Nintendo basically has the opportunity to improve/modernize OOT with the 3DS port. Do you want them to? Do you want more content in an already enormous game? How would you go about it (besides the Iron Boots thing)?

I would update the movement speed and fluidity to Twilight Princess standard and make the enemies faster and craftier to match it. I would also just have more enemies. More enemies, better AI, some unpredictable behavior. Hyrule Field should eventually be crawling with danger. I would also make Hyrule Field something of a huge, seamless obstacle course for Epona (people love ridin' horses, right?), with Equestrian mini-games built around it. And I'd sprinkle more secrets and hidden coves and unmarked bombable walls and burnable bushes across the game world, maybe with new rewards for finding them. (Oni Link?)

Finally, (unlockable?) HARD MODE. And maybe even an ULTRA-HARD MODE. Something to make the people who think Zelda has gone soft cry. Increased danger, enemy substitutions, lethal bosses with new attacks... the whole enchilada. (Oni Link Mode?)

Plus, Master Quest should be thrown in.

Oh, and I'd like more mini-games, preferably leveraging touch control and the awesome power of 3D!! (Bozo Buckets?)

Oops, I forgot the most important part: FOUR SWORDS ONLINE (with a side of Phantom Hourglass online). Pleeeeease, Nintendo. To be honest, I'm not even sure I'll pick this port up, but Four Swords would seal the fuckin' deal.

URL to share (right click and copy)

Ocarina of Time was the best game every made..It's Perfect the way it is. What are you smokin?

hahaha...haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

*ahem*

Making the interface easier to navigate is a definite must as you suggested with the iron boots but I don't think Nintendo is going to change anything except the textures in this port. Maybe it's because I wasted my creative thoughts at work today but I can't think of anything else other then what you have already mentioned. They should at least improve the look of Castle Town Market...

To be honest, having the N64 game, the GCN port (with improved resolution) and the option of getting the Wii VC port, I'm not sure I will be picking this one up... Especially if there is nothing new.

You know what would really be cool? Voices!!!

"Halt - who goes there!??"
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaargg" *throws boomerang up guards ass*

yay.

S

The great fairies should be even whorier.

Those great fairies... making them less disturbing would take away some of the game's weird, melancholy charm, I think.

I was thinking about Castle Town, too. Maybe make it fully 3D? More interactive and explorable?

Ooo, I would love an orchestral remix of the soundtrack, too. (Not gonna happennnnnn.)

Nintendo has actually already confirmed the Iron Boots thing. I'd like more contextual stuff, where possible. Although I guess the second screen could make switching items very easy and seamless. Some Phantom Hourglass-type map-writing puzzles would also be cool. And I'd love some sort of flying ability (in 3D!), through whatever means.

I'd also love a brand-new artstyle, but there's no way that's happening, either.

OOT is actually not one of my faves.

Hmm. I have this weird feeling that changing the speed of Link and such would change the whole feel too much for people looking for nostalgia.

But if I were to "fix" Ocarina of Time I'd redo the whole overworld, get rid of the hub feel and add in multiple paths and secrets that weren't just boring holes in the ground.

I'm pretty sure that in the end, they're not gonna change it enough to make me want to buy it again.

Adding colours would have been nice, though. Even back in the day, the muddy brown look of the game was a huge turn off for me.

Change the overworld into something other than a boring, lifeless hub with barely anything to do.

Make the Skulltulla quest reward not be terrible.

I can't think of much beyond that. I loved OoT at the time but I think it's probably aged the worst of any Zelda game to date aside from the original (which is probably my second favorite Zelda, but I can't imagine a noob playing that game and being able to put up with crap like the blue candle or that you might need to leave a dungeon to buy a key).

@Pandareus
In terms of the widespread American popularity of brown, it seems that OOT was ahead of its time.

How does one improve on perfection though? *whistle*

I'm at least half serious though. Improve the graphics for 3D of course. Give them as much extra detail as you can without compromising the original style (this seems to be happening). Then don't touch it. Much like the original Star Wars trilogy before Lucas futzed around with his "improvements", the greatness of the original should be preserved.

But as a compromise, recognizing the fact that the game should justify its purchase beyond simply being a prettier OoT in 3D, you're right in that it should have some extra stuff. Now whether this means the extra stuff is in the intial game and you can unlock "classic" OoT once completed, or the other way around will be open to debate.
Considering this is a new release, I suppose the logical way to go would be new version first, but then I worry that people won't play the classic version....and the purist in me dies a little inside at that thought.

The Master Quest remix should definetly be an unlockable though. And I do like your Four Swords idea Anand. IMO Four Swords was an awesome concept that never reached its potential due to the insane requirements for multiplayer. An online version would fix that right up.


PS nearly missed this: anandxxx said:

OOT is actually not one of my faves.

First the Metroid Prime travesty and now this?

*shakes head*

:P

Yeah, I'm a weirdo, I guess.

I just enjoy fast, tight, colorful games, which means 2D is generally more palatable to me than 3D.

I also feel that Four Swords never reached its considerable potential, though. You could pretty much say that about ALL of the neat GBA/DS multiplayer modes that aren't online. So many neat little modes that nobody ever played. How WAS 4-Player Boktai?

I DON'T KNOW!

I'm going to echo some of the things mentioned here already and add a few of my own.

1. A GOLDEN CARTRIGE. Just like old times. I can't believe no one has mentioned this one. How cool would it be to have a little Golden 3DS cartrige?
2. Fix the water dungeon. (I don't know how, just fix it)
3. More enemies, especially in Hyrule Field.
4. More secret areas everywhere.
5. Better more fluid camera.
6. Smother Epona riding.
7. Epona Minigames.
8. Horse combat (like in Twilight Princess)
9. Unlockable difficulty modes.
10. Master Quest.
11. Four Swords Online (@anandxxx This would turn a day one purchase into a camping at Gamestop for a month purchase).
12. Better Graphics. (this is a given)
13. No prerendered areas like Castle Town.
14. Voices and an option to turn them off. The Metal Gear games are proof that you can give new life and added personality to a decades old franchise. Look what David Hayter did to the character of Snake. Of course, they also have to be careful to choose great voice actors and have a solid script. For the other end of the spectrum, look at Super Mario Sunshine. I bet most people would prefer to never hear Bowser speak again, after that Voice Acting disaster.
15. Less creepy fairies.
16. Orchestral Soundtrack.
17. More Golden Skulltula rewards.

I don't hate OOT, but even at the time I didn't feel like it was the greatest game ever like so many people did.

I guess one major thing I'd want to change is to have more things available to do in the overworld. It's really rather barren, and I think the game would benefit from having extra hidden areas/locations to explore. Also, I'd make it so that it's possible to unfreeze Zora's Domain as an adult. I'd suggest improving the clunky aiming controls too, but I'm not sure if you could add to it all that much with the DS. Maybe if you're able to aim the arrow with the touch screen while being able to move freely, but since you select items from the touch screen (such as the aforementioned Iron Boots), I doubt Nintendo would incorporate that into the game.


EDIT: Four Swords Online would be incredible. I loved playing the original Four Swords with my friends in middle school back in the day, but since it's a multiplayer-only mode, it's basically unplayable to me today

I don't know, I just never finished it. It couldn't hold my attention. The visuals certainly didn't help, because it was a muddy mess on the N64. You had something like Banjo-Kazooie on the other side, which was bright and colorful and brilliantly art-ed. OoT was always ugly to me. The fact that they are saturating colors in the 3DS version and crisping the look up means I'm a happy camper. I don't like muted brown and green games. OoT was.

I'd fix the dungeons and the up-and-down difficulty curve. It's the biggest complaint against the core of the game that I've had for years. Deku Tree, Dodongo's Cave and Jabu Jabu have all a nice ramp up in difficulty. Certainly nothing to write home about, but they do a nice gentle ramp up. Then you finally hit the "turning point" and become Adult Link. At this point, I'd expect the difficulty to continue in that upward trend but the game, for some strange reason, spikes you back down like the difference in age makes the two "characters" play any differently. Forest Temple and Fire Temple are both considerably easier than Jabu Jabu, Water Temple only had a ton of annoyances to make it "hard", and then after that I'd say only the Shadow Temple REALLY made me feel like I was hitting the Adult Link stride. Spirit Temple is also really easy.

The Forest Temple is also one of the worst laid out maps in terms of flow in the entire game, so I'd fix that. They are already addressing the issues with the Water Temple with the Iron Boots. I liked the Spirit Temple, because I feel like it gave the Sage a little more connection to the player with having Adult LInk go in there to learn the warp, come back as a kid and then kind of follow that tale to its...tragic?...end.

I'd also try to strike a bigger connection between the player and the "future-Sage" because I feel like the game totally missed out on that one. Saria was about the only one I felt connected to. The Spirit Temple one was a great idea, just executed poorly given the time frame to set up the connection. Ruto was just a creep, but I guess since they made that connection they worked. Impa and the Goron dude? Bad. Oh, and that Light Sage guy. He just comes and then is like gone.

This is getting into more radical changes, but I feel like Majora's Mask nailed the NPCs and their relation to the world. Something that Ocarina of Time completely phoned in. Everyone is doing the same exact thing they are doing regardless of whether you are child or adult, only thing that changes is where they are at. No-one seems to give a shit that the Royal Family is gone, the Knights of Hyrule are dead, and that they've been cast out of their village. Hell, weird shit is happening everywhere around them (cloud above Death Mountain, shadow monster out of a well, Hyrule Lake is half-full, etc) and it's like "Hey, bro, let's juggle these balls for 7 more years by this tree LOL". Not sure how they could get that into the game (NOT asking for a 3-day system) but I think having NPCs aware of the situation makes it that much more enjoyable of an experience.

Also, maybe just for once, I'd like the feeling that I'm saving people from evil. Not saying a bunch of ignorant assholes who send me on pointless tasks while some evil mad-man just rips apart their entire lives.

@Het_Nkik

I'd be down for that.

---
But generally, all I'd want is the Master Quest to be thrown in. That would make me so happy.

---
And the following from SirMasterSephiroth;

sirmastersephiroth said:

1. A GOLDEN CARTRIGE. Just like old times. I can't believe no one has mentioned this one. How cool would it be to have a little Golden 3DS cartrige?
3. More enemies, especially in Hyrule Field.
9. Unlockable difficulty modes.
11. Four Swords Online (@anandxxx This would turn a day one purchase into a camping at Gamestop for a month purchase).
12. Better Graphics. (this is a given)
13. No prerendered areas like Castle Town.
16. Orchestral Soundtrack.

Shadowlink said:

First the Metroid Prime travesty and now this?

Metroid Prime did what Zelda (in 3D) never did... created a fluid, seamless interconnected world.

Yeah I said it.

I'd start off by making it suck less.... *grabs Goron Fire Tunic*

Otherwise, as others have said, make it less barren and more interactive. I liked the fact that TP had caves to explore (even if the "reward" sucked). It was tons better than random holes in the ground. Hyrule Field was just a boring mess. I tried to get through it as fast as possible because the only thing of any interest in it was Lon Lon Ranch.

Dream big you guys, dream big. LOL

get rid of the unskippable dialogue

Would you like TheBladeRoden to repeat that?
>Yes
>Yes

@missypissy Forest and Fire Temples, easier than the young Link dungeons? No way; I had much more trouble with them than I did any of the young Link dungeons as a kid.