Julia Quandt Expresses: Hello, I'm Julia and I just turned 14. Your website, Odyssey of Hyrule, is AWESOME. Anyway, here's my Zelda story.

I grew up in Brazil, and around 1998, a new magazine came out, it was called Recreio. Although I didn't realize it at the time, Recreio has an awful way of explaining things, and makes everything seem horrible. Recreio = blegh. Well, around 2000, when I guess OoT and MM came out in Brazil (I wasn't game savy, but I think both games came out at the same time for us) Recreio made a nice little article about them- with both games in the same article, I became utterly confused. It was the first time I had ever heard of Zelda, and the first impression wasn't the best.I ignored the games until a couple of years later, when my brother and I went to the videogame rental store. I saw Majora's Mask, and, remembering that tiny memory in the back of my head, decided to check it out.

It was a very odd experience, and we learned the Song of Healing, did some other stuff that is basically erased from my memory right now... uh... then we had to return it. The next time, we rented OoT (before that, I had no idea they were two separate games, I thought they were the same) and boy was that confusing. We got a cartrige with a game that was already partially completed, and my brother never thought of deleting the file... He's usually in charge of playing, I just sit and watch. My only vivid memory of OoT from back then was Link in Hyrule Field, falling into the moat, swimming to the shore and finding Epona. I sort of remember vague traces of the Temple of Time... yeah, we had no idea what we were supposed to do and ended up there somehow... I remember those walls and my brother playing random notes on the ocarina... Uh... Since we didn't know the story, didn't know the objectives, or anything else about the game, we didn't do anything else and that ended our Hyrulean adventures.

Fast forward to 2005. December... 22nd, I guess. My brother's friend, Felipe, comes over to our house, having rented the special Zelda collector's edition, you know, the one with 4 games in one. We started playing Majora's Mask again, got up to learning the Song of Healing, then started OoT.

Then it hit me.

I went into the bedroom where the boys were playing. Well, I can't remember Felipe being there, but my memory is awful anyway. There was my brother Daniel, trying to sneak into the castle to talk to Princess Zelda. The he left to do whatever, and Felipe took over, talked to Zelda, and went away to Kakariko. My brother got mad because he missed the whole part with Zelda in it, and Felipe left. I watched my brother advance through the game, and more and more I became completely enchanted by the game. It was nothing like the confusing, "OMG were liek in the temple and liek we have no idea whut 2 do" kind of feeling from years earlier. It was amazing.

I tried to play the other 2 games by myself, but I'm terrible at games and I always died in the first few minutes >.<' Scratch that, I always died in the first few seconds. Curse you, evil pixels!

Well, My brother couldn't find Zora's Domain, so his gaming ended there. Ha-HAH! I bought a used version of the OoT + Master Quest game, and I'm inside Jabu-Jabu right now.

You just don't know what it means for me to surpass my brother in gaming, do you?

'Neways, now Daniel and I are huge Zelda fans. I bought him tWW as a birthday gift a couple of days ago. Our birthday is on the same day- In exchange, he'll give me his Gameboy Advance.

Whenever my brother got frustrated during the game, he would start randomly bombing things. This lead to a very neat inside joke between us...

I'm not telling you. Otherwise it won't be an inside joke anymore.

From a fan like you,

Julia
The one who jumps off cliffs for fun

Rafael H. Writes: Thinking of Zelda, is thinking about my childhood... Ah yes. The Legend of Zelda. The original one. Golden cartridge. Those where times when I would sit down, and play... just play. For hours... Through Zelda II and even Zelda III for the Snes, I could live that joy, that innocent dream.

...Times change. And they change you. They take you far, and then they bring you back. I got the joy of playing Ocarina of Time and Majora's mask... and may I say they where pretty much the only reasons I think it was worth paying for a Nintendo 64. There it still lies, in my room...

I never really thought of buying a Gamecube, not really. I wasn't aware that they had plans of making a Zelda game for it. Several other things to attend to, had kept me away from your site for a long time. I just read all about what I see as an insult for serious gamers. Specially Zelda gamers all over the world: A cartoony Zelda game.

And I tell you, VGX, that I don't really plan on buying a Gamecube. Why would I? Not that I don't see other interesting games. Perhaps a Star Wars game would be nice, if I may say so. But it still wouldn't move me to buy the Gamecube. Because Star Wars is mostly about the movies, those were and still are, in a way, the essence of that particular universe: The movies.

Zelda, on the other hand, had its essence on games. Ahh, I surely remember saturday morning Zelda cartoons. But they weren't quite what the games where: The feeling of Zelda lies in being the one who holds the master sword, the one who rescues Zelda, the one who retrieves the Triforce. Times of true gameplay.

And I dream, VGX. I dream of a time when I get home, back from work. And I sit in front of my tv like I did so many times, so many years ago. I dream of being Link one more time. And that alone, is going to be the only reason for me to buy a Gamecube.

Chris Remembers: I chris who have seen what has become of video games over my time as a kid where i would sit infront of a small tv playing the very frist zelda game i have ever seen. i was moved deaply by what had happened in the game and pushed forward when another one came out. i have played them all. beat them all. and remember how i beat them. i found every item and ever little thing i could find in those games so i wouldnt live in such a boring world. even as we grow older and the note that something beter will always come along i feel well that i have seen them all so far. as like you video gamer x i have been moved by the story of zelda. i can rember when i was 5 when it frist came out. i played it over 100 times and never gor borded with it. i would get in troble and my penlty would be not able to play my games. i took them a step further then. i drew the entire sereares when i was only 6. i had everything on paper. i could recall it all. this is somethign i will never forget. somethign that will always be held close to me as the door to tomarrow opens. We all have that one moment. that one true calling in life that makes us fly off to find what we want to do. but remember. you can be 50 years old but still you can feel that the link inside of you comes through. we all have a bit of it inside of us. good luck my fellow gamers and lets hope game-cube dosent screw up the zelda game.

Albert Adds: Hi, my name is Albert and I am 13 years old. I have owned every Zelda game but the first. I was 5 years old and my parents got an nes from a garage sale.I was so exited when I got home I wanted to throw my power ranger right off the shelf and start playing Zelda. I got to thunder bird palace and beat the game I was so exited that when super Nintendo came out with Zelda in south Carolina I freaked and begged my mom for it.she wouldn't cave in but when I was 9 my dad bought a snes behind my moms back and bought Zelda for me. I beat the game in 2 weeks. but when The n64 and Zelda 64 came out in November 23 1999 ,5 days before my birthday my parent started talking and talked till midnight about it. they caved in and got me Zelda 64i beat it in 1 year. when the game cube came out I knew that a sequel would come and it has .when I have the money that game is mine, and so will the next piece of the legend. I now relieze how much joy and how many friends Zelda has given me. The Triforce is with me, and may it be with you. thank you Gamer X for reopening my eyes and reminding me what the good things in life give me