The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is a remaster / remake of one of the greatest games of all time. The game was originally for the Nintendo 64 and this 3DS version has improved upon the graphics, added some quality of life improvements and included the Master Quest version after you have finished the game once. While at first the graphics may not be amazing, keep playing and you start to appreciate it more. Yes, some of the walls and textures are still flat but there is plenty of detail packed into the 3DS’s screen. The 3D effect is really well done for most of the game, and very impressive in certain scenes. Ocarina of Time was the first 3D Zelda game. Playing through the first dungeon, you can just imagine how awestruck you would have been if you had only played the 2D games up until this point. Then you get to the big open area and your mind would have been blown again and again. Then there is the day / night cycle, which is a fairly short cycle. Townsfolk are in different places depending on the time of day, and it plays into the puzzles and exploration. Night is usually when enemies pop up and is more dangerous and thankfully, you’ll quickly learn of a way to manually change to day or night as you wish.
With the transition to 3D, the gameplay had to adjust from the previous 2D games. The basic controls remain the same where you can get Link to slash with his sword or block with his shield. There are four hotkeys that you can map an item or weapon to. Two hotkeys are mapped to physical buttons, and two are mapped to the touchscreen. It works well enough. One of the buttons are used as an all purpose action, changing depending on context. As a result, Link also automatically jumps when he nears a gap. Unfortunately, this is an obvious early 3D era game because the camera control is clunky. Given the 3DS’s lack of a second analogue stick, you have to make do with the L shoulder button to target and lock onto enemies, which allow Link to strafe. If there are no enemies, then it will reset the camera to behind Link. While holding down the L shoulder button, you can use the gyroscope to move the camera around. The camera is okay when used to explore but can be messy during boss battles when you want to quickly turn the camera around to keep the boss in view. The lock on system is required for accurate slashing of your sword and executing various moves.
Dungeons are an obvious part of the game and its biggest draw. They have clever designs, while it is sometimes hard to figure out what to do in order to advance; it all feels like a natural extension of the Zelda formula. There are plenty of secrets to find and optional upgrades to aid in your quest. There are changes made to the infamous Water Temple dungeon to make it clearer on where to go. It’s still confusing if it is our first time but the challenge there is on the layout, rather than tough enemies, so you have the luxury of taking your time and fully exploring every nook and cranny. At the end of each dungeon is a boss, with some mini bosses along the way. All the bosses rely on pattern recognition and can be daunting on your first try. Once you realize what the trick is, then they are fairly simple to defeat.
A key part of the game is the titular ocarina. Once Link gains possession of this, he can learn songs that have special effects. The usage of the ocarina is crucial in progression, with a few optional songs too. Playing the ocarina is just pressing the correct button combination and it is made easier when you can bring up a page with all the songs you’ve learnt and the buttons required. There are a few negatives though. It is annoying when you save and load the game; it sets you back in Link’s village where you began the game. This isn’t cool when you have to run everywhere with limited fast travel options that only unlock later in the game. It can be a pain when you have to run everywhere and the game requires you to go all around the place. Thankfully, leaving and re-entering a dungeon won’t reset the progress, and this includes dying. The game is filled with tricks and gimmicks, some of which can be annoying. There are things like Like Likes that steal your equipment, timed puzzles, hidden passages to progress and invisible enemies. Every time you go into a new room in a dungeon, you feel like you have to be careful and go through the list to see if you have missed anything.
If you had been used to the limited stories in the 2D games, then Ocarina of Time really fleshes it out with more depth. Link lives in a village where everyone except him has a fairy partner. After a nightmare, he wakes up to find his own fairy and is summoned by the Great Deku Tree to journey on a quest to save Princess Zelda and the world from a mysterious desert horseback rider. It explores the origins of the Triforce and gives us a lot of details about the world. There is a surprising twist midway through the game which was kind of like a false ending but wasn’t. After this point, the difficulty spikes up and the enemies are more powerful and difficult, this can be a shock if you were not expecting it.
The final boss was quite easy compared to some of the previous bosses but the ending was still very epic. Once you finish the game, you get that sense of wonder at what an accomplishment this game was, and how it is still so much fun and impressive after over a decade. The game takes around 20 to 30 hours to complete but it really depends on your puzzle solving skills and whether you explore to try and obtain everything. After you finish the game, you unlock Master Quest. This is sort of a New Game Plus, so to speak. The whole game is mirrored, so what’s left is right and right is left. This is very disorientating when you first start up the game and have to readjust to where things are. The second major change are the dungeons, most of which are completely revamped with new puzzles. Enemies are also tougher as they hit twice as hard, which makes the early game difficult.
Overall, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is a fantastic game and you can see why it was hailed as one of the best games of all time. The combat and camera system is still a bit clunky but once you get used to it, the game is unstoppable. From the moment you first step out to the world of Hyrule, to clearing the dungeons and finding the secrets, it is addictive. The game’s difficulty is good but it can be difficult in some areas when you first get to it, once you know what to do, it’s achievable. The graphical touch up is well done and this is a great remaster of an already great game.
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