Ocarina of Time Is OOT overrated?

[Seth]

No. I think it is truly on of the best games of all time. An epic story line, great dungeons, and tons to do outside of the dungeons. It's a game I never get tired of. I play it maybe once a year, that works great for me and each time is as fun as the last. I think it is the best Zelda game, but not by much. Just my thoughts, for a game to remain on top 10 charts for over 10 years after it's creation is one heck of an accomplishment, and I think it shows that it isn't overrated.

As far as people thinking it is a rehash of ALLTP, I think that is BS. It has many different elements to the story, both are unique. As far as reusing the sages/wise men thing, that is because it was meant to explain the back story of ALLTP, so they compliment each other.

Just my thoughts...I also agree WW is underrated, that is a wonderful game.

 

[LegendZelda]

I do not consider it to be overrated. The Ocarina of Time is still a lot of fun to play as it has a lot of good gameplay that I have not really seen replicated in other zelda games. The dungeons have a unique feel to them that I would like to see again some time in the future. For instance Desert Collosus and the Shadow Temple. I cant think of many dungeons that required portions to be done in 2 different states (Stone Tower Temple was another). The dungeons just got way too linear since then and things have been in a rut.

OoT also had one of the better plots from the game and it was constantly providing more details and plot points.

Overall OoT is one of the best zelda games in my opinion.

 

[athenian200]

I think it's a little overrated, but it's understandable why.

Before Ocarina of Time, Zelda was kind of a niche series that was on the verge of being forgotten by Nintendo (they hadn't released a Zelda game in 5 years at that point). Sorry, but it's the truth... OOT put Zelda on the map for the majority of gamers today who've played a Zelda game. If it's overrated today, it's because of what it accomplished on release. It not only resurrected a series that was thought to have seen it's heydey in the early 90s and now gone, it ended up being one of the best games in its generation, and made the series more popular than ever. Not many games have ever done that.

As far as the game itself, it's really not much different than other recent 3D entries in the series. But those games haven't done what OOT did, largely because Zelda is "established" now and they haven't had the chance. In other words, I bet that if WW or TP (especially TP) had been released instead of OOT (assuming the N64 were somehow able to handle them), it would be just as popular as OOT is. OOT isn't overrated because of what it is, but because of when it came out and what it did for the series.

 

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Ugh, long threads are always hard to contribute to, because I don't wanna go over every last post in here. Like others I just wanna say my own bit and move on. But since it's me here, this'll probably be a drawn out post again...

Short answer, do I think Ocarina of Time is over rated? Yes.
Short answer, do I think it's a great game? Yes.

Now for the long answer/explanation:

When Ocarina of Time first came out, I'd had it preordered and was eagerly awaiting it's release. I could hardly contain my excitement when I first got it and started playing. It was beautiful, the most was incredible, and the storyline was epic... back then. But let's look at a few things. I bought Ocarina of Time when it first came out on the day it came out, so when did I beat it? 2007. That's right, over 7 years after it came out. Why? Because when I got to the Shadow Temple the first time (did Spirit first), my save got corrupted and I had absolutely NO desire to go back and start over. No matter how fun it was, no matter how good, it just didn't have the pull to keep me going back after I lost my save. Go a couple years later and I tried again. I tried again several times actually, between it's release and 2002, I always ended up stopping midway through and forgetting to go back. It just couldn't hold my attention long enough.

So finally I get my hands on the Collector's Edition and can play it on my GameCube with a far better controller (I still hate the N64 controller). I go through and get everything and beat it. And I see the ending. And I weep, for it was one of the worst endings I've ever seen in a 3-D game. Final Fantasy 7's BS riddled cliff-hanger ending was better th.. actually I can't really say that, so I'll say that Megaman Legends' ending was far superior. Yes, I really enjoyed playing through OoT after about 5 years of not even glancing at it. I loved playing it through to the end, swearing during the god-awful minigames and cussing whenever Gannondorf's protectile passed through my sword swing. I love the soundtrack and still listen to it. But when all is said and done... it let me down.

I looked back at other games from the time, and then at games from today, and I came to one conclusion: This was a great game, but it just didn't age well. Not for me. Maybe if I'd never played Majora's Mask during those following years, maybe if I'd finished Ocarina of Time when I first got it, it might have had a better impact. But I wouldn't bet on it. The game itself feels epic because it is large and it did translate pretty well into 3-D. The music is memorable, as are the main characters... to a degree. The music is fine, that isn't my issue. My beef is with how flat and under developed everyone was.

As a Zelda game, and certain of the time, the character depth and development wasn't really bad. But after seeing Majora's Mask and how deeply everyone was created, their personalities and lives, etc, I just couldn't believe this was in the same league as Ocarina of Time. What I could believe is that it was under rated because it was ridiculously hard at time with unforgiving and unbalanced minigames. But everything else, the storyline, the music, the visuals.. it all blew Ocarina of Time right outta the water. So for me, Ocarina of Time is great gameplay wise, but falls short everywhere else. Even the music in OoT, while great, didn't carry the emotion or feeling that MM had.

So long story short, did I really like playing Ocarina of Time? Yeah, I did.
Do I think it really held up after all these years, compared to other games such as Link to the Past, Majora's Mask, or other games of its time? ...not really.

Also before anyone asks, no, I don't think Majora's Mask is the greatest Zelda game of all time, either. I just think it fixed almost all the problems that Ocarina had.. with the exception of far too many stupid and brutal minigames.

 

[yann]

Obviously, compared to similar games out now it doesn't really stand much of a chance.
However, what you have to remember is that OoT was very much a foundation for games afterwards to improve upon.
It set the standard for games at the time.
I love it.

 

[LozzyKate]

Even though OoT was popular after MM came out, there were still thinks about the game that made you wonder if MM was better jn more cases than none.

 

[GaFF]

Ocarina of Time laid the foundation for what a lot of games of this type would be doing in the future, especially Zelda of course. I don't for one moment think it was overrated. Mainly because I love the game and I'm a massive Zelda Mark so it doesn't matter. Majora's Mask suffered because it had to follow the greatest of Ocarina and ended up falling into the shadow. Windwaker is very underappreciated, it's one of those good Gamecube games that people don't give enough credit to.

 

[Kid Buu]

It being the first 3D Zelda brought a lot of fans in, but it's all based on opinion.

 

[blubb]

While I think that it's a great game, I wouldn't say it's the best Zelda of them all, so yeah, it is a bit overrated.
I see the reason for the high rating in the jump from 2D to 3D, which admittedly is a great step forward especially gameplay-wise, but if you look beyond that I think it didn't bring that much new things to the series (IMO aLttP introduced many more things).
And on top of that, it had some unlucky flaws. Unlucky because I think many shortcomings were caused by the 32 MB limitation of the N64 cartridge. Not having a light temple or a full ice temple (+ Zora's Domain unfreezing) as initially intended by the developers somehow made the game feel uncomplete. Same goes for Hyrule Field which - with its emptiness - rather reminded me of a moonscape than an actual field.
Having said all that I still enjoyed the game a lot and I even replay it from time to time, but IMO it's definitely not the "greatest game evar".

 

[Epona]

No, I don't think it's overrated. It was extremely important in its new ways after the first three games, so I do think it's one of the best games.

 

[Dr3W21]

Is It Overrated?

Do you think Ocarina of Time is overrated? It is a fairly simple question, but you must think hard to actually get an honest answer.

I, personally, think it got a proper amount of hype for its day, during its day. I don't, however, believe that the game was so good that people still say it is the best Zelda game/video game of all time. There have been Zelda games that greatly resemble Ocarina of Time, and are better in just about every aspect, that are paid no attention.
Look at Twilight Princess and Wind Waker as examples. The games are practically modern copies of Ocarina of time, just with different storylines. The stories are very in depth (moreso than OoT), the cutscenes and the games themselves are very cinematic (more than OoT could dream of), the art styles are very distinct, the graphics are much better (if that counts), and there are more characters. Still, these two games don't even stand a chance against Ocarina of Time's popularity.

Please discuss your thoughts on this topic.

 

[JMsmash1118]

I don't think so. Even though the game came out over 10 years ago it's still fantastic. In my opinion.

 

[Zleda]

Haha, this is a risky topic man. I personally think Ocarina of Time is the best Zelda game. I own it on all three platforms, and have beaten the game numerous times, just like I'm sure we all have. The thing about this game that I think really stands out is the fact that it doesn't age. It's like going to a car show: you see all these old cars from the 70's, 80's... and they all look brand new! The same goes for Ocarina. It was the first of it's time, and people who were already Zelda fans just fell in love with the series even more with every Skulltula they killed and every time they took/put back the Master Sword from it's pedestal. Honestly, I do enjoy playing Wind Waker and Twilight Princess better than Ocarina, but only because the mechanics are more streamlined. That's why I can't wait to get my hands on OoT 3D but thats for another topic.

I guess my point is, people still love Ocarina for the same reason they love the Grateful Dead; it's classic, and will always be so.

 

[zeldafreak101]

In my opinion it is but that may be cause the first game i played was ALttP and prefer the 2d titles of the series over the 3d ones

 

[Axelotl38]

I am going to prepare myself for flame, but I do reckon it is Overrated today. Back when it was first released, it deserved all of they Hype. It was fun, innovative and had a great
OST. And to this day, it is one of my favourite games. But since Ocarina of Time, I reckon all of the 3D Zelda has improved on what was already great. Personally, i found Wind
Waker, and Twilight Princess to be better in almost all aspects. And Majoras Mask was just as good. Don't get me wrong, I love Ocarina of Time, it is one of my favourite Zelda's and one of my favourite games, i just reckon TODAY it is a BIT overrated. Have been wanting to say that for a while.