Let's Replay the Zelda Series (RTTP)

[Rotobit]

I wanna play some Zelda, and you might want to, too.

With Breath of the Wild's sequel coming who-knows-when, I figure now is as good a time as any to revisit the series. While I've finished most all of the mainline games before (except Zelda 2 and Tri-Force Heroes), it was separated by years, and in no particular order. To make this new replay marathon interesting I figured why not tackle them chronologically in order of release?

There are 19 mainline games in total and I'm hoping to have replayed them all by the time the sequel to Breath of the Wild comes out. That's should give me a lot of time, hopefully, so it should be fun and chill!

But I don't want this thread to be all about my adventures, so I figured why not make it a communal effort, kinda like those "X games in [Month]" threads but way more relaxed. You don't have to take the chronological route like me, either! Play it by timeline, simply finish off the games you never got around to, or just revisit some favorites, then come back and tell us how you felt about the experience.

I just finished up Zelda 1 in a single sitting which was fun. I didn't want to use a map at first, but I also didn't want to sit there with graph paper, slowly bombing every other wall. I didn't just follow a guide like I did the first time I finished it, though - I just glanced at it for key locations as if I were playing a modern open world game with waypoints. It was really fun, even if the game's controls haven't aged brilliantly (Link snapping to certain angles is so awkward).

Screw these guys though -

Next up for me is Zelda 2, a game I've never really jived with but I want to make a true effort this time.

So yeah, post your goals and let's explore Hyrule! And Termina! And Koholint! And maybe Rupeeland, if you're feeling spicy!

 

[DIE BART DIE]

Zelda 1 and 2 are great. What I love about those two is they're more about survival, and the shield is a lot more essential than it is in later entries.

 

[Kinsei]

Ohh, I'll join you on this. I'll boot up Zelda 1 tonight.

 

[Rotobit]

Zelda 1 and 2 are great. What I love about those two is they're more about survival, and the shield is a lot more essential than it is in later entries.

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Yeah, if you try to be aggressive against the blue wizzrobes you won't have a good time

Ohh, I'll join you on this. I'll boot up Zelda 1 tonight.

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awesome! Excited to hear everyone's thoughts as we go down the line

 

[ShaggsMagoo]

Are you including the multiplayer games as main series games, because I don't know if I can follow you down that path. But I don't know how you get to 19 games without them. Then again, I don't know If I would include the portable titles either.

When I think of the "Main" Legend of Zelda series, I would consider:
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II
Link to the Past
Ocarina of Time
Majora's Mask
The Wind Waker
Twilight Princess (ETA: This was originally listed as Phantom Hourglass, because I am a dumbass and had been looking over the entire list and shit got discombobulated)
Skyward Sword
Breath of the Wild

 

[Rotobit]

Are you including the multiplayer games as main series games, because I don't know if I can follow you down that path. But I don't know how you get to 19 games without them. Then again, I don't know If I would include the portable titles either.

When I think of the "Main" Legend of Zelda series, I would consider:
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II
Link to the Past
Ocarina of Time
Majora's Mask
The Wind Waker
Phantom Hourglass
Skyward Sword
Breath of the Wild

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I'm going off the Zelda wikia list which does include Four Swords, FSA, and Tri-Force Heroes

The full list is:

The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Link to the Past
Link's Awakening
Ocarina of Time
Majora's Mask
Oracle of Ages
Oracle of Seasons
Four Swords
Wind Waker
Four Swords Adventures
The Minish Cap
Twilight Princess
Phantom Hourglass
Spirit Tracks
Skyward Sword
A Link Between Worlds
Tri Force Heroes
Breath of the Wild

Of course everyone can do whatever they feel comfortable with, for me personally this is a fun challenge that should keep me busy through BotW2.

The DSi Ware port of Four Swords is at least solo-able and super short, and available on 3DS. FSA is fun by itself. Tri Force Heroes is the one game I think is miserable solo, but if enough people jump into this thread we might be able to get an online party going for that one.

Also I'm probably gonna periodically poke around in spin-offs like Hyrule Warriors and even Link's Crossbow Training, just for a change of pace.

 

[sir_crocodile]

Zelda 2 is a super fun game if you study enemy patterns and never rush in. Only really one unfair enemy in the whole game ( red daira's who throw axes)

If you struggle there's a way to plan your level ups that make the game really easy (though you'd have to use it from the start to make the most of it).

 

[ShaggsMagoo]

I'm going off the Zelda wikia list which does include Four Swords, FSA, and Tri-Force Heroes

The full list is:

The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Link to the Past
Link's Awakening
Ocarina of Time
Majora's Mask
Oracle of Ages
Oracle of Seasons
Four Swords
Wind Waker
Four Swords Adventures
The Minish Cap
Twilight Princess
Phantom Hourglass
Spirit Tracks
Skyward Sword
A Link Between Worlds
Tri Force Heroes
Breath of the Wild

Of course everyone can do whatever they feel comfortable with, for me personally this is a fun challenge that should keep me busy through BotW2.

The DSi Ware port of Four Swords is at least solo-able and super short, and available on 3DS. FSA is fun by itself. Tri Force Heroes is the one game I think is miserable solo, but if enough people jump into this thread we might be able to get an online party going for that one.

Also I'm probably gonna periodically poke around in spin-offs like Hyrule Warriors and even Link's Crossbow Training, just for a change of pace.

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Yeah, I was reading through that list as well and figured that's where you got the number from. I'm just a weird guy that doesn't like grouping portable and console series together like that unless it is explicit that one is the sequel to another (ala Metroid). But if you are going to go all out, you have to trully go all out. And you know what that means you have to do.

Spoiler: ALL. OUT.

 

[Deleted member 59109]

I've actually been re-playing some of them recently. I've re-played TP HD, some of LttP but didn't finish, a little bit of BotW and SS, and right now I'm re-playing OoT and WW HD.

TP HD was honestly pretty bland and tedious imo. I think the art style change to being more realistic and dull-colored after WW really affects the whole game negatively. There were some cool enemy/mini-bosses and Arbiter's Grounds was a pretty good dungeon, especially with the Spinner and Stallord (best item/boss in the game), but that's about the most positive I can say about this game personally.

SS I eventually just gave up on. The motion controls were so over-used, there were way too many tutorials/dialogue pauses, and the world style is so disconnected and maze-like. I just wasn't enjoying it and dropped it before the third dungeon.

LttP I think has some pretty good atmosphere at times, but I really don't like the dark world dungeons. It also just isn't quite as immersive as the 3D games for me with the top-down view. I stopped at the Ice Palace, that's probably my least favorite Zelda dungeon I've ever played.

I think OoT is my favorite Zelda game. There's something about the world that just feels kind of magical, and this is from somebody with no nostalgia for it. The atmosphere of some of the locations like Kokiri Forest, Zora's Domain, or Hyrule Field, is just so great to me. The gameplay can definitely be pretty clunky, but it also holds up surprisingly well imo. I hope it gets an HD remake sometime.

WW HD is the main contender to OoT for my favorite Zelda game. The art style is just amazing, and it might be my favorite art style in video games. The environments and characters are all so colorful and expressive. The gameplay is pretty good too, although it's a little on the easy side and there's a little too much tutorials/dialogue for me, though thankfully not near the level of TP or SS. I just got to Dragon Roost Cavern, I think Dragon Roost Island is one of my favorite Zelda locations. Wish there had been a console sequel to this game.

BotW I'm probably the most mixed on. I think the art style is great, I like exploring, and I like the increased focus on gameplay, with how you can jump, climb on pretty much any surface, paraglide, etc, with basically no tutorials or mandatory cutscenes/dialogue pauses. But it also just didn't hold my interest for that long. I feel like I've already seen everything there is to see in the first playthrough, and there isn't really that much interesting to find. It's basically shrines, korok seeds, stables, and enemy camps, none of which are exciting to me. Even the divine beasts are all really bland. There's just nothing really motivating me to play it tbh, it's basically just aimlessly wandering around and eventually that gets boring to me. I hope the sequel builds on it with more diverse things to find, an interesting story, and more movement options.

 

[DIE BART DIE]

Are you including the multiplayer games as main series games, because I don't know if I can follow you down that path. But I don't know how you get to 19 games without them. Then again, I don't know If I would include the portable titles either.

When I think of the "Main" Legend of Zelda series, I would consider:
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II
Link to the Past
Ocarina of Time
Majora's Mask
The Wind Waker
Phantom Hourglass
Skyward Sword
Breath of the Wild

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If you're going to include Phantom Hourglass (admittedly the better of the two relatively weak DS titles), I'd say you have to include Link's Awakening and the Oracles. The Game Boy Color titles are absolutely some of the best Zelda has to offer :)

 

[Rotobit]

Yeah, I was reading through that list as well and figured that's where you got the number from. I'm just a weird guy that doesn't like grouping portable and console series together like that unless it is explicit that one is the sequel to another (ala Metroid). But if you are going to go all out, you have to trully go all out. And you know what that means you have to do.

Spoiler: ALL. OUT.

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Haha I'm genuinely tempted, I dunno what the state of CDi emulation is nowadays though.

Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland is also something I might finally bite the bullet and buy, I've heard it's not terrible.

BotW I'm probably the most mixed on. I think the art style is great, I like exploring, and I like the increased focus on gameplay, with how you can jump, climb on pretty much any surface, paraglide, etc, with basically no tutorials or mandatory cutscenes/dialogue pauses. But it also just didn't hold my interest for that long. I feel like I've already seen everything there is to see in the first playthrough, and there isn't really that much interesting to find. It's basically shrines, korok seeds, stables, and enemy camps, none of which are exciting to me. Even the divine beasts are all really bland. There's just nothing really motivating me to play it tbh, it's basically just aimlessly wandering around and eventually that gets boring to me. I hope the sequel builds on it with more diverse things to find, an interesting story, and more movement options.

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Part of the reason I'm doing this is in an attempt to muddle my memory of Breath of the Wild. I adored it the first time 'round, to the extent it might be my favorite game ever, but replaying it has been tough since it has lost a bit of the magic. After playing thru all the other games I might get a newfound appreciation for it, or so I hope.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

Always wanted to give OoT 3D and MM 3D a shot because I never played them. Well, I played OoT on the Gamecube once. I am not a fan of the franchise though. Still want to play these classics one day and I heard good things about the 3DS versions.

 

[ShaggsMagoo]

If you're going to include Phantom Hourglass (admittedly the better of the two relatively weak DS titles), I'd say you have to include Link's Awakening and the Oracles. The Game Boy Color titles are absolutely some of the best Zelda has to offer :)

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That was a brainfart on my part, that was meant to be Twilight Princess. I'll go fix it.

 

[justiceiro]

I want to try to do it in Japanese, since I'm learning and I already know the games. Still not sure though, will update if I decide to througth.

 

[Pirate Bae]

Great idea :)

I never finished ALTTP so maybe I'll start it up!

 

[Kinsei]

Started up Zelda 1 and got to the fourth dungeon before calling it a night. I forgot just how easy the first half of the game is when you know to get the blue ring and white sword ASAP. Heck if you also get the magic shield then Aquamentus (the first boss) can't even hurt you as long as you don't walk into it. While it's true of ay game that going in with knowledge of previous playthroughs will alter your experience, in this case the first half of the game is so different that it's almost like playing a different game.

The third dungeon is quite funny. I think it does a fantastic job teaching you that dungeons have bombable walls in them and the game then rewards you for figuring it out by skipping most of the dungeon. That's great... except it also skips over the raft, an item mandatory to reach the fourth dungeon, so you'll have to go back and redo the areas you skipped. It kinda makes the reward of skipping the dungeon moot, no?

 

[Stronginthearm]

Replay? I, uh, I have 12 Zelda games and I've not beaten any of them. Hell, the ones I've started, I've barely played, except Breath of the Wild, which I stopped, no idea why. I really want to play Minish Cap, A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time.

 

[TΛPIVVΛ]

i'm actually going through minish cap for the first time on my new 3ds was gifted with the ambassador program so good so far! and then MM3D next

 

[AzorAhai]

I'm doing a Final Fantasy marathon, but once I'm done I'm going to play all the Zelda games ! I'll be ready for BOTW2.

 

[parski]

This sounds like a lot of fun. I never beat The Legend of Zelda or Adventure of Link so I'll join for those at least.

 

[Kinsei]

Zelda 1 beat.

The game honestly isn't that challenging in terms of combat up until the final dungeon. The blue wizzrobes in the seventh dungeon are a bit of a pain, but there aren't that many of them so it's nto a big deal. Then you get to Death Mountain and the game decides to kick you down a flight of stairs. It's an incredibly brutal gauntlet that is difficult even if you've gotten everything in the game and come in with a red potion (which I did). Not to mention if it's your first playthrough you have to also deal with the fact that Death Mountain also ramps up the navigational difficulty by being way more of a maze than the previous dungeons as well (and god help you if you didn't get the magic key). There was even a point right after I got the red ring where I wondered if I should backtrack out to resupply or press on. I really should have resupplied as I wound up dying while fighting Ganon and had to make my way back from the dungeon entrance. At least the Patras stay dead!

Overall the game is a lot less guide-y than people make it out to be online. Yes, the optional stuff like some of the heart containers and the defense boosting rings are hidden with practically no indication of where they are, but everything required for progression has really good hints in game.

I'm not going to move on to Zelda 2 just yet, instead I'm going to jump into Zelda 1's second quest. I have only beaten second quest once and I remember it being very BS. My one distinct memory is in an early dungeon where you just have to walk through a seemingly solid wall in order to proceed.

 

[Rotobit]

Finished Zelda 2 for the first time!

Truth be told I still dunno how I feel about it. I have a newfound respect for it, that's for sure, and I could see how it would have been genuinely pretty magical back in the '80s when all you had was a notebook and your friends' testimony to help you get through it.

In the modern day though it's a little too obtuse for it's own good. Like, hiding a single house in a specific patch of grass, or the woman who asks for a drink of water which you have to get from a fountain that stands 20 feet from where she's standing. Not so much a puzzle as a minor errand for the laziest woman in the universe.

Not to mention some of the enemies, namely the Iron Knuckles. Even with the jumping slash trick they were an absolute pain to fight against.

If I didn't have a guide to occasionally glance at (only when I had absolutely hit a brick wall) and the NSO rewind feature to fall back on, I probably would have grown too frustrated with it to bother finishing it. I guess that explains why it took this long. I actually wound up sequence breaking a bit by doing the swamp temple before exploring Death Mountain and getting all those goodies, which made it way harder than it probably should have been.

But all that said, the game does signpost more than you'd expect, the levelling up mechanics feel satisfying, and the gameplay is genuinely fun besides those shield enemies and it was kind of shocking how Shovel Knight-y it is, especially in towns. Also the music is great, they really need to bring back more of Zelda 2's tunes.

Oh and Dark Link isn't that tough a boss fight, honestly. You really don't have to cheese it.

Extremely excited to start Link to the Past. I kinda rushed my way through it last time, gonna finally savor it.

Started up Zelda 1 and got to the fourth dungeon before calling it a night. I forgot just how easy the first half of the game is when you know to get the blue ring and white sword ASAP. Heck if you also get the magic shield then Aquamentus (the first boss) can't even hurt you as long as you don't walk into it. While it's true of ay game that going in with knowledge of previous playthroughs will alter your experience, in this case the first half of the game is so different that it's almost like playing a different game.

Click to shrink...

Zelda 1's bosses were almost uniformly easy I found, with the exceptions of Manhandla and Gleeok, and they're only tough because they're basically bullet-hell. Gohma was so anticlimactic the first time it was funny.

I'm not going to move on to Zelda 2 just yet, instead I'm going to jump into Zelda 1's second quest. I have only beaten second quest once and I remember it being very BS. My one distinct memory is in an early dungeon where you just have to walk through a seemingly solid wall in order to proceed.

Click to shrink...

Good luck! I was tempted to try the Second Quest myself, I might do it towards the end as something of a "look how far we've come" situation.

 

[justiceiro]

Did my post got deleted? I swear i posted something in here about considering beating all the games, but in japanese to pratice japanese. Huh, weird.

 

[Rotobit]

Did my post got deleted? I swear i posted something in here about considering beating all the games, but in japanese to pratice japanese. Huh, werid.

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I can see it?

I want to try to do it in Japanese, since I'm learning and I already know the games. Still not sure though, will update if I decide to througth.

Click to shrink...

Could be a forum glitch

 

[ramboma]

very recently beat zelda 2 (with the help of a guide) and its way better than expected. the oracle games, WW sequels, and tri force games are all thats left for me. never planning on playing the triforce games, and the WW are a maybe for the future when i find a decent way to play them. how do i approach the oracle games? choose one and see the changes to the other on YT, or beat both? are they really that different?

 

[justiceiro]

I can see it?



Could be a forum glitch

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Wth, i can see it too, now, and in the first time, i didn't had my avatar by showing up on the trheads list. Bizarre.

anyway, i just discovered that the first zelda is, like, in kull katakana, and i spent all my time so far learning hiragana, lol. so much for that. Maybe i revisit the idea when i learn katakana.

 

[Kinsei]

Yo fuck second quest. I just cleared the fourth dungeon and this is complete bullshit. Thank god the master quest adventure map in Hyrule Warriors has the secret locations drilled into me or I never would have found the dungeon in the first place. Then once I got in the dungeon I found it had far too much of an over reliance on throwing you into rooms filled with darknuts and 4-5 bubbles. Barely being able to move isn't fun. And to top it off right before the boss I came up to a literal paywall where I was forced to grind for rupees unless I wanted to permanently give up a heart container. Now while 50 rupees isn't that steep of a price on it's own, the dungeon had a bomb upgrade earlier on which cost 100 so I was broke.

From now on I'm gonna save state at one of the gambling games to ensure thatI have maxed out rupees before going into future dungeons.

very recently beat zelda 2 (with the help of a guide) and its way better than expected. the oracle games, WW sequels, and tri force games are all thats left for me. never planning on playing the triforce games, and the WW are a maybe for the future when i find a decent way to play them. how do i approach the oracle games? choose one and see the changes to the other on YT, or beat both? are they really that different?

Click to shrink...

This isn't a Pokemon situation, they are two completely different games. Different characters, different world, different dungeons, different bosses, different enemies (Though a lot of the Zelda staple enemies like moblins and octoroks are shared between them. )

Zelda 1's bosses were almost uniformly easy I found, with the exceptions of Manhandla and Gleeok, and they're only tough because they're basically bullet-hell. Gohma was so anticlimactic the first time it was funny.

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Manhandla can be killed with a single well placed bomb. To this day I have no clue how to properly fight Dodongo. Sure yo can have it eat two bombs, but you can also stun it with a single bomb that explodes next to it and then finish it off with the sword. The problem is I have no idea how to stun them consistently. It seems completely random.

 

[Rotobit]

Manhandla can be killed with a single well placed bomb. To this day I have no clue how to properly fight Dodongo. Sure yo can have it eat two bombs, but you can also stun it with a single bomb that explodes next to it and then finish it off with the sword. The problem is I have no idea how to stun them consistently. It seems completely random.

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Oh I shoulda tried bombs on Manhandla

I got lucky with Dodongo stunning too too, except for one instance where I ran out of bombs.

very recently beat zelda 2 (with the help of a guide) and its way better than expected. the oracle games, WW sequels, and tri force games are all thats left for me. never planning on playing the triforce games, and the WW are a maybe for the future when i find a decent way to play them. how do i approach the oracle games? choose one and see the changes to the other on YT, or beat both? are they really that different?

Click to shrink...

The Oracle games are both different as previously mentioned, but you link them together after beating one and starting the other with a code, with story content changes to reflect it. Supposedly the "canon" order is Seasons then Ages, and I'd recommend that anyway because you get a cute Donkey Kong reference, of all things.

The true final boss is only available by linking the two, too.

 

[DIE BART DIE]

Yeah, my most recent playthrough of Zelda II was on the 3DS with save states. I think if the game had a more modern saving system, a lot of people would find a new appreciation for it, especially in a post Dark Souls world where "just one more try" challenge has become popular again.

 

[Rotobit]

Started up A Link to the Past and honestly people understate how impressive this game is for something that came out just 5 years after the first game. The late '80s - early '90s were wild.

I also forgot how much they reference "Hylia" in dialogue, although I think nowadays they'd translate that to Hylians, since it's the people. Cute to see how many seeds were sewn this early on though.

 

[Deleted member 69771]

I did this back on the Wii U and 3DS before BotW came out, was so sweet. Shame I can't do it just on the Switch now.

 

[Kinsei]

Zelda 1 Second Quest beaten.

In addition to the issues I mentioned in my second post, the dungeons as a whole for the most part weren't very fun. Like yeah it's cool that the first five spell out the word ZELDA, but aside from the D (which is the dungeon with the issues I mentioned before), they don't make for good dungeon layouts. Then once you get past them dungeon 7 is basically just stright line combat dungeon. Now I'm not saying this kind of dungeon doesn't have a place in Zelda, I just find they work best after more navigation intensive dungeons like how the Shadow Temple follows the Water Temple in OoT. it also doesn't help that it has a trap room near the end of it where the only way to exit it is to warp back to the very beginning of the dungeon. At least dungeons 8 & 9 were fun.

Tomorrow I'll start Zelda 2. I actually find it to be a better game than Zelda 1 and I'm interested to see if I still feel that way.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

1 has aged like fine wine. Just pick up and play. Go out and adventure. No weird characters are long tutorials etc to get in the way, just have sword will travel.

3 is also fantastic

 

[Quinton]

Oooh, man! I'm so tempted to hop in but I'm trying to replay FFIV/V/VI as well as play DWIV/V/VI for the first time. It's a burgeoning adventure of its own, to be sure.

Yet! I must! Still emphasize! The temptation is real. I purchased Ocarina of Time 3D, Majora's Mask 3D, and Wind Waker HD semi-recently for a similar purpose — replaying Ocarina and Wind Waker for the first time in ages, and playing Majora's Mask for the very first time.

Whether or not I find time to join in while you're up and at it, I'll certainly keep an eye on this thread. :)

 

[Kinsei]

Zelda 2 is down.

I may be a little insane cause I decided to do a challenge run of this very notorious game. The challenge? Never leveling up my HP or MP, though I allowed myself to get the four heart and magic containers (all the magic containers are actually required to finish the game with level 1 magic). My favorite part of the run had to be the Thunderbird fight. During regular playthroughs I never found the fight to be anything special, it mostly felt like a resource drain before the Dark Link fight. At level 1 health where it can kill you in two hits the fight really shines. There's no patterns to the fireballs and the bullet hell that is phase two is the most tense fight in the entire series IMO. If you're the type to do challenge runs in games then i would highly recommend trying this one out.

This playthrough has cemented the game as one of the best the NES has to offer IMO. Up there with the likes of Mario 3, Castlevania 3, Ninja Gaiden 1&2, and so on. I few of the copy/paste room layouts between dungeons drags the game down a bit, but the combat more than makes up for it. I would say this is the most engaging swordplay in the series got until Skyward Sword (though that's not to say the games between now and then have bad combat, just that they're not as focused so heavily on the sword like AoL). My biggest issue with the game comes from the lead up to the final dungeon. I just feel the game never adequately teaches the player how to effectively deal with Moas then suddenly thrusts you into a gauntlet with plenty of them mixed with bottomless pits and other enemies. Thankfully it's followed up by the best dungeon in the game.

 

[sir_crocodile]

My biggest issue with the game comes from the lead up to the final dungeon. I just feel the game never adequately teaches the player how to effectively deal with Moas then suddenly thrusts you into a gauntlet with plenty of them mixed with bottomless pits and other enemies. Thankfully it's followed up by the best dungeon in the game.

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I always assumed the intended method was to use spell spell for the ones at an annoying height

it's very cheap at max mp

 

[Kinsei]

LttP update! Currently half way through the dark world dungeons (just beat Thieves Town).

Oh boy can you ever feel the improvement in movement over the original Zelda. That combined with your basic attack being a slash instead of a stab makes the basic sword combat far better than the first game, even without factoring in the spin attack. Though speaking of swordplay, it's far less of a focus in this game compared to the previous games. The offensive items you collect are far more useful in combat and for a lot of the game they end up being a better choice than just running in and slashing. For example it's practically suicide to go in swinging against a Hinox when you first reach the dark world, but they are super weak to bombs and those gold ball & chain soldiers in Hyrule Castle are debilitated with strategic use of the ice rod/ether medallion. Sadly the combat pretty much breaks in two after the first dark world dungeon. You've got the ether medallion which acts as a screen nuke that immediately kills weaker enemies and freezes the stronger ones but is balanced out by the fact that it costs magic to use. That's all fine and good, but then you get the magic hammer. The magic hammer instantly shatters frozen enemies and drastically increases the drop rate of magic decanters. By smashing up everything frozen by the ether medallion you regularly end up getting more magic back than what you used to activate the spell in the first place. I'm sure you see how this breaks most regular encounters.

God is it good to be back to themed dungeons. Obviously I can't complain too much about the NES games not having them as it was most certainly due to tech limitations, but it does make the dungeons run together when the only difference between them visually is just the color palette. Of course the dungeons themselves are far more than style over substance even introducing mechanics more complex than anything in the previous two games as early as the Tower of Hera. Things like hitting a switch on one floor to affect a mechanism on the floor above/below you and working out the hole you need to drop through in order to reach the right spot on a lower floor are far beyond anything you had to do previously. Of the dungeons I've done so far my favorite has been Skull Woods. I love the way the surrounding area in the overworld essentially becomes a part of the dungeon in the first half, it's got an incredibly fun boss battle, and I'm a huge sucker for the creepier elements of Zelda like the wallmasters, gibdos, and so on.

Speaking of bosses, I love the dark world bosses. For example Helmasaur King not only has a great design, it's a fantastic test of your ability to remain calm under pressure with attacks designed to catch people who panic and move around wildly. As a kid (I had the GBA version growing up, the OG SNES version was before my time) he was a huge wall that stalled my progress for days. Conversely Arghus is very simple, but pulling off the foam shield piece by piece is oddly satisfying and it's really fun to send him flying with a spin attack in the second phase. On the other hand I'm not fond of the light world bosses. The Lanmolas are a fun idea, but it's over far too quickly. I Would prefer it if the first two worms took three ice rod blasts each instead of two. On the other hand I find the fight against the Armos Knights takes too long. As for Moldorm? F U C K Moldorm. Easily the worst boss in the series.

 

[Another]

Will join in on this. Skipping 2 and Majora's Mask though, replayed them both very recently...
Also, Neutopia 2 is the real Zelda 2 as far as I'm concerned. That game is criminally underrated considering it came out before ALTTP. Hell, might include it just for shits and giggles!

 

[Kinsei]

LttP complete!

Ganon's Tower is kinda disappointing compared to the previous two final dungeons. While it does serve to test both your navigational skills and combat skills like the last two games did, they're tested separately rather than simultaneously. You start the dungeon with the hunt for the big key on on the first floor where the combat encounters are rather basic then once you find the big key the dungeon effectively turns into a straight line and the combat encounters ramped up. One point I will say in the dungeon's favor is that a lot of the rooms were set up in such a way that using ether + the magic hammer was either useless (enemies you had to kill at range), inconvenient (trying to smash stuff with the hammer while dealing with ice physics or conveyor belts), or just straight up dangerous (trying to smash enemies with the hammer while the floor beneath you falls away). Overall it's a good dungeon I just wish it had blended it's challenges more.

My favorite dungeon ended up being Misery Mire. My favorite dungeons tend to be the ones that focus their difficulty on navigation over combat and Misery Mire is by far the most difficult to navigate. Also ends with the fight against Vitreous which is fun, if a bit too easy for something so late in the game. My least favorite dungeon was Misery Mire's mirror image, the light world's Desert Palace. It's just stuck in this weird position as the second dungeon where it just doesn't add enough new mechanics like the Tower of Hera does to keep it interesting and it doesn't get a free pass cause it's not the first dungeon.

And so the master sword sleeps again.... Forever

 

[Deleted member 59109]

I think OoT is being solidified as my favorite as I'm playing it. It just has such a good atmosphere imo.

Also, Forest Haven/Forbidden Woods in WW are both really underrated, and the Deku Leaf is one of my favorite items.

 

[Combo]

Wrong thread!

 

[Kinsei]

Just finished Link's Awakening!

The game itself is even more linear than LttP thanks to not allowing you to do any dungeons out of order, yet it feels more open thanks to not showing the dungeons on your map. That said, if the hints you get after each dungeon aren't enough for a player and they start to get frustrated they can head to the library and cross reference it's world map with their own to figure out exactly where the dungeons are. And if that's still not enough you're never far from a hint phone thanks to the compact nature of the world.

Speaking of dungeons, it has one of my favorite sets in the series. Every single one is both memorable and fun. It eels like a cop out to call Tail Cave the weakest dungeon since it's the first and it needs to be simple in order to introduce new players to the way dungeons work, but I can't really call any other dungeon my least favorite. As for my favorite, the choice is clear, it's Eagle's Tower. I know it's rather cliche to say that it's the best dungeon in the game, but there's a reason so many people love it. The wrecking ball gimmick is both really memorable as a concept and adds a lot to how you think about the dungeon due to how you can't jump with the ball or take it to a different floor. Speaking of floors, it's the only dungeon in the game with multiple floors, and it makes full use of them both for challenge as well as for a set piece. At the end of the dungeon when you knock down the fourth floor into the third floor was incredibly cool for the GB.

Another dungeon I really like is Turtle Rock. It has pretty much everything I want out of a final dungeon exploration wise with it's maze like design of having sections tied together via the underground passages, but becomes more and more manageable as you collect keys to open shortcuts. I also adore the moment of panic I (and I'm sure quite a few people) had when I reached the dungeon item only to find it block off by block and realizing that I hadn't seen a switch for them at all up until that point. Thankfully a quick look at the map makes it extremely obvious where the room the switch is in is located and that it's very fast getting to it and back thanks to the mini boss warp point. My biggest issue with the dungeon is one that I have with the game as a whole, the lack of combat difficulty. Whereas a game like LttP felt balanced around the various sword upgrades you could get LA feels balanced around the base level 1 sword even at the very end. Once you get the level 2 sword things become very easy, throw in the red tunic and the odd of anything killing you are practically zero. The Switch version of this rectifies things somewhat thanks to the increased damage output from enemies meaning not only is there a greater punishment for messing up, but there's now also a reason to take the blue tunic over the red one.

Speaking of the Switch version, it's QoL changes should make it the go to version of the game for new players. That said there's issues with it that I can't help but feel draw the game back to the point that I'd rather play the GBC. The big one is of course the framerate. The fact it doesn't maintain a solid 30 FPS is a huge shame and makes the game feel bad to play at times. The fact that there is no D-Pad control is another mark against it. My biggest issue with it though is the new side content. At it's best (the new heart pieces and most of the new seashells) it just feels like superfluous padding to an already incredibly dense game while at it's worst (the dungeon maker) I feel it actively takes away from the experience. This makes my go to version of the game still the GBC version.

I'm gonna take a bit of a break from Zelda for a few days to ensure I don't get burnt out. I'll be starting OoT on Friday.

 

[philipnorth]

Really like this idea. My 7 year old is looking forward to botw 2 as well (after finishing botw) so I think I'm gonna do this together with him. Think I have most of the games, so we should be good :)

 

[GrendelKhan]

I'm down for Tri Force Heroes if anyone else is. I found it almost impossible to get a serious 3 member team going while I was actively playing it.

 

[Rotobit]

Remember this thread? A bunch of other games came up so my Link to the Past playthrough took longer than expected, but I 100%'d it this time.

At least, I think I did.

Still a real good game which should come as no surprise.

This bit was funny though, given this endeavour we're on:

Next up is Link's Awakening, and I'll probably play the remake which I bought, played an hour or two of, then never got back to. I think I ultimately prefer the GBC version but I might as well see the new one though.

 

[Rotobit]

Finished Link's Awakening on the Switch! 100%'d it even, besides the later Dampe chamber challenges. Thank god they introduced that seashell tracker.

It's my favorite game of the 4 I've played so far for this endeavour. The pacing is brilliant, the world is laid out in a way that it's not a chore to explore, the music is fantastic, the NPCs are cute, the core gameplay is satisfying, and it's just the right length.

I think I still prefer the Game Boy version a smidgen, specifically DX, thanks to the cute photo stuff and a generally more appealing aesthetic to me and my GBC-loving brain. Helps that you aren't forced to do weird dungeon making challenges to get heart containers and seashells, too.

Oh and screw the fishing minigame's cheep cheep and blooper spawning rates, grumblegrumble

Next up for me is Ocarina of Time! Probably gonna go with the 3DS version. Haven't played it since that came out in 2012 so it's long overdue and I'm very excited to go for 100%.

 

[Kinsei]

Time for an update from my playthroughs. Since my last post in this thread I finished OoT, OoT Master Quest, and MM.

Ocarina of Time's impact on the industry can't be overstated. So many things we enjoy in games today (hello lock on) can be traced back to it, and it's no wonder why it was so widely considered one of the best games of all time, if not the best period. It's also no surprise that many still hold that opinion decades later.

Structurally the game is very much Link to the Past 2.0, but considering that this was the series first stab at 3D, using a structure that they knew worked and people liked is easily forgivable, and I would argue that in some ways it makes better use of that structure than LttP. While the dark world was great, the fact that it was a separate realm meant there wasn't much impact to seeing the world twisted. On the other hand by traveling into the future you know that not only is this what will happen if you fail, you also get to see how it affects the characters that inhabit the world. Also having the the areas be the same location at different points in time, it allows more interaction between the two time periods. LttP had this with altering the water level at the entrance of the swamp palace in the light world to access it in the dark world, but that was really the extent of it with the main extent of it. Contrast that with the Spirit temple which has half the dungeon explored in one time period with the other half explored in the other time period. It did have an impact on the dungeon's design by making it quite linear, but I think that was an acceptable trade-off to incorporate the main gimmick into a dungeon.

One thing I love about OoT (and the 3D Zeldas in general) is that dungeons have more of an impact than just getting the next collectible (and let's face it, the maidens of LttP were glorified collectibles). It makes the individual dungeons feel like a big accomplishment rather than just a small step towards Ganondorf. I know I would not feel as accomplished after the Fire Temple if the entire point of it was to just get the fire medallion rather than also saving a species from genocide. The same applies to saving Ruto from Lord Jabu-Jabu's Belly, restoring Lake Hylia after the Water Temple, etc.

The dungeons themselves are pretty good. Inside the Great Deku Tree suffers as the entire concept behind it seems to be "Isn't 3D cool?", Lord Jabu-Jabu's belly is just dull, and the Shadow Temple could stand to be a bit more open. On the other hand dungeons like the Forest Temple, Fire Temple, and Water Temple are great. I know this isn't a popular opinion, but my favorite dungeon of them all is the Water Temple. Yes, the constant pausing for the iron boots in the N64 original sucked, but that's since been fixed in the 3DS version. The layout of the dungeon is fantastic and finding your way through it is a joy. Morpha is admittedly a terrible boss, but the Dark Link mini boss more than makes up for it IMO. As for my least favorite, it's Jabu-Jabu's belly. At that point in the game I'm more than ready for the simplistic starter dungeons to be over with and get to the Forest Temple.

As you might expect from my past posts, I don't like Ganon's Castle. There's no navigation aspect to it at all, it's just a series of straightforward challenges then a combat filled tower climb. I like my final dungeons to test all the skills the game imbues into the player so this is a big disappointment for me. I'm also gonna catch flak for this, but I also don't like the Ganon fight. Yes the atmosphere is amazing, but the fight itself is a joke and the first phase lasts way too long. Just roll between the legs and smack the tail until he dies. He should never hit you.

In terms of versions I'd say the 3DS version is the best one. While there are some changes that make the atmosphere worse in some areas (major examples being the Forest Temple, Beneath the Well, Shadow Temple, and Ganon fight). the gameplay tweaks more than make up for it. The ocarina having it's own slot, the iron boots being a regular item, quick access to the Ocarina songs while you're playing it rather than having to go into the pause menu, etc, all make OoT 3D my go to version of the game.

As for Master Quest... it exists. I think anyone that likes OoT should play it at least once as it remixes some stuff in an interesting way, but it's quality is far below that of the original.

I'll do my little write up for MM some time over the weekend cause this post is already quite long.