Like others I was introduced to the series through OoT. But in my case I wasn't able to play all that much of it for a few reasons. The first being that the game actually belonged to my brother, though he would let me have my own save file. The second is just that as a very young child I was terrified of the game, haha. Well, the adult portion specifically. Sometimes I would try to play on my brother's save, but I was never able to handle it. The first obstacle was getting through Castle Town which became overrun with ReDeads. That's way too stressful for a 5 year old. Next was the Forest Temple which is also very scary given its atmosphere and the kinds of enemies you have to face. None would make my young heart race quite like the Wallmasters. The loud sound it makes as it hones in on you as well as the abrupt shift in perspective when it violently grabs Link, dragging him off screen while he struggles and screams... it's brutal for a child. It was so bad that whenever I heard one coming, I would play the Minuet of Forest to escape the dungeon. Or just shut off the game if the pressure was too much. I was never able to finish the dungeon back then. As a result of all of this I would primarily stick to playing the child portion of the game since it was far less intimidating. Mostly, anyway. It still had things like the place underneath Kakariko Graveyard, and the Stalchildren coming out of the ground at night. The drawbridge closing and those skeletons rising was nightmarish for me.
Despite not really playing OoT "normally" so to speak, I still adored the game and the world it let me explore. Naturally when I found out there would be a sequel to the game I was very excited about it. At some point I received a VHS tape from Toys R Us which featured a preview of Majora's Mask. It also had one for Banjo Tooie. I must have watched the tape so many times in anticipation for the game. I was only a little bit older but I was still intimidated by OoT in the same ways I mentioned, yet with MM I oddly didn't have much issue with it. MM should be the scarier game, but it didn't feel that way for some reason. I guess it helped that child Link was taking the whole spotlight for that game. There were still some stressful moments, such as that room in Woodfall Temple where it gets very dark and you get attacked by those black sphere things. But not much overall and I was actually able to beat the game at that age. I've always found it strange how I was able to get through MM but not OoT. It would take a few more years until I would be brave enough to commit to finishing OoT. I would go on to get more games like Wind Waker, Link to the Past on GBA, etc as they came out. There are not much personal stories with these games, though I remember anticipating Twilight Princess a great deal. The reaction from the crowd to the initial E3 trailer is permanently etched into my mind. As was the sheer difficulty of obtaining a Nintendo Wii back then...
