(Tl;dr video companion for this article):

Most of the time, one’s social problems can be resolved quite easily through the simple act of confidently exerting oneself.


Link and Zelda should have just implemented the “Focus” strategy when first dealing with Ganondorf. Would have saved everyone a lot of time

Yesterday was a predictably joyous day, as the Ocarina of Time Remake (OoTR) finally launched, and there was much rejoicing. Playing through the Great Deku Tree (the first dungeon) and making it all the way to Hyrule Field before I stopped playing, had me fairly convinced before I even put down the controller that Nintendo’s due diligence in giving care and concern to doing Ocarina’s legacy justice is well intact, as it is evident how much iteration and polish went into getting the game into that all important “Goldilocks Zone” of just right, and OoTR is bursting at the seams with this sentiment.


Except for Mr.Owl here, who Nintendo felt guilt tripped enough by fan memes to tone his obnoxious behavior the fuck down…which kind of feels like a betrayal to me on a certain level, as taking the annoyance out of Kaepora is like taking the complete bastard out of Ganondorf, but here we are

I think there is definitely a sect of Ocarina fans that haven’t played the original in a while, and maybe not even played the 3DS one in a similarly lengthy stretch of time, as one can not simply say enough about the enhancement of graphical fidelity imbued with this latest iteration. For as amazing as the original Ocarina looked when it first launched, and how the 3DS did a great job of “modernizing” the visuals…15 years ago, both titles are a far distance in our past, and the N64 release especially just looks so barren these days: seeing how sparse Hyrule Field is, with just this massively green smearing all across its surface and barely a bush to speak of just completely pales in comparison to the Remakes equivalency of vibrant vista, and that is one of the lesser items on our list of visually enhanced addendums that keeps ones mouth agape most of the time one is interacting with the experience.


For example: look at how fucking hard the Temple of Time is Temple of Timing

It’s crazy to think that the square footage of just The Great Plateau, the starting area of Breath of the Wild (BotW) is bigger per square foot than the entirety of Ocarina of Time’s surface area, and just how far we’ve come in scaling upwards in terms of sizeable overall worlds. Having said that, and with the acknowledgment OoTR’s more old school compactness, the facelift the game has received makes everything filled with such vitality and life, one really does stop to smell the roses, to marvel at all of the little details where once simply nothing existed there at all. The original Zelda was novel in creating this legitimate excitement of exploring and creating this genuinely hype vibe of what’s around the next corner, and this remake really does kind of recapture that spirit, as stumbling around Hyrule and marveling at all of the minute details one can marvel at never seems to exhaust itself of pleasant value.


The amount of additional scenery is absolutely marvelous, as it adds amazing flourish to the world without feeling as if it is disrupting the distilled essence of the original

One of the more understated elements of OoTR that I don’t feel a lot of people are talking about as much (everyone is definitely going off about the visuals), is how much of a fluid advancement the controls are, as they have been refitted to suit the modern player, but still feel as if they’ve avoided being too far removed from the source material, even with major additions to gameplay like a dedicated jump button. One of my favorite new additions is that Link can now move totally freely while aiming with the slingshot, where as in the original, he was normally glued to one spot, unless you zoomed in with it, and then you had some limited side strafing at your disposal. With totally untethered control while aiming, it almost makes those parts of combat feel like a third person shooter of sorts, which is a wild thought about a Zelda game, but doesn’t feel out of place at all. Combine all of this with the accuracy the gyroscopic aiming controls possess, where moving your controller adjusts your in game accuracy, and it’s definitely an experience onto itself, and an awesome way to play that I hope they focus on in an even more dedicated way in a future title.


I’m not saying let’s Shadow the Hedgehog the absolute shit out of Link and put a fucking gun in his hand for Christ sake, but the freedom of movement with the projectiles feels well suited and really opens up what kind of puzzles and combat encounters that would be possible if mindfully utilized

Old habits die hard of course, and in spite of Nintendo providing the player with the ability for Link to run, I find myself still committing to the excessive rolling, as if it was 1998 once again. I also somehow still haven’t gotten use to the fact that Link doesn’t auto jump off ledges anymore, and the number of times I’ve absolutely eaten shit as a result. Another old school moment of OCD reprisal is that I feel absolutely compelled to talk to every NPC there is, often multiple times, just to see all of the dialogue they have to offer, something I use to routinely do religiously in Sakaguchi era Final Fantasy games. Even though the overwhelming majority of the time, what they say is nothing major, or I already have it memorized I’ve read it so many times, I still act as social butterfly, and do not feel right until everyone has been spoken to before moving on. You just…gotta do it, you know?


Even the ugly ones

There are times when I’m playing a game, and I get to a certain part, and echoes of the general fandom unreasonably bitching about it just rings through my head, and the stealth section in Hyrule Castle is definitely one of those moments. I’ve heard way too often complaints about it, for x,y, and z reasons, which always just makes me scratch my head, as it’s a super lax sneaking section, with very little penalty for being caught, and in both versions, old and new, lasts approximately five minutes tops? The section just literally flashes before your eyes and its over. I know the reasons the majority of people endlessly complain about this, many times is usually simply due to a lack of patience, leading them to absolutely sucking complete butthole at being stealth, which is an issue I’ve brought up before in the past, but it really is such a blip of gameplay and so short, I’m amazed I have heard as much guffawing about it, even after all of these years.


Pro-tip: being successful at stealth missions involves not being seen

I was relieved upon entering Kakariko Village as not only has the town retained its haunting charm, it got an even greater expansion than both Kokiri Forest and Hyrule Castle town did in the remake, so Kakariko got even more…Kakariko-ey. To that point, I was crossing my fingers Nintendo wasn’t going to skimp on doing their part to “keep the creep” alive, by not scaling back the surprisingly unsettling and ghastly parts of Link’s adventure, on account of the more vivid visuals, and I’m happy to say the graveyard and mini dungeon held within both retain a terrifically eerie atmosphere, with both the audio design and new enemy models keeping the mood feeling as tense as ever, which I know is not usually Nintendo’s forte, so good on them for sticking to the spirit of the original and not just saying fuck it and going hard on vibifying the place all Luigi’s Mansion like.


Yes, these guys are still utter horror shows as they will still latch onto Link and fuck him in the face which is like, god damn Nintendo, all family friendly like one second and than this? But what of the children, Nintendo?

Even though the elements they’ve incorporated from Breath of the Wild are quite minimal, enough so that Ocarina retains its own identity, the little they do borrow helps a great deal, as BotW item quick swap system does wonders in streamlining the action and keeping the momentum going for Ocarina. It also helps there is a dedicated button for the Ocarina itself, considering how often one uses it, and even though it is pretty goofy they allow you to turn on a feature that lets the player hum any of the tunes to active them instead of playing the notes in game, the feature still remains undeniably (and frustratingly) charming.


Disclaimer: humming the tunes of the songs in the game will most certainly remove all doubt once and for all of what a fucking nerd you are

I’m not that surprised that after several hours of playing, following me finishing up the first dungeon, I didn’t even get to start Dodongo’s Cavern: the game just does a seriously good job of leaning into it’s re-imagining, to the point where it feels much bigger than it ever did, and makes quick work of your time, in how enticing it is to just wander around and explore as if it was your first time playing again. I will continue to look forward to my time with OoTR, and all of the new ways it will surprise me with its old school flair.

Till next time.

~Pashford