Eleven years ago, I was in a game store, playing the beginning of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The Great Deku Tree was a creepy and oppressive dungeon, in the best way. I remember waiting in that dark cavern with those soft pools of mist at your feet, before Gohma, the first boss, emerges..
I was ten.
The box art was spare and plain, so unlike the gaudy covers of other games. And yet it was incredibly evocative. I must have pleaded with my parents to buy the game, but I didn’t own an N64, and there was no special occasion that warranted such a large purchase. Driving home, I clearly remember staring out the window, my mind still filled with that dungeon..
Eventually I did get the N64. Renting the game, I played through Link’s childhood at least four times, and the Forest Temple at least twice. But that’s as far as I was able to get with the limited time I had. For reasons forgotten, I never actually bought Ocarina of Time — until a year ago.
Upon revisiting it, lost was the luster of childhood and the sheer novelty that had once awed a ten-year-old boy.
Still, the Forest Temple was wild and strange, and the Windmill Song sad and sweet, just like I remembered. And today, I finally finished what I had started eleven years ago.
Sheik: A thing that doesn't change with time is a memory of younger days...