21st August 2003, 9:09 PM
I found it to be a great game myself, but when I found out what I thought would be the midway point was actually right near the end, the enjoyment level dropped by a large amount. I was then forced to realize that dungeons I thought were just the first half dungeons were in fact all the dungeons in the game, and those dungeons, while fine in challenge for the first half, were way too easy for the last half. More than that, length matters to me. I don't expect it to be THAT long, but the length of WW was just too short. I would rather they delayed it for several more months and have a decent length game forever on after than have it released a few months sooner and have a way too short game forever after. I no longer have any beef with Nintendo delays after seeing what it's like without them.
Again, the game was GREAT, but it felt unfinished. Had they had a bunch more dungeons after that which were much harder it would have been perfect. They could have had a dungeon for each triforce piece. Maybe instead of 8 pieces, they could have like 4. Still you have to sail, so the fun of sailing is still there. Removed though is the very stupid fishing for treasure thing which is replaced by a strange island where you have to figure out how to get in via different and puzzling ways. Just to point out how much I realized it wasn't the finished product I think Miyamoto would rather have done, you can tell they WANTED to have a dungeon for the 3rd pearl instead of just GIVING it to you. As an example of how easy it was in retrospect, the stupid targetting system for stuff like the hookshot and grappling hook just gave away WAY too much of a hint. And yes, a couple more city populated islands would have been nice, though MM level detail isn't needed in my eyes (Majora's Mask was great, but always having that level of detail is probably not doable, plus it's not like no one had personality). Due to this, I still enjoyed the game, but OOT is still my fave 3D Zelda.
Oh, and of course you can fit more in optical disks, but trust me, the size of a game is so very VERY small compaired to all the stuff like textures and so on that actually take up space that the media has no realistic bearing on game length. They could easily make a game the size of any current gen game on the N64, just with a lot less voice and textures. FF7, minus the FMVs, and with some texture compressing (no real need to reduce quality, considering FF7's texture quality level), oh and some pre-rendered background quality reduction ala RE2, could easily fit on N64. Note I said nothing about maps or monsters or the gameplay, because when it comes to those things (ESPECIALLY the main game play mechanics) they take up like, I mean, wow, so small a space. On a pie chart, it's a SLIVER! That's NOT exxageration! A SLIVER! So believe me when I say that it's completely ignorant of someone to say "well since it's on a disk now they can make the game biggerer". They can make the game look nicer and sound better, but that's it. If anyone managed to fill a whole optical disk, even a mini-CD, with nothing BUT pure game mechanics, map design, and various character/creature stats... Well, either that's the largest game EVER designed, or it's a totally inefficient programing group making that game.
Again, the game was GREAT, but it felt unfinished. Had they had a bunch more dungeons after that which were much harder it would have been perfect. They could have had a dungeon for each triforce piece. Maybe instead of 8 pieces, they could have like 4. Still you have to sail, so the fun of sailing is still there. Removed though is the very stupid fishing for treasure thing which is replaced by a strange island where you have to figure out how to get in via different and puzzling ways. Just to point out how much I realized it wasn't the finished product I think Miyamoto would rather have done, you can tell they WANTED to have a dungeon for the 3rd pearl instead of just GIVING it to you. As an example of how easy it was in retrospect, the stupid targetting system for stuff like the hookshot and grappling hook just gave away WAY too much of a hint. And yes, a couple more city populated islands would have been nice, though MM level detail isn't needed in my eyes (Majora's Mask was great, but always having that level of detail is probably not doable, plus it's not like no one had personality). Due to this, I still enjoyed the game, but OOT is still my fave 3D Zelda.
Oh, and of course you can fit more in optical disks, but trust me, the size of a game is so very VERY small compaired to all the stuff like textures and so on that actually take up space that the media has no realistic bearing on game length. They could easily make a game the size of any current gen game on the N64, just with a lot less voice and textures. FF7, minus the FMVs, and with some texture compressing (no real need to reduce quality, considering FF7's texture quality level), oh and some pre-rendered background quality reduction ala RE2, could easily fit on N64. Note I said nothing about maps or monsters or the gameplay, because when it comes to those things (ESPECIALLY the main game play mechanics) they take up like, I mean, wow, so small a space. On a pie chart, it's a SLIVER! That's NOT exxageration! A SLIVER! So believe me when I say that it's completely ignorant of someone to say "well since it's on a disk now they can make the game biggerer". They can make the game look nicer and sound better, but that's it. If anyone managed to fill a whole optical disk, even a mini-CD, with nothing BUT pure game mechanics, map design, and various character/creature stats... Well, either that's the largest game EVER designed, or it's a totally inefficient programing group making that game.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)