This game was highly anticipated and highly controversial due to its cell-shaded graphics. At first, I didn't like them, but they're really starting to grow on me.
The music you hear very early in the game isn't very good. Once you get further, however, this changes. The music is fantastic once you get past the forsaken fortress. The first town you get to has a cool remix of Kakariko village, played in 4/4 time signature rather than the usual 6/8. (I realize that probably means absolutely nothing to some of you.) It sounds great. Many themes from Link to the Past make cameo appearances in this game, to fantastic effect.
Now that I have finally had a chance to really play it, I take back what I said earlier. This game is a worthy successor to Ocarina of Time. For years, I considered A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time to be the best games of all time. I thought that they would retain this title forever. I honestly thought that no game would ever be better than those two. This game has proven me wrong. This is even better than both of those. Its character developement and plotline put all other games, including the rest of the Zelda series, to shame, despite a few minor flaws.
The gameplay is perfect in some areas, but lacking in others. Though it has much of the brilliant battles and action of Ocarina of Time, it lacks the intricate puzzles of A Link to the Past. Honestly, I don't think any game since Link to the Past has ever had such puzzles, but it is still slightly dissappointing. It does, however, have a level of difficulty that is becoming less and less common. In general, games are becoming easier and easier through the years, but this game defies the trend, posing a challenge equal to that of Ocarina of Time, though it is not as challenging as Link to the Past.
It is not perfect, and is definitely not as revolutionary as Ocarina of Time. However, it is still worthy of the title of Best Game of All Time. It earns perhaps the greatest compliment I can give a game: it is worthy of the title of Zelda.
It is not, however, flawless. Many of the so-called puzzles in this game are not challenges, but merely inconveniences, which take a lot of time, but not much skill or brainpower. Perhaps the largest of these is the fact that it can take an hour or more to travel from town to town, until you get a warp song which you don't learn until halfway through the game.
Perhaps the most annoying flaw is that in several dungeons, a character beats you over the head with the solutions to some of the puzzles that would have been more fun to figure out by yourself. They took some of the best puzzles in the game, and ruined them by having characters tell you how to do them.
Another flaw is that the characters, though developed much more, are not convincing. THey make many decisions that are made purely for the convenience of the game, and are not decisions that the characters would realistically make.
One exception is the character of Ganondorf, which is drastically improved, making him easily the most realistic character in the game. However, I think they actually went to far in explaining Ganondorf's motives: by the end of the game, you end up sympathizing with Ganondorf enough that you are reluctant to defeat him: he doesn't come accross as a bad guy.
The ending is extremely dissappointing. When you finish the game, you will feel sorry for Ganondorf and hate the King of Hyrule. The ending also seems to completely negate all other Zelda games. The only way this ending could be saved, in my opinion, is either if there is a second ending or if there is an immediate, direct sequal which turns the story completely around. I don't know which if either is true, though a second ending wouldn't surprise me. I have no idea how to access it, though. I won't say anymore, because I do not want to spoil the ending for you.
Once you have beaten the game, however, things once again become quite amusing. You get to start over, but Link's Grandmother pulls an Emperor's New Clothes gag on him, and he ends up wearing his PJ's for the entire game. There are also a few other minor changes the second time through. Maybe the ending is different; I haven't beaten it the second time through yet.
