If you're not familiar with the trend of "randomizers" that are featured in Twitch races and even some Games Done Quick events, they are essentially mods to popular older games that people know very well (Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Ocarina of Time, etc.). They randomize the placement of key items and weapons in those games, allowing players a unique experience each time they play. This builds on the sequence breaking trend that became so popular with speed running communities - an item that you typically get in the early game may be hidden behind the second to last boss, but a very powerful endgame item could be the first thing you come across.
I've replayed Ocarina of Time more than any other game - I'd probably ballpark it in the hundreds of playthroughs at this point. I know where almost every chest/item is in the game, which chests are fakes/traps, which are unnecessary, etc. So this weekend I decided I wanted to replay Ocarina of Time again and decided to do it with a randomizer. The generator is incredibly fine grained, letting you go from basic randomization (just key items) all the way to location insanity, where every exit of an area could drop you into any other location of the game, and key insanity, where any small key you find can be used in any dungeon. I went somewhere in the middle, choosing to shuffle the items and weapons only. I made the decision to keep the starting sword where it was so I could make some initial progress, but I shuffled in the trading quest items, which ended up being a huge factor in how fun this run was. I never got the egg with the Cucco needed to wake up Talon at Hyrule Castle and start the child Link trading quest - which meant I just flat out missed several item opportunities as child Link, which really stonewalled me for a while.
I learned a lot about the logic of Ocarina of Time in this playthrough. For example, you only need the Song of Time to open the Door of Time and become adult Link - you don't need all three spiritual stones. As soon as I got an ocarina, I made it a mission to find the Song of Time - which ended up being where the Piece of Heart usually is in the Windmill. Where I once thought this was only accessible by a glitched jump or adult Link, I found out I could use the boomerang to grab it, which unlocked the second half of the run.
There were more major finds that really helped take me from being stuck to opening the run wide up. I had to go all the way to the Gerudo Training Ground as Adult Link just to get magic, so I could use Din's Fire to get into the Shadow Temple. And I ended up doing all of Beneath the Well and the Shadow Temple up to the boss without the Lens of Truth, which unbeknownst to me was hidden behind the second Dampe race. I was poking in and out of dungeons, making little bits of progress wherever I could, desperate for any chest that would grant me a useful item that would let me progress elsewhere. It reminded me of my very first playthrough as a kid, where I got so stuck as adult Link in the Forest Temple that I ended up going and starting the Fire and Water Temples simultaneously, all without the Fairy Bow, and tried to make as much progress as I could without having that crucial item.
All of this made me think that I love the general Zelda formula so much (a mix of dungeons and overworld, with major and minor items sprinkled across them) that having a mode that really randomizes the placement of the items and opens up some of the typical gatekeeping would make me want to replay each game so much more. However, I'm not sure if every Zelda game would be as fun as OoT, with its overlapping items for some puzzles (bombs/bombchus, slingshot/boomerang) and unique platforming items (hover boots). Thinking through a Skyward Sword randomizer doesn't seem as fun, as the items are pretty narrowly used in the areas they're found. Nintendo probably thought they had solved this with Breath of the Wild, but that game is a little too open for this use case - I still want to be as stumped as I was at several points in this run, desperate for one item that would let me make progress in an entirely different part of the world.
I've replayed Ocarina of Time more than any other game - I'd probably ballpark it in the hundreds of playthroughs at this point. I know where almost every chest/item is in the game, which chests are fakes/traps, which are unnecessary, etc. So this weekend I decided I wanted to replay Ocarina of Time again and decided to do it with a randomizer. The generator is incredibly fine grained, letting you go from basic randomization (just key items) all the way to location insanity, where every exit of an area could drop you into any other location of the game, and key insanity, where any small key you find can be used in any dungeon. I went somewhere in the middle, choosing to shuffle the items and weapons only. I made the decision to keep the starting sword where it was so I could make some initial progress, but I shuffled in the trading quest items, which ended up being a huge factor in how fun this run was. I never got the egg with the Cucco needed to wake up Talon at Hyrule Castle and start the child Link trading quest - which meant I just flat out missed several item opportunities as child Link, which really stonewalled me for a while.
I learned a lot about the logic of Ocarina of Time in this playthrough. For example, you only need the Song of Time to open the Door of Time and become adult Link - you don't need all three spiritual stones. As soon as I got an ocarina, I made it a mission to find the Song of Time - which ended up being where the Piece of Heart usually is in the Windmill. Where I once thought this was only accessible by a glitched jump or adult Link, I found out I could use the boomerang to grab it, which unlocked the second half of the run.
There were more major finds that really helped take me from being stuck to opening the run wide up. I had to go all the way to the Gerudo Training Ground as Adult Link just to get magic, so I could use Din's Fire to get into the Shadow Temple. And I ended up doing all of Beneath the Well and the Shadow Temple up to the boss without the Lens of Truth, which unbeknownst to me was hidden behind the second Dampe race. I was poking in and out of dungeons, making little bits of progress wherever I could, desperate for any chest that would grant me a useful item that would let me progress elsewhere. It reminded me of my very first playthrough as a kid, where I got so stuck as adult Link in the Forest Temple that I ended up going and starting the Fire and Water Temples simultaneously, all without the Fairy Bow, and tried to make as much progress as I could without having that crucial item.
All of this made me think that I love the general Zelda formula so much (a mix of dungeons and overworld, with major and minor items sprinkled across them) that having a mode that really randomizes the placement of the items and opens up some of the typical gatekeeping would make me want to replay each game so much more. However, I'm not sure if every Zelda game would be as fun as OoT, with its overlapping items for some puzzles (bombs/bombchus, slingshot/boomerang) and unique platforming items (hover boots). Thinking through a Skyward Sword randomizer doesn't seem as fun, as the items are pretty narrowly used in the areas they're found. Nintendo probably thought they had solved this with Breath of the Wild, but that game is a little too open for this use case - I still want to be as stumped as I was at several points in this run, desperate for one item that would let me make progress in an entirely different part of the world.