Gonna preface this with Egoraptor is a fucking moron and single-handedly ruined all discussion of this franchise more than any annoying Nintendo fanboys could have.

Haven't played this in close to a decade so I was excited to give it a new run with the fresh perspective that comes from something like that. With that being said there is a lot of early 3D game transition crust in this. The amount of going through the menus to switch items or boots sucks. It runs like dogwater (I'll let it slide considering the original platform), the camera can be weird at points, and the mostly unskippable text boxes and cutscenes really do reveal how much of a relic of late 90s adventure games this is. Yet it still holds up nearly 30 years later. Ocarina of Time is a neat game to go back to after the near past decade of Wild/Tears and playing through a more traditional Zelda game that just feels more along the length of a standard adventure game now? Like, a Zelda game made up of around 15-20 hours of gameplay? Hell yeah, make more around that length too! Some weird early 3D stuff like the camera aside Link himself still controls pretty well and paired with the super simple story helps this game feel like such a breeze to playthrough.

Speaking of the story... I don't think Zelda games have the most incredible stories in gaming, but they're always serviceable fun adventure fare that feels like crazy ass Ghibli (Nausicaa and Mononoke) meets Disney renaissance and if I'm being honest? It does the job every time. Sure you can talk about the deeper implications and loss of innocence 11 year old Link being forced into an adult body and time traveling across both ages with the experience of the others can mean, but the game never focuses on that so neither will I.

The presentation as well is incredible. MGS is often the 1998 game people go to for cinematics and for good reason, but lordy OoT really does feel and capture the vibes of a fantasy anime from the era. Stuff like going fishing after finishing the water temple or getting Biggoron's eyedrops feel like the episodes where everyone gets to relax and enjoy their time or do some silly shit with penis music blasting as they get into silly shenanigans. The fishing minigame still rules by the way. Then when shit gets more serious like the final battle with Ganon shrouded in shadows it genuinely feels epic and looks right out of Escaflowne. Good shit.

There's plenty in this that we all take for granted nowadays both within its own franchise and other games, but I think when those things were new and groundbreaking there's a reason this and FF7 were probably the biggest games ever for the rest of the late 90s and early 2000s.

Also wow wow wow Twilight Princess is such a fucking full on stealth remake/sequel to this lmfao. May as well play them back to back if you can.