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10/10 for a 4-5hour game! Finished it without any help/cheat/browsing.

Comparable to Metroid II: Return of Samus (but Zelda and in N64); Very atmospheric and horror-creepy. I even got jump-scared by a deku baba because of the placing of it and the camera at that specific location! :D

I loved that the game wasn't crazy difficult and 50 hours long and tedious but more fast paced with a nice flow. A very short game but so atmospheric audio, level design and dialogue. So much fun!! It successfully managed to give me a sense of epic adventure I haven't felt in years. I just wanted to try it out but then couldn't stop playing until I had reached completion.

Given the limited resources and small team of devs & people involved in this. This hack is easily 10/10 for what it is; music, story, cutscenes, gameplay (creative implementation of new items, fun puzzles, level design etc.), aesthetics and visuals.

I mean, ALL of the puzzles were very easy and "obvious" but it still didn't feel like a waste of time playing the game. Quite the opposite, it felt like it was worth it due to the fact. Because it wasn't tedious and farfetched with annoying backtracking and filler-time-killer like gameplay. It was still very satisfying when you figured out some of the puzzles, even though they were "obvious" and not that hard or complicated, felt like the game had a flow, you never got stuck. It made me feel like I was 7 years old again, exploring the inside of the deku tree for the first time thanks to the creativity, plot, sounds, music & textures/graphics. Thank you Kaze et al.! Again, 10/10 rh! (I consider OOT 10/10 & MM 9.X/10) Wish we could see more short romhacks like this one, it really was a blast.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD Just know that I highly recommend this hack. Play it now!

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This hack was excellent in many ways. The music, foremost, is spectacular. It has a very melancholy feel that perfectly fits the game's tone. The music for Deep Woods is one of my most favorite video game songs of any Zelda game. The new areas are great, too. I particularly liked Cluck Cluck Ranch, where you have to race Epona, and Monktown Valley, which had the intriguing backstory of it being cursed due to Gerudo intruders, and you have to chase the intruders away to restore it to its former state.

Besides the music and areas, there are plenty of other cool things about the hack. For example, Bombchus were very rarely ever needed in both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask except in a couple puzzles in each game. 99% of the time, regular Bombs were sufficient. So, it's an interesting change of pace that Bombchus are your only explosive item in this game, thus giving them a chance to shine. And I really liked Link's new Soul-Charged Kokiri Sword that lets you shoot beam attacks to solve puzzles. (It also finally provides an explanation for why the Kokiri Sword has a different design in Majora's Mask compared to Ocarina of Time. I always wondered about that.) The Bunny Hood gets a fun boost, too, as it not only lets you move faster, but now jump much farther, which is necessary for the dungeon at the end.

Speaking of the game's one dungeon, Hollow Root Keep... Let me just say that I actually view it among the best dungeons in the mainline games. The dungeon's aesthetic is fascinatingly eerie and mysterious. It features switch-block puzzles, which are one of my favorite types of puzzles in video games. The Floormaster mini-boss that's a souped-up version of the normal Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask Floormaster was cool. And the brand new dungeon item, the Magic Hourglass, which lets you rewind yourself back in time through your most recent movements (giving the game a time-based element just like Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask), was used so cleverly from the moment you get it. I was genuinely stumped on how to I was supposed to reach the dungeon's basement, until I realized the answer was in using the Hourglass. I'd say that is proof of great level design. It was even required for the custom end boss just like other Zelda bosses, and said required use was, again, very clever and well-integrated. Props to the creators for the custom boss, by the way, rather than just using an existing Ocarina of Time boss.

If I had to name any negatives, there would be probably two things. First, the lack of an aiming projectile weapon like the slingshot makes hitting Keese pretty frustrating. And since your sword's beam attack is fire-based, if the beam hits the Keese before your sword does, it turns them into Fire Keese, which makes things more frustrating. And second, if you target an enemy and listen to the enemy info, when the textbox closes you stop targeting the enemy, unlike in Ocarina of Time where Navi will immediately target the enemy again. (I'm assuming the later is a bug.)

These are ultimately minor complaints, though. Overall, The Missing Link is a short-but-sweet experience that I highly recommend that anyone who likes Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask gives a try. As far as I'm concerned, this hack is canon in my eyes.

9/10, definitely would play again.

A little interquel between Ocarina and Majora's Mask that tries to link the two together? Sounds like a good idea, but does this hack pull it off?

Let's start with the positives. Visually the hack does a great job. It's a pretty good mix of vanilla assets with new ones. I especially enjoyed the cursed town. The puzzles were enjoyable as was the little story behind it. Using different secret entrances in the houses to travel around the area was well done. Having all the Redeads turn back into the townspeople was a great way to wrap it up. I'd say this section was the best part of the hack. They even made a few new NPC models. The giant skull in the Deku town was well crafted too.

The puzzles were overall pretty good. There's one new item for you to find in the dungeon and it gets some good use. I like that it's time based considering we are playing as the hero of time. There's also a number of heart pieces scatter about the areas for you to find if you decide to take the time to look around. It's always refreshing to have the bunny hood with the speed increase. Being able to jump farther is a new plus. The sword beam was a neat little addition as well. A nice tool for both puzzles and combat. I would really have liked it you could use it other directions besides just directing in front of Link.

Now for the negatives. While the puzzles were pretty good, the rest of the dungeon aspects were kind of a pain. The enemies in particular really got on my nerves after a while. You have very low health so the little pot shots they get in add up quickly. The designers of this really liked putting keese all over the place. You don't get any kind of range weapon, so they are a constant annoyance. The fights with the bosses felt more like endurance tests than anything else. The final boss in particular gives you a very small window to hit its weak point. Combined with the low health it felt like cheap, fake difficulty. Traveling around could also be a pain. After the cursed town there is an awful lot of platforming to do. In the older Zelda games it was there, but not to this extent. Some of the jumps were simply too demanding. Why is it not enough to just jump off a ledge with the bunny hood, do we really need to roll jump?

The biggest issue I have with this hack is the story. It advertises itself as bridging the gap between the 64 games, but it really doesn't. The only bridge is that Link finds himself in the middle of the woods after the little adventure is over. It has some interesting story elements, but none of them get explained or have much connection to each other. It starts out with the Kokiri getting their fairies stolen by a mysterious figure. Who exactly was this guy and what was he trying to do with them? Beats me, we never get to see him. Unless the giant spider tree thing was supposed to be the one going around doing it all.

I'd also like to know why Kokiri Forest was redesigned. This is supposed to be happening right after the end of Ocarina, so why is it completely different? Saria apparently tried to stop this fairy thief and got killed. She put her soul in a sword, which makes for a neat creepy visual with her ghost, but there's no real point to it. You could take her out of the story and it wouldn't change anything.

The areas you go through don't have any real connection to each other. I enjoyed the cursed town, but the only reason you go there is to get bombchus. There is a little deku town and a cucco ranch, but they are also just there so Link can get some new items in order to get to the dungeon. There isn't any story flow, no cause and effect, nothing tying everything together.

There's no real conclusion either. You beat the final boss, see a short scene of the Kokiri with their fairies again, and...that's it. You think they could have at least shown Skull Kid stalking Link as he rides Epona in the woods. This is why you have to get help from someone who knows how to write. Otherwise this is what you get, a bunch of disjointed events and a sudden ending.

While the hack starts out pretty good, it felt like things went downhill after the little adventure in the cursed town. I think this hack really need to go through a few more drafts. It was made by a small group for fun, so I'm not expecting them to go all out trying to polish it. I don't think I can recommend it though. At best I can say it's a neat little curiosity. I absolutely do not think this is good enough to be considered "The DLC we never got," or "The missing chapter between OoT and MM."

The game was frustrating. Not knowing what to do next is not fun. This game made me want to smash my controller. The jumping was extremely frustrating. There's bad level design. The only good thing I can say about this game is that the music is really good.

Overall one of the best romhacks you can find with a lot of original content. A few issues keep it from matching the quality of the original game but it's definitely worth checking out.

Pros:

• Lots of cool new areas with unique visuals.
• New item is a really cool (if a bit unoriginal) puzzle mechanic.
• Good puzzle and dungeon design that introduces the player to mechanics before they face more challenging puzzles.
• Plays nicely on hardware.
• New music is always nice though it isn't quite up to standard with official Zelda titles.
• New cutscenes in lots of areas.

Cons:

• Lots of bugs with the new puzzle mechanic which causes softlocks often.
• Many areas are WAY too dark to see well on a TV. Makes navigation difficult and makes important things easy to miss.
• Vanilla dungeon enemies are intended to be encountered on flat open areas (like how they appear in the original game) but Missing Link has them in rooms with lots of vertticality which causes the enemies to glitch out or become stuck, often resulting in a softlock.
• Encountering adult enemies as child Link is a novel change but these encounters take a long time due to child Link's sword dealing so little damage with each hit. Not overly difficult unless you consider the annoying floor layouts in these encounters, mentioned above.
• Save does not work on Everdrive 3.07. (Confirmed this was not an Everdrive issue or incorrect setting. Does the hack change the save type? This is not mentioned.)
• The story does not match the events of Ocarina of Time even though the romhack description and readme says it does. (But it's still interesting enough on it's own.)

A short hack, but it brings a good plot for what it proposes. I played in 1 day and it was hours of fun exploring the new scenarios. I was afraid of Monktow Valley, the soundtrack along with the ambiance really made me nervous in a Zelda lol, along with the final boss that made me afraid when I arrived at his door after all the background that was put, which was very fair, the fight is in fact very good and a little difficult! The Piece of Hearts were pretty cool to collect. Kaze thought of something else to put himself in addition to the main focus of the story, he was right on that.

It only has 1 dungeon, but for me it was enough because it is one of the best dungeons I have ever played, along with the item itself that was used very creatively and I was very shocked when I found the entrance to the final rooms, because it really didn't I thought what I did was going to work.

It looks like something Nintendo would have done themselves. For a few moments I forgot that I was playing a ROM hack and I started to think that it was an official game because of the plot and all the details that were put here and there.

Just play, good Zelda fans will enjoy this short adventure!

Simply a must-play for people who like Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. This hack is proof that the developers are able to make high-quality games. I fail to name a single weird/annoying/flawed thing about this hack and I agree with the compliments and positive points all the other reviews have already listed.

I truly enjoyed this hack. The creators really went above and beyond when they developed this game. After you start in the forest, the story unfolds gradually as you work your way through several OoT and MM-esque locations. The various areas lead you to the game's sole dungeon. The dungeon nails the level design of the early 3-D Zelda titles, and the puzzles are simultaneously fresh and nostalgic. The dungeon even sports an item not found in OoT and MM. This adds a new gameplay element. My only critique is that the game is short; you can finish it in an afternoon or two. Give this game a try!

I dont know where to start, total must play. Lots of custom graphics, bosses, items, music. All comes together to feel like its really apart of the zelda timeline. I cannot be grateful enough for what Kaze has done for the rom hacking community and can't wait to see more of his projects come to fruition.

• cough cough* return to yoshis island.

The Legend of Zelda: The Missing Link is one of the best ROM hacks I've ever played. There is so much attention to detail in this game that it feels like official DLC for Ocarina of Time. Absolute highlights are the environments, custom graphics and the final dungeon. The Missing Link features a completely new soundtrack, which is of such an insane quality, that my jaw dropped several times. For example, search on YouTube for the track "Deep Woods". The haunting feeling of that track just nails the Majora's Mask like atmosphere to perfection. That track alone is testament to the amazing work that went into The Missing Link. Try it today, you will surely not be disappointed!

This is the best ROM hack I've played. It's also pretty much as good as Ocarina and Majora themselves (at the cost of a short length, which in my opinion was worth it). The dungeon at the end of this hack truly serves as a highlight, and is much better than what Nintendo has thrown about with its more recent iterations. A true puzzle box dungeon, as it should be. Not follow the path, but find the path.

Nintendo, take notes! You may take down this guy's stuff over and over, but that doesn't make you capable of matching this incredible high bar, set by your own fans.

Spiolers Ahead: The game starts off with some nice drawing and story on how Link the Hero of Time defeated Ganon and Link was sent back in time to relive his childhood but went on a journey to find his missing friend Navi who left after Ocarina of Time was done which brings you into a adventure before Majoras Mask started Games starts you off in a different looking Kokiri Forest which doesn't really make sense because its in the same time-line as in Ocarina of Time, but nice little spice up to the rom. The game tells link to go to Saria's house and (in ghost form) to tell you that there's a Fairy collecting demon that's been eating all the fairys which gives link the Soul-charged Kokiri Sword which adds a nice little sword beam to it to give you a more little feel of 2D Zelda games, and sends Link again on another adventure to save the forest and fairys

Gotta say, this game adds some nice little areas to this game and the music created involved in it, (Favorites are "Deep Woods" & Deku Road) A Nice little area called "Monktown Valley" which has a nice library to give you some information about the game and tricks to defeat some enemies, and how evil curse took over the town and turned everyone into ReDeads, No Fairys to collect as a Demon has been collecting them so nice to have Epona's song to at least get some Milk from cows to help you on your adventure. The game also adds to some Heart Pieces to collect as you can some-what power up before making to the Temple to fight the Fairy Demon, also nice little mini quests to get more items to progress so not just a straight forward path to the Demon, fight and end the game

Also along Deku Road, some nice looking textures that make the mod look great, and the music that goes along with it, I can tell the creator had love for Links Awakening, as you use a blue roaster (Cojiro) as a flying to mechanic to make it past some ledges you cant grab, and also the new dungeon design that had a LA feel to it with the Blue & Red switch puzzles, the new Item they made in the dungeon was a fantastic piece to add to follow how you can go back in time like in Majoras Mask shows latter. Plus the Fairy collecting Demon boss is such a custom boss design that I didn't think was possible to make and better than just a regular vanilla boss fight

For me, I as able to beat this game in 3 or so hours time without any spoilers are guides to help me, plus i'm sure I was able to 100% with collecting all the hearts and extra items this game had to add. I can say this is a great mini rom that felt like an official Nintendo game intended to show you how Link makes it and gets lost looking for Navi going into the lost woods and reaching the parallel world Termina

Solid Game: 9.5/10

I was very impressed with this ROM hack. It felt more like its own short little Zelda game. It had original music and even a new item, and nothing felt out of place like it didn't mesh with the original Zelda game. Absolutely well done. Really enjoyed playing it, was sad when it was over.

TLDR: A must play for any OoT fan. Seriously. Go in blind and experience the most official-feeling sequel to OoT that will likely ever exist.

Where to even begin with this one... If you're familiar with some of the other work done by Kaze, it's no surprise to learn that this OoT mini-adventure is brimming with top-notch quality in every department. Together with CDi-Fails, Zel, and others from an incredibly talented team, this hack truly feels like professional work.

This 3-4 hour hack tells and interlude story between Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, and doesn't skimp on the world building. You'll visit mostly unfamiliar environments with well-written dialogue and characters providing some of the lore and background. Some of the new landscapes are super immersive and come with an absolutely breath-taking soundtrack to really immerse you in them. Beyond just having catchy melodies, the composers also did an expert job of utilizing some of the ambient sounds that bring shaded woods and eerie dungeons to life. Some of the music was so good that I found myself immediately searching for the OST on Youtube to listen on loop (Deep Woods is fantastic!). Graphics and models have been revamped and updated (more akin to those used in Majora's Mask), and aside from some new NPCs looking a little odd, nothing ever felt "out of place" or unprofessional to any degree.

The actual gameplay and design is also fantastic. Every puzzle is wonderfully crafted and even when they involve familiar items, they are often done in a way not found in the original games. There are even a surprisingly large amount of little mini-games and optional puzzles to solve for things like pieces of heart, and they feel rewarding to figure out. A new sword obtained early on does make combat pretty trivial for the most part, but it also lends itself to some of the unique puzzle-solving you can do. All the other new items introduced are fun to use and allow for some really cool experimentation. The game also does a good job of not completely holding your hand. There were 2 or so times that I got stuck for a bit and had to explore and experiment to found out how to proceed. By making it through all this, you're rewarded with an entirely new boss to fight, which is challenging, beautifully designed, and probably one of my favorites even compared to the ones from the original games.

To Kaze, CDi-Fails, Zel, and everyone else involved, thank you. Playing this was an amazing experience I won't soon forget!

The only thing that holds this back is its short length.

The content provided is nothing short of amazing! It truly feels like some sort of lost DLC/add-on to Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, neatly bridging the gap between the two!

But, it could and maybe should have been longer and more substantial. There's only one dungeon, and it will leave you wanting more.

Nevertheless, everyone should play this!

I played this the day it was released and I beat it within a few hours, so getting my biggest complaint out of the way: It's a very short hack. There's a linear progression and a single dungeon, but it's still incredibly well made. I enjoyed nearly every moment playing and would almost mistake this for an official Nintendo works if I didn't know better!

Because of the game's short length, there's no much to collect, but there are heart pieces, a few weapons here and there, bottles, and, surprisingly, an entirely new dungeon item that works great, I won't spoil it but it's really cleverly done and I'd love to see it return in a future hack. A returning item has also been modified to have more utility.

That's not all that's new. I believe the game has some new character models, a new story, some impressive new events, and most impressive of all, a completely new boss that's really tough and requires some thinking to beat.

There's also a new story that attempts to bridge the gap between Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, explaining the origin of Link's new sword and shield and adding more urgency to his quest to find Navi. It's a pretty effective story, but I question a choice they made with a key Ocarina of Time character.

If you can't get enough of your N64 favorites like me I can't recommend it enough, it won't be a full length adventure but it's a great extra mission to play. Think of it as a DLC mode to OOT.

Also, best of all, this hack runs on a real Nintendo 64 nearly perfectly. I say nearly because the game froze once at the start, and then it froze many times during the final boss... seemed to happen when the boss landed a killing blow on me, so, save frequently. And bring lots of milk.