Zelda: OOT is centered around a massive, circular field called Hyrule. Around this field are pathways which lead off to various different locations such as dungeons, castles, villages, volcanoes, etc... Each path will lead to usually one destination like a castle, and once explored, you travel back across Hyrule field and visist another pathway which leads to a different location. This makes areas more accessible, and it makes backtracking as less tedius as possible, due to the fact that you're not endessly travelling through pre-explored ares. Backtracking is an important feature of OOT, due to the fact that when you progress through the game you aquire objects which give you the ability to explore areas more thoroughly ... bombs for instance blow up walls that hide secret paths. Hockshots give you the ability to ascend to higher ledges. The Ocarina of Time opens secret doors. Thus, pre explored areas which you thought were unimportant can in fact conceal the most important instruments and dungeons in the game. This is compounded, when at one point in the game you aquire the Master Sword. This is a special sword which, upon claiming, makes you and the world age by seven years, and by doing the reverse, putting the sword back in it's mold, makes you and the world 7 years younger. The good thing about this is that the past and future are profoundly different. The future is controlled by evil, whereas the past is controled by good. Needless to say, your mission in the game is to liberate peice by peice the future world from the evil Ganondolf. However, in order to do so you must travel back and forth in time creating situations which will have an impact on the future world.