When I was a teen, I loved Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It was everything I could have ever asked for in an RPG fantasy world. Up until that point the only other game like it I’ve played was Legend of Dragoon (which I’ll gush about at a later date).
Next to Mario 64, Ocarina of Time was the first title I have ever played that didn’t have claustrophobic cgi like games on the playstation had or 8bit/16bit side scrolling from the previous Nintendo consoles. ((For the purpose of “immersion” we won be delving into Sega consoles today.))
Though I’ve played other Zelda titles in the past I didn’t have nostalgia for any of them. The side scrolling Link in Zelda II and top down Links in the other titles just didn’t emulate the level of “immersion” necessary for me to “care” about the protagonist, his problems, as well as his interaction and relationships with very bland run-of-the-mill (and not to mention stoic demeanor of the) Hylian inhabitants. These were the people Link was sticking his neck out for. A protagonist fighting for faceless civilians with very little to say did not motivate me to continuing on.
It should be mentioned that a lot is forgiven and chalked up to having less space on an NES, SNES, and gameboy cartridge; however, that doesn’t mean what messages are used were of high quality. This is where OoT succeeded at where the previous titles failed.
In 1998 I found myself giving a shit about who the Kokiri were, why they were delegated to living in a limited space they dare called a “forest.” I questioned why the Garuda women worshipped the one man who was born every hundred (or thousand) years & just how the race managed to populate without him. (magic?)
My questions were like drops of water that when combined became an ocean of intrigue. I played that game until the cartridge and (eventually) N64 worn far beyond functionality.
When 9/11* occurred I was on my 17th & 18th run of the game, my room shut away to playing overnight as I had done in summer’s past. That is how immersed I was in Hyrule. I wrang those 49 dollars for every penny.
What perpetuated this? Three words: Dungeon and Dragons.
Before OoT I had become a DnD fiend. I played twice a week & reveled in it. My middleschool life circled around DnD. I had a different die for 3 characters from 3 different DnD groups I campaigned with. My greatest moment was lasting the longest in a Gauntlet down the 9 Hells of Ba Ator to Amodeous. I made it to the 6th circle before dying.
But again OoT offered more immersion in place of less creative control. When it came down to it; the more immersed I was the more enjoyment I got out of the game.
Last year’s release of Zelda 3DS answered the question: “How much is too much immersion?” The answer was obvious.
After only moments of staring into the 3DS screen I began to experience a migrane. Slowly, I began to be less and less immersed as time went on, until I decided to pull back the 3D. And just like that I felt my mind entering Hyrule again.
Nowadays I don’t play many games let alone replay OoT; however, the love for the title had spread like wildfire among my younger siblings and even relatives. OoT fever follows every family reunion as I look on from the back and remember the good times I had playing the game, talking about it in school, bickering over lore, and even reading some elaborate fanfiction.
I won’t lie, I used to write Zelda politics in the few fanfiction I had written now long lost on the old ezboard.com servers before there were blogs, forums, and game driven communities.
I’m currently working on a novel using many of my unpublished ideas. Lets hope it’s pretty entertaining, if not “immersive.”
*This is why I play a fantasy game of some sort every 9/11, pronouncing it “Zelda Day.”
mangamanx 
