The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Part 4

--Saying goodbye to Saria, Hyrule field & Castle Town

When you're a kid you tend to overlook poor storytelling, as your imagination can fill in the gaps. My mind definitely filled in the gaps of Link's childhood, and the scene where he runs away from Saria without saying goodbye got me good. As an adult I would have liked to see more to build up a believable friendship between the two, but the short scene at the beginning was a enough for kid me.

If walking into Kokiri forest for the first time mesmerized me, stepping out into Hyrule field blew my kid mind. Sure the Owl told me to go to Castle Town, but the world was open to me now and I could go where I wanted. I had a choice to progress the story, or not. This choice is an aspect of game design called "meaningful play." That aspect being that choices in the game matter and the outcomes be experienced by the player. Sure the only way to progress the story was to go to Castle Town, but I had complete freedom to decide when that would be.