The Seven-Year Silence: How Ocarina Of Time Held My Grief At Seven Years Old

A writer recalls how The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time became his safe space to process his father's suicide at age seven. Having named the hero after himself in his first Zelda game, he connected the Great Deku Tree's death to his own sense of guilt over his father's absence. The game's lonely opening and Link's forced departure from Kokiri Forest mirrored his own premature entry into adulthood.