“The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) is not a video game in the "Stop killing things and go outside!" sense. It's maybe the first video game to merit real thought as Art. ("Ugh.") Not for graceful mechanics -- although, sure. Rather, for realization of form. ("Ugh!") So, what's it about, if it's Art? Well, let me turn to the Romantics. They saw the soul as something one constructs over time out of sticks and bones -- not anything innate or Platonic. This game, in that vein, is about experience, and experience's results. How valuation dictates itself. Where you've been is where you are. Teachers try to sway your verdict, but Nature doesn't judge. The dangers of an education. Accidental, constant violence. Our story's hero is a rambler, so he forges a many-faced soul in the homes of foreigners. From an uneasy peat-covered sleep, he's pulled and told to 'Listen!' It's a Homecoming that builds its Home in the Odyssey. So, by the end, all he can do is retrace his steps.”

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