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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time | KnockBack: The Retro and Nostalgia Podcast Episode 229

Let's be honest: Nintendo 64 isn't chock-full of excellent, must-play games. But it certainly had its reserve of classics, and 1998's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time -- the fifth core Zelda game -- is certainly one of them. In fact, for a not-so-small subsection of gamers, Ocarina of Time is considered one of the greatest (if not the best, outright) games of all-time. So, fresh off of recent playthroughs, we're excited to talk about it. From the jump to 3D to its amazing soundtrack, from its revolutionary Z-targeting gameplay to its rosters of memorable characters, items, weapons, and dungeons, Ocarina of Time was a masterpiece then, and it still is today. It's a reminder of Nintendo's true potential as the greatest innovator our industry has ever seen, and since it's one of the most-copied titles ever released, you also get to experience its lineage in most of what you play today. So let's get caught-up in the music, quite literally, and ping-pong between a seven-year period where things go off the rails, except for the heroics of one boy.

Comments

Al Rodriguez

I shared this before, but I will do it again because of timing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyUcwsjyd8Q

Al Rodriguez

The breakable weapons in BoTW adds to the survivor themes of the game all the while incentiving the player to create new ways to combat and try all of the weapons BoTW has to offer. Otherwise, a player will stick to a weapon and not let go of it. Just like in Majora's Mask time is your biggest ememy, in BoTW, nature (weapons durability, climate, weather, etc.) is your biggest ememy.

Jonah Gespacho

Ocarina of Time holds up very well. Compare this to Breath of the Wild. I waited for years to buy it, bought it full price and questioned my sanity after. The silver lining obtained afterwards is that we will all know the path of the Zelda series here on out. Following this game to the nearby sequel, the internet has discovered more for us to anticipate. Highlighting the open world, broken weapon gameplay, we will now have Link in a polyamorous relationship with Zelda. Gone is Link never talking, but getting conversation choices such as “Yeah, Ganon cannot stop kidnapping you, but can he stop gluten?”, “Why do you always want me to wear your dress and call you Ganon?” or “Why do you always have a headache and are tired when we go to bed?”. Colin and Dagan, keep it up! (Link probably can’t anymore.)

Jonah Gespacho

Depending on who you say that to, it could be considered a compliment or insult.

Matt Soucy

I really enjoyed this episode as it also brought me back to my buddy and I, much like Colin and his friend, holding the guide and telling my friend what to do. Special game that holds great memories for myself.

Anonymous

Great episode Moriarty bros, real nostalgia for this game for me I remember playing it on n64 as a really young kid and then eventually playing through it properly on the GameCube collection. Fuck those zombie enemies that freeze you though, they terrified me when I was younger I get all your criticisms for botw although I absolutely love that game. I think you can partially blame twilight princess and skyward sword (which I’ve never played) for the change to open world though. There was a lot of backlash after those two for being too formulaic

easycompany

Have you guys ever played the 3ds version? It’s actually a pretty good remaster. It improves the graphics quite a bit while still feeling true to the original. There’s actually a really good video that goes over the differences on YouTube https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KnecYWlURDY Also there’s some texture packs that allow you to run it at 4k on an emulator.

Surge!

I did a 100% run about a year ago and it was like a bittersweet reunion with old close friends. The biggest difference now vs then is that this time I don't have an annoyed parent who's wondering what the hell happened to all the printer paper because the kids were printing out entire game faq guides on dial up.

Brannon H

Another great listen. While BotW is one of my favorite games, I always find Colin's rants on it entertaining.

Sergio Pina

Not sure if anyone has suggested this, but now that you have a fresh memory on this game, take 30 minutes and watch this video and see why many are saying it brought them to tears and is a sad game. This video put in to context something I never got when I was a kid and played it for the first time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyUcwsjyd8Q

Blake Wall

I think a lot of people don't really realize the 3ds version is basically a remake but for a really under powered console it was basically remade entirely for the 3ds

Kaz Redclaw

Firstly, I have a bit more nostalgia for Twilight Princess than Ocarina, because I played TP when it was relatively new, but Ocarina I only played a few years ago for the first time. On the whole Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess thing, those two games are fascinating to me, they're basically gameplay wise the same game with some small differences, except Twilight Princess is so much better at the moment to moment gameplay and polish, and has several years of 3d game design experience under its belt, and thus it just feels like a better game to play. But in almost every other way, Ocarina of Time is better. Thematically, Ocarina has the most depth of any of the series. Story wise, it's one of the best. It's also the point at which they split the timeline in the series into multiple pieces, and it's probably one of the first where they really thought how the games might fit together. The characters are much better thought out in Ocarina as well. Twilight Princess had just a lot of weird anime-esque characters like the one that has you collect bugs. Twilight Princess however just apes some parts of Ocarina story/theme wise, but is really just a shallower echo of them. I still enjoy it though for taking the Ocarina gameplay and polishing it greatly.

Kaz Redclaw

Also, from what I understand, Ganon is what happens when Ganondorf wins in one of the timelines. Thus, any timeline with Ganon is one where in the past Ganondorf beat Link. The official timeline thus says that the original 4 games before OOT all occurred in the timeline where the OOT hero did not beat Ganondorf. Since Ganon is in Breath of the Wild, that's another one where Ganondorf won at some point in the past. That official timeline split lets them create multiple different styles of game and have them be part of the same series. (The Open world exploration games where Ganon exists, the Adult link games like Twilight Princess, and the Child link games like Wind Waker.)

LastStandMedia

Yeah, I remember it looking kinda better and having a new interface, but it didn't seem like a remake to me.

LastStandMedia

I saw that the timeline splits, and that Link to the Past is what happens if Link doesn't succeed in Ocarina, which is interesting.

Kaz Redclaw

Yeah, Link to the Past, and since it was a prequel to the TLoZ1/2 and Link's Awakening, those would fall under that too.