Nintendo The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is 20 years old today, update - retrospective article from "The Guardian"

[legend]

2 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

I don't even believe OoT is the best Zelda game in the N64. MM was the better game and even if the story wasn't as grand, the intimacy of it made for a more engrossing experience. That all said, yeah, I think BotW topped it for me.

 

MM just didn't work for me. I got about 2/3rds through and then stopped because I just wasn't having much fun. Not sure what it was, just didn't click.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I need to play MM, but it'll be the 3DS version. 

 

My husband hated it back in the day and he's probably part of the reason I haven't gotten around to it. 

[HGLatinBoy]

On 11/21/2018 at 7:24 AM, SFLUFAN said:

Like I said, 1998 was unquestionably the most significant year in gaming history.

You say that like 2004 didn't happen 

[Ghost_MH]

23 hours ago, legend said:

 

MM just didn't work for me. I got about 2/3rds through and then stopped because I just wasn't having much fun. Not sure what it was, just didn't click.

 

As long as you don't obsess over getting everything done, the three day timer will never feel like a limitation. MM is really a game for people that like getting lost in the details. The game he sort of requires you to learn the ins and outs of all the game's inhabitants. It's really not a grand adventure poke most other Zelda games.

 

14 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I need to play MM, but it'll be the 3DS version. 

 

My husband hated it back in the day and he's probably part of the reason I haven't gotten around to it. 

 

I never picked up the 3DS version after learning it had some experience breaking changes made to it. I'm not even talking about anything related to saving or what not. It looks like they made swimming as a Zora crappy and just slowed down movement for a lot of the game.

 

 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Zelda: Ocarina of Time at 20 – melancholy masterpiece changed games forever (The Guardian)

It had everything: swordfights with lizards, magical tennis, shrieking mummies, a whole world to explore – plus a rousing score you could play along to. This joyful/scary chapter in Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda has inspired designers ever since

[gamer.tv]

55 minutes ago, SFLUFAN said:

Zelda: Ocarina of Time at 20 – melancholy masterpiece changed games forever (The Guardian)

It had everything: swordfights with lizards, magical tennis, shrieking mummies, a whole world to explore – plus a rousing score you could play along to. This joyful/scary chapter in Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda has inspired designers ever since

 

I enjoyed reading this during some downtime at work.  I do like so e good emotional video game journalism.

[Bloodporne]

I remember getting this, and spending the subsequent school break playing it with my friend, like yesterday. This was such a step forward the way I remember it. It felt so fresh and new, great times and I have lots of nostalgia for this year. 

 

I unfortunately have not played it since as a matter of fact. What's the easiest/best way to play it these days? I stupidly enough never bought it on Wii's Virtual Console. Only Majora's Mask and the timer thing turns me off to the point I never started playing it somehow...

 

I really want to play this now, damn.

[crispy4000]

3DS version or Zelda Master’s Quest edition for GameCube.  Which you could also play on Wii (... or Dolphin.)

 

I loved Master’s Quest.  Hardest dungeons in the series.  It’s a great way to revisit the game with a novel twist.

 

[Bloodporne]

23 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

3DS version or Zelda Master’s Quest edition for GameCube.  Which you could also play on Wii (... or Dolphin.)

 

I loved Master’s Quest.  Hardest dungeons in the series.  It’s a great way to revisit the game with a novel twist.

 

Thanks for the tip! I just ordered it used from GameStop for $19.99. Not bad! 

 

What exactly is Master's Quest, should I just play that first? Is it simply Ocarina with harder enemies or something?

[TheLeon]

I never had a N64, so I missed this when it came out. I downloaded it on the Wii VC when it launched there, but I had just finished playing the shiny new Twilight Princess, so OoT felt like a huge step back in some ways and I never gave it the time it deserves. I have the 3DS version now, and one of these days I'm actually going to play more than a couple hours of it. 

[cusideabelincoln]

1 hour ago, Bloodporne said:

Thanks for the tip! I just ordered it used from GameStop for $19.99. Not bad! 

 

What exactly is Master's Quest, should I just play that first? Is it simply Ocarina with harder enemies or something?

 

The puzzles in the dungeons are re-arranged to be more challenging; everything else is the same.  Don't recall the enemies being harder, and the story is the same.  Doesn't really matter which you start with.  Expectations is one of the reasons why the Master Quest is considered harder.  Most people play the original game first, so when they jump into the Master Quest version and find the dungeons are not how they remembered them the first time that adds a challenge - a challenge in trying to forget how you beat that dungeon the first time because those same methods won't work the second time despite everything looking almost the same.

[Xbob42]

This is gonna be a lot longer and more rambling than I had planned, oh well.

 

I still remember the exact moment I first saw a screenshot for it, the exact moment I saw a tiny video for it (on IGN64.com I think?) and the exact moment I first got to play it, which was me and my uncle going to one of his friend's houses (I to this day have no idea who it was) and he was playing it, and the second he left the room for something I picked up the controller without permission just to try it out, because I had to, for the most bizarre of reasons. I had wondered how the bushes were going to look in 3D. I don't know why, but at the time I was obsessed with knowing how the bushes would look in 3D, probably from Mario 64, where they all kind of turned to face you, which I knew wouldn't work well with Zelda. Still not quite sure why I was THAT obsessed over it, but 3D was still relatively new so it was easy to latch on to weird little details like that!

 

The funny thing is, I think that was the day the game came out, so he was in the start of Kokiri Forest, and in the minute or so he was gone I had grabbed the starting sword from the chest and was playing around cutting signs, I remember him coming back and being like "Oh" and I was like "Oh, sorry," and my uncle finding it hilarious for some reason.

 

Anyway, while I really enjoyed Breath of the Wild, I feel like no other Zelda title has really matched the atmosphere and mood of Ocarina of Time. I guess maybe Majora's Mask, but that felt like a weird fake copy-paste game at the time and I never got over that. As someone whose family was generally pretty low on disposable income (hence me playing it at some random dude's house for a few minutes instead of playing it myself on launch day) the idea of paying full price for a game that was full of identical assets seemed incomprehensible and borderline offensive! But back to the atmosphere, I don't know if it was the N64 fog, the newness of 3D or what, but I don't think it's just nostalgia. When I play Ocarina of Time, "melancholy" from that article is a pretty good word for the atmosphere. There's just a mood to it that I haven't really taken much time to think about over the years, but I think Kokiri Forest and the Lost Woods nail what appeals to me in the game perfectly.

 

Of course, more than any other Zelda, I think the music is a big reason for the atmosphere landing so hard for me and most others who love it. The game is just jam-packed with legendary tunes that set the stage absolutely perfectly for each and every area. It felt like the Zelda title some people on staff always wanted and needed to make, and like Mario 64 before it, I think they absolutely nailed it. Obviously not every single person loves it, but damn, it is utterly seared into my mind, every second of it. And it's not like it was my first Zelda, I had played all of them before it and loved them, which is why I was looking forward to it so deeply, and it still blew me out of the water.

 

It was probably the first game that I played that felt like a true adventure, in the sense of both it being long, fun and full of items, but also not just a happy-go-lucky jog through the park. To an 11-year-old, the slightly more serious take on the series made the world feel more dangerous and interesting, which is why I think a lot of people had a harsh reaction to Wind Waker's reveal. While in retrospect a lot of those folks have come around, I truly think Wind Waker failed to rekindle that feeling for me. It was pretty, and it was fun, and being one of the few people on the planet to enjoy the sailing (the visuals, the swelling music, the seagulls flying alongside your boat) at time of launch, I didn't hate it or anything, but I don't consider it some masterpiece. It was easy to the point of being boring, and them going the opposite way for Twilight Princess showed me they really weren't all that passionate about it, they were just trying to figure out what they nailed with OoT, and while it felt vaguely similar, it again was no masterpiece.

 

Breath of the Wild did not bring this feeling back for me, but it did rekindle the feeling of adventure and not knowing what to expect (for a time, at least) and not knowing the limits of the world (which we still do not!) which made it great in its own right, if not quite as amazing as it could've been, and why I have fairly high hopes for a sort of sequel game, maybe like how Majora's Mask was a quick sequel to OoT. I'm less picky about reused assets if they're used cleverly, which I think most agree they were in MM, despite my young protests.

 

I haven't thought about it long enough to quite put into words exactly why the atmosphere of OoT is so perfect for me personally, but it is, it feels "cozy" in that the world feels tightly designed, but also expansive. It feels like a troubled place, but not hopeless. And every single section is, as I said, elevated far above what it should be by its music. It's not a perfect game, and while it has aged fairly well given the generation it was in, it does not quite hold up for everyone, but it's one of the few games or pieces of media that is never too far from my mind.

[Bloodporne]

12 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

This is gonna be a lot longer and more rambling than I had planned, oh well.

 

SNIP

Thoroughly enjoyed this post and it got me even more excited than I already am to fully relive the game for the first time in nearly 20 years this weekend. 

 

Regarding the atmosphere, I always chalked that up to the incidental N64 fog, moody music and overall slightly "washed out" quality of its visuals. Whether fully intended or not, I think it worked beautifully in creating a wistful yet not depressing or hopeless atmosphere. 

 

Something similar came up recently for me when Dark Souls was remastered for PS4/XBox/PC and they decided to 'correct' the perceived lighting flaws, bloom and everything. I don't give two shits whether this is superior on a purely technical level, it changed the mood, which is something very fickle.  

[Rodimus]

Yes, we are old. I remeber playing this in my Dorm room. I spent forever on a boss battlewith the lava dragon thing. It took a while to figure out the strategy. Also I have gone back and played the GameCube version as it is in 480p and I can use the wavebird. Sadly I'm in another shitty spot having to complete the archery challenge to continue after the sneaking challenge. That is a real bottle neck for me.

[Bloodporne]

Finally got my GameCube disc and put in a few hours over the weekend. I haven't touched it since the early 2000's maybe and it's still a fantastic game.

 

The only thing killing me is the lack of camera control. I keep fucking myself up by trying to lock on to an enemy and just ruining my camera angle accidentally and then getting hit in the back and some things like that. Need to get used to this again.

 

I nearly forgot just how top notch the music and atmosphere are in this game, phew. 

[Bloodporne]

The dungeon design in this is off the charts, shit. So much creativity and actual thinking involved. Forgot how smart and challenging these can be. 

[best3444]

What are you playing it on?

[Rodimus]

2 minutes ago, best3444 said:

What are you playing it on?

I like to play on the GameCube. I'm using component cables and an upscaler though. Otherwise the Wii is a good option.

 

@Bloodporne what are you playing the Gamecube version on a Gamecube, Wii or somthing else?

[best3444]

1 minute ago, Rodimus said:

I like to play on the GameCube. I'm using component cables and an upscaler though. Otherwise the Wii is a good option.

 

@Bloodporne what are you playing the Gamecube version on a Gamecube, Wii or somthing else?

 

What could be the "something else"?

[Rodimus]

2 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

What could be the "something else"?

Hacked WiiU or possible hacked Switch or Dolphin(PC) or Panasonic Q.

[Xbob42]

I'd love it if the 3DS port came to something else. The enhanced visuals are relatively subtle from a distance, but are actually pretty massive. Would be a good fit for the Switch at a higher res.

[best3444]

2 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

I'd love it if the 3DS port came to something else. The enhanced visuals are relatively subtle from a distance, but are actually pretty massive. Would be a good fit for the Switch at a higher res.

 

That would be amazing.

[5timechamp]

3 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

I'd love it if the 3DS port came to something else. The enhanced visuals are relatively subtle from a distance, but are actually pretty massive. Would be a good fit for the Switch at a higher res.

 

In a "generous" world the Big N would put Ocarina of Time and the enhanced Majoras Mask update on the Switch.... that would "justify" the usual nintendo pricing

[Bloodporne]

7 hours ago, Rodimus said:

I like to play on the GameCube. I'm using component cables and an upscaler though. Otherwise the Wii is a good option.

 

@Bloodporne what are you playing the Gamecube version on a Gamecube, Wii or somthing else?

 

7 hours ago, best3444 said:

What are you playing it on?

Gamecube Master Quest disc on Wii with Component cables.

 

I'm playing the Master Quest version to be exact. It's extra-glorious after the gameplay debacle that was RDR2 left a foul aftertaste. It's just a pleasure to play and the magic is still there. It's constantly engaging and there's always a fresh challenge around each corner.

[cusideabelincoln]

8 hours ago, Rodimus said:

Hacked WiiU or possible hacked Switch or Dolphin(PC) or Panasonic Q.

 

Whoa, they have homebrew on the Switch now?

[crispy4000]

14 hours ago, Bloodporne said:

The dungeon design in this is off the charts, shit. So much creativity and actual thinking involved. Forgot how smart and challenging these can be. 

 

1 hour ago, Bloodporne said:

I'm playing the Master Quest version to be exact.

 

I was going to ask if you opted to play MQ instead of the original.  Make it to Jabu Jabu yet?

[Rodimus]

45 minutes ago, cusideabelincoln said:

 

Whoa, they have homebrew on the Switch now?

https://www.vg247.com/2018/07/09/gamecube-emulator-dolphin-can-run-on-switch-through-lakka/

[cusideabelincoln]

10 minutes ago, Rodimus said:

https://www.vg247.com/2018/07/09/gamecube-emulator-dolphin-can-run-on-switch-through-lakka/

 

Well, a zero chance of bricking the system to run RetroArch?  Impressive.  I knew we would see all the emulators on the Switch at some point since people have put Dolphin and company on the Shield.

[Bloodporne]

8 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

 

 

I was going to ask if you opted to play MQ instead of the original.  Make it to Jabu Jabu yet?

Nah, I've only been able to play an hour here and there actually. Busy ass holiday season and all and tons of work.

 

I just got to Zora's Domain actually but loved Death Mountain's dungeon so much, I had to rant about it on here already. It just feels like such a breath of fresh air after recent games and not having played this almost since it came out (!!). Last time I played Ocarina was maybe '00 or '01 for a bit? I remember zero about it which is perfect.

[best3444]

I bought a 3ds xl and Zelda ocarina of time today. Lol. Played for 2 straight hours.

[5timechamp]

On 12/20/2018 at 9:26 AM, Bloodporne said:

Nah, I've only been able to play an hour here and there actually. Busy ass holiday season and all and tons of work.

 

I just got to Zora's Domain actually but loved Death Mountain's dungeon so much, I had to rant about it on here already. It just feels like such a breath of fresh air after recent games and not having played this almost since it came out (!!). Last time I played Ocarina was maybe '00 or '01 for a bit? I remember zero about it which is perfect.

 

Lucky bum...

I wish i could completely forget Ocarina, Super Metroid, Link to the past and the Arkham games..

[Bloodporne]

Just did Forest Temple. Orgasmic levels of video game perfection.

[best3444]

47 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

Just did Forest Temple. Orgasmic levels of video game perfection.

 

Just beat death mountains dungeon on my 3ds XL. Such a masterpiece. Glad your enjoying yourself, too.

[Bloodporne]

42 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

Just beat death mountains dungeon on my 3ds XL. Such a masterpiece. Glad your enjoying yourself, too.

I'm just really taken by how smartly challenging and timeless it feels. It's a joy to play and the atmosphere is amazing. Love that puzzles are simple yet always seem to require creativity and thought without handholding.

 

Most Adventure games are still limping somewhere behind this design 20 years later.

[best3444]

6 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

I'm just really taken by how smartly challenging and timeless it feels. It's a joy to play and the atmosphere is amazing. Love that puzzles are simple yet always seem to require creativity and thought without handholding.

 

Most Adventure games are still limping somewhere behind this design 20 years later.

 

I already had to scratch my head this early on. Been 17 yrs since I last played this. Only beat it once in 1998. It's a masterpiece and looks great on the 3ds.