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Nemo's Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
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| [January 31, 2007 03:32:27 PM]
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Great news! I have finally been successful in getting the longshot! Wow…5 years later! Go Nemo! While playing this temple some more. I’ve been able to narrow down the types of ‘playing’ to 2. The first type of skill that you need is BRAIN power. It’s not about who can hit the ‘b’ button the fastest. Most of the challenges are puzzles. Now, every time I go into a new room, I take a few seconds to look around and see what kinds of obstacles are in there. Are there bad guys to kill? Are there blocks that can be moved? What about doors that need to be unlocked? Or, perhaps there are crystals? Taking these things into account can save a lot of time and save a lot of headache. I tend to find these puzzles much more enjoyable than fighting 100 little blobs that come out of the round and bounce around the room. The other type of skill involves how smooth you are with the controller. I find I am most lacking in this area. Aiming at objects is hard for me. I also think that I am not very fast at reacting to attacks by enemies. Still, since there is a balance of the two types of challenges, I am able to still enjoy the game. Zelda really does have it all!
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| [January 31, 2007 02:42:59 PM]
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Taking the game design has definitely started to change the way I look at video games. In Zelda, for example, I was very frustrated and was starting to think that the water temple was impossible. Now I look at the game with a new mindset… The game creator was not trying to create an impossible game. He or she merely wanted to create challenges that the player had to THINK through. I am now approaching the temple with more strategy. I am no longer wondering through random rooms. I use my map and compass to make sure there is nothing super important that I have forgotten. Already, after only 45 minutes of playing, I have gotten further than I had 5 years ago after a good few hours of banging my head against the wall. Also, I noticed that the game works very hard to give small hints as to what I can or should do next. My favorite super obvious hint came from my faery Navi who told me that MAYBE I could use my steel toed boots to POSSIBLY walk on the bottom of SOME LAKE….Gee thanks Navi. Some hints, on the other hand, were a lot easier to miss if I wasn’t watching closely. For example, there was one part in the dungeon where there is a whirlpool of water and a crystal I have to hit with my hook shot in order to make ‘something’ happen. Right after hitting the crystal, there is a mini cut scene that shows what the crystal is related to…in this case a gate that is sort of hard to see unless you know to look for it. These are great ways the game creator is able to guide the player without making them feel like someone is holding their hand but still keeps the player from getting completely lost.
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| [January 31, 2007 01:01:07 PM]
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So today I learned that in order to get through the dungeon I am stuck in, I need the long hook shot thing. That got me thinking, Zelda was the first game I played where you could have a series of weapons. The ‘treasure’ hunt idea is actually quite cool. It forces you to do more than just find the bad guy in each dungeon. Some of the treasures are required to progress in the game. It’s another way to kind of give the player a path to follow in a world that at times seems too big and chaotic. Having these weapons to find also adds another thing to the list of things to do before you can call a game ‘completed.’ For example, there are some people who thing that finishing a game is when you find the ‘big boss’ and kill him. I think that really finishing a game is more about finding all of the hidden components and doing the smaller tasks as well. They are put there to enhance your game playing experience and add to the challenge…so why not challenge yourself? I’m not sure where that long hook shot thing is but I am doing my best to find it….it must be here somewhere…
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| [January 31, 2007 01:00:43 PM]
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So today I started playing Legend of Zelda for N64 after having given up on it about 5 years ago.
Before I talk about my game playing experience today, let me talk about my history with the Legend of Zelda series...
First of all, why the fascination with Zelda? I think it comes back to my love of the 'save the princess' mantalilty coupled with the classic good vs evil combat. Zelda also has a lot of great mythical stuff in it like faeries, magical potiens, great 'worlds' and temples, and the ultimate bad guy. This was also a great game in terms of adding 'cinematic quality' cut scenes which were fairly new to me....
My sister and I began playing Legend of Zelda on Super Nintendo. Together we were fairly successful in beating that game.
Then, a few years later, I heard there was going to be an Zelda game for N64 and I was super excited.
When I finally got it, I was quite shocked at what I found...
As a newbie to N64 and 3D games, I had a lot to learn. Suddenly, I had to change camera angles on my own and learn to 'z target' my enemies. Using a joystick was also a new experience. I got rather far into the game but got stuck at one of the dungeons and gave up. Then life got busy and my gaming days, for the most part, were at an end (except for group games like Mariokart).
As I started playing again today, I spent a majority of the time relearning everything I had forgotten. I especially like the fact that I have a horse and Navi around to help me out. This world seems a lot bigger than the last Zelda game and I feel like there is a lot I haven’t found. This game is a lot more realistic than the past games. For example, there is a concept of time so that you have day and night hours (although you can sneak around that using the ocarina). I am also noticing that there are way more ‘thinking’ involved in this game than the last one. It seems like there is a puzzle or logic for every step. For ‘C’ to happen, first do ‘A’ and ‘B.’ An example is the dungeon I am stuck in. Here, the water levels are controlled by a series of levers/buttons that must be used in the right order to get through the dungeon. I am a fan of these puzzles but I feel like there is so much to learn before I get comfortable with them. I guess I’ll just have to play more and find out!
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