Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Ocarina of Time 3D Quest Log 3



After fully beating the Four Swords Anniversary Edition it's time for Ocarina of Time 3D to get my full attention.

It's getting annoying that the window for 3D is quite small. You really have to hold the 3DS in the right way or otherwise it's getting blurry. If it's getting intense or when I want to use the gyroscope aiming, I'm turning the 3D off. Nintendo really should look into improved 3D screen technology. Also, turning off the 3D improves the anti-aliasing effects, after all they only have to render half as many images and the additional computing power can be put into improved visuals. I really like the 3D and turn it on whenever I can, but it comes with disadvantages.

Well, the game is still beautiful, though it can be quite erratic. At times the game looks like a simple texture pack, where they just plastered the old models with better looking textures. For example the stairs in Kakariko village are still a simple texture instead of actual stairs... what's up with that? How hard can it be to model some stairs? And in other places, for example all of Hyrule Castle Town, they put a lot of works into new models and details. It looks like a complete new place.

The Back Alley really surprised me. I didn't went there until I checked out the dying soldier scene and it flashed me with impressive details. They even got laundry lines hanging between the windows. Just wow. What also really flashed me was the Ice Cavern. It's stunning, really nice and clear textures, the red ice looks beautiful and has some amazing forms at times. I was also wearing the Goron Tunic during the dungeon, which gave a nice visual contrast.

Before becoming an adult I cleared all possible sidequests as a kid. Including showing the Mask of Truth at the Forest Stage. I've heard, that this bug was fixed, but I'm not leaving anything to chance. As an adult I got Epona first, then the Hookshot, the Goron Tunic and then I went to the Ice Cavern to get Iron Boots and the Zora Armor. I like to gear up before going to any of the temples.

I played the Forest Temple first, mostly because I wanted the bow, which allows to do more sidequests (like Big Poe hunting and archery minigames). But the main reason was that I can return to the past and play the unbloody Bottom of the Well. Learning the Prelude of Light also unlocks the Boss Challenge. It's a nice little addition to the game. But you don't get to experiment much, you only get minimum equipment. Similar to the bosses in Ganon's Castle in the Wind Waker, just not in black and white and they also reduce your number of Heart Containers to the minimum.

Adult Link kind of feels slower than usual, I don't know... it's like he moves his legs in an exaggerated way, it feels a little bit like slow motion. Very weird.

Arranging items is nice. It's different from Link's Awakening, because it let's you freely swap items all over the place. Interestingly I'm arranging the items in the way they used to be in Ocarina of Time. My bottles are in the lower left row. The three magic spells are on the right side. And so on.

I encountered two very nice details in the Forest Temple. The new Boss Key now has a crystal skull on it and looks really cool. And Wallmasters now drop a shadow in the form of a hand. Very nice.

But I must complain about some stuff they failed to improve. Namely Epona. She's as dumb and stubborn as ever. For example she still gets stuck in that spot on your way outside of Lake Hylia. I always got annoyed by this, why couldn't they fix it? And the Z-Targeting is messed up, it somehow manages always to target the wrong enemy. As in not the enemy which stands fucking right in front of you! Best example was the fight against the Poe Sister Meg. The one with the duplicates. I would turn myself into the direction of the real one and press L, however, the system targets everyone but not the one I wanted to aim for... what was that? I don't remember that this fight ever gave me any trouble. It's like the targeting even worked better in the N64 version. And Navi is a pain in the ass.... why does it have to blink NAVI NAVI NAVI NAVI NAVI on the top screen? Isn't her screaming "hey, hey, hey" enough? She never really bothered me in the N64 version, I could easily ignore her there, but that they added blinking letters to the top screen is just ridiculous.

No comments: