Ocarina Of Time's Deku Tree Dungeon Is Still My All-Time Top Gaming Moment

Zelda: Ocarina of Time Inside the Great Deku Tree — *Image: Nintendo Life*

November twenty first, 2023 marked the twenty fifth anniversary of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s Japanese launch. To have a good time this historic Hyrulean event, we’re working articles all through the week devoted to the sport, our recollections, and its legacy. In this ultimate function, we’re closing with an opener as Jim explains why the sport’s first dungeon is one among his all-time faves…

I’ve talked about it just a few occasions throughout this week’s anniversary celebration, however I’ll say it once more simply in case you have not been maintaining with the Ocarinaversary content material (tut tut tut): The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was my introduction to gaming. And what an introduction it was.

There was, nonetheless, one difficulty. When you begin your gaming journey with what many take into account to be the best of all time, the place do you go from there? The reply, it appears, is again to Ocarina of Time. Regularly.

I’ve managed to get an excellent variety of video games underneath my belt within the ensuing 25 years, a handful of which even most well-liked to Ocarina, however my introduction to Hyrule nonetheless dominates my record of favorite gaming moments. The title display, the time journey, lastly defeating Phantom Ganon after a very tear-inducing grind session, this sport is filled with GOAT moments. But above all of those sits the immovable dungeon, Inside the Great Deku Tree. My beloved.

“You can’t pick an entire dungeon as your favourite gaming moment of all time!” it’s possible you’ll cry, and that is truthful sufficient. Coincidentally, it simply so occurs that a number of of my high moments come from this very location, so I feel it is truthful sufficient to group them collectively underneath a singular umbrella.

Rather than run by a step-by-step information of the dungeon, I’ve determined to slim it all the way down to only a handful of my finest bits. Some ‘Deku Delights’, you would possibly say. I am unable to truthfully say that the dungeon is one of the best within the sequence — the Forest Temple holds collectively significantly better as an entire, for those who ask me — however inform me this: Does the Forest Temple have a depraved bounce off a ledge that builds up a lot energy you possibly can break by the ground itself? I do not assume so.

Well, I’ve stated it now, so why not begin there? In the years earlier than Tears of the Kingdom obtained us all used to the majesty of leaping from a excessive platform (okay, Assassin’s Creed offered me on it years prior, however let’s persist with the Zelda theme right here), my little thoughts couldn’t comprehend simply how cool it might be to see such a feat of fantasy athleticism in motion. The net flooring caught my eye from my first steps into the dungeon, and the superb placement of the instantly seen coronary heart simply out of attain from the primary platform — requiring you to leap off it and onto the net, testing its power — inspired me to place two and two collectively. I must bounce from greater up.

Prior to that very second, my childhood had been full of “get down from the top of that tree,” “maybe we shouldn’t burn things,” and “let’s not jump into that hole, even if it is just for fun.” Now I’m a boring grown-up, I see that these are all sound items of recommendation, however on the time, the leap from the highest of the Deku Tree, by that net mesh and into the water under gave me a rush of adrenaline that no Sky Island dive has been capable of match.

So, let’s leap into a few of the dungeon’s puzzles, lets? Because (shock, shock), I feel they’re good.

I truthfully do not know if there was a second in gaming that has made me really feel smarter.

The method that the Deku Tree steadily introduces you to the wonders of lighting torches. Wonderful. How you study to cross the flooded ground whereas protecting your flame alight. Brilliant. But the one which stays in my thoughts as one of the best of Nintendo’s ‘let’s make these children really feel like geniuses’ is the 2-3-1 Deku Scrub brothers.

Just in case you do not keep in mind, a Deku Scrub at an earlier stage within the dungeon informs you that you’ll have to defeat his brothers by remembering that “twenty-three is number one” (a Michael Jordan reference, maybe? Could this sport be any extra ’90s if it tried?). You have to carry onto this information for an excellent very long time, too.

It is the only of codes and I do not assume twice about it after I return to the dungeon in my previous, #ProGamer age, however on the time, I felt like Sherlock. It’s a puzzle that begs you to get it fallacious the primary time round. All three of the Scrubs freeze just for them to return again to life?! What is that this witchcraft? When it lastly dawned on me, I truthfully do not know if there was a second in gaming that has made me really feel smarter. I’ve since noticed destroyable partitions in Metroid Prime, solved the meatiest puzzles that Professor Layton has thrown my method, and I even cracked the level-changing system within the Water Temple for crying out loud! But no, 2-3-1 takes it.

And so that you progress by to the dungeon’s ultimate room and into my favorite second of all of them: Gohma. I did not know what a boss battle was — heck, I most likely did not actually know what ‘boss’ meant — however I do know that as I walked into that pitch-black room, I used to be terrified.

It’s a credit score to the designers that this zone nonetheless chills me in the present day. Inside the Great Deku Tree’s music is not probably the most memorable on the soundtrack, however boy, can you are feeling its absence. Those lengthy notes that had accompanied me all through my first Zelda dungeon abruptly pale to nothing. I used to be left in a black room with solely a faint scratching sound for firm.

I walked, gingerly into the room, anticipating one thing scary to leap out from behind one of many surrounding pillars. Nothing. The realisation that the scratching was coming from above left me frozen, unable to search for for an excellent few moments.

The grotesque spider-like physique and rolling eye have been one factor, however then it drops to the bottom and screams?? Nuh-uh. I turned off the sport and took a while away from it, my little thoughts unable to course of the horrors that I had simply seen.

Image: Nintendo Life

When I lastly was courageous sufficient to return (I had recruited my Dad to observe the ceiling above me whereas I performed this time round), I took such pleasure in working all of it out that — nonetheless apparent it’s to me now — I nonetheless keep in mind and recognize it for the tutorial it supplied, priming me for the encounters to return. Big spider factor has a large bulging purple eye and you’ve got a slingshot. Join the dots, genius.

Much just like the aforementioned puzzles, I’ve since torn my hair out over Elden Ring beasties and damn-near pulled a muscle taking up a few of the issues that Hollow Knight threw my method, however for those who requested me which boss left the largest impression on me, Parasitic Armored Arachnid Gohma continues to be queen bee.

As I stated at the start of this love letter, I do assume that there are higher dungeons, puzzles, and managers on the market, however my love for the Deku Tree’s finest bits trumps all else. Even with the barrage of GOTY contenders that 2023 has thrown my method, nothing has come near toppling my beloved high gaming second(s), and I do not assume that something ever will.

What do you make of Ocarina of Time’s introductory dungeon? The finest first dungeon within the sequence? Let us know within the feedback.