Daily Debate: Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess…and Why? – ZI Update Bonus

We’ve seen this matchup at our site before, but we’ve never had a true debate. Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess are the series’ most popular games according to sales data. They are closely linked both in tone and, some would argue, style. Really though, the big question is: which one do you prefer.. and why? For me, this is an easier question than it likely is for others, as can be evidenced by some prior Zelda Versus polling. Back in January 2014, Ocarina of Time dispatched Twilight Princess in fan polling rather easily. This year, Twilight Princess not only conquered Ocarina of TIme, it won the entire “Best Zelda Game” tournament.

This begs the question…which Zelda game do you prefer when comparing the two and why? For me it’s Twilight Princess. Let’s set nostalgia aside, which if anything should make me favor games like Link’s Awakening, A Link to the Past, and Ocarina of Time as those were my first three Zelda games I played in that order. They shaped my early childhood. However, for me, Twilight Princess was better than Ocarina of Time in almost every conceivable way. The story was more explored and fulfilling with a true partner that felt like a real character, not an annoyance. The combat felt like it had more variation because of the wolf form and finishing moves, and I simply enjoyed the world and the dungeons far more than I did in Ocarina of Time. The controls felt more polished, and that’s really my big deal with it being the better game – it’s just more polished overall.

Of course, there are reasons to prefer Ocarina of Time, too. The story itself dealt more directly with Link, instead of it really being a story about your sidekick. There was more choice, as a few dungeons could be done in any order (as intended, I don’t count the ones where you can glitch through a wall or do something unintended to access a dungeon sooner). Some may even prefer the world and the characters – it really comes down to personal preference. What do you think?

A Small Update on the Site

As a little bonus, I wanted to talk about the site for a brief moment. For starters, I have been MIA at Zelda Informer for the better part of the last two weeks. That’s because my family and I were moving into a new home that was going to afford me a better area to work on the site – essentially I could set up the majority of the basement as a work area. The problem was when we got here, it was mold infested and needed a lot of work to be livable, including removing over thirty pounds of nails and such scattered over the yard. Fast forward to today and yes, we’re finally living here. Sixteen-hour days of manual labor over that time period, and we’ve finally made it. Hurray!

The downside of that work was that, in my absence, things got a little more inconsistent than they already were – we’ve been lacking in Daily Debates and have had some extreme inconsistencies in getting our other content (sans weekly features) out the door. Of course, our weekly features haven’t been perfect either – another result of my absence. Even now, I can’t really do another The Boss Man episode properly because we’re waiting on the basement to get new carpet, something that is happening this Wednesday.

That doesn’t mean we haven’t pushed forward. On our birthday this month, I shared with you a brief preview of our future, so today I wanted to give you another sneak peak:

As always, things are not complete, and I don’t want to go into specifics, but enjoy today’s debate, and I’ll catch you all next time!