Year 2026, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time makes its long-awaited return as a Switch 2 remake, taking us back to a version of Hyrule that's WAY scarier than its reputation suggests. Maybe because there are even darker ones Majora's mask, Ocarina of time tend to be remembered as the “classic” Zelda family-friendly adventure, but the game's lore comes packed with details that are pure nightmare fuel.
4 Zelda Games Better Than Ocarina Of Time (In Specific Areas)
Is there really no better Zelda experience than Ocarina of Time, which came out nearly three decades ago? These games beg to differ.
Make no mistake about it, Ocarina of time could easily be turned into a horror story with slight modifications, one that explores grief, death and trauma. While Hero of Time's tragic story ends in subsequent games, Link's journey through Hell begins in Ocarina of Time, where he develops scars that take generations to heal.
Hyrule's history of state-sanctioned torture
The royal family's bloody heritage
While Ganondorf's coup naturally portrays him as the big bad, Hyrule's royal family was by no means a noble family that created a fairytale utopia where everyone lived in harmony and peace. No, they built and maintained their kingdom with violence and blood, specifically using sheikahs as protectors of the crown who acted as the secret police. During and after the civil war that preceded the events of the game, the royal family used torture and executions to maintain control.
Here Hyrule's bloody history of greed and hatred gathers. – Voices in the Shadow Temple
The Shadow Temple and Bottom of the Well serve as remnants of these actions, and their structures illustrate that they are not traditional dungeons or tombs. The blood-soaked Shadow Temple has guillotines and torture racks, everything one would need to keep prisoners comfortable. The Bottom of the Well can be even scarier; under Kakariko Village is a sealed maze with chains, pits and zombies (ReDeads). The Bottom of the Well is a cemetery where the royal family tried to bury.
Princess Zelda and the King of Hyrule represent divine right and pure goodness, but their throne is entirely funded and secured by these underground slaughterhouses. As a child, Zelda was sheltered from this reality, but that changed when she became a Sheikah warrior and took on the Sheikah persona.
Speaking of the Shadow Temple and the Bottom of the Well…
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The Dead Hand is a pure Eldritch nightmare
Ocarina of Time features a genuine body horror monster
Ocarina of time was rated “E for Everyone” by the ESRB, and may be the only E-rated game with an enemy mixed with body horror and psychological manipulation.
Alongside traditional fantasy monsters like skeletons and giant spiders, Hyrule is also home to the Dead Hand, creatures that wouldn't look out of place in Blood borne or, obviously, Silent Hill. Found in the Shadow Temple and Bottom of the Well, this amorphous entity consists of bloated, rotting flesh and severed white arms sprouting from the ground. Everything about the Dead Hand screams that it shouldn't exist in this world, and that goes beyond just its aesthetics.
To reveal its main body, Link must let one of the monster's hands grab him by the throat, leaving him defenseless. After that, the Dead Hand slowly walks towards the captured 10-year-old child, while Link (and the player) frantically try to escape.
The actual knowledge behind Dead Hands has never been revealed, but every possible theory is dark as hell. The most likely is that it represents all the victims who were tortured and buried, which explains why it is only found in two places.
The terrifying post-apocalyptic fate of the castle town
Ocarina Of Time is a zombie game
As a child, Link enjoyed his life in Castle Town, specifically the market. He loved the bright colors, the blue sky, the positive music, the dancing couples, the laughing villagers and the vendors. A place defined by safety and community; what Link was trying to protect.
After drawing the Master Sword and jumping ahead seven years, Link steps out of the Temple of Time and into a harrowing post-apocalyptic hell devoid of the joy that once populated its streets. The once bustling market square was reduced to rubble by Gandondorf, leaving not even the echo of the lives that once existed there. A few survivors fled to the village of Kakariko, but the key word is “few”. Although we don't actively see a mountain of bodies, most of Castle Town's people must have been brutally slaughtered.
Although not directly stated, the ReDeads may be the animated corpses of the villagers, implying that Hyrule has indeed become a zombie wasteland.
The best Zelda villain of all time (isn't Ganon)
No one can deny the influence Ganon has had on the Zelda series, but there is a better villain out there.
The Lost Woods is a cruel, cruel place
Once you're in, you may never leave
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Skull Kid image is from Majora's mask.
A staple of The Legend of Zelda franchise, Ocarina of time's Lost Woods may seem somewhat whimsical at first glance, especially due to its upbeat music and relatively pale green visuals. However, the myths surrounding this place are absolutely haunting and, above all, seem genuine. Legend has it that adults who get lost in the woods turn into Stalfos, while children become Skull Kids.
Getting lost does not mean starvation but a magical metamorphosis, and The Lost Woods specifically seeks to ensure that travelers get lost. It's almost malicious.
Now, it's not 100% confirmed that the Stalfos Link fights are Lost Souls, but it would certainly be a lot more interesting than just generic skeletons. Skull Kids are even more tragic, as they are children who lose their minds and childhoods and become alienated beings who see adults as threats.
Link is a child soldier suffering from severe trauma
Ocarina Of Time's Happy End is extremely dark
Let's make one thing clear: OoT Link is not a traditional fantasy hero who saves the princess and lives happily ever after. No, he is a child armed by fate and then left to rot by history. Before the game even started, he was orphaned during the Hylian Civil War, causing him to grow up as an outcast among the Kokiri.
Each Kokiri gets a fairy, but they only introduce Link to Navi when they send him on a suicide mission while placing the fate of the world on his back. Link is a child soldier who must take on an impossible responsibility that the adults of Hyrule cannot bear. The time-jump Master Sword robs Link of his adolescence and turns him into a 10-year-old in an adult's body.
In the end, Link saves Hyrule and is sent back in time by Zelda so he can live his childhood, a seemingly positive ending. But Link remembers everything he went through, and he's the only one who knows about his heroics (and the sacrifices he went through to achieve them). The people he saved consider him an outsider, and history remembers him as a nobody, isolating Link just as he needs help dealing with his PTSD.
IN Twilight Princessthat version of Link encounters the Hero's Shade, a Stalfos, who is confirmed to be the Hero of Time (aka, OoT Link). Burdened by the remorse of oblivion due to not being remembered as a hero, Link's spirit rotted and turned into a manifestation of his unresolved trauma.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Released
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November 21, 1998
- ESRB
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E10+ for all 10+: animated blood, fantasy violence, suggestive themes
- Developer
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Nintendo
- Publisher
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Nintendo
- Engine
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Zelda 64 engine
