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The Legend of Zelda: 25th Anniversary Thread - Landmark of the Greatest Gaming Series
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why do you play zelda?
All the other parts!
Good woman.
Oh lordy I hope not. I can't play Wind Waker because of the boat is so annoying.
It's a secret to everybody.
If I had to order my fav Zeldas
Ocarina of Time
Link to the Past
Twilight Princess
Wind Waker
Majora's Mask
Zelda 2
Link's Awakening
Zelda 1
Oracles
But the thing is, even down to Oracle of Ages/Time I still thought they were really good. The Legend of Zelda will still be my favorite game series of all time... probably for all time.
My favorite part of Twilight Princess was the first time you get to have a horseback duel, and, well, not good enough, Joe. Not nearly good enough.
And then there's also the issue of the inevitable letdown when you compare the tacked on waggle controls we got to the rad sword fighting that the Wii commercials were hinting at.
You should get the Gamecube version, the controls are perfect.
I love everything about Twilight Princess, I really can't understand the backlash it continues to get.
I disagree, TP had a lot of memorable and weird moments.
I think more people need to replay the game.
By comparison, I felt OoT is much less memorable, probably because I didn't play it back in its heyday. Just...nothing about it feels as noteworthy as what came afterward. My first "OoT" Zelda was Wind Waker, which I feel has less truly memorable moments than Twilight Princess. WW is memorable for its style, but not as much for wild and crazy stuff happening.
Nintendo Network ID: unclesporky
Had no problems with the controls.
Did you beat WW? Because the ending fight was my favorite Zelda boss battle ever. It alone is possibly the reason why it ranks so high for me.
Beat both of them and they both have good endings. I'm not ranking the Zeldas here, I don't even know if I'd call TP my favorite, I just think it does fine as far as memorable and weird moments go.
Nintendo Network ID: unclesporky
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And if you didn't play OoT when it first came out then your assessment is completely reasonable. It's hard to stress just how unbelievably rad that game was in 1998. You have to remember that there was nothing remotely like it; the only action/adventure games at the time controlled like Tomb Raider and looked like crap.
And frankly, OoT had a pretty rough start. The intro is horrendous by today's standards and pretty boring by 1998's, the first three dungeons were not all that fun, the enemies were simplistic and didn't feel "Zelda-y," and controlling Kid Link somehow felt off. The game didn't really click until you became and adult and got to the Forest Temple, and then it's like "holy shit, it's like I'm in a Zelda game BUT IN REAL LIFE." I mean, every child wants to have a real swordfight with an evil skeleton and that was the first time in history where a game sufficiently approximated this fantasy. The five adult dungeons in that game expressed a sense of beauty, mystery, atmosphere and realism that completely surpassed anything in any other videogame. It makes me so sad that even if Skyward Sword is everything that I hope for it still probably won't be as amazing as the first time I played Ocarina of Time.
That's not really their fault though.
Very very last battle in both cases. I thought both games had sort of lame lead-ups to the duels.
Oh man. I am getting all giddy looking at these last battle pictures now. The way TP's is framed is probably the coolest evar.
There really is nothing like a Zelda final boss.
Overall I think TP is a great game but the overworld just feels so empty, a lot bigger but it all felt so flat. Unlike WW which every island has so much personality.
That section with the western goblin town was amazing with the bow.
Nintendo Network ID: unclesporky
I'd forgotten about that part, that really was pretty awesome. And remember how big of a deal it was that there was mounted combat? It was good fun, too. I don't know why I don't care to go back to Twilight Princess, I guess it just didn't resonate with me the way games like Ocarina or Wind Waker did. I think it's just that contradiction where everyone thought they wanted a spiritual sequel to Ocarina of Time, when really something different and new like Wind Waker was much more memorable. There were great parts of Twilight Princess, but it will always be on the latter-half of my favorite Zelda games list.
Link's Awakening update:
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The Game Boy was 8 bit and I think I read somewhere that it was actually more powerful than the NES. I wouldn't be surprised if it's true, because I've never seen distortion effects (underwater-like and others) in an NES game (Using Surf in Pokémon GS and Batman: Return of the Joker's sewers) or at least I can't remember an example of those being done on the NES.
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http://www.zreomusic.com/listen
Remember the first Skyward Sword trailer, where they showed Epona, Majora's Mask, the King of Red Lions, and Wolf Link at the start? I think that was a great way to sum up what most people remember about the Zelda games these days. Zelda 1, Zelda 2, Link's Awakening, and a Link to the Past are all pretty much their own standalones at this point. The Gameboy, GBC, GBA, and DS games all have their charms (and in some cases improvements), but it would be safe to say that those get left out of the minds of a lot of mainstream LoZ-goers--all the offshoots and spinoffs even more so.
For me, the release of Skyward Sword is going to mark another chapter in my video game life. It'll be one where I'm introduced to new gameplay mechanisms; to new music that I'll forever listen to; where I'll look back and remember just what it is I want out of games. Who knows... it might even become the point at which the Zelda games as we know them today have their final look. The folks making the current Zelda may not be the ones there for the next iteration on Wii U.
With that in mind, I'm going to pluck moments out of the 4 3D-console Zeldas that I identify the most with.
OoT: Hitting the Temple of Time with the 3 gems and unveiling the Master Sword. Becoming Adult Link.
MM: Putting on the 3 races' masks and learning of these characters whom I was portraying. Discovering Termina.
WW: Sailing from island to island seamlessly. Discovering Hyrule Castle underneath the sea.
TP: Freedom to change from Wolf to non-Wolf. Getting to know the land of Hyrule. And the Hidden Village.
Most of my time playing Zelda games has been spent running around the overworld by choice. It feels great to live and fight and discover/explore these realized worlds.
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OoT -- Learning the Bolero of Fire in the middle of a volcano. Somehow that scene just stuck with me.
MM -- Kafei & Anju scene just before impact.
WW -- Never played it, so I'll substitute LttP.
LttP -- Hearing the opening notes of the Hyrule Castle theme.
TP -- The rush to get help after encountering Zant. The music... *shudder*
The thing about Zelda games, to me, is that each one is better than the last, whether I'm replaying an old one or experiencing a new release for the first time. It's because with the continuity in design (if not necessarily plot), each one manages to evoke all the memories of previous games for me, while simultaneously establishing new ground for itself.
I <3 this series, basically. Skyward Sword, y u no here?
Hopefully Skyward Sword will be as big of a break in the series as OoT was, though I probably shouldn't get my hopes up that much. I'll be content with the new swordfights.
My moments (d'awww):
LoZ: I played this game when I was like 7 so I barely remember anything, but the thing that sticks out most in my mind is the Lost Woods. I explored the woods in my backyard and named places there after Zelda because of those Lost Woods.
LTTP: Getting the Master Sword, in that beautiful forest with the shafts of light. That, and when you get sent to the DW for real, on top of that ziggurat, and the amazing music.
OoT: First Stalfos swordfight in the Forest Temple, plus those twisting hallways. Those were the first "holy crap this is really a 3-D game" moments. Special mention goes to the lake room in the Water Temple. And the last battle with the lightning and fire was also great.
MM: The first time you turn Stone Tower upside down; the music gets all haunting and eerie and the sky, sun, and stars are beneath you. Annoying stuff with the clones aside, that's my favorite Zelda dungeon.
WW: Going underwater.
TP: First full-on horseback battle.
PS2
FF X replay
PS3
God of War 1&2 HD
Rachet and Clank Future
MGS 4
Prince of Persia
360
Bayonetta
Fable 3
DS
FF: 4 heroes of light
http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/05/27/link-to-the-future-zelda-timeline-fan-film
My moments:
LoZ: The first cave where you get your sword. Gets me every time.
AoL: Didn't enjoy this game much, but I do really like the horse-head boss.
LttP: The moment you land in the Pyramid to fight Ganon. The lights and music kick on RIGHT as you hit the ground and it throws you right into it.
OoT: After Impa and Zelda flee the castle. When Ganondorf appears on his horse, little Link, with no hesitation, pulls out that tiny sword ready to fight. Gives me chills. Ganondorf even compliments him in doing so, then promptly owns him. A for effort, little Link.
MM: Getting to be a Zora.
WW: Pulling the Master Sword out of the temple dedicated to it and the Hero of Time. Badass in every sense of the word, and probably my favorite moment in the whole series. I am still impressed with how they approached that whole scene...going underwater and whatnot.
TP: Link rushing around the corner and chasing the goblins in the field to fight them. The camerawork is as dynamic as it gets for a Zelda game.
The castle town was as care-free and hustle-bustle as ever RIGHT BEFORE you encounter the dark lord of Hyrule. It just didn't seem like there was any sort of reason to worry. I felt like I was just living out some weird fantasy of Link's, and everyone else in the world had no clue what was happening. I got the exact opposite from OoT and MM. Not to mention that the main antagonist wasn't introduced until 2/3 the way through the game. Where's the build-up? Nintendo has forgotten how to include a compelling story, unfortunately.
I have a lot of trouble going back to 8-bit games.
I know what you mean, and if it weren't for nostalgia, I would be in the same boat. However, one plays the original Zelda on NES, and hasn't played it in a long time, it's hard not to respect how much they squeezed into the game. It's really a stellar RPG experience for the time. Just revolutionary shit.
Long and boring technical info:
Distortion effects on NES were just as possible as on any of those early consoles. See an example [VIDURL="
Basically, immediately after drawing every horizontal row of pixels, you tell the screen to shift left or right by a few pixels, repeat ad nauseum. It requires very precise timing to do. Some specialized NES cartridges had timers built in that you could use in order to know when you reached the end of a horizontal line, but everyone else had to just count CPU cycles and hope they were close enough. However the Gameboy had this "scanline counter" built into the system itself, which made wavy effects easier to accomplish.
The NES is better in some ways and worse in others. GB can only show 40 sprites on screen while the NES can show 64, but the NES can only display 8 sprites horizontally before flicker while the GB can handle 10. The GB's screen is only 160x144 while the NES handles 256x240. The GB also didn't have to deal with palettes like the NES did which saved it a bit of processing power. The GB executes instructions about half as quickly as the NES does, but it's clocked at twice the NES's speed to make up for that.
But the GB's main problem was the poor quality LCD that ghosted all the time, meaning games for this arguably-more-powerful system had to be slowed way down just so you could see anything. The screen was practically its main bottleneck.
Nintendo Network ID: unclesporky