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Did you find Zelda games hard when you were a child?

Joined
Aug 30, 2018
This topic is addressed to those gamers, who played Zelda games in their early childhood. And especially for those, who did not have a privilege to enjoy Zelda games with their native language. I wonder how many there are in this forum besides myself?

So, did anyone else play Zelda games even if you could not understand the language of the game? What was your strategy to beat the game then? I'd like to hear how far did you manage to play the story of OOT?
Was your strategy better than mine which was just randomly trying every possible thing until I had success just by pure luck. Or were you smarter than I was?

How about kids who did understand the language of the OOT? Did you find it still hard to beat?

I played OOT when I was 9 years old in 1998. Back then I did not understand a word of english. I'm not native english speaker and my native language was not included in the game. So you can imagine how hard it was to play OOT that was all about following clues that you got from NPCs. Just getting pass Mido to meet Deku tree was a challenge as I had no idea why that green mean little man was blocking the path. Randomly exploring the kokiri forest I stumbled upon the shield and sword. Lost wood was total mess to me. But I did spend there a lot of time just listening that catchy tune of Saria's song. That tune always brings me the memory of playing OOT back in then.

I remember that I managed to get to Temple of Time (huge experience!) and to the Huryle castle to meet Zelda but then I got bored as I did not understand anything about the story. I felt Zelda was twaddling a monologue with no ending. I think I got even Epona but after that I don't remember playing the game further. Maybe I visited every available village but did not complete any missions. I gave up and went back to playing Golden Eye 007 and Mario64. This year, BotW made me to play OOT finally through. I'm glad I have found Zeldas now. Ability to understand the language of the game makes experience a lot more satisfying.
 
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DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
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Oct 28, 2012
LoZ might have been hard to me? I just remember being annoyed at all the OCD bombing/torching. aLttP was easy. Didn't get LA until much later. OoT came out when I was 6 and there was...more reading than I felt comfortable doing at the time, but it was pretty easy. Got AoL after and that was hard as balls. MM and onward were easy.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

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wind waker and twilight princess are considered the easiest games in the series, and I totally agree....but man was that not the case when I was a kid

I was around 7 - 9 when I played through wind waker, while I got stumped in certain dungeons, I was able to get through it pretty well until it was time to go to the earth and wind temples, b/c I had NO idea you were supposed to purposefully get trapped in a cyclone and shoot cyclos w/ an arrow to earn the ballad of gales, so I was at a halt in the game until I figured it out [hell, I think my brother told me], similar thing during the triforce piece quest but it was more so a slow progression rather than a halt b/c of how it worked

I played twilight princess at age 10, and the segments that I remember giving me trouble was the AWFUL lakebed temple, death sword in arbiter's ground, trying to reach the city in the sky, and the city in the sky itself, and I think even trying to get to snowpeak ruins took some time

and thats it when it comes to childhood zelda, everything else I played as a teen onwards and had the benefit of walkthroughs, whicn includes oot
 

Castle

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I hadn't played any of the old school Zeldas. I started with Ocarina of Time.

I didn't find it particularly difficult. My progress through the game was mostly stymied by trepidation. It took me several years to beat Dodongo's Cavern because I was just too ... I dunno, "scared" isn't the right word but I guess I just didn't want to face the prospect of taking on a challenge greater than what I'd faced in the game so far. Of course, King Dodongo and most everything else after that is a breeze but I didn't know that.

I finally beat King Dodongo and over the next few weeks I breezed through the rest of the game. It's weird. Playing Ocarina of Time was like a two part saga spanning many years. The first was doing everything I could that can be done prior to Dodongo's Cavern and, well, the rest is everything else since then.

I do remember being motivated to progress in the game just to get into the Forest Temple. Even before getting inside I was enamored with the place. Just that temple like facade in the Sacred Forest Meadow was tantalizing. Needless to say, after finally getting in it didn't disappoint.
 

Usurper King Zant

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I could never finish Legend of Zelda, more due to the fact it was rented and didn't really have enough time to explore more.
Years later I bought the game and finished it, it was like a big stone thay fell from my heart.
 
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I didn't start playing the games until I was in middle school with the release of Ocarina of Time. So I was never a little kid when playing them. I wouldn't call them hard at that age, but they were challenging.
 

Dizzi

magical internet cat....
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I could never do the forest temple when i was little i wimped out....but then got older and did ot but i still havent done final Ganon fight
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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My first experience playing a video game was when I was 4 years old, and it was OoT. I couldn't read well at the time, but I got pretty far in the game on pure luck. I figured out where to go by things like the map having those glowing icons, or during a cutscene it'd pan out and show where you needed to go, and I'd catch stuff like that. I didn't beat OoT when I was 4, I beat it on the Gamecube Collector's Edition when I was 9 years old, and by then I could read so I was able to pay attention to the story.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2012
I had so much trouble with the snowhead temple in MM when I was younger. Basically, I was really shaky with the goron roll (I was so happy when you didn't need to hold A anymore in the 3DS version) and kept falling down to the bottom of the temple. I knew it wasn't that tough but it would get in my head. Combine that with having to find all the fairies and the 3 day time limit, I just couldn't do it.

I went ahead in the game and did everything I could without beating that temple. I remember having the mirror shield, but only the Kokiri sword. I had tons of hearts before beating the 2nd temple. But beating that temple meant getting double magic and the gilded sword, and obviously progressing through the game.

I ended up shelving it for about 7 years. Eventually I was like ok this is ridiculous and finally beat it along with the game. It was easier once I played the 3DS version, but I will say it is my one of my all-time least favorite temples. In fact, for me, it makes OoT's water temple fun!

I also must admit, the alien invasion at the farm was tough for me too. A big reason was cause I was stupid and didn't use the map, so I never noticed that one that came behind the barn. But also the moment is just very intense, I couldn't handle it when I was younger!
 

CyborgElfStephanie

Just a loser loving Legend of Zelda and anime
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Ocarina of time for the Nintendo 64 was my only Zelda game as a kid and yea it was hard but somehow I didn't die a lot but wasn't able to get further into the game until my freshmen year at high school when I got the game back for Christmas.
 
Joined
May 11, 2011
The only one I played as a kid was OOT, and I was 13 when it came out, so not even a young kid, but yes, back then it was hard.

I remember finding the Shadow Temple the most difficult, and never even getting past Gerudo Fortress! This is insane because as an adult, gerudo fortress is extremely easy. The Shadow Temple isn't even hard either.

Now I find OOT so easy.
 

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