My happy place. I love playing this game so much. Yeah it's maybe one temple too long, as I was ready for it to finish by the time I'd beaten those witches, but it's so good to play. Everything works so well.
Also, anyone that says the water temple is the worst, is a fuckin fraud.
Also, anyone that says the water temple is the worst, is a fuckin fraud.
fucking fuck you arin hanson and your stupid ass beard and mouth with which you spout n words
I think it's so funny how before the Master Sword, the developers made sure to ease the player into 3D gaming as much as possible. Constant hints, hand-holding as much as possible...
And then halfway through they said MAN, FUCK THEM KIDS BRO and little 8 year old Timmy on the N64 has to suffer through actual nightmare fuel with NO direction.
I love it.
And then halfway through they said MAN, FUCK THEM KIDS BRO and little 8 year old Timmy on the N64 has to suffer through actual nightmare fuel with NO direction.
I love it.
First game I've ever played and it truly captured my heart. Amazing characters, music and environment. Makes me feel very nostalgic and warm. Truly a game I will cherish forever.
I’m only 17 so I may not have had the same experience as one of the older Zelda fans but nonetheless this game still holds up to this day even though the graphics and gameplay is a little dated
Often heralded as one of the greatest games of all time, I really don’t need to go into great detail as to what makes Ocarina of Time so amazing, as it provided one of the first epic adventures in 3D in a way that felt real.
The game starts out in Kokiri Forest, which serves as a tutorial hub that manages to not feel like a tutorial. This is a small playground that lets you play with aspects of the game’s control and targeting systems, the context sensitive A-button, but all the lessons are completely optional and are for the player to find. This kind of discovery was a great feeling as a kid, and the starting area is designed in such a way that if you know what you’re doing, you can very quickly grab your sword and shield and get on with the game.
I feel like Kokiri Forest is overlooked for how well it introduces Ocarina of Time, as a lot of the stuff is now just second nature in video games, but Ocarina had to teach everything from scratch. Even simple things like pots respawning to collect more rupees is taught by the rarity of rupees and the need to buy the Deku Shield, and the little pond areas introduce how jumping is done in the game.
Dungeons are a big part of Ocarina of Time, and the game eases you into them with the Deku Tree, while also showing off the verticality possible thanks to the N64’s power. There are a few little tricks like trapping you in the slingshot room until you use it. Unfortunately, Navi does decide to butt in by explaining specific actions like moving blocks and diving, running the freedom of the starting village, but as you the action for interacting with a block changes based on if you’re still and moving, I can see people missing one of the actions and getting stuck.
The game directs you upwards to perform a big jump to get to the lower areas of the tree, and uses deku sticks to activate torches and remove obstacles, showing the kind of ways that you can interact with in the game.
After the Deku Tree, we get a significant gap until the next dungeon as the game opens up to a large expansive world, a technique still used in games today. You’ll be directed towards the castle by a really annoying owl (with confusing did you not hear me or did you not not hear me? yes or no questions), but the size of Hyrule Field is specifically designed that (without knowing the way and rolling to move faster) night will fall, a way to introduce how time works in the game, and how it moves in certain areas.
Castle Town is filled with NPCs to talk to and side quests that are hinted at for you to start later on – although first is the obligatory stealth section, but with a fixed camera to make it easier (was Ocarina of Time the start of the forced stealth section trend?), where you’ll meet Zelda as you learn the quest of the game. Once the “main” quest starts, you need to start figuring out things yourself, with the first big hurdle figuring out what to actually do in Goron City, which is likely where a lot of kids got stuck for a while, as the solution lies in revisiting somewhere across the map.
Dodongo’s Cavern waits to introduce its name until you reach the main central room. Here you can see a lot of paths, both on the current level and upstairs, but this guides you far less than the deku tree as you have to figure out how to navigate the dungeon yourself. It also presents an added danger as your deku shield can be destroyed by fire enemies – you are no longer in a kid’s world, and this dungeon does a great job at portraying that.
After this, you have access to even more of the world, as you’re directed to Zora’s Domain. You also get introduced to magic beans, which let you plant in patches of soft dirt – they’ll take years to grow, so this is the first in-game hint as to what will happen later on. Zora’s Domain also teaches you about bottles (although if you do side missions, you can get some before here), which are used to collect certain items for later on, as well as letting you carry a fairy to revive Link. You also need to go to Lake Hylia, where you can find the wonderful fishing minigame.
After solving the puzzle to get inside Lord Jabu-Jabu, you enter the next dungeon with pulsating walls and dangerous electric jellyfish. This one is very difficult to navigate first time round, and you have to use Ruto to activate switches as she accompanies you for part of this dungeon – a concept revisited in Wind Waker. I like the style of this dungeon, but it’s definitely my least favourite.
With all three spiritual stones in hand, you head to the Temple of Time – grabbing the Ocarina of Time from the fleeing Princess Zelda along the way as Link gets hold of the Master Sword, only to wake up after 7 years in slumber. He’s now an adult, and the world outside is much darker, with a destroyed Hyrule Market overrun by Zombies. A mysterious new character, Shiek, is on hand to guide Link towards the temples he needs to visit to awaken the sages of the land.
You get directed to Kakariko Village, where you need to use clues given by NPCs to find one of the coolest objects in the game – the hookshot.
The Forest Temple is the first dungeon as an adult, and has some very unnerving music (the music is amazing across the entire game) and some really neat ideas of manipulating the dungeon itself – something else that would be revisited in more detail in future Zelda games. Here you get the adult equivalent of the slingshot, the bow and arrow. It’s a very unnerving dungeon, and ends with a practice for the final boss of the game.
You can do the temples in different orders, although some optional areas may be locked off – the map for the fire temple, for example, needs the bow. The fire temple also needs a special tunic that you need to get first (although people have completed the dungeon without it), here you get the Megaton Hammer, which is used to activate rusty switches and smash harder rocks, before fighting a fire-breathing dragon. I like to use the Giant’s Knife here, which is a powerful sword that can only last a few hits (a permanent one is a reward for one of the longer side quests of the game).
The Water Temple has a really bad reputation, and I can see why. It’s not as outrageously hard as its reputation, but it does a few things differently. The biggest difference is how it treats small keys. Usually they’re on the way to close to the locked door they’re needed for, but the Water Temple is a bit more open ended, with keys hidden all over the place. One in particular (under the central room) is very easy to miss. You also need to change the water level a lot, so exploring it can be a faff. Lastly, the iron boots needed to be constantly equipped and removed, and could only be done so from the pause menu.
Eventually, you’ll be unable to progress as adult Link and will have to return to the past as child Link – something alluded to by the man in the Windmill complaining about someone playing a song on the ocarina in the past (and then teaching you the song, which you will then teach him in the past). The game ups the horror vibes a lot and, if you wait until this point to go back in time and head to the well, you’ll also feel much more vulnerable due to not having access to a lot of your items. This is to get the Lens of Truth, needed for the Shadow Temple (technically you can do it without, but you need to know the game extremely well).
With lots of creepy vibes and invisible enemies and objects, the Shadow Temple really freaked me out as a kid – to the point that I backed out after getting the hover boots and did the Spirit Temple, and I even stopped playing the game, only returning after completing Majora’s Mask years later. It seems really tame now as I know what to expect, but the unknown really was too much for me back then. This temple – and the next – are much more linear, although with really fun bosses.
The Spirit Temple is fascinating as it needs to be completed in two parts – one half as a kid and the other as an adult. You get a really nice shield which is used to reflect light and certain attacks and, like a few other items from the adult dungeons, it’s a shame it doesn’t have much use elsewhere in the game.
After this, you then have access to the final dungeon, which consists of mini challenges loosely based on the various temples, before you take on Ganondorf. Of course, there are still side quests to complete.
The hunt for heart pieces is the most significant kind of collectible, but the trading and mask side quests are also great. Hidden throughout the land are also 100 Gold Skulltulas, many of which only appear at night. The rewards for the first 50 are pretty good: bigger wallets, a heart piece and a special stone that rumbles when you’re near a secret. The final 50 only grants you 200 rupees which, while you can collect it multiple times, is completely pointless at that point in the game as you’ll spend most of the game with a full wallet anyway. A gold coloured tunic would have been a better option (perhaps it can have protection for fire and water so you don’t need to change tunics).
The lack of things to use money for is probably one of the bigger weaknesses of the game. The dungeons and overworld have bonus puzzles, most leading to money or the Gold Skulltulas. It feels like a waste when the reward you get is completely pointless, but that’s only a minor issue.
Ocarina of Time is still a wonderful game. The world does feel a bit small by today’s standards, but for its time, it was phenomenal, and in many ways, Ocarina of Time showed how 3D adventures could and should be done. It’s an important piece of video game history that is still great to play today.
The game starts out in Kokiri Forest, which serves as a tutorial hub that manages to not feel like a tutorial. This is a small playground that lets you play with aspects of the game’s control and targeting systems, the context sensitive A-button, but all the lessons are completely optional and are for the player to find. This kind of discovery was a great feeling as a kid, and the starting area is designed in such a way that if you know what you’re doing, you can very quickly grab your sword and shield and get on with the game.
I feel like Kokiri Forest is overlooked for how well it introduces Ocarina of Time, as a lot of the stuff is now just second nature in video games, but Ocarina had to teach everything from scratch. Even simple things like pots respawning to collect more rupees is taught by the rarity of rupees and the need to buy the Deku Shield, and the little pond areas introduce how jumping is done in the game.
Dungeons are a big part of Ocarina of Time, and the game eases you into them with the Deku Tree, while also showing off the verticality possible thanks to the N64’s power. There are a few little tricks like trapping you in the slingshot room until you use it. Unfortunately, Navi does decide to butt in by explaining specific actions like moving blocks and diving, running the freedom of the starting village, but as you the action for interacting with a block changes based on if you’re still and moving, I can see people missing one of the actions and getting stuck.
The game directs you upwards to perform a big jump to get to the lower areas of the tree, and uses deku sticks to activate torches and remove obstacles, showing the kind of ways that you can interact with in the game.
After the Deku Tree, we get a significant gap until the next dungeon as the game opens up to a large expansive world, a technique still used in games today. You’ll be directed towards the castle by a really annoying owl (with confusing did you not hear me or did you not not hear me? yes or no questions), but the size of Hyrule Field is specifically designed that (without knowing the way and rolling to move faster) night will fall, a way to introduce how time works in the game, and how it moves in certain areas.
Castle Town is filled with NPCs to talk to and side quests that are hinted at for you to start later on – although first is the obligatory stealth section, but with a fixed camera to make it easier (was Ocarina of Time the start of the forced stealth section trend?), where you’ll meet Zelda as you learn the quest of the game. Once the “main” quest starts, you need to start figuring out things yourself, with the first big hurdle figuring out what to actually do in Goron City, which is likely where a lot of kids got stuck for a while, as the solution lies in revisiting somewhere across the map.
Dodongo’s Cavern waits to introduce its name until you reach the main central room. Here you can see a lot of paths, both on the current level and upstairs, but this guides you far less than the deku tree as you have to figure out how to navigate the dungeon yourself. It also presents an added danger as your deku shield can be destroyed by fire enemies – you are no longer in a kid’s world, and this dungeon does a great job at portraying that.
After this, you have access to even more of the world, as you’re directed to Zora’s Domain. You also get introduced to magic beans, which let you plant in patches of soft dirt – they’ll take years to grow, so this is the first in-game hint as to what will happen later on. Zora’s Domain also teaches you about bottles (although if you do side missions, you can get some before here), which are used to collect certain items for later on, as well as letting you carry a fairy to revive Link. You also need to go to Lake Hylia, where you can find the wonderful fishing minigame.
After solving the puzzle to get inside Lord Jabu-Jabu, you enter the next dungeon with pulsating walls and dangerous electric jellyfish. This one is very difficult to navigate first time round, and you have to use Ruto to activate switches as she accompanies you for part of this dungeon – a concept revisited in Wind Waker. I like the style of this dungeon, but it’s definitely my least favourite.
With all three spiritual stones in hand, you head to the Temple of Time – grabbing the Ocarina of Time from the fleeing Princess Zelda along the way as Link gets hold of the Master Sword, only to wake up after 7 years in slumber. He’s now an adult, and the world outside is much darker, with a destroyed Hyrule Market overrun by Zombies. A mysterious new character, Shiek, is on hand to guide Link towards the temples he needs to visit to awaken the sages of the land.
You get directed to Kakariko Village, where you need to use clues given by NPCs to find one of the coolest objects in the game – the hookshot.
The Forest Temple is the first dungeon as an adult, and has some very unnerving music (the music is amazing across the entire game) and some really neat ideas of manipulating the dungeon itself – something else that would be revisited in more detail in future Zelda games. Here you get the adult equivalent of the slingshot, the bow and arrow. It’s a very unnerving dungeon, and ends with a practice for the final boss of the game.
You can do the temples in different orders, although some optional areas may be locked off – the map for the fire temple, for example, needs the bow. The fire temple also needs a special tunic that you need to get first (although people have completed the dungeon without it), here you get the Megaton Hammer, which is used to activate rusty switches and smash harder rocks, before fighting a fire-breathing dragon. I like to use the Giant’s Knife here, which is a powerful sword that can only last a few hits (a permanent one is a reward for one of the longer side quests of the game).
The Water Temple has a really bad reputation, and I can see why. It’s not as outrageously hard as its reputation, but it does a few things differently. The biggest difference is how it treats small keys. Usually they’re on the way to close to the locked door they’re needed for, but the Water Temple is a bit more open ended, with keys hidden all over the place. One in particular (under the central room) is very easy to miss. You also need to change the water level a lot, so exploring it can be a faff. Lastly, the iron boots needed to be constantly equipped and removed, and could only be done so from the pause menu.
Eventually, you’ll be unable to progress as adult Link and will have to return to the past as child Link – something alluded to by the man in the Windmill complaining about someone playing a song on the ocarina in the past (and then teaching you the song, which you will then teach him in the past). The game ups the horror vibes a lot and, if you wait until this point to go back in time and head to the well, you’ll also feel much more vulnerable due to not having access to a lot of your items. This is to get the Lens of Truth, needed for the Shadow Temple (technically you can do it without, but you need to know the game extremely well).
With lots of creepy vibes and invisible enemies and objects, the Shadow Temple really freaked me out as a kid – to the point that I backed out after getting the hover boots and did the Spirit Temple, and I even stopped playing the game, only returning after completing Majora’s Mask years later. It seems really tame now as I know what to expect, but the unknown really was too much for me back then. This temple – and the next – are much more linear, although with really fun bosses.
The Spirit Temple is fascinating as it needs to be completed in two parts – one half as a kid and the other as an adult. You get a really nice shield which is used to reflect light and certain attacks and, like a few other items from the adult dungeons, it’s a shame it doesn’t have much use elsewhere in the game.
After this, you then have access to the final dungeon, which consists of mini challenges loosely based on the various temples, before you take on Ganondorf. Of course, there are still side quests to complete.
The hunt for heart pieces is the most significant kind of collectible, but the trading and mask side quests are also great. Hidden throughout the land are also 100 Gold Skulltulas, many of which only appear at night. The rewards for the first 50 are pretty good: bigger wallets, a heart piece and a special stone that rumbles when you’re near a secret. The final 50 only grants you 200 rupees which, while you can collect it multiple times, is completely pointless at that point in the game as you’ll spend most of the game with a full wallet anyway. A gold coloured tunic would have been a better option (perhaps it can have protection for fire and water so you don’t need to change tunics).
The lack of things to use money for is probably one of the bigger weaknesses of the game. The dungeons and overworld have bonus puzzles, most leading to money or the Gold Skulltulas. It feels like a waste when the reward you get is completely pointless, but that’s only a minor issue.
Ocarina of Time is still a wonderful game. The world does feel a bit small by today’s standards, but for its time, it was phenomenal, and in many ways, Ocarina of Time showed how 3D adventures could and should be done. It’s an important piece of video game history that is still great to play today.
Yeah this is one of the best games ever made.
I played the 3DS version of this game first, graphics aside this game does so many things great and I absolutely love it!
hands down the best zelda game to this day
This review contains spoilers
Last year, in anticipation of Tears of the Kingdom, I started playing all the Zelda games (mostly) for the first time. Tears of the Kingdom didn't really do much for me, so I dropped my Zelda marathon after getting burnt out by Link's Awakening. But before that, I had played the 3DS version of this game and Majora as a child and thought they were decent fun, and that was pretty much the extent of my experience with the franchise pre-BOTW. Something about this playthrough completely changed how I view this game, bumping up from "it's pretty good" to feeling like Danny DeVito's character in It's Always Sunny watching Mac's play: "Oh my God.... I get it..."
You can see a lot of this game's DNA in BOTW, and for good reason. The concept of Z-Targeting is still used in so many games today (DMC and Kingdom Hearts come to mind), but it's not always the best way to attack enemies. There are genuine advantages to untargeting to crouch behind your shield and poke between an enemy's legs, or to corner-trap certain bosses. The emphasis on slow, methodical sword combat against enemies like the Lizalfos, Wolfos, Stalfos, the Gerudo, and the Iron Knuckle are some of the most fun combat of any game I've played. Most enemies are standard Zelda fare, though, and don't require that much thought to fight them in the same way as these guys. I don't necessarily wish there were more enemies like the larger, smarter enemies, but they're still the most fun to fight and utilize the system to its full potential.
You can use the Control Stick to change the way your sword swings while targeted or untargeted. A swing sideways or slashing down versus a straight thrust forward makes it easier to hit certain enemies. After visiting a Fairy Fountain, you can get a charged 360 sword attack, but you can avoid using magic with it by doing a motion input with the attack button. If you're feeling like the game has too much stopping and waiting for openings, use the tools at your disposal to stun enemies, or use movement to your advantage by sidestepping around an enemy to hit a blindspot. The combat is just so much fun, man. I could gush about this shit for hours.
The sword combat WOULD be the best thing about this game if it wasn't full of so many fun, well-designed dungeons with intuitive puzzles. Really, the only time I was frustrated was trying to find the last small key in the Water Temple. I had to look it up online and I felt stupid for not realizing where it was because the game basically SHOWS you (you have to go through the center tower and raise the water, then go UNDER the giant block. The camera shows you this, but I just wasn't paying good enough attention...)
Also, I had no clue that you could do the Adult Dungeons in basically any order, provided you have the Bow before Water Temple, and you finish the first three before the trigger for Spirit and Shadow Temples activate. The game steers you in a specific direction if you call Saria or listen to Navi's hints, so that players aren't completely lost on what to do themselves, but it gives some replay value to be able to do things in a different order, and seeing how easy or hard it might be in comparison.
And my god, the storyline of this game is so cool. The English dialogue itself can be a bit stilted, I presume these lines were very direct translations, but is otherwise really well-written. But the world is full of so many fun characters, beautiful locations, and a twist I desperately wish wasn't ruined by Smash Bros. Much of the lore, and even the ending, is a reimagining of the backstory to "Triforce of the Gods" (the Japanese version of Link to the Past, which took a lot of liberties with some details regarding the English translation in the manual). A lot of details were retconned, but I'd say it was for the better because the slow process of awakening all the Sages is so much fun.
While I was playing Link to the Past last year, I noticed that this game has very similar progression structure to it. You do a few dungeons, go into the castle, you warp between two different worlds to progress (Past/Future vs. Light/Dark World), do more dungeons to save the Sages, and then you go back to fight Ganon. I think this game does the structure far better than LTTP, though. Something about that game just wasn't hitting for me. It felt more like a 2D prototype for what would eventually blossom into Ocarina, but it was still cool.
The game takes full advantage of the time travel mechanic in really cool ways, much better than the Light/Dark World mechanic of LTTP. Sometimes, you have to enter a dungeon as a kid because you have to be small enough to squeeze through a hole, get something for yourself as an adult, and then finish the dungeon as an adult with the item you got.
Finally, I'll mention the graphics at the end here. If you're playing the game upscaled in an emulator or using an "HD texture pack", you're missing the point. CRT filters aren't always great, but playing this on the closest approximation of one that you can reveals how nice the game looks when you can't tell how stretched and blurry the textures are (I use S-Video filters, personally). This is one of the best-looking low-poly games I've ever played, on par with (sometimes looking better than) a game like Metal Gear Solid. Pray your emulator can accurately render the fog and lighting, and the game looks beautiful. The only thing I'm curious about is why some environments are pre-rendered and some are fully rendered in 3D. The pre-rendered backgrounds look very nice and are high-quality, but it seems like they choose the most random places to make something pre-rendered.
Really the only major negative (hidden Water Temple key aside) that I can think of is how lacking Hyrule Field is as a hub area. It connects all the major locations together, but it's just so big and empty that traversing it early on (especially as a child) quickly becomes a bore. It's really fun to run around in once you have Epona as an adult, and I'm sure it'd be twice as impressive if I was a kid in the late 90s experiencing something so revolutionary, but man... it just takes ages to cross on foot unless you sidestep jump spam. That majesty of "wow, I'm impressed that they were able to make this work on the N64" wears off when you have to cross the field for the 15th time and you just wish you could get to where you were going a little faster. Especially in cases like first-time visits of locations, or when trying to get back to Zora's Domain (afaik, there's no quick warp there).
Not without its flaws, but as close to a masterpiece as you can get. Can't wait to play the rest of the games in the franchise as I slowly work my way through it before giving Tears of the Kingdom another chance.
You can see a lot of this game's DNA in BOTW, and for good reason. The concept of Z-Targeting is still used in so many games today (DMC and Kingdom Hearts come to mind), but it's not always the best way to attack enemies. There are genuine advantages to untargeting to crouch behind your shield and poke between an enemy's legs, or to corner-trap certain bosses. The emphasis on slow, methodical sword combat against enemies like the Lizalfos, Wolfos, Stalfos, the Gerudo, and the Iron Knuckle are some of the most fun combat of any game I've played. Most enemies are standard Zelda fare, though, and don't require that much thought to fight them in the same way as these guys. I don't necessarily wish there were more enemies like the larger, smarter enemies, but they're still the most fun to fight and utilize the system to its full potential.
You can use the Control Stick to change the way your sword swings while targeted or untargeted. A swing sideways or slashing down versus a straight thrust forward makes it easier to hit certain enemies. After visiting a Fairy Fountain, you can get a charged 360 sword attack, but you can avoid using magic with it by doing a motion input with the attack button. If you're feeling like the game has too much stopping and waiting for openings, use the tools at your disposal to stun enemies, or use movement to your advantage by sidestepping around an enemy to hit a blindspot. The combat is just so much fun, man. I could gush about this shit for hours.
The sword combat WOULD be the best thing about this game if it wasn't full of so many fun, well-designed dungeons with intuitive puzzles. Really, the only time I was frustrated was trying to find the last small key in the Water Temple. I had to look it up online and I felt stupid for not realizing where it was because the game basically SHOWS you (you have to go through the center tower and raise the water, then go UNDER the giant block. The camera shows you this, but I just wasn't paying good enough attention...)
Also, I had no clue that you could do the Adult Dungeons in basically any order, provided you have the Bow before Water Temple, and you finish the first three before the trigger for Spirit and Shadow Temples activate. The game steers you in a specific direction if you call Saria or listen to Navi's hints, so that players aren't completely lost on what to do themselves, but it gives some replay value to be able to do things in a different order, and seeing how easy or hard it might be in comparison.
And my god, the storyline of this game is so cool. The English dialogue itself can be a bit stilted, I presume these lines were very direct translations, but is otherwise really well-written. But the world is full of so many fun characters, beautiful locations, and a twist I desperately wish wasn't ruined by Smash Bros. Much of the lore, and even the ending, is a reimagining of the backstory to "Triforce of the Gods" (the Japanese version of Link to the Past, which took a lot of liberties with some details regarding the English translation in the manual). A lot of details were retconned, but I'd say it was for the better because the slow process of awakening all the Sages is so much fun.
While I was playing Link to the Past last year, I noticed that this game has very similar progression structure to it. You do a few dungeons, go into the castle, you warp between two different worlds to progress (Past/Future vs. Light/Dark World), do more dungeons to save the Sages, and then you go back to fight Ganon. I think this game does the structure far better than LTTP, though. Something about that game just wasn't hitting for me. It felt more like a 2D prototype for what would eventually blossom into Ocarina, but it was still cool.
The game takes full advantage of the time travel mechanic in really cool ways, much better than the Light/Dark World mechanic of LTTP. Sometimes, you have to enter a dungeon as a kid because you have to be small enough to squeeze through a hole, get something for yourself as an adult, and then finish the dungeon as an adult with the item you got.
Finally, I'll mention the graphics at the end here. If you're playing the game upscaled in an emulator or using an "HD texture pack", you're missing the point. CRT filters aren't always great, but playing this on the closest approximation of one that you can reveals how nice the game looks when you can't tell how stretched and blurry the textures are (I use S-Video filters, personally). This is one of the best-looking low-poly games I've ever played, on par with (sometimes looking better than) a game like Metal Gear Solid. Pray your emulator can accurately render the fog and lighting, and the game looks beautiful. The only thing I'm curious about is why some environments are pre-rendered and some are fully rendered in 3D. The pre-rendered backgrounds look very nice and are high-quality, but it seems like they choose the most random places to make something pre-rendered.
Really the only major negative (hidden Water Temple key aside) that I can think of is how lacking Hyrule Field is as a hub area. It connects all the major locations together, but it's just so big and empty that traversing it early on (especially as a child) quickly becomes a bore. It's really fun to run around in once you have Epona as an adult, and I'm sure it'd be twice as impressive if I was a kid in the late 90s experiencing something so revolutionary, but man... it just takes ages to cross on foot unless you sidestep jump spam. That majesty of "wow, I'm impressed that they were able to make this work on the N64" wears off when you have to cross the field for the 15th time and you just wish you could get to where you were going a little faster. Especially in cases like first-time visits of locations, or when trying to get back to Zora's Domain (afaik, there's no quick warp there).
Not without its flaws, but as close to a masterpiece as you can get. Can't wait to play the rest of the games in the franchise as I slowly work my way through it before giving Tears of the Kingdom another chance.
It's really awesome even now, the two or three moments that were vague enough to where I got stuck don't detract from the game at all (not even one of the super shitty keys in the water temple where everyone seems to miss at least one, I did). Playing this game and being able to figure things out and experiment and almost always something happens is immensely gratifying. The atmosphere, music and especially the spectacle are fantastic for its time and even now. I love the cutscenes for the final fight with Ganon, and the credits cutscenes. Basically every facet of the game outside of the vague stuff I mentioned exudes passion and love from whoever worked on it. Replaying this game after 15 years actually makes me wish BOTW or TOTK was more like a traditional Zelda game than it is. Play the game, use a guide if you really need to at moments that stump you. It is worth the play, it's great and immortal in current game design, iconography, music and atmopshere.
Franchement une belle aventure que j'ai beaucoup apprécié
Highest rated game of all time for a reason. Still holds up today. Very solid adventure game with great dungeons and exploration. Running around Hyrule Field can get exhausting, but you can get a horse as soon as you finish the first three dungeons. The story isn't intrusive and you can ignore it if you want. A must play for any adventure game enjoyer.
too basic for my taste, feels there's nothing unique or special about it, so there's basically nothing for me to love about it. I've been trying to beat it so many times from when i was 13-20 years old but I never had enough interest to finish it.
maybe for its time it was good, but i played it as an adult and it didnt do anything for me tbh
Um tanto super-estimado mas ainda continua sendo um certified hood classic
Usually, I am not inclined towards superstitions and beliefs, but at the end of Ocarina of Time, Princess Zelda asked me to return to my time. Whether it's prophecy or sheer coincidence, we must admit that the princess’s exit is quite ironic when you’ve just spent several dozen hours on a game released over 25 years ago. What did she mean by returning to my time? Maybe I should simply enjoy current games? Like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Tears of the Kingdom? Stop stubbornly playing old games? I remain without an answer.
Anyway, we should normally keep quiet about never having played Ocarina of Time. It's the classic of classics. The "Citizen Kane" or "In Search of Lost Time" of gaming. If you skip this game, your gamer card gets revoked. Yet, like the aforementioned classics, I admit there's a strangely off-putting aspect to diving into the "genre's canons." As a critic, you find yourself in an uncomfortable position. Should you praise the game? Everyone has already done that (and better than you). Should you, on the contrary, bash it and make "hate content"? No, thank you. I have no desire to do either. I can only share my experience, which is the only "unique" thing that could be said about this game.
Ocarina of Time is not "just" the transition from 2D to 3D for a series; it's the "vanilla" experience of the 3D adventure game that remains the standard and, even today, an enjoyable experience. I find it crazy to think that this game is both the "universal tutorial" of 3D gaming while also being at the forefront of revolutionary mechanics: targeting, streamlined inventory management (compared to CRPGs of the time), dungeon level design, etc. I was impressed by how playable a 3D game controlled with a single stick remains without too many camera problems.
And yet, narratively, the game stays in a total classicism that I find, in this case, too "vanilla." I have trouble integrating into this world that lacks bizarreness. Everything is a bit too smooth for my taste. If the story didn't captivate me, it's the overall atmosphere of the dungeons that particularly stood out: the music, the enemies, the lighting effects, and the camera work, all are impressively mastered. The "open world" is very limited, and I admit I rushed through the dungeons without paying much attention to the side quests (I didn’t even get Epona). This didn't spoil my enjoyment.
Playing classics also raises the question of the platform on which to play them. After completing a third of the game on 3DS, I borrowed an N64 with an original cartridge. After spending a lot of time trying to get a decent image on my OLED screen, I eventually followed the path of reason by listening to @Katsono and @Armakeen and playing the version made by the Ship of Harkinian team with 4K textures added. I recommend anyone wanting to embark on this adventure to do the same: the game is beautiful, smooth, and you can assign the boots to the "C" button (which makes the Water Temple a bit less tedious). Hats off.
I look forward to diving into Majora’s Mask soon, probably in its "decompiled" version.
Anyway, we should normally keep quiet about never having played Ocarina of Time. It's the classic of classics. The "Citizen Kane" or "In Search of Lost Time" of gaming. If you skip this game, your gamer card gets revoked. Yet, like the aforementioned classics, I admit there's a strangely off-putting aspect to diving into the "genre's canons." As a critic, you find yourself in an uncomfortable position. Should you praise the game? Everyone has already done that (and better than you). Should you, on the contrary, bash it and make "hate content"? No, thank you. I have no desire to do either. I can only share my experience, which is the only "unique" thing that could be said about this game.
Ocarina of Time is not "just" the transition from 2D to 3D for a series; it's the "vanilla" experience of the 3D adventure game that remains the standard and, even today, an enjoyable experience. I find it crazy to think that this game is both the "universal tutorial" of 3D gaming while also being at the forefront of revolutionary mechanics: targeting, streamlined inventory management (compared to CRPGs of the time), dungeon level design, etc. I was impressed by how playable a 3D game controlled with a single stick remains without too many camera problems.
And yet, narratively, the game stays in a total classicism that I find, in this case, too "vanilla." I have trouble integrating into this world that lacks bizarreness. Everything is a bit too smooth for my taste. If the story didn't captivate me, it's the overall atmosphere of the dungeons that particularly stood out: the music, the enemies, the lighting effects, and the camera work, all are impressively mastered. The "open world" is very limited, and I admit I rushed through the dungeons without paying much attention to the side quests (I didn’t even get Epona). This didn't spoil my enjoyment.
Playing classics also raises the question of the platform on which to play them. After completing a third of the game on 3DS, I borrowed an N64 with an original cartridge. After spending a lot of time trying to get a decent image on my OLED screen, I eventually followed the path of reason by listening to @Katsono and @Armakeen and playing the version made by the Ship of Harkinian team with 4K textures added. I recommend anyone wanting to embark on this adventure to do the same: the game is beautiful, smooth, and you can assign the boots to the "C" button (which makes the Water Temple a bit less tedious). Hats off.
I look forward to diving into Majora’s Mask soon, probably in its "decompiled" version.
10/10 games are the ones that captivate you from start to finish. The ones that you cannot stop thinking about, when you go to sleep, when you’re at work and you cannot wait to get home to get back to it, the ones you play from start to finish and don’t even think about another game. This was one of them and I’m so glad I have finally experienced it in full.
Back when parents would buy 2-3 games per year, and you would cherish the game cartridges you had and extract every bit of entertainment from them, for one reason or another, I never had Ocarina of Time. 25 years later, I have finally played one of the cornerstones of gaming.
I put on my 90’s tinted glasses, tried to forget about all the games I have experienced since childhood, many of which have drawn inspiration from Ocarina of Time, sat down and imagined this was a fresh experience…
And it’s absolute perfection!
It has an excellent tutorial. We have to remember that we’re we at the start of a 3D revolution. And introducing the game with the first village and tutorial was enlightening.
The world is fascinating. Whilst a little empty in Hyrule field, the villages and other areas are packed with interesting landmarks and characters.
We have a silent protagonist in Link but they still manage to make him interesting with his backstory. Side characters are all stellar with their lore and own back stories.
The gameplay, whilst simple by todays standards, was revolutionary at the time. Interesting weapons, power ups and techniques keep the game feeling fresh throughout. The Temples, puzzles and sense of discovery are where the game really shines.
I love how the game does not hold your hand and leaves the player to figure out how to progress and best use the techniques at hand.
The story. Wow! Simple but effective. With an astounding ending! I just want to mention how the music and the end credits perfectly compliment this ending. Is Saria’s song the catchiest song in gaming?
I genuinely cannot think of a bad word to say about this game. Yes, yes, the Water Temple is as rage inducing as they say, but this only added to the triumph of completing it.
A must play. Earns its right as many gamer’s best game of all time.
Back when parents would buy 2-3 games per year, and you would cherish the game cartridges you had and extract every bit of entertainment from them, for one reason or another, I never had Ocarina of Time. 25 years later, I have finally played one of the cornerstones of gaming.
I put on my 90’s tinted glasses, tried to forget about all the games I have experienced since childhood, many of which have drawn inspiration from Ocarina of Time, sat down and imagined this was a fresh experience…
And it’s absolute perfection!
It has an excellent tutorial. We have to remember that we’re we at the start of a 3D revolution. And introducing the game with the first village and tutorial was enlightening.
The world is fascinating. Whilst a little empty in Hyrule field, the villages and other areas are packed with interesting landmarks and characters.
We have a silent protagonist in Link but they still manage to make him interesting with his backstory. Side characters are all stellar with their lore and own back stories.
The gameplay, whilst simple by todays standards, was revolutionary at the time. Interesting weapons, power ups and techniques keep the game feeling fresh throughout. The Temples, puzzles and sense of discovery are where the game really shines.
I love how the game does not hold your hand and leaves the player to figure out how to progress and best use the techniques at hand.
The story. Wow! Simple but effective. With an astounding ending! I just want to mention how the music and the end credits perfectly compliment this ending. Is Saria’s song the catchiest song in gaming?
I genuinely cannot think of a bad word to say about this game. Yes, yes, the Water Temple is as rage inducing as they say, but this only added to the triumph of completing it.
A must play. Earns its right as many gamer’s best game of all time.
I appreciate the ideas in this game, and the world that it builds. But fighting with the controls really bogs down the experience. Especially once they add different boots you have to go into the pause menu to equip. The 3DS version will always be the better version for making those an item you can use instead of a menu equip.
Probably the most consistently good Zelda game all the way through. This was the game that made me love video games. I owe it everything
best video game ever
I remember thinking this game was overrated at one point in my life
then I played and beat the game. god-tier title, and I can see why a lot of people think it's the greatest ever made.
then I played and beat the game. god-tier title, and I can see why a lot of people think it's the greatest ever made.
The soundtrack is incredible and can be comforting at time, the combat is fun while the dungeons can be hit or miss. It made up a small yet unforgettable part of my teenage years.
that fuckass water temple ...
Hailed as the best game of its year and one of the highest-rated games of all time, Ocarina of Time is the quintessential hero's journey; simple, yet well-crafted and polished. A highly significant game for the franchise as a whole, as it is a landmark in the timeline of "The Legend of Zelda" series. In this game, prepare to embark on a grand adventure as Link, a boy who lives in the deep and hidden Kokiri Forest; whose life changes suddenly with the dawn of an evil that must be stopped.
Avaliado como o melhor jogo de seu ano e uns dos jogos mais bem avaliados de todos os tempos. Ocarina Of Time é a clássica jornada do herói; simples, mas bem trabalhada e finalizada. Um jogo bem importante para sua franquia em geral, pois é um marco na linha do tempo da série "The Legend Of Zelda". Neste jogo prepare-se para embarcar em uma grande aventura como Link, um garoto que mora na profunda e escondida kokiri florest; que vê sua vida mudar de repente com o alvorecer de um mal que deve ser parado.
Avaliado como o melhor jogo de seu ano e uns dos jogos mais bem avaliados de todos os tempos. Ocarina Of Time é a clássica jornada do herói; simples, mas bem trabalhada e finalizada. Um jogo bem importante para sua franquia em geral, pois é um marco na linha do tempo da série "The Legend Of Zelda". Neste jogo prepare-se para embarcar em uma grande aventura como Link, um garoto que mora na profunda e escondida kokiri florest; que vê sua vida mudar de repente com o alvorecer de um mal que deve ser parado.
Good game for boomers (I am boomer)
GooeyScale: 9/10
GooeyScale: 9/10
Eclipsed by many later games, but those games still have this to thank for their existence.
One of the most iconic games of all time
For a first time playthrough of this game i really enjoyed it! It helped that i had some pointers throughout but I can see why its such an iconic game with its dungeons, music, just gameplay as a whole is great! highly recommend!
this is the benchmark to which i compare all other games