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So I played Ocarina of Time for the very first time, and this game could do with a modern remake

LakeOf9

Member
for those who have kept up, after playing and loving BOTW and TOTK I decided to try some of the older Zelda games. The four ones that were most recommended to me were link to the past, ocarina of time, wind waker, and link between worlds, and I am going to go through them in release order. I played and loved link to the past already you can see my thread on that here:


now I am playing ocarina of time, and it is... it's fine.

I think this is the first zelda game I've played that doesnt feel timeless. botw and totk both feel like they have this sort of timeless quality of unrestrained adventure to them, and link to the past is basically probably the most perfectly designed game I have ever played. ocarina of time by comparison feels very aged and very old. I dont mean this in a graphics way, I actually dont care as much about graphics as most console players do, I mean this in a general polish and mechanical way.

this makes sense to me, it's one of the early era 3d games, and more than that, it basically invented a lot of 3d game design concepts so it makes total sense that compared to, well, almost everything else that came afterwards, it feels janky and aged. but ya, the controls, camera, combat, the size of the world or the towns, the emptiness of the central hub area, all this feels pretty aged. the ui is very weird too (there is a late game dungeon where I had to keep going into the menu to switch equipment every few minutes, and it was a long and cumbersome process each time). there's a lot of stuff in this game that just doesnt hold up.

But! the core design, story, atmosphere, music, and adventure is all as amazing as in any zelda game, in fact in a lot of ways I would say this is the best zelda has ever been on a lot those fronts. I fucking love the story, and I was a little surprised at how well told and how cool it gets, its actually more story focused than any modern nintendo game I played (I love the twist about link's parentage, the seven year time jump, and the reveal of who shiek really is). the dungeons in this game are insane, far beyond anything in botw and totk, probably put together (forest temple is amazing, it still blows my mind they did this on a n64, and while water temple is really annoying with the constant menu management, the actual core design is so cool). boss fights are great, the music is amazing (and this is all midi! somehow), and the game has amazing pacing, with very little downtime. this makes sense, it's basically a 3d remake of a link to the past, which also similarly had no bloat, but it does lose points for losing the intricate world of link to the past, and just sort of replacing it with a big open empty space with nothing in it except annoyingly spawning swarming random enemies, some spiders to hunt, and ghosts to find.

in general, I think the world part of tis game is the weakest, which is a bit disappointing because in all three of the zelda games ive played so far, the world was my absolute favourite thing about all of them, while in this the world just feels super limited. I know its a bit unfair of me to expect a early 3d game to compare to peak 2d design or the open world mastery of botw and totk, but tis very jarring when I am playing this for the first time and with no nostalgia for it.

I still like this game a lot (it's definitely my least favorite of the four I have played so far though), but I think this one would benefit a lot from a resident evil (or at least a bluepoint style) style remake. keep the core design as is (its honestly amazing), keep the story and adventure as is (all excellent), but fix the controls, camera, combat, and expand the world a bit, and we should be good. its a very good game, and I totally understand why its so praised. I think it's a game worth playing, in the end, even if I like the other ones I played more.

next I will play wind waker.
 
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TransTrender

Gold Member
For some reason I thought the OoT reverse engineering was complete and I could rock it at high fps and upscaled textures, but apparently that isn't the case?

When Googling it looked super complex and not what I was looking for. I was looking for something a bit simpler and not downloading shit from GIT and compiling code and tweaking build flags.

Frankly I can't play that game again unless this happens.




For oot I disagree. we'll see what I think of wind waker!
To me the flaws of WW become very clear in the last third of the game, and one of them was super annoying and bad game design. The other is simply not having enough dungeons. Fantastic game overall, and my favorite Gannon, and my favorite ending.
 
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GigaBowser

The bear of bad news
TOTK is the deepest open world evers developers don't even know how they mades it

OOT is the size of a squares football field no exploration or combats prehistoric gated lock and key puzzles with one solution nostalgia makes peoples craaaaaazy

giphy.gif
 

ADiTAR

ידע זה כוח
I think there's a sense of awe and magic in OoT, that wasn't replicated in BotW, but more so in TotK with its story being more epic and legendary. I think if Kass, who's a little bit like the owl from OoT, was in TotK the game would have been elevated to that. Not sure why they cut him out of TotK because he was one of the best thing to encounter in BotW.
 
Not sure if I ever read a more wrong opinion.
Impressive.
Mario 64 objectively aged better gameplay-wise than OoT, and I think OoT is a top 3 Zelda game.

OP I do recommend at least playing the 3DS version of Ocarina of Time since it's the superior version in multiple ways. While it does not change the entire scope of the game, it does control a bit smoother and streamline a few annoying things about the original(like the constant pausing to access the item menu in the water temple).

 
TOTK and OOT are similar but very different, scratching different itches. The 3DS OOT remake still stands up today. WWHD still holds up. I would rather new games be made than waste money and time on remakes.

Although, Nintendo would be one of the few who I would trust to do it right.
 

LakeOf9

Member
Mario 64 objectively aged better gameplay-wise than OoT, and I think OoT is a top 3 Zelda game.

OP I do recommend at least playing the 3DS version of Ocarina of Time since it's the superior version in multiple ways. While it does not change the entire scope of the game, it does control a bit smoother and streamline a few annoying things about the original(like the constant pausing to access the item menu in the water temple).


ya 3ds version seems really cool. I was trying to play the original experience in all cases but I think for oot that might have been a mistake since in its base form it has aged a bit, and I think I could have avoided that if I had played the 3ds remaster

I'll get to it some day. I still really like it!

Not sure if I ever read a more wrong opinion.
Impressive.
can you actually explain why? I try to explain in the op why outside of the nostalgia and fondness people who grew up from it might have, there are parts of it that dont hold up and bring it down. no one in this thread who disagrees actually argues those points, they just say I am wrong and nothing else.

why am I wrong? the core game design is amazing but the controls/camera/combat/world design are objectively aged and not on par with anything modern day, which is different from link to the past, an even older game, that could be released today as is and would be totally fine.

why am I wrong? im at least trying to explain where I am coming from, can you?
 

Katajx

Member
I don’t know. It was my first Zelda I gave an honest effort into and I found it novel and exhilarating.

I loved the Kokiri village and it came at a good time where I was coming of age on my own. Being able to check out all the areas in the two different timelines and see what happened to the people and landscape was amazing.

I really loved the characters and trying to do every little thing or tie up every thread I could. I loved Saria and Darunia. The Forest temples vibe and design blew me away. Volvagia was epic for its time and using the megaton hammer. Oh, and the music!

Wish I could experience again for the first time. The 3DS version is cleaned up a bit but looks close enough that I would imagine it always looked like that.
 
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Katajx

Member
I think it is one of those things when you had to play it closer to the time of its release. It felt epic and there wasn’t anything quite like it in 3D yet.
 

coffinbirth

Member
For some reason I thought the OoT reverse engineering was complete and I could rock it at high fps and upscaled textures, but apparently that isn't the case?

When Googling it looked super complex and not what I was looking for. I was looking for something a bit simpler and not downloading shit from GIT and compiling code and tweaking build flags.

Frankly I can't play that game again unless this happens.





To me the flaws of WW become very clear in the last third of the game, and one of them was super annoying and bad game design. The other is simply not having enough dungeons. Fantastic game overall, and my favorite Gannon, and my favorite ending.
That is old info. It's much easier now. Sadly, they have to distribute it in this manner to keep Nintendo from smashing them to bits. Watch the beginning of this video, grab the files off their Discord, grab the files from this reddit post and install it. Also available for Switch if you have a hacked one that can run it.



 

Fess

Member
I couldn’t play OoT even back in the day, the framerate was terrible, 17fps on PAL consoles. I stopped shortly after the first time jump and didn’t go back to it until the 3DS remaster appeared. It had still aged a lot. People often list it as their best game of all time, for me it was a 8/10.
 

Robb

Gold Member
As people have already mentioned the 3DS version is great. Although I don’t think it fixes most of your complaints, except maybe the UI which has loads of QoL improvements. Controls are better as well.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
. the ui is very weird too (there is a late game dungeon where I had to keep going into the menu to switch equipment every few minutes, and it was a long and cumbersome process each time).
Oh, you’re gonna looooooove Wind Waker.

OoT is an old and janky game, but Nintendo played to its weaknesses perfectly. Making the jump automatic made the area design tight and helped guide the player on the right path. The empty Hyrule field makes for a nasty surprise the first time night catches you in the open, and at the time the sheer size of it was impressive. Plus, it highlighted its main exits very clearly, and it still hides some secrets.
OoT would be a radically different game if they did more than repaint its graphics. Its overall design is extremely tight. And for what it is, it’s still a splendid adventure game.
 

NecrosaroIII

Ultimate DQ Fan
Here's my zelda ranking from best to worst

Best
Tears of the Kingdom: Some wonky story stuff aside, it's the most pure fun I've had with a Zelda since Links Awakening. Wonderful atmosphere. Fixes alot of my beefs with BotW

Majoras Mask: great atmosphere. Cool setting and story. Great gameplay loop. Really special game

Links Awakening: Great atmosphere. Cool setting and story. Love how mysterious and weird it feels. Didn't like how plastic the remake looked.

Windwaker: Love the cadence and punctuation battles had. Link felt great to control and its dope how expressive he is.

Breath of the Wild: Exploring is fun, but it's a bit of a dead world. Guardians kind of hurt exploration. That said, it's pretty cool.

Minish Cap: Cute and fun. Neat dungeons. Minish features feel underbaked but overall, pretty good outing.

Ocarina of Time: Feels kind of slow and some of the dungeons are kind of a drag. Pretty memorable characters though and iconimusician

Link to the Past: Pretty cool world design. Good dungeons. They're not quite there yet in terms of locking in the series personality. Dark World is hype.

Twilight Princess: midnight is cool, wolf link looks cool but is kind of boring to play as. Otherwise kinda forgetable.

Link Between Worlds: LttP hand me downs. Kinda fun experiment i suppose but didnt feel unique enough.

Zelda II: Hard as hell. But I've always been sort of drawn to it. Has a unique vibe. Pushed the series forward in a lot of ways.

Zelda 1: Set the formula bit doesn't really do anything better than the above games. It's pretty short though, so it doesn't hurt to spend a few hours knocking out.

Spirit Tracks: Unique but it's controls make it unplayable. Has a few qol improvements that make it slightly better than Phantom Hourglass

Phantom Hour Glass: unplayable trash. Shame the story seemed cool.

Haven't played enough of the Oracle games to really judge but they seemed sick.
 

MagnesD3

Member
It sounds like you care more about exploration in Zelda than the excellently designed unforgetable dungeons which makes sense coming from BOTW and it that has way more mainstream appeal than people who care mostly about the dungeons/story/atmosphere/ost.

You will like Wind Waker since exploration is it's main thing but Ocarina (like Twilight Princess) is peak Zelda so yeah.

Also if you played the 3ds version it is the inferior way to play the game but idk how you played
 
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X-Wing

Member
Yeah... No.
Nintendo found a much better path to go with this franchise. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have both redefined open world games. Let them carry on doing their thing.
 
*fixed it for you*
Twilight Princess made worse all of the bad elements from OoT. Then Skyward Sword doubled down and did the same thing from Twilight Princess’ worst elements. I could only imagine people’s frustrations if Nintendo stubbornly stuck to that way of narrative design and doubled down again for the switch. Zelda would have been as unimportant of a series as Metroid Prime.

Thank goodness they steered that ship in a different direction and saved it from crashing itself. Now the current issue now lies less with the franchise and more with the limiting hardware behind it.
 

E-Cat

Member
I hear a lot of the "overworld is boring and barren" critiques, but I personally loved it when the game first came out. This was in 1998, mind you. Morrowind and GTA III wouldn't be released for a couple more years, this was pretty much my first exposure to open world. And it was amazing.

I vividly remember I was showing the game off to my cousin and entered Hyrule Field from Castle Town. I started walking towards Lake Hylia and he said something to the effect of: "You can basically go anywhere in this world!?" It was unheard of.

Sure, it looks like a shitty, small hub now, but it still gives me the same feeling of limitless freedom now as it did 25 years ago. I realize this is all nostalgia. For example, by the time Twilight Princess came out, I was thoroughly unimpressed by the splintered overworld, though technically much bigger than OOT. You can tell that was due to the memory limitations of the GC, too, as in the unveil trailer you could see what they were originally going for (first 4 seconds).

 
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Nico_D

Member
I've played OoT two times, the second time was to check if I missed the point but my opinion is the same: it's good but not great. I understand why it was back then but I'm not it's biggest fans. Temples are good though.

But the series' best temples, and bosses, can still be found in TP.
 

Sakura

Member
You should be playing Majora's Mask next OP, not Wind Waker. It is a direct sequel to OoT, and one of the top 3 Zelda games.

Anyway I will have to disagree with you. The gameplay I feel holds up very well. Yes the camera is different (after all, the N64 only had one stick), but the core gameplay is pretty much the same as all the Zelda games. Since OoT you are still Z targeting and backflipping, side stepping, etc.
As for the world, yeah it isn't a giant ass open world map, but it is plenty dense. There is collectables and there are quests. There's plenty of hidden things.

The framerate is trash though.
 
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Woopah

Member
My prediction is that you'll enjoy the old 2D games more than the old 3D ones. Nintendo's style is to bring fairly faithful with their remakes.

Highly recommended you play Links Awakening and the Oracle games.
 

Chastten

Banned
Honestly, I would love a remake. I recently replayed a bit of it on NSO and it definitely has aged quite a bit. The forced camera perspective in some areas really throws my movement off at times and really makes it feel like an early 3D game. The story, music and general vibes are still great though.
 

MagnesD3

Member
It's stuff like this that makes me sad because it means that some of the best unique puzzle game design is truly dead, the artform of the Zelda 3d dungeons have never been recreated at such a high level in gaming that I've seen and I know because open world sandbox games are just more popular its truly dead. Why would Nintendo every try that hard again, it's just more difficult to create and makes less money.
 
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BootsLoader

Banned
First of all, combat system of OOT (z-targeting system), how you lock enemies, the movement etc. is not outdated. There are games that are still struggling in this department, even today. All Zelda games are depending on the targeting system that OOT invented.
That aside, when OOT was released, it was far more impressive and innovative that later Zelda games. It was and is literally a benchmark. Wind Waker is a good game but nowhere near OOT.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
Is this a zoomer thing? Like any time you play an old game you just are like “ayo on god this shit hella mid frfr” and just say it needs a remake so everything unique and interesting about it can be drained away and it just end up looking, running, and playing like everything else? What happened to playing a game on its own terms, good and bad? Just play the game and stop comparing it to new stuff, most of which sucks ass btw. I guarantee that people will still be talking about OOT in 25 years while the stuff getting 9s and 10s today in 2023 will be mostly forgotten (except for TOTK lol).
 
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