Gaming Lounge

[Koh]

Something important to remember here is that Ocarina of Time came out two years after Super Mario 64. That's not a lot of time for developers to really figure out what works in what was then the brand spanking new third dimension of gaming. This was the first game with something like Z targeting. Hell, I remember reading a review of Jak & Daxter that teasingly referred to Jak as Link because of that game's targeting system. Nobody else used it much in the next couple of years, apparently.

This is precisely why I feel Ocarina of Time's gameplay suffers though. It seems to focus too much on the "Oh my god, 3D" thing. Does this mean it's not a great game? No, but as Majora's Mask shows, it could've been something much greater in terms of character interaction and mechanics, if they put more focus into that, instead of focusing more on showing us their "leet cam skillz."

Legend of Legaia came out the same year in Japan as Ocarina of Time in Japan, and that didn't put a whole lot of focus on camera abilities, but rather cutscenes and FMV. Between the two, I'd easily choose Legaia, because there I actually give a damn about the characters, and I enjoy the unique combat system. The grinding in that game is atrocious though.