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Vayle's Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
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| [January 26, 2008 12:00:32 AM]
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Entry #2
GAMEPLAY
I began to explore the expansive world of Ocarina of Time more, and I have to say I am not disappointed. It is quite large with every zone having a distinct feel. The first area, the forest, was maze-like and was made up of different greens and many other dark colors, yet had a slightly magical feel to it. The Hyrule Field seems to go on for miles, which I imagine might get annoying later since Link does not run that fast, but still makes for tons of places to investigate. The Market is full of people - and sounds like it too, with several voices overlapping in the background - and I found myself spending a lot of time just running around and talking to everyone and trying what minigames I could. I keep finding stuff to do in this game, and its hardly repetitive, so the zones were designed very well in my opinion.
I also realized that time actually moves in this game, and that effects what or who you see in certain places. A scene you may see during the day could be completely different at night. Different monsters lurk in areas at different times of the day, ranging from zombies at night to some strange, flying plant-like things during the day. I think this is a great aspect of the game, allowing the developers to reuse a zone and have different events, minigames, and secrets depending on when the player is there. This, of course, made me spend even more time exploring a single zone.
I know I have not gotten far into the actual story itself yet, but so far I think it is written well for a Zelda style game. They make it clear what they want you to do next, with characters leading you in the right direction, but I also like that it does not force you to do the next story event right away. And with just a few lines of text, they easily give even just background characters personalities and quirks. I'm definitely looking forward to see where the plot takes me and what the new areas and dungeons look like.
DESIGN
I still have to say I am a big fan of the Z-targeting and the interaction display I mentioned in the first entry. But now that I've had more time to play the game, I was able to play around with some other features that were pretty good too. I like that they improved on the older games in the series, where when you got special items, you could only select one at a time. Now, they have three slots for items that you can attach to the three lower C-buttons, making it so I did not have to switch stuff in and out of my inventory as often. I would have liked if they had found a way to make even more items accessible at once, but three is still an good improvement.
I also like the way the use of the ocarina was set up in the game. When using it, the buttons are set up very similar to a real ocarina, with the four C-buttons representing the top holes and the Z-button on the bottom represent the fifth one underneath. It's a very intuitive design, simply made and easy to learn. I found myself interested to see what songs I would learn and what they would each do, since its obviously important to the game - it is in the title after all.
There are several unique items that can be gotten, as with every Zelda game. But what I like about them is how a some of them seemed to be designed to do multiple things. For example, a plain stick that Link can pick up can not only be used to swing at enemies, but also can be lit on fire, and from there can be used to set enemies on fire or used to solve a puzzle by lighting a torch or burning a web. I thought this was a smart decision on the designer's part, allowing the player to experiment with different items and see if they could find new stuff to do with old things, or possibly solve puzzles in different ways.
I mentioned earlier that I like how much there is to explore, given that there is a lot of space and that places vary depending on the time of day. The world was not only designed for exploring, but rewards its players for doing so. By finding a hidden cave or playing a minigame, you could receive a heart container or money or an upgrade to an item. I liked this reward system, it made it so exploration was not a tedious chore, but just simply fun. Even the music rewards you with a cheery tune for discovering something.
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| [January 25, 2008 02:09:20 AM]
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Entry #1
SUMMARY
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a classic Zelda game: third-person, sword-wielding hero that goes from dungeon to dungeon, defeating monsters and attempting to rescue the princess. Like its predecessors in the series, it has a huge, interactive world with plenty of puzzles, minigames, and secrets. However, this installment brought several new features to the series, including a 3D environment and many innovative controls.
GAMEPLAY
I have always been a fan of the Zelda series and had a lot of fun growing up playing the ones on the old NES and SNES systems. Somehow though, I had never gotten around to playing the N64 Ocarina of Time. But with this assignment, I finally found the excuse to give it a try. And from my first hour of gameplay - where I got to explore the cozy little Kokiri Village, talk and interact with its locals, and fight my way through the first dungeon - I was not disappointed.
This game being almost ten years old, I was expecting it to feel dated and not quite as exciting/interesting as today's games. However, I was surprised to not only find I was being pulled into the game's story, but also that the game had many features that probably help shape the way games of today are. All that wrapped into 3D graphics that were actually quite impressive for an early N64 game.
The first feature I really liked was actually a rather simple one, but it was helpful all the same. Often in games similar to Zelda or RPGs, you can explore items, talk to people, and interact in other ways all with the push of one button. While this is nice and makes things easy, it is often not very clear what you are instructing your hero to do. For example, if you're trying to look inside a barrel, but you're too close to a person nearby, you often end up talking to that person instead of interacting with the barrel. What I like about the way they handled this in Ocarina of Time is that in the upper portion of the screen, it tells you what will happen if you push the A-button (the interact button). If you're near a person, it'll say 'talk.' If you're in front of a sign, it'll say 'read.' If you're near a hole you can get through, 'crawl' will be displayed. It's such a basic little feature, but it made gameplay immensely easier and more enjoyable for me.
Another feature they implemented that made gameplay fun was the Z-targetting system. If there is something you want to interact with nearby, simply tapping the z-button will target it. Link will face it and the camera will give a clear, unobstructed view of it, staying on it whether it or Link moves. It has a fantastic range, allowing the player to talk to a townsperson from great distance or aim a sling-shot at a spider a floor above you. It was a pleasant experience discovering and using Z-targeting, especially since I was not expecting to find anything like it this game. It was remarkably easy to use and made the game flow easily in and out of fights.
Speaking of fights, that is where I found Z-targeting the most interesting. With a tap of the Z-button, Link was zeroed in on the enemy and could easily block attacks with the shield and do several well-aimed swings with his sword. This made encounters with enemies more fun than simple button-mashing, allowing me to strategize, to decide when to backflip-dodge out of harm's way or lunge at the opponent. It was definitely different and more enjoyable than the fight system I had expected to find.
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Vayle's Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Wednesday 23 January, 2008
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