When someone asks you, “What was the biggest impact in your life¿¿” what do you tell them¿ Do you start with someone who has inspired you, a book that motivated you, or an experience that you went through¿ Well for me it is none of these things that has had the biggest impact on my life. For me, it was actually a video game, one that is fairly popular called The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. For me, this one was one of the greatest and most impacting games I have ever played.
At a young age, my parents bought me a Nintendo GameCube. I was happy, until they told me I was only to play for a limited time each day, usually for an hour a day. So for me I was happy with any time that I got. However because I played for a limited time I never really played games with story and mainly played games like Mario Party 4. Then as I grew up, I was able to buy more games, and even extend the amount of time that I could play gamesJ. However, eventually I got sick of playing the games that I had so for a while I did not play much.
So rather than play games I did what I thought was the most genius thing at the time, and I watched people play games. I started off watching people play games like Earthbound, Mother 3, Pokémon play-troughs, a couple of Sonic games and more. Soon I got to a Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time play-through, and that changed my life.
At the time I was watching a YouTuber by the name of Nintendo Capri Sun. He was starting the Lets Play, and I liked a lot of his stuff so I decided to watch it and I was very emerged into the game and really wanted to play it when I saw it. However, at the time the game was only available on the Nintendo 64, and I did not have a Nintendo 64, and it was the time when Nintendo 64’s were no longer being produced and sold, so I was sadL. However thanks to the magic of computers, and with the help of the internet, and with the help of another of his Let’s Plays I was able to get the game. I learned about emulators through his Mother 3 Let’s Play, and with the help of the internet, I was able to find a Nintendo 64 emulator. Then all that was left was trying to find the game. So after months of research, tedious reading and in reality I was just distracted with other things, I finally found a way to download Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that was able to run the emulator that I had. I was so excited to finally be able to play Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time after watching the game being played by Nintendo Capri Sun. So I boot up the game and I get to the start screen and it was as if the little girl inside of me busted out of my body and started dancing
I was able to play Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. So I started to go through the game, and starting off with Link awakening in Kokiri Village
and me being able to move Link rather than watch someone else move him was so excited. I moved around Kokiri Village and made my way DOWNTOWN (ok no I will stop), but I went my way down the Lost Woods,
and went inside the Great Deku Tree. I was enjoying the game so much compared to all the other games I used to play. For once I felt that the game was more for me rather than for me and other people. And then came the part where I got the ocarina of time (oooohhhhh aaaaahhhh) and then I remembered that it was not the thing that made me go back in time (it was still cool). Then going into the future and starting the main bulk of the adventure, I was pumped, I was hyped, I was a whole bunch of things and I started my adventure. I went and completed the Forest temple, with no problem. I continued my journey and completed the Fire temple. I was on a roll here, and then I came to the water temple.
From there I knew the kinds of challenges approached me. I remembered Nintendo Capri Sun playing through the water temple and how tedious it was. So I did what any reasonable person would do, and I never played the game every again. Later, I deleted the game, for two reasons. 1) I knew that I was never going to play the game ever again. 2) I needed more space in my computer so I deleted it. However not all hope is lost, because of this game it opened up my love and appreciation for The Legend of Zelda series. Because of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time I was able to get into playing other games like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, and more. Thankfully most of these games I played more than The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and some of which I have completed but still have not finished it one hundred percent.
Because of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time it inspired me to start looking into Ocarinas and how to play them. I spent a good month researching all kinds of Ocarina’s and watching people play them, how it sounded and where I could get them for a good price. However my parents never let me get an Ocarina, (but that might change soon). I followed through this trend for a while and then I gave up mainly because my parents were so persistent on me not buy one so I just gave up.
However, what they could not stop me from is buying a lot of The Legend of Zelda merchandise, including, but not limited to: beanies, backpack, satchel, figurines, finger less gloves, even more The Legend of Zelda games, t shirts, and more (aka I forgot how much more I bought). Luckily when I came out to California for school I was able to bring most of my stuff with me so I can be pleased.
Overall I feel that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time had a huge impact on my life. Not only did it open my mind up to a different type of game, but it also motivated me to become a Game Designer in college. One of the main reasons why I am at the University of Southern California right now is because of this game. I want to create some sort of game like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Personally I feel that it is such a big part of my life, because a lot of what I do and talk about revolves around this game, and without it I do not know what I would have done with my life. I would of probably done something like math or something like that, can you just imagine¿ Thankfully, through the magic of YouTube, and the internet I was able to find this game and go from a dark empty void of darkness, to a somewhat dark and empty void of darkness.
