Favorite Zelda title(s) and why

I might talk about some of the other Zelda games a little later, but for now I want to focus on Link to the Past, which in my opinion stands out far and above any of the other entries.

Link to the Past is simply a masterwork. Two overworlds brimming with content and secrets, no two areas look like any other, and on top of that there are 13 dungeons, 11 of those being full-fledged and very well thought out.
The game has a lot of optional items that are not needed to complete the game, but are very rewarding to players who put in the extra effort to find them. The music is incredible, the visuals were top-notch for the time. The game takes itself seriously, there are no NPCs that were thrown in just for quirky or comedic effect.

The standout dungeon in my opinion is the Tower of Hera:

This dungeon holds a special place in my heart because my 8-year-old self experienced many hours and dreams of longing as I stared at the tower from below wondering how on Earth I would reach it.
After 3 months of fooling around the overworld trying to find a way to get in, I accidentally figured out the Magic Mirror trick one sunny afternoon and felt what was probably my first truly triumphant video gaming moment, one that will stick with me for the rest of my life.

Of the 3D games, my favorite is The Wind Waker. It was the first 3D Zelda I played (my father was angry at Nintendo when the N64 came out, so we didn't return to their systems until the Gamecube), which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. The game had secrets, many of which had to be found by chance (this sets it apart from Twilight Princess, where every secret can be found by paying FaNaDi enough rupees). The treasure maps were annoying (I didn't bother with them outside the Triforce pieces until my third playthrough), and I hated some of the bosses (Well, just Puppet Ganon form 3), but the characters and the story made it a lasting experience.

I remember staring at A Link to the Past in one of the game windows at the mall's Babages before its release (This was back before all the little game stores were swallowed whole by GameStop, of course. And I was just a tyke at the time). The top-down Zelda that really spoke to me, though, was Link's Awakening. The well-meshed and minimalist graphics, combined with the tight gameplay and mysterious plot, brought me back to the game again and again. The Oracles Series tried to recapture this feeling, but they felt bloated with bonus 'features' like rings and cross-game super-items. Also, the minimalist music appealed to me on an artistic level.

Second place for each would be Majora's Mask (for 3D) and A Link to the Past (for Top-Down). Unless we can use ZC titles as Zelda games. <_<

It's tough to pick. Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask are both exceptionally good, but Link to the Past might edge them out. By a little.

Wind Waker was pretty damn incredible, though I really would have liked seeing a dungeon for Nayry's Pearl, and one more Master Sword sage dungeon. Also, the Triforce fetch quest... UGH. No thanks. That was wasted potential-- the Triforce of Courage quest could have been made into such an awesome throwback to Zelda 1-- open some areas in old Hyrule with some small dungeons resembling those of Zelda 1. That would have been much more enjoyable than the triforce charts.

Here are my thoughts, briefly, on each entry:

Zelda I: I can't stand to play this game today, but it was great in it's day, and it brings back a lot of nostalgic memories. I finished this game long before home Internet existed, and to do so required many hours of happy collaboration with friends and family members to piece together enough independently-discovered secrets to be able to beat the game.

Zelda II: Hated this game with a passion, but pushed through it just so that I could say I could beat it. This is the only game that required me to use Game Genie to finish. Have since beaten it legitimately, but I would rather eat nails than to play this game again.

Link to the Past: Already explained above. Hands down the best in the series.

Link's Awakening: I didn't own a Gameboy when this game came out, so I didn't get to play it until several years later when I borrowed it from a friend. I enjoyed it a lot, but it felt like a Link to the Past greatly watered-down to fit on a Gameboy.

Ocarina of Time: The game that re-awakened my inner Zelda fanboy. Bought it on the day of it's release, and have probably sunk more hours into this game than any of the other entries. It's just a solid game all-around, even though some parts can be awkward and tedious.

Majora's Mask: This game took everything that was great about Ocarina of Time and multiplied it by 10. I enjoyed the time-pressure challenge and the vast overworld jam-packed with optional areas and side-quests. The one big problem I have is that 4 dungeons are not enough. The saving grace is that these are the best dungeons in a 3D Zelda game. They are long and difficult, but not frustratingly so.

Oracle of Seasons/Ages: Amazing games. I sunk a lot of hours into these, and my first time though was on the Japanese ROMs that released several months before they were translated into English. Capcom took the Link's Awakening formula and realized it's true potential. I'm torn between which of the two is better. The fan sentiment seems to be Seasons, but I think Ages was a little bit more solid of an experience.

Four Swords GBA & Four Swords Adventures: Is there anyone out there who actually played these games?

Wind Waker: I really wanted to enjoy this game, I think the cel-shaded graphics were very art-fully done, but the game is just too short and easy. That and the ocean is too big and invites tedious gameplay. If someone tells you that this is their favorite game, you can be pretty sure they are less than drinking age.

Minish Cap: I finished this game in the course of an evening. Too short, too easy. Kinstones are too tedious and repetitive. Pretty graphics and solid gameplay, but this is Zelda for kindergartners.

Twilight Princess: I had fun with this game, a lot of fun with it. After 10 years of catering to the kindergarten crowd, this game brought Zelda back to being a mature experience. Unfortunately the game unravels about halfway through, as most of the dungeons that appear after collecting the Master Sword are extremely short and have a feel of being slapped-together, and the items you find in them are barely useful outside of that dungeon. This game also lacks enough meaningful things to do on the side outside of the main quest. Double clawshots were a lot of fun however, and I hope we see this mechanic again someday.

Phantom Hourglass: I don't have a NDS, and I find that NDS games don't emulate well enough to be enjoyable, so I haven't played this one. Based on what I've read of it though, I'm going to say that it caters to kindergartners.

Spirit Tracks: Didn't play. I honestly don't know much of anything about this game. I'd like to see someone here comment on it.

Skyward Sword: Didn't play. I'm trying to find a friend who will sell me a Wii for less than $50 (just barely missed such an opportunity a couple months ago), and when I pull that off I will play this game. It sounds like it ranks low as far as 3D Zeldas go, but I think it could be a fun way to spend a few lazy afternoons.

Glenn, your brief reviews are, for the most part, pretty accurate. Though, Skyward Sword does not rank low on the 3D game side. It's up there with Ocarina and Majora's Mask. Skyward Sword really is a fairly solid game, though like Majora and Wind Waker, it could have definitely had a few more dungeons. If you can get a Wii for cheap, I suggest playing through. You may hate it, but meh, I liked it.

As for the DS titles not translating well to emulation..... Not sure if emulation problems, or just shitty games.... 'cause they're just not fun games. Even on real hardware.

Also, fuck yes, the Oracle games were incredible, and I'm glad to finally see someone else agree with that.

I haven't played the Four Swords game for gamebucbe, but I played the re-release on 3DS for the gba. It was released seperately from LttP this time and was modded to be playable by a single player if one (like me) had few friends who could play the game. It was offered (for free I believe) for a short duration last year for the Zelda 25th Anniversary and has not been offered since. I've played through 2 levels of it and while it is interesting, I'd say it would probably be better with at least one other player as switching between 2 Links in single can be tedious with some puzzles.

Hi Everyone.

My 2 favorites are: Ocarina Of Time and A Link To The Past. Ocarina due to it's fishing feature and smooth gameplay. A Link To The Past because I like the traditional layout and all around classic creativity.

So I'm the weirdo who really likes Zelda II? Jeez, how embarrassing.

Honestly I'm pretty close to saying that Wind Waker was my favorite. I actually enjoyed the sailing and the sense of exploration that came with it, and I really loved the art style. I do wish there had been more dungeons and islands to discover, though. Beyond that, it's a contest between the original Legend of Zelda and LTTP. I friggin' love LTTP, but as a kid, the original was something I had never seen before, and it completely blew me away. I mean, it was a game where you could go anywhere, and do whatever you wanted. Seems almost trivial nowadays, but I couldn't believe it. It wasn't just a series of levels, it was a whole world. Again, hardly anything special these days, but at the time, I thought it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen in a game.

I would have to say Alttp for me as well, at least for right now. Although it can be said that this is the first "modern" Zelda, This was really still a transition period between the days when Zelda resembled a jRPG and the days of Ocarina of Time. If I was to ask you to think of a Zelda game when I said something like "GET THE MAGIC FAIRY CRYSTAL FROM THE MAN ON MEDICINE MOUNTAIN" the first two games would probably come to mind. The thing is though, Alttp really still has some more primitive elements that make it beautiful.

For example, while some dungeons (keyword: some) had items that played an important part to the dungeons themselves, others were not afraid to give you something totally optional, like the Blue clothes. Then other times, they were literally like "lol idunno" and just tossed the very magical ice rod in a cave next to the lake. Both of these elements were *awesome*. It made the game feel a little less formulaic when you didn't know what to expect. Also however, I would like to give mad props to the overworld design in some places, especially near bodies of water.
If you don't know what I mean, go stand out on the peninsula east of Lake Hylia (you can see it on the map), or go stand on a ledge at the waterfall of wishing. It's a powerful, beautiful feeling in regards to nature.

A Link to the Past and Skyward Sword are my favourites.
LttP should be pretty obvious - More than 10 well-fleshed out dungeons, many secrets, tons of exploration, many challenges and a nearly flawless engine.
SS comes in second because it really shook up the formula and it actually worked as well as having great design. Tired of Nature->Fire->Water? You now get Desert instead of water. You start out with 6 hearts and the enemies' attack power have been adjusted accordingly, making it that much more challenging. Most of the new items, particularly the Beetle, worked well and were used often. It gave me a lot of interesting scenarios and was very well fleshed out. The negatives are few and far between but they are annoying: Fi was the highlight while things like how the Whip is rarely used outside Ancient Cistern and how you were left to figure out how the Loftwing flight worked.

However, I will have to give Ocarina of Time the award for the most overrated Zelda title. I will admit, I liked OoT because it had great dungeons and a good story, but it definetly does not deserve all of the praise it gets. Navi is an obvious example, who most players hate, but there was a range of other problems I had with it, inculding the empty Hyrule Field, and I found some of the bosses to be pretty lame. Not to mention that it suffers from balancing issues - Faries and especially Naryu's Love are OP, Iron Knuckles hit way too hard, etc. Finally; It wasn't that innovative because OoT did basically everything LttP did except bring Zelda into 3D.
The fact that I live with a family of OoT fanboys who overract to me simply saying that it is not a perfect game doesn't help either 😞.

Ocarina is stupid-overrated. Part of the reason is probably simply because it had been five years since a Zelda game had come out, so for some it was a revival, and for others it was Nintendo's brand-new franchise-BAAAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa not really funny though because this actually did happen and it pissed me the fuck off. "Oh, yeah, I have the first zelda! I play it on my N64!"

MasterSwordUltima wrote:So I'm the weirdo who really likes Zelda II? Jeez, how embarrassing.

Keep in mind that while ZII was crazy difficult and different from Z1, a number of features from that game appeared in future titles. Especially the Magic Meter and Hammer.

I always liked Twilight Princess the best. It had a very dynamic plotline, and in my opinion, Blizzeta's intro could easily rival Deadhand's. It was also my first Zelda game ever, however I kept falling off of Hyrule Castle as a kid, so I never really got more than 45 minutes into it until I was about 12. (In addition, merely getting to Hyrule Castle is the only objective you've been given so far that you haven't completed, so in my mind, I'd won) One thing I never understood about Twilight Princess is the mirroring between the GCN and Wii versions. All this did was confuse people who bought the Wii version and make someone go through every string of dialogue and change "west" to "east" and vice versa.
I've seen plenty of hate for Zelda II, and I personally hate it myself. However, I can understand why some people would like it. But there is one game that I cannot understand any like for. This game is Four Swords. In order to play it, you first have to personally know someone who plays Zelda, which, to this day, I do not. (I never got the original Gameboy release but rather the 3DS re-release, so I saved myself some trouble) Secondly, it felt more like a Mario Party game, and what's worse is that I think that's what they were going for.

The reason they changed TP for the Wii version is because it was easier to mirror the whole game than it would be to just make Link right-handed.

Personally, TP is my favorite, as well. Although I do have some "complaints" (it was extremely easy, and the later dungeons could have been longer), the gameplay style of the GCN version and the drastically improved swordplay and horseback fighting really made it to be the most fun I've had out of any Zelda games. Plus, I love turning into a wolf.

Second for me is ALttP for all the obvious reasons.

And #3 for me would have to be Wind Waker. It was just a lot of fun. The dungeons were great, the sound was awesome, the story and controls were wonderful. The only reasons it didn't take the top spot is because the controls for TP were better, and ALttP has so much nostalgia, and the Triforce charts were tedious as hell. I would have much preferred if they had just been 8 more full-size dungeons.

As far as Four Swords is concerned, it was originally not meant to be a major part of the series, it was just intended to be a little multiplayer romp to be included with the GBA port of ALttP, so I can excuse the fact that it was more of a party game.

Also, OoT was so overrated, it's ridiculous. It's a lot of fun, but the game is mostly a rehash of ALttP in 3D.

EDIT: Also, on the subject of Z2, I can see why so many "hardcore" players love it, but honestly, its ridiculous difficulty level ruined it for a lot of people, myself included. It would have been an insanely good game if there had just been a difficulty setting, in my opinion. And as far as my 3 most hated titles: Skyward Sword, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks; It's all about how much trouble I had with the controls (I'm extremely left-handed)

Every time I play a new console Zelda game it's my favorite Zelda game ever until I calm down. If I HAD to rank them...

LttP is my favorite, the rest of the list all stand solidly together.

MasterSwordUltima wrote:So I'm the weirdo who really likes Zelda II? Jeez, how embarrassing.

I like that game too. I'd say its number 4 on my Top 5 fave Zelda games.

1) Majora's Mask
[SIZE=3]Best villain. Both in the Zelda series, and is one of the best villains of them all. The dark tone and time system made it feel more epic and, of course, provided that 'race against time' feel which only made it feel even MORE epic.

2) Zelda II
[/SIZE]The difficulty presents a challenge that is unparalleled within the series. If I were to rate them all on difficulty, Zelda II being the hardest would receive a 10 (of 10), but the next game (A Link to the Past) would receive a 7. The rest would go all the way down to a 1.

Random formatting is fun. I couldn't pick. Combine the described aspects of these two games and you have the perfect game.

Majora's Mask did have an extra eeriness to it with Termina being doomed the whole time and whatnot.. Probably my favorite of the series.
I disagree with LttP being a 7 in difficulty compared to 1 though, because at some point I ran through that game in under 3 hours collecting everything there was to get in the process, whilst the original LoZ always is a little more difficult for me just because the controls are less responsive.

I don't get it, Zelda II isn't even THAT difficult if you take the time to level up and such. It glorifies the combat portion of what Link would have gone through, much like how Twilight Princess up'd the swordplay from OoT. Not to mention the place is crawling with this ancient mythos feel - the unknown unknowns, if you will.