Taking Sides: Zelda, Ocarina of Time or Zelda, Majora's Mask?

Zelda: Links Awakening on Gameboy is grebt.

Prude: i completely agree about the impact. That impact is exactly what I think will keep it as being described as the best game ever. it's the historic importance thing innit.

NUR!!

(New chap has already been strong-armed into letting me use HIS N64 now - can I keep Ocarina of Time til I finish it?)

Majora's real-time thing sounds really kin hard?

I've never played Majora, me, I think Wind Waker and Ocarina on the go is bad enough... (AND Links Awakening on the GB).

wanna play?
ILX Plays: The Legend of Zelda for NES

started my first ever play through of Majora's Mask on the Switch. it feels like a fan mod of Ocarina of Time.

my early hope is that if Link were Kyle Maclachlan, OoT is Dune and MM is Twin Peaks.

It IS basically a fan mod of Ocarina of Time, it uses the same engine and assets as Ocarina of Time because Nintendo wanted to get another N64 Zelda title on the shelves fast after Ocarina sold bazillions of copies.

the numerous minigames also feel like stuff slapped together in Legend of Zelda Maker

xp you inspired me to look up the release dates, and wow, i hadn't realized this was so rushed. i'm skeptical that a concept built on a foundation of "release this as quickly as possible" can beat OoT, but i'm also intrigued. that must be part of the critical appreciation, playing a game designed within crazy parameters in the game of making games.

i wonder if the emerging themes surrounding time and repetition will resonate separate from the game's own story. it all feels too emotionally distant for a Zelda game right now.

the deku link move set, i.e. the new stuff, does not feel great

the bubble as projectile weapon is weird. why not acorns or sharp branches or anything else that could actually pop a balloon or injure enemies? i suppose the floaty feel messes with your timing and separates it from the arrows, which i assume will be used later.

I don't know if many Zelda fans would say it beats Ocarina, but it definitely rises above its origins as a rushed sequel. And it's the most goth entry in the Zelda library by far!

it beats ocarina

but of course it couldn't exist without ocarina (not just technically, but in terms of the aesthetic mileage it gets out of uncanny asset redeployments)-- so comparison is kind of a category error

a place i think its rushed development really shows is in the central overworld ("termina field"). its snowglobe artificiality is just about defensible as part of the strange toyworld vibe but still it is way too cramped.

deku link moveset suffers from its narrative role as "curse" or limitation. (you will rarely want to be deku link, even when you have to.) otm that the bubbles seem to be designed around making you want a bow.

it's still the best zelda game, it's the most focused, easily the best written, has the best dungeons, the three-day cycle is still pretty unparalleled, etc.

the only real evidence of it being 'rushed' is just how much they reuse models from oot but they get away with that fine. a development time of just over a year seems short but it was actually pretty normal for the 90s. one year for an iterative sequel & two years for something a little more involved was pretty standard at the time. ocarina of time only had a (then extremely lengthy) dev time of 4 years because they spent so much time in r&d just figuring out how 3D game development was even going to work and what a 3D zelda would even play like, so once they had a very solid foundation to build on in oot they could move pretty quickly. the end result ends up being all-killer-no-filler, in contrast to a lot of other zelda games which are often noticeably bloated or have obvious signs of being rushed to release despite longer gestation times.

also the least emotionally distant zelda game by a long way

deku link moveset suffers from its narrative role as "curse" or limitation. (you will rarely want to be deku link, even when you have to.)

this is a very good point that I hadn't quite put together yet, possibly because I haven't seen the full moveset. it's a bit confusing that the moveset is awkward but still opens up some new possibilities via the flower flight, for example. so it's a curse and a new power, but perhaps the developers felt you couldn't go fully into curse territory without driving the player mad.

a development time of just over a year seems short but it was actually pretty normal for the 90s.

very interesting! I'm sure that a good portion of the rushed feel is my own fault for coming to the game so late. It's difficult to judge a game's polish when you're coming to it 20 years late. I'm sure my memory of OoT also does it many favors.

also the least emotionally distant zelda game by a long way

excited to read this. I'm still on the last day of my first set, so my first impression is incorrect, i'm sure.

still, I worry that every flaw can be waived by considering it in the context of the game's design and goals. I suppose that makes it a very smart and good game design, but if one's own goal in playing is to have a challenging good time, it feels off to say "of course I'm having a bad time -- i'm cursed in the game!"