What makes a game a masterpiece? Initial reaction or staying
power?
There are very few games that have had the kind of impact
and cultural legacy of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. When it first came out
it blew my mind and I honestly considered it the best game ever made, an
opinion I held for the better part of twenty years. This is a game I have
replayed almost every year for the past ten years in some form or another, If I
was shipwrecked and I could choose one game to bring with me, this would probably be it.
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| It's like Nintendo put my childhood in a bottle and sold it back to me. |
But time has not been as kind to Ocarina as it has to its 8
and 16 bit counterparts. A Link to the Past hardly feels like its aged a day,
however Ocarina of time in its original form has not held up as well. Many
consider its graphics ugly, and many of the game mechanics which made Ocarina
unique have now become generic, with latter titles surpassing them in
functionality. Both later Zelda games and other developers have used the
mechanics pioneered in Ocarina of time as the standard by which they built
their own work. But while this secures the game’s historical legacy, it does
nothing for the replayabilty of the game itself.
Perhaps that is why in 2011, Nintendo with the help of
GREEZO remade Ocarina of Time for the 3DS, with vastly improved graphics, and
better controls. The result was an improved Ocarina of time with more features
to enjoy. One of those features is the master quest. I had never played Master
Quest before, and that combined with being a bit tired of the game after
playing it for so many years in a row led to me looking at the game in a
different light.
Following in the footsteps of the “UraZelda” project, the
master quest gives a much needed difficulty bump to the vanilla game. Not only
is the world inverted, making Link right handed, but the dungeons, including
the mini dungeons, have been reworked, with much tougher puzzles tougher
platforming, and more enemies. Enemies also do additional damage. As a result
you will find yourself dying more often and getting lost more often.
Given that Ocarina of Time is a pretty easy game-too easy
some would say-this is a great addition.
That is not to say Ocarina of time Master quest is in any
way difficult however. You probably won’t need bottled fairies to make it
through dungeons or boss battles; they are simply not necessary and would
probably make things too easy if you’re seeking any challenge whatsoever.
Nor will you find any enhanced story elements. Story wise,
it’s the same game you’ve played a hundred times. The cut scenes look a bit
different because of the inverted map, but it’s not that big an
adjustment. While this might not be a
big deal to people think playing video games for the story is like watching
porn for the plot, many Zelda fans are rather invested in the story and lore,
perhaps to the detriment of the game that despite being canonically connected
are clearly not conceived as an interconnected universe past the story
elements.
However the vanilla story is nothing to sneeze at. While it
might be somewhat generic, the writing and directing in Ocarina almost always
manages to capture just the right tone, hinting at deeper meanings with minimal
dialog, it conveys the relationships between characters without the hours of
cut scenes some games find necessary today.
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| Environments like Kakariko graveyard hint a deeper backstory rather than explicitly spelling it out. |
Moving onto the mechanics of Ocarina, game controls well,
though the 3DS is not the best controller in the world, it can be a little
slippery and having to go in between the touch screen and the buttons can be
annoying in anything but a JRPG. Still, these problems should prove only a
minor annoyance to anyone familiar with the 3DS.
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| The second screen allows for a much better map and control layout. |
Ocarina’s gameplay was super creative in 1996 but feels
slightly generic today. The maps are colorful but not as full of life as later
games. Hyrule field in particular feels like a green waste land. It’s more an
oversized hub world than a living, breathing part of the game. Would it have
been so hard to put a few more NPC’s, events and enemies there? The enemy AI is
also very simple, though the master quest helps things by putting some of the more
difficult enemies in your path.
The 3DS version also massively updated the graphics. Despite
this, Ocarina’s look is hardly cutting edge, even for 2011. The 3DS was never a
particularly powerful system and the game is already around seven years old.
While everything is much cleaner than in the Nintendo 64 version, and the 3D
adds some nice depth to everything, but it’s not HD, and no one would compare
the graphics to even the last generation of home consoles. A few times the
un-moving faces even gave off an uncanny valley effect which was somewhat
unpleasant to look at. However I would not call the graphics bad, simply less
than ideal, and perhaps less than what the 3DS is fully capable of, however
they do managed to capture much of the aesthetic of the Nintendo 64 version
without the blocky, off-color look it often had.
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| See, not horrible looking, though sometimes the faces look a little like masks. |
As for the dungeons, they can be a little frustrating,
Rather than simple block puzzles the master quest is full of many well hidden
switches, musical puzzles, and a lot more backtracking. For the most part these
are not hard, though a few times I found myself marveling at just how devious
or obtuse they were. If you have a low attention span or are just bad with
puzzles you might find yourself getting frustrated enough to start looking
things up.
Finally the side quests are mostly the same from the Vanilla
game; they range from fun to tedious but are a nice distraction when you get
bored with the main quest. It would be quite possible to beat the game without
doing the bulk of them, though if you are having trouble stocking up on bottles
and extra heart hearts is the way to go. However you will almost certainly need
things like Din’s fire and the scarecrow song to beat the master quest so get
both at your earliest convenience.
One of the few new features they added to the actual game-at
least one of the few that is a improvement-is the ability to replay boss
fights. Simply go to your bed in Kokori forest as child Link and lay down. You
will be able to replay any boss fight. By defeating them all you can unlock the
boss gauntlet which in the master quest mode imposes multiple challenges on you
as you go through each of the games bosses. People who have long complained
about how easy Ocarina of Time is can rest enjoy this mode which is full of
bosses that can one shot you if you are not careful. It may not be the hardest
Zelda has ever been, in fact I am certain it isn’t, but it is a huge change
from the rest of Ocarina.
Over all Ocarina of Time-even absent the nostalgia-is still
solid, and an exemplar of what the 3D Zelda games should be. It has solid game play, a good story and is very repayable. Ocarina of Time 3D is the definitive
edition of the classic game you know and love, and longtime fans will find the
master quest a wonderful new way to play through an old game.
While I consider the original Legend of Zelda to be-in
terms of game mechanics-a far better crafted game, in terms of the qualia that
can only come from playing a game I would much rather play Ocarina of time than
almost any other Zelda game. Through several different versions this has
remained true for twenty years and counting, and I don’t see it changing
anytime soon.
9.2 out of 10
-Gedaemon
If you like this review you might want to take a look here
and here. You should also check out some of the Zelda and Nintendo videos on
Censored Gaming; a channel I have done quite a bit of writing for. If you
really like my work I hope you will follow my blog, and give me a hand by
joining my Patreon, or leave a comment letting me know what you want me to
write about. Until then, stay super.
edited 6/23/2018
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