Ocarina of Time Is It Really the Best Zelda Game Ever?

[Forlong]

I really cannot agree with that assessment. I couldn't when it was first released, either. I mean, it was good, but it was no "Link to the Past". You see, after I finished it, there were three crippling issues that made me think a little less of the game.

Too many side quests with too little pay-off
There were so many side quests in "Ocarina of Time", but so few of them have any satisfying pay-off. The trading side quest was great, and fishing was fun. But that was about as good as it got. Hunting those gold skullalas was a pain and you weren't given enough for it to be worthwhile. The mask shop was okay, but I felt like the rewards were completely pointless. Hunting those big poes was also annoying. And the less I say about marathon man, the better. These problems don't exist in "Wind Waker" and "Twilight Princess".

Not enough dungeons
I counted, there are only 8 dungeons in this game, and 3 "sub-dungeons". That's how many dungeons were in "Link's Awakening"! This was supposed to be N64, cutting-edge technology! Why do we only get 8 dungeons? In comparison, "Link to the Past" had 11 dungeons and only 1 "sub-dungeon". A far more extensive game.

Less than stellar final battle
The fight with Ganondorf was good. If they stuck with that, I wouldn't complain. But that's not what they did. They had to have him transform into Ganon. But that fight was pathetically easy. It was cool to be able to use just about all your equipment in one fight, but the difficulty seemed far to low. "Link to the Past" had a far better final battle, and the final conflicts in "Wind Waker" and "Twilight Princess" are far beyond that.

With these issues, I fail to see how anyone can say that "Ocarina of Time" is the best Zelda game there is. I understood when it first came out, although I thought "Link to the Past" was better. But "Wind Waker" and "Twilight Princess" clearly blew that game out of the water. "Ocarina of Time" is a fantastic game, but falls short in comparison to other Zelda titles. Can someone explain this die-hard opinion of it being the best of the best?

 

[Dr3W21]

With these issues, I fail to see how anyone can say that "Ocarina of Time" is the best Zelda game there is. I understood when it first came out, although I thought "Link to the Past" was better. But "Wind Waker" and "Twilight Princess" clearly blew that game out of the water. "Ocarina of Time" is a fantastic game, but falls short in comparison to other Zelda titles. Can someone explain this die-hard opinion of it being the best of the best?

I could not possibly agree with this sentence any more than I do.
In my personal opinion (and I think it should be considered fact), Twilight Princess was and is the best Zelda game to date. It does not fall victim to any of the above listed problems that OoT had. It's story depth was well better than OoT. It had a more distinct art style than OoT. It was longer than OoT. It had better sidequests (with the exception of the Biggoron's Sword) than OoT. It was, overall, MUCH better than OoT. Yes, I said it, there is a game better than OoT.

There are mainly just my opinions, but please take them into consideration.

 

[Wolf Sage]

Ocarina of Time is considered the best for one simple reason, it was the first of its kind. Its basis in story, gameplay, and overall structure set a precedent for all the Zelda games that follow it, just as the first Zelda had done. 3D Zelda games would not be the successes they are without the foundation OoT set up. It is often also considered one of the best things Nintendo could dish out at the time, given its limitations. Ocarina of Time is what got most second/third generation gamers hooked to the series. :yes: /imo

 

[Big Octo]

The Side-Quests is one of the reasons why it is the best. They added much detail to the game, which was pretty good. Also, there are 9 dungeons including the last, and that's actually alot!

 

[Cuju]

I don't know why on earth you are complaining about "only eight dungeons"! That's a lot for a 3D game!

I think Ocarina of Time has been improved upon massively by Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and then Twilight Princess. I don't consider it the best because it laid foundations, I consider it revolutionary for it's time. Now though, Ocarina of Time is dated, and the other 3D games in the series are overall better (please remember that this is only and opinion, I love Ocarina of Time, it is just not the best for me.)

 

[Ventus]

Ocarina of Time is the best Zelda game ever, IMO, because it was perfect for it's system. If Nintendo wanted to make an expansion for Ocarina of Time (i.e Ura Zelda), they would require a completely new peripheral to even start development for the expansion. People say OoT is dated, and that IS true, but the Virtual Console release was still getting 8s and 9s out of 10, which not only proves that it held up great, but it is also one of the better Zelda titles - outdated or not.

Another thing I personally think contributed to OoT getting it's records is that most if not all of the glitches that are in the game do not harm player's experiences, they only serve to enhance them. Glitched runs are usually only done by fans, but common game reviews can notice those things with a quick playthrough but still won't call the game out on them.

Yet another thing I like about the game is that the game world is big, but not too big. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess both have in my opinion the worst overworlds in the series just because of how expansive they are. Traveling is a pain, there is nothing to do. One would argue that in TWW there are hundreds of treasure chests at the bottom of the sea, but is a reward of 20 rupees or YET ANOTHER TREASURE CHART really worth steamrolling across the sea? I don't believe so. Now, it's just straight fact that Twilight Princess had less to do in it's overworld than in either TWW or OoT, I don't really think that is contested (yet) as an idea. So, overall OoT just did what it did right, people are entitled to their opinions but I think the game was perfect in all respects for it's time and even the present. Skyward Sword may be the next Ocarina of Time as far as reviews and fanboys go, who knows? All that really matters is that people have their own opinions which is the utmost reason why OoT 'is' the Best Zelda Game Ever.

 

[majorasmagic]

yes you are right ww and tp are better than oot. unfortunantly people wont let go of oot because it was the first 3d zelda game therefore it had some of the most nostalgia for players and people dont wot to see that it was great for its time but now its not as good cause there is so much more we can do with games like adding a lot more content and story. face it oot's story isnt the greatest and is definantly not as in depth as mm ww or tp.8 dungeons though is a fair amount and sidequests i found boring after awhile and the only 2 i see myself doing now is the biggoron sword and epona quest.dont get me wrong though i love oot as its enjoyable to play cause the story is simple and it is in my top 5 but its not number 1 for best but about 2 or 3 for enjoyment

 

[person]

OoT had just the right balance between contnent and volume, and allthough one may get a slight feeling of "was that all?" at the very end; the gameplay up to then is well enough action-phased to keep the player really into the game. Allthough many of the sidequest may be unsatisfying to complete, they are mostly not mandatory for the game's pogress. The game has it's downsides, as mentioned by the topic starter, but for players not focusing too much on all sidequests; it isn't such a disapointment.

TP has (due to troublesome phases during development) not the absolute right balance between contnent and volume, which is why the game feels a bit vast. Much of what made OoT great is still here which certanly makes it one of the best games in the series, but for me, what I remember for the most part is just the enormous distances filled with more or less just rocks and grass. Allthough it was longer than OoT, it still made me feel "was that all?" at the end. For me, TP felt somewhat segmented, a feeling OoT didn't suffer from.

Still, my opinion is that OoT actually is a bit overrated. It's an extraordinary good game, but not nessecarely "the best Legend of Zelda of all time, period". You also has to consider that quite a lot of todays gamers were in the targeted age-group when OoT was released (mostly people born in the later 80's), which brings a signifficant amount of nostalgia to the table. Quite a lot of gamers born in the early 80's will likewise consider ALttP one of the best Zelda games ever released so far. However, this generation of gamers are today aproaching the age of 30, thus they may not have as much time nor interest to share their opinion as the yonger generation.

 

[MW7]

I really cannot agree with that assessment. I couldn't when it was first released, either. I mean, it was good, but it was no "Link to the Past". You see, after I finished it, there were three crippling issues that made me think a little less of the game.

Too many side quests with too little pay-off
There were so many side quests in "Ocarina of Time", but so few of them have any satisfying pay-off. The trading side quest was great, and fishing was fun. But that was about as good as it got. Hunting those gold skullalas was a pain and you weren't given enough for it to be worthwhile. The mask shop was okay, but I felt like the rewards were completely pointless. Hunting those big poes was also annoying. And the less I say about marathon man, the better. These problems don't exist in "Wind Waker" and "Twilight Princess".

Not enough dungeons
I counted, there are only 8 dungeons in this game, and 3 "sub-dungeons". That's how many dungeons were in "Link's Awakening"! This was supposed to be N64, cutting-edge technology! Why do we only get 8 dungeons? In comparison, "Link to the Past" had 11 dungeons and only 1 "sub-dungeon". A far more extensive game.

Less than stellar final battle
The fight with Ganondorf was good. If they stuck with that, I wouldn't complain. But that's not what they did. They had to have him transform into Ganon. But that fight was pathetically easy. It was cool to be able to use just about all your equipment in one fight, but the difficulty seemed far to low. "Link to the Past" had a far better final battle, and the final conflicts in "Wind Waker" and "Twilight Princess" are far beyond that.

With these issues, I fail to see how anyone can say that "Ocarina of Time" is the best Zelda game there is. I understood when it first came out, although I thought "Link to the Past" was better. But "Wind Waker" and "Twilight Princess" clearly blew that game out of the water. "Ocarina of Time" is a fantastic game, but falls short in comparison to other Zelda titles. Can someone explain this die-hard opinion of it being the best of the best?

Let me preface that my opinion on the console games SNES and on is MM>OOT>ALTTP>WW>TP so we are definitely going to disagree.

If you would have simply concluded that OOT is not as good as ALTTP, I wouldn't have much to say but you had to throw in Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. I'm going to go through your 3 issues with OOT and I'm going to respectfully disagree. Compared to ALTTP I would somewhat agree with these criticisms of OOT but compared with Wind Waker and Twilight Princess I just don't.

Too many sidequests with too little pay-off- I actually felt like OOT could have used more sidequests whereas Wind Waker should have cut some (and maybe it could have more dungeons). Having said that, Wind Waker does have the best sidequests overall in any Zelda game (minus Majora's Mask). Twilight Princess versus OOT on this issue I would consider to be a tie. Both games had some useless rewards (does a fourth bottle really matter at all?) and not so great sidequests (contrary to your opinion I hated fishing in OOT and never really liked bug catching in TP). ALTTP didn't have this problem as bad because it didn't have as many sidequests. There were some pointless rewards in that game though too (do we really need the magic cape and the cane of byrna?).

Not enough dungeons- All the 3 games I'm talking about copied ALTTP's model of 3 of something then something happens then more dungeons. Each of them fell short of ALTTP in this respect. OOT and TP both have 8 dungeons plus a final one, but OOT also has 2 minidungeons as well. Also if we go by quality, it's debatable which game had better dungeons but IMO it's definitely OOT. Wind Waker is the major offender though. It had the nerve to copy ALTTP's model and just throw out a dungeon (although at least it tried to deviate from the formula in this way). Then what do you get: one quality dungeon, revisit a "dungeon", two more quality dungeons and a final dungeon (which really didn't feel like a dungeon). You could throw Majora's Mask down at this point for having 4 true dungeons, but I give it style points for not being formulaic (and I love it too much to criticize it).

Less than stellar final battle- I'd say they were all pathetically easy (except the snake form of Puppet Ganon) so that argument doesn't really make sense to me. I always likee Ganon in OOT more than in WW or TP because he was the most awesome looking IMO. ALTTP does take the cake in this regard though because of difficulty and design.

All said I do respect your opinion. IMO though I just cringe everytime someone says TP is better than OOT. WW I could understand because it tried new things with the sailing aspect and had amazing sidequests. To me it boils down to the fact that all these games are somewhat copying ALTTP. It's like a joke on the Simpson's once that had a picture of Peter Griffin (of Family Guy) and Stan Smith (of American Dad). Under the picture of Peter is said "plagiarismo", and under the picture of Stan it said "plagiarismo de plagiarismo." ALTTP is the Simpsons, OOT is Family Guy, and TP is American Dad (continuing this you could say WW is South Park and MM is Futurama). Everyone has their favorite, but no matter which it is you have to respect the roots from which it came which is the Simpsons (ALTTP). And you'd have to be an idiot to not carry the respect back to the Flintstones (LOZ) or the beginnings of animation (Miyamoto wandering around his hometown in Japan discovering lakes, caves, and rural villages). Figuring out a show to go with AOL is hard- someone help!

 

[Mikepoke101]

I agree and disagree, I agree with the last boss being too easy and I agree that the sub quest had some disappointing rewards but I still hold it up high because the story and game play where simply ahead of its time, looking at it know with the OoT 3d it has gotten many 8-9 out of 10 because it has fallen off of its pedestal simply because of its age but at its time it simply blew everyone away and to this day still does.

 

[Libk]

I could not possibly agree with this sentence any more than I do.
In my personal opinion (and I think it should be considered fact), Twilight Princess was and is the best Zelda game to date. It does not fall victim to any of the above listed problems that OoT had. It's story depth was well better than OoT. It had a more distinct art style than OoT. It was longer than OoT. It had better sidequests (with the exception of the Biggoron's Sword) than OoT. It was, overall, MUCH better than OoT. Yes, I said it, there is a game better than OoT.

There are mainly just my opinions, but please take them into consideration.

The story in twilight princess was terrible. It didn't progress well at all. things would be so slow and the suddenly you've done three levels and you're at gannondorf. It doesn't make sense. There was no even flow. OOT had a good story, it had a steady pace, it was simple, and there was more to do if you just wanted to run around. the art style wasn't needed yet. The more realistic a zelda game looks, the more it loses it's Zelda feal. I think skyward sword might have the goods to beat OOT, since that is nintendo's goal now, but it certainly wasn't twilight princess. Btw, still haven't beaten twilight princess because I got bored with the story progression.

 

[person]

Figuring out a show to go with AOL is hard- someone help!

It should be something from the 60's which relates around a group of people, but is radically different in style from The Flintstones.
Perhaps Jonny Quest would fit the role?

 

[OcarinaofTime]

I really like OoT ,you say it has lots of sidequest but really it doesn't.
I like the Wind Waker and Twilight Princess but OoT just felt so much more fun than these.
Also you got to remember that Oot took up all the space for a N64 cartridge and alot of things where cut becaus of this.
Anyway OoT will always have a place in my heart.

 

[Go_Dark_Link]

The game which really revolutionized gaming history. The game many (myself included) opt to be one of, if not the best Zelda game ever. From the moment the game starts you are immersed into a breathtaking cut scene that hooks you the minute it starts. And once the game starts you are encountered with your first puzzle, finding a sword and shield. It's this dynamic that boost OoT's ranking to a new level. The entire game consists on first the collecting of three precious stones, and then the awakening of the 6 sages, all leading up to a grand finale showdown with the Gerudo King, Ganondorf. The game's story is not the only thing that makes it so great, for apart from the main story you encounter several sidequests that (though some find tedious) are quite entertaining and even if their rewards are not good enough for some people, there's not too many or too little of them, just the perfect amount to immerse the player.
Then comes the above mentioned puzzles. One of the great thing about Zelda is that it isn't a game in which you can just swing your sword around and win (except for parts of TP) the games come fully equipped with puzzles that keep the player entertained from day one. Whether it is something as simple as having to find your sword, to something like reflecting the magic against its caster, the puzzles won't give you a rest in this game, making it all the more entertaining (except to lazy people who don't like thinking.)
Now what other great thing is there to say about this game? Well the music of course. Koji Kondo has become very famous throughout all his music pieces of Zelda. And perhaps some of the most remembered of them are the songs from OoT. Not only the usual background music, like Kakariko Village, Lon Lon Ranch, Castle Town Market, and even Kokiri Forest. But also the songs you get to play on the Ocarina like Zelda's Lullaby, Saria's Song, Epona's Song, and others, also including the prestigious warp songs that are so beautiful as they are helpful throughout this game.
Another aspect about this game is the pure fact that it is a classic. Zelda in itself is argued as a classic videogame series and has even been voted the best videogame series of our time. So what is even better than being a game in a classic series? Being a classic game itself. So yeah, OoT is considered a classic for having revolutionized gaming history, having revolutionized Zelda itself by being the first 3D Zelda game, for laying the foundations to countless other Zelda games (including MM which even though some people consider it to be better than OoT, without OoT there is no MM) and for simply being such a dang good game.
So even when some people try to make OoT seem less by comparing it to other Zelda titles, this simply is not true for the newer Zelda titles are released with more open doors to them, but that doesn't make them better. For in reality, no other game, not TP or WW, not even the first Zelda games, have reached such a high peak of grandeur like OoT has. OoT, the classic among classics, the foundation of greatness that is the Zelda series, and in reality, a FRIGGING AMAZING game.
For this reasons and many others, I believe OoT has rightfully been named the best Zelda game in history, making it a must have for any gamer that has good taste.

(Please note that this represents my sole opinion, if it seems in anyway insulting to someone I apologize for that wasn't the purpose of this post, but simply to express my feelings towards the game.)

 

[Big Octo]

Okay, so I read over all your reasons, and found a way to counter them all:
1. All the sidequests had perfect pay-offs. Hunting skulltalas was obviously worth it, with all the accumulative awards and the grand prize being an unlimited supply of rupees. That's one of the best prizes we've ever seen! Hunting the Big Poes was no challenge, I found them all without a guide. The prize was another bottle, and the more bottles the better. Also, people scolded TP for being to linear, but your scolding it for being more open and free.
2. Okay, have you checked all the other games? Here are the facts of OoT: There are 9 dungeons, you have to count the final one. It's also tied with TP for having the most dungeons in the 3D games! It has one of the highest number of dungeons! Also it's tied for second place for having the second most number of dungeons in the entire series.
3. The Final Battle was the most epic of the entire series, others just don't compare. After a battle with the King of Thieves, his tower begins to collapse, so it's a race for your life to get out of there! Finally, when the castle is all destroyed, when you think it's all safe, a mysterious noise is heard. When you go investigate, the foundation is surrounded with a ring of fire. Out of the rubble, Ganondorf appears, and he is still alive! But then, he uses the Triforce of Power, and you the transformation commences. He forms into a large beast of Evil, deadly and destructive. As he knocks a way your sword, you must quickly think of some way to stop him before he ends your life . . .
How is that 'less than stellar?' That's what a real Epic Battle is, and no other games has managed to raise the bar.
That said, I firmly hold on to my belief: It is the best game, a masterpiece, a perfect blend of plot and action, a game that cannot be topped.