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Does your opinions on Zelda games change over time?

Sheikah_Witch

I just really like botw
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Sometimes, people have talked about the 'Zelda cycle' - the way public opinions on Zelda games tends to swift and fluctuate with every release. In the light of the newest game in the franschise, all of a sudden, a previously revered game might deemed to be overrated in the public eye, while another game might get hailed as an underrated masterpiece. Some games are met with acclaim upon release, only to receive a backlash later. which causes earlier installments to be seen in a new light.

Public opinions and general consensus doesn't matter much to most people, but how is it for you, personally? Have your opinions on various Zelda titles swayed and changed as time has passed? Which games has been like that for you, and what in them have you seen in a new light, as time has gone by?

Personally, this has happened for me a lot. Majora's Mask made a big impact for the 10 year old me, and for the longest time it was my favorite. But as I have grown older, I've started to find more and more that gameplay and mechanics is what truly resonates within me, and that has made me appreciate Majora's Mask less and less due to it having dungeons I don't consider to be all that great.

Ocarina of Time was originally not a game I thought too highly of, but it seemed to age like fine wine to me, and after seeing a great story analysis video of it, I saw it in a completely new light. My opinion on The Wind Waker changed dramatically when I played WWHD, not because of the graphical overhaul, but because it made me see things in the game I had previously not seen.

I'm not sure if my opinion on BotW will ever change, and if it does, it would be very interesting to me. But I have definitely soured on SS over time, since I was in a huge honeymoon phase the first month, and I started to see cracks and flaws in it already a year or two later.
 

Mikey the Moblin

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Ocarina of Time was originally not a game I thought too highly of, but it seemed to age like fine wine to me
this is practically fact
something about ocarina of time just bleeds nostalgia no matter when you first played it
I thought it was overrated for a long time after REALLY playing it for the first time in high school
but ever since then it just feels like a great game and deserves its title to an extent


it's also really easy to sway to group opinion subconsciously
if you talk a lot with people who feel a certain way about things it tends to rub off
 
None of my opinions on Zelda games have changed, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Tri Force Heroes - hated it at release, still hate it now.

Four Swords - hated it at release, still hate it now.

Four Swords Adventures - hated it at release, still hate it now.

Adventure of Link - never been able to enjoy it, still don't.

Phantom Hourglass - hated it at release, still hate it now.

Spirit Tracks - hated it at release, still hate it now.

The Minish Cap - never meshed with it, still don't now.

Skyward Sword - hated it at release, still hate it now.

Oracle of Seasons - meh back then, meh now.

Oracle of Ages - meh back then, meh now.

The Legend of Zelda - good for what it is, still kind of annoying though.

A Link Between Worlds - meh then and meh now.

Majora's Mask - loved it then, love it now, even though it has mechanics that stress me.

Breath of the Wild - I liked it at release and still like it now.

A Link to the Past - loved it then and still love it now.

Link’s Awakening - loved it then and still love it now.

Twilight Princess - loved it then and still love it now.

Ocarina of Time - loved it then and still love it now.

The Wind Waker - loved it then, love it now and I will always love it.
 

Vanessa28

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Nope, it's still the same. But not only with Zelda games but gaming in general. When I don't like a game after the first playthrough I happen to not like it either at my -let's say- fifth playthrough.
And with games I like and play over and over and over I'm like "what's so cool about this game anyway?" Then I THINK I like it less until I play it again. Then I know why I liked the game in the first place.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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There are probably some middle of the pack games in my ranking that have potential to swap places depending on which ones I've played most recently. But aside from that typically my opinion on them won't change too much.

I think the exception for me is Twilight Princess. When I first played it I liked it but I considered it just a "meh" Zelda game for some reason. I didn't really appreciate it at first, I suppose. But as I replayed it, it grew on me, now I consider it a higher tier Zelda game.
 

Cfrock

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My opinions on some Zelda games have changed from my initial impressions. There was a period of time when I was a Nintendo Fanboi (like, defending the Wii not being HD, Wii Music, and Friend Codes, yikes). Nintendo could do no wrong in my eyes, during a period of time when they did precious little right. For those years I regarded every Zelda as incredible regardless of actual content or quality.

The first 'Fanboi' Zelda for me was Twilight Princess, and this is the only one from that period my opinion hasn't changed on. I loved it when it came out and I love it now. Hell, I loved it more once I finally got the good (read: GameCube) version of it.

Then there was Phantom Hourglass. I fanboi'd over it a lot because it was Zelda and at the time that meant it was great, because Nintendo made it. I would talk about it being great, but I only ever played it once and never with any genuine enthusiasm, so when my fanboi period ended I was able to look back and say "You know what, I was lying to myself. I never enjoyed that game, even when I was deliberately trying to."

Spirit Tracks was next and I never finished it, but I would make excuses for that. I was too busy with other games, real life stuff, I lost my stylus. It wasn't that I didn't want to play the game, because I thought the game was incredible, right? Again, once the fanboi period was over I recognised I was lying to myself and could be honest about how **** I think ST is.

And then we have Skyward Sword. Ooh boy. This was the last Zelda released during my fanboi phase and it is the one my view of has changed the most noticeably and dramatically. When SS first came out, I loved it. I thought it was delightful and exciting and a big demonstration of how good the Wii was... I told people I loved it, even here, I made posts praising the game and extolling its virtues. Those posts might still exist somewhere, I don't know.

By that point I was in my twenties and console wars were a juvenile embarrassment to me. Besides which, I was playing on my Xbox a lot more than Wii or DS and that distance was making it harder to ignore or forgive the ridiculous and weird decisions Nintendo had been making for years. I first played SS in that fanboi stupor of actively ignoring anything that didn't sit right or that felt off, and only focused on things that were easy to be positive about. But then I played it a second time, when the glaze of fanboi blindness was no longer covering my eyes. And I hated it.

I went from praising SS and saying I loved it to talking at great length about all the problems with it, how literally every aspect of its design is broken from the very foundation, how it's one of the worst games not only in the series but on the Wii. It was basically a 180, after I saw the game clearly and without insurmountable bias.

When ALBW came out (in 2013, ha ha, so long ago, ha ha, I don't want to die at all, ha ha) I was cognizant of this fanboi bias I had only recently shaken off, and withheld any grand declarations or critique of the game until I had played it twice. I like ALBW. It's not anything special and it relies heavily on nostalgia, but it's nostalgia for ALttP, which I have loved since childhood, so it appealed to me deeply. I thought it was good when I first played it, I think it's good now. Since then, my opinions haven't changed from what they were initially, and I doubt they will unless I, somehow, slip back into being a blind fanboi. Which is unlikely considering I don't own a Switch anymore.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

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never was a part of the zelda cycle, all the games I initially liked or disliked I still do
I will say it has been some time since I played certain titles, so its definitely possible I'll feel a little different on them now, but I can't see myself feeling too drastically different on them on a replay
 

Castle

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Eh... I'm pretty good at knowing what I like.

I do remember a time when I would unconditionally fanboy out over any Zelda game. Yes. I was thrilled with Suckward when it released. I took Wind Waker seriously when I first played it. And I even fanboy'd out over Spirit Tracks when it came out.

Until I started thinking about them and figured out why I despised them. The fanboy center of my brain is susceptible to being turned off.
 
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I'll admit that I'm excited to play and enjoy any new Zelda game. It usually takes a while, sometimes months, for me to really decide where I would rank it on my list, but I can honestly say that I feel every Zelda game is one of the best games on whichever system it is released.

However, few of those games are ones that I will go back and play over and over, or even years later. ST and PH, for example, are two of the best games on the DS, but I don't see myself going back and playing them occasionally like I would OoT or MM. I'm a huge fan of the Gameboy Zelda games with the exception of TMC (although again, one of the best games on the GBA), and have probably played through one or all of them every single year since they've been released.
 

Mases

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I think if I made a listing of my Top main series Zelda games today... and made the same list next month... at least something would change. Everything is constantly evolving. Whenever years have gone by and I haven't played a game, sometimes a refresher causes me to appreciate things I might have missed... or I get annoyed by things I use to love. Every single time I play through a game again, my opinion changes.

In the last decade, with Nintendo refreshing games with 3D and HD remakes... It has given new life to them. (My view of Ocarina of Time for example... would not be nearly as high, if they never remade it for the 3DS).
 

thePlinko

What’s the character limit on this? Aksnfiskwjfjsk
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I will always think that OoT, MM, and WW will be at the top, and TP and the multiplayer games will always be at the bottom, however the others tend to swap around. I still think LoZ, SS, LA, and ST will be on he higher end, and the oracle games, MC, LBW, and AoL will be on the lower end, but they still switch around quite a bit. My tastes tend to fall in 5 different tiers, and I think they will always be in their current tiers.
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

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As anyone who sees me post has no doubt sussed out, I wasn't a fan of the direction the series took after ALTTP. When I was younger, I enjoyed games like Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess. Heck, I played through TP multiple times. I would regularly tout Zelda as my favorite video game series. It was only after my experiences with Skyward Sword following a long break from the Zelda games that my opinion changed.

Zelda went downhill hard after ALTTP. The series, once about exploration, discovery, and bombing walls to find heartpieces, became about formula. The series settled into a comfortable nook where it never did anything exceptional or new, but was treated well by critics. They became increasingly condescending and linear, removing any kind of player choice and replacing it with long hallways.

It wasn't until Breath of the Wild that I enjoyed Zelda games again, but I continue to remain skeptical of future installments. Nintendo isn't exactly consistent with the quality of its games or game systems, so it remains to be seen whether I'll slink away from Zelda after another disappointing entry, or stick around to enjoy the Breath of the Wild sequel.
 
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