|
|
|
A Nintendo community by the fans!
|
|
|
∧ |
Forum main |
|
|
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64) discussion [game]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9.64/10 from 137 user ratings |
|
Welcome to the official discussion thread for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the N64!
To start, please add this game to your log, add it to your collection (if applicable), and (when you are ready) rate it using the link above!
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! URL to share (right click and copy)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
09/17/12, 02:21 Edited: 09/17/12, 08:09
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@AnandHmm, 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* |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
∧ |
Forum main |
|
|