The Radical Child

A Hyrulian Period Piece

Most will freely acknowledge that the Nintendo 64’s path through history came with it a wasteland laden with the cadavers of partially developed games and whatnot, given the Big N’s desire to have their flagship franchises it absolutely three-dimensions with little, if no, room for two, an attitude dampened by the system’s restrictive cartridge format compared to the rival PlayStation’s more flexible compact disc medium. However, it did bear some games most mainstream videogame critics would hail as near-infallible masterpieces such as the first 3-D Zelda, last rereleased on the Nintendo 3DS as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. Does it still hold up today?

The game begins with Navi the fairy awakening Link from a nightmare, and after a visit to and into the Great Deku Tree for a Spiritual Stone, he Is tasked with visiting Princess Zelda at Hyrule Castle, from whom he receives the mission of retrieving two other Spiritual Stones to enter the Sacred Realm so that the primary protagonist, Ganondorf, can’t claim the godly Triforce for himself. Throughout the game, players control Link across two different periods to save Hyrule from Ganondorf’s twisted ambitions. Though there is some good backstory on Hyrule and elements such as the Triforce, those who have experienced the narratives of other Zeldas will pretty much have experienced that of Ocarina, so ultimately there’s not a whole lot new under the sun in terms of plot.

Writing has rarely, if ever, been a strong suit of the Zelda franchise, and Ocarina continued that trend. There seems no fathomable excuse, for instance, except inebriation, why anyone would think it natural for a character to greet “Yahoo! Hi, Link!”, address someone to their face as “Link the hero” or “Navi the fairy”, or scream “CURSE YOU…SAGES!” As with other Nintendo localizations past and present, as well, the translators opted to use “OK” instead of “okay”, which no professional writer would ever do, and there exists a chronic overuse of ellipses and exclamation points. The dialogue is coherent, but still proves a prime example of middle-tier videogame translation.

That leaves the gameplay for the most party to carry the burden, but speaking as someone who grew up mainly with top-down Zelda games A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening, just how well did Ocarina transition to three dimensions? There are a few top-down moments where control is two-dimensional, and a few areas that rotate as Link wanders through them, but otherwise, the gameplay is strictly three-dimensional, with the camera constantly staying behind the series protagonist as he wanders, the player able to press a button to get the camera back behind him or hold it to keep it in place, causing the pointy-eared hero to strafe, somewhat critical in combat.

Gerudo Fortress is one of the more frustrating areas of the game.

Ocarina does not allow Link to jump manually, with the first 3-D Zelda opting to have him auto-jump whenever the player guides him between gap-separated platforms, which can at times be a mixed blessing, given the uncontrollable nature of a few leaps. Falling from significant heights damages Link a little, although he tends to get off free with lower falls. The heart system from previous installments, where Link acquires an addition to his life meter after bosses in dungeons or collecting four heart pieces scattered throughout Hyrule, returns, and a (very) late-game upgrade halves damage taken to his life. The loss of all hearts without a bottled fairy results in an unceremonious game over and an opportunity either to save or quit, which really doesn’t make much difference.

The inaugural three-dimensional Zelda does technically allow players to record their progress anytime, though in most instances the feature is superficial, as it doesn’t preserve Link’s current location unlike the liberalized save systems of other titles such as the SaGa games. For instance, if the player saves on the Hyrulian overworld, quits, and resumes their game, Link in the past starts at his home in Kokiri Village or in the future at the Temple of Time, with players also starting at dungeons from their entrances if saving and quitting in them. There are, though, maybe a few moments where players can use this to their advantage, such as saving and quitting to return to a dungeon entrance, exiting and repeating, and restarting at either past or future default location.

Combat occurs, of course, whenever Link approaches enemies, with many options available for him to attack. Key to battle is the targeting system where the player can hold the L button to lock on a foe, keep it visible on the gameplay screen, and have Link walk in relation to its position. Throughout my experience, I had issue with having to keep my finger on the L button to hold a target, and the need to have Link facing an enemy in order to target it in the first place, which proves disadvantageous since he’s completely blind from behind, with no radar indicating enemy position, and the action of combat doesn’t stop while the player attempts to target opponents.

Luckily, child and adult Link have a few killer moves, such as being able to slash, poke, or even jump-leap enemies with his sword, block enemy attacks with his shield and retaliate, execute spinning slashes, and so forth, and such skirmishes tend to be quick affairs and at many moments optional. In many instances, defeating an enemy yields a random drop such as a recovery heart, rupee or rupees, refills for slingshot or bow ammunition, bombs, magic recovery potion, and maybe other things. Link does eventually get a magic meter that allows him to perform a few spells (though only a few are genuinely helpful), use a magic spyglass to see hidden objects or enemies, and fire special elemental arrows (which is somewhat critical towards the end of the game).

The original Tales of Destiny came out a year before in Japan but had a vastly-superior targeting system.

As with prior Zelda games, too, Link has many tools that can serve offensive uses such as a hammer to beat down rusty switches, a boomerang to hit or catch distance objects, bombs to detonate fragile walls, bottles to carry healing potion of fairies to restore life when he loses all health (among a few other things), and so forth. Many of these tools are necessary to advance through the storyline dungeons and maybe discover a few secrets spread through Hyrule. As well, dungeon bosses require specific strategies to conquer, and while there are a few that are genuinely enjoyable, there are many that can be nothing short of frustrating, with the camera not helping in those cases, and death forcing players to retrace their steps back to the boss to try again.

Other supplements to the gameplay include hunting Gold Skulltulas and retrieving their respective medals, which can gradually reverse the curse of a family in Kakariko Village transformed into spiders and earn Link some goodies such as increased maximum rupees he can carry, necessary of course to purchase items. However, while money was an issue early on, late in the game they pretty much burned a hole in my pocket, and it would have been nice for the game to feature some other use for them instead of allowing them to waste away like they did in my experience.

All in all, the game mechanics have some good ideas, though their execution often brings things down, accounting for an inconsistent experience, with gameplay tropes like having to sneak past guards without getting caught, not to mention the potential for repetition if a boss kills you. The camera and targeting system can be pains, titles such as the original Tales of Destiny, which released a year before Ocarina in Japan, vastly superiorly executing the latter, and the general lack of control of the player’s view in the heat of combat doesn’t help matters. Generally, Ocarina of Time still plays like a 3-D game originally released in 1998, but things aren’t entirely bad.

One of the biggest improvements in terms of Ocarina’s control compared to the Nintendo 64 version is the much, much faster text speed and the ability to scroll through most dialogue without all of it having to appear in textboxes first. Other additions include the Shiekah Stone in Kokiri Village and the Temple of Time, which can help newcomers to the game with difficult puzzles necessary to advance through dungeons, though access to them regardless of Link’s location would have been nice. The biggest issues, still, are the camera and the save system, the latter making difficult playing the game in small chunks, given the repetition players must endure when diving back into the game.

Even the axeman wants to off Navi.

Sound has tended to be one of the more positive aspects of the Zelda franchise, and Ocarina in many respects continued that trend. The various melodies Link learns for the eponymous musical instrument, necessary for fast travel and in a few circumstances solving puzzles or battling maybe one specific enemy type, can be catchy and endearing, and signature series motifs such as Zelda’s lullaby and Ganandorf’s sinister theme have a few notes added to them. There are issues regarding the music such as the bland dungeon themes and lack of musical accompaniment during nighttime on the overworld, and things like Navi’s nagging voice can be really grating, but aurally, Ocarina doesn’t completely fall flat on its face.

The latest incarnation of the first three-dimensional Zelda game, furthermore, may still play like a 3-D game originally released in 1998, but mercifully doesn’t completely appear as such, given the graphical refinements for the Nintendo 3DS version’s character models most of all, as well as the convincing depth effects from the handheld’s visual capabilities. Granted, most of the environments still have blurry and pixilated texturing, and there is as prior mentioned the issues with the camera, but visually, the game is far from an eyesore.

As with pretty much every old-school Zelda game, there isn’t an in-game clock to measure total playtime, although upon completing the main quest, players access the Master Quest, although whether they’ll want to partake in it is largely a matter of if they enjoyed the main game, which for me at points was a chore.

All in all, Ocarina of Time 3D definitely does have many things going for it, such as adult/child Link’s diverse arsenal of moves, the secrets ready to discover throughout Hyrule, and decent audiovisual presentation, although there are many issues preventing it from being fully accessible to series newcomers such as the frustrating camera and targeting systems and consequentially needlessly difficult combat at points, the shoddy story and writing, and bland dungeon music. It is better than the NES Zeldas and even some future entries such as Skyward Sword, but those seeking the definitive Zelda experience would be better off playing one of the true classics of the franchise such as A Link to the Past or especially its spiritual successor A Link Between Worlds.

This review is based on a playthrough of a copy digitally downloaded to the reviewer's 3DS of the main quest alone.