Yeah it takes a while to get into... I started it about 3 days ago and the first few hours were dissapointing, I was wondering why I rate it higher than OoT for a while. I think everything before you first get to Hyrule Castle Town (except The Goron mines and the first battle with the chief hog rider) is relatively poor. I'm also not keen on the City in the Sky dungeon. But the other dungeons are all really good (minus the boss fight in the Temple of Time, which was just ridiculously easy). The only other problem I have with the game is that there are not many optional side quests apart from collecting hearts, bugs and poes, and most of those you are easily led into as you follow the main quest. Oh wait, I forgot about the dungeon rupee chests which don't allow you to open them with a full wallet grr.

I've just entered the twilight realm after having a good go at the Cave of Ordeals, which I mistakenly went into with just 1 bottled fairy and my current 14 hearts, I don't remember those knights being as difficult as they are, I think I was about 2 or 3 floors from the bottom when I died in the one with a single knight and two of those flying lizards.

I'm slowly making my way through Master Quest. I haven't been able to play very much these last few days. I liked what they did to the Forest Temple, though I might have been at a slight loss of what to do if Mr. Khan hadn't mentioned the target in the opening of the well. On the other hand, I spent far too long trying to hit a torch from across the large room to the left of the entrance in the Fire Temple (it's impossible to hit at that distance, I've noticed) before discovering that you can ride a nearby platform to activate it.

I absolutely love the way the Gorons are treated in Ocarina of Time; it's like they were made to be the butt of every joke. Certainly, their image is different than in Twilight Princess (which, even so, is one of the better aspects of that game).

Speaking of which, playing Twilight Princess made me realize what it is that I appreciate about Phantom Hourglass treatment of the supporting cast. It might be the next game on my list. Ocarina of Time actually did good job at that, too, but that's something I'll touch upon when it's time for Majora's Mask.

I'm through Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link now. The first one was great (first time I beat it) but one mistake made the end annoying as hell. I finished the dungeon where you get the skeleton key without even getting the map since I got to the boss before and didn't feel like running around searching for a useless map...Big mistake! So I started the last dungeon without the key and after a while I got stuck in some room where the door closes behind you and the only way out is through a locked door. I had to slowly commit suicide by running into fire...Huzzah!
Those blue wizards are annoying as well, and it felt kinda disappointing that I had way less problems with the bosses than with those guys...Ganon is a wimp.
Adventure of Link was kinda easy. I didn't expect to run into any problems since I've beaten it before but I remember having way more problems, especially when travelling to the final dungeon. I didn't expect it to be so enjoyable either. I really had a good time playing it.

Now I'm going to move on to A Link to the Past or Spirit Tracks, or perhaps Link's Awakening.

Rupees are USELESS in this game. I'm always stuck with 600 rupees, and barely use any of it. I put 100 rupees into charity everytime I go to Castle Town. Not sure if I'm going to collect bugs just to increase my wallet size.

I wouldn't say boring, but yes. For me, it all got very interesting when I reached the Goron mines. The forest dungeon was great, though. All the dungeons in the game for that matter.

If you don't mind me asking, what were your thoughts on the game? I personally don't remember you ever talking about the game.

Beat Master Quest. Knocked Ganondorf over in two rounds, and only got hit by Ganon once (but given the math of 2x Master Quest damage plus 1/2 Great Fairy Protection, you're just down to what Ganon was originally balanced for). His castle wasn't too bad, the toughest time i had was in not knowing which room had the Golden Gauntlets (turned out it was spirit, which i did 4th), and the toughest room was handily Forest because of all those Beamos, which i thought i had to beat to open the door, but it turned out it was just a simple Time Block puzzle

I think i'll move on to Other M, as i want to replay it now that i've had a year to reflect on it, plus i want to play something short so that i also have a bit of time to play my N64 now that i'm back at home again. Then i'll buy Okamiden which i had to skip for Pokemon White and the 3DS, and that's basically another Zelda

If i get a bigger chunk of free time between releases (which i may or may not get depending on how Nintendo dates Kirby and the big 3DS games this fall), i want to do The WindWaker again

The maximum money (max, not infinite, different concepts in English) you can at least apply to the Rupee Armor in TP as an all-consuming money sink. The issue being why you would need the Rupee Armor for the game's difficulty, but at least its better than OoT, which by the time you've explored it thoroughly enough to have all the Skultulas, you've got nothing left to buy, unless you really like using Bombchus

So you can get refills from the rich guy any time you want? I thought it was like the Skultulas in OoT, where they just gave you one giant rupee and that was the end of it...

Totally wasn't aware of that. I stand corrected. I only did the Skultulas once, long ago, and never bothered with the poe souls

Wow they really have to change the Rupee system in the next Zelda because Rupees are very useless in Twilight Princess. 90% of the time my pouch is full and pretty much every chests are still closed because the Rupees couldn't fit in my wallet. Enemies alone give you plenty enough of Rupees.

Rol makes a good point about the failings of Hyrule Field. I don't think it is fair to say the field is an excuse for Epona (or vice versa) - the two are obviously complementary, but one's purpose is not limited to that of the other.

Still, what is the purpose of Hyrule Field? I think it's primary role is simply to lend a sense of scale to the game world (for the record, the field is hardly non-linear). A simple matter, but essential to the experience of the game. World-building is, I think, one of the primary strengths of video game fictions. Ocarina of Time's epic journey (in the classical sense) consists of traversing the world, meeting people, and conquering dungeons. It is no coincidence that the world features many races (eight in total), many locations, and many mysteries, and that these components are directly linked to one another. The concept of the world telling (much of) the story dates back to the original Legend of Zelda (though it was obviously a lot more primitive then).

Of course, an unfortunate consequence of this sense of scale is that it needs to take time to traverse the world - and so far, Nintendo has largely failed to provide meaningful content to fill out the vast expanses of land (or sea). Will Skyward Sword be different?

In any case, Aonuma recently touched upon this (and a related matter) when he talked about how Ocarina of Time felt like it was a grand story in spite of the relatively thin script. The player's relation to the world is key to this phenomenon, and it is good to know that he has a sense of it.

The other thing Aonuma's insight alludes to is this: a game is not a narrative. Modern games typically have narrative structures, yes, but the game itself is a generator of narratives (it is, in this sense, something of a meta-narrative). For example, what about a fight? The game sets the stage for the scene to take place, but the player instantiates the sequence of events leading to the outcome (narrative). What's important to realize is that any such scene will utilize a narrative form, becoming part of the story told by the game. Many people fail to appreciate this, I fear.