aconbere
3 reviews liked by aconbere
A BRILLIANT game! The atmosphere of the story is so much more than JUST "sad", it's violent, hopeful, lost, and so many other emotions that I don't have the time to type out! The soundtrack does a great job of setting whatever stage it needs and the characters all feel realistic, which allows for a plot that feels human!
I'm not interested in whether or not this is "a metroid game." I had lots of fun playing through this with my best friend, and that's all that matters to me. The controls are better than MP:H, the mission system is bite sized for the platform, but still feels Prime-esue, and its fucking fun.
This one is definitely unique compared to the other Zelda games I've played, but it falls short in a few quite significant ways.
First, the things I liked. The more dour tone and focus on side-quests and character-based stories and interactions is new and exciting. Clock-Town is by far the most interesting town in a Zelda game so far, and the NPCs all have their own narratives that help to flesh out this world. The ability to manipulate time across the three-day repeating cycle is a fun mechanism and the sense of danger and impending doom coming from the moon slowly creeping closer is undoubtedly unique.
There are also more uses for items compared to Ocarina of Time, with the Ice and Light arrows actually being needed for some activities.
There's a lot that feels incomplete or reused from Ocarina, however. The swamp especially essentially just mixes up gameplay segments from Ocarina of time: the mysterious forest is the lost woods and the Deku Palace is the exact same, gameplay-wise, as infiltrating Hyrule castle. Some of this comes across as reusing ideas and filler content that we've already experienced.
Additionally, the dungeons are a lot weaker than Ocarina. There are only four, and they fail to introduce any new concepts besides using the masks to change into the different races, which is incredibly tedious, as there is an animation every time you put a mask on or take one off. This made me loathe dungeons as they felt like menu-based busywork, rather than the fluid problem solving of Ocarina. The Stone Tower was the worst in terms of this problem, as switching races and playing the ocarina to create statues took more time than actually exploring the dungeon. The movesets of the other races is a mixed bag and don't feel very Zelda, an item of some sort would have served their purpose better.
Putting collectibles in dungeons is the single biggest mistake I've seen in one of these games as well. The stray fairies are easy to find in some dungeons, but in others require careful observation and excessive backtracking. As such, you'll be stuck looking in these dungeons for a long time, or forced to use a guide - which essentially ruins the fun of the game.
Lastly, the game sort of falls apart in the last hour on a gameplay level. I like the narrative and its conclusion, but the moon dungeon is obnoxiously irritating and pulls you right out of the game minutes before the end. The Goron and Zora section are just so poorly designed that it makes you wish they'd just removed them entirely. The final boss is also so easy that I beat it in under a minute without getting hit once, as the fierce deity mask is so powerful it just breaks the game. I had my problems with Ocarina's final boss fight, but at least it took me more than a minute to beat.
In regards to the quality of the remake, I know people have their problems with the bosses in this version, and I can definitely say that they are all exceptionally predictable and boring, especially compared to Ocarina. They have giant weak spots and don't really pose any real threat. There were a few exciting minibosses such as the returning eye monster from ALTTP and Gomess, but these didn't make up for the overall lack of interesting main bosses.
Overall, I think this game does a lot right for a sequel, takes the series in an interesting direction and has the strongest narrative yet from one of these games, but it fails to be as exciting on a gameplay level as its peers.
First, the things I liked. The more dour tone and focus on side-quests and character-based stories and interactions is new and exciting. Clock-Town is by far the most interesting town in a Zelda game so far, and the NPCs all have their own narratives that help to flesh out this world. The ability to manipulate time across the three-day repeating cycle is a fun mechanism and the sense of danger and impending doom coming from the moon slowly creeping closer is undoubtedly unique.
There are also more uses for items compared to Ocarina of Time, with the Ice and Light arrows actually being needed for some activities.
There's a lot that feels incomplete or reused from Ocarina, however. The swamp especially essentially just mixes up gameplay segments from Ocarina of time: the mysterious forest is the lost woods and the Deku Palace is the exact same, gameplay-wise, as infiltrating Hyrule castle. Some of this comes across as reusing ideas and filler content that we've already experienced.
Additionally, the dungeons are a lot weaker than Ocarina. There are only four, and they fail to introduce any new concepts besides using the masks to change into the different races, which is incredibly tedious, as there is an animation every time you put a mask on or take one off. This made me loathe dungeons as they felt like menu-based busywork, rather than the fluid problem solving of Ocarina. The Stone Tower was the worst in terms of this problem, as switching races and playing the ocarina to create statues took more time than actually exploring the dungeon. The movesets of the other races is a mixed bag and don't feel very Zelda, an item of some sort would have served their purpose better.
Putting collectibles in dungeons is the single biggest mistake I've seen in one of these games as well. The stray fairies are easy to find in some dungeons, but in others require careful observation and excessive backtracking. As such, you'll be stuck looking in these dungeons for a long time, or forced to use a guide - which essentially ruins the fun of the game.
Lastly, the game sort of falls apart in the last hour on a gameplay level. I like the narrative and its conclusion, but the moon dungeon is obnoxiously irritating and pulls you right out of the game minutes before the end. The Goron and Zora section are just so poorly designed that it makes you wish they'd just removed them entirely. The final boss is also so easy that I beat it in under a minute without getting hit once, as the fierce deity mask is so powerful it just breaks the game. I had my problems with Ocarina's final boss fight, but at least it took me more than a minute to beat.
In regards to the quality of the remake, I know people have their problems with the bosses in this version, and I can definitely say that they are all exceptionally predictable and boring, especially compared to Ocarina. They have giant weak spots and don't really pose any real threat. There were a few exciting minibosses such as the returning eye monster from ALTTP and Gomess, but these didn't make up for the overall lack of interesting main bosses.
Overall, I think this game does a lot right for a sequel, takes the series in an interesting direction and has the strongest narrative yet from one of these games, but it fails to be as exciting on a gameplay level as its peers.