I have been slowly going through the game. I played it on the N64 but didn't get real far (can't even remember how far I got).

I got to the Temple of Time last week and just finished the first boss after that (Phantom Gannon). Phantom Gannon was the worst boss (concept not difficulty) so far imo.

The temples/shrines are incredible puzzles, especially considering when they were made. The difficulty progression is just right so far. I have used zero hints (unless you count Navi's talking) and have not looked up anything online for it, so I feel pretty accomplished after figuring out the dungeons and bosses.

Every dungeon I get to a point where I'm on the verge of wanting to give up and then the light bulb hits me and I solve whatever was holding me back. It's like the game is in my head knowing when I'm about to cave and then it lets me in

I love the 3D, interface, graphics, puzzles, and items. The main song that plays in the plains sounds very Suikoden-ish though...which is great, but it's too close imo...fantastic song but...

I have not done many side quests yet. Gotten one Poe, got all the rupees in the water world, working on shooting all the rupees for target practice. Someone else mentioned that they didn't feel the desire to explore and that's been my feeling as well. In rpgs like Final Fantasy, exploration is one of my favorite aspects (in Mass Effect 2, my most hated part was not being able to explore even as much as the first one...among other complaints)...so I'm a bit disappointed with the exploration aspect of OOT so far. I could look around for side quest stuff...and I would IF it added to the story and/or had new creatures/weapons to find and defeat (ie: Final Fantasy). I know zelda's are not made the same...just an aspect that I've been personally disappointed in.

Not sure if I'll decide to hit those side quest or wait until I potentially do the Master Quest (if I do)

The only other complaint I have is starting back in my house or the beginning of a temple...I want to save exactly where I am at (suppose you can if you just close the 3DS, but you can't access other games/apps)...

I am afraid the difficulty will continue to increase and length of the dungeons will become unbearable for my taste, but hopefully not.

I have truly enjoyed it so far.

Just one thing to point out that if you get Farore's Wind, you can create a warp point in any dungeon to return to if you save and quit or if you just want to stock up outside the dungeon. It's easy to find too. Just go to Zora's Fountain at the back of Zora's Domain and go out to the corner of the fountain area and blow a hole in the wall to reveal the Great Fairy Fountain that will give you Farore's Wind. I use it every time I quit and have gone quite far into a temple.

Heehee, I beat the Fire Temple without getting the compass. Anyway, I'm on my way to the Shadow Temple.

I've now made it to Ganon's Castle but I'm trying to glitch my way through the barrier because I can't be bothered doing the 6 trials and also because I've never done a glitch at an important time where it actually matters. But I seem to fail at doing glitches and need some practice. So I went sidequesting. I traded all the masks to get the Mask of Truth. I beat the Shooting Galleries and the Bombchu Alley and the Treasure Hunting game. I was going to get the Biggoron's Sword but forgot how. :/ I think part of me wants to prolong this game because after I kill Ganondorf, I will likely not come back to the game for ages and stop playing my 3DS regularly. I know there's Master Quest but I've beaten that before and I don't know I want to go through the game again right after finishing it.

I'm in the middle of the biggoron sword guest right now. All I can say is it starts with hatching an egg!

OH . MY . GOD !!!!! And just when i thought i couldn’t fail any harder …

You know what I did since my last post ? I could unlock all the masks for young Link and showed them to anyone I could find. That must have taken me about two hours. I found out how by accident. And here’s why.

I tried to find out how to get into the well. While logically it was pretty easy to guess what you have to do to get inside I just couldn’t figure out where to find the song I needed.
I came up with the wildest answers to the questions that went around in my head. Where can you learn it ? Who could I learn it from ? Why can’t I get everything in the Fire Temple, does it have anything to do with it ? Where do these lightnings come from, can I go there ? Can I get into the upper parts of the Windmill by using the slingshot ?

So i wandered around, hearing all the same s*** from people again and nearly losing my last remaining sanity. Yesterday i finally did it. Not that I really figured it out though.
It was more because I was desperate enough to try just about anything then. That was eight hours after i was told to go inside the well.
I guess you can you imagine how stupid yet reliefed I felt. And i’m still glad I could make it by myself without using a Sheikah Stone.

So …
Bottom of the well, here I come !

Dude I got this cool Sword of Mastery or whatever, a time-traveling flute, a huge pony, and grew up like 6 years. Anyone else ever seen that stuff in this game?

.....
Anyway I have beaten the game now! Took me exactly 2 weeks. Was pretty awesome seeing the ending. And the orchestrated track at the end. I have one big complaint: the lack of an autosave feature at the end. I did some boss battles as a kid and then took down the 6 barriers and beat Ganondorf all at once and as always I forgot to save before killing Ganon and of course I lost everything I had just done. And I had done all the bosses as a kid and unlocked Gauntlet as well as doing the 6 trials and getting the Golden Gauntlets. ;( So I don't think I will be going back to the normal quest again. At least I unlocked Master Quest. I'm not sure if I will go through it all again right after beating the game and having beaten Master Quest before though.

Beat the game last Wednesday.

Got the Hookshot.
_{/insightful comment}

Wasn't this suppose to end today. Anyways I finally finished today in epic fashion. Had to grind my way through 5 dungeons in just over a week. The same great game I remember but looks so much better now. Ill wait to go through the master quest though because I've got to many other games that need attention. This is still my all time favorite and has aged well over the years.

i beat master quest a week ago

Question for all. Actually two. What dungeon did you feel like was the hardest and which one the easiest. I had the most trouble with the water temple because of one block I didn't realize I could push. I felt like the shadow temple was easy for some reason. That's of course the regular quest. I've heard from a few people the fire temple is the hardest on the master quest!

From easiest to hardest:
Great Deku Tree
Fire Temple- Beat this in about an hour. Didn't even find the compass, lol
Dodongo Cavern
Spirit Temple
Shadow Temple
Water Temple
Jabu Jabu- Ruto messed me up a LOT in this one
Forest Temple

((((Im talking about Master Quest)))) the fire temple is my favorite and probably the hardest out of them all. i felt like i spent the most time in there compared to every other temple, and then the forest temple was just aggravating at times, but the easiest was great deku tree (obliviously)

Almost forgot!! the well was soo stupid, i had no idea what to do!! and then i finally figured it out and i had to use the internet to help me through one part in the shadow temple

LOL I didn't find the map to the fire temple. It was very linear for sure. You couldn't go any where without a key.

Well, this is meant to be the finishing point, but I'm only in the well in Kakariko village. That part is so frustrating, which in my mind is reflective of the game as a whole. How in the blue blazes was I meant to figure out what to do?

POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING (ASSUMING YOU'RE AS SLOW AS I AM)

So. To get to the well you have to get the windmill to go round faster. The music-box man says something along the lines of, "Grrr, it's all that Ocarina Kids fault, I'll never forget that day seven years ago!" That gives me virtually no indication whatsoever that my past self played a song that somehow made the windmill go faster, which then drained the well. By "Ocarina Kid" I just assumed he was generally talking about Link, rather than hinting at the fact one has to whip out the Ocarina. I might be over-thinking this, but where's the logic in teaching somebody with an ocarina the very same song that once apparently ruined his life before? WHERE IS THE LOGIC!? For some reason, my mind couldn't seem to grasp that, so I was left repeatedly mega-ton-hammering the rock, shouting, "Damn it all, just break you b*rst*rd!" followed by lobbing bombs at it, in the desperate hope something would happen. I mean, what's that huge rock doing there anyway? Surely it's there to be broken?! Never did it cross my mind that the rock was actually completely irrelevant and that I had to go back in time and talk to some random weirdo in a windmill. Never mind the fact that it's somewhat irrational to get so worked up over a windmill spinning slightly faster and then bearing a grudge for a whole seven years because of it. All of these illogical factors completely threw me off the scent and in summary, I was greatly vexed by this.

Finally, after hours upon hours of this, I gave up and used a walkthrough. This was not the first time I had to resort to one either. All of the dungeons I enjoyed, but the bits in between I just found ridiculously frustrating. _{It's obviously just me though...} Unfortunately, the bits I enjoy most in a Zelda game are the bits in-between (I'm not saying I don't enjoy the dungeons, I do, but they play second fiddle) so this was a bit disappointing, especially seeing as the hub-world (Hyrule Field) is so small. I'll wait till I finish it completely, but for now at least, this certainly wasn't the masterpiece I was expecting, but still very enjoyable for the most part.

Jabu-Jabu, particularly Princess Ruto who disappeared whenever I threw her into a wall by accident, and the Forest Temple were the most difficult dungeons for me. Easiest were probably the Great Deku Tree (obviously) and the Water Temple.

P.S: I finally managed to complete the archery mini-game, which was one of the happiest moments of my life. Ultimately though, those extra 30 arrows (which I've never needed) cost me about 500 rupees.

@Jango-Forest: Did you read post #66 ? _{99,99 % spoiler free if that's your concern.}

SPOILERS
I know the session is supposed to be over, but I'm going through this REALLY slowly. It might be because it's my second time playing it, I dunno. I just beat the water temple (which I don't find as hard as it's made out to be) and found the fishing game.. It's kind of fun, actually.

Just beat it. Personally, I find the game to be just as fun the second time around. The ending was made much less dramatic by my naming of the main character as Dan instead of Link. Maybe someday I'll be motivated enough to complete the game.