Which is It - Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess?

[Ronin]

Greetings Zelda Dungeon,

This will be my first thread on the forums, and for that I've decided to do a special category: Ocarina of Time vs. Twilight Princess. In this, I want to lay aside how/whether the games are similar or different and focus on what you prefer about the selected game. Please remember not to get too biased or contentious as well.

I prefer Twilight Princess because of its intriguing story plot and amazing character development. It's all about the kingdom slowly realizing that something's wrong and coming together--about old friendships being reforged (as with the Gorons and Kakariko Village, the children of Ordon with Link, and most important for me, the Light and Twilight Realms making peace). The unity it portrays throughout the entirety of the game is touching, and it mainly centers around Link and Midna. Just stop and think how they managed to overcome every obstacle Zant set in their way, and how their bond grew from that "I'll help you so long as you do anything I say" attitude. Lack of such deportments are why we can hardly hold a friendship nowadays--because everything is conditional. But TP turns life around for us, and shows us how we can be better in all forms of a person.

 

[germ1137]

Welcome to Zelda Dungeon, Thareous! I'm new here as well, so I hope you enjoy it here as much as I do!

Anyway, I'm gonna have to say Ocarina of Time is better because of it's incredible story line of how a young boy becomes a legand, and how it was a really big step forward for the series. It wasn't just the first 3-D Zelda game made, it was the first zelda game with it's classic characters, like Gorons and Ganondorf. I've only played the game a few times at my neighbor's house, but even so, I think that, right beside the Wind Waker, It's one of the best games in the series.

 

[Aurelia]

Well, lets see.
Ocarina of Time is the first 3D Zelda game. It is a good game play, and the story line is not that bad either. Enemies are some what difficult and fun to battle. Some of the different places were creative and have different races that are really cool. Most of the character's are really funny and some of them are kind of boring. It is pretty a pretty good game.

Twilight Princess, great graphic's but could be a bit better. Some of the places are duplicates, and song's. New character's that are fun, but most are boring and dull. Story line is alright, but you collect too many items.

So, both games are good, but I liked Ocarina of Time better.

 

[Azure Sage]

Although Ocarina of Time is my favorite Zelda title, I'd have to say Twilight Princess's story progression was a little better. Unlike OoT, TP wasn't a simple, "Link, you must defeat Ganon, it's your destiny.". The story of TP seemed a little deeper than that. Although the re-forming of unity in TP was a good touch, I kinda liked the "forging of new bonds" feeling OoT gave me better. Death Mountain was in trouble, and Link appeared as if from nowhere and brought peace back to the Gorons, and in the process, he formed new bonds with invaluable friends such as Darunia. I kind of like this approach better, which causes a new unity to be created, between Link and the Gorons. Although that same unity was also created in TP, it's not the same, because of the fact that the Gorons already had a pre-existing unity with Kakariko Village. Although, unlike in OoT, where that unity was not present or just not mentioned and therefore irrelevant, the mending of a unity that was already in place, like with the Gorons and the people of Kakariko, didn't really have exactly the same feel to it. But that's just me. However, the story development of TP was a little better. It was nice and slow, and did not seem too rushed. In OoT, it was basically just, "Go here, then go here and then to here next." There wasn't really alot of "in between" when it came to moving on to the next dungeon. I believe TP was better in this regard.

All in all, both games are so good, it's hard to pick between the two.

 

[JuicieJ]

In all short and sweetness, Ocarina of Time is a better overall game, but Twilight Princess is my favorite.

 

[zeldakid895]

Twilight Princess is a better game for me because the gameplay was executed superbly (GameCube version, specifically), and the plot was intriguing. The game could have been a bit harder overall, however.

 

[Blazestarre]

Ocarina of Time is very nostalgic to me and so I probably will always be biased for it. However, stepping away from that, OoT was the first 3D Zelda game and was the most innovative (aside from the original) of the games, so it was certainly daring. The story is pretty simple, though, and the characters are rather two-dimensional. The dungeons are challenging but the combat system is simple and a bit tedious.

Twilight Princess, on the other hand, is not innovative, but it's also the fourth 3D console Zelda game and so has a formula it can follow. The story and characters are more complex. In fact, you could argue that the story is much more involved and you are constantly reminded of it through cutscenes. Dungeons are easy, but the combat system has greatly improved from OoT, which makes fighting enemies more interesting. I personally believe that TP can be seen as using a polished up formula from OoT.

It's really difficult to say which one is better. OoT was innovative and first, while TP was much more polished design-wise and story-wise. For me, the only thing that OoT has going for it is my own nostalgia. I really preferred TP's controls and its story.

Overall, OoT wins for me due to my strong nostalgia, but it is only better by a hair.

 

[Kybyrian]

Quite an easy choice if you ask me, but you are asking an Ocarina of Time fanboy. We've got a lot of those here... especially on the moderation team.

Ocarina of Time was the first Zelda game that I ever played. Heck, it was one of the first games I've ever played period. It got me into the Zelda series and gaming overall, and I love the game to death. It was absolutely amazing and I beat it so many times I've lost track and stopped counting. There's just that little something about the game, whether it be the pure nostalgia or not I don't know, but it makes me love it so much more. Ocarina of Time blows me away in every aspect. Some say the story really isn't that great, but I think it's fantastic. That's not to say that Twilight Princess's story wasn't fantastic, though. Twilight Princess was more of a tribute to Ocarina of Time than anything else, as I'm sure you've heard before. Twilight Princess was just too repetitive with the whole twilight scene and personally I didn't care all that much for some of the dungeons, especially Arbiter's Grounds.

Maybe the reason that Ocarina of Time appeals to me so much is because I can't really find anything that I dislike about it. When I look at any other game I can always find one small factor that makes me dislike it a bit more. The human mind exercises flaws over success so often that anything with a noticeable flaw will instantly take a drop in your mind. That may be why I like Ocarina of Time so much more than other games. No matter how hard I try I just can't find any big flaws that really matter. I can't find anything like the repetitiveness and boring nature of the twilight in Twilight Princess. Ocarina of Time just stands out in my mind so much more than Twilight Princess or any other game.

 

[BlindZelda]

I felt that Twilight Princess was a lot more, story driven. I also loved how Midna's back story un-folded during the game. Navi didn't have a back story, as far as I know.

Ocarina of Time though, was a MUCH better game. It was also my FIRST Legend of Zelda game, and also the first game I EVER played. Twilight Princess just didn't have that much of a "grip" on me. I beat OoT 13 times, and TP only once.

The one thing that annoyed me the most in Twilight Princess was the whole Twilight gimmack. It was something new, but I don't think it had to be to repetitive. Find the god, find the tears of light, finish the Twilight. It got to boring for me. OoT was fun. I liked the Time travel.

If I had to pick, OoT any day.

 

[Ronald74]

Twilight Princess brought more to the table and over all has very seamless game play. Ocarina got boring quickly, Twilight Princess fixed that with actual exploration.
Ocarina of Time is just your basic game, and I don't know why it gets awarded "Best Game Ever", if any Zelda game deserves that title it was Twilight Princess.

 

[Hylian Knight]

I like TP more because of the storyline and along with what Blindzelda about the Vessel of Light that made the game slightly boring to me but only that 1 part and love how Nintendo intro'd the Hidden Skill(hope to see this in SwS.) BGM's were amazing better than OoT's and OoT was the 1st LoZ game I ever played. ah the memories of Little Brother does something Big Bro took 15 tries at but Little Bro does it his 1st try even though he didn't see Big Bro do it at all.

 

[LolGames4U]

I personally prefer Ocarina of Time. I love the storyline, SO MANY DUNGEONS, a very nostalgic game for me, the music, and just memories of playing it with my friend. I also think Twilight Princess is very dark and actually kind of scary (to me; I scare very easily) and I get kind of creeped out when I play it. It's like the Shadow Temple 24/7 to me. So I prefer Ocarina of Time.

 

[00steven]

It has to be Ocarina of Time for me because all other zelda games follow the same formula that Ocarina of Time layed out and haven't been able to better it. The graphics were, at the time, state of the art and the music is incredible.

 

[PhantomTriforce]

I liked Twilight Princess more. I felt as if it took the basic formula from Ocarina of Time, and improved on several different aspects of it. The plot in Ocarina of Time was rather plain, and same as the old style, almost as if it were ripped from A Link to the Past. We need to collect 3 things to get the Master Sword, the release a few sages to help you defeat Ganon/dorf. Twilight Princess, on the other hand, had a more developed plot. It introduced a mysterious race called the Twili who got banned from the Light World (aka Hyrule),

Spoiler

but there were evil forces from both, the Twilight Realm and Light World that met and tried to inflict chaos to Hyrule (well, they actually succeeded seeing the Hyrule Castle exploded in the end of Twilight Princess).

Character development was improved from Ocarina of Time. Some of the characters such as Ilia, Yeta, the kids (Malo, Talo), Shad, etc. were improved in terms of what we learn from them. The Goron and Zora races had more to them also, as we see more of the Goron Tribe like the elders, the leader, and we learn more about the royal family of the Zoras. I have to say that soundtrack and graphics were vastly improved from Ocarina of Time, but I'll have to admit that there's nothing better than Gerudo Valley in Twilight Princess. Now one thing that Ocarina of Time did better in was difficulty. The enemies, bosses, and dungeons were in my opinion harder than they were in Twilight Princess. Well, Twilight Princess was in the dead center of the easy wave of Zelda games (WW, MC, TP, PH, ST). The gameplay and length of the game was also better and longer in Twilight Princess, which made it more enjoyable for me. So due to these reasons, I like Twilight Princess more.

 

[Godkarmachine]

I like TP more because of the storyline and along with what Blindzelda about the Vessel of Light that made the game slightly boring to me but only that 1 part and love how Nintendo intro'd the Hidden Skill(hope to see this in SwS.) BGM's were amazing better than OoT's and OoT was the 1st LoZ game I ever played. ah the memories of Little Brother does something Big Bro took 15 tries at but Little Bro does it his 1st try even though he didn't see Big Bro do it at all.

Actually, Minish Cap had sword techniques and MC came before TP

On with the question... I prefer OoT
on comparison:
-OoT had awesome music and it was very memorable, TP isn't as memorable
-I like OoT storyline better
-OoT didn't have boring things to do before dungeons (recovering Ilia's memory, collecting tears of light......)
-OoT's dungeons were better designed overall
-Boss battles were more epic (Ganondorf being the prime example)
-Weapons were better and were actually useful (spinner anyone?)
-Characters were more awesome (there's no Malo, no Midna, all of the sages are memorable)

And well that's my opinion