Zelda OOT Conversion - GrandmasterJ

 

    Finally, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has come to Sven Co-op! I am amazed at how close this map is to the actual Zelda game. It's definitely very janky, but it's more faithful to the original game than it has any right to be.

SCMapDB page

Author: w00tguy123

Date of final release: 2012

Maps in package: 2

Map review of Zelda OOT Conversion

(originally posted on SCMapDB) 

by GrandmasterJ | November 30, 2021 | 5694 characters

    This map is incredibly neat. The conversion is very faithful to the original. You need a sword and shield to progress to the Deku Tree, all the NPCs are here, the buildings have interiors, the enemies are here and work well. It's just all incredibly impressive.

    I'm not going to get into why the map is great, it's Legend of Zelda recreated as faithfully as possible. I'm astounded by how close it is to the original, I really did not expect this level of quality from this map. Instead I'm going to complain about the problems this map has, because some of them are quite severe.

    The satchel charges are replaced with deku nuts and they don't work right. When I first used them there was no sound or explosion animation, upon detonation the nut disappeared and a scorch mark appeared on the ground. It would only be later at the final boss fight that I find out there is no explosion at all and when this happens it does no damage. I thought it was a purely graphical glitch. Sometimes the deku nuts work as satchel charges. Typically it works right when I am in range to be damaged, maybe thats the only time it works. The final boss vomits out a ton of enemies so the wonky deku nut problem was acutely felt there.

    Most doorways are teleports. This means if two players go through a door the second player will telefrag the first player. This was hilarious and we did it often. Unfortunately there is a hardcoded extra life system and this ended our playthrough prematurely. We restarted the map but now we had to be very careful not to kill each other accidentally. A minor problem that was enjoyed by all became a huge pain for everybody playing. This was a nightmare going through the Lost Forest.

    The little green narc bootlicker blocking the path to the Great Deku Tree has lengthy dialogue that traps all players into a cutscene. I made the mistake of talking to him without the shield and was stuck in place as he complained at me. One player died during this cutscene and due to the aforementioned lives system this was actually a massive problem. I didn't want to do that again so I avoided that guy like the plague (since Covid-19 hit and people avoided this plague less than previously thought let's say I avoided him like a really lengthy cutscene where you can die and permanently lose respawns) even after I had the shield. Eventually the map was all explored and I was forced to talk to him.

    In the great Deku Tree I immediately climbed up a ladder covered in skulltulas. When they came near me I jumped off and ran away, but due to how they are scripted the skulltula flew off the ladder and chased me down. It went through walls and somehow still targeted me after I died so I spawned in with a flying skulltula inside me and I died again. This would be funny if there wasn't a forced lives system. That's two respawns gone due to flying spiders.

    In the first part of the Great Deku Tree there is a web that players must jump on from a great height to break. One player jumped on it and it did not break and instead he took damage. All three of us jumped and it worked. I can't tell if this was a bug or intentional. Regardless, losing health is a problem when you have limited respawns and I see no reason to divest from the original and require more than one person to jump.

    There is one part where you have to fight the Deku Scrub Brothers. In the original there is a certain order you have to beat them in, it is the same here. But I didn't see any hints about it like in the original. Luckily my two teammates are better versed in Zelda than I so they did it no problem. But in a map with limited respawns a Zelda layman would struggle with this part and might give up here instead of play the whole map over again.

    The last problem I had was the bossfight. Queen Gohma vomits forth enemies at an insane rate. They jump at you and are quick to jump again so killing them with melee weapons only was near impossible. The deku nuts weren't working which was probably the biggest contributor to not beating the boss for us, those things would have cleared the enemies out no problem. We resorted to running from the enemies and trying to snipe Gohma's eye (what I assume is the only vulnerable spot) but eventually the crush of bodies meant we got cornered again and again and half the battle was us dying very fast one after another until our lives were all gone. We opted to not try again.

    Despite my many complaints and inability to beat the maps, I thoroughly enjoyed playing.

Pros:

• It's Zelda created more faithfully in Sven than I could have ever hoped.
• custom textures, models, sounds music, its all here
• There is a rupee and shop system that works ok, it wasn't very fun but it was impressive
• NPCs have original dialogue, animations, models. One NPC exploded randomly which was fun.
• The map includes the Lost Forest as well. Limited functionality but lots of fun to mess around in
• it even has the stones that jiggle when you hit them.

Cons:

• Limited respawns make minor problems into major ones, telefragging in particular
• Deku nuts don't work right
• Kokiri who blocks off route to Great Deku Tree has long cutscene that affects all players
• Skulltula scripting issues. Spawning with a skulltula already attacking me was not fun
• boss fight is a nightmare. If cons 1 and 2 were addressed it would be so much better
• This is all that will ever be made of the Zelda OOT maps, which is a bummer. I would love to see more.

Score: 8.5 / 10