Ocarina of Time was my first game in the Zelda franchise. Not this version tho, Ocarina of Time 3D. I won't get into the details with that version, but I very much enjoyed it and wanted to play other games in the series. The same year, or the year after, my one uncle gave me his N64. I'm pretty sure there was only two games that came with it. Star Wars: Episode 1 - Racer and this game. Barely touched Star Wars at but OOT, well I already really enjoyed the 3D remake so I was excited to actually give the original a try. I loved it. At least I'm assuming I did, for some reason I replayed this version so many times back in the day..it became my most replayed game ever for a while. I memorized the entire game, every major bombable hole location, every gold skulltula. I don't know why I played this game so much but I think I ended up overplaying it to the point I started not loving it as much. With this Zelda marathon, I was able to replay this once again after not replaying it in like 10 years. Even now, I still felt some of those overplayed woes I had back then, but mostly in the early game. Even now, 90% of the collectables came right back to me. Even now, it was still fun playing this game and I still love it for getting me into Zelda and into other Nintendo games in general. This game is not perfect, and I do have some criticisms for sure, but this is an important game in regard to the history of gaming and an important game to me.

One of the best aspects of this game is its story and world-building in comparison to past games. The main plot is actually pretty similar to ALTTP. You are tasked with collecting 3 Spiritual Stones (pendants), have to obtain the Master Sword in the Temple of Time (the Lost Woods) and then you must awaken the seven sages (seven maidens) so you can destroy the barrier in Ganondorf's castle and defeat him. Very similar to ALTTP, except instead of traveling between the Light and Dark world, you must travel between the present and future. See, you actually start as young link but when you obtain the Master Sword, Link is sealed in it for seven years and becomes an adult. In terms of the story, this is much more interesting than the light and dark world was. The world changes around you as you travel to the future, and so do the characters. Speaking of them, this game is chalk full of em and they're way more interesting this time around. Link himself has way more personality than he ever did in past games. I still definitely prefer future iterations of him but he's solid here. Zelda is MUCH better here and actually plays a big part in the story. She has way more scenes and due to that and her Shiek persona, she's absolutely one of the best if not the best character in the game. Ganondorf is actually seen with his non-pig design here and there's a reason this game made his human form iconic. The sages, unlike the unnamed maidens, are actual characters here. Not just throughout their temples, you meet pretty much all of them as young Link throughout Hyrule and you help them out along the way. This helps in making them memorable and let me tell you they very much are. Whether it's your childhood friend Saria to the rough and tough Goron Darunia, they're all pretty different characters and again are actually characters this time around. The little side characters you meet in each location are memorable to as the dialogue they are given is translated much better. ALTTP I found to a decently plain and straight-forward English translation. Here tho, they like to be quirky and make a lot of the side characters say weird and interesting things which helps the world feel alive. Something else that makes the game feel alive is the many races that are found in this world. ALTTP had Hylians and Zora. Not only does OOT have those (and they're more fleshed out) it added Kokiri, Shiekah, Gerudo, Deku, and Goron's. All of these helps add to the world-building immensely. Something that would make the dialogue better in this version of the game is if you could skip to the end of single textboxes. You either have to read each one slowly or if you try to make it go faster, it skips to the very end of a set of textboxes. Majora's Mask fixed this and so did the 3DS remake, but I thought it was worth pointing out here because it can be a tad bit irksome.

The combat in this game is very different from ALTTP, simply because it's 3D now instead of 2D. This game introduces Z-Targeting. When you hold the Z button in front of an enemy, you will automatically target and face their direction the entire time. This is incredibly helpful and is almost needed with a game like this. Because this game is in 3D, this changes Link's moveset dramatically. You still swing your sword but now depending on your button inputs, you'll do different swings. You can do a vertical, horizontal swing and a jab. If you z target, have your sword out and press the a button, you do a jump attack. You can backflips, you can do side jumps. Link now auto-jumps whenever you go off a platform or a ledge. Just your basic move set is fun and imo more fun than 2D Zelda. This isn't even getting into other items like the hook-shot which had an amazing transition into 3D. That and the bow puts you into first person and it just works marvelously. The slingshot and boomerang puts you into like a over the shoulder third person view. Funnily enough, each set of items I mentioned are exclusive to each form of Link. Young Link can only use certain items and vice versa for Adult Link. Along with the enemies being more fun and interesting in a 3D environment, the combat in this game was improved from past games and it's honestly amazing for a game from 1998 and amazing for Zelda's first foray into 3D.

The overworld honestly is not the best, I think. It was their first 3D game, I'll cut them some slack but I don't care for Hyrule Field. The size was most certainly impressive back in the day, however now I just see it as wasted potential. It's pretty empty, not very interesting to look at and it's "secrets" are lame. Basically any secrets it has are holes under boulders or completely invisible holes you bomb to unlock. You can find these with the stone of agony but you need a rumble pak to even use it. Otherwise, you either have to randomly guess where they are like Zelda 1 or memorize where they, are after looking them up, on future playthroughs like I did. Wouldn't be much of an issue if some of them didn't have important stuff like gold skulltulas or a heart piece. Outside of that, you have a tedious big poe quest and a single NPC that's used in quest. Honestly if the secrets were just a little better, it was more visually appealing and there were a couple more NPC's, this main overworld, that's connected to every area, would be so much better to me. Honestly I feel like Majora's Mask fixed this issue with Termina Field, which is way better imo, but as it stands this is my least favorite part of the game imo. The area's connected to Hyrule Field are good however, Visually distinct and they have plenty of actually good secrets and collectables to find. However, actual side quests in this game aren't too great imo. The Biggoron one is memorable, but all the others aren't too great imo and are very much overshadowed by Majora Mask's fantastic side quests. Like there's literally a mask side quest where you have to obtain masks and sell them to NPC's. The reward isn't great, another mask, and it just reminds me of how MM handled its mask items way better. Tho alas, I should not be comparing it to a future game like that so I will stop.

My least favorite part of them game, besides Hyrule field, is young Link's portion. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad but the dungeons you go through don't compare to Adult Link's Temples. The Great Deku tree is a solid starting dungeon but it's also very simple. Same with Dodongo's Cavern and Jabu-Jabu's Belly. None of them are bad, they're just very simple compared to temples. Something that is great tho, and this applies to every dungeon in the game, is how visually distinct and memorable they are. 2D Zelda dungeons are great and all but they just don't compare to 3D ones. The type of stuff you can do in 3D dungeons can't be replicated in 2D ones. Jumping from the top of a tree and feeling the full depth of your fall as you land on a spider-web and bust through it due to gravity. Just can't work in 2D. I can see why people might prefer 2D ones tho. As long as they're well designed, they're usually more complicated and technically better "dungeons" where its easy to get lost. However, they lack the spectacle that I prefer in 3D ones. The first 3 young Link dungeons are very linear for example. They have puzzles ofc but it's hard to get lost in them unlike 2D ones. However, I don't mind that (tho in these first 3 dungeons case I guess I do cuz they're a bit TOO simple) and that's proven by the five temples in this game. Adult Link temples, while still probably more linear than some 2D Zelda dungeons, rock my socks. I'll just get into this now, Water temple is not bad. It was my least favorite temple this playthrough, but it's not bad..just can be a little tedious. It's the most complex and backtracky dungeon in the game, and feels kinda like a 2D dungeon but that's at the cost of being a little more tedious than the others (not only due to the design of the place but the iron boots ofc). It can be tough to figure out but I can apprecauet that. Fire temple is also good but just doesn't stick out as much as the other three. Shadow has a very disturbing atmosphere and relies on tricks and traps. Forest and Spirit temple are easily the best dungeons in the game. Forest is very atmospheric and is a very nicely designed dungeon with a great temple theme. Spirit temple is the only one to make use of both young and adult Link, and it does it well, as well as having the best dungeon boss in the game. Not every dungeon in this game is like amazing, but when it hits..IT HITS. Oh also the dungeon bosses vary in quality. Twinrova is the best boss in the game I think. She makes great use of the mirror shield and the witch sisters have actual dialogue and are actual characters that make the boss that much better. Phantom Ganon is cool as well and Ganondorf/Ganon himself is ofc badass. There are some weaker bosses like King Dodongo being piss easy or Morpha being very easy to cheese, however even these weaker bosses are cool to see now that the games in 3D.

Quick thing on the visuals. They don't look bad but they can be a bit ugly at times. Obviously, this is a game from 1998, so I can let it slide somewhat. I played on an actual N64 so the resolution and framerate are pretty bad. They had to be to even run this game at the time, so with knowledge of that and how the game looks its impressive. Still, I know I'd say I wouldn't compare it to Majora's Mask again...but that game is on the same system and looks way more vibrant to me. I know it's using the expansion pass but still..

The soundtrack is absolutely iconic. ALTTP is where Zelda's Lullaby originated, howevrr this version is way more iconic to me. Same with Kakariko Village tho I honestly might like ALTTP's version of it hehe. As for original songs, Lost Woods, Song of Storms, Gerudo Valley, Lon Lon Ranch are all bangers and are super duper iconic for good reasons. The Ocarina songs are all really good, and I actually like how the Ocarina plays a much bigger part in this game compared to the last two games it was in. My absolute favorite song in the game funnily enough, is Requiem of Spirit. Always has been, always will be. Something about it is kinda eerie yet mysterious. It's such a short song yet it's my favorite, idk why lol.

I was honestly very conflicted while playing this. Due to my complaints with Hyrule field/sidequests and me overplaying this game back in the day, part of me wanted to keep this at an 8. However, this game really was important in expanding my taste in games and is just an important landmark of a game in general. What really pushed me to bump it to a 9 though, was the ending. I've already seen it before, but I teared up. Not just teared up, I actually started to cry a bit. I don't know if it's just because the ending is very sweet and emotional, or because it reminded me the days I'd used to play this game a ton (insert anology of how I longed for my days of being a child just like Adult Link does at the end of the game or something idk). Either way, yeah I'll bump it to a 9. Game's not perfect but it is awesome, that's all that needs to be said.

I'm going to play Katamari Damacy after this and then move on to my personal favorite Zelda, Majora's Mask. Look forward to those reviews in the near future!

I must've missed the Merriam-Webster definition of the word "prologue" because I had no idea that it could mean a standalone game that you can easily sink 8+ hours into. It genuinely blew me away how much "game" there was to be had here, and I enjoyed it pretty much the entire time. I have been waiting for YEARS on any news about The Big Catch releasing and a standalone open world tech demo that gets you accustomed to the movement of the full game IS NOT what I expected.

Yes the game is very pretty, and whimsical, and animated BUT I cannot stress enough how fucking WELL this game controls. There's a lot of trial and error when it comes to climbing, and even some aspects of a puzzle platformer, but after enough fails often times something would just click in my brain and I would flow through whatever jump I was struggling with. It feels amazing when it all comes together!

I honestly think with some compass improvements and a map, this game could definitely stand on it's own. Also I didn't mind the open world aspects all too much but I really would like to see how this game could play with some levels. I did see that some people struggled with the difficulty of the platforming so I'm interested to see how much of it actually makes it into the actual game.

I remember seeing the Kickstarter for this back in the day and thinking that it looked more like a pixel artist’s portfolio than an actual game, and well, there you go. Lovely pixel art (albeit buried under a ridiculous amount of chromatic aberration) doesn’t change the fact that the platforming and level design just don’t feel great and that the plot is just the original TRON with an entire fanwiki’s worth of proper nouns piled on. Didn’t play this for very long, admittedly, but it did not make a great first impression.

Dynamite Headdy is a very mixed bag with some things I loved and thing I hated. Ending in a game that I felt extremely mid about.

As always, I'll start with the positives. Far and away the star of the show is the visuals and music. Not that I have a long library of Genesis games I've played but it may be the best mix of visuals and music. The colors pop on every level and every character and just visually a marvel for the early 90's.
The gameplay is super simple but the way they take your simple move set and use it in complex ways through intelligent level design. The levels aren't just great but several of the levels have amazing names, with the first amazingly named level of Toyz in the Hood.

While the level design ideas were awesome the gameplay is extremely basic. The upgrades are also very basic with most fights leaving you wanting more variety. Except for the few times the do give you variety which ends up being awful. What I mean by that is most of the time you or the enemy is standing still giving you time to aim and fire your head in one of 8 directions to hit them. Well sometimes the enemy is either moving way to fast to both aim and dodge. Or even worse the enemy grabs you flailing you around where you have to aim your head at the enemy while it's moving and you're moving (against your control) and trying to aim your head while that's all going on. It's annoying, infuriating at times, and extremely stupid in my humble opinion. I do think the difficulty is unbalanced, as sometimes it was a breeze to run through a level or boss and sometimes the bosses were insane with balancing dodging and attacking.

Overall, I think it's a fine game. I could easily see someone saying the love it but I could also see reasons people may hate it. If the gameplay was a little different I feel I would probably rate this game much higher.

My 2024 rankings:

https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/

This is basically 2 different games forced into 1:

There is the game with a horrible soundtrack, pretty lacking enemy variety, very outdated musou style gameplay...And there is the game that is the best panzer dragoon game that never was with a pretty great story.

If the good parts are worth dealing with the bad parts will be 100% dependent on your tolerance to the musou side of the game. Me personally, yeah its okay, it even has a couple of missions that are actually fun.

This is a weird sequel:

the first game was a very actiony metroidvania, with the map being generally small and linear. this time, the map is much bigger, having 2 different worlds to traverse through, and traversal is the main gameplay loop here. they made the main gameplay loop a puzzle of traversal, figuring out where to go, moving around both dimensions to find new stuff. that also allowed them to build the story a lot more than the first game, this is a major step in presentation......

and then they forgot to add bosses, or make the combat engaging like in the first game. seriously, this game is very much like ori 1, combat is incidental and inconsequential and there are no bosses beyond exactly 2 scripted story events that can barely be qualified as bosses.

Blasphemous is an absolute anomaly for me. I love me some Metroidvanias but I always want either the movement options or combat to be high level for me to really enjoy it. Blasphemy’s movement is as basic as it gets and the combat is virtually one combo, hit, parry, hit, repeat. But for some reason even though this game does neither of those things this game just hits. While the combat isn’t impressive I appreciate the difficulty in boss battles, i appreciate the fact that for many bosses you will probably fail once or twice but you learn just enough to quickly pick up the right ideas to come back and go toe to toe with them. The boss fights are my favorite part of this game as they all feel quite a bit different and visually are very unique and well designed. While the combat and movement don’t always hit the third huge part of Metroidvanias, exploration, was very good. The map isn’t huge but it’s end up being bigger than you’d think and it’s full of secrets.

The art in this game is extremely good. The gothic culty religious themes they went for hit. Main characters and bosses are very unique and carefully designed. Each area is eerie yet beautiful. It has an overall pretty good sound track with a few top notch songs. Superb voice acting by the entire cast.

The best way I’ve heard a description of this game is through the awesome FallenGrace “A little Castlevania, a little Dark Souls.” If you are a fan of either of those series or Metroidvanias in general I would say this is a definite recommendation from me that you should play.

My 2024 ranked:

https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/

My Metroidvanias ranked:

https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/-metroidvanias-ive-played-ranked-/