What drew you to the Zelda Franchise

[Jirohnagi]

For me when i first picked up OOT i was still fairly young, i was still learning my way through classic gaming and i think it was a combination of 3D elements alongside the puzzles that a first time Zelda Player seems to encounter, fear did play apart i was afraid of the Shadow Temple and the BoTW being as young as i was the music threw me for a loop and i'd never seen video game style blood. The Soundtrack alone ironically had me hooked and those who know me know i hate music in almost all forms, but for some reason the soundtracks of certain areas (gerudo Valley, Spirit Temple, Inside Great Deku Tree, etc) to made the areas feel complete. I've stuck with the series becuase despite my annoyance with some of the newish games the innovation behind the weapons, puzzles, soundtrack and scenery have always astounded me, don't get me wrong i have seen more beautiful games in terms of graphics and the puzzles and soundtracks have been topped more times than The Imprisoned has toes but it still remains to me a pinnacle of entertainment, for some of the games it's the color pallette that i love for others it's the lack therof.

How's about you guys what drew you to the series? And More importantly why are you still playing the series?

 

[ReveredPartisan]

I was first introduced to Zelda through TP, at a fairly young age. At the time, anything with a plot could draw me in, and the color of the world of Hyrule (not literally, for... evident reasons) and how Link's quest was so richly painted captivated me like no other story could. To this day, I've experienced few journeys (in any medium) so sweeping and rewarding as that which I found in Twilight Princess. Sadly, that first play through has been blurred with the passing of time, but that feeling of wonder has stuck with me throughout the years.

 

[airistra]

ALttP was my very first game I've every played when I was little since SNES was the current console during that time. I also played various SNES games during those times but ALttP stood out to me the most because of the whole overworld exploration, the gameplay, the music (especially the Dark World theme), and most important, it was challenging.

A couple years after that, it still stood out to me despite playing many games such as Star Fox 64 or Donkey Kong 64. Even if the current Nintendo generation was the N64, I still went back to the SNES and ALttP because I loved it so much. From there, I told myself, the Zelda franchise has other games in the series so why not check it out? That led me to games like OoT and LA. MM . What attracted me the most was how the Zelda games combined the action-adventure genre with puzzle, and how the puzzles seen in the Zelda games wasn't too hard but it wasn't easy. It was just the right amount to challenge players to solve it and not too hard to the point people would quit.

Nowadays, it's a variety of reasons, like the graphics/art, music, storyline, etc. What I love the most though, is being able to take on the challenges given by the puzzles and dungeons explorations. Solving the puzzles and traversing through each dungeon and defeating the boss(es) in those dungeons is always satisfying to me.

 

[misskitten]

For me it was OoT that started it as well. One of the other kids in the neighbourhood lent me their copy, as we were always lending each other games, and just showed me around a bit in Kokiri forest. I enjoyed the game, and bought my own copy when I had the money and opportunity to do so. Then I discovered that there was another Zelda game at the local game store (MM) and I just went "whoa" and bought it (used). MM did not thrill me the same way OoT did, but I enjoyed some aspects of it, and then later on when I heard about TP (I hadn't owned a Gamecube, so I kinda just skipped past WW, even though I had perifially heard about it), and I saw the images of it, I knew I had to play it. I think it was the combination of the wii and my decision to invest in my first ever handheld (the 3DS) that kind of opened up the world of Zelda to me. Suddenly I had the opportunity to play any Zelda game I desired.

I still play Zelda because I think it's the series that has most taught me to just go with it. Every game is different, looks different, plays different, and I can be surprised by how much I will enjoy something. Like when I heard about WW the first time, it didn't thrill me, and it did not make me want to invest in the Gamecube, but when I finally got around to play it (which I only properly did recently), I learned that it's actually one of the most fun Zelda titles out there. I remember being sceptical towards ALBW when it was announced, but I'm very glad I decided to give it a shot, because that too is one of the most enjoyable Zelda games I've ever played. It's kind of like Joss Whedon and television shows, or Studio Ghibli and movies. Each product is different, has something different to offer, but I find that I keep on enjoying what they come up with. And Zelda is like that with games.

 

[Mipha]

My mom was a big fans of it so I decided to try it and I started playing when I was five.

 

[fairyfountain]

My friend's older sister used to play WW and OoT when we were younger and every time I came over we would just sit and watch her play. Sometimes she would let me play on her save files and just run around and explore and I fell in love with the atmosphere and feel of the games. Eventually one year for Christmas I asked my mom for a Gamecube and a copy of WW and the rest is history

 

[DekuNut]

I was maybe 6 when I got a Gamecube, along with Zelda: Collector's Edition. On that disc was LoZ, AoL, OoT, MM, and a demo of WW. I played the games and loved them, spending hours exploring Clock Town, even if it took me forever to figure out how to get the ocarina. A few years later I met a guy who would go on to become one of my best friends, and he was a complete Zelda freak. So, naturally, that enhanced my love of the games. It was even him that introduced me to ZD (the walkthroughs; not the forums). And the rest, as they say, is history.

 

[Salem]

My mom used to play alttp a lot, she beaten it and discovered most of it's secrets by herself.

 

[SavageWizzrobe]

I started playing Zelda around the age of 10. A friend of mine suggested that I try OoT on the N64, and so I did. With the action-adventure combined with puzzle-solving and an interactive, immersive world, I was hooked.
Zelda wasn't my first action-adventure game series though, that spot belongs to Metroid. Hence, I knew I liked the genre at the time I started playing OoT back then, so that helped me get into Zelda.

 

[Dio]

I started playing Zelda at 4. I saw my cousin battling Ganondorf on his N64 and from that moment on I knew what I wanted for Christmas...A N64 with Zelda.
I'd never played video games before so it was an entirely new experience to me. I was mystified by it. I had always been into fantasy, films, cartoons, those were the books I wanted read to me at night. So as you can imagine it was very exciting to be able to experience a fantasy world this way.
It was like a real adventure to me, the same excitement and the fear as well. At first even the deku babas frightened me.
One of the most traumatic moments was in Karariko graveyard and I pulled back a gravestone to reveal a hole. I jumped down and, what was there at the bottom? A brown man. So of course I go up to him and then he does an unspeakable act to me and causes me to die. For years the ReDead haunted my nightmares after that.
Being of such a young age, understanding what to do was difficult and I spent a lot of time backtracking and speaking to people over and over again looking for some clues I might have missed. I didn't get help from anybody. It took me until I was 6 to finish.
I didn't play solidly I switched between different games, nevertheless I had invested a significant amount of time into the game and it had such a huge impact on my life.
And so my love of Zelda was born.

 

[RedLink]

It's strange because I grew up having Majora's Mask, but never liked the game. Years later my friend, a huuuuuge Zelda fan, leant me Skyward Sword. Fell in love with the series from there.

 

[Farore's Chosen]

We got the first two games on the NES and I was a frequent watcher of the Zelda cartoon and Captain N, plus nearly every game after the first two has been at least fairly enjoyable so I got hooked that way.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

The first game I played was OoT. It was the first Zelda game I played, but also the first videogame I ever played. I was exposed to it because my stepparents adopted me, they are also my aunt and uncle. My cousins (stepbrothers) used to play OoT all the time, eventually they let me play it and from then on I was captivated by the game. Then when Majora's Mask came out I was even more captivated by zelda games. So it became common for me to try getting every new zelda game, it became my favorite video game series.

 

[Fraxinus]

Uh, my mom played it. And I was like, "Ooh i wanna play!" So she made me a file and named Link "BOB." The end.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

apart from wind waker,my daydreams of what ocarina of time & majoras mask would look like judging from the trophy descriptions and zelda character models in super smash bros melee & soul calibur 2 [i though the graphics would look similar to that]
then around 5th grade i saw twilight princess on a sears shelf and i immediately wanted it since it apparently had adult link

i'll just say that after twilight princess,i was here to stay