Ocarina of Time Top 5 Reasons Why People Should Stop Looking to Ocarina for a Great Game

[Ventus]

Many have known me as an OoT fanboy (they aren't wrong in that regard lel), and other stuff. However I am here to set things right. Ocarina of Time simply is NOT the best Zelda, and here is why.

1) The narrative is weak
People will throw many puzzled looks at my direction, but the fact of the matter is that hte narrative is weak. You get spurts of main plot action after every dungeon or so, but nothing else goes on. The world is devoid of any human interaction, with NPCs shouting the same tired lines over and over and over again without fail. The Sages are among the flattest characters Zelda has ever seen. And the poor implied romance at the end? Please don't get me started. OoT is everything cliché, and therefore it is completely bad.

2) The gameplay is basic
It may have been hailed as the greatest of its time, but those are the keywords: of its time. The items are not used to their maximum potential. Ocarina lacks flash. It lacks precision. It lacks depth. The enemies in the game are incredibly monotonous. If they can't be handled with one simplepress of the B button, then they are handled with two. The foes that could pose a threat - Iron Knuckles and Stalfos - spend their time under armor or constantly shuffling with their shield held up. The boss foes are incredibly easy to defeat, all making use of the blatant "here's my weakpoint please hit it" formula. In all Ocarina simply doesn't compare with the more recent entries of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.

3) The musical score is weak
It's all catchy, but it's MIDI grade and frankly not up to par. They couldn't be bothered to fix this even in the 3DS remake. The music is literally lifeless; it's like elevator music that you tune out due to how damn annoying it can get after the 20th exposure.

4) Hyrule Field is empty
I'll be damned if someone claims the Sky to be empty, because the fact of the matter is that Hyrule Field is infinitely emptier, if that even makes sense. It's literally lifeless. There's nothing but a plain, a few gates, and trees sparsely located in "key" positions. There are hidden grottoes, but what little there are feature absolutely no substance at all. Just, pathetic.

5) Rupees.
Yes, that is the reason. Rupees. Ocarina's economy is so jacked up, like, it's to the point where it seems Nintendo WAS working on it, but the jackstands just gave into the weight and it all came crashing down. BAM! SPLAT! KERPOW! And thus the screwed economy was born. I have never played a game where rupees were so darn useless before.

There are many more reasons than I could look for, but those are the top five. What are your opinions? I'm frankly tired of all of this Ocarina rubbish I hear throughout the fanbase. We need to look towards the FUTURE, not reminisce in the past. :/

Simply put, Ocarina is not the game we remember it as. It's mediocre; 6/10 material.

 

[Snow Queen]

When people say "Ocarina of Time is the best game ever", I think it's purely nostalgia speaking. It is very lacking in many aspects. For starters, the game feels naked. Games like ALttP and Wind Waker had tons to explore and do, but it feels like OoT deprived us of that. Another thing is thee controls. After going back and playing this game, I was appaled to find the controls so muddy and strange. The way Link move and engages in combat feels so clunky and wierd in comparison to say Wind Waker or Twilight Princess.

 

[Mercedes]

I shall talk about each point! More to help me cos I suck at writing big post...

1) The narrative is weak
People will throw many puzzled looks at my direction, but the fact of the matter is that hte narrative is weak. You get spurts of main plot action after every dungeon or so, but nothing else goes on. The world is devoid of any human interaction, with NPCs shouting the same tired lines over and over and over again without fail. The Sages are among the flattest characters Zelda has ever seen. And the poor implied romance at the end? Please don't get me started. OoT is everything cliché, and therefore it is completely bad.

The storyline wasn't very captivating, I agree. Definitely one of the weaker aspects of the game. It never quite drew me in, I was just waiting to be told what dungeon I need to go to next.

2) The gameplay is basic
It may have been hailed as the greatest of its time, but those are the keywords: of its time. The items are not used to their maximum potential. Ocarina lacks flash. It lacks precision. It lacks depth. The enemies in the game are incredibly monotonous. If they can't be handled with one simplepress of the B button, then they are handled with two. The foes that could pose a threat - Iron Knuckles and Stalfos - spend their time under armor or constantly shuffling with their shield held up. The boss foes are incredibly easy to defeat, all making use of the blatant "here's my weakpoint please hit it" formula. In all Ocarina simply doesn't compare with the more recent entries of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.

Well, I'll start with saying basic gameplay isn't objectively bad. Limbo has, what, move, jump, and grab, and manages to be a very involved and great experience, so basic isn't a problem. But, have to remember that Ocarina of Time didn't really have a base to go on. For example, modern Zelda games are refined experiences, they've worked on the formula and it is, objectively, better than OoT's. It'd be hard not to be, SS has a long lineage to draw from and so will the next Zelda on Wii U. But OoT didn't have that, it was the first one, it was the first 3D game and, amongst its contemporaries, it was extremely good. The gameplay was solid in its time, and that's where you gauge a game. Most games we define as being brilliant, like OoT, Half Life, Goldeneye, and more, are bad by today's standards, extremely bad in some cases, but we judge them by the standards of when they were out, and what impact they made at the time. Lots of gmes like that, like System Shock, didn't have the luxury of having a formula to already work with, and so what they manage to do is that bit more impressive. It kinda depends on what you respect more; would you respect the man who invented something, or the man who made it better? I guess that depends on situation, too.

And no Zelda game has made as big of an impact since OoT. It's harder to really make an impact as time goes on, there's so much stuff gone that people demanding, like, when entire genres got made are being a bit un-realistic, but that doesn't change anything. So, I think the gameplay's fine really, not one of the reasons it's not the best. It still holds up today, it's aged rather gracefully unlike other N64 titles.

You can judge a game beside a more modern game, sure, but I think you do need to respect the fact any modern game is made on superior hardware, with superior software, with more to draw on, etc. It's not too fair a comparison, really.

3) The musical score is weak
It's all catchy, but it's MIDI grade and frankly not up to par. They couldn't be bothered to fix this even in the 3DS remake. The music is literally lifeless; it's like elevator music that you tune out due to how damn annoying it can get after the 20th exposure.

I'd say the soundtrack did a decent job though. I can still hum, like, that little tune when you go into a store. But it wasn't any A-grade stuff.

4) Hyrule Field is empty
I'll be damned if someone claims the Sky to be empty, because the fact of the matter is that Hyrule Field is infinitely emptier, if that even makes sense. It's literally lifeless. There's nothing but a plain, a few gates, and trees sparsely located in "key" positions. There are hidden grottoes, but what little there are feature absolutely no substance at all. Just, pathetic.

I did really dislike this. I think an over-world should have a purpose rather than simply necessitating you walking around. Skyrim's world is massive but it's populated with different things to do and random encounters to keep it interesting. I think perhaps it could have been limited by the N64 hardware at the time? But, regardless of reason, yeah, it was a pretty boring place to be. I will admit the first time I trekked over it, it was a bit "Wow, this is great." But, yeah, it may as well have just been a loading screen with how entertaining it was. Very dull and a missed opportunity indeed.

5) Rupees.
Yes, that is the reason. Rupees. Ocarina's economy is so jacked up, like, it's to the point where it seems Nintendo WAS working on it, but the jackstands just gave into the weight and it all came crashing down. BAM! SPLAT! KERPOW! And thus the screwed economy was born. I have never played a game where rupees were so darn useless before.

Urrrr... I guess that's true, yeah, but I didn't feel it impacted the game much. I collected rupees and pretty much just walked around with a max wallet almost constantly I remember, didn't even buy stuff from the store really bar the good ol' Deku/Hyrule shield, and while it was definitely a missed opportunity to expand a portion of the game, it wasn't exactly detrimental to anything. So, there's no mark up for it, but no mark down either in my book. Hyrule Field's boring-ness was a bigger detractor to the overall experience, lack of rupee use was just a small old thing for me.


So, I just think if we objectively look at things, at what OoT accomplished in it's time, it's the best Zelda game so far. People miss out that last bit. And good post!

 

[CynicalSquid]

1) The narrative is weak
People will throw many puzzled looks at my direction, but the fact of the matter is that hte narrative is weak. You get spurts of main plot action after every dungeon or so, but nothing else goes on. The world is devoid of any human interaction, with NPCs shouting the same tired lines over and over and over again without fail. The Sages are among the flattest characters Zelda has ever seen. And the poor implied romance at the end? Please don't get me started. OoT is everything cliché, and therefore it is completely bad.

Yes, you're right the narrative could have been done better, but I don't understand the implied romance. There was your best friend, a princess you just met, a forced marriage, and a Gerudo who says you're handsome. The only "romance" comes from people who are insane about shipping characters.

2) The gameplay is basic
It may have been hailed as the greatest of its time, but those are the keywords: of its time. The items are not used to their maximum potential. Ocarina lacks flash. It lacks precision. It lacks depth. The enemies in the game are incredibly monotonous. If they can't be handled with one simplepress of the B button, then they are handled with two. The foes that could pose a threat - Iron Knuckles and Stalfos - spend their time under armor or constantly shuffling with their shield held up. The boss foes are incredibly easy to defeat, all making use of the blatant "here's my weakpoint please hit it" formula. In all Ocarina simply doesn't compare with the more recent entries of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.

Yes, the gameplay is basic, but people have to realize that this was the first 3D Zelda title. They really didn't have anything to base it off of so they can improve that. I look at the optimistic sign of things and say "It's great for the first 3D Zelda."

3) The musical score is weak
It's all catchy, but it's MIDI grade and frankly not up to par. They couldn't be bothered to fix this even in the 3DS remake. The music is literally lifeless; it's like elevator music that you tune out due to how damn annoying it can get after the 20th exposure.

I actually love the music. I don't really see how it's lifeless and annoying...

4) Hyrule Field is empty
I'll be damned if someone claims the Sky to be empty, because the fact of the matter is that Hyrule Field is infinitely emptier, if that even makes sense. It's literally lifeless. There's nothing but a plain, a few gates, and trees sparsely located in "key" positions. There are hidden grottoes, but what little there are feature absolutely no substance at all. Just, pathetic.

I agree, but I just see it as a hub room.

5) Rupees.
Yes, that is the reason. Rupees. Ocarina's economy is so jacked up, like, it's to the point where it seems Nintendo WAS working on it, but the jackstands just gave into the weight and it all came crashing down. BAM! SPLAT! KERPOW! And thus the screwed economy was born. I have never played a game where rupees were so darn useless before.

I agree. Rupees are worthless.

 

[Vaati101]

Well to be fair this was the first ever 3D Zelda title, so of course it wasn't going to be perfect. It has it's flaws yeah, but it was still a great game regardless. The fact that Ocarina of Time was a revolutionary step in the series and was a completely new experience was the reason why it's so popular, it did something new and alot of people liked it. While I think Ocarina of Time isn't the best Zelda game of all time, it definitely is the best 3D Zelda game in my opinion.

 

[Dragoncat]

Who are you and what did you do with the real Ven *shot*

All joking aside, I'm sure it is nostalgia when people say OoT is the best game under the sun. But what it lacks in story, it makes up for in gameplay. It's still fun to play years after its release, which makes it a good game. Not the best, but good.

 

[HyruleHistory10]

honestly I think and will always think that it will be the best Zelda game. plus comparing a game from 1998 to a game from 2001 and 2007 that were based off the 1998 game of course they will be better in some ways but frankly the less criticized one of the 3 is the game from 1998 nuf said. lol

 

[Salem]

Okay Ventus, I agree with some of the points but I STRONLGY disagree with others.

1) The narrative is weak
People will throw many puzzled looks at my direction, but the fact of the matter is that hte narrative is weak. You get spurts of main plot action after every dungeon or so, but nothing else goes on. The world is devoid of any human interaction, with NPCs shouting the same tired lines over and over and over again without fail. The Sages are among the flattest characters Zelda has ever seen. And the poor implied romance at the end? Please don't get me started. OoT is everything cliché, and therefore it is completely bad.

Honestly, I think it has one of the BEST story executions among the 3d games in my opinions.

TP and SS were subpar in comparison to OoT in story.

2) The gameplay is basic
It may have been hailed as the greatest of its time, but those are the keywords: of its time. The items are not used to their maximum potential. Ocarina lacks flash. It lacks precision. It lacks depth. The enemies in the game are incredibly monotonous. If they can't be handled with one simplepress of the B button, then they are handled with two. The foes that could pose a threat - Iron Knuckles and Stalfos - spend their time under armor or constantly shuffling with their shield held up. The boss foes are incredibly easy to defeat, all making use of the blatant "here's my weakpoint please hit it" formula. In all Ocarina simply doesn't compare with the more recent entries of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.

I don't know....

3) The musical score is weak
It's all catchy, but it's MIDI grade and frankly not up to par. They couldn't be bothered to fix this even in the 3DS remake. The music is literally lifeless; it's like elevator music that you tune out due to how damn annoying it can get after the 20th exposure.

NO no no, MIDI is awesome.

4) Hyrule Field is empty
I'll be damned if someone claims the Sky to be empty, because the fact of the matter is that Hyrule Field is infinitely emptier, if that even makes sense. It's literally lifeless. There's nothing but a plain, a few gates, and trees sparsely located in "key" positions. There are hidden grottoes, but what little there are feature absolutely no substance at all. Just, pathetic.

Well at least travesing it with Epona cuts the time needed.

5) Rupees.
Yes, that is the reason. Rupees. Ocarina's economy is so jacked up, like, it's to the point where it seems Nintendo WAS working on it, but the jackstands just gave into the weight and it all came crashing down. BAM! SPLAT! KERPOW! And thus the screwed economy was born. I have never played a game where rupees were so darn useless before.

Yeah I agree with you, they don't give you enough rupee bags as well

 

[ihateghirahim]

1. The story is grand in its simplicity (although it really isn't that simple) and the way the music, atmosphere, and actions all combine to form a narrative rivaled only by the bizzare MM stories.

2- what you talkin bout? the gameplay is rewarding and fun. Each item is unique and fun to use. Each one have cool roles and puzzles to solve. I only wish the Megaton hammer got more use. The boss battles are all memorable, challenging enough, filled with tension, executed in a cinematic style. The only bosses who can even compare are those epic TP bosses, but even they fall shot of Volvagia's epic flying battle, Bongo's bongo, Phantom Ganon's painting battle, Ganondorf's ping-pong style game, and the dreaded King Dodongo.

3. The soundtrack in fantastic. The Ocarina songs are memorable and interactive, and it's fun to play each one out and even make your own. I also enjoyed the background music stupendously. It is brilliantly blended with each aspect of the game to help build the epic atmosphere.

4.Hyrule Field. I have no problem with Hyrule Field. It does have enemies, hidden caves to find, trees and rocks to mess around with. It's also a general hub. I mean I'm usually so engrossed in the game I rarely notice the distances. One can also point out how the horse and warp songs render the field short and even avoidable. I mean come on, Hyrule field is nothing compared to the boredom of the WW sea.

5. What? I mean the rupees are there for whoever wants them, and they let you buy whatever you want. You can have all the rupees you want and then some. Does having rupees bother people? I don't see what the issue is.

Is nostalgia to blame for my words? Nope. not at all. OoT and MM blow all others out of the water.

 

[DarkestLink]

1) Yeah...OoT is less about story...more about "experiencing the world". As weak as they were, who didn't want to check what happened to these places and characters in 7 years?

2) This is true, but OoT's strength doesn't lie in its advancements.

3) I disagree. I think OoT has the strongest musical score among all titles.

4) Aye it's true...but so far all the 3D worlds have had pretty empty fields.

5) Yeah, when you can sell infinite bugs for 50 rupees, doing the skulltula quest seems redundant. This never really bothered me though.

However, Ocarina of Time is considered the greatest game of ALL time. And while I prefer TP and SS, I can see why OoT is so universally appealing. It doesn't have many strengths among Zelda titles...but it has even fewer flaws.

Majora's Mask:

Strengths: Sidequests and 3 day system

Flaws: Weak mainquest, time limit, and saving.

Wind Waker:

Strengths: Graphics and exploration based game

Flaws: Kiddy graphics and too much exploration.

Twilight Princess:

Strengths: Graphics, combat, and story.

Flaws: Graphics aren't colorful and there's too much mainquest story focus.

Skyward Sword:

Strengths: M+

Flaws: M+

~~~

In the end, it's mostly a matter of taste.

Some people are gonna look at Majora's Mask and say "Oh yes! I get loads of cool sidequests and good characters! The 3 Day System adds so much pressure. <3" and others are gonna look at it and say "Urgh...pathetic mainquest and no important characters. I hate the time limit!"

Some will look at Wind Waker and say "I can't wait to relax in my sailboat, enjoy the beautiful colors of the world, and explore this great land". Others will groan and thing "Urgh, I hate these kiddy graphics. I'm not a five year old. Sailing is so boring and now this stupid Triforce Quest is going to make me explore the world. I just wanna fight Ganon."

Some people will like the graphics and story of TP and others will think the graphics are too realistic and the skip button wasn't implemented enough.

As for Skyward Sword...it's mostly a question of whether or not you enjoy M+.

But OoT is different. It's raw Zelda without the strengths of the others, but also without the flaws. There's only one minor flaw in OoT that fans agree on. The blabbering ear bleeding duo of Navi and Gaepora Kaepora. But the game has nothing that people overall dread. There is no time system or Triforce Quest or "That one part of the game I can't stand". In the end, this makes OoT a game that almost all Zelda fans love. That's its strength: It's lack of flaws. That's what makes it a "perfect game".

 

[Justac00lguy]

I've posted many times my feelings on Ocarina of Timeand instead of recycling old posts I'll just simplify it.

This game was revolutionary, sometimes it gets too much credit, A Link to the Past made more notable changes, yet is overlooked in comparison. This game is rather basic as to what we see, even though games haven't advanced a true distance, they have expanded upon certain areas, added new ideas etcetera. OoT is the most basic out of the "3D" games.

This idea - that it is rather basic - is also it's main positive. It set the bar for 3D, ever since fans have been comparing each game 3D game to the origin, because that's generally what we do. Because OoT has a rather basic formula compared tot he other games, it can be seen as a "happy medium"

It basically has all the components we love, except they are rather simple, as expected it was the first game to make this transition. Also since this game was the benchmark, it didn't really take too many risks, or make many drastic changes to the formula. Of course one could argue that the jump to 3D was a" risk" but this was the advancement that may games had to take -- looking at the core Zelda formula it wasn't too much of a change.

So I would think that Ocarina of Time is the standard Zelda game, it will always be revolutionary but not necessarily the "best". Of course opinions can argue this notion, but the only reason as to why I think this game universally comes out on top is because what it did for the franchise and the time of release. Taking all those factors out of consideration and you have a simplified Zelda game, which can be seen as a happy medium for a lot of fans.

---

Honestly, I think it has one of the BEST story executions among the 3d games in my opinions.

TP and SS were subpar in comparison to OoT in story.

Not trying to venture to off topic but I would really love it if you at least expanded upon this and justify why.

 

[Salem]

Not trying to venture to off topic but I would really love it if you at least expanded upon this and justify why.

Too many example to count but I'll try to list some, most are based on my own personal preferences.

First of all, ocarina of time has fewer instances where Link does something in a cutscene that frankly the players could have done on their own, the only one that comes to mind is the kakariko bongo bongo scene when Link rushes to defend shiek.

OoT is more subtle when it presents it's story

When Link becomes an adult, there's only an aftermath of what happended to hyrule castle and we see some of it's people migrate to kakariko(its theme changes as well) and some of the houses become crowded and the fact that not all npcs from the when Link as a child come back....

TP showed promise when they showed a mostly empty Kakariko village but it fell flat....

There are subtle connections between the gorons and the kokiri like learning Saria'a song and teaching it to Darunia.

There's a lot of backstory that went unexplained like Hyrule's history of greed as mentioned in the Shadow temple.




One of the things I disliked about TP's story is the hyrule market people don't seem to pay attention that their kingdom is conquered, that wasn't explained if it was a coverup or something.

 

[Mellow Ezlo]

1) The narrative is weak
People will throw many puzzled looks at my direction, but the fact of the matter is that hte narrative is weak. You get spurts of main plot action after every dungeon or so, but nothing else goes on. The world is devoid of any human interaction, with NPCs shouting the same tired lines over and over and over again without fail. The Sages are among the flattest characters Zelda has ever seen. And the poor implied romance at the end? Please don't get me started. OoT is everything cliché, and therefore it is completely bad.

I will admit that Ocarina of Time does not have the greatest storyline in the series. It is completely outshined in that aspect by Skyward Sword, The Wind Waker, Majora's Mask, etc. However, that is certainly not to say that the story isn't good. Ocarina's story is still good, it just doesn't come equipped with all the emotion that one might say is in SS, TWW, MM, etc. It is still a unique story though, and is one that I will always love until after the day I die.

2) The gameplay is basic
It may have been hailed as the greatest of its time, but those are the keywords: of its time. The items are not used to their maximum potential. Ocarina lacks flash. It lacks precision. It lacks depth. The enemies in the game are incredibly monotonous. If they can't be handled with one simplepress of the B button, then they are handled with two. The foes that could pose a threat - Iron Knuckles and Stalfos - spend their time under armor or constantly shuffling with their shield held up. The boss foes are incredibly easy to defeat, all making use of the blatant "here's my weakpoint please hit it" formula. In all Ocarina simply doesn't compare with the more recent entries of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.

I love how you compared Ocarina of Time to Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. With the points you mentioned, TP and SS are ironically worse than OOT. Items not used to their maximum potential? How many times did you use the Spinner, Dominion Rod, or Slingshot in Twilight Princess? How many times did you use the Bug Net, Whip, Gust Bellow in Skyward Sword? Those two are, imo, the worst when it comes to item usage. At least Ocarina of Time had that thing where you could only use specific item whether you were a chuld or adult. This provided a reason to have limited item usage. In SS and TP, there is no excuse.

Then we get into combat. I have to disagree with the simple "push of a button" thing. I died on my first playthrough of OOT because of a Deku Baba in Inside the Great Deku Tree. The game practically forces you to block with your shield and then strike, and that early on in the game? OoT really does have some substantially difficult enemies. And then you mentioned bosses, and how they all follow the same formula. Well... Say hi to all bosses from TP and SS, minus Girahim.They all had very obvious weakpoints, and it was the typical item-slash formula that we saw in OOT.

You know, looking at this, you really should have compared gameplay in Ocarina of Time to that of Majora's Mask, instead of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword if you were trying to make a point. Just saying, the comparisons you made are pretty bad.

3) The musical score is weak
It's all catchy, but it's MIDI grade and frankly not up to par. They couldn't be bothered to fix this even in the 3DS remake. The music is literally lifeless; it's like elevator music that you tune out due to how damn annoying it can get after the 20th exposure.

Say what? Ocarina of Time has one of the best scores in the series. It is certainly one of the most grand, possibly being on par with that of Skyward Sword. I like the soundtracks of games like The Wind Waker and Majora's Mask, but those are catchy more than anything. Ocarina of Time produced a score that can be listened to, especially the Hyrule Field theme, to make almost any situation more dramatic and intense, which most other soundtracks admittedly failed to do. The majestic Hyrule Field theme is my favourite overworld theme in the series, because of its largeness, its epicness. OoT definitely does not have a bad soundtrack, and it is not something to put the game down for.

4) Hyrule Field is empty
I'll be damned if someone claims the Sky to be empty, because the fact of the matter is that Hyrule Field is infinitely emptier, if that even makes sense. It's literally lifeless. There's nothing but a plain, a few gates, and trees sparsely located in "key" positions. There are hidden grottoes, but what little there are feature absolutely no substance at all. Just, pathetic.

*coughcoughtwindwakercoughcough*
Although empty, Hyrule Field is actually pretty cool. The first time I played the game, I actually enjoyed running from Kokiri Forest to Hyrule Castle, while listening to the epic and majestic music in the background. I was admittedly scared of the Stalchildren when they first arrived, so I went crazy trying to fight them! And don't even get me started on the Big Poes *shudder* Then there's all those holes and stuff, and Lon Lon Ranch in the middle. I wouldn't exactly say Hyrule Field is too empty. It is completely full compared to Twilight Princess. Besides, the chance to listen to the series' greatest overworld theme of all allows me to forgive it for its "emptiness."

5) Rupees.
Yes, that is the reason. Rupees. Ocarina's economy is so jacked up, like, it's to the point where it seems Nintendo WAS working on it, but the jackstands just gave into the weight and it all came crashing down. BAM! SPLAT! KERPOW! And thus the screwed economy was born. I have never played a game where rupees were so darn useless before.

Although I admit that Ocarina of Time has a horrible economy, it is a terrible argument to put a game down for. It is easy to ignore, and is such an incredibly minor flaw. Something tells me you were running out of ideas at this point
Oh, and look at Skyward Sword. Nobody is every going to use 9,900 rupees! That's freaking insane!

 

[Justac00lguy]

First of all, ocarina of time has fewer instances where Link does something in a cutscene that frankly the players could have done on their own, the only one that comes to mind is the kakariko bongo bongo scene when Link rushes to defend shiek.

I don't see the hate for cut scenes in more recent Zelda games. They're very subtle, maybe some would say rare, they're not a burden in my opinion. Cinematics are just an overall easier way to tell a story, we can have scenes which include interactions between characters, which generates a better picture of the ongoing events. We generally get to see Link or other characters convey emotion, it would be hard for this to be the case without said cut scenes. So the cinematics just set the tone in my opinion, if anything there should be more.

Of course these seem to be your own personal preferences, like you said, and I respect such views, can't argue with such opinions. However, I though that Ocarina of Time has the most basic of stories, if you really look at it -- it only had a couple of plot points. I'm getting the feeling though that you maybe prefer, a more subtle story in Zelda games though, which is fine. Me I would like more of a story driven Zeldasomething which I can maybe relate to, something that will put me in that set piece and help me understand the goings on that little bit better. I feel a story is more than just what it tells, it impacts and compliments other aspects in the game. Like I said though it's fine to have that view :p I'm just stating mine.

 

[Ventus]

And let's not forget how incredibly dry Link is as a protagonist. He is treated as a blank canvas/pseudo character in some instances, but there is a large disconnect between player and "Link". To call him Link is almost laughable, because he shows no emotions whatsoever yet characters comment on how great he is. He apparently gets girls with the instances of Saria, Zeldo, Naboaru, Malon, and the fish queen or wahtever, but nothing ever develops. Because he is never treated DIRECTLY, except by the fish queen or whatever her name really was, and he is such a dry character. Like, it's just sickening.

I do not see what anyone sees in Ocarina of Time. I'm sorry. The game is mediocre material, and for people to fan over it is just...just I can't agree with it.