I played this game as a kid when it released and remembered not liking it very much. I remembered almost nothing about it. I didn’t remember a single boss fight or temple, like it was really wiped from my mind.
I wanted to play through it again because people always talk about how they love this game, but I found it really lacking and annoying at times.
Having to redo things each time you resets time made the game feel more like a chore. I understand that your going back in time, but it did not make for good gameplay.
I made it to the moon, but I’m burnt out at this point and a little under powered. I did not do any of the side quests as having to redo a bunch of stuff sounds terrible. I don’t want to get 3/4th through a side quest only to have to reset time.
Before resetting, I have to deposit money, then reset, then stock up my items again, and redo all the things I need to do to get back to where I was.
I have to admit that it is really original and a cool concept, but it does not work in practice.
I still put oot and wind Waker at the top of the 3d Zelda’s. (Not counting the switch games)
At this point, I’ll boot up oot and play through that again. I vividly remember child links part of the game and a decent amount of adult link. After that, I’ll try the master quest. I remember that being difficult and I never completed it when I was a kid.
It is basically two games in one. The Clocktown/'sidequest' time loop game, and the traditional Zelda dungeon game. I tend to agree that the latter is mostly just not good. The dungeons don't improve with the existence of the time mechanic - in fact they needed to add a mechanic to slow time down because of how poorly the two designs mesh, which is kind of antithetical to the whole initial conceit, in my opinion.
The Clocktown Game, on the other hand, I think is really cool. You get to see all the routines and problems that characters have over those three days, and nudge events towards desired outcomes. Exploring how all their lives intersect, and how they react in the literal face of impending doom, allows for some really cool stories and moments.
It's a Clocktown game trapped in the body of a Zelda game.
The devs actually thought of that. There are two auxiliary time control songs. One slows down time by ~50%, the other jumps ahead to the next dawn/dusk. MM3D revised the latter to allow to jump to any top of the hour across the next 12 hours.
Any of the scarecrows around town teach it to you just by talking to them, but they do so by describing the songs, not teaching you the notes
I realize this. What I meant is, 'that's why it was added', rather than 'I wish that this existed.' Relying on the time slow is recognizing that the dungeon wasn't really designed around the time loop in the first place. It just doesn't feel like a very cohesive design.
Just today I started to think that this game is basically Zelda + animal crossing.