It’s been an interesting two weeks with all of this cold weather in January. Fortunately, there haven’t been too many power outages and my home is warm. So what is the topic for today? There is of course a game that I played as a child in the 90’s and was also the first video game that I ever beat. It’s also considered the best game of all time according to Metacritic and that’s:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

And what more can be said about this game? It’s been analyzed, modded, hacked, and studied to the point that people have already recreated in the C language. It’s also been enhanced and one can play it in a variety of formats. It’s a whole culture! There’s people all over the world that are still mesmerized by the impact this game had on the video game industry and human life. Its achievements cannot be overlooked. 

However, I want to take a look at the symbolic and philosophical aspects of Ocarina of Time. I could almost most certainly write a PHD on this phenomenal piece of art, that is both artform and game. So here are the main points that I think Ocarina of Time is as a game:

#1 - It’s a coming of age game. In the game, you actually grow up from a child to an adult and actually grow as a player as the main character Link grows. You start out in what turns out to be one of the most well versed and balanced starting points any game has ever had. And this is no easy balancing act. A starting area needs to have to balance out the following components: 

#2 - Childhood is about learning fundamentals. And this is evident in the symbolism of what you have to conquer as a child in Ocarina. I think this really hits home as If a student or person hasn’t overcome the fundamentals of learning in Childhood, then this translates to hardships as an adult. 

#3 - Adulthood is about becoming a well rounded individual. As an adult Link ventures into five distinct dungeons which are: Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow, and Spirit. Then he partakes in one final temple and one can see this as the Light temple. So in essence there are six main avenues an adult takes and six aspects of themselves that need to be overcome. 

#4 - The core themes are universal. The core themes of each dungeon apply to each major aspect of life. Here is how I would chart out each of the themes:

Growth - Forest Temple

Friendship - Fire

Love - Water

Death - Shadow

Struggle - Spirit

Celebration - Light

These are all universal themes for human life and things that we all go through as human beings. I think this is captured or portrayed really well with each of the temples in Ocarina of Time. 

#5 - Music is more fundamental to learning than we thought. Reference the masonic steps here. The music is absolutely profound and makes an enormous impact on the human psyche. Not only that, but it stays in memory. The songs, especially the songs as a child, really stick to one’s thoughts and memories forever. People have argued if this is the most iconic and important music soundtrack of any Zelda Game or any game period. 

#6 - The mental shift from 2D abstract objects to 3D objects in space. Similar to the shift from Black and White to Color TV, Ocarina was a huge transformation and for how people viewed games in general. And the game did it almost perfectly. This relates to ideas in countless ways and how we view reality. And not only that, but concepts as a whole. People in general, need to be able to go beyond 2D Words and symbols in order to escape to the 3D realm of ideas. 

Well those are my major points. I think as learners and people who study, we go through a lot of different experiences. This is definitely expressed as an artform in this work of art and I think there’s still a lot more layers to Ocarina of Time that still need to be uncovered. 

Have a great Friday!

-Calvin