Review/Critique: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Hello everyone! I apologize, this one took a long time, and I wanted to make it as good as I can since I had a lot to say about this one. In addition, I'm finishing up my picks for February, and will be releasing my picks for March as soon as possible! Now then, let's get into my review/critique of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Review

Note: The first (and likely most important) thing I should say before I begin this review is that I played the N64 edition of this game. I had access to the 3DS version, but I saw no reason to ever play the N64 version if I had played the remake. I wanted to get the true classic N64 experience since that is the version that majority of people have played, and I am incredibly happy I made this choice. I had to order a copy since I did not have one, and now it looks awesome in my N64 collection. Keep this in mind for my review! Many things I will say may have been fixed in the remake and I would have no way to know!

Expectations: I am not going to sugar coat it, my expectations going into this game were insurmountably low. I've tried to play this game before many times and would just get bored/lost at any point before the Dodongo Cavern and stop playing. I watched videos like Sequilitis and was convinced that this game was just incredibly overrated, slow and boring. It doesn't help that it is widely considered the greatest game ever made either. How can anything made twenty years ago possibly live up to that title? I know you aren't going to believe me judging by my rating above, but I was so god damn incorrect guys. Ocarina of Time is an amazing game, that (while aged like milk) deserves the title of greatest game ever made in my honest opinion.

Review: Now of course, greatest game ever made does not mean it is my favorite game, far from it. Greatest game has more to do with a game's impact on future games to come in my eyes than current level of quality and enjoyment. While playing this game I had to constantly remind myself that it had come out twenty years ago. There are few games that rival Ocarina's level of quality for the time of its release, or that hold up today as well as it has. Again this does not mean that this game is perfect (far from it) rather that for its time, it got an impressive amount of things right. This is even more impressive because it was TLOZ's first foray into three dimensions. So much could have went wrong, but after finishing the game I am left feeling that in many ways it does more right than many modern 3D Zelda titles.

         One thing that surprised me greatly was the rich atmosphere the game has. I was not expecting the characters to be so interesting and memorable, nor the worlds so varied and unique. This was probably the part of the game that came the most out of left field, and the part of the game I enjoyed the most as a whole. Moments like when you walk out of the Temple of Time as an Adult and see the impact Ganon has had on the world around you were so jarring and heart wrenching that just thinking about it makes me shudder. It makes me very excited to play Majora's Mask some time in the future.

         I am singing a lot of praises for this game, and it's true that I really enjoyed it, but I would not be doing my due diligence if I did not bring up that this game has aged like milk. I cannot speak to the 3DS remake, but in the N64 so many things are so ungodly bad that it runs the risk of ruining the experience. Thankfully it did not, but many moments had me pulling out my hair for how poorly designed or cryptic they were (I will get into more specific detail in the Critique section if you would like to hear more). It doesn't help that I tried to play most all of the game without a guide. I know many games from back in this time were designed, guide in mind, so it feels difficult to judge it for this fact; however, I think designing a game with a guide in mind is lazy nowadays. It's a relic of incredibly strict hardware limitations, but that does not mean Ocarina deserves a pass. I am judging it in quality by modern standards, and by modern standards this game is cryptic and buggy as hell. Whether it innovated Z targeting or not doesn't make it less frustrating to fail a lock on you should have gotten and clip off a cliff.

         As well, although I praise the atmosphere in most areas of the game, there is one area where I feel the game has failed incredibly, and that is in the Hyrule Field. Maybe it's because I just finished Breath of the Wild, but instead of feeling like an epic hub it feels incredibly lonely. That feeling of epic adventure it is meant to evoke is turned upside down when you realize there are only six exits and nothing interesting to actually do in the field. What gave many a feeling of adventure and excitement made me feel incredibly lonely, the opposite of what was intended, and because I loved the atmosphere of the game so much this unintended consequence of modern comparison really had a huge impact on my enjoyment of the game (especially because it is a place you visit so often.)

         This leads pretty naturally into another one of my biggest problems with this game, in that it lacks a lot of engaging side content. I think it may be worse than in any 3D Zelda game I have ever played. There are a few good side quests, but most of them are completely whatever. It doesn't help that I felt the main content (in the dungeons) are also pretty bland, with puzzles that aren't that engaging. Like before, I will go into more specific detail in the critique but I wanted to get across before then that I did not really enjoy them all that much in comparison to other Zelda titles.

Recommendation: I recommend The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to anyone interested in experiencing a true part of gaming history. If you play a lot of action adventure games, or other Legend of Zelda games, this goes double for you. There's something about completing a game with such a wide reach and so much influence on future gaming that really makes you appreciate how far gaming has come. In all honesty I think anyone who is somewhat into video games should complete this game; however, that's not realistic so just look to what I said above to determine if this is a game you would like or not.

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That's it for the review section. Now on to the critique. If you don't want to be spoiled on this game (although I find it very unlikely you have not been spoiled by now) don't read any further.

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Critique

         Alright so in this part I'm going to go a bit more in depth on things I did and didn't like that are a bit more spoilery. I'll start with the dungeons. In my opinion they are incredibly hit or miss, and none of them have as interesting puzzles as I would like. Many of them are just "hit the eye with the bow to turn off the fire" type puzzles that don't have much depth to them at all. These compose a majority of the puzzles in the game, which is a super big issue for me. There's no middle ground either since every other puzzle is stupidly cryptic. Another more "game designey issue" is that many of the puzzles are hidden away. This means if you need a hammer to push down a rusty switch for example, you won't see the switch until you already have the hammer. In The Windwaker for example, you see a door with eyes that disappear when you get close to them in one of the first rooms. Once you get the boomerang you go "oh shit maybe I can use it on those guys from the first room" and when you are correct it's immensely satisfying. It makes sense since this is the first 3D Zelda game that these game design elements are hardly present, but it doesn't just get a pass for this reason.

         My favorite dungeons for this reason ended up mostly being ones with the best atmosphere, music, and visual design. My favorite temples on reflection were probably the forest, fire, and spirit temples. These for me had great visual design, good music, and good ambience. Even still most of them (minus the forest temple) are overshadowed by later Zelda dungeons of similar theme but more ambitious and well integrated (actually scaling a Volcano in the Windwaker as opposed to being inside one the whole time). I really liked the great deku tree for this reason, but the dungeon ended up being too short to really have it be one of my favorites. Jabbu Jabbu's belly on the other hand was a super ambitious, well integrated dungeon that has unbearable visual design and enemy designs. This, the Dodongo cavern, and the shadow temple were by far my least favorite dungeons. The water temple was honestly one of my favorite temples in the game, and if not for it having two really bull shit keys and a mediocre boss battle it would have been one of my favorites as well. I even made a point not to use a guide (like would've been the case for most people in 1998) so honestly I think it's fair to say this temple's tedium is way overblown. Switching the boots was not that time consuming, and changing water levels was super intuitive. The most annoying part was having three keys needed in a row and not knowing if you have enough. Also Shadow Link was the stupidest fight in the game, and having to cheese a boss to avoid a brain aneurysm is not acceptable.

         As for more gameplay related critiques, this game actually had a decent number of frame drops for me. I thought this was funny since it was a huge critique people had of Breath of the Wild, but looking back it's inevitable that a company would rather sacrifice frame-rate than ditch an ambitious idea. I also experienced quite a lot of clipping playing this game which was really frustrating when it clipped onto a ledge and had me fall off, forcing me to restart a whole region (especially because every dungeon resets enemies when you rejoin a room and fighting 4 god damn Skulltulas in a row every time you clip off the stage in the shadow temple made me want to shut off the game and throw my N64 out the window).

        This likely wouldn't have been as annoying if the game wasn't so difficult, but I don't want to complain about that since I really appreciated this game being a challenge. It is a breath of fresh air in comparison to modern Zelda games which have been made with monkeys in mind. I saw the game over screen many times on my full playthrough (although I missed the fairy that halves damage so that's probably part of the reason why) and often had to plan around being low on hearts and restocking fairies. I really wish newer Zelda games would follow suit as far as difficulty is concerned, but I am not holding my breath.

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         To summarize, I really enjoyed this game. Much more than I expected to. I can't say for sure but I believe if/when I play the 3DS remake there's a solid chance this game will move up to a five from a four. It is hard to say though as it definitely needs more than just visual tweaks to improve it. I'm not sure which outdated gameplay elements have been changed in the remake, so until I play it I won't really know how much better it is than the original. This game definitely is not perfect, and I definitely had my fair share of problems with it, but in all I really think this is a game that everybody who likes video games should complete in their life, especially if you like other Zelda games. It really shows you how far Zelda and gaming as a whole has come from 1998, and gives you some much needed perspective on the evolution of game design as a whole. It may not be my favorite game, but I think The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time deserves the title of greatest game ever made.

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Thanks to everyone who has read this far! I know not many people actually read all the way through but I really enjoyed playing and subsequently writing about this game. I mostly write these for me, but it's nice to know that some people do read along and listen to my thoughts. Anyway, until next time!

- Malachi