It’s been finally released for Europe/Japan! Having gotten bored of waiting for its release, I replayed the original before joining the army, but you could do worse than playing it if you have a net-enabled Wii. It is a different gaming experience than Ocarina of Time (more exploration- and sidequest-oriented and less epic) but a worthwhile one. Now, if only they released Mischief Makers!
Consult the Bomber’s Notebook if you don’t like waiting needlessly .
Thanks for getting my hopes up there Rig!
But at least this means we can’t be too far behind.
(Too bad I’ve already made a minimalist run of the game).
But but but… it’s a bad game! o_O
Something decent on the Virtual Console? I’m envious. We haven’t got anything good since like… last year or something.
Still waiting for Yoshi’s Island. 
Hmm…been hearing about this for a few days now. Haven’t heard of any hangups or anything of the sort, so I guess the emulation is good. I should really break this out on my Zelda Collection for GC. Haven’t played it in a few years.
Fixed. It may not be epic, or up to other people’s standards, but it’s a good game regardless.
It’s a game that comprises of a tiny (and uninteresting) main plot deluged with boring fetch quests. I stand by my original statement.
Well yeah, it’s a Zelda game, what did you expect? Wind Waker was like the first one with an actual plot.
Yeah, but in Ocarina of Time or Link to the Past you didn’t have a billion boring fetchquests. The main quest, while not having a lot of story, had MEAT to it, gameplay wise.
You are looking for things the game doesn’t set out to offer. I did the same thing when I originally played it. Granted, I almost finished the game, but coming fresh out of Ocarina of Time I was disappointed it was less epic, had fewer dungeons and a rather insignificant plot.
Initially, I wanted to replay MM for completionist reasons. I had recollections of what I was in for, but I’d also seen how a Zelda game could succeed in different ways.
The main plot remained uninteresting as the relationship between the Skull Kid and you-know-who was superficial, the areas returned to their original situation e.g. the valley was still snowed in, after resetting time and there was nothing like entering a volcano to bash Volvagia’s head.
However the town felt like a real, populated town and not a bunch of houses thrown together, interacting with characters felt rewarding and was the real meat of the game along with using masks, exploring nooks and crannies (or playing minigames that used the game’s controls) and seeing how Termina got along and what you could change. Learning how to use the Bomber’s Notebook provided some structure to the daily routine of the citizens.
My perspective had meanwhile changed. The secret is the dungeons aren’t MM’s focus. It makes for an interesting comparison with, say, Twilight Princess where the dungeons form the backbone of the game, but while there are a few epic moments the Skeleton battle, the second or fourth boss seeing what the game allows you to do is far more interesting.
While I hated the masks in OoT, in MM many of them had quite interesting effects that I’d like to see revisited. Underwater control, the rolling game mechanic, the speed-enhancing Bunny mask, the invisibility mask.
Give it a try when it gets rereleased statewide; your opinion may change.
http://agora.rpgclassics.com/showthread.php?t=30341
(Although if that wasn’t your cup of tea then I can’t argue with you on that one.)
Oh right, I’d forgotten about that. Still, it drives me nuts without save states though, cause I like to use them and cheat.
MM was one of the weak points of the series IMO. Other than the neat gameplay changes with the alternate Links, it takes everything OoT did and shoves it into a Groundhog Day scenario, which I found interesting but ultimately too annoying to enjoy.
What was annoying to you? IMO the game should have been way clearer about the way the Bombers’ Notebook is used* as that can make you feel lost and wait needlessly -otherwise you’ll only have to wait during the Kafei quest near the endgame, but at least then you’ll know what you’re doing. Having to do it twice for all the rewards is bs though.
*when you’re doing a quest for someone, you can affect him during the times marked with a blue bar. When you get a mask or a ribbon in the book, you’re done with that stretch of time.
It just grated on me the wrong way. I didn’t like having a time limit and having to start over everything every so often. If I enter a dungeon I want to be able to finish the bloody thing without having to check my watch, and if I trip a switch I want it to stay tripped, dammit.
I have to concur that MM is the weakest game in the series. A small list of some of the things that bothered me.
First there was that whole Zora Egg quest which required you to make at least two runs through the Thieves’ Fort to bottle all the eggs.
Second the game gives you six bottles to work with, the uber N64 era fairies, double defense, and that one drink that’ll give you unlimited magic power until you reset the clock you didn’t even need the fierce deity mask to become utterly indestructible.
Third the only dungeon items in the game were either the bow or arrows. Everything else had to be gotten in the prerequisite side-quests.
Hey, I didn’t say it was the weakest game in the Zelda SERIES. The CD-i games take the prize, there. I know they aren’t canon, but they’re still Zelda games.
Hold on, don’t you get four in the first run and then go that place with the sea worms (i.e. outside the Fort) to get the rest?
If you find the game too easy (it’s surely safe enough) you don’t need to use every bottle etc. I never even carried a fairy.
As for the item selection, we agree. Perhaps I should make a blog with a sole post/rant about the meaning of items in Zeldas. At least the masks were interesting enough.
Yeah, if you don’t accept or like the time limit, it’ll feel like a game under a deadline.
Originally Posted by Rigmarole
[i]
Quote:[QUOTE]Originally Posted by Killmore View Post
[i]I have to concur that MM is the weakest game in the series. A small list of some of the things that bothered me.
First there was that whole Zora Egg quest which required you to make at least two runs through the Thieves’ Fort to bottle all the eggs.
Second the game gives you six bottles to work with, the uber N64 era fairies, double defense, and that one drink that’ll give you unlimited magic power until you reset the clock you didn’t even need the fierce deity mask to become utterly indestructible.
Third the only dungeon items in the game were either the bow or arrows. Everything else had to be gotten in the prerequisite side-quests.[/i]
Hold on, don’t you get four in the first run and then go that place with the sea worms (i.e. outside the Fort) to get the rest?
If you find the game too easy (it’s surely safe enough) you don’t need to use every bottle etc. I never even carried a fairy.
As for the item selection, we agree. Perhaps I should make a blog with a sole post/rant about the meaning of items in Zeldas. At least the masks were interesting enough.
[/i][/QUOTE]
Fyi, this was the first Zelda game I made a minimalist run on. Within the first three game days I had already beaten the Great Bay Temple, and by the end of the second time loop I was on the Moon. I only picked up heart containers from the bosses and nothing else that was unnecessary. And the only time I died (repeated I might add) was against the final boss where I screwed up and squandered all my Magic and Arrows which made it near impossible to stop the boss without taking damage (and three hearts doesn’t last too long against it either). Unfortunately, I found that it’s impossible to make it to the end without picking up at least one ending affecting mask during the course of the adventure.
Edit: You’re right about the eggs but that was the first predungeon side quest that annoyed me. The Stone Tower is even more annoying with the constant need to use the Elegy of Emptiness.
Yeah, once you get the “trick” repeatedly playing the songs gets old. Heh, I wisened up to the final boss’s last form with about 7 arrows left and I luckily got him with the last. You could hear me respire from the other side of the block.
Good job on the minimalist run. I don’t feel too much at ease with the game to attempt one.