I'd like to start a discussion on the Lost Woods, a famous area in the Zelda universe yet one that interestingly hasn't appeared as much as you would think.
It's first iteration was of course in the original Legend of Zelda:
It started as a simple puzzle area, the screen repeated itself over and over unless you followed a certain pattern which would allow you into the next area. That was it, nothing much to it then besides being an over-world puzzle/obstacle.
It made it's second appearance in A Link to the Past. It was in this game it first became a real area. In the beginning of the game before you retrieve the Master Sword it is covered in a thick fog, the song for the Woods is my favorite out of all of them, even Saria's Song (though that to is great).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iChFE58NLE
The forest is used briefly as the resting place for the Sword of Evil's Bane. Of course there are, interestingly, several fakes swords scattered about (wonder who put them there?). There are some thieves who will try and steal your items and a hideout of theirs with a heart piece for the taking.
Other than going in to find a mushroom for an old witch...That's about it.
However it laid the foundation of the Lost Woods as a major region in Hyrule and set the stage for one of my favorite locations in the series, if not the favorite.
In Ocarina of Time the Lost Woods become a central point to the story, not the least of which it's Link's childhood home, in the Kokiri Forest, a village situated in the heart of the woods watched over by the guardian spirit the Deku Tree.
The actual woods themselves operates as a grid system where if you take the wrong turn you get warped back to Kokiri Forest. Graphical limitations of the time keep it to being different squares of land and compared to graphics of today it doesn't look like much. Still I think the Lost Woods of OoT are full of 'life', much more so then other iterations of the LW and other forests in my humble opinion.
It actually felt really mysterious and magical wandering through those woods and still does. Besides the Kokiri you can wander through and find Deku Scrubs, Business Scrubs and even Skull Kids. On every corner is something new. You can win some equipment improvements and pieces of hearts by playing games with them. One area you fall into a hole and find the Forest Stage, where a mysterious group of Scrubs rate your masks and award you or shoot at you. There is of course the Sacred Forest Meadow as well.
The entire woods felt full of life to me, I always loved exploring it, it really felt like a magical forest. It remains one of my favorite areas in the entire franchise.
The woods have made a few brief appearances in later games and several different woods like Faron Woods or Woods of Mystery or Forest Haven but none I think were as good as OoT Lost Woods.
It's first iteration was of course in the original Legend of Zelda:
It started as a simple puzzle area, the screen repeated itself over and over unless you followed a certain pattern which would allow you into the next area. That was it, nothing much to it then besides being an over-world puzzle/obstacle.
It made it's second appearance in A Link to the Past. It was in this game it first became a real area. In the beginning of the game before you retrieve the Master Sword it is covered in a thick fog, the song for the Woods is my favorite out of all of them, even Saria's Song (though that to is great).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iChFE58NLE
The forest is used briefly as the resting place for the Sword of Evil's Bane. Of course there are, interestingly, several fakes swords scattered about (wonder who put them there?). There are some thieves who will try and steal your items and a hideout of theirs with a heart piece for the taking.
Other than going in to find a mushroom for an old witch...That's about it.
However it laid the foundation of the Lost Woods as a major region in Hyrule and set the stage for one of my favorite locations in the series, if not the favorite.
In Ocarina of Time the Lost Woods become a central point to the story, not the least of which it's Link's childhood home, in the Kokiri Forest, a village situated in the heart of the woods watched over by the guardian spirit the Deku Tree.
The actual woods themselves operates as a grid system where if you take the wrong turn you get warped back to Kokiri Forest. Graphical limitations of the time keep it to being different squares of land and compared to graphics of today it doesn't look like much. Still I think the Lost Woods of OoT are full of 'life', much more so then other iterations of the LW and other forests in my humble opinion.
It actually felt really mysterious and magical wandering through those woods and still does. Besides the Kokiri you can wander through and find Deku Scrubs, Business Scrubs and even Skull Kids. On every corner is something new. You can win some equipment improvements and pieces of hearts by playing games with them. One area you fall into a hole and find the Forest Stage, where a mysterious group of Scrubs rate your masks and award you or shoot at you. There is of course the Sacred Forest Meadow as well.
The entire woods felt full of life to me, I always loved exploring it, it really felt like a magical forest. It remains one of my favorite areas in the entire franchise.
The woods have made a few brief appearances in later games and several different woods like Faron Woods or Woods of Mystery or Forest Haven but none I think were as good as OoT Lost Woods.