From the Nostalgia Network – Ocarina of Time

March 12, 2011

MvG viewer and JTV caster Chatia is doing reviews for each game she completes on her cast. This review is for the N64 title Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which was played during her Zelda marathon! Enjoy the review, and be sure to watch Chatia’s casts Tuesdays & Thursdays at 6 PM EST!

Oh, and fuck you Navi! -Duff

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Played on: Project64 Emulator

Defeated: February 27th, 2011

This is my favorite game of the Legend of Zelda series, which is a good thing because I played it through in 25 hours during my Legend of Zelda marathon. Keep in mind, it has probably been 10+ years since I have touched this game, so it was for all intents and purposes a fresh run through.

Ganon is after the triforce, and it's up to a time travelling hero of destiny to save the Princess Zelda and the Land of Hyrule from his evil ways!

Visuals

This game has held up surprisingly well for being released early in the N64 life cycle. The world is vibrant and colorful, and everything fits together nicely. The special effects are also done very well, such as when Link plays the Ocarina or casts magic. Some of the character animations are strange (that Great Fairy will poke your eye out with her boobies), but this is probably just a limitation of the console. Also, some of the ground textures render oddly. One of my biggest complaints is the way Castle Town is rendered, as it does not fit with the rest of the feel of the game and is just…weird. One of my favorite visuals is when you are coming down Death Mountain and you see the lights of Kakariko below you, or when you first come out of the Temple of Time as adult Link to see the ring of fire over Death Mountain…very cool!

 

Some of the character animations are strange (that Great Fairy will poke your eye out with her boobies), but this is probably just a limitation of the console.

Audio

Fantastic! Koji Kondo outdid himself in this one. There are so many memorable tracks in this game, I don’t know where to start. Who doesn’t feel the need to dance when they hear the Lost Woods theme? The nostalgia hits hard whenever I hear Epona’s song. This game simply has amazingly great music. The sound effects are also very good, with the snap of the slingshot, or the sound of fire at the end of an arrow really adding to the gameplay.

This comes with one exception: That god damn good for nothing annoying fairy bitch from HELL, Navi. I have no idea why the developers felt the need to make Navi the most annoying thing known to man (or MAN hehe I’m hilarious), but she does NOT shut up, and I can tell you, after 25 straight hours of listening to her, I was ready to commit genocide on anything that even SLIGHTLY resembled a fairy. HEY HEY LOOK HEY HEY HEY GAHAHAHAHAHAH! Sorry, still recovering a bit from that.

 

Editor's Note: Chatia was so upset with Navi, she wanted me to change her final review score for the game (and totally didn't). Needless to say, Navi was that bad.

Difficulty

This game has a really comfortable level of difficulty for me. It’s hard enough that I have to pay attention to what I’m doing, but not so hard that I ever felt like I couldn’t accomplish anything (with the exception of one boss, more on that later). The really nice thing about this game is you can choose your own difficulty depending on how you play. If you want to make it easier, get more hearts, get all the magic spells etc. Want a challenge? Take on a 3 heart run. This allows for nearly every gamer to enjoy this game, and play at a level they find fun.

Gameplay

One thing to keep in mind here: I played this using the Xbox 360 controller, which meant that my C “buttons” were really a joystick. This made some fights that are C button heavy very, very difficult, with the bongo bongo boss of the Shadow Temple feeling damn near impossible. However, other than that the gameplay is stellar. There are a lot of sidequests to do, or not do, as you choose, and tons of gathering, such as extra hearts and golden skulltulas. You can blow through the game in 25 hours as I did, or take your time collecting and finding every little trinket in every nook and cranny.

My one complaint about gameplay is once again that god forsaken, son of a bitch fairy, Navi. In order to lock onto targets, she has to fly to them. Often however, especially on boss fights, you have to get right up on the boss in order for her to fly up to them and allow me to Z target, which led to lots of misses. Also, the camera can really be your worst enemy at times, which I think was partially a limitation of the N64.

 

The use of a Xbox 360 controller made some fights that are C button heavy very, very difficult, with the bongo bongo boss of the Shadow Temple feeling damn near impossible.

CNN Cast Highlight: Full Length Ganon Fight (Final Phase Only)

Overall Rating – 5/5

This game was one of my favorites from the N64, and is definitely my favorite game of the Legend of Zelda series. If you haven’t played it, you are missing out!

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You can watch Chatia’s Nostalgia Network each Tuesday & Thursday at 6 PM EST / 3 PM PST, plus on select weekend days. Watch JTV’s own “CNN” at www.justin.tv/chatia12, and be sure to follow Chatia on twitter at twitter.com/chatia12.

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