Interview with Jodenstone: The World Record Holder of Ocarina of Time Any%

Just a few days ago a brand new Ocarina of Time World Record was achieved when speed runner Jodenstone put up an impressive time of 18:07 in the Any% category, surpassing the previous world record held by Cosmo of 18:10. We got a chance to chit chat with Jodenstone to talk about his amazing achievement, along with his views of the speed running community, the future of Ocarina of Time, and his plans moving forward.

Mases Hagopian: First off, congratulations on the world record in Ocarina of Time. At what point did you decide that you truly could and wanted to achieve the world record for the game?

Jodenstone: Thank you, I’ve been really pursuing this time for the last month and it means a lot. I first realized I could beat it when I got a time of 18:18 on October 17th of last year.

Mases: When did you first play Ocarina of Time and when did you decide to speed run the game?

Jodenstone: The first time I picked up Ocarina of Time I was 10 years old and had only owned one real console game before that. I remember being too scared to fight the first boss and I needed my parents to help translate ^^

In January 2013 I saw a video by cosmowright that completed all main temples/dungeons in 2 hours 35 minutes, and got so inspired I had to try it out myself. That was originally my focus category, but I switched to any% over time.

Mases: What was the most difficult part of the speed run, both in and out of the game itself?

Jodenstone: The hardest trick in the speedrun is the rock slide at the end, where you need to get a timed and well angled recoil of a random falling rock, bring the speed down a ramp without railings and on the way target zelda to give you the proper clip angle and clip into the tower, therefore skipping the entire escape from the tower collapse.

The toughest challenge mentally is probably the choking, when you are ahead of the world record but screw up in the later parts. I threw away a couple of runs that would have been the record, one of which was on the final boss!. It really took a toll on me. This is also the only thing that has made me consider quitting, because it is very painful and you start to question whether you have what it takes to see a good run all the way through.

Mases: Based on the current glitches and exploits, what do you think is the theoretical ‘Best’ time for Ocarina? Is a sub 18-minute run a possibility?

Jodenstone: At the moment the best time anyone could hope for is an 18:02 time in my opinion. With a few more time-savers found I feel we can start trying to go for sub 18 minutes.

Mases: Are you planning on continuing to speed run Ocarina of Time? Or are you going to be moving on to other Zelda games, or other video games?

Jodenstone: After this record I am planning to pick up Zelda: Majoras Mask a bit more seriously. It’s the other n64 Zelda title and a much longer speedrun. Along with not being quite as broken and very different. Don’t expect any world record paces from me any time soon though, as my personal best is 22 minutes away from the world record. I’ll probably play some Ocarina of Time now and then to keep my muscle memory and the pace alive, but won’t do any of those 8 hour world record attempts everyday anymore.

I used to be a really big gamer, even from the age of 3, but recently speed-running has taken over in this area, and I generally don’t play games outside of that. It’s just a ton more fun to really push myself to the limit of what I can do :). My favorite games outside of speed-running still include Final Fantasy X and the Demon Souls series.

Mases: The previous world record holder Cosmo indicated he retired from speed running the game unless a new exploit is found. Do you think he’ll stay retired and would you like to see him compete for the record?

Jodenstone: Cosmo recently clarified that it’s unlikely he will return to this category even if the time gets beaten, as long as the route doesn’t change too much. I think he’s done with any%, but would love to see him come back and challenge the time.

Mases: Thanks Jodenstone and good luck with all your future runs