I finished OoT. Today.

[aeria.]

I have a rather nasty confession to make. It took me 6 years to finish OoT. Many years of stalling myself but only now have I finished it.

As much as I loved the game, I have never finished Ocarina of Time for the N64. My childhood consisted being stuck in the Water Temple, and then used an emulator when I was 11 to skip right to the ending credits. I've listened to the soundtracks of the rest of the areas I never visited and that's it. Yeah, it's embarrassing.

But today at 9:57 PM, not only have I finally defeated Ganon without any cheats, but I completed the whole game in about 12 combined hours (if you exclude the gazillion hours of fishing and a few side quests) without any cheats or glitches. I feel so proud for myself, I can't believe it.

As proof, here's a bloody screenshot taken straight from my console.


I have to say as I've gotten older, the game became significantly easier for me to complete. Unfortunately because of the outdated graphics I didn't have the immersion and absolute shock that I recall having when you see Castle Town full of ReDeads.

The Water Temple was such a pain in the rear to go through. I had to swear, please forgive me for it but I can't believe how much torture was put into its design. I remember constantly going through the dungeon over and over however I was overlooking one important part of the game: you could re-lower/re-raise the water level. The game outsmarted me in my 9 year old mind and I spent most of my time in the fishing pond meanwhile because I couldn't figure out the Water Temple.

A little over a year ago I booted up my console yet again to figure it out. I played from scratch and I got up the Water Temple. While I did go further than before, there was one particular enemy that prevented me from getting any further.



Dark Link.

It took me perhaps 30 something deaths before I got myself to realize I must be doing something wrong. Every single time, I just got my rear kicked. It was then when I looked on the internet and I read that the Hammer can easily kill him. Apparently it was true, I won rather quickly. Then I restarted and tried again with only the sword. Apparently if you don't focus on the enemy, it's possible to hit him. Despite the fact that I successfully defeated Dark Link, I still couldn't finish the temple. As a result, I dropped the game again.

A few months ago, I booted up the game again through an emulator and I skipped the Water Temple entirely so that I could visit the Shadow Temple and the Spirit Temple. The Shadow Temple I finished but the Spirit Temple I only entered, did not bother to explore. The Shadow Temple was very spooky, especially with the elements of the Lens of Truth, but that dungeon was significantly easier and I managed to complete it rather quickly... I still didn't beat the game. It was sad now that I look back at how much of a chicken I was.

Let's fast forward to 2 days ago. December 25th, 2010. All I had for Christmas was a few shirts from only one side of my family. I was upset at how I realized that by the time I was 15, I was old enough for my family to forget about me and as a result, my mom as well. With my mom coming from a family of 7 siblings, it's a bit harsh for me to at least not get a card, considering the amount I sent out. With nothing to do, I booted up a fresh gamesave of OoT again. It was 3 PM and I set a goal for myself to finish it before 12 AM. In fact, I updated Hardcore of my status while doing so.

This was rather an astonishing feat of... doing really well. lol. In a little bit over 10 hours, I managed to go from the very beginning of the game to finishing the Spirit Temple. I failed to complete my goal, but being able to finish all 8 dungeons in one sitting was such a great accomplishment for me. The last place remaining was Ganon's castle. Being completely exhausted from the constant play, I went to bed and slept for 14 hours. I set my alarm so I can wake up 6:30 in the morning by obviously it didn't work.

The next day I spent time to relax and just do whatever sidequests there were in the game. I managed to get myself the Biggoron sword which is an awesome double handed sword, got the Mask of Truth, talked to all of the Stones, used the rumble pad to detect whatever hidden items were available, and all of the rest of the nook and crannies of the game. The only things I haven't done were collecting all of the Skulltulas and collecting all of the hearts. Everything else however I think I've managed to complete. For the nickpickers: I know it's impossible to out run the Running Man in the Gerudo Valley, don't mention it.

Today, I spent the time to finish Ganon's castle. It was rather straight forward and I finished it quickly. The final two boss battles were quite fun, however I only had trouble first figuring out Ganondorf. For some reason, I knew that Ganon had a tail that was vulnerable so that was very easy. The music played when Ganon really set the "final boss" tone. I had fun with that and when I reached the The End scree, I swapped the video cable over to my capture card so I could take that picture.

So yes. I finally finished one of the greatest games of all time... after all these years. Never too late to finish it, eh? Now that I think back, I think the memorable moments for me was the Forest Temple, Lost Woods, Fire Temple, and sigh... the Water Temple. As mean as it was to go through it, I did it. I find it embarrassing for being outsmarted by game design for not being able to complete it before I became a teenager, but I'm glad I finished it before the day I would lose interest in gaming.

I don't know where to go from here. I might be able to sell this old dinosaur now that I've accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. I think I might give it to one of my younger cousins and make sure he gets to be able to complete this masterpiece of a game before he plays the games of his generation. Otherwise, I'm unsure what to do w/ OoT.


Well, that's my Christmas story of a gamer. One who used the cheap way at first but then did it the right way in the end.

--AG

[NightFalcon]

Congrats!!!  Good Christmas gaming story!

[Soap Mactavish]

*sigh* TL;DR

jk....i have no idea what OoT is

[aeria.]

*sigh* TL;DR

jk....i have no idea what OoT is

WHAT.

Get Project64 and the ROM of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. NOW.

[Jedikiller]

Pretty sure that's not legal...

congratulations on finishing it though. I bought it a while ago but never really got around to finishing it. It didn't really hold my interest that much. :/

[NightFalcon]

ROMs are legal as long as you own a copy of the real game. At least thats what I read somewhere... Though if you already have the game you may as well play it on the TV

[Soap Mactavish]

i promise ill buy the rom JK 

[Vendetta]

Me and my bro would play this constantly every day years ago.  Wed get every extra item, like the golem sword and stuff(not the one that breaks easily, the good one).  I remember this as my first video game ever.

[aeria.]

Wed get every extra item, like the golem sword and stuff(not the one that breaks easily, the good one)

That's actually the biggoron's sword. It's an awesome item when you complete its quest.

[Rinku]

Woah nice job AG!!  I am very proud of you .

I never had the patience to beat the game "in the old days."  I might go dust off the old n64, see if I still have the game and try to beat it now .

(I would send this to kotaku imo).

[Vendetta]

Lol, I just remember you getting it from some big golem

I remember the biggest pain was getting every heart piece.  I think I still have yet to get 2 full hearts left yet.

[aeria.]

I have enough promoted posts on Kotaku, I think they'll be sick of me.

Anyway if you honestly think it's Kotaku level to be sent, feel free to do so yourself. I'll indirectly give you permission. (I'm skeptic about it). Other than that, I've done one run of proofreading. Surprisingly my English w/out proofreading has slightly improved.

Also Venetta, they're called Gorons. Come on you can't miss their name... they give you hugs!