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Wednesday 24 January, 2007
Since I did just recently join the class this is my first entry for the second gamelog assignment, from the classics:
I have decided to play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I have had the Nintendo 64 game on a promotional Zelda disc for the gamecube, but have never gotten around to playing it. Though I did play a lot of 64 when I was younger, I never got into the Zelda series. The first Zelda game I ever played was Windwaker, and it remains one of the most enjoyable video game experiences of my life. Since then I have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of Twilight Princess, and have begun playing that as well. Now that you know my Zelda background you can probably understand that I had a rather different experience with Ocarina of Time than most people who played it when it initially came out. When I played Windwaker everything was new to me: the storyline, the gameplay, the items, etc. But as I play Ocarina I realize all the stuff I loved in Windwaker were just updated versions of Ocarina. Suddenly I have a depreciated view of the series. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing these games, but I feel that the Zelda games following Ocarina aren’t as “original” as they should be: many aspects are reused over and over again. Also, it is difficult to go backwards. What I’m sure would have been sensational graphics and gameplay to me 10 years ago, now seem so primitive compared to the newer Zelda’s and I’m finding it quite difficult to adjust to what I, unfortunately, view as a dated version of Windwaker and Twilight Princess. I will, however, look past that and focus on a few key aspects of the game that initially struck me.
First, I noticed the “lock-on targeting” form of gameplay, a feature I believe is original to this game. You are actually able the lock onto an enemy and move around them while keeping them in your sights, this was revolutionary at the time and became a standard in all future Zelda games. Second, the narrative seems to follow a very distinct pattern, one repeated in future games in the series. There is usually an item Link (the main character) must obtain. It is usually in three pieces scattered across the game world. Each piece is usually inside a temple in which you have to solve various puzzles and kill a number of enemies (often a mini-boss) and eventually find and defeat the main “boss” of the temple, at which point the boss will give you a piece of whatever it is you’re trying to assemble. The use of a “boss” is a classic video game element and the Legend of Zelda series uses it very well. I will continue playing and see what else strikes me.
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