Legend of Zelda appreciation thread

[Tulpa | 3,492]

I started playing through the original Legend of Zelda (NES) for like the first time in, Jesus, twenty years? Back in the day I had the Official Nintendo Player's Guide, which helped a little (it had the full map and good hints), but the last dungeon was still tricky.

Need to explore more Zelda games. Any suggestions? Poll?

 

Anyway, post your Zelda memories here, as well as talk about the newest games.

Edited October 22, 2019 by Tulpa

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

I love ALttP!

 

My favorite Zelda moment is not actually a particular moment in a game. It’s when I played WW and realized how much I enjoyed it after being so disappointed that it revolves around toon Link. I realized then never to judge a game by its art style. 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

When my dad was replaying Zelda a few years back on the GBA release, he used to call me at random during the day to ask directions in-game since managed to retain a fairly encyclopedic memory of the original.

He and I mapped both quests exhaustively when I was a kid.  Definitely a fond memory that I don't know will have a modern gaming analog for new generations.

[OptOut | 8,883]

I just got done with a playthrough of Ocarina of Time a couple weeks back. Still holds up, by golly that game is so sweet. My favourite part about that game are of course the dungeons, but the combat just feels so right to me too, it's amazing how fun it still is, even though it was basically their first attempt at Zelda in 3D.

Also, just gonna make it clear right now, I love Spirit Tracks too, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise!

[mbd39 | 2,020]

I voted ALTTP. But it's the one that I am currently most familiar with. I haven't played the NES games in too many years and I haven't played the Gameboy games or any modern Zelda beyond OOT.

[Gloves | 11,776]

Majora's Mask for me. I always loved the creepy atmosphere and time mechanics.

[Vaosu | 104]

I love Zelda games, but have really only played part of many of them sadly. To this day I've never sat down and beat the original Zelda on NES. The farthest I've got was when I was younger, had a cartridge that the save wouldn't keep (didn't understand about the battery back then), I had just entered Level 9 after playing all day long since I woke up, and was called to dinner. When I got back, the game had froze, and the save never saved. I was salty about that for entirely too long.

[fsped09 | 223]

Tough tough choices. Had to go with the original, its what I play the most. Still reminds me of the eighties

[Br81zad | 629]

15 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

When my dad was replaying Zelda a few years back on the GBA release, he used to call me at random during the day to ask directions in-game since managed to retain a fairly encyclopedic memory of the original.

He and I mapped both quests exhaustively when I was a kid.  Definitely a fond memory that I don't know will have a modern gaming analog for new generations.

I have similar memories with my dad and Donkey Kong Country. We'd play and advance through the game together, but he'd go back at night (after I was alseep) and replay levels to find the bonus areas, then show me the next time we played. To this day I can still remember certain ones that he showed me.

I'd love to find a game that me and my son can bond over in similar fashion someday. (He's still working on learning to crawl atm. Lol)

[Futureman | 18]

It was really hard not to choose ALttP. It's just such an amazing game, i'm using it as inspiration on the indie game i'm working on.

I still found A Link Between Worlds to be fantastic, but since it's built off ALttP, its hard to choose it as better.

[KokiriChild | 1,644]

Had to go with OoT. I am one of those filthy people who consider it the best game of all time. It holds so much nostalgia for me and probably was the most defining game, or even storytelling experience in my life if I'm being honest. The 3DS remake especially is just so, so good. 

[Wasbi | 6]

Oracles are my favorite. The memories with them are great. I remember when I bought these sealed for 7$ at a Shopko when I was roughly 8 years old. The sprite work and music are fantastic.

 

Minish Cap and Skyward Sword are my runner ups.

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

Wind Waker is probably my favorite since it was my first console Zelda (yeah, I'm a bit young). But I've gone back and 100%'ed all of them. While I've enjoyed some more than others (cough, cough, Oracles, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks), I've definitely enjoyed my time with all of them. I have particularly found memories of playing them with my dad and sister.

[doner24 | 1,195]

None: still haven’t played a Zelda even though I own every game other than the CDI garbage. 

[Foochie776 | 1,051]

Ocarina for the win!

[VegHead | 127]

I voted Breath of the Wild.  I don't think it's going to pull the nostalgia strings for anyone for quite a long time, but wow, I think people will look back on it as one of the greatest games of all time.  Not to sound like a bad pun, but the game is breathtaking for me.  I've dropped over 400 hours on the game between two different playthroughs, and I never beat the game!  I plan to tackle it for a third time, probably this winter.  I get giddy just thinking about it, lol.

[Splain | 2,568]

My history of Zelda games is that I'll get one that I haven't played yet (none left anymore, but it happened with just about all of them) and I won't like it the first hour or two. But I know that if I stick with it, it will become one of my favorite games. Don't know why I don't like starting Zelda games.

I do feel like a sellout saying that BotW is the best one, but I can't deny all the time I've sunk into it, and the massive amount of content and replayability. Stuck on a desert island with only one Zelda? No question.

Also, Spirit Tracks is better than Phantom Hourglass, easily.

[OptOut | 8,883]

1 hour ago, Splain said:

My history of Zelda games is that I'll get one that I haven't played yet (none left anymore, but it happened with just about all of them) and I won't like it the first hour or two. But I know that if I stick with it, it will become one of my favorite games. Don't know why I don't like starting Zelda games.

I do feel like a sellout saying that BotW is the best one, but I can't deny all the time I've sunk into it, and the massive amount of content and replayability. Stuck on a desert island with only one Zelda? No question.

Also, Spirit Tracks is better than Phantom Hourglass, easily.

 

Nice shout out for Spirit Tracks there! BOTW is a totally fair answer as well, it is an undoubtedly great game. I do so hope that they add real dungeons into the sequel tho, I have to say I did tire of the repetition in BOTW by the end.

[Jeevan | 8,910]

A Link to the Past for me.  Loved playing as a kid, played again this year and just enjoyed the hell out of it.  Like many others, but this one is just done so well imo.

[empire | 106]

Breath of the Wild is the greatest console video game of all time.

So naturally I voted for it 

[Link | 2,709]

I don’t have a Switch yet so I haven’t played BotW. I am looking forward to it and I expect it will take top place when I do. 

Zelda II has been my long-standing favorite. I love the combat system, the spells and experience components, the way of exploring and wayfinding, the music and sound effects, how the towns and NPCs work, pretty much everything. 

Twilight Princess is in second place. Fighting and exploration are really well done. Some of the most fun boss battles in the franchise.

Skyward Sword is okay to play, but is also annoying as shit with your helper Fi (like Navi but even much worser) and the repetition of the Demise battles. Plus Ghirahim being such a weird fauxmoerotic creep. Majora’s Mask is kind of lame but I see they were trying to do something different. It just didn’t land for me. I’d rank the other home console games all between TP and SS. Funny how those two are adjacent in time of release. 

OOT is fine, and successfully transitioned to 3D. Something that most other series did not do well, in my book. But it gave us the irritating helper character, and the overworld is really underwhelming and boring in retrospect. 

I’ve never been able to get into any of the Game Boy games until LBTW. 

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

7 hours ago, empire said:

Breath of the Wild is the greatest console video game of all time.

So naturally I voted for it 

It really is. It's the best Zelda game that's for sure. It's not debatable for me. I can understand people saying it's not their favorite, but I mean, it's hard to debate that any other game in the series is better.

My personal favorite is still the original on NES. But really, I love them all

 

A few years ago, I would have beat Link's Awakening within a few days of release. With how busy life is now, I'm up to the 7th dungeon but loving it just as much, if not more, than the original Game Boy version.

Edited October 22, 2019 by CodysGameRoom

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

I still need to play BoW, but I’m glad to see people feel this way about it. Often, I feel Zelda titles get praise early on and reactions mellow over time.

[m308gunner | 352]

Yes, yes, ALTTP and Ocarina are awesome and all, but Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is still my go-to. There's just something about that little bystander...

[Galdius | 1,513]

A couple years ago I finished OoT for the first time.
I played it on the 3DS and had a blast.
It became my favorite Zelda.
It just had everything that I wanted: good story, amazing soundtrack, good graphics (for today's standards, for the time of its release it was amazing), amazin gameplay, good sidequests, etc.

I really like BotW but I missed a deeper story to it.
The gameplay was great but if it had the cutscenes and story told as OoT, it could have taken the first place imo.