4th assignment
2nd entry
Gameplay
A lot of games have a light/dark world type gameplay. Including the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Ocarina of Time has gameplay like this as well, but instead displays it through a time travel mechanic. You can go 7 years in the future. A really memorable part of the game is when you're older and you are told about stories of a boy with a fairy, and evetually you go back in time to play through those events. Also, the game features a fishing mini game. This mini game alone can be sold as a game on its own. Also, you get to ride your horse Epona. This horse riding element had yet to be done in 3D before Zelda. The control felt right. The fighting is amazing in this game as well. You can lock on to enemies with the Z button which was introduced in this game. Countless games have copied the lock on feature. It's really interesting when your enemies have shields and your attacks are blocked. This really shows off the game's A.I. while providing difficulty during battle. After playing this game for far longer than two 45 minute sessions, i realized that i had to write a game log about the entire game, rather than my 2 sessions.
Design
There is so much to mention in the game's design. The controls in the game were like no other at the time. The B button is used to swing your sword. However, Link isn't limited to sword fighting. He can use a large number of weapons to defeat enemeis including a bow and arrows, slingshots, hookshots, bombs, and many more. Also, the design for the puzzles is awesome. Having to light sticks on fire to light torches in the first dungeon is smart and clever. The graphics are jaw-dropping. Even to today's standards, I am still visually impressed. For its time, Ocarina of Time was the best looking game out. Aside from that, it was the biggest game out. The world is so massive, that calling it huge would be an understatement. Walking around Hyruleand going to a village is satisfying. While you walk from town to town, the game shows off its night and day system. When it turns night, wearwolves and skeletons come out and attack you until the break of dawn. Another design element is the fully interactive world. You can avoid the main objective and go to shops, find small hidden caves and even tease chickens. There is so much to talk about about this game that I would have to write the equivalent of 20 game logs. It's an epic game. This game has huge bosses, enormous environments, smart puzzles, impressive combat, beautiful graphics, fun control, great sound, an innovative target-system, an unforgettable story, and a fully interactive world. Ocarina of Time was revolutionary and remains as one of the greatest games of all time.
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4th assignment
1st entry
Summary
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time begins with the main character Link waking up from the Kokiri village. He is awaken by a fairy named Navi after having a nightmare about a young princess being kidnapped by the evil Ganondorf. Link was the only kokiri without a fairy and soon sets off to the biggest adventure of his life. The quest inventually turns into a rescue mission for Princess Zelda. Players must travel through dark dungeons, inside a volcano, inside a giant tree, inside a giant fish, and more.
Gameplay
Around the time of the game's release, there were only a handful of games that did 3D right. Nintendo was the king of 3d exploring at the time with Mario 64. It single-handedly invented the 3d platforming genre. With that said, the control feels very familiar to Super Mario 64. Better examples exist today, but Mario 64 was the only other true 3D platformer at the time, so I'm comparing them. However, Ocarina of Time is not a platformer. There is no jump button. You can still jump at certain points in the game, but it's an automatic action that Link does when walking off a ledge or bridge etc. Ocarina of Time was the first game to include an auto-jump feature if I'm correct.
Fans of the series will be familiar to the objecives. The same puzzle solving is here, but instead in full 3d. But Ocarina of Time does more than simply keep the old Zelda formula; it adds new innovative features as well. The main feature is the Ocarina which is like a flute. You can use it to solve puzzles, play simon says games, and just to jam out. When you actually use the Ocarina the buttons become different notes. This makes this game more than just an action-adventure game.
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