Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on N64 regularly tops 'Best Videogames Ever' lists, yet Zelda creator Eiji Aonuma reckons "it's not that good" nowadays.
It's all just rose-tinted glasses, he explains. "It's complicated. Past things belong to our memories, and they grow bigger in there," says Aonuma, adding: "If you play Ocarina of Time nowadays, you notice that it's not that good."
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
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He went on: "Sometimes it doesn't move as fast as it should, graphics aren't as beautiful as they should be; there are some confusing parts... any present Zelda is technically superior. Everything goes faster, more fluid."
Aonuma says the impact of OoT will, however, only be beaten by a significant technical leap.
"But to best Ocarina of Time, a great change - comparable to what happened back then - must be introduced. And that'll be rather complicated," he said in a recent interview (via NeoGAF).
We'd argue that OoT still stands up to today's games from a storytelling and gameplay design perspective, with or without rose-tinted glasses. Call us fanboys, if you will.
I never owned this on N64, so I have no nostalgic feelings towards it at all. When I played it on the collector's disc for GameCube, I really couldn't see what all the fuss was about.
Wind Waker will age much more gracefully than Ocarina of time, in the graphics department at least.
I'm a massive Zelda fan and love Ocarina of Time, but up to a point he is right. People do tend to see things through rose tinted glasses and there are a few others games that have a similar problem. Not to take anything away Oot is was and still is brilliant and stands as a shinning example of how good games can be.
Now if only we could get the producer of Final Fantasy VII to point out the same and we really will be able to move forward lol.
Playing through it again and this time with moderate understanding of level design I can see where they have cut corners/ cheated to make things look better than they actually are but to me thats part of the making of the game. The story was great, the gameplay lasted for longer than most present day games without getting stale, the characters seemed to interact well dispite the dated platform and the shadow temple still gave me the creeps!
games have to be judged for the time they were released in which OOT still stands up. It was such a big leap forward.
Well they won't get a big leap forward again until they get some horsepower in their console. A zelda built on ps3/360 powered hardware could be stunning. Maybe next gen for Ninty then.
If you play Ocarina of Time nowadays, you notice that it's not that good
I disagree.
We'd argue that OoT still stands up to today's games from a storytelling and gameplay design perspective, with or without rose-tinted glasses. Call us fanboys, if you will.
Ditto.
Rose-tinted glasses my foot, all I know is that if I had to choose between one console Zelda game to play for the rest of my life, TP, Wind Waker, or Majoras Mask wouldn't be it.
OoT is the one that got everything right as far as I'm concerned.
Personally, I do agree that old classics do not age well. However, at the time, I absolutely adored OoT. I can't say the same about Twilight Princess or (to a lesser extent) Wind Waker. Therefore, he is talking out of his poo-tinted ass.
It is how you felt when it was contemporary that matters.
My brother played OoT for the first time last year having already done many of the newer Zelda games and he still said it was the best one he had played. However, I do still go back to the game and having done it 20+ times since it was out I know it is still an amazing game.
This is absolute cobblers! I played through Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask again recently as my girlfriend has been playing my copy of Twilight Princess recently which made me nostagic for the old classics! Both these games especially Ocarina are true gaming classics, obviously the graphics are dated, what do you expect it's an N64 game, however even today these games trounce alot of other adventure games in regard to scope, imagination and pure enjoyment!
On a technical level, yes, the game is probably not that good.
However no other game made me feel the same as OoT did and I refuse to believe it was all down to me being younger and less jaded.
It was the exact right length, it had an awe inspiring dynamic in the future, past Link scenrario and the puzzles and tools were really cool. That battle with the witches in the desert temple was brilliant. It was also the right side of hard. It brought to the table lock on targetting and showed the world how to do adventures in 3d.
Windwaker may age better graphically but it had a serious lack of content. There were like three dungeons and then you spent the rest of your time sailing around am ocean for triforce pieces. Boooring as hell.
I've never got the chance to fully play TP so I can't comment.
In summary though, no other adventure game has come close to the impact Oot had, for all the technical ability of todays consoles we still haven't had a definitive successor. As an xbox owner I'm getting increasingly bored with shooters and dated jrpgs, Oot will always, to me, be the absolute pinnacle of videogames, everything afterwards has been a little bit underwhelming.
Rose tinted glasses or whatever, the videogames market is not as exciting anymore.
As good as OOT still is these days i'd genuinely prefer to play Link to the Past. It still, even today is an absolutely fantastic title and on par with Ocarina in my opinion. In fact i'm off to have a go on it now. Got to love emulation!
OoT obviously had an advantage of being the first Zelda in 3D. Personally, though, I find most battles with enemies (especially the armored knights) and bosses more fun in games like Twilight Princess, thanks to improved graphics and animations. What I think the games after OoT has failed to achieve is to find the perfect balance between dungeon exploring and side quests. Both with Majora's Mask and Wind Waker I felt there weren't enough of dungeons, and with Twilght Princess it felt that dungeon exploring was the only important part of the game. You had this huge Castle Town in TP, but you never had to interact with people much in the game
oot still rocks to this very day, I recently played it again (first time in 5 years), at first it seemed a tad old but once it hit it's stride, just magnificent, from the infuriating water temple to climbing Ganons tower it still has that magic.
The dungeon design still remains some of the best (Majoras just edges over it barely), the latest Zelda games have just lacked the imagination that oot and mm had, those two were as far as I'm concerned the pinnacle of Zelda, story, music and dungeon design, those two had it all, though I'll admit the controlls have dated a little but those two still have that Zelda magic, the magic that got me into gaming.
Call me a fanboy if you will but to me those to were and still are the reason I like gaming, even the latest Zeldas don't quite have that magic touch.
Well I'm glad someone said it. I dont care what anyone else says I myself am a big fan of Twilight Princess it is what the Ocarina of Time should have played and looked like. An dnot to forget Majora's Mask which I think told a much more thought provoking story.
It's one of my favorite games ever, certainly. I had the original N64 version and then ended up getting it twice on the 'Cube as well (both by accident, one on the Zelda Collection which I got with the system and one with Wind Waker which I got separately). I've played through it more times than I can remember and I can see myself still playing it in many years to come.
You could argue in that case that Twilight Princess isn't that good either. The graphics are bitty and blurred. You could also argue that other Nintendo games just aren't as good either. Pokemon for example no only has never looked good, but also insists on looking terrible. While I'm there, I've been playing Mass Effect again recently and the graphics on that are a bit iffy. The shadows look like strange polygons that look like they're all fighting for your attention and at times, it looks like it's cel shaded! It just goes to show that fanboys always get it wrong. As someone mentioned before, Wind Waker will take longer to get dated by it's shear innovation in graphics. This is how it was meant to look, and the people who called it Celda at the time seemed to have quietened down.
My point is, Hedwig death was the one that effected me the most. Wait, what?
i proper faked ill to skive off school back in the day, my shiny gold cartridge made my almost pubescent ass jizz a little, yeh, that was before i had even stuck it in (the cartridge into the machine ya sick f**ks) hahaha.
the game was blinding, my first epic huge scale jaw dropping masterpiece. i loved it and still hail it as one of the best games ever.
but as sad as i am saying this, it doesn't hold up against twilight princess, so much stick has TP received, unjustly, the game does everything that zelda is loved for and does it perfectly.
say what you will but i still look back on it with fond mememories.
I thought it was a bit crap too...to be fair i played it 3 years after it came out, but you can only make the same damn game so many times, and by that time I personally had outgrown zelda type games.
That said, I probably view Links awakening on the GB with the same glasses that everyone views Oot. 2d zelda games are just better generally imo.
Ball-bags!! - I won't hear a word of it. - Ocarina of Time is a stone-cold classic, and for me, will never be bettered in terms of being presented with a vast, open, living breathing world. - Forgive me for sounding all poetic but will any game ever better that initial moment of finally leaving Kokiri village and seeing the rosy-glow of the dawn sun rise over Hyrule field? Or making it thunder and rain over the gloomy graveyard? Or firing an arrow between the pillars into the blazing sun over Lake Hyrule? Or leaping over the stable wall with Epona? - Classic gaming moments.
You have to take into context that at that point in videogame history, we had seen nothing like it and it's to the game's credit that even after all these years it can still create that feeling of immersion.
Brilliant story, brilliantly paced and structured.- It goes without saying that the game-engine is a bit creaky by today's standards, but the game's quality and impact isn't lessened one iota.
By the way, Twilight Princess was a great game also, but it had a pretty unforgiving and towering lineage to live up to.
Well obviously some aspects may not hold together perfectly. But in regards to game design and pacing I believe it is pretty much spot on. As someone mentioned earlier Link to the Past is the only real rival to its crown. Like Mario 64 it is still highly playable and visually tolerable in this day and age. I will always remember playing the European version of Mario and realising that the translated version removed the very aspect I found most enjoyable.
Twilight Princess was great, but it was riddled with awkward and tedious sections alongside various pacing issues. Windwaker suffered from easy dungeons and the slightly tedious sailing element (I found it charming by the way).
Personally I feel that it is about time Nintendo ventured out into an entirely new IP. It would spark my fatigued interest in what I still consider to be the most talented company out there. A new dynamic and fresh mechanics would show what they can do when they are not tied to the legacy or expectations of their long running series.
When was the last time Nintendo made an entirely new game?
I'd agree Aonuma's beleif of Orcarina of Time: all the way through I played it, and not one moment did it not feel like some 3D testing ground. The story is on the level of early Final Fantasy games, and I disagree with people's pacing- trudging across a massive, empty feild and spbottom space between dungeons hardly make good pacing. Few people like filler, and just want to do something meaningful in the game. People criticse Luigi's Mansion for its length, but they fail to appreciate the sheer fun they would have had along the way, and there's only so many ideas the game could use well. The gameplay itself is allright, but I have trouble praising it. The dungeon design is of a similar vein; Master Quest on the other hand really ramps up the design, forcing you to, you know, think.
I'd disagree entirely. - The large open spaces that separated each dungeon were absolutely integral to creating that feeling of a real, living breathing landscape, with weather systems and day and night. - That freedom to traverse might only have been an illusion on deeper inspection, but the beauty of Ocarina of Time was not just what was happening on screen around Link, but that things might be happening elsewhere at other locations within that world. - I can only name two other games that have given me that same feeling. Majora's Mask and Shenmue. Possibly Oblivion.
It wasn't just the 'meaningful' dungeons and set-piece boss battles that people loved about Ocarina, but the quieter moments also. - Galloping about on Epona. Searching for those elusive ghosts to bottle. Hooking that particularly timid fish.- The game seemed to flow at whatever pace you wanted. It was at these moments that Hyrule felt believeably 'real'.
Like the very best books, the magic is often created in your mind.
I loved the game and wholeheartedly agree with the above posters about the wonder of leaving the village for the first time.
However, tis true that young eyes are not as critical and it reminds me of what John Carmack said about the iphone port of DOOM – how it will be the game we remember, which is actually quite a bit better than it actually was...
At risk of being seen as a troll, I really was slightly underwhelmed by the “magnificent” Halo 3 so I can understand this argument. I had listened to the hype for a year and then finally decided to “jump in” and get myself another 360. Unfortunately, I was so disenfranchised that I “climbed out” within six months of barely playing it...
I just found that the visuals were underwhelming when compared to Resistance, Killzone, COD, Haze, etc, etc, and the gameplay wasn’t a huge advance from previous games IMHO.
I do wonder if this would’ve been the case had I bought it on launch date when the hype train was going full-steam...
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