Ocarina of Time stands in the class of games that will receive ultimate praise until the end of time, and rightfully so. Hailed as an almost perfect game for the time of its release, I would like to believe that is close to the truth. Ocarina of Time feels as if it's the foundation for how to make an RPG-esque adventure game. The worthwhile and lengthy narrative brings life to the standard hero's tale with a great cast of characters and world-building. By the time I finished the game, the many sunken hours felt worth it. The game's progression and climactic build had me attached to every play session. I knew what was coming, but I still itched to see it all happen. Although much of the layout of Hyrule is dated by today's standards, it still felt fluid and exciting to explore with fresh eyes. In classic Zelda fashion, there are hidden secrets everywhere. So, even if im staring at low-poly textures, it's with a fun purpose. The downfalls to Hyrule start to arise once you have had your fair share of the game. Land starts to feel a little bare or sluggish to traverse. At the point of scouting for all the heart pieces and gold skulltullas, the game also loses some flavor. Finding them all is a cryptic hassle, and there's little reward to even doing so outside of personal satisfaction. Cryptic hassles are also the main reason I couldn't edge this score to a 9/10. There are specific points of progression in a main or side quest where the game will throw a one-liner riddle at you to solve. If you wanted, you could spend hours mashing every button with every item or talking to every NPC in the game just to get an idea of what to do. Most of the riddles are fun to solve, but without a guide or already knowing answers from experience, solving a couple here or there can spoil some parts of the game. Learning to bottle the blue fire broke my brain for the worst. Honestly, my favorite puzzle/riddle was figuring out the entirety of the water temple, as it's one giant integrated puzzle box. Outside of the obvious metal boots dilemma, the Water Temple has received way too much hate over the years. It's also dripping in atmosphere, pun intended. Gameplay-wise, all I can say is it plays pretty darn well. Everything is pretty simple and intuitive, and for an early beta of a fully fleshed-out targeting system, the z-targeting does a fine enough job. Only in select moments with many enemies or multiple points of focus does the z-targeting become a hindrance. I'm talking about you Bongo-Bongo!!! For a first dip into 3D Zelda, they pretty much hit the controls and handling on the head. And what can be said that hasn't been about the music and its integration into the narrative of the game? Hot diggity, this game is pretty good.