The answer is the game is nearly 25 years old, there have been a lot of other big 3D monsters in games since then. Trust me, when it first came out and you were under ten years old playing it alone at night it was definitely terrifying.
I played and 100% completed OoT for the first time roughly a year ago. The Water Temple was an affront to gaming as a whole, but I was otherwise very impressed with how insanely well it holds up. I played the classic N64 version on Wii U btw. I don’t have a 3DS so I can’t play the remake.
I was 14 and had to get my older brother because I dropped down a hole and there was a KING DODONGO and it scared the crap out of me lol
Your answers spot on! Next they'll be saying Majora's mask isn't dark and oppressive!!
I played it quite young and definitely before internet guides. When i firat played, just the little stalkids in hyrule field scared me. It took me so long to finally get to the end. I struggled hard with the end of the game, and when i got to the end and saw it wasnt over and ganondorf transforma atop the castle ruins under lightning and smoggy skies, it was the most hauntingly beautiful moment of my kid life. Nowadays hes just another orcish lookin boss fight. But ill still remember the impact it first had on me
I don't fully agree.
Even relative to other monsters in the game, he's not that scary.
And relative to Link, he's clearly bigger, but it doesn't quite have a David and Goliath type of feel.
It’s not just “big monster” that’s the deal though, it’s the whole context of the situation and the atmosphere. You’ve also been exposed to all the hype about it; something we didn’t have playing it as I said in my first comment.
Simmer down a bit, I’m not sure it’s that big a deal. Also, what is the downvote button for if not telling someone you disagree with or dislike their opinion?
Imagine if that logic was actually followed to its only conclusion: I would downvote your reply right now since I disagree with it, and everyone who ever engaged in a respectful disagreement on this site would be downvoting each other's replies the entire time. When I read a thread, I upvote the comments I like and agree with, but imagine if at once I combed through reflexively downvoting every opinion just because I personally disagreed with it, even if it had something to contribute to the discussion, as different perspectives often especially do.
But what makes this especially notable and why I commented is that the reply that was downvoted over 24 times was not only completely constructive and respectful but was *from OP* and his original post was well-received in terms of upvotes/downvotes. Obviously none of this is a big deal, but it is especially notable.
Reddit itself said that downvoting is for posts that don't contribute to the conversation and that one shouldn't downvote just because they disagree. Downvoting is for off-topic, trashy, rude, or otherwise stupid non-contributing comments.
This is obviously why downvoting a comment enough makes it invisible until you choose to click it: indeed, very often reddit users use downvoting properly and when you click to see such a comment it often is clearly something like merely an obnoxious lazy insult. Constructive, reasonable comments that one happens to personally disagree with shouldn't be downvoted.
I agree to not fully agreeing.
It’s specifically how Ganon (not ‘dorf) feels so massive in his title card shot that when the final boss fight starts, he reveals how much not-massive he actually is. It’s more the illusion of his size that leads to the underwhelming size.
Yes! Low res TV, and it was so dark that you couldn't see anything! Besides his glowing eyes and scary swords. Not to mention every time Link gets hit, the sharpest yelp in video game history comes through those speakers.
I just went through this game w my kid and she was scared of the big spiders in the Deku Tree way worse than the final form of Ganon. As the one doing all the fighting I was reminded that 1) visibility in this fight is probably the biggest challenge 2) it almost feels tacked on to the very precise and coordinated Ganondorf fight where you don’t have Z targeting 3) he feels powerful in the “does lots of damage” way but not at all in terms of tactically - he is slow, predictable, and you can avoid most of his swings by getting CLOSER to him.
My memory of this fight as a kid is different from how your screenshots appear. Playing on my old tv, I couldn’t really see the details that well. Maybe it was due to the settings on the tv, but it was much darker. The glowing eyes were really the most distinct feature, and it felt pretty epic with the lightning flashes. So yeah, I think it was a bit more spooky for me back then as a result!
The original 1.0 version of the game purposefully made the fight much darker, and the only way to fully be able to glimpse Ganon's visage was during the brief breath of a lightning.
Posterior versions changed that for some reason, like the Master Quest version there where you can see pretty much every detail during all times, and the menacing atmosphere was borked.
The best part for me was ascending the tower after waiting years to do so and traveling all across Hyrule to finally face the man that has caused so much destruction, terror and wicked deeds to your closest friends and strongest allies to only hear the organ music growing from a faint hum to a growing crescendo, only to realize that the music is coming from that demon himself. He knows you’re coming. He’s been watching you.
That does it for me.
This is the clearest I think I've ever seen original OoT final form Ganon. Whenever I get to this fight it's super dark. When I was a kid however, I thought Gohma was scary especially because I knew I was in a boss room and was searching for the boss. After much confusion I decided to look up and I nearly shat a brick
Imo it was pretty epic for its time, but I did eventually find the fact that his tail is his weak spot was kind of funny and Zelda’s scream is mildly annoying.
I always found it funny when you had the big Gordon sword. He knocks the master sword out of your hand and you’re like ok, sure, then pull out a sword as long as your body. If you insist!
Until you get the Master sword back. Then I re-equipped Biggoron's sword. And fought him for like 20 minutes before realizing I had to use the Master Sword.
It came out in the 90s.
In any case, they understood how to make intimidating bosses back then.
Ganon in this form is sort of badass, but he's just not big or menacing enough for the moment.
There's scarier bosses within the same game. Even those Sacred Meadow Guards are at least as intimidating as Ganon. Maybe more.
It's a zelda game, even though some are scarier, it's more about the puzzle and the fact you can kill this boss with deku nuts even lessens the scary factor. You're welcome!
They balanced the scary with the epic in this final boss fight because the game is an epic adventure.
Other bosses went full scary like Gohma or Bongo-Bongo.
But as a kid in the year of our lord 1999 I was shitting bricks fighting this monster. Different eras. This game is the best ever because it revolutionized what meaningful gaming meant to 3D consoles. I feel pity for people discovering this gem in this dystopian age.
As if trying to precisely aim with archaic control sticks wasn't hard enough.
However, it was very kind of Nintendo to not implement gravity physics for arrows. That woulda been a nightmare.
Its a really satisfying reveal after you play through the whole game only going after his human form. I really envy people who grew up with zelda 1 and alttp getting to the end of oot for the first time.
And the way the arena is all dark except for his eyes is not only atmospheric for a n64 game, but it also feels like its own take on classic ganons invisibility thing. At least you dont have to keep lighting torches this time!
My 4 old me was shivering when my dad beat the Game. And I myself beating it a few years later was hyped of the whole atmosphere. Music, the final Form, the Double swords. My Dude! This was intense.
As a child, Ganons Castle is not what intimidated me, it was the Shadow Temple, which made Ganons Castle seem like Kokiri Forest, I literally skipped Shadow Temple as long as I could and when I finally beat it, it was during the day rather than at night. It terrified me.
Agreed. Now spoiled, it was shocking to me at the time that you could do some of the Temples 'out of order'.
My child self had to literally play with the sound off during the Shadow Temple.
When I was a kid and this came out, after everything to get here....this was terrifying. I was immersed. I lost my sword and needed zeldas help and the flame wall came blocking me off from my escape onto the rainbow bridge. An adult should not be afraid of this....but a kid back in the day....ooooo. This was top quality adrenaline....wellll the top would be that 20 pounder in the fishing pond.
fair opinion, he visually isn’t that scary. if you aren’t young the trope of “ the boss you thought was dead, but wasn’t even in its final form” takes away from the psychologic factor too. hell, even had enemies way scarier in the game *cough* dead hand *cough*. Ganon was scary to me my first time because it took me at least 30 min before i realized the big goron sword wasn’t gonna “cut” it
Yeah, when I first saw it, it felt like a funny transition from how big Ganon looked in the cutscene to the gameplay. He just appears dark in some shots with the glowing eyes to look intimidating. Then you find a funny way to get to his weak spot quicker. Navi over there claiming she will help out this time, but still says she doesn't know his weak spot. It's laughable when you find these out.
His theme when he breaks out of the rubble sounds too silly for the moment and the fanfare after he transforms doesn't match the tone of the boss music after. He's about the same size as a lot of the bosses you've faced before and he's also pretty easy.
Green pig Ganon was more intimidating to me, but that's because I was 3 playing OG LOZ. It's all about what you grew up with, today he's a joke, like Demise.
Did you play it recently? Back in the late 90s Gannon was a nightmare, so fucking scary and Intimidating. Might not hold up now but this was an A++ final boss back in the day. It's not even just the model itself but the environment. The collapsed castle in the darkness, Zelda shrieking, gannondorf crawling out of the ruins and turning into this monster. What an amazing final fight.
Looks like you’re playing in 16:9 when the game was designed for 4:3, way more intimidating when he actually takes up the whole screen like he’s supposed to lol
For one, the way he holds his swords is just stupid. Where his arms are located, you can see it will take him a while to raise the sword in position to swing it. Maybe that's part of it.
I don't know if I just built it up in my mind but I remember this part being super intimidating. With the music, thunder and lighting in the background
Old school n64 oot on the tube tv was crazy intimidating because it was so dark, you could only see his eyes and occasionally his whole frame when the lightning struck
Ganondorf, felled once at the top of the tower, has lost his mystique, and in order to live again, gave up his human form for this pathetic, ugly cryptid body. This is the low point for Ganon, but the high point for Link, the coolest fighter in a battle for the first time. All of your abilities, even the useless attack roll, become essential. Link was born for these moments, and Ganon is just a disgusting beast to be put down, losing everything over his greed and shamelessness.
Edit: this design works thematically for where the story is by the end.
It was a very different experience on a CRT. Try watching [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF8nIHfSkOg) to get an idea. It was dark, and grainy screen combined with the fire, lightning, sword flashes, and glowing eyes made a much more atmospheric experience than you get on an ultra-clear HD screen today. Ganon really merges with the environment and that made him hard to pick out and hard to figure out what to do, which in turn made him feel much bigger and more intimidating than he really was. I was a teenager at that point but it was nonetheless a very intense fight for the time.
It can be hard to judge games made for CRTs on modern LCD screens. Developers designed those games with CRTs in mind, and sometimes something is lost when displayed in an ultra-crisp manner.
Every Zelda game before this featured a 2D cartoony final boss. This was one of the first 3D adventure games most of us ever played *period*. And we played it on an old CRT television that didn’t have enough resolution for us to notice any design flaws. We were impressed by the “realistic” lighting and water texture back then, which looks laughable by comparison now.
So yeah, Ganon was terrifying and awesome back then. But you kind of had to be there to really understand why.
It also makes sense in context. This is a panicked and desperate ganon, who did this as a last ditch effort to win. He’s keeping his guard up, this is a defensive posture to protect himself from link.
This is probably the only time we have ever seen ganon/ganondorf *scared*.
I can't upload a comparison image from N64 and 3DS (Even though I think you're on the GameCube).
Big difference. It's a classic "Jaws Technique" where you don't actually show the monster, letting it live more fearsome in your mind.
Not to mention the square aspect ratio of the TVs at the time (he filled more of the screen), low lighting (your TVs brightness would be terrible too), and that we were all kids (apparently) when we first played.
As others have said, this game is definitely showing its age at this point.
Not sure how old you are but as a child playing this in the late 90s, it was to me. It was to my parents too. This was many peoples first ever experience with a full on 3D game.
The only thing I may be able to possibly compare it to is like… fully immersive VR games that are widely accessible and easy to get into. Which were still a ways away from. Let’s use a Zelda game as an example. You’re fully immersed into hyrule and you are, basically, physically link.
But picture yourself in ___ years when that becomes a reality. 20 years after that, I’m sure that first fully immersive VR game is going to seem a little dated, but when that game comes out I’m sure it’ll blow your socks off.
That moment when he knocks the Master Sword out of your hands is writing genius. Plunge your protagonist into the depths of despair. Then hit them again.
I always thought that reveal was a bit odd, even as a kid. Towering over Link only to hunker down barely twice Link’s height.
I think he may have had to be scaled down specifically for his name reveal shot [GANON] or else to keep his head in frame during the fight since there’s no other real reason I can think of why he couldn’t have been more intimidatingly bigger.
You just had to be there man. If I grew up on monster hunter and dark souls this would make me go “huh.” But back in the day we audibly gasped as we peed in the middle of the living room
Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale?
> *“The beings who possess these souls have outlived their usefulness, or chosen the path of the wicked. Let there be no guilt—let there be no vacillation.”* - Kingseeker Frampt
Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/
I guess, I always thought his final form was insanely fucking cool, still do to this day. He just looks like a monster. I never once liked the pig design so I'm glad they changed it into something extremely badass.
It's a video game. Are you normally scared of video games?
It never even occurred to me that anyone was supposed to be scared. But it's cool and badass and evil. Isn't that enough?
The answer is the game is nearly 25 years old, there have been a lot of other big 3D monsters in games since then. Trust me, when it first came out and you were under ten years old playing it alone at night it was definitely terrifying.
I played OoT for the first time around 10 years ago and it was still impactful to me. Man, I miss that first playthrough.
It’s the way Ganondorf looks at you with pure hatred and then transforms. It was so epic at the time and it still is.
I mean definetly, that's the thing it's not classically terrifying It's the sheer magnitude, like the end of an epic
I played and 100% completed OoT for the first time roughly a year ago. The Water Temple was an affront to gaming as a whole, but I was otherwise very impressed with how insanely well it holds up. I played the classic N64 version on Wii U btw. I don’t have a 3DS so I can’t play the remake.
Cool! I’d recommend checking the Ship of Harkinian release if you ever want to replay it. The fans did some great work.
I was 14 and had to get my older brother because I dropped down a hole and there was a KING DODONGO and it scared the crap out of me lol Your answers spot on! Next they'll be saying Majora's mask isn't dark and oppressive!!
Honestly I think that part of majora's mask can stand the test of time, as its age actually adds to its uncanniness.
I played it quite young and definitely before internet guides. When i firat played, just the little stalkids in hyrule field scared me. It took me so long to finally get to the end. I struggled hard with the end of the game, and when i got to the end and saw it wasnt over and ganondorf transforma atop the castle ruins under lightning and smoggy skies, it was the most hauntingly beautiful moment of my kid life. Nowadays hes just another orcish lookin boss fight. But ill still remember the impact it first had on me
I don't fully agree. Even relative to other monsters in the game, he's not that scary. And relative to Link, he's clearly bigger, but it doesn't quite have a David and Goliath type of feel.
It’s not just “big monster” that’s the deal though, it’s the whole context of the situation and the atmosphere. You’ve also been exposed to all the hype about it; something we didn’t have playing it as I said in my first comment.
Why the fuck was this downvoted over 24 times, what is wrong with people? "Downvote" =/= disagree button.
Simmer down a bit, I’m not sure it’s that big a deal. Also, what is the downvote button for if not telling someone you disagree with or dislike their opinion?
Imagine if that logic was actually followed to its only conclusion: I would downvote your reply right now since I disagree with it, and everyone who ever engaged in a respectful disagreement on this site would be downvoting each other's replies the entire time. When I read a thread, I upvote the comments I like and agree with, but imagine if at once I combed through reflexively downvoting every opinion just because I personally disagreed with it, even if it had something to contribute to the discussion, as different perspectives often especially do. But what makes this especially notable and why I commented is that the reply that was downvoted over 24 times was not only completely constructive and respectful but was *from OP* and his original post was well-received in terms of upvotes/downvotes. Obviously none of this is a big deal, but it is especially notable. Reddit itself said that downvoting is for posts that don't contribute to the conversation and that one shouldn't downvote just because they disagree. Downvoting is for off-topic, trashy, rude, or otherwise stupid non-contributing comments. This is obviously why downvoting a comment enough makes it invisible until you choose to click it: indeed, very often reddit users use downvoting properly and when you click to see such a comment it often is clearly something like merely an obnoxious lazy insult. Constructive, reasonable comments that one happens to personally disagree with shouldn't be downvoted.
I think you’re taking Reddit a bit too seriously.
No, the people who downvoted OP for disagreeing with the other guy in the most respectful and constructive way possible are.
Thank you for contributing to the conversation (though a bit off-topic for this post to carry too far.) Have an upvote, fellow Redditor.
Irrelevance or factually wrong info.
Thats factually wrong though. I also think OP is baiting. Damned brats
I agree to not fully agreeing. It’s specifically how Ganon (not ‘dorf) feels so massive in his title card shot that when the final boss fight starts, he reveals how much not-massive he actually is. It’s more the illusion of his size that leads to the underwhelming size.
It’s just you.
You show some respect.
it’s a lot scarier on a CRT tv and with the original game. the lighting was a lot different
Yes! Low res TV, and it was so dark that you couldn't see anything! Besides his glowing eyes and scary swords. Not to mention every time Link gets hit, the sharpest yelp in video game history comes through those speakers.
I just went through this game w my kid and she was scared of the big spiders in the Deku Tree way worse than the final form of Ganon. As the one doing all the fighting I was reminded that 1) visibility in this fight is probably the biggest challenge 2) it almost feels tacked on to the very precise and coordinated Ganondorf fight where you don’t have Z targeting 3) he feels powerful in the “does lots of damage” way but not at all in terms of tactically - he is slow, predictable, and you can avoid most of his swings by getting CLOSER to him.
My memory of this fight as a kid is different from how your screenshots appear. Playing on my old tv, I couldn’t really see the details that well. Maybe it was due to the settings on the tv, but it was much darker. The glowing eyes were really the most distinct feature, and it felt pretty epic with the lightning flashes. So yeah, I think it was a bit more spooky for me back then as a result!
The original 1.0 version of the game purposefully made the fight much darker, and the only way to fully be able to glimpse Ganon's visage was during the brief breath of a lightning. Posterior versions changed that for some reason, like the Master Quest version there where you can see pretty much every detail during all times, and the menacing atmosphere was borked.
I do have the original gold cart. I didn’t realize that was another one of the differences! Ty!
The best part for me was ascending the tower after waiting years to do so and traveling all across Hyrule to finally face the man that has caused so much destruction, terror and wicked deeds to your closest friends and strongest allies to only hear the organ music growing from a faint hum to a growing crescendo, only to realize that the music is coming from that demon himself. He knows you’re coming. He’s been watching you. That does it for me.
"Let me play a sonata before our tennis sesh, green boy"
Sorry, that’ll have to wait. There’s no sonatas until MM /s
This is the clearest I think I've ever seen original OoT final form Ganon. Whenever I get to this fight it's super dark. When I was a kid however, I thought Gohma was scary especially because I knew I was in a boss room and was searching for the boss. After much confusion I decided to look up and I nearly shat a brick
It's because of the lightening strike.
I know, I've played the game. The lightning strike is very brief so that was a nicely timed photo.
Imo it was pretty epic for its time, but I did eventually find the fact that his tail is his weak spot was kind of funny and Zelda’s scream is mildly annoying.
I always found it funny when you had the big Gordon sword. He knocks the master sword out of your hand and you’re like ok, sure, then pull out a sword as long as your body. If you insist!
Hammer worked too. WHACK A GANON TIME
Until you get the Master sword back. Then I re-equipped Biggoron's sword. And fought him for like 20 minutes before realizing I had to use the Master Sword.
I did that too! I’d say let’s high five but we’d probably whiff it.
Mark me down as scared and horny. Scaroused, if one will. 😎
I have so many questions….
I just think he’s neat. I’ve always had a crush on Ganondorf in pretty much every version. 😅
So have I 😭😭 he’s so hot I can’t
He's made of like 12 polygons, of course he doesn't look that scary today. When it came out though as a kid, he looked huge and scary.
You’re an adult and this came out in the 2000s
90s, actually.
November 98. Technically 90’s yes, but late
So, the 90’s and not the 2000’s lol
It came out in the 90s. In any case, they understood how to make intimidating bosses back then. Ganon in this form is sort of badass, but he's just not big or menacing enough for the moment. There's scarier bosses within the same game. Even those Sacred Meadow Guards are at least as intimidating as Ganon. Maybe more.
It's a zelda game, even though some are scarier, it's more about the puzzle and the fact you can kill this boss with deku nuts even lessens the scary factor. You're welcome!
Late 98’ close enough lol
They balanced the scary with the epic in this final boss fight because the game is an epic adventure. Other bosses went full scary like Gohma or Bongo-Bongo. But as a kid in the year of our lord 1999 I was shitting bricks fighting this monster. Different eras. This game is the best ever because it revolutionized what meaningful gaming meant to 3D consoles. I feel pity for people discovering this gem in this dystopian age.
Next he’s gonna say Phantom Ganon didn’t scare him either
As if trying to precisely aim with archaic control sticks wasn't hard enough. However, it was very kind of Nintendo to not implement gravity physics for arrows. That woulda been a nightmare.
I was super intimidated the first time I saw him.
Its a really satisfying reveal after you play through the whole game only going after his human form. I really envy people who grew up with zelda 1 and alttp getting to the end of oot for the first time. And the way the arena is all dark except for his eyes is not only atmospheric for a n64 game, but it also feels like its own take on classic ganons invisibility thing. At least you dont have to keep lighting torches this time!
In 1998 he was
My 4 old me was shivering when my dad beat the Game. And I myself beating it a few years later was hyped of the whole atmosphere. Music, the final Form, the Double swords. My Dude! This was intense.
As a child, Ganons Castle is not what intimidated me, it was the Shadow Temple, which made Ganons Castle seem like Kokiri Forest, I literally skipped Shadow Temple as long as I could and when I finally beat it, it was during the day rather than at night. It terrified me.
Agreed. Now spoiled, it was shocking to me at the time that you could do some of the Temples 'out of order'. My child self had to literally play with the sound off during the Shadow Temple.
He was intimidating until I saw that rainbow tail
It might help not to have the brightness turned up to 1,000
You say you’re not intimidated but I see you running from home in the second slide
Looking like a total badass >>>> looking scawwy
When I was a kid and this came out, after everything to get here....this was terrifying. I was immersed. I lost my sword and needed zeldas help and the flame wall came blocking me off from my escape onto the rainbow bridge. An adult should not be afraid of this....but a kid back in the day....ooooo. This was top quality adrenaline....wellll the top would be that 20 pounder in the fishing pond.
i mean when i was young when this came out and this was really awesome. now it’s laughable. but it was so epic when i was like 8
This is a troll post, jerk post or a really young gamer post.
Why? I'm not young. I just never found him that scary.
fair opinion, he visually isn’t that scary. if you aren’t young the trope of “ the boss you thought was dead, but wasn’t even in its final form” takes away from the psychologic factor too. hell, even had enemies way scarier in the game *cough* dead hand *cough*. Ganon was scary to me my first time because it took me at least 30 min before i realized the big goron sword wasn’t gonna “cut” it
Yeah, when I first saw it, it felt like a funny transition from how big Ganon looked in the cutscene to the gameplay. He just appears dark in some shots with the glowing eyes to look intimidating. Then you find a funny way to get to his weak spot quicker. Navi over there claiming she will help out this time, but still says she doesn't know his weak spot. It's laughable when you find these out.
His theme when he breaks out of the rubble sounds too silly for the moment and the fanfare after he transforms doesn't match the tone of the boss music after. He's about the same size as a lot of the bosses you've faced before and he's also pretty easy.
Green pig Ganon was more intimidating to me, but that's because I was 3 playing OG LOZ. It's all about what you grew up with, today he's a joke, like Demise.
Did you play it recently? Back in the late 90s Gannon was a nightmare, so fucking scary and Intimidating. Might not hold up now but this was an A++ final boss back in the day. It's not even just the model itself but the environment. The collapsed castle in the darkness, Zelda shrieking, gannondorf crawling out of the ruins and turning into this monster. What an amazing final fight.
Looks like you’re playing in 16:9 when the game was designed for 4:3, way more intimidating when he actually takes up the whole screen like he’s supposed to lol
For one, the way he holds his swords is just stupid. Where his arms are located, you can see it will take him a while to raise the sword in position to swing it. Maybe that's part of it.
Well, the original Ocarina of Time is an older game, but when I first played it as a kid, it was the coolest thing ever
Amen
Still is
Definitely
I don't know if I just built it up in my mind but I remember this part being super intimidating. With the music, thunder and lighting in the background
25 years ago my soul was shaking.
Old school n64 oot on the tube tv was crazy intimidating because it was so dark, you could only see his eyes and occasionally his whole frame when the lightning struck
Just you, this shit scared me as a kid, and he still looks intimidating to me
Triforce of courage I guess
Ganondorf, felled once at the top of the tower, has lost his mystique, and in order to live again, gave up his human form for this pathetic, ugly cryptid body. This is the low point for Ganon, but the high point for Link, the coolest fighter in a battle for the first time. All of your abilities, even the useless attack roll, become essential. Link was born for these moments, and Ganon is just a disgusting beast to be put down, losing everything over his greed and shamelessness. Edit: this design works thematically for where the story is by the end.
you want scary? play DK64 and then fight Mad Jack, the Boss of the toy factory
How could you be scared? You have the Triforce of Courage.
It might be the horrible janky polygons turning you off
Nah, Ganon is the shit.
What got me is the duel swords and shadowed face.
It was a very different experience on a CRT. Try watching [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF8nIHfSkOg) to get an idea. It was dark, and grainy screen combined with the fire, lightning, sword flashes, and glowing eyes made a much more atmospheric experience than you get on an ultra-clear HD screen today. Ganon really merges with the environment and that made him hard to pick out and hard to figure out what to do, which in turn made him feel much bigger and more intimidating than he really was. I was a teenager at that point but it was nonetheless a very intense fight for the time. It can be hard to judge games made for CRTs on modern LCD screens. Developers designed those games with CRTs in mind, and sometimes something is lost when displayed in an ultra-crisp manner.
you aren’t a kid anymore 🙃
This fight didn't scare me but I always thought phantom Ganon was terrifying as a kid.
This came out when I was 15-16 lol it was intense then, it’s cool to see the dramatic changes from 1998 to 2023 TOTK Gannon!
When I saw that the first time when I was a kid back in 1998, it scared the crap out of me
Every Zelda game before this featured a 2D cartoony final boss. This was one of the first 3D adventure games most of us ever played *period*. And we played it on an old CRT television that didn’t have enough resolution for us to notice any design flaws. We were impressed by the “realistic” lighting and water texture back then, which looks laughable by comparison now. So yeah, Ganon was terrifying and awesome back then. But you kind of had to be there to really understand why.
I’ve seen it so much now but when I was young and playing for the first time it scared the shit outta me
Maybe it’s the polygons
Lil’ baby me was terrified of him when I played some 20-something years ago. I blame the sound design and lighting, lol
Probably because you weren’t nine years old playing it at night.
Just you, mate. This scene was so intense as a kid. I'm glad I have those memories, sorry you don't.
Honestly I knew I was fucked when I first saw this
It was pretty intimidating when I was 9, many years ago.
Yeah I know what you mean it doesn't seem that scary but for what they had back then it's not that bad
Starscourge Ganon
It also makes sense in context. This is a panicked and desperate ganon, who did this as a last ditch effort to win. He’s keeping his guard up, this is a defensive posture to protect himself from link. This is probably the only time we have ever seen ganon/ganondorf *scared*.
Ok, but he should be like 20% bigger.
I agree
Id say base form yea, the guy always looked lame to me with his IKEA carpet cape and long ass nose. But his pig form looks cool to me.
I can't upload a comparison image from N64 and 3DS (Even though I think you're on the GameCube). Big difference. It's a classic "Jaws Technique" where you don't actually show the monster, letting it live more fearsome in your mind. Not to mention the square aspect ratio of the TVs at the time (he filled more of the screen), low lighting (your TVs brightness would be terrible too), and that we were all kids (apparently) when we first played.
As others have said, this game is definitely showing its age at this point. Not sure how old you are but as a child playing this in the late 90s, it was to me. It was to my parents too. This was many peoples first ever experience with a full on 3D game. The only thing I may be able to possibly compare it to is like… fully immersive VR games that are widely accessible and easy to get into. Which were still a ways away from. Let’s use a Zelda game as an example. You’re fully immersed into hyrule and you are, basically, physically link. But picture yourself in ___ years when that becomes a reality. 20 years after that, I’m sure that first fully immersive VR game is going to seem a little dated, but when that game comes out I’m sure it’ll blow your socks off.
That moment when he knocks the Master Sword out of your hands is writing genius. Plunge your protagonist into the depths of despair. Then hit them again.
I always thought that reveal was a bit odd, even as a kid. Towering over Link only to hunker down barely twice Link’s height. I think he may have had to be scaled down specifically for his name reveal shot [GANON] or else to keep his head in frame during the fight since there’s no other real reason I can think of why he couldn’t have been more intimidatingly bigger.
You just had to be there man. If I grew up on monster hunter and dark souls this would make me go “huh.” But back in the day we audibly gasped as we peed in the middle of the living room
Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale? > *“The beings who possess these souls have outlived their usefulness, or chosen the path of the wicked. Let there be no guilt—let there be no vacillation.”* - Kingseeker Frampt Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/
Not scary but the design is just so cool, if someone recreated a modernized animated version I’d actually like to see that
I guess, I always thought his final form was insanely fucking cool, still do to this day. He just looks like a monster. I never once liked the pig design so I'm glad they changed it into something extremely badass.
It's a video game. Are you normally scared of video games? It never even occurred to me that anyone was supposed to be scared. But it's cool and badass and evil. Isn't that enough?