Metacritic Legend of Zelda Orcarina of Time .vs. Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword

[Ventus]

OOT is an icon that will never be forgotten, it marked a turning point for the world of games.

Ooh, there's this too. Ocarina didn't just map out the rest of Zelda games forever on, it influenced the whole of gaming. I won't tell you what exactly it did, it's up to you to do the researching here, but OoT influenced like everything for the most part. OoT and Super Mario 64 both. Skyward Sword? SS didn't do anything, Miyamoto is even looking into dropping motion controls in favor for button scheme, according to this excerpt:

In addition, Miyamoto is looking at the idea of removing motion control gameplay. This feature was neat in Skyward Sword, but it caused some players to stop and quit the game. With the new controller being more focused on hardcore gameplay, Miyamoto is looking to return to a classic style of Zelda gameplay, that which the fans and newcomers would enjoy.

(Source: Shigeru Miyamoto on Zelda » Zelda News - Zelda Universe )

Yeah, I think we get it. I especially like the tidbit "With the new controller being more focused on hardcore gameplay, Miyamoto is looking to return to a classic style of Zelda gameplay", does my heart good to see that Miyamoto cares about us old people who love the challenge of pre TWW Zelda as well as the control scheme of pre SS Zelda.

 

[Garo]

So basically you guys can't get over how revolutionary OoT was, to me it doesn't matter how revolutionary a game was for its time to me a game needs to be fun which OoT is not for me.

It's fine that it's not fun for you. But it is fun for us. You can't dismiss our fun by saying we're caught up by how revolutionary it is, and then expect us to respect your opinion that OoT isn't fun.

 

[A Link In Time]

In response to the opening post, you have to realize that games in the 1990s received fewer overall ratings than games today. This was due to the industry as a major force being only being a decade old give or take a little as well as the Internet not having fully budded.

Tony Hawk's Proskater 2-98 Metascore based on 19 reviews
Perfect Dark-97 Metascore based on 30 reviews
Majora's Mask-95 metascore based on 27 reviews

Compare these numbers to the quantity of critics rating games today especially after the birth of casual gaming on the Wii, smartphones, and free-to-play games. The market is expanding and in a world with a highly unstable economy, people want to be sure of their purchase before the transaction.

Grand Theft Auto IV-98 Metascore based on 86 reviews
Super Mario Galaxy-97 Metascore based on 73 reviews
Uncharted 2 Among Thieves-96 Metascore based on 105 reviews

That signature manifested by many but most seen in Vanitas's due to the frequent nature of his posting is not a lie. You are correct to point out that Ocarina of Time received less reviews than Skyward Sword, however, videogames back then received less critical attention as I mentioned above. Videogames are becoming a more popular as well as controversial medium in the contemporary world. Lawayers compared them to drugs and guns. Luckily, the case was brought down in the Supreme Court. Never, I repeat never, should such a comparison be made. Given the recent creation of a Hall of Fame for videogames and induction of the Zelda franchise, I can also assert with certainty that the medium is no longer one which appeals to a specific niche of people but rather one which has found broad public support at long last.

As for why I believe Ocarina of Time is better than Skyward Sword without using Metacritic-It all boils down to perceptions of what is revolutionary as well as what individual players wish to see from the franchise in terms of revolution, dungeon design, sidequests, characters, music, and gameplay. Ocarina of Time specifically caters to my tastes in all of the aforementioned fields.

I respect the opinions of those who do not deem Ocarina of Time to be the greatest Zelda game ever made, however, it is without a doubt the most revolutionary. Not only did it successfully shift the franchise ot a 3D plane but also invented the all important lock-on system in the form of Z-targeting which has found major acceptance and usage in the gaming community especially in first person shooters.

Ocarina of Time also perfectly balanced dungeons and sidequests both of which were phenomenal in and of themselves. I personally regard the Forest Temple to be the greatest dungeon in franchise history and Phantom Ganon as well as Bongo Bongo to be impeccable in their boss design. The atmosphere in the dungeons was also perfectly choreographed. Inside The Deku Tree possessed an air of solemnity as Link traversed the dying tree in search of the Kokiri Emerald. Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly was a truly detestable sight as you traversed the insides of a gargantuan fish. But it was the Adult Link dungeons that set the franchise precedent from the haunting Poe echoes of the Forest Temple to the death inviting Shadow Temple. This was masterfully interwoven with rewarding and intriguing sidequests which never wore the player out completely. Coolecting gold skulltulas, getting bow and arrow upgrades by shooting at targets. heading to the Gerudo Training Valley-all these memories are forever retained in my mind. They were only complemented by excellent characters including Malon, Talon, the Happy Mask Salesman, Darunia, Impa, Saria, and more.

But what would be a Zelda game without an excellent soundtrack? Ocarina of Time offers just that. The music is some of the greatest ever composed in franchise history matching the environments perfectly from the serene Ice Cavern to the organ music filling Ganon's Castle. The excellent audio was only complemented by the fully functional and competent Ocarina of Time which boasts some of my favorite tunes in franchise history ranging from Saria's Song to the Nocturne of Shadow.

Last but not least we have the most important element of every Zelda game and that is the gameplay. Controls were never awkward on the N64 and only improved with the dual analog sticks as well as touchscreen inventory of the Gamecube and 3DS versions, respectively. At the end of the day, while motion controls may be immersive, I enjoy sitting down on my couch with a controller in hand and progressing along the course of my adventure that way.

For all of the praise I give Ocarina of Time, Skyward Sword is an equally excellent game. The motion control is the best on the market and truly justifies the purchase of a Wii over PS3 with move or 360 with Kinect (solely for motion controls that is; other factors are involved when assessing all three systems). The sidequests may not be as rewarding as some but there are a few memorable ones such as gratitude crystals and delivering love letters (never forget the hand in the toilet). Groose and Ghirahim were also some of the most hilarious and well developed characters in franchise history. Dungeons were extremely well designed with bosses rarely falling victim to the traditional stun, hack-and-slash pattern. Speaking of breaks from tradition, Skyward Sword not only managed to keep golden on Nintendo's promise of blending dungeon with overworld but also had an array of items both new and old that were used throughout the course of the entire adventure in creative ways. To top it all off, the soundtrack was at long last fully orchestrated.

When it comes down to it, we all have to realize that The Legend of Zelda franchise ins one of the finest series created in gaming history. It ultimately doesn't matter which game is played-they all deliver the same rewarding, engaging, and revolutionary experience. The original Legend of Zelda was one of the first games utilizing save files and one of the longest for its time. Zelda II radically altered the forumla of the original. A Link to the Past introduced the concept of dual overworlds and Link's Awakening put a greater emphasis on more minor characters. Ocarina of Time shifted the world to a 3D plane whereas Majora's Mask boasted a darker story with characters blended i with the sidequests. The Oracle games featured the unique link feature. The Wind Waker proved that seemingly childish graphics could deliver an equally and maybe more so poignant experience as well as the power of connectivity with the Tingle Tuner. The Minish Cap made great use of its side changing twist. Twilight Princess was the first game released on two consoles almost simultaneously, featured the most developed companion character in franchise history, and was the first game to be rated "Teen". Phantom Hourglass introduced online play to the mix and Spirit Tracks was the first true Zelda game allowing the player to take control of Princess Zelda. Skyward Sword fully justified the use of motion controls and provided a rich and engrossing narrative which connected the timeline in more ways than any previous title. The franchise is a link to the past with its wealthy heritage, a link to the present with timeless gameplay that continues to appeal to millions of gamers to this day, and a link to the future revolutionizing the ways we play and perceive videogames.

 

[TheRationalDove]

To be honest, I feel both games delivered something great to the franchise whether you personally enjoyed the game or not. Each Zelda game s its own experience. So, in my opinion, it's like trying to prove which is better tasting: botted water or tap water?

 

[Heroine of Time]

I'm going to have to say that the signature bothered me, too, though I would never have been brave enough to bring it up. And, to be honest, it's not because of how it's praising Ocarina of Time; it's the fact that it accuses anyone who likes another game more than Ocarina of Time of being a "NewZelda fanboy".

I like other games more than Ocarina of Time. In fact, I like Majora's Mask more than Ocarina of Time. As well as Link's Awakening, Legend of Zelda, and Skyward Sword. While my first game was The Wind Waker, and therefore I might be one of those "NewZelda fanboys" (or in my case, fangirl), you can't say that it's just because I like newer games more than the old. I absolutely love Link's Awakening; I've always felt it has one of the best storylines, and that it would be absolutely incredible if it were remade today. In the case of Legend of Zelda, I have some excellent memories of playing that game with my sister, and I am a huge fan of the freedom in exploration, even if it sacrifices story. Skyward Sword just seemed to inspire me more - I loved the art style and the controls more than any other game in the series. And while the inital game was relatively easy, I found Hero Mode to be a refreshing challenge. I died quite frequently, actually. Majora's Mask just improved everything that Ocarina of Time first introduced by making the characters and story memorable and dark.

I won't ever argue that Ocarina of Time isn't the most influential game of all time. There's no way I could disagree. I love Ocarina of Time, too, and I always have a vague feeling of pride when I hear it called the best game of all time. However, it's not my PERSONAL favorite. It had its flaws, just like all the other games above did. (Like Skyward Sword's tutorial, as you mentioned... and I wish that Hero Mode could have been chosen from the beginning.)

 

[Ventus]

I'm going to have to say that the signature bothered me, too, though I would never have been brave enough to bring it up. And, to be honest, it's not because of how it's praising Ocarina of Time; it's the fact that it accuses anyone who likes another game more than Ocarina of Time of being a "NewZelda fanboy".

No it doesn't, or at least, that wasn't my intention. What I meant by "NewZelda fanboy" was SS and TP fans, but of course that wouldn't look too good on me (not that I look good anyway, but you get the point). I'll remove that tidbit, but the rest stays and will stand until Zelda Wii U, 3DS or some future Zelda finally beats OoT scorewise.

 

[MW7]

The only reason why LoZ has a score of 93 is because 3 critics graded it lower than 75.

If you remove the 3 lowest scores, then the average becomes 94.85897436%. It would still be the lowest rated 3d Zelda game on Metacritic even if you take out the three reviewers that thought it was only an ok game. The closest thing OOT had to an outlier was that one reviewer gave it a 90. Precisely one-third (27 out of 81) of reviewers gave Skyward Sword a rating of 90 or lower. Only one review of Ocarina of Time was below 94. The numbers can only be manipulated in Skyward Sword's favor in a very arbitrary and biased manner. There is a distinction between highest rated and best though. Critical success matters but isn't the end all be all of a game's relative quality.

One objective measure in Skyward Sword's favor is that it is the fastest selling Zelda game of all time. This is true, but from my perspective it shouldn't be any surprise at all. There were about 90 million Wii consoles around the world when Skyward Sword was released so the percentage sales of Skyward Sword (about 3.5 million) in terms of the number of consoles was under 4%. It would have been a minor miracle for Skyward Sword to not be the fastest selling Zelda game considering the circumstances- there are over one and a half times as many Wii consoles as Nintendo's 2nd best selling home console ever (NES). Only time will tell how Skyward Sword's sales will end up, but I'd be willing to bet that it will be around 5 million which assuming the Wii will crack 100 million sales would mean about one in twenty people with a Wii own Skyward Sword. That's impressive, but almost one in four people (23%) with a Nintendo 64 owned Ocarina of Time. I know this doesn't actually mean anything, but numbers can be manipulated to say anything.

Sorry but I just wanted to say all that. As for why I personally believe OOT is a better game it's just the content and style of the game. Skyward Sword is technically superior in many ways such as graphics, amount of cutscenes, and sound quality of music among other things, but my perspective is that a video game is only as good as the gameplay is. I can understand how someone can disagree with me, but I just think the quality of the interaction between the game and the player is superior in Ocarina of Time. So that's my circular reasoning- Ocarina of Time is better than Skyward Sword because the gameplay is better. As for specifics, I'd say the dungeon quality is better in Ocarina of Time, the amount of pointless boundaries is much higher in Skyward Sword, and the replay value of Ocarina of Time on average is much higher per player than Skyward Sword. My final point remains to be seen, but Ocarina of Time is still being played in novel ways to this day. People are still discovering new tricks 13 years after the game's release which is why a new world record for a speedrun surfaced a few months ago. I highly doubt that Skyward Sword, despite having technically much more content, will even last three years before its secrets are virtually all tapped.

My last paragraph relates to glitches, but I don't use glitches. I focus on the different ways to complete the games. In Ocarina of Time I've done 100% runs, 3 heart runs, and about 10 different variations of minimalist runs all while simultaneously experimenting with the different orders you can complete the minidungeons and dungeons. In Skyward Sword I did a 100% run, a minimalist run, and then I ran out of novel ideas. You can't do virtually anything out of order without using some kind of glitch, and the only thing you can switch around got screwed up with a game-breaking glitch. I did find some replay value in the Sand Ship and Sky Keep, but I found the optimal path through the dungeons after three tries. In contrast I've played through the Water Temple of Ocarina of Time about 40 times (I keep a file just at the start of the dungeon because I love it so much), and know for a fact that despite all my experiments that I still am nowhere close to the optimal path through the dungeon. I had done the dungeon in every way I could imagine, and then I watched a speedrun and quickly realized that I was overlooking a huge factor- Farore's Wind. So just from that I'll probably be able to play the dungeon in new ways for at least a dozen more times.

So basically my biggest problem (I'm getting more into opinion than outright flaw) with Skyward Sword is that almost everything is required and it has to be done in a specific, arbitrary order (the arbitrary part is a flaw). In Ocarina of Time I've finished the game without tunics, the fire arrows, and the lens of truth among other things. In Skyward Sword the only regular item you can skip is the bug's net. The minimalist run of Skyward Sword has very little complexity to it at all- skip the bug's net, skip all but one bottle, don't buy things, don't pick up things, and don't upgrade things. In Ocarina of Time I had to do it about ten times before I thought I had figured most of the complexity out. You can't even skip everything in one run because some things rely on other things (goron tunic and bottles). So basically to sum it up with an analogy- Skyward Sword is a swimming pool and Ocarina of Time is a well. On the surface Skyward Sword appears to have much more to offer, but actually if you delve deeply into Ocarina of Time then you'll notice that actually it, not Skyward Sword, has much more to offer.

 

[Terminus]

Sorry SS, you should try to be like Majora's Mask and be more of your own game, not emulate Ocarina.

Yes, be your own game, but copy this one. I know what you're trying to say. Still funny.

 

[JuicieJ]

Metacritic scores mean next to nothing. Yeah, they give you a good idea if the game is worth getting, but saying that just because one game has a higher score than another automatically means that it's better is just silly. It's very faulty logic to the point of being laughable. That said, obviously I don't care about the 6 point deficit between SS and OoT. I still say SS is the best Zelda to date and currently the greatest game on the market.

Ooh, there's this too. Ocarina didn't just map out the rest of Zelda games forever on, it influenced the whole of gaming. I won't tell you what exactly it did, it's up to you to do the researching here, but OoT influenced like everything for the most part. OoT and Super Mario 64 both. Skyward Sword? SS didn't do anything, Miyamoto is even looking into dropping motion controls in favor for button scheme, according to this excerpt:



(Source: Shigeru Miyamoto on Zelda » Zelda News - Zelda Universe )

Yeah, I think we get it. I especially like the tidbit "With the new controller being more focused on hardcore gameplay, Miyamoto is looking to return to a classic style of Zelda gameplay", does my heart good to see that Miyamoto cares about us old people who love the challenge of pre TWW Zelda as well as the control scheme of pre SS Zelda.

Read the direct quote from Miyamoto carefully:

Yeah. With the last game, Skyward Sword, that was a game where you had motion control to use your weapons and a lot of different items, and I thought that was a lot of fun, but there were some people who weren’t able to do that or didn’t like it as much and stopped playing partway through it. So we’re in the phase where we’re looking back at what’s worked very well and what has been missing and how can we evolve it further.

That doesn't suggest leaving behind motion controls at all. That suggests that they're trying to find ways to improve the motion controls so that they will appeal to more people, namely those that didn't like them.

 

[Butterfly4Life]

Well I just hope that they they keep the new style of game play because I love it. Or at the least have the option. Like if you like regular controllers than you could play like that or if you liked the Wii mote and Nunchuk that play style would be included. As far as which game is the best well I still think the SS is so meh. I'm proud to be a"NewZelda fangirl"