I can't in good faith give this game a good rating. 3D Zelda games are plagued with so many issues, that most of them are either boring or infuriating. The N64 Zeldas are more infuriating while the later ones are more just boring. I've tried to play this game 3 times now and let me tell you some of the breaking points that existed for me
The first time, I tried to present the letter to the zora king but it didn't work so I spent 2 hours trying to find out what to do, just to find out that I was not standing the right spot. The second time was trying to find out what to do after the bad jabu jabu "dungeon" just to realize that I didn't pay attention to the cutscene enough where zelda throws a thing in the water in front of the town. This time around, was doing the forest temple and the required small key was in the beginning where you have to climb a vine texture that blends into the background. These moments suck but these are more "the straw that broke the camels back" than the real causes. 3D Zelda games tend to be very obtuse and inconsistently fun. Most of these games consist of dialouge, lots of walking, terrible combat, and dungeons. Only one of those things is good and its not the walking.
You know, for how much these Zelda game have to say, it sure is a whole lot of nothing. This is a larger problem of every 3d zelda where they all have story and all of them are damn near the same and add nothing of value. But also every game has unskippable dialogue and mindless chatter. The story is nothing, its meaningless, its all the same. Link is the hero he has to kill ganon, then he does. You always have to help the zora and do a water dungeon, you always have to help the gorons and do a lava/fire dungeon. You always get the hookshot, and the bow, and bombs, and a boomerang, a couple bottles, and some type of instrument. The dungeons are always the same, the items are the same, the characters are the same. SO IF EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS THE SAME, WHY DO YOU KEEP GIVING ME A BORING UNSKIPPABLE STORY? This is less targeted at ocarina of time, being that it is the first 3d one but it is something this game still suffers from.
The combat is awful, I know this is a 1997 n64 game but I still do not enjoy this combat. Its clunky, slow and barely functional with the terrible camera controls.
There is some good though. The dungeons are mostly fun. Twilight princess 100% has better dungeons than this game but there are still cool. The dungeons here struggle being interesting considering this is the first attempt into 3d, but they have the core elements that make zelda dungeons fun. Theres a lot of really strange things that players will have to figure out in the n64 zelda game to clear it without looking it up, like my earlier example of the forest temple. I spent a lot of time in jabu jabus dungeon, because I didnt realize to get to the boss room, I had to use the boxes that only exist in that one room for the button. Or sneaking into the hyrule castle for the first time and not realizing you had the power to climb steep slopes all of a sudden. In a way, OoT has issues that tomb raider 2 has, where it requires you to do things that the player had access to but would never know. For example, in tomb raider 2, theres a level where you can climb bookshelves, but you can't climb all bookshelves, only those specific ones in that level.
The music in this game is also great and boosted my rating of this game by at least half a star. It has some absolute classic tracks that are iconic to this day.
I've given this game many chances though, I've tried to be patient but even looking back, I can't say much of my time spent playing this game was doing anything that much fun outside of the dungeons. Its strange to me that a franchise so creatively bankrupt that has barely improved upon itself is considered one of the best in the industry. I'm sorry, but I don't like the best game of all time.
The first time, I tried to present the letter to the zora king but it didn't work so I spent 2 hours trying to find out what to do, just to find out that I was not standing the right spot. The second time was trying to find out what to do after the bad jabu jabu "dungeon" just to realize that I didn't pay attention to the cutscene enough where zelda throws a thing in the water in front of the town. This time around, was doing the forest temple and the required small key was in the beginning where you have to climb a vine texture that blends into the background. These moments suck but these are more "the straw that broke the camels back" than the real causes. 3D Zelda games tend to be very obtuse and inconsistently fun. Most of these games consist of dialouge, lots of walking, terrible combat, and dungeons. Only one of those things is good and its not the walking.
You know, for how much these Zelda game have to say, it sure is a whole lot of nothing. This is a larger problem of every 3d zelda where they all have story and all of them are damn near the same and add nothing of value. But also every game has unskippable dialogue and mindless chatter. The story is nothing, its meaningless, its all the same. Link is the hero he has to kill ganon, then he does. You always have to help the zora and do a water dungeon, you always have to help the gorons and do a lava/fire dungeon. You always get the hookshot, and the bow, and bombs, and a boomerang, a couple bottles, and some type of instrument. The dungeons are always the same, the items are the same, the characters are the same. SO IF EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS THE SAME, WHY DO YOU KEEP GIVING ME A BORING UNSKIPPABLE STORY? This is less targeted at ocarina of time, being that it is the first 3d one but it is something this game still suffers from.
The combat is awful, I know this is a 1997 n64 game but I still do not enjoy this combat. Its clunky, slow and barely functional with the terrible camera controls.
There is some good though. The dungeons are mostly fun. Twilight princess 100% has better dungeons than this game but there are still cool. The dungeons here struggle being interesting considering this is the first attempt into 3d, but they have the core elements that make zelda dungeons fun. Theres a lot of really strange things that players will have to figure out in the n64 zelda game to clear it without looking it up, like my earlier example of the forest temple. I spent a lot of time in jabu jabus dungeon, because I didnt realize to get to the boss room, I had to use the boxes that only exist in that one room for the button. Or sneaking into the hyrule castle for the first time and not realizing you had the power to climb steep slopes all of a sudden. In a way, OoT has issues that tomb raider 2 has, where it requires you to do things that the player had access to but would never know. For example, in tomb raider 2, theres a level where you can climb bookshelves, but you can't climb all bookshelves, only those specific ones in that level.
The music in this game is also great and boosted my rating of this game by at least half a star. It has some absolute classic tracks that are iconic to this day.
I've given this game many chances though, I've tried to be patient but even looking back, I can't say much of my time spent playing this game was doing anything that much fun outside of the dungeons. Its strange to me that a franchise so creatively bankrupt that has barely improved upon itself is considered one of the best in the industry. I'm sorry, but I don't like the best game of all time.