Last week, famed Nintendo 64 modder, Kaze Emanuar, uploaded the release trailer for his Ocarina of Time mod, The Missing Link. The ROM hack has been in development for quite some time, and many people have been waiting for this hack to drop. The question is, was it worth the wait?
The Missing Link picks up shortly after the end of Ocarina of Time. While Majora’s Mask already implied that Link had essentially come directly from Hyrule Castle back to Kokiri Forest to try and find Navi, The Missing Link shows us Link as he arrives back in a very different Kokiri Forest. While we only explored a small portion of a larger forest in Ocarina of Time (so this could easily just be a different area from the town where Link lived), there is clearly something different in terms of the health of the forest. The Kokiri children talk about how some trees are withering and dying and it’s conveyed in the color palette which is much duller and more earthy in a tone that implies the forest is dying.
Link quickly learns that fairies are being taken by someone and taken deep into the forest. While Link starts the game with a sword and shield, you quickly reach an impasse which requires an upgrade in order to advance. This comes in the form of a new sword which allows Link to shoot sword beams at full health. This beam has a fire element to it which makes it a core tool to the hack. Due to this, in addition to firing at full health, you can also hold the B button to charge and fire the beam at any time.
I will not go into much farther detail regarding the game than this as it is a very short hack compared to the original game. It can be completed in a few short hours and consists of only a handful of regions. The game is so short that the entire inventory of button-assignable items is only eight items, one of which is only required a single time.
While the bulk of the hack utilizes standard functionality of Ocarina of Time, there are a couple of mechanics and/or gimmicks that are unique. There is also a heavy reliance on the use of Bombchus as they are your only explosive in this short experience. While it is nice to see Bombchus get some significant use unlike the original experiences, it also illustrates why Nintendo likely avoided making them a requirement for primary objectives. They are very finicky in their behavior and they also open up options to a level that inadvertently make objectives less clear because you are suddenly given too many options to effectively direct the player.
And that is one of the biggest issues with the hack in general. It tends to fall into extremes. The general overworld is, ironically enough, fairly linear. There are a lot of corridors to travel down, some of which are wide and at least give some illusion of a world, but many times they are quite literally a four-sided tunnel not much larger than Link himself. While the overworld is pretty linear, the dungeon, by contrast, lacks that level of direction. While a less linear dungeon design is something most fans would prefer, you have to be very careful when doing that to make sure you breadcrumb the player very well in order to ensure they know what to do and where to go.
Nintendo is very good at teaching the player through playing the game. This hack, however, misses that point in quite a few places, especially later in the game. A new mechanic is introduced, but it is not well-illustrated what can be done. It does force you into a very simple, obvious implementation of it, but a required path later requires you to use the mechanic in a manner that’s not quite so obvious and it is essentially the only time this particular scenario is used. Again, a similar scenario occurs late game but it is different enough that you might not link them. Going back to the Bombchu focus of this hack, there’s also a Bombchu puzzle that seems obvious when you first encounter it, but you quickly learn that it’s not as it appears. In the end, it is a simple puzzle, but it’s not well indicated to the player what is expected, partially due to the chaotic nature of the Bombchu but also due to a behavior never seen in the original games or illustrated to the player prior to this moment.
The hack does have some interesting locales and functionality. The sword beam’s fire attribute does introduce some new combat and puzzle-solving options. There is also a rather interesting area with its own separate story. Monktown is interesting in terms of its story, setting, and the mood it sets.
I think in playing through The Missing Link, the biggest impact it had on me was bringing to light how rough this old engine really is. Playing through Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask does not typically elicit this reaction from me when I replay them, so one can only assume that it’s a product of nostalgia rounding off the rougher edges. This is, of course, a factor of rose-tinted glasses, but also the extreme level of familiarity with those games which allows you to easily avoid the rough patches. With this hack, however, we lack that knowledge, but there are also a few design choices that factor in as well. The hack has a number of moments that are almost platformer-like in design — a significant weak point in the engine.
While this hack will likely not set the world on fire or go down in history as one of the greats of the modding scene, it is certainly worth the small time investment it requires. It’s hardly a narrative masterpiece and it has its share of issues, some of which are core to the engine itself, but it’s a chance to relive some small semblance of those original experiences of the Nintendo 64.
