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Zelda: Breath of the Wild Vs Ocarina of Time
No, this isn’t a clickbait article, because there’s validity in this -- as gamers we’re the better off for having both of these games, but which one stands tallest in the annals of the Zelda series?
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a beast of a game. It’s currently tracking as one of the highest rated games of this generation and already owns the unofficial tag of “best console launch title ever”. These validations have clear merit -- Breath of the Wild is a rare game; a game with vision and grace, one that takes the modern open-world blueprint and stamps it with classic Nintendo game-design. But the team behind it go one further in advancing a handful of open-world systems by way of the game’s dynamic weather, its effects on the player and how Link handles unique weather settings. The survival element is also a forward-thinking piece of design, which engages the player in unique ways; attaching them to this overworld like few games of this nature ever do. In many ways, Breath of the Wild is a piece of art. But is it as good as its older brother The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time?
It was once said that without The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, there’d be no open-world games and that it, arguably, was the first, while also going on to inspire the likes of the Grand Theft Auto series and others. We’d be stretching a bit here agreeing with any such statement given the more sandbox nature of the game, which in reality is akin to the earlier-released Super Mario 64, but the freedom given in Ocarina of Time was revelatory for the period, and the way the team at Nintendo EAD packaged the game’s myriad components hasn’t really been topped, even today. But they have been emulated.
Ocarina of Time's Ganon was far more sinister
© Nintendo
So why should we compare these two out of any of the other titles in the series? Largely because Breath of the Wild follows more closely Ocarina of Time’s setting (with a little Twilight Princess thrown in, for good measure) than any of the other games and there are more tangible ties between them. Breath of the Wild clearly expands the series in massive ways due to the power available in modern gaming over what the N64 was capable of, but from a pure gameplay point of view there’s still a lot Ocarina of Time arguably does better than anything else, Breath of the Wild included.
So let’s take a closer look at the comparable parts of both games, and break down which game does it better.
PUZZLES
This is a hard one to compare in an overall sense, because the other point below definitely waivers in favour of Ocarina of Time, but Breath of the Wild’s shrines stand as excellent puzzle centres (combat shrines aside), often almost presenting themselves as standalone conceptual pieces the developers likely created on an individual basis for proof of concept-type stuff. They’re non-contextual to the overworld component of the game, and so all bets are off once you’re inside, and their creation likely drove Link’s accrued abilities from an earlier design perspective. Some of them are elementary, but others are incredibly well thought-out and often have a few different ways in which they can be solved if you’re able to think laterally about the game’s gameplay systems (we used a metal shield in one to complete an electronic circuit, for example).
Breath of the Wild's shrines are often inspired
© Nintendo
Conversely, Ocarina of Time’s puzzles are more closely tied to dungeons, but there are a handful of great puzzles to be solved in the overworld, such as sneaking into Hyrule Castle in the early part of the game, navigating the Lost Woods (which Breath of the Wild borrowed heavily from), solving mazes and utilising the time-traveling system to advance things like plants to access out-of-reach areas as kid Link.
Cohesively, and taking into consideration dungeons, we’re going to call Ocarina of Time the winner of the two games here, as far as puzzles are concerned.
DUNGEONS
This one is super one-sided because all we really need to do is say two words: Water Temple. The Divine Beasts are Breath of the Wild’s ‘dungeons’, and while they do have a puzzle-solving element to them, they’re relatively short and pose little-to-no real challenge to complete. Meanwhile, Ocarina of Time’s dungeons, lead brilliantly by the aforementioned Water Temple, are complex and drawn out and feature a greater sense of reward upon completion, they also lead heavily into another brilliant aspect of the older game, which we’ll get to at the next point, but as they stand, Ocarina of Time trumps Breath of the Wild and then some where dungeons are concerned.
Kid Link's plight is one of gaming's saddest
© Nintendo
BOSSES
In both games, bosses appear at the end of dungeons as a final piece of the challenge, however, in Breath of the Wild bosses aren’t overly dynamic in design and can be beaten pretty much using any of your weapons. Some can even be beaten simply by offloading loads and loads of arrows. In Ocarina of Time bosses were more complex and featured different phases, often requiring specific attacks or weapons to beat, creating a greater sense of strategy and timing. More skill was required in that game while Breath of the Wild does little to promote any of the aforementioned design features and presents as more pedestrian as a result.
When it comes to bosses, Ocarina of Time is boss.
COMBAT
Ocarina of Time created what was then called “Z Targeting” which is to say, lock-on targeting which is used by numerous games in this day and age, Breath of the Wild included. However, Breath of the Wild does one-up its older sibling with timing-based combat which is rewarded with the powerful “Flurry Rush” reward. It also allows for free targeting with the bow and features different weapons with different effects. The combat across both games is similar, but from a more dynamic sense, Breath of the Wild is a more wild combat beast. (Yay, chalk one up for BotW finally.)
BotW has draw distance over OoT, that's for sure
© Nintendo
OVERWORLD DESIGN
For its time, Ocarina of Time was one of the biggest game-worlds ever created. It featured unique zones, loads of secrets and was full of quirky characters. But a lot of this content was locked to the player with story progression being one of the only ways to open the game-world up. Having Epona to ride across the landscape was a breathtaking and exhilarating experience unlike anything that had come before it. But the hardware limitations of the time forced the game’s aesthetic nature to be a little barren and most areas of the game weren’t heavily replayable once you’d essentially ‘completed’ them. Moreover, there was no fast-travel option in that game, leaving a lot of the travel to be a little burdensome if you had to go far.
Breath of the Wild’s overworld on the other hand is a beautifully crafted piece of space. It has various towns, stables and areas, some of which require specific elixirs or items of clothing just to survive in, and the weather and day and night system that complements each part of the world are simply inspired. The scale of the game is absolutely incredible and the different ways in which you can get around: foot, flight, raft, climbing, horseback, sand seal shield surfing and fast-travel means the game’s traversal is always fun and engaging. The game’s NPCs are a little on the dull side in terms of their character and interactive longevity, but there are plenty of them to engage, and the side-quests they often send you on are usually pretty fun and help push players into spaces in the game-world they may have otherwise missed.
As far as world-building, Breath of the Wild’s overworld is worlds above Ocarina of Time.
The original and best?
© Nintendo
FISHING
Click here to see what we think of fishing in both games. Suffice to say, fun as it is dropping bombs into bodies of water in Breath of the Wild to load up on exploded bass, Ocarina of Time’s fishing is definitely better.
STORY AND NARRATIVE
Despite the epic narrative foundation for Breath of the Wild, it’s execution is hardly deep. There have been other Zelda titles with relatively intricate stories (Wind Waker trumps all in this respect, really), but both Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild are a bit lite-on in terms of their storytelling. However, the time-travel factor in Ocarina of Time adds a dimension to the game Breath of the Wild simply can’t match. Ganon’s presence in Ocarina of Time is also better executed given he’s more ominous and is more recognisable as a human-esque figure rather than the swirling dark corruption that he is as Calamity Ganon in Breath of the Wild. For these reasons we’re on the side of Ocarina of Time yet again when it comes to narrative and execution of story.
RESULT
It’s pretty clear from all of the above that 1998’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the better game. Partly because it did a lot of what Breath of the Wild does, before, and partly because it was breaking new ground with all of it. Breath of the Wild is a captivating experience, don’t get us wrong -- its game-world is absolutely incredible; a visual feast with some of the best weather effects ever produced in a videogame, but the ease of its dungeons and bosses, leave Ocarina of Time as the more superior game. There’s a majesty shared between both games, and most Zelda games overall, but in being first and pioneering so much, while still remaining relevant even in today’s modern game design and pure gaming, Ocarina of Time is simply irrepressible.
Silly Bokoblin
© Nintendo
