// KOTAKU — GAMING
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time’s First Few Hours Are Stuffed With Overwhelming Extravagance
Nintendo Switch 2The Legend of ZeldaThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
Wow! The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is beautiful, yes, certainly the loveliest game Nintendo has ever made. The details, the colors, the sounds, the constant movements of individual leaves in light breezes, the ripple of water…wow! It’s dazzling! The stitching on Link’s tunic. All the unique bits of foliage that rustle as you walk through, the way nothing seems to obviously clip into anything else. The gentle reactions when you bump into NPCs. The attention to detail, everywhere, in the characters, the pacing, the way dungeon mechanisms work, everywhere you look, so much.
One of the Kokiri has a line at some point about how they and the fairies all sparkle and shine, and these visuals have committed to that descriptor. I didn’t want to leave the forest. But also I really, really did, especially after a little over an hour playing last night. Because it almost feels extravagant, like a just slightly uncomfortable excess, especially after having played the sparse original so recently. This new visual density fills in gaps where the imagination used to do the work. I stop more than short of shaking my fist at this, decrying kids these days for having no creativity. I think the abundance of Kokiri Forest, rendered this way, is wonderful, but it also leaves me with a wistfulness for something a bit less much. I don’t know where the line of “exactly the right amount of everything” is, and I certainly think toeing it would be a worse decision than this. I just can’t help but feel a bit unnerved by it.
And the dialogue! At first, my gut reaction is that everyone talks too damn much. The game’s introduction felt interminable. Saria strikes me as corny and tedious. Why? I sat down and compared the dialogue from the original to this, and most of it isn’t much longer in the new version. Some of it is even basically the same. So what’s the difference?
Is it the presence of voice acting? Maybe. I love a good voice performance, but I have historically struggled with remakes that add voices where previously there were none. You’ll never stop hearing the characters as they were originally heard in your head, and the “real” voices will never feel right. But more regrettably, adding fully voiced cutscenes means that Nintendo felt compelled to make sure every character got to participate. Especially Navi. No matter how useless it is to the conversation that she speak.
Here, compare. This is the dialogue of the Deku Tree to Navi in the original game, before sending her to get Link. Navi does not say a word until after she leaves:
Navi…Navi, where art thou? Come hither…Oh, Navi the fairy…listen to my words, the words of the Deku Tree. Dost thou sense it? The climate of evil descending upon this realm…Malevolent forces even now are mustering to attack our land of Hyrule,….For so long, the Kokiri Forest, the source of life, has stood as a barrier, deterring outsiders and maintaining the order of the world. But…before this tremendous evil power, even my power is as nothing. It seems the time has come for the boy without a fairy to begin his journey…The youth whose destiny it is to lead Hyrule to the path of justice and truth. Navi…go now! Find our young friend and guide him to me…I do not have much time left. Fly, Navi, fly! The fate of the forest, nay, the world, depends upon thee!
Deku Tree: It would seem…I have but a little time left…My heart feels heavy. Soon I will no longer be able to protect the forest. I must ensure its safety. I will entrust everything to the child. Navi…Little Navi, where are you?
Navi: Yes, Great Deku Tree. I’m here! How can I be of service?
Deku Tree: Ah, there you are. I have something to ask of you. I hope it is not too much. There is someone with whom I must speak. bring this young one to me.