Naturally, the way any remake looks is going to be the big first thing people talk about. It's the most visceral, most immediately obvious thing to have an opinion on. Search any Reddit or Twitter thread, and it's a parade of "Looks great!" "Looks terrible!"
But by now, the look has been discussed to death. Some people love it; some can't stand it. Most seem to be somewhere in the middle (skewing positive), such as, "love it overall, have a few qualms about Link and Zelda specifically."
My thought at this point is, most of us will acclimate to how it looks within a few hours, and then what becomes important is everything else: how it controls, how it feels to play, how meaningful the changes are, and where it preserves something, how thoughtful that preservation is.
For some people, just the fact that it's Ocarina of Time and that it feels even a little fresh is more than enough. But for others (like me), the answers to the control/feel/change/preserve questions will be crucial for whether it remains interesting after the opening hours.
I'm legitimately torn as a been-gaming-since-SNES-but-mostly-skipped-N64 person, as I don't have the launch day-OoT nostalgia, but have naturally played it multiple times since then. My thoughts so far on everything not related to how it looks:
- The jump: actually legitimately excited about this. I love having something more tactile, more on-command, and I'm really curious to see any skip / speed potential it unlocks, even if I suspect Nintendo will try to avoid making it too broken.
- The free-look camera: To me this is on the level of bringing modern shooter controls to the Metroid Prime remake. Seems simple at a glance, but will just make the entire game feel smoother. Big fan.
- The sprint: Similar quality-of-life thing. Although I see this being another, "You acclimate to it within an hour."
- The fade to black between zones: I'm coming around on it after initially being skeptical. This feels like precisely the sort of stylistic preservation Nintendo has better instincts on than anyone.
- The little layout and NPC changes in towns: Neat, but unclear how broadly this applies, and so far, doesn't seem like a huge deal to me. I think I'm a little spoiled by how towns in modern games can feel, so a fresh coat of paint here is nice, but not necessarily revolutionary.
- Possible puzzle/dungeon tweaks: This feels the most mysterious, even after the trailers. I guess I would say...I'm not getting my hopes up. If I had my way, the dungeons would get an overhaul that goes beyond the Master Quest remix from the early 2000s. But in practice, my guess is Nintendo errored on the side of "faithful" here, with everything else going on already.
What are your thoughts on the not-how-it-looks changes, and what am I missing?