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Best and Worst Things about Zelda games?


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#1 Architect Abdiel

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Posted 21 February 2018 - 01:26 AM

So I assume that most of us here like Zelda. And I was curious to see what everyone's thoughts are on the best and worst things of each Zelda game. You may talk about as many or as few as you like.


I'll probably have my own thoughts later.

But for now, here is just one for the most recent game.


Breath of the Wild
Best- True Open Adventure
Worst- Durability System is faulty when every weapon falls apart like they are made out of straw.

Edited by Shoshon the Elegant, 21 February 2018 - 01:26 AM.

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#2 Anthus

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Posted 21 February 2018 - 01:30 AM

Ocarina of Time. Great game and dungeons but slow unskippable text and lots of early backtracking are annoying on subsequent playthroughs.

Majora's Mask. Great game, and even better dungeons imo but some of the sidequests have large portions of just standing around waiting. All of these issues were pretty much fixed in the 3DS versions though.
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#3 The Satellite

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Posted 21 February 2018 - 02:01 AM

I'll knock out a few of 'em and maybe make multiple posts here as I work through the series chronologically, rather than a giant wall of text, so here we go.

 

The Legend of Zelda

Best - Practically pure freedom, nonlinearity, exploration is the key. It feels great getting to explore and learn an unknown world and discover its secrets.

Worst - Fairly dated control scheme, door repair charge rooms are a pain, can feel monotonous looking for the right bush or block to bomb for secrets.

 

The Adventure of Link

Best - Combat's actually pretty enjoyable once you get the hang of it. Controls are very fluid as well.

Worst - It just doesn't feel right as a Zelda game to me. The sword also has way too short of a reach. Death Mountain feels too difficult for its fairly early placement, and I hate lives and restarting at the North Palace on game over.

 

A Link to the Past

Best - World design feels almost perfect, both of them, with tons of secrets and items to find.. And the interactivity between them is also great. The story is straightforward but feels like a true myth. Gameplay is still incredibly solid and smooth. Wonderful, varied arsenal. Solid dungeon design.

Worst - Limited options for where you restart from, as well as not saving your health when you save and quit. That, and counting saving and quitting on the "games played" counter, which also tracks deaths, making it feel like punishment.

 

Link's Awakening

Best - Excellent overworld design, good dungeon design, amazing atmosphere and story.

Worst - Menus are pretty clunky, and I hate being told about heavy/strange rocks every time. Also, while I don't dislike Pieces of Power or Guardian Acorns in and of themselves, I loathe that repetitive track that cuts over the much better song that was already playing.

 

Ocarina of Time

Best - Still has some of the best dungeon design in the series, and a varied arsenal almost on par with ALttP's. 

Worst - Hyrule Field is a bore, the text boxes in the original 64 version were agonizingly slow, overall game feels a bit clunky and stiff control-wise nowadays.

 

Majora's Mask

Best - Has some interesting sidequests and the mask mechanic is pretty neat. A lot of cool explained and implied history.

Worst - Not nearly enough dungeons. Some of the sidequests are a bit obnoxious, as well as waiting around in many of them (mitigated by the 3DS version).


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#4 nicklegends

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Posted 21 February 2018 - 05:35 AM

Breath of the Wild:
Best: How every element and object reacts with just about every other element and object, giving the game a sense of boundlessness in a means apart from the size of the massive map. Also, being rewarded rather than punished for overcoming obstacles in non-traditional ways.

Worst: How the game quantifies health and defense. The armor upgrades are way too powerful, IMO, and the "yellow heart" system is way too easy to abuse to get full health back im a pinch. Link gets stronger through the game as he learns enemies' attack patterns and he acquires stronger weapons, but these benefits are totally outweighed by armor that becomes all but bulletproof. I felt like this made me into a more careless player, which is a shame because being forced to find scrappy, creative ways to take out enemies is more time consuming but more fun. (At least the DLC trials effectively sidestepped these issues.)

I also wish there were more interior areas like the final area.
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#5 Cukeman

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Posted 21 February 2018 - 06:15 AM

So I assume that most of us here like Zelda.

 

 

Are you trying to start a flame war?  :awesome:

 

LoZ

Best- Classic retro feel, great dungeon music, simple fun.

Worst- Being locked to the grid, bland visuals, lack of musical variety, difficulty keeping track of overworld secrets. Peahats. There is also the undeserved reputation for non-linearity. Only the first half of the game is non-linear, the dungeons in the second half of the game are item-gated. It is 55% non-linear at best.

 

AoL

Best- Underrated solid game. Introduced towns, sidequests, talking to NPCs of your choice, updated sword combat.

Worst- High learning curve turns people away, leveling up system should be more flexible instead of encouraging a specific order. Random encounter mechanic gets irksome, especially when exploring the overworld for hidden areas. Like Zelda 1, controls are still a little stiff. Some enemies are a bit too relentless. Needs save stations in towns.

 

ALttP

Best- Epic world and mythos. New items, fluid gameplay and controls, beautiful graphics. Lots of dungeons.

Worst- Later games had unique dungeon themes and were more emotional on a personal level. Kakariko theme gets killed off early in the game.

 

LA

Best- First game with unique dungeon themes, trading quest, quirky humor/world, emotional resonance, wonderful music, good balance of puzzles and action. My favorite Zelda.

Worst- Music for Guardian Acorns and Pieces of Power.

 

OoT

Best- Amazing dungeons, gorgeous incredible score, dialogue and depth of lore, sense of being in a fleshed out world, incredibly immersive and compelling. N64 controller layout is a thing of joy and beauty. A milestone in game development.

Worst- Size and scope has aged poorly, difficulty is ridiculously easy with high defense and an invulnerable shield. Combat is oversimplified A button mashing, enemies pose no real threat. Bosses are spectacle over substance. Final boss started the unfortunate trend of last bosses having the huge "wait-for-the-quicktime-strike-because-you-can't-deal-actual-damage" problem. The plot's scope feels limited by being a prequel as they can't let you truly defeat Ganon. (also problematic horse controls)

 

MM

Best- Challenge is increased from OoT. Enemies are tougher, dungeons are trickier and complicated. 

Worst- Some of the music is really grating, time mechanic is clunky, waiting around for events (or missing them) sucks royally. I miss the set your own pace and schedule feel of OoT. Game is laggy. Still impressive considering the ridiculously short turn around time the developers had to work in.

 

OoA/OoS

Best- Revisit to classic Zelda gameplay.

Worst- Most music is bland or terrible. Story is pretty flat, characters are reused from other games too often. Overworld navigation can be really tedious.

 

OoT MQ

Best- Great idea

Worst- Execution is questionable, some things are really non-intuitive

 

FS

Best- Intro and title screen rocks, fun when taken as a mini-game to pass time with friends

Worst- Music apart from the intro/title is awful, hard to get a group together, no real depth

 

WW

Best- Silky smooth graphics, camera and play control. Great music. Wonderfully imaginative and incredible atmosphere and ending.

Worst- Pacing lags in places, the amount of sailing is debatable. Combat isn't fleshed out, but it's very fun and an improvement over OoT. Ropes and swinging are clunky. Tutorials are a bit much, a couple dungeons were cut. 100% is asking a lot.

 

FSA

Best- Lush visuals and music. Large stages.

Worst- Stage-based gameplay is very foreign and multiplayer is hard to make happen. Replay value is moderate at best.

 

MC

Best- Loving tribute to ALttP. Gorgeous pixel art, nice music and lush play environments. Very enjoyable.

Worst- Tons of item-gating, small overworld, could use more dungeons. Kinstones are too particular, figurine system is a pain.

 

TP

Best- Huge excellent game that outdoes OoT in nearly every category! Wonderful epic. Great bosses! Great half bosses! Great additional depth to sword combat!! 5 Heart Pieces! Cool dungeons! Awesome music and visuals! Fantastic game! (also much improved horse controls)

Worst- Overworld lacks the depth and replay value that OoT has. Wolf Link gameplay is lame A button mashing and wolf sense obscures your vision too much. Spinner loses momentum in the overworld. Magic armor drains rupees when not taking damage.

 

PH

Best- Revisits classic enemies long missing. Great ending.

Worst- Should have gotten a WW style sequel instead, game design and graphics are oversimplified and blocky. Island exploration and music leave much to be desired.

 

LCT

Best- Fun shooter mini-game, fun to replay and improve

Worst- No story? Is that an issue?

 

ST

Best- Fantastic music. Last game in this style.

Worst- Music is the only thing this does better than PH. New Hyrule wasn't interesting, being on tracks makes exploration even more limited than PH. Villain and ending were uninteresting tired cliches. "Song" of Awakening.

 

OoT 3D

Best- Cleaner visuals, great character models

Worst- Too many unneccesary additions and changes that dampen the experience. No significant expansion to the original game. Slide pad isn't an analog stick. Not an N64 controller (it's just not OoT without it).

 

SS

Best- Lovely huge areas to explore, no more tiny load areas! Fun sword motion controls! Awesome new villain!

Worst- Camera issues with bow & arrow, harp instrument is problematic and underdeveloped. Whip does nothing. Underwhelming Master Sword origin. Too much Imprisoned. People don't realize tadtones were fine.

 

WW:HD

Best- I haven't tried this version, so no comment.

Worst- My god! What have you done to the graphics?? And why the blinding bloom?

 

ALBW

Best- Great mechanics such as wall walking. Nice music and visual style.

Worst- Clunky play-control, awkward 3D model collision boxes, story is only present at the end. Game seems fine and fun until you try a 3 heart run. Then the play controls and enemy design just seem cheap, and the controls start to feel like a mobile game. Sad.


Edited by Cukeman, 21 February 2018 - 08:21 AM.

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#6 Anarchy_Balsac

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Posted 21 February 2018 - 07:13 AM

I'm going to say that for Link's Awakening the best and worst are exactly the same thing.  On the one hand, the plot is basically "commit genocide to just get left adrift in the ocean by an ungrateful flying whale", on the other, this was, per word of god, a deliberate moral quandry, not for Link, but the player.  Meant to call into question what you were doing and why you continued to do it.  I don't agree with that direction, but I can understand why they went there and don't condemn them for trying it.

 

In a way, Link being left in the ocean like this karma, since he obviously knew at that point exactly what he was doing.


Edited by Anarchy_Balsac, 21 February 2018 - 07:14 AM.

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#7 Eddy

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Posted 21 February 2018 - 08:23 AM

Can't really be bothered to make a wall of text right now, but have something from two of my favourite Zelda games:

 

Wind Waker

Best - So many things can be said here tbh. The sailing and ocean exploring is very memorable to me, the music is incredible, fighting feels so satisfying and each character is nicely developed in some way. I could go on forever lol.

Worst - Lack of dungeons, Hyrule Field not being fully explorable and some islands were filler (see the reef isles).

 

Breath of the Wild

Best - The MASSIVE overworld. Tons of things to explore and see, the fact that everything is so open past the Great Plateau, and the music (where there is music) is amazing.

Worst - "Dungeons" were disappointing to me, I would've preferred traditional style dungeons. That's probably the biggest issue for me tbh.


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#8 The Satellite

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Posted 21 February 2018 - 04:39 PM

Next batch:

 

Oracle of Seasons

Best - The central season changing gimmick is pretty nifty.

Worst - The central season changing gimmick can be obnoxious.

 

Oracle of Ages

Best - The main time traveling gimmick is done absolutely phenomenally, like a combination of ALttP's Dark World and OoT's time travel mechanics. Dungeons are in general pretty solid as well.

Worst - Some annoying puzzles.

 

Four Swords

Best - The bosses are decent.

Worst - Everything else.

 

Wind Waker

Best - Absolutely incredible story, atmosphere, graphics, mood. The most charming game in the series by a mile. So much to explore and find to keep any adventurer occupied.

Worst - Constant use of Wind Waker songs to manipulate things (especially wind and mind control) can get annoying.

 

Four Swords Adventures

Best - Has very fluid singleplayer controls over all four Links and is easy to understand. Some fun gameplay and challenges can come from this.

Worst - Some of the instances of shifting into the GBA seem superfluous or halt the action a bit.

 

Minish Cap

Best - Graphics are lovely, dungeons are mostly solid, Link and Zelda are characterized well (for the brief period the latter is seen). Some of the size-based puzzles are clever.

Worst - The overworld doesn't feel like a living world in the slightest, more just a series of roadblocks and puzzles. Link moves far too slow, feels stiff. Some of the size-based puzzles are tedious. Also Ezlo is one of the worst partner characters.

 

Twilight Princess

Best - Vast overworld with more secrets to find than people give it credit for. Excellent dungeons. Hidden Skills add a lot of potential depth to combat. Midna is a well-developed character.

Worst - Graphics were always kind of dull and haven't aged well. Story isn't very good, nor is the music. 



#9 Sheik

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Posted 21 February 2018 - 04:42 PM

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#10 NoeL

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Posted 21 February 2018 - 09:50 PM

Hmm, what's something I can say about Zelda in general...

 

Best: The world-building is generally really solid (excusing continuity). OoT alone has spawned tons of fan fics/lore.

 

Worst: This is mostly applicable to the "Zelda formula" games, but... the "Zelda formula" is the worst thing. Items of limited use that are only really used to get through the dungeon they're found in... meh. More fun to build a usable arsenal as you progress.

 

In regards to BotW, they screwed it up in the opposite direction by giving you everything up-front. I understand why they did it - so players could explore freely without getting stuck - but this makes character progression far less exciting. Everything you get after the plateau is QoL stuff. It would've at least been more interesting (maybe even better) if parts of the world were blocked off until you found the necessary gear. There are some exceptions, like needing the right clothes to enter areas, but putting on clothes isn't very exciting. In fact, it's often tedious and annoying since you need to switch out of the Climbing Gear (which is, of course, the best gear in the game that you never want to unequip).


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#11 The Satellite

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Posted 22 February 2018 - 07:57 PM

Alright, here's the last of 'em:

 

Phantom Hourglass

Best - I enjoyed Temple of the Ocean King. Fight me. It's fun going through and finding new ways to progress based on your arsenal, including surpassing certain challenges entirely. I enjoyed that aspect. Also Linebeck.

Worst - Lack of substantial music and being generally a forgettable game are really the only big negatives I can think of for this game.

 

Spirit Tracks

Best - Much better soundtrack and less-forgettable atmosphere than the previous DS entry.

Worst - Absolutely dislike the way the train "railroads" you on progression. There's hardly any exploration and this is such a huge world, I want to explore it! Not be restricted to certain and very shallow stations! Also the Tower of Spirits goes on one segment too many in my opinion.

 

Skyward Sword

Best - Incredible dungeon design. Wonderful story. Motion controls can actually be fun at times.

Worst - The "overworld" is a chore and basically like another series of dungeons, which leaves me fatigued. The sky is empty and might as well not even be there. Swimming with motion controls is terrible.

 

A Link Between Worlds

Best - The almost-absolute-freedom from the start is appreciated. Lots of fun and clever puzzle gimmicks, especially those using the painting mechanic.

Worst - Does end up feeling a bit derivative of ALttP, in a way hurting its identity and preventing it from feeling completely unique. Also "do any dungeon in any order you want" is a lie because of that jerk Osfala taking the Sand Rod meaning you have to save him before you can do Desert Palace and why does he need a Sand Rod in an area with no sand anyway?!?!?!

 

Tri Force Heroes

Best - Bosses are actually pretty great. Some of the outfits are cute and the bonuses they grant are fun. Occasionally a clever puzzle usage.

Worst - Grinding for materials is tedious. Incredibly stupid story. Shouldn't be canon.

 

Breath of the Wild

Best - The Great Plateau is one of the best video game tutorial areas of all time. The freedom that comes afterward is equally refreshing, and really appeals to my desire to adventure across any and all corners. Also, Eventide Island is one of the best areas in any Zelda game, period.

Worst - Will admit that I miss certain features of past games, like cave systems and more traditional temples. Sidequests get bland and samey. Improving on these features could potentially result in one of the best games of all time.


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#12 Nicholas Steel

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Posted 23 February 2018 - 03:33 AM

A Link to the Past

Best - World design feels almost perfect, both of them, with tons of secrets and items to find.. And the interactivity between them is also great. The story is straightforward but feels like a true myth. Gameplay is still incredibly solid and smooth. Wonderful, varied arsenal. Solid dungeon design.

Afaik the ONLY interactivity between them is the Dam.



#13 Cukeman

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Posted 23 February 2018 - 09:44 AM

There's quite a lot of topographical differences in the Light/Dark worlds to take advantage of.


Edited by Cukeman, 23 February 2018 - 09:44 AM.

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#14 The Satellite

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Posted 23 February 2018 - 01:10 PM

And you can only reach certain spots by mirroring out of the Dark World. You could even sneak into the tomb where cape's at without Titan's Mitt this way.




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