idk, what during the pc era at the time really was as impressive as oot?
I mean the only games I can think of out at all that were comparable would have been Half-Life, Star Craft, Tribes, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil. Which, are all great games, but totally different than Ocarina.
I had never played a Zelda game before Ocarina of Time. This poster always stared at me though.
Earlier in the year I had played Quest 64, which was vastly impressive at the time. The game had featured day night cycles, very appealing music. People compared it to FF7 which had an amazing story, was longer and more adult oriented. I however was never impressed by ff7. Quest 64 was totally enjoyable. My only real experience at this point (8th grade to freshman year) with rpgs was the tactical rpg Shining Force. Anyhow, you may not be impressed with quest, but it did a whole lot of things as a game that we should have been impressed with if you weren't looking at pre-rendered "fake" backgrounds. This was all real time.
Anyhow to Zelda. I had been an avid reader of gaming magazines throughout the n64 era. I saw an add for "Osareena of time" (I didn't realize it was the instrument, i thought it had something to do with the ocean). It talked about how it was a new Zelda game, my only exposure to Zelda was the cartoon and the poster. Well that sounded cool. I read this magazine in the book section of a super market. A few months later I see another EGM with some print add saying I had better get the Gold version. I was convinced. I needed the Gold version. The magazine articles explained all the things you could do in the game. I was pretty new to gaming, in that I had never played a game my older brother hadn't bought. I never asked for games until n64. When Mario 64 came out I became a true gamer.
I convinced my mom that we should go to toys r us and reserve Ocarina of Time. Well we went and did that.
When the time came to get the game, my mom told me they were all out. I threw a sobbing hissey fit and called her on her bullshit. She had planned on having me wait until Christmas to get it. She relented and eventually gave me the copy.
Anyway, my brother gets home. I haven't opened the game yet. He comes in and we start playing it. This game had some atmosphere I hadn't seen in other games. There were cut scenes. Which there had been some in MArio 64 and a few other games I had played, but nothing as memorable or of the same level of quality as this. They just failed to compare to it(i hadn't played MGS yet, I didn't play that till 2000). This was in game stuff. I was super impressed if it was in game stuff.
The first level was interesting. I had a bed time at this time. I had to go to bed around 10 pm to 12 pm. I played about an hour past my bed time. I didn't beat the dungeon on the first sitting. I went to bed. My brother and I got up in the morning and we started playing. I let him take over a bit. I watched him get to Gohma and than we had to go to school.
I got home from school, and at this point i was more on my own. My brother would be hanging out with his friends. I started to slowly go through temples. I took extra time because I liked to look around at everything. Everything impressed me. The little bugs that came out when I picked up rocks impressed me. The frogs were cute. I was amused by the sounds of the forest. I'm pretty sure if you weren't familiar with any other Zelda game than because everything was new than this would be your most impressive trips.
Eventually I got all the spiritual stones, and I knew from the magazine I would eventually be playing as older link. Also, that there was some sort of time travel element.
Ah crap, I led him into the sacred realm!
I kept playing through the game at a snails pace. It took me about 2-3 weeks to beat it. I think 72 full hours. I beat it remarkably faster than mario 64. mario 64 I spent a long time. I think I was more terrified of Bowser, than actually having difficulty with the game. I liked to goof around in Mario 64.
anyhow. The water temple. I get to the water temple, and I call up my brand new friend Eddie. He is in the same place, he got the game at the same time(did not get the gold copy), and he thought he broke the game. We talked it through and we finally solved the water temple.
Evewntually we would move on to beat the game. There is no way Ocarina of Time could be overrated. To me, when it came out it was the pinnacle of games. The only time I felt more impressed with the ending of a game was Super Mario 3.
At the time, if you were playing with fresh non zelda stained eyes, you were going on a technology high, or just a satisfying gameplay high, there was nothing that compared. The closest thing that would have compared at the time would have been half-life, but I still like ocarina of time better. There wasn't a point where I was like "Meh" (i kinda lost interest when I got to Xen) Actually, during the time period I only played to the point where the **** goes down. I didn't pick up Half-Life again till later. Half-Life is very linear though.