The Zelda Project Part 3: Ocarina of Time

Flameshields: Engaged

Alright, let's get this out of the way now. I don't think this is the greatest video game of all time. I don't think it's the best Nintendo game ever. I don't think it's the best N64 game ever. I don't even think it's the best Legend of Zelda game ever. So if any of that bothers you, this is where to stop.

Still here? Good.

This game is fucking great. Amazing even, especially for its time. Ocarina of Time is a master class of gaming. Level design? Off the charts. Music? Jesus Christ in a wood-chipper, it's amazing. Gameplay? Eh...it's aged, but it still works. Visuals? They still look good. Not PC Master Race levels of good, but looking at what else was around at the time, it's INCREDIBLE! I mean, look at Super Mario 64 and then look at Ocarina of Time. 

Those textures, the castle, the skybox. Jesus, it's like looking into the future. And I know, Mario is supposed to be Cartoon-y and this Zelda went for a more realistic approach, but the contrast in the capabilities shown off is still striking. This is what two years of working with what a system can do looks like. And it shows. This game is more polished visually than anything else I have played from the era. 

At The Time/Background

So, I actually have two backgrounds with this one. First, what was I playing in 1998 when Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time came out? Well, I had a Playstation and was playing games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro The Dragon, and WCW/NWO Thunder. Two of those games were really, REALLY good. And I'll let you decide which ones they were 

Goldberg > Spyro

I didn't own an N64 at the time, nor did I want one. Until I saw the commercial for WCW/NWO Revenge. In case you didn't realize by now, I am a huge wrestling fan. Walking through Toys'R'Us as a kid with the displays of Hollywood Hogan and Goldberg everywhere...I wanted it. Nay, I NEEDED it. I begged my Mom for it for Christmas, but she told me it wasn't for the Playstation. See, I was six at the time, and didn't understand that there was anything other than the system I had. From birth I had a SNES, so it didn't even occur to me that there was something else before. I didn't know what a Sega Genesis was. I had no clue that Game Boys existed. So I just couldn't wrap my head around it. Eventually, when I started going to friends houses, I found out people had other games than I had. I remember playing an N64 for the first time at my friend Ethan's birthday party. I actually got to play WCW/NWO Revenge, And that was the moment I had to have it.

And eventually I got it, along with every wrestling game known to man. But I got my N64 at the tail end of 1999. And by that point, most of the "famous" titles had passed me by. The only non-wrestling games I had were Donkey Kong 64 and Super Smash Bros. The latter was my official introduction to Link, as I've talked about before. He became my main character and I loved him without ever having played the game. Fast forward to college, people start judging me for using Link but having never played a Legend of Zelda game before. And this argument inspires me to play the most iconic game in the history of games.

So I started playing it. I started with what would essentially be my generations starting point. And I played it with all of my friends watching me conquer this trial. And that is where the problems started for me. This next paragraph is going to be a whole bunch of statements, so please bare with me here.

You see, I'm playing this years after playing all of the games I consider the best of all time. And my friends are trying to get me to play a game they all loved that everyone else thinks is better than all of my games. And it's a game they've all played hundreds of times. I've never played a Zelda game or a game like this. The closest is Okami, which I've never finished. So everyone is judging me for not knowing how to do things. Instead of letting me figure out stuff on my own, they're just telling me what to do. Which prevents me from learning the game. Which leads to more judgement. Which leads me to get frustrated because I don't like to be told how to play a game. And then I quit, and decried Legend of Zelda forever.

So I stopped, angry and frustrated. I couldn't do it. I got to the Forest Dungeon boss and quit. Because I didn't learn the mechanic to beat the boss. Because instead of figuring out the mechanic on my own, I was told how to progress and just assumed it was a one time thing like other games do. I didn't understand the Zelda Tropes, and that led to the downfall.

So for the years following, I just used Arin "egoraptor" Hanson's argument for why Ocarina of Time isn't that great from Sequelitis. I figured it was good enough to back up why I didn't like the game. If someone asked for more detail, I would just say I didn't like it and try to leave it at that. The problem with piggybacking off of someone else's opinion is that...well...it's someone else's. No matter how much I claimed to agree with Arin's opinion, I didn't really have a basis other than "this dude I know on the internet doesn't think it's that great, so...neither do I." It's like when someone in your group of friends claims that a restaurant gave them bad service, so you just avoid it. Even though you've tried a bit and thought it tasted alright, but had a bunch of people breathing down your neck saying "Don't you think it's amazing, Dean? Everyone else loves it and everybody can't be wrong! Why are you bad at eating this food?! Just put it in your hand like this."

...Okay, that comparison deteriorated a bit, but my point still stands. I didn't like the game for arbitrary reasons that make me seem like a total snob. But, I digress. Enough background, lets get to this.

In The Beginning

So the game starts off with The Great Deku Tree, the guardian of the forest(?) summoning a fairy named Navi to find the boy with no fairy in the village. The Tree then wants Navi to lead the boy back to him, for he has a message. So Navi get's the boy who, surprise, is you, and leads you to the Tree. The Deku Tree then tells you to get in his mouth and get a stone for him. So you do, and then the Deku Tree tells you he's dying and you have to save the world. Then he dies...and it's kind of awkward. Because like...you just met him, then he dies, and you just sort of walk back to your village and have all of the people accuse you of murder. It's weird.

Anyway, you are sent to meet with Zelda who tells you that the world is totally fucked because a guy named Ganondorf is going to kill everyone and take over the world. The only way to stop him is to open the temple of time and gain the Master Sword, the sword of evil's bane (again)! So you do, and then Ganondorf chases after Zelda and kills you. Game over.

Except it isn't. You wake up in a pool of your own blood water with a guy named Rauru standing over you. He tells you that you've been dead sleeping for seven years. You realize that at some point he slipped some white tights onto your naked child body and are a little disturbed. But he informs you that the world has, indeed, gone to shit while you slept and now it is up to you to fulfill the prophecy and become the Hero of Time. Find the Seven Sages (again), use their power to lock up Ganondorf, and save Hyrule (again)!

That is, of course, the barest of bare bones synopsis of this game, because there is actually a lot going on. This game has a LOT of characters that, while necessary to the plot, would just make this review overly long. Not to mention all of the mask side quests, the Skulltula's side quest, the beans, the pieces of heart...there is a LOT to this game. Hell, we're not just dealing with humans and...not humans anymore. The game introduces new races into the Zelda lore, such as a Gorons and the Gerudos. They also revamp the Zora's, going from making them look like the Creature From The Black Lagoon to looking like...well...this

All that water goes through his butt crack...

The Quest

The main quest of this game is pretty cut and dry. Temples, Princess Zelda, Tri-Force, Ganon...dorf, Hyrule is saved. But where this game shines is not so much the quest itself, but the circumstances surrounding them. In Link to the Past, you had a purpose for going to the temples (save the sages), but aside from the item and heart container within them, that was your only motivation. This time around, there are storyline purposes to make it though the dungeons too. And as a story-driven games person, this was a huge plus for me. The first time I played this game I just wanted to play it. I didn't care about the story because it was a point-proving thing. This time, I took the time to enjoy it. And while I've seen many games with better stories, this one is well above average. This game weaves all of the dungeons together, especially after you become adult Link.

You go back to the Lost Woods to visit with Saria because she has called to you. After that, Death Mountain looks like it's about to erupt, so you visit the Goron's and find that they've all been captured.  After taking care of that, you feel the chill in the air from Zora's domain. Why is it frozen? Where are all the Zora? After taking care of that, you travel back to Kakariko Village to find Impa has gone missing. After that, you head to the desert in search of the final sage. You hear about this evil woman named Nabooru, who used to be a Robin Hood-esque thief but is now the right hand woman to Ganondorf. When you get to the Spirit Temple, you are forced to travel back in time to come back. When you do, you meet Nabooru and she's actually really nice! And you witness her capture that turns her into the evil woman you hear about! Holy shit, that is some deep time-travel story telling. It's all woven together really well, and really makes the dungeons have some weight for me.

That said, lets talk dungeons. The Spirit Temple was my favorite by far. I like the Egyptian aesthetics and the fact that you go though it in two halves was really cool. It's something I wish the other dungeons had done, because otherwise it was next to pointless to go back and be a kid again for the main quest. The Forest Temple was way more confusing than it needed to be, though that might be my fault. The Water Temple, for years, has been build up to be this incredibly daunting challenge. And while it did take me a while, it wasn't really hard. Just really, REALLY tedious. If you didn't have to pause the game, switch your boots, go to the different levels, pause again, take off your boots, play your ocarina, lower the water level, jump down, swim through a hallway, open the chest, raise the level...ugh...yeah. It's just as tedious as I just made it sound. It's just so boring. And the enemies respawn, so the whole time you're switching, things jump down from the top of the middle pyramid...thing and hit you. And you can't use your sword underwater, so you have to hope your hook shot hits whatever you're trying to hit and kills it. The water temple is a huge blemish on an otherwise great game. The only saving grace of it is the really fun boss fight.

The other dungeons are just sort of blah for me. They weren't bad by any means, but the layouts themselves were just nothing special. Some of them had some really nice aesthetics and themes, but they just don't jump at me as much as the others. I mean, the lava dungeon doesn't have an Iron Knuckle for me to fight. It just has some bats. But, at least the lava boss is cool. In fact...

The Bosses

All the bosses are really cool, especially the ones after you become adult Link. Not only are the bosses cool, but the mini-bosses are also cool. Out of nowhere in the Water Temple, you fight Shadow Link! And he kicked my ass, but it was a really awesome fight! The aforementioned Iron Knuckles are also a personal favorite. Bongo Bongo (from the Shadow Temple) and the Scorceress Sisters (from the Spirit Temple) are my absolute favorite fights in the game. The last thing I expected in the Shadow Temple was a giant bongo-playing ape demon? This fight had to have inspired Donkey Konga

Future review?

Finally though, after collecting the sages, finding out Sheik's secret, and returning to Hyrule Castle, you confront Ganondorf. This ending level is absolutely awesome. Going through mini sections of the former dungeons was great. Climbing the castle sets the tone for the fight that you're about to have. Finally, you reach a room where Ganondorf awaits. He zaps Navi away and you're left without a way to target him! Shit man! You volley his attacks back at him, a la Agahnim in the last game. But, the difference here is in Link to the Past, you were on a 2D plane. This time, it's 3D, and that actually makes this fight exciting. You have to make sure your aim is going to be spot on and the timing is different because things are traveling at an angle.

So you beat him and the game is over, right?

Wrong. Now you have to escape the castle before it crumbles, Metroid style! So you go though the castle you just climbed to escape your death. 

So, you escape the castle with the princess. Surely, that must be the end, right?

DOUBLE WRONG! Now you have to fight GANON! And this time, Navi is there. BUT! You lose your sword. So now what are you gonna do? Using your cunning, you find Ganon's weakness, wear him down enough to get your sword and continue the fight to the death! This fight is fucking awesome. All of the previous Ganon fights pale in comparison, even the last one which was in it's own right great. But this is something else entirely. Not only is this the best final boss of the series that i've played so far, but it might be in my top final boss fights ever. It is crazy awesome, and beating it at 5 a.m. really made this a wild ride.

Now, the part that people are going to be pissed about...

The Criticism

This game controls like total ass. I'm sorry, it just does. Link does not target anything you want him to. In fact, he'll try and look at mostly anything but what's in the room with him. I realize it was the first targeting system of it's time, but holy shit it is awful. And it's not just the targeting. Movement in this game is a chore in and of itself. Thankfully the platforming is pretty minimal, but when it does happen it is a nightmare. The Water Temple is particularly bad about this, as there are a couple of timed platforming spots that SHOULD be easy to get through, but Link decides where he's going to jump without your consent. He just give's no shits about the fact that missing a pillar will just kill you until you warp back into reality.

Don't even get me started on riding Epona. It is thankfully a very, VERY minimal (and optional) piece of the game, but it seems to me that figuring out her controls were an afterthought. Turning her is like turning that one shopping cart at Wal-Mart that has 3 busted wheels. The fact that I even won the race to keep her is a miracle of gaming. Actually, it was me glitching out Ingo, but y'know, same difference. I'm glad that the horse archery section never got incorporated into a boss fight or anything because if it had, this section would probably be a hell of a lot longer.

There are two things I hate in video games. Ice levels and water levels. This game has these two things back to back. It is the worst thing ever in the history of ever. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but I cannot STAND water or ice levels. The ice physics conbined with the already loose controls of this game just lead to frustration. There is a (thankfully) small section in the Ice Cavern where there's a spinning spike thing turning quickly in a circle in the middle of this room. It does not matter how cautiously I tried to get through this room, I could not do it. Chalk it up to me being bad at games if you want, but it's just awful.

Speaking of awful, the whole Jabu Jabu section is complete ass. The "dungeon" itself is hideous, escorting the snooty Princess Ruto is annoying, and I could not possibly want it to be over faster. 

Also, the music in this game, while being some of the most memorable from the series, is pretty unmemorable. Let me explain. All of the songs you collect for the ocarina are memorable. Song of Storms, Saria's Song, Zelda's Lulluby, Song of Time...they're all memorable. I know how to play a couple of them on a real ocarina. But, the warp songs like the Bolero of Fire are just...not. I can hum you the Sun's Song. I can't say the same for the Nocturne of Shadows. And worst of all, the dungeon music is all pretty boring and samey. The village soundtracks are fine. Kokiri Forest and Hyrule Town Square have some fun tunes, but the rest all sort of bleed together for me. The music seemed like a letdown to me considering how highly regarded this soundtrack is. 

Lets see, is there anything else? Yes, there is one. Now I want to stress right away that this one particular critique is purely a personal preference thing, but it was sort of the nail in the coffin moment for me the first time I tried to play this game. And it still bothers me.

So, you know how Ganondorf has taken over Hyrule and obstensibly the world when you wake up from your sleep? Well, when you walk out, Hyrule's Time Square is completely destroyed. Everyone is dead. There are zombies Re-Deads all over the grounds that were once bussling with people. The upbeat music that used to inhabit this area is gone. The sky is dark and brooding. It looks like the end of the world. So you run through the town square to outside the Castle grounds. Once you cross the bridge, you have to be thinking "what else could have happened out here?!"

The answer is nothing. Basically nothing happens. The overworld is still bright and colourful with the same upbeat music playing. Nothing on the surface seems to be in disarray. It is a total tonal buzzkill. And sure, after playing though this time, I found out that some characters were met with a depressing fate. Malon has his farm stolen. The Gorons are imprisoned. Zora's domain is frozen. The contractors get locked up in Gerudo Valley. That's all fine and dandy, but with such a drastic change in scenery inside the castle grounds, I just expected the whole world to be a little more...ominous.

 

Soon...

Final Thoughts

This game may not be my favorite of all time, but it definitely deserves to be ranked as high as it is. It is a spectacle, even for someone who's experiencing it 19 years after it was first released. And yeah, I have some complaints, but having complaints doesn't make a game bad by any means. No game is perfect, and I think a lot of people that have gone back to review this game only do it because they want to sing the games praises while ignoring it's flaws. No, this game is not perfect, but I've yet to play one that is. Hell, I gave Link to the Past a perfect ten and I still think it had flaws. It just depends on how glaring the flaws are weather they matter or not. Unfortunately, the transition to 3D produced more flaws than were here previously. It's a great game that unfortunately has aged too poorly for me to give it a perfect. I'm going to give Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time an 8 out of 10. Any trashing of this game I did before I played it can hereby be stricken from the records. 

I do, once again want to stress that I am judging these games are they are now, in 2017. I'm doing my best to block out how "revolutionary" a game is in it's time because I feel that if you are not judging something in the here and now you're being biased. A movie can be watched at anytime and judged for how it is now. Sometimes things don't age well. But sometimes they do. A movie like King Kong still looks great in 2017. The practical effects are a marvel and still hold up surprisingly well. Music is the same way. The Beatles aren't looked at as a band "of their time", they are just looked at as a band. Bands that are looked at as  "of there time" are bands like Kix and Ratt; bands that only survived because of the market at the time. 

I'm not going to judge these games on a handicap just because people like them. There are shitty Beatles songs that don't ruin an album but still need pointed out. There were shitty sections of this game that didn't ruin this game. But much like a shitty Beatles song, it brought it down a peg or two. That's just the nature of the beast.

Like the new set up? I thought it'd give the reviews a little more of a streamlined feel, y'know? Kind of got the idea from The Completionist. I dig his structure to his reviews, and I'm sort of aping it. So I hope you guys dig it too. I'll see you next time for The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

The Zelda Project Part 2: A Link To The Past

Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past was a game I had never heard of until long after it's release. Despite the Super Nintendo being the first console I ever played, this kind of game was beyond what my family was buying. My Grandma liked games like Super Mario and Donkey Kong Country. My Mom liked fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct. And when I got the chance to get a game, it was something about super heroes or a Power Rangers game. We frequently rented games, but even then I mostly just kept renting Metal Warriors and Super Metroid.

Does anyone remember that screen in Donkey Kong Country 2 where you show the hero coins to Cranky Kong?

Hey look! Sonic's shoes and Earthworm Jim's gun!

Well, that was the first time I had ever seen Link. At the time, all I could think is "Who's the loser in the green dress? He's not even as good as Yoshi!" Yeah, three year old me had some sick insults. So this was all I knew about Link until I got Super Smash Bros. And even then, all I knew was that little bio they put with each character. He wasn't even in the commercial, so I had no visual. For one of the most popular Nintendo mascots of all time, he was a total mystery for most of my life.

I had some resentment for this game leading up to actually purchasing it. You see, once the internet started existing and I began my addiction to Top 10 lists, this game here was rated above MY favorite games on the SNES. Like, you're going to tell me this game with a kid in a green dress is better than Super Metroid?! I'm calling bullshit. 

When I actually bought the game and sat down to give it a shot, I thought it was kind of fun. But I only made it through the second pendant dungeon before I got bored and moved onto something else. And that's not the games fault, I have commitment issues sometimes with games. But this time, I buckled down and pushed through, and here are my thoughts.

The game starts similarly to the original. This time, that sweet start up screen comes in and is quickly swept away as the story is presented. An evil wizard named Agahnim has captured six of the descendants of the Seven Sages, who hold the power to the barrier keeping the Dark Lord Ganon in the Dark World. You are awoken to a telepathic message from Princess Zelda telling you she needs help. When you wake, your Uncle tells you to stay put. Being the rebellious kid you are, you go anyway. You make it to the dungeon of the castle, save Zelda, and are told to find three pendants to unlock the Master Sword, the sword of evils bane!

And so you do that, beat the Wizard and beat the game.

Except you don't. Agahnim captures Zelda, kills her keeper, and sends you to the Dark World to leave you for dead. When you arrive, you're told by your guide to defeat the dungeons of the Dark World to free the sages, and then to defeat Ganon himself to save both the Dark World and Hyrule! From this point you fight, explore, and quest to save the Princess and reconfigure the Tri-Force. You build up this huge arsenal of weapons and open up more and more of the world, in a similar vein to Metroid.

This game includes a lot of items and mechanics that have stayed in the series all the way to today. The two biggest ones in my mind are the Hook Shot and the Pieces of Heart. The hook shot changes the way rooms are laid out and overcome. There are a lot of clever puzzle rooms where you can use the hook shot to clear gaps. The best example is the treasure cave in the Death Mountain section, where you have to hook onto the chests and vases to get to all of the treasure and make it back alive. It's a fun little room that rewards you for going though it. 

The pieces of heart were an innovation that did two things in my eyes. One, it made the world seem more full. In the original, you would occasionally find a cave or a section you could boat to that would have a full heart container. But, despite the map being large, there were only five containers that were hidden in the world. The rest you just got by going through the dungeons. In Zelda 2, you just used experience points to extend your health meter. In Link to the Past, The map was bigger; much bigger. So it needed more items to fill the world with to make it seem alive. So, the containers were split into fours. And instead of just being found, sometimes they are prizes for mini games. Sometimes you have to solve a puzzle to get them. It was more than just bombing the right wall. The hearts were cleverly hidden or blocked off by a puzzle. Or required a specific item to get.

The other thing this did was make the world worth exploring. I finished the original Legend of Zelda without two of the heart containers because I accidentally chose a potion instead of one of them. The other I just didn't bother finding it. When finding one fills the whole thing, it just seems less exciting. It's not worth it. But when you have to do four times the work to gain a heart container, it seems more worth it. I NEEDED these hearts in this game, so I ventured out, scanning everywhere. And that led me to find a bunch of items that ended up being important to the quest. I found the invincibility staff thinking that the spiked hallway leading to it secretly lead to a heart container. The bottle under the bridge I found for the same reason. I found the quake medallion thinking it was going to be a heart container. All of the exploration I did for hearts kept me from getting stuck later and made the game flow a lot smoother. The incentive of hearts kept me going. That said, I still ended up without two full containers, so there is even more of this game that I STILL haven't seen.

The bosses in this game are a VAST improvement from the original. Before, the boss fight basically consisted of hitting the boss with your sword until it died. Unless it was a dodongo, then you just fed it bombs until it died. This time around, Link can dispatch the bosses in a multitude of different ways. Sometimes the bosses have weaknesses a la Mega Man. Sometimes your arrows can vanquish something in one hit that would take you four hits with the swords. Sometimes you need to expose a weakness with an item. It's a trope that is common in the series now, but this was the first time it was seen. 

The final boss fight is excellent as well. Last time around, Ganon just sort of warped around the map being invisible and you had to hope you hit him so you could shoot him with the light arrow. This time around, he has an actual fight. With an actual pattern. And it's awesome. Everything about the fight is awesome. I don't want to give too much away, just in case someone else reading this ALSO waited 25 years to play this game. But I will say I love that instead of having to trek through an entire dungeon to fight Ganon again if you lose, you can just climb back to where you entered the fight and get right back to it.

Now don't let all this positivity fool you. I have some complaints. For one, the game is a little too hand holding. The map is nice for the features, but it labels where all of the dungeons are, which order you're supposed to take them in, and shows the whole route to them. This might just be personal preference, but it just seems a bit much to me, especially in comparison to the original. That's not to say that I mind being pointed in the right direction, but I think it should be a bit more hands off, And to be fair, the game does start doing more of that towards the end of it.

My other complaint, which is definitely personal preference, is that I'm not a fan of the pallet choices in the game. I liked the darker colours and tones of the original game and this one is a bit to bright and shiny for me. Even the Dark World goes for a cooler pallet than it should. It doesn't look so much dark as it does look like the fall season in Stardew Valley. Especially considering the tone of the game as a whole, the colourful environment just soured me a bit. That said, the game DOES look beautiful. The pixel work is stunning; everything is lush with detail. It's just not the direction I would have wanted them to go.

So, there you have it. Arguably the greatest SNES game of all time is, indeed, a great game. It looks great, sounds great, has a great story, and has some of the tightest controls of any 16-bit game ever. I loved every second of this game. I did have some complaints, but they are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. This game deserves all of the praise it has gotten over the years, and I am going to give it a perfect 10 out of 10. If you have waited as long as I have to played this game, then please, seek it out and play it. It's as close to perfect as you can probably get.