Zelda games

[E.A.B.]

The first Zelda game I've ever played was Links Awakening. Then I played Windwaker and some others in between (like Four Swords and a couple of others I don't remember). Twilight came afterwards.

 

After I passed Twilight I didn't really buy any new games for a while and felt like getting into another one. So I emulated bought Ocarina of Time after years of hearing "GREATEST GAME EVAR". I liked how the story was simple, but somewhat lengthy and explained everything I needed to know about the games. Before this game, I didn't truly understand what was going on in Windwaker and the significance between this "Zelda" person, Hyrule and the Triforce were non-existent to me.

 

Next on my list was to finish its sequel, Majoras Mask. I love it because it deviates from the usual ZELDA GANON TRIFORCE HYRULE CASTLE formula. To me, those are some of the better games because they try something new (or at least, don't use the same damn formula). Plus, the story was somewhat intriguing, what with the moon falling down. It also had one of the best side quests in any of the games (Kafei). Though the game was somewhat short, it was a great experience.

 

Anyways, enough of my rambling. To anyone who's played any of the games (ideally, more than one, because only playing one wouldn't be enough info for you to decide which one was the best) which do you consider the best or most enjoyable in the series? How about the most overrated, underrated?

 

I'm still somewhat undecided. Majoras Mask definitely holds a special place for the reasons listed above. But if we were talking about the usual Zelda, Ganon and Triforce formula, I'd go with Windwaker hands down. I honestly believe that it has Ocarina beat in terms of gameplay and possibly story (as I said before, I didn't truly understand what was going on and it's now somewhat of a blur).

 

The only game I have a problem with is Twilight. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. But I felt like the whole Ganon thing at the end was forced, plus they made Zant look like a total fool towards the end and completely shifted his character. The praise some publications gave it was a little too much. As for underrated, Majora and Windwaker to some extent. While Windwaker did receive stellar reviews it also caught some slack from the "sh*tS TOO KIDDY NEEDS MOAR GUNZ" crowd. Which resulted in Twilight going back to "realism". Arguably though, Twilight had the best artistic direction of any of the Zelda games.

 

Excuse any typos and such, my heads not on straight

[DexX]

OoT was the first zelda game i ever played, so it's going to be tough for any game after that to re-capture the feeling i got from when i first played it. At the time of it's release...a number of well-respected magazine's (Next Generation for one), and umpteen-thousand Zelda players declared it the best game of all time. and in 1998, that was probably more accurate than not

Forest temple ftw.

 

MM is ok in it's own right. Like you said, it's a departure for the series, but that's what makes it fun. I regret i got about 30% through the game, before letting a friend of mine (who is a much bigger zelda fan than me) "help" me with it. without intending to, i essentially let him finish the rest of the game while i watched. so i know the ending, but have no desire to go back and earn it myself. but, i love the overworld music remix.

 

Wind Waker is ok, once you get past the "OMG TOON GFX!!". infact, that seems to be mainly noticeable on the overworld, the dungeons are, imo, much better looking. My only beef, with any game, is i tend to hate water levels (*ahem*...). This game seems to take more patience than skill though (as i learned with the sword techniques, among other parts of the game..).

 

Not much to say on twilight princess yet. i only have a gamecube, not the wii-version, and i've only beaten the first major dungeon. But already, imo, this is shaping up to be the only zelda game that, imo, comes close to OoT for feeling, atmosphere, experience, etc. part of this might be due to the fact i always wanted to see a bigger, more realistic version of OoT (spent too much time looking at beta screenshots...), and this game is the closest yet to what i hoped for.

 

i've tried playing the older, 2d zelda games. but like gta, i just can't get into it/them. i guess i had to be a fan at that time in order to appreciate those games, and i wasn't. part of the appeal for me, is having big 3d worlds to explore. this why i also like the Elder Scrolls Series (Morrowind, Oblivion) despite not being an rpg fan.

 

one thing that's true for almost every zelda game - the soundtrack kicks ass. which i why i make it a point to only listen to zelda-music, in the games. i don't want to hear the overworld theme(s) when i'm doing work on my computer - that's not right.

[iRloading]

I played the first one on the NES

 

the 2nd one after it (a side-scroller) sorta failed imo, but playing zelda64 was the ultimate motherf*cking win for me

 

edit: I stand corrected, my first EVER zelda game was a game&watch

 

now that I think about it... now I know where the DS got it's design bearings from

Edited September 23, 2007 by iRloading

[Trows]

This topic has inspired me to play Link to the past.

 

Now i'm not going to go outside, thanks to you!

[Statutory Ray]

This topic has inspired me to play Link to the past.

 

Now i'm not going to go outside, thanks to you!

Do you ever go outside anyway?

 

A Link To The Past is definitely my favorite. I can play that game through an infinite number of times, even with my short attention span when it comes to games. After starting a game, I just can't put it down. I was at a party just last week, and instead of getting drunk and talking to ladies, I opted to instead smoke with the house owner and beat A Link To The Past with him. Socializing is overrated, anyway.

[Oblivionz]

The Twilight Princess was overall a good story, and I liked it a lot. I'm stuck at the part where Where you have to get the mirror shards, to go to the other realm again and kill Ganondorf

 

The Wind Waker was pretty good, I only got about halfway through, and then I gave up.

[Jonny_Tightlips]

 

<snip>

Pretty much the same for me. Ocarina of Time and Majora still hold special places in my hall of gaming, though the sad part is I can't get into ANY other Zelda game. Especially TP.

 

Even though it comes closer than any other Zelda game has to OoT, I still just don't feel it. Mainly because I don't like the overly-artistic visuals, though it does makes it unique compared to the others. I got to the point where you turn into the wolf, and after that I got tired of it. I'm stubborn, though, so it's hard for me to open up to any less than what I like.

[Kippers]

The first Zelda i played was on the GameBoy Colour. I think you had to collect instruments to wake up some big bird thing. I think i got about 5 or so of the instruments then i got stuck in one of the caves and gave up. It was a damn good game though.

 

Then my next one was Wind Waker, which was damn good. I got really far as well but my gameCube save got corrupt and i couldnt be bothered starting again so i gave it back to the guy i borrowed it from.

 

And i currently have Twilight Princess for the wii on the go at the moment. It's going well so far. No doubt something will ahppen so i get stuck. That seems to be the recurring theme for me

[topdogkiller]

a link to the past and ocarina of time are my fav's. Never got a chance to play majora's mask.

[Torcidas]

Throughout my years of gaming, I was never more satisfied then when playing Ocarina of Time. I still have, I treasure it greatly. The gameplay was spectacular for the N64, the story was amazing, and the soundtrack was unbelievable. I'm listening to it as I write this.

 

I never liked Majoras Mask simply because of the whole "3 days to do something" ordeal. If there's anything I hate more in gaming, it's a time limit. It pressures me, and I don't have the ability to enjoy the game to its fullest extent possible. I also hated how you had to buy some sort of special jumper pack to play it as well. Pretty dumb if you ask me.

[E.A.B.]

 

I also hated how you had to buy some sort of special jumper pack to play it as well. Pretty dumb if you ask me.

That was for better GFX, I thought it came with it.

 

Yeah, I hate being rushed. Thankfully, you can slow down time, giving you about 2 or so hours instead of the usual 72 minutes. I like to take my time and explore. But it's not such a huge problem, you can explore and such after finishing a dungeon or before going in.

 

I feel somewhat cheap for playing it on an emulator and using save states. I only used them inside dungeons and such, it was basically the way I saved. So I didn't experience the huge gripe some people did with the whole "save and can't continue playing" thing. Once you continue, you must go through it and once you save, you must stop.

 

I like to save often.

 

and that Kafei quest is such an integral part of the experience that they should have somehow snuck it into the main story.

[Glycerine]

OoT is by far my favorite. Windwaker comes in a close second. I liked TP but the whole game just felt short. In reveiws I read for it they all said the game will take you 56 hours to beat, but was only about 38 hours for me. Majoras Mask got so frustrated when I first played it, the game was just so hard for me (I was about 7 or 8 yrs. old). I just finaly beat it about 2 yrs ago.

[just another thug]

OoT is by far my favorite game. I absolutely adore it and have probably logged more gameplay into it than any other game.

[Simon.]

Majora's Mask is far too underated. I actually enjoyed the time limit thing, what they done with it was quite unique. It was awesome to be able to see what happens and then go back in time to change something!

 

I think I've played all of the Zelda's except for Windwaker (maybe I'll get it on Wii someday), although the only ones I have completed are Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess.

 

Ocarina of Time was the first one I played so I guess that's probably my favourite. I loved the sounds, story and gameplay. The Water Temple was a very difficult level though!

Edited September 24, 2007 by Simon.

[silvermanblue]

I played the first, second and third. Havnt played anyone of them since. I liked the games but there is just so many cool games out there.

[DexX]

Did anyone pick up a copy of Phantom Hourglass ?

[Reincarnated]

OoT was the first zelda game i ever played, so it's going to be tough for any game after that to re-capture the feeling i got from when i first played it. At the time of it's release...a number of well-respected magazine's (Next Generation for one), and umpteen-thousand Zelda players declared it the best game of all time. and in 1998, that was probably more accurate than not

Forest temple ftw.

 

<snip>

Yeah man, a lot of people wonder why everyone one says OoT was the best game ever. Some can't figure it out. If you never played it, and played it today, for example, it wouldn't hold remotely as much win as it did around the time of release. Some people will never understand. It was like this generations gta III except double maybe triple the awesomeness. Because no 3d games were this epic (except for super mario 64, which was the benchmark I would say).

 

I've been thinking about getting a ds for that new Phantom hourglass game but still holding out for a xbox360. when are those damn 65nm chips coming out!?

[Davo the Assassin]

OoT was the best damn f*cking game Ive ever played, still is to this day. I don't remember ever finding a problem with that game, except for the god damn f*cking Water Temple, that place was nuts.

 

But I loved the final battle, the story, the music... Even the Graphics weren't all that bad for its time, I used to think they were amazing, hah.

[E.A.B.]

Did anyone pick up a copy of Phantom Hourglass ?

I desperately want a copy but Target sucks balls

 

might have it by the weekend though, I'm hearing great things about it

[Long Haired Freaky Guy]

Quoted from locked topic, sorry for big ass bump:-

 

 

 

Anyway, who here thinks that Zelda: Twilight Princess was quite a failure compared to the previous games?

 

When I first got OOT, I couldn't put it down at all, and completed it within like a week or two. The story immersed me straight away, and the game was just amazing. I hardly played MM so I can't really comment on that one. I never picked it up due to it been a timed game, and I hate adventure games been timed as it takes the whole exploring side out of it.

 

WW was also amazing, with the new cel-shading look and story.

 

Now TP seemed like a failure to me, and am not sure why. The story and graphics are great, but too many times I found myself putting the game down because I needed help on a certain partt, and yes the map is huge but alot of it seems wasted, such as Hyrule Field. This was such a prominent part in OOT, but it seemed like it was just put there to make the map bigger.

 

I absolutely love the Zelda series, but this one has been put on the shelf and not completed, which is a shame as I actually like the game itself, just not the gameplay.

 

Anyone else have this problem?

[Gongji]

I nearly played all Zelda games, but did miss out on a couple, either due to my own forgetfulness or because I wasn't interested in how it looked (like the toon-style they had for Gamecube) or because I didn't want to buy the console.

 

The very first Zelda I played was A Link to the Past I believe, but because I was so young, I couldn't understand what the f*ck was going on, so gave up quickly. Moved onto those 2D games on Gameboy and honestly loved them a lot. I liked how it was drawn, but if I were to replay them, I might have some problems adjusting to it though.

Ocarina of Time was a win for me. I sadly never bought Majora's Mask, I would have loved to buy it, but eventually seemed to forget about it, which I regret loads.

Twilight Princess was alright. Of course the graphics and gameplay were great, but the story was... yeah, I guess kind of lame IMO, it was getting repetitive. And when I first saw that "turning into a wolf" stuff in a game preview I honestly didn't think anything of it and during gameplay found it annoying when it lasted too long.

Phantom Hourglass was also quite good IMO, but I somehow feel it had more potential, not sure how to put it though.

[ObsydianRaven]

The first Zelda game I played, was Ocarina of Time. I was only 4 when I first started playing and I was scared of most of the enemies mostly the Redeads and Skultullas.

[Long Haired Freaky Guy]

 

I nearly played all Zelda games, but did miss out on a couple, either due to my own forgetfulness or because I wasn't interested in how it looked (like the toon-style they had for Gamecube) or because I didn't want to buy the console.

 

The very first Zelda I played was A Link to the Past I believe, but because I was so young, I couldn't understand what the f*ck was going on, so gave up quickly. Moved onto those 2D games on Gameboy and honestly loved them a lot. I liked how it was drawn, but if I were to replay them, I might have some problems adjusting to it though.

Ocarina of Time was a win for me. I sadly never bought Majora's Mask, I would have loved to buy it, but eventually seemed to forget about it, which I regret loads.

Twilight Princess was alright. Of course the graphics and gameplay were great, but the story was... yeah, I guess kind of lame IMO, it was getting repetitive. And when I first saw that "turning into a wolf" stuff in a game preview I honestly didn't think anything of it and during gameplay found it annoying when it lasted too long.

Phantom Hourglass was also quite good IMO, but I somehow feel it had more potential, not sure how to put it though.

Trust me, don't let the cel-shading of Wind Waker put you off. I found it to be a fantastic game, with a good story and plenty of things to do. If anything, the cel-shading allowed for a new side of comedy been added to the game. The only thing that I found to let this game down was the whole sailing part of it, which could get abit tedious at times, but they added stuff in to make it abit more enjoyable, such as the big ass sea monsters and all the treasure that has to be found.

 

Ocarina Of Time is an amazing game, that I loved from day one and sill play it these days. The game truly immersed you in the storyline.

 

I tried Majoras Mask for about 10 minutes, but got lost on what to do (at this time I had no internet so couldn't get a walkthrough for it) and felt that my time was running out, so I gave up with it and never went back to it. I feel like I've missed out on a great game, but anyone think I should get it?

 

Twilight Princess just lost me after abit though. I loved the start of the game, and it seemed like there was going to be loads to do and loads of fun side-missions, such as the herding the cows thing. But then I started to get through the game abit more, and it just went downhill from there. The temples of the game seemed really small, and were completed in no time at all. The wolf parts were fun at first, but then the novelty started to wear off abit and I lost interest in that aswell.

 

I found myself playing the game because it was a Zelda game, not because it was a good game.

 

I will get back into it soon though and complete it, to see if it gets any better.