#86 - "The Triforce in Ocarina of Time" (Throwback Zelda Post)
Did the title intrigue you? I hope so. I wanted to discuss a really interesting and mysterious puzzle that has been around for almost 3 decades and that is finding the “Triforce” in the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time.
First off, the Nintendo Community has already stated it is impossible to find the Triforce in the game.
Yet, since Ocarina is my favorite game of all time. And it just so happens to be the best game of all time as well. This is also evident by it’s almost perfect Metacritic score a 99. And yet after 30 years it is still undisputed that this game is a Masterpiece, and not only innovated gaming in a 3D world, but also wrote the textbook on everything an exceptional game needs to have.
Not only that, there’s been a lot of talk as of the time of this writing of a Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake by Youtube Community. It has been evident in some product releases such as the Ocarina of Time Lego set. It was speculated by some patents that Nintendo published that indicated Ocarina of Time like mechanics. And of course it has been leaked by people on the Internet. So something Zelda is coming like it always is. However, we just don’t know what it is. And with the Zelda Movie around the corner, there’s a lot of Zelda to look forward to at this point of time. It has and will always be an amazing franchise for all age groups. And the magic of the games has only gotten stronger.
So going back to the title of this post. What is the Triforce? The Triforce is a mystical ancient relic in the series to hold magical power and is what the gods possess. In Ocarina of Time, it’s hard to tell whether the gods who made that Universe are the Triforce or they created the Triforce. But it’s a powerful relic, no doubt, and is the most powerful relic in the entire Universe. The Relic is shaped like a multi-triangular triangle, if you can imagine that. It’s a shape composed of 3 equally shaped triangles. And each triangle possesses a different power within it. In Ocarina of Time the Triforce is composed of these three parts which are: Courage, Wisdom, and then Power. Which in turn are represented by the three main characters in the game.
Well so why talk about this at all on my blog? Well obviously all my works and all my creative experiences as an Artist, Author, and creative have been massively influenced by Ocarina of Time and my experiences with everything Nintendo as a Child and growing up. And so I like to reflect on key touch points or key experiences that I’ve had and reflect on them. Zelda no doubt is a very humanely experience that we all feel when playing. The creator Shigeru Miyamoto has bluntly stated that he wanted the players to “Feel” something when he plays his games. So that’s the challenge of this artform and probably every artform. How do you create media that makes other people “feel” specific feelings?
In Zelda, it was created and inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto’s experience as a child exploring caves. It is said, or the Urban Legend is, that Shigeru stumbled upon a hole in the ground in Japan. He decided to explore the cave with a Lantern and this experience created the feeling of adventure and wonder. So that’s the core feeling that Zelda was inspired by. Stepping back though, I don’t think everything is about “thought” or “logic”. As humans feeling are a very important thing of being alive and experiencing in the world. So I think that’s the correct approach to take when making experience, and especially making video games. The question you have to ask yourself is: What kind of feeling do you want the player to have when playing the game? If you can’t answer this question, then you probably need to go back to the drawing board. Now Zelda, at least with Ocarina, was about the feeling of Adventure. And I think it captured that really well. Almost perfectly in fact. I say almost perfectly, because in reality nothing is truly “perfect”. Yet, it created an amazing experience in which one went on many different adventures and tried to solve/complete many different areas or dungeons in the game.
After completing the game and getting all the dungeons complete. Players would triumph and get a feeling of satisfaction that they completed something substantial and important. I would argue that they absolutely did. As Ocarina is probably the most important piece of media in our lifetimes. So completing the game gave them a sense of accomplishment. But that didn’t stop players from exploring other aspects of the game. Nowadays, we have modders, coders, and completionists all having explored Ocarina from top to bottom. It has been explored a million times, by different people in different eras. And of course, one of the urban legends, since the 90’s, has been that one could find the Triforce. It’s a fun mystery and keeps the spirit of the game alive even to this day. Quite frankly, it represents probably the most famous of all hoaxes/myths ever to be instilled in gaming. So that’s really cool too.
So that’s it. I wanted to write about my thoughts these last couple of weeks. I’m actually going through Ocarina of Time at my house on an Old CRT TV. I bought a rumble pack and I even have a headset so that I can hear the game really well. It’s a lot of fun. However, I’m going for a 100 percent run in Ocarina just for Bucket list sake. I don’t think I have ever 100 percented the game, so I think it would be neat to go back through and finish the game once and for all.
Well that’s that,
-Calvin
