The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been in the hands of fans for a couple of weeks now, and there's almost no doubt it's going to go down as one of the greatest games of all time, just like previous games in the series like Breath of the Wild and Ocarina of Time. However, there seems to be a lot more scrutiny of the latter recently, mostly down to the fact that it's getting on in years. The entire gaming landscape was far different 25 years ago, and now Zelda fans are debating whether Ocarina of Time would actually hold up if you somehow hadn't played it until 2023.
The question was first put to the Zelda subreddit by u/T0ky0n0, who simply asked whether fans thought the game had "aged well". Those with passionate arguments on both sides quickly descended upon the post to put forward their opinion, and the general consensus is surprisingly mixed, although it seems to tilt slightly in favor of the game holding up well enough.
While the majority seem to think it's a perfectly good game to play nowadays, there are a lot that add the caveat that the graphics haven't aged quite as well as the rest of it. That's understandable given that Ocarina of Time released back when developers were still getting to grips with making games in 3D environments, and there are plenty that point to the 3DS remaster as the perfect option for those that can't stand the blocky textures of the N64 these days, including u/Late_Progress_4451 who says the N64 version has "aged like milk."
Then there are those that are more passionate with their criticism, such as u/Terramoin who explains that they played it again last year and think "the controls are wonky and the camera was awful." u/Doughknut2 points to the existence of the 3DS remaster as proof that the original obviously hasn't aged very well, while u/andysniper also agrees that it's difficult to play "if you're used to more modern games", pointing to Wind Waker as a Zelda game that's aged much better by comparison. A person after my own heart.
We'll obviously never get a definitive answer from The Legend of Zelda community regarding this topic of discussion, especially since playing the game for the first time is such a find childhood memory for a lot of people. However, there seems to be a growing number of fans willing to take a step back and reevaluate Ocarina of Time for what it is today, and who know what the general consensus will be another 25 years down the line.