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Preparation
Back in high school my friend Jesse would actually whistle the ocarina songs from this game at the lunch
table. The rest of us, not having Nintendo 64s, would throw things at him to make him stop. He did try to
share the Zelda love; there were numerous times when I went over to his house that he would try
to get me to play the game. Once I borrowed his N64, replete with Zelda, and got about three seconds
into it before turning it off. Shit, he even sat down with me once and got me all the way through the
second dungeon, but I could never get past that point.
Later, Nintendo ran a promotion where, if you preordered The Wind Waker they sent you a disc with Ocarina of Time (and a remixed version of the game, called "The Master Quest," which is a callback to the original LoZ and it's second quest. Anyway.). Several times I started the game, only to get about the same spot -- the end of the second dungeon -- and quit.
And I'm a huge Zelda fan. The original is, I think, the greatest video game ever made, and The Wind Waker is definitely in my top three favorite games of all itme. When I graduate my first tattoo is going to be a Triforce.
So I think it's about time I beat Ocarina of Time, especially since the newest Zelda, Twilight Princess, is right around the corner. And maybe then I can actually play Majora's Mask...for the first time. Ever.
To that end, I think it might be fun to keep track of my progress through the game, much like the guys over at The Skeptical Gamer. I will be using a walk-through simply because I have found the game, even with a walkthrough, to be unusally obtuse and hard to follow. So sue me.
To the Deku Tree
Listen!
Oh great. That's not going to get annoying.
I do remember that, at the time, the environments were pretty impressive, mostly because of their size. It's still pretty huge, but you've gotta love the clumps of grass that look like two pieces of perpendicular paper, and larger pieces that look like you could stand on 'em.
Design-wise, the game does a pretty good job of walking you through the new "Z-Targeting" controls, although the engineers hadn't quite worked out the bugs -- just try to click it off when there are several viable targets.
The Deku Tree is a fun little dungeon, but why does a tree have doors and switches, let alone torches?
The speed of the text annoys me. Either it's super-slow and unskippable, or skippable, but it all blows by too fast.
Why did I think the boss of this dungeon was so hard last time? I was actually surprised when it was over.
To the Castle
Ah, Hyrule Field. Remember when this was huge? Like, "Oh my god, I'm never going to be able to explore all of this!"
And then we get the whole goddamn OCEAN in Wind Waker. Ah well. I still love approaching the castle, and the Hyrule
market -- it is still impressive. And the time change! It was about this time that game designers were getting really
enamored with time in games -- Pokémon Silver/Gold come to mind. It's a neat mechanic, and they do well by not making
you put up with it for long, when you get the Sun Song. It's also about this time that the graphics stop looking so bad. They're still
blocky, but you can see the artistry inherent in some of the set pieces, like Hyrule Market.
You ever notice there are pictures of Mario and co. in the window to the right when you go to see Zelda? I didn't. Thank you, Mr. Walkthrough!
To Mt. Doom
I hate Gorons, I hate this whole dungeon. The one neat part was dropping the bombs into the skull. That was a neat puzzle
and some great dungeon design -- everything came back to the one central room.
To the Upgrades!
The walkthrough I'm using directs me to stop and do some sidequests, like the goddamn chicken
wrangling one in Kirikuro Village. I remember doing it way back when, and never being able to do it correctly. It was much
easier this time, although still confusing due to imprecise directions. Still hate it, though.
Speaking of mini-games, I don't like the ones in here, so far. The slingshot one was tough (until you figure out that going slowly is actually quicker), and the bomb bowling is ridiculous. Granted, you don't need to do it, but what Zelda freak wouldn't do each and every one of them?
This is where I had to leave the game and go to class, but my verdict this time around: I'm enjoying it much more. Maybe it's because I settled down to the fact that this is what I'm going to play and beat; I've got nothing else on my plate (after finally beating Metroid Prime 2 recently...almost two years after getting it...). It's also much easier, but I'm going to attribute that to having a walkthrough literally right next to me. Gotta love laptops.
To the...End?
I sat down shortly after the last entry and just ground out the last chunk of the game. Took about two and half hours and I
was fifteen minutes late for work, but it was worth it, since I'll never have to play this game again.
OoT is a good game, I'll concede, but it's highly overrated. Maybe at the time it was incredibly amazing, but I highly doubt that, as I remember playing the game when it came out and being wholly unmoved. I found the dungeons to be ridiculously obtuse, anti-player machines. If it weren't for the walkthrough I never would have had the patience to finish the game, what with all the dead-ends without any sort of clue as to where one has to go next.
The final battle with Gannon was neat (yet another thing trumped in Wind Waker), as was the mad dash out of the castle. The stupid mini-dungon before you coould get to see Gannon? Not so neat.
I'm glad I played the game, because it's an important one not only for the franchise, but for this history of video games. This is the progenitor of all the 3D adventure games that came after, and gave them so many areas in which to improve. But thank the Maker I never have to play it again, and fight the buggy Z-targeting system, the blurry textures, and the hackwork puzzles.
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