Zelda Windwaker vs. Ocarina....

Cafe Society
1

Hi there -

I’ve possibly got a Gamecube version of Ocarina of Time coming to me. I’m interested to know, though, if I should expect to like this one better than Windwaker, from those of you who have played both.

Windwaker, I can only give 3 1/2 stars. I’m not knocking any points for LOZW’s graphics… and there is a lot to like about it, don’t get me wrong. It did keep me playing for a long time, often much later into the night than is good for me. The dungeons are fantastic, and the well-realized combat requires both brains and good reflexes (especially brains).

The cons:

  1. The sailing was fun only for a while. Having to get out the baton and turn the wind around just so you can pull in to an island’s garage staled on me fast.
  2. Digging up those maps for the treasure, triforce shards, et cetera. For the most part, it’s the same thing over and over again. I got sick of plugging the pirate ships and then flying to a rocky spire in the middle of the fort to get the treasure map.
  3. A lot of the quests for heart pieces, bottles, and such were just tedious, not really challenging. Maybe I’m getting too old for this kind of thing, but many of the puzzles seemed more like work… it’s that “Damn, fell down, don’t really feel like doing that all over again” phenomenon. [spoiler]And somebody sould choke that little thief girl on Windfall Island. It’s bad enough that I never could catch her, but she’s such a bitch about it when she catches you that she needs to be smacked.*
  4. There is a graphics issue after all… the way the NPCs humans look is so goofy. It’s jarring.

So I’m hoping I might get more into Ocarina. The side-quests really make so much of what Zelda is, I guess, and IMHO Windwaker isn’t so great in that department. Given what I’m saying here, would OOT be more my speed?

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Whoops, really wish I had previewed the post. It’s not much of a spoiler, I guess, but I would sleep that much better knowing that I wasn’t spoiling it for anybody.

3

Ocarina is very similar in many ways. I give both 5/5. In OoT you don’t have a boat, you get a horse, and there’s is a lot of riding around, looking for stuff. There are annoying parts, too.

Oh, and the boat actually handles somewhat as a real boat. You don’t need the wind coming from your back to sail. You can even go almost against the wind, so there is no need to change it all the time.

I’m sad they didn’t put Majora’s Mask on that disc. Now that is the best in the whole franchise.

One thing that’s annoying with WW is that there are so few dungeons. Many mini dungeons, but I enjoy exploring. I think the graphics is setting a new standard, sort of. Next time will be even better. It’ll feel like you’re playing a cartoon.

4

I say that Ocarina is better than Wind Waker, and my fav. And I have to disagree with Gaspode and say that I hated Majora’s Mask, and I think a lot of poeple agree with me. After Ocarina, it was a disapointment, IMO.

The songs in Ocarina are better, and play a bigger role. They teleport you to temples (not just one song, though, each temple has it’s own cool song.) They make rain, they change night to day, makes blocks appear, open doors, all in all better used.

The gameplay, as a whole, is about the same. Unfortunatly, since it was desiged for the N64, the controls aren’t quite as good as they should be, but they are on par with Wind Waker, since it is the same scheme. As far as stories go, Wind Waker’s is probably a little better, but Ocarina is good, and you know that little intro in the beginning of Wind Waker tellig about the ‘hero’ who banuished Ganon? Well, you play that story in Ocarina.

The dungeons are more memorable, but fewer, but for the most part, a lot bigger. There are less than ten main dungeons, and a couple mini-dungeons. Lots of sub-quests, though, with heart pieces, masks, trading stuff, fishing, and a scarecrow.

If you liked Wind Waker, I see no reason why you won’t like Ocarina.

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I’d say Ocarina was the best also. You can play the whole game without using a game guide and not spend all day trying to figure out where to go next. It also had such varied settings and dungeons, from frozen lakes to deserts to mountains, the dungeons were at the bottom of lakes, inside fish, inside a tree, inside a volcano.

Waker was disappointing in that respect. Every dungeon was on an island and your journey between locations is always the same boat ride.