I spent the entirety of my childhood completely ignoring Nintendo for some reason. I loved playing Super Smash Bros at a few friends' houses, but for the most part I didn't play Nintendo games. I played Zelda for the first time last year, starting with Wind Waker, and if you've read my thread on the Wind Waker forum, you know that while I did get frustrated and quit the game for a year, but I eventually enjoyed it a whole lot.

I finally finished it last week. Then I played the original and got through that.

So now I've come to Ocarina. Is this game really as good as everyone says?

Yes it is. And even better on the 3DS. 

@Apparatus_Unearth said:

I spent the entirety of my childhood completely ignoring Nintendo for some reason. I loved playing Super Smash Bros at a few friends' houses, but for the most part I didn't play Nintendo games. I played Zelda for the first time last year, starting with Wind Waker, and if you've read my thread on the Wind Waker forum, you know that while I did get frustrated and quit the game for a year, but I eventually enjoyed it a whole lot.

I finally finished it last week. Then I played the original and got through that.

So now I've come to Ocarina. Is this game really as good as everyone says?

Your enjoyment of it will depend slightly on your ability to deal with the slightly outdated controls.

That's not to say it controls poorly, but it was an N64 game, and that controller at the best of times was unwieldy. That said, the story is amazing, the atmosphere is great, and the dungeons are some of the best that have ever been in a Zelda game. IMO This is the second best Zelda game, second only to A Link to the Past.

@Apparatus_Unearth: Of all the Zelda's, Wind Waker is not a horrible place to start, I did not play through the whole thing, so I don't know about the later levels. But It pretty much builds on OoT, although, perhaps it was just because OoT was one of my first Zelda games ( I actually played Links Awaking DX first ) but it felt like there wasn't a lot to do, mostly because you were stuck on these small islands.

I will warn you that Zelda OoT does a lot of things games no longer do. It makes you backtrack, it makes you puzzle solve by remembering things you are probably used to looking up in, in-game journals by now. There are no check points you must accomplish, something for your play session to matter, whether it be acquiring an item, getting a heart, or even opening a path. And almost every boss is a pattern based boss. Not to mention you probably know all the bullet points for the game by now, just through osmosis.

Personally I would not play it again...

Having said all that. I remember it being one of the most defining games of my childhood.

Is this game really as good as everyone says?

For its time? Yes. If you can appreciate the period, then you can enjoy Ocarina of Time.

If you're expecting it to stand up to today's standards, though? Not especially. It has aged fairly well, admittedly, and is still enjoyable - but it's no longer revolutionary and that takes something away from what made it special in the first place.

So, essentially, enjoy it as a 1998 game and you'll get a whole lot more out of it than trying to enjoy it as a 2012 game.

I should probably say I'm playing it on Wii Virtual Console with a GameCube controller.

Well, to me it's still one of the greatest games ever made.

I know I'm in the minority but I didn't like Ocarina of Time at all, and if I were you I wouldn't bother playing it. I would recommend literally every other console Zelda game before I would tell you to play OoT.

@Apparatus_Unearth said:

So now I've come to Ocarina. Is this game really as good as everyone says?

Yes and No. In the context of when it was released it was freaking amazing, but that era is a rough one to go back to.

And since you've played newer Zeldas I'm not sure it will hold as well for you. I don't know if I would ahve loved OoT if I played Wind Waker first. Probably not

I've alwasy played Zeldas when they were brand new, so I'm not really sure of what it would be like to go back and play them this far after release.

Some things that do hold up really well are the basic Hyrule geography and plot. Oot felt important in a way to the Zelda mythos, that I'm not sure Zelda ever captured before or since.

You should, it's a great game. Give the beggining a chance. It's a bit slow and boring but it gets better after leaving the forest. Unlike Wind waker you don't have to be searching around for pieces.

Go for it man! The level design is still unrivaled, the soundtrack is sweet, the graphics aged better than most early polygonal games, and because the gameplay is based more on logic than reflexes, it still holds up really well. Though the controls haven't aged spectacularly (better than most n64 games however), and the story is pretty typical.

I just got the second song, really liking it so far. Controls aren't too bad on a GC controller.

@WarlordPayne said:

I know I'm in the minority but I didn't like Ocarina of Time at all, and if I were you I wouldn't bother playing it. I would recommend literally every other console Zelda game before I would tell you to play OoT.

It's overrated/overly hyped for nostalgic reasons. It was great for it's time, but it's pretty rough to play now.

@Dagbiker said:

it makes you puzzle solve by remembering things you are probably used to looking up in, in-game journals by now.

Besides "23 is number 1", what was there to remember?

If you insist on having sex with a video game I suppose you could do worse than OoT.

@LordAndrew said:

@Dagbiker said:

it makes you puzzle solve by remembering things you are probably used to looking up in, in-game journals by now.

Besides "23 is number 1", what was there to remember?

I was mostly thinking of that quest line to get that huge sword. So where to go, and who to see. It is pretty good about this, but it does start to lose it in the grown up era. Like when, and where are you supposed to play that song in the graveyard, not the zelda song, the hookshot song. and also returning to that village to see the cutscene for the shadow temple. Had I not read a faq I would have never gone to that village again.

I highly recommend trying to get a copy of the Zelda Collector's Edition disc. It was a promotional Game Cube disc that has Zelda 1 and 2 for the NES along with OOT and Majora's Mask. Other than the framerate on Majora's occasionally hitching it works great. OOT runs fine btw.

Definitely give Majora's a go. That game has the most pronounced story of any Zelda game (I am only 3-4 hours into Skyward Sword so I could be wrong). The story actually play a central role into the game play and the systems at work far more than any other Zelda title. It's an oddity for sure, but the game holds up really well.

@pyromagnestir said:

If you insist on having sex with a video game I suppose you could do worse than OoT.

Kratos says: "YOU will not see the end of this game."

I played Ocarina of Time in about 2008, I didn't really enjoy it that much.

That little maze puzzle where you have to find the right way by listening to the music, that was pretty cool even though it was simple. And then getting to play that tune on your ocarina, that was pretty neat.

Just skip it and move on to Majora's Mask.

Yes it is, but it has aged. Still good, though.