Desert Island Survival Games II

Well, it's Thursday, and that means it's time for the next installment in the my on-going series, Desert Island Survival Games. This time, I've decided to take on:



ROLE-PLAYING GAMES

This has to be one of the easiest categories. I don't even have to think about it. The RPG game I would like to play for the rest of my life is argueably the best game of all time: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the N64. This is a game that reached the pinnacle of what a game could be: engaging, thought-provoking, deep, action-packed, and simply vast. I doubt any who have played it will argue with me. This game is simply a masterpiece.

Where does one begin to describe the merits of such a work of art? As I said before, this game is simply so huge, it's difficult to pick out the high points. There's easily 20 or 30 hours of gameplay here, and thats just if you follow the story only and move from point to point on the map directly. But if you do that, you're mssing out on half the game. It's not that the story isn't engaging. It's easily one of the better stories a game has ever had. It's masterfully crafted, with deep themes, twists and turns at every corner, and a cast of characters that really does seem alive. But a lot of the strength of this game comes through when you stop and smell the roses.

The beauty here rest in just how much is packed into the game. It's practically impossible to complete the game without side-tracking into the living world around you, or stumbling upon an easter egg or two, and if you do, you miss out on all the cool stuff. I don't think its possible to actually finish this game. Between getting your horse, Epona, upgraing your quiver capacity, and other such tasks for improving your performance in-game, to getting the Biggoron sword, collecing pieces of heart and Gold Skulltawultas, and the abundant mini-games and side quests, there is an endless amount of variety here. Even the map around you is amazing. It can take quite a bit of walking to get from place to place in the massive map, and each area has tons of nooks and crannies you can access with new gear after you complete them, providing plenty of motivation to back-track. And the characters around you, be they major or minor, are all briliantly written, each having there own opinion on current events and different points of view. You can spend happy hours not even touching the main quest, just wandering around completing sidequests, hunting out secret caverns, and talking to different people. And the amazing part is, they fit all of this into an N64 cartidge, without the use of the in-system memory card upgrade, which came out later. I have no idea how they managed it.

Techincally, the game is also stellar. The mechanics, like Z-targeting and custom button mapping of tools, are intuitive and easy to pick up, but still entertaining, challenging, and servicable throughout the long game. It's the old saying, easy to learn, hard to master. But the most brilliant mechanic is the time-travel and music elements. The magic spells in the game take the form of songs played on the title instrument, which allow you to warp to certain spots on the maps, call your horse, unlock doors and puzzles, talk to your mentor, or change the time of day, as well as other various and sundry uses, including creating your own song to summon a scarecrow, allowing you to access secret areas. Time-travel is perhaps the most brilliantly done thing in the game. Young Link plays, feels, and even sounds (both vocally and orchestrally, with the background music) different to Adult Link, and there are things that Young Link can do and Adult Link can't, and vice-versa. There are several puzzles you have to warp backwards or forwards in time to complete, and, as I said before, backtracking to completed areas as different ages or with new equipment is constantly satisfying. This all adds to the cyclical feel of the game. And because of the length of the game, when you actually complete the story, you want to go right back and start it all again, to catch the things you missed, and simply to replay some of the incredibly well designed dungeons and bosses. This is a game for the ages, and deserves this honor more than any othe game I could name. It might well be the game I'd pick if I could only play ONE game, of any genre, for the rest of my life.



Runner-Up
This is a lot harder than the winner. There are many classic RPGs out there, mostly by Square Enix, that are incredibly detailed and well done. But in the end, I think that Final Fantasy VII takes the honors, followed closely by games like FFX and Kingdom Hearts. VII is amazingly detailed, epic, and entertaining, and one of its coolest features was how it responded to decisions players made. I've heard tell that there are ways to change which of the main characters dies at one of the many high points (not that I ever managed it, having borrowed this game and having to return it before that point, sadly), and I know there are many hidden party members that you have to work hard to get, but are not neccesary to the story. It is one of the rare games, as well as the winner, that just has this feel to it that makes you think you're really part of the story, notsimply running through it.