Game Debate #99: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

[CMR | 518]

9 hours ago, mbd39 said:

And now people hate on the original for not holding your hand enough.

 

Don't follow the click bait.

[Tanooki | 4,929]

Maybe when the Moblin was saying it's a secret to everybody, it was about that video makers lack of intelligence.   And in that way it was sarcasm, because listening to that, it's clear it's coming from a dry well.  What a tool, commented on that one parodying his idiot comment to start it: And I find this video a classic attempt at poor attention seeking design.

Edited May 1, 2022 by Tanooki

[T-Pac | 7,513]

Action RPGs definitely aren't to my taste, but I remember having a lot of fun with A Link to the Past when I played it back in high school.
But I got stuck and abandoned it shortly after finding the dark-world, which might be barely scratching the surface of the game for all I know.

In any case, if an RPG can hold my attention for more than a few hours it must have its merits...

-CasualCart

[a3quit4s | 4,091]

GOAT

eat it Ocarina of Time

[Hammerfestus | 3,820]

Got bored.  Never finished dark world.

[Jeevan | 8,909]

Best Game of the series, including all future releases of the franchise!

[Tabonga | 2,313]

50 minutes ago, Hammerfestus said:

Got bored.  Never finished dark world.

 

[JamesRobot | 5,786]

Some  of my favorites.  Gotta go 10. 

I might like A Link Between Worlds just a little better.  Maybe.

[Brickman | 3,979]

9/10 for me. OoT, Majora's mask and Breath of the Wild are better though 

[Estil | 1,261]

On 4/30/2022 at 12:59 PM, Dr. Morbis said:

Heh, was that kid even born when Zelda came out?  It's kinda hard to enjoy games that require exploration when all you know is on-rails games like most jrpgs and just about everything else released in the last 25 years...

Good ol' 21st century fallacy...trying to just things in the past by modern standards.  And of course Final Fantasy had more text/better clues...the game came out three years later (well the US versions anyway) and it was a more complicated game with a way bigger manual and its own Nintendo Power guide!  And for the record the first Zelda did come with a hint map.

I will say though I was quite stuck on that Second Quest...until I discovered by accident that some of the caves are only revealed by blowing the whistle (which is only done once in the First Quest to unlock the 7th dungeon) and that you're supposed to walk through secret walls of dungeons as well as the kind that are bombed through.

As for the hint SECRET POWER IS SAID TO BE IN THE ARROW well it's actually many things:

1. Can not only one hit kill Pols Voices but can pass right through them (I think the only enemy the arrow can do that to)

2. Only weapon that can kill Gohma (and another hint says to aim at the eye)

3. (Silver) Arrow is needed to deliver the final blow to Ganon

I really thought it amusing the YTers and such who complained about the EASTMOST PENNINSUA IS THE SECRET hint in the first dungeon...obviously they slept through geography class (triforce piece is at the eastmost peninsula on the map).

*SPOILERS for this next part*

The only truly puzzling hint is in the Second Quest, IF YOU GO IN THE DIRECTION OF THE ARROW...I thought it meant the arrow made up of rocks in the Overworld...best I can figure is that that's the screen the Master Sword is hidden...and if you do directly below the tip of that arrow you'll find the hidden 8th dungeon next screen down.  Or maybe it points the way to the 9th dungeon in the very top left corner...who knows?

 

[glazball | 168]

Link to the Past did have some quality of life improvments but also a bit of hand-holding.  I will always be partial to the original so I had to round down to a 9.  Truly amazing game!

[Estil | 1,261]

1 hour ago, glazball said:

Link to the Past did have some quality of life improvments but also a bit of hand-holding.  I will always be partial to the original so I had to round down to a 9.  Truly amazing game!

One of my friends in HS tried to tell me this one game he had was "better than Zelda!" but I couldn't believe such a thing was even possible.  That one game happened to be Chrono Trigger...even way back then I loved that cute chick who dropped her necklace   I didn't see much as it was his copy not mine.  Why oh why did I stupidly put off doing JRPG's until 2013???

April Fools thread that I made aside (the joke part being me selling my Zelda games) I do kinda feel like Zelda is now kinda inadequate.  I mean in JRPGs can't I do most things you do in Zelda games...except in JRPGs you can have cute chicks fighting along side you, or better yet, leading the party!  Battles are certainly more strategic and interesting and can sometimes have a bit of a chess flavor to them.  Indeed what is more commonly called "class change" in the first Final Fantasy I call "promotion" as I think it's kinda sorta like promotion in chess.  In a YouTube video I watched about "most overpowered characters" there was this one obscure game (forget the name) where the top female character is like that...clearly they wanted to make her like a chess queen.

You know, in the Super Mario Bros Super Show's Zelda cartoon Zelda did in fact fight alongside Link quite a bit...and that was back when both series only had TWO main games each!  Imagine if there could be a Zelda for real RPG where Link, Zelda, and others (such as Ocarina of Time's Sages?) in a party/team fight enemies and get experience points and level up and such.

[guitarzombie | 923]

8.  I didn't grow up with Zelda so I played them all much later.  I think the original is a BIT overrated, but I can't deny its historical significance.  I got it.  Same with this.  I played it for the first time a few years ago and enjoyed it.  I don't long to replay it but while I was it was good.

[Skorp | 383]

Greatest Zelda game of all time for me. True, BotW blew everything recent away, but nothing compares to this masterpiece.

[Makar | 1,946]

Absolutely nothing wrong with this game. Still one of my favorite Zeldas ever

[Alder | 243]

On 4/30/2022 at 2:58 PM, Sumez said:

Never played it, never will

Really? Why?

[Alder | 243]

On 5/1/2022 at 2:48 PM, CasualCart said:

Action RPGs definitely aren't to my taste, but I remember having a lot of fun with A Link to the Past when I played it back in high school.
But I got stuck and abandoned it shortly after finding the dark-world, which might be barely scratching the surface of the game for all I know.

In any case, if an RPG can hold my attention for more than a few hours it must have its merits...

-CasualCart

The light world / dark world mechanic blew my mind as a kid. I can see how it might be a bit tropey to new players today, but man, to say it captivated me would be an understatement. Calling Zelda an RPG is a whole can of worms though, haha.

I'd like to do LttP justice though and recount some of my memories of it. It's one of the first games I played, some time in the early/mid 90s when I was around 3 or 4 years old, at my aunt's house down the road. Every time we'd visit, I would play the game and get a bit further. At that age, I was probably just going around exploring, dying over and over. I'd have dreams at night about finding things in the game, and I remember having to get my older brother to help me when I was stuck in a cave. But a few years in, I remember finally making it to the dark world. That same night, my mom was getting mad that I wouldn't turn the game off, so she unplugged it and my save was erased. Absolute 5-year-old despair. I was so upset. But I eventually made it back to where I was, and next year, got my own SNES for Christmas. My uncle let me borrow LttP, and I played it for a couple of years. Fast forward to 3rd grade: I was stuck on the final dungeon and couldn't find a key and spent weeks looking all over the overworld. I eventually found it in the dungeon (duh) and beat the game the next day. Then went to my friend's house, and we pulled an all-nighter beating his copy.

I remember drawing out maps of the dungeons and transcribing the text from the important parts of the game. I let the game run so I could listen to the music because it was so good. I played every Zelda game from then on, considered myself a fan/collector, and became an admin on a Zelda forum back in high school. A few years later I found NintendoAge and broadened my gaming interests. I played plenty of other games growing up, but none struck me as hard as LttP did, and I consider those early memories to have shaped my interests and even my career as an adult.

So yeah, I have the thickest nostalgia goggles in the world for this game, since I basically grew up with it. I would love to have that original cartridge, or save file, or footage or pictures of some gameplay back then, but all I have are my memories, and that's good enough. I think even without the nostalgia factor it's still a 10/10 for me, but I understand it not being everyone's cup of tea.

[Sumez | 2,931]

4 hours ago, Alder said:

Really? Why?

Not really 

[Tulpa | 3,488]

7 minutes ago, Sumez said:

Not really 

Pot stirrer.

[OptOut | 8,881]

On 5/2/2022 at 3:39 AM, Hammerfestus said:

Got bored.  Never finished dark world.

This has been my experience of the game, tbh.

Over the years I have given this game THREE solid tries to see it through from beginning to end, on the SNES, 3DS Virtual Console and SNES mini, but it's never managed to keep me engaged until the end.

I won't deny the game is good, and has its charm, probably would have been better if I played it when it was new, I think the first time I tried it was like around 2001 maybe? But, for me personally, I am not into reading much in games, the world never really interested me to explore, and I really don't like the combat, I'm not a fan of that top-down style of game.

I really love the Link Between Worlds tho, that was awesome! 

[Deadeye | 1,595]

On 5/1/2022 at 3:39 PM, Hammerfestus said:

Got bored.  Never finished dark world.

 

5 hours ago, OptOut said:

This has been my experience of the game, tbh.

Over the years I have given this game THREE solid tries to see it through from beginning to end, on the SNES, 3DS Virtual Console and SNES mini, but it's never managed to keep me engaged until the end.

I won't deny the game is good, and has its charm, probably would have been better if I played it when it was new

Similarly this has been my experience as well.  Tried to play through many times, but lost interest sometime during the dark world.

[Link | 2,708]

Major impact to the series, introducing the idea of dual worlds, which formed the structure of several canon home console entries. 

Like SMB3, Zelda 3 took the first game and expanded on it in every single way, not only sound and graphics but concepts and story, items, overworld / underworld structures. I'm a little disappointed that most of what was new in the second game was left by the wayside, but that's a minor gripe and just because it's my favorite (prior to BotW). 9

[TDIRunner | 2,721]

I never played it or any other Zelda game when they were new.  In fact, my first true playthrough of any Zelda game was BOTW, so keep that in mind with the rest of my post.

I've started Link to the Past on 3 separate occasions within the past few years and each time after playing around 2 to 3 hours, I just kind of stop.  I can't explain why.  Everything that I've experienced during those first few hours I enjoy.  I love the graphics, the music and the control.  The story seems interesting and I truly want to play through the entire game.  I just haven't been able to force myself to do it.  I want to finish it and maybe someday I will.  I wish I could have played this game when it was first released because I bet I would have loved it and had the same memories that most of you are talking about.  Unfortunately, I missed out.

[Kguillemette | 1,543]

8/10. I didn't grow up with a snes, but this is a great game. Pacing is great, mechanics are solid, the dungeons and puzzles are interesting, and the combat is enjoyable if a bit easy. Just roaming through the map using the sword and all the later acquired items to kill baddies is very satisfying. There are a couple annoying parts, like the first climb up death mountain and the fight against moldorm. All in all, it's fun adventure from start to finish I would recommend to anyone. I'm sure if I grew up with the game and there was nostalgic value to it I would rank it even higher.

[ScaryD | 236]

This game is definitely a 10/10. When I was a kid I was renting Final Fantasy II every weekend. When I received money for a new game I bought this over FFII. My parents were  very surprised at the choice.