Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is EXTREMELY overrated

Post Reply New Topic

Isn't that it, it was not just a picture with up and down having no real significance. With hitting 3D you have a real aspect for a character, it was far more believable that it was a world with people, it was not just sprites but like you really were on an adventure. Some temples played with your perspective

It probably shares very similar reasons why I consider the best current game to be Skyrim. It is a game that feels like a more realised world. Although one may look at Link being a more realised character, but still enough that you could put yourself in.

Too subjective, in some ways.

In my case, the 3D aspect simply has literally no effect on me whatsoever. Graphics stopped impressing me LONG ago, after having a hyper-powered PC for as long as I have, I've already seen the best of the best about a kazillion times over. Back then they had an effect.... sorta.... but even that wasnt all that strong. By the time the Gamecube era was underway, is right around when I stopped caring. And the N64 was, well.... it did 3D, sure. But not at all well.

As such, I only see the actual gameplay and design aspects, and graphics dont "get me into the character" or anything at all. Ocarina was full of obvious areas where developers simply tried WAY too hard to "wow" the player.... this not working on me at all, such as the actually-just-empty Hyrule Field.... while the SNES one used similar design as the earlier games, where every part of it was just stuffed with THINGS. You didnt have to walk for 20 years to get to the next area with interesting stuff in it, and the layouts of everything were more thought out, as the devs werent obsessive over things like "How HUGE can we make this place look, and how many polygons can we make it show?". With Ocarina, it wasnt "what can we do with this space", it was more so "how can we make this look", and that type of design has always just bothered me. And it always would, right up until present-day, where I've almost entirely given up on console games as a whole (most of them being high-budget cutscene festivals with little of actual interest in gameplay terms).

Again, I never thought the game was bad or anything, just.... not all that great. It was okay, but not good enough to warrant a second playthrough from me. Didnt really like much from that era, really.... the N64's selection was kinda not large at all, so I mostly just liked Mario 64, Blast Corps, Smash Bros, and.... that's it. My Gamecube existed for Phantasy Star Online (other games? What other games?), and the Wii can go jump into a lake.

Is Ocarina of Time overrated...? Not really.
I mean a lot of people do take their love for it too far.

Ocarina of Time did bring a lot to the table.

*Z-lock on (this is the most important innovation)
* Full analog movement in an adventure game
*Full 3D adventure game that actual had minimal issues (Mario 64 doesn't count)
*Good draw distance
*Passage of time (day/night)
*Used more buttons than any console game before it (8)
*Inventory system
*Water temple anyone?
*Fishing???
*Navi?
*That damn owl?
*was literally 32MB in size (though content was cut due to the cart)
*Controversial v1.0 release... Red Blood, Original Fire Temple theme sounding too similar to a Muslim prayer (Worth a lot if you have a launch day cart)
*V1.1 turned the blood to green
*V1.2 changed the Fire Temple theme
*v1.3 fixed the remaining issues


The point is Ocarina of Time did everything right, while setting the modern template for adventure games and giving us Z-lock on in 3D.

The 3DS remake is the definitive version with stable frame rate.

A Link to the Past was just perfectly made through and through being the pinnacle of 2D adventuring (My favorite Zelda)

The truly overrated Zelda game is Majora's Mask (Yeah I went there)!

Though both Skyward Sword and Windwaker/Windwaker HD are overly hated.

I'd say Majora's Mask is way more overrated than Ocarina of Time. I loved both of them as a kid though.

I think the reason why Majora's Mask gets so much attention nowadays is because of all the /x/ creepypasta kids obsessing over that dumb "Ben Drowned" meme. I watched the video of it back when it was still sorta new, and it was pretty obvious that it was recorded on an emulator, and that the game had been heavily hacked.

Ocarina of Time, even if you don't like the gameplay, stands as a very engaging world. It just did so many things right in regards to the fiction, it has great visuals, a charming world, memorable characters, all of this tied together with a legendary soundtrack, even if you don't like the gameplay, the artistic side of the game, both in the narative and the artwork itself is just phenomenal, it's probably the best example for for when considering games as artwork.

Zelda's lullaby brings me back to childhood, I think I was around 10 years old when I played it. I remember the hazy morning sneaking around the guards in the palace... oh the memories.

By the way I lost my Ocarina of time cartridge in a empty compartment above a fireplace in the apartment I grew up in, I was never able to reach it when it fell in there because I was being stupid,considering how obscure this compartment is, the cartridge is probably still in there...

Eh, sounds like sour grapes to me, Ocarina was and is a great game. It was revolutionary for the time, holds up compared to similar titles of the time, and is pretty universally well regarded, game hipsters aside. I'm one of the few people that will also stick up for Majora's Mask, though I will immediately concede that it was a bit odd, and that the structure took some serious getting used to. I also really liked Windwaker, possibly my favorite game in the serious after Ocarina, and I've been playing since the first one on NES; must be my not so secret love of sailing and the high seas coming out.

It's not a matter of anyone being "hipsters".... just genuine analysis of the actual gameplay elements (aka, the part that actually matters the most). In my case, yes, I know people like the characters, and people liked the story, and the graphics, and blah blah blah... not one of those things mean anything to me. If I want story/characters that are good, I'll read one of my extremely numerous books (that I read so much is the reason why I usually find game storylines to be bloody awful, as they just dont compare at all).

And as I already pointed out earlier in the thread, the game wasnt actually revolutionary, given that it did next to nothing that hadnt already been done. The Z-targeting thing was the one real thing it did that just hadnt occurred yet. Everything else? Already done multiple times, long before Ocarina happened. Oh, it did all these things decently enough, but none of them were genuinely NEW. But "ZOMG it's Zelda!! !", so everyone decided otherwise anyway. I'm unaffected by that, so it didnt change my thoughts on the game.

As for the rest of the series after that... I cant speak for most of it. Majora's Mask dealt critical damage to my love of the Zelda franchise... Windwaker dealt the final, killing blow (found it boring and too easy... to be fair though, I didnt like MOST things on the Gamecube. I owned one strictly for Phantasy Star Online).

If a lot of people think a game is one of the greatest of all time, and you don't, maybe it's because you just don't personally like it that much.

I have only beat it once. I found the final boss to be pretty easy and the player's guide made it sound to be very difficult to beat and it made the dungeon sound hard too. Then after that my attention span doesn't last long for me to stay interested in beating it again.

I know it was the first Zelda game to play it on the ground than in the air.
I found the Forest Temple song to be creepy.
Beating the race the second time to keep Epona was tough I could never beat it but always had help.
I found the owl to be annoying


I found Link's Awakening to be the easiest Zelda game ever and I beat it so many times.
I think the NES games are the toughest and I find them impossible to beat without cheating.

I played Link between Two Worlds and it was based off Link to the Past. I beat it in two days and then you unlock the harder version which means you lose more health when you get hurt by an enemy and there are less hearts to get when you break pots and cut grass and kill enemies. Also in Link between Two Worlds, you can beat the dungeons in any order but you have to rent items or you can buy it but it's expensive so I always rented. But you have to pay every time to rent it whenever you die. I would just turn the game off and start over from my last saved point whenever I died to avoid paying money to rent the item again.

I also beat Majora's Mask once. I am starting to think about getting it on my 3DS, same as for Ocarina of Time because I am more of a hand held player now than a console player.

I gave up on Skyward Sword because of dark Link and I found it impossible to beat him.

I only got as far as the rock canyon place with bomb flowers before I lost my N64 on a move to California in 04.
That owl was annoying, aaaannnnd let's not forget about that other sound... It sound's like it's saying HEY! LISTEN!
I wish Chuggaaconroy would do an LP of it. His Majora's Mask LP was great.

I've also found the ones who grew up playing nintendo will say it's a great game and the ones who grew up with sega and play station won't vouch it as even being a good game. With that said, I've beat ocarina of time maybe 30 times in my lifetime but I've never picked up or owned a single final fantasy game. Not a single person growing up that I remember cared at all about final fantasy but god forbid if you didn't have a nintendo 64 or pokemon for the game boy, there was something wrong with you. So, I guess the times had a bit to do with it too.

Come to think of it, I loved pokemon blue, but holy crap in hindsight, what a dull and awful game. Going around, battling zubat and rattata for 15 hours over and a game with quite possibly the most ridiculously easy bosses in the history of video games.. why was that game so fun? Losing was actually difficult in this game. Yet somehow I still have the desire to play it again.

The Ben Drowned creepypasta, whilst being really well, written, is in the same sort of overrate system as Ocarina of Time. It's given so much praise, mostly put as #3-#1 on any Top (insert number here) Best Gaming Creepypastas of all time. Like before, I will admit it's well written, and not too many pastas like Ben Drowned come around since it takes effort, but I feel as though it's given too much attention by fanboys n' fangirls alike on 4Chan and the Creepypasta websites.

To be honest, when I posted this thread, I was worried I was going to be ripped apart and angrily told off by others for having this mindset I have (I'm just like that, considering what can happen when you post something like this). Then again, this thread was made out of my frustration (somewhat), so I guess I am sort of at fault for acting a bit arrogant/aggressive in the first post.

There was this good video released quite recently by Gaijin Goombah that goes into what the best Zelda game is.

The video has annotations that link to two different videos, the first is a critical look at OoT by Egoraptor which includes a hate of Skyward Sword, and the second is a video by PeanutButterGamer which goes into why Skyward Sword can be considered a good game.

The conclusion made by Gaijin Goombah is that all Zelda games bring something different to the table while taking others away and that there is no better game, it is largely up to opinion. I kind of agree with this stance and I think it is important for those who want to look at them critically to understand why the other side may like them. 2D is great at exploration while 3D is great at having one experience the lore, one often has to be sacrificed for the other plus there is also gameplay and immersion to add and there is hope the next game might combine both.

I will also add in this picture which is awesome.

This bit, I think, is what drives my own opinions on the game, and why Ocarina.... and every single Zelda game following it... just bores the hell outta me.

I never, ever, *ever* play a game for it's story. EVER. Oh, I'll usually know what the blasted story IS, because developers are so damn fond of throwing it in the player's face, but that doesnt matter to me one bit. When I said I consider stories in games to almost always be considered absolute garbage to me, I meant every word of it. I read *alot* of books. The damn things are just littered all over my room. So when a game starts to introduce a story, THOSE are what it competes with in my mind... and not even one game has ever come even remotely close to approaching the quality and depth I get out of the books. The Zelda games are no exception, with the story being contrived and very cliche: "Evil jerk has kidnapped the princess!! ! Go collect the (insert number here) magical shiny whatsits in order to defeat him!! ! Talk with a great many one-dimensional characters along the way, with your protagonist who never, ever says a word!".

Not to mention... when I'm playing a game, I expect to actually PLAY THE GAME. Not watch it as a damn movie, with extremely linear progression due to an overload of focus on the story by the devs. Gameplay is what matters to me over everything else, because as far as I'm concerned, that's basically the entire point of playing a game to begin with. Ocarina became focused too much on the story, and the rest of the game simply became boring... easy combat, super predictable bosses, lack of exploration in a series that had always been known for it... and so on.


I still dont think the game is BAD, no no no. It clearly has quality to it. But I'd never do a second playthrough of it... it'd just be a cure for insomnia, really. But I can see why others like it, sort of, and I pretty much never get into arguements about this sort of thing with people I know, due to not caring enough. Of course, most gamers dont seem to be able to do that part, which is the part that's important. And thus, the yelling and flaming begins, because why not.