Look at all of you. Complaining about superfluous issues in your vidya. "Waaah, the story's unengaging! The aesthetics aren't as good as nocture/sj/whatever! They changed the gameplay! Too few save points! It looks ugly!" WHo fucking cares bro. This shit is the best playing megaten and it aint even fucking close. Does anything else really matter?

Perhaps blowing my load a little because I haven't fully completed it, but I think I can safely say this is the best game it probably could have been. Top notch gameplay, basically every change made to the battle system from 4 is objectively better (them removing smirk entirely, changing how light/dark attacks work, changes to buffs/debuffs, STATUS AILMENTS BEING ACTUALLY USEFUL).

And sure, maybe the story isn't as engaging as your personas and the like, but you know what this game has that those dont. Fucking cutscene direction. God, after playing FF10 and this I have no idea how the fuck people ever put up with peesona 5's decade long cutscenes of models standing there and doing absolutely nothing but a couple of stock animations. Jesus, jrpg fans have been putting up with that kind of shit for too long.

Anyway. Game's fun. Aesthetic's cool. Doi's design work has increased tenfold from 4a and SJR. I like running around the mountains collecting shit. Sidequests perfectly alleviate any need of grinding while giving you fun new content. Ratio. L. You fell off. Stan Bladee.

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.