When launching the 3DS, Nintendo wanted to
make sure that players understood the value of the 3D effect right from the start. Their plan was to rerelease classic games
on the system so players could directly compare how stereoscopic 3D changed the experience. This left them with a narrow band of titles
to draw from; games from the Gamecube or Wii may have been too hard to run on the 3DS at
launch, and sprite based games from the 2D systems wouldn’t have made a good showcase
for depth. That left the N64 as the sweet spot, and of
those games Star Fox 64 was the perfect candidate- a spaceship game with lasers flying everywhere
is a natural fit for 3D. Ocarina of Time was a less obvious choice. According to Miyamoto, the game was chosen
to show off the more subtle immersive effect that 3D can bring. The game was first shown at e3 2010, at which
time Miyamoto described it as still being a tech demo. If that were true, it would mean the game
only had about one year of full on development, which is not a lot of time to remake the highest
rated game ever on unfamiliar hardware. Nintendo partnered with Japanese developer
Grezzo and used the original source code and assets as a base to quickly build from. Because the game uses so much from the original,
some people will say it shouldn’t even be considered a remake. Semantics aside, the visual overhaul was massive:
every character model was recreated using the original art, with Link being the most
dramatic improvement. Yoshiaki Koizumi created his original model
first and then Yusuke Nakano based his art on it. The idea of official art back then was to
show players what the world and characters were supposed to look like, since the hardware
would inevitably mangle their vision. In this case, the game had to run at 20 frames
per second, sometimes 15, just the pull off visuals like this. In comparison, 3D Link looks like Nakano’s
art walked right off the page; it’s hard to imagine getting much closer on the 3DS
hardware. The difference isn’t as striking with non-playable
characters, but the improvements are still plain to see. The ugly 2D walls around Hyrule field have
been replaced with new stepped cliffs and treelines, the sky is no longer a single low
res texture rotating around and has layers and depth, and the prerendered backdrops have
been entirely replaced with models. Despite being released in the same year as
Resident Evil 2, Ocarina of Time’s backdrops haven’t held up nearly as well and wouldn’t
have worked with the 3D effect. The new polygonal areas not only look much
better but give the developers the freedom to move the camera in new ways. A lot of old effects like the fake specular
highlights on certain objects have been recreated with more modern methods while still feeling
true to the original style. The extra power of the 3DS is generally put
to good use to expand and enhance scenes that originally had a scant amount of detail. The remake almost reminds me of a Retro studios
game, where every little room has been given enough detail to stand out and look interesting. The textures are where the shortcomings of
the hardware hold the visuals back the most. N64 environmental textures usually maxed out
at 64 by 64 pixels while the 3DS textures vary from 128 to 256. Doubling or even quadrupling the N64 resolution
isn’t necessarily enough to make a big improvement, and character textures are often the same
resolution. Regardless, the textures can appear deceptively
detailed from a distance, and even when the textures don’t look high res the more modern
mappings and reduced stretching alone can make a dramatic improvement. The framerate was the hardest part of the
overhaul and for the most part the game plays perfectly at 30 frames per second. Some animations have been tweaked or replaced,
and a few all new ones have been added in, like Link’s sword twirling. The game could have used some more polish
in this regard, though; characters tend to look like they’re running in slow motion
in the new framerate. Rain still falls on the plane you’re standing
on, regardless of whether land is there or not. Stairs are still painted on with textures,
and Link still spins around awkwardly to face doors. There’s almost a charming N64 crappiness
to seeing these faults but it would have been nicer to have them fixed. And finally there’s the titular 3D effect,
which I was one of the apparently few people to actually like. Some scenes showcase 3D so well it’s as
if they were specifically made for it, and in general the clarity added by the effect
helped to offset the small, low res screen. That being said, I prefer seeing the game
in HD. Confession time… I’m not capturing this footage from a 3DS
(gasps). I dumped my copy to play in Citra, and as
you can see, the game holds up surprisingly well in HD aside from the textures, and maybe
a few low res shadows. If Nintendo and Grezzo have the textures in
higher resolutions, they could very easily put together an HD release that would look
perfectly adequate on Switch. The most common complaint against the game
is that it’s far too bright and colorful. Looking at the official artwork, it’s clear
that the game was meant to have a more vivid Disney-like style and I think the remake does
a great job of realizing that. The garish vibrance in castle town works especially
well town by making the contrast between time periods even more stark. That said, there’s a solid argument to be
made that the N64 limitations contributed to the atmosphere of the original. The dim lighting and fog required by the old
hardware is practically a part of the forest temple, which seems too clear and empty when
those things are reduced on 3DS. The shadow temple is also lacking a lot of
the original grimness, and of course there’s the infamous overbrightened Ganon. The original look of this battle with Ganon
silhouetted against the sky is still really impressive, and it’s one of the few moments
where the original just flat out looks better than the remake. Whatever they were going for with the lighting
in the remake, none of the model and texture improvements are enough to compensate for
the loss of atmosphere. There’s also a small amount of censorship
in the music and visuals. The original release had Gerudo symbols that
were deemed too Islamic to use and were replaced in later cartridges. The original fire temple music was replaced
for similar reasons. Ganon’s blood was also changed from red
to green, and thank god, because otherwise this scene would have been violent. The 3D version keeps these changes but goes
a step further by also removing pretty much all of the blood from the well, which diminishes
the creepiness of the area even further. In pretty much every case, I prefer the original
uncensored version. While changes like this are disappointing,
it’s important to remember that the other 90% of the game looks dramatically better. I made some similar nitpicks about Majora’s
Mask 3D, but I don’t have a problem with the overall look of these games. In fact, it might be my favorite visual style
in the series... It just needs some tweaking here and there. The music has also been overhauled and like
Majora’s Mask 3D I don’t think it’s necessarily an upgrade. Higher quality samples are used, but the mixes
and certain sounds are a little off: The difference isn’t as pronounced as MM3D and you probably
won’t notice unless you have good headphones, but it’s worth pointing out. They were originally going to recreate the
tracks from scratch with modern samples, which is what Wind Waker HD did. But they abandoned that idea and mimicked
the N64 sound instead. With some tracks sounding worse than the original,
I can’t help but wonder if they made the wrong choice. Of course, if they had done a new soundtrack
I’d be complaining that it was too different, so... well played. Beyond the audio and visual enhancements,
the controls and UI have been updated as well. The map, item, and gear screens are all moved
to the touchscreen, which makes them faster to navigate than the old pause menu. This also leads to nice enhancements like
moving the HUD to the bottom screen to reduce clutter and the ability to review songs while
playing the ocarina. You’re technically losing an action button
on 3DS compared to the N64, but the game makes up for that by giving you two virtual buttons
in the corners of the screen. They’re not as reliable as buttons, but
they’re perfectly fine for things like bottles. My only complaint with the touchscreen is
that it defaults to showing a pretty useless map, which is made more redundant by the minimap
that appears on the main screen, and switching to the items menu still pauses the game like
the original. It would have been better to have the items
displayed by default for real time selection, which is how WWHD handled things. But you didn’t come here for some touchscreen. You came for GYRO AIM. Ocarina of Time 3D was one of the earliest
examples of modern gyro aim, and the game pretty much got it exactly right from the
start. The aiming is very fast and responsive compared
to an analog stick or the 3DS circle pad and it generally makes short work of any targeting. While this could potentially unbalance the
difficulty, Ocarina of Time isn’t the sort of game that emphasizes aiming much outside
of the minigames. It was designed for locking on and letting
the game do the work. Instead of breaking anything, gyro aim just
lets you have more fun pushing how quickly you shoot. It was problematic on the original system
due to the 3D effect, but it works much better on the models with face tracking, and even
better on an emulator with a stationary screen. Nintendo toyed with the idea of using the
gyro for full camera control, which I assume might would have worked like Splatoon. The problem was that they only had a few days
to implement and test it, so they settled for a limited view that can only be used when
holding L. It’s better than nothing and fans of the original will probably have no
problem dropping back into the Z button camera, but it’s the single most dated part of the
game and the biggest potential turnoff to new players. Beyond the hardware related upgrades are a
few gameplay specific changes, which is where remakes really run the risk of screwing things
up. Luckily Ocarina of Time 3D is extremely conservative
in this regard. Most of the big changes are limited to just
one location- the water temple, which is by far the most criticised part of the game. The challenge of the temple is to raise and
lower the water level to access different rooms while changing in and out of iron boots
to sink and float, and both of those things were handled poorly in the original game. Using the iron boots required pausing the
game and selecting them in the gear menu, which was clumsy and became tiresome as the
temple went on. If I had to estimate, you probably need to
do this 30 times before the dungeon is through. The rooms where water could be controlled
were also not marked in any way and the simple triforce plaque didn’t make it clear what
they were even for. The remake has turned the boots into a normal
item, so they can be swapped on or off at the press of a button. If you’ve never played the original, it’s
hard to stress how much of a relief it is to play this way. Doorways leading to the water control rooms
now have colored borders and symbols that communicate what level the control will change
to. These are smart, surgical changes that don’t
insult the player or give away too much of the challenge. They just reduce the frustration and make
it much easier to actually enjoy the temple. A boss rush mode was added in Link’s house,
allowing players to easily replay any battle and set time records. The catch is that you can only use the items
the developers have chosen for boss. The master quest, which was previously only
released in America on the GameCube version, has been turned into a sort of hero mode for
this release. The whole game is mirrored, including Link
himself, and enemies do double damage. If you’re not familiar with the master quest,
it basically rearranges the dungeon puzzles and adds new obstacles. I find it cheaper and less consistent than
the normal game, but it’s a nice change of pace if you want a different take on the
game. And finally new sheikah stones have been added
to deliver hint movies to confused players. I don’t have a problem with optional aids
like this, but I do have a problem with the placement. Putting this goofy, bouncing stone in the
temple of time brings down the solemn atmosphere a little. I get that they wanted it right near the starting
point, but I wish they had stuck it out in the town or field instead. Navi has also been tweaked to interrupt with
a few new messages, one of which suggests visiting the new helper stones for advice
while the other tells players to take a break after an hour of play. It would have been nice to give experienced
players an option to disable Navi’s interruptions, but I suppose having her bother the shit out
of you is a part of the experience. Beyond that, there really isn’t much to
say. There are a host of minor tweaks here and
there, which I’ll rattle off now: The boomerang can be recalled in mid-arc by pressing the
throw button. Bugs can no longer be recaptured after letting
them out of a bottle. Deku sticks no longer deal extreme damage. The mask salesman’s shop now has his Majora’s
Mask backpack and masks on display. The lack of rumble on 3DS led to the stone
of agony being replaced with a new item that gives a visual cue when secrets are nearby. The game no longer keeps track of how many
times you’ve died, text scrolls much faster, and so forth. The only change that feels like a noticeable
mistake is the roll after a steep fall. Link would originally avoid fall damage by
rolling as long as the stick was held forward. This no longer works when falling above a
certain height, and although I’ve read that you can still roll by pressing A when hitting
the ground, I’ve never gotten it to work. The game still references this move, so it
seems like a glitch that the developers didn’t notice. That said, it doesn’t come up enough to
be much of an annoyance. There was certainly room to push harder and
update the game more dramatically. The scale of Hyrule field was a technical
achievement at the time, but now it’s a dull, empty box without much to see or do
compared to modern open worlds. They could have added new content and treated
it like a new game, but then you run the risk of pushing too far and losing the original
appeal, which I believe Majora’s Mask 3D did. It’s clear from the interviews that everyone
was on the same page with one shared goal: don’t screw this up. Ocarina of Time is the highest rated game
in history. While later Zeldas may have improved on specific
aspects, no game has managed to be as consistently good at everything across the board. As the games got bigger, the worlds got emptier,
the pacing became less consistent, and the games struggled to find ways of standing out
from Ocarina of Time while using the same formula. They’re all exceptionally good, but Ocarina
of Time is still the best execution of that formula. Their goal with the remake wasn’t to reimagine
it as a new game. It was instead to protect it- how do we turn
an N64 game into a 3DS game without losing the appeal in translation? They didn’t get everything exactly right,
and it was made for handheld hardware that dated so rapidly that it practically needs
another remaster already. But the important thing is what it didn’t
do: they didn’t add in goofy scenes to mimic a popular movie or wedge in mechanics that
broke the original game design, they didn’t carelessly port an unfinished beta version
of the game and plaster comic sans anywhere, and they didn’t treat it like a mistake
that needed to be fixed. They didn’t throw anything in the garbage. But I’m throwing OBS in because it corrupted
my captures while making this video, it’s a piece of shit and it's got to go. I bought Ocarina of Time when it launched
on the Wii virtual console and ended up putting it down pretty quickly. Even back in 2007, time had not been kind
to its blurry, blocky visuals, and it just wasn’t the awe inspiring game I remembered
it being. But Ocarina of Time 3D made me feel like I
was back in 1998 playing it for the first time again; the visuals made it fresh and
new again, but it still felt like the same game I and pretty much everyone else on Earth
loved. A lot of people have described the remake
as looking the way you mistakenly remember the original game looking, and I think that’s
just what it needed to do. Remaking a game isn’t easy and it takes
more work than people realize to get things to feel the same as the original, let alone
better. Nintendo and Grezzo managed to make the most
acclaimed game in history even better without screwing it up. That’s good enough for me. It’s the version of the game that I picture
when I think of Ocarina of Time, and I can’t imagine going back to the original again. In fact, the remake turned out so well that
it immediately triggered a fan campaign for Majora’s Mask to get the same treatment. I can only hope that they show the same amount
of care the next time the game gets released, and maybe fix up the few shortcomings they
had this time around in order to make it completely perfect. They don't have far to go...
I agree with many of his sentiments, especially the one about the final boss battle being too ‘bright’. The darkness enveloping Ganon’s figure in the original definitely adds a lot of flavor to the boss.