- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
- Gender
- Male
Pre-review ramble, skip if you just want the review:
As I mentioned in my greeting post, I had hardly ever played any Zelda games. I had played Ocarina of Time for maybe 10 minutes way back when. I tried Wind Waker at a friend's house when it came out. A buddy had Twilight Princess and I ran around as wolf link. The most time I ever spent playing as Link was in Smash Bros. I got Breath of the Wild in October, and it's great! I beat have completed 3 divine beast quests, but I'm a busy guy and had bought a bunch of games and Fire Emblem Three Houses took over my spare time. I listened to Kinda Funny's "The Legend of Zelda In Review" while at work and decided I'm going to play all these games.
So, I looked 'em up. There's a stinkin' lot of Zelda games. And there's a lot of Zelda games that people don't talk about. I'm going to try to play them all. To keep my sanity, I am playing some other games at the same time. It took me a month to finish the first game, so I'll probably be doing this for a long time. But I plan on putting up reviews of each one as I play 'em. Hopefully you enjoy the ride. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Review
I went into the game completely blind. I didn't look up a thing and accidentally skipped the intro, so I ended up walking around with no sword for 10 minutes. My first hour or two was spent wandering aimlessly getting destroyed by the Octorock's and those stupid things that pop out of the water. God, I hate them. Eventually, I found the first dungeon and beat it.
The game was incredibly frustrating without a guide, but also extremely exciting when I found something. Finding that first dungeon made me feel like a true adventurer. I could only imagine what it must've been like for kids in the 80's to play this game, make hand-drawn maps and share tips with each other. But, I am not a kid in the 80's. I have an admittedly short attention span and despite the worldwide pandemic I have a busy schedule. I also didn't want to be driven to total insanity. At least not yet, that's what Zelda II is for.
Now, I didn't want to just use a guide for every detail. I don't care if anyone else does, but I wanted to maintain that sense of adventure and discovery. At first I used a GameFaqs text walkthrough and boy was that not helpful at all. Eventually I came here and man, this guide was great. I skimmed through the walkthrough, trying hard to preserve surprises and only consulted it when I was completely stuck. It saved my butt big time.
Playing this game, I got very angry many times - but god, it was fun. Beating it was probably the most satisfying thing I've ever done. I love the minimal story, the grand scale of adventure, the free-roaming aspect... I can see it's DNA all over Breath of the Wild. Now, for me as someone who didn't grow up with this, I have to say I like BotW better, but this was an amazing game. One thing it has over BotW is the enemy variety! There were so many different enemies, it kept the gameplay fresh - except the Wizzrobes and those knight guys. Screw those guys. Oh, also the flying eyeball bees. Screw them too.
I guess this was less of a 'review' and more of the ramblings of a mad man, but to sum it up: I love this game.
And without further ado, I present: the definitive ranking of the Legend of Zelda games:
1. The Legend of Zelda
Next, probably in a month's time, if I'm not in an asylum... Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
As I mentioned in my greeting post, I had hardly ever played any Zelda games. I had played Ocarina of Time for maybe 10 minutes way back when. I tried Wind Waker at a friend's house when it came out. A buddy had Twilight Princess and I ran around as wolf link. The most time I ever spent playing as Link was in Smash Bros. I got Breath of the Wild in October, and it's great! I beat have completed 3 divine beast quests, but I'm a busy guy and had bought a bunch of games and Fire Emblem Three Houses took over my spare time. I listened to Kinda Funny's "The Legend of Zelda In Review" while at work and decided I'm going to play all these games.
So, I looked 'em up. There's a stinkin' lot of Zelda games. And there's a lot of Zelda games that people don't talk about. I'm going to try to play them all. To keep my sanity, I am playing some other games at the same time. It took me a month to finish the first game, so I'll probably be doing this for a long time. But I plan on putting up reviews of each one as I play 'em. Hopefully you enjoy the ride. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Review
I went into the game completely blind. I didn't look up a thing and accidentally skipped the intro, so I ended up walking around with no sword for 10 minutes. My first hour or two was spent wandering aimlessly getting destroyed by the Octorock's and those stupid things that pop out of the water. God, I hate them. Eventually, I found the first dungeon and beat it.
The game was incredibly frustrating without a guide, but also extremely exciting when I found something. Finding that first dungeon made me feel like a true adventurer. I could only imagine what it must've been like for kids in the 80's to play this game, make hand-drawn maps and share tips with each other. But, I am not a kid in the 80's. I have an admittedly short attention span and despite the worldwide pandemic I have a busy schedule. I also didn't want to be driven to total insanity. At least not yet, that's what Zelda II is for.
Now, I didn't want to just use a guide for every detail. I don't care if anyone else does, but I wanted to maintain that sense of adventure and discovery. At first I used a GameFaqs text walkthrough and boy was that not helpful at all. Eventually I came here and man, this guide was great. I skimmed through the walkthrough, trying hard to preserve surprises and only consulted it when I was completely stuck. It saved my butt big time.
Playing this game, I got very angry many times - but god, it was fun. Beating it was probably the most satisfying thing I've ever done. I love the minimal story, the grand scale of adventure, the free-roaming aspect... I can see it's DNA all over Breath of the Wild. Now, for me as someone who didn't grow up with this, I have to say I like BotW better, but this was an amazing game. One thing it has over BotW is the enemy variety! There were so many different enemies, it kept the gameplay fresh - except the Wizzrobes and those knight guys. Screw those guys. Oh, also the flying eyeball bees. Screw them too.
I guess this was less of a 'review' and more of the ramblings of a mad man, but to sum it up: I love this game.
And without further ado, I present: the definitive ranking of the Legend of Zelda games:
1. The Legend of Zelda
Next, probably in a month's time, if I'm not in an asylum... Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
