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Zelda Games and Their Flaws, the Critical Thread!

El Bagu

Wannabe Mr. 1-8-1
Joined
Jul 5, 2008
Location
In Woods. N of River!
Well, this is a Zelda Forum and a lot of people seem to have their favorite games that are supposed to be perfect. However, my experience is that nothing is perfect in this world and not even Zelda games.

So what problems do the different games have?

(I will only list the first things that pop up in my mind)

The Legend of Zelda: It feels incomplete without a proper village and they definitely "overused" Gleeok in this game! (But the fact is, the game is one of the greatest, not many flaws it has).

Adventure of Link: The Great Palace is the problem. I do not consider the game a difficult one but the enemies in this Temple are a little bit too hard and sometimes I prefer to run than to fight!

A Link To The Past: They made it look a bit too happy & "joyful" and it made the game less exciting than it would have to be!

Link´s Awakening: Could this be the perfect game? The only problem I have is that it is in black & white and that even the DX version is dull/pale in the colors.

Ocarina of Time: I did not enjoy the Hyrule Castle Market, they should have made it different!

Majora´s Mask: Must be one of the best games ever made! However, they re-used the same "engine" from OoT and also the items. And the Great Bay Temple never appealed to me that much.

Oracle of Seasons: Many of the bosses were taken from the original LoZ. I did not like it but wanted something different, I also did not love Subrosia.

Oracle of Ages: This game is brilliant but did it not remind you too much about Link+s Awakening? (A problem "Seasons" also has)

The Wind Waker: I love the sailing in this game (unlike many other zelda fans). What i did not like in this game was most of the bosses and the entire "Forbidden Woods"!

Four Sword Adventures: I feel the singleplayer mode feels akward and since my friends do not play Zeldas, it is the only mode I could try :(.

The Minish Cap: Like in so many other games the bosses are my main concern, too easy and not epic enough in this game, at least the "early" ones.

Twilight Princess: I like the graphics and almost everything else but what is wrong with the COLORS in this game? Do I have problem with my eyes or is it suppose to be so "yellowish"?

Phantom Hourglass: "Cruising on a steamboat" is not my thing, nuff said.

Spirit Tracks: My least favorite game and the only reason I played it through was that I wanted to see the end of it.



These are the Zelda games I have played. I look forward to see your opinion about the imperfections of the different games!
 
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Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Location
CA
Great list, I agree with most of the things you listed. Here are a few of my criticisms off the top of my head:

A Link to the Past
-A lot of great items in the game, but you can beat the game without using most of them. Not enough use of the various items. I especially realized this after playing through Oracle of Ages, where every dungeon makes use of past dungeon items as well.
-Too many rupees available, and not enough things to spend it on. You quickly reach 999 rupees and rupees become pointless.

Ocarina of Time
-The first temple of the game, the Forest Temple, I thought was the most difficult and annoying. The boss of the temple was harder than the ones that came afterwards too. The last 2 temples I thought were the easiest.

Wind Waker
-Boss battles were not challenging enough

Minish Cap
-Kinstone fusing is fun, but is a mess. And there are a few glitches involved where you can never get all of them.
-Too many recovery hearts available everywhere. Makes the game too easy
-Game was a bit on the short side

Twilight Princess
-Items don't get enough use (Spinner, Ball And Chain)
-(Spoilers) Ganon appearing in the game after Zant is introduced as a fresh new awesome villain in the Zelda series

Phantom Hourglass
-No D-Pad controls, you are required to use the stylus, which in my case I found hard to get used to.

El Bagu said:
Oracle of Ages: This game is brilliant but did it not remind you too much about Link+s Awakening? (A problem "Seasons" also has)

I agree about this. I hated the fact that it used most of the same music and sound effects as Link's Awakening. Even the title screen music is exactly the same.
 

SinkingBadges

The Quiet Man
Neat idea for a thread. I'll go next:

The Legend of Zelda: A lack of direction along with serious translation issues in essential clues (the last one stood true as a flaw even back in the day).

A Link to the Past: Maybe a few typos like "faeries" instead of "fairies".

Ocarina of Time: The overworld was a bit more oriented towards size instead of content, but that could be due to the memory size restrictions of cartridges.

Majora's Mask: The time limit hindered exploration and drove many people crazy. Oh yeah, and this one also lacked direction. It's very divisive, actually.

Wind Waker: Not exactly hard puzzles, the tedious sailing. Also, the rupee quest with Tingle, made even harder by the wallet limits.

Minish Cap: Too short and easy, and the glitches with kinstone fusions (as illimatic kindly pointed out).

Maybe the lack of epicness, but differently from El Bagu, this is all the epic I need:

[video=youtube;n1WfFwU9O4k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1WfFwU9O4k[/video]

Twilight Princess: The graphic style is good, but I don't like the color scheme with how dull it is, the story seemed like a piece of fan service, pointless items like the Horse Call and the B&C, it could be argued that it held the player's hand quite a bit (the way I see it, that could work for/against it eitherway).

Skyward Sword: My only problem with it is that it hasn't come out yet.

I guess I'll update it in the future to include the ones that I left out.
 
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El Bagu

Wannabe Mr. 1-8-1
Joined
Jul 5, 2008
Location
In Woods. N of River!
Twilight Princess
-Items don't get enough use (Spinner, Ball And Chain)
-(Spoilers) Ganon appearing in the game after Zant is introduced as a fresh new awesome villain in the Zelda series

I agree with every "complaint" here. I really liked the ball & chain but would want more "need" for it. And why did they have to use Ganon. They should have made Zant a little bit more "mean" I guess and that would have been enough in my opinion!

Maybe the lack of epicness, but differently from El Bagu, this is all the epic I need:

[video=youtube;n1WfFwU9O4k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1WfFwU9O4k[/video]

The only thing(s) I did not find epic about the game were the bosses. The "music" theme was awesome, splendid & magnificent!!!
 
Joined
May 8, 2010
Location
Eagle River, Alaska
The Legend of Zelda: Too much trial and error.
Zelda II: Radical change to gameplay.
A Link to the Past: No Problems.
Ocarina of Time: Kaepora Gaebora and Navi.
Majora's Mask: Terrible save system.
Twilight Princess: Lack of difficulty along with dungeons that were way too long.
 

MW7

Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Location
Ohio
Every game: rupees are useless. Two exceptions are LOZ in which rupees were very valuable and LA in which rupees were useful until about halfway through the game (once you get the bow they're useless). Not that it would really solve anything, but I wish every Zelda game had a bank like MM so you wouldn't go around all the time picking up rupees that you can't hold.

Every game beginning with Wind Waker: low difficulty and bosses that are easier than some of the normal enemies and minibosses. Perfect example is in the Temple of Time in Twilight Princess; the knight you fight to get the dominion rod actually is a slight challenge whereas Armogohma manages to be even easier than Queen Gohma in OOT. Actually now that I think about it in LOZ and AOL the normal enemies were much more difficult to defeat than the bosses, but maybe that's just me (note: although I say this, these are definitely the two most difficult games in the series).

Every completely linear game: LA, WW, TP come to mind for me. Some people would argue that this isn't a problem but IMO nonlinearity adds tremendous replay value. I must say that nonlinearity is the reason I keep playing LOZ, OOT, and ALTTP over and over. Note that many people think MM has only one dungeon path but you can actually beat the 4th dungeon before even entering the 3rd.

Twilight Princess: IMO the slowest starting Zelda game. MM appears to be this way as well but actually you can complete the first cycle very quickly if you talk to the scarecrow or Anju's grandmother a bunch of times.

MM: If you can't tell by now since I keep defending it, it's my favorite game ever. But I must admit I wish there was a better save system. Also the dungeons and sidequests were great but I just wish there was more of each.

OOT: A near perfect game IMO so I just have little complaints about the design and linearity in some places. Like why they had to block Zora's River when you don't even need bombs in Jabu Jabu. Not really a problem, but in retrospect the whole game just seems shallow when compared to the deeper more immersive world of MM.

AOL: The cheap deaths in side-scrolling segments from falling backwards when something hits you and you happen to fall down a cliff/into water/into lava. Also this is the Zelda game in which dungeon maps would have helped the most IMO and it's the only one (I think) that doesn't have them.

ALTTP: Another near perfect game. Really hard for me to criticize, and all I will say is this game deserves a Master/Second Quest more so than any Zelda game that currently doesn't have one.

Wind Waker: Sailing takes forever. I'm not certain, but I think that the ocean could have been half the size or even smaller without having to take anything out of the game or feeling cramped.
 

Majora's Cat

How about that
Joined
Sep 3, 2010
Location
NJ
While we'd all like to think that no Zelda games have any flaws, not any single game can be perfect. Ocarina of Time was perhaps the closest game in history to being known as flawless, but as time ravages OoT's once glossy cover, we may want to take another look and point out the many imperfections in each Zelda game. These are what I think are the biggest and most noticeable flaws in the main Zelda games.

The Legend of Zelda

LoZ's a very old game, no doubt, and because of that I can't complain too much about the game without having some people disagree because the technology of video games were very different and outdated back in the old days. The best way to examine LoZ's flaws is to pretend like it's the 80s all over again. That being said, the first thing I would like to point out is that the game was too large, and the player wasn't provided an in-game map so he/she could easily navigate Hyrule. The visuals weren't bad for the time, but they could have been much better. There are many areas and terrains throughout the land, but it's sometimes hard to distinguish between these because of the repetitive graphics and environment. Also, while we usually talk about AoL's head-banging difficulty, we also usually ignore how difficult LoZ could be. Many believe that A Link to the Past is a challenging adventure, but the original Legend of Zelda blows it out of the water. While LoZ doesn't offer much in the way of puzzles and classic Zelda elements and gameplay, it can be mighty frustrating at times.

At the beginning of the game, the Dungeons seem easy-breezy, though the same can't be said for the overworld and its bountiful array of enemies. I often find myself being killed by enemies before I can get to my desired location because of the massive damage they can inflict and the sheer number of enemies there are. Dungeons take about 30 minutes or less to complete (even if you're not that great at Zelda), but some rooms in said Dungeons can be absolutely painful. Rooms can be filled with eight or more Darknuts at a time, and you may exit the room to walk right into another eight Darknuts. It's a gamer's worst nightmare and a major flaw in the game.

Adventure of Link

Widely considered the dark horse of the series, AoL hasn’t always been met with the love and affection it deserves. What I love about AoL is how bold and unique it is - Nintendo really took a risk with this game, and it may have paid off in the eyes of some gamers. When we think of AoL, the first thing that comes to mind is the sheer difficulty. I think the side-scrolling aspect of the game is brilliant, but it’s how much of a challenge the game poses that is the problem. The unending frustration overshadows the fact that the game is, like every Zelda game, exceptionally designed and marvelously fun to play (if you can put up with seeing the Game Over screen dozens of times).

A Link to the Past

Not much to complain about here. The most I can say is that the game was just the slightest bit stale. Much like LoZ before it, ALttP has a very large and expansive overworld that sometimes left me overwhelmed. And, also like LoZ, it was sometimes just the slightest bit difficult to tell certain areas apart (but only in the beginning of the game). The story also felt a bit forced, but other than that, the gameplay was 2D perfection and the Dungeons and boss battles were fine-tuned to the ideal length and difficulty.

Ocarina of Time

Wow, Ocarina of Time actually has flaws? Yes, yes it does. The prime flaw of OoT must be its generic story. We’ve been there, done that, and really don’t want to see a 3D version of ALttP. The older generation of gamers was oblivious to OoT’s ornery storyline, which was virtually a carbon copy of ALttP’s. Other than that, nearly everything about Ocarina of Time is no less than perfection. I can’t make a big deal about the Dungeon design because OoT was Nintendo’s first stab at a 3D Zelda game, and for a first attempt, Nintendo executed the game unbelievably well. OoT was an innovation in gameplay, improving on everything Super Mario 64 did wrong tenfold. But if we were to compare Ocarina of Time to newer 3D Zeldas, one slight blemish we would recognize is how bland rooms in Dungeons could be. Sometimes the Dungeons really felt like Dungeons. This is due to the poor creativity in smaller rooms and the lack of furnishings. However, this is to be expected. Before the release of OoT, all the 2D Zelda games had look-alike rooms that weren’t so easy to distinguish from each other.

Majora’s Mask

As my username suggests, I’m sort of an MM fanboy. That doesn’t mean I like MM more than every other Zelda game, as I do like Twilight Princess a tad bit more than MM. The fact that my username includes “Majora” in it doesn’t mean I do not believe the game has flaws. Trust me, it has defects aplenty. What I mean by that is the game literally has glitches everywhere. Even in the new (and improved) Virtual Console version of Majora’s Mask, most of its original glitches remain untouched. Most might not consider this a hindrance, as glitches are fun to play around with, but some might not appreciate Nintendo’s inability to patch up these technical errors. On the contrary, Majora’s Mask is also a technically brilliant game. There’s so much content crammed into the original N64 cartridge that it boggles the mind. While the average gamer might think that four main Dungeons (excluding the Moon) aren’t enough, I beg to differ. Each one was of great length and difficulty, making up for the lack of quantity. Additionally, the focus on sidequests extends the length of the game to that of any other 3D Zelda game.

The Wind Waker

The Wind Waker is easily on the most polarizing Zelda games to date. It’s been praised for its sailing mechanic and the concept of an open-sea game. On the other hand, some declare that the sailing mechanic is horrendous and an annoyance in the game. I only view sailing across the sea as a minor annoyance - usually I pay it no mind. But when I’m strapped for time or in a rush, I don’t think very fondly of sailing. Nintendo had the right idea with creating a vast, mysterious ocean for the player to explore, but sometimes it can feel overwhelming. With a total of 49 islands to discover, how can one keep track of all of them and complete all the sidequests? Well, that may very well be the game’s greatest strength and its greatest weakness as well. I often found myself frustrated with the Wind Waker’s sidequests, being a thorough completionist. I have to admit, the near impossibility of completing WW 100% without a guide is both irritating and brilliant at the same time. Many complain about the Wind Waker’s easy difficulty, but that only applies to Dungeons.

One other element I haven’t yet touched on is the infuriating Triforce collection section of the game. Each of eight pieces of the Triforce of Courage must be collected in order for Link to proceed to the final Dungeon in the game. The problem? For those playing the game without a guide, it’s quite hard to find a way to come up with over 4,000 rupees to pay to have all the Triforce charts deciphered. It’s simply tedious and a waste of time in the game. Some might argue that if you have a surplus of rupees this won’t be an issue, but not everyone will have the patience to find all the rupee bag upgrades and collect silver rupees. I completed it with ease with a guide the first time I played the game, but it seems like an impossible feat without one. I’m sure that many have complained about this unnecessary quest as well, as it is one of the more irksome quests in Zelda history.

Twilight Princess

Twilight Princess is my favorite Zelda game, but that’s not reason enough for it to be excused. First off, the game is too easy, regardless of the several sidequests and large quantity of Dungeons. We can all agree that the game is possibly the lengthiest Zelda game to date, but that comes at a price. Nintendo’s focus on making TP a more accessible version of Ocarina of Time made the game into a laughingstock in the eyes of the hardcore Zelda community. Just in my opinion, I believe that the length of the game really made up for the easiness, but several critical fans of the series think differently. Secondly, the graphics don’t always look very smooth. I understand that the game is a GameCube port and that Nintendo did a nice clean-up job with it. However, TP should’ve made a strong statement for Zelda as the series’ debut game for the Nintendo Wii. Previous generation graphics didn’t fly so well with critics, but that was made up for by the luscious scenery and dazzling use of the bloom effect in the game. Nevertheless, objects only look beautiful from a distance. When viewed up close, they become blurry and a bit unidentifiable.
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
Location
Somewhere in the known universe
It is hard to believe zelda has flaws but it's true.

LoZ
A good game but oly one flaw: Make it have a acual story like all games after AoL.

ALttP
I don't see anything yet but i'm only on the second dunngeon.

OoT
You could only find youself los ina dugeon. They need a area where you could pay to show where you need go like arrows pointing to the room you need to go.

MM
Needs to be longer.

WW
Jahalla and Gohdan.
More things to do on the ocean like mini-games

TP
The zora prince quest-bords=completeale quesy.

Skyward Sword
Released far too long from now.
 
Joined
Jan 27, 2011
the only thing i can bring to mind for now about Zelda games is this

for the 3D games, they need to add an actual jump butten, Zelda games have faired alright without one but there are some parts in a Zelda game where you just wish you can jump on your own and i'm sure many of you have had that feeling at least once, the 2D games i have no complaints about except for of course those moments in Zelda 1 and 2 where you're forced to use some sort of strategy guide to find certain secrets because the secrets in those games are much more cryptic than any other Zelda games i find
 

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