The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Originally posted at IDKIYKT's Phile on 2011-06-28

I'm about halfway through this version, but it's similar enough to the original I feel safe commenting on it now.

It's pretty much the same old Ocarina of Time, with a slightly new coat of paint.  Having played this now, it's definitely much more port than remake--albeit one of the more improved ports I've seen.  The look of the game is improved, but not so much that it still doesn't look like the original, and would never be mistaken for a GCN-level game like Twilight Princess.  It seems like the world geometry is unchanged, but characters are.  Then textures are improved, but not so much that they stand out as strange on the old N64-level world.  The biggest single change is probably that areas previously using pre-rendered backgrounds (mostly small houses and the castle town) are now proper polygonal.  Ignoring the 3D, I'd say it most looks like the game might have on Dreamcast.

The controls are little changed, though thanks to portable system design it's a bit less comfortable.  With a different face button layout you have one less item assigned to buttons at a time, but a couple more on touch screen virtual buttons mostly makes up for that.  In some of the view modes you can change the view by tilting the system.  This actually works pretty well for aiming things like your bow, but it will totally break 3D if you're playing that way.

The touch screen is by default used for displaying the world map or dungeon map of the floor you're on, along with touch screen buttons for items, Navi, and switching to a first-person view.  Also buttons at the bottom to bring you to the proper Item/Gear/Map screens, which if pressed will pause the game.  Nice, but doesn't change things much.

Beyond that, it's still the same game from 12.5 years ago.  Still pretty good, but no longer groundbreaking.  It has made me appreciate Wind Waker and Twilight Princess more, though, as I play Ocarina for the first time in about 8 years and remember the ways those games improved upon the formula.

4/5