Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the fifth installment in the The Legend of Zelda series, released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64. It is preceded by Link's Awakening and succeeded by Majora's Mask. The Hero of Time is the main protagonist and Ganondorf is the main antagonist. Ganondorf's minions are the villainous faction.

It is the fifth game in the series, but it is set hundreds of years before the previous games in the series. It is the final Zelda game in the Era of the Ancient, which starts with Skyward Sword (which, shortly after its official announcement, was confirmed to take place before Ocarina of Time). The other games preceding Ocarina of Time are The Minish Cap and Four Swords. Regardless, Ocarina of Time has always been a pivotal game in the chronology with the events at the end of the game, where Zelda sends Link back to his youth, splitting the timeline. When the official timeline was revealed in Hyrule Historia, the placement of Ocarina of Time in the series was revealed to be of even greater value, as the events of the game actually split the series' timeline into three branches.

At E3 2010, a remake of the game for Nintendo 3DS was announced, called Ocarina of Time 3D. The remake was released in June 2011.

Synopsis
''Hundreds of years before A Link to the Past, a young Kokiri boy discovers the evil plot of the King of the Gerudos to become the king of Hyrule. The boy named Link goes on a quest at the request of Princess Zelda to uncover the three Spiritual Stones, which he will use to unlock the Door of Time to gain the Master Sword. Once he completes this, Link is put into a seven-year slumber, and within this time, Ganondorf enters the Sacred Realm and transforms Hyrule into a hellscape. Link awakens seven years later and is tasked with saving the Seven Sages, which have been sealed inside the temples within Hyrule. Once they are all saved, the Sages accompany Link into Ganondorf's castle where they have a final battle, and Ganon is defeated. This event splits the Zelda timeline in three. Link is sent back in time to relive his childhood that he missed, and to warn past Zelda about the future that Ganondorf will wrought.''

Summary
In the Kokiri Forest, all the forest children have their own guardian Fairies, bestowed upon them by the Great Deku Tree, except for one boy named Link. Link has recently been plagued by nightmares of Zelda fleeing from an evil man clad in black. For as long as he can remember, Link has been ostracized by the other children and has never quite fit in. One day, the Great Deku Tree sends Navi the fairy to summon the boy to him. In order to test young Link's courage, the Great Deku Tree bids Link to venture inside his hollow and break the curse cast upon him by a "wicked man dressed in black."

Link complies, but his efforts are for naught; the Great Deku Tree's death was sealed in the pages of fate before Link's attempt had even begun. With his final breath, the Great Deku Tree bestows upon Link the Spiritual Stone of the Forest, the Kokiri's Emerald, and entreats him to travel to Hyrule Castle and meet with Princess Zelda.

After traveling across Hyrule Field and passing through Castle Town, Link does not take long to realize that speaking to the princess of Hyrule will not be a simple matter; many guards stand watch, alert and ready to catch any trespassers. However, he manages to infiltrate the castle, bypassing the front gate and evading all of the guards in his path. When he reaches the castle itself, the raised drawbridge seems like an insurmountable obstacle. However, Link discovers an unguarded water drain by the castle moat and manages to crawl through the hole, emerging within the castle garden. Many more guards are on patrol here, but Link is able to dodge all of them and sneak into the Castle Courtyard. In this Courtyard, his fate converges with that of the young Princess of Hyrule.

Princess Zelda tells Link of her prophetic dreams, explaining that she had seen him come from the forest and break through a veil of darkness, accompanied by a Fairy guide and bearing the Kokiri's Emerald. She also warns him about Ganondorf, the man clad in black whom Zelda believes is symbolized by the dark clouds of her dreams, and his evil intention to steal the Triforce of legend from the Sacred Realm. With the power of the goddesses, his desire to subjugate the world would be realized. In order to do this, Ganondorf would require not only the three Spiritual Stones of Hyrule, but also the mystical Ocarina of Time. Zelda insists that Link track down the other two Spiritual Stones, so that they might beat Ganondorf to the Triforce and put an end to his plot.

Link sets out for Death Mountain and Zora's Domain, where he succeeds in assisting both the Gorons and the Zoras in quelling the calamities that Ganondorf had wrought in his pursuit of the Triforce and is awarded with the other two Spiritual Stones, the Goron's Ruby and Zora's Sapphire for his efforts.

He returns to Hyrule Castle to inform Zelda of his success, only to witness his nightmare come to pass. Ganondorf attacked Hyrule Castle in an attempt to steal the Ocarina of Time, and Princess Zelda was forced to flee with her loyal attendant Impa on horseback in order to keep the Triforce from Ganondorf's hands. As she passes Link on the drawbridge of Hyrule Castle Town, she throws the ocarina into the moat to give him the chance to enter the Sacred Realm and retrieve the Triforce. In hot pursuit, Ganondorf charges across the drawbridge on horseback, blasting Link with dark magic when he tries to stand in his way. Dismissing Link as no credible threat to his power, he speeds off in pursuit of the princess.

When Link retrieves the Ocarina of Time from the moat, he receives a telepathic message from Zelda, telling him to play the "Song of Time" in front of the Temple of Time's altar. Link makes his way to the Temple of Time and proceeds to use the three Spiritual Stones and play the "Song of Time" to open the Door of Time. Beyond it lies the Master Sword, the Blade of Evil's Bane, resting in the Pedestal of Time. Link draws the blade, unlocking the gateway to the Sacred Realm. Despite the Master Sword accepting Link as its wielder, it seals him away in the Sacred Realm. Ganondorf, who had suspected that Link might have already acquired the keys to the Sacred Realm, appears and mocks him for leading him to the Triforce. Link watches helplessly as Ganondorf crosses over into the Sacred Realm.

The Hero of Time
Seven years later, a grown-up Link is awakened by an old man in the Chamber of Sages. He introduces himself as Rauru, and reveals himself as one of the ancient Sages that preside over the Sacred Realm. Rauru explains that only the Hero of Time can pull the Master Sword from its Pedestal. However, Link was too young to be the Hero of Time, so his spirit was sealed in the Sacred Realm for seven years until he is old enough to be accounted for. Rauru further reveals that Ganondorf obtained the Triforce after gaining access to the Sacred Realm, and used its power to transform Hyrule into a land of darkness. Rauru urges Link to seek out the remaining Sages, and grants Link his power in the form of the Light Medallion.

Link returns to the Temple of Time, where he is greeted by a mysterious man named Sheik, one of the survivors of the ancient Sheikah tribe. He tells Link of Ganondorf's conquest over the last seven years, and of the legend of the Sages. He urges Link to awaken the five remaining Sages in the five Temples mentioned in the legend, which are scattered throughout Hyrule. Wielding the Blade of Evil's Bane, Link sets out to break the curse on all of the sacred Temples and awaken the Sages within.

After all Six Sages are awakened, Link returns to the Temple of Time and encounters Sheik again. Sheik tells Link another legend of the Triforce passed down by the Sheikah. The Triforce is a scale that measures the three virtues ruled by the Golden Goddesses: Power, Wisdom, and Courage. If the heart of someone who holds the sacred triangle carries all three of these forces in balance, that person will acquire the Triforce intact, the divine authority to govern all. If one's heart is not in balance, the Triforce will separate into three parts, and only one part will remain for the one who touched the Triforce: that part which embodies the force that one most believes in.

If one with an unbalanced heart would seek the Triforce, then that person must strive to acquire the two lost parts, which will rest within two others chosen by destiny who will hold the crest of the goddesses on the backs of their hands. When Ganondorf laid his hands upon the Triforce, the prophecy came to pass. The Triforce split into its three parts, and only the Triforce of Power remained in Ganondorf's hands.

Ganondorf proceeded to conquer the Sacred Realm, and became the self-proclaimed King of Evil, but his lust for power was not yet satisfied. Ganondorf began hunting for those chosen by destiny to obtain the other two pieces of the Triforce that had escaped his grasp. Sheik reveals that Link wields the Triforce of Courage, and sheds his disguise to reveal himself as Princess Zelda, the seventh Sage who wields the Triforce of Wisdom.

Zelda tells Link that she thought that giving him the Ocarina of Time seven years prior would be the best way to keep it out of Ganondorf's grasp. However, she did not predict that Ganondorf would follow Link into the Sacred Realm and take the Triforce of Power for his own. Zelda disguised herself as a Sheikah to hide from Ganondorf, and waited seven years for Link to return. Zelda tells Link that the Sages must seal Ganondorf inside the Sacred Realm, and that she must seal the door to the Sacred Realm itself to keep him imprisoned. However, in revealing herself to Link, Zelda also exposes herself to Ganondorf, who has been waiting for such a moment. He promptly encases her within a large magic crystal and brings her to his Castle, constructed where Hyrule Castle had stood before its destruction. Link rushes to the Castle to save the princess.

The Final Confrontation
Link breaks the barrier around the fortress with the help of the six awakened Sages. Storming the keep, he confronts Ganondorf, and a climactic battle unfolds over the fate of Hyrule and the Triforce.

Without a strong and righteous mind, Ganondorf cannot control the power of the gods, and is ultimately defeated by Link's hand. With their power now fully restored, the Sages cast the evil incarnation of darkness into the void of the Evil Realm that had been the Sacred Realm before being stained by Ganondorf's evil. Zelda then seals the gateway, imprisoning Ganondorf within the Sacred Realm. Before he is sealed away, Ganondorf warns Link and Zelda that he will return to exterminate their descendants when the seal is broken.

Zelda instructs Link to place the Master Sword back in its Pedestal and close the Door of Time, closing the road between the two timelines, and she sends him to his original time. After Link returns to his original time, he still retains his knowledge about Hyrule's fate. With this information, he visits Princess Zelda in order to prevent such a fate from ever occurring. Link, who traveled through time to save the land, would be forever known in legend as the Hero of Time.

Trivia

 * Ocarina of Time runs on a heavily modified version of Super Mario 64's engine.
 * Due to time constraints, the Spanish localization was not included in the European release of the game. However, a 150 page text guide was bundled with the game in Spain, which included the entire Spanish localization alongside the English text.
 * An early logo used in some promotional materials and ESRB's section for the game used the subtitle "The Ocarina of Time".
 * Although there are twelve Dungeons to explore, two of them are not designated as Dungeons in the game's data, which means the official total is only ten. Ganon's Castle and the Gerudo Training Ground both have the Dungeon entrance icon on the maps, but because the Dungeons themselves do not use a Map and Compass or allow the player to use a warp song, they are not true Dungeons.
 * Out of all the boxes that were produced for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Special Edition, 75 units are proven to never have been filled. Estimations suggest that a maximum of 25 units were ever sold, making it the rarest limited-time available edition for any Zelda game to date.
 * After the staff credits in the game's ending, when Link returns the Master Sword to the Temple of Time and Navi flies away, bells from a clock tower toll. This may be a reference to Link's next adventure, Majora's Mask, which may have began development around the game's release.
 * There was a commercial featuring Link as an adult where he is in Kakariko Village and finds a chest full of a soda drink called Mirinda, this commercial supposedly aired in India during the 90's

Continuity

 * Many races also made their debut in Ocarina of Time. The Kokiri, Gorons, Gerudo, Hylians, Deku Scrubs and Sheikah all originated or were at least identified in Ocarina of Time. The Zoras technically appeared first in the original game as enemies and were given the ability to walk in A Link to the Past, but their widely accepted character model - the slender, sky-blue, aquatic design - was first made in Ocarina of Time.
 * Ocarina of Time, while not being the first game in the series to feature a musical item or a list of songs, is the first game to allow the player to play the songs note by note rather than simply selecting the item or the song being used.
 * As mentioned before, it introduced the Targeting system, eliminating difficulty for camera control, and also helping to focus visually on very distant spots, enemies or characters.
 * It introduced the ability to wear masks.
 * The game also introduced many sidequests allowing Link to collect hundreds of optional items.
 * It was the first Zelda game to include quarter units of health; previous games only featured half units of health.
 * Outside of the Zelda franchise, the game caused an unprecedented impact on the video game industry, to the point that many other games and series were influenced by the gameplay style from the game.
 * Many properties of this game were borrowed by both Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee, including several characters, stages, soundtracks, and numerous trophies.