Back to the Beginning
When I woke up today and accepted this assignment, it was a good thing I had the tools needed to do it. Inside my desk, amidst cartons of food, bugs, and indecent materials was a GameCube I had brought with me to my college dorm. Along with it was a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition, which has OoT on it. I removed these from my desk and, after disconnecting my roommate’s Xbox 360, punched up my old system. Immediately I started a new game, calling myself ‘It’ after my favorite Steven King book and jumped into the world of Hyrule.
Link prepares for a musical rendition of I Was An Angst-Ridden Protagonist, utilizing all his acting prowess.
One of the first things I noticed going in was how hard it is going to be to be critical of this game. The story, still engaging after all these years, pulls me in like two women wrestling in a grease pit. After Navi the fairy joins Link, I decided to go take a walk down memory lane by visiting my old friends like Saria and, to a lesser extent, Mido. Now, everyone knows that at this point I need to grab the sword and shield, but I couldn’t help but notice something odd. Once Mido was finished racially insulting my lack of a fairy and being a jerk, I listened to myself as I was walking. Despite having no items at the point, not even the tiniest green rupee, my footsteps were clanking like I was hoarding the armory you obtain later in the game. How incredibly odd, I thought to myself. But I suppose that I’ve been spoiled by all of the fancier new games and their sound effects. Remember, kids, this is the late nineties, and it’s the pinnacle of audio design. A lot has changed in ten years.
So I grab the sword, buy the shield, and still make it in time to snag a Deku Stick from a Deku Baba before being offered as a sacrifice to soothe the Great Deku Tree’s indigestion. Apparently, according to Saria, it’s quite an honor to be fed to him.
