Ocarina of Time was my entry into the Zelda franchise way back in 2012 when I first got my copy of this game. I believe I have completed it 3 times and started countless other playthroughs that have been abandoned along the way. Despite how many times I have played it, this is still one of the Zelda games I looked most forward to playing again as not only does it hold a special place in my heart, it is regarded as one of the greatest games of all time.

Obviously this is the 3ds remake, not the N64 classic. I was debating playing the OG version through the switch as I had never played that version before but the 3ds version is so much more polished and all around more fun to play.

To start off, Ocarina of Time carries on the trend started by Link's awakening and puts way more effort into the narrative. While the story is the same as most others, Ocarina of Time excels due to its environmental storytelling. The main quest is the same as always, Ganon wants the Triforce so Link has to go beat some dungeons and then save Zelda. Ocarina keeps this but makes the world around it feel so lived in. Each NPC has unique dialogue and will tell you more about the area you are in, The first instance of the different races across the land of Hyrule with the Gorons, Zora's and Gerudo's and a decent amount of side quests to allow you to explore the whole map.

One thing I don't think Ocarina of Time gets enough credit for is how dark it is. Obviously it is overshadowed by its harrowing younger brother, Majora's Mask, but Ocarina is by no means a bright and happy game. Ranging from how after the time jump Hyrule Town is completely destroyed and full of ReDeads, People who get lost in the Lost Woods turn into Stalfos, the whole concept of the shadow temple which I will talk about later. Its no Majora, but hardly a laugh riot.

Ocarina's gimmick involves the time jump mechanic. It works in a similar way to the dark world in Alttp where the majority of the games content is found there. Once young link gets the three spiritual stones and obtains the master sword, he is awoken 7 years later to find Hyrule in ruin. The time jump gives Link a whole new arsenal of items, new characters and large differences to main locations. It never feels stale, as Nintendo managed to use the same map locations and make them feel completely different after the time jump.

Where of course Ocarina shines is in its dungeons. I briefly wanted to talk about each one as I have a lot of thoughts about them. First off the three child dungeons which are: Inside the Deku Tree, Dodongo's Cavern and Inside Jabu-Jabu's belly. Each increase in difficulty to provide more of a challenge. I love the aesthetic of each especially Dodongo's cavern with the giant skull and the lava lakes. I have a special liking for each of these as I have probably played them around 20 times each over the years. Forest Temple is the first of the adult temples and is my personal favourite. I love the atmosphere, with it looking like an abandoned Manor house with ghosts everywhere. The boss is great and the dungeon is a good mix of challenging but fair. The fire temple is often forgotten as it isn't as memorable as the rest. I liked the boss but i found the puzzles annoying. The infamous Water temple, I actually found fairly easy this time around, the boss is very easy but managing the water level is really annoying. The water temple is made way easier of the 3ds version so maybe that's why. The shadow temple is probably my second favourite. The atmosphere is so creepy, with the murals on the walls and that horrifying dead hand monster. The lore of this temple is the most interesting as it used to be a torture chamber where the Sheikah would interrogate prisoners, Also the boss Bongo Bongo looks eerily like someone who has been beheaded. The Spirit temple is whatever, I like that you have to do it both as a kid and adult. I think its lacking because there is no connection to it as all other temples had a connection via a character like Darunia for the fire temple or Ruto for the water temple but Link isnt required to visit Gerudo valley at all when he is a kid. This games dungeons are amazing, probably my favourite in the series thus far.

Gameplay wise it plays amazingly. Combat is satisfying with the lock on targeting. The items are fun to use, like the biggoron sword which is so OP. Also for the first time in the series so far, this game is completely possible to play without a guide as it does a great job of telling you where to go and what specifically to do. That of course comes with a downside of having Navi never always yelling at you but you end up tuning it out eventually.

Visually the 3ds version has aged great. I hope that in the future Nintendo will port these versions to switch as they are so much more fun to play, this goes for Ocarina, Majora and even games like Mario 64. Also the Score is fantastic but that's a given, Forest temple and the Deku tree theme are my favourites.

I have a couple small complaints. I wish that there was a useful fast travel system. The one this game has isnt the best as it puts places you in weird spots and you dont unlock them until you are about to do that dungeon. Meaning that you dont get fast travel to Kakariko village until the 2nd last dungeon and by that point you probably have done everything there is to do there. Also Epona in this game is pretty much useless, the controls are janky and she can only be used in Hyrule field and small parts of gerudo valley. Also I wish the day/night cycle was a bit longer as it passes so quickly that is you are to walk normally you cannot make it from Kokiri forest to Hyrule castle in a single day cycle.

This game is very special to me as it was the first one I played which got me into this fantastic series. I especially love the young link segment as it feels so alive compared to the darker adult section. I have played the three starter dungeons over so many times that I know them top to bottom even years on from the last time I played. There is a reason that this is considered not only one of the best Zelda games but one of the best games of all time. It was revolutionary at the time and is still an absolute delight to play through. 100% recommended

The best version of the game regarded as one of the best games of all-time. The enhanced graphics bring more life in the games visuals and make it more beautiful. The 3d is also pretty impressive in this game too. It also adds Master Quest from the GameCube version that adds more longevity to the game and a good challenge and a boss challenge mode for those who might want to fight the bosses again. Not only was this the 3ds's first killer app, but also the definitive version of a fantastic game that anybody who has ever touched a controller should play.

The fifth installment in the Zelda series had a titanic task, because not only had to be a game at the height of A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening that had left the bar very high, but also had to be the first game in the franchise in 3D. And everyone already knows how the story ended, this game not only far exceeded what it set out to do, but it was so good that it went down in history as one of the greatest games of all time. It has its well-deserved reputation and is a masterpiece not only for the Zelda series, it transcends entirely to be a game that directly told the entire video game industry how a 3D game should really be made.

FIN.

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Actually... I don't need to explain anything else, the previous paragraph is more than enough, but my reviews are always long and in order not to break the tradition (and for everyone who wants to stay and read more) I'll expand the review, so here I go.

Expanded Review
This game perfectly translates the Zelda formula to 3D, to such a level that it makes you think that this franchise was born from the beginning really to have 3D games. Ocarina of Time was extremely ambitious for its time, Nintendo could have made a more direct translation of the mechanics that characterize the franchise for a 3D game, but the developers decided to go a step ahead and directly reinvented many mechanics to adapt things from the past to the new format, which in essence seem to be the same and the obvious evolution, but from a design perspective such transition is not so evident, and therefore, such change was what allowed an infinitely higher range of expression for the way the mechanics are expanded and the levels of this game are designed. It's not for nothing that franchises like Castlevania or Mega Man on PS2 never really shined in 3D, as they were a literal translation of the formula to 3D without being an adaptation or evolution as such over them.

The dungeons are very well designed, and it's impressive that for a game from the early 3D era it has such well thought out puzzles and great design in general, it has aged excellently.

The overworld map is gigantic, and wisely interconnects different areas of the game the further you go so as not to make exploration a burden. However, as a kid, sometimes traversing the map can be tiring because of how slow Link walks and how far away everything is at first, and it's a shame that pegasus boots weren't added to the game. This has its reason of course, because now to go fast around the map we can ride a horse, which solves the previous problem, but only partially, because riding a horse is only an option when Link is an adult. And later in the game you also unlock fast travel options, however, when you do this you probably won't need to go back to the time where you are a child more than a few times.

The soundtrack in this game is simply magical. Many melodies are too short and simple, but they are extremely catchy and memorable, although this was done on purpose, as the music has a leading role, because simple commands like fast travel to certain places or calling your horse are linked to a melody, and to invoke those commands you must play the melody yourself, and that's why they were made short and easy to memorize. I know it may sound a bit goofy nowadays, and in the long run it's even a bit tedious to have to play a song every time for such basic actions, but I don't know, it's something that makes this game even more magical.

The controls can feel... a bit "clunky" nowadays for a 3D game, but if you compare it to any other game of the time, you realize that the controls and character movement are brilliantly designed and way ahead of their time. Obviously this isn't a platformer, so you don't have the mobility and versatility of Mario, you're still Link from previous games, only now in a 3D environment. Link as such could never jump at will and always had a somewhat slow mobility.

A substantial improvement over previous installments is the combat, this went from only consisting of pressing the A button, to be expanded so that now things like dodging, good timing, blocking with the shield and even the trajectory of your thrusts is determined by the position to which you are moving the analog stick. It may not sound like a big deal, but for a series that used to have a very basic combat system, to see such a significant expansion is to be admired and especially for its time. And all of this was made possible by the brilliant lock-on system, which was a revolution for its time.

Unlike Mario, adapting Zelda to three dimensions was even more complicated, because while Mario could still afford to have levels, models, animations and sound effects a little more "unreal" or "artificial" so to speak, Zelda games have always tried to be set in fantasy worlds, but worlds that should feel natural and "believable". This particular title was given a realistic setting to achieve that goal, which we can tell from the graphical style, the animations and the immense amount of attention to detail in the world. The dungeons now have ambient music instead of traditional video game music, and while I would have liked the normal songs better, I understand the change. Things like the sound of your footsteps changing depending on the ground you're walking on, the voices changing pitch if you're underwater or not, Link shivering from the cold and sneezing if the place is icy, the day and night cycle that was added as a gimmick precisely, all this and among other things serve to increase the realism. The atmosphere of this game is very well achieved thanks to the above and the very good characterization of the places you visit.

Although the game in structure and story is broadly almost the same as A Link to the Past, so if you expect something new in that sense this game does not offer it, but I really do not blame them, ALttP game is the GOAT. Back to the point, perhaps due to memory limitations and also because it would be too large in scale to develop, the concept of two parallel worlds had to be discarded, but not completely, as this was integrated in the form of a time skip that changes the world design a bit, but not only that, but also Link's abilities by turning him from a child to an adult. And this game separates the two characters so that even as an adult, you have to resort to your child form for its peculiarities, such as being small in size or being located in a different time.

This game adds a new collectible to complement the exploration of the world, similar to Dragon Quest IV's mini medals, the infamous golden skulltulas, and I must say that the challenge of finding them all is a bit absurd. Some are hidden brilliantly, but others are hidden wickedly and are nearly impossible to find, as some appear exclusively at night and in very specific locations. It's a completely optional quest, but it could have been handled better, you can tell that many are only there so that the game can have that amount of "100", besides only 50 being necessary to get the rewards that are really worth it.

The heart pieces on the other hand yes they are hidden in a better way, similar to how they were in A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, only 2 or 3 will be very well hidden, but the rest are enjoyable to search and discover. And overall, this game has A Link to the Past type moments, where it's hard to figure out where you need to go next, but the addition of Navi was vital to mitigate this and better guide the player's progression.

The graphics in this version are great, it's like the exact same game, but with PS2 graphics, and that somehow looks really good on the 240p screen of the 3DS, it still looks great even to this day (and Princess Zelda looks gorgeous in this version). And I'm glad that for this remake they went for a realistic style instead of an animated one, as the original Ocarina of Time was made to be a realistic game from the start, as I said above. It also comes with a lot of small tweaks to make the experience smoother. The original Ocarina of Time is still a great experience, but if you want a more modern experience that is still completely faithful to the original, this version is the way to go.

Conclusion
Plot twist! The conclusion was always the very first paragraph of this review, so go read that. Thanks for reading and goodbye.

perfection! i cant stay anything more than that ♡

as stated by everyone else on the internet ever, i think ocarina of time is the best zelda experience. i love the world and exploring different locations (kokiri forest, castle town night vs day, and zoras domain to name my favourites), the characters are all wonderful and really lovely to interact with (one of my favourite zeldas, princess ruto and saria as honourable mentions), and the story flows so nicely. i also love all of the dungeons and bosses, bongo bongo is a silly guy (creature?) and i love him ♡

this game really is just a full package, it excels in every area and is always worthwhile to replay! ♡

Having not played this in more than decade I'm now somewhat at peace with this game. It's a classic and for good reason, but it does show its age.

It translates almost everything from previous Zelda games perfectly well into 3D (as well as laying foundations for 3D gaming for the coming decades) and actually establishes Zelda lore that stays relevant to this day. Playing it is not always fun though.

Not so much on a technical standpoint (at least concerning this remake), here everything works reasonably well, it's just that some of the pacing and dungeon design is really not so fun.

I kinda hate that grown-up Link's first three dungeon are thematically repeats of the first three dungeons. Forest, Fire and Water... Again (it's not like we don't see these three in every Zelda anyways). As Hyrule has been overrun by Ganondorf and his monsters everything is kinda... empty. Up until that point when you visit a place it's really exciting to get to know the quirky people and maybe discover the place, but not so much for the Forest, Fire and Water Temple. Right after with the Shadow and Spirit Temple this becomes really good again, but for a good third of the game it feels a bit like a mindless dungeon run. I mean, we love Zelda puzzles but we also love imaginative places and eccentric characters. The dungeons themselves aren't even too bad (except the Water Temple: too many locked doors and thus backtracking if you missed a single key) it's just the way to get there misses a sense of wonder and adventure.

The world design especially of the Hyrule Steppe is nothing but empty plains and the day and night cycle is incredibly short, which can get annoying if you wanna go somewhere or need a special time of the day to enter a place for example.

All that said, yeah this was a part of my childhood (mostly by seeing it at friends places. I didn't have a N64 but only a SNES back in the day) and back then I thought this is the greatest game of all time. Consequently it really defined my taste in games. Later when I revisited it after playing Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and a couple of Final Fantasy games, it just felt hollow and "not as sophisticated" concerning it's story as well as it's mechanics
(and all the cool side quests I "remembered" from watching a friend were actually in Majora's Mask, so that's probably why I like that one still more).
Now with a bit of distance I can enjoy it again, but I still think it's not the best 3D Zelda game by a long shot. But it's still good. Pretty good.

So you're telling me this version...
- has better graphics
- has less annoying text speed
- has aiming that isn't garbage
- has a hint system for all those cryptic moments
- has a much less tedious to navigate Water Temple
- and has the Master Quest, an entire hard mode with not only harder enemies but also harder dungeons, included
...and yet some people say the N64 version is better?

Ocarina of Time is a very special game to me. It’s the first Zelda game I ever played and the first single-player video game I ever owned. There’s not much to say about Ocarina of Time that hasn’t already been said in ways that would be more articulate than anything I could ever attempt. So I want to mostly talk about why Ocarina of Time is special to me personally and discuss my personal relationship with it.

I talked about Link’s Awakening’s Mabe Village giving me a “welcome home” feeling in my review of that game, the entirety of Ocarina of Time feels like that to me. I played through Ocarina of Time probably 7 times now while being at completely different places in my life and each time I find myself resonating with different parts of it. As a kid wanting to be a grown up, my favorite parts were when you’re playing as Adult Link and it felt like the entire world is dependent on you. Just like Link, it made me feel like I was still kid me but in an adult body and I was so heroic in it. I couldn’t wait to grow up and not be limited by my childish body, I couldn’t wait to be an adult that was a hero and not like other adults.

I remember finding the Adult world dungeons to be very difficult, I remember exactly what puzzles I had to look up the solutions to back then. I found myself growing into realizing how to solve those same puzzles in subsequent playthroughs. Ocarina of Time is filled with things like that for me, I have a memory attached to every corner of the map. I remember being 11 and hanging out at Lon Lon Ranch getting to know Malon. I remember being 15 when I managed to go through the Water Temple without a guide. I am now 23 and I still get freaked out jumping into the well of Kakariko Village.

Ocarina of Time wasn’t just a game I played multiple times throughout my life, it feels like my life revolved around Ocarina of Time. Saria, to me, is that childhood friend that I got distant with due to the circumstances of life. The same way she is for Link. I look back on that character and I just get a somber feeling wishing I spent more time with her while I had the chance, the same way I feel about good childhood friends of mine that I grew distant from. Kokiri Forest is the hometown I’ve moved out of and moved on from without looking back but still find myself nostalgic over how it held my hand and walked me through how to navigate the world. It was the perfect training ground for my journey not just in Ocarina of Time but with gaming in general.

Outside of what it means to me, let’s talk a bit more about Ocarina of Time. The game upped the ante for the series in every way. It had a huge world for the time which can be quite overwhelming, especially in a 3D space. Thankfully, the game is very linear and makes sure to hold your hand in every step of the way. Some people view this as a bad thing in retrospect but I really really don’t. Ocarina of Time is the first Zelda game that has an actual story happening throughout the entire game and that is thanks to its linearity. Constructing a good narrative requires sequencing, which you can’t do without linearity as we see in the new open-air Zelda games. I understand both sides have their crowds but I definitely belong in this one.

The transition of the series to 3D was done fantastically. At its core, Ocarina of Time takes the formula introduced in A Link to the Past and focuses on how to make that formula work in a 3D space. I’m especially impressed by how they made dungeons work in 3D. I won’t get into too much detail but this game truly is a technical feat especially for that time. To other franchises, the transition to 3D was very shaky and would take a couple of entries to be done right. How impressive is it that Ocarina of Time gets it right in its first attempt??

Ocarina of Time holds a great sentimental value in my heart. I always find myself coming back to it and I can never get sick of it. I’ve just finished it and I already can’t wait to go back and replay it again. This is one of the best games ever made and one of the most influential games ever made period. It was always my favorite game of all time and my favorite game in the Zelda series by a landslide.

However at the time of writing this review, I already finished Majora’s Mask as part of my marathon and in a shocking turn of events, I ended up ranking Majora’s Mask higher than Ocarina of Time. Was everything I know a lie? Is Ocarina of Time not my favorite Zelda game anymore? I don’t know. I never played Ocarina of Time so close to other Zelda games so maybe this marathon is going to provide much needed insight for me. This is exciting for me now because I’m curious what game ends up making it at the top after this marathon is over, but I am shocked how a game this special to me got dethroned by the entry right after. However, whether it ends up at number 1 or not, there’s no taking away the impact this game has had on my life and the gaming sphere as a whole.

In a world filled with so many cynical and pointless remakes, Ocarina of Time 3D feels almost like a new gold standard for video game remakes as a whole. OOT3D was my first complete Zelda experience (Wind Waker I played first but this game I finished first) and I definitely have a bunch of nostalgia for it. You can really tell Nintendo and Grezzo wanted to make this remake as good as they possibly could, you can't really AFFORD to make a screwup like this when it's for one of the most acclaimed games of all time.
OOT3D's art style is quite simply, amazing. It perfectly reflects the original artwork made all the way back in 1998, like the drawings leapt off the page. I know some people will defend the original character models, which do have their own shitty charm but the glowup especially to Link himself is INSANE. Environments are more vibrant and have this magical quality to them, mostly maintaining the original atmosphere. It's a pretty looking game, especially for launch year 3DS title, so I have to commend the team greatly.
The QoL here is simple, but effective. The boots can be assigned to buttons now, which makes the Water Temple actually pretty damn good. The framerate has been bumped to 30 which compared to the original 20fps feels smooth as butter, and most importantly, there's the GYRO AIM. You have no idea how intuitive and fun the gyro is for this game, it makes using the bow and hookshot, so, SO much more fun. This was one of the pioneers of modern gyro aim, and it was a damn good introduction. Basically all of the big gameplay flaws have been ironed out giving this already polished game that extra shine.
I should also note that the Master Quest mode from the GameCube release is included, which you can unlock after beating the game once. It does have two differences from the GCN version, that being the entire game world is flipped (right handed Link is cursed btw) and double damage is enabled, emphasizing the hard mode aspect. I've never finished Master Quest, only playing the child portion of the game, but it's a damn cool inclusion regardless, and maybe someday I'll get to finishing it.
Now, there's really only two noticeable issues with this remake. Firstly, the texture quality, which even a couple years after release looked dated as hell. When all of these character models have been given such a huge glowup it makes the low res textures look very poor quality. Now I get some of it could just be because of 3DS hardware limitations, but it's the single most dated thing about this remake visually. The other big issue is the way the atmosphere is changed for some areas. The Forest Temple has lost a lot of the fog effects, which makes many of the rooms look barren, and the Bottom of the Well has all of the blood removed making it not as heavily atmospheric. Out of the atmospheric changes, the biggest slip-up was the final boss, where the IMMACULATE and technically impressive lighting from the original is over-brightened to an absurd degree. However, just like the textures, I do think this was due to being on the 3DS (it was made to play on the go after all).
But in the end I don't think that's enough to say that the game was ruined or something. OOT3D is a really good remake that understands the importance and legacy of the source material without stripping its original identity away, and with those two big issues fixed up it would essentially be a PERFECT remake. I'm not joking. Unlike Majora's Mask 3D, a remake that is ashamed of the original game and misunderstands what made the original so good, this one embraces and celebrates its source. I still haven't decided if I prefer this to Ship of Harkinian (the PC port) but both I could come back to over the N64 original, and if you haven't ever played this game in your life? These two options are the way to go, no doubt about it.

I very nearly dropped this game to a 4.5 because of how fkn annoying it is having to replay certain sections if you die to bosses (even using the warp spell) but honestly the soundtrack alone convinced me otherwise.

Time-wasting bullshit isn't what I'll remember this game for, it's the superb soundtrack, interesting and diverse dungeons/bosses and honestly just how neat the concepts are. Both that of using the ocarina to achieve the things that it can, and the fact alone that your destiny as the hero forces you to just fast-forward past 7 years of your life so you're tall enough to hold a sword lol.

I know I've already praise the ost out the ass, but as 26 year old whose been gaming for most of his life and somehow never touched this title personally, it was really quite something hearing so many songs from it and excitedly thinking "Oh!! So this is what that's from!" -- It was like finally seeing a movie I'd been hearing through the walls my whole life. I hope this makes sense but idk, it was cool :p

Anyway, you don't need me to tell you how iconic this game is, the variety in just about everything, including your inventory and their uses, makes this a pretty solid occasionally time-wasting bullshit adventure game 😌
(It also made for a perfect excuse to whip out my 3DS after years of neglect, something I hope to keep up as I move onto another classic that passed me by: Dragon Quest VIII)

Thanks all, hope you had a great January :D

"Now, go home, Link. Regain your lost time! Home... where you are supposed to be... the way you are supposed to be…"

a statement

nothing ever came close and will ever come close to the absolute might that this game means to the video game genre as a whole and to an entire generation of people playing ocarina of time at the end of the last millennium in 1998 you could say that video game as a media peaked here theres legit something magical about this game an aura of sacredness and monumentality that it feels weird to talk about it like this tackling this game isnt easy but not for the game in itself but for what it means to everyone who played it and what it meant to people who worked on it and theres nothing I could ever say that hasn't already been said times and times again but I'm gonna be the next guy in the queue of people who want to praise this game to heaven stay tuned

sexy mutyumu recommended this to me as part of this list thanks dude

ocarina of time is a game that doesn't need any kind of presentation whatsoever and I'm not gonna sugar-coat anything since you already know its fucking good I won't be daddling in weird deets just so you know i played the original n64 one but i never finished it so im glad this sudden zelda marathon made me realise what a fucking fool i am yknow

first and foremost I'd like to talk about the remake aspect bitch this is basically one of the most safe remake of all times and really understands the source material to a tee I know for sure the grezzo team were shitting their fucking pants because they just opened pandoras box and whatever they did to diverge from the original game wouldve been horridly received so they made the right decision to just give it a modern overhaul and leave it almost untouched just adding some QoL and tweaks to famously despicable parts of the game but apart from that the journey is mostly the same

now i really love the new graphics theyre absolutely beautiful and really complement the original art style adding just the perfect amount of spice here and there link is super cute both in the baby and adult model every single character of the game is brimming with details and personality beloved places across hyrule got completely modernised with those delicious “HD” textures and enemies and bosses are as intimidating as ever really this art direction takes the cake for me it leaves the original feel untouched and thats probably what also happened with the ost . the songs are recreated entirely but no single note or instrument has been changed because lets be real the music of the original was already perfect it had not fucking need to be changed

everything of this version is perfect BUT im gonna nitpick here and no its not about the sheikah stones because i used them when i needed and no its not about the 360 camera being absent from this game unlike majoras mask 3d but i absolutely despise the fact that they used the touch pad for most of the menu and item management

now i wont lie i emulated the shit out of this game and that means that every single time i had to use a touch prompt i had to use the fucking mouse and completely destroy my pace while playing with the controller like why would you do that im not gonna complain that much because this is not a game breaker but the real issue to me is why the fuck would you put touch screen as the ONLY OPTION for the remake of a game that DIDNT HAVE IT like why i dont understand and also i have no idea if theres somewhere a patch that makes you use some buttons instead of the touch screen but i couldnt find it so yeah it is gonna be a problem for me that being said this game is fucking perfect lets go

ocarina of time is one of the few games that will absolutely make my heart heavy as soon as i listen to the title screen ost theres such a sense of peace nostalgia joy EVERY SINGLE EMOTION was POURED into this music i have no idea in my ignorance who composed the music for this game but i hope you have or had everything you want or wanted from your life (update i looked it up its koji kondo everythings fine I know the guy) this is such a generational masterpiece when you just boot this game up it HITS link and epona ride across the fields of hyrule with incredible scenography for the time heavy focus on the nature that encapsulates this game and BOOM title screen

if you make a title screen that leaves such a big impact you will be remembered for better or for worse games like kingdom hearts and persona 3 fes made such an incredible impact on me JUST with their title screen now tell me if you ever booted up kingdom hearts and listened to dearly beloved or persona 3 fes and listened to brand new days the beginning and havent started to get all emotional and teary eyed at second 0.3 im not even joking

if i were alive in 1998 and had played this game for the very first time i wouldve never NEVER forgotten this title screen this is absolutely insane compared to the standards of videogames at the time and even now that we have so many different genres franchises games spinoffs remakes everything that can be played with a controller im not gonna joke theres nothing that hits AS hard as this title screen

some of you may know me as the absolute number 1 fan of twilight princess im gonna defend that game always forever until the day that i die twilight princess was for me what ocarina of time was for many people older than me and maybe even people around my age i had never played a zelda game and when i booted up the title screen for this game i was absolutely dumbfounded enthralled and emotional it struck close to me as something so personal and epic that nothing else could ever come close in the games that i played at that time such powerful ost and art direction

and after some years you could see me tearing my hair out when i realised that the twilight princess title screen was basically a reimagining of ocarina of time title screen and its absolutely jarring to me that i had no idea beforehand like how can someone be so dumb BeReal with me rn

so maybe thats also why the ocarina of time title screen hit me THIS HARD due to the fact of being not only the main inspo of twilight princess title screen but also as the original it can eat twilight princess alive

sure i will always prefer twilight princess over everything its not only one of my favorite zelda games of all times but also one of my favorite things in the whole world it means so much to me that i could not even put it into words… actually i will when i play the HD version lmaooooooooo

ok enough of twilight princess propaganda i need to talk about ocarina of time

this game also feels kind of reminiscent of the other games in the series and specifically a link to the past somehow they were making a breakthrough into the 3d perspective and they thought ok actually since most of the people around here fuck with alttp a little to the past we are gonna make a game that has basically the same core progression and they're gonna love it

and we did

ocarina of time has a structure really similar to a link to the past with the first 3 dungeons to get the spirit stones and then some others 5 dungeons to get the sages and then a Final Mix++ Final Dungeon so yeah I will call it the 3+5(+1) progression I got war flashbacks from math classes anyway yeah more so than zelda 1 or links awakening this really feels like an homage to alttp

then again this game absolutely broke every record whatsoever and alttp became the lesser zelda so whatever and its incredible to me how this one's title theme is parallel to that one a link to the past stars with a strong epic fanfare youre here for a monumental journey to save the day now instead ocarina of time dabbles into something new . nostalgia and existential dread don't we all love that

the prologue for ocarina of time is absolutely beautiful its dreamlike and emotional you get to peek into links life friends and family and even though youre gonna go away from here asap this has such a beautiful atmosphere

kokiri are magical beings and links not one of them if you didnt understand it after 3 seconds and so he doesnt have a fairy but boom enter navi the games biggest mouth and somehow the most cute character in this game i really have a lot of gripes for this fucker she never shuts her mouth and she will never be midna but when i tell you that she brings so much comfort i love being with her im not gonna lie when shes not with you i get uneasy its true

navi is a cutie i love her a lot and then you meet the deku tree that dies instantly as soon as you make it into the dungeon of the great tree which is honestly an incredible first dungeon of the game absolutely streamlined but interesting example of whats to com e for the next dungeons youre gonna explore in this game and its still probably one of my favorite ones in the game if you know what youre doing you can finish this dungeon pretty quick

so whatever finish this dungeon get a nice story about goddesses DEATH and then adventure in the hyrule field

hyrule field is pretty fucking hollow theres not much stuff in between places apart from dungeons here and there but this is also so fucking comfortable going through this land has a pretty similar feeling that i had with shadow of the colossus with the sense of wonder and greatness

so whatever get to hyrule castle and the town here is brimming with life absolutely beautiful place you get some minigames here and there a lot of stuff to do and character interactions with NPCs and possibly the greatest town in any single game ever its really small compared to towns in other games and even minish cap has a bigger town but this is super simple and super effective just another day in a peaceful kingdom

syke

introduce zelda the princess you get to her and she tells you about the end of the world about ganondorf having a big nose and about a hunky lesbian nanny and she tells you her song zeldas lullaby possibly one of the greatest songs in any game ever im not gonna lie teehee and this is the absolute greatest link youre gonna construct with zelda youre 2 little kids trying to save the world without even knowing whats gonna be out there its just such a personal conversation that strikes your heart strings as fast as possible and even this little conversation will make you care for zelda

that being said the side things are cool instead of having heart pieces unreachable with current items or behind some secret passages like in other games theres actually some depth to getting this stuff you can do minigames you can do side quests explore every single part of hyrule and still discover something new its fun

the next 2 dungeons are interesting the fire cave of the goron tribe makes for an immediate increase in the challenge and its gonna make you aware that not everything is gonna be fun and play in this game and the zora tribe jabu jabu stomach is some of the most disgusting dungeons ever and the doors are buttholes and carrying ruto around get tiring really fast this was probably for me harder than the water temple im not gonna lie

ruto is a really cool character and somehow reminded me of mipha even though mipha is 100 times better and also dead but ruto has a really cute little dynamic where she wants to fuck him and hes as clueless as ever i love my cute little guy hes great

so thing thing happen get the master sword boom adult

becoming an adult in this game is some of the most heart wrenching part of the game and really hits home with the metaphorical value of the scenes ganondorf destroyed everything adult link doesnt use the items he used when he was a kid because theyre in fact toys and not appropriate for an adult anymore zelda is gone and the howl is gone you get some poetry from a mysterious sheikah tribe guy melodies to dungeons are now harder and actually less memorable than when you were a joyful kiddo and everything that happens in the game is now gonna be way way fucking harder

a bit of a stretch but THATS ADULTHOOD !!!!!!!!

a lot the big ass contrast between this reality and the reality of link as a kid and the tragic nature and consequences of what happened into the land of hyrule youre gonna find long lost people but theyre now more mature or more sad theres not hope or joy anymore like they were in the childhood days and youre left alone . with navi . i love navi

i guess this is gonna be SPOILER TERRITORY

ok good now the game is gonna concentrate on dungeons over dungeons theres not really anything to keep you entertained or minigames to live life happily theres just gonna be nothing like that theres you and the dungeons and everything bad that can happen is gonna happen

the forest temple is probably my favorite one of the entire game it has so much fucking detail the vibes are unmatched the entire structure is diverse and beautiful and the mechanics are entertaining enough to not make me want to kill myself

the fire temple was probably the easiest one for me but the fact that it was completely set into an active vulcano where you feel danger everywhere around you and a single misstep will get you fucking killed good fucking dungeon

the water temple is bad we all know its bad im not gonna give this dungeon any merit apart from being absolutely fucking beautiful and the verticality of it all is really pleasant to see in a myriad of dungeons traversed horizontally

the shadow temple is mostly good but theres some stuff that i didnt enjoy that much and that somehow killed the whole pacing of the level and puzzles but damn is this fucking dungeon atmospheric as shit and the final boss is kinda hot like look at those shoulders daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn i want him to crush me frfr

the desert temple is probably my favorite one of the bunch and honestly the entire gerudo part of the game is incredible the stealth part in the gerudo valley the colossus thats gonna watch over you every time in the dungeon the fact that you need to tackle this one as both child link and adult like i just enjoy this dungeon too fucking much and the boss is also one of my fav ones like the hot mage is peak

that being said these dungeons way harder and way longer than the first dungeons youre gonna meet in links childhood and that really drives the sudden harshness of the situation home

while i did think the final rehash of the already visited dungeons i felt ganons castle was a really incredible narrative segment with every single sage wishing link good luck for the battle to come and yeah i grew pretty used to this segment super fast and it went through pretty easily (apart from the shadow one please kys)

now talking a second about the story here im absolutely in love with revisiting already explored parts of the world but when youre an adult now going back to kakariko village and seeing what remained of it and what actually changed or seeking your bestie sarya in the forest temple and getting reunited with your friend (the final message going i will always be your best friend HIT ME i could not move for 5 mins because i was crying im sorry this game is so much for me) or even going back to lon lon ranch and meeting malon now grown up and getting epona back to ride her through hyrule like all this stuff has so much emotional wait in it because you know its been 7 YEARS since the timeskip and it hits it HITS

sheik is also an enigmatic character that speaks in poetry and the realisation that its actually zelda its a fucking jaw dropping moment that wouldve been really incredible if i hadnt known about this plot twist since 10 years old but its still super heavy

now im not actually a fan of zelda turning back to a damsel in distress like you were a fucking ninja speaking in poetry disappearing using weapons playing music doing a lot of great stuff and now you cant even fend for yourself gworl what in the fucking hell

this was actually kind of anticlimactic to me since its basically said that she learned every single battle secret of the sheikah tribe from impa fought bad guys for 7 years and is pretty hot and now she cant do shit but alright im not gonna complain about it because meeting zelda again is always a good thing im not gonna lie

the final battle with ganon is pretty great even tho its basically volleyball and somehow my favorite part was running away with zelda something that really feels reminiscent of running away from the castle in alttp its pretty cool being with her again after all this time and also she can do some weird magic to open gates pretty handy

the final final battle is easy as shit but i love it so fucking much WHAT THE HELL first of all this version of ganon is pretty fucking hot and can rail me whenever he wants second youre gonna be using your items because he pushes the master sword away and then you get reunited with navi with some incredible punch lines and then you just cut his tail lmao ok that IS anticlimactic but i love this game

after everything zelda thanks you and she rewinds time till before ganondorf actually getting evil power for you to never see her again apart from her past counterpart

this finale is absolutely fucking sad i cried like a bitch and after the credits when you see the little scene with baby link going back to baby zelda you wont believe how much i cried i was absolutely mentally unwell it ruined me from inside

somehow the plot of this game is really usual zelda flare but you add a time skip flavor to it to make it more engaging AND more depressed at the same time we love it

that being said the music of this game should be put in the best albums ever made for a game but also in general in the music tradition in humanity as a whole im not even fucking lying this shit it is incredible and while i would like to talk about it forever i wont because i got stuff to do but theres video essays everywhere do that

so music time

i already talked a lot about the title screen but im gonna say it again the title theme is absolutely incredible and i invite everyone to listen to it RIGHT NOW

going into the overworld and listen to this is such a fucking joy and probably one of the most upbeat songs of the entire game since it kind of reminds me of pokemon and shit like that and its also i think one if not the longest song in the entire game since it goes on for like 5 minutes with a lot of nuance put together like it gets really chaotic at points i love this one shit

zelda’s lullaby is incredible this is absolutely not the first game in the series where this song appears but its so iconic and so beautiful that if i were nintendo id have no doubt that this would be the main song of the series for decades and decades to come its just so so so amazing

lost woods is FUCKING ICONICCCCCCCCC ITS SO GREAT IT HAS NO RIGHT OF BEING THIS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD I DONT GET IT I DONT I ABSOLUTELY DONT i would come back to lost woods just to listen to this every time you get in there its just a fucking joy theres so much peace in this song chile

great fairys fountain is iconic and timeless im not gonna say anything about it the song speaks for itself

song of storms or as id like to call it the dubstep one is insane and i would like everyone to know that this is one of the best songs in the series and if you dont think so youre a fraud and you should not be trusted

now i gotta say that the temple songs in the adult time are way more atmospheric and ambience than i thought they would be but theyre still fucking good like every single one of them is good and when you listen to them again without link going HYAAAAAAA you realise how fucking spooky they are what the hell

gerudo valley . thank you nintendo

so yeah every single song is thats the point

ocarina of time is a timeless game a time capsule of a time long lost time time time time time time time time time

and the thing is when you realize that this game is talking about life as a whole of day to day life and the interactions we have and issues and obstacles and links and memories and the inexorable passage of time its no surprise that this is regarded as one of the most incredible work of arts that humanity brought to life in a medium that probably till now was regarded as just toys to fiddle with and emotionless pastime
time is a thing that i think a lot about and this game helped me make sense of it for the most part and i dont think even nintendo understands the absolute might of this games story but its incredible how to this day it touches the hearts of so many people

you could say it defeated the test of time amirite HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA that was bad heres my favorite sheik quote

“The flow of time is always cruel... its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it... A thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days…”

Veredito: relíquia preciosa de valor inestimável.

Tirando talvez o 1º Super Mario Bros, este é - sem discussão - o jogo mais importante já criado. Hoje é comum não acharem grande coisa, até com um pouco de razão. Quase tudo nele já foi MUITO melhorado em outros jogos, e agora parece só um joguinho qualquer. Mas é justo essa a questão: sem Ocarina of Time, tudo o que foi melhorado não existiria. Mira travada? Nasceu aqui. Botão de ação? Aqui também. Combate tridimensional? Aqui. Percepção espacial, puzzles baseados nessa percepção, mundo aberto 3D com uma história principal épica e zilhões de sidequests que se ligam nessa história? Tudo aqui. Antes era comum chamar todo FPS de 'clone de Doom'. Bom, quase todo jogo 3D desde então é, menos ou mais, um clone de Ocarina.

Só que... o que importa mais é o que ele significa pra mim, pessoalmente. Já adorava videogames antes desse jogo, mas ele foi um divisor de águas. Foi o 1º que comprei com grana economizada, e graças a ele isso virou algo frequente. Quando criança não sabia inglês, então bati tanta testa em pedra tentando zerar pela 1ª vez, e depois tentando achar todos os segredos sem entender nada dos diálogos, que acabei decorando todas as reações dos personagens e lugares caso eu fizesse qualquer coisa em qualquer situação possível. Testei tanto cada coisa que decorei os melhores caminhos pra zerar de ponta a ponta numa noite bem virada. E aprendi inglês com ele. Com ele conheci várias pessoas que também gostavam de jogar, me aproximei de outras tantas, que são amigos próximos até hoje. Fiz redações na escola sobre esse jogo, colecionei revistas e mais revistas, usei ele de exemplo em apresentação de projeto de pesquisa na faculdade. Têm jogos que joguei muito. Têm os que eu rejoguei de novo e de novo, até cansar. E aí tem Ocarina.

O Videogame se divide entre pré-Ocarina e pós-Ocarina. Ponto. Tanto na história da arte quanto na minha vida pessoal.

Galera, foi mal a parede de texto mas não dá. Porra, eu sou muito feliz quando tou jogando ele, só isso. Já faz mais de 20 anos, e nada mudou.

#Zelda35thAnniversary

In the midyear drought of new games, I decided to actually go back into my backlog and complete some stuff.

Now here's a bit of a shameful secret of mine, despite BOTW being one of my favourite games of all time, I've never actually finished any other Zelda games besides Twilight Princess. Ocarina of Time being THE Zelda game, I decided to complete this one first as I officially started my Zelda Marathon.

My history OOT is a brief one. I picked it up as a kid, played to the point of getting to Adult Link, saw a re dead and dropped the game because I was too chicken to continue playing.

I started playing the N64 version on my switch however the 20fps and extremely slow crawling text was making me lose my mind. After hearing the 3ds version fixed all those issues, I played that version instead.

People are definitely right about OOT being THE Zelda game as it has everything you would expect from a Zelda game without any gimmicks that newer Zelda games tend to have. An 8 dungeon romp with a nice little open world with enough puzzles and secrets to keep you entertained for hours and hours. It was quite a masterpiece back then and still is today.

The story of this game is pretty basic, evil man wants the ultimate power to rule the world and you're the chosen hero to stop him. However the strength is not in the story but the world of Hyrule, which the way this is executed continues to make this game a masterpiece to this day. The way how you spend the first half of this game as a child exploring all of Hyrule, meeting characters all over the world and learning about their lives through side quests, and then travelling 7 years into the future after Ganondorf has taken over Hyrule and seeing how this has affected all the character's lives you have met 7 years later is so immersive and masterful.

The gameplay is also fun. The combat isn't anything to write home about however the puzzles and exploration in this game are still unmatched. Dungeons are self explanatory; a series of rooms full of puzzles you need to solve with the items you have acquired throughout the game, which are absolutely so fun to solve and I believe is the core of OOT.

The exploration is Mwah chefs kiss. There is no feeling more rewarding than exploring an open world, seeing a place you can't get to, and then coming back to that place once you realise you have the item to help you get there, only to be rewarded with a new item, or heart piece. This satisfaction of exploration definitely scratches my metroidvania itch.

OOT is a great solid masterpiece that I can recommend to anyone. The N64 version on the Switch is still playable if you don't care about framerate and slow crawling text, however I recommend picking up the 3ds version if you can. I also implore Nintendo to port the 3ds version of this game and Majora's Mask to the switch. I would pay the full $99 for that.

{I've already reviewed the original release of Ocarina of Time, so see that review for my thoughts on the base game.}

It's tragic how this beautiful adventure is limited to such a small screen. The low resolution doesn't affect the experience, it's still one of the greatest games I've ever played. The 3D functions quite well, especially on the New 3DS XL. The inclusion of Master Quest is a brilliant new way to play this classic game (if you missed it on GameCube). But I couldn't help but wonder why this graphical update to one of the greatest games of all time wasn't HD.

Ocarina of Time felt like such a massive adventure back in '98, so it's odd to have it brought into this century on a smaller scale. Obviously the idea of portable 3D Zelda was a novel one, but it always irked me that I couldn't blow this adventure up to 1080p 60fps.

Recently, I did just that. The best way to play Ocarina of Time 3D is with the Citra emulator and a Switch Pro Controller. I was able to take full advantage of intuitive gyro aiming while having actual analog sticks. I was able to play on my TV (via an HDMI cable from my laptop) while maintaining the updated textures and models of the 2011 release of the game. (Though there are updated texture packs that you can patch in to make things look even better!) It's not how Nintendo intended the game to be played, but it is my definitive recommendation for how ANYONE with a PC should play it.

The game has never stopped being great, and there are so many ways to play it now. OoT is officially on N64, GameCube, Wii, Wii U, Switch, and 3DS. But until Nintendo drops an HD version of this remaster on Switch, the best way to play through this adventure is fan-made.

I got my 3ds from a relative(long story) then looked at what I can play on it. Saw this Remake/Remaster and said why not? After all this is the game that every retro gamer's favourite game of all time isn't it?

Then played it... and found it... meh/fine? I mean it wasn't a bad experience but it was adventure game as basic as it gets for me? It never pushes limits or tries something experimental I felt? Is it have to be experimental? Of course no but I felt like it tries to stay simple too much rather than use every dungeon or equipment to it's full potential. What I mean is, I felt every dungeon is designed to be beatable with only using that dungeon's gadget except maybe water dungeon, maybe some small moments in other dungeons and finale dungeon but finale dungeon is mostly a challenge dungeon anyway so... Yeah, I found it was a bit simplistic and formulaic unfortunately. Only dungeon that really forced me was the water dungeon. Yeah you need to keep change your euipment a lot maybe, but it's the only one that pushes it's logic to the limit I felt. I had fun with it because of it.

You will probably say what about the world? What about the side activities? What about the time mechanic? What about the ocarina itself?

They were fine. World was the good kind of open, small but full of things to explore(except middle part of hyrule) in every step if you want, so I had fun when I just wanted to explore a bit. Also seeing alternate ones was cool as well. But learning where to go with asking to npc's was not that fun in my opinion. Sheikah stones kind of help in that regard(but also they kind of harm the game with giving solutions to dungeons, I didn't use it for that but it kind of bothered me with how they taking away from the main challenge itself), but still there is some situations you need to find correct npc or do an obtuse task for the correct objective and that wasn't fun for me.(yeah I know retro games tends to do that but that doesn't mean I enjoy searching for one obtuse thing)

Side activities on the other hand... wasn't that engaging for me because of their timing challenge nature, but variety is nice at least. There is some sidequests as well but I haven't cared about them much if I didn't find them coincidentally while doing main missions.

Time mechanic was greatly disappointing for me. When I first saw it changing between kid and adult, Oh my god possibilities are endleessssss. Then I realized that for the main content you only need to use 4 times or something close to that number and disappointed(I don't count moving blocks as a time travel)...

Ocarina was nice and I liked that some of the songs have interesting effects depending on the situation and sometimes you need to use to solve puzzles as well.

Yeah that was how I felt. Fine but not pushing to the limits kind of game for me.

HOLY SHIT I DID IT. I FINALLY DID IT. When I was a kid I played the OG on the Nintendo 64 and while I genuinely did have a great time with it, I remember getting really frustrated by the dungeons and eventually running out of steam in the Shadow Temple, which I had a ton of trouble navigating for some reason. Yeah, somehow it wasn’t the Water Temple that did me in, it was the Shadow Temple. It wasn’t even that I was too spooked (even if ReDead scared the crap out of me), I just died way too many times. Fortunately, it was still a lot of fun just messing around in the game and exploring, but still.

BUT NOW I BEAT IT ON THE 3DS BABEY. As much as I do think there are several ways it hasn’t aged the best even with the shiny new graphics and the less frustrating Water Temple, this game’s still a real blast. I’ll admit that I spent some time getting frustrated with the Shadow Temple again and quit for a while, but I started enjoying the game a lot more when I approached it more like I did when I was a kid and I spent time messing around and exploring instead of just trying to complete all the dungeons in a row. Exploration isn’t really perfect since a lot of the biggest open areas are kind of empty, but it’s still a lot of fun to poke around the game world and see what you can find.

I didn’t try to shoot for 100% completion, though, because there’s a little bit of jank present that made me think it wouldn’t be fun enough to justify the frustration. I don’t know if it’s the 3DS controls or a problem present from day one, but I found the archery minigame stuff kind of difficult to do well even stationary, and the horseback archery was even worse. I’m glad I was good enough at the game by the end that I didn’t need a fourth bottle. There are also a few weird design decisions like getting the silver gauntlets in the penultimate dungeon and getting the gold gauntlets in the final dungeon at the end of the game where there are like three locations to use them?? That’s a problem the whole series tends to have, though, not just this game. The story’s also not super detailed, but I do like how it’s introduced enough interesting ideas to let the fans go kinda wild with theorizing about the story. Also the music’s really good and iconic!

Anyway, I woudn’t consider this worthy of the hyperbolic Greatest Game of All Time title, it’s still a dang good game and one of the pioneers of the 3D era of gaming. The 3DS remake is a great update in terms of visuals and heck!! It’s portable! That rules!

Will I try Master Quest…? Honestly, despite my original frustrations, I thought the dungeons were breezy enough to be fun but tricky enough that they made me think. I dunno if I’d want to mess with that, but maybe I’ll give it a shot someday.

Não consigo entender como uma obra de arte consegue acertar perfeitamente em tantos aspectos, e ao mesmo pecar em outros tão essenciais.
Na minha opinião, este é um jogo perfeito, sem quaisquer defeitos. Uma das melhores soundtracks da história, uma lore interessante, personagens carismáticos, mundo fascinante, entre outras conquistas. Todavia, a partir da introdução dos templos, por volta da metade do jogo, a criatividade diminui muito. Os ambientes abertos que antes eu amava explorar, agora foram alternados por áreas fechadas desinteressantes e extremamente repetitivas. A sensação de descoberta, interação, fascínio, foi lentamente se ofuscando, o que feriu muito a minha experiência com a obra.
Dito isto, ainda é um ótimo jogo.