Zelda Ocarina of Time - Rememberance Thread

[veryjammy]

Considering that this is still my favourite game ever, over 6 years after its release, I thought I'd start a nice little thread for people to reminisce about its brilliance. For me no other videogame has had so many memorable moments.

However my initial comment is negative because I recently replayed it after getting stuck on The Wind Waker and was shocked. I couldn't believe how dated it looked, how clunky it felt. That was obviously due to the smoothness and refinement in Wind Waker but it made me realise how dated 3-D games can become in a relatively short amount of time.

However once I got used to it I remembered just why I loved it all that time ago - Saria's song, that funny owl, running across Hyrule Field for the first time and realising the scope of the game, sneaking into the palace, watching the first sunrise/sunset, watching Princess Zelda get kidnapped, seeing Hyrule Town become a desolate wasteland, riding freely on Epona for the first time, the Windmill man, that farm whose name I can't remember, sneaking out of Gerudo's fortress, escaping from Ganon's castle as it collapsed - a game has never had such a lasting impact on me.

Plus my favourite soundtrack in a game ever. Anyone want to add their favourite moments?

[WhiteNoiseMaker]

My favourite bit has to be going into the graveyard for the first time - you're there, and it rains. That's it, and it's awesome. Similarly, turning up at Lake Hylia blew my socks off.

I really liked Majora's Mask too, though not that many people would agree with me.

[Robbing the Dead]

WhiteNoiseMaker said:

My favourite bit has to be going into the graveyard for the first time - you're there, and it rains. That's it, and it's awesome. Similarly, turning up at Lake Hylia blew my socks off.

I really liked Majora's Mask too, though not that many people would agree with me.

The fucking Water Temple was a bugger in OOT. My friend was stuck on it forever. My dad gave up and made me do it.

[Mimternet]

This game is my favourite of all time too, I'm so glad you've started this thread. With the release of the new Zelda on the horizon I have been thinking about how great this game was.

All of the moments you mentioned were incredible. As was getting the master sword for the first time, plunging the sword into the stone to become grown up Link, seeing the mountain in the distance AND actually being able to travel to it and INSIDE it, and I can't believe how long I spent fishing just to get the giant Karp! I played this game to death. The soundtrack was awesome, the feeling of being in a living world was revolutionary. Everything about it was incredible.

While I enjoyed Wind Waker, it just didn't have the special feeling of the Ocarina Of Time world. Thank-fully the new version appears to be returning to that. Here's something to whet people's appetites if you haven't already seen it:




cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/article/513/513359/the-legend-of-zelda-gcn-200405110014488.jpg[/img]

[veryjammy]

How do you catch the giant carp? I've read stuff about a special rod you need to get it with but I'm damned if I can find it. When I first played the game at 14 I thought the water temple was the hardest thing ever. Recently I breezed through it but I don't know if part of that was due to memory.
Also never mind the other bosses, I found the Shadow Link sub-boss one of the most frustrating and hardest I've ever faced, it took me absolutely forever to beat.

I've started Majora's Mask twice and never got very far. I love the really dark sinister tone of the game but I've never gotten to grips with the time issue properly. I spend loads of time just chasing people around the main town, but I get frustrated by constantly restarting the clock. I know later on that there are tunes to slow down time etc, but I have never really clicked with the game.

Wind Waker was good, the graphics were sublime and while the sailing got a lot of stick sometimes it was glorious - e.g when night was turning to day while out at sea and the theme tune kicked in and seagulls flocked overhead is brilliant. But I felt some of it was too uninspired. Plus it was sadly obvious where the 2 dungeons were cut out of the game due to time restraints.

Is the new Zelda going to be saved for Revolution? Surely they'd be better using it as a launch title and utilising its power than releasing it when the Gamecube is practically dead?
The only thing that concerns me about the Zelda series is the dungeons - a lot of the block pushing and torch lighting is getting overfamiliar - they need some new puzzle mechanics.

[trollte]

I heart Ocarina of Time.
When I finished it I cried. I'm almost ashamed to admit that, but I was so happy. And all my new friends were happy too.

My favourite bits were Zelda's Lullaby, which can still bring a tear to my eye now, and was my ringtone on my phone for a while (I can't get it now for the type of phone I have). I think my new phone will use an mp3 as the ringtone and if so, it's going straight back on there.

The spiders dropping from the ceiling used to scare me, and those hand things that dropped from the ceiling too - I didn't like them.
Battling Ganondorf and then escaping from the castle.

Majora's mask got on my nerves because of the time thing. I got fed up of having to do the same things over and over.

Wind Waker I loved. But it takes such a commitment in terms of time that I found it difficult to get anywhere after getting so far. It would take 3 hours to complete something, and I can't do that at the moment. I think if I went back to it now I'd have forgotten where everything was.

[Snuff]

oh gosh i need to go and play windwaker now. I remember listening to Mandy Moore's album a lot when I was playing that so whenever i hear one of her songs it brings back memories of that game.

I love OOT. So many moments that were just beautiful. I love the stealth level at the fortress. That was so much fun. It was such an amazing game. The more I think about it the more I want to play. But the frame rate and graphics really does put me off. Which it shouldn't. I also got stuck on the water temple. I remember giving up and then deciding it's going to get complete. So every week on a friday i'd play it untill I relaly needed to go to sleep. I managed to crack it on the 3rd week. The bloody switch I needed was under the lift! Riding epona was amazing. I loved that part. And all the mini games to distract if you ever got bored. The shooting games and the the archery contest.

[Robbing the Dead]

I did Wind Waker in Japanese because I was impatient and couldn't wait for the US release. I didn't have a clue what was going on most of the time.

[veryjammy]

I would never consider importing Zelda because it's so text heavy, something like Mario or whatever is different.


I loved the dialogue in Wind Waker, some of it was so clever and self-referential. I can't remember the exact words but that guy who makes the miniature models when u take a photo of it - he made references to people not thinking Nintendo was 'cool' anymore and I thought that was so funny to slip into the game.

[Snuff]

The text in Nintendo games has always been very good. I love the gay pirate in Wind Wanker. He's great. And there's so many little lines like when the postman is having a moan and he say's "...and while i'm at it" and then he goes onto moan some more.

[veryjammy]

Yeh I think the dialogue in Wind Waker was much funnier than that in Ocarina, I think Ocarina took itself very seriously at times, although I guess that fitted the grandeur of the game.

What I like about Nintendo games is that they're not afraid to slip in details and characters that are completely unrelated to the game. Like in Ocarina, at night there is a weird blue man/monster type thing sitting under the tree in that Windmill village. And I can't find any point to him at all. He moans about people not liking the way he looks or something and thats it, he doesn't give any information away or reveal a quest and he never appears in the game again. Completely random.

I loved all the side quests in Ocarina. It took me absolutely forever to figure out that you can't beat the runner who challenges you to a race. I must have spent hours on that before realising he always finished a second ahead of you.

[WhiteNoiseMaker]

Doesn't that weird bloke have something to do with the giant sword quest? Haven't played through Ocarina for a while but I seem to remember something going on with that dude.

One of my favourite game things ever is that battleships style game you play with that guy in Wind Waker where he does all the sound effects himself and has bizarre little seaside style scenes he sticks his head through.

[Mimternet]

Yes, that ugly guy under the tree did have a purpose. He was part of some family secret, I can't remember properly what it was about but I know it took me forever to figure out how he was involved.

I think Wind Waker felt like a much smaller world to that in Ocarina Of Time, which is why I didn't enjoy it as much. It was all over too quickly. I guess that the two missing dungeons really had an effect, which is a shame.

The whole Zelda series is incredible though. It really has a special feeling about it that no other series does. Other game series have their own atmosphere but Zelda has that special something.

[Robbing the Dead]

I heard that when they were converting the Japanese version to the US and PAL versions they made changes, one of which was reducing the amount of sailing.

I played the Japanese version and there were parts where you had to sail for ages and ages in empty water. I suppose it did give an impression of the size of the land, but it was tedious. I used to point the boat in the right direction, point the wind in the right direction, set the boat off and go and make myseld a cup of tea.

I loved the bit where you went underwater back to the temple of time and stuff. I think it would have been better if they kept the buildings the same as in OOT.

With my Japanese version I got a bonus disc with OOT and OOT Masterquest which is like a harder version of OOT. I started playing but gave up.

[veryjammy]

im tempted to dig out Ocarina and play all the way through it just so I can find out what that weird man is all about. I remember trying to give him everything in my inventory and nothing worked so I gave up on him. You know a game is incredible when ur willing to dig it out just for a small detail like that.

I think it's a real shame Nintendo has fallen out of favour. Its games have so many hidden secrets and really reward in-depth play but the general gaming public wouldn't have the patience to pick up something like Zelda I think, I think sadly Nintendo are only preaching to the converted nowadays.

Oh and someone tell me how to get the giant fish!

[veryjammy]

Robbing said:

I loved the bit where you went underwater back to the temple of time and stuff. I think it would have been better if they kept the buildings the same as in OOT.

I forgot about that, that was my favourite bit in the whole game. With all the guards frozen, it was really eerie and creepy, it was brilliant.

What I hated in Wind Waker was the cheap way of dragging the game out at the end - you've got to find all these pieces of the triforce and we'll make u sail absolutely everywhere just to get them. Oh and u'll have 2 have collected 20 butterflies and 5 feathers and stuff like that. The first time I played it I never realised they were so important which I was thought was unfair cos I sold loads of butterflies to the man in the boat and then I realised I had to trek back through the game looking for more butterflies - very unfair.
And then, just to drag it out a bit more, we'll make u play all the bosses uve already beaten - cheap.

I think the brilliant thing about the games though is the little details that suddenly come back to u. Like in Wind Waker controlling the seagulls, and the puzzles where u have to keep swapping between that girl and yourself.

Or in Ocarina where, when u first meet the princess after sneaking past the guards, you look through the palace windows and there are pictures of mario and yoshi and peach. And if you fire something at the palace windows somebody chucks a bomb at you. And the Hyrule field theme, my favourite game music ever.

*sigh* I hope the new Zelda isn't too far away

[Snuff]

WhiteNoiseMaker said:

One of my favourite game things ever is that battleships style game you play with that guy in Wind Waker where he does all the sound effects himself and has bizarre little seaside style scenes he sticks his head through.

Sploooooooosh! I love that. It always makes me smile.

[Mimternet]

veryjammy said:

Oh and someone tell me how to get the giant fish!

I can't actually remember and I can't find any guides but I found this picture that shows you where it is:

db.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/file/zelda_64_pond.gif

It's the 20lb fish. There's also an eal, which is hard to get.

[Ezzie]

Oh, I loved Zelda. I have the SNES one, um....Liks Awakening...A Link to the Past...something like that. And I have OOT, but Ihave seen the others being played. I can't play video games to save my life, but I lvoe wathcing them being played. My friend Jo used to come over for sleepovers, and she'd play it. We finally finished OOT at a sleepover, and I went round hugging all my friends because I was so happy! I jsut love it. Haven't playe dit in ages tho.
We never finished the SNES one, it's still lurking somewhere tho.

[Steven]

Wind Waker annoyed me slightly because I hadn't seen any of the mermen pop out of the ocean to mark the islands on my map, so I didn't think much of it, only to find out now that all the triforce shards are sunk in the ocean and I need the maps to line myself up to find them. What a pile of old arse.

That said, I have had a lot of fun with the game, but I still don't rank it about Ocarina Of Time. That was just so vast and involving - and the battle with the two witches in the Spirit Temple is possibly my favourite boss battle in recent memory. And you get to ride a horse!

[Mimternet]

Pandarama - the producer of Wind Waker has admitted the shards collection at the end of the game was a poor decision and will not include anything similar in the new game. Which is good news.

I was thinking about Ocarina earlier and one of the things that made it so great for me were the areas that weren't created using polygons but in fact used painted backdrops like the main town. Coupled with the music it added so much more detail and life. The same was true with Final Fantasy 7. There's a level of detail that can't be obtained by 3D as yet. Baiten Katos uses this throughout actually, might have to look into that.

[Snuff]

mimternet said:

I was thinking about Ocarina earlier and one of the things that made it so great for me were the areas that weren't created using polygons but in fact used painted backdrops like the main town. Coupled with the music it added so much more detail and life.

I loved going to the town for the first time. It felt like a proper country village. Full of amazing sights and sounds and loads of mini games and the really beautiful church.

[oohlalaura]

Awww Ocarina! It was the first major game I got engulfed in and completed. Im pretty proud that I managed to stick with it and complete it when I was only about 14 at the time.

One thing I remember really clearly is when you have to earn Epona and save her from that horrible horrible nasty farmer man, (mr ingo?) and race him. It took me ages to beat him, and I had such a passionate hate for him considering he was a fictional character lol.

The great thing about it was all the memorable characters. I actually cared about the Zoras (aww little princess ruto) and the Goron (?) rock people. The mini quests and sub-plots were amazing as well!

Lol and who could forget the vengeful chickens. They're like the mafia!