Part three of my mini Zelda marathon down. Ocarina of Time, which is either the starting or escalation point of many of the series' current problems. Arguably, the owl in Link's Awakening was the first helper character, but Navi takes it to a new level. Link's Awakening was the first to be a truly story-focused game with little (if any) room for sequence-breaking; Ocarina of Time keeps sequence-breaking but really throws the story in your face.
But it's okay if the game's still fun, right?
I'mma be honest, up until Zora's Domain, the game was nothing but a slog. Maybe it's because of how many times I've played the game by now, but I don't get tired of A Link to the Past. I honestly feel like most of the fatigue is the lengthy cutscenes and slow text; seriously, text is slow in this game, and I'm pretty sure only Skyward Sword's text rivals this game in slow text progression. I've said it before, but Ocarina of Time's cutscenes are just not friendly to repeat players. They're so slow and they take up too much time I'd rather spend playing the game.
And Navi... I've wavered off and on over the years as to whether or not I'd defend her, but I'm done defending her. "That's a door!" No, really? "Pay attention to the super obvious blue action icon at the top of the screen!" You're a genius! "You can dive in water!" No way, even with said obvious blue action icon telling me while I'm in the water that I can dive, I'd never figure that out! "This switch is rusted!" NO SHIT.
Coupled with the slow-ass text, Navi fucking sucks.
To be fair, I still enjoy the Zora's Domain and Jabu-Jabu segment, and, after getting the Master Sword, the game really opens up. It's a ton of fun to beat the Fire Temple, Ice Cavern, and get the Biggoron Sword before even setting foot in the Forest Temple. I took a detour to the well to get the Lens of Truth early before beating the overhated Water Temple. I swept through the Spirit Temple before tackling the Shadow Temple. The adult segment of the game is a ton of fun, especially once you have Epona to make overworld travel much faster, and warp songs to cut out a lot of travel entirely.
Hyrule Field is a bore. Early on in the game, I could have traveled to other places across the map if I wanted to, but... I didn't want to. Because I have no reason to want to walk across that wasteland without a quick way back. Like I said, the horse made it more tolerable. The hub world should really give you more incentives to explore, or at least make it interesting without being tedious.
I've grown disillusioned with Ocarina of Time, it seems. Still has some bright moments, but there are three things that drag down the experience for me greatly: Unskippable cutscenes, slow as hell text, and a sucky overworld. Oh sure, once you're off Hyrule Field, things are more interesting, but in-transit, it's just not very fun unless you're on the horse. When the inevitable second remake of this game comes along, I hope it's a ground-up retool, addressing some of these issues, or at the very least makes the text faster and the cutscenes skippable. And an option to keep Navi silent would be nice.
Onward to Wind Waker. Which I quite enjoyed for its story, making me seem like a hypocrite. 
