The Legend of Zelda: Why Twilight Princess is better than Ocarina of Time 07-20-2011 - by Dante Alexander, Staff Mumbler A comparative review with some speculation as to how the upcoming release, Skyward Sword, will play.
Okay, so let's just start out by saying that I'm going to get a lot of hate for this. Ocarina of time is loved not only by Zelda fans, but by all the general gamer community familiar with the Nintendo64 era. It was a breakthrough in gaming, a classic, and a game that could still stand out as being better than most modern titles on any system. Another twenty first person shooters this year? Another slew of boring, unoriginal racing games? Forget that noise. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time could be released today and I (along with many, many others) would buy it in an instant before the notion of purchasing any other game so much as popped into my head. So no, back off, Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of the best games of all time and there's no way I'd argue with that much. It is an amazing game now, and it will be an amazing game twenty years from now. No wonder they re-released it on the Nintendo DS- revamping a classic sure beats spending years developing a new, mediocre title.
If you don't agree, you and him are going to have a problem...
But on the other hand, the game has acquired such a phenomenal cult status that it tends to overshadow the other Zelda games in the series- perhaps not rightfully so. The franchise has so many excellent games that it is hardly fair to claim that Ocarina is the best. There are some flaws with the game, that is to be sure, and as groundbreaking as it was for its time, it was also limited by the constraints of its time. In fact, "current Zelda director Eiji Aonuma said that he wouldn't quit working on the franchise until creating a superior game..." [from Zelda Wiki]. It could be that he was just sick of the game's widespread fame overshadowing the others, but it must be taken into account that making a superior game is hardly impossible. In fact, I think they've done it already.
Obviously, first off, the graphics have to be taken into account. And I know, I know, the graphics aren't what make the game fun. If better graphics were the equation for making a game more enjoyable, I wouldn't still be playing Pac-Man or Contra. Playability, controls, originality- I'll take those over good graphics any day. However, the playing style of Zelda Twilight Princess is very similar to its predecessor, Ocarina of Time. Little differences, here and there, but it is more or less the same and if it were any more similar to Ocarina of Time, you'd be playing the Majora's Mask title. You sacrifice very little playability, but with a much more modern take on the graphics. It's the same setup that lifelong Legend of Zelda fans love, but in an environment that feels a lot more real- and it's that realism that I think Twilight Princess allows you to immerse yourself more fully into the experience, as well as adding a great amount more tension.
(But on the flip side, really bad graphics can ruin a game regardless of playability. I don't care how fun Wind Walker was, this just looks ridiculous.)
Next on the list, I would have to briefly mention how much more fluent the gameplay becomes while played on the Nintendo Wii (I know, it's mainly a Gamecube title adapted for the Wii, and many would argue that it plays better on Gamecube, but I find this specific feature to be hugely helpful). While aiming with a joystick, it can become a massive headache to aim your bow or slingshot in a high tension situation- you don't always have time to line your shot up perfectly, and when you have a difficult enemy rushing towards you, this can become infinitely frustrating. Yet on the Wii, all you have to do is point and shoot. No lengthy pauses to line up your shot; assuming you've calibrated the remote well with the motion sensor, it's as quick as a flick of your wrist. Also, while we're on the subject of control schemes, it's fair to mention that constantly holding down the Z button in Twilight Princess can become a pain sometimes. As frustrating as it is, though, I still find it to be a huge improvement over the targeting in Ocarina, where sometimes you could not stop targeting enemies until they hit you- this was insanely annoying when there were multiple enemies, because trying to click Z to stop targeting would only move your targeting to the next enemy over.
One thing that really made it to stand out to me was the great balance of difficulty. Call me old fashioned, but I like puzzles that aren't confusing enough to make me want to tear my hear out (yeah, I'm talking about you Water Tempe from OoT!). Twilight Princess had its share of challenging puzzles, but for the most part they were never to easy and never too difficult. The only thing that feels off in this category are the bosses, who all seemed to be a little to easy.
There are hundreds of other minor things I could point out, but as you don't want to finish an article that takes an hour to read, I'll skip ahead to my last major point. Cinematics. Yes, cinematics: the one part of the game that most players will furiously press buttons to get past. But I'm not just talking only about video sequences, not at all. The entire game is more cinematic in the sense that it unfolds before your eyes like a movie. The fights are more confrontational and dramatic than they are mechanical, there are plot twists, there are dramatic scenes well done enough to make any big time Hollywood director foam at the mouth out of pure jealousy. Ocarina of Time was very mechanical, with a storyline central to the idea that we need to roam around collecting a bunch of trinkets. Twilight Princess did the same thing to an extent, but it made it much more exciting; the end of a level yielded more storyline and added a level of satisfaction that can't be matched by Ocarina. I'm not going to reveal spoilers, just in case any of you haven't played the game yet, but let's just use the final boss fight as one example. Look at it and tell me that is not epically impressive- the sky is stormy, thunder is booming, the music is pounding, and Ganondorf invites you (in a manner much more climactic than the other games) to battle him. Also worth noting is the style of the battle- while Ocarina involved him floating around like an annoying wasp and shooting light at you, Twilight Princess has the final battle as it should be: a no nonsense, man to man sword fight. This was perhaps the most enjoyable boss battle I have ever played, especially with the added excitement of swinging a Wii remote around. Hell, he even taunts you if you back away from him too far. When I fought him, that was fifteen minutes of well spent, sweaty, heart-pounding excitement. And as much as I can go on telling you about why this was the best boss battle to conclude any video game, you might as well look for yourselves:
I dare you to tell me that's not amazing.
And some of you are still going to disagree with me. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and I'm sure some of you are grabbing your torches and pitchforks and mobilizing toward where I live. So don't take it the wrong way: Ocarina of Time just happens to be one of my all time favorite games. It was revolutionary in its own time, and if Twilight Princess didn't seem as groundbreaking, it's just because it's just an improved version of Ocarina.
And so now, all Zelda gamers are anxiously awaiting the newest release: Skyward Sword. And, like me, you're all wondering if the game, scheduled to be released in the 2011 holiday season, will stack up with the others. And while no one is going to be able to give a definite answer on that until each of us get our greedy little hands on a copy, there are a few things about it that we already know from the trailer worth pointing out. It seems to have graphics and gameplay similar to Twilight Princess, though a little watered down; with characters having more of the flat surface tones that Wind Waker made us familiar with, while still being more realistic looking than Ocarina was. It's understandable why they would want to do this, as Twilight Princess was the first game in the series to get a "T" rating for its realism and occasional animated blood. I don't think this dip in graphics will bring down the game at all (though I would love to see something even more realistic looking than Twilight Princess, perhaps with a darker approach a-la-Majora's Mask) as it still appears to play similarly. Secondly, you get to ride a freaking bird (controlled in the same way as the plane from Wii Sports Resort), and while that's not a major detail, that's still pretty cool. Lastly, "According to Aonuma and Miyamoto... this game will focus more on fun [than tricky dungeons]." [Zelda Wiki] And while focusing on "fun" isn't exactly that clear, if it means I never have to have the headache from Ocarina's Water Temple again, it will be well worth it. So should you buy this game when it comes out? That I can't tell you. I can tell you that I will definitely be getting it, but other than that, why don't you all look at the trailer and decide for yourselves?
