Wow! The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake is absolutely beautiful, definitely the most beautiful game Nintendo has ever made. The details, colors, sound effects, the gentle swaying of leaves in the breeze, the ripples on the water... Wow! It's breathtaking! The stitching on Link's tunic, the unique plants rustling as you walk, and the seamless transitions between all scenes. The gentle reactions of NPCs when you bump into them, and the extreme attention to detail evident everywhere in the game—character development, pacing, clever design of dungeon mechanics, and Everythinggj you can see—is simply astonishing.
Someone from the Kokiri tribe once said that they and the fairies all sparkle, and these visuals certainly confirm it. I don't want to leave this forest. But at the same time, I really do want to leave, especially after playing for over an hour last night. Because it feels almost luxurious, a slightly uncomfortable excess, particularly after having played the visually simple original not long ago. This new visual density fills the space that originally required imagination. I can hardly resist raising my fist in protest, condemning today's kids for lacking creativity. I think the rich depiction of the Kokiri Forest presented in this way is wonderful, but it also makes me crave something simpler. I don't know where the line for "just right" lies, and I'm sure that if one were too rigid about it, the result would definitely be worse than what we have now. I just can't help but feel a bit uneasy.
And the dialogue! At first, my immediate reaction was that everyone talks too much. The beginning of the game feels endless. Saria's lines struck me as pretentious and tedious. Why? I sat down and compared the dialogues from the original and the new version, and found that most of the dialogue isn't much longer in the new version. Some are even exactly the same. So what's the difference?
Is it because of the voice acting? Maybe. I like good voice acting, but I've always been dissatisfied with remakes that add voiceovers to parts that didn't have them in the original. You can never escape the voices of the characters in your head, and those "real" voiceovers will never feel quite right. What's more regrettable is that adding full voiceovers to cutscenes means Nintendo felt the need to ensure every character could participate. Especially Navi. No matter how irrelevant her lines might be to the plot.
Let's compare. Here is the dialogue the Deku Tree speaks to Navi in the original game before sending her to fetch Link. Navi doesn't speak until after she leaves:
Navi... Navi, where are you? Come quickly... Oh, Fairy Navi... Listen to me, listen to the words of the Great Deku Tree. Do you feel it? An evil aura is shrouding this land... Evil forces are gathering at this very moment, preparing to attack our Hyrule... For a long time, the Kokiri Forest, as the source of life, has stood firm, blocking intruders and maintaining the order of the world. But... in the face of this powerful evil force, my power seems insignificant. It seems that the boy without a fairy is ready to embark on his journey... The boy tasked with leading Hyrule towards justice and truth. Navi... Go quickly! Find our young friend and bring him to me... My time is running out. Fly, Navi, fly! The fate of the forest, no, the fate of the entire world, rests in your hands!
Here is the corresponding version in the new game
Deku Tree: It seems... my time is running out... My heart is heavy. Soon I will no longer be able to protect this forest. I must ensure its safety. I will entrust Everythinggj to that child. Navi... Little Navi, where are you?
Navi: Yes, Great Deku Tree. I am here! How may I serve you?
Deku Tree: Ah, there you are. I have a favor to ask of you, I hope it's not too much trouble. I have someone I want you to meet, bring this child to me.
Navi: Of course. But... who is it?
Deku Tree: The only child in the forest without a fairy companion. His name is Link.
Navi: Understood. I'll go call him!
The first version was indeed very fantastical. No one talks like that, constantly using words like "thou" and "thee," and that unnecessary flamboyant style fits the writing style of video games at the time. I wouldn't call it high literature or anything. But I dislike the new version even more; it feels like a pretentious children's play. I feel the same way about what the Deku Tree says to Link later (along with Navi's interjections), all the conversations with Saria, and Kaepora Gaebora's stuttering greetings to Link at the entrance to Hyrule Field. So far, almost all the major story cutscenes I've seen have felt awkward to me, filled with unnecessary details and stiff dialogue.
Of course, the NPC dialogues are much more精彩 (excellent/wonderful), thank goodness, because I love the quirky characters in Ocarina of Time so much. Fortunately, most of their lines sound just like the original, even if the wording has changed, because they are accompanied by some vocal exclamations ("Ah!" "Oh!" "Ooooh?" "Aha!" etc.), followed by text, allowing you to fill in the blanks with your own understanding, while paired with appropriately exaggerated animations. Mido is still a likable loser, the signposts are still full of various funny jokes, and the developers even managed to improve that beggar who dances around and desperately pleads with you to sell him things. There are even some new characters, like the bearded man in Castle Town, who I think could fit perfectly into the original game, although he obviously seems like Character No. 10 in the NPC lineup, designed to encourage Link to follow the plot to the castle, just in case you haven't figured out that you're supposed to go there yet.
I also can't completely deny that the more detailed game graphics indeed enhance the emotional impact of Ocarina of Time's story. After completing the dungeon, the Deku Tree withers. In the original game, this was certainly sad, but the visuals struggled to convey any profound meaning; I'm not even sure if I fully realized the importance of the event at the time. In the new version of Ocarina of Time, however, this is undeniable. I found this scene very beautiful, and now I better understand why the highly detailed 3D model of the Deku Tree became one of the main inspirations for the remake's visual style. Please experience it for yourself.
As I delve deeper into the core part of the main quest, reaching Hyrule Castle, I've been thinking about what a "faithful" remake truly means. From any perspective, this Ocarina of Time counts as a faithful remake. There are some minor changes to item locations and mechanics, but the core gameplay remains unchanged. Even so, my current feeling is that the Ocarina of Time remake has many subtle differences in tone compared to the original, differences that accumulate but fail to form a unified whole. I don't think it can be simply described as a more relaxed game, or one more suitable for children, or richer in content. I can't summarize it, at least not yet. And I've already realized that trying to judge it as "better," "worse," or "better or worse than its predecessor from 28 years ago" is inevitably overly simplistic. They tell the same story, but they are two distinctly different experiences, as if created for two different worlds, or even different timelines—I suppose we should thank the Goddess Hylia for that, since Link has been messing around with timeline nonsense for decades.