GenGAME – Ocarina of Time and facing the future

Or more importantly, facing the mistakes of your past, which is the title of a recent GenGAME article by Dathen Bocabella. Dathen takes a look at one of the lessons Ocarina of Time teaches all players, but something that’s perhaps more revealing to the young teen to young adult demographic that comprises many of the Zelda fans. We all have to face our past, and Ocarina of Time does a good job with little hints showing that even fictional character need to, too. Hit the jump for more!

First, I highly recommend you read “Reflecting on Ocarina of Time: Facing the Mistakes of Your Past” from GenGAME. It’s a great article that touches on specific places in the game to point out how, in addition to being a fun adventure, Ocarina of Time also teaches an important life lesson. The lesson that all mistakes must be dealt with, no matter how you try to escape them.

The mistake that Link and Zelda make in by collecting the three spiritual stones is that they open the Door of Time and let Ganondorf snatch the Triforce. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for Zelda and Link, Ganondorf doesn’t have a pure heart and can only take the Triforce of Power, which leaves Zelda with the Triforce of Wisdom, and importantly Link with the Triforce of Courage.

We don’t actually know whether Ganondorf could have grabbed the Triforce without the help of Link and Zelda. It’s likely that he would have tried eventually, but we can at least try to believe that Link and Zelda didn’t completely aid him. In the end, however, Link did abandon Hyrule while Zelda saw Ganondorf seize power.

After seven years being locked up, Link had to go back and save Hyrule. He had to clean up the problems he’d created as they got worse and worse. He was more equipped, being older, but Link was still a child inside, and had to mature quickly. It’s arguable that Link didn’t necessarily deserve the Triforce of Courage when he received it, but it’s evident that in the time Link spent helping the sages and fixing the mistakes he’d made as a child, the Triforce of Courage could only belong to him.

Again, if you want to read the GenGAME article, you can find on their site here.

What did you think? Let us know in the comments!