147 replies to this topic

[kurt91]

This was probably my first Zelda game, and my favorite one. The problem is, the copy I had was probably the only classic Nintendo thing I owned where they forgot to give it that special protective coating of Nintendium that they coated all their stuff with back then. (Nintendium, the hardest substance known to man, used to cover old Nintendo systems and games to make them amazingly durable.) You see, I got my copy from my cousin, and played it all the time on my ancient gray brick of a Game Boy. One day I accidentally dropped it down the stairs of a split-level home. The Game Boy continued to work perfectly. The game stopped working entirely. My absolute favorite game when I was a kid, and I only got to finish it last year when I emulated it.

 

You know, there's a single-dungeon remake of the game made in RPG Maker 2003? It plays fairly well, if not a bit buggy. I kind of wish it would get a decent remake that fixed those couple of problems with the "heavy rock" messages and possibly removing the Piece of Power and Guardian Acorn items.

[The Satellite]

I didn't really have a problem with the Piece of Power or Guardian Acorn, just the annoying message and song that replaced the good soundtrack. Maybe something different, like a small chime that lets you know that it's active, or when it stops working. I dunno. That's my only problem with those items. "I love this dungeon song, I wanna listen to it forev— DAMN YOU PIECE OF POWER."

 

Sucks to hear about the broken game, though. Sounds like bad luck; pretty much everything ever made by Nintendo in the 90s and earlier was indestructible.

[Nicholas Steel]

They could have given some kind of graphical effect to your life gauge when you had an Acorn/Piece Of Power.

 

Anyways I think Link's Awakening and the 2 Oracle games are incredibly amazing, especially when you consider all of the gameplay mechanics the games feature and the fact that it is all done on mostly inferior hardware to the NES. Perhaps the only thing that held the NES back was the extremely small capacity cartridges? I notice dumps of GB and GBC games tend to be around 1MB in size while NES games are usually under 512KB.

 

My only complaints about the game are the messages when getting a Piece of Power, Guardian Acorn, touching the objects you dash through (Without equipping the boots), pots (Without equipping the bracelet) and the Compass (In the Deluxe edition of the game it has an extra long message).

 

I didn't find item switching to be a problem and seriously, the gameplay is top notch and incredibly varied. Various mechanics still haven't been taken advantage of in a new (Nintendo built) Zelda game. Like the ability to walk on top of the barriers that you can raise/lower with a switch, you can do that in LttP but it serves no real purpose other then to make yourself flicker in a state of permanent invulnerability (I believe the upcoming 3DS Zelda game will both feature it and require it, though).

 

Dungeons are (Arguably) a lot more complex in it then any later Zelda game Nintendo has made, too. Has there been any Zelda game that had a puzzle similar to Eagle's Tower? There is the Ice Dungeon in Majora's Mask but that ended up being a very tame version of the original puzzle featured in Eagle Tower.

Edited by franpa, 25 May 2013 - 08:56 AM.

[The Satellite]

Ocarina of Time

 

The year is 1998. The Legend of Zelda has had four entries, each one bringing new and awesome things to the table. But now the series is going in a direction it never has before: Three-dimensional. People were excited; after the success of Super Mario 64, Nintendo was only certain to knock it out of the park with their new 3D Zelda game.

 

Then it hit the shelves. People raved over the game, critics and fans alike. People were dying to get their hands on this new, amazing experience, and they were treated to something new, something different that hadn't been done before, and they loved and enjoyed it. It was a good time for Zelda fans, as Ocarina of Time delivered on its promise of shattering ground and providing a unique and wonderful Zelda experience.

 

... or did it?

 

Sure, when it was released, the hype train was a-chuggin', and you'd be hard-pressed to find a Zelda fan who didn't like it as much as the other games in the series. But has it held up over the years? Personally, I think it was behind even when it first came out, in retrospect. But only a little. Yes, I was definitely one of those kids sucked into the awe and thrill of the 3D experience, which, while impressive, was also blinding me to a blatant truth: Ocarina of Time wasn't new. A Link to the Past had already done this, just in 2D.

 

That's not to say Ocarina of Time isn't a good game. Quite the contrary, it's quite a fun game. But it's begun to show its age over the years, and, while immersive, has been bested by entries both previous and proceeding. The thrill of 3D wore off after a while, and when I analyzed the gameplay, the third dimension is really the only thing they added to the formula. I suppose it also allowed them to present the story more prominently as well, but the level of story isn't that much more advanced than A Link to the Past or Link's Awakening. It's just... well, it's what we've seen before, just with some small tweaks.

 

Now, I'm not accusing Ocarina of Time of copying A Link to the Past, because it has different progression and unique events, I'm just saying, they're still generally the same gameplay. It was merely the third dimension that was groundbreaking, though I suppose the transition was made very, very well, with its weapon systems, Z-targeting, and (usually) neat camerawork. But can Ocarina of Time ride on that alone? It could, but it shouldn't, as future games in the series made their own improvements that feel so much smoother than this game.

 

I don't want to deconstruct Ocarina of Time. I love this game. I like four, possibly five games in the Zelda series better, but I still love it. Does it have its problems? Yes. Has it shown age? Yes. Is it still a damn fine game? Absolutely. Graphically, it may be blocky, animations may be stiff, and the world may not look so impressive, but there definitely was a feeling to the game you couldn't shake. Some areas may have been lacking in size or wealth, but you got a distinct feeling from these areas. "This is my peaceful home." "This is a homely ranch." "This is a quiet village." "This is a lively market." "Well, um, there's water here?"

 

Okay, so the world isn't perfect. And it's probably not fair to expect the first 3D entry in the series to be perfect. The 2D games took a couple of entries to make it to A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, both with very excellent worlds. Ocarina of Time was merely the beginning. Might as well get the field out of the way, and, well, there's really only a couple of problems with the field. First, and this expands to the entire overworld really, is the lack of hidden caves and passageways to explore for secrets. Instead, you have holes in the ground. Whoopee. Second, it's the lack of much to do on repeat trips. There are few enemies, and by few I mean Peahats in the daytime, which are easy to avoid, and Stalchildren, which only appear at night. There are Poes as an adult, but only if you approach a certain area; if you're usually riding through on the horse, you'll never see these, apart from Big Poes, and they don't pose a threat at all.

 

What the field does do is provide you with an open world and the sense of being on a grand adventure. Sure, the scale of the individual areas may be small, even compared to the 2D games, but there's still a grand feel to them, and there's actually objectives and hindrances in these areas. Well, except Lake Hylia... that just sorta... exists. They only feel insignificant and smaller when compared with future 3D titles, which do expand on the scale and objectives. Still, they serve their purpose well, I think.

 

The world also isn't without its life. Er, apart from the field, I mean. The NPCs may not be as well developed as other titles in the series, but there's a definite sense of life in the game. The market is alive, the people in Kakariko Village run about their daily routines, etc. So it makes a neat contrast when you go forward in time, to an apocalyptic world, and things seem more dire and desperate by comparison. What's also neat is that what you do has a clear effect on the world; dark clouds hang over the ranch, until you snap Ingo out of it and Ganondorf's hold over the ranch is gone. Death Mountain has a ring of fire about it, shadowing the village, which lifts when you destroy Volvagia. It's really neat to see you having a positive effect on the world, even if it doesn't seem as apparent as other titles. Other games did it better, but Ocarina of Time still did it well.

 

I'm getting a bit long-winded here, didn't expect to embellish about this game. I'll get to my last two talking points: The story and the dungeons. The story was definitely a neat little adventure, giving us the origins of Ganondorf the man, and Ganon the beast. (True origins come later.) It was a great insight into the history of Hyrule, and the ensuing war of good versus evil. It's definitely a treat for those hungry for more history of Hyrule and of the legend of Link versus Ganondorf. If there were any weak points... I would say Nabooru. She doesn't really get enough development, I think. But otherwise, it's a real nice story, again, not the best in the series, but definitely an enjoyable one.

 

Then we have the dungeons. So, I suppose Ocarina of Time is a unique experience in that some of the dungeon ideas had some brand new and interesting ideas. Like a dungeon inside a giant fish. Or one that required you to complete in halves, once as a child and once as an adult. And I guess there's Lens of Truth puzzles and using the hammer to break a block to the next floor. Ocarina of Time's dungeons are definitely well thought-out and enjoyable in general. The first dungeon may be simple, sure, but it serves its purpose as an introductory dungeon well. And yes, there's the Water Temple... which can be tedious if you don't explore it thoroughly and find yourself having to backtrack, but hey, I still think it's a fine dungeon. I think Ocarina of Time had a very good selection of dungeons, which is essential to a good Zelda game.

 

In conclusion, Ocarina of Time is not the best video game of all time. It's not even the best Zelda game. But it's still a damn fine game, and a great experience worth playing through. There's a few things to dislike, but still plenty to like. The experience might be diminished a little if it's not your first 3D Zelda game, and you'll definitely notice a bit of datedness after playing future games, but it's still a good experience. If you love it, fine, that's okay. If you hate it, I hope it's not because other people love it, and because you genuinely dislike the game. I still consider it a very solid entry in the franchise, as it should be. Not the best, but far from the worst, and still fun to play.

[kurt91]

I kind of have a soft spot for this era's style of graphics. I mean, they look nice enough that you can tell what things are meant to be, are expressive enough that a decent artist/modeler can come up with some really neat stuff, and just have sort of simple charm about them. I still like the way games like this look. If I recall properly, one of the reasons Hyrule Field is so empty and barren was because they were trying to get the feel of a wide open, expansive world, but the Nintendo 64 wasn't powerful enough to do the job well. They realized that if they scraped by on the absolute bare minimum of things that the system had to process in the area, they could get a farther field of vision without fog and short rendering distances kicking in. For that, I kind of understand why Hyrule Field is the way it is, and for what it was trying to achieve, it did the job pretty well. (and it's still somewhat funny to watch people side-jump everywhere when they have to traverse the place. HYAH!HYAH!HYUH!HYUH!HYAH!) The massive fog in the Forest Temple was done the same way, with the sheer number of things and details put in making the area incredibly foggy and with a short rendering distance, I think.

 

I got this game around when it first came out, for my seventh or eighth birthday. I've still got that little gold cartridge sitting here in my room. I played this game to death, and loved it nearly the whole way through, and it was the first game I ever played where I went for a zero-death run. (I don't recall if I ever did a three-heart run, though) I admit, the Water Temple is pretty bad without a strategy guide or walkthrough, so I'm pretty happy about the tweaks they made for the 3DS version of the game. (I don't actually have a 3DS, but I like that they made the tweaks to make it bearable.)

 

My favorite part was always Zora's Domain. I love the visuals to moving water, and between that and the music, I used to spend hours just running around that place. I could never figure out a way to kill the Peahats, so I stayed out of Hyrule Field as much as possible to avoid them. I also didn't like how when you first got to the Adult half of the game, you couldn't use a vast majority of your equipment. I mean, I went through all that trouble to find that stuff, and now I can't even use it? I understand things where the size difference would make it too difficult to use the weapon properly, but couldn't they have at least let us use things like the Boomerang and just change it to act like the LttP one so it would just stun enemies? Claim that Link's new size compared to the Boomerang made it a bit harder to throw properly so it doesn't hurt the target as much, but let us at least use it for something!

 

I've got a bit more on this one, but I'll wait until you get to Majora's Mask to bring it up.

[The Satellite]

As for traversing the field, it's actually faster to just walk backwards with Z-targeting. No annoying voice clips to accompany it either! And it gets you across the field before sunset the first time every time, so it's an added plus. That's the only time I used it, though; didn't want to waste time fighting Stalchildren or standing still on the path waiting for sunrise when I could be continuing the main quest.

 

One thing I didn't really touch on was the items in the game. I think it's a bit goofy that adult Link can't use the boomerang anymore, but the idea of two sets of equipment was a neat idea, I think. Some people think some of the items were superfluous or useless, but I disagree; I felt like it just gave fighting another layer, with different options to take when fighting your opponents. Though it's nice when these items get expanded uses, like the Ice Arrows in Majora's Mask, but I'll get to those with the next game.

[Shane]

Ocarina of Time was my very first game. When I was five, I remembered playing around in the Kokiri Forest for the longest time. After days I discovered the Great Deku Tree, but I wasn't able to complete it due to me being somewhat scared of those Gohma babies. Few days later I managed to beat the dungeon and boss. It felt like an accomplishment. When I was six (a month later) , I found out Hyrule Field existed, when I saw it I felt amazed about how huge it was. The Peahats and even worse, the Stalchildren freaked me out back then more than they should of. Apparently Hyrule Field was meant to be much bigger than what it should have been; it was only half of what was actually planned as they were intent to surround Hyrule Castle.

 

Much later I beat the game, it was a really overall a excellent game and I still see the "legendary" factor of it today.

[The Satellite]

I definitely remember being freaked out by the game more than I should have as a kid. The first time I ever went into Hyrule Field, I wasn't sure where I was supposed to be going, I saw the ranch and ran toward it, but night fell, that's when I saw my first Stalchild. I freaked out and ran straight back to the forest.

 

Then there were the ReDeads, my first experience with them being in the Hyrule Royal Family tomb. I remember I had to go there to get the Sun's Song, but I didn't know how you got that. I saw a ReDead, wondered aloud if he taught you the Sun's Song... Yeah, that was a rude awakening. I was playing it with my cousins at the time, too. They laughed at me.

 

I do remember the grand sense of scale and adventure it managed to place on you as an impressionable child, or someone who hadn't seen such a 3D world before. But I do believe it was chalked up to novelty, as that was the first time we'd seen such a thing in a Zelda game. It's still a great game, I'd say so, just maybe not the life-changing experience we once thought it was. Well, I suppose it was a game-changing experience, but then games just started to improve that formula.

 

I updated my first post with an extra bit: I'm going to start ranking each game as I go. I figure that while I'm doing this, it would make it an easier (if not tedious) way to do a "best-to-worst" ranking list of all the Zelda games. I simply play a game, finish it, decide where it goes, then stick it in the list. By the end, it should be a fully comprehensive list that was carefully devised. Might take a while but hey, at least it'll be accurate. :tard:

[kurt91]

It took you a month after finishing the Deku Tree to find Hyrule Field, Shane?! I've got a bunch of little siblings who will spend all their time playing around like they're at a playground instead of playing a game properly (how else can you have a 50hr save file in Kingdom Hearts that's still at Destiny Islands?), so I can see how you could have spent a lot of time just playing around, but I've got to ask since you said that you had actually played through the first dungeon. Were you trying to play the game properly or playing like Kokiri Forest was your own personal playground? I mean, surely you would have at least accidentally stumbled through the door to Hyrule Field sooner than that?

 

I kind of remember the first time I found a Stalchild in this game. All I knew was that I was supposed to head for the castle, and I made the same first wrong turn and somehow ended up wandering around Lon Lon Ranch instead. My first plan was to run like hell to get to the castle anyways since I could see it in the distance at that point, and then discovered the hard way that the drawbridge was closed. I somehow accidentally fell in the moat, couldn't figure out how to get out quickly, and then discovered that they die when they fall in water. I hid there for the night and spent my time scooping up item drops.

[Shane]

I honestly didn't know how the concept of Zelda had actually worked at the time, and I couldn't read most words. So I wasn't aware that leaving the forest was required. Also I did take breaks in said month to play outside and all, lol. I realized later that the kid who blocked my way out actually moved.

 

Also TS, would it be weird of me to say my reaction of Redeads was a little different than yours? I kinda laughed because I had no idea what is was trying to do lol.

Edited by Shane, 27 May 2013 - 06:33 PM.

[The Satellite]

Majora's Mask

 

How do you follow the best game of all time?!

 

By creating Link's Awakening.

 

... okay, kidding aside, Nintendo definitely found themselves in a dilemma. They'd made what many gamers at that time considered the best game of all time, so how did they follow up that act? Well, for the first time in the series history, they would do it by recycling a game engine. Each Zelda game up to this point would have a completely new engine built for it. Majora's Mask, instead, merely took the Ocarina of Time engine and tweaked it. What Nintendo were probably thinking was that it was a safe bet, that if they stuck with what people were in love with, it'd be easier to make a followup hit.

 

Oh, and switching up the gameplay formula entirely.

 

Majora's Mask is not your typical Zelda. It plays similarly enough to one to narrowly avoid being plopped into that "black sheep" category along with Zelda II, Four Swords, and Four Swords Adventures. Well, in my opinion; I can easily see why someone else would want to lump it into that group. But while it has dungeon-crawling and objectives to reach between each dungeon, it does so... with a twist.

 

You only have three days.

 

The biggest and most obvious change-up in the game is the clock system. The moon is falling, you have three days to save the world. 72 hours. Each in-game minute takes only a second in real life, meaning you have exactly one hour and twelve minutes to beat the game. Okay, so the restraint's not that tight, as you can reset the three-day period by playing the Song of Time on the Ocarina of Time. But that comes at a price: All ammo and rupees will be lost, bottles will be emptied, and any good deeds you did will be forgotten. You'll still keep all the weapon items, gear, and masks you find, though.

 

That leads to the next big shake-up: The masks. The Happy Mask Salesman from Ocarina of Time returns, but now he's not merely some creepy-grinned guy behind a counter lending you masks to sell to strangers; he's actually one of the catalysts of the plot. Seen traveling with a large backpack speckled with various masks, he's had one stolen from him from another returning character, the Skull Kid. A mischievous little imp, he takes the mask for fun, not realizing the evil energy inside the mask that he unleashes upon wearing it. The world of Termina—nope, not Hyrule—is thrust into chaos, as just about everyone's lives are impacted by some strange magic the imp has cast. Including pulling the moon from its orbit.

 

Wait, that was more about the plot than the masks. Uh... well, the mask transformations are restricted to five (two with limited uses), and turn Link into new forms: Deku Link, Goron Link, and Zora Link. And no, they're not just magic masks that you can buy from the Happy Mask Salesman; you're actually allowing the soul of a deceased being to inhabit your physical form. Sound strange? You ain't heard nothing yet.

 

It is, in fact, the Deku Link form that you play through most of the beginning as. It starts as Link rides Epona through the Lost Woods, searching for Navi, when he's ambushed by two other fairies and his horse and Ocarina are stolen by the Skull Kid. Passing by the deceased form of the Deku whose soul now inhabits you, you make it to your first encounter with the Salesman, who tells you about the falling moon, the Skull Kid, Majora's Mask, and sends you on your way.

 

It's this point in my writing I realize I'm practically breaking down the game minute by minute, so I need to shift gears before this becomes the largest post on the site.

 

Majora's Mask is an experiment. Nintendo wasn't afraid to completely shake up everything and give it a new spin. They did that by... only giving us four main dungeons? Okay... The focus of this game is now upon sidequests, and exploration. Thorough... thorough exploration. Almost all of the masks you receive are through sidequests. Some grant interesting abilities, others do nothing but give you a Heart Container Piece if you use it in the right location. In fact, several masks are needed just to get other masks. But few of them are actually useful in the game's progression, the rest being there for only a few conveniences that are otherwise unnecessary. Helpful, but unnecessary. Though, I suppose that adds a bit to the depth of the game, like how the multiple items in A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time can lead to multiple ways to fight enemies.

 

Unfortunately, most of these sidequests end up pretty tedious. A lot of them feel unpolished and several of them require waiting till a certain time of day to participate in, so you'll often find yourself standing around doing nothing while waiting for that time. If you're knowledgeable, you can look into other things to do while you wait, but there's always the risk of being late to the original sidequest, so this can be risky. There's also the fact that you have to learn about the sidequests first (assuming you're not using a guide), which also lends to quite a bit of tedium. Sure, there's a helpful addition in the Bombers' Notebook, but this can be missed easily if you don't catch all five Bomber boys again as regular Link; you already know the password to the observatory, so why would you want to unless you knew you had to?

 

Sure, it's very, very interesting that all the NPCs are tied to the clock, and you can even observe them moving about and coming and going. But the game tends to be pretty rough around the edges because of the potentially-confusing aspects and often-tedious quests. It may seem the most like a living, breathing world because of that, but the clock function and rewinding of time is a feature that, in my opinion, should be a one-and-done feature, never to return. Zelda games play best without restraints, as the series has proven time and time again. That's not to say the feature is bad, it's just different, but one I'd rather not see again.

 

There are reprieves, as some of the objectives and quests are fun and interesting. But they can also be confusing and frustrating for first-time players. I suppose the same could be said of other entries in the series, so perhaps it's the time constraint that makes this seem a bit more like a problem and source of frustration. Most of the time, assuming you play the Song of Inverted Time, you'll actually have more than enough time to get through these sidequests the first time, though you'll likely have to reset the cycle to have enough time for the dungeon until you get better at the game. In particular, the Snowhead quest can be incredibly tedious the first time around, and if you don't remember everything later. Ikana can be confusing as well, and the Well portion is in particular a low point. Generally, the other quests leading to dungeons are acceptable and far more interesting, fortunately.

 

Now, let's get to dungeons. The series' biggest staple. We had nine of them in the original, seven in the sequel, eleven in A Link to the Past (12 counting Hyrule Castle), eight in Link's Awakening, and nine in Ocarina of Time. So of course, for Majora's Mask, we'd get the impressive number of... ... four. Well, I'm sure we can forgive them if their design is all top-notch, right? Well... Woodfall serves as a fine introductory level, but it's also pretty forgettable. Snowhead has an interesting gimmick, but it's also a bit tedious and can get annoying if you miss a jump or mess up the Goron rolling. Which... can be easy to do, and even getting into the place is a chore.

 

But we have Great Bay Temple, which I firmly believe is the best water dungeon in the series to date, and one of the best dungeons in the series. It's a new gimmick, it's highly interesting, and it provides us a unique and most excellent use of the ice arrows. It's an enjoyable dungeon that I love playing. Following that dungeon, we have the Stone Tower Temple... many claim this as the best dungeon in the series, or one of the best. I... can't see the appeal. It's honestly a bit short and underwhelming. Sure, you can flip the entire dungeon, but it doesn't really open up many new opportunities; they could have used additional floors instead and the experience wouldn't have been much different. And if you forget the boss key too early, well, you'll have to navigate the floor again to get back to it. Don't get me started on the Elegy of Emptiness.

 

So the dungeons aren't perfect, and it doesn't really help that apart from Stone Tower Temple, none of them have any enjoyable or memorable music. Sure, you can argue that there's still "tons" of other content to sink your teeth into, but considering the vast majority of this is optional and can be ignored entirely, it's not a heavy argument. Sidequests are dandy, but when your main quest is short and not the greatest experience ever, it tends to be a bit of a letdown. Oh hey, all the sentences in this paragraph started with s— aaaaaaaaaaand I ruined it.

 

But really, Majora's Mask isn't a bad game. It's just... it's not the most enjoyable experience. It feels like an experiment, honestly. With some tweaking and refinement, it would be far more fun. The characters being fleshed out, that's a good thing. Many of the characters are fleshed-out and interesting. There are tons of hidden goodies to find, always a plus in a Zelda series. The music is pretty topnotch. The atmosphere is interesting. The individual sections of the overworld are well-designed and have a life of their own, even if they don't connect as well with each other as Ocarina of Time's did. And Romani's pretty much the most adorable thing ever.

 

I'll say that if people thought there was nothing to do in Hyrule Field, have fun with the tiny, boring, and... random Termina Field. Even less to do there. It's just... boring. Yeah, sure, I suppose it's less annoying to cross. But it's still... empty. And still nothing to do in it. Not really an improvement.

 

Last thing I'll touch on is the story. The story is really found in the lives of the individual characters, rather than the game narration. All you know is, Skull Kid took the mask, he's causing trouble, he sealed away the Giants which are the gods of the land, he awakened evil, and sowed general misfortune in all of Termina. Now you got to stop him. That's it. There's really little to the main story, which in a way adds mystery to the land of Termina. But also questions. Questions we may never get answers to. Termina really is a mysterious and interesting place, but... we never really get any history or explanation for it. Most we get is the Giants, otherwise we know nothing about the land itself. There's the Ikana theories, which are excellent, but just that: Theories. It's both fascinating and disappointing...

 

In conclusion, Majora's Mask is certainly different. Not one of the best experiences ever unfortunately, but still an enjoyable one. If you know what you're doing. Though it can still grate on your nerves with the tedium it contains, and its lacking in dungeon design and quantity. It's my least-favorite of the 3D Zelda games, but that's due to its small scope and various annoyances, and the other 3D Zelda games are just superior in design, in my opinion. It honestly does just feel like more of an expansion than a unique game, but it certainly earns its place in the Zelda series. And I guess Tatl was better than Navi both as a guide and character, but even she gave me moments where I was annoyed with her. Still though, Majora's Mask is not one of the greatest Zelda games ever made, but it's certainly worth a playthrough.

[kurt91]

I don't have much to say about this one. The first time that I tried playing it, I got partway through the first dungeon and had to stop because I was trying to use a keyboard and couldn't get the exact angle I needed for a tricky arrow shot. The second time that I played it, I intended to record it for a mostly-blind Let's Play, but the recording software resulted in a badly stuttering video. I'm not going to try it again until I get a new computer that can record it properly because I still want to do the Let's Play, though.

 

Anyways, from what I did see of the game, I'm a bit mixed on it. I mean, I liked the setting and the general atmosphere a lot, but the dungeon design seems pretty dull. In Ocarina of Time, when you played through the first dungeon, it was fairly blocky (mainly because of the console's capabilities), but pretty convincing that you were exploring a hollowed-out tree. When I played through the first dungeon in Majora's Mask, it kind of felt like I was playing through something that an amateur threw together in SketchUp. The rooms felt very square and uniform, and the platforms were all basic shapes with only a few exceptions. Now, I might be remembering it wrong, but I recall feeling a bit disappointed when I was actually playing through the dungeon.

 

Still, from what I had seen in total, it didn't seem like a bad game, and I still think it could turn out pretty good when I do get to play through the rest, so I plan on giving it a chance.

[The Satellite]

Majora's Mask actually was never part of my childhood. I hadn't so much as watched someone play it or seen gameplay footage (except maybe in commercials) until a few years ago, when I played it for the first time. All I'd seen were pictures and I'd read stuff about it on wikis to get myself up to speed on the story. So it has no special place in my childhood, not that it needs one to be a good game that I love, like Skyward Sword. I liked it when I played it originally, but it just became tedious over the replays. Never at any point did I say "People were right, this is better than Ocarina of Time," though; I still feel OoT is the superior game, but I've covered that subject elsewhere.

 

Anyway, I wanted to get some more feedback, I've already asked a couple friends but thought I'd see what you guys thought as well; should I keep the entries on Seasons and Ages split, or combine them into one and talk about both? I'm leaning towards the latter (and have been given that suggestion), since they were developed together and released together as a package rather than individual games following each other with a short time frame between them. That, and because of that package deal, I can't really do one game and then talk about the other and what it brought to the table, since that's more or less gonna already be covered in the first. It'll mean it'll take longer for the next chronicle entry, but it'll probably be for the better in the long run.

 

Thoughts?

[kurt91]

I always thought of the Oracle games as one game in general. When you get to them, though, it might be a good idea to just do one large entry that goes over the games as a pair, and each game on its own merit. I recall that Ages was meant as a more puzzle-based game, while Seasons was more combat-oriented, so while both games are meant to be a set, they both have their own distinct feel to them, gameplay-wise. I remember hearing that there was supposed to be a third game to them, but it was cut in production. I've heard two theories about it. One claims that it was meant to be almost like a remake of the first Zelda game, and that you can see some of the leftover references in the two games that were released. (I believe that Seasons' first dungeon is on an island that you approach via bridge from the right side, similar to the first dungeon in NES Zelda.) The other theory claims that the third game was supposed to feature color as the theme. With this theory, I recall seeing somebody wanting to "remake" the game or something and had built a mock-up overworld map to try and show how the theme would work in-game. It actually looked pretty neat, to be honest.

 

Anyways, I'm getting off-track from what I was originally trying to say. Basically, you should talk about them both as a series and as individual games, because they're both different enough via gameplay that you will have a preference out of the two, and part of why I like reading these entries is because I like reading about your preferences between the games and why they are what they are, as well as being able to compare them to my own.

[Nicholas Steel]

^ What he said.