Ocarina of Time is an amazing and entertaining journey though Hyrule, but not the best anymore
GRAPHICS:
This game still looks rather nice nowadays, with areas giving out the feeling they are suposed to, such as a graveyard that looks depressing and a forest that forest that looks lively. All the places in the game have nice color palets, and the characters have few but well made animations. While, of course, newer Zelda games surprass this one in this category, OoT still is a nice looking game. Also noticiable is that there are no frame rate drops. 4.5/5
SOUND:
The music in this game is not my cup-of-tea. I find it extremely simple and quite often just feels to be "there". That being said, when the music is good, it is really good. The songs that you play in your ocarina, such as the Bolero of Fire and the Nocturne of Shadow, are incredible, but are incredibly short. Regardless of preference in the songs, they all fit their places, and give the area a nice background. 4/5
STORY:
Ocarina of Time tells the story of Link, a young Hylian boy who goes on a quest to save Hyrule from the Evil King Ganondorf. To do so, he must travel 7 years in the future, so he can confront the king himself. To defeat him, he has to awake 6 Sages, who will lend their power to Link, so he can acomplish this feat. That is pretty much it in general.
When it comes to the plot itself, Ocarina is very simple, having a straight forward story. There are more details than what I have said, but it really isn't anything special. What is special though are the characters that you meet. Besides Link, Ganondorf and Princess Zelda, you also meet many more characters who are important to the plot, such as your kokiri friend Saria and the goron king Darunia. They are the highlight of the story, and leave a lasting impression, due to their fun and varied personalities.
Due to this game, the storyline of the Zelda series became serious business. I won't enter in detail about it, but there are many things that are hard to understand from this game, let alone the details that were made opened due to it on the overall storyarc of the series. One can have quite a bit of fun digging the mysteries of Hyrule actually.
Weighting all I have said, the story is good, but nothing special, though its characters will remain in your memory.
3.8/5
GAMEPLAY:
The game is a 3D action adventure game. You, as Link, have to go through Hyrule, passing dungeons and earning their treasures, so you can do the same thing other times and beat the final boss. The structure is actually very similar to the previous 2D games in the series, so veterans should feel at home.
The most noticiable feature opf this game, as I mentioned, is that you can travel back and forth though time, 7 years to be exact. This is a feature that has to be exploited if you want to get all the stuff in the game, and has to be done at least once (going from adult to kid, and back and forth) in the main quest. This is actually quite an interesting feature; one that is done effectively plot wise and gameplay wise, and there are some differences in Hyrule though those 7 years.
The bulk of the experience is on the dungeons. There is a total of 8 dungeons, between young Link and adult Link, though the majority are with the latter. They are set up in a way that there is always one path that you can go if you pay attention to what is going on, and getting lost is always a matter of not paying attention to what is going on, not of bat level design. The dungeons of the game are mostly expertly designed, with well integrated puzzles that require you to think and use all of your weapons and tools. This can be a flaw in the design of the dungeon however, like the dreaded Water Temple, that has you going to the menu a bunch of times just to switch your boots, though isn't that bad as people make it up to be.
Besides puzzle solving, the other big part of the dungeons is combat. Ocarina of Time revolutionized 3D combat, with its lock-on system, which has you moving as you observe as your enemy moves, so you can effectively shield against it and swing your sword as there is an opening. You really have to master this if you want to succed in the game, and it is very intuitive and easy to use. Besides you sword and shild, there are also many more weapons in the game, like bow and arrows, the hookshot and the boomerang, which all serve a purpose in the game, and are all quite fun to use. Boss battles are also a highlight, being huge in size and taking some thinking as to what you have to do to beat them.
While you are not in dungeons, you will be in Hyrule field or a town. In town, the NPCs will give you hints as what to do, and you can buy multiple stuff, such as potions, and engage on multiple side quest, which are quite cool to do. In Hyrule field, you can hunt for more Pieces of Heart and go to other locations. If there is something that bugs me in this game is how empty the overworld is. Hyrule field is big as h**l, but there is almost nothing to do in it. After you get a certain something in this game walking on it is more manageable, but still is kind of boring.
I have to put emphasis on something right here: Ocarina of Time is not a perfect game. While it sure was "the sh**" back then, now a days many of its design choices are outdated, and even back then there are things that are jusjt annoying to deal with. The camera of the game is pretty good in general, but you can't move it freely, which can be a problem when trying to do precision jumps and attacking. Also, some of the things in the dungeons can be downright frustrating, such as missing a jump in the Fire Temple and having to start it back from the begining, or the inconvinience of the Water Temple, which also has some desing problems.
But, in general, these are mostly MY complains with the game, and anyone can disagree with them. The good things that this game has outshine by a lot its negatives.
4.7/5
PERSONAL FAULTS:
This game, like with many other N64 games, has you pushing the stick forward basicaly all the time, and since that thing sucks, it can really get your thumb hurt. If you can, get it on the Virtual Console, since the GameCube controler, while not as accurate, is much more comfortable to play with.
OVERALL:
Ocarina of Time probably was the best game ever, but has since being debunked of that position by a bunch of other, including other Zelda games. I am not saying this is a bad game, since it still is really really good, and one any gamer should pick, due to the overall fun you will have with it.
The good:
-Music, when good, is really good
-Dungeon design tend to be amazing
-Characters leave a lasting impression
-Huge arsenal of weapons which are fun to use
-Boss battles are (mostly) very creative and intuitive
The bad:
-Some design choices have aged poorly
-Music is often very simple
-N64 controler will rap* your hand