Ocarina of Time Retrospective

[Music] what is there to say about Ocarina of Time that hasn't already been said well not a whole lot so I won't try to say anything you all know what this game is the first 3D Zelda game there are a wide range of opinions on the game nowadays but I think it's important to remember there was a time not long before the dawn of Internet discussion that acarina of time was hailed as a masterpiece of game design for many people it still holds that title but there are an increasing number of people coming out of the woodwork to recognize the game's faults it is after all the first 3D Zelda and one of the first 3D action adventure games ever made it's bound to have flaws it's important to highlight when flaws are fixed and it's why I feel remakes are just as important as brand new games Larina of Time 3D is the definitive version of the game there is no reason to play the N64 original Beyond its retro appeal or nostalgic value the aiming is much more precise thanks to the innovation of the gyroscope textures and character models have been completely remade for the modern day and with it a smoother frame rate from 20 frames to 30 frames not quite 60 but I'll take it over the sluggish pace of the original inventory management is handled in the bottom screen of the 3DS which makes for quick menu access the iron boots and hover boots are now face button items instead of equipment to be changed in the menu you can take the iron boots on and off at the Press of a button significantly improving the pace of the dreaded water temple link can also have four items on face buttons for instant use instead of three with the n64's c stick well not really a stick I guess they're C buttons whatever the bottom screen displays the map of the area you're in how many keys you have how many rupes you have and the acarina is forever bound to the bottom left so you never have to swap it out with another face button item the text crawl has been shortened so the story presents itself at a much more respectable Pace the shica stones were introduced to give players a hint as to what to do next which is a godsend given how obtuse progression is in between dungeons the 3DS version comes with some new bells and whistles like a boss rush and a packed in Master Quest mode with redesigned Dungeons and a mirrored map similar to how Twilight Princess was handled across versions I happen to believe it's simply inarguable that the N64 is anywhere close to the 3DS version it's fine to still prefer playing the N64 version of course everyone has preferences but there are almost no downsides to playing the game on the 3DS besides the smaller screen size as a result this retrospective is going to be heavily focused on each game's remake excluding the last two games which don't have any you might as well call this a 3D Zelda remake discussion because they will be the foundation of my critique there are plenty of other analyses of each original game out there for you to enjoy I recommend the videos from matthu matosis and retropolis zone for Ocarina of Time specifically so yeah the 3DS version is clearly Superior let's get into the actual game on offer here because not much has really changed same story same dungeons same items what do I make of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D here's some context I have significantly more experience playing 3D Zelda if I'm honest I've never gotten even a quarter of the way through A Link to the Past I'm sorry I know that's a death sentence in the Zelda Community but I haven't on the contrary A Link Between Worlds is the only 2D Zelda game I've ever finished and loved the rest of my love for the franchise is rooted solely in the 3D installments as a result I don't have much in the way of comparison to a link to the past I do however see the difference between the design philosophy of Ocarina when compared to the first Zelda game the first Zelda game was a pure Adventure it popped you into a world said go and it was all up to you it forces nothing on you now you can even skip the sword if you don't decide to enter the cave I can't say I particularly like playing the original Zelda I find it extremely archaic and the combat is strictly limited to short stabs in the four directions link can walk this control scheme feels really outdated and it artificially enhances the game's difficulty in a way I don't appreciate very much however there is one thing I absolutely respect about the original Zelda the sheer Freedom it allows the player you can go anywhere where and do anything it might end up biting you in the ass if you aren't prepared but that feeling of getting lost in a game just exploring everything that has to offer without the constant nagging Waypoint telling you where to go next is a promising idea were it attached to a competent game I'd be all for it it's primarily why I enjoy the soulsborne series so much Ocarina of Time is the polar opposite the freedom it allows is limited to the side objectives and a few dungeons you can do out of order for instance if you really want to you can do the the water temple before doing the fire temple and you can also do the spirit Temple before doing the Shadow Temple that isn't the order na'vi will push you toward but it's an order you can do if you want this makes for an incredibly linear story progression perhaps rightfully criticized in sequelitis as being demonstrably worse than the design philosophy of the original you have to admit it's a lot easier to pick up and play Ocarina of Time I first played it in 2012 and had a pretty easy time getting to grips with it in stark contrast to almost all of my attempted playthroughs of the original Zelda but I'd be hardpressed to argue that I prefer the more linear design philosophy when compared to the nonlinear focus of the original I do not however think that because the game is more linear it equals a bad Zelda game that simply isn't true even one playthrough should be enough to show how competent a Zelda game it still is one of the downsides to having a game be so nonlinear is the question of how to handle the story progression there's an Ever pervasive Monster haunting the narrative of open world gaming and that monster's name is a big scary concept known as Ludo narrative dissonance I can demonstrate what I mean using Fallout 4 I know everyone likes to pick on this game but can you really say it's without justification the setup of that game's story involves your significant other being murdered in front of your eyes and your child being stolen your character's Drive is to save your child from whomever decided to with you there is a jarring disconnect in such a nonlinear game when you can completely ignore the main quests to save your child in favor of doing relatively less important quests in the Wasteland there is a very real possibility that the priorities of the player will directly contradict the priorities of the playable character this dissonance grows ever stronger the more you're allowed to do and in an open world Bethesda softworks game that means several hundred hours of content completely divorced from the main story linearity often goes hand inand with well-crafted storytelling Ocarina of Time definitely let to explore Hyrule but the restrictions on the scale of the world ensures that the diversions found while exploring don't take too much away from the overarching story driving link forward you can even argue the exploration is key to link becoming strong enough to defeat Ganondorf which at the end of the day is the ultimate goal strength in a fight against someone who holds a piece of the Triforce and usurped the throne is pretty important in a plot to find your son urgency supersedes strength and experience this isn't to say that nonlinear games can't tell a well-paced story they just struggle to tell such a tightly paced narrative when there is so much player Freedom Fallout New Vegas presents a brilliant method to deliver a narrative by seamlessly interweaving player choice into the narrative the only information you have upon booting up a new save is that you were shot by someone you don't know what your life was before you were shot so you're essentially popped into the world with n a clue what to do next you can track down your shooter sure but it's entirely realistic your character wouldn't want to do that some people might want to avoid the person who nearly murdered them within the context of fallot new Vegas's beginning you are given the freedom to explore the world and uncover its Secrets without the shackle of an overarching character need from this point you can go about the story of the game however you like with several different factions you can align with which lead to several different endings based on what you believe your character would do at any given moment this is the key to nonlinear storytelling and as great as it is to have such a wide array of choices you still can't get the same linear story experience at least one with good pacing all of this is to say that Ocarina of Time delivers a simple yet compelling narrative because of how linear it is the evolution of Child Link faffing about in Kiri Forest waiting for his life to start into fully equipped Adult Link who readily takes on Ganondorf after storming his castle is such a satisfying leap it so seamlessly ties into themes of growth as a kid you can't do much and no one really asks you to do a whole lot most NPCs just tell you to off it isn't until you're grown up that the world is depending on you to save the day as an adult you can explore the world more thoroughly and take on some of the toughest threats it has to offer including Ganondorf the world feels more oppressive when you're grown up hyru Castle is ruined filled with gibdos lanlan ranch has been taken over by this ass hat Goran city is empty after the gorons were all captured and locked away in the fire temple Zora's domain is frozen over you're the only one who can save Hyrule it's a very empowering story for a child to experience but it's also easy to relate to after you really do grow up growing up is a bit scary you have more responsibility more power more Authority it's easy to crumble under the pressure of it all but Ocarina of Time Shows you can surmount even the most intimidating obstacles Ganondorf proves that he is a scary son of a he only appears briefly and because of that it's always a big deal whenever he shows up the Brief Encounters you do have with him show off his hostile appearance and after he steals the Triforce from the sacred realm and takes over Hyrule you run through the rest of the game knowing he's waiting for you in his castle eventually you'll have to take him on the final fight is such a rewarding payoff because of that you've managed to save the gorons Princess Ruto naburu you can save Hyrule from the clutches of Ganondorf After all you've done the climax is incredibly powerful and that final blow to the skull is one of the best feelings ever it would be very easy to understate The Narrative of Ocarina of Time but it's so core to the overall experience I have a hard time believing the game would have been as strong without it that said I'm not usually playing Zelda for the story so let's examine how such a linear progression affects how you play the game 3D Zelda gets a pretty bad rap for having very lengthy the opening sequences that harm multiple playthroughs I think one of the most surprising aspects to Ocarina is how quickly it gets going you explore Kiri forest and get to grips with the controls of 3D Zelda which are admittedly hard to adjust to the a button doesn't jump it rolls to jump you have to walk off Ledges which as many have pointed out flies in the face of conventional game design that's why it's nice to have an environment that forces you to explore it for Rupees to progress it isn't hard at all to get a sword and a shield on your second playthrough it takes almost no effort and after you do that you enter the first dungeon which gives you the slingshot so you can start playing around with new items and puzzles accessible is the perfect word to describe the opening of Ocarina it takes almost no time at all to get going while still allowing the breathing room for newcomers to get used to how link controls the first dungeon isn't necessarily anything to write home about but it's a perfectly fine introduction to 3D Zelda's dungeon design on a basic level you find the the slingshot very early on and it makes the dungeon a lot easier because you can now deal with the pesky scula on the vines blocking your path as well as the keys that are tricky to deal with when you only have your dinky little sword it's also the only way to get GMA down from the ceiling the dungeon makes great use of 3D space as you climb up the tree it adds a sense of vertigo that you can't have in a 2d game this height even allows you to interact with the dungeon making use of your velocity when falling to break through the spiderweb in the central room it also teaches you to light your deu stick to move fires to different locations to light torches or burn spiderwebs you're taught this so that you're familiar with many of the concepts Ocarina of Time will use for puzzle solving lighting every torch in a room for example will be used time and time again for optional and mandatory progression most of the dungeons have logic puzzles much like setting fire to a spiderweb you need to know that sunlight will activate Sun panels or that bombs will break weak walls it isn't until the dango's cavern where you're overwhelmed Med with the amount of Pathways you see just by starting the dungeon as soon as you walk in there are several doors on either side and Bridges at the top linking together different rooms this uncertainty as to where you need to progress is key to some of the strongest dungeons finding the way forward is initially difficult and once you do the dungeon will test your awareness of your surroundings once you unlock the bombs for instance you need to figure out that the bombs will work on the eyes of the giant skull to open the way to the boss The Genius of this key item is that it's an upgrade of something you've been using for half the dungeon the bomb flowers the bomb flowers act like every other bomb but they're stationary this means if your target is too far away from the bomb flower it won't be possible to use it to blow up the target once you get the Bomb Bag you can now blow up anything you want this opens up the entire dungeon and lets you explore a few new areas you may have made a mental note of it's very reminiscent of the Metroid Vania genre this complexity is taken to the logical extreme in the water temple this is probably controversial but the water temple is the best Dungeon in Ocarina of Time and I can say that more confidently playing the 3DS version where the iron boots aren't a pain in the ass to use this dungeon is the culmination of everything I've just laid out when you enter it you can see the entrance to every single pathway it's intimidating to figure out where to even begin once you find the panels on the wall to control the water level the dungeon opens up piece by piece you begin to explore your options until you find the next two panels when you have a grasp of all three water levels that's when the dungeon becomes truly Labyrinthian your progress is gated in two main ways the long shot and the amount of small keys since the water levels open up so many Pathways you'll often enter a path and be forced to turn back because you lack a small key to open the door or your hook shot isn't long enough to reach a hook shot panel what this forces the player to do is ruthlessly explore each and every pathway and experiment with the water levels until you obtain that small key you desperately needed or that long shot to finally cross that Gap you couldn't cross before since the pathways aren't very long and the central room is pretty small it ensures that backtracking isn't overly cumbersome this is very good because odds are you'll end up doing a lot of backtracking to with the water levels to find the correct pathway forward the rest of the dungeons in the game try to live up to the water temple to varying degrees of success it's still somewhat easy to get lost in the fire temple for instance because there are so many Pathways once you get the Megaton Hammer the dungeon is significantly more straightforward but the path to that item is fairly arduous the Forest Temple makes good use of multiple Pathways to confuse the player there's really only one path forward but you have so many options when you start the dungeon that the way forward is never obvious even when you do find the way forward you may lack a key that's located in another segment of the dungeon you have yet to explore additionally once you get the bow there are several areas where you can use it to progress or unlock Secrets these two dungeons don't quite reach the same complex Heights as the water temple but they're complex enough that they're fun to figure out the Shadow Temple is the least successful at emulating the water temple it's by far the most linear adult dungeon in the game I don't tend to count the first three dungeons as Child Link because they don't even have small keys in them if anything they're more preliminary dungeons meant to get you accustomed to 3D spatial awareness that said I think jabu jabu's belly is even a bit harder to figure out than the Shadow Temple the major issue with with the Shadow Temple is how much of a straight shot it is there's a straight line through to the dungeon boss and there are several detours on that path most of them are incredibly simple say there's a locked door there's probably a detour right around the corner to unlock a small key to open that locked door you can never have more than one small key every time you get one you use it 10 seconds later to open up more of the main path I wouldn't say it's a terrible dungeon but it is comparatively much weaker it's blindingly linear the spirit Temple airs on the dangerous side of this linearity but I think it's saved by the unique implementation of the time travel having to play the first half of the dungeon as Child Link is a major handicap Child Link can't use the hook shot or the bow he has to revert back to using his dinky sword slingshot and Boomerang he even goes up against enemies that Adult Link is required to fight including the iron knuckle at the end of his segment without this the spirit Temple would probably be even worse than the Shadow Temple it's very easy to figure out where to go next and from there you progress from room to room until you get the boss key and go straight to the boss without much to think about there may be even less branching paths than in the Shadow Temple the reason I find this very important is because the actual puzzle solving is pretty Hit or Miss there are some successful puzzles I'm thinking specifically of puzzles like this one in the spirit Temple where you have to copy the actions of a floating mummy thing that mirrors your every move later in the dungeon it becomes more complicated having you deal with three of them in the same room and with only one ring of fire to dispatch them the reason it's such a good puzzle is because you're always actively solving it it's not as if you figured out the solution as soon as you put two and two together you're always figuring out how the things mirroring you move and how to get them into the fire similarly the silver rupee puzzles are great because you're always active when collecting them hook shot onto a panel equip the hover boots to reach a far off rupee defeat a beo to uncover a rupee you need to figure out how to get each rupee on the Fly and the introduction of stage hazards puts even more pressure on you to finish the puzzle as quickly as possible the problematic puzzles are the ones you solve long before you complete them block pushing puzzles are easily the most egregious in the spirit Temple you'll likely immediately figure out that you're supposed to push this sun block into the sunlight to open a door it's the process of this that makes it horrible first you have to move two of the blocks out of the way and then start pulling the sunblock out of where it's trapped to get it over to the sunlight this is a case where the puzzle was solved long before you complete it because block pushing is so slow I wouldn't be surprised if the dev team got a little bit too excited to implement context sensitive actions that almost no thought went into how that would translate into a fun puzzle solving experience it's an easy trap to fall into when dealing with new technology the part that really ruins this is that there's no way to speed up the slow low speed at which link will push or pull blocks even when he gets the silver or gold gauntlets he still pushes every block at the same speed I'm willing to chalk this up to a simple oversight because block pushing has never been as obnoxious in any other Zelda game except this one at least they learn from it right additionally there are puzzles that make use of the 3D space be that an eye on the wall you need to shoot with your bow and arrow or a hook shot panel hidden on a ceiling to make it to a high up area these aren't so much puzzles as they are tests of your spatial awareness it's used most effectively when you do things like shoot an arrow through a flame to melt an eye panel this is something the game never teaches you how to do but it's The Logical conclusion to the puzzle given how little there is in the room it calls back to the logic puzzles I mentioned earlier most of the time finding my way through a dungeon was much more satisfying than the puzzles I had to solve in them while some of the puzzles are fairly weak it doesn't take away from the feeling of accomplishing that comes from fully exploring every nook and cranny for optional items and Extras the way I see it eye panels and bombable walls are just more unique ways to progress as opposed to the dungeon simply using a door yeah they might not be hard to figure out but it's better than just walking up to a door and pressing the a button the block puzzles though yeah I can't really defend those how about the bits in between dungeons they serve as an opportunity to test out some of your new items in the Overworld world as well as Dole out new bits of story most likely from Chic unfortunately there are more than a few times where the logical next step is well illogical the best example I can think of is after you leave Kiri Forest Sara gives you an Ocarina as a parting gift and you run off to make a long story short you use the acarina to open a path to darunia to hopefully get him to open the path to dango's Cavern you try to play Zelda's lullabi and it doesn't work he keeps saying he wants something he can dance to I'm not sure how in the you're supposed to figure this out the only reason I eventually figured it out is because na'vi tells you hey maybe you should go talk to Sara The Logical Next Step should never be to travel back to Kiri Forest to talk to Sara especially after your heartfelt goodbye with her moments before but no you have to do the Lost Woods puzzle talk to Sara so she can teach you a song to make darunia happy again there is no reason I can think of that sarya couldn't have taught you the song when she gave you the Ocarina this means you have to run back to kakiri Forest through Hyrule Field which is one of the most Barren overworlds in gaming history yes I'm aware there's a shortcut in Goran City to the Lost Woods but you can't open that up until you play Saria song to darunia when you do that you'll get the ability to pick up bomb flowers thus opening up the shortcut but until then you're stuck hauling ass across Hyrule Field once you're done with Sara you have to backtrack from when you came lengthening the process of opening to dango's Cavern even more I'm not sure how else to get this across it's Shameless padding there are other minor instances of this like when you first leave kakiri Forest there is no possible way to make it to hyru Castle in time before nightfall which is when the drawbridge races and you can't enter until morning while it is nice that it forces you to figure out that you can't enter Hyrule at night it means that you have to wait until daytime to enter which for me means running around in a circle or fighting the stalos to bu time yeah I know I'm sure there are speedrunners out there that can make it across Hyrule Field before nightfall I wouldn't doubt it but your average player wouldn't know how to do that would they if you want a really horrible example that everyone points out it would be the entrance to jabu jabu's belly you have to do this mini game where you dive for Rupees to get a scale that lets you dive underwater you use this scale to dive under the water in zoro's domain which leads you to Lake Kia there's a bottle with a note from Princess Ruto is trapped in jabu jabu's belly if you show it to King Zora he'll let you through well he'll slowly let you through you know eventually he'll let you through eventually you know sometime this week please yeah so that then you're at jabu jabu and you're out of hints all you have to go on is a sign telling you not to disturb him there is truthfully no way to progress unless you bottle up a fish in zoro's domain and bring it up to jabu jabu so he can eat you the only reason I have never struggled with this is because before my first playthrough of the game I heard all the bitching online it's such a legendary example of how not to do regression gating and everyone complains about it for good reason it isn't a logical chain of events the bits in between dungeons are really boring and obtuse and that extends to some of the side objectives of which there are many the side quest served to offer players the exploration they might be sorely craving coming off of the Fairly linear story this mostly comes in the form of upgrades to your bags and quiver to hold more bombs and arrows respectively heart pieces to extend your health bar upgrades and magic items from the Great Fairy golden scula tokens which you can turn in for wallet upgrades and other goodies there's even a sword upgrade you can collect through a trading sequence believe it or not even a pona is optional until gudo desert she's in the opening so you'd think they'd force her on you but it is very possible you can miss her if you never visit lawn laan Ranch I mean I have pity on your soul if you do because she makes traversal of Hyrule Field much more tolerable it's a worthy payoff to have your travel time decreased as the game goes on it might make the first few hours a bit annoying but since Child Link really only sticks to the Eastern portion of Hyrule Field it's never tedious enough to be noteworthy many of the side quests perform the same function as a pona the heart pieces are rewarding to look for because it means you can take more hits the magic upgrades from the great fery are pretty cool cool like having your magic and health meters essentially doubled additionally finding upgrades makes link feel more powerful as you trudge along the Big Goron sword is a fantastic reward you have to hold it with two hands meaning you can't use your Shield but it is the strongest weapon in the game ironically outclassing the master sword in almost every way there are also mandatory upgrades that come in the form of dungeon items that serve the same purpose but also offer some elements of Metroid Vania to the exploration for instance after you get the bombs you can bomb holes in the ground in hyru field to find golden skulas and rupes I wouldn't say there are a ton of elements outside of this that truly make use of the dungeon items in the Overworld in fact many of the side quests don't even require them kind of a shame there wasn't more Overworld use for the hook shot as an example it could have been cool to hide some hook shot panels in the Overworld for a heart piece or a golden scula their use is almost exclusively in dungeons I'm surprised by how useful the hook shot and bow are to pretty much every dungeon items like the bow hook shot and bombs are by far the most useful items in the game the bow has combat applications as well as the ability to hit far away bombs or switches the hook shot can bring link to a far off area as well as collect golden scula tokens and stun enemies and the bombs can break walls as well as defeat beos and other enemies the rest of the items are poorly utilized outside of their respective dungeons the iron boots really only serve the purpose of walking underwater there are no other uses for it similarly the mega ton Hammer will smash blocks down in the fire temple and is sometimes used to push Rusty switches or break rocks in the Overworld I'm disappointed in the Megaton Hammer because it lacks the combat use of the bow and hook shot it has such a short range that using it in combat over the sword is never a question at the very least the dungeon items are all pretty fun to use in the context of their own dungeons the hover boots give a pretty cool extension to your jump length and the Shadow Temple combines it with the lens of Truth in a neat way there's an invisible wall you can't jump to the Gap is too big instead you have to use the lens of Truth to find the invisible wall and then equip the hover boots in front of the fan so it pushes you across the Gap Synergy akin to this would have given more use to the items that are quickly forgotten I've straight a fair bit off topic so let's go back to the side objectives exclusively while many of them have rewarding extras the process of obtaining the optional extras is occasionally frustrating we'll take the golden scalas for the sake of example they use audio cues to clue you into their presence then it's just up to you to look around for them and collect their token most of them are hidden pretty well but there are a few that are needlessly obtuse you can establish pretty early on that bombing trees will sometimes lead to holes you can enter so when you see a tree next to Hyrule Castle you'll maybe want to bomb it unfortunately it won't work if you don't have The Shard of Agony you'll probably never know there's a secret under this tree so how do you open the hole in the ground even though there's no other instance in the game that would lead you to to believe this would work if you play The Song of Storms a hole in the ground will open now if you're like me in this situation you may feel like you've been slapped in the face I feel similarly about the golden scula hidden in the soft soil where you plant magic beans the game never teaches you this but you can collect bugs in empty bottles and release them over a patch of soft soil to reveal a golden scula you can do this for every patch of soft soil and that consistency is why it's slightly more acceptable Than That Song of Storms but there's still never reason to think you could ever do something like that you'll always know you can place magic beans but never bugs how the hell are you even supposed to know you can trap bugs and bottles in the first place bugs are never used for anything else it's this aspect of acarina of times nonlinearity that most reminds me of the original Zelda and not in a good way the original Zelda's idea of progression was based on an extreme level of trial and error it Taps into the many ideas presented by Renee deart and Francis bacon concerning the scientific method their Works contributed to the idea that you can never truly know something until you've tested it in the same way you can't know if there's a tree you can bomb until you've bombed every tree in the game their findings work wonders for learning new things but they don't translate well to the interactive medium the process of finding out what you can burn or bomb isn't compelling in the slightest the amount of work you have to put in Far exceeds the reward you receive this is exactly how I feel about the more to collectibles in Ocarina the skulas certainly aren't the only complicated side quest there are also the trade sequences there are two major trade sequences one to obtain the Big Goron Sword and the other to obtain the mask of Truth the quest to obtain the big ororon sword is far more straight forward because the game tells you exactly where to go for each item it isn't necessarily fun to play the mailman but at least you know where you're going I'll reiterate this is for the 3DS version I'm not sure how it works in the original the worst of the two is The Mask side quest this Quest is abysmal without a guide it starts at the happy mask shop you can find it in hyru Castle town the first mask you have to deliver is to this guard in kakaro Village you need to give him the yellow Katon mask that he wants for his son this one's easy because the guard will tell you he wants the mask so you can easily go get it for him you're required to hear this from him on the main quest so you can never miss it the next mask is a skull thing that you're supposed to deliver to Skull Kid in the Lost Woods unfortunately no one tells you who to give the mask to you have to wear the mask and talk to every NPC in the game to find its new owner I don't think I need to tell you how insanely asinine of a process that would be for three masks you potentially have a situation wherein you'd have to travel to every NPC in the game three times to get the masks to the people they belong to and for what the mask of truth I mean it's a neat mask it can uncover bombable holes in the Overworld and can talk with gossip Stones which give neat insight into some of the characters or miscellaneous events that you wouldn't otherwise get from the main story like how Malin holds the world record for fastest horse race at her Ranch however this is in no way a worthy reward given how tedious the quest is especially when you factor in that there's a Zelda Wiki meant to compile all this useless information anyway then we come to my personal least favorite side activity in the game the fishing oh boy there are two things you can obtain here the heart piece and the golden scale truthfully though there are three heart pieces you can get out of this ordeal since there are two heart pieces that can't be unlocked until you get the golden scale I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert at fishing in fact that's precisely the problem the guy at the beginning tells you the basics and it took me a little while to get used to how it controls but eventually I found my footing apparently there's a secret sinking lure you can get after netting a big enough fish but I couldn't find it for the life of me the small fish are pretty easy to get but those aren't what net you the big reward rewards the much bigger fish basically over 10 lb get you the rewards you actually want here's the issue mechanically I'm still not really sure what the proper way is to reel in a fish I have a general idea when the fish is facing you you're holding the control stick in the right direction when it isn't you aren't holding it in the right direction but when you start coming up against the bigger fish it's practically impossible to figure out where to hold the pole you first have to find out where the sweet spot is something I assume changes every 2 seconds seconds because that's the biggest hurdle to Cross by far I try to slowly move my circle pad around to find the sweet spot usually to no avail if I ever do find the sweet spot where the fish faces me I found that circling around very slowly counterclockwise will make sure you keep hitting all of the sweet spots that change every couple seconds if you can do this correctly I think this is how you fish the major issue is with the first Sweet Spot it's so hard to find that most of the time the fish would Escape my lure after 3 or so minutes of around if you fail to catch the fish it swims to the Middle where unless you have that sinking lore you can't catch they're too far below the water to even notice your lure this means you have to return the fishing pole exit the fishing hole reenter the fishing hole pay another 20 rupes to fish then the fish will have respawned where it began when you first entered I was at this stupid miname for a good 3 hours before I finally got what I needed I'd rather play Big the cat in Sonic Adventure 1 than this TR now I do want to highlight some of the better site objectives because they do exist the gudo training grounds are pretty damn fun I'll admit I've never used the ice arrows in my life not joking never thought to ever use them so in that respect the reward is underwhelming but the dungeon itself is cool making use of small keys to find treasures at the end most of the heart pieces and skulas are very satisfying to find golden skulas and dungeons are perhaps the most rewarding to seek out many of them are hidden reasonably well especially the ones where you're required to use the Scarecrow song which in the case of the fire temple unlocks a whole new optional segment to the dungeon at least collecting the 50 golden scul tulas you need is fun past that I can't really say it's anything more than pointless especially considering after 50 you don't get any rewards until you hit 100 where the last guy gives you uh 200 rupees yeah not exactly worth it but I do appreciate that you can look on the map and figure out which areas you fully cleared out and which you haven't in terms of finding Gula it makes the process of finding 100 much less annoying Additionally the horseback riding archery miname while laughably easy with the gyroscope is a fun diversion and so is hunting for pose in Hyrule Field even if their triggers are super sensitive and you have to individually collect all 10 souls in empty bottles when you can only have a Max of three bottles up to that point I don't need to explain why that's tedious thankfully the merchant you need to run them to is right at the beginning of Hyrule castlle town so overall I wouldn't say the quest to get them is super annoying the magic beans are pretty cool because they make use of the time travel I haven't touched on this yet but you can switch between child and Adult Link at the Temple of time if you return or Draw the master sword from its pedestal if you've planted a magic bean as Child Link you can return to that spot as Adult Link to ride the plant to the heart pieces or scula I really like this use of time travel you can do something similar with the guy playing The Song of Storms he teaches you the song of storms in the future because he hates that some kid played it in the past that kid is TR Child Link so you revert to a child go to the same guy and play The Song of Storms this creates a paradox since the guy could never have learned that song without Link and Link could never have learned that song without the guy but from a gameplay perspective it makes very good use of the time travel this does highlight an admittedly monotonous part of 100% completion if you want to complete everything Ocarina of Time has to offer odds are you'll be visiting the Temple of Time very often every time you do so you have to watch a decently long cut scene where you return the sword or Draw it from from its pedestal this will send you to either the future or the present and then you can leave the Temple of Time by warping out or walking out into Hyrule Castle town this doesn't even factor in the amount of time it takes to play the prelude of light and then warp to the Temple of Time I can't help but think there was already a solution to this issue in A Link to the Past I don't know a whole lot about that game but from what I understand you can switch between the light and dark Worlds at will Ocarina of Time sorely lacks a feature like this and for no real reason if the developers were worried about people using it inside of d they could always restrict it to certain areas in the game it would be a lot better than playing the Prelude of light to warp to the Temple of Time every other minute I'm very thankful warping is even possible though because the thought of Crossing Hyrule Field every time I want to get to a specific area makes me shudder the warping is a relatively quick and painless process too especially since you can check what the notes of the songs are on the bottom screen if you end up forgetting yet another Saving Grace of the 3DS remake Ocarina of Time is a mixed bag when it comes to 100% completion but I would say that going after most of the side objectives is pretty rewarding in the end I'll probably never collect 100 golden scalas again but I would certainly collect 50 of them as well as collect all the heart pieces and Equipment upgrades that feeling of progression is simply unrivaled in most other adventure games I suppose I should touch on the one aspect of the gameplay I've neglected up till now the combat combat in the 2D games was relatively straightforward if there was an enemy you turn toward it and pressed the sword button in a 3D plane it's much more complicated seeing from directly behind link is more immersive but it also means you can never have a full grasp as to what's around you at all times like you can in the 2D games so some form of camera control had to be implemented and since the N64 only had one analog stick reserved for movement this means a bit of an awkward method of controlling the camera that's ironically become a bit of an iconic Zelda staple you have to face a direction and press the L button to reenter the camera in that new Direction this is how you'll keep yourself aware of enemies around you in order to ensure that combat flows better Z targeting was introduced if you press and hold the L button or the Z button in the case of the N64 controller you reenter the camera on that enemy Link's controls change when locked on instead of turning when moving left link will now strafe around the enemy he can also do a jump attack and back flip when strafing that he can't perform in his normal State his basic attacks include horizontal and vertical slashes as well as a stab he can perform when when the analog stick is pushed upward Additionally you can spin the control stick around to perform a spin attack or you can hold down the attack button to charge the Spin Attack for more damage I'd be lying if I said the sword play had depth it really doesn't the enemy AI is pretty poor they often just hold their guard up and strafe for round link until they eventually attack you leaving themselves open the problem is they sometimes take a very very long time to attack you since there's a lot of waiting and involved in combat I found myself spamming the Spin Attack more times than I would have liked it's just too reliable a move for me to not spam it whenever there's an opening a spin attack will always follow up that opening reliably and occasionally it can cut right through enemies even during their guard I'm thankful Link's other items can influence the combat the hook shot can stun an enemy giving you more time to follow up and the bow can obviously damage enemies it isn't a huge amount of variety but it does serve to spice up the combat even a little bit and trust me with the pacing of these battles you really need that unfortunately the Z targeting isn't perfect there are numerous times where the game will take priority to reentering the camera over locking onto an enemy meaning if you turn around to lock onto an enemy there are several occasions where the game will just Center the camera instead of locking on this irks me a lot when fighting Kei the fastest way to take them out is to lock onto them and shoot them with your bow but more often than not the camera would Center instead of locking on leaving me open to a hit while I try to lock on proper the priority should have been placed on the lock on not the centering of the camera I'd say Dark Souls is a much better evolution of Zelda combat it's much harder the enemy AI is much more intelligent and harder to avoid and it lends a sense of complexity to fights that simply isn't present in Ocarina of Time the combat is just boring it's severely underdeveloped and I'm glad there aren't a metric ton of enemies or the game would fall flat on its face some of the bosses seem to suffer from some of the same issues although most of them are pretty fun to fight Bongo Bongo suffers from the Z targeting issue since there are three targets his two hands and his head targeting can prove to be slightly problematic you can end up locking onto the wrong portion of his body and for some reason locking onto his head is a bit finicky which makes the fight a bit of an annoyance when you're first adjusting outside of that though he is the only boss which is defeated with an item from another dungeon you use the bow in tandem with the lens of Truth so you're still using a dungeon item to beat him Allah the lens of truth but the added use of the bow gives the boss a sense of variety that I enjoy the rest of the boss fights aren't particularly hard but they are satisfying enough to fight the first three bosses aren't anything to write home about I'll admit I mean throw bomb into mouth hit head avoid repeat isn't exactly compelling Phantom Ganon though he's cool you have to constantly twirl around your bow to find Ganon in the paintings you also have to make use of audio cues to make sure you're looking at the right one because in some of the paintings there's a fake Phantom Cannon his second phase is energy tennis where you hit the energy back at him with the correct timing you don't have to use your sword though you can use an empty bottle which I find very very amusing I'd also ask you pay attention to some of the videos I'm going to do later in this series The Phantom Ganon fights all make use of the empty bottle and it's hilarious I don't know why it's so amusing to me twin rova is a similarly fun boss although un fortunately you can't use your Empty Bottle to reflect their ice and fire beams instead you use the mirror Shield to reflect them a much more boring solution but one that makes more sense in the context of the dungeon you have to shoot the Fire and Ice beams back at them until they fuse together then you have to absorb either three of their fire or three of their ice shots until it overcharges them and you can attack them again none of these bosses are incredibly challenging most of them are piss easy but the majority of them require at least an ounce of thought to beat and for that I think they're satisfactory plus none of them overstay their welcome by no means the best in the series but they are passable Ganondorf is a little bit lackluster though his first phase is energy tennis with the added bonus of shooting him with light arrows it's kind of interesting because you can't lock onto him due to his immense power but all that complexity really adds is that you just have to shoot him with your bow and arrow instead the atmosphere of his second phase is really deadly and it's cool that he handicaps You by knocking away the master sword it's just a shame that you hold on to the big gouon sword so if you've done that side quest you don't feel nearly as defenseless in addition if you pay attention to ganon's AI he isn't the brightest boss in town avoiding his attacks is as easy as rolling under his legs or dodging to the right or left though I have to say the music is on point I love it [Music] most of the music is ambient dungeon cave music that serves to fit the mood of each area [Music] the standout pieces though are Hyrule Field and the Lost Woods as well as the various ocarina songs you can learn they're very memorable and stick with you long after the credits play [Music] thank you koi condo I love that man graphically it improves quite a great deal on its N64 counterpart and is one of the better looking 3DS games everything has been remodeled the backgrounds actually have models this time around so hyro Castle Town looks decent aesthetically it's pretty standard Fair although I think the dungeon designs are part of the reason they're so fun to play around in what this game lacks in satisfactory puzzles it makes up for an unique visual design to make each Temple distinct the Forest Temple is easy to distinguish from the fire Temple and so on I will say that they all sort of look like temples I mean I guess that's the point I would have liked a bit more unique visual variety because a lot of them seem like they have the same structure a lot of them look like ruins a lot of them have similar looking doors and switches really it's the colors and everything surrounding the dungeon that makes it look different you know the Forest Temple is green the fire temple is red the water temple is blue but a lot of them just look too similar for my tastes let's talk about the frame rate you know even if it's only 30 FPS it's much better than the laughable 20 FPS of the N64 version my God that game runs terribly I'm obviously disappointed the Remake couldn't have targeted 60 FPS but I mean it I guess I've come to expect 30 nowadays I am one of those those PC masterace snobs that takes nothing below 60 after all before we end the video I suppose I should touch on Master Quest it only changes how the dungeons are designed it doesn't change anything in the Overworld or any of the side quests in the 3DS version it mirrors the world as well making it a bit more challenging on a repeat playthrough where you're familiar with a specific layout for the most part the challenge of Master Quest is its greatest asset it makes use of the fact that you probably know the mechanics very well and it tests your knowledge of them to various extremes take the great deu tree the vanilla version didn't teach you about lighting deu sticks on fire until after you fell and broke through the webbing in Master Quest you're expected to know you can burn webbing with a lit deu stick the dungeon uses this to its advantage and makes it the central theme of the entire dungeon taking it Beyond where it ever was in the vanilla version take the room with the spinning cylinder of spikes in the vanilla version you had to dive underwater to activate a switch that would lower the water level so you could take the movable platform across it and be safe under the spike cylinder this switch doesn't exist in Master Quest so the solution is to duck under the spike cylinder instead but you also have to stand on a switch that activates a torch next to you as soon as you step off the switch the torch deactivates so you need to use your deu stick and quickly run over to the fire and jump onto the platform before it moves away from you duck under the spike cylinder and light the two torches to open the door this wouldn't work as well if you didn't have the knowledge you acquired by doing doing a normal playthrough If Zelda were to adopt a difficulty selection I'd rather have this than some of the solutions posited by Future remixes which only tweak damage this isn't to say master quest is executed perfectly it's more to say I would prefer this route for adding difficulty to Zelda games master quest has a couple frustrating aspects that keep it from realizing its full potential firstly many of the dungeons begin to use song of time blocks as a means to waste your time they place them in strange places and the only option you have to move them is to pull out your Ocarina and play the song of time in terms of Engagement it's about as interesting as pushing a block around secondly there are moments present even in the first dungeon that you'll have to backtrack if you want to collect everything the great deu tree requires both the Ocarina and bombs to fully complete it which you can't obtain until you progress further into the game I do still think it's worth playing Master Quest in addition to a run through of the normal game it's No Holds Barred in terms of what mechanics they'll splice into each of the dungeons you actually see a silver rupee puzzle as early as dango's Cavern I can't stress how vital Master Quest is in strengthening the replayability of Ocarina of Time the mirrored World helps this too it sounds like a simple change but it completely changes how you look at the dungeon especially if you know the dungeon layout very well in addition to the puzzles being completely reworked you'll now have to accept that left means right and right means left it's enough to keep the extra playthrough fresh and it's a shame a concept like Master Quest has never been tempted since it's yet another reason arrina time has aged marvelously even when you only factor in the improvements added in the 3DS remake despite that the core game is still incredibly solid I have no doubt that if I were to pick up the N64 version I could get into it I might not like the aiming or the iron boots but it would still be an accessible 3D Zelda experience I'm shocked at how much I ended up really enjoying this game I remember all those years ago I didn't think much of it on my first playthrough but a on playing it again for review I have a newfound respect for it it was the first of its kind in so many ways it had practically no points of reference how do we do an action adventure game in 3D there are so many variables to consider so many potential problems that pop up when making the leap Ocarina of Time managed pretty damn well despite its flaws I wouldn't say it's among my favorite Zelda games but I can say it's improved in my mind I used to think a bit less of it but I can safely say this is a solid first attempt it may have been outdone since but I don't think it takes away from how great Ocarina of Time still is for that it earns my respect up next Major's mask the black sheep but I mean because of its Resurgence and popularity as of late I'm not even sure if I can still call it a black sheep I'll be covering that game's 3DS remake with perhaps a bit more emphasis on its original version join me then if you will in regards to the video at hand I hope you agree with me but if you don't feel free to leave a comment below I'm always willing to have a discussion about anything all you have to do is ask if you liked the video feel free to give it a thumbs up and if you didn't like it feel free to give it a thumbs down all I ask is that you tell me why you liked or didn't like it so I can take that feedback and improve myself my content and my channel thank you for watching my name has been King K and I certainly hope you have some welld deserved fun today oh [Applause]

Channel: KingK

Views: 2,197,917

Keywords: KingK, Zelda, Ocarina of Time, 3D, HD, Remake, Critique, Ocarina of Time Review, Ocarina of Time Analysis, Retrospective, Link, 3DS, 3D Zelda, Majora's Mask Retrospective

Id: CfSpjJnFDPQ

Length: 51min 37sec (3097 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 13 2017