What's your favourite Zelda game?

Belmont100

Hello, everybody. I was just curious to see what your favourite Zelda game. Mine would have to be Ocarina of Time, simply because it's a wonderful coming of age sort of game. I'll never forget running through Hyrule Field again. It was truly a superb gaming experience. And I cannot forget to mention the brilliant score, beautiful graphics and the magical story.

What about you? What's your favourite Zelda game?

Sparks43

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Gameboy)

Link to the past (Snes)


Close the thread now imho:)

Maybe put a poll in the thread with the full list

Nollog

I played most of them.
The only ones I was close to liking were the DS ones.
Spirit Tracks.

lalee17

Ocarina, closely followed by Link To The Past..

Ol' Donie

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Gameboy Color)

Love every one i have played, which is almost all of them. But i reckon majora's mask is my favourite. Cant wait till the 3ds version!
Link to the past is just after that.

OpenYourEyes

Has to be Ocarina for me!

BlitzKrieg

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (Gamecube)

wind waker

ScaldyMc

The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo DS)

Twilight Princess followed closely by Minish Cap.

o1s1n

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Gameboy)

/\/ollog wrote: »

I played most of them.
The only ones I was close to liking were the DS ones.
Spirit Tracks.

:eek:

I would be amazed if someone didn't like A Link to the Past. Everything about that game is incredible. I played it the year it came out and still get as much joy playing it today. By far the best in the series. One of the greatest games of all time.

The DS games are enjoyable (I loved Phantom Hourglass), but they're very toned down and not a patch on LTTP.

Mr E

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Gameboy)

LTTP is my favourite by a mile.

Ocarina is 2nd, and I have a soft spot for the two Oracle games on the gameboy (especially if played linked)

Retr0gamer

Phantom Hourglass had a a woeful bang of meh off it. It was way too easy and didn't have the magic of other zelda games.

For me it's a toss up between Link to the Past and Majora's Mask. Lttp because it's almost the perfect game and Majora's Mask because it has the strongest narrative of the zelda games and it's so unique not only for a zelda games but it's like no other game.

martineatworld

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (Gamecube)

Wind waker for me. Cel-shading just made it seem really fresh.

Thread needs more poll!

Mr E

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Gameboy)

Poll added.... If I've missed any, let me know.

Retr0gamer

The CDI games :P

Joeyde

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Master Quest (N64)

lalee17 wrote: »

Ocarina, closely followed by Link To The Past..

I second that. Link to the past I played as a kid and I still sit down and start a game on my old SNES.

Ocarina of time however is the best game I have ever played hands down. Unreal sense of freedom to the game, magical when you become an adult and the game opens up. If its not your favourite I imagine you havent played it yet..

ríomhaire

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Gameboy Color)

Mr E wrote: »

Poll added.... If I've missed any, let me know.

Nothing of import. Just Four Swords, the Game & Watches, the CD-i games and the obscure Japan-only stuff. (I'm a bit of a fan-boy). No one would have voted for it anyway :P

In any case my favourite is Majora's Mask. My biggest problem with Zelda games is that they feel like game. I find it very difficult to immerse myself in them. Every character is either only there to advance the plot, to do a sidequest for or just a piece of fluff that will stand in the one place forever saying some exposition. There is a clear sense that everything is there for the player.

The dungeons are too separate from the overworld. There's very little blending or logic behind them (Twilight Princess did make some progress in this regard though with dungeons like the Snowpeak Manor).

Also I never feel like I'm really making a difference to the world. When I beat a dungeon the sense of accomplishment I feel is just that of beating a level. There isn't much motivation to go forward other than beating the game. It's basically, "Link you must go and stop Ganondorf or else he will...not actually do anything to anyone and you can just continue chasing Cuccos all day and nothing will happen." It's really unimmersive for me.

Majora's Mask is different. There is a world there and people to help. People go about their own lives and will do so regardless of the player actions. Anju will attempt to find Kafei. The postman will do his rounds. Romani will help her sister on her farm and try to fight off the aliens regardless of whether you go to help her. When you beat a temple it makes a huge different to the surrounding world (I always do a boss run before doing the final level to fix the world up before calling the giants) and it feels like a real achievement.

And of course the fact that there is a clear and present danger the entire time giving you the motivation. If you do not do anything the moon will hit the town and it will kill everyone. It is completely different to Ganon's vague threats of being vague and evil and ruling the world. You don't stop this in three days or everyone dies.

It also has the most developed characters in any Zelda game (though some a hell of a lot more than others). Talk to everyone in Kafei's and Anju's family and everyone at the ranch every day under the different possible scenarios. There's a huge wealth of dialogue there and it's totally different depending on how you've been helping everyone that cycle.



As for gameplay: It's OoT but the mirror shield, ice arrows and fire arrows are useful, and you can turn into a Goron. What's not to love? The Stone Tower is also insanely awesome.

Weepsie

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time (N64)

Link's Awakening as i played it so much.

RobertFoster

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (Gamecube)

Wind Waker was my first Zelda game so that. Any I've played since then (LTTP, OOT, TP, TPH) have just felt like a rehash.

Azure_sky

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Gameboy)

Link to the past for me closely followed by Links awakening. Amazing how they managed to cram that into a game boy.

quarryman

50 RUPEES FOR THAT SHIELD? NO PROBLEM!

Banjo Fella

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Gameboy Color)

I love so many of the Zelda games, but Majora's Mask was the first one to come to mind after reading the thread title. Clock Town amazed my 12-year-old self when I first played the game... I couldn't believe how detailed it and its inhabitants' lives are. The characters have so much personality, and interacting with them and watching them go about their daily routines felt so real.

I also really enjoyed the game's plot - I liked that it's grimmer, and maybe more moving than that of other Zeldas. One of the main themes in the game seems to be the impermanence of all things - how childhood, friendship, sorrow, and even the world itself (Termina, appropriately enough) can't be everlasting. So many aspects of the game illustrate that idea - from the way Link leaves his childhood home in search of a friend he'll never find again, to the looming moon o' doom that bears closer overhead with each hour of each day, to the way your actions in the game are temporary and you can only take a memento of your progress with you each time you travel back to the dawn of the first day.

I also love the game's visual design and artwork. Majora's Mask itself, as in the actual physical mask thingy, is one of the most striking designs I've ever seen - I just absolutely love its creepy, demented eyes, and how gaudy its colours and prongs are... so much so that I once made a papier-mâché version of it for a masquerade ball. Seriously though, this game and its art are incredible... just look at this amazing concept piece!

Nollog

o1s1n wrote: »

:eek:

I would be amazed if someone didn't like A Link to the Past. Everything about that game is incredible. I played it the year it came out and still get as much joy playing it today. By far the best in the series. One of the greatest games of all time.

The DS games are enjoyable (I loved Phantom Hourglass), but they're very toned down and not a patch on LTTP.

I didn't dislike that one as much as tp ocarina and majora.

gouche

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Gameboy Color)

Majora's Mask by a long way. I've played and enjoyed pretty much all of them but Majora's Mask for the same reasons other people mentioned.
It's just a great game.

megaten

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (Gamecube)

Wind waker. I loved it's interpretation of Ganon and it has probably my favorite final boss fight ever.

o1s1n

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Gameboy)

/\/ollog wrote: »

I didn't dislike that one as much as tp ocarina and majora.

If you use the word 'dislike' in the same sentence as A Link to the Past you're doing it wrong

I'm not the biggest fan Ocarina of time and Twilight Princess myself. Just found that the Zelda formula doesn't translate well into 3D. Haven't played Majora's Mask yet though.

Greyfox

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Gameboy)

I love the whole series but LTTP is the best one by a mile, their isn't one thing I would change about this masterpiece

Myrddin

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Gameboy)

LttP is a masterpiece, & and a fine example of the 'golden-era' of gaming, 16-bit or otherwise. From the graphics, sprites, colours, gameplay, story & immersion to the music - the game nails everything, & then some. Its one of the finest games of all time.

OoT is very very very very good, brilliant & epic is nearly every way - despite the fact that is was on N64, its still a masterpiece. Is it as good as LttP, no. Its close, very close, but LttP is just one of those games that come along every few generations that sets a precident.

Majoras Mask, is an expansion of that...& although I havn't invested much time in it, it has a charm that only Zelda's of that era & prior to it only had.

Since OoT, I've not felt that 'magic' that Zelda games once offered be it on a handheld or a console. I played a small amount of Twilight Princess & yes it was good, I wasn't compelled to go on & abandoned it (though I will revisit it again at some point).

johnny_ultimate

Have very little bad to say about LttP, a fantastic game in all regards. Up there with Super Metroid and others as a poster boy for the awesomeness of the SNES era. Probably the all time classic. All the Gameboy games are fantastic - Link's Awakening, Minish Cap, Oracles etc...

3D wise, they are all great too. Ocarina of Time is a brilliant translation of the series to a 3D space. I'm currently playing Majora's Mask, and while I hate some of its eccentricities - I always forget to deposit my rupees before playing the Song of Time - it's a stunning change of formula, and some super imaginative level and game design. Twilight Princess I think gets a bad rep - for me, it was the basic formula of OoT but filled with fun and varied diversions, all with a much smoother play style and graphical overhaul. Hell, I even loved Wind Waker - a game I credit with getting me back into gaming after a period of disillusionment.

The DS games are a weak point IMO - far from bad games, but they both have design choices that made me abandon the games for lengthy periods. In Phantom Hourglass, it was the repetitive hub dungeon and stealth bits. In Spirit Tracks it was the restrictive and time consuming train. I still think they are both damn good games in many respects (dungeon design for the most part, and the amount of overworld secrets to discover) but they lacked the compulsive drive the best Zelda games - indeed, the majority of them at that - are defined by.

Nollog

o1s1n wrote: »

If you use the word 'dislike' in the same sentence as A Link to the Past you're doing it wrong

Yeah because liking things is universal.
Everyone likes apple products.

I know you're making funnys but some people do actually think zeldo has to be liked by everyone.

planetX

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Master Quest (N64)

Has to be Ocarina of Time.... Epona, and baby Epona!!!!!!!!!!!! Going backwards and forwards from kid to adult, spending the night in the moat waiting for the castle drawbridge to open...so many memories.
Replaying the Windwaker now, it's a close second. I like sailing around at night looking for treasure, and taking photos for the statue collection:)

I'm surprised to see so many saying Majora's Mask - that game was torture to me. Doing the same things over and over.

Twilight princess was the biggest disappointment, not enough side-quests. It seemed big and empty to me.

ghostchant

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Master Quest (N64)

I agree with you about Majora's Mask. I wanted to like it when it was released like you wouldn't believe (OoT was and still is my favourite game of all time, and before that it had been ALttP), but it just didn't do anything for me. I think it was when my life started getting a little cluttered schedule-wise, and sitting down for an hour a night only do more or less the exact same thing I'd done the night before just didn't appeal to me. Some day I might get a chance to sit down properly with it, maybe with a future handheld release.