Ocarina of Time is... Kinda overated.

[Limecake]

I really enjoyed it because I remember getting really involved in the original game. this feeling will be lost on people who didn't have the same experience with the game as I did.

It would be like if I finally played Final Fantasy 7, I'm sure I would enjoy it somewhat but I highly doubt I'd vote it my all time favourite game ever.

 

[J Tyran]

Banjo Kazooie was more fun than OoT I thought, I never really got into the Zelda series though apart from the Legend of Zelda on the original Game Boy.

 

[throwmeawaykid]

Glad to see I'm not the only one, OP. I personally think the whole Legend of Zelda series is overrated a tad, and by tad, I mean by a fricken huge amount, I know I'm going to get a lot of hate for saying this, but it's my honest opinion.

 

[Erttheking]

Yes we get it, it's hard to live up to hype. I think half life is an overrated peace of shit but I don't make threads about it.

 

[darlarosa]

As other people said for a lot of people the Zelda series is one of the first series they approached.

I am not a huge Zelda fan but the N64 games were the first story games I played. Besides Wave Racer, that N64 Tony Hawk game, and maybe a mario game on the snes when I was ULTRA small...it was the first thing I really played on my own.

 

[Samus Aran but a man]

I disagree - I think the game had incredible vision and design. It might not be THE greatest game of all time, but it's definitely one of the greats.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I agree, doesn't stop it from being fucking awesome though. Windwaker was also fantastic.

Fuck it, all of the Legend of Zelda games are awesome.

 

[AlexWinter]

Things are overrated because fanboys.

Ocarina of Time was amazing and I've played it many times.
Majora's Mask was also really good as was WW.
I played TP a few times but it wasn't as good.
Skyward Sword was great the first time but I have no desire to replay it.

So yeah.
You must be surrounded by fanboys.

 

[Vishnu Namboodiripad]

Try to play the Original Doom and Half Life or let your teenage son/brother/whoever try to do it and see what happens. Unfortunately some games cannot evoke the same feelings as technology advances just like black and white movies (until the weird The Artist renaissance) are not something anyone born in 80s or 90s would be likely to watch and appreaciate or even consider good.

I've always felt that much of internet culture is based around pop culture nostalgia. As someone of the newer generation,I think you're wrong about old school games not being enjoyed by younger gamers. I mean, a lot of flash games and games on the app store are based upon oldschool games and they're very popular. Just go to newgrounds or other sites like it whose traffic is mainly teenagers or even children. But still im sure there are plenty of kids who don't like half-life because the graphics are "worser" than COD and it doesnt have multiplayer.

to answer the poster's question, i think Oot is still a really good game, but Windwaker and a link to the past are superior, and i played them much after ocarina. But i still like ocarina better even though its not as good as the other games, if that makes sense to anyone, because of the memories.

 

[Phlakes]

Out of everything ever made taken at face value, yeah, it's up there and pretty brilliant but there's obviously better.

But taking context into account, it's damn sure one of the best of the time, and it only makes since that building on it made better games.

 

[Vankraken]

I think OOT gets hyped so much because of the impact it had (along with mario 64) on gaming. Everything about the game was well executed and is the proper transition from a 2D game series into the 3D gaming. At the time nothing really compared and it set the bar high for games of that generation and beyond.

That being said when we look back on the game objectively (without the hype filter on) you see a game that has rougher edges than the games that we play now which have similar or better mechanics. Of course this is the natural progression of games as its important to take elements that work and innovate, refine, and push forward to create new and better game experiences.

In a "best game ever list" its going to be hard to objectively compare OOT to newer games and say that OOT is better because newer games are further up the evolutionary progression of game mechanics while OOT's story isn't its defining strong point. If you look at OOT from a historic perspective (taking into account what the game's value and impact was in the time period it was released) then it is definitely one of the top most influential games for its genera and gaming in general.

And I say this as a person who finds the Zelda game series to be incredibly formulaic and as of late uninspired.

 

[Smithburg]

So you play a fifteen year old game that was around when 3d graphics started popping up, when you are used to the games that are out now and see issue with it? Fancy that...

Really the game was incredible, and it may be the best game ever considering it's still winning that award in polls this far down the road. The thing is people who try it new today aren't going to be impressed because we already have all this. But that game set standards and made new mechanics and such. If not for OOT you might not have some of the games today. It all comes down to opinion though. For every great game there will be hundreds of people saying its overrated, but thousands saying they love it.
Thats what opinion is. Now do we really need any more of these threads?

 

[Glass Joe]

Zelda is brilliant. Stop making me sad. You go adult, then forest temple, water temple, spirit temple, fire temple and shadow temple. Get the mirror shield, the big goron sword and the Fire tunic early so you look like a pimp. I cried like a baby when the Great Deku Tree died and to this day I think fishes are hot.

 

[Winthrop]

I think your problem with it is that you only "recently" played through it. It isn't life changing so much as it is medium changing. So many things it did were fairly new and it did so many of them well. It has such a far reaching influence. Once you have seen things using similar ideas, it loses some of its touch. Not to say I disagree with you. I still prefer Majora's Mask.

 

[Overusedname]

At the time it was released OoT might have been the greatest game of all time, and it was hugely influential to future game design. But it's been a very long time since then. The fact that the game is still really fun is testament to it's quality, both then and now, but it's no surprise that it has been surpassed in 15 years.

I appreciate the fact that something may have come out that has surpassed it.

But I haven't played it. :3

I just think it's so...tight and well thought out. And I know YOU'RE is fully aware of how deep I think the game's subtext is, but I won't get into that here, less I shamelessy promote my crap more than I already have.

I'm tempted to say Okami, Bioshock and Twilight Princess are pretty close to being better, but there's just something about ocarina's pacing. The way the game builds and builds and builds to it's conclusion, giving you more and more gameplay variety as you proceed. The rewards, the world, the emotional investment, the symbolism of the environments and characters, and the dark shift from childhood to adulthood. As someone who has never been bothered by Polycounts, there's little in the game I didn't love. I think it's been surpassed in many individual ways, but as a complete package of a well paced, well designed game that works it's themes into every piece of it's narrative? Bioshock is the only rival in that regard.

Subjectively, it's not even my 5th favorite game. But I still love Ocarina to bits. I honestly don't think it's overrated, it deserves it's praise. It really did change the landscape of game design on both an artistic and gameplay level.

 

[GlorySeeker]

I love OoT. I dont think its one of the best games of all time. But maybe best of its time. Its still a great game, and I think it did alot to forward that genre. Greatest game of all time? Maybe not. Top ten? Thats more of a possibility.

 

[bandman232]

While, it's not the best ever made, to me, it's my personal all time fave, and the game I have played through the most. Only the Mass Effect series has really come close for me. OoT is the one I've had the most fun with over the years, and I can tell you everything about it off the back of my hand.

 

[Snotnarok]

I don't see why a lot of people like it so much either, as in the best game evarrr. I grew up with the game myself and it's story is simple like other zeldas that's expected but when you go to hyrule you feel NO reason to save the people there. They're all idiots, all of them and I feel no drive to save them, they have no story no reason they're just random NPCs or whatever.

Twilight Princess you get character drives and motivations and you feel for the people you're saving and are given a reason to want to fight for them.

But yet people rate OoT above TP, by a lot I find and that makes no sense to me given it's practically the same game with more character plot/story/moves/areas better visuals, music and all that good stuff. And the "helper" Midna was actually a character! :|

 

[bandman232]

I don't see why a lot of people like it so much either, as in the best game evarrr. I grew up with the game myself and it's story is simple like other zeldas that's expected but when you go to hyrule you feel NO reason to save the people there. They're all idiots, all of them and I feel no drive to save them, they have no story no reason they're just random NPCs or whatever.

Twilight Princess you get character drives and motivations and you feel for the people you're saving and are given a reason to want to fight for them.

But yet people rate OoT above TP, by a lot I find and that makes no sense to me given it's practically the same game with more character plot/story/moves/areas better visuals, music and all that good stuff. And the "helper" Midna was actually a character! :|

I think a lot of people simply are biased out of sheer nostalgia. To be honest, I never get nostalgia from any game I play, I simply just have fun with it. In the end, that's what matters, right?

 

[Twilight_guy]

I don't think its that great either. Personally I prefer A Link to the Past, but that's entirely for nostalgia reasons. ...ugh... nothing else to say, the thread is kind of simple.... ugh... Link deserves to have his name in the game title more often!