I'll preface by saying my initial experience wasn't playing the Zelda games the myself but rather watching my eldest brother play them alongside my middle brother. This started off with OoT, and continued on during MM. I messed around on his profile a bit but never truly experienced completing dungeons myself. More often than not I would just play around Kakariko Village or play the ocarina songs eventually to the point of memorization much to the surprise of my brothers (I was about 9-10 years old). I thought the games looked awesome but I was terrified of trying to play them myself. My introduction wouldn't come until a few years later.
About 3-4 years later, I had acquired a Gameboy advance, and my brother had heard of Oracle of Ages as well as Seasons. We each got one and although it took me a couple years, I eventually completed each one. I loved the items and although the fighting was incredibly difficult for me, I was eventually successful. It was an incredibly rewarding experience, having been the most challenging game I had completed to date. Even at that point I had yet to beat the Elite Four in any Pokemon game.
We had heard of WW at the time, but being as young as we were, we thought the cartoon-like Link looked stupid as though they turned Zelda into a kid's game. We never bought the game, and I wouldn't get to experience it until much later.
After a long time of not purchasing another game from the franchise. The Gamecube passed, and the Wii was announced. Twilight Princess had both me and my brothers excited. We bought the console on release alongside TP. This time I was more than ready for the adventure to come. Getting used to mechanics took some time, but with more experience, I got the hang of it. I loved every second of it, and the adventure was more grand than any other I had experienced in a game. To this day TP is my favorite Zelda game, even recently, playing through it again I found new things to love, such as the Midna's character development as well as the tone that the game starts with and changes as you proceed. The items despite taking a large amount of reference from OoT were changed in order to create new uses that were personally unexpected and welcomed. It had everything that made OoT great as well as a wealth of new things to appreciate alongside them, and for the first time I got to experience it all first hand. With this title also truly started my fascination of the series, whereas my brothers' interest in it waned.
Another couple years without too much continuation of my Zelda experience lead me to become attached to the DS. One day talking to one of my friends they were telling me about Phantom Hourglass. Seeing as I hadn't played a handheld Zelda since OoA/S and the fact that it seemed to be incredibly similar to the 3D Zelda titles I picked it up soon after. Although my memory of the game is fuzzy, I do remember greatly enjoying it being able to customize the ship as well as how fun sailing from island to island was.
Following in the previous trend, this time Spirit Tracks was coming out. But unlike the past experience, this time I was much more aware of this title's release. After picking up the title soon after it's release the train based gameplay was alright at the start but once the phantom trains appeared on the map I quickly became frustrated with it. Unlike PH in which you chose your path and were more or less free, the tracks felt incredibly confining. I become infuriated and stopped playing the title. Despite this after a few months of respite from the game I eventually picked it up again and completed it. Despite never truly enjoying the train conducting, the rest of the game was solid. I wasn't a huge fan of the phantom puzzles, but the traditional dungeon puzzles were always welcome.
The next title was one I was familiar with due to my past. I bought a 3DS at release and was thrilled once OoT 3D was announced as a title. I bought it on the release date and relived the childhood memory this time in my own control. The game was incredibly nostalgic and Master Quest made it even more memorable. I had already seen almost every dungeon and boss fight, but the experience was still incredibly entertaining. I had finally completed the very game that I had once been terrified of.
After this I did end up trying a multitude of other titles shortly. I tried to play the original Legend of Zelda, but despite my efforts never finished it due to it's difficulty. The same story occurred with Adventure of Link. Both of these played using the 3DS.
My next step was Skyward Sword and it's unique controls. Even though this was the next console Zelda, both my brothers weren't nearly as interested as I was. They condemned motion controls and had began to move onto other series such as Halo and Assassin's Creed. Nonetheless, I was thrilled to give it a shot. The stamina meter was an incredibly odd addition, as was shield durability. Shield durability is probably the biggest blunder in the game. Due to it's nature I more often focused on dodging and never found myself resorting to the shield out of fear it would break and I would have to purchase a new one. Despite this, the somewhat whimsical storyline that tied a lot of the things mentioned throughout the Zelda series was very interesting. Groose ended up being one of my favorite characters of the entire franchise by having the least stereotypical story that they could have come up with from the characters beginnings. The controls that were stemmed from the idea of freedom, made the game very difficult to adjust to. On my first play through, I found myself infuriated by all the motions required to accomplish simple tasks such as fighting enemies. The game promised for the detailed combat to be rewarding, but more often than not it punished you for being inaccurate. Despite these tribulations I did finish the game. My opinion upon it was somewhat neutral, puzzles were interesting but something was missing. After having done replays of TP and SS, despite the difference in tone the major change in the titles were the dungeons. In TP the dungeons were long, grueling and filled with chests to open, whereas the ones from SS are actually fairly small in comparison as well as being rather linear. It's not that these dungeons were bad, it's just that it needed more of them in the game in my opinion. The upside of my second play-through of SS was that the motion controls became a lot more fluid for me. Enough to the point where the SS final boss surpassed any other final boss I had experienced since the beginning of my journey throughout the franchise. It did what the premise promise, it rewarded good usage of the motion controls and you truly felt a new sense of accomplishment and connection with Link.
As of a week ago, I purchased a Wii U alongside, Windwaker HD so that I could finally check out the 3D Zelda title that everyone else in my family had missed. While the dungeons weren't particularly interesting, I did love the openness of the over-world and experiencing it for the first time. The only true moment where I was gripped by the story was Medli's character development during the game. As a character she stands among the best in terms of characters in the Zelda franchise alongside Groose. In my opinion they still don't hold a candle to Midna, but that is only my opinion. The puzzles were classic Zelda fare, and the bosses rarely disappointed. The dungeon's as a whole felt more extensive than Skyward Sword's but still fell short of the monoliths in TP and OoT. Nonetheless, the game was a ton of fun to play through. After a considerable amount of time playing the sailing portions did become a bit formulaic. After each dungeon i would find the treasures I had found maps for and then would proceed to the next mission.
The next title I'll most-likely play will be Zelda Wii U in over a year, but I couldn't be more excited. 3D console Zelda titles are rare, but well worth the wait as they always end up being a unique experience.
If I had to rate the Zelda's that I've completed, the list would probably go as such: TP > SS > OoT > WW > PH > ST > OoA/S. That said, all of these games have been fantastic, and despite the fact that I like some more than others, each was a unique experience that I enjoyed experiencing to the fullest.
About 3-4 years later, I had acquired a Gameboy advance, and my brother had heard of Oracle of Ages as well as Seasons. We each got one and although it took me a couple years, I eventually completed each one. I loved the items and although the fighting was incredibly difficult for me, I was eventually successful. It was an incredibly rewarding experience, having been the most challenging game I had completed to date. Even at that point I had yet to beat the Elite Four in any Pokemon game.
We had heard of WW at the time, but being as young as we were, we thought the cartoon-like Link looked stupid as though they turned Zelda into a kid's game. We never bought the game, and I wouldn't get to experience it until much later.
After a long time of not purchasing another game from the franchise. The Gamecube passed, and the Wii was announced. Twilight Princess had both me and my brothers excited. We bought the console on release alongside TP. This time I was more than ready for the adventure to come. Getting used to mechanics took some time, but with more experience, I got the hang of it. I loved every second of it, and the adventure was more grand than any other I had experienced in a game. To this day TP is my favorite Zelda game, even recently, playing through it again I found new things to love, such as the Midna's character development as well as the tone that the game starts with and changes as you proceed. The items despite taking a large amount of reference from OoT were changed in order to create new uses that were personally unexpected and welcomed. It had everything that made OoT great as well as a wealth of new things to appreciate alongside them, and for the first time I got to experience it all first hand. With this title also truly started my fascination of the series, whereas my brothers' interest in it waned.
Another couple years without too much continuation of my Zelda experience lead me to become attached to the DS. One day talking to one of my friends they were telling me about Phantom Hourglass. Seeing as I hadn't played a handheld Zelda since OoA/S and the fact that it seemed to be incredibly similar to the 3D Zelda titles I picked it up soon after. Although my memory of the game is fuzzy, I do remember greatly enjoying it being able to customize the ship as well as how fun sailing from island to island was.
Following in the previous trend, this time Spirit Tracks was coming out. But unlike the past experience, this time I was much more aware of this title's release. After picking up the title soon after it's release the train based gameplay was alright at the start but once the phantom trains appeared on the map I quickly became frustrated with it. Unlike PH in which you chose your path and were more or less free, the tracks felt incredibly confining. I become infuriated and stopped playing the title. Despite this after a few months of respite from the game I eventually picked it up again and completed it. Despite never truly enjoying the train conducting, the rest of the game was solid. I wasn't a huge fan of the phantom puzzles, but the traditional dungeon puzzles were always welcome.
The next title was one I was familiar with due to my past. I bought a 3DS at release and was thrilled once OoT 3D was announced as a title. I bought it on the release date and relived the childhood memory this time in my own control. The game was incredibly nostalgic and Master Quest made it even more memorable. I had already seen almost every dungeon and boss fight, but the experience was still incredibly entertaining. I had finally completed the very game that I had once been terrified of.
After this I did end up trying a multitude of other titles shortly. I tried to play the original Legend of Zelda, but despite my efforts never finished it due to it's difficulty. The same story occurred with Adventure of Link. Both of these played using the 3DS.
My next step was Skyward Sword and it's unique controls. Even though this was the next console Zelda, both my brothers weren't nearly as interested as I was. They condemned motion controls and had began to move onto other series such as Halo and Assassin's Creed. Nonetheless, I was thrilled to give it a shot. The stamina meter was an incredibly odd addition, as was shield durability. Shield durability is probably the biggest blunder in the game. Due to it's nature I more often focused on dodging and never found myself resorting to the shield out of fear it would break and I would have to purchase a new one. Despite this, the somewhat whimsical storyline that tied a lot of the things mentioned throughout the Zelda series was very interesting. Groose ended up being one of my favorite characters of the entire franchise by having the least stereotypical story that they could have come up with from the characters beginnings. The controls that were stemmed from the idea of freedom, made the game very difficult to adjust to. On my first play through, I found myself infuriated by all the motions required to accomplish simple tasks such as fighting enemies. The game promised for the detailed combat to be rewarding, but more often than not it punished you for being inaccurate. Despite these tribulations I did finish the game. My opinion upon it was somewhat neutral, puzzles were interesting but something was missing. After having done replays of TP and SS, despite the difference in tone the major change in the titles were the dungeons. In TP the dungeons were long, grueling and filled with chests to open, whereas the ones from SS are actually fairly small in comparison as well as being rather linear. It's not that these dungeons were bad, it's just that it needed more of them in the game in my opinion. The upside of my second play-through of SS was that the motion controls became a lot more fluid for me. Enough to the point where the SS final boss surpassed any other final boss I had experienced since the beginning of my journey throughout the franchise. It did what the premise promise, it rewarded good usage of the motion controls and you truly felt a new sense of accomplishment and connection with Link.
As of a week ago, I purchased a Wii U alongside, Windwaker HD so that I could finally check out the 3D Zelda title that everyone else in my family had missed. While the dungeons weren't particularly interesting, I did love the openness of the over-world and experiencing it for the first time. The only true moment where I was gripped by the story was Medli's character development during the game. As a character she stands among the best in terms of characters in the Zelda franchise alongside Groose. In my opinion they still don't hold a candle to Midna, but that is only my opinion. The puzzles were classic Zelda fare, and the bosses rarely disappointed. The dungeon's as a whole felt more extensive than Skyward Sword's but still fell short of the monoliths in TP and OoT. Nonetheless, the game was a ton of fun to play through. After a considerable amount of time playing the sailing portions did become a bit formulaic. After each dungeon i would find the treasures I had found maps for and then would proceed to the next mission.
The next title I'll most-likely play will be Zelda Wii U in over a year, but I couldn't be more excited. 3D console Zelda titles are rare, but well worth the wait as they always end up being a unique experience.
If I had to rate the Zelda's that I've completed, the list would probably go as such: TP > SS > OoT > WW > PH > ST > OoA/S. That said, all of these games have been fantastic, and despite the fact that I like some more than others, each was a unique experience that I enjoyed experiencing to the fullest.
