| Legend of Zelda - The Ocarina of Time | Page 1/4 |
| Reviewer: Juho Mankila | |
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Finally it's here. The Shigeru Miyamoto's newest masterpiece is here after all these years hyping it. Or maybe I'm not the right one to complain about the delay, cause I bought N64 the same christmas I bought Zelda, heehee. So I didn't expect it to break the ground and be the very best game of the century. I haven't played the earlier Zelda games, except one (Link's awakening, if I remember it right), so I didn't know much about Hyrule and Zelda. As I've heard, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time is really a prequel, so that's not the problem either. As in about all of the Zelda games, Link has intrepidly confronted the malevolent forces of Ganon thus saving the Hyrule and Zelda, it's the same cause this time that Link is swinging his sword for. I don't mind it at all, cause the plot is carried out with so much finesse, that only rare developers can come up with.
The game starts with a modest intro, where Link rides across the field, sun rises and flaming Zelda-logo appears. When it's over, surprisingly you get a chance to name yourself, but I didn't understand why should you name yourself other than Link, because, you're playing as Link, not anyone else, and make no mistake, you are Link, not Zelda. Then your adventure may begin, and let's just become absorbed in the world of Zelda. Every time you grab the cart and put it into it's slot, pull the blanket up to your waist, shut down every lamp in your house, you can sense the magic coursing through your veins, your mind fills up with thoughts of fairies, elfin Kokiris and the humongous forces that rule the land of Hyrule, you start to think your arm-chair is the Deku Shield, your sunglasses behind your back is the Kokiri-sword rattling against the couch and your soul wanders to the Realm of Hyrule. Or something pretty close to that. Maybe.
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| There's a huge amount of cutscenes to carry on the plot. |
There are simpled out "mastakillall"-games which haven't got a plot enough to say the word while keeping a straight face. There's no problem in this case and truly this game leans very much on its magnificient story. One of the greatest experiences throughout my lifetime was when I first started playing Zelda, it's just so epic to start a game from a quiet peaceful place not knowing anything of what is awaiting you later on in the game. Many epic experiences is to be awaited then. Zelda is split to two main category: the exploring&adventuring and the dungeons&battle. Adventuring happens in a free world, and this time Shigeru Miyamoto and over 200 member staff has accomplished the possibly hardest mission of them all, creating a world that is as close as possible of being a real fantasyworld. Dungeons are more of missions that have to be completed. Roaming in a free world like Zelda's is great fun, and I like it better than Dungeons. Usually in between there are great cinematic cutscenes. I can't express how much I enjoy looking cutscenes in between of exploring and action. Although Zelda is said to be Action-RPG-Adventure, I personally would say this is a 3D-adventure at its best. There is no level-ups or billions of different weapons as in computer RPGs, so those who are used to computer like RPGs may find themselves needing a bit more RPG elements. That's why I call it 3D-adventure. It certainly isn't a platformer, since it hasn't got Jump-button. While that may sound loathing, there's an automatic jump that makes you jump at the last possible moment, and it works nothing less than perfect. Therefore you can't jump too late and find yourself at the bottom of a canyon or whatever.
Let me tell you about the controls of Zelda, and boy are they the greatest ones I've yet seen on any console, and sure beats those in Tomb Raider. Actually TR's controls sucked like a vacuum cleaner. By moving the 3D-stick around Link moves around, always to the direction you turn your stick, no more pressing left and slloowwly rotating your body to that direction. The truly ingenious A-button, which is the "Action"-button, can make you roll when you're running (that's for whacking crates into pieces), turns into Read - when you're next to a sign, or Dive - when you're swimming around a lake, which definetely isn't a bad way to spend your time while viewing the unbelievable sights. You'll see. The Action-button works always perfectly, and very intuitively.
| Reviews: Juho Mankila - Blizzardic | |