Ocarina of Time is Overrated

Gotta love that controversial eye-grabbing, fanboy inflaming article title...

""What if you designed a 3D Zelda in the mold of A Link to the Past where the entire world map was the hub world?""

Okay, we all agree that Ocarina of Time contributed hugely to the evolution of 3D games. Its "Z-Targeting" lock-on combat system was revolutionary and laid a foundation on which future games in many genres continued to build for years. The cinematics were engrossing, the world charming, the music immortal...but it's not the best in the series. Though we've seen them polish the basic Ocarina of Time design over the past couple of consoles, Nintendo is essentially still using the same flawed design from 11 years ago.

If I were to go out on a limb, I would say A Link to the Past is far superior, at least in terms of world design. Ocarina gave up one majorly important part of the Zelda fabric so that the series could go 3D: the overworld. A Link to the Past offered players a vast overworld that they could explorer at their leisure. It wasn't just some empty field to interconnect the other sub-areas of the game. The overworld was a living, breathing world to explorer at your leisure. And though everything was interconnected, the game design wasn't as open-ended as most might tend to think. Yes, you could go to any place you pleased, but you couldn't do anything you wanted. Your abilities were limited until you plundered dungeons and gathered necessary items, yet the dungeons needed to be solved in a certain order, lest you get pummeled should you decide to go against the games established progression order and narrative.

To an extent, I am quite forgiving that 3D Zelda slacked off on open-world exploration so the series could more easily make the 3D jump, but it's just silly that three console Zelda titles later, the formula hasn't evolved at all. 3D Zelda games are still essentially a series of sub-worlds interconnected by a rather dull and monotonous hub world, be it a field or an ocean or whatever. What if you designed a 3D Zelda in the mold of A Link to the Past where the entire world map was the hub world? I'm not talking Elder Scrolls IV here. Oblivion's fault was the fact that there was almost no narrative beyond the initial send off. You got lost so easily because Bethesda didn't pay enough attention to leaving a trail of bread crumbs throughout the world. The gift of Miyamoto's EAD team is that they know how to lead you around a map while giving you the illusion that you are making your own destiny.

Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time was a flawed design we've been stuck with for 11 years. Since then, we've had two more fields and an ocean, but it's all really the same thing: an empty wasteland to serve as a hub to the other segmented areas of the game. A Link to the Past didn't have a Hyrule Field, because the "field" was the entire world, interconnected and expansive. What if you put the best of both together?

Ocarina of Time was an amazing game for its time, but its world design is dated and any future sequels that follow that basic layout (as Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess did) only serve to further expose that fact. The best way to preserve Ocarina's legacy is to move beyond the issues which limited it. Keep the gameplay mechanics that started in Ocarina and were polished over the next three games (Majora, Wind Waker, and Twilight), but bring back the open world exploration of A Link to the Past and ditch the dated and restrictive "Hyrule Field" for the freedom of the entire world -- no loading, no hub map, no segmented sub areas. Just give me pure, unrestricted freedom. Rather than dumb the next Zelda down for a casual audience that isn't interested, Nintendo needs to go the opposite direction. Take Zelda back to it's core design. Imagine A Link to the Past's open-ended world map mixed with Ocarina's gameplay mechanics and perspective. Now that's a perfect video game just waiting to be created.


And yes, I love Ocarina to death. Don't send me hate mail. I'm just saying that nothing is perfect, and the best way to get closer to perfection is to point out the flaws in the past and correct them.

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Totally agree....its one of the most overrated games ever

his reasons are good as well!

The title may be mainly to get hits though....lol

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I can't believe this.

I will try to post something clever once I take a deep breath.

Kombo is overrated.

It was a pretty decent game, but by no means the instant classic best game ever its supposed to be. I got bored halfway through and never finished. It was the first of many Zelda games where that has been the case. The last Zelda games I enjoyed and finished were the link to the past and earlier ones (except 2 which sucked) and that dreamer game boy one (forget the name). Zelda doesn't translate well to 3D as currently imagined. There are at least 20 3rd person action/adventure games that are LOADS better in just about every way. That lock on enemies system the way its implemented is pretty bad and using ranged weapons is nothing if not awkward.

this will not end well, potentially longest thread ever?

griffinA said: this will not end well, potentially longest thread ever?

 

   Really?  I always thought Orcania of Time was one of those games like GTA4 where a lot of critics say its good but it never really hit the spot with real fans the way true classics like Mario 64 did (Mario controled WAY better and was infinately more fun).   Hell even Donkey Kong 64 was a better game (really all the rare adventure games of the time were better up through the end of the N64).

after the SNES I never played with any Nintendo console (well technically I didn't own SNES only NES and Mega Drive but played a lot at my cousin's)

so I wouldn't know if OoT, Mario 64 ... etc really that good or just overrated

I agree it is over-rated, but not for the same reason.

Impulsivity said: It was a pretty decent game, but by no means the instant classic best game ever its supposed to be. I got bored halfway through and never finished. It was the first of many Zelda games where that has been the case. The last Zelda games I enjoyed and finished were the link to the past and earlier ones (except 2 which sucked) and that dreamer game boy one (forget the name). Zelda doesn't translate well to 3D as currently imagined. There are at least 20 3rd person action/adventure games that are LOADS better in just about every way. That lock on enemies system the way its implemented is pretty bad and using ranged weapons is nothing if not awkward.

To notice the true beauty of the game, you had to have played the old games. The leap from 2D to 3D was a huge thing back then! As a kid, it was impressive. That's probably why you didn't enjoy it much Impulsivity, but that's my take on it. If you played the game after playing a bunch of third person games or other 3D games, yeah, you'd think it's just a normal 3D game when you're into this generation now or whatever. That's why you have to think about the time frame when the game got released and what it did to the gaming community as a whole.

It's just pure nostalgia going back at the game every single time (I usually do a run every year, hehe)!

I can see where they're coming from, though the pattern was largely broken in Majora's Mask. The series should probably head in the direction that Majora's Mask pioneered, taking advantage of greater capabilities that are now present, to a well-populated world with a lot going on, the majority of NPC's having a small story of their own as the game progresses

 

Not nearly as open-ended or overly-complex as Oblivion, but something similar in that regard too.