Ocarina of Time is a timeless masterpiece, it really does nothing wrong and is influential to all of 3d gaming. Similar to Chrono Trigger, the way I view these games are both amazing because of their simplicity. Ocarina of Time's simplicity all around is what makes the game so good, it doesn't try to go above and beyond with its narrative and keeps a very solid and compelling story. The gameplay and level design is so well done everything to me this playthrough was very interesting a joy to go through even on my 4th run of the game. Did almost all the content in this game this run too just missing out on a few skulltulas but did collect everything else and the way the game connects itself through both timelines is really great.

Ocarina of Time is just a super compelling journey the whole way through. The way the game develops overtime is so so good with how as a kid your tasks aren't that big and you are just going alone with what a princess told you to do and leads into a epic journey crossing through time and fighting practically a god. The game knows how to raise the stakes and you feel it. The game gets so much praise and it really does deserve it in my opinion.

Unquestionably my favorite 2D platformer of all time and the gold standard I will hold the genre to forever. Each time I play this is better than the last, but now that I have a much better understanding of game design and mechanics it’s even crazier to appreciate.

The controls of this game, just like its predecessor, are perfect. It’s so easy to get into a flow state and feels so good to seamlessly weave between different speeds depending on the situation. The invasion levels and devilishly addicting Challenges mode only further encourage you to master controlling your momentum in this game, and so you do, and the entire playthrough experience turns into this incredible wave of motion that’s impossible to put down. It’s enrapturing.

The level design is the best I’ve ever seen from the genre and I don’t say that lightly. It’s been years since I last played and I still remembered every single one of these vividly. They start simple enough but still provide you with fantastic opportunities to get a good flow going, while also tempting your curiosity in a very natural way with very well placed Teensies. But as the game evolves, the levels become more and more involved, stages become so chaotic here with the amount of stuff happening on screen, and clearly the designers knew how fun it is to go fast in this game because there are so many sections where you’re made to gun it through an obstacle course at top speed, it’s always exhilarating.

The evolution of level themes is also pretty outstanding, it’s a far cry from the more generic level themes of most platformers. It starts with relatively simple yet still unique feeling medieval forests and fantastical swamps before catapulting you into a wildly over the top celebration of Mexican culture, an underwater high-tech spy operation, and a trip through Olympus that eventually takes you into the depths of hell. It’s fascinating to let the game take you on a ride, and that’s ignoring how memorable all of the individual levels are!

Enough people have gushed about how incredible The Mysterious Floating Island is, but that same level design philosophy of guiding you through the world in an interesting and wordless way is present from the first level all the way through the final world. It is mildly annoying that the devs opted for a Mario 64-esque painting level select screen as opposed to a more connected world map, but it’s hard to care too much when the level design itself connects each area better than a dotted line on a map ever could.

All of this without even mentioning the music levels, the fact that a large chunk of stages from Origins are unlockable in game, and the genuinely absurd final optional world that has some of the craziest levels in the history of games as a medium… yeah it’s peak

Even though this game’s story was mediocre and boring, and the dialouge was wattpad levels of cringe, the gameplay more than made up for it. Really that’s what you should play this game for.
I never thought a first person, run and gun, platforming shooter would play so smoothly and fast and fun but here we are. Neon White promotes speed running so well.
The leaderboards, for one, really made me competitive and constantly drove me to finish a level with a better time than before to beat my PS friends. As I rewatch clips of some of my best runs, I realize “Oh shit, I probably could have beaten the level fast had I done this” and then I go back to the lab.
I constantly felt the need to get better, and I’d like to think I did. I found my self skipping entire portions of levels completely on accident sometimes. Not just that, you’re able to reset levels with the simple press of a button rather than going to the menu and selecting an option, which added even more haste when it came to subsequent runs of levels All the abilities were consistent with the level design, and something that I noticed as I played more was that every time a gun was left unused it was always to access a shortcut.
The vibes this game gave were also great. The environments ranged from an area like the final world from kh3 to majestic ruins to a complete hellscape. The geometry of this game was super well done. and man don’t even get me started on the music. I know nothing of machine girl but she went CRAZY for this game’s soundtrack.
All in all, play this game solely for it’s fun and fast gameplay. I guess you can try and fw the story but it’s nothing too special.