I've been replaying Ocarina of Time again on NSO, mostly in anticipation for the remake but also because i'm in a little bit of a Zelda mood. But because i've seen so much discourse about how "important" linearity is to the structure of Ocarina of Time, and re-imagining it as a bigger open world would somehow ruin the tightly crafted storyline and flow of events and the way dungeons work... I have been experimenting and paying close attention to the game, to see just how "important" it is.
So far my findings are that linearity is only really important during the child portion of the game. You must do the Deku Tree first to leave the forest, you are free to walk around but all paths lead to dead ends or areas with nothing to do, so all roads lead to castle town ( Admittedly, they need to make it more clear that you are supposed to talk to Malon in the market, walk toward Hyrule Castle, leave, notice Malon is gone, then go back toward Hyrule Castle in the remake because that's some bullshit for newcomers )
After meeting Zelda you can go to Death Mountain, do the Dodongos Cavern, earn the bombs, and then you can do Jabu Jabu's belly... well you could theoretically leave the Dodongo's Cavern mid way through to get the bombs, then do Jabu Jabu and come back for Dodongo's Cavern.
Then once you finish all three, you go back to the Castle to trigger the scene with Ganondorf, and do the "Adult Link" portion of the game.
I'll say this... Doing Deku Tree first and then going to the Castle to talk to Zelda... that is important. It has to happen that way for the story to make sense... but there is very little reason that you should have to do Death Mountain and Zora's Domain in that order for the story. It would not be "Ruined" if you removed the one, single thing preventing you from doing the Zora's domain first ( the rocks blocking Zora's River ), the story would still happen as it normally would. It also doesn't impact the dungeons. You don't need bombs in Jabu Jabu. And you don't need the Boomerang in Dodongo's Cavern outside of grabbing maybe a few Gold Skulltula tokens that are too high.
It's whatever though. The adult portion of the game is what I was more interested in.
Now every major dungeon in this game requires a key item to get into. If you don't have it, you won't get far. Shiek immediately points you to the Hookshot, which is one of the most important tools in the game. You will also need a fire resistant tunic, and iron boots, silver gauntlets, and the lens of truth. You can go get half of those without needing anything from the first dungeon at all. The only thing preventing you from doing the Lens of Truth and Silver Gauntlets though? Arbitrary event flags that don't trigger until you defeat the first three dungeons which wouldn't impact the game's story at all if it were triggered earlier.
Anyway, I started with the Fire Temple, checking to see if I would need any items not yet in my inventory to complete it... I thought for a moment when I spotted a silver eye switch that I would need my bow. So I begrudgingly went to the Forest Temple to get the bow.
It is here that I discovered something I didn't know. If you enter one temple and activate Farores Wind, then enter another temple and use Farore's wind, you will teleport back to the temple you were just in! I did this by mistake but it worked out nicely for me, because I was back in the fire temple with my Bow.... It turns out, no, you don't need the bow for the Fire Temple because the only thing behind the door I just opened was a chest with the dungeon map in it. I don't need no stinkin' Map I know OOT like the back of my hand.
I then did the Water Temple. Now unlike the fire Temple, the bow actually was required for a few parts.... only like... twice. But you know what? Why could they not simply make it so you can activate the switch with your hookshot? What thing of value would be lost if you could clear the water temple without getting a bow? As far as I can tell, nothing. It wouldn't impact the story, because all the stories around the different temples do not intersect at all. The eye switch needing the arrows and only arrows is an arbitrary limitation and is not exactly a complex puzzle. You shoot it. That's all there is to it. The real test is using your longshot to go through the gate afterward.
After the Water Temple, I returned to finish off the Forest Temple.
This opened up the rest of the game to me, though ironically, I probably could have got the Lens of Truth sooner if I had finished the Forest Temple first, because Shiek refuses to let you go back in time until you finish that temple.... which is wholly unnecessary in my opinion. Maybe it might be an "ooh neat" reveal to come back later and learn "You can actually go back in time too!" but the game never really tells you this unless you physically walk back into the Temple of Time, and some players tend to get lost not knowing where to go after the water temple for this very reason. So this is why I think maybe it would be smart to let the player know they can go back in time a little earlier, and allow them to do so, it would also help them to not freak out if they think they missed something in the past and can't go back for it.
So at this point, the only thing left for me to do is Shadow and Spirit Temple. The Shadow Temple can not be physically reached until you finish all three Forest, Water, and Fire Temples because it flags a cutscene to happen. Why does it have to wait until then? I don't know. But Kakariko seems kind of untouched until this happens ( and honestly, seems pretty untouched afterward to. This scene seems almost incidental in the original so I hope there's lasting consequences for the fire in the game )
The game expects me to do the Shadow Temple next, I think. So I do Spirit Temple instead.... oh yeah, I didn't mention this but I got as many tools as I could as soon as I became adult Link, so I already had Epona and did the Gerudo's fortress. I didn't get caught once, but i'm pretty sure you at least need the hookshot to escape? I didn't think to try going there before getting the hookshot...
So I've discovered one blockade that that you actually do need from within one of the dungeons. The Longshot, or the hoverboots are needed to cross a stream of quicksand.... but that's it, just one little blockade, much like the rocks in Zora's River, nothing of value would be lost if this was removed.
However, this is where I stopped playing for the night. The child portion of the spirit temple is something you would only experience after getting all of the Young Link items anyway, so it doesn't really matter. But my memory isn't so good for the adult side. I know you get the silver gauntlets. But I don't recall if you ever need the hammer, long shot, bow, or hover boots for that dungeon. I only know it needs the silver gauntlets, some bombs, and the mirror shield. I think maybe the Longshot is needed to access the boss arena? But again, it's such a small thing
The more I play, the more I could see someone making very minimal changes to Ocarina to allow players to tackle the dungeons in any order without losing anything of value in the story or the "Flow" of gameplay, and it would be childs play for Nintendo to re-imagine Ocarina of Time in such a way that you can do all the adult Link dungeons in whatever order you please.
Will they do it? I don't know. We're still waiting to hear more about this remake.
But it does prove to me that Zelda fans are dumb little babies that don't understand that open worlds are not satan incarnate and won't ruin a game that is already pretty open, and linearity is not that important as long as you can flag the more important story bits to happen at the beginning, middle, and end respectively.
