Trigger Happy
By contrast, perfect coherence of function is great fun. It is just one virtue of Zelda 6415 that, despite the colorfully huge gallimaufry of in-game objects, they are hardly ever single-use items; it is an unprecedentedly rich and varied yet highly consistent gameworld. The titular ocarina, a clay flute, has a different function according to what tune is played on it: if Link plays certain songs he has learned (the gamer must physically play the notes using the control buttons), he may cause day to turn to night, invoke a storm, warp to a different place in the gameworld or cheer up a miserable rock- eating king. Link’s hoverboots can be used in several different places for several different results. The bow and arrow might be used to kill a far-away enemy, or (in one brilliant problem) to melt a frozen switch by firing an arrow through the flame of a blazing torch while standing on a revolving platform.
But of course a bow and arrow isn’t going to open locked doors. You wouldn’t expect it to. The hookshot, a retracting chain device with a hook on the end, may be used to kill enemies, but it is also a means to get up to hard-to-reach places, Batman-style. Even here there
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15 Shorthand for the remainder of this book for Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
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