the left image is of a native port recompiled for PC, and the right one is an emulator being developed to run Switch 2 games

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[โ€“] 3 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

As a huge fan of OoT, having played it since release and even been part of reverse engineering efforts early on for file format discovery and such on the original N64 rom (HylianToolbox was a mod tool that was brand new back then), I have been pretty disappointed with the remake.

There are certainly elements I like, such as improved graphics quality on par with other realistic looking AAA games from about 10 years ago, but I am finding all of Nintendo's changes pointless and frustrating.

An example is in the Deku Tree. The 23 is number 1 Deku Scrubs. In the original, they were spaced out, and it was pretty intuitive to the player that the order is middle, right, left. Then the final Deku Scrub would tell you about Queen Gohma, ending with "Sorry Queenie."

In the remake, the three scrubs are way closer together, and they have spotlights on them that flash in order from left to right. When defeated, the final Deku Scrub tells you something about "Dark Gohma" and says "Sorry Dark One," or something like that, and then a new dialogue line is added in small letters: "But not really though." Why? The original encounter was already fine, what on earth is the point of this change? It completely changes the context of the encounter.

There are hand-holding elements literally every inch if the screen. Navi is worse, and they added more places for Kaepora to appear. This, combined with the earlier mentioned change to the Deku Scrubs encounter, it makes me feel like Nintendo is afraid of letting the player explore. Which is baffling considering OoT already was piss easy.

Also, there are loading screens, which the original game did not have, and Aonuma really wanted to minimize during the gameplay reveal. They are pretty disruptive to the pacing of playing the game. Especially compared to the original, that was so good at scene transitions that most players dont even notice the original game changes levels in the tunnl between Mido in Kokiri Forest and the Great Deku tree in the original game, even during the cutscene that Navi flies through that tunnel. Some people may know it because emulators early on struggled at that part and have a stutter when that happens, but on original hardware at 20 fps it was not noticeable.

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 2 hours ago

    That's an interesting review to read, considering you're someone who has clearly been heavily involved with the OOT game and community for a long time.

    I'm personally someone who played the game as a child and loved it, but haven't played it in 20 years - and I expect that puts me squarely in the target demographic Nintendo were eyeing up for this remake.

    From my perspective, it worked. The modern graphics feel as beautiful as what I probably imagined the original game looked like as a child - through the rose-tinted fog of old memories - and the vibes are so on point.

    Everything about the game I do remember seems to fit, and all the details like the dialog changes you aren't at all fond of I wouldn't know - because for me that's long forgotten.

    It's seeming so far as if someone could follow an N64 walkthrough and it would be 95% correct, and so from my inexpert perspective it feels like Nintendo were incredibly restrained in their treatment, and changed little.

    Very different thoughts from me, coming from my very different position :)

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