Rejoice, fellow man! The 3DS has been obtained. The journey begun. Just now, the monstrous Gohma has been bested and laid to waste at the hands of my mighty sword (and even mightier deku stick)!
To relive Ocarina of Time - though it is early on yet - is just as great of a pleasure as one would imagine.
To be perfectly honest, I'm thoroughly pleased with the 3DS and with its rendition of Ocarina of Time, so far. The system itself can only be described as graceful in its design - the music of OS itself, by the way, is a surprising, genuine highlight, featuring what I think is some of Kazumi Totaka's best work.
The 3D works. It does demand something of you, yet is rather subtle overall, but I think it adds significantly to the sense of immersion; depth is discernable at all times, but in Ocarina, this is particularly true during the cinematic sequences - the "fairy flying" panorama and creation myth certainly wowed me - which were obviously designed to take advantage of the 3D perspective (of the N64) since the beginning.
It might be because of the purported 3D, but I'm finding myself more appreciative than ever of the designer's original emphasis on (potential) movement through the depth (and height) of space. Much of the game is designed around this, of course; the battle system is the most obvious example, but the level design makes use of it as well. For example, in the Deku Tree, it is significant that there there is nothing of particular importance at the top floor, yet it remains a key component in the structure of the dungeon.
What does the remake add? The new interface is doubtlessly an improvement. Everything, I've found, is handy, though it takes some time getting used to. Little details have been added throughout the game; these range from subtle things like Navi pulsing with a blue glow, to new physics, to quirky little references and jokes, to the addition of new (often vegetative) environmental geometry, to entirely new sets of animations.
Speaking of which, I was a bit worried about the animation, but it seems to have worked out fine. Nothing is recycled from Ocarina of Time, but the new animations are generally good and sometimes quite funny (Mido is a riot). However, I do have some reservations with regards to Link himself - in particular, there is an abrupt "jump" between the frames of his slashing animation(s) and the pose before he unleashes a spin attack. I don't know how such an obvious flaw made it into the game, but it bothers me.
Otherwise, the graphics are more stylized (in terms of character design) and the colors are more evenly saturated, bathing the world in a warm, even glow. Both of these are changes I am fine with. Outside of the graphical presentation, the content is nearly identical - though, like Miyamoto, I had forgotten some of the finder details. The music is subtly different, due to the different samples; they are actually of higher quality, so it's all good, though.
I will most likely return to the music at a later time - there is a lot to discuss there - but for now... I think a little more playing is in order. Heh.
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