The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is an Action-adventure game developed by Grezzo Co., Ltd., Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo in 2011 for the 3DS.

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Overall 9.4    Graphics 8.7    Sound 8.3    Addictive 7.3    Story 6.3    Depth 7    Difficulty 6.7


Time to take off the nostalgia goggles... Oh wait I don't have any.   Zlinqx
I never thought I'd say this since I originally swore to never review this game but after the surprising amount of time it took me to beat this game, it's finally time for my review of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the 3ds... *gulp* Well I guess I should mention before I proceed that I'm relatively new to Zelda as a franchise and besides this game I've only really played the original for the NES and oracle of seasons, so I'll pretty much solely be judging this as a stand alone game aside from comparing it to the original for the N64. As such I really don't have much nostalgia for this game either. .Well with that out of the way, lets just jump right into it shall we...

Well uh before anything else, lets talk changes! So yes this being a remastering of the original game on for the N64, I figured I'd mention what changes makes it differ from the original. Firstly the most obvious and by far biggest one, the graphics. They've basically been redone from the ground up, the textures, character models you name it, the game really looks a lot better compared to the original but manages to retain that same somewhat cartoony feel instead of going for something more realistic. And I have to say it is really good by the 3ds standards. They are not completely flawless however as I have noticed a few traces of some details like some of the architecture in the villages looking dated however that is also more of a nitpick. and overall they really have done a great job remaking the graphics. The other thing I'd like to mention while not a huge addition or anything is sheikah stones.These are stones found in dungeons and some key locations which you crawl into which show hints about how to progress in the game in the form of short gameplay videos. While a nice idea if you absolutely don't want to use walkthroughs they often times end up making things a bit too obvious ruining the point of them in the first place. Another thing I'd like to quickly mention before we proceed is that the water temple has supposedly also been made a lot easier albeit it's still frustrating... Well moving on! A charming world but not the most grand of tales... You are the young child -insert chosen name here-, you live with the kokiri (which are basically exactly like peter pan in that they don't age, wear green clothes and live in a forest). One day you are chosen to go see the guardian of the forest, the great deku tree, which is basically exactly what it sounds like... A giant talking tree. It tells you that there is great evil ahead and he tasks with finding and getting the help of a princess named Zelda to stop it. So moving on the story is basically rpg/adventure game storytelling 101. You're the chosen one on a quest to defeat the ultimate evil that's trying to take control of the world of Hyrule it doesn't really get much more complex than that. Though there is a slight spin in that (minor spoiler alert if you couldn't tell by the name of the game) there's time traveling involved and it basically allows you to go into the future after the villain has nearly succeeded in gaining complete control. Now while I still don't think this was executed as well as it could've been. It's still a pretty interesting prospect especially for the time... Pun intended. So with that said I wouldn't really go in expecting too much depth from it, the characters while sometimes mildly interesting are fairly shallow most of the time and some of the dialogue is the kind I would probably skip through if it weren't for the sake of this review, that isn't to say there was the occasional witty joke however most of it is skip through. And while the game did try to surprise me once or twice I could pretty much see the plottwist coming from a mile away... Now all in all this wouldn't be too much of an issue if the game still wasn't fairly story driven, making you actually sit through a lot of the dialogue, and seemingly trying to get you somewhat invested into the story more so since a bit of the game (especially some of the side quests) involves walking around constantly talking to people. Thankfully though this doesn't apply that much once you're inside the actual dungeons which is where the main gameplay is and even so it is not the biggest deal breaker since while it can be somewhat annoying it's still not the complete focus of the game. And if you can take the narrative at face value it can still keep you somewhat engaged. Now the main narrative aside they did still do a fair good job making the world feel alive, NPCS can often been seen running around in towns or doing certain actions and running across the fields of hyrule the game still manages to convey this sort of feel like you're on a sort of adventure. The soundtrack somewhat plays a part in this well fitting the various situations pretty well though there really isn't any soundtrack that stands out that much and it remains more or less entirely unchanged from the original. Additionally constantly hearing child link say HEEYAAAAAA or Navi constantly say "hey listen" can get a bit annoying.

Progressing...

So the progression of the game is pretty linear, you spend time walking around in overworld going to a few different towns talking to people which is all in preparation for the next dungeon. Granted there are some side quests but they most of the time aren't really that big or complex usually either consisting of you doing some sort of minigame (which can be fun sometimes I guess) or going on fetch quests (which is not really fun at all), really only being worth it for the items or heart pieces gained. Going off track to explore the relatively small overworld (that was fairly large for the time) of Hyrule isn't really worth it either. Most of the time, you may find the occasional secret room to go through but it usually contains nothing more than a chest with a few rupees or some random item that you probably already have. Hang on did somebody say dungeons?  Now the dungeons on the other hand basically boil down to progressing from room to room doing two things, solving various puzzles and fighting various enemies. Now for the sake of making the review easier to digest, I figured I'd talk about these two things separately starting with the combat.

I present to you all... Z targeting™! Now this is my cue to talk about one of the big features of this game and one that has actually impacted gaming as a whole, I present to you: Z targeting™! (or in this game L-targeting™ ) which has essentially become the lock on system now found in many action/adventure games. While a staple of many games of the genre today this was a brand new concept when this game was released and it added a lot of depth to combat. Usually you were only able to hack away at the enemy occasionally dodge rolling from attacks but after using Z-Targeting™  (alright I'll stop with that joke now) you could lock onto an enemy  and you would suddenly unlocked a bunch of new moves you could not previously perform while at the same time changing the camera perspective to focus on the enemy. This system still holds up today for the most part, combat is still very enjoyable though it isn't entirely without it's problems. I have had camera issues while targeting enemies a few times such as it not locking on to the correct enemy, and while I can obviously understand this existing considering how the original pretty much invented the system it in the first place, I feel like it's something that could've maybe have tried to been improved a bit in the remastered version. Additionally while I did still usually enjoy the combat I feel that the enemies should've been made more challenging. The same thing applies for most, you lock on to it, it's invulnerable for some period of time, you stay within a certain radius avoid getting hit and wait until it derps and reveals it weak spot, attack and pretty much rinse and repeat in the exact same pattern, this even more so applies to a lot of the bosses (oh hey use this item you got earlier in the same dungeon to hit this literally big red glowy weak spot >.> ). So it's really not that hard but time consuming since the enemies are the ones controlling the pace of the battle which may cause them to drag out a bit sometimes hence making them feel like a bigger ordeal creating more of an illusion of them being difficult when they really aren't most of the time. And speaking about Z-Targeting™, when you lock onto an enemy all the other enemies just seem to kind of leave you alone (with the exception of a specific enemy) so pretty much another example of how to make it more time consuming have to lock onto and defeat each individual enemy. ZOMG there's a hidden button right infront of me... Wait what?

So basically every dungeon consists of several small environmental puzzles you'll have to solve to progress while fighting enemies in the process. Each dungeon usually follows a theme of some sort so some puzzles can vary but many are recurring. It may be about shooting a switch hidden somewhere in the room to open the door, pushing a crate to a certain spot to be able to progress forward or simply defeating all enemies in the room. Even if you don't use guides or sheikah stones at all most of them are pretty easy to figure out. Simply looking around a room to find the obvious hidden switch sticking out or pushing a block along a obvious path you know you're supposed to push it through since it's more or less marked where on the ground it supposed to be. And when it calls for you to use an item or the ocarina it's also pretty much almost always obvious. Granted there is still the occasional interesting, more challenging puzzles but most fall into the former category. And I feel like it's the same case as with the enemies, while usually not very hard the sheer length of the dungeon sometimes and the fact that there's usually a lot of puzzles makes it feel like a bigger ordeal and like you're accomplishing more than you actually are. That isn't to say that I always breezed through the game never stopping but I almost never really got to a point where I was stuck and had no clue of what to do. Despite all this it's a very TIME consuming game... Hawr hawr

I was quite honestly suprised at how long this game took me to complete considering all of this. While I wasn't really left wondering what to do too many times (though the water temple did cause some frustration) the sheer sizes of the dungeons as well as the enemies and puzzles in the game often being time consuming while not that hard does make it add up. Even the side quests like when I did quest to obtain a sword and had to run across hyrule several times and talking to people (again not really fun but the reward was worth it). The game also comes with the master quest mode, the original game with some modifications to make it harder (though I'd expect not that much harder). I didn't really feel like replaying the game again but it's there for those who do and want a bit more challenge. Concluding things

All in all I do still think Zelda Ocarina of Time is a good game but I really feel that it's hugely overrated considering the constant 10 out of 10s it gets and how it's even considered by many to be a contender for the best video game of all time. It had some revolutionary features for the time but at the same time already had a fair share of problems by the standards back then and combine that with some elements having aged and my score will be a 7.6, a positive experience overall but with it's fair share of problems. That's all for this time, next time It's time to actually take a look on a certain gem... 1000 viz to the person who got that awful joke...
  Graphics 9   Sound 7   Addictive 7   Story 5   Depth 8   Difficulty 5
      Review Rating: 5/5     Submitted: 04-20-15     Updated: 06-07-15     Review Replies: 16


Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D - Re-Re-Remake!   NVTaks
Here's the truth. You can't call yourself a gamer if you haven't sat down to play Legend of Zelda at least once. Enshrined in Video Game culture as one of the most successful, addictive, and all around fun games of all time sits the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Originally released in November of 1998 for the Nintendo 64, Ocarina of Time proved to be one of the greatest games of it's age, and is widely regarded as one of, if not the best Zelda game created to this day.But that's not why I'm here.I'm here for the remake. Now normally I hate remakes. A lot of times I feel like they simply take an original character and dress it up in a fancy costume to make it look different without having any actual changes. But 3D Ocarina of Time for the DS is a different story. The game transfers beautifully to handheld and created an adventure that I thoroughly enjoyed replaying on my 3DS.So, without further ado, let's review (hey look, I rhymed).Graphics - 9/10The revolutionary graphics OoT presented for Zelda games in 1998 came over to the handheld realm and had a similarly incredible affect. Long story short, the graphics are freakin sweet.While the locations of items and dungeon layouts remain the same, textures, character models, and animations have been dramatically improved. Now, while Nintendo could have messed with the graphics to make it look a bit more realistic *cough*Twilight Princess*cough* I don't think that would've been honoring the game. The 3D version of Ocarina is how the game is supposed to look. Cartoony yes, but also incredibly well defined.The only reason OoT 3D doesn't get the 10/10 is because I'm a nit-picky guy, and I always manage to spot problems. My only issue graphically is that some of the roof architecture and stair designs are a bit outdated, and look flat as compared to the rest of the game. Other than that it's a visual gem.Sound/Music - 10/10

Yeah, like you didn't see this coming.There's no way that I could ever dream of marking down a game that brought 13 originally, amazingly recorded tracks to the world of RPG gaming. I can't even listen to Zelda's Lullaby anymore without being hit by a massive hurricane of nostalgia. The featured original music spread quickly and had it's own fandom develop as youtube produced videos of hundreds of people playing OoT songs on their own personal ocarinas.The songs translate beautifully to the 3DS, and I'm honestly thrilled that Nintendo didn't pull something and left them in their original, perfect form. To not give Ocarina of Time a 10/10 on music is absolutely despicable, considering the game is a must have in the majority of gaming music's top 10 list, and received IGN's first perfect 10 rating, in part for the sweet tunes.Addictiveness - 9/10

Alright. C'mon. Who can honestly say that after playing a Zelda game they've NEVER felt compelled to try another or progress in the series? No one? I thought so.Zelda games are basically a fandom that once you enter, you don't leave. Ocarina's transfer to handheld made it available to a much younger audience who probably don't own a Nintendo 64. For a lot of younger kids who may not have been involved in the Zelda fandom, the 3D version of OoT was a godsend for their poor Zelda-less lives.Whether it be the desire to go back and play Oracle of Seasons or Ages, or to travel forward and play Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword, the Zelda franchise creates an atmosphere of constant addiction. Regardless of whether or not that's bad or good, it's certainly addictive and keeps me coming back to swing my sword and throw my bombs day in and day out.Story - 8/10Ocarina of Time revolves around the story of a young, green-clad teen/young adult named Link. The events of Ocarina of Time are set in the fictional kingdom of Hyrule, the setting of most of the Zelda games. Hyrule Field serves as the central hub connected to several outlying areas with diverse topography.The story is basically centered on Link's adventure throughout Hyrule, and his attempt at stopping Ganondorf (the gerudo king) from taking over the land and manipulating princess Zelda. The story line is wonderful, despite the princess theme being slightly overused in video games.Depth - 7/10I'd rank Ocarina of Time higher in terms of depth, except for it follows the same dungeon format as almost every other Zelda game. All Zelda games have the typical 8 dungeon format followed by the final boss whether it be Ganon, Veran, Onyx, etc. Ocarina of Time 3D, as amazing as it was, doesn't really stand alone against this format. While there are subtle variations, Ocarina of Time largely incorporates typical Zelda format which, while it does allow a lot of diehard Zelda fans to fangirl, doesn't allow for a large amount of growth.However, the world presented in Ocarina of Time is incredibly expansive, filled with open fields and room to explore the world of Hyrule. For this reason, depth reaches up to score a 7/10.Difficulty - 7/10Freaking. Water. Temple.Need I say more?But seriously, all in all Ocarina isn't a very hard game. However it is expansive. I found in playing the 3D version that the smaller screen would make it slightly more difficult to pinpoint my exact location, and it basically made it insanely easy to get lost. Dungeons for an experienced LoZ player are nothing. Except the Water Temple…….goshdarn Water Temple. For those who don't know the Water Temple is basically the brunt of multiple jokes from the Zelda world because of how impossibly difficult some of the puzzles are. But the Water Temple is definitely the extreme in terms of difficult level, and for the most part the game is much more simple to handle.Graphics = 9*20% = 1.8

Sound/Music = 10*15% = 1.5

Addictiveness = 9*25% = 2.25

Story = 8*15% = 1.2

Depth = 7*20% = 1.4

Difficulty = 7*5% = 0.35

Overall Score : 8.5/10Overall it's one of the best Zelda games I've played, and receives one of my higher review scores.Thanks for reading!
  Graphics 9   Sound 10   Addictive 9   Story 8   Depth 7   Difficulty 7
      Review Rating: 4.2/5     Submitted: 03-12-14     Review Replies: 10

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