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Oct. 22nd, 2014 04:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariThird Tier Zelda Games:
#9 - The Legend of Zelda
- The Story: In the first Zelda game, Link has to gather pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, beat up Ganon and save the princess. All in 8-bit 1980s processing power.
- The Good: It's the first game, so it's actually hard to say what's good, as it's the first time it's been done. The vast open world, the ability to do any dungeon in any order (well, for the most part). Because it isn't bogged down by a lot of the cruft of each new game, it moves quick. And there's some downright charm to the game that it manages to do this all in 8-bit color and 8-bit pixels. It's a lot of fun, packed in 128Kb.
- The Bad: It's the first game, so it's actually hard to say what's bad, as it's the first time it's been done. While the game has a serious exploration vibe, the lack of narrative makes it feel flat. I realize the narrative of the game really didn't start until Zelda 2...and really took off with Link to the Past, but it's seriously missed here.
- The Ugly: The difficulty level is intense, and I nearly quit multiple times before a friend told me that the best way to play this is actually run away from the enemies until such time as you level up enough stuff with rupees and rupee games until you can level up.
- Jenn's Fave Music Track: Um...there's only four. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMssCMqMHuk
- In short: Run. Just run. Once your run and level up, it's a lotta fun.
#10 - Majora's Mask
- The Story: Searching for Navi, Link stumbles across the Skull Kid who turns him into a Deku Scrub. A Mask Salesman turns him human in order to get a mask the Skull Kid stole from him - but he only has three days before the town is destroyed by the falling moon.
- The Good: The good here is very good. Specifically the atmosphere. You have characters in denial, characters in fear (the guards on Day three, trembling at their posts and staring at the gigantic falling moon gets me every time). The Moon, always present, always staring (and even crying...it's not in control of itself) makes sure you know you're in trouble at all times. Everything is falling apart. And even then, there is hope. In what I consider the best sidequest in the entire Zelda series, you spend an entire three-day cycle bringing a fiance and fiancee back together, just moments before the end of the world. It not only nearly made me cry, it made me regret resetting the cycle (which you have only seconds to do) knowing that they would be seperated again. There's so much more - like the creepy Mask Kids on the moon. The atmosphere in this game is absolutely amazing.
- The Bad: The three day cycle. As I've said before, the one thing I hate in games is having to repeat sections over and over again, making only minimal progress. This game, like The Temple of the Ocean King in Phantom Hourglass, is based completely on that idea. And it was infuriating. Especially going through and beating a temple boss on Day Three, and being unable to followup in time before Day three ended. I'd have to reset then fight the boss again (at least I could go directly to the boss), in order to followup with the changes that would happen after bating him. Infuriating, and nearly why I gave up this game.
- The Ugly: The final Majora boss. After getting through the game, the boss, instead f being a threatening monster, is a goof. Doing chicken walks, silly music, ballerina spins...he's not really...very...threatening.
- Jenn's Fave Music Track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDX4ZwUeOok
- In short: Tons of atmosphere, probably the most of any Zelda game. And a ton of frustrations.
#11 - Oracle of Ages/Seasons
- The Story: Link is sent by the Triforce to Labrynnia and then later Holodrum to rescue the possessed Nayru/kidnapped Din by switching between the present and past/switching seasons. Actually two games, I played them one after the other with codes from one adding to the second game. So I consider them two parts of the same game.
- The Good: I love love loved the idea of two games linekd together.
while you can playu each game seperately, if they were linked, the second became an extension of that game, with a ton of your stats and items carrying over to the new game, and giving you an extra ending game. I also love Din - a feisty firey dancer and her troupe who happen to be stopping by Holodrum. You even get to dance with her. The subrosians, also, are absolutely adorable for a race of underdwellers.
- The Bad: As much as I liked the idea of a linked game, bringing over your already ramped up sword and items from your other game makes the second game incredibly easy, especially when the normal Level 1 to Level 2 upgrade, suddenly becomes Level 2 to 3. The second game for me was incredibly easy. If you're linking a game, the difficulty should go up a tad.
- The Ugly: You know swapping those seasons around really quick can't be good for the planet.
- In short: Two linked games makes for a long but fun adventure.
#12 - Link Between Worlds
- The Story: Princess Zelda is turned into a painting by the evil Yuga and whisked off to a parallel univers of Hyrule, Lorule. It's up to Link, with the help of Ravio, a guy who sets up shop in Link's house, to save both Zelda and Lorule.
- The Good: I absolutely loved the story here. You have the happy precious moments looking Hyrule, with the flipside precious moments gone very very very wrong looking precious moments Lorule. Each characters in this mirror universe, isn't an evil Hyrulian, instead, it's more of an equal-and-opposite characterization. Pricess Hilda is just as devoted to her people as Zelda is, but she doesn't have her optimism, and instead despairs. Link's counterpart has a strong heart for doing the right thing, but is a coward and won't confront people directly. The story was absolutely wonderful, and that last scene with Hilda didn't just make me smile, but beam.,
- The Bad: I'm going to be honest here...most Zelda games I played with a walkthrough. This was the first one I didn't, as it had just come out. I played it to the end, but it felt shallow and and not deep at all. But I also didn't have any walkthroughs for side quests. So my "The Bad" feeling that the game was shallow and light may have just been that I didn't know there was more to do. I may replay this again once a detailed walkthrough comes out.
- The Ugly: The rent shop. The whole idea of renting everything I'd need to get through a rent shop really took away the feeling of satisfaction I'd get by earning the items through pushing through the temples.
-Jenn's Fave Music Track: While usually I go for the Dark World theme on games based on Link to the Past, this one really makes me happy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfVbmH_TeXI
-In short: Great story, although it feels light, and as if I didn't earn anything.
#9 - The Legend of Zelda
- The Story: In the first Zelda game, Link has to gather pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, beat up Ganon and save the princess. All in 8-bit 1980s processing power.
- The Good: It's the first game, so it's actually hard to say what's good, as it's the first time it's been done. The vast open world, the ability to do any dungeon in any order (well, for the most part). Because it isn't bogged down by a lot of the cruft of each new game, it moves quick. And there's some downright charm to the game that it manages to do this all in 8-bit color and 8-bit pixels. It's a lot of fun, packed in 128Kb.
- The Bad: It's the first game, so it's actually hard to say what's bad, as it's the first time it's been done. While the game has a serious exploration vibe, the lack of narrative makes it feel flat. I realize the narrative of the game really didn't start until Zelda 2...and really took off with Link to the Past, but it's seriously missed here.
- The Ugly: The difficulty level is intense, and I nearly quit multiple times before a friend told me that the best way to play this is actually run away from the enemies until such time as you level up enough stuff with rupees and rupee games until you can level up.
- Jenn's Fave Music Track: Um...there's only four. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMssCMqMHuk
- In short: Run. Just run. Once your run and level up, it's a lotta fun.
#10 - Majora's Mask
- The Story: Searching for Navi, Link stumbles across the Skull Kid who turns him into a Deku Scrub. A Mask Salesman turns him human in order to get a mask the Skull Kid stole from him - but he only has three days before the town is destroyed by the falling moon.
- The Good: The good here is very good. Specifically the atmosphere. You have characters in denial, characters in fear (the guards on Day three, trembling at their posts and staring at the gigantic falling moon gets me every time). The Moon, always present, always staring (and even crying...it's not in control of itself) makes sure you know you're in trouble at all times. Everything is falling apart. And even then, there is hope. In what I consider the best sidequest in the entire Zelda series, you spend an entire three-day cycle bringing a fiance and fiancee back together, just moments before the end of the world. It not only nearly made me cry, it made me regret resetting the cycle (which you have only seconds to do) knowing that they would be seperated again. There's so much more - like the creepy Mask Kids on the moon. The atmosphere in this game is absolutely amazing.
- The Bad: The three day cycle. As I've said before, the one thing I hate in games is having to repeat sections over and over again, making only minimal progress. This game, like The Temple of the Ocean King in Phantom Hourglass, is based completely on that idea. And it was infuriating. Especially going through and beating a temple boss on Day Three, and being unable to followup in time before Day three ended. I'd have to reset then fight the boss again (at least I could go directly to the boss), in order to followup with the changes that would happen after bating him. Infuriating, and nearly why I gave up this game.
- The Ugly: The final Majora boss. After getting through the game, the boss, instead f being a threatening monster, is a goof. Doing chicken walks, silly music, ballerina spins...he's not really...very...threatening.
- Jenn's Fave Music Track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDX4ZwUeOok
- In short: Tons of atmosphere, probably the most of any Zelda game. And a ton of frustrations.
#11 - Oracle of Ages/Seasons
- The Story: Link is sent by the Triforce to Labrynnia and then later Holodrum to rescue the possessed Nayru/kidnapped Din by switching between the present and past/switching seasons. Actually two games, I played them one after the other with codes from one adding to the second game. So I consider them two parts of the same game.
- The Good: I love love loved the idea of two games linekd together.
while you can playu each game seperately, if they were linked, the second became an extension of that game, with a ton of your stats and items carrying over to the new game, and giving you an extra ending game. I also love Din - a feisty firey dancer and her troupe who happen to be stopping by Holodrum. You even get to dance with her. The subrosians, also, are absolutely adorable for a race of underdwellers.
- The Bad: As much as I liked the idea of a linked game, bringing over your already ramped up sword and items from your other game makes the second game incredibly easy, especially when the normal Level 1 to Level 2 upgrade, suddenly becomes Level 2 to 3. The second game for me was incredibly easy. If you're linking a game, the difficulty should go up a tad.
- The Ugly: You know swapping those seasons around really quick can't be good for the planet.
- In short: Two linked games makes for a long but fun adventure.
#12 - Link Between Worlds
- The Story: Princess Zelda is turned into a painting by the evil Yuga and whisked off to a parallel univers of Hyrule, Lorule. It's up to Link, with the help of Ravio, a guy who sets up shop in Link's house, to save both Zelda and Lorule.
- The Good: I absolutely loved the story here. You have the happy precious moments looking Hyrule, with the flipside precious moments gone very very very wrong looking precious moments Lorule. Each characters in this mirror universe, isn't an evil Hyrulian, instead, it's more of an equal-and-opposite characterization. Pricess Hilda is just as devoted to her people as Zelda is, but she doesn't have her optimism, and instead despairs. Link's counterpart has a strong heart for doing the right thing, but is a coward and won't confront people directly. The story was absolutely wonderful, and that last scene with Hilda didn't just make me smile, but beam.,
- The Bad: I'm going to be honest here...most Zelda games I played with a walkthrough. This was the first one I didn't, as it had just come out. I played it to the end, but it felt shallow and and not deep at all. But I also didn't have any walkthroughs for side quests. So my "The Bad" feeling that the game was shallow and light may have just been that I didn't know there was more to do. I may replay this again once a detailed walkthrough comes out.
- The Ugly: The rent shop. The whole idea of renting everything I'd need to get through a rent shop really took away the feeling of satisfaction I'd get by earning the items through pushing through the temples.
-Jenn's Fave Music Track: While usually I go for the Dark World theme on games based on Link to the Past, this one really makes me happy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfVbmH_TeXI
-In short: Great story, although it feels light, and as if I didn't earn anything.
