• Welcome to ZD Forums! You must create an account and log in to see and participate in the Shoutbox chat on this main index page.

How often does Zelda land the ending for you?

Sometimes the end of a game just isn't satisfying and can leave a hollow lasting impression.

Zelda isn't a stranger to this, not every ending to a Zelda game is great. Not every ending in a Zelda game wraps up the story well or sometimes at all.

Which Zelda endings left something to be desired for you personally?

Conversely, which endings do you think are the best?
 

Sheikah_Witch

I just really like botw
Joined
Apr 8, 2019
Location
Sweden
Oh, very often. I love most Zelda endings. I almost always tear up on them, especially after OoT (See the video "Ocarina of Time: A Masterclass In Subtext) and Twilight Princess (Midna leaving forever </3 )
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

CHIMer Dragonborn
Staff member
Comm. Coordinator
Site Staff
Most of the games have decent endings. I think the ones that fell flat for me were Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild. SS because Fi's goodbye to Link meant nothing to me because I didn't see or feel like she grew as a character, she didn't have emotions and didn't suddenly gain them in the last minute of the game. I felt no attachment to Fi, so that ending has never worked for me. Breath of the Wild just because the fight with Dark Beast Ganon is so anti-climatic (I'm very glad that with BotW 2 revealed along with Ganon-corpse, we can't consider that the true ending. For the moment though, it still remains one of my least favorite endings).
 

Doc

BoDoc Horseman
Joined
Nov 24, 2012
Gender
Male
I think BotW was the only flop for me.

I enjoyed the hell out of the fight but I was excited to finally actually get to meet this Zelda and not just see her in memories. The visuals of the finale were all awesome but then it comes to a full halt. Oh but that's not the true ending, there's an actual true ending when you complete all the shrines. Cool.

Except the true ending is just Zelda talking about how they have to fix the world. I think this ending would have been better if they showed ANY of the characters we interacted with reacting to Ganon being defeated, because it feels like nothing really changed. Like yeah, Zelda is free and Calamity Ganon is defeated, but that impact isn't felt across the world.
 
Last edited:

Castle

Ch!ld0fV!si0n
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Location
Crisis? What Crisis?
Gender
Pan-decepticon-transdeliberate-selfidentifying-sodiumbased-extraexistential-temporal anomaly
Even the original Zelda ending with Link and Zelda holding up their triforce pieces was good.

ALttP's ending just undoes every bad thing that happened to everyone in the game. It's kinda schmaltzy.

Ocarina has the best triumphant ending. Even though it consists of a musical number, the montage shows the people of Hyrule getting together to celebrate. And the scene with Zelda sending Link back to his childhood is bittersweet. Having it all come back around to one of the earliest moments in the game after everything we've been through is a nice touch. By then that quiet, unassuming moment seems so far away, just like Link's lost childhood. Seeing Link come back to it reminds us of how pivotal it was.

Majora's ending is a very meaningful moment for its story. We finally get clear confirmation that Skull Kid is the same friend Link met in the Lost Woods in Ocarina of Time. We see Skull Kid make amends with the giants. We see Tael and Tatl reunited and the people of Termina freed from their impending doom and free to go back to their daily lives. It's very satisfying after all we've been through, but seeing the Deku butler mourn for his lost son really reminds us of how costly Majora's rampage was.

Twilight chooses to focus on character. Specifically Link, Zelda and Midna. There is a connection between these three but Zelda is unfortunately left feeling left out (I swear she was supposed to have a larger presence in the story). Midna's connection to Zelda is actually stronger than Link's. Throughout the whole game Link and Zelda have practically nothing to do with each other. Twilight's whole narrative kinda falls apart in places leading up to the end and I still wonder if it is because content was cut that would have made it more cohesive. This makes the ending seem a little bit awkward. Of course, it is Midna's departure that has the most feels and stands as the ending's crowning moment. After everything Link and Midna have been through, to see her go is sad but at the same time heartening knowing that Hyrule is safe and Midna is going back to be reunited with her people.

Wind Waker... eh. Once again I think WW's narrative is brought down by Link and Zelda really having nothing to do with the grand scheme of things, and nothing was really at stake save for a long lost, long dead kingdom. I get that this is the theme of the story: that a bunch of innocent kids were unwittingly caught up in a conflict they never had any stake in that was being waged by a couple of old guys from hasbeen times, but it still undermines the story and the ending when all we really see is Aryl safe and Link and Tetra setting sail for new adventures. Not much else really changed.

BotW... doesn't really have much of an ending. For a game that sidelines its story like no other Zelda game before it in favor of open ended gameplay, the game effectively never ends and the story doesn't bother to either.

The most meaningful ending in the series has to be Link's Awakening, given that the entire narrative isn't clear until the ending revelation.

Technically the Oracle game's entire gimmick revolves around the ending and completing both games in order to see it.

In Adventure of Link... Link fights his shadow for some reason, a thunderbird out of nowhere and gets the girl.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom