attached
Ocarina of Time was developed concurrently with
Super Mario 64 and
Mario Kart 64 for the
Nintendo 64 by Nintendo's
Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD) division in 1994, for more than $12 million with a staff of more than 200. Development was migrated from the
64DD disk drive peripheral to cartridge due to the high data throughput of streaming 500
motion-captured character animations throughout gameplay. Early in development, the team had concerns about the data storage constraints of the cartridge; in the worst-case scenario,
Ocarina of Time would follow a similar structure to
Super Mario 64, with Link restricted to Ganondorf's castle as a central hub, using a portal system similar to the paintings that Mario uses to traverse the realm. An idea that arose from this stage of development, a battle with a doppelganger of Ganondorf that rides through paintings, was used as the boss of the Forest Temple dungeon. Different parts were handled by different directors, a new strategy for Nintendo EAD. Four or five initial teams grew over time, each working on different basic experiments, including scenario and planning, Link's actions, transforming classic 2D items into improved 3D form, camera experiments, motion capture, sound, special effects, and the flow of time. The towns in
Ocarina of Time were based on
medieval Europe. When creating Hyrule Castle's market, Miyamoto traveled to
Germany for inspiration of its
half-timbered architecture in
Lower Franconia, spending a few weeks in northern
Bavaria. Despite the setting being a "medieval tale of
sword and sorcery", Miyamoto used the
chanbara (
samurai) genre of Japanese sword fighting as a model for the combat and was content with the positive worldwide reception. Miyamoto initially intended
Ocarina of Time to be played in a first-person perspective to enable players to take in the vast terrain of Hyrule Field better and let the team focus more on developing enemies and environments. The concept was abandoned once the idea of a child Link was introduced, and Miyamoto believed it necessary for Link to be visible on screen. Originally Z-targeting involved a generic marker, but Koizumi changed the design to that of a fairy to make it less "robotic". The fairy gained the name of the "Fairy Navigation System" amongst staff, and ultimately, this turned into the nickname "Navi", which in turn resulted in the "birth" of Navi's character. The "birth" of Navi was a pivotal point in the story's development. (
samurai) sword techniques, as seen in this photo. Miyamoto wanted to make a game that was cinematic yet distinguished from films. To promote this instantaneous continuity of cinematic gameplay, the cutscenes in
Ocarina of Time are completely generated with
real-time computing on the Nintendo 64 and do not use prerendered
full-motion video. Toru Osawa created the story based on an idea by Miyamoto and
Yoshiaki Koizumi. He was supported by
A Link to the Past and ''
Link's Awakening script writer Kensuke Tanabe. Miyamoto said the real-time rendering engine allowed his small team of 3 to 7 cinematic developers to rapidly adjust the storyline and to focus on developing additional gameplay elements even up to the final few months of development, instead of waiting on a repeated prerendering process. Ocarina of Time
originally ran on the same engine as Super Mario 64
but was so heavily modified that Miyamoto considers the final products different engines. One major difference between the two is camera control; compared to that of Super Mario 64
, the camera in Ocarina of Time
is much more limited and is largely controlled by the AI. Miyamoto said the camera controls for Ocarina of Time'' are intended to reflect a focus on the game's world, whereas those of
Super Mario 64 are centered on the character of
Mario.
Music Ocarina of Time music was written by
Koji Kondo, the composer in charge of music for most
Zelda games. This has been called
leitmotif in reverse—instead of music announcing an entering character, it now introduces a stationary environment as the player approaches. In some locations, the music is a variation of an ocarina tune the player learns, related to that area. and players must learn to play several songs. All songs are played using the five notes available on an ocarina, although by bending pitches via the analog stick, players can play additional tones. The popularity of
Ocarina of Time led to an increase in ocarina sales. The official soundtrack of
Ocarina of Time was published by
Pony Canyon and released in Japan on December 18, 1998. It comprises one compact disc with 82 tracks.--> An American version was also released, although with fewer tracks and different packaging artwork. Many critics praised the music in
Ocarina of Time, although
IGN was disappointed that the traditional
Zelda overworld theme was not included. In 1999, a live performance album of twelve orchestrated versions of songs from the game, entitled
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Hyrule Symphony, was released in Japan by SM Records Ltd..''
All arrangements were done by Ryuichi Katsumata. Hero of Time
, an orchestral recording of Ocarina of Time''s score performed by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, was released by video game label Materia Collective in 2017. A vinyl version was published by
iam8bit. It was nominated for "Best Game Music Cover/Remix" at the 16th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards. ==Release ==