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Saturday 26 January, 2008
Gameplay:
For my second session playing Ocarina of Time, I focused mainly on reviewing the elements that made the game shout "Success" to me.
To involve myself in an activity that requires as much time commitment as epic adventure games like Zelda do, I usually need a good story to captivate me. It does not necessarily have to be the most realistic scenario, as long as it is compelling and makes me want to find out what is coming next in the plot.
I cannot say that the very first presentation of the story in the game is what captivated me to keep playing. Instead, what got me involved was the way the game scaled its way up to larger objectives and plot points. I started off in the 3D village of Hyrule not really knowing what my objectives were having negligently skipped a large portion of the opening dialog. What I was able to gather is that I, Link, am special and have been summoned by the village guardian to fulfill an epic destiny.
Relying on this alone to get me to play the game would not be a successful sales pitch, especially since so many other adventure games and stories have traditionally used this formula. One of the things this game does, for example, is give you a small and relatively easy introductory quest to acquire a sword and shield before you can move to a new area of the game world. More than just give you a quest, the game plays upon the players sense of rivalry and pride by having a very pompous and obnoxious NPC doubt your abilities to complete your tasks and interdict your attempts to continue the game until you have indeed done so.
Clever strategies such as the aforementioned help keep the game quests exciting and interesting as they begin to grow in scale and more of the story unfolds. Additionally, the game's use of a tried and true formula that made earlier Zelda games popular ensured that brand recognition keep players on board until more captivating story elements unfold.
Design:
The game indeed uses similar elements to previous Zelda titles such as the bashing of arbitrary rocks, bushes, and chests to reveal hidden treasures like hearts to regain health and gems to work as currency. However, this incarnation of Zelda is unique from previous ones in that it uses a 3rd person perspective in a 3D environment but on a mostly 2D movement plane. Although the 10 years of seniority of this game on modern title is apparent in the graphics, this is by no means a deal breaker for adopting the game so late after its release. The graphics are unrealistic, but then again so is the game itself.
While the game requires some level of dexterity for a player to progress, it is not incredibly strenuous. For example, many of your character's movements are conducted automatically, such as jumping over chasms or climbing. This allows for a player to spend more time and brain resources figuring out how to complete quests and fewer resources coordinating button presses (although there is still a degree of dedication required on part of the player's dexterity).
The overall simplicity of character movement and action may also be attributable to the single joystick layout of the Nintendo 64 controller which allowed me to control my character, Link, using only one hand if I so dared and desired. This ability is particularly beneficial to players who find themselves in a lazy game playing mood, or who are just plain lazy like myself, and those who find the need to multitask.
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