The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

I Finally Completed Ocarina of Time 3D - Bucketlist Game Complete!

jdodson gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

jdodson gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Last Christmas I was gifted a Nintendo 3DS and the main game I wanted to play on it was Ocarina of Time 3D. I've written a couple posts on on how that's gone and if you want a bit more context, i've linked them below. Needless to say, Ocarina of Time 3D is one of the best remakes i've ever played and the game shines on the 3DS. I think Nintendo games are best played on a handheld system and Ocarina of Time shows that even if it wasn't originally intended for a mobile system it totally works on it.

After my last post I completed the Spirit Temple which, since I always bailed out at the Gerudo Fortress when I played the game before, was the first time I ever played it.... Read All Last Christmas I was gifted a Nintendo 3DS and the main game I wanted to play on it was Ocarina of Time 3D. I've written a couple posts on on how that's gone and if you want a bit more context, i've linked them below. Needless to say, Ocarina of Time 3D is one of the best remakes i've ever played and the game shines on the 3DS. I think Nintendo games are best played on a handheld system and Ocarina of Time shows that even if it wasn't originally intended for a mobile system it totally works on it.

After my last post I completed the Spirit Temple which, since I always bailed out at the Gerudo Fortress when I played the game before, was the first time I ever played it. The Spirit Temple is a really unique dungeon in that you need to do a part of it as child Link and then complete the rest as adult Link. The Witches boss fight wasn't too hard but the Witches themselves were pretty funny characters that spotlight just how good Nintendo is at creating memorable characters. After I completed the Spirit Temple I had Ganon's Tower left to complete but before that I decided to take a break from the game because I just didn't want to do yet another Zelda dungeon. I picked up the game tonight and come to find out, Ganon's Tower isn't too long and features 6 bite sized puzzle rooms to unlock the final area. That said, the final boss fight might well be the longest boss fight i've ever seen in a game. Ganon has two forms and between fighting them you need to escape a crumbling tower which is fun the first time but gets old if you die to Ganon as many times as I did. In the end I found a good pattern to take down Ganon's final form and was able to finally tick off one item on my "games to complete before I die" bucketlist.

Ocarina of Time unlocks Master Quest mode after you beat it for the first time which provides a much harder version of the game and rearranged dungeons if you want a new challenge. At the end of the game my play through clocked in at about 27 hours so if you factor in another version of the game, Ocarina of Time 3D really packs in the value.

Ocarina of Time is considered by many to be one the best games of all time. I'm not sure how that sits now with Breath of the Wild sucking up all the air in gaming right now. Ocarina of a Time is a really great game and the 3D remaster elevates it considerably. I hope that Nintendo ports this version to the Switch because it would look even better on a high resolution screen. But until then the 3DS version is superb and I plan on coming back to it.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3227/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-3d-is-how-hd-remakes-should-be-done
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3287/the-water-temple-is-still-a-problem-the-continuing-adventures-of-my-ocarina-of-time-3d-playthough

The Water Temple Is Still A Problem. The Continuing Adventures of My Ocarina of Time 3D Playthough.

I've been powering through Ocarina of Time 3D on my new 3DS and been having a really good time. As i've said before, Ocarina of Time 3D is how remastered games should be done and I hope it gets ported to the Switch. Not only will it be able to come to a new audience but the new rendering engine and screen should allow it to look even better. I've knocked out a few dungeons recently in the Fire Temple, Water Temple and Shadow Temple. According to gamer folklore the Zelda Water Temples are notoriously unfun and this all started Ocarina on the Nintendo 64. Grezzo, the company that remade Ocarina of Time 3D made some modifications to visuals in the Water Temple to make... Read All I've been powering through Ocarina of Time 3D on my new 3DS and been having a really good time. As i've said before, Ocarina of Time 3D is how remastered games should be done and I hope it gets ported to the Switch. Not only will it be able to come to a new audience but the new rendering engine and screen should allow it to look even better. I've knocked out a few dungeons recently in the Fire Temple, Water Temple and Shadow Temple. According to gamer folklore the Zelda Water Temples are notoriously unfun and this all started Ocarina on the Nintendo 64. Grezzo, the company that remade Ocarina of Time 3D made some modifications to visuals in the Water Temple to make the level easier and I have to say that they did a pretty good job here. Instead of getting stuck on 6 things I was only stuck on 2 but that still made the level frustrating just... less frustrating. In the end the thing that took me WAY longer to figure out than i'd have liked was the treasure chest that appears after you kill Shadow Link. Somehow I totally missed it and had to spend way too long to come back and get it's contents which were required to progress through the dungeon.... Doh!

The Fire and Shadow Temples are both fairly interesting and have fun moments but like all Zelda dungeons involve a few puzzle tricks that revolve around the main items you just collected. I liked the Shadow Temples hook in that you needed to use the lens of truth to detect hidden doors and platforms but by the end felt it was a smidge overused. Which leads to my biggest critique of Ocarina of Time.

Ocarina of Time repeats itself too much. Once Ocarina of Time gives you a new item or some new mechanic then it proceeds to overuse it. I don't mind coming back to familiar mechanics as that's the base for really great games but in the case of Ocarina it's feeling very samey to the point of being tedious in the late game. Inserting longer and longer dungeons could be interesting but I find Ocarina of Time has many of the same pitfalls that other games have. Which is one of the reasons I rate the older 2D Zelda games so highly, they are shorter and more focused experiences. That said, Ocarina of Time is a child of it's time and Nintendo worked some absolute magic to make this game as great as it is with the limitations of the Nintendo 64. In some ways modern critiques of Ocarina of Time are like saying Citizen Kane is a bad movie because it's shot in black and white the 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Citizen Kane is an absolutely incredible film and a product of it's time and limitations while remaining a fantastic film.

To be honest I never completed Ocarina of Time when I played it on the 64 back in the 90's. I always bailed at the same place, The Gerudo Fortress. To me the game started getting tedious at that point and I just wanted to do something else. Recently I just got to the Gerudo Fortress and apparently I still feel similarly. The only difference is now I want to finally complete it so I hope the game picks up a bit of steam here. I'll admit i've come to this point with many games, Borderlands 2 being an example. Borderlands 2 is a great game but like Ocarina I felt the content was stretched to be too long for my taste. A 15-20 hours long Borderlands 2 would have been absolutely perfect for me but it needs to exist in a world with a much longer playtime to meet modern players expectations.

All that said, overall i've quite enjoyed the game despite some of it's flaws and am really curious to see how the game ends. And, i'm not sure why, but the thought of fighting Ganon in this game is daunting to me. I've always felt like the Ganon portrayed in Ocarina has always been more sinister than other Zeldas as he is a character that shows up now and then and always seemed creepy to me. I think this is the games limitations at work because Ganon never actually emotes so my mind fills in the gaps which is somehow more sinister than he would otherwise be. It's like reading something from a great book where your mind has to fill in the gaps which can make it more personal and immersive.

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D Is How HD Remakes Should Be Made!

I got a new 3DS this year from Sandy Claws and one of the first games I picked up was Ocarina of Time 3D. Ocarina is one of the few Nintendo 64 games I played a lot of when it came out back in 1998 and spent many a late nights up in my room trying to save Hyrule. Ocarina of Time is a game I come back to every couple years and have really enjoyed each play through but have noticed a few parts of the game that don't hold up as well. Because of the horsepower of the Nintendo 64 Ocarina of Time is capped to 20 frames per second which is a couple frames shy of what we're used to seeing in film. Once your immersed in the game it's not a big deal but it's noticeable when you... Read All I got a new 3DS this year from Sandy Claws and one of the first games I picked up was Ocarina of Time 3D. Ocarina is one of the few Nintendo 64 games I played a lot of when it came out back in 1998 and spent many a late nights up in my room trying to save Hyrule. Ocarina of Time is a game I come back to every couple years and have really enjoyed each play through but have noticed a few parts of the game that don't hold up as well. Because of the horsepower of the Nintendo 64 Ocarina of Time is capped to 20 frames per second which is a couple frames shy of what we're used to seeing in film. Once your immersed in the game it's not a big deal but it's noticeable when you pair it with modern games that can hit 60 FPS or higher. My other slight grumble, grumble is that the original controls are a bit odd on the Nintendo 64 controller, something I was never a huge fan of. All that said, Ocarina of Time is rightfully considered one of the best games of all time and Nintendo tossing in for a remake was a great idea.

For the Ocarina of Time 3D remastering Nintendo worked with Grezzo a Japanese game developer founded by one of the original developers on Secret of Mana. Grezzo has had a hand in a ton of Zelda games such as Majoras Mask 3D, Four Swords Anniversary Edition and Legend of Zelda Triforce Heroes. All that said the partnership with Grezzo and Nintendo was well suited because the port is top notch and fixes every problem I mentioned above and even goes beyond that. I'm including a link to The Legend of Zelda Wiki that outlines all the differences below but a couple standouts are the enhanced graphics, revamped item system and inclusion of the Master Quest after you complete the base game.

Recently I just made it to the Temple of Time and got the Hookshot from the race with Dempe. Personally I think the first part of the game up to the Temple of Time is the best paced story, gameplay and dungeon parts but if you like more complicated dungeons everything after the Forest Temple is for you. There are a few times in the game where what the game wants you to go next isn't obvious and Google can help a suffering memory when you are absolutely lost on what to do.

One thing that's nice about these remakes is that Nintendo can keep porting them forward on newer systems so if you missed Ocarina originally you might have a chance to play it on the Switch. I hope Nintendo keeps these old games fresh on newer systems and these kinds of remasters make them even more relevant to modern audiences. That said, if you absolutely need to play Ocarina of time in it's original 20 FPS glory getting out your old Nintendo 64 will always be an option.

I've included a speedrun of Ocarina of Time 3D from a couple days ago run at the Awesome Games Done Quick game charity stream so if you are looking to understand more how the remake looks I recommend you press play as the speedrunner Benstephens56 doesn't disappoint!

https://zeldawiki.org/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Ocarina_of_Time_3D