Ocarina of Time 3D

[Jayel]

This just in: the Fire Temple is still officially the most horrible thing. The Water Temple gets such a bad rep, but is actually really enjoyable. The Fire Temple on the other hand is a rollercoaster of torture.

Is that the one after the water temple where a dismembered hand randomly drops from the ceiling and takes you back to the beginning of the dungeon? I got really angry at that dungeon and never picked it up again.

edit: ah, it's the shadow temple i was thinking of. screw this game.

Edited June 28, 2011 by Jayel

[Thrik]

Gamers are borderline nuts when it comes to things like this. When a development team messes around with a classic game too much they go crazy (eg: Metal Gear Solid), but when a classic is faithfully updated to run well on modern machines with minimal visual changes (eg: Metal Gear Solid) they similarly go crazy.

The obvious solution is to kill all video gamers.

[Sno]

Reading up on it, sounds like in addition to "preserving" literally dozens of original Ocarina glitches, people are finding all sorts of new ones. You can get an infinite number of heart pieces from the grave yard as young Link, and even get into the Jabu dungeon as adult Link. People have found ways to equip items to the sword button, use child items as adult link and vice versa, even equip the master sword to young link. Etc, etc. The game also appears to quietly disable the 3DS's wi-fi while it's running. (It will temporarily re-engage if you load any of the home screen apps, which makes it seem like it might be by design. Seems like the background wi-fi functionality on the 3DS has been causing problems with some games, like how having the wi-fi switch on can make Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars lock-up.)

Still, Ocarina 3D seems to be fast becoming a fairly egregious example of shoddy QA, i've been seeing a lot of fan rants demanding patches. (Which i find a cute notion, that Nintendo would be savvy enough to design their system to allow games to accept title updates.)

At least it doesn't seem like anybody has stumbled into any serious/obvious game-breakers.

[miffy495]

Is that the one after the water temple where a dismembered hand randomly drops from the ceiling and takes you back to the beginning of the dungeon? I got really angry at that dungeon and never picked it up again.

edit: ah, it's the shadow temple i was thinking of. screw this game.

You're thinking of Wallmasters, a staple of the Zelda series (they've been in most of the games, as far as I know). You actually run into them first in the Forest Temple (first one as adult Link) and I'm pretty sure that they show up in most if not all of the adult Link dungeons. When you see your shadow start to grow, keep moving. As long as you aren't standing still, they'll plop down a few meters behind you and you can take 'em out with your sword. They don't come back after you've done this, so they're really not so bad. I'm surprised they were enough to keep you away from the game.

[Jayel]

You're thinking of Wallmasters, a staple of the Zelda series (they've been in most of the games, as far as I know). You actually run into them first in the Forest Temple (first one as adult Link) and I'm pretty sure that they show up in most if not all of the adult Link dungeons. When you see your shadow start to grow, keep moving. As long as you aren't standing still, they'll plop down a few meters behind you and you can take 'em out with your sword. They don't come back after you've done this, so they're really not so bad. I'm surprised they were enough to keep you away from the game.

I don't remember them from the forest temple, or other zelda games (i guess they weren't too much of a nuisance in other places?). I remember that I had to be ever so vigilant whenever I entered a different room, which doesn't mesh well with my relaxed, laid back playing style. I wasted massive amount of time because I didn't react fast enough and eventually ended up throwing the controller against the wall.

And you needed to roll away at the precise timing if I recall correctly. the shadow would follow if you simply moved (or rolled too soon). I really hate these things. Worst video game villain ever.

[Sno]

Wall masters have been in almost every Zelda game, and they're always annoying. (In Ocarina, they do appear first in the forest temple, btw.)

Also, you don't need to dodge roll at the last second to evade them, just be moving constantly, their shadow will stop following you when they begin falling. When it lands, you can turn around and kill it, clearing it from the room. (Until you re-enter that room later and it respawns, of course.)

[miffy495]

Yeah, the shadow will follow you as it gets bigger, but then it will hit it's max size and fall exactly where it hit that, giving you some time to move away. Anyway, not the biggest deal. I actually hated the floormasters way more (the first one of those was definitely in the Forest Temple) who wouldn't fall on you, being on the floor and all, but would split into three smaller ones when you attacked it. Those guys sucked.

Anyway, easter egg change alert! I picked up my copy yesterday and have put in just enough time to get to the start of Dodongo's Cavern. Out of habit, I checked the windows in Zelda's courtyard in Hyrule Castle, looking for those portaits of Mario and Yoshi. They've been replaced! Y'know that puzzle you can get in the Mii Plaza of NSMB Wii? With Mario, Luigi, and two Toads riding Yoshis around? The painting appears to now be the background from that with the characters all removed. Weird.

Anyway, after an hour or so of playing, this is beautiful. The graphical overhaul is all that this game needed, and parts of it are goddamned stunning now. It's such a treat to be playing this game with current gen (by Nintendo's standards) graphics. The 3D is even done well. I'm playing with the slider all the way up and haven't had a problem yet. It just looks damn good. I also like the touch screen additions. Having four items instead of three, with the Ocarina mapped to it's own separate (fifth) button just makes manoeuvring so much easier. I can see later parts of the game being vastly improved by being able to keep five items out (as I ALWAYS had the ocarina mapped to one of the C buttons back in the day) instead of 3. Awesome.

[Sno]

Anyway, easter egg change alert! I picked up my copy yesterday and have put in just enough time to get to the start of Dodongo's Cavern. Out of habit, I checked the windows in Zelda's courtyard in Hyrule Castle, looking for those portaits of Mario and Yoshi. They've been replaced! Y'know that puzzle you can get in the Mii Plaza of NSMB Wii? With Mario, Luigi, and two Toads riding Yoshis around? The painting appears to now be the background from that with the characters all removed. Weird.

I noticed that one too, there seems to be a bunch of new easter eggs.

[Roderick]

I have not encountered any weird bugs or glitches, so I don't consider this to be a particularly or even slightly buggy game.

Wall- and floormasters are horrible creatures, even though they're fairly simple to avoid I always freak out when they're there. The worst freak-out enemy is in Twilight Princess though, when you were in the twilight realm and there'd be these groping hands that would slowly, inexorably follow you and grab you if you weren't fast enough along an obstacle course. Holy fucking shit I go nuts just thinking about those sequences.

[Thrik]

Speaking of which, was it just me who got scared absolutely shitless by the bubble that'd follow you in Magic Pockets?

[ThunderPeel2001]

Weird that they remade it from the ground up. I'm guessing it must be really hard to get the exact same camera angles, etc.

[miffy495]

Surprisingly, even the stupid camera choices remain. For example, this afternoon I got the silver scale. When Link does his "spin around triumphantly" thing, the camera still dips juuuust underwater so that the sound is a little muffled and the water makes everything look screwy.

[Thrik]

They remade it from the ground up? That is weird. I'd have thought they'd at least use the original build as a foundation, seems like madness to do it all from scratch.

They probably salvaged a lot of the assets though (environment models, characters, etc) so they didn't have to literally remodel everything in 3D.

[Sal Limones]

Oh my god. This is the only thing that could possibly make me interested in getting a 3DS and I'm having difficulties trying to listen to the "noooo it's too much money" part of me. Aiming by moving the 3DS around oh man oh maaaan

I remember when the revamped version of Ocarina of Time came out for the Gamecube, and they had the Master Quest version of the game, and somehow I got stuck at the very first dungeon. I have no idea how or why and it is embarrassing.

So, is Navi still as annoying as she used to be?

HEY.

LISTEN.

[Lu]

I played through it when I got it on gamecube, but thought it was kind of cheap in how it makes the dungeons more difficult. Basically it puts shit in places where you might not immediately see it. As in, it just obscures rather then clever new twists on the same puzzles.

[Sal Limones]

Oh.

Well, good thing I didn't miss out, then.

[miffy495]

Aiming by moving the 3DS around is definitely cooler than I thought it would be. I'm finding myself using it way more than the actual stick. This is in part because the stick aiming feels way less sensitive than I remember it, but I'm finding I'm not missing it. It's really responsive and helpful.

[toblix]

I just did the shooting gallery, and the gyro controls are all messed up. For some reason, when you restart, the game resets the controls assuming you're still aiming where you last shot, which is usually of to the side. So, if I retry the game with the screen pointing forward, everything is offset weirdly, so I have to bend over to compensate. It's weird. Anyhow, this game seems pretty fun.

[Sno]

I just did the shooting gallery, and the gyro controls are all messed up. For some reason, when you restart, the game resets the controls assuming you're still aiming where you last shot, which is usually of to the side. So, if I retry the game with the screen pointing forward, everything is offset weirdly, so I have to bend over to compensate. It's weird. Anyhow, this game seems pretty fun.

When you're moving the aim with the analog slider, the gyro is temporarily disabled, so you can use that to try and readjust your sitting. (Or just pause and do the same.)

[miffy495]

Yeah, it was a bit poo for that shooting gallery, actually. Still, when you just need to get a quick shot off, it's rad.

[Roderick]

Finished it! What a fun game. And I emphasize how much easier it seems than when I played it seven years ago. Really, a lot easier.

[Sno]

Finished it! What a fun game. And I emphasize how much easier it seems than when I played it seven years ago. Really, a lot easier.

I suppose this version does seem easier, but it's still more of a challenge than the games that followed it, i would say. (Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, which were both just insultingly easy.)

[miffy495]

I just beat the Water Temple in under 2 hours. I'm pretty sure they made some changes to make it easier, or maybe I've just gotten better at Zelda, but either way that gets me past something I'd been dreading since hitting "start game" at the beginning of this. Also, re: running up that staircase to the hammer in the Fire Temple, I can now say with relative certainty that they made that stairway wider than it was on the N64 version of the game. Like, noticeably. I had not even the smallest bit of trouble getting there, when in past plays of the game it had been infuriating to me. Anyway, still loving this game, and the 3D is surprisingly great. I tried turning it to 2D for a bit just to see how I felt about it, and it looked so bland and drab by comparison. I don't know what else I could say as a person who was really skeptical of this whole "3D" thing, and put it at the bottom of their list of why a 3DS was interesting. I may be a convert.

[Sno]

I was reading that the only thing they've changed about the water temple was adding the glowing trails that lead you from the main room to the switches that pump water in and out of that central area.

So pretty much unchanged.

I always felt people complained about the water temple far too much, it's one of the more elaborate dungeons in Ocarina, but it's not that bad.

Also, re: running up that staircase to the hammer in the Fire Temple, I can now say with relative certainty that they made that stairway wider than it was on the N64 version of the game. Like, noticeably. I had not even the smallest bit of trouble getting there, when in past plays of the game it had been infuriating to me.

You mean

at the start of this video?

I'm almost certain that it isn't any wider in Ocarina 3d, but i do think the analog control in Ocarina 3d is more precise, it was always a little jumpy in the original Ocarina.

Edited July 9, 2011 by Sno

[miffy495]

Yeah, that thing. I dunno though. It looks smaller in that video than it was when I played that dungeon in 3D a couple of days ago...