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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64) discussion [game]
 
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64
9.64/10 from 137 user ratings

Welcome to the official discussion thread for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the N64!

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Greatest game of all time!

It's not flawless, for sure. The graphics don't hold up well (they're still beautiful to me <3) and the action button can seem wonky, but Ocarina is definitely my favorite game still.

It's easy to point to the music, bosses, writing, or any of a million other things to say why it's so great, but one thing that I think is ignored far too often is the variety of the game's environmental sidequests and puzzles. I'm a sucker for action-adventure games because of their sidequests and worlds, but I feel like a lot of games in that genre don't have enough variety in their sidequests. The quests feel like they were created by someone using a level editor tool, placing enemies here and trinkets there. That can work very well, but OoT does it better.

In Ocarina of Time, every single part of the environment is crafted for a specific purpose. "Oh, there's a heart piece on top of the lakeside laboratory? How am I gonna get that?" "A graveyard? Is there even anything in here? Wait, what happens if I pull this grave...?" Even the dumb little things like the incredibly easy slingshot minigame in the Lost Woods add to the overall feeling of having endless possibilities to explore this world.

Whereas a lot of open-world games make you feel like you're going down a list of objectives to complete everything, Ocarina of Time encourages thinking and exploration. It just feels so organic. It's what makes Majora's Mask so great too. MM did it differently by having a ton of NPCs, a ton of text, and even a full-on quest log, and yet the game still feels organic because of the variety in the quests and the manner in which the player goes about discovering them.

So what do you guys love (or hate!?) most about Ocarina of Time? I didn't even mention the awesome dungeon design or the incredible minimalist story. So much to love about this game!

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09/17/12, 02:21    Edited: 09/17/12, 08:09
 
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@Secret_Tunnel

I do believe I have the original version of this game then!..... somewhere. I distinctly remember the crescent moon shapes on the sheild and flags, etc. As a kid, I never made the Muslim connection. Now, I guess I can see how it would be poor taste. Especially after reading elsewhere, and then remembering, that you have to step on the symbol a lot. So much for religious tolerance, Japan!

The blood thing never phased me as a kid, I always thought it was cool. But I can see why they changed it to green.

I did not know they changed the music in the fire temple! Probably because I never played the game to that point again in any of the newer versions.

Man, what a great game.
09/17/12, 14:14   
What really sticks with me from Ocarina is the weird, melancholy atmosphere created by the music and the pacing and the dreamlike, wordless cutscenes. Very eerie. I wonder if that was intentional.
09/17/12, 17:48   
@Anand

Wordless cut scenes? There was text all over the place in that game's cut scenes! There was no spoken dialogue of course, but back then not many games did.

I never got a melancholy vibe from Ocarina of Time. Well...maybe when I got to the part where you have to go to the future for the first time, as well as the "Bottom of the Well" and of course the "Shadow Temple." But other than those three instances, it was a fairly bright and cheery game.

Majora's Mask on the other hand...THAT game was eerie.
09/17/12, 19:34   
@GameDadGrant
Yeah, voiceless, I guess.

You didn't get an eerie vibe, really? Even the title screen is haunting! That lonely clipping and clopping.
09/17/12, 19:46   
@Anand @GameDadGrant

I'm with Anand. The game definitely gives off a melancholy vibe to me, and it's a huge part of the awesomeness of the game. Every interaction with Sheik is pretty somber, which really helps add to the gravity of the situation Hyrule is in. Sheik isn't there to chit chat, he's there to give Link what he needs to get the job done and get out of there. Then, once his identity is revealed, you realize that each of those moments really had another layer of depth. It all culminates in the final moment of the game.

Really well done stuff, playing to the hardware's limitations. Unfortunately Nintendo forgot that less is more in Zelda storytelling.
09/17/12, 19:53   
I thought a lot of the stuff after Link aged was melancholy. A little bitter-sweet meeting up with all the old friends, and sadness seeing how things got so terrible in just seven years.
09/17/12, 19:55   
@Jargon
I still think that the storytelling in Other M would have been way better if they just removed the voice acting completely and let the images speak for themselves.
09/17/12, 19:55   
@Anand

What, Samus frantically sweating and pointing to the air con controls on her suit, whilst Adam just sits there and shakes his head?
09/17/12, 23:18   
@Anand

Hmm, I never got a melancholy or eerie vibe much. The title screen just seemed like the calm before the storm. It was peaceful, to me. Not eerie or off-putting.

I think I get where you guys (@Anand,@Jargon, @VickiL) are coming from in terms of meeting up with old friends and Sheik when in the future...but I didn't see it as sad. I saw it as a goal to "set things right" again. And when you beat the temples, things were always so cheery afterwards. You got the twig-chewin' Deku Sprout, Death Mountain clears up and transforms Kakariko into a cheery place again (for a while), Lake Hylia returns, etc. Maybe it's sad when you first get there, but... I dunno. It's kinda dark at first, but then Link shows up and cuts the darkness away. It's heroic stuff, IMO.

Besides,I suppose if you ever felt too bummed-out about what happened in the 7 years Link had been away, you could just go back in time and enjoy the happy, peaceful Hyrule again any time you wanted. *shrugs*
09/17/12, 23:28   
Edited: 09/17/12, 23:29
Guess my Ocarina was half empty instead of half full. Loved the game, even if I thought it was a little sad.
09/17/12, 23:35   
So I never played Ocarina of Time until 2006, when my brother got the Collector's Edition disc, for the Gamecube. Back then, I had only played The Wind Waker and Majora's Mask, both my absolute favourite games of the franchise to this day. Playing OoT after beating the other games felt a bit odd, for I was seeing some familiar mechanics in a more of a primitive form (Z-Targetting, Dungeons, Combat System). But after getting used to the game, the whole thing was fantastic. The atmosphere of the areas were great, music was amazing and, most importantly, the gameplay was fun.

Although the game is a masterpiece, I do share the same "feel" Grant, Anand and Zero have about it.

First of all, I didn't get much of the eerie feelings the game had to offer. The only parts I truly felt different and surrounded by the atmosphere were in the Bottom of the Well, Shadow Temple, Gerudo Fortress and Spirit Temple. The rest just didn't get me as engaged. I was just playing the game because it was fun. I think I have this opinion because I played Majora's Mask first. And that game was not kidding when it came to atmosphere and emotional madness.
I gotta give some credit to the Title Screen, though. The song and Link's trips with Epona were definitely a good combo to suck players into getting the game started. I loved to just turn it on and stare at it, from time to time.

About the overworld, it didn't have success with making the areas look connected to eachother. They were just a bunch of big chunks of land with some warps here and there (the Gerudo Valley's waterfall being the only rational way to go from an area to another on foot) and Hyrule Field in the center, acting as a hub. There is nothing particularly wrong with that, since you get many ways to make your trips shorter and faster, but I just don't get the sense of adventure and exploring that Wind Waker had. Agreeing with Zero, by that I mean going from point A to B by taking different routes and finding things by. It just feels good to do that. They managed to get Ocarina of Time full of things to collect and sidequest to take, but just couldn't make the process of doing all that give you the sensation of looking around and exploring as the other Zeldas, hence A Link to the Past, did.
The Wind Waker, took the idea of an interactive overwolrd to another level, in my opinion.

I don't know... Ocarina of Time is an amazing title and definitely a ground-breaking game for the time it was out, but It's just not my favourite. Don't get me wrong. I love it to the point of doing 3-heart runs on normal and master-quest and having it as my most played Zelda game. I also respect it a lot, for it was because of it that other masterpieces like Wind Waker and Majora's Mask exist.

Now, off topic here (kinda): In Ocarina of Time 3D, I tend to goof around with the ocarina and play it as an actual musical instrument. Does anybody else do that? I'm very curious.
09/18/12, 01:09   
Edited: 09/18/12, 01:12
TheOldManFromZelda said:
I do believe I have the original version of this game then!..... somewhere.

Should be a gold cartridge! Though I have heard that there are some gray carts from the original printing.

Jargon said:
Really well done stuff, playing to the hardware's limitations. Unfortunately Nintendo forgot that less is more in Zelda storytelling.

I've always loved about Ocarina's ending scene. You beat the final boss, there's a 30-second "You killed me!" scene, a 30-second aftermath scene, and then credits. Twilight Princess did the same thing. I much prefer that to a long epilogue scene that tries too hard to be emotional like in Skyward Sword.

I do kind of feel like some there could have been a little more exposition in some of Ocarina's dialogue. Maybe it's just because I've played the game so many times, but all of the conversations feel so short. They're almost poetic.

@HammerLord

My problem with Wind Waker's overworld is that there's never anything fun to do on the islands. There are plenty of secrets, for sure, but the secrets are always "kill enemies and get the heart piece." I want to throw bombs into giant spinning Goron jars!
09/18/12, 01:37   
@Anand
@Jargon

I never found it eerie at all. Weird.

@GameDadGrant

Yeah! Thats how I saw it, too! "Death Mountain looks like crap. Better fix it. --FIXED!"

@HammerLord

I haven't done it myself, but I have seen these:





Haha, NICE:
09/18/12, 01:49   
@Anand Agreed, it was eerie and melancholic.
09/18/12, 01:51   
@Secret_Tunnel

Yeah, I guess you have a point right there.

I'm that attached to Wind Waker's overworld mainly because of the many memories I have of sailing around, killing things, dominating submarines and observatories on the way...

I think the perfect Zelda game should have a balance between an interactive overworld and fun things to do when you get to your destination.
09/18/12, 01:54   
@Shadowlink
Hey, don't try to make me back up my statements!

Looks like we need a poll: Ocarina of Time: Melancholy or Happy?

Nah.

Anyway, even the low-polygon models look creepy and scary to me. I'm pretty sure that the Zelda team often shoots for 'creepy and unsettling', sort of like a dark, demented fairy tale. I mean, look at this fucking thing!

09/18/12, 02:32   
Edited: 09/18/12, 02:33
@Anand

This should be in the Tropes thread. Too many exposed breasts here.
09/18/12, 02:37   
ploot said:
Original version with chanting and blood EVERYWHERE. It was magnificent!

There was really a lot of blood in there, now that I think about it. The floors and walls of The Bottom of the Well were stained with the stuff, and The Shadow Temple had all those blades, and other torture machines, and the floors and walls lined with skulls...the game certainly got dark at times.

Most of it was pretty subtle, but it really got "in your face" when Link delivers the final blow to Ganon. I remember being honestly surprised at that!
09/19/12, 15:37   
@Mr_Mustache
I know! It's like National Geographic up in here!
09/19/12, 17:16   
Anand said:
Anyway, even the low-polygon models look creepy and scary to me. I'm pretty sure that the Zelda team often shoots for 'creepy and unsettling', sort of like a dark, demented fairy tale.

Agreed.







....eep
09/19/12, 17:46   
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