"it's not that good" Eiji Aonuma on OoT

In a recent interview Eiji Anouma (a lead designer behind OoT as well as director of MM, WW, and TLP) made some rather controvercial comments regarding OoT and its current standing in the gaming world.

I'll run through a few things he said that would tickle some inner fanboys but heres the link of the full interview if you want to read it in its entirety and in full context:

http://www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=105209

"Past things belong to our memories, and they grow bigger in there. If you play Ocarina of Time nowadays, you notice that it's not that good."

For the most part I have to agree with him, OoT is my favorite Zelda and there is no question that nostalgia plays a role in that. My little brother recently played the game and couldn't understand how I could possibly find it better than TLP or WW, but I'm sure if he played it when it came out and felt the initial impact of that game he would think differently.

"Sometimes it doesn't move as fast as it should, graphics aren't as beautiful as they should be; there are some confusing parts… Any present Zelda is technically superior."

Again, can't really argue with any of that....

"to best Ocarina of Time, a great change –comparable to what happened back then- must be introduced."

Sounds like the Zelda Wii will be quite different if not entirely, first person maybe?

Also he prety much sums up what made OoT time so great, the great change it brought for its time, just like SMB did for platformers and SF2 for fighters! OoT is regarded as the greatest Zelda but not because of technical stuff like gameplay, graphics, or story but for the impact and change it brought about for its day. OoT will always be remembered for this but honestly if it where released as it was back then today with the price tag of a full game it would be scoring in the 7-8's from most gaming critics if not lower.

I'm 15 and played this game for the first time earlyier this year. It wasn't that good I found it very slow. But I see why it is considered the best game every. He is right

I didn't play the game when it first came out, I beat it on the Collectors Edition Gamecube disk a few years ago.

I thought it was pretty good, but not the best game ever. :?

"to best Ocarina of Time, a great change –comparable to what happened back then- must be introduced."

Sounds like the Zelda Wii will be quite different if not entirely, first person maybe?

kenakuma

I don't think he meant that at all.

Well, i totally respect Eiji for being one of the big names in the Zelda franchise, but honestly, he cannot know how i feel about that game, definetely my favorite game of all time, he say it doesn't look as good, well, it blow my mind in that time, is kind of slow, well, i highly enjoy it, hell, even today i still enjoy it a lot .

And i can't wait to know more about the new Zelda.

[QUOTE="kenakuma"]

"to best Ocarina of Time, a great change –comparable to what happened back then- must be introduced."

Sounds like the Zelda Wii will be quite different if not entirely, first person maybe?

goblaa

I don't think he meant that at all.

Meant what? The first person or the great change? :?

The first person part is just my personal guess and I thought that was quite obvious by the way I pharased it.

The great change is something that has been hinted at if not confirmed entirely by both Miyamoto and Eiji in just about every Zelda Wii related interview eversince the game was first officially announced, including this one.

[QUOTE="goblaa"]

[QUOTE="kenakuma"]

"to best Ocarina of Time, a great change –comparable to what happened back then- must be introduced."

Sounds like the Zelda Wii will be quite different if not entirely, first person maybe?

kenakuma

I don't think he meant that at all.

Meant what? The first person or the great change? :?

The first person part is just my personal guess and I thought that was quite obvious by the way I pharased it.

The great change is something that has been hinted at if not confirmed entirely by both Miyamoto and Eiji in just about every Zelda Wii related interview eversince the game was first officially announced, including this one.

A radical change in pace and formula is what he discussed in a recent interview. Nothing about first person. In fact, Miyamoto is on record (and I know there is link) where he explicitly states that they tried Zelda in first person and it didn't work that players want to see Link onscreen.

With that in mind, I would hate a first person Zelda, that would actually ruin the game for me.

[QUOTE="kenakuma"]

[QUOTE="goblaa"]

I don't think he meant that at all.

sonic_spark

Meant what? The first person or the great change? :?

The first person part is just my personal guess and I thought that was quite obvious by the way I pharased it.

The great change is something that has been hinted at if not confirmed entirely by both Miyamoto and Eiji in just about every Zelda Wii related interview eversince the game was first officially announced, including this one.

A radical change in pace and formula is what he discussed in a recent interview. Nothing about first person. In fact, Miyamoto is on record (and I know there is link) where he explicitly states that they tried Zelda in first person and it didn't work that players want to see Link onscreen.

With that in mind, I would hate a first person Zelda, that would actually ruin the game for me.

[QUOTE="kenakuma"]

[QUOTE="goblaa"]

I don't think he meant that at all.

sonic_spark

Meant what? The first person or the great change? :?

The first person part is just my personal guess and I thought that was quite obvious by the way I pharased it.

The great change is something that has been hinted at if not confirmed entirely by both Miyamoto and Eiji in just about every Zelda Wii related interview eversince the game was first officially announced, including this one.

A radical change in pace and formula is what he discussed in a recent interview. Nothing about first person. In fact, Miyamoto is on record (and I know there is link) where he explicitly states that they tried Zelda in first person and it didn't work that players want to see Link onscreen.

With that in mind, I would hate a first person Zelda, that would actually ruin the game for me.

Well like I said thats just my personal guess, I would have no problem with it and I know tons of other Zelda fans that love the idea of a 1st person Zelda.

Eiji...... we all know that Majora's Mask is the best in the series.... it's ok to compliment yourself. Miyamoto isn't going to off you or anything... or would he?

I played the game when it came out... I can say to me it is one of the greatest ever. I'm blessed to have gaming when N64 and PSOne were the current gen systems because they churned out some great games that can not be appreciated now due to the technical capabilities of current gen systems.

Well,it isn't exactly an inaccurate statement.

Hopefully this game becomes more open ended, almost like an RPG where there are different paths that you can take along the journey that will affect the outcome of the game :D that would be great. But if Nintendo does make this 1st person like some people are saying, then I will not be to happy to say the least. But anyways, I'm betting my money that this game becomes more of an RPG and if it does, then I will be so happy!!! :D

Am I the only one who wants to kick Aonuma's ass? :P

"Past things belong to our memories, and they grow bigger in there. If you play Ocarina of Time nowadays, you notice that it's not that good.kenakuma

[QUOTE="sonic_spark"]

[QUOTE="kenakuma"]

Meant what? The first person or the great change? :?

The first person part is just my personal guess and I thought that was quite obvious by the way I pharased it.

The great change is something that has been hinted at if not confirmed entirely by both Miyamoto and Eiji in just about every Zelda Wii related interview eversince the game was first officially announced, including this one.

IppoTenma

A radical change in pace and formula is what he discussed in a recent interview. Nothing about first person. In fact, Miyamoto is on record (and I know there is link) where he explicitly states that they tried Zelda in first person and it didn't work that players want to see Link onscreen.

With that in mind, I would hate a first person Zelda, that would actually ruin the game for me.

We did. But Metroid was also a shooter, so the style wasn't so ridiculous. However, when I think of Zelda I think of Elder Scrolls IV, and I hated that game.

This is basically what I've been saying all along about Ocarina of Time, so now that the man himself has said the same thing I can officially claim victory, suckers.

:P

even though it's not as Graphically pleasing nor there are that many features in the game that Twilight Princess has. I STILL perfer Legend of Zelda: OoT over Twilight Princess.

I like both games and I like Majora's Mask better, but Zelda Ocarina of Time Redefined Gaming much like how Mario 64 did and I love it!

I agree with him, mainly because I consider Majora's Mask the best in the series. The masks added some fun gameplay for the Zelda series and it was quite a bit more challenging IMO.

If Ocarina of Time has dated gameplay, then so does every other Zelda that came after it because they all have the same basic structure. The controls and moves are all the same. Sure there might be a few tweaks here and there, but Ocarina put all of those into place from a 3D standpoint. Ocarina was a great reimagining of a Link to the Past in a way. A Link to the Past gave birth to all the Zelda's elments that exist in the first place. It took what was good about Zelda 1 and enhanced it.

Huh? All he's saying is that the game has aged a lot over the years and it's not as good now as it used to be (which is pretty obvious).

I agree with the man. I don't like OoT. Why? I tried getting into it this decade as opposed to last....

i've only been playing it recently, ps2 was the first console i owned since NES, then next one was DS then Wii... yea, it's good but, I can say that so far, I like TP better.. in fact, i'd rather play NSMBW and MPTrilogy.. but i wouldn't say it was a total waste of money (only a bit)... since i still play it.. but it isn't that mind-blowing... and i play it, like once a week only...

also, the SNES zelda (it was LttP right?) i tried it... using an emulator (yea i know, it's illegal, but i never owned the game and have no way of buying it, and have no intention of doing so too) on my psp... it works well on a handheld, i think.... maybe i'll try to play more of it...

the only game that still sticks for me is SMB3..... but partly because i've played it in the NES.. but i also played Zelda 2 on my NES, but was turned off by the difficulty, and I have no intention of going back to that...

so, i totally agree with him... it really goes down on to what era you first played the game... like the wii, on the first fewmonths onowning a Wii, i refused to touch my PS2.. and classic controllers for that matter.... even on the DS.. i crave for games like PH or TWEWY that utilize the touch screen well throughout the whole game...

I feel exactly the same way as your younger brother, TC. I got TP as my first real Wii game, and I was absolutely mesmerized by it. It was so good. Then, maybe a year later, I bought OoT on the VC. Sure, it was still a fun game, but I definitely found TP a much better experience overall. I still find OoT fun and enjoyable, but as my favorite Zelda? Heck no.

Huh? All he's saying is that the game has aged a lot over the years and it's not as good now as it used to be (which is pretty obvious).

Erebyssial

I can see where he is coming from. To me games should be judged based on the industry state hardware-wise when they were released and as far as that goes OOT is still amazing.

He has a point I think there. I mean it still is great to play but Wind Waker to me is the best in the series. The game was an perhaps is still a masterpiece and better than Twilight Princess. You could say the same for though like Mario 64 though as well.

first of all oot my fav zelda just cuz of the awesome storyline

fps zelda would suck

tp is great but oot is excellent

off-topic: Zelda wii should be a 3d remake of a link to the past or a new four sword 3d game with 4 player co-op

I disagree to him. I can still play on it sometimes. I have a feeling he's tired remaking the game with MM, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. That's what he's saying.

I'm for changing the formula. I was thinking something like Metroid. A couple dungeonsand you don't go on the overworld like every times. Something like Metroid Prime or Super Metroid but with Zelda. Of course, it would not be in 1st person or in side-scroller. You know what I mean.

I preordered this game and got it at launch and I have to admit that I thought it was way to easy and relied way too much on fantastic graphics. The dungeons were huge and kinda sparse, which led to me thinking the game was a little on the boring side.

I was just 'having a laugh' at suggesting FPS above.

But seriously, I think if they want to beat the previous games they don't need to change the game completely, they mostly need to focus on improving the difficulty. I finally picked up Twilight Princess and the biggest disappointment I have with it is how easy it is. I thought about this last night and I think the reason it's so easy (and therefore not as much fun) is because they have way too much 'breakable' stuff in the environment.

For example: In (my favorite Zelda game) aLTTP, you would go into a dungeon with full health and 3-4 bottles that had fairies in them - and by the time you beat the boss all your bottles would be empty and you'd be listening to that 'beep, beep' sound that it makes when you're extremely low on health. A main reason for this was because in dungeons there were hardly any ways to get health. There weren't many breakable things and most enemies did not drop health when they died. That was the whole point of having bottles - so that you could carry around more health (either faries, potion, or milk) to replenish yourself once you got deep into the dungeons, since there wasn't any other way to do it.

Now? I just beat the Water Temple in TWP and while I had 2 bottles containing fairies, I never used either of them. On top of that, I only had 7 hearts but I never dropped below 5. Why? Simply because every freaking room/corridor is littered with plants/jars to break that instantly refill your health. And on top of that, every enemy you kill seems to throw out a heart for you to refill with. Basically, unless you are absolutely terrible at this game, you will NEVER have to face a situation where you have low health or could even die. This drastically reduces the difficulty and really takes away from the experience IMO. I think this was somewhat of a problem in OOT also, but not nearly as bad.

If they want to try to enhance the environment and have stuff that the player can break, that's fine. But make it so only a small fraction of those things refill your health.

It's about time somebody else says it. :|

Of course a game developer has to believe its latest game to be better than those which came out before in the same franchise, otherwise he better stop making new games!

You expected Aonuma to say: we're making a new Zelda, but it's never gonna be as good as Ocarina of Time...?!? Come on!!!

I beat it a few years ago and I still thought it was great.brandontwb

Well, I guess he's right sincee people that play it now or did just recently won't think it's that great. But for its time, it was pretty much flawless.GamerForca

OoT was epic for it's time. Anyone who played it when it first debuted knows that. Obviously today's generation of gamers won't feel the same way, but you could say the same about all old platform games.GAMESHARQ

It is extremely good. These comments are pointless anyway. He's probably just trying to stop people from comparing all new Zelda games to OoT.