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Xion87
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Zeruda no densetsu: Toki no okarina (1998)
Revolutionary
What can I say about this game. I remember when I first got it. It was Christmas of '98 and I was at the tender age of 10. At first I found it hard to get into since I was still young and stupid. But after about the second temple I started to play it more and more. And now here we are almost ten years later and I'm still enjoying this.
The reason I'm writing this review is because I had been looking at a few previous reviewers that had given it a one just because they preferred Final Fantasy 7. What ignorance! Well let me just say that this game is deserving of 10 or at least a 9. If you prefer Final Fantasy 7 so be it. After all it is a good game but regardless, I see no reason why you can't have enjoyment of the two. In other words, I would go so far as to say that if you gave this game below a 7 than I would say you either need help or you need to shut up.
Well anyway, that last paragraph was kind of useless in the readers eye I suppose but it's something that I felt needed to be said. Anyway, on with the plot. Explaining the plot is like explaining the plot of Star Wars, almost everybody knows about it. But just in case you don't, Hyrule is broken up into six races, The Korkiri who are a race of immortal children from the forest, The Gorons who are a group of bear like creatures from the mountains, The Zoras who are like evolved Fish from the water, The Hylians who are regular people that control the kingdom of Hyrule, The Shiekahs who are few but come from Kakiriko Village, and The Gerudos, an almost all female race from the dessert. Each race has a different background and each of them have a set of major characters. The story starts with a boy who lives in Korkiri Forest who's been having strange dreams lately. He goes to talk to the Great Deku Tree (the ruler of Korkiri forest) and he tells him that Hyrule is in great danger and that it's up to Link (or whatever you chose to name him) to go to Hyrule Kingdom to speak with Princess Zelda.
Obviously there's much more to the plot than that, that would be lucky to pass for a nut shell summary so I won't spoil the rest for you. This game's an epic if ever I played one. I can't say that this game changed my life or made me look at life differently like numerous other previous reviewers claimed but I can say that no other game has provided me quite the same experience that this one has since it came out. It's one of a kind. Not even the two sequels did. I love the great cast of characters from all the different races. All the major characters are very well developed, granted some are more than others but overall the story came together quite nicely. I also loved the subtle plot points you learn about through out the game like the mysterious war that went on before the king of Hyrule unified the kingdom. It left me wanting to know more about it.
I realize that many of you may have that special disc that you got when you preordered Wind Waker that allows you to play both Occarina of Time and Masters Quest on the Gamecube. Given the choice, I would have to say to stick with the original. The idea is that the temples get progressively harder and harder in MQ which would make more sense but the fact is that Shadow Temple and Spirit Temple are actually too hard. Sure the dreaded Water Temple is actually easier in MQ but in my opinion, both Shadow and Spirit are harder than Water temple. So therefore, I highly recommend sticking with the original. The temples were more reasonable and they don't call it Masters Quest for nothing. Only do it if you are a Zelda god and have beaten Occarina of Time at least once.
The game's great. Simply put. There are 8 temples all together excluding Ganons castle and all the mini objectives you have to do prior to some of the temples such as The Ice Cavern or Gerudo's Fortress. And the difficulty gets pretty high as you progress, but they are certainly not impossible. But needless to say the game's pretty big and will probably take some time to beat if it's your first time through. And when you get to the Water Temple (easily the hardest temple in OoT) than just do what I do. Invite a couple of friends over who will enjoy Zelda, collaborate, put your minds together, and make an evening of it. Trust me it will go by much quicker and prove to be very fun. I give this a 10 out of 10 because I feel it's a game that anybody can enjoy if they are open minded enough. As of now, there has been no game that has topped this one since it came out...unless of course Twilight Princess proves to be superior which is extremely possible.
Star Fox: Assault (2005)
Different
Well this is my first review and what better way to start then with Star Fox Assualt! Star Fox Assault I guess takes place five years after Star Fox Adventures which I'm hoping you played prior to this one, though it isn't 100% necessary. The team is a little different now though, Peppy is now a retired pilot and now does his work guiding the Star Fox team from the main ship, Great Fox. Krystal has also become an addition to the team, replacing Peppy in the battle field. It starts off with them fighting off the remainder of Androsses followers which is led by a commander named Oikany, but they are soon dispatched, not by Fox but by a race called the Aparoids. And so the game revolves around Fox trying to defeat this race.
SFA was a little different but that was okay, Star Fox Dinosaur was different but it was still pretty good. That't not what brought down the game. It was the on foot battles I didn't appreciate very much. In the first level you start off in your Arwing which was great. You got to fight off the remainder of Androsses followers. It really brought me back to the old days playing the original on 64. However, after the first level the game slowly begins to go down hill. The on foot battles were bland, hollow, and tedious. Every battle you just did the same thing, you would always have to find and destroy a certain number of generators or enemies. And the environments lacked depth, I don't know what it was but everything in the game just seemed really small. The weapons weren't very exciting either because they all had more or less the same effect. The Arwing battles were great as always but there simply wasn't enough of them, the number of on foot missions outweighed the Arwing battles when it should have been the other way around. What stinks is that the on foot battles could have been made better if they had spent a little more time on it. It was a good idea but it was just poorly executed in the game. Oh well, what's done is done and there's no use bitching about it now.
One reason why I don't think this game did as well was because people kept comparing it to the original. It's no question that the original was better but the last thing you want to do is to play through it thinking how much better it would be if you were playing 64. When you play this, look at it as its own game since it kind of is. Nintendo made the original, Namco did the new one. Another problem I had was the voice acting. For the most part it was pretty good but there were a few characters that sounded absolutely retarded. It was like they were trying to make them into completely different characters. Characters like Leon, Slippy, Oikany, Pigma, General Pepper, and Rob sounded nothing like they did in 64 so it kind of takes some getting used to and yes I know I said not to compare it to the original but voice acting is an exception. I know it's hard to get the original voices but they could have at least tried to make them sound similar to 64. However some of the voices were pretty good like Fox, Wolf, Peppy, and Krystal.
You wanna know another big problem, No Andross. None. If Mario has taught me anything, it's that the recurring villain is like a member of the family and without him, the game will feel like it's missing something. Instead we are left with these apariod creatures which I'm not too fond of.
One upside to this game is the music, some of it's just spectacular. It's just great to hear all the old music from the original again in a full out orchestra. They must have paid money out of the ass for the music alone. My personal favorite is the Star Wolf theme. Now if music not a big factor for you then just go ahead and disregard this paragraph.
Well, overall, the game left me feeling a little unfulfilled. Though it did have its moments, particularly in the Arwing battles. I do love Star Fox. Next to Zelda it is my favorite Nintendo game but I felt they could have done so much better with this one. The length of it is much too short being only ten missions and six of them you do on foot. If you are a hardcore fan of the Star Fox series as I am then by all means, rent it. I seriously don't recommend a buy though. All in all, I give it a 7 out of 10, not great, just okay.