ZD Top 5 – Methods of Fast Travel

No matter how lovely a game world can be, sometimes you just need to get somewhere and need to do it fast. In this week’s ZD Top 5, there is no time for sight-seeing. We need to save Hyrule and we haven’t a moment to lose! Join us as our staff rattles off their lists of top five methods of fast travel throughout the Zelda series.

Jon Lett – View Profile

5. Ocarina of Wind (The Minish Cap)
4. Flute (A Link to the Past)
3. Ocarina (Ocarina of Time)
2. Midna (Twilight Princess)
1. Bell/Maple (A Link Between Worlds)

As much as I love Midna and her very versatile teleport that links to a whole lot of locations, the Bell is honestly the most efficient travel method in the series if you ask me. And since fast travel is supposed to be, you know, FAST, that is what really counts. It only takes the touch of an icon, and there are just so many places you can get to in an instant. That, and Maple is great, too. The cutest witch this side of Hyrule Castle always has something different to say, and at some point, when Yuga is in the shadows, turning people into paintings, Maple disappears from her broomstick when you ring the Bell, but you don’t know why at the time. This sort of adds a bit of mystery to the situation, and it is cool that something as simple as the Bell can do that for the game.

Alexis Anderson – View Profile

5. Song of Soaring (Majora’s Mask)
4. Portal (Twilight Princess)
3. Flute (A Link to the Past)
2. Bell (A Link Between Worlds)
1. Ocarina (Ocarina of Time)

While it might’ve become a little tedious to remember and play the notes to the warp songs in Ocarina of Time, those are some memorable nostalgia-inducing songs so I’d have it no other way. I love Irene from A Link Between Worlds, she’s so cute, so her bell is #2 on my list! In a similar fashion, I love Midna from Twilight Princess so I love her twilit portal hopping. And we use those portals like crazy in Twilight Princess considering how large the map and long the game, so boy was I grateful for them.

Thomas Jacobs – View Profile

5. Midna (Twilight Princess)
4. Ocarina (Ocarina of Time)
3. Ballad of Gales (The Wind Waker)
2. Ocarina of Wind (The Minish Cap)
1. Flute (A Link to the Past)

For me, determining how useful a travel system is a mix of usability and coverage. Midna’s got good coverage, but teleporting with her has a few quirks to it. The Ocarina can teleport you all over the world, but it lacks a central point for you to teleport to, making it less useful for those in-between areas. The Ballad of Gales has some nice coverage but it’s tied to the King of Red Lions. The Ocarina of Wind has an interesting way to unlock new locations by interacting with the Wind Crests. But my favorite is the Flute: it has good coverage, you can easily travel between the locations you teleport to so only the farthest corners of the world requires some notable time to travel to.

Kira Koneko – View Profile

5. Ocarina of Wind (The Minish Cap)
4. Maple (A Link Between Worlds)
3. Midna (Twilight Princess)
2. Ballad of Gales (Wind Waker)
1. Ocarina (Ocarina of Time)

Each one of these options in fast travel were very useful and allowed you to cover the entire map in just the touch of your screen or in the sweetest of tunes. But for me, my favorite boiled down to which one was the most fun to use and although as Alexis mentioned it might have been slightly tedious to learn all the notes for the different places the Ocarina of Time would take you, for me it was the most fun! I felt a certain sense of accomplishment when I remembered each one of the notes needed to warp me to where I needed to go. I felt the same with the Ballad of the Gales, which is why it landed in the #2 spot! The only change for me was the characters that were attached to warping in some of the games like Midna and Maple, you grow to have a very fond attachment to each of those characters, especially Midna!

Mark Olson – View Profile

5. Ocarina (Ocarina of Time/Majora’s Mask)
4. Bird-Control Ocarina (A Link to the Past)
3. Cyclones (Phantom Hourglass)
2. Ballad of Gales (Wind Waker)
1. Midna (Twilight Princess)

To me, a good fast travel system has to expedite the process of getting from point A to point B, while not removing world traversal in its entirety. All of my top four accomplish this by dropping you at main crossroads in the game world while still requiring a short trek to get to your dungeon of choice, so, after that, I was really ranking them on “cool factor” alone. A bird depositing you at your destination? That’s fine. Getting whirled around by a wind deity? Getting cooler. A hand scooping you up into an inter-dimensional wormhole? Bingo.