I honestly didn't think I'd be able to be taken aback by some of the smaller changes in the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake on Switch 2, especially considering how faithful it appears to be at first glance. I'll say up front that many of these smaller changes are actually great, in my opinion, as many of them serve to bring the world to life in ways the original N64 Ocarina of Time couldn't. Things like the continuous (and lengthier) day-night cycle and the Castle Town expansion are welcome changes. However, some newly released footage of the Ocarina of Time remake's take on Goron City has me, for perhaps the first time after seeing all of these changes, a bit concerned, as there is one major difference from the original that, if the philosophy behind it is translated into the rest of the experience, could actually change things for the worse.
At first, the Ocarina of Time remake's version of Goron City might not look all that different to those who remember the original. As the camera zooms in on an isometric view of the entire area, everything looks like it's in its proper place, including the giant spinning jar in the city's center on the ground floor. This version of Goron City maintains its multi-floor design, with each floor including a circular path that moves around the city, and even the same breakable rocks are still visible in places. But looking at the top floor, where the center platform is connected to the outer rim via rope bridges, it's pretty easy to see what's wrong here. In fact, if this is the case across the entire game, then the Ocarina of Time remake could be making Hyrule a lot safer than it was in the original game.
It's no secret that video games were once a lot more challenging than they are now. Whether that challenge came from hardware limitations, technical glitches, or legitimate difficulty by design, it was certainly a common characteristic many classics shared. Now, however, video games have become increasingly accessible, holding players' hands with blue trails, guiding them with yellow paint, slapping an overwhelming number of objective markers on their map, or just straight up transforming what was once a very narrow, treacherous pathway into a much wider bridge in a remake.
کۆنسۆڵەکان بە ڕیزبەندی دروست دابنێ.
کۆنسۆڵە هەڵبژێردراوەکان لە نزمترینەوە بۆ بەرزترین ڕێکبخە.
The latter is precisely what seems to have happened in the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake's version of Goron City, as ropes that once required players to very carefully tilt the control stick forward to get Link across safely have now become wider rope bridges that look almost impossible to fall from. In the original N64 version of Ocarina of Time, players would need to cross exceedingly narrow ropes to get from the outer rim of Goron City's top floor to the center, and I personally remember falling plenty of times. Mind you, I did become something of an expert at those ropes due to how many times I replayed the original N64 classic, but I still remember all the health and time I lost getting to that point.
But the rope bridges themselves aren't necessarily the entire point here. Some players are bound to see this as a much-needed change, simply because of how frustrating it can be when you have to climb all the way back up the stairs after you've fallen from the ropes in the original Ocarina of Time. However, I'm not here to argue whether making paths wider is okay in the Ocarina of Time remake. Rather, I want to point out what it could mean for the rest of Hyrule in the remake. If Nintendo has made a change like this to Goron City, no matter how insignificant of a change it might appear to be on the surface, what has it done throughout the rest of Hyrule, and does that mean much of the natural friction the original game had has now vanished?
And this is where I think a change like Goron City's rope bridges becomes more important than it looks. Ocarina of Time was never necessarily a brutally difficult game, but Hyrule itself had plenty of little ways to punish you for not paying attention. You could fall from a narrow ledge, mistime a jump, get knocked somewhere you didn't want to be, or simply lose a few hearts because you got a little too comfortable moving through an area. None of those things were major roadblocks, and I don't remember ever quitting the game because Link fell off something, but they did make the world feel like a place I actually had to move through carefully.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://gamerant.com/zelda-ocarina-of-time-remake-goron-city-rope-bridges-difficulty/
