Worst 3D Zelda?

[prayformojo]

Egann said:

prayformojo said:

Nintentacle said:

prayformojo said:
Anyone who says OOT wasn't old enough to either play it when it launched, or appreciate just how mind blowing it was.

Seriously.

IMO, just because the game was mind blowing at the time, it doesn't mean another game can be better than it to people.

Which takes more skill and which is more impressive? A game that redfines the way video games are played? Or a game that refines a game that redfines the way video games are played?

OOT was a master stroke. It was an abosolute mastery of art and design. The distance between itself and all other 3D games in it's era was as wide as it could get. When you compare WW to it, you must keep that in mind. At the time, we ALL had played OOT and we thought WW was just more of the same, with cartoon graphics, easier difficulty and boring fetch quests. It didn't wow us. It didn't have much of an impact at all.

In order to judge a game, you must only compare it to it's peers. You can only judge it by what other games were being released at the time it was released. And when you do that, OOT stands alone.

OK, let's compare Ocarina to Xenogears. I know it's not fair to compare an action adventure to a straight RPG, but there really aren't that many games from 1998 which people still talk about. 

1. Gameplay: Ocarina. Xenogears' gameplay was not bad by any means, as chaining combos and piloting gears both worked well, but Ocarina shaped modern action titles, particularly if they used swords. The Ocarina influence on Dark Souls is significant.

2. Graphics: N64 games will always look better than PSOne games, but Xenogears was no slouch, either. It uses traditional anime/ Square techniques to cover it's shortcomings as best it can.

3. Story: Xenogears. Xenogears runs circles around Ocarina in this department. Other Zelda games--both before and after, but mostly after after--prove that Zelda can tell good stories when it wants to.

4. Total Length: Xenogears. 130+ hours, anybody?

 

So no, in context Ocarina was really, REALLY good, but it doesn't deserve the oodles of praise no game could ever live up to. It was a good game, but it had some critical shortcomings and has since been thoroughly eclipsed.

You're entitled with your opinion, but I completely disagree. There's a reason OOT is considered the GOAT and it's not because it was second class when it released. 

How can Xenogears be better than OOT when it wasn't even considered better than the FF games that were on the same system and belonged to the same GENRE?