Games Inbox: Is Zelda: Ocarina Of Time the best game of the year?

Zelda: Ocarina Of Time – best of the year, so far (Nintendo) The Thursday letters page reacts to the Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake reviews, as one reader finally finishes Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave. Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk Next pleaseGreat review of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, GC, and so happy to see it get a 96 on Metacritic. Number one game of the year and the highest rated remake ever! I imagine Nintendo are over the moon with that response, considering the producer was worried how people would take to it. I was sold from the positive previews and I think the attempted complaints about it being 1:1 don’t really make sense. You can change a little bit, sure, and maybe they could’ve added an extra dungeon or something, but you turn it into a giant open world affair, like Breath Of The Wild, and it’s suddenly a completely different game. If you’re doing a remake it has to closely resemble the original game. If you’re doing a reboot or homage then go crazy, make it only vaguely the same, but you don’t change one of the best games ever made for no reason. Glad to see Nintendo’s approach has worked and hopefully this means Majora’s Mask is already on the way. Now imagine if GTA 6 is a disappointment, even just a minor one, and Ocarina Of Time becomes the best game of the year for the third time!Onibee Want GTA 6 news? Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week. Two at onceJust read your review and it sounds like the Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake was exactly what I wanted it to be. Basically a 1:1 with better graphics, although I think the jump button will be a bit strange to start with (do casual gamers really struggle with free roam cameras?!). Really happy with the rest and that everything is intact without changing anything. If they were going to revamp the mechanics, then I would have preferred they just made a brand new Zelda. I am almost temped to save it for Christmas, like when I first played the original in 1998. I remember the day after Boxing Day going into Bromley to try to get a copy with my Christmas money and finding a small independent shop that had a couple of copies left (opposite a comic book store that I think is long gone). Old man, good memories!Simon GC: Controlling the camera via the second analogue stick is almost always the thing casual and non-gamers struggle with the most, even in otherwise simple games. Just try it on a relative or friend. Pros and consSomewhat surprised by your score for The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I had a quick play of it at midnight, so can’t judge on the game as a whole and the quality-of-life improvements. But it does look gorgeous, the orchestrated music is great, and everything feels so smooth and seamless. I have no issues with how Link looks or the limited voice acting. Scoring it is tricky, as I take your point that Nintendo could’ve added a few more tweaks, such as including more enemies or even play areas. So, it’s a bit disappointing in those respects. Is that why you gave it 9 out of 10? Or, as much as it is possible to do so given its legacy and influence, did you evaluate the score based on its own formal merits relative to games of the present? If the latter, and knowing the original inside out, I’d certainly be giving it a 10. Great review regardless.Ciara GC: We thought we were clear with the cons section of the review. It’s almost trivially easy and the lack of any Master Quest content, despite it being in the 3DS version, is disappointing. And, of course, not being able to rename Link is unforgivable; we should’ve given it 1/10 for that. Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk You know his nameSurprised to see 007 First Light 50% off already, although I suppose it was out early in the year (when GTA 6 was originally supposed to be out!). Would just like to highly recommend the game to fellow readers, as for me it is easily the best game of the year. I was not expecting it to be anywhere near as good, but it surprised and impressed me at every turn, especially in the way it was happy to have quieter, talky moments where you got to know the characters more and see they weren’t just one dimensional. I know there’s no chance of it winning Game of the Year at The Game Awards but the guy playing Bond is going to be robbed blind if he doesn’t take away the best actor award. He’s perfect and I’m not convinced he won’t end up being better than the new movie actor, when they announce him.Zeiss Instant buyUbisoft seems an unlikely saviour, but I really hope they do manage to buy Arkane from Microsoft, and allow them to finish Marvel’s Blade. I know we have no idea what it’s like, but Arkane are one of those developers that I would just buy their stuff without knowing anything else. I realise not many other people probably think of them that way, but I’ve loved everything they’ve done, starting with Dishonored. Deathloop was very underrated I feel (yes, the ending was bad but everything else was great) and they should be considered up there with the greats.Gauntlett Good FortuneRE: Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave. It is finished. Nearly two months later, I have beaten this absolute behemoth of a game, just in time for the Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake too, which is cool. Anyways, Fortune’s Weave. What a game, I’m giving it a 9/10 here and not a straight 10, but honestly I’m sitting around 9.5-9.7 territory just because it has some real narrative issues in the final part. I’m not gonna delve into every single thing but I’ll give the short notes for each major part. I think the Part 1 routes are easily the strongest part of the game, the interweaving stories and characters all coming together is really awesome. Part 2 is a slight step down, albeit what it lacks in narrative it makes up for with excellent combat expect all the routes are pretty much the exact same, except a few line changes. Now, Part 3, this is where it starts to show the game’s problem. Eshmel. All the other four lords coming together, if you’ve done all their routes, is of course absolutely phenomenal, but the biggest issue is our player character, Eshmel is just lacklustre. His whole identity is highly hinted at yet never resolved, pivotal moments for the other lords who aren’t playable characters are clearly cut and the narrative quickly loses itself after the first few chapters. So yeah, overall, I really wanted to call this game a straight masterpiece, no notes and while it gets unbelievably close, it unfortunately doesn’t hit that highest peak by the end. Still a must buy for any role-player fan whose got a Switch 2 though, will definitely say that much.Jack H. GC: Scores aside, we agree. If the storytelling had been better it would have been an all-timer. Instead, it’s just really good. Something to hideI’d like to think that Rockstar threatening to take down videos giving away spoilers, even after GTA 6 is out, is a sign that there is some surprising plot twists in the game, because at the moment we know nothing about the story and all we’ve seen is the pair doing crimes and not much else. Obviously GTA 6 is going to be massive, but I do feel the marketing has been disappointing. No story info and no rundown of the features was a mistake, I feel, especially given the low effort launch trailer.Berk Don't miss Gaming news! Add us as a Preferred Source As a loyal GameCentral reader, we want to make sure you never miss our articles when searching for gaming stories. We have all the latest video games news, reviews, previews, and interviews, with a vibrant community of highly engaged readers. Click the button below and tick Metro.co.uk to ensure you see stories from us first in Google Search. Add us as a Preferred Source GameCentral has been delivering unique games news and reviews for over a decade Apples and orangesThe inbox and the comments section are very different beasts with different functions, I think. Inbox contributions – and GC’s replies to them – are excellent prompts for wider community discussion that can’t be fully represented in the Inbox, as nobody wants that page to show exchanges around the same topic for more than a couple of days in a row. As a prolific commenter in the comments section who’s conscious about how much that annoys some (arguably less reasonable) people, I know it would be irritating to see several contributions every day from me in the Inbox. But I’m also realistic enough to know a lot of what I’d be sending in if I wanted to discuss everything that interests me would justifiably be sifted out. So the Underbox was a useful outlet for community participation that would otherwise have to be limited. Clearly P B’s preference is the careful curation of a concise Inbox, and that’s fine. I value that too. But encouraging the removal of a very different extension of the community, one that can easily be ignored if you can’t be bothered seeing posts from a handful of regular contributors, is something I’d object to in principle. Beyond that, his carefully worded email doesn’t fully reflect the behaviour of someone who would unconditionally downvote every comment he’d see from me and call me insulting nicknames, presumably to discourage my participation in what was a largely successful and friendly community that’s been part of my game-related habits for over a third of my life. I appreciated that highlighting the hazards of any wider and more open platform is hardly selling the appeal. And I don’t say any of this to put pressure on a revival as I get that it’s a site wide issue. I can happily live with just the Inbox, and maybe it will lead to me writing in more. I’m just glad the way it ended doesn’t seem to have been down to the efforts of some, let’s say, unhelpful actors to discourage regular participation in the community. Especially since it was really no different to how I’ve always participated in the Inbox.Panda GC: It’s a difficult subject, not least because we’ve never controlled the comments section directly. We’re looking into some possible solutions, but it will take a few weeks to sort anything out. Inbox also-ransI have a free code for Le Mans Ultimate on PC, it’s redeemable on Steam. I’m on console so it’s no use to me. Can you pass it on to a worthy reader as an early Christmas present?Tillo GC: That’s very good of you. We’ll give it to whoever asks and sends us a useable Inbox letter. Don’t get the hype for The Elder Scrolls. The cut scenes are stunning like a film but the gameplay is like a PS1 game. Not for me.TWO MACKS Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk The small printNew Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content. You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot. You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter. Arrow MORE: Games Inbox: How excited are you for The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel? Arrow MORE: Games Inbox: What’s the first thing you’ll do in GTA 6? Arrow MORE: Games Inbox: Is a Nintendo Switch 2 worth getting for Christmas? GameCentral Get the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week.