The Zelda series has a good track record with great side quests. In some games, like Majora’s Mask, even more of the game is more side quest oriented than the main plot. Side quests didn’t always interest me as a kid. Sometimes even starting them was a puzzle in itself, so I often stuck with the ones that immediately presented themselves. However, the Biggoron’s Sword side quest was one I’ll never forget.
Around the age of ten or so, I’d recently found the Ocarina of Time strategy guide that I’d previously lost during the remodeling of our basement. I enjoyed using it to get ahold of upgrades or items that I was previously unaware of. I was previously aware of the Giant’s Knife, and when I found the side quest in the guide detailing how I could get a permanent version of it, how could I say no?
The game definitely wasn’t going to make it easy for me, though. To start, how was I supposed to know I had to wake up a random person in the village and then get a blue Cucco that only crows with one random NPC that’s in the Lost Woods? But hey, I guess that’s what guides are for, right? The time limits with delivering a certain thing to a certain location definitely threw me off as well. I thought I could cheese it by using the Warp Songs to shortcut my way around. Wishful thinking: that would automatically run the timer out and I’d have to try again.
So after bouncing around to a few more characters, I finally get my hands on the “World’s Finest Eyedrops” that Biggoron wanted. I had about four minutes to get it to him, and with no warp songs, that meant having to trek all the way across Hyrule and up Death Mountain. Thankfully I had Epona at this point of the game, but the task still felt daunting to me. Nevertheless, when it came to Ocarina of Time, I was no quitter. I took the journey and managed to make it to the climbable wall right before Biggoron’s location near the peak of the mountain.
Unfortunately, I failed to consider one thing: I had one arrow left, and I had to get past three Skullwalltulas to get to Biggoron. I only had about a minute left, so there was no time to try and get more arrows. I shot one of the spiders out and managed to sneak past the second one, but by pure RNG the third one saw me and knocked me all the way back down. I was starting to panic here: I had maybe thirty seconds left and still no arrows.
Out of sheer determination (or desperation), I got right back onto the wall and started climbing back up again. By pure luck, I managed to seamlessly get past both the spiders, and I legitimately only had three seconds left before the eyedrops would spoil. I ran up to where Biggoron would get up, I held out the eyedrops with two seconds left, but I wasn’t close enough for him to see that I was holding them to him. I managed to Z-Target him and with ONE SECOND LEFT I got the drops to him.
I don’t think my heart had ever beat that fast before, and the sheer sense of relief that came over me when I managed to complete the quest was euphoric. After that, it was smooth sailing: just play the Sun’s Song six times and bam, the Biggoron’s Sword was all mine. I’ve been through some tight side quests before and since then, but I’ll never forget how intense this exasperating journey was.
