Seeing the 40th Anniversary direct made me realize that my love for Zelda and Ocarina of Time is blind.

Sorry if this is a little sappy, but I felt this was the appropriate time and place for this.

I was emotional from the first "puzzle solved" jingle at the beginning of the direct, and tears were falling during the orchestral arrangement that immediately followed. This was a celebration of my favorite entertainment property of my entire life. When you're a massive fan of something, and it gets its moment in the spotlight, it feels intensely personal. Decades of memories and emotions came flooding back all at once.

I begged my grandma (rest in peace) to buy Ocarina of Time for me when I was 9. She was a sweet old lady who spoiled me, so she used a paper catalog she got in the mail to place the order for the game. It showed up some time later and I was ecstatic. I got lost in it, and when I was done playing, I would take a piece of my yellow hot wheels track and pretend it was the master sword, cut a cardboard box in the shape of the hylian shield, and wear a beanie too big for me, then run around in my backyard and go on imaginary adventures in Hyrule. Memories like these are bigger than any negativity I can find online, and nothing can take away how the game made me feel. I was the kid who spent hours on forums, looking for ways to find the Triforce in game, and a way into the sacred realm. The water temple is my favorite temple of all time for its challenge and beautiful design, my favorite mini boss in the series, and my favorite item in Zelda history, the longshot. I could go on forever for what this game means to me.

Seeing OoT brought back with modern graphics was wonderful to see, even if the way they showed the gameplay fell a little flat to me. But I loved the reimagining of the art style, the characters, the controls, and the music. I know it's a damn near 1:1 remake (at least it appears that way), but I will be there on November 5th with the game pre-installed on my Switch, ready to go.

I won't deny that there's valid criticism to throw at Ocarina of Time, and the direction that Zelda has taken in recent years, but in this world of endless internet discourse and hate for literally every game, it's nice to know that I have something near and dear to my heart that I know I'll love for the rest of my life.