Twilight Princess Was It Really Too Much Like OoT?

[ZeldaLyrics]

i never made that connection. i'm a huge fan of tp and oot and i don't fine them to be too similar.

 

[ZestanorLink]

I don't think so. It's good to have the classic Link vs. Ganondorf in Hyrule every once in a while. While that is the stereotypical Zelda setting, it's only been used, what? 4 times? The first game, then ALttP, then OoT, and most recently Twilight Princess.

 

[r2d93]

Well, I think there are more similarities in this area than you're giving credit, which is one of the reasons I love TP so much. The basic sword moves are the exact same, its only when you get to the hidden skills do we see a difference. And there are times where people can find themselves saying "Hey, I did this in OoT." Like finding the poes to light lanterns, listening to the music in the lost woods in order to find your way out, switching tunics in order to dive into deep water, collecting gold colored insects/aracnids, etc. As you said, TP just added so much more to these areas. So while the similarities in gameplay are there, TP changes them up... as a sequel should.

Fair enough, there are a few more similarities I didn't note. As you pointed out, Nintendo changed up the similarities enough so as they aren't that noticeable of similarities. But as for the combat, the basic sword moves are pretty much always the same in most 3D Zelda games. And once you do get the hidden skills, a lot of the combat revolves around them more than the basic stuff (at least for me, I found myself using the hidden skills much more and then just slashing away).

 

[RegalBryant]

Not unless OoT was a ALttP clone.

 

[hero of time 20]

no, because of the grafic style,horse back combat,and large fully explorable world. Although i still prefer ocarina of time because it had more creative fun bosses, more thought out dungeons, and in my opinion a better story and final boss

 

[OmenBlite]

I think that, naturally, Twilight Princess was very similar to Ocarina of Time, just as Super Metroid was very similar to the original Metroid. In other words, you can't possibly expect a central idea, especially one which acts as a core to a series, to be elaborated upon without such an elaboration borrowing elements from that central idea.
Beyond that, however, what exactly did Twilight Princess borrow from OoT? Certainly, the locations, but what did, say, Karkariko, or even Castle Town, have in common with their N64 counterparts? What traits, other than appearance, did the Zelda of Twilight Princess (who is solemn, reserved, and wise) really, deeply share with the Zelda of OoT (who was filled with regret, open, and personal)? What did Link's motivation in Twilight Princess (to save his friends, and eventually his kingdom, from a foreign threat) have to do with Link's motivation in Ocarina of Time (to experience the world by setting off blindly on some fool's quest)? Or the dungeons? Twilight Princess' Dungeons were large, winding, and intensely thematic; Ocarina of Time's were dense, trial-based, and only mildly thematic. Even the set of characters differed from one another: Twilight Princess' were individual, independent, yet products, of the world around them; Ocarina of Time's were very much elements of the world in themselves, crafting the environment around Link.
These, of course, are very few examples of the many differences between the two titles.
In terms of evolving the franchise, revolutions don't come in the form of new structures or game-play mechanics with a ribbon smacked on top. While OoT's additions were extraordinary, Twilight Princess worked wonders with the cinematic structure and presentation of the series (which, admittedly,has since been fractured with the release of Skyward Sword).
Overall, Twilight Princess was an epitome of subtlety, while Ocarina of Time used more immediate means to accomplish its goals. People who don't recognize these subtleties tend to relate Twilight Princess heavily to Ocarina of Time because the N64 title is familiar to them. Beneath the surface, beneath the locations and the lore, Twilight Princess is an installment to the Zelda franchise that is astoundingly unique in its ways, yet so very cheated because it happens to be the first Zelda title since Ocarina of Time featuring a fully explore-able, 3d Hyrule.

 

[Beauts]

I think TP followed OoT in a good way in that it tried to re-create the winning formula of story/music/gameplay/dungeons. HOWEVER, I am not particularly fond of TP because it didn't quite have enough going for it without OoT as a prequel to stand alone as a great game. I played OoT years before TP was released, so I kind of 'got it' as a concept. But I think if you don't look at it as a Zelda game but just as a game, it kind of sucks.

Not unless OoT was a ALttP clone.

This is the other thing; OoT has a lot of similarities to ALttP. So to be honest, I wouldn't call TP a copy, just heavily inspired. Maybe a little too inspired, but the same thing could be said for OoT and yet OoT is a great game without ALttP. The same can't be said with TP and OoT.

P.S. I didn't mean to post twice on the forums. Powers that be, can you please remove the first comment that doesn't have RegalBryant's quote in it? Sozzles!