Often writers in this column discuss moments of triumph, joy, or fond memories with the games of the Legend of Zelda franchise, or other ways in which the games have shaped us. While much of what our wonderful writers produce is tinged with nostalgia, excitement, and wonder; I feel as though the beginning of autumn here at home and the overcast skies I have had for the past week makes it all the more fitting for me to share a tale of a time I almost put down a Zelda game for good. Not for lack of skill, ambition, or patience – but for lack of nerve. It’s the tale of the first time a Zelda game truly made me stir in my seat. A time where I was touched by horror almost a decade older than my history of gaming.
When people discuss the Legend of Zelda franchise and its relationship with dark themes, most would go no further than the handful of games which eventually scored a Teen rating from the ESRB – Majora’s Mask and Twilight Princess. Both games share a dour and dark atmosphere, along with many unsettling scenes depicting themes of death, disaster, and desecration. Surprisingly, neither of these games are my focus. They were certainly eerie, but they were designed to be that way by virtue of the themes and narratives they are built around. Ocarina of Time may be a heroic tale of saving the future from a dystopia, but no element of the narrative easily lends itself to explore the darkness of the Shadow Temple.
To the collective memory of so many others who played Ocarina of Time as a child, I promise that it was okay to be scared of wells for some time after. The Bottom of the Well is home to the full host of creepy and unsettling mindspawn of the developers of Ocarina. Wallmasters and spider-like foes like Skulltulas are not new horrors to the franchise, but mainstays in eerie places that feel at home here and make their homes elsewhere in the game. Ocarina did make an interesting choice of moving cadaver by introducing the ear-splitting ReDead. The first time I encountered one of these creatures in the Royal Family’s Tomb, its scream made me jump two feet out of my seat; but how that sound and gaze froze Link as the creature stalked up to him, and the feeling of helplessness as it leapt onto his back gnawing at his neck was far worse.
Screaming shamblers aside, the rest of the undead (ReDead?) repertoire of Kakariko Village don’t inspire thoughts of “kid’s games” either. Bongo Bongo is certainly unpleasant. Even if it was a musician in its past life, like the name would imply, the Phantom Shadow Beast shows true signs that it was imprisoned in a barbaric fashion. This gigantic enemy is little more of a beheaded torso, hung upside-down and dismembered at the wrists. The state of the creature screams that this it was either tortured or punished according to Byzantine law for theft, and what theft would warrant such a punishment followed by being imprisoned and sealed away? Certainly nothing that a wholesome tale about finding some sages and saving a princess would have the time or bandwidth to delve deeper into.
Above all, and to no one’s surprise, the true reason that I almost put Ocarina down and never picked it up again: Dead Hand. This slug-like man-eater lurks in a cairn of skulls, its many hands stretching far above the remains of its previous victims and grasping for new prey like sunflowers after the beams of afternoon light. This creature became my personal nightmare demon. The thought of being grabbed over the front of my face by these clawed cadavers as a limbless thing with lifeless eyes lumbers towards me for the kill – it may be the one reason I have never been able to put myself in the shoes of the Hero of Time. The concept of being able to continue on after something like that is truly a testament to his Courage, and the limits of mine.
It took me a few months of poor sleep to power through the Dead Hand fight alone – it was just far too creepy to me for quite a while, but I did make it through. Of course, the remainder of the game went on without issue. Still, the Bottom of the Well and Shadow Temple sit at the pinnacle of my creepy experiences in the Legend of Zelda games. Would I call the total tone shift of these locations out of place in Ocarina? No. After all, not only is it the Shadow Temple, but the longer I have had to allow the game to sit on my mind, the more I realize that these forgotten, haunted halls that are exaggerated in the Shadow Temple fill all of the game. Awakening the sages requires finding, and understanding, places of Hyrule that were significant to the anointment of the first Sages. Would I say that they feel a little on the extreme for a video game that scored itself an ESRB-E rating on release? Without a doubt.
