All right gamrConnect, we're going to play Zelda games together!

[Helios]

Finished up Death Mountain... again.

Volvagia's still one of the coolest bosses around. Not much had to be done on that front. The remake really gave the Moblins of the Sacred Meadow a much needed makeup, however, and the 3D does very well inside Jabu-Jabu - likely because of the moving walls.

I've also noticed a large amount of (presumably authentic) Hylian writing added to the game. I'm guessing fans will be done translating that soon.

I really like how the meeting between Link and Ganondorf plays out. It's so short, yet it perfectly communicates their respective characters. Ganondorf has a surprisingly old and haggard appearance in the remake, but that's fine. The music also helps communicate the mood; in the scene, Ganondorf's theme is subdued, but still ominous and threatening - a perfect match for a man whom just admitted his evil intentions, but has not yet seized the throne. The organ restatement at the end of the game - in the form of, to my knowledge, the only proper set of thematic variations within a video game - is a perfect counterpoint to this early rendition.

Kondo did an exemplary job of using themes in general. There are tons of old callbacks hidden within the major themes - for example, the opening theme uses a flute motif from LoZ and a harmonic progression from ALttP, the creation myth concludes with the opening fanfare from ALttP, and the Ganondorf battle theme uses the same progressive style as the Ganon battle theme in ALttP did. The Hyrule Field theme is a beast of its own - wonderfully orchestrated, inventively structured, innovatively implemented, it is a masterpiece which, of course, contains multiple references to old Zelda melodies. The game is perfectly Wagnerian in its use of leitmotifs, but the use of Ocarina themes goes farther than mere programmatic music and ties the player directly to the world and/or the characters. Ocarina of Time has the best use of a played instrument in the series, hands down.