Entry posted by LNU n' Pinkie Pie
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This is long overdue, so here you go. I'm not going to go into too much detail on the actual game itself, since it's a port of Ocarina of Time. This is merely to compare the two games and ultimately decide if it's a good idea to buy this if you've already played the original.
Story: You probably know most of the story even if you HAVEN'T played this game. You're a young boy who lives in the Kokiri forest, and are picked on by some of the others because, unlike most children, you don't have a fairy. That all changes when Navi, the blue fairy, comes to tell you the guardian of the forest, The Great Deku Tree, has summoned you. Navi joins you on your quest as you travel across Hyrule, and even through time to stop the Gerudo King of Thieves, Ganondorf, from stealing the triforce and conquering the world.
Specs: The game was released on June 19, 2011, with almost universal positive reception. Upon beating the game, you unlock Ocarina of Time Master Quest, which was sold separately from the original game on the N64. As of June 30, 2011, it had sold 1.08 million units worldwide, making it the third 3DS title to breach the million units sold mark. A little over 1/4 of these sales were in japan.
Positive points:
I'm going to point this out every time. This is my opinion. Any contradictions you may have can be posted below.
You may think to yourself that there's no reason to purchase this game if you've already beaten it on the N64. I can understand that. But at the same time, I strongly urge you to get it, especially if you never played Master Quest.
Obviously, a high point was the graphics. Remember in ocarina when you were in castle town and whatnot, and ALL the buildings looked like they were in an oil painting? Not anymore. The buildings are actually polygonal now, and seem less static. The updated graphics look nice and clean, but still remind you of the old graphics which are nice. And of course the 3D is good. It really isn't necessary to play the game, and I never found it making things really any easier, but it's nice to have all the same. Like lettuce on a sandwich. It doesn't really change the flavor, but it gives it that crunch to make it a little better. (that analogy made me hungry...)
This next point is probably why I liked it so much. The gameplay. If there's two things I hated from playing the original, it's the way you had to take your boots on and off. (Water temple, anyone?) And archery controls. (Again, Shooting Minigame, anyone?) These were both fixed in this port in a way that makes them super convenient.
The way that boots work, (And any C items, for that matter) is now you can have four equipped at a time instead of three. The items can be pathed to X, Y, I, and II. If your item is at I or II, you use them by tapping their pictures on the touch screen. You can activate the X and Y item by touching them as well, but I can't imagine why you would do that...
What does this have to do with the boots? Boots are now C items like in Twilight Princess. So taking them on and off is as simple as pressing a button or tapping an icon. This makes traversing places like the water temple so much more efficient, without having to go to pause menu, going to the gear subscreen, equipping them, and rinsing and repeating 500 times.
Shooting controls are now as responsive as if you were literally holding the slingshot or bow in your hand. Namely because they are controlled by the gyroscope in the 3DS and you can to move it around to shoot. This makes shots quick and accurate, making places like the shooting gallery actually enjoyable to do. "But LNU!" You say. "The gyroscope controls won't work in a car very well! What then?" Not to worry. You can still use the thumbstick to aim the bow or slingshot as well.
Something else nice about the game is that they dumbed it down a little. Places I noticed this were:
1. Remember that creepy beggar in castle town who would always say "Please! Please sell me something with C!!!"? For some reason, I never could figure out what he wanted. It apparently was that way with more than a few people, because now when you talk to him, he says, "Please! Please sell me the contents of a bottle!!!" At first I thought, "Aw, that's really pandering. Just giving stuff away." But then I thought, "On the other hand, I don't think I would have thought of that if he hadn't said that..." So I guess that works.
2. Something some of you may not have known, is if you played Zelda's Lullaby in front of a gossip stone, a fairy will come out. I didn't know this until Navi said, "There's a fairy inside! Maybe you could find a way to coax it out." WHAT!? NAVI GIVING ACTUAL TIPS!?! BLASPHEMY!!! Obviously, Navi left THAT crucial piece of information out in the previous game...
3. I'm not sure if this happened in the previous game, because of the fact that I never DID this sidequest, so you guys can maybe help me out with this. Did they mark on your map where you were supposed to take the things you traded in the Biggoron sword sidequest? Like I said, I'm not sure, but something tells me they didn't.
4. I heard rumors that the design of the water temple was going to be altered to make it easier. Thankfully it wasn't. However, they did mark the doors you had to go through to raise and lower the water level. This didn't make it more easy per-say, it just made it more accessible which I liked.
5. This is probably the biggest point of dumbing the game down I found. Now, I have to warn you, there's one of these in Skyward Sword. So I have a sinking feeling they're going to show up in Zelda games from now on.
Sheikah stones.
For all my complaining about how I get stuck on certain parts of Zelda games, I pride myself on almost never using walkthroughs. (And if I do, I read JUST the next step, just to get nudged in the right direction.) I do this because it makes me feel good that I kept at it and figured it out for myself.
And now we have Sheikah stones.
What could be so bad about them? Well, I'll tell you. These things are the BIGGEST cop-out I've seen in a puzzle game to date. For NO COST to yourself, you can crawl inside these huge stones and they will LITERALLY show you what you're supposed to do next. I don't mean tell. I don't mean drop a hint or two to nudge you in the right direction. I mean they will show you a video of Link doing what you're supposed to be doing. It's really cheap in my opinion. But I threw it in with positive things because I guess a little kid or some such would benefit from them.
Probably my favorite change is based on the ocarina. Now, you can pull up your songs while playing the ocarina, so it's more convenient playing those long teleportation songs. Also, every time you play one of those teleportation songs, you hear the ocarina/harp duet that plays when you first learn it. Which made me EXTREMELY happy.
Also, they made Master Quest even harder by not only changing the dungeon design around and including more enemies that do double damage, they also mirrored the entire world. So it's a LOOOT more difficult.
Negative points:
There's no way for it to have any negative points that the original didn't have. I guess the only thing I could call a negative issue is the game being to pandering. But that's just me and it didn't bother me TOO much.
Overall:
Thank about all the legistics you didn't like about OT. Got it? They took them out or fixed them for this game. I would highly recommend getting it, even if you already played or beat the original. You'll enjoy it even more than your first experience. I did. And rating the improvements of the game solely, I give it a 5/5. You won't regret your purchase. I can guarantee it.
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