499 Words About: Zombies in the Night, Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
Alright, I admit it, the zombies in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time scared me.
Not the Re-Deads, those flipping terrified me. I’m talking about the zombie monsters in Hyrule field that would crawl out of the ground whenever nightfall arrived and Link was running through the field.
Calling these enemy non-playable characters (npcs) zombies may not be right since their skulls resembled Goofy’s more than an actual human’s, and sound files of bones clacking together as they moved indicated these were skeletons. Nevertheless, the design of their sprites, and their exclusive nocturnal presence worked to create the aesthetic.
These were zombies dude, and they wanted to kill me.
They were easy enough to outrun, and in terms of damage it took all of one or two swipes from the Kokiri sword to take them out. This meant that I could easily outrun them until the sun rose again, or I could just fight them till morning. There wasn’t any good reason to be afraid of these monsters…except of course for the hardware.
Like the Playstation, the Nintendo 64 was the first videogame console to attempt true 3D graphics. This early exposure to 3D visualization was a new experience, but because the hardware was limited in its ability to show the full range and depth of reality, the sensation was often that of being dipped into a world that only vaguely resembled reality. The Nintendo 64 console’s low poly and general sound frequently unnerved me because it dipped into the uncanny valley. The internet abounds with reimagined horrors (and memes) of games that have been revealed to have always been liminal nightmare fuel (Super Mario 64 being the best example), and the effect of this hardware limitation was I was in a different world, but it was also a different world.
Thus, when the sun set, the wolf howled, and a heavy crackle would signify the arrival of zombies I have no shame in admitting I began to freak out.
I never owned a copy of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time until 2001 when I received a Nintendo Gamecube as a Christmas present, and even then I played Pikmin first.
Ocarina of Time was an action-adventure videogame, and while it was not exclusively a horror title, there were numerous elements and moments in the game that, I would argue, inspired real horror. The Zombies were the first real taste of the horrific encounters Link (and the player) would experience on the journey to save Hyrule, and this design shows a concern to prepare players as they progress.
By the time the player reaches the Shadow Temple the zombies are laughable scrubs, but the first time I sprint across the open meadow and arrive just as the Hyrule drawbridge lifts up, I recognise how vulnerable I am. The soundfile of bones knocking and clacking together were like the dry echoes of death’s laughter, and I realized maybe it was a bad idea to play this game in the dark.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
8.24.2026
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