Daily Debate: Would Ocarina Of Time Have Benefited From A Longer Childhood Segment?

Recently we talked about what our least favorite parts of our favorite Zelda games were. In that same discussion I spoke about how I felt the childhood segment of Ocarina of Time was too brief. Overall, Ocarina was pretty long for a 90’s game and had lots of content both in the main story as well as side quests. If you were to split the game however, only about about a 1/3 of it is spent in Link’s childhood.

Despite it’s ranking as one of the best Zelda games to ever be released, this minor problem creates some pretty big waves. For example, you spend about 20-60 minutes in the Kokiri Village depending on how much of it you decide to explore before challenging the Deku Tree and leaving the Forest. In that time, you’re supposed to get the feeling that Link has these deep connections with the villagers, such as Saria and Mido, for better or worse. Once you beat the Deku Tree however, there’s not much left to do other than leave. You have a tearful goodbye with Saria, but that’s the sum of its parts. This continues to be a trend for the other three major areas Link will visit as a child. Quick setups to the dungeons before throwing you face first into them.

Conversely, many would say that the meat of Ocarina of Time is when you advance seven years into the future and the whole world opens up to you. In other words, the child sections are only meant to be a tutorial before you get to the really fun stuff like hookshotting your way across the Forest Temple and demolishing Ingo’s ego in short order. Not to mention you can complete a fairly long quest if you aren’t speedrunning to get a GIANT sword.

So what say you Zelda fans? Would you have liked Ocarina of Time to have added a bit more to the child segments or was it fine just the way it is? Let us know in the comments below!