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The Legend of Zelda Series and its place within the History of Video Games
The Zelda Series Appendices Once again, some possible spoilers… Some of this is leftover points (occasionally
repeated), some lists, some challenges to try, but first let’s start with…
Appendix A: State of the Series
At the time of this writing, Nintendo’s recent
E3 2021 presentation reminded us that the
Skyward Sword HD re-master is
coming in July, that the Zelda-themed Game and Watch device (the
proto-GameBoy, if you will) with three early 2D games will arrive in the
fall, and that the sequel to Breath
of the Wild will come out in 2022 (good, but the end of this year
would have been pretty, pretty, pretty sweet, and almost expected,
considering how long the game has been in development, and being a sequel
means they don’t have to build everything from scratch, but maybe the
effects of the pandemic slowed production, so hopefully it’s early 2022
and not holiday but maybe expecting that will just set us up for more
disappointment, but it’s fine, everything’s fine, this is fine).
More dispiriting is that in said presentation
Aonuma seemingly announced that there were no other plans to celebrate
Zelda’s 35 anniversary, even with rumours of re-mastered versions of other
past 3D Zelda games coming to the Switch console swirling all spring.
While the 35th anniversary can sound rather arbitrary (it ain’t
no 25th or 50th, that’s for sure), Mario’s recent
celebration of this certainly got more attention, including a collection
of his own past 3D titles.
While we have mentioned the lack of legacy
content in the main articles a bit, it bears repeating: That there is a
massive gulf in availability between the first four Legend of Zelda games
(available on Nintendo Switch Online, or, in
Link’s Awakening’s case, as
2019 remake) and 2017’s Breath of
the Wild on Nintendo’s current, mega-selling console is extremely
unfortunate for old and new fans alike. Bringing 2011’s
Skyward Sword over is a good
start, but frequently cited GOAT
Ocarina of Time still being AWOL is mindboggling. Especially
considering that Nintendo did a great job making these older games
available at great prices on their Wii and Wii U consoles. To play older
games you have to track down old consoles that the company doesn’t make
anymore from re-sellers, meaning Nintendo isn’t making any money at all
from people trying to play their old Zelda games. Just make them available
for purchase on the Switch! People will pay!
(calm blue The future of the Legend of Zelda series is
certainly bright, but it could have a much shiner past if its sages
allowed more adventurers to visit these sacred realms.
Appendix B: The Personal Experience
As mentioned in a chapter interlude, you are Link or, more accurately, any
name that you pencil in when you start.
Even if in first
person shooters the screen is literally your eyes, The Legend of Zelda
series was always about turning the player into a hero. Link is hopelessly
one-dimensional - a person with a good heart and a destined path - who
doesn't speak because Miyamoto thought that would make it harder to
identify with him if he had a certain way of talking, which would
inevitably lead to something akin to a personality.
That made him a good vessel for you, and while making a good game is the
primary goal for developers, making one with characters players relate to
is also extremely important. It turns players into fans, and one of the
reasons this series has being so successful is because of the diehard
community surrounding it (who treat it like
Star Wars, the
Marvel Cinematic Universe or
countless other pop culture franchises).
Sure, a lot of
people might play one Zelda game and not bother with another title, but
for those who got on board way back, they each have a story of how they
discovered these games, were blown away or disappointed with the next
release (after waiting and waiting and waiting), or were surprised when
they went back and played an earlier game they might have missed.
There are people who have vivid memories of playing Zelda games in their
childhood, and growing up with the games as they too matured over the
years as well.
But I am not one of those people.
I didn't play a Zelda game until 2017 (I tinkered a bit with Skyward Sword
when one of my roommates had it when it was first released in 2011).
Growing up I only had an NES, but I was a Mario man for that period. When
it came to the nineties console wars, I just played bits of
Super Mario World, Mario Kart,
Donkey Kong Country, and Sonic
the Hedgehog (on Genesis, of course) at friends' houses (plus getting
throttled at Street Fighter II
and NBA Jam (I was never on
fire)). While I was aware of the Zelda series, I was always under the
assumption that it was a mostly turn-based, RPG-style game with some
puzzles, and that didn't sound very interesting to me.
Not really playing video games in high school means I missed the move to
3D, the fall of Sega, the rise of PlayStation and even as the millennium
arrived it was only something for me to do when I was maybe visiting a
friend’s house (Halo series, the Wii party games,
Guitar Hero).
Fast forward to summer 2016, and a buddy of mine was talking about how he
never uses his
And I still mostly played Mario stuff (Mario
Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World is supremely underrated). But thanks to
this, I did start to pay attention to the gaming community at large a bit,
and it was in a froth over a new Nintendo console supposedly coming out in
early 2017, and a fresh, long-awaited Zelda game to boot.
So in January I started playing the
Wind Waker HD, which was the one Zelda in the pile of games my friend
lent me.
And I loved it.
I played it late
into the night after work, and while my video game literacy was at a very
low level for anything that didn’t involve jumping on enemies’ heads
before a timer runs out, Wind Waker
was probably the best possible game to introduce me to the wider world of
z-target, item-based combat, with a great story to boot. I loved the
graphics and music, which effortlessly roped me in, no matter what I was
doing or how confused I got (like trying to figure out how to ‘get in’ to
the Fairy Queen’s fountain, or finding the triforce shard on the cabana
island). (to possibly belabour the point, other consoles
and development companies regularly offered mature content and superficial
gameplay, and Nintendo essentially offered the reverse (where mature also
means deep and complex). To put it yet another way: Nintendo offered
baby-game story and pro-gamer mechanics)
But it was a mere appetizer to BOTW, which I picked up for the Wii U a few
days after its March 3rd release, after fans and reviewers lost their
collective shit over how amazing it is/was.
Yeah, it was good.
The Legend of
Zelda: Breath of the Wild
is my favourite game of all time because it was my favourite gaming
experience of all time (with Super
Mario Bros 3 almost certainly coming in second, but I know I’m
attaching plenty of childhood nostalgia to that one). I’ve spent
hundreds
upon hundreds of hours exploring this massive incarnation of Hyrule,
because it gives me a feeling of excitement and exploration that I've
never experienced before in a rich and rewarding virtual world (and since
that one I’ve played plenty more).
As mentioned in the chapter on the game in Part Four, it forces you to
write your own story when it comes to saving Hyrule, much more so than any
Zelda game before it (and of the other open world games out there, BOTW
does it so much better).
So here’s some of the unique highlights of mine:
After getting
the paraglider from the 'old man', instead of going east towards Dueling
Peaks as suggested, I went west, because when I was in the cold,
mountainous section of the Great Plateau I saw a distant shrine in a
yellow-ish canyon area.
So with the
‘map’ showing total darkness I sailed down there, and landed beside a
series of wooden suspension bridges (not knowing how close a stable was to
me), and I fought a wizard-ish imp. I thought I killed him by knocking him
off the cliff, but he returned and sent a volley of fireballs all around
me so I ran away 'screaming' (me the player, since Link only does that if
he falls into a bottomless pit). I zipped past the tall, thin pig
creatures with clubs, and along the bridge, past the giant sleeping
monster, and into a desert area, where I had to hide from smaller pig
creatures riding horses. And after all that gamer sneaking, I got killed
in one hit by an electrified bat. Felt bad. But I re-spawned close by
(thank you again, very forgiving save system), and carefully avoid them,
and saw the shrine in the distance. As a slew of smaller pig creatures
chased me, I managed to get inside and solve the puzzle, but more
importantly (to me at the time), I created a warp point, a foothold deep
in a hostile environment.
I left
immediately to find a slightly more welcoming area, following the road to
Dueling Peaks and of course getting sidetracked the whole time. By
shrines, by koroks, by giant felled trees, by monster hideouts, and the
few NPCs strewn along the main path.
By the time I
finally got to the stable on the other side of the mountain (after the
awesome experience of walking between the two halves of it and looking
up), it was much, much later than I thought, both in game and in real
life. But the soothing sounds of the stable were lovely, and from then on,
going back to Dueling Peaks was always a reassuring and familiar feeling.
Sometimes I would purposely warp back there when I was done playing for
the night, letting Link ‘wait’ there at the wonderful spot for me to
return so we could continue.
I kind of did
Kakariko and Hateno village by the book, although I learned more about
proper fighting by doing the ‘Sheep Rustlers’ side-quest than I did in the
actual training shine.
After agreeing
to help Sidon I began the walk in the rain up towards Zora’s Domain, and
got in an epic battle with a huge squad of Lizalfo archers, where I had to
quickly duck and cover and then shoot them at a distance. I didn’t realize
until they were all dead and nothing ‘happened’ that it was entirely an
optional fight and I could have kept going. It was a camp turned into a
clearing.
Of course I
snuck around the Lynel on Ploymus mountain the first time around.
If you played
the game long enough, you’ve taken for granted how wild and unknown
everything was when you didn’t know your way around or had a map to guide
you, so getting lost could be a bunch of terrifying fun.
Making my way
into the quickly freezing wilderness of the Hebra mountains from Serene
Stable, I got caught in a snowstorm and was surrounded by monsters. I got
off my horse to fight them but had a ton of trouble (damn, ice keese), and
when I got too close to my steed, a moblin brought his club down on both
of us, killing my horse, something I didn’t even know was possible in the
game at this point.
Now I was
walking through a blinding snowstorm, eating through my supplies,
terrified of ice lizalfos leaping out of the snow, and foolishly
underprepared because the one helper I expected to get me out of this was
now dead.
And then,
through the blizzard haze, instead of seeing something, I heard something.
The soothing flute that could only mean one thing.
A stable. Thank
the goddess Hylia.
(which meant a
shrine – and therefore a warp point – was almost certainly close by)
It was like
finding an oasis in the desert…which also happened in this game, because I
decided to enter the epic sands from the east, near the giant maze, and
was quickly suffering from heat stroke and plodding just as slow in the
sand as the snow.
Once again, I
was so relieved that I found a shrine…but syke! A Gerudo woman is passed
out on the activation podium, mumbling something about a cocktail. So I
had to trek across more desert (and avoiding the lightning attacks of the
divine beast) to reach Gerudo Town, only to find that I can’t go in
because you’re a dude, and suddenly I’m following a route towards
Kara-Kara Bazaar for the main quest to get into the town, and if it wasn’t
for the handy adventure log I’d completely forgot that I had to get that
towering woman a drink (which a lengthy side-quest all by itself, carrying
ice through the ruins).
Arriving in the
desert in this fashion meant I didn’t find the Gerudo Canyon stable until
much, much later.
Same goes for scaling
Speaking
(slightly) of which,
the first time I defeated the big ol’ Calamity I was wearing Kilton’s
bokoblin mask.
Of course I was quickly back into it after ‘the end’, having only found
ninety-five of the initial one hundred twenty shrines at that point.
The DLC quests were a great addition to the game, as master mode really
did create a whole new strategy of playing technically called ‘running
away from enemies for quite a long time’. The ‘Trial of the Sword’ was
heart-pounding experience, a strange mix of the game’s survival aspect and
a ‘locked-in-a-room-with-baddies’ set up that worked oh so well except
when you died deep in a run, and then learned true pain.
It was great that they held back some of the best shrines of the game for
‘The Champion’s Ballad’ section, and the tasks to unearth them were very
enjoyable. Maz Koshia coming alive after completing the unexpected fifth
divine beast was surprise after surprise, and while the motorbike wasn’t
exactly a shock, it was a worthy reward.
Even after all this I would still play the game, not with any intention of
getting all 900 korok seeds, but just to explore and kill reborn enemies
in new ways thanks to the blood moon. Getting into many other games on
many other systems was all thanks to this game, butIt would still return
to it because there is a beautiful serenity to it that almost no other
title offers.
I lent out the Wii U from time to time to friends and co-workers because I
wanted them to experience this game (much to the chagrin of the guy I
initially borrowed it from).
With the Wii U
Virtual Console online store I could buy and download most of the older
Zelda games, and I played them out of order, which was a fun way to
experience a comparatively recent 3D game and then suddenly get used to
something several generations older (and blockier and harder).
It went:
Wind Waker,
BOTW, Ocarina, A Link to the Past, Skyward Sword, Majora's Mask, Twilight
Princess, Link’s Awakening, Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks,
The Legend of Zelda, Adventures of Link (I can’t finish this game and I
don’t care), Age of Calamity (if we’re counting it), Oracles of
Ages/Seasons, A Link Between Worlds, Triforce Heroes, Four Swords
Adventures, Four Swords,
and finally, Hyrule Warriors (if
we’re counting).
Ocarina of Time
was obviously an excellent experience, and it was easy to appreciate how
‘modern’ it is for being twenty years old but parts of it drove me
bananas, and I don't mean the Water Temple (I’m actually pretty decent at
the dungeons. Once I’m in and know everything I need is locked inside with
me, I don’t over-think things).
Certain overworld locations were impossible for me to figure out and I had
to resort to the help of the Internet. I didn't know how to get to the
Fire Temple. I was in the higher up interior section of Death Mountain
(entrance beside the fairy fountain), looking down the lava lake making
jump after jump to get down to the platform floating below, but I couldn't
reach it. Never knew I had to go back to Goron city to go Darunia's room
and pull back the statue to reach this lower area inside the volcano.
Had a hell of a time 'activating' the 'Sheik in Kakariko Village'
cut-scene because I kept entering from Death Mountain instead of Hyrule
field (because the former was easier to warp to and then come down the
mountain). The marker on the map said I should be in Kakariko, so I tore
that damn place apart trying to get any sort of prompt before randomly
approaching from a different gate.
After the maddening Gerudo fortress sneaking, I loved the desert sections,
especially the Spirit Temple that had to be done in two time periods.
The multi-staged, he’s-not-really-dead final fight with Ganon(dorf) feels
so familiar because it has been done like that for so many other games
since then. Ending the game on a slightly bittersweet note was also
genius.
I was wary of going from ‘the greatest game of all time’ to a 2D Zelda
game from seven years prior (even if it was an earlier name check for
‘greatest game of all time’), but I loved
A Link to the Past as well.
Older and simpler, but no less fun, and paced so damn well. Gaining the
ability to warp at the exact right moment, when you were beginning to tire
of crisscrossing the map was great game design. Story is paper thin, but
you still get the feels when you find the master sword in the Lost Woods.
The temples may blur together in hindsight, but they were extremely
engaging. The better you can imagine what it would have been like playing
these games when they first came out, the better you can enjoy them.
So with that said,
Skyward Sword
was possibly the most frustrated I've ever been at any video game that was
obviously amazing. Other games that I didn't like or were bored with I
just stopped playing (no Zelda titles, of course), but investing a lot of
hours into this one - and enjoying so, so much of it - made spending waaay
too long trying to get my sword struck by lightning in the final battle
with Demise interminable. I heartily look forward to many people loving
the HD remake of this title now that you can play with buttons and Fi will
ease up on being ‘helpful’.
I'm sure it's
because I got used to the gameplay and 'literacy' of
Ocarina, but
Majora's Mask was a real
fucking trip. Like, I get nervous just thinking about that game, because I
barely finished off some of the bosses with enough time on that goddamn
clock. I didn’t get all the masks in my first play-through (some of those
side-quests were very ‘what the hell do I do now?’) so I couldn’t unlock
Fierce Deity Link, which meant beating Majora and its three phases took so
goddamn long.
But the lengthy
missions and quests that lead up to the dungeons are so poignant and
memorable. In fact...(looks around cautiously)...there are parts of the
game I like more than Ocarina.
Twilight Princess
had big shoes of expectation to fill and it made a hell of an attempt.
It was pitched as the true follow-up to
Ocarina of Time in terms of
size and scope, and it did all of that and more (it’s such a big game that
I forgot what the Dominion Rod could do on a second play-through and
consequently got stumped for half an hour in two different places in the
Temple of Time).
The story was great, the items in the temples were so creative (although
some with barely any uses outside them), so perhaps because it was
expected to be so good it was never able to surprise me (other than Midna
briefly turning into that giant octopus monster).
Maybe I thought it was ‘only’ amazing because dang, I hated (meaning I was
bad at) the horse-riding sequence in the middle of the final fight, and it
kind of nerfed the ending a bit.
A flurry of 2D games ended my completion of the series, and by then I
could truly appreciate the quality of life improvements that games made in
the last ten years had over games made twenty or thirty years in the past.
The remake of Link’s Awakening
was now a day on the beach (literally as well) compared to the crushing,
repetitive difficulty of, say,
Adventures of Link and definitely the
Oracle games.
I essentially played the very first Zelda game with a walkthrough guide
open, so I was never stumped for too long, which was fine, as there were
some walls or headstones I would never know to bomb or move otherwise (I
got this idea from Scott the Woz, who compared it to a scavenger hunt
style of gaming. Scott the Woz is great, by the way).
Sometimes the differences could be seen in the consoles the games were on.
Only three years separate the
Oracle games and Minish Cap,
but the former two were on Gameboy Color and the latter was on Gameboy
Advance. Forget just the graphical improvement, it was like in that gap
Zelda developers decided to tone down some difficulty spikes (not just in
terms of combat, but in term of problem solving for story advancement).
Perhaps it is the gaping hole in my video gaming history around the time
those games were released, but I was constantly lost in the
Oracle titles, and so much
about them felt more like work than fun.
Phantom Hourglass
and Spirit Tracks were great,
and I think I can chalk that up to them being
Wind Waker sequels (because I
love that game to bits). The cartoon graphics make a perfect transition to
2D, and the unique take on exploring islands and areas by using your
stylus to draw out a route in the water or on a series of railroad tracks
were great. The Ganon-train segment close to the end of
Spirit Tracks was the most
creatively bizarre and therefore one of the sequences that stuck out to me
the most.
Playing Age of Calamity before
the first Hyrule Warriors
really made the latter title seem creaky and old in comparison (much more
so than going back to playing older mainline games), even if it was only a
six-year difference.
Wrapping (mostly) up with multiplayer games may have been a bit of a bad
call, as they didn’t have the same depth of creativity and exploration as
the traditional single player Zelda experience, but that’s the exchange
for making it possible to have four people playing at once. Not
surprising, the most recently made game (Triforce
Heroes) did the best job and is my most favourite of this sort.
Since I knew nothing about what to expect with
Wind Waker, and
Breath of the Wild purposely
jettisoned the familiar formula, it was up to
Ocarina to reinforce what the
standard was, and after that you could see how so many of these games were
structured.
That game,
A Link to the Past, Twilight
Princess and also
Wind Waker all have three
starting dungeons/temples to find pendants or spiritual stones or fused
shadows or pearls, a big story thing occurs usually involving having to
find the master sword, then more temples where you collect or power up
another thing that is now integral to the story. This is a basic structure
that goes beyond the story, beyond the items, and even beyond the
gameplay, because all those things can change from title to title. It’s
what I found to be the simplest of bones, and for every new game I tried
to notice this skeleton as soon as I started.
Not that I was bored at any point, but I was
just curious at what the game would ‘let’ you do, even from right after
the title screen. Since in almost every game you can give Link a name, I
usually went with 'ratface' (except in certain games where you are limited
to using six letters (like A Link
to the Past and Minish Cap),
so it was 'ratfac'.
Top Dungeons in Chronological Order
-Ice Palace (A
Link to the Past)
-Turtle Rock (A Link to the Past)
-Eagle Tower (Link's Awakening)
-Forest Temple (Ocarina)
-Spirit Temple (Ocarina)
-Stone Tower Temple (Majora)
-Dragon Roost Cavern (Wind Waker)
-Earth Temple (Wind
Waker)(it has similar light-reflection mechanics as
Ocarina’s Spirit Temple, but I
don’t care, it’s awesome)
-Palace of Winds (Minish Cap)
-Snowpeak Ruins (Twilight
Princess)
-City in the Sky
(Twilight Princess)(even though
one central room drove me fucking bananas trying to figure out how to
activate the turbine)
-Temple of the Ocean King (Phantom
Hourglass)(its amazing premise: A dungeon you return to several times
throughout the game as more and more subterranean levels can be accessed
as you increase your strength and arsenal. Oh, and the air is poison so
you only have a limited time – represented by…an hourglass – to get to
certain points. They do the same thing with the
-Ancient Cistern (Skyward Sword)(might
be best single dungeon in the whole series)
-Lanayru Mining Facility (Skyward
Sword)
-Vah Naboris (Breath of the Wild)(the
camel, just so we’re clear)
(While Ocarina's Water Temple
is not on here, I want to say that I do like that temple, and that I
didn't tear my hair out trying to solve it)
Lightning Round:
Best Item: Hookshot (various games, which is why it rocks)
Best Sidekick: Midna (Twilight
Princess)
Best town mini-game: The ‘you sunk my
battleship’-like game (also known as ‘sploosh-kaboom’) on Windfall Island
in Wind Waker
Best BOTW Shrine: Kah Okeo (a nice, long, wind-themed one in the middle of
nowhere with plenty of treasure chests) (Kaam Ya’tak is an honourable
mention)
Best Boss: Koloktos (Skyward
Sword)
Best Boss Honourable Mention: Twinrova (Ocarina)
Best Essential Pre-Dungeon Sequence: Ikana
Canyon and Castle (Majora’s Mask)
Best Optional Sequence: From the Ground Up (Breath
of the Wild)(helping set up Tarrey Town was such a good way to have
you explore the regions all over again, as well as appreciate the
importance of building materials)
Worst item: Bug Catching Net (zzz…)
Worst Sidekick: Navi
Worst town mini-game: The STAR game in
Twilight Princess’s Hyrule
Castle Town
Worst BOTW Shrine: Keeha Yoog (just a blessing, and all you have to do to
earn it is shoot an obvious elemental arrow at an obvious spot on the side
of a cliff)
Worst Boss: Vulture Vizier (Triforce
Heroes)(technically he’s only a boss in one of the four-level segments
of this multiplayer-centric game, but he suuucks…and so does the goddamn
see-saw platform you have to play on)
Worst Boss Honourable Mention(s): Bongo-Bongo (from
Ocarina) and his stupid drum
Worst Essential Pre-Dungeon Sequence: ‘Helping’ build a raft (Oracle
of Ages)(and the ‘recover your items’ section that directly follows
ain’t so hot, either)
Worst Optional Sequence: Giving Batreaux
Gratitude Crystals to turn him into a human (Skyward
Sword)
Zelda Music Playlist
Video game music has come a long way, and Zelda was there from pretty much
the beginning. Kondo’s 8-bit beeps of the main theme in 1986 effortlessly
translates to a sweeping orchestral score, but the great thing about the
series’ music is how it runs the gamut from evoking a certain emotion or
atmosphere in a cut-scene (much like a typical film score) to simple,
catchy background melodies that will not drive you crazy because you might
be hearing it over and over again if you can’t get through a certain
section (although in some cases going crazy is the point).
It should come as no surprise that finding fan-made playlists online is
easy and can be tailored to whatever you’re looking for. If you want some
morning pep in your step there are the most lighthearted ditties from the
opening sections, where everything is all good and problem-free (except,
once again, for Majora’s Mask).
Whether it be Skyloft,
Musicians post their jazz covers of popular tunes from the games, and if
you want dope beats, there’s even the lo-fi re-mixes of classic tracks.
As there can be dozens of musical segments (from actual songs to brief
sound effects) from every game, the full soundtrack for just one game can
be several hours long. Many pieces are named after the locations where you
will hear it, and since the music changes up between titles, you may hear
echoes of previous melodies in the re-imagined towns.
With all that in mind, here’s a short line-up (yes, in this series, twenty
tracks is considered short) of my Top Picks:
Title Theme (Ocarina)
Dragon’s Roost Island (Wind Waker)(the
re-mixed version in BOTW for Rito Village is a lovely homage to this one)
Ballad of the Goddess (Skyward
Sword)
Outset Island (Wind Waker)(Disney
music, eat your fucking heart out)
Gerudo Valley (Ocarina)(well
yeah)
Farewell, Hyrule King (Wind
Waker)
Zora’s Domain (Twilight
Princess)
Dancing Dragon Dungeon (Oracles
of Seasons)
Tower of Spirits (Spirit
Tracks)
Midna’s Lament (Twilight
Princess)
Main Theme (The
Legend of Zelda)
Full Steam Ahead (Spirit
Tracks)
Temple of Time (Ocarina)
Ganon Battle (A
Link to the Past)
Shop Music (Ocarina)
Hyrule Castle (Breath
of the Wild)
Final Hours (Majora’s
Mask)
Gohdam (Wind Waker)(goddamn
indeed, what a synth-wave dream)
Zelda’s Lullaby (A
Link to the Past)
Main Theme (Breath
of the Wild)
Appendix C: Playing Order
As mentioned
above, I played the series out of order (and deliberately so). If you’ve
read this far and haven't ever played a Zelda game (!!!), or if you have
just played Breath of the Wild
(considering it's sold twice as much as any other game in the series,
that's quite possible) and are thrilled with the idea of having several
critically-lauded classics on the horizon, there are many ways to approach
this.
If you want to experience the slow and steady rise by playing them
chronologically, it’ll be a history lesson that starts rough (the first
two will be especially frustrating if only because of how games were
designed then) and becomes easier and more engaging as you go on.
If you want to play them according to the official in-game story timeline,
it will be an interesting ride going back and forth between different
consoles eras and the technical limitations and leaps that come with it.
Certainly you won’t get that much of a feeling of a cohesive story, since
there are huge time gaps even between games on the same timeline branch.
If it’s more on a whim, then you can ask anyone in the Zelda community for
a mix of their favourites and what two or three titles to try and ease
yourself in before total commitment.
Is this the list of my favourite Zelda games in order as well? Almost.
Playing order is the one thing that might be most debatable among other
Zelda fans...after favourite game, favourite dungeon, favourite art style,
favourite story, least annoying sidekick, etc.
1. Breath of the Wild
If you haven't yet, start here. While it takes many departures from
previous entries to the point where you might be frustrated with how
linear and hand-holding the earlier games can get, playing this one first
can definitely make you fall in love with the idea of going on a grand
adventure to save a giant fantasy kingdom.
Note: Considering BOTW is at the very end of the in-game timeline, perhaps
taking place tens of thousands of years after any other title, going back
to older games can be best appreciated when you view it as actually going
back in time, not just in terms of video game quality, but further and
further back into the haphazard, inexact myths of the (sensibly titled)
Legend of Zelda series. Even if it doesn’t follow the timeline itself, it
makes sense that the further back in the series you go, the more archaic
and simplistic the stories (and gameplay) are.
2. Wind Waker
Wait, what?
For the Zelda fans who came aboard thanks to the game above, this is the
older title that has aged the best, one that has that strong, open world
vibe. Once you get your own (talking) boat, the Great Sea is your oyster,
although certain islands require certain items to explore them in full.
Everything is bright fun, with a great story making it feel effortlessly
smooth (it helps that it’s on the easy side, puzzle and battle wise).
3. Ocarina
Yes, the game frequently called the greatest of all time gets bronze.
4. A Link to the Past
It’s light on story, and today will be described as having 8-bit graphics
(but it actually has double that!), but it plays so well, and revs up so
smoothly in terms of difficulty and challenges that you can get
effortlessly sucked into this one.
You might expect less because it’s a 2D game from the early nineties, but
that just means it’s going to blow you out of the water when you get into
it.
The very best of old school gaming with a modern pace.
5. Spirit Tracks
An obvious dark-horse candidate for the top five. Great dungeons, fun
story, playing alongside spirit Zelda for the win (especially when she
inhabits and control Phantom knights). Plus having a cannon on a
locomotive is damn cool.
While changing up the basics of controller and button inputs can go
sometimes go wrong, utilizing the unique schema of the DS console worked
perfectly with this game, a great example of how the series can progress
even in a 2D format.
6. Skyward Sword
The coming changes to the HD remake will vastly improve this game’s
experience, although it was a great one even on its initial release.
7. The Legend of Zelda
Give it a try and you might see what all the fuss was about in 1986 and
1987. Its plays old, some dungeon rooms can be hard as hell, but an
appreciation for the ground it laid comes quick.
8.
Majora’s Mask
It's like a happy return to the quintessential feel of
Ocarina of Time. But not. At
all.
9. A Link Between Worlds
A most excellent sequel to one of the most important 2D games of all time,
with a slew of cool new mechanics.
10. Link’s Awakening
A fun, quirky island paradise where Link’s not the only dreamer. While the
three previous games had some odd moments, this one cranked up the
weirdness and the series as a whole going forward was all the better for
it.
11.
Twilight Princess
Because of the
quality (and importance) of the comparatively few 3D Zelda games, Twilight
being out of the Top 10 must play seems like a hideous disservice to a
title that does so many things right (and features Midna and Malo).
Of course, a plus of saving a big game like this for the back half is that
its glow will last you through the rest of the 2D adventures.
12. Phantom Hourglass
Linebeck is a very underrated sidekick, and helps elevate the story to
the level of the title’s excellent gameplay.
13. Minish Cap
A reminder that this series did the talking hat before
Super Mario Odyssey.
Back-to-back games with Zelda turning to stone, by the way. Juuuuuust
coincidence.
14. TriForce Heroes
The silliness of four cute-as-buttons Links bumbling around onscreen makes
up for the fact that it is practically platform-style puzzle solving
instead of a typical Zelda game. At least it’s 3D-ish, so it’s easily the
best multiplayer attempt.
15. Oracle of Seasons
Because it does everything better than
Ages.
16. Four Swords Adventures
It’s A Link to the Past with
four Links, which only slowly gets old.
17. Zelda
II: The Adventures of Link
An A for effort, but that doesn’t make it any less of a slog. Its
difficulty is (sensibly) a barrier for most and an attraction for a select
few.
18. Oracle of Ages
Because Seasons does everything
better.
19. Four Swords
Not even a full game, and Four
Swords Adventures is the upgrade that makes this one practically
irrelevant, which is not something that can really be said about any other
title in the series.
Appendix D: The Other, Other, Other, Other Breath of the Wild Speed-run:
Hyrule Cross
The video-game
speedrun typically involves how quickly you can finish the game (or
achieve a particular quest within it), and
Breath of the Wild has seen
players cut it down from an hour in March 2017 (the month the game
debuted) to twenty-five minutes at the time of this writing:
(https://www.speedrun.com/botw)
Here is a handy overview article on some run techniques (https://kotaku.com/breath-of-the-wild-speedrunning-has-changed-a-lot-in-tw-1832436680),
and each video is a master class in player skill and ingenuity (and taking
advantage of some rarely seen in-game glitches).
But with a game
so massive and varied as Breath of the Wild, why limit the speedrun to
just finishing the game?
More importantly, of course, is how quickly you
can bake bread or put butter on a dog. But if you’ve already conquered
those illustrious goals, then ladies and gents, I present to you…
Hyrule Cross.
Which is just as
it sounds. Crisscross the map as fast as possible. Go from the shrine in
one corner to the opposite corner, then fast travel to one of the other
remaining corners and zip to the final one, crossing your first path
somewhere in the middle of Hyrule field (to create a very drunken-looking
X on the map).
The shrines
necessarily involved will be:
Hia Miu Shrine (northwest
of the IceFall Foothills)
Tu Ka'Loh Shrine
(Lomei Labyrinth Island)
Hawa Koth Shrine (Gerudo
Great Skeleton)
Korgu Chideh Shrine (Eventide
Island)
Clock starts
when you step off the lip of the first shrine and runs until you step onto
the edge of the fourth one (keep it running through the loading screen
when you do the one fast travel).
You can’t use
the fast travel until you step onto the lip of the second shrine on the
opposite side of Hyrle from where you started.
Other than that, no rules. Doesn't have to be a straight line, you can
shield surfing off enemies' heads, you can use the master cycle zero (you
will almost certainly need the bike, although some level of bullet
time/shield head tapping might be even faster in some sections).
My current record (which will be absolutely demolished right quick if this
ever becomes a thing) is 37
minutes and 1 second.
This route involves travelling southwest from
Tu Ka'Loh Shrine
to Hawa Koth Shrine, then fast travel up to Hia Miu Shrine and go
southeast to Korgu Chideh Shrine (and yes, climb all the way up to the
shrine at the top of Eventide, don’t stop at the shore).
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