- Spoiler: show
- 10/02 - Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition (Normal)
19/02 - Killer Is Dead: Nightmare Edition (Normal)
23/02 - Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (Prince of Darkness)
25/02 - Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2: Revelations (Prince of Darkness)
27/02 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Well, I finally did it. After all these years. This is a game that has been my biggest white whale, and has dogged me for pretty much my entire gaming career. Now I can finally cross is off my list.
Now I've got to this point I'm not too sure what to say. What can anyone say about this that hasn't been said already? Well I suppose I can give the perspective of someone who came to the game late, even though I do have familiarity with it from when it was still relatively new. I've owned it on N64, three times on GC (including Master Quest), and now finally finishing it on this Wii U version. I'm in two minds about whether I wanted to post this in the podcast episode thread, but I think I'd rather leave it to people with a closer connection to the game than I do. I'll pitch in on the MM and WW shows for sure though.
But anyway, overall impressions are good. It's obviously a great game that's well deserving of everything people say about it. It's remarkably well-polished for an N64 game too. On the whole it still feels pretty intuitive and responsive, while most games from the era I find to be unbearably clunky going back to them now. I even think the graphics have aged relatively well for the time. Sure, poly counts are low, and textures aren't great, but they're not that bad. Things still look like what they're supposed to for the most part, and I don't find it hard to look at at all.
There are a few areas which I don't think are so great though. There are a few control and graphical issues in some places. The first-person aiming in particular is awful. I've never really liked it in these N64 Zelda games, and time certainly hasn't helped it. The control is way too sensitive, especially on the Y axis, and the lack of a crosshair is incredibly annoying. I've never liked the pre-rendered backgrounds used in some areas either. They're muddy and horrible, and really jarring against the 3D models put on top of them. Of course the audio has somewhat aged due to the limitations of it being an N64 game, but they're not terrible. It's still very clear, and the arrangements are as great as ever. It's just the synthesiser sounds are dated.
All relatively minor complaints on the whole though, as in general it's a great game and still an excellent example of the series. There's definitely a good reason why the series is based around the archetype this game set.
A couple more minor thing; I've never really understood the hate people have for the Water Temple in this game. I've always found it fine. Maybe it requires slightly more thinking than the other temples before then, but it's still far from a hassle. The dungeon I have a problem with is the Fire Temple. I quite often have a bugbear with fire levels in games, and this is yet another example of that. I tend to find these levels just have way too many hazards, and unfairly punishing traps. Like in this game in the Fire Temple there are walls of fire that jump up in front of you everywhere, which can catch you out even if you're being careful. Incredibly annoying. Not to mention being bombed by multiple Fire Keese at the same time.
Since I was playing this on the Wii U I was also using a Wii U Pro Controller. Honestly I don't think that's a great controller for this game. Assigning items to the C stick is kind of fiddly. Since the housing of the stick on the Pro is smooth, it's somewhat hard to make sure you're pointing the thing exactly in the right direction, since the game is kind of picky about it. It's fine on the GC with its gated housing, but playing through it this time I was often pulling out item I didn't intend to, or accidentally going in and out of first-person view. Not the best way to be doing things. That said, I've seen a 3rd party company has just brought out a Pr Controller that looks just like a GC controller. Would have been useful to me here, but I'm thinking of still picking it up later.
Also, if you guys recording the podcast happen to think some of this is worth sticking in the OoT episode, then go ahead. Edit it a bit to make it fit if you want, but I'm fine with whether you decide to include it or not.
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