There's probably been a billion threads like this in the past, but I don't see a current one and I don't remember one since I missed so much of PureZC's history in the time I was gone (insert Captain Dylan Hunt reference here).
- Which Legend of Zelda games have you ever played?
- How far did you get in each?
- If you didn't finish it, have you watched any Let's Plays of it instead?
- If inclined to say, how much did you enjoy each?
- If there's more than one version, which versions have you played?
You're welcome to list any you want, including CD-i games, Game and Watch/Game Watch (those were separate things), and even fan games and ZC quests (hopefully I'm not overlooking a forum boundary or something). But obviously the main thing I'm thinking of is the main series, so don't feel obligated to go and list all of everything if you don't want to.
As for myself, I've played...
The Legend of Zelda
- First quest about 4 times, second quest only once
- It's pretty good, very, ah... classical.
- The first time I finished it was actually Example_BS1st.qst, but I've also beaten the Gamecube compilation and NES versions (mostly I play the NES version).
- I think I've seen a couple of Let's Plays of this but I can't remember offhand.
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
- All of it, about 7 times through?
- I love it, but I always wished it had more in the way of puzzles and items. Still, it's one of my top three favorite Zelda games.
- First time I beat it was on the Gamecube compilation, but since then it's been NES.
- I watched MeleeWizard's let's play of it, too.
Zelda II Randomizer
- I played half a run in one day, but I only just heard of it this week.
- It's pretty great! I especially like that you can generate a new overworld and mix up the dungeon rooms, and how there's a ton of adjustable options. You have to be very careful about keys though (I think I may have encountered a situation where I could've gotten stuck); best to make sure you turn on the extra keys rule too. On the other hand, you're likely to get the Fairy spell early. This randomizer is a bit newer so it'll probably get more updates and fixes.
A Link to the Past
- All of it, probably like 25 times or more, guessing. (Did a 'minimalist items with all hearts' run once. Green tunic Ganon hurts! And plenty of weird sequence break experimentation too, and the debug code.)
- One of my favorite games ever made, full-stop. Strong contender for the #1 spot, even. I have almost nothing bad to say except that that single heavy rock blocking access to Light World death mountain is a little bit stupid.
- About half my playthroughs were SNES, and half were GBA. I also did everything in the GBA version except the Riddle Quest due to limited (but not quite nonexistant... after years of waiting) access to Four Swords.
- Saw a cool LP where TheSatellite played the SNES and GBA version at the same time with one controller.
A Link to the Past Randomizer
- I've played through it exactly once on V4, but I want to go back and play it again with newer versions.
- An excellent way to mix up LTTP, I love it!
- I've watched every LTTP randomizer run TeamUDF has uploaded to Youtube, lots of fun.
Link's Awakening
- All of it, probably about 10 times? (I've also played with the Kennel glitch and side warp glitch.)
- I really, really like the story and music. The setting is appealing, too. If only the game were a little less linear and didn't have redundant rambling popup messages everywhere, though. But it's one of my three biggest favorites in the series.
- Mostly I played on the original version (it's the only one I owned growing up), but also twice on DX.
- I've also watched Pixcalibur123's lets play of the DX version and MeleeWizard's of the original.
Link: The Faces of Evil & Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon
- I got it FoE running just barely really badly with like... mouse controls. I still had fun doing this somehow, but it never went any further.
- This game is a ton of fun to watch now and then. The only genuinely good part of them is the music (seriously, some of the music is actually great! Listen to "Goria's Welcome" sometime), but it's main charm lay in how goofy and awkward and cheesy the presentation is, combined with how janky the game design is (clearly they designed the backgrounds first, then a person who doesn't normally make videogames decided what should count as solid objects, and then later still they came up with the actual engine and control scheme, with it's absurd open-the-menu-by-mistake-because-you're-ducking shenanigans).
- I've watched HalfBlindGamer and poor, poor Eppy (Electrometer Prime) play both of these. Good times.
BS The Legend of Zelda
- All of Map 1 once. Wanting to do Map 2 someday.
- Quite fun! It's very very Zelda 1-y, but in a good way. Everything's a bit simple and quick, and it literally cannot take more than about 3 and a half hours to play. The timer never seemed too short. It's a great game to have on a portable device at a motel or somesuch. But I can imagine this being an awful nightmare to play on a forced schedule with the actual expensive Sattelaview device back in the day, it sounds like that part was pretty awful. But to play today, I recommend it for Zelda 1 fans.
- The version I played was the Mottzilla patch; he does good work. I also played a little of the Zelda Classic 2.50 version; it seemed pretty decently put together.
BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets
- I've only played week 1, but I want to do a full run sometime.
- It's interesting. It reuses a lot of LTTP assets, with scheduled NPC events, weird little weather effects, and new dungeons, but the new dungeons seem a bit simplistic. Still, as an LTTP fan, this stuff is pretty fascinating.
- I watched a full LP of this by DartZaidyer a while back.
Ocarina of Time
- All of it, twice, a long time ago. Poked at it a little since then.
- Old-timey (makes me feel old) polygonal N64 games appeal to me and this has a lot of good things in common with a Link to the Past, but the actual drawings/textures/designs are all very ugly and the game is very linear and the plot really drags on, with a lot of words without really saying much at times. So I'm kinda in the middle on this one. I love the "sinking" ghost-boat gimmick room for some reason, though, and I never really minded the Water Temple since I enjoy complex puzzles. (I also had a weird habit of wanting to wear the Hover Boots almost everywhere as if they were an upgrade, mostly because I'm clumsy and fall off everything in 3D games, and they actually helped me not fall so much.)
- Both times I finished were on a N64 copy that had green blood (Ganon puke?) and crescent Gerudo symbols. I poked very briefly at Master Quest though.
- I watched a Let's Play of Master Quest by MeleeWizard.
Majora's Mask
- Stopped playing when I got to Great Bay Temple. Almost ragequit in Snowfall temple. Attempts to return and start again in later years ended before even leaving Clock Town the first time.
- On the one hand, I love the intricate complexity of the groundhog's day routine, and find it very creative and deep. Transforming is a concept I can work with too. There's so many clever details everywhere that it's really amazing, and some of the puzzles, like the flipping-over dungeon room, are fantastic. And Deku Link is really cute! On the other hand...
- The version I played was the original release on N64, with the little hologram label thingy that always looked blurry.
- I watched a minimailst Let's Play of it by MeleeWizard (which he said is to be followed by a completionist revisit at some future date), and that was a lot of fun. So I like the game a lot more if I'm not getting stressed out trying to play it myself and constantly running out of time, basically.
Oracle of Seasons & Oracle of Ages
- Completed linked games of OOS followed by OOA, then OOA followed by OOS. Started another playthrough of OOS to OOA but kinda trailed off in the middle. I got all the secrets both times, though, 'cause those are cool. The one thing I never got was all the rings; don't have the ludicrous RNG patience.
- The puzzles and items in these are great! They're actually pretty hard, both in terms of solving some of the puzzles and in terms of me dying constantly (and potions being a biiiiit too hard to come by). It's easy to lose track of what you were doing if you should stop in the middle though, and unfortunately it's a bit linear about exactly what you have to do next at any given step, so that's unfortunate. Still, these are really quite good, and some of my favorites!
- I watched SCKnuckles' first run of these.
The Wind Waker
- I finished it once, but I never got all the heart containers. I think I did everything else though.
- Some of the music in this (especially Dragon Roost Island and the sailing music) is truly awesome, and I really like the sailing-and-islands motif. As in, REALLY REALLY like that. I also like the bright use of color and sheer sense of atmosphere the game has going on. I also liked the Deku Leaf item, very cool; and some new types of Iron Boot puzzles were neat. All the stuff with weights and propellers was great. On the down side, I found it very short in terms of actual dungeons, and long in terms of collecting and paying for the treasure maps and the amount of side quests... I'd have liked to see more in the way of dungeons and items, and less in the way of talking to NPCs. And maybe a little more of a sense of meaningful things to find by exploring, somehow, like more items that actually do stuff, instead of weird collectibles that just sort of... sit there. So I love some things about this game, but tire of others, and it feels like it's missing something?
- I played on the Gamecube version.
- I watched half a Let's Play (or so) of the HD version by Vinesauce Vinny, but I haven't gone back to finish it yet. I'm thinking about watching Pixcalibur123's LP of the original though.
Four Swords
- I've played through exactly one game of this because I didn't know anybody else in person who had it for most of my life.
- It was alright I guess? I liked that they brought back Bow-wow. But I dunno about that one-item-at-a-time system. I never really was enthusiastic about competition, either, so I think half the game is wasted on me.
- I've never seen an LP of this. It didn't occur to me until just now that those could exist with the magic of modern technology.
Four Swords Adventures
- I played three of the stages in this with some other people once upon a time. I never had my own copy.
- It was also alright I guess? Seeing sideview areas again was neat.
- I've never seen an LP of it.
The Minish Cap
- I played through the main game once but didn't do the postgame things and didn't begin to get all those kinstone whatsits.
- This one has slipped out my memory more than any other. I think maybe the gust jar was cool, and the splitting into multiples puzzles? I remember the overworld feeling sort of fenced in and enclosed though, and I remember there not being many dungeons, like 6 total or something. I know at the time I didn't think it held up well next to it's GBA partner LTTP, but it's been so long I don't feel like I can judge it fairly, and I'd like to give it another go sometime.
- I've never watched an LP of this. Maybe I should.
Twilight Princess
- I got to the entrance of the second dungeon and then stopped.
- This game seems to have a lot of care put into it and a decidedly unique creepy atmosphere, but I had a really hard time getting into it myself. Everything just felt weird and uncomfortable, and the gameplay seemed to have all the flaws of OoT and Wind Waker without adding anything that struck my interest. But it is still interesting; I like the idea of the spinner, and I kinda halfway like Midna. Unfortunately I was never really into wolves and werewolves in the first place either, so that didn't really do anything for me (except annoy me about not having access to my items when I had to do wolf stuff). Ultimately I felt very ehhh and uninterested about this one, which had never happened before with Zelda.
- I played on the Gamecube version. Don't know if the novelty of the Wii controls would've helped? I hear it wasn't well implemented in this one.
- I've watched most of TeamUDF's LP of this one and it's been quite great, a lot more fun than I had on my own. I've been meaning to set aside some time to finish it.
Phantom Hourglass
- I've gotten one or two of those metal ore things in the second set of dungeons, but sort of trailed off.
- Like Wind Waker, I kinda like the sailing... but it's not really as majestic. And the music is all somewhere between bland and bad (why are there so many short tiny loops for important things like dungeons?? And why is the title screen music identical to the sailing music? Imagine if Ocarina of Time booted up with the overworld music; it'd be awkward!). Drawing notes... mixed feelings about it. The Temple of the Ocean King might've been fun to go through once, but I hate the mandatory-speedrunning/do it over and over again in expanding chunks thing, it feels like frustrating, stressful padding to me. The stylus controls... not sure how I feel about them one way or the other, except that I definitely don't like the parts where you're supposed to scribble fast to escape something (makes me feel like I'll scratch the screen, which isn't worth it). Not sure how I feel about the stores escalating prices and having 'limited time' goods, it feels kind of annoying instead of interesting. But I had fun playing with the grappling hook I guess (...except it's basically just the hookshot), and I kinda like the layered peg height puzzles.
- I've never watched an LP of it. Maybe sometime I guess?
(Skyward Sword)
- I haven't played it at all! I've had very limited experience with the Wii and I don't have one currently.
- The controls look neat and I love the Beetle concept. Not sure how into it I'd be otherwise, but again it seems to have a lot of care put into the look and atmosphere of everything.
- I've watched half of TeamUDF's LP of this and it's quite good, going to go back to that sometime too. I feel bad about starting and not finishing these things...
(A Link Between Worlds)
- I really want to play it, but don't have the money for such a thing yet. I am poor.
- It sounds pretty good!
- I haven't watched any LPs because I don't want to spoil the puzzles before I play it myself.
I haven't played enough ZC quests to feel comfortable trying to list them, because I've watched far more LPs (mostly by MeleeWizard, TeamUDF, SCKnuckles, Pixcalibur123, and TK8305) of quests than I've actually played through quests. Most often with a quest I'll download it, spend a couple hours trying to play it, die a lot, and then not get back to it in a timely fashion : (
However, off the top of my head, some quests that really jumped out and impressed me (but that I have not actually finished myself) anyway include:
- Engage to Zeldawock
- Link's Quest for the Hookshot 1 and 2 (especially 2)
- Lost Kingdom of the Banana Blood God
- Isle of Rebirth
- Umbral Cloud
- Eiyuu
- Randomizer Modern
- Yuurei
and a few years back,
You Only Live Once
The Journey of Link
(seeing Melee's LPs of those two got me interested in what 2.5 was capable of to the point of actually poking at it myself again).
But there's a LOT more cool quests out there!
Similar problem with romhacks, although I have played a good chunk of Goddess of Wisdom, Hylian Legacy, and Secrets of the Past, as well as poking at and giving up on good ol' Parallel Worlds and the much more questionable IQ Test. I've also watched full LPs (mostly by TeamUDF) of every complete LTTP romhack I know of except that Conker one and IQ Test. I also saw Team's LP of Zelda's Birthday (the only complete OoT romhack I've ever heard of), and I've played a bit of Zelda Outlands (a Zelda 1 romhack). I've tried to play Zelda II Shadow of Night and a bunch of the other Zelda II romhacks by Ice Penguin, but every single one of them was too difficult for me to actually enjoy (even though all of them claimed to have 'easy' versions... I think Ice Penguin and I have different definitions of 'easy'), except for the awesome ZII randomizer.
And I haven't really touched Solarus yet.
Edited by Mitsukara, 13 February 2017 - 07:01 PM.