(I play Ocarina of Time every Sunday and write what happens inaccurately. See previous parts here. This is a pretty decent jumping on point, though!)
All riiight, if you're just joining we've gotten the three magical stones, and we're going back to Zelda for a lark and a good fun time now that the world is saved from the terror of not having combined the three stones, and from here on out it'll be all Deku nuts and Diving competitions.
...Let's just go back to Zelda before I get way ahead of myself.
(Actually, buckle up because we're in for a lot in this one!)
So I scrub back through the lake to Hyrule Field and get back to the town--
Except it turns to night before I do, which means you can't go inside. So I goof a bit around the field before I scrape a little closer to the closed gate where
where a cutscene happens.
Oohh, it's been a while since I had a cutscene!
The gate flings open and I see a horse riding out, and my first thought is it's going to be a recreation of the teaser dream from the beginning of the game where Gano--excuse me "Mysterious Desert Mantm"--rode out, but no, it's actually "Impa" and Zelda on a horse!
Zelda looks surprised back at me--the guy she met once in her entire life--and throws a tiny object that I immediately see what is but we're going to leave it a mystery for another five minutes.
And then BAM
Oh no! Mysterious Desert Mantm! He's riding out of the town as well, but stops for no reason outside the gate and says
They were right up there. Like, you can probably still follow them, guy.
He then turns to me and asks me where they're going (I actually don't remember what he said, but let's just say that) and I don't reply and he's all like
and then he throws magic shit at me and drops a name bomb
And then I faint because of the magic thing he threw at me and I wake up in day-time, none the wiser.
Except, there was that thing Zelda threw in the river.
So I swim down and (struggle quite a bit with the angle) and grab it and Link apparently knows what it is
Then another cutscene-thingy happened where some black texts appears on a grey background.
And then Zelda mind-speaks to me and tells me I should use this Ocarina to play a new song she also mind-teaches me.
It's called the Song of Time! A lot of "of Time's" here... Wonder what it means.
Also, the triforce is mentioned again! Almost forgot about that. What was I supposed to do about that again? Protect it? Where is it?
Nevermind, Temple of Time!
I go inside and run up to the altar and play the song like nobody's business and a door in the back opens, and I'll just present the next part in picture form:
So Link pulls it up like any ol' Arthur and Light swims all around him and then
Ganon mind-speaks just like Zelda did. And he... praises me?
Which, ok, he explains that I played right into his hand and opened the gates to the Sacred Realm for him, which is like, fine, an expected turn.
But. He says that he "knew" I would be the one to know how to open the Temple of Time.
Which, like. He only met me 5 minutes ago. He's never seen me before, and when he did, he did not hold me in high regard.
So, why the fuck would he think I, the stupid Kokiri kid, would know anything about opening the Sacred Realm?
But yeah, I apparently did some bad shit. Whoop-de-bloody-doo, surprise, everyone, Link messed up.
And then it does another faint-fade and I wake up in front of this dude.
And then comes the grand reveal, the moment we've all been waiting for.
Will The Real True Hero please stand up?
And then Sage guy dumps a lot of lore on me, which basically boils down to, I'm the Hero of Time (which, whoops, I've said it wrong this entire time??), because only the Hero of Time can pull the Master Sword from the thing, but I was too YOUNG to be the Hero of Time, so they SEALED ME INSIDE THE TEMPLE FOR SEVEN YEARS.
(For the record, when you say no, he dumps the entire lore thingy on you again. Don't say no.)
And then he dumps some more lore.
And, big surprise, Sage guy says that we need to find the other Sages (you see all the empty circles in that room? Yep) and I'm obviously the right person for that job because I've just been locked in a spirit realm for seven years,
but I get a shiny thing so Link's happy, at least.
And it fades again and we're no longer in the Temple of Light (which wasn't very... you know... lit).
Phew, that was a lot! Time to go back in the world as Big Boy Link and find out what's changed in seven years!
We got more dumpin'.
And only after that does she tell me that she's "Sheik", the "Last of the Sheikah" (which if you remember, Impa, Zelda's advisor, was also a "Sheikah"), and for some reason she's just been waiting for me in the Temple of Time, as if she's got nothing better to do.
Which, okay, like, this is a spoiler that I'm not supposed to know yet, but... I do... so I find it silly to keep it hidden? And I think most people know at this point.
If you do not know who this person is, I'm sorry. Spoiler Warning.
She is seriously waaayyy cooler looking than This Bufoon.
I'll repeat it again, give me a game, where I play Zelda/Sheik, instead. Christ.
So, she wants me to head to Kakariko Village (So it's "Kokiri" Forest and "Kakariko" Village?? No wonder I get confused), so NOW it's time to head outside and see what Ganon did with the place while I was gone.
So I head to the Market to get out of town and instead of the happy-market-goers--there's... remember those zombie things from the Royal Family Tomb?
Yeah? Those are here.
Just, literal zombies, running around. Ok, outta here!
Ok, look at that guy in that image. I know it's just because I'm not used to it yet, but Link still just looks... wrong. It's gonna take a bit to get used to Lanky Link (don't press that Link unless you want to have nightmares).
But let's save Kakariko for next time! This was a shorter episode in
terms of time, but boy, a lot happened so I think this is actually one
of the longest ones in terms of text and there's a LOT of images (I
grabbed more screenshots for this one than any other so far).
So let's continue out adventures with Lanky Link in the not so distant future of way less than seven years!