ZELDA NO DENSETSU: TOKI NO OCARINA
STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
2
RELEASE
Invalid Date
CHAPTERS
18
DESCRIPTION
Released in 1998, it is an interesting adaptation of the classic videogame. There are two parts to this manga: 'Child Saga' and 'Adult Saga'. The protagonist is Link either as a child or an adult and during the course of the book he is on a quest to stop Ganondorf from taking over Hyrule. Princess Zelda helps him in his quest. The book more-or-less follows the same plot as the game; however there are a few differences in plot from the game. There are ten chapters in the first book, and eight in the second. Some of the added information in the manga is added to explain certain points; for example, in the manga pierced ears is a traditional rite of Sheikah passage, although this is not included in the game.
CAST
Link
Zelda
Skull Kid
Sheik
Ganon
Malon
Navi
Kepora Gebora
Saria
Volvagia
CHAPTERS
RELATED TO ZELDA NO DENSETSU: TOKI NO OCARINA
REVIEWS
MegaTheRealOne
If Ocarina of Time Was BadContinue on AniList(Originally Reviewed on GoodReads)
(Part 1)
Over the course of the three or so years that I have been reviewing things on the internet, I have covered many different video game adaptations, like video games turned into movies, video games turned into TV shows, or hell, even movies or TV shows turned into video games, and needless to say, it has been an interesting experience. While there has definitely been plenty of trash to sort through from what I have covered so far, there have also been some genuinely good or even great adaptations to be found in there, ones that tell a familiar, yet new take on these classic characters that we love so much while also being very faithful to the source material to make for something new, exciting and memorable. With that being said though, there are still several other forms of video game adaptations that I have yet to touch, one of them being video games turned into books, which is just as common as the other two forms of adaptations that I have just mentioned, but not quite as widely discussed. There have been MANY different kinds of video game books that have been made over the years, whether they be direct adaptations or the games they are based on, or other side stories that add onto the universe of the game that they are covering, and just like with the many different movie and TV adaptations out there, they have just as much of an equal chance of either turning out to be pretty damn good, or complete garbage. I myself have read several of these over the course of my life, but not to the point where I am familiar with a good chunk of the ones that have been released over the years, so I figured it was about time I started to finally check some of these out, starting with one that I am a little more familiar with, the manga version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time…….. Part 1. Because apparently they couldn’t fit the whole game into just one book.
I was never really into manga a whole lot as a kid, to where I believe I was well aware of what it was, but I mostly avoided it primarily for the reason that most people avoided manga back in the day….. because I thought they were all FUCKING LAME. However, there was an exception to this rule of mine when it came to manga, and that exception was with video game manga, which I was ALL OVER back when I was a kid, to where I read quite a few of these that were based on Pokemon, Mega Man, and of course, The Legend of Zelda. I remember reading quite a few of these as a kid and really enjoying them, to the point where I even got the complete set of this series that contained all of the manga based on multiple different Zelda games, and while I never ended up reading all of them, I do remember thinking that they were great retellings or some of my favorite games that I had played in recent memory at that point. However, it has been a VERY long time since I last read and of these things, and there was even one point where I sold that whole boxset of books on eBay for the sake of getting money so I could eat that week, so now that I am going back and revisiting a bunch of childhood favorites of mine on this website to see how much they actually sucked or not, I figured I would also go ahead and revisit this series too and see how much it has held up overtime, of course starting with the first volumes that adapt Ocarina of Time specifically. Now that I have read through Part 1 at least, I can safely say that it hold up pretty damn well so far, to where I can’t say it is perfect, as it does have some things holding it back from being both a perfect adaptation or a perfect manga in general, but it is one that does a great job of taking the game we all know and love and retell it in print form, while also expanding on it and giving us new pieces of lore to it to make it all the more likeable.
The story is pretty much what you expect, being a straight adaptation of the original game from before Link wakes up in Kokiri Forest all the way to when he fights Shadow Link in Kakariko Village (which is not where he is fought in the original game, but whatever), and while the events that they re-tell here aren’t exactly perfect replications of what happened in the game, they are close and solid enough to where you can follow along and enjoy what was brought in here quite a bit, especially with what they did add to several story beats that the original game has, the characters are pretty good, to where Link is a very solid protagonist, with this manga doing the seemingly impossible task of actually giving him a personality and plenty of speaking lines, making him more brash, headstrong and kind of a dork, while also being as heroic as always, all of which fit very well here and making for one of the best versions of the character this series has ever seen, and the rest of the characters here such as Zelda, Impa, Ganondorf and so on are all pretty likable as well, despite them all having the same basic character traits as you would expect, the writing is pretty decent, where while it does have a lot of the typical kinds of lines, exposition and dialogue you would expect, along with some character changes and decisions that can come completely out of nowhere without proper development, the writing still does a really good job at giving further emotion and depth to these characters, but also in properly carrying the story along as well, and the art is pretty good, to where it isn’t quite as detailed or professional as that of other manga out there, of course, but the designs of the characters, monsters and settings are not only very accurate to what they looked like in the game, but also are very charming and helpful even further in giving these characters and this world more life then ever before, and the action is very solid too, where there are plenty of cool looking panels and action moves here that show off plenty of great moments of battle throughout the whole thing, while also being a tad more gruesome then that of the games as well, which is great to see, even if they do have a tendency to get kinda cluttered, to where you can have a bit of a tough time understanding what is going on at times.
And speaking of what is going on at times, that leads us into the issues that this manga has, as while most of this thing is incredibly solid and feels very faithful to that of the source material, there are obviously several things holding it back from being perfect. First of all, obviously, if you are one who is very familiar with the game it is based on, then none of the plot twists or story beats here will come as a surprise to you at all, with the one exception to this being that of Link buying and raising Volvagia as a kid, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since this is an adaptation first and foremost, but that is still something to consider when reading it for yourself. Secondly, there is also the fact that the manga itself isn’t very long, being around 200 pages or so, which may not sound like much of a big deal, but with how much they do cover in such a short amount of time, a lot of parts of the game that they do adapt here can feel pretty rushed in how they execute them. Of course, Ocarina of Time itself isn’t exactly the most complex game in the world, so they didn’t need to spend too much time on certain plot points in the game, but some moments and scenes could’ve definitely used an extra page or two, to further push what is going on and what it's meant to make you feel, but that unfortunately didn't end up being the case, even after the story was already split into two parts! And finally, as one last minor complaint to throw out there that really shows how much of a bitch I am, there were also several different grammar errors that can be seen in here too. Not anything too major that ended up ruining the story or a moment, just some extra words that don’t need to be there or some screwups in the translation that can be found here or there, but these are still errors nonetheless, and somebody should be feeling pretty embarrassed about them.
Overall, despite how the story is kinda rushed so far and how there are a few grammar and translation errors to be found here or there, Part 1 of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time manga is a very solid and incredibly faithful adaptation of the classic N64 game we all know and love, doing a really good job at recreating plenty of the best moments from the game and further fleshing out some of the characters and dynamics between them to make them all much more memorable, with the whole thing being a very good read all around, what with the very good way it tells this version of the story, the much more lovable and fun characters paired with some pretty decent writing to boot, art that fits the style and feel of Zelda while properly replicating all of the different characters, enemies and what have you from the original game, and plenty of action that would make any Zelda fan smile from ear to ear, even if it isn’t necessarily perfect by any means. I would recommend it for those that are huge fans of the original game, as well as those who are big fans of Zelda or manga like this in general, as while it may not be a perfect adaptation so far by any means, it does everything you would want it to do and more to where anyone would be able to get something out of it and really appreciate it, which is more then enough for me. Let’s just hope that Part 2 manages to keep up a similar level of quality to this, or even be better then Part 1, because that would make it so that I would be really looking forward to checking out some of these other Zelda adaptations in the future. Although, some of them are based on Zelda games that I haven't played yet, which may or may not be a problem when I get to them……… ah fuck it, who cares! It’s Zelda, nobody cares that much about the story.
(Part 2)
After not having read any book in the series for god knows how long, I finally got back into the Legend of Zelda manga series by checking out Part 1 of the Ocarina of Time adaptation, and as a whole, I thought it was pretty damn good. It certainly wasn’t a perfect book or adaptation by any means, what with it rushing through certain story elements, not having too many surprises and having several grammar errors, but it certainly managed to make up for all of that with how faithful it was to the N64 classic it was based on, having a solid enough story, characters with much more personality compared to their in-game counterparts, some pretty decent writing to go with them, very nice art all around that feels like it fits right alongside the actual game, and some exciting, albeit brief, action scenes to boot. Of course though, that was only Part 1 of this whole epic retelling of an equally “epic” story, and there was plenty more to cover that the original book hadn't even touched upon, so after a day since reading the original, I went ahead and jumped right back into this world with the manga version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Part 2.
Naturally, since I was a big fan of the first part of this mini-series, I was excited to jump into this second part to see how this story was gonna conclude (even though I already knew), and how they were gonna adapt everything else from the game all the way to the end. Although, before I did start to read the book, I did get a little concerned about what it was going to give me, particularly after reading the table of contents. Apparently, half of this volume was dedicated to actually finishing up the main part of the story, and the other half of it was dedicated to a bunch of different bonus stories, which I assumed was original content that was made specifically for this manga, and that made me a little worried. The first part already had a problem with rushing through most of the plot points that they cover from the game, so I figured that this volume was gonna double down on that and not be nearly as great or satisfying to read as the last one as a result. Luckily for me though, that didn’t turn out to be the case, as I would say that Part 2 of this miniseries that we have here managed to be just as good as Part 1, where it does still obviously have its flaws, both stemming from the first part and all new issues that sprouted up in this volume specifically, but it still managed to retain all of the great qualities that the first volume had to make for a really good continuation and conclusion of this adaptation that manages to give you most of what you would want to see, plus some extra content to make this version of this world feel even more alive and interesting than that of the original game’s world.
The story is, again, pretty much what you would expect, adapting the rest of the game from the point that was left off on in the last volume all the way up to when the day is saved, except this time, the game is adapted in a bit more of a loose manner, which can sometimes work and other times….. not, but it all still manages to be entertaining and well put-together regardless, and even the bonus stories we get here are also very solid in their own way, the characters are still just as good as before, where Link is still the better version of himself here, continuing to get more development the further along the book goes which makes him all the more likable, and all of the other returning and new characters are pretty likable here as well, despite them all having basic characterization once again, the writing is still good here, although I do feel it is slightly weaker then that of the first manga, moreso in the more serious moments, but it is still pretty decent as a whole and does get you into whatever is going on at most points well enough, the art is still very good, not changing much at all between volumes but still looking great in plenty of places, while also still properly fitting right alongside and feeling like it came from the Zelda series, and the action scenes are also an improvement this time around, not only thanks to the story beats covered in this volume making them more exciting in general, but they are also more well done and you can tell what’s going on in them easier then before, which is a good thing to see.
With all of that being said though, again, this volume isn’t perfect, because despite still generally matching the last volume in terms of quality, it still finds itself running into several roadblocks that keep it from being better than it already is. Like with the last volume, it does have a problem of sort of rushing through specific plot points and moments, to where it doesn’t nearly have the same impact as before, and there are still some grammar errors to be found here as well, although there are definitely less here than there were in the first volume, which is good to see. There is a new problem that does arise in this particular volume though, specifically when it comes to the new stuff that is added here. Like I mentioned before, this volume isn’t as direct of an adaptation as the first volume, and it does feature some new storylines that were not present in the original game, and for the most part, it works, especially with the bonus stories that we get at the end, which are not only pretty entertaining to read, but also further develop these characters and their dynamics with one another. But of course, there are still some parts of these new angles and stories that don't quite work out as well as others, such as with this one chapter that focuses on Twinrova brainwashing Ingo into becoming evil, taking over Talon’s farm and tying up/abusing Malon and the animals, with Link obviously coming in and saving the day. This is a bit of a different take of what happened in the original game, where you went to this farm to get Epona to use for the rest of the game, and honestly, I didn’t really like this version of this story beat at all. It’s not really that bad by any means, and it is more action-packed than what happens in the game, but come on…. making Ingo a villain? That’s not threatening or interesting, that’s just stupid. It also takes away from the other events that happen in both the book and the game too, such as with the Water Temple just barely getting three pages of coverage, and the Shadow Temple not even showing up at all, so what was the point of any of this?
Overall, despite still having some of the same problems as the previous volume and having some new content that doesn’t work as well as others, the second part of this Ocarina of Time adaptation that is very solid all around, giving us yet another faithful retelling and conclusion to this version of the classic N64 game that we all know and love, and I really enjoyed it from start to finish, what with its really good story and more loose adaptation of the source material, with new original stories that were great to read right beside the main stuff, characters that were just as good as before while being paired with pretty decent writing, art that is still just as great as ever before and still fits really well with the series that it is a part of, and action scenes that are an improvement over the original thanks to how much more exciting and understandable they can be. I would definitely recommend it for those that loved Part 1 of this story, as well as those who big fans of Ocarina of Time and Zelda as a whole, because while it still may not be quite as accurate to the original game as it could be, it is still definitely a great rendition to read for Zelda fans that gives you everything you could want from a manga version of Ocarina of Time, which is all that anyone could ask for it. Although, admittedly, there are still some things in this manga that does leave me confused, as a big fan of the original game, like in one of the bonus stories where they introduce this species of bird people that belong to something called the Watarara Tribe………….. the fuck is a Watarara Tribe?!
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SCORE
- (3.55/5)
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