CORRECTIONS: The bomb shortcut apparently CAN be opened using the deku stick, my bad there. Epona is also optional because you can use the Longshot to get across the bridge. The more you know!
You also CAN get into Hyrule Castle before nightfall by walking backwards. Link, for some reason, walks faster when going backwards in OoT. I know you said the average player wouldn't know this trick, but I thought I'd let you know anyway.
I think reviews nitpick the inconsistency of the time travel, since using that paradox logic all the magic beans would be grown in the future because they assume you always would have grown them in the past, like how it is assumed link was always going to play the song of storms for guru-guru, but I agree that it’s not a big deal, it’s doesn’t need to make sense for it to be a fun little addition
@@hamachibeans4471 Yeah, the beans are different. And the majority of reviewers or theorists point out that the windmill is a paradox, but really add nothing else to the point being made. They even will go as far to say that it is a mistake on Nintendo's part like they didn't know they were creating a paradox. Paradoxes will exist in any system in which the time traveller has an impact on the outcome of an event. It's the nature of time travel. Thematically and mechanically, the windmill makes total sense.
exactly, barely any of the time travel makes sense in OOT. Link traveled in time to the future because he was kept in the sacred realm for 7 years. There is no explanation of how he goes back in time.. its game people, these details are overlooked so we can have a fun game..
Even though it's slow, King Zora moving out of the way always makes me smile. It's obnoxious and tedious to sit through, but I think the developers were aware of that and it comes off as charming (at least, it does for me).
It's one of those cases where you have to be in on the humor, otherwise, it's no less of a bad decision to you. Even if you know it's a joke, you just can't get into it
Exactly this. When I first watched that, for a second I was like ‘can he not even move out of the way...?’ and then watching him inch across, I busted out laughing. Like, it’s hilarious this stoic fish king has clearly let himself go to the point where he can’t even scoot over three feet in a timely manner.
Played this game for the first time (on the 3DS) recently and was blown away by how well crafted it was. I can't imagine how it must have felt to play it back when it first came out. Truly a masterpiece
You know that feeling people play Elder Scrolls for? That's what both this and A Link to the Past felt like to me as a young kid when both came out. It felt like having this whole world to explore, full of charm and personality if you go out of your way to explore. A grand adventure, larger than life. Things have definitely changed since those days but both still manage to give me that same feeling briefly when I go back to them.
It was nuts I was 6 years old when it first game out. It just sucked with no internet because the game barely had hints and I was 6. It took me like 6 years to beat it. I literally constantly would get stuck at the water temple unironically. There is a reason why that meme exists. GameFAQs and official guides barely helped. I wish had I had youtube back then lmao.
When i bought the game in1998 I had the gold cartridge and the red blood for Ganon. At the time we were in college and every friday night school friends all gathered with beer and food. We were talking and having fun while I was completing the game. This game is a masterpiece and a breakthrough. We all had never seen anything like it before. This game have a soul.
+Diy_CaT Yeah, but you're never hurting for money anyway as you could just pick it up endlessly in certain areas, like the room full of pots in Hyrule Market.
I mean in general I think they're better when more sprawling, but I actually think in a game like ocarina with so many dungeons (vs majoras mask for example with only 4) that having a linear one like the shadow temple was actually refreshing and helped with pacing
absolutely, I mean the Water Temple gets more shit than it deserves but the Shadow Temple and especially the Spirit Temple is awesome, while at the same time so is the Forest Temple. The main problem I have with this review is that if you didn't grow up with Zelda, I think you take for granted how revolutionary each game was. From the original on the NES, to Link to the Past on SNES, to Link's Awakening on GB, and finally to the 3D world of Ocarina on the 64. I mean he said he didn't even play 25 percent of LTTP and that's a top three game in the series, and he didn't play Ocarina until 2012. I would rather hear this coming from someone with more of a history with the series.
"The iron boots are only useful underwater, there is no other use for it." They can also be used to walk across areas with wind effects due to fans and help a lot.
This is what happens when the game is reviewed by someone who doesnt like the series. It's obvious he doesnt talk to the npcs or read the signs. 90's games didnt hold your hand like they do today. He's used to being spoon fed the story.
I actually did a test for how guiding OoT actually is, and if you go around in Goron City, talking to everyone, you'll get these. "Please bring fire from Big Brother's room to me." (the path to Lost Woods) "We Gorons love the music down this hallway. We don't know what's there though." "I know Big Brother's secret. One day I saw him dancing to the music coming from the forest." Yeah. I ran through the game, not progressing unless I hear specifically from the game how to do something. Also for the Zora's Domain thing with Jabu Jabu, one of the Zora's mention that Ruto is the one responsible for feeding the lord.
You can’t seriously be telling me that somehow that is acceptable game design when the game is about figuring it all out by yourself especially sense this came out in the 90s when the only way to figure out how to progress in a game sometimes would be from a friend coming over to show you or from a big brother showing you there was no internet and far less guides available forcing players to take those extremely obtuse comments and put together where to go next is honestly horrendous game design don’t get me wrong I love this game but you can’t defend the outworld areas and if you ask me it makes most of the “child link” section of the game awful I only started liking the game when I got to the forest temple
@@tobinmonroe3045 your nostalgia blinds you from making better criticisms. Sorry, but OoT is not without flaws. When you compare this games confusing “puzzles” to other Zelda’s in the franchise, they are sorely lacking. You can figure things out by yourself, sure. But when you aren’t given interesting enough materials to figure out stuff in the world, the puzzle falls flat on its face, and just leaves people more frustrated than enthusiastic.
James Robinson If a lot of people complain about it then it wasn’t obvious to the general audience which is important to think about when it comes to game design
@@GamingsBrink it was obvious. A zora standing right next to the water tells you about how you can catch a fish easily right there in the circle of rocks and navi even turns blue to highlight the fish if you even sort of walk in that direction. Many of the zora npc's mention jabu jabu and eating fish. If I could put that together as a 9 year old playing this game, it's obvious. Some people just don't want to explore games and just go from point a to point b without interacting with any NPCs, which is a bit of a waste.
cafeterialoca Figuring out what to do in Zelda mostly sums up to speaking with everyone. Unfortunately i was dumb and unpatient as a child, and my english was limited, hence i was stuck for eternity on Zora’s domain
@@salvest3rr lol some of his complaints are dumb as hell. Of course you cannot get to the castle in one run it is introducing a gaming mechanic and the differences of day and night.
@@nicholastruman1273 Like the one where he complains about the game not telling you that you can put bugs in bottles. When you go to the shops you can buy bugs, and for the goldens skulltulas, I don't remember if it's the description or a gossip stone tells you, but the game says to you "They like soft soils". I like his retrospective of the different games but some complaints he had in this one were not that great lol
@@nicholastruman1273 you can too go to lake hylia talk to the owl and no matter which time is it the cutscenes of ganondorf chasing zelda and impa will start
Okay I'm glad I'm not the only one here who thought all this. I just left like half a dozen books of comments here disagreeing with literally everything
I find it interesting that the child dungeons are all unique concepts; Deku Tree is a hollow tree, Dodongo's Cavern is an organic cave with the skeleton of a dragon, and Jabu Jabu is the belly of a giant fish. Then when you're an adult, all the dungeons are just standard temples.
They are fairly generic, but I do like how you can see the spatial constraints of some of the dungeons. For example, the Fire Temple is clearly inside the Spectacle Rock in Death Mountain Crater, based on the map layout. Likewise, the Spirit Temple is linear because it's working with the spatial constraints of being inside a gigantic rock carving. (I always liked how the two dungeon items are on the hands). This was something I think later titles moved away from, and I kind of miss that design.
@@drygnfyre From an aesthetic perspective I appreciate the dungeon items being on the hands. I love how the dungeon is symmetrical too and it's a very nice experience starting the first half with Child link and the second with Adult Link. Having each half end in the hands is a very clean way to tie it all together and integrates the dungeon with its setting well. But what bothers me way more than it should is that Nabooru sends you into the dungeon to retrieve the Silver Gauntlets, but the item isn't even in the dungeon because it's outside on the statue. If she would have bothered to climb the statue, she would have found the treasure she was looking for as well as an alternate entrance into the temple. Pretty lousy for an expert of thievery to be kidnapped while waiting for you to retrieve an unguarded, not hidden treasure right above her head the whole time.
The store, culture, and lore of Zelda is why I fell in love with this game. “I don’t usually play Zelda games for the story” I was beside myself with shock. Stunned.
Though, you realize that lore isn't "story" correct? This isn't to say that your perspective is not valid, that would be absurd. Yet, lore doesn't constitute a story. A story is a narrative the game decides to tell, with thematic backing and many other things to back it up. Lore is rather something that contextualizes the world and builds it while giving the player more information about said world. There is nothing wrong with these two things being you values of highest priority, but I thought I would clarify the difference between the two.
Theres plenty of people like that in the zelda fandom, usually people who prefer the first zelda games, or now breath of the wild; its wierd to imagine that there was a time when the lore was pretty vague and the story pretty bare bones: defeat the evil demon king ganon, save hyrule. The fun came from exoloring all the dungeons, finding all the iteams and just fucking about in the overlord. And I guess Breath of the wild was a return to that but it took advantage of all the story and lore progression zemda has seem since the 3D games became a thing.
"Using the sword over the hammer is never a question" Except when you're fighting Shadow Link in the Water Temple, where the hammer makes that fight a breeze.
@@jacoblauria8180 even then, I find the hammer to be easier, because you don't even have to hit Shadow Link directly with it, so even if you "miss" with the hammer, it will still hit Shadow Link
I played this game at 12 and maybe due to nostalgia, I still think it is my greatest gaming experience. There were a couple of spots where I would be stuck for weeks, but figuring it out was so satisfying. The slow pace made me feel like I was in the world. The randomness made the world magical. I was able to figure out most of the bits you complained about at 12 and with no internet. It isn't great if you are trying to run through a game to buy the next one, but when it is your only game for the year, trial and error was not a bad thing.
I completely agree with this. When I was a kid I used to try and rush games so I could move on to the next one. Ironically it wasn't until I got a bit older that I realized if I slowed down and took my time with a game and tried to enjoy what was actually there it was a whole lot more fun.
I agree wholeheartedly! I played this when I was 8 and it took me like two years to finish given all the times I got stuck on puzzles (I think I became adult link a year into the process which made it totally mindblowing). The mask quest he dislikes was so enjoyable when I played it, because all the new masks trigger a memory of someone you remember speaking to in your long journey. This game wasn't designed to be raced through
I just played through this game for the first time and when I got frustrated with it, I realized the difference is just how much less patience I have now for not understanding something. As a kid, I would keep playing games I was stuck at and would eventually find the answer. Or I would have friends who were playing the game too who would tell me how. And they might be right or they could be very wrong and we would try all sorts of things trying to find the answer. Or someone might have a strategy guide. But now, there's no way I would put up with being stuck on something for weeks. I can just look up the answer on my phone and find it in seconds.
@@mrleehunterdx5472 Nah its the one in front of the shop saying its ceramonial to feed jabu jabu for luck or something. Not that it matters. The note from ruto streight up says right before the line of give this to my father that she got eaten by jabu jabu because he was over enthusiastic when she fed him a fish.
I was 8 when I first played this game upon its release. The young link part I struggled through but eventually after months managed to get all 3 stones. The adult link play was too much for me, Forest Temple was difficult and I got stuck at the room with the claw and couldn't seem to get any further. I continued to explore the world and gather what I could. Found the Fire Temple etc but it was only years later when a little older that I went back and slowly completed the game. Because it took up much of my later childhood I feel a real connection to this game. I'm pretty sure I had tears in my eyes when I finished it. A real sense of achievement!
I finished it for the first time today! Had it for 19 years, always got stuck when I was a kid but decided to tackle it as an adult. So fun! Took me three weeks from start to finish.
As someone who didn't grow up playing Zelda, i want to add by saying it's difficult for all newcomers in general. I first started playing OOT in my sophomore year of high school, and didn't manage to beat it until i graduated.
not sure if you’ll see this since it’s over a year old but i’m the exact same way, my older brother always played it and i would watch him but when i tried to beat the game myself, i always struggled to even just become adult link, and when i finally did, the forest temple was just too much lol, it wasn’t until recently that i actually beat it all the way by myself and it’s really awesome, i honestly feel bad for people who didn’t have this game as a kid and ESPECIALLY people who still haven’t played it to this day, despite it’s age, it’s so ahead of it’s time
You can do the Goron City/Lost Woods shortcut before learning Saria's song. All you have to do is light torches on the path between Darunia and the door, then take a lit stick and touch it to one of the bomb flowers. When it blows up, it causes a chain reaction that opens the shortcut and lets you through.
I figured this out as a kid by just living in and playing with the world. I really the feeling that this guy had zero patience or interest in the game.
Regarding "why would you even think to try bugs, or think they can be bottled": the Kakariko merchant sells bugs for bottles, another NPC goes bug hunting with a bottle, and the gossip stone in Kokiri Forest tells you that the dirt patches with holes in them are the ideal homes of bugs.
Skullutas are also mentioned loving soft soil so it points toward them hiding in them often too, and one merchant will buy bugs and fish in bottles from you for quick rupees in town
You know the fact that Dark Souls hides its own lore all over the place you’d think some subtext things like asking an NPC or reading between the lines would be more familiar to people like him, but I guess that’s neither here nor there.
1. Ruto's note says she got swallowed when feeding him. The player should think "Hmm, maybe I should give him a fish." 2. As mentioned, the longshot can be used to cross Gerudo Valley. Epona is entirely optional in the game. 3. The cursed man tells you that golden skulltulas "love soft soil." 4. That's not the only hole the song of storms can open, though I'll grant you I'm not sure why it would do this. Some holes are opened with bombs. 5. Navi says of the skull kids that "they wish they had a face." The kid in the graveyard says he wishes he had a scarier face, and the bunny guy wishes out loud he could be a rabbit. 6. When fishing, stand in the water or on the log. Being closer to the fish means less reeling. Many of the issues you bring up are a matter of talking to NPCs.
Thanks for mentioning all that. When I first played the game I was completely blind, and I didn't have anything like a strategy guide. I never got lost or confused because the NPCs give you plenty of information on where to go. Soft soil and the masks made perfect sense. I'm baffled that reviewers nowadays harp on the game simply because they need to talk to NPCs at all, and the Jabu letter is always cited as "infamous." I don't buy it for this, and nobody ever seemed to complain about it or even notice it until very recently. Also, I swear that fishing in the 3DS version is markedly harder than in the original. It rarely takes me more than one try to catch either fish in the original game, yet the remake took me about three times for child and three for adult. They just seem to break free more often.
@@Wyatt_James Really? It felt the complete opposite for me. I could fail a thousand times in the N64 version, but I got it nearly first try both times in the 3DS version.
I'm quite consistent on the N64 version and I performed roughly identically (as far as I could tell) on the 3DS version. It could very well just be me, but I still think it was made more difficult. Probably an oversight related to the 20fps to 30fps boost, or it was noticed by a developer and left more difficult to make it more fun.
I personally think that the final fight with Ganon was much better in the N64 version due to the dark lighting, making inly his eyes and tail visible and you only get small glimpses of his whole body whenever lightning strikes, making Ganon look much more menacing.
Mukhtar I felt the same way with the Forest Temple, on the N64 the beginning room with the elevator where the Poe Sisters take the flames looked much more foreboding and set a creepy tone for the rest of the temple as a ruined and abandoned castle or shrine whereas in the 3DS they updated lighting shaders and all that to make things look brighter and more accessible to younger/newer audiences
Interesting. All in all, I have to say that Ocarina of Time is a cinematic video game and cinema is best experienced on the big screen, not a small screen like the 3DS, regardless of what gameplay enhancements the 3DS version provided.
A lot of your complaints would have been solved if you talked to NPC's and read their dialogue. Games back then wanted you to interact with the world instead of just following a little arrow. I still remember going into every house and talking to every NPC in the old pokemon games, found good items like the old rod/great rod and trade for Eevee that way, I miss those days.
After listing the complexities of the sword mechanics, he then said that it didn't have depth. Those specific button combinations for unique attacks directly correlates to Dark Souls!
Anyone who has not played A Link To The Past turns me away. You’re comparing dark souls gameplay to OOT which are so far apart when made and released. Too much complaining.
there is one thing the original OOT does better than the remake. that moment when you live the temple of time for the first time, and you see death mountain in the background, it sets you up for the screwed up world your about to see due to your actions. in the remake they made those clouds so much tamer...it was slightly disappointing.
I hate that they dumbed down the shadow temple and well... I understand WHY they had to; leaving the blood or skull textures would have jumped up the rating, but I felt the shadow temple and well are far less scary.
Let’s not even start with the Ganon fight. The shadow on the damn pig demon got super diluted in the remake, which would’ve been great to make him seem so much more ominous and evil. But, I *think* it’s worth it so that we get a better experience of the Water Temple
Hyrule field does look barren by today's standards but back in the 90s wandering through that vast expanse really immersed you in the world. Ocarina really set the pattern that open world games like Skyrim, Witcher, and Tsushima have followed ever since
I have insane anxiety that an adult with the internet couldn't figure out how to swim to the log and fish from there when every 12-year-old I knew in 1990-whatever figured this out right away.
@@captainphoenix i did that and it doesnt change much, its still the most annoying shit ever and i had to do it twice. the entire fishing mechanic is just not good at all nor is it satisfying, the only satisfaction i have from it is that i dont need to do it anymore which is not a good thing
Amen, when I got the game in 1999 here in Norway, it gave me such a peace, such a feeling of "life is great", that I just kept the intro on for hours, and falling asleep to it on the sofa, in front of the TV, sleeping magical dreams.
The 100 gold token reward is infinite rupees. They give you 200 every time you take to him. Not just once. Know this is an old video but still wanted to make a correction on this.
In a game that can be completed using only 55 rupees. You can find virtually everything else out in the world for free somewhere at least once. Much like the koroks in BotW, you weren't supposed to find them all, they put enough in the game where the player could reasonably find half of them and get the rewards.
The Garden of Eatin you need 60 rupees. 40 for the deku shield and another 20 for the diving game. Those are the only two mandatory game elements that require rupees. Everything else is either optional or can be found for free. Crazy if you think about it
Barry Bend water temple is the hardest dungeon and you know it .so many branching paths ,well hidden small keys, IRON BOOTS, Dark link, vortex room, and changing the water level over and over
You just have to collect some rupies (just do the bridge and cut some grass) and then crawl under the obvious hole to get the sword. The action is already started!
Ancient reply, but this. When I was little I couldn't help but notice all of the unlit torches in Goron City and there was no way to get the fire them until you opened Darunia's room up where he has a lot torch. Used a Deku stick to bring the fire to the other torches and it caused the big jar in the center to spin so I knew I was on to something, and so i looked around for other things to interact with. Saw the Bomb Flowers where the Lost Woods music was coming from and I ran through there lighting them up. Was honestly fairly satisfying learning that I could do that.
23:50 I remember the day I figured out myself being 5-6 years old when the game first came out, to capture a fish and feed him it to him. I remember my brother doubted me, until I proved him wrong. I miss those days where you couldn’t easily look up solutions online.
About the Saria's Song thing with Darunia, I remember there being a Goron who tells you that Darunia has been listening to a song from the forest a lot, or something like that. Thus, the game DOES tell you what to do there.
Oh and there's another use for the Iron Boots aside from walking underwater: you also use them to avoid getting blown away by the huge fans in the Shadow Temple.
I think the reason that the temples are the way that they are reflects the nature of the people that protect them and the location. For example, the forest temple is in the lost forest, so the temple is inherently cryptic. There’s also the lore bit that everyone who enters the forest becomes a stalfos, which is a living skeleton, so a lot of the enemies are based on the living dead. The zoras are a much more complex race of people than most other groups in the kingdom, being that they use a monarchy to maintain order, so their temple is very complex. Not cryptic, like the forest temple, but complex. The Gorons act like a giant family and rely a lot on Darunia, so while an area like Dodongo’s Cavern might seem confusing at first, once you find the right path, the way forward is literally as straight of a shot as it can be, with no branching paths. Theming like this makes the world feel more real, and can help to immerse the player into the world. while other games after ocarina did this as well, it started here, and it’s impressive that the dev team got it right on the first try when making a 3D Zelda game
About what you said regarding the races of Hyrule being isolated, I think that was intentional. There was a war only a few years before the game and tensions are still high. The path to the Gorons and Zora are blocked of to regular Hylians and can only be accessed by the royal family, or those the royal family trusts. Death Mountain is blocked off by the guard and Zora's domain is blocked of by a waterfall that only opens with Zelda's Lullaby, which is the Royal Family's song. As for the Gerudo, Ganondorf only recently swore allegence and many Hylians fear the gerudo as they are menacing theives, so tensions are still very high. You get that info by talking to Hylians with the gerudo mask. It's why there are no Hylian women in Gerudo valley. Why would you want to go near them?
There was a huge problem with the memory system on the n64. A lot of content had to be cut due to the fact that they couldn’t get the expansive memor pack to work with the mechanics of the game. So that’s probably why the field is pretty empty.
41:36 Bongo Bongo IS supposed to make you use his dungeon's item as well though. As you can see in your footage, every time he beats the drum you're getting flung into the air and stunned. If you wore the hover boots, that'd be a non issue. A minor thing but still. As for the FPS, keep in mind the 3DS is generating twice the frames for 3D, so, it's kiiiinda doing the work of 60fps
Bongo Bongo is hilarious given the tone of the temple. A fucking bongo drum demon is the sinister force behind the macabre gloom all around. I laughed when I was a child. Nintendo is fucking nuts
I don't know why, but back in the day when this was released, I was like 10 years old. And most of the things you say are hard to figure out I figured out back then. And we didn't have internet in those days. Maybe something got lost in time throughout the years, but back then it was very clear the game invites you to experiment. You got bugs in a bottle. What do I use them for? Oh look a tiny hole, maybe the bugs fit in as they like to live in the ground. Hey I was right! Awesome! You know stuff like that.
I just made a comment identical to this. When i was a child 99% of this game came naturally to me through a little exploration and intuition. All Based on my experiences up to that point in the game. I was literally a child and i figured all of this out(like you said without internet) Also, i loved the fishing and was completely blown away when i got the sinking lure for the first time. Then laughed when the guy at the desk called me a cheater lmfao.
In today's gaming age with Google, all the answers to a game are right in front of you. Having to actually figure stuff out like we had to back in the day is something today's gamers (apparently this dude) doesn't understand and any game that actually is thought provoking and doesn't hold your hand is lambasted.
Isn't there a gossip stone that mentions that the bugs you can catch love soft soil? I can't remember where they are but I swear that it exists. Alongside lore, the gossip stones were very handy for finding secrets since they'd often give hints about certain trees you could bomb and so forth.
Also when he said for the masks that you need to ask every NPC 3 times, you don't because the masks all have subtle connections to their future owners and there's plenty of NPCs that are quickly ruled out.
Also he complained about the fact that you need a Fish for Jabu jabu. A few Zoras in the Area tell you that he likes fish , Navy turns blue and flyes to a fish in zoras domain and informs you that you can catch it in a bottle, iirc the messege in a bottle from Ruto says that Jabu jabu swallowed her and even the shop sign in zoras domain says “special offering today, fish“ or something like that. It is mind boogling to me how anyone can say that entering the 3rd dungeon is cryptic when litterally everyone in the area tells you what to do, i even watched a blind oot lets play from a german youtuber a few years ago, he talked to every NPC and found out that a fish will be important before he even saw Jabu Jabu.
I feel like this review lacks a lot because of how much you had claimed "wasnt possible" or was "unexplained", when in reality, if you took the time to read NPC text, the entire game actually flows pretty well. This actually really bothered me about this review. Sorry to say.
yeah i wanna watch the rest of his videos but it's like the guy has ADHD or something and expects everything to be instant. Gotta get like a kid again clear your mind and schedule.
Also it was frustrating how he complained of the linear gameplay, story, and dungeons like the shadow temple but then 180'd and said it was stupid how the game didnt explain things like the mask sidequest and putting bugs in the patches of dirt. So which is it? Do you want the game to hold your hand or make you explore or figure it out for yourself? It's just inconsistent to criticize both in the same video.
Every time you get stuck in things such as entering jabu jabu, theres always clues around the area that points you to a direction. If I remember correctly, a zora in the store tells you you can put fish in the bottle and another one tells you that Ruto is responsible for feeding Lord Jabu jabu. You eventually do figure it out.
Yeah I didn't understand this either. The Zora in Lake Hyrule straight up tells you "give him a fish and he'll open his gob." I have been stuck in the game at various points but this wasn't one of them.
Funnily enough, when seeing this game at my uncle's place he was trying to figure out how to get into Jabu Jabu's Belly and five year old me just threw in the thought: feed him a fish!
It’s this new generation of gamers that don’t know how to think outside the box or get creative or explore ideas more likely they want games to literally hold their hands on what to do. It’s why nowadays in games we have forced boring tutorials that you can’t skip. Games used to let you learn by trying different things on your own. now games literally hold your hand on everything like we’re a bunch of idiots that can’t figure things out by trial and error and I hate that.
31:00 Asinine ? Getting to see how everyone would react differently to the mask I was wearing WAS part of the fun. Every time I had a new mask, I made a point to backtrack everyone I had met thus far to see the different lines of dialogue. I had fun. Especially with the mask of Truth. Thus my frustration when I realised I couldn't use the mask of Truth for Zelda.
Exactly, but some people aren't big on talking to NPC's at all. You can even visit Zelda wearing the masks if you haven't beaten Jabu Jabu and she will have various reactions. It fun to get more personality and interactions between Zelda and Link. Yeah you have to sneak past the guards each time, but I mean it's really pretty easy thing to do after you've played the game once.
True, I talked to every npc with every masked that includes goron, zora and gerudo after like the 5th time I 100% the game but I obviously love this game...
Am I the only one who would switch back to the Fire Tunic after getting the Mirror Shield? It matches so much better than the other two options. I did that every single play through growing up lmao
Absolutely! In fact, I was always really disappointed when getting the golden gauntlets in Ganon's tower, because the Goron tunic, mirror shield, and silver gauntlets made for such a kickarse look.
It’s crazy how many people I’ve seen that don’t know you’re supposed to use the deku stick to light the torch to get back to the forest. It’s clearly intended because of the Owl waiting right outside of that shortcut for you.
Another thing that I rarely see get brought up is how the two Lost Wood shortcuts are perfect for getting the Biggoron Sword. The timer is a non-factor when you can avoid the trek across Hyrule Field entirely. You just go to the Lost Woods and can warp to Zora's Domain (one of the trade items) or Goron City (and from there you can navigate Death Mountain Crater to get to the top, avoiding the volcanic eruptions entirely).
1:00 Speedrunning? 5:04 With the stipulation that you must complete every dungeon you enter and no glitches you can also complete the Fire Temple before the Forest Temple. When you take away the first stipulation you can do basically any dungeon in any order with few exceptions which are the child dungeons must all be completed before any adult dungeons and the Shadow Temple requires you to have beaten the Water Temple before you can get its warp song. Also you only technically need the Shadow and Spirit Medallions to enter Ganon's Castle which means when we allow glitches you don't need to clear most of the dungeons. Probably my favorite idea is that you can beat every dungeon in reverse order and there is a speedrun category for that specifically while maintaining the stipulation that you must complete every dungeon you enter from Spirit and the way back to Deku Tree. 21:54 Talking to the Gorons will reveal Darunia enjoys music from the forest. The shortcut nearby connects to the forest and you can hear the familiar forest music coming from this shortcut. 22:02 To tease you with the Forest Temple entrance? That's a pretty good reason. 22:20 There is a torch puzzle that opens up from you speaking to Darunia. Naturally you would notice the two torches next to the shortcut and the logical next step would be "I wonder if I can light the bombs over there." Nevermind that the shop is blocked by a breakable wall with bombs mounted on either side just out of reach but within deku stick range, thus teaching you fire can ignite bombs. 22:44 You can very easily make it before nightfall even without rolling, although that would help significantly. Also backwalking and sidehopping are extremely fast methods although they aren't immediately obvious to new players. The average player should have no trouble with this part on their second play through although I am relatively certain you are meant to get stuck outside on your first play to teach you about the daylight cycle. 24:20 But it is logical. Similar to the song with Darunia the locals tell you about how Lord Jabu Jabu likes fish. A Zora tells you how to catch a fish. And Most importantly the letter in the bottle tells you Ruto was eaten by Lord JJ on a note found... Inside a bottle. The game is subtly telling you the answer you just were ignoring all of the signs. I can understand a bit of the frustration here but it really just comes down to missing all of the hints given to you. I and many others figured this out easily as children who could barely read. It isn't all that complicated in truth. It does seem relatively arbitrary but it is not unfair. 24:54 Epona is entirely optional(I did see your comment regarding this and the shortcut at Goron City, I'm just being consistent here) 27:15 The hammer has a shock wave which makes it much easier to hit multiple enemies at once than with the sword. It is also one of many items that Dark Link cannot mimic and thus makes that fight a breeze. 28:30 While I agree this is a good example of an unfair secret there are examples of when the game teaches you to use the Song of Storms to reveal secrets. Navi often turns green around pools of water or even in certain locations like on the Death Mountain Trail or inside the Fire Temple where if you play the Song of Storms(or Sun's Song?) a fairy will be revealed. This is a similar function to the Song of Time with the blocks it can summon or remove. It's not completely unreasonable although it is unfair still. 29:05 This is a fair point. I personally didn't know you could put bugs in soil until playing Majora's Mask which gave me tons more trouble as a kid than most of OoT. 29:13 Bugs can be bought in shops. If you try to purchase them without an empty bottle the keeper will say you need an empty bottle. 31:00 When you talk to the Skull Kid, ignoring that he is called /Skull/ Kid, he says he wants to look more tough. The Spooky mask is pretty clear as well because the kid in the Graveyard is trying to be just like Dampe but he laments he is too cute and not nearly as scary. The Bunny hood however I have no idea how anyone was supposed to figure him out. I mean he does talk about how he loves bunnies and wants to run with them in the field when you see him at the tent so I suppose that is a hint but I had no idea he existed running around in Hyrule field for the longest time. This is one of the very few things I never figured out as a kid playing this game. 33:10 The fishing is annoying but it functions similar to fishing in real life. When the fish faces right you pull left and vice versa. This always felt natural to me as I grew up around people who fish a lot. 33:40 If you use the secret lure in makes your catch null anyway so you shouldn't be looking for it for anything other than fun like catching the endangered Hylian Loach. 34:50 I don't think you were intended to get every Token except for the bragging rights. Much like the Korok Seeds in BotW, they only made a reasonable amount of them required while hiding many such that you would be able to reasonably find 50. Also, the last guy does say to not worry about him, so it is kinda shitty to expect a nice reward as he did only ask for help for his family and not himself. At least that's how I see it. 36:56 I personally don't see this as that much of an issue but it couldn't function like in aLttP because the Mirror only works one way and the puzzles you solve using that mechanic wouldn't serve OoT very well at all. Nevermind that it would require rewriting the admittedly simple story as the Sword itself sealed Link in the Temple of Time in order to send him forward through time. It wouldn't really work for this game at all to be honest. 41:25 If you use the hover boots you won't get bounced so much allowing you to line up shots with the Hookshot or Arrows more easily. Also, You don't need the Lens of Truth to fight him as his eye is always between his fists when he charges and when he's stunned he becomes visible.
Well said! I was 10 years old when OoT came out and figured out (after failing to do so the first time) that I could avoid the scary stalchildren by rolling my way to Hyrule Castle in the nick of time. I was just messing around and realized rolling everywhere was quicker than running. I have to admit I had the Prima Guide at the time so I could easily look at what to do next, but going back and playing the game as an adult and talking to the NPCs in an area makes it really apparent what to do for solutions to puzzles (Gorons like forest music, feed a fish to Jabu Jabu, etc). This game design is way more forgiving than say the Sierra computer adventure games of the time where the solution to a puzzle more often than not is “try item on everything”, and then sometimes the *wrong* solution works and you end up without a crucial item you absolutely need hours later. (Leading to the phrase “save early, save often!”)
ALSO! i only figured out the bunny hood quest by myself because i played Majora's Mask BEFORE Ocarina of Time. So i had already learned the bunny hood was tied to running. All those poor kids who played it when it first came out didn't stand a chance
While Id say this video is great overall, there are many "issues" that you discussed that can be chalked up to general incompetence rather than poor game design.
If your audience is dumb and you make the game design for smart people and you're trying to appeal to the general audience (AHEM NINTENDO AHEM) you need to have game design that is appropriate for said audience
You're kidding right? Running through Hyrule field was one of the best parts of OoT in it's day. It was such a novelty at the time to just be in such a large space. Doing things like waiting outside Hyrule Castle over night was difficult and annoying at the time. But it gave you this unique feeling when you walked into the castle and everyone was going about their daily business, and you've been through hell just outside the door.
@@pongo1342 This 'outdated' thing or 'does not hold up' nowadays is a falacy. If someone played a video game like Ocarina of Time, and it was the first game this person played, so the experience would be the same as people that experienced this at 1999. When playing old games, you guys need to think with the "old gamer" mind. And more one thing, there are games that were bad since it's release date that still bad today, and other games that are still masterpiece since it's release. Classic games doesn't change, it's the same thing...
@@gabeznl3591 no not even remotely. i played this game for the first time in like 2017 and i had much better games to compare it to. obviously games that come out now are going to be better but yet people still say that ocarina is still the best one because they dont want to admit a game they played when they were kids is flawed. its all about when you played it and how you remember it. it has nothing to do with how the actual game is at this point.
@@pongo1342 I played Ocarina Of Time for the first time last year, in 2021, lol. There's no way a game that can be better than another title. You can say that to COD games, that doesn't innovate in anything, so a recent or older title can be better, because there's a little difference between those games. But Ocarina Of Time is a unique experience, there's nothing to be comparable to this game... Also, the same thing can be applied to same to Majora's Mask, there no other game like it.
@@gabeznl3591 Exactly. Games are best enjoyed in a vacuum. You're making a judgement that's not fair or objective when you try to base a it on a game being better based on when it was released.
@@Hoops927 my 1.0 cart is not golden sadly, but it remains one of my more treasured carts. It has survived lots, from improper storage in an outside storage unit with oven temps, to family breaking carts due to not giving a shit, to thieves stealing some of my carts. To me, 1.0 is still the definitive version. If I ever had to replace my Oot cart it would be with a gold 1.0 but my grey 1.0 brings lots of memories.
Awesome video, you really did a great job! however, I have played ocarina to death and I noticed a few inaccuracies. There's a goron who waits by the shortcut who informs you that all gorons like this song (with saria's song playing in the background) a hint for darunia's solution. this doesn't fix the backtracking though. You CAN open the shortcut immediately after opening darunia's door by bringing fire with a deku stick up to the shortcut and lighting the bomb flowers with that. You can reach the drawbridge before nightfall, although the 3ds version shortened the day/night cycle making it impossible (almost?) to roll there. but you can still do it by side-hopping or backwards running. Gerudo Desert is accessible with the longshot, allowing you to skip epona. There are multiple song of storms holes in the game, including one in the circle of rocks in front of goron city. Examining soft soil, describes it as soft soil and the item description of the bugs says that they like soft soil, a hint to their utility. You could argue that the bugs being able to be bottled could be either 1. understood from how alttp handles bottled bees or 2. how both fairies and fish also can be bottled or 3. how bottled bugs are sold in stores. the final 200 rupee reward from the skultulla house can be collected infinitely, giving you an infinite money supply. Nearly all the enemies in the game can have their waiting period skipped with the use of certain items or techniques, this is meant to be ocarina's incentive to experiment with your abilities in combat. I can't wait to see the rest of the series, keep up the good work!
usually they are in a circle of stones but not always, the shard of agony will point out all hidden holes though, including song of storm holes so whenever you find a hidden hole like this, you should be trying the song of storms as well.
JayEm1325 even if you don’t make it who the fuck stays there and waits? You have a full map open to you, just go and explore and come back later. Seem like he just wants to finish the game instead of enjoying it.
i preferred BackWalking...it mightve been a few seconds slower than rolling, but it was definitely Quieter than rolling...and it got me into Hyrule Castle's gate before it raised up for the night, so ill take it lol
i like how the "First Day in Hyrule Field" is placed, though...most first-timers WONT make it to the castle before nightfall, so its the perfect mini-tutorial to explain 'hey btw, Day and Night are actually different experiences'
@@rtyuik7 Yeah I think that's the way it was intended to be experienced by the developers on the first play-through. You get to see that you're not as protected anymore as you were in Kokiri Forest when the Deku Tree was still alive and watching over you, and you're subject to the elements now. In essence, shit gets a little more serious, which is a feeling that OoT continually ramps up over the course of its story and which is perfect, seeing as the theme of this game is growing up and becoming an adult.
Everything stated, "How are you supposed to know...?" All this information is either explored or stated if you talk to people in the towns and use the Mask of Truth. There is nothing "secret" in this game that is pertinent to completion.
"i know speedruners can get on the castle before night". just roll all the way. is not speed runing. speedruners kills ganon before you get in the castle
@@Mqstodon it kind of is like if u press the a button you roll, and rolling is faster. i knew that when i first played. ive always been able to get to hyrule castle before night
@@Mqstodon as a first time player you're supposed to get stuck outside at nightfall. The game wants to tell you that there's something different and night and that you can't enter or leave the castle town then
Exactly. How the hell are you about to say that you don't play Zelda for the story????? That's about 60 percent of the game. Especially in Majoras Mask. I don't take much of what this guy says seriously tho... His first time picking the game up was in 2012 and some of the other things he says is wildly dumb as shit.
Zelda games have been with me since ALTTP at 5 years old. If youve played any other game with a renowned "good" story, you realize Zelda games aren't meant for story. Breath of the wild is one of my all time favorite games, but I've never been more disappointed in a story ever. I disagree with this guy on a lot of things, but the reality is that the majority of fun in Zelda games is in the mechanics, the exploration, the boss fights, the dungeons, etc. The stpry is literally a tool to feed you those things. If you enjoy that tool, the that's a bonus.
Censored Smash “Story” in this case is more than just the direct storyline. It’s the atmosphere, the characters, the nuances of the world. There is definitely more to the story of a Zelda game than just the main quest line. The central quest generally serves to feed you the “main course” content of puzzle solving and combat, but the small enjoyable bits of characters, humor, and the storytelling motifs are the garnishes and dressings that make that main course so much more enjoyable. Zelda games have a very tight and concrete atmosphere that is distinctly Zelda, and there’s a gradient of serious to silly present, but the same elements are present in both Breath of the Wild and Wind Walker, which on the surface have two very different aesthetics and storytelling methods.
The story in all Zelda games after Ocarina are pretty simple and straight forward: save the princess in the land of elements (to create themes for the dungeons) with the help of a annoying companion. So, when you have this kind of repetition, in the end there's not really a story to tell. So much so, many people got invested into actually saving the damn princess only in Skyward because there was a love relationship going on. In all other games you just play the knight saving his master. Also, the time travel/multiverse shenanigans, the "lore" was developed on the fly and the connections among all the games makes no sense. Nintendo is not well know because of their storytelling. Zelda and Metroid have good atmosphere, that's different than tell a good story. I do agree that BOTW tries a little harder, but in the end, like I mentioned in the beginning... the "story" is a eternal repetition, you still play the knight rescuing his master (without a companion, thank god), the difference is that the master is bipolar.
Yeah, it looks like he just rushed to finish the game as fast as possible, which i believe is the wrong way to play this game. It should be enjoyed, explored, without looking at any guide. The 3ds version itself even gives a bunch of new "hints", which i think ruins alot of the experimentation, because they show exactly what to do.
@@Rihcterwilker yeah but if you're an idiot like me you'll still walk in circles for an hour not knowing what to do so that's still not the greatest of game design.
@@yuilinkmat9469 they do ruin the experience to new players that don't know they're straight up being told what the solution of a puzzle is, if they check it thinking they're only getting a hint. And a new player that is exploring everything will definitely use it everytime he sees one, oblivious that it is ruining many puzzles.
@@Rihcterwilker if a new plauer wants to see the solution of the puzzles, it's his choice, each one of chooses how to play the game, if you play just making the main story, go for it, if you want to see a walktrough and get all stuff without exploring, go for it, it's the players choice. Also, if a person enter the rock thinking they will get a hint and get the solution and don't like that, they just won't use the rock again.
I don't know, I thought inmediately about saria. The music coming from the forest in the goron city was quite obvious... Darunia wanted some song and it was there... About lord jabu jabu, I liked about the fish. Precisely because it was different. I had to think. I knew that Ruto was inside. Jabu ate her. So I needed to get eaten too. I should offer something tasty. He likes fish, because he ate Ruto. And I read something about making Jabu happy with a fish. Pretty easy and witty if you ask me. I was just a kid, not a too clever one by the way. Maybe I thought about it because I wasn't so intelligent as you. Sometimes intelligent people makes strange omissions due to being used to find the right answers easily...
These are the kind of conclusions a kid can come to but an adult would skip over. An adult would likely link the music to a shortcut, rather than "This character that isn't real hears it and likes it". They also wouldn't link the music specifically to "I should go and talk to Saria for the answer". The same goes for Jabu Jabu. A kid might indeed think "Ruto is a fish, he might like fish", but to an adult Zelda fan, the Zoras are not fish, they are an aquatic species. If Jabu Jabu ate Zoras regularly because they were fish, we would run out of Zoras. It's this key difference in the review that makes the comments on it so derogatory. Kids are more likely to try every weird solution they can think of without fear of failure or wasting time. As an adult playing for the first time, he dislikes repetitive failure without good reason, and time is very precious to us now. Wasting time is a cardinal sin to adult gamers. It's a key factor of the whole "retrospective" point and many of these views only apply as an adult playing the game, not s child playing the game. It's a method of thinking, not a matter of intelligence.
@@OGXenos that is a great explanation. I was kinda forced to watch the walkthrough of the labyrinths in botw because it's just a waste of time. I'm not gonna roam around and search for the right way, it takes way too long
I thought the music Darunia would start dancing to (and then stop) was a clue to something but I wasn’t exactly sure what to do, especially because why would they send me out of the Kokiri forest without teaching the song to me? Right? I also thought something to do with fish to get Jabu Jabu to swallow me, but I didn’t think I could actually catch fish in bottles. For me, it’s not that the solution wasn’t obvious, it’s just that the method to get to the end was a bit strange Or maybe I’m just dumb who knows
@@thomastyrrell49 Yeah no I agree with you. The game sometimes expects you to arrive at solutions somewhat arbitrarily by 'exploration' without introducing the player to certain mechanics prior, resulting in a lot of "I didn't know you could do that". Or at least, doesn't ensure the player has all they need when they get to a specific point. For example, in Ganon's tower trial room, there are these huge boulders that you need the Golden Gauntlets for, which first of all doesn't even hint at you that such item exists/is needed. So I kept spamming A and nothing happened then found out that I need those and that they're in the Shadow room. At that point I had already finished the Shadow room and didn't see any chest or anything I was so confused. I went back looking for it until I got fed up, and it turned out it's activated by a switch tucked way to the side and below that you'd completely miss it if you were playing normally, which is rush to destroy the barrier as everyone kept telling Link to! I was soo frustrated
And don't even get me started on the part where you gotta hookshot to a chest in the forest temple. There's _literally_ no precedence for that! Or that you could explode bombs with an arrow in the Shadow temple to make a bridge.
people have mentioned KingK focusing on 100% completion / collecting more than exploration already, but i just wanted to note that this is a really good modern day interpretation of OoT. he isn't aware of this while reviewing, but the fact that he uses arguments like "you have to talk to every NPC three times" for the mask shop shows that he's not approaching the game in the way that the generation before did. and in a world of information and FAQ's, maybe it's appropriate to say OoT has in ways lost it's replayability over the years; which is ultimately healthy. it means technology is evolving at a rate in which we hadn't predicted, and that we need to learn from it's flaws and find ways to create games that don't fall into the same traps over the decades, or centuries.
Good to see someone in this coment section that understand what a retrospective is. Games can't evolve if people refuse to see the flaws of a 20 year old game (which is why all those nostalgia based kickstarters turn out to be shit, because they're stuck in the past)
@@night1952 @James Campbell You guys have the right idea, I like the game but even so, I'll talk about what I think could be better or don't like. Damn so many people want nothing bad said about it.
Holy shit thank you. So tired of reading these comments, "HOW DARE YOU COMPARE A 1998 GAME TO A 2017 GAME" because that's what a retrospective is, you dumb fucks!
Ok. love this game but wholesome 8 year old homeschooled bastard me read "dont show this to my father" or whatever she said in that bottle and spent three days straight doing everything but showing him that goddamn bottle. Still love the game though.
It's so interesting to see this game for the viewpoint of someone that didn't know the game back in 1998 - things you find frustrating, were never even mentioned as being so in reviews and conversations back then, you just played the game.
Some of those things were just accepted by the players because it was the first 3D-Adventure for many so they didn't complain about that since the game was revolutionary at the time.
100% agreed. As soon as he mentioned "you could just go on zelda wiki" the review became completely pointless. At the time you had to call your buddies and ask if they figured something out. If not you just did more exploration which, to me, was the fun part.
Also the complaints about how the enemies take awhile to attack was a flaw.....yeah no that was 97/98 AI. Of course its bad by today's standards but thats not how you should review a 20 year old game
Fundamentally, this is still a review. And reviews are by their very nature subjective and dependent on context and frame of reference. And there's a lot to be said for many of his judgments. A lot of them were flawed too, of course. Many of the things he had issues with could have been solved had he actually just talked to NPCs haha. Which may come down to him playing it as an adult: adults have less patience for games seeing as they can more easily just player another one when they can't figure something out. I'm one of the OG players back when it came out. And I genuinely appreciate that he doesn't beat around the bush and does judge the game entirely from his own frame of reference. It's a lot more enriching to me than someone who pays lipservice to "my" experience even though it's neither relevant to them, nor really something they can truly experience on their own. I think his critique is just making a really solid case for why this game in particular, as ground-breaking or important it may be to me and gamers of my generation, may not entirely be as timeless as we might feel. Because when we replay it, we don't just play the game. We're reliving a childhood experience. He's not as constricted by past experiences and can experience the game as it stands in the context of modern games. And I can't really fault him for feeling the way he does. In hindsight, I just play this game still to inhabit the world. So some of the things he doesn't enjoy, don't bother me. Some of his critiques I actually do agree with. Even as far back as when I originally played it. The camera was awful and the combat was bad. And the puzzles you solved before you even did them did fall flat. He did correctly identify the Water Temple as being clearly the best temple in the entire game, though.
I won't argue that your examples of "illogical" progression are brilliant design or anything, but most of those solutions are hinted at by talking to the NPCs.
A lot of Japanese games (Zelda in particular) expect you to talk to some NPCs to progress. This is not a wild idea and you're not exploring enough if you're not talking to people.
It actually is a good "excuse" since an average player will talk to NPCs ! You're maybe the only dumbass a heard saying bullshit about OOT progression system since it was a classical thing to do in those 90's and early 2000's games. Games we play today or more linear and you get guided all the way, obviously not a good thing hearing you complain about JabuJabu !
I guess by your logic, the worst elder Scrolls game would be Morrowind because you have to talk to NPCs to get directions to anywhere, find out the significance of certain items, and also to find side quests, as opposed to Skyrim which gives you everything on a silver platter with very little to explore.
I'm in the "N64 OOT is better" camp, and here's why: For all it's technical/gameplay improvements, the 3DS version's overly-bright, saturated color and unrealistic lighting alters the mood of the game beyond what I would consider acceptable for a "remake". The greens of the grass, moss, Link's tunic, etc., have gone from a perfectly realistic woodland green to a garish, glowing highlighter green. Earth tones are no longer subtle and realistic, but look as if an LED spotlight is being shown on them, even in what are supposed to be dimly-lit dungeons. Even the blue of the sky has gone from a pleasant medium blue on the N64 to a cartoonish robin's egg blue on 3DS. In the N64 version, some things benefited from being dimly-lit or desaturated, such as the cutscene of young Link meeting Ganondorf for the first time. In the N64 version, Ganondorf is lit as he actually would look in a rainy nighttime setting. In the 3DS version, the figure, who is supposed to be wearing dark armor and mounted on a black horse, is literally glowing through the rainy atmosphere, which gives the scene a much less ominous feel. The worst example is the final battle with Ganon. The N64 version has him mostly shrouded in darkness the whole time, so that he's a huge sillouhette, lit up ever-so-briefly by the lightning strikes. It's terrifying and disorienting. The 3DS remakers thought it would be a great idea to crank the saturation to 11 and then shine a huge spotlight on Ganon the WHOLE TIME, even though you're fighting at night, under a cloudy sky. This completely changes the experience. One of the great achievements of OOT was nailing mood and atmosphere. The 3DS version falls WAY short. For all its attempts at better graphics, the game actually comes off more cartoonish than the original because of the inappropriate color and lighting.
I pretty much agree with all of this, and I think the Majora's Mask remake actually messed with the tone of that game even more, mainly through the addition of really strange over-the-top animatons. Example: th-cam.com/video/gY3rh6H9SLs/w-d-xo.htmlm5s Whose idea was it to put such a ridiculous idle animation for deku scrub Link into the game? This scene is basically turned comical by his lightning fast animation which looks completely out of place. It was much more subtle and impactful in the original where Link stood and contemplated the weight of the situation. Another: th-cam.com/video/gY3rh6H9SLs/w-d-xo.htmlm5s This nice heartwarming scene is turned very strange when the Gorons suddenly jumping up and down like overexcited kids on a sugar rush, which was completely absent from the original. It's a bit strange that the developers decided to do this.
I remember going through the Forest Temple in my old tubeTV, in the corridors with stairs where you shoot the ghost's paintings, and even with RF cabe the image was so clean that a friend who is a Playstation fan said the graphics where almost on the level of the PS2.
About Sarias song and making Darunia dance. In Goron City a citizen (standing next to the lost forest shortcut) says "Darunia likes to dance to this forest music when he's angry." Which is a pretty obvious hint for what song to play for him. Also Saria asks you to come back to her when you leave for Hyrule Castle, so it's understandable that you'd have to go back to talk to her again and learn Sarias song. I think it comes down to the way you play the games, and maybe you didnt expect what she said would matter which explains why you were frustrated.
Most of what the characters say is important or will be later on. People that have so many complaints either wrote this stuff off or forgot about it then found themselves stuck.
I played Ocarina of Time for the first time recently, and I was dreading the water temple because of what I heard, but it ended up being my favorite! There was never a more satisfying moment for me in the game tbh
I dont know about you guys, but I feel like if I have to run around forever searching for the answers, I have more fun that way, having everything given to you all the time, ruins the intrigue of exploring a world.
Erick Hoch I love Dark Souls but I can barely stand playing past Anor Londo on repeat play throughs...the level design takes such a huge nosedive that I wonder if a different studio took over for the second half of the game lol. OOT as an overall product is a good distance ahead of Dark Souls imo
IMO, the little secrets (Dropping bugs into soil, song of storms at the castle tree) are things that I miss in video games. At the beginning of this you were just talking about how annoying it is today that there's a persistent reminder of where you need to go next, but then you're criticizing the little hidden secrets throughout the game. Maybe it's just me. I grew up with this game. I found these things out either by experimenting or socializing on the playground. And that to me is where secrets like this shined. I mean, after all these years, I only JUST found out a few months ago that you can literally go and watch a soldier die in a back alley of the Market in front of Hyrule Castle ONLY in that short window of time between when Zelda flees and you go to get the Master Sword. Having things off the beaten path is part of what makes these games magical. Also, really loved fishing in this game. I spent a LOT of time there as a kid. I think our experiences differ vastly because you played this at a point in your life where you want to get through the game...and the people that grew up with it had hours to spend as a 7 or 8 year old just trying to see if they could catch the biggest fish. I know this is a "retrospective" but man, your complaints about fishing in this game sounds like they're more rooted in the fact that you don't enjoy fishing in general. "Bored of these visuals yet?" Come on. Lol. I highly disagree with what you're saying about fishing in OOT. It's a lot of fun. But opinions are opinions and we're all allowed to have them, but when you follow this up with saying the "Archery is laughably easy and a fun diversion" You kind of just made it sound like "BECAUSE the archery game is easy, it's fun. I had a hard time with fishing. So it's bad." /rant... tl;dr fishing is fun, don't @ me
The secrets have to make sense though. Dropping a bug close to a hole because it will go in makes no sense at all. And it's not fun when an obscure secret that you'd have to randomly find by doing things that the game never explained to you counts towards 100%
RosesBubble doesn’t the magic bean guy mention the bugs? It’s definitely mentioned somewhere by someone. EDIT: found it... the in game description of the bug literally says they prefer to live in small holes in the ground. Don’t take this the wrong way, but this kind of goes back to my point in my original comment. > People complain about Navi because she holds your hand. > people don’t read in game description of item, then can’t figure out what item is for. > people then publicly dis portions of games that “don’t make sense” because they didn’t read item description. > game developer makes a character who holds your hand more than Navi, named Fi. They make sure to tell you _everything_ to do in an area. > People complain about how Fi literally tells them everything and they don’t need that. Game is labeled “too easy.” Do you see my point here
And the irony that fishing was too frustrating to understand while him also being a Dark Souls fan is so thick you could cut it with a butter knife lol.
@@rexellate Dude you put it into words better than I could. I see a lot of gamers do this where they don’t get something because it’s too hard or challenging or isn’t outright explained, but then they love Dark Souls where literally nothing is explained and the entire game is built on tedium. I just can’t wrap my head around the idiotic hypocrisy there lmao
Imagine being a teen in 1998 with barely any fully 3D console games in existence (that were worth playing) and playing this for the first time, everything in this game had a truly epic feel to it, even running through Hyrule field was such a cool experience. I can see how parts of the game that used to be surprising and fun now seem slow and quaint, I specifically remember back in '98 thinking about the original Zelda and wondering how my older siblings found it to be fun at all, and it was only 12 years old at that point, Zelda OoT is now coming up on 25 years old, I can't believe it. I think it's a fair review of the game, if my initial experience with the game was playing it for the first time in 2012 I'd probably have similar criticisms. With the connection I have to this game it will probably always be my favorite videogame ever.
39:30 When in sword combat with enemies like Stalfos, you can take advantage of the fact that Link is left-handed: keep to their right (your left), and you can hit them in their side even when they're blocking. I figured this out fairly quickly from being left-handed.
@@ThyFloorestFloor Let's hope we will one day see the return of left-handed Link in a 3D Zelda game. I'll forgive Tears of the Kingdom since it's a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild with the same Link, but the game after that will be a new game with a new Link, so Nintendo will have no excuse.
@@troumo Oh, I completely agree; BOTW had no excuse whatsoever. It says a lot that Aonuma was asked about it multiple times in different interviews and, every single time, he gave a different, contradictory and always nonsensical answer. At this point, I honestly think it was a mistake: I think that the art director got used to drawing him right-handed as a result of Skyward Sword, drew him right-handed again by mistake, and no one noticed until it was too late.
@@matthewmuir8884 haha, might as well be. I wanted to see if it was a gameplay thing so I looked at Hyrule Warriors and even Knight Link is Left handed. So not every title after skyward sword has this change.
May be a localisation thing, but in the German Version several NPC tell you "I've seen that in the lost woods" when you talk to them with the Skull Mask. While still not being a very fun sidequest, you are not entirely clueless.
I wish everyone could experience this game in 1998, after experiencing PC games, or 1st/2nd gen console games, the original Zelda games, etc. Everything in the game provided such a awe inspiring sense of wonderment. I agree that some things are way too cryptic, and I cannot remember how I progressed through some parts of the game. Definitely did not complete 100%... But it was easily the greatest adventure game, if not video game, ever created for a long, long time.
I always felt that you not reaching Hyrule City in time when you first leave the forest was intentional. I mean the timing of the bridge raising and you being so close to making it feels almost scripted. I think they did it to make the city seem cold and indifferent to your presence (in contrast to the cosy forest) as well as introduce some of the mechanics of Hyrule Field.
Dude I was terrified when I first played, and had the bridge close right as I was about to reach it, and I witnessed the undead at night for the first time. Only come to find out in my later years that those creatures of the night were actually fairly weak enemies.
Honestly I feel like the 3DS version made some... mixed choices when it came to keeping the atmosphere of the original. Some of the animation looks awkward in the new framerate (Ganondorf's breathing before becoming Ganon comes to mind), but what was probably the biggest offender was how consistently bright every scene was. While the bright, colorful look worked well for the Child timeline (Kokiri Forest, the Market), it didn't do much for the grim scenes in the Adult timeline (the Shadow Temple, the final battle especially). It's a shame since one of the big things that makes OoT's story work is the stark contrast between the Child and Adult timelines. They were so eager to show these new, improved graphics that they sacrificed a lot of mood for it.
@Icebound VIII I agree with you completely, I actually love the art style on the n64 and people hate the controls but i grew up playing with it so it doesn't bother me at all.
It's the same damn thing in link to the past, dark and light world. Zelda games repeats some formulas to the point of exhaustion. Even BOTW have this contrast, the light world is the normal landscape, forests, etc.. the dark world is were the shrines are located, mechanical, futuristic, etc...
Sure, but the improvement heavily outweigh those few negative graphical changes. The controls, graphics, the boots being an item, etc, etc. Notice how the very little problems are strictly graphical lighting. Improvement on the 3DS version range from content to graphics to gameplay.
@@astrouphel I'd say the controls were more just translated to another system, rather than necessarily improved. But yes, I'll give you that the boots being an item was an improvement. I'm just making the point that certain aspects that elevate the story (lighting, animation and camera placement are very important in conveying themes and moods) shouldn't just be brushed off with a game where the subtle storytelling is one of the big reasons why it's stuck with people around the world. Which is why I think there's an argument to still be made about whether to play the game in its original format (N64) or the remake (3DS).
I feel like you don't even bother talking to the NPC's or thinking about how to solve puzzles or progress. You just look it up on the wiki immediately and just assume the game never told you, but really, you didn't look properly.
the skull mask is the only one you don't get a hint for, though the redead mask and the bunny hood are pretty obtuse. The kid in the graveyard mentions he wants to be like dampe. That's supposed to be your cue to give him the creepy mask because dampe is supposed to be creepy. The bunny hood spawns a completely new npc to the overworld once you have it, and he spawns running away from hyrule castle in sight. Problem is there, you only see him for a few seconds and he's far off enough that you can easily miss him
@@chaincat33 I'm pretty sure if you talk to Saria while wearing the Skull Mask, she'll mention something about Skull Kid (can't remember exactly what she says).
That's the point, the NPCs in this game (and many other Zelda games) are obnoxious. Many modern players will skip all the conversations with NPCs at the first glance because of how bland and boring they can be, there are higher standards nowadays.
An OoT review that DOESN'T shit on the water temple, but actually praises it? Thank you! Finally, someone besides me appreciates its intricate and beautiful design.
Not a fan of water temples but when it comes to that one there is just something special about it and the mini boss facing a version of yourself well that is just great on its own not keen really at all on the boss fight at the end but I do love the temple itself it is great and I enjoyed working my way through all of it so I do agree with what you said Andy. It's so good. X
@@jacobmonks3722 I'm pretty sure the skultula challenge is there just for the bragging rights. Searching for them gives more extra gameplay to people who have otherwise cleared the game already. Did anyone really expect to be able to play as Luigi or some other high reward when finding all of them?
Hmm. I enjoyed your video (I enjoy all your videos), but lot's of inaccuracies here. Most stemming from you missing hints from NPC's/Item descriptions etc. You seem to still think this is bad game design, but keep in mind OoT is from a time where you needed to actually figure things out without the game giving you an obvious path or holding your hand. Talking to NPC's for info and hints is a logical next step. Seeing as you played the game for the first time in 2012, I can understand your frustration. But if I was able to complete the game as a 7 year-old in 1998, obviously the game gives the player everything they need. To be honest one of my main complaints about Breath of the Wild (which I'm absolutely in love with), is that 90% of the sidequests don't really require much thought on the player's behalf.
My favorite is that he actually said the Mask of Truth was useless because you learn lore that you could just look up on a Zelda wiki. Like I get it, some people don't give a shit about lore and it most stones don't offer a tangible benefit for gameplay, but that's the damn point, it's just a fun way to talk to interact with what were otherwise silly objects that you could launch into space.
I liked it. I don't consider it the 'greatest Zelda ever', and to me it lacks some of the core things that makes Zelda Zelda, but if it was my first Zelda game it would set the bar pretty high as far as expectations.
This is my least favourite retrospective, I feel like you just skimmed the game to get through it and missed out on a lot of the NPCs and story telling through the world. You just immediately wanted to know the answers, and probably just googled them. I honestly adore the N64 version over the handheld, I feel like a lot of the atmospheric parts were lost in the upgrade. Also, like many other commenters, I finished this game as a child and was not confused. Also, this was when using the internet for the answers was not a common thing, so I figured it out in my own. It really isn’t that cryptic of a game if you pay attention.
@@Mqstodon when one of his main arguments is things being archaic when things are actually explained in-game by NPCs, it's fair to assume he sped through the game and didn't actually give a shit.
talking to npcs isn't fun stop arguing that it is. things are incredibly easy to miss when you don't want to bother talking to every single npc. the argument about not playing rpgs doesn't work because zelda isn't an rpg, it's an action adventure game. talking to npcs for what can be hours on end kills the flow of the game hence why KK probably didn't do it. having to sit and read text boxes to get information is intrinsically archaic in today's landscape. saying it's not is like saying reading all of the books in skyrim, which has over 500 books, is the optimal way to play it.
@@luciboye5585 you're using a straw man as your argument right now. literally none of us claimed it was "fun," we started there's information you can miss if you DON'T SPEAK TO THEM. you would think if someone is stuck in a game they would at least consult NPCs to see if they have anything to say. there arent many in OOT and they take seconds to speak to, nothing like "reading all the books in skyrim because it's the optimal way to play it" lmfao
Most of the 'illogical' puzzles are actually solved by using gossip stones. They tell you to put bugs in holes and to play the song of storms near Hyrule castle.
Okay, the problem then is getting the Mask of Truth, which KingK says is also very cryptic because of the extremely vague/nonexistent clues as to who you give the masks to.
I have to say, mostly all the points made on side objectives and frustrating aspects, are exactly what shigeru wanted and implemented. It brings a form of community together to figure out and solve the mysteries or puzzles and that was shigeru's goal. That is why in the original zelda, you started out with no sword, and yet here we are still talking about this game 23 years later, so i think it worked...
Lord Kiyo I bought the 3DS remaster in October 2019. In fact the only Zelda game that can be played on a New 3DS I have yet to buy is Phantom Hourglass.
I have absolutely no nostalgia to any Zelda game other than BOTW (not too much), so don’t get overwhelmed by nostalgia when I review Ocarina of Time. Spirit Tracks: 95/100 (Best Zelda, train gameplay is fun, out of this world music, great dungeons, and satisfying touch controls) Ocarina of Time 3D: 82/100 (Keep on getting stuck) Majora’s Mask 3D: 95/100 (Practice is key) Triforce Heroes: 89/100 (Fun little puzzles) A Link Between Worlds: 88/100 (Smooth art style) Hyrule Warriors Legends: 78/100 (WAY TOO DIFFICULT, but great fan service such as music)
The reward for 100 gold skulltulas isn't 200 rupees. It's infinite rupees. You can go back and get the gold rupee as many times as you want. Therefore infinite rupees. It feels like a lot of your complaints with this game come from your reluctance to explore and talk to everyone. That's how these games work.
That isn't good design though, once you've completed the side quest you will assume you have done your job with the spider house thus no need to return. It really wouldn't of been an issue for them to tell you or hint towards infinite ruppees but it does not, so you just have to "hope" you accidently stumble across it, bad design.
It's literally just entering the same room again. If you have ever played the game, you know that you go in and out of the houses all the time when you are first playing the game. It's not hard to figure out lmao. We were able to do it as children in '96, so can kids today if they put in the time. It seems a lot of people try to speed-run the game right from the bat these days.
I think my favorite part about this game is in the 3D version (I don't know about the N64 version), whenever Link would complete a puzzle or battle that would open the door/open the iron bars, it would glitch out a little and he would spin around in circles. It was very entertaining.
You are perfectly right. Every so-called obtuse design decision in the game is hinted at somewhere in the game. It gives me the impression that the critique comes from someone who doesn't enjoy getting lost into the game, or that he has troubles adapting to old fashioned action adventure design.
I grew up playing Ocarina of Time back when it came out. I was 6 back then and have played it countless times since. Having said that, I do agree that the 3DS version pretty much improved the game and is definitely the best way to play it. The ONE thing I'll definitely say in defence of the N64 version is that if you want to play it on a bigger screen and go through the game with a friend, you can't do that on the 3DS remake. Plus, tiny nitpick, I do think the N64 does a better job keeping Ganon's figure mostly in the dark during the final battle, adding some terror to the boss fight. In the N64 version, he's only lit up for a second, every time lightning strikes. It reminds me of the final battle in Yoshi's Island against Big Bad Baby Bowser. I think it adds atmosphere. The final boss fight on the 3DS version is a bit too bright for context. But it IS just a nitpick.
I honestly have the same nitpick. I enjoy seeing Ganon in his updated model, but frankly the brightness of the final battle is a bit disappointing. Far from a deal breaker, but still. It made the battle feel even more larger than life than it already is. Ganon isn't remotely hard to beat for me any longer, however that lighting change does make it feel . . . less.
The overall lighting of OoT 3D is what has stopped me from playing it. The original N64 lighting adds so much atmosphere to the game that's missing from the 3DS remake, but I can totally understand why they changed it. When you're running on a portable device that needs to work outdoors, you can't have tons of super dark scenes.. it would be incredibly difficult to see anything that's going on.
"Ganondorf only appears briefly, making it a big deal when he does." "Majora's Mask only appears a few times, leaving him an underdeveloped villain." One or the other, please. I think they're both great in their own ways.
@@Suiki1 tbf Ganon was an established character. This was Ganondorf's first game at the time. For first timers you would have been surprised to realise it was the demon king Ganon so I see his point
I think what King K was getting at here is that the mask itself only makes its big reveal that its its own thing at the very end, whereas Ganondorf, while his meetings are brief, does appear throughout Link's journey and make his full impression through that. I really think the comparisson is an apples and oranges deal, but it seems that King K prefers the oppresive and bold nature of Ganondorf making appearances throughout the journey, rather than the mysterious looming power of Majora truly unvieled at the end. Ganondorf you sort of know what he's capable of the second we first see him in Link's nightmare, but with Majora, while we know that it's powerful, you dont really get to hear from it personally until the very end of the game, and even that is all over the place since its a bit of a psychotic entity. I think it really depends on what kind of villain you prefer, the dogmatic dark lord and conquerer, or the psychotic destructive free spirit
@@DERyuga That's a fair point. I do love both styles. I think overall I just prefer the sense of melancholy throughout Majora's Mask but tbf i have replayed both games to death and will still replay them both again. Ganondorf does have way more preamble and is built up more than the mask (although I like the backstory in the manga).
You criticise the unclear objectives but remember that the reason so many people praise this game is for being challenging and rewarding. There was no flashing arrow telling you where to go back when games were fun. You had to explore, try stuff, speak to NPCs and get immersed in the world. The best info you could get was from friends who played before or the Nintendo Power magazine.
@Jordan O. Yeah exploration buddy, figuring shit out yourself, though the rumble pack actually rumbled when the was a secret to be found like a bombable hole. So in reality all you had to do was just visit everywhere with the rumble pack and pay attention. Also if you hit things with your sword you can hear if it will break to a bomb, plus the bombable rocks all had visual queues.
@@kovi6203 oh great, now you need an extra accessoire just to maje exploration fun. "Visit everywhere with the rumble pak". Wow, sounds like so much fun when you have to literally crawl around every inch of the empty hyrule field waiting for a vibration so you can find the secret
@@johnwarosa2905 You get the item from the spider guys for it's use and then you have other factors such as the visual of the tree, like a circle of rocks or a boulder is also a visual indicator. Sorry the game makes you actually play it and use your brain.
@@kovi6203 oh i like playing a game but i dont like running around an empty field for 20 minutes in the hopes of finding a cave entrance with a spider or some damn rupees
17:00 I would argue the shadow temple is linear by design to give the player a claustrophobic feeling. It would make sense considering the temple geographically is in a well where you would expect long tunnel corridors with not many bends
Shadow Temple is in the graveyard, not the at the bottom of the well. Bottom of the Well is a minidungeon where you get the Lens of Truth, which is required in the Shadow Temple.
Ignoring the fact that the bottom of the well is an entirely separate area, this doesn't really address the design of the shadow temple. Contextualization for gameplay is important, but it isn't the gameplay itself. Unless you legitimately do value context over gameplay, which is obviously a fine perspective (though I would like some elaboration on your part if that is the case as my personal perspective dictates that gameplay is paramount).
@@vernaiko9536 Some people play games for the fun of accomplishment. Others do so to experience a new world. For better or worse, no other form of media can let you experience the land of Hyrule and Link's journey through it the way a game would. To that group of people, which includes me, gameplay is secondary. Obviously, we still like it when the game is fun, we like fun things, but linearity for the sake of enriching the world would not bother us. It's a whole another issue if the gameplay is awful enough that you don't want to play, but it doesn't have to be the most well designed thing. To put it simply, to understand why some people don't think gameplay is paramount is to understand that challenge is not the only unique thing games have to offer. Challenging the audience is a unique aspect to games, it's the only medium that requires the audiences' input, but it's not the only unique aspect of games. Some people prefer the other unique aspect of games, the ability to be in a new world that feels real, rather than be in a game that is there to challenge you.
@@Sivielfer, It's funny because I agree with practically everything you said. I do enjoy things that aren't gameplay related, but quite frankly I don't see why a game cannot be satisfying to play with substance. Thank you for elaborating, but I'm not sure I was clear on my intent. I do greatly enjoy the non-gameplay aspects of games. Things like the story, subtext, theme, etc are important to me. However, if I cannot get invested in a *game's* gameplay, then I think it has already failed in some regard. I understand what you are saying with the challenge point, in fact, I totally agree with it. However, I would use it as substantiation for my perspective. My point is more a lament that I think games can have both. Granted, I do prioritize gameplay, as it cannot be provided by any other medium, and the level of immersion a game can provide is also astounding. However, the non-gameplay elements take a backseat in my priorities of value, because if a game cannot provide something satisfying in some way to me, then I fail to get immersed all together. Gameplay drives that very immersion and it develops the story, themes, and other non-intrinsic elements of games. If we are to discount gameplay (or place it on a lower priority level), we are to forget that these things augment gameplay, and gameplay, in turn, develops them. That is why gameplay is so important to me.
I still remember the Jabu fish-feeding part from my first playthrough when I was 8. I'm quite surprised to hear people complained about it because it was the first thing that came to my mind. I remember thinking: "Yeah, he'll probably try to eat the fish". How isn't it logical to assume that he can be fed and that this could be a way to get him to open his mouth?
I know, when I played the game for the first time, I knew I had to open his mouth, and I assumed that feeding him would let me in. The logical food for him was fish.
@@Canadish Bingo. There are many instances of that in this game. I absolutely LOVED fishing as a child. Found the sinking lure literally just by chance while playing and catching as many fish as possible. As a child i beat this game completely(without internet) simply through exploration and intuition. Yes i spent a very long time on some of the more obscure tasks but that was why i loved it so much. Thats what gives it such massive nostaglia and charm looking back.
The reason this game is considered a masterpiece is because it was the first 3D game with an amazing story, a great world filled with memorable NPCs, a badass antagonist, and an epic soundtrack with some of the most memorable songs to date. Lastly, this game's impact at the time matters because it paved the way for so many other games after it. No OOT, no Skyrim or whatever games you love.
@@train123z Soft, but true, though. I mean, ur supposed to be the hero in OOT, so it's a little weird that the game asks you to kill like 50 seemingly innocent giant spiders just to let 5 greedy people better. That, and I'm lazy af and can't be bothered finding so many skulltulas.
See although I also found the shadow temple to be incredibly easy, the main difficult aspect was the fear I had going into it (which would have been far more prevalent if I played as a child). They make it easy, because exploring like in the water temple would have been terrifying. Imagine the Well, but way bigger. I was so afraid in the well, it was hard for me to figure out where to go, and everything was harder because you play as a child and enemies are just stronger. But, if fear wasn't a factor, I can see how completely boring the shadow temple would be.
Basically you want to be told exactly what to do with no exploring at all, and you want to be able to do it immediately. That’s what I got out of this video. I am extremely glad that ocarina of time forced you to explore to find answers. Every single thing you pointed out as something that was illogical was directly told to you by an NPC or just by learning a little bit about the game through exploring. You don’t have to talk to every NPC in the game to figure out every secret, there’s obviously logical things that hint towards who/where you should talk to people. If you’ve never played before and need more hints to figure something out, how is it bad in a game all about adventuring and exploring that you’re forced to actually adventure and explore to move forward? This whole retrospective annoys me because the game would suck if it played how he’d want it to play. You’d just speed through every area deemed “too long” and be told exactly what to do instead of having to stop and think for a second. Super annoying retrospective.
Also, he assumes every part of the game shouldn't take long at all and be simpler. I remember having to put the game down and ask my friends at school if they knew how to get past something. It seems people just fly through games these days, and if it isn't obvious immediately, or they get stuck for more than a few minutes, it's bad design.
Thank you SO MUCH for saying it. I agree 1 million times with everything you just said. I just got done 100% completing the n64 version and was actually gobsmacked by how well the game holds up. [Edit: and how I was able to get almost EVERYTHING just from former knowledge and exploring the world. I tried to to it guide-less but had to look up my last 2 pieces of heart after wracking my brain for a collective hour. It didn't feel good to do it but one of them I only wouldve gotten after exhausting ALLL other measures twice over, and quite frankly even THEN I wouldve been grasping at straws thinking it wouldn't work but trying just incase. It was in the graveyard under a random (not marked with flowers by the way) tombstone with a reDead that you must play suns song on in order for the chest containing the piece of heart to appeear. The other one was Dampe's race under 1 minute which I definitly couldve figured out had I remebered you can re-race him for a prize in the first place 😂. That is the ONLY instance in the game that I couldnt find ANY sort of hint towards, so I didnt feel TOO bad about that one. I was captivated by how good the world building is and how masterfully they designed puzzles and organically finding your way through the game. Whether it be talking to npcs that hint towards things, context clues in the land itself, or experimentation by the player. Ocarina of Time encourages adventurous spirit and exploration in its purest essence, and for that it will ALWAYS stand the test of time.] The design is GENIUS and downright IMMACULATE at times. The video started and I thought it was all dandy but then I slowly started getting more and More and MORE annoyed by the critiques he made, to the point where I finally just disliked. You need to comb through EVERY INCH of the game before you can comment on things like "illogical design" and "not being told 'ANYWHERE IN THE GAME' of a certain mechanic or progressive step". Yet he acts like he KNOWS for certain that everything is the way he says it is. He comes off as so ignorant and bitchy in this retrospective, ESPECIALLY during the latter half. I love this game so damn much, more than most, but it's by no means perfect. I'm ALL ears if you want to talk about its genuine shortcomings and things it could have done better, in fact that would make for a great video no doubt. But they need to be LEGITIMATE and OBJECTIVE points, not the cries of an incompetent and impatient gamer who felt so made a fool of and wronged by Ocarina of Time that he had to go bitch about it for an hour straight online and call it a "retrospective". This sounds more and more like a parody "CinemaSins" video by the minute. I would be ok with this if it WAS a "GamingSins" video or something of the like, but the fact that hes trying to pass this off as a retrospective is laughable at best and pitiful at worst. All he did is paint himself as a pansy who cant think for himself.
Jesus fucking christ, I watched this whole thing, there's some minor criticisms of puzzle structure in there alongside an overall summary of "a Zelda game that holds up amazingly well" but here are the Nintendo Adults in the comments, freaking out and writing paragraphs bc someone didn't record an hour of unequivocal praise.
@@mediumvillain all Zelda games have flaws. I’m capable of seeing them and discussing them. My issue is with mischaracterizing things. In this video, he says that there’s no possible way to know that the SKULL kid would want the SKULL mask. That the only way you could possibly solve this puzzle is by talking to every NPC in the game. This makes no sense and isn’t fair criticism in my opinion because it’s based on a flawed base. It’s a puzzle, you use common sense for each mask to think about which of the NPCs you’ve met might need that mask. When I got the skull mask for instance, the literal only two NPCs I could logically think might want them were skull kid and the kid in the graveyard. Again when he complained about not being told that bugs can go in holes - that’s just a puzzle. You can bottle bugs, you see holes of dirt in the ground, you know you must be able to do something with them and you play around with your options. It was just a running theme in this video of wanting to be told everything straight up and mischaracterizing certain puzzles that can be logically worked through as ridiculous and borderline impossible.
CORRECTIONS:
The bomb shortcut apparently CAN be opened using the deku stick, my bad there. Epona is also optional because you can use the Longshot to get across the bridge.
The more you know!
You also CAN get into Hyrule Castle before nightfall by walking backwards. Link, for some reason, walks faster when going backwards in OoT. I know you said the average player wouldn't know this trick, but I thought I'd let you know anyway.
KingK about the camera: in the new 3ds version thanks to the extra "stick" you can always move the camera around, thus fixing your issue with combat
Bruno Milocchi That is false, sir.
***** yeah, you know that extra little touch button, if you move the finger on it you can move the camera around
Bruno Milocchi The analog nub? No you cant. They never updated OOT to use the extra stick.
This is the first time I've seen anyone walk all the way across hyrule field with no rolling.
One does not simply cross hyrule field without rolling!
And it is completely possible after first leaving the forest to make it to Hyrule Castle Town before nightfall.
We rolled all our childhoods only to learn that running backwards is fastest.
Scottie Flames! 🏄🏿♂️🔥 Sidestepping is only fastest going up stairs I believe.
I'm pretty sure rolling doesn't speed you up... It's just more of an... itch you have to scratch. "Why run when you can roll?"
I love how Ocarina of Time reviewers like to nitpick about the Song of Storms paradox like Nintendo didn't purposely put it in there to be a paradox
Yeah it's obviously not a flaw, just a fun philosophical easter egg to ponder!
^ This. It's an intentional paradox and that's the point.
I think reviews nitpick the inconsistency of the time travel, since using that paradox logic all the magic beans would be grown in the future because they assume you always would have grown them in the past, like how it is assumed link was always going to play the song of storms for guru-guru, but I agree that it’s not a big deal, it’s doesn’t need to make sense for it to be a fun little addition
@@hamachibeans4471 Yeah, the beans are different. And the majority of reviewers or theorists point out that the windmill is a paradox, but really add nothing else to the point being made. They even will go as far to say that it is a mistake on Nintendo's part like they didn't know they were creating a paradox. Paradoxes will exist in any system in which the time traveller has an impact on the outcome of an event. It's the nature of time travel. Thematically and mechanically, the windmill makes total sense.
exactly, barely any of the time travel makes sense in OOT. Link traveled in time to the future because he was kept in the sacred realm for 7 years. There is no explanation of how he goes back in time.. its game people, these details are overlooked so we can have a fun game..
Even though it's slow, King Zora moving out of the way always makes me smile. It's obnoxious and tedious to sit through, but I think the developers were aware of that and it comes off as charming (at least, it does for me).
Like listening to the Roadrunner in slow motion.
I always have a giggle fit whenever I get there.
Oweep
Oweep
Oweep
It's one of those cases where you have to be in on the humor, otherwise, it's no less of a bad decision to you. Even if you know it's a joke, you just can't get into it
Exactly this. When I first watched that, for a second I was like ‘can he not even move out of the way...?’ and then watching him inch across, I busted out laughing. Like, it’s hilarious this stoic fish king has clearly let himself go to the point where he can’t even scoot over three feet in a timely manner.
I was just playing that part yesterday and it definitely went from funny to irritating and back to funny :D
Played this game for the first time (on the 3DS) recently and was blown away by how well crafted it was. I can't imagine how it must have felt to play it back when it first came out. Truly a masterpiece
You know that feeling people play Elder Scrolls for? That's what both this and A Link to the Past felt like to me as a young kid when both came out. It felt like having this whole world to explore, full of charm and personality if you go out of your way to explore. A grand adventure, larger than life.
Things have definitely changed since those days but both still manage to give me that same feeling briefly when I go back to them.
It was nuts I was 6 years old when it first game out. It just sucked with no internet because the game barely had hints and I was 6. It took me like 6 years to beat it. I literally constantly would get stuck at the water temple unironically. There is a reason why that meme exists. GameFAQs and official guides barely helped. I wish had I had youtube back then lmao.
@@webdesignyou but remember when you beat that water temple for the first time? Ah man I'll never forget
When i bought the game in1998 I had the gold cartridge and the red blood for Ganon. At the time we were in college and every friday night school friends all gathered with beer and food.
We were talking and having fun while I was completing the game.
This game is a masterpiece and a breakthrough. We all had never seen anything like it before. This game have a soul.
this game was the shit back in the day.
29:09 "Bugs are never used for anything else!"
WRONG! Bugs are used to finish the game in 17 minutes!
Reverse bottle adventure is best adventure.
Couldn't you sell the bugs?
that's a good pun
+Diy_CaT
Yeah, but you're never hurting for money anyway as you could just pick it up endlessly in certain areas, like the room full of pots in Hyrule Market.
@@diy_cat9817 yes, to that weird guy that's always bowing up and down lol
Honestly straight up linear dungeons aren’t bad. Not every dungeon has to be a maze.
Finally someone said that
I mean in general I think they're better when more sprawling, but I actually think in a game like ocarina with so many dungeons (vs majoras mask for example with only 4) that having a linear one like the shadow temple was actually refreshing and helped with pacing
I liked the variety. Each dungeon had its _thing._
YES
absolutely, I mean the Water Temple gets more shit than it deserves but the Shadow Temple and especially the Spirit Temple is awesome, while at the same time so is the Forest Temple. The main problem I have with this review is that if you didn't grow up with Zelda, I think you take for granted how revolutionary each game was. From the original on the NES, to Link to the Past on SNES, to Link's Awakening on GB, and finally to the 3D world of Ocarina on the 64. I mean he said he didn't even play 25 percent of LTTP and that's a top three game in the series, and he didn't play Ocarina until 2012. I would rather hear this coming from someone with more of a history with the series.
"The iron boots are only useful underwater, there is no other use for it." They can also be used to walk across areas with wind effects due to fans and help a lot.
Surprised this has no replies, but big true :)
yea... in wind Waker and Tp
@@livingtoaster1358 you're forgetting one of Gannons trials and i may be wrong but i believe there is fans somewhere in the shadow temple
@@DivineLight661 oh yea I forgot about that lol
This is what happens when the game is reviewed by someone who doesnt like the series. It's obvious he doesnt talk to the npcs or read the signs. 90's games didnt hold your hand like they do today. He's used to being spoon fed the story.
I actually did a test for how guiding OoT actually is, and if you go around in Goron City, talking to everyone, you'll get these.
"Please bring fire from Big Brother's room to me." (the path to Lost Woods)
"We Gorons love the music down this hallway. We don't know what's there though."
"I know Big Brother's secret. One day I saw him dancing to the music coming from the forest."
Yeah. I ran through the game, not progressing unless I hear specifically from the game how to do something. Also for the Zora's Domain thing with Jabu Jabu, one of the Zora's mention that Ruto is the one responsible for feeding the lord.
THANK YOU!! SOOOO many inaccuracies in this video and those are two massive ones that really bugged me
@@thelowercasec4880 I agree that he probably should have done more research, but you have to admit these puzzles are pretty bad, or at best mid.
You can’t seriously be telling me that somehow that is acceptable game design when the game is about figuring it all out by yourself especially sense this came out in the 90s when the only way to figure out how to progress in a game sometimes would be from a friend coming over to show you or from a big brother showing you there was no internet and far less guides available forcing players to take those extremely obtuse comments and put together where to go next is honestly horrendous game design don’t get me wrong I love this game but you can’t defend the outworld areas and if you ask me it makes most of the “child link” section of the game awful I only started liking the game when I got to the forest temple
@@tobinmonroe3045 your nostalgia blinds you from making better criticisms. Sorry, but OoT is not without flaws. When you compare this games confusing “puzzles” to other Zelda’s in the franchise, they are sorely lacking. You can figure things out by yourself, sure. But when you aren’t given interesting enough materials to figure out stuff in the world, the puzzle falls flat on its face, and just leaves people more frustrated than enthusiastic.
@@spryhuman1297 wym nastalgia? I don’t have any for OOT
I'm fairly certain a Zora tells you how Jabu Jabu loves fish
It's true
James Robinson If a lot of people complain about it then it wasn’t obvious to the general audience which is important to think about when it comes to game design
@@GamingsBrink it was obvious. A zora standing right next to the water tells you about how you can catch a fish easily right there in the circle of rocks and navi even turns blue to highlight the fish if you even sort of walk in that direction. Many of the zora npc's mention jabu jabu and eating fish. If I could put that together as a 9 year old playing this game, it's obvious. Some people just don't want to explore games and just go from point a to point b without interacting with any NPCs, which is a bit of a waste.
To be fair though, it’s still kinda hard to tell what you’re supposed to do (or maybe I’m just stupid)
cafeterialoca Figuring out what to do in Zelda mostly sums up to speaking with everyone. Unfortunately i was dumb and unpatient as a child, and my english was limited, hence i was stuck for eternity on Zora’s domain
How long does it take for King Zora to move out of the way ?
"A week, a week, a week"
lol
Omg, ded
This is advanced humor, well played
Checked
WOW, never heard that one before. :/
Correction: one of the gorons tells you darunia loves music of the forest. The more you know
Its almost like its an adventure game and you need to explore and interact with the world to figure out things so weird!
@@salvest3rr lol some of his complaints are dumb as hell. Of course you cannot get to the castle in one run it is introducing a gaming mechanic and the differences of day and night.
@@nicholastruman1273 Like the one where he complains about the game not telling you that you can put bugs in bottles. When you go to the shops you can buy bugs, and for the goldens skulltulas, I don't remember if it's the description or a gossip stone tells you, but the game says to you "They like soft soils". I like his retrospective of the different games but some complaints he had in this one were not that great lol
@@nicholastruman1273 you can too go to lake hylia talk to the owl and no matter which time is it the cutscenes of ganondorf chasing zelda and impa will start
Okay I'm glad I'm not the only one here who thought all this. I just left like half a dozen books of comments here disagreeing with literally everything
I find it interesting that the child dungeons are all unique concepts; Deku Tree is a hollow tree, Dodongo's Cavern is an organic cave with the skeleton of a dragon, and Jabu Jabu is the belly of a giant fish. Then when you're an adult, all the dungeons are just standard temples.
They are fairly generic, but I do like how you can see the spatial constraints of some of the dungeons. For example, the Fire Temple is clearly inside the Spectacle Rock in Death Mountain Crater, based on the map layout. Likewise, the Spirit Temple is linear because it's working with the spatial constraints of being inside a gigantic rock carving. (I always liked how the two dungeon items are on the hands). This was something I think later titles moved away from, and I kind of miss that design.
@@drygnfyre The Shadow Temple is a downward spiral too which works with the temple being underground
Given the subtext of the plot about growing up and maturing it’s probably an artistic decision
@@drygnfyre From an aesthetic perspective I appreciate the dungeon items being on the hands. I love how the dungeon is symmetrical too and it's a very nice experience starting the first half with Child link and the second with Adult Link. Having each half end in the hands is a very clean way to tie it all together and integrates the dungeon with its setting well.
But what bothers me way more than it should is that Nabooru sends you into the dungeon to retrieve the Silver Gauntlets, but the item isn't even in the dungeon because it's outside on the statue.
If she would have bothered to climb the statue, she would have found the treasure she was looking for as well as an alternate entrance into the temple. Pretty lousy for an expert of thievery to be kidnapped while waiting for you to retrieve an unguarded, not hidden treasure right above her head the whole time.
@@Hipno702 be less creative as you grow? yes should have also added doing taxes nd other fun adult shit
The store, culture, and lore of Zelda is why I fell in love with this game. “I don’t usually play Zelda games for the story” I was beside myself with shock. Stunned.
Exactly lmao
Though, you realize that lore isn't "story" correct? This isn't to say that your perspective is not valid, that would be absurd. Yet, lore doesn't constitute a story. A story is a narrative the game decides to tell, with thematic backing and many other things to back it up. Lore is rather something that contextualizes the world and builds it while giving the player more information about said world. There is nothing wrong with these two things being you values of highest priority, but I thought I would clarify the difference between the two.
i play the games for key items and puzzles.. best part about loz games.
Theres plenty of people like that in the zelda fandom, usually people who prefer the first zelda games, or now breath of the wild; its wierd to imagine that there was a time when the lore was pretty vague and the story pretty bare bones: defeat the evil demon king ganon, save hyrule. The fun came from exoloring all the dungeons, finding all the iteams and just fucking about in the overlord. And I guess Breath of the wild was a return to that but it took advantage of all the story and lore progression zemda has seem since the 3D games became a thing.
me too...
Won't lie, didn't even realise those things in the spirit temple mirrored you. I just used Din's Fire
Or fire arrows
same
@@orio-kami7601
Same
Lololol
I forgot he even existed
"Using the sword over the hammer is never a question"
Except when you're fighting Shadow Link in the Water Temple, where the hammer makes that fight a breeze.
Mr. Waffles Unless you have the Biggoron Sword, that is.
@@jacoblauria8180 even then, I find the hammer to be easier, because you don't even have to hit Shadow Link directly with it, so even if you "miss" with the hammer, it will still hit Shadow Link
Dins fire
Mr. Waffles Fair enough. I prefer the Biggoron sword because it has a bigger range, but the hammer is a solid option as well.
dark link is still easy with the master sword..
I played this game at 12 and maybe due to nostalgia, I still think it is my greatest gaming experience. There were a couple of spots where I would be stuck for weeks, but figuring it out was so satisfying. The slow pace made me feel like I was in the world. The randomness made the world magical. I was able to figure out most of the bits you complained about at 12 and with no internet. It isn't great if you are trying to run through a game to buy the next one, but when it is your only game for the year, trial and error was not a bad thing.
I completely agree with this. When I was a kid I used to try and rush games so I could move on to the next one. Ironically it wasn't until I got a bit older that I realized if I slowed down and took my time with a game and tried to enjoy what was actually there it was a whole lot more fun.
I agree wholeheartedly! I played this when I was 8 and it took me like two years to finish given all the times I got stuck on puzzles (I think I became adult link a year into the process which made it totally mindblowing). The mask quest he dislikes was so enjoyable when I played it, because all the new masks trigger a memory of someone you remember speaking to in your long journey. This game wasn't designed to be raced through
Exactly!@@MrAzijn
I just played through this game for the first time and when I got frustrated with it, I realized the difference is just how much less patience I have now for not understanding something.
As a kid, I would keep playing games I was stuck at and would eventually find the answer. Or I would have friends who were playing the game too who would tell me how. And they might be right or they could be very wrong and we would try all sorts of things trying to find the answer. Or someone might have a strategy guide.
But now, there's no way I would put up with being stuck on something for weeks. I can just look up the answer on my phone and find it in seconds.
Author is as whiney as he is ungrateful
23:59 there actually is a Zora in Zora’s Domain that tells you that Lord Jabu Jabu can be fed with a fish.
CoolinDude yup don’t know what hell hes talking about
@@dillonjohn7999 i even think its the zora king who tells you that
@@mrleehunterdx5472 Nah its the one in front of the shop saying its ceramonial to feed jabu jabu for luck or something.
Not that it matters. The note from ruto streight up says right before the line of give this to my father that she got eaten by jabu jabu because he was over enthusiastic when she fed him a fish.
that's actually an improvement in the n64 port. in the original game boy version of OoT it is much more opaque and cryptic
@@joegibbskins the what version of what game?
I was 8 when I first played this game upon its release. The young link part I struggled through but eventually after months managed to get all 3 stones. The adult link play was too much for me, Forest Temple was difficult and I got stuck at the room with the claw and couldn't seem to get any further. I continued to explore the world and gather what I could. Found the Fire Temple etc but it was only years later when a little older that I went back and slowly completed the game. Because it took up much of my later childhood I feel a real connection to this game. I'm pretty sure I had tears in my eyes when I finished it. A real sense of achievement!
I finished it for the first time today! Had it for 19 years, always got stuck when I was a kid but decided to tackle it as an adult. So fun! Took me three weeks from start to finish.
@@jacobmossmedia8794 I hope you had a fun time :)
As someone who didn't grow up playing Zelda, i want to add by saying it's difficult for all newcomers in general. I first started playing OOT in my sophomore year of high school, and didn't manage to beat it until i graduated.
not sure if you’ll see this since it’s over a year old but i’m the exact same way, my older brother always played it and i would watch him but when i tried to beat the game myself, i always struggled to even just become adult link, and when i finally did, the forest temple was just too much lol, it wasn’t until recently that i actually beat it all the way by myself and it’s really awesome, i honestly feel bad for people who didn’t have this game as a kid and ESPECIALLY people who still haven’t played it to this day, despite it’s age, it’s so ahead of it’s time
Good job boys!!!👍
"What is there to be said about OoT that hasn't already been said? Well, not a whole lot"
*proceeds to talk about OoT for 51 minutes*
Idiotically
Idiotically
@Jp111 It wasn't a figure of speech, it was a statement.
tommapar88 man I love when video essay channels do that
It's not like it's a surprise that the video is 51 minutes long though
You can do the Goron City/Lost Woods shortcut before learning Saria's song. All you have to do is light torches on the path between Darunia and the door, then take a lit stick and touch it to one of the bomb flowers. When it blows up, it causes a chain reaction that opens the shortcut and lets you through.
I figured this out as a kid by just living in and playing with the world. I really the feeling that this guy had zero patience or interest in the game.
@@theseriousaccount Yeah honestly that's right on the money. "3DS IS INFINITELY BETTER EVERYTHING INBETWEEN DUNGEONS IS JUST FLUFF"
Regarding "why would you even think to try bugs, or think they can be bottled": the Kakariko merchant sells bugs for bottles, another NPC goes bug hunting with a bottle, and the gossip stone in Kokiri Forest tells you that the dirt patches with holes in them are the ideal homes of bugs.
He never read a line of NPC dialogue throughout the game.
@@moondawwg and can you blame him when they're so utterly useless and boring though?
Skullutas are also mentioned loving soft soil so it points toward them hiding in them often too, and one merchant will buy bugs and fish in bottles from you for quick rupees in town
You know the fact that Dark Souls hides its own lore all over the place you’d think some subtext things like asking an NPC or reading between the lines would be more familiar to people like him, but I guess that’s neither here nor there.
I figured that out when I was 9 I wonder how old this guy is lol
1. Ruto's note says she got swallowed when feeding him. The player should think "Hmm, maybe I should give him a fish."
2. As mentioned, the longshot can be used to cross Gerudo Valley. Epona is entirely optional in the game.
3. The cursed man tells you that golden skulltulas "love soft soil."
4. That's not the only hole the song of storms can open, though I'll grant you I'm not sure why it would do this. Some holes are opened with bombs.
5. Navi says of the skull kids that "they wish they had a face." The kid in the graveyard says he wishes he had a scarier face, and the bunny guy wishes out loud he could be a rabbit.
6. When fishing, stand in the water or on the log. Being closer to the fish means less reeling.
Many of the issues you bring up are a matter of talking to NPCs.
Thanks for mentioning all that. When I first played the game I was completely blind, and I didn't have anything like a strategy guide. I never got lost or confused because the NPCs give you plenty of information on where to go. Soft soil and the masks made perfect sense. I'm baffled that reviewers nowadays harp on the game simply because they need to talk to NPCs at all, and the Jabu letter is always cited as "infamous." I don't buy it for this, and nobody ever seemed to complain about it or even notice it until very recently.
Also, I swear that fishing in the 3DS version is markedly harder than in the original. It rarely takes me more than one try to catch either fish in the original game, yet the remake took me about three times for child and three for adult. They just seem to break free more often.
@@Wyatt_James Really? It felt the complete opposite for me. I could fail a thousand times in the N64 version, but I got it nearly first try both times in the 3DS version.
I'm quite consistent on the N64 version and I performed roughly identically (as far as I could tell) on the 3DS version. It could very well just be me, but I still think it was made more difficult. Probably an oversight related to the 20fps to 30fps boost, or it was noticed by a developer and left more difficult to make it more fun.
There are a lot of wooden signs all over the game that tell you everything you need, if you not only just cut them and read them, everything is there.
Or ya know playing the damn game
I personally think that the final fight with Ganon was much better in the N64 version due to the dark lighting, making inly his eyes and tail visible and you only get small glimpses of his whole body whenever lightning strikes, making Ganon look much more menacing.
Seconded. The final battle with Ganon was the climax of the game and it was somewhat lost in translation in the 3DS.
Mukhtar I felt the same way with the Forest Temple, on the N64 the beginning room with the elevator where the Poe Sisters take the flames looked much more foreboding and set a creepy tone for the rest of the temple as a ruined and abandoned castle or shrine whereas in the 3DS they updated lighting shaders and all that to make things look brighter and more accessible to younger/newer audiences
Interesting. All in all, I have to say that Ocarina of Time is a cinematic video game and cinema is best experienced on the big screen, not a small screen like the 3DS, regardless of what gameplay enhancements the 3DS version provided.
My first play through of OoT, I didn't even get Epona.
I mean, you could lower the brightness, but the atmosphere should be included in the game.
A lot of your complaints would have been solved if you talked to NPC's and read their dialogue. Games back then wanted you to interact with the world instead of just following a little arrow. I still remember going into every house and talking to every NPC in the old pokemon games, found good items like the old rod/great rod and trade for Eevee that way, I miss those days.
After listing the complexities of the sword mechanics, he then said that it didn't have depth. Those specific button combinations for unique attacks directly correlates to Dark Souls!
Nah man I talked to the npcs till the cows come home Still got stuck in a quite a few places
Anyone who has not played A Link To The Past turns me away. You’re comparing dark souls gameplay to OOT which are so far apart when made and released. Too much complaining.
there is one thing the original OOT does better than the remake. that moment when you live the temple of time for the first time, and you see death mountain in the background, it sets you up for the screwed up world your about to see due to your actions. in the remake they made those clouds so much tamer...it was slightly disappointing.
I hate that they dumbed down the shadow temple and well... I understand WHY they had to; leaving the blood or skull textures would have jumped up the rating, but I felt the shadow temple and well are far less scary.
Let’s not even start with the Ganon fight. The shadow on the damn pig demon got super diluted in the remake, which would’ve been great to make him seem so much more ominous and evil. But, I *think* it’s worth it so that we get a better experience of the Water Temple
Jacob Jett the final boss battle is so much darker in the original and it makes Ganon terrifying where in the remake he looks a little goofy
That’s mostly the fault of the 3ds hardware. They had to brighten some of the darker parts of the game to compensate for the smaller screen.
that was not a remake
Hyrule field does look barren by today's standards but back in the 90s wandering through that vast expanse really immersed you in the world. Ocarina really set the pattern that open world games like Skyrim, Witcher, and Tsushima have followed ever since
I remember playing this in '98 and my 8 year old mind was captivated by the freedom I felt exploring Hyrule Field.
@@TH-camHandleEtc. I remember it taking me awhile to find Lon Lon Ranch when I was a kid. Fond memories.
"Bored by these visuals yet"
No I have insane anxiety for the fact that you might lose that fish.
I have insane anxiety that an adult with the internet couldn't figure out how to swim to the log and fish from there when every 12-year-old I knew in 1990-whatever figured this out right away.
@@captainphoenix Oh my god, is that actually a thing? Have I wasted hours of my life for nothing?
@@captainphoenix i did that and it doesnt change much, its still the most annoying shit ever and i had to do it twice. the entire fishing mechanic is just not good at all nor is it satisfying, the only satisfaction i have from it is that i dont need to do it anymore which is not a good thing
I just felt bad for that poor loach lol
You gotta admit that fish is fighting for its life with all it's got. After all that time, I would have just released it out of respect.
The Intro will forever be the most nostalgic video game scene ever
Amen, when I got the game in 1999 here in Norway, it gave me such a peace, such a feeling of "life is great", that I just kept the intro on for hours, and falling asleep to it on the sofa, in front of the TV, sleeping magical dreams.
The 100 gold token reward is infinite rupees. They give you 200 every time you take to him. Not just once. Know this is an old video but still wanted to make a correction on this.
In a game that can be completed using only 55 rupees. You can find virtually everything else out in the world for free somewhere at least once. Much like the koroks in BotW, you weren't supposed to find them all, they put enough in the game where the player could reasonably find half of them and get the rewards.
@@thegardenofeatin5965 yes. But it is still an error in what the reward actually is
The Garden of Eatin you need 60 rupees. 40 for the deku shield and another 20 for the diving game. Those are the only two mandatory game elements that require rupees. Everything else is either optional or can be found for free. Crazy if you think about it
Well it's still useless. By the point in the game where you get all 100 tokens, you don't need rupees for anything
Dude just go to lost woods as adult link go to skull kid kill him he drops 200 rupees just go out of his room then go back in bam he spawned back
I low-key think the Shadow temple is lots of fun. I attribute this to the spooky atmosphere and a fun boss fight.
Exactly,
So you have chosen... death
Same shadow temple is my 2nd favorite dungeon
Water temple is easy change my mind.
Barry Bend water temple is the hardest dungeon and you know it .so many branching paths ,well hidden small keys, IRON BOOTS,
Dark link, vortex room, and changing the water level over and over
"Ocarina of time takes almost no time to start going"
Nine year old me: *screams*
Lmao 22 year old me playing it the first time still trying to figure out what he means by that lol
You just have to collect some rupies (just do the bridge and cut some grass) and then crawl under the obvious hole to get the sword. The action is already started!
@@jamesonsockstoes5470 Yeah, but the cutscenes take forever
@@TheBrazilRules HATE THIS VIDEO
I mean it did pick up rather quickly but the build at first made the game feel NOICE
Correction: You can use a Deku Stick to activate a bomb flower and go to the lost woods from Goron City without the strength bracelet.
Yea that's how I always did it. I always thought the music playing was the biggest clue
Ancient reply, but this.
When I was little I couldn't help but notice all of the unlit torches in Goron City and there was no way to get the fire them until you opened Darunia's room up where he has a lot torch. Used a Deku stick to bring the fire to the other torches and it caused the big jar in the center to spin so I knew I was on to something, and so i looked around for other things to interact with. Saw the Bomb Flowers where the Lost Woods music was coming from and I ran through there lighting them up.
Was honestly fairly satisfying learning that I could do that.
@@StomachPlugsame, but this guy seems to lack any interest in this game
I was more aware than him at 9 years old lol
23:50 I remember the day I figured out myself being 5-6 years old when the game first came out, to capture a fish and feed him it to him. I remember my brother doubted me, until I proved him wrong. I miss those days where you couldn’t easily look up solutions online.
About the Saria's Song thing with Darunia, I remember there being a Goron who tells you that Darunia has been listening to a song from the forest a lot, or something like that. Thus, the game DOES tell you what to do there.
Oh and there's another use for the Iron Boots aside from walking underwater: you also use them to avoid getting blown away by the huge fans in the Shadow Temple.
Also navi tells you to go visit saria
I enjoyed this review, but I don't think he polished his script, or did sufficient research.
I think the reason that the temples are the way that they are reflects the nature of the people that protect them and the location. For example, the forest temple is in the lost forest, so the temple is inherently cryptic. There’s also the lore bit that everyone who enters the forest becomes a stalfos, which is a living skeleton, so a lot of the enemies are based on the living dead.
The zoras are a much more complex race of people than most other groups in the kingdom, being that they use a monarchy to maintain order, so their temple is very complex. Not cryptic, like the forest temple, but complex.
The Gorons act like a giant family and rely a lot on Darunia, so while an area like Dodongo’s Cavern might seem confusing at first, once you find the right path, the way forward is literally as straight of a shot as it can be, with no branching paths.
Theming like this makes the world feel more real, and can help to immerse the player into the world. while other games after ocarina did this as well, it started here, and it’s impressive that the dev team got it right on the first try when making a 3D Zelda game
About what you said regarding the races of Hyrule being isolated, I think that was intentional. There was a war only a few years before the game and tensions are still high. The path to the Gorons and Zora are blocked of to regular Hylians and can only be accessed by the royal family, or those the royal family trusts. Death Mountain is blocked off by the guard and Zora's domain is blocked of by a waterfall that only opens with Zelda's Lullaby, which is the Royal Family's song. As for the Gerudo, Ganondorf only recently swore allegence and many Hylians fear the gerudo as they are menacing theives, so tensions are still very high. You get that info by talking to Hylians with the gerudo mask. It's why there are no Hylian women in Gerudo valley. Why would you want to go near them?
There was a huge problem with the memory system on the n64. A lot of content had to be cut due to the fact that they couldn’t get the expansive memor pack to work with the mechanics of the game. So that’s probably why the field is pretty empty.
41:36 Bongo Bongo IS supposed to make you use his dungeon's item as well though. As you can see in your footage, every time he beats the drum you're getting flung into the air and stunned. If you wore the hover boots, that'd be a non issue. A minor thing but still.
As for the FPS, keep in mind the 3DS is generating twice the frames for 3D, so, it's kiiiinda doing the work of 60fps
Bro I shit you not I came here to literally say the same thing. Drove me nuts watching him struggle and get flung in the air lol
I never even used the dungeon item. I would always z-target the hands and would be able to shoot the hands without any problem
I use the iron boots instead of the hover boots. XD
I found it easier to not use the boots ha using them so i assume it’s different for every (some) players
Bongo Bongo is hilarious given the tone of the temple. A fucking bongo drum demon is the sinister force behind the macabre gloom all around. I laughed when I was a child. Nintendo is fucking nuts
I don't know why, but back in the day when this was released, I was like 10 years old. And most of the things you say are hard to figure out I figured out back then. And we didn't have internet in those days. Maybe something got lost in time throughout the years, but back then it was very clear the game invites you to experiment. You got bugs in a bottle. What do I use them for? Oh look a tiny hole, maybe the bugs fit in as they like to live in the ground. Hey I was right! Awesome!
You know stuff like that.
I just made a comment identical to this. When i was a child 99% of this game came naturally to me through a little exploration and intuition. All Based on my experiences up to that point in the game. I was literally a child and i figured all of this out(like you said without internet)
Also, i loved the fishing and was completely blown away when i got the sinking lure for the first time. Then laughed when the guy at the desk called me a cheater lmfao.
In today's gaming age with Google, all the answers to a game are right in front of you. Having to actually figure stuff out like we had to back in the day is something today's gamers (apparently this dude) doesn't understand and any game that actually is thought provoking and doesn't hold your hand is lambasted.
Isn't there a gossip stone that mentions that the bugs you can catch love soft soil? I can't remember where they are but I swear that it exists. Alongside lore, the gossip stones were very handy for finding secrets since they'd often give hints about certain trees you could bomb and so forth.
Also when he said for the masks that you need to ask every NPC 3 times, you don't because the masks all have subtle connections to their future owners and there's plenty of NPCs that are quickly ruled out.
Also he complained about the fact that you need a Fish for Jabu jabu. A few Zoras in the Area tell you that he likes fish , Navy turns blue and flyes to a fish in zoras domain and informs you that you can catch it in a bottle, iirc the messege in a bottle from Ruto says that Jabu jabu swallowed her and even the shop sign in zoras domain says “special offering today, fish“ or something like that. It is mind boogling to me how anyone can say that entering the 3rd dungeon is cryptic when litterally everyone in the area tells you what to do, i even watched a blind oot lets play from a german youtuber a few years ago, he talked to every NPC and found out that a fish will be important before he even saw Jabu Jabu.
I feel like this review lacks a lot because of how much you had claimed "wasnt possible" or was "unexplained", when in reality, if you took the time to read NPC text, the entire game actually flows pretty well. This actually really bothered me about this review. Sorry to say.
yeah i wanna watch the rest of his videos but it's like the guy has ADHD or something and expects everything to be instant. Gotta get like a kid again clear your mind and schedule.
Drebin Co I have adhd and even I took my time with the game
Even went back to get every possible item lol
This guy is something else
Drebin Co adhd doesn’t mean impatient
@@FRAMEDSKATEKREW69 He also played 100%. No Zelda games afterwards wants you to talk to npc so much. He thought most of the npc were useless.
Also it was frustrating how he complained of the linear gameplay, story, and dungeons like the shadow temple but then 180'd and said it was stupid how the game didnt explain things like the mask sidequest and putting bugs in the patches of dirt. So which is it? Do you want the game to hold your hand or make you explore or figure it out for yourself? It's just inconsistent to criticize both in the same video.
Every time you get stuck in things such as entering jabu jabu, theres always clues around the area that points you to a direction. If I remember correctly, a zora in the store tells you you can put fish in the bottle and another one tells you that Ruto is responsible for feeding Lord Jabu jabu. You eventually do figure it out.
Actually the fish to open jabu jabu is logical, ruto's note says she got swallowed when feeding him.
Say what you will, but in the 3DS version, there's something called a Sheikah Stone.
My resaponse to Shiekah Stone is while it doesn't hurt anything, this isn't Castlevania 2.
Yeah I didn't understand this either.
The Zora in Lake Hyrule straight up tells you "give him a fish and he'll open his gob."
I have been stuck in the game at various points but this wasn't one of them.
Funnily enough, when seeing this game at my uncle's place he was trying to figure out how to get into Jabu Jabu's Belly and five year old me just threw in the thought: feed him a fish!
It’s this new generation of gamers that don’t know how to think outside the box or get creative or explore ideas more likely they want games to literally hold their hands on what to do. It’s why nowadays in games we have forced boring tutorials that you can’t skip. Games used to let you learn by trying different things on your own. now games literally hold your hand on everything like we’re a bunch of idiots that can’t figure things out by trial and error and I hate that.
31:00 Asinine ? Getting to see how everyone would react differently to the mask I was wearing WAS part of the fun. Every time I had a new mask, I made a point to backtrack everyone I had met thus far to see the different lines of dialogue. I had fun. Especially with the mask of Truth. Thus my frustration when I realised I couldn't use the mask of Truth for Zelda.
Exactly, but some people aren't big on talking to NPC's at all. You can even visit Zelda wearing the masks if you haven't beaten Jabu Jabu and she will have various reactions. It fun to get more personality and interactions between Zelda and Link. Yeah you have to sneak past the guards each time, but I mean it's really pretty easy thing to do after you've played the game once.
True, I talked to every npc with every masked that includes goron, zora and gerudo after like the 5th time I 100% the game but I obviously love this game...
Lmao The only reason I use the Mask of Truth is to get the Deku Stick upgrade from the secret Deku Scrub stage.
Or was it Deku Nuts?
Am I the only one who would switch back to the Fire Tunic after getting the Mirror Shield? It matches so much better than the other two options. I did that every single play through growing up lmao
Absolutely! In fact, I was always really disappointed when getting the golden gauntlets in Ganon's tower, because the Goron tunic, mirror shield, and silver gauntlets made for such a kickarse look.
I did the same thing lol. So sharp
When I was like 8 I would use blue tunic and mirror shield and hover boots all the time. It controlled like ass but I thought it looked so slick
I played it easily 50+ times on the N64 and always did the same 😆 picked up the 3ds a few years back and instinctively did the same again!
It protects from lava, heat and ground spikes
If I wasn't wearing the Zora Tunic I wore the Goron one
It’s crazy how many people I’ve seen that don’t know you’re supposed to use the deku stick to light the torch to get back to the forest. It’s clearly intended because of the Owl waiting right outside of that shortcut for you.
I didn't know that until I watched "This is how you don't play Ocarina of Time" tbh.
Another thing that I rarely see get brought up is how the two Lost Wood shortcuts are perfect for getting the Biggoron Sword. The timer is a non-factor when you can avoid the trek across Hyrule Field entirely. You just go to the Lost Woods and can warp to Zora's Domain (one of the trade items) or Goron City (and from there you can navigate Death Mountain Crater to get to the top, avoiding the volcanic eruptions entirely).
1:00 Speedrunning?
5:04 With the stipulation that you must complete every dungeon you enter and no glitches you can also complete the Fire Temple before the Forest Temple. When you take away the first stipulation you can do basically any dungeon in any order with few exceptions which are the child dungeons must all be completed before any adult dungeons and the Shadow Temple requires you to have beaten the Water Temple before you can get its warp song. Also you only technically need the Shadow and Spirit Medallions to enter Ganon's Castle which means when we allow glitches you don't need to clear most of the dungeons. Probably my favorite idea is that you can beat every dungeon in reverse order and there is a speedrun category for that specifically while maintaining the stipulation that you must complete every dungeon you enter from Spirit and the way back to Deku Tree.
21:54 Talking to the Gorons will reveal Darunia enjoys music from the forest. The shortcut nearby connects to the forest and you can hear the familiar forest music coming from this shortcut.
22:02 To tease you with the Forest Temple entrance? That's a pretty good reason.
22:20 There is a torch puzzle that opens up from you speaking to Darunia. Naturally you would notice the two torches next to the shortcut and the logical next step would be "I wonder if I can light the bombs over there." Nevermind that the shop is blocked by a breakable wall with bombs mounted on either side just out of reach but within deku stick range, thus teaching you fire can ignite bombs.
22:44 You can very easily make it before nightfall even without rolling, although that would help significantly. Also backwalking and sidehopping are extremely fast methods although they aren't immediately obvious to new players. The average player should have no trouble with this part on their second play through although I am relatively certain you are meant to get stuck outside on your first play to teach you about the daylight cycle.
24:20 But it is logical. Similar to the song with Darunia the locals tell you about how Lord Jabu Jabu likes fish. A Zora tells you how to catch a fish. And Most importantly the letter in the bottle tells you Ruto was eaten by Lord JJ on a note found... Inside a bottle. The game is subtly telling you the answer you just were ignoring all of the signs. I can understand a bit of the frustration here but it really just comes down to missing all of the hints given to you. I and many others figured this out easily as children who could barely read. It isn't all that complicated in truth. It does seem relatively arbitrary but it is not unfair.
24:54 Epona is entirely optional(I did see your comment regarding this and the shortcut at Goron City, I'm just being consistent here)
27:15 The hammer has a shock wave which makes it much easier to hit multiple enemies at once than with the sword. It is also one of many items that Dark Link cannot mimic and thus makes that fight a breeze.
28:30 While I agree this is a good example of an unfair secret there are examples of when the game teaches you to use the Song of Storms to reveal secrets. Navi often turns green around pools of water or even in certain locations like on the Death Mountain Trail or inside the Fire Temple where if you play the Song of Storms(or Sun's Song?) a fairy will be revealed. This is a similar function to the Song of Time with the blocks it can summon or remove. It's not completely unreasonable although it is unfair still.
29:05 This is a fair point. I personally didn't know you could put bugs in soil until playing Majora's Mask which gave me tons more trouble as a kid than most of OoT.
29:13 Bugs can be bought in shops. If you try to purchase them without an empty bottle the keeper will say you need an empty bottle.
31:00 When you talk to the Skull Kid, ignoring that he is called /Skull/ Kid, he says he wants to look more tough. The Spooky mask is pretty clear as well because the kid in the Graveyard is trying to be just like Dampe but he laments he is too cute and not nearly as scary. The Bunny hood however I have no idea how anyone was supposed to figure him out. I mean he does talk about how he loves bunnies and wants to run with them in the field when you see him at the tent so I suppose that is a hint but I had no idea he existed running around in Hyrule field for the longest time. This is one of the very few things I never figured out as a kid playing this game.
33:10 The fishing is annoying but it functions similar to fishing in real life. When the fish faces right you pull left and vice versa. This always felt natural to me as I grew up around people who fish a lot.
33:40 If you use the secret lure in makes your catch null anyway so you shouldn't be looking for it for anything other than fun like catching the endangered Hylian Loach.
34:50 I don't think you were intended to get every Token except for the bragging rights. Much like the Korok Seeds in BotW, they only made a reasonable amount of them required while hiding many such that you would be able to reasonably find 50. Also, the last guy does say to not worry about him, so it is kinda shitty to expect a nice reward as he did only ask for help for his family and not himself. At least that's how I see it.
36:56 I personally don't see this as that much of an issue but it couldn't function like in aLttP because the Mirror only works one way and the puzzles you solve using that mechanic wouldn't serve OoT very well at all. Nevermind that it would require rewriting the admittedly simple story as the Sword itself sealed Link in the Temple of Time in order to send him forward through time. It wouldn't really work for this game at all to be honest.
41:25 If you use the hover boots you won't get bounced so much allowing you to line up shots with the Hookshot or Arrows more easily. Also, You don't need the Lens of Truth to fight him as his eye is always between his fists when he charges and when he's stunned he becomes visible.
Well said! I was 10 years old when OoT came out and figured out (after failing to do so the first time) that I could avoid the scary stalchildren by rolling my way to Hyrule Castle in the nick of time. I was just messing around and realized rolling everywhere was quicker than running.
I have to admit I had the Prima Guide at the time so I could easily look at what to do next, but going back and playing the game as an adult and talking to the NPCs in an area makes it really apparent what to do for solutions to puzzles (Gorons like forest music, feed a fish to Jabu Jabu, etc). This game design is way more forgiving than say the Sierra computer adventure games of the time where the solution to a puzzle more often than not is “try item on everything”, and then sometimes the *wrong* solution works and you end up without a crucial item you absolutely need hours later. (Leading to the phrase “save early, save often!”)
Dude, clearly you have no idea what you're talking about.
@@eamonia I have no idea what you’re talking about. Tell me what I got wrong so I can correct it or don’t say anything my dude
Thank you fo doing what i never had the courage to do: point out arguments with time stamps. What a chad
ALSO! i only figured out the bunny hood quest by myself because i played Majora's Mask BEFORE Ocarina of Time. So i had already learned the bunny hood was tied to running. All those poor kids who played it when it first came out didn't stand a chance
While Id say this video is great overall, there are many "issues" that you discussed that can be chalked up to general incompetence rather than poor game design.
Exactly, general incompetence and laziness to not talk to the NPCs
Yeah, like when apparently he wants everything resolved and issued without thinking by himself.
If your audience is dumb and you make the game design for smart people and you're trying to appeal to the general audience (AHEM NINTENDO AHEM) you need to have game design that is appropriate for said audience
@@joof9812 thats what mario is for, the drooling and mentally handicapped.
@@DivineLight661 why do i suck at mario and good at zelda puzzles
You're kidding right? Running through Hyrule field was one of the best parts of OoT in it's day. It was such a novelty at the time to just be in such a large space. Doing things like waiting outside Hyrule Castle over night was difficult and annoying at the time. But it gave you this unique feeling when you walked into the castle and everyone was going about their daily business, and you've been through hell just outside the door.
you said it yourself. it was good in it’s day. its a novelty. thats the issue, it doesn’t hold up to todays standards at all.
@@pongo1342 This 'outdated' thing or 'does not hold up' nowadays is a falacy. If someone played a video game like Ocarina of Time, and it was the first game this person played, so the experience would be the same as people that experienced this at 1999.
When playing old games, you guys need to think with the "old gamer" mind. And more one thing, there are games that were bad since it's release date that still bad today, and other games that are still masterpiece since it's release. Classic games doesn't change, it's the same thing...
@@gabeznl3591 no not even remotely. i played this game for the first time in like 2017 and i had much better games to compare it to. obviously games that come out now are going to be better but yet people still say that ocarina is still the best one because they dont want to admit a game they played when they were kids is flawed. its all about when you played it and how you remember it. it has nothing to do with how the actual game is at this point.
@@pongo1342 I played Ocarina Of Time for the first time last year, in 2021, lol. There's no way a game that can be better than another title. You can say that to COD games, that doesn't innovate in anything, so a recent or older title can be better, because there's a little difference between those games. But Ocarina Of Time is a unique experience, there's nothing to be comparable to this game...
Also, the same thing can be applied to same to Majora's Mask, there no other game like it.
@@gabeznl3591 Exactly. Games are best enjoyed in a vacuum. You're making a judgement that's not fair or objective when you try to base a it on a game being better based on when it was released.
I still have my red blood version 1.0 of Ocarina. I'll be buried with this cart.
I'll cherish my golden OoT cartridge forever.
Praise be to Allah
@@Hoops927 my 1.0 cart is not golden sadly, but it remains one of my more treasured carts. It has survived lots, from improper storage in an outside storage unit with oven temps, to family breaking carts due to not giving a shit, to thieves stealing some of my carts. To me, 1.0 is still the definitive version. If I ever had to replace my Oot cart it would be with a gold 1.0 but my grey 1.0 brings lots of memories.
@@freespace2dotcom no one gives a shit
@@idontgetthejoke9465 no one asked
Awesome video, you really did a great job!
however, I have played ocarina to death and I noticed a few inaccuracies.
There's a goron who waits by the shortcut who informs you that all gorons like this song (with saria's song playing in the background) a hint for darunia's solution. this doesn't fix the backtracking though.
You CAN open the shortcut immediately after opening darunia's door by bringing fire with a deku stick up to the shortcut and lighting the bomb flowers with that.
You can reach the drawbridge before nightfall, although the 3ds version shortened the day/night cycle making it impossible (almost?) to roll there. but you can still do it by side-hopping or backwards running.
Gerudo Desert is accessible with the longshot, allowing you to skip epona.
There are multiple song of storms holes in the game, including one in the circle of rocks in front of goron city.
Examining soft soil, describes it as soft soil and the item description of the bugs says that they like soft soil, a hint to their utility.
You could argue that the bugs being able to be bottled could be either 1. understood from how alttp handles bottled bees or 2. how both fairies and fish also can be bottled or 3. how bottled bugs are sold in stores.
the final 200 rupee reward from the skultulla house can be collected infinitely, giving you an infinite money supply.
Nearly all the enemies in the game can have their waiting period skipped with the use of certain items or techniques, this is meant to be ocarina's incentive to experiment with your abilities in combat.
I can't wait to see the rest of the series, keep up the good work!
This is such a great comment to add to a great video.
Horayn B. Is there a way to figure out where a Songs of Storms hole is located?
usually they are in a circle of stones but not always, the shard of agony will point out all hidden holes though, including song of storm holes so whenever you find a hidden hole like this, you should be trying the song of storms as well.
Horayn B. Oh cool. I had no idea about that. I also had no idea you could use Scarecrow's Song in dungeons
I always reach the drawbridge with time to spare doing sidesteps on 3DS version, I didn't even notice they shortened the day-night cycle length
Of course you can get to Hyrule castle before night arrives, you just need to roll instead of run lol even as I kid I figured that out.
JayEm1325 even if you don’t make it who the fuck stays there and waits? You have a full map open to you, just go and explore and come back later. Seem like he just wants to finish the game instead of enjoying it.
i preferred BackWalking...it mightve been a few seconds slower than rolling, but it was definitely Quieter than rolling...and it got me into Hyrule Castle's gate before it raised up for the night, so ill take it lol
Yeah. I got stuck outside the gate exactly once. Then I learned to roll. Problem solved. That easy.
i like how the "First Day in Hyrule Field" is placed, though...most first-timers WONT make it to the castle before nightfall, so its the perfect mini-tutorial to explain 'hey btw, Day and Night are actually different experiences'
@@rtyuik7 Yeah I think that's the way it was intended to be experienced by the developers on the first play-through. You get to see that you're not as protected anymore as you were in Kokiri Forest when the Deku Tree was still alive and watching over you, and you're subject to the elements now. In essence, shit gets a little more serious, which is a feeling that OoT continually ramps up over the course of its story and which is perfect, seeing as the theme of this game is growing up and becoming an adult.
Everything stated, "How are you supposed to know...?" All this information is either explored or stated if you talk to people in the towns and use the Mask of Truth. There is nothing "secret" in this game that is pertinent to completion.
"i know speedruners can get on the castle before night". just roll all the way. is not speed runing. speedruners kills ganon before you get in the castle
A first time player won't know that, that's not a valid argument.
@@Mqstodon it kind of is like if u press the a button you roll, and rolling is faster. i knew that when i first played. ive always been able to get to hyrule castle before night
@@Mqstodon as a first time player you're supposed to get stuck outside at nightfall. The game wants to tell you that there's something different and night and that you can't enter or leave the castle town then
@@CommanderGinyu sure whatever
th1e_f sure whatever
I absolutely play Zelda for the story. Retrieving Link's 12 memories in BotW was my favorite quest of the whole game.
Exactly. How the hell are you about to say that you don't play Zelda for the story????? That's about 60 percent of the game. Especially in Majoras Mask. I don't take much of what this guy says seriously tho... His first time picking the game up was in 2012 and some of the other things he says is wildly dumb as shit.
Zelda games have been with me since ALTTP at 5 years old. If youve played any other game with a renowned "good" story, you realize Zelda games aren't meant for story.
Breath of the wild is one of my all time favorite games, but I've never been more disappointed in a story ever.
I disagree with this guy on a lot of things, but the reality is that the majority of fun in Zelda games is in the mechanics, the exploration, the boss fights, the dungeons, etc. The stpry is literally a tool to feed you those things. If you enjoy that tool, the that's a bonus.
Censored Smash “Story” in this case is more than just the direct storyline. It’s the atmosphere, the characters, the nuances of the world. There is definitely more to the story of a Zelda game than just the main quest line. The central quest generally serves to feed you the “main course” content of puzzle solving and combat, but the small enjoyable bits of characters, humor, and the storytelling motifs are the garnishes and dressings that make that main course so much more enjoyable. Zelda games have a very tight and concrete atmosphere that is distinctly Zelda, and there’s a gradient of serious to silly present, but the same elements are present in both Breath of the Wild and Wind Walker, which on the surface have two very different aesthetics and storytelling methods.
The story in all Zelda games after Ocarina are pretty simple and straight forward: save the princess in the land of elements (to create themes for the dungeons) with the help of a annoying companion. So, when you have this kind of repetition, in the end there's not really a story to tell. So much so, many people got invested into actually saving the damn princess only in Skyward because there was a love relationship going on. In all other games you just play the knight saving his master. Also, the time travel/multiverse shenanigans, the "lore" was developed on the fly and the connections among all the games makes no sense. Nintendo is not well know because of their storytelling. Zelda and Metroid have good atmosphere, that's different than tell a good story. I do agree that BOTW tries a little harder, but in the end, like I mentioned in the beginning... the "story" is a eternal repetition, you still play the knight rescuing his master (without a companion, thank god), the difference is that the master is bipolar.
I deadass ignored the memories on my second playthrough of BOTW
Yikes You essentially said "there's a wiki, so why would I want to see the lore info in the game?"
Yeah, it looks like he just rushed to finish the game as fast as possible, which i believe is the wrong way to play this game. It should be enjoyed, explored, without looking at any guide. The 3ds version itself even gives a bunch of new "hints", which i think ruins alot of the experimentation, because they show exactly what to do.
@@Rihcterwilker yeah but if you're an idiot like me you'll still walk in circles for an hour not knowing what to do so that's still not the greatest of game design.
@@Rihcterwilker the hints are optional, you only see then if you want, doesn't ruin anything
@@yuilinkmat9469 they do ruin the experience to new players that don't know they're straight up being told what the solution of a puzzle is, if they check it thinking they're only getting a hint. And a new player that is exploring everything will definitely use it everytime he sees one, oblivious that it is ruining many puzzles.
@@Rihcterwilker if a new plauer wants to see the solution of the puzzles, it's his choice, each one of chooses how to play the game, if you play just making the main story, go for it, if you want to see a walktrough and get all stuff without exploring, go for it, it's the players choice.
Also, if a person enter the rock thinking they will get a hint and get the solution and don't like that, they just won't use the rock again.
I will never tire of watching all the legend of Zelda retrospectives.
I don't know, I thought inmediately about saria. The music coming from the forest in the goron city was quite obvious... Darunia wanted some song and it was there...
About lord jabu jabu, I liked about the fish. Precisely because it was different. I had to think. I knew that Ruto was inside. Jabu ate her. So I needed to get eaten too. I should offer something tasty. He likes fish, because he ate Ruto. And I read something about making Jabu happy with a fish.
Pretty easy and witty if you ask me.
I was just a kid, not a too clever one by the way. Maybe I thought about it because I wasn't so intelligent as you. Sometimes intelligent people makes strange omissions due to being used to find the right answers easily...
These are the kind of conclusions a kid can come to but an adult would skip over. An adult would likely link the music to a shortcut, rather than "This character that isn't real hears it and likes it". They also wouldn't link the music specifically to "I should go and talk to Saria for the answer". The same goes for Jabu Jabu. A kid might indeed think "Ruto is a fish, he might like fish", but to an adult Zelda fan, the Zoras are not fish, they are an aquatic species. If Jabu Jabu ate Zoras regularly because they were fish, we would run out of Zoras. It's this key difference in the review that makes the comments on it so derogatory. Kids are more likely to try every weird solution they can think of without fear of failure or wasting time. As an adult playing for the first time, he dislikes repetitive failure without good reason, and time is very precious to us now. Wasting time is a cardinal sin to adult gamers. It's a key factor of the whole "retrospective" point and many of these views only apply as an adult playing the game, not s child playing the game. It's a method of thinking, not a matter of intelligence.
@@OGXenos that is a great explanation. I was kinda forced to watch the walkthrough of the labyrinths in botw because it's just a waste of time. I'm not gonna roam around and search for the right way, it takes way too long
I thought the music Darunia would start dancing to (and then stop) was a clue to something but I wasn’t exactly sure what to do, especially because why would they send me out of the Kokiri forest without teaching the song to me? Right?
I also thought something to do with fish to get Jabu Jabu to swallow me, but I didn’t think I could actually catch fish in bottles. For me, it’s not that the solution wasn’t obvious, it’s just that the method to get to the end was a bit strange
Or maybe I’m just dumb who knows
@@thomastyrrell49 Yeah no I agree with you. The game sometimes expects you to arrive at solutions somewhat arbitrarily by 'exploration' without introducing the player to certain mechanics prior, resulting in a lot of "I didn't know you could do that". Or at least, doesn't ensure the player has all they need when they get to a specific point.
For example, in Ganon's tower trial room, there are these huge boulders that you need the Golden Gauntlets for, which first of all doesn't even hint at you that such item exists/is needed. So I kept spamming A and nothing happened then found out that I need those and that they're in the Shadow room. At that point I had already finished the Shadow room and didn't see any chest or anything I was so confused. I went back looking for it until I got fed up, and it turned out it's activated by a switch tucked way to the side and below that you'd completely miss it if you were playing normally, which is rush to destroy the barrier as everyone kept telling Link to! I was soo frustrated
And don't even get me started on the part where you gotta hookshot to a chest in the forest temple. There's _literally_ no precedence for that! Or that you could explode bombs with an arrow in the Shadow temple to make a bridge.
people have mentioned KingK focusing on 100% completion / collecting more than exploration already, but i just wanted to note that this is a really good modern day interpretation of OoT. he isn't aware of this while reviewing, but the fact that he uses arguments like "you have to talk to every NPC three times" for the mask shop shows that he's not approaching the game in the way that the generation before did. and in a world of information and FAQ's, maybe it's appropriate to say OoT has in ways lost it's replayability over the years; which is ultimately healthy. it means technology is evolving at a rate in which we hadn't predicted, and that we need to learn from it's flaws and find ways to create games that don't fall into the same traps over the decades, or centuries.
Good to see someone in this coment section that understand what a retrospective is. Games can't evolve if people refuse to see the flaws of a 20 year old game (which is why all those nostalgia based kickstarters turn out to be shit, because they're stuck in the past)
@@night1952 @James Campbell You guys have the right idea, I like the game but even so, I'll talk about what I think could be better or don't like. Damn so many people want nothing bad said about it.
Holy shit thank you. So tired of reading these comments, "HOW DARE YOU COMPARE A 1998 GAME TO A 2017 GAME" because that's what a retrospective is, you dumb fucks!
Devolve*
@@Herf18 Who are you even replying to?
Ok. love this game but wholesome 8 year old homeschooled bastard me read "dont show this to my father" or whatever she said in that bottle and spent three days straight doing everything but showing him that goddamn bottle. Still love the game though.
That first second of the opening song gives me chills every time without fail
It's so interesting to see this game for the viewpoint of someone that didn't know the game back in 1998 - things you find frustrating, were never even mentioned as being so in reviews and conversations back then, you just played the game.
And he obviously did a really bad job at it considering how flawed some of his arguments are.
Some of those things were just accepted by the players because it was the first 3D-Adventure for many so they didn't complain about that since the game was revolutionary at the time.
100% agreed. As soon as he mentioned "you could just go on zelda wiki" the review became completely pointless. At the time you had to call your buddies and ask if they figured something out. If not you just did more exploration which, to me, was the fun part.
Also the complaints about how the enemies take awhile to attack was a flaw.....yeah no that was 97/98 AI. Of course its bad by today's standards but thats not how you should review a 20 year old game
Fundamentally, this is still a review. And reviews are by their very nature subjective and dependent on context and frame of reference. And there's a lot to be said for many of his judgments. A lot of them were flawed too, of course. Many of the things he had issues with could have been solved had he actually just talked to NPCs haha. Which may come down to him playing it as an adult: adults have less patience for games seeing as they can more easily just player another one when they can't figure something out.
I'm one of the OG players back when it came out. And I genuinely appreciate that he doesn't beat around the bush and does judge the game entirely from his own frame of reference. It's a lot more enriching to me than someone who pays lipservice to "my" experience even though it's neither relevant to them, nor really something they can truly experience on their own.
I think his critique is just making a really solid case for why this game in particular, as ground-breaking or important it may be to me and gamers of my generation, may not entirely be as timeless as we might feel. Because when we replay it, we don't just play the game. We're reliving a childhood experience. He's not as constricted by past experiences and can experience the game as it stands in the context of modern games. And I can't really fault him for feeling the way he does.
In hindsight, I just play this game still to inhabit the world. So some of the things he doesn't enjoy, don't bother me. Some of his critiques I actually do agree with. Even as far back as when I originally played it. The camera was awful and the combat was bad. And the puzzles you solved before you even did them did fall flat.
He did correctly identify the Water Temple as being clearly the best temple in the entire game, though.
I won't argue that your examples of "illogical" progression are brilliant design or anything, but most of those solutions are hinted at by talking to the NPCs.
Oh, also, very well put together video. I enjoyed it, keep it up!
Joe Mangum I don't think that's an acceptable excuse. I recognize they exist, but you shouldn't HAVE to progress the way the game asks you to.
A lot of Japanese games (Zelda in particular) expect you to talk to some NPCs to progress. This is not a wild idea and you're not exploring enough if you're not talking to people.
It actually is a good "excuse" since an average player will talk to NPCs ! You're maybe the only dumbass a heard saying bullshit about OOT progression system since it was a classical thing to do in those 90's and early 2000's games. Games we play today or more linear and you get guided all the way, obviously not a good thing hearing you complain about JabuJabu !
I guess by your logic, the worst elder Scrolls game would be Morrowind because you have to talk to NPCs to get directions to anywhere, find out the significance of certain items, and also to find side quests, as opposed to Skyrim which gives you everything on a silver platter with very little to explore.
I'm in the "N64 OOT is better" camp, and here's why: For all it's technical/gameplay improvements, the 3DS version's overly-bright, saturated color and unrealistic lighting alters the mood of the game beyond what I would consider acceptable for a "remake". The greens of the grass, moss, Link's tunic, etc., have gone from a perfectly realistic woodland green to a garish, glowing highlighter green. Earth tones are no longer subtle and realistic, but look as if an LED spotlight is being shown on them, even in what are supposed to be dimly-lit dungeons. Even the blue of the sky has gone from a pleasant medium blue on the N64 to a cartoonish robin's egg blue on 3DS.
In the N64 version, some things benefited from being dimly-lit or desaturated, such as the cutscene of young Link meeting Ganondorf for the first time. In the N64 version, Ganondorf is lit as he actually would look in a rainy nighttime setting. In the 3DS version, the figure, who is supposed to be wearing dark armor and mounted on a black horse, is literally glowing through the rainy atmosphere, which gives the scene a much less ominous feel.
The worst example is the final battle with Ganon. The N64 version has him mostly shrouded in darkness the whole time, so that he's a huge sillouhette, lit up ever-so-briefly by the lightning strikes. It's terrifying and disorienting. The 3DS remakers thought it would be a great idea to crank the saturation to 11 and then shine a huge spotlight on Ganon the WHOLE TIME, even though you're fighting at night, under a cloudy sky. This completely changes the experience.
One of the great achievements of OOT was nailing mood and atmosphere. The 3DS version falls WAY short. For all its attempts at better graphics, the game actually comes off more cartoonish than the original because of the inappropriate color and lighting.
I pretty much agree with all of this, and I think the Majora's Mask remake actually messed with the tone of that game even more, mainly through the addition of really strange over-the-top animatons.
Example: th-cam.com/video/gY3rh6H9SLs/w-d-xo.htmlm5s
Whose idea was it to put such a ridiculous idle animation for deku scrub Link into the game? This scene is basically turned comical by his lightning fast animation which looks completely out of place. It was much more subtle and impactful in the original where Link stood and contemplated the weight of the situation.
Another: th-cam.com/video/gY3rh6H9SLs/w-d-xo.htmlm5s
This nice heartwarming scene is turned very strange when the Gorons suddenly jumping up and down like overexcited kids on a sugar rush, which was completely absent from the original.
It's a bit strange that the developers decided to do this.
Also the N64 has everything uncensored(ex. Fire Temple Theme, Gannon's blood, etc)
Fair enough. I still prefer the functionality of the touchpad menu, portability, and the other benefits the remake has, though.
I remember going through the Forest Temple in my old tubeTV, in the corridors with stairs where you shoot the ghost's paintings, and even with RF cabe the image was so clean that a friend who is a Playstation fan said the graphics where almost on the level of the PS2.
Jazzberry Vader Not on every N64 cart.
About Sarias song and making Darunia dance. In Goron City a citizen (standing next to the lost forest shortcut) says "Darunia likes to dance to this forest music when he's angry." Which is a pretty obvious hint for what song to play for him. Also Saria asks you to come back to her when you leave for Hyrule Castle, so it's understandable that you'd have to go back to talk to her again and learn Sarias song. I think it comes down to the way you play the games, and maybe you didnt expect what she said would matter which explains why you were frustrated.
Most of what the characters say is important or will be later on. People that have so many complaints either wrote this stuff off or forgot about it then found themselves stuck.
This reviewer is just a moron. It’s obvious from all his criticisms of the game that he’s not really a thinker at all.
I played Ocarina of Time for the first time recently, and I was dreading the water temple because of what I heard, but it ended up being my favorite! There was never a more satisfying moment for me in the game tbh
Ye
Hey same thing here, even on the original version I enjoyed it a lot my first time through
That is funny. I never knew the water temple was considered so bad. Most places were equally challenging to me.
People have over exaggerated the tedium of the water temple to the point of absurdity.
I find it kinda funny that his complaints are the parts that I consider interesting and rewarding mechanics.
Which ones in particular? I'm kinda piqued (I agree with you, but I'm just curious)
I dont know about you guys, but I feel like if I have to run around forever searching for the answers, I have more fun that way, having everything given to you all the time, ruins the intrigue of exploring a world.
Tjh 95 lol yeah seen how this is the father to that game 😂 I can’t take this guy seriously anymore after that.
@T 995 Highly, highly highly arguably better. Personally, I much prefer Dark Souls to Ocarina any day. It knows what a challenge is.
Erick Hoch I love Dark Souls but I can barely stand playing past Anor Londo on repeat play throughs...the level design takes such a huge nosedive that I wonder if a different studio took over for the second half of the game lol.
OOT as an overall product is a good distance ahead of Dark Souls imo
IMO, the little secrets (Dropping bugs into soil, song of storms at the castle tree) are things that I miss in video games. At the beginning of this you were just talking about how annoying it is today that there's a persistent reminder of where you need to go next, but then you're criticizing the little hidden secrets throughout the game.
Maybe it's just me. I grew up with this game. I found these things out either by experimenting or socializing on the playground. And that to me is where secrets like this shined. I mean, after all these years, I only JUST found out a few months ago that you can literally go and watch a soldier die in a back alley of the Market in front of Hyrule Castle ONLY in that short window of time between when Zelda flees and you go to get the Master Sword. Having things off the beaten path is part of what makes these games magical.
Also, really loved fishing in this game. I spent a LOT of time there as a kid. I think our experiences differ vastly because you played this at a point in your life where you want to get through the game...and the people that grew up with it had hours to spend as a 7 or 8 year old just trying to see if they could catch the biggest fish. I know this is a "retrospective" but man, your complaints about fishing in this game sounds like they're more rooted in the fact that you don't enjoy fishing in general. "Bored of these visuals yet?" Come on. Lol. I highly disagree with what you're saying about fishing in OOT. It's a lot of fun. But opinions are opinions and we're all allowed to have them, but when you follow this up with saying the "Archery is laughably easy and a fun diversion" You kind of just made it sound like "BECAUSE the archery game is easy, it's fun. I had a hard time with fishing. So it's bad."
/rant... tl;dr fishing is fun, don't @ me
The secrets have to make sense though. Dropping a bug close to a hole because it will go in makes no sense at all. And it's not fun when an obscure secret that you'd have to randomly find by doing things that the game never explained to you counts towards 100%
RosesBubble doesn’t the magic bean guy mention the bugs? It’s definitely mentioned somewhere by someone.
EDIT: found it... the in game description of the bug literally says they prefer to live in small holes in the ground.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but this kind of goes back to my point in my original comment.
> People complain about Navi because she holds your hand.
> people don’t read in game description of item, then can’t figure out what item is for.
> people then publicly dis portions of games that “don’t make sense” because they didn’t read item description.
> game developer makes a character who holds your hand more than Navi, named Fi. They make sure to tell you _everything_ to do in an area.
> People complain about how Fi literally tells them everything and they don’t need that. Game is labeled “too easy.”
Do you see my point here
@@rexellate i agree although some solutions may not be entirely obvious its really cool figuring stuff out on your own
And the irony that fishing was too frustrating to understand while him also being a Dark Souls fan is so thick you could cut it with a butter knife lol.
@@rexellate Dude you put it into words better than I could.
I see a lot of gamers do this where they don’t get something because it’s too hard or challenging or isn’t outright explained, but then they love Dark Souls where literally nothing is explained and the entire game is built on tedium.
I just can’t wrap my head around the idiotic hypocrisy there lmao
Imagine being a teen in 1998 with barely any fully 3D console games in existence (that were worth playing) and playing this for the first time, everything in this game had a truly epic feel to it, even running through Hyrule field was such a cool experience. I can see how parts of the game that used to be surprising and fun now seem slow and quaint, I specifically remember back in '98 thinking about the original Zelda and wondering how my older siblings found it to be fun at all, and it was only 12 years old at that point, Zelda OoT is now coming up on 25 years old, I can't believe it. I think it's a fair review of the game, if my initial experience with the game was playing it for the first time in 2012 I'd probably have similar criticisms. With the connection I have to this game it will probably always be my favorite videogame ever.
39:30 When in sword combat with enemies like Stalfos, you can take advantage of the fact that Link is left-handed: keep to their right (your left), and you can hit them in their side even when they're blocking. I figured this out fairly quickly from being left-handed.
Same for me. #TeamLefties
@@ThyFloorestFloor Let's hope we will one day see the return of left-handed Link in a 3D Zelda game. I'll forgive Tears of the Kingdom since it's a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild with the same Link, but the game after that will be a new game with a new Link, so Nintendo will have no excuse.
@@matthewmuir8884even then without motion controls there really was no reason for him to be right handed in BotW lol
@@troumo Oh, I completely agree; BOTW had no excuse whatsoever. It says a lot that Aonuma was asked about it multiple times in different interviews and, every single time, he gave a different, contradictory and always nonsensical answer.
At this point, I honestly think it was a mistake: I think that the art director got used to drawing him right-handed as a result of Skyward Sword, drew him right-handed again by mistake, and no one noticed until it was too late.
@@matthewmuir8884 haha, might as well be. I wanted to see if it was a gameplay thing so I looked at Hyrule Warriors and even Knight Link is Left handed. So not every title after skyward sword has this change.
May be a localisation thing, but in the German Version several NPC tell you "I've seen that in the lost woods" when you talk to them with the Skull Mask.
While still not being a very fun sidequest, you are not entirely clueless.
On the contrary, I think he is entirely clueless
"No reason to play the N64 version anymore"
Someone obviously doesn't speedrun.
You can speedrun the 3ds version they left all beneficial glitches in the game and its and official release of the game. I speedrun it a little
from a speedrunning perspective it's essentially a different game. that's why it's categorized as a different game on leaderboards.
@@drop0ut606 I think its a better speedrun than the original
My reasons for playing the 64 version are the moody lighting and uncensored blood and Fire Temple music. :U
Sorry for the necro btw
The 3ds also makes everything lighter. I love the more darker atmosphere of the n64 versions. Especially on MM.
I wish everyone could experience this game in 1998, after experiencing PC games, or 1st/2nd gen console games, the original Zelda games, etc. Everything in the game provided such a awe inspiring sense of wonderment. I agree that some things are way too cryptic, and I cannot remember how I progressed through some parts of the game. Definitely did not complete 100%... But it was easily the greatest adventure game, if not video game, ever created for a long, long time.
I always felt that you not reaching Hyrule City in time when you first leave the forest was intentional. I mean the timing of the bridge raising and you being so close to making it feels almost scripted. I think they did it to make the city seem cold and indifferent to your presence (in contrast to the cosy forest) as well as introduce some of the mechanics of Hyrule Field.
If you took the right line and side-hopped or backflipped you could just make it.
And... introduce you to the fact that there IS a day night cycle in this game. Which was far from common at the time.
Dude I was terrified when I first played, and had the bridge close right as I was about to reach it, and I witnessed the undead at night for the first time. Only come to find out in my later years that those creatures of the night were actually fairly weak enemies.
You can absolutely make it to Hyrule castle in one sprint, I've done this, I've had friends who owned the game that have done it. He is incorrect.
Yeah, I've done it many times as well. It's not even super hard, you just need to roll/backflip a lot
Honestly I feel like the 3DS version made some... mixed choices when it came to keeping the atmosphere of the original.
Some of the animation looks awkward in the new framerate (Ganondorf's breathing before becoming Ganon comes to mind), but what was probably the biggest offender was how consistently bright every scene was. While the bright, colorful look worked well for the Child timeline (Kokiri Forest, the Market), it didn't do much for the grim scenes in the Adult timeline (the Shadow Temple, the final battle especially). It's a shame since one of the big things that makes OoT's story work is the stark contrast between the Child and Adult timelines. They were so eager to show these new, improved graphics that they sacrificed a lot of mood for it.
@Icebound VIII I agree with you completely, I actually love the art style on the n64 and people hate the controls but i grew up playing with it so it doesn't bother me at all.
It's the same damn thing in link to the past, dark and light world. Zelda games repeats some formulas to the point of exhaustion. Even BOTW have this contrast, the light world is the normal landscape, forests, etc.. the dark world is were the shrines are located, mechanical, futuristic, etc...
Sure, but the improvement heavily outweigh those few negative graphical changes. The controls, graphics, the boots being an item, etc, etc. Notice how the very little problems are strictly graphical lighting. Improvement on the 3DS version range from content to graphics to gameplay.
@@astrouphel I'd say the controls were more just translated to another system, rather than necessarily improved. But yes, I'll give you that the boots being an item was an improvement.
I'm just making the point that certain aspects that elevate the story (lighting, animation and camera placement are very important in conveying themes and moods) shouldn't just be brushed off with a game where the subtle storytelling is one of the big reasons why it's stuck with people around the world. Which is why I think there's an argument to still be made about whether to play the game in its original format (N64) or the remake (3DS).
@@makothetako I'd say play both. They are both great.
I feel like you don't even bother talking to the NPC's or thinking about how to solve puzzles or progress. You just look it up on the wiki immediately and just assume the game never told you, but really, you didn't look properly.
[Dr Death 3805] You’re so right.
the skull mask is the only one you don't get a hint for, though the redead mask and the bunny hood are pretty obtuse. The kid in the graveyard mentions he wants to be like dampe. That's supposed to be your cue to give him the creepy mask because dampe is supposed to be creepy. The bunny hood spawns a completely new npc to the overworld once you have it, and he spawns running away from hyrule castle in sight. Problem is there, you only see him for a few seconds and he's far off enough that you can easily miss him
@@chaincat33 I'm pretty sure if you talk to Saria while wearing the Skull Mask, she'll mention something about Skull Kid (can't remember exactly what she says).
@@chaincat33 We have a hint for skull mask : there are two skull kids in lost woods which already have this mask.
That's the point, the NPCs in this game (and many other Zelda games) are obnoxious. Many modern players will skip all the conversations with NPCs at the first glance because of how bland and boring they can be, there are higher standards nowadays.
It's remarkable how after 25 years I still know my way in many of these temples. Sidenote, the Shadow Temple still gives me chills.
An OoT review that DOESN'T shit on the water temple, but actually praises it? Thank you! Finally, someone besides me appreciates its intricate and beautiful design.
Not a fan of water temples but when it comes to that one there is just something special about it and the mini boss facing a version of yourself well that is just great on its own not keen really at all on the boss fight at the end but I do love the temple itself it is great and I enjoyed working my way through all of it so I do agree with what you said Andy. It's so good. X
I'm neutral with it
Andy Chelette agreed as tedious as it is the design is absolutely superb
I did hate playing it, but I do see how it was well designed and made. I'm just impatient lol.
"the other temples try and emulate the water temple"
wat
RIGHT😭 like the fuck kind of critique is that
34:45 the 200 rupees are infinite, he gives you 200 every time you enter the room.
Still not worth it. At that point in the game you don't need rupees for jack. Hell, you hardly need rupees at all throughout the whole game.
I know this is an old comment, but why would you go back after getting the last reward?
@@jacobmonks3722 I'm pretty sure the skultula challenge is there just for the bragging rights. Searching for them gives more extra gameplay to people who have otherwise cleared the game already. Did anyone really expect to be able to play as Luigi or some other high reward when finding all of them?
@@Assimandeli Actually that sounds amazing
@@Assimandeli Well not really, but it would have been cool if you unlocked a secret minigame or something. Or maybe a cheatcode screen.
“Can’t open shortcut to lost woods from Gordon city until you learn saria’s song”
Deku sticks: am I a joke to you?
Hmm. I enjoyed your video (I enjoy all your videos), but lot's of inaccuracies here. Most stemming from you missing hints from NPC's/Item descriptions etc. You seem to still think this is bad game design, but keep in mind OoT is from a time where you needed to actually figure things out without the game giving you an obvious path or holding your hand. Talking to NPC's for info and hints is a logical next step.
Seeing as you played the game for the first time in 2012, I can understand your frustration. But if I was able to complete the game as a 7 year-old in 1998, obviously the game gives the player everything they need. To be honest one of my main complaints about Breath of the Wild (which I'm absolutely in love with), is that 90% of the sidequests don't really require much thought on the player's behalf.
This actually made this unbearable for me to watch
My favorite is that he actually said the Mask of Truth was useless because you learn lore that you could just look up on a Zelda wiki. Like I get it, some people don't give a shit about lore and it most stones don't offer a tangible benefit for gameplay, but that's the damn point, it's just a fun way to talk to interact with what were otherwise silly objects that you could launch into space.
I liked it. I don't consider it the 'greatest Zelda ever', and to me it lacks some of the core things that makes Zelda Zelda, but if it was my first Zelda game it would set the bar pretty high as far as expectations.
Justin Barnes I physically cringed reading your comment
I am from Chile , I was 7 - 8 years old when i played this game without knowing english but with a giant english-spanish translate book
This is my least favourite retrospective, I feel like you just skimmed the game to get through it and missed out on a lot of the NPCs and story telling through the world. You just immediately wanted to know the answers, and probably just googled them. I honestly adore the N64 version over the handheld, I feel like a lot of the atmospheric parts were lost in the upgrade. Also, like many other commenters, I finished this game as a child and was not confused. Also, this was when using the internet for the answers was not a common thing, so I figured it out in my own. It really isn’t that cryptic of a game if you pay attention.
Talking to all npcs is not fun though, you said you played it as a child and that's probably why it wasn't tedious to you.
@@Mqstodon when one of his main arguments is things being archaic when things are actually explained in-game by NPCs, it's fair to assume he sped through the game and didn't actually give a shit.
@@Mqstodon You must not be an RPG fan.
talking to npcs isn't fun stop arguing that it is. things are incredibly easy to miss when you don't want to bother talking to every single npc. the argument about not playing rpgs doesn't work because zelda isn't an rpg, it's an action adventure game. talking to npcs for what can be hours on end kills the flow of the game hence why KK probably didn't do it. having to sit and read text boxes to get information is intrinsically archaic in today's landscape. saying it's not is like saying reading all of the books in skyrim, which has over 500 books, is the optimal way to play it.
@@luciboye5585 you're using a straw man as your argument right now. literally none of us claimed it was "fun," we started there's information you can miss if you DON'T SPEAK TO THEM. you would think if someone is stuck in a game they would at least consult NPCs to see if they have anything to say. there arent many in OOT and they take seconds to speak to, nothing like "reading all the books in skyrim because it's the optimal way to play it" lmfao
Most of the 'illogical' puzzles are actually solved by using gossip stones. They tell you to put bugs in holes and to play the song of storms near Hyrule castle.
ssbbshmot I actually guessed the bugs in soft soil thong because it says that they love soft soil.
Okay, the problem then is getting the Mask of Truth, which KingK says is also very cryptic because of the extremely vague/nonexistent clues as to who you give the masks to.
I have to say, mostly all the points made on side objectives and frustrating aspects, are exactly what shigeru wanted and implemented. It brings a form of community together to figure out and solve the mysteries or puzzles and that was shigeru's goal. That is why in the original zelda, you started out with no sword, and yet here we are still talking about this game 23 years later, so i think it worked...
strange, I played this game back when it first came out on the N64. and I had no problem figuring out the stuff your talking about.
Lord Kiyo Same.
Lord Kiyo I bought the 3DS remaster in October 2019. In fact the only Zelda game that can be played on a New 3DS I have yet to buy is Phantom Hourglass.
I have absolutely no nostalgia to any Zelda game other than BOTW (not too much), so don’t get overwhelmed by nostalgia when I review Ocarina of Time.
Spirit Tracks: 95/100 (Best Zelda, train gameplay is fun, out of this world music, great dungeons, and satisfying touch controls)
Ocarina of Time 3D: 82/100 (Keep on getting stuck)
Majora’s Mask 3D: 95/100 (Practice is key)
Triforce Heroes: 89/100 (Fun little puzzles)
A Link Between Worlds: 88/100 (Smooth art style)
Hyrule Warriors Legends: 78/100 (WAY TOO DIFFICULT, but great fan service such as music)
@@katalbinson6562 That all fine. Everyone has different tastes.
@@daniellclary but his tastes are wrong :D
The reward for 100 gold skulltulas isn't 200 rupees. It's infinite rupees. You can go back and get the gold rupee as many times as you want. Therefore infinite rupees. It feels like a lot of your complaints with this game come from your reluctance to explore and talk to everyone. That's how these games work.
came here to say this
That isn't good design though, once you've completed the side quest you will assume you have done your job with the spider house thus no need to return. It really wouldn't of been an issue for them to tell you or hint towards infinite ruppees but it does not, so you just have to "hope" you accidently stumble across it, bad design.
It's literally just entering the same room again. If you have ever played the game, you know that you go in and out of the houses all the time when you are first playing the game. It's not hard to figure out lmao. We were able to do it as children in '96, so can kids today if they put in the time. It seems a lot of people try to speed-run the game right from the bat these days.
Scott Billingsley
Its still a bad reward though, at that point in the game rupees aren't that useful anymore.
By the time you get to that point though, there's not much left to spend it on...
I think my favorite part about this game is in the 3D version (I don't know about the N64 version), whenever Link would complete a puzzle or battle that would open the door/open the iron bars, it would glitch out a little and he would spin around in circles. It was very entertaining.
This dude really complained that the combat in this 1998 game isn't like dark souls
THe game does teach you that Skulltulas love soft soil.. The curses spider tells you that
and i think there is something that tells you bugs love it too but not sure about that
You are perfectly right. Every so-called obtuse design decision in the game is hinted at somewhere in the game. It gives me the impression that the critique comes from someone who doesn't enjoy getting lost into the game, or that he has troubles adapting to old fashioned action adventure design.
I grew up playing Ocarina of Time back when it came out. I was 6 back then and have played it countless times since. Having said that, I do agree that the 3DS version pretty much improved the game and is definitely the best way to play it. The ONE thing I'll definitely say in defence of the N64 version is that if you want to play it on a bigger screen and go through the game with a friend, you can't do that on the 3DS remake.
Plus, tiny nitpick, I do think the N64 does a better job keeping Ganon's figure mostly in the dark during the final battle, adding some terror to the boss fight. In the N64 version, he's only lit up for a second, every time lightning strikes. It reminds me of the final battle in Yoshi's Island against Big Bad Baby Bowser. I think it adds atmosphere. The final boss fight on the 3DS version is a bit too bright for context. But it IS just a nitpick.
I honestly have the same nitpick. I enjoy seeing Ganon in his updated model, but frankly the brightness of the final battle is a bit disappointing. Far from a deal breaker, but still. It made the battle feel even more larger than life than it already is. Ganon isn't remotely hard to beat for me any longer, however that lighting change does make it feel . . . less.
The whole game is too bright. The lighting is all wrong in the 3DS version. Original was darker and added to the atmosphere and immersion of the game.
The overall lighting of OoT 3D is what has stopped me from playing it. The original N64 lighting adds so much atmosphere to the game that's missing from the 3DS remake, but I can totally understand why they changed it. When you're running on a portable device that needs to work outdoors, you can't have tons of super dark scenes.. it would be incredibly difficult to see anything that's going on.
"Ganondorf only appears briefly, making it a big deal when he does."
"Majora's Mask only appears a few times, leaving him an underdeveloped villain."
One or the other, please. I think they're both great in their own ways.
Ganondorf is an established character in the entire series, while the Mask has only appeared in one game. Try again.
@@Suiki1 tbf Ganon was an established character. This was Ganondorf's first game at the time. For first timers you would have been surprised to realise it was the demon king Ganon so I see his point
I think what King K was getting at here is that the mask itself only makes its big reveal that its its own thing at the very end, whereas Ganondorf, while his meetings are brief, does appear throughout Link's journey and make his full impression through that. I really think the comparisson is an apples and oranges deal, but it seems that King K prefers the oppresive and bold nature of Ganondorf making appearances throughout the journey, rather than the mysterious looming power of Majora truly unvieled at the end. Ganondorf you sort of know what he's capable of the second we first see him in Link's nightmare, but with Majora, while we know that it's powerful, you dont really get to hear from it personally until the very end of the game, and even that is all over the place since its a bit of a psychotic entity. I think it really depends on what kind of villain you prefer, the dogmatic dark lord and conquerer, or the psychotic destructive free spirit
@@DERyuga That's a fair point. I do love both styles. I think overall I just prefer the sense of melancholy throughout Majora's Mask but tbf i have replayed both games to death and will still replay them both again. Ganondorf does have way more preamble and is built up more than the mask (although I like the backstory in the manga).
@@taiskan Would it have been a surprise? It's in his name
You criticise the unclear objectives but remember that the reason so many people praise this game is for being challenging and rewarding. There was no flashing arrow telling you where to go back when games were fun. You had to explore, try stuff, speak to NPCs and get immersed in the world.
The best info you could get was from friends who played before or the Nintendo Power magazine.
Youre complaining about the lack of hand holding on the side quests... Uhhh. Compelling
@Jordan O. Yeah exploration buddy, figuring shit out yourself, though the rumble pack actually rumbled when the was a secret to be found like a bombable hole. So in reality all you had to do was just visit everywhere with the rumble pack and pay attention. Also if you hit things with your sword you can hear if it will break to a bomb, plus the bombable rocks all had visual queues.
@@kovi6203 oh great, now you need an extra accessoire just to maje exploration fun. "Visit everywhere with the rumble pak". Wow, sounds like so much fun when you have to literally crawl around every inch of the empty hyrule field waiting for a vibration so you can find the secret
@@johnwarosa2905 You get the item from the spider guys for it's use and then you have other factors such as the visual of the tree, like a circle of rocks or a boulder is also a visual indicator. Sorry the game makes you actually play it and use your brain.
@@kovi6203 oh i like playing a game but i dont like running around an empty field for 20 minutes in the hopes of finding a cave entrance with a spider or some damn rupees
@@johnwarosa2905 My above comment still stands.
17:00
I would argue the shadow temple is linear by design to give the player a claustrophobic feeling. It would make sense considering the temple geographically is in a well where you would expect long tunnel corridors with not many bends
Bottom of the well is in a well... Shadow temple literally has a staircase
Shadow Temple is in the graveyard, not the at the bottom of the well. Bottom of the Well is a minidungeon where you get the Lens of Truth, which is required in the Shadow Temple.
Ignoring the fact that the bottom of the well is an entirely separate area, this doesn't really address the design of the shadow temple. Contextualization for gameplay is important, but it isn't the gameplay itself. Unless you legitimately do value context over gameplay, which is obviously a fine perspective (though I would like some elaboration on your part if that is the case as my personal perspective dictates that gameplay is paramount).
@@vernaiko9536 Some people play games for the fun of accomplishment. Others do so to experience a new world. For better or worse, no other form of media can let you experience the land of Hyrule and Link's journey through it the way a game would. To that group of people, which includes me, gameplay is secondary. Obviously, we still like it when the game is fun, we like fun things, but linearity for the sake of enriching the world would not bother us. It's a whole another issue if the gameplay is awful enough that you don't want to play, but it doesn't have to be the most well designed thing.
To put it simply, to understand why some people don't think gameplay is paramount is to understand that challenge is not the only unique thing games have to offer. Challenging the audience is a unique aspect to games, it's the only medium that requires the audiences' input, but it's not the only unique aspect of games. Some people prefer the other unique aspect of games, the ability to be in a new world that feels real, rather than be in a game that is there to challenge you.
@@Sivielfer, It's funny because I agree with practically everything you said. I do enjoy things that aren't gameplay related, but quite frankly I don't see why a game cannot be satisfying to play with substance. Thank you for elaborating, but I'm not sure I was clear on my intent. I do greatly enjoy the non-gameplay aspects of games. Things like the story, subtext, theme, etc are important to me. However, if I cannot get invested in a *game's* gameplay, then I think it has already failed in some regard.
I understand what you are saying with the challenge point, in fact, I totally agree with it. However, I would use it as substantiation for my perspective. My point is more a lament that I think games can have both. Granted, I do prioritize gameplay, as it cannot be provided by any other medium, and the level of immersion a game can provide is also astounding. However, the non-gameplay elements take a backseat in my priorities of value, because if a game cannot provide something satisfying in some way to me, then I fail to get immersed all together. Gameplay drives that very immersion and it develops the story, themes, and other non-intrinsic elements of games. If we are to discount gameplay (or place it on a lower priority level), we are to forget that these things augment gameplay, and gameplay, in turn, develops them. That is why gameplay is so important to me.
I still remember the Jabu fish-feeding part from my first playthrough when I was 8.
I'm quite surprised to hear people complained about it because it was the first thing that came to my mind.
I remember thinking: "Yeah, he'll probably try to eat the fish".
How isn't it logical to assume that he can be fed and that this could be a way to get him to open his mouth?
I know, when I played the game for the first time, I knew I had to open his mouth, and I assumed that feeding him would let me in. The logical food for him was fish.
I think it's one those wonderful little thing that makes total sense to a kid, but an adult may overlook it.
Nintendo always had a grasp of that.
@@Canadish Bingo. There are many instances of that in this game. I absolutely LOVED fishing as a child. Found the sinking lure literally just by chance while playing and catching as many fish as possible.
As a child i beat this game completely(without internet) simply through exploration and intuition. Yes i spent a very long time on some of the more obscure tasks but that was why i loved it so much. Thats what gives it such massive nostaglia and charm looking back.
Same! Especially since the npcs tell you Ruto disappeared while she was supposed to be feeding Jabu Jabu.
The reason this game is considered a masterpiece is because it was the first 3D game with an amazing story, a great world filled with memorable NPCs, a badass antagonist, and an epic soundtrack with some of the most memorable songs to date. Lastly, this game's impact at the time matters because it paved the way for so many other games after it.
No OOT, no Skyrim or whatever games you love.
The only reason why I killed all 100 gold skulltulas was because I felt bad for the man. He just seemed so sad
That's dumb. 100 wild animals for a human... who was greedy?
That side quest is ethically terrible I always skip it.
@@linkthepig4219 You soft
@@train123z
Soft, but true, though. I mean, ur supposed to be the hero in OOT, so it's a little weird that the game asks you to kill like 50 seemingly innocent giant spiders just to let 5 greedy people better.
That, and I'm lazy af and can't be bothered finding so many skulltulas.
@@linkthepig4219 Well they intentionally place themselves in weird spots just to make our lives more inconvenient. SEEM INNOCENT TO YOU NOW?
@@train123z
Perhaps they aren't so innocent anymore...
See although I also found the shadow temple to be incredibly easy, the main difficult aspect was the fear I had going into it (which would have been far more prevalent if I played as a child). They make it easy, because exploring like in the water temple would have been terrifying. Imagine the Well, but way bigger. I was so afraid in the well, it was hard for me to figure out where to go, and everything was harder because you play as a child and enemies are just stronger. But, if fear wasn't a factor, I can see how completely boring the shadow temple would be.
The 3DS remake took away te darkness for me. The final Ganon fight was so awesome in the original because you could only see his eyes glow
Basically you want to be told exactly what to do with no exploring at all, and you want to be able to do it immediately. That’s what I got out of this video. I am extremely glad that ocarina of time forced you to explore to find answers. Every single thing you pointed out as something that was illogical was directly told to you by an NPC or just by learning a little bit about the game through exploring. You don’t have to talk to every NPC in the game to figure out every secret, there’s obviously logical things that hint towards who/where you should talk to people. If you’ve never played before and need more hints to figure something out, how is it bad in a game all about adventuring and exploring that you’re forced to actually adventure and explore to move forward? This whole retrospective annoys me because the game would suck if it played how he’d want it to play. You’d just speed through every area deemed “too long” and be told exactly what to do instead of having to stop and think for a second. Super annoying retrospective.
Also, he assumes every part of the game shouldn't take long at all and be simpler. I remember having to put the game down and ask my friends at school if they knew how to get past something. It seems people just fly through games these days, and if it isn't obvious immediately, or they get stuck for more than a few minutes, it's bad design.
Thank you SO MUCH for saying it. I agree 1 million times with everything you just said. I just got done 100% completing the n64 version and was actually gobsmacked by how well the game holds up. [Edit: and how I was able to get almost EVERYTHING just from former knowledge and exploring the world. I tried to to it guide-less but had to look up my last 2 pieces of heart after wracking my brain for a collective hour. It didn't feel good to do it but one of them I only wouldve gotten after exhausting ALLL other measures twice over, and quite frankly even THEN I wouldve been grasping at straws thinking it wouldn't work but trying just incase. It was in the graveyard under a random (not marked with flowers by the way) tombstone with a reDead that you must play suns song on in order for the chest containing the piece of heart to appeear. The other one was Dampe's race under 1 minute which I definitly couldve figured out had I remebered you can re-race him for a prize in the first place 😂. That is the ONLY instance in the game that I couldnt find ANY sort of hint towards, so I didnt feel TOO bad about that one. I was captivated by how good the world building is and how masterfully they designed puzzles and organically finding your way through the game. Whether it be talking to npcs that hint towards things, context clues in the land itself, or experimentation by the player. Ocarina of Time encourages adventurous spirit and exploration in its purest essence, and for that it will ALWAYS stand the test of time.] The design is GENIUS and downright IMMACULATE at times. The video started and I thought it was all dandy but then I slowly started getting more and More and MORE annoyed by the critiques he made, to the point where I finally just disliked. You need to comb through EVERY INCH of the game before you can comment on things like "illogical design" and "not being told 'ANYWHERE IN THE GAME' of a certain mechanic or progressive step". Yet he acts like he KNOWS for certain that everything is the way he says it is. He comes off as so ignorant and bitchy in this retrospective, ESPECIALLY during the latter half. I love this game so damn much, more than most, but it's by no means perfect. I'm ALL ears if you want to talk about its genuine shortcomings and things it could have done better, in fact that would make for a great video no doubt. But they need to be LEGITIMATE and OBJECTIVE points, not the cries of an incompetent and impatient gamer who felt so made a fool of and wronged by Ocarina of Time that he had to go bitch about it for an hour straight online and call it a "retrospective". This sounds more and more like a parody "CinemaSins" video by the minute. I would be ok with this if it WAS a "GamingSins" video or something of the like, but the fact that hes trying to pass this off as a retrospective is laughable at best and pitiful at worst. All he did is paint himself as a pansy who cant think for himself.
Jesus fucking christ, I watched this whole thing, there's some minor criticisms of puzzle structure in there alongside an overall summary of "a Zelda game that holds up amazingly well" but here are the Nintendo Adults in the comments, freaking out and writing paragraphs bc someone didn't record an hour of unequivocal praise.
@@mediumvillain all Zelda games have flaws. I’m capable of seeing them and discussing them. My issue is with mischaracterizing things. In this video, he says that there’s no possible way to know that the SKULL kid would want the SKULL mask. That the only way you could possibly solve this puzzle is by talking to every NPC in the game. This makes no sense and isn’t fair criticism in my opinion because it’s based on a flawed base. It’s a puzzle, you use common sense for each mask to think about which of the NPCs you’ve met might need that mask. When I got the skull mask for instance, the literal only two NPCs I could logically think might want them were skull kid and the kid in the graveyard. Again when he complained about not being told that bugs can go in holes - that’s just a puzzle. You can bottle bugs, you see holes of dirt in the ground, you know you must be able to do something with them and you play around with your options. It was just a running theme in this video of wanting to be told everything straight up and mischaracterizing certain puzzles that can be logically worked through as ridiculous and borderline impossible.