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Oct. 31st, 2014 12:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariJenn's Mid Tier Zelda Games
#5 - Link to the Past
- The Story: Link is awoken by a voice claiming to be Princess Zelda to rescue her. Links wakes up to find his uncle already armed to save her. He tells Link to stay, and of course, he leaves anyway. Eventually, he finds that not only has his uncle failed, he needs to rescue the proncess, defeat Aghanim, and save Hyrule. But there's a whole nuther world out there he'll find, too.
- The Good: And amazingly deep and complex game, with just as deep and complex story. And once you prove your courage, and get the sword, and defeat the baddie...suddenly, everything changes, and you end up in a dark mirror universe, where you have to do it all over again. Sort of. In this world, everyone's angry with you, you have maidens to rescue, and you're rediscovering everything all over again. And then when you do THAT, then you start having to jump back and forth with the magic mirror and flip around and...it's just such a deep game!
- The Bad: The game is deep, sure, and it's neat that you spend time in one world, then another, then both...but sometimes it feels like filler. Lots of pendants and crystals and stuff...it can feel kind of like these maidens aren't worth all the running around. Still, it's entertaining because it changes worlds so often to get to the end.
- The Ugly: That Skeleton Woods temple where you have to keep popping in and out of the skulls to move around? I got lost so many times jumping around and trying to figure out the darned dungeon....
- Jenn's Fave Music Track: As with all Link to the Past derivatives, it's the Dark World theme - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BStjuHfP238
- In Short: Straightforward and long A to B gameplay, but a lot of fun tracing those breadcrumbs.
#6 - Spirit Tracks
- The Story: Far in the future of wind Waker, a New Hyrule has been established, and Princess Zelda's body has been kidnapped. And this time, she (or at least her spirit) is along for the ride to get it back.
- The Good: My favorite of all the portable Zelda games, this feels like a console game stuffed into a tiny screen. The idea of a train in the Zeldaverse sounds wrong, but feels incredibly right. The boss fights are original, and are unique in the use of the items you pick up in their resepctive dungeons. And, last, but not least, Zelda. Having Zelda's spirit tagging along and her commentary really gives her some depth not seen since Wind Waker, and she was a completely different character. She's able to take over phantoms and you can have her move and attack along side you, and can even distract other phantoms by bothering them with incredibly entertaining small talk. She's actually a very formidible, but cheery, companion. She does has a few annoying traits (such as being crying-out-for-help-paralyzingly-terrified of rats), but in general, she's really awesome to have around. One would hope that all the more silent Zeldas are this strong (cf. Twilight Princess). While she may feel to some too cherry, this game in general is pretty cheery, and feels like a nice ending to the pretty cheery "Child Era" timeline. I can't say enough good things about this game.
- The Bad: The same issues I had with the stylus controls in Phantom Hourglass plague Spirit Tracks. In fact, I would say the hardest Boss Fight in the whole series lies in this game, not because he's hard (all he does is spit rocks at you), but because the controls have trouble determining if you're trying to sword swipe the rocks away, or walk right into the rocks. It took me well over two hours to clear that segment of the final boss fight, simply because of the controls. There's also way too much "sneaking" in the game. While in Phantom Hourglass you just sneak around phantoms in one temple, in this game, you have to sneak around EVERYTHING. With a TRAIN. It got to a point where once I took off with the train, I'd save the game, because while it's easy to avoid the phantom trains, if one beelines on you, you're dead. Especially if you're going backwards cause you can't hit a wye in time.
- The Ugly: I HATE THOSE DAMNED BUNNIES. They can stay behind those rocks for all I care.
- Jenn's Fave Music Track: The soundtrack to this game is absolutely phenomenal. It's hard to pick a fave, but if I had to it's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f87K0YKjUBc
- In Short: The best of the portable games.
#7 - Link's Awakening
- The Story: A direct sequel to the Oracle series games (which somehow came AFTER Link's Awakening), Link's boat is destroyed in a storm, and he wakes up on an island where he must awake the Windfish to find his way home.
- The Good: Much like Zelda II, this was my first Zelda game on a portable in the early 90s, although I didn't play through to the end...or even really the beginning. I just borrowed it. So it probably rates a little higher due to nostalgia than anything else...although I had to play it again after fininshing it due to losing my save game so I probably rated it a little lower because of that, so it evens out in the end. While the gameplay feels pretty much like all the other Game Boy series of games, the characters you run into really make the game pop out. They definitely ramped up the personalities on them. While the story is simplistic, they way they make it slowly unfold and reveal makes you want to keep playing to get the next little tidbit of the mystery of Koholint island. And then it puts you in a moral dilemma - stay on the island and never go home? Or leave the island and watch everyone you just met dissapear? Especially after how deep your relationship withj Marin gets in the story...something remarkable given you never say a word to her (and she remarks on that!).
- The Bad: Musically, hearing the Zelda theme repeat iteslf every fifteen seconds for hours on end gets on your nerves. The music, despite an incredible opening, is very simple and repetetive.
- The Ugly: [Spoiler alert] IT WAS ALL A DREAM?! ...and did he die unrescued? T_T
- Jenn's Fave Music Track: That's a heck of an opening for an 8-bit z80 chip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0ErE4l1EKM
- In Short: A very light and easy game, with a deep story and surprising moral dilemma.
#8 - Adventure of Link
- The Story: A direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda, Link must find the third part of the Triforce to awaken the ancestor of the Princess Zelda of the original Legend of Zelda, also known as Princess Zelda.
- Jenn's Bonus Story: This was the first Zelda game I ever played in 1988. It took many years, but I got to the battle with Dark Link a few years(!) later. At that point, the battery in the NES cart died. Fast forward almost 25 years later, I got back to Dark Link and kicked his tail...and then the game ended. I was shocked at how close I got to the end back in 1989....
- The Good: A lot of folks may be surprised at how high I ranked this game, known as the Black Sheep of the Zelda universe, but it was also my first Zelda game, so I didn't know any different. I actually really liked the side-scrolling platformer elements in the battles as I found it took a little more skill than just pointing in the right direction and pressing "Sword." In this case you not only had to worry about stabbing monsters from above and below, but also head-on: high AND low. It made for a very tough but satisfying mechanic for me. I often felt much of the other Zelda games just felt like "point in the right direction and press a button to attack or satnd still to shield." The Experience and Magic systems felt very satisfying, and was my first real experiuence with grinding, which felt much more fun than other NES games I'd played at the time (DragonWarrior, for one, which grinding becomes a chore). I found it vey satisfying.
- The Bad: Oh, my, the skill level on this is intense. I do mention that there's a lot of ways to attack characters, but they require every one of those attacks to beat. And some of them require billions and billions of hits to take down, for minor experience (I'm looking at YOU, Bubbles!). And they all respawn if you move too far away - which is likely a limitation of the hardware, but it's a very hard limitation of the software.
- The Ugly: WHY DO YOU KEEP SENDING ME ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BEGINNING WHEN I DIE?!
- Jenn's Fave Music Track: I can hear the XP draining in my mind - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a7Sh82Mzdc
- In Short: Different doesn't always it worse!
#5 - Link to the Past
- The Story: Link is awoken by a voice claiming to be Princess Zelda to rescue her. Links wakes up to find his uncle already armed to save her. He tells Link to stay, and of course, he leaves anyway. Eventually, he finds that not only has his uncle failed, he needs to rescue the proncess, defeat Aghanim, and save Hyrule. But there's a whole nuther world out there he'll find, too.
- The Good: And amazingly deep and complex game, with just as deep and complex story. And once you prove your courage, and get the sword, and defeat the baddie...suddenly, everything changes, and you end up in a dark mirror universe, where you have to do it all over again. Sort of. In this world, everyone's angry with you, you have maidens to rescue, and you're rediscovering everything all over again. And then when you do THAT, then you start having to jump back and forth with the magic mirror and flip around and...it's just such a deep game!
- The Bad: The game is deep, sure, and it's neat that you spend time in one world, then another, then both...but sometimes it feels like filler. Lots of pendants and crystals and stuff...it can feel kind of like these maidens aren't worth all the running around. Still, it's entertaining because it changes worlds so often to get to the end.
- The Ugly: That Skeleton Woods temple where you have to keep popping in and out of the skulls to move around? I got lost so many times jumping around and trying to figure out the darned dungeon....
- Jenn's Fave Music Track: As with all Link to the Past derivatives, it's the Dark World theme - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BStjuHfP238
- In Short: Straightforward and long A to B gameplay, but a lot of fun tracing those breadcrumbs.
#6 - Spirit Tracks
- The Story: Far in the future of wind Waker, a New Hyrule has been established, and Princess Zelda's body has been kidnapped. And this time, she (or at least her spirit) is along for the ride to get it back.
- The Good: My favorite of all the portable Zelda games, this feels like a console game stuffed into a tiny screen. The idea of a train in the Zeldaverse sounds wrong, but feels incredibly right. The boss fights are original, and are unique in the use of the items you pick up in their resepctive dungeons. And, last, but not least, Zelda. Having Zelda's spirit tagging along and her commentary really gives her some depth not seen since Wind Waker, and she was a completely different character. She's able to take over phantoms and you can have her move and attack along side you, and can even distract other phantoms by bothering them with incredibly entertaining small talk. She's actually a very formidible, but cheery, companion. She does has a few annoying traits (such as being crying-out-for-help-paralyzingly-terrified of rats), but in general, she's really awesome to have around. One would hope that all the more silent Zeldas are this strong (cf. Twilight Princess). While she may feel to some too cherry, this game in general is pretty cheery, and feels like a nice ending to the pretty cheery "Child Era" timeline. I can't say enough good things about this game.
- The Bad: The same issues I had with the stylus controls in Phantom Hourglass plague Spirit Tracks. In fact, I would say the hardest Boss Fight in the whole series lies in this game, not because he's hard (all he does is spit rocks at you), but because the controls have trouble determining if you're trying to sword swipe the rocks away, or walk right into the rocks. It took me well over two hours to clear that segment of the final boss fight, simply because of the controls. There's also way too much "sneaking" in the game. While in Phantom Hourglass you just sneak around phantoms in one temple, in this game, you have to sneak around EVERYTHING. With a TRAIN. It got to a point where once I took off with the train, I'd save the game, because while it's easy to avoid the phantom trains, if one beelines on you, you're dead. Especially if you're going backwards cause you can't hit a wye in time.
- The Ugly: I HATE THOSE DAMNED BUNNIES. They can stay behind those rocks for all I care.
- Jenn's Fave Music Track: The soundtrack to this game is absolutely phenomenal. It's hard to pick a fave, but if I had to it's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f87K0YKjUBc
- In Short: The best of the portable games.
#7 - Link's Awakening
- The Story: A direct sequel to the Oracle series games (which somehow came AFTER Link's Awakening), Link's boat is destroyed in a storm, and he wakes up on an island where he must awake the Windfish to find his way home.
- The Good: Much like Zelda II, this was my first Zelda game on a portable in the early 90s, although I didn't play through to the end...or even really the beginning. I just borrowed it. So it probably rates a little higher due to nostalgia than anything else...although I had to play it again after fininshing it due to losing my save game so I probably rated it a little lower because of that, so it evens out in the end. While the gameplay feels pretty much like all the other Game Boy series of games, the characters you run into really make the game pop out. They definitely ramped up the personalities on them. While the story is simplistic, they way they make it slowly unfold and reveal makes you want to keep playing to get the next little tidbit of the mystery of Koholint island. And then it puts you in a moral dilemma - stay on the island and never go home? Or leave the island and watch everyone you just met dissapear? Especially after how deep your relationship withj Marin gets in the story...something remarkable given you never say a word to her (and she remarks on that!).
- The Bad: Musically, hearing the Zelda theme repeat iteslf every fifteen seconds for hours on end gets on your nerves. The music, despite an incredible opening, is very simple and repetetive.
- The Ugly: [Spoiler alert] IT WAS ALL A DREAM?! ...and did he die unrescued? T_T
- Jenn's Fave Music Track: That's a heck of an opening for an 8-bit z80 chip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0ErE4l1EKM
- In Short: A very light and easy game, with a deep story and surprising moral dilemma.
#8 - Adventure of Link
- The Story: A direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda, Link must find the third part of the Triforce to awaken the ancestor of the Princess Zelda of the original Legend of Zelda, also known as Princess Zelda.
- Jenn's Bonus Story: This was the first Zelda game I ever played in 1988. It took many years, but I got to the battle with Dark Link a few years(!) later. At that point, the battery in the NES cart died. Fast forward almost 25 years later, I got back to Dark Link and kicked his tail...and then the game ended. I was shocked at how close I got to the end back in 1989....
- The Good: A lot of folks may be surprised at how high I ranked this game, known as the Black Sheep of the Zelda universe, but it was also my first Zelda game, so I didn't know any different. I actually really liked the side-scrolling platformer elements in the battles as I found it took a little more skill than just pointing in the right direction and pressing "Sword." In this case you not only had to worry about stabbing monsters from above and below, but also head-on: high AND low. It made for a very tough but satisfying mechanic for me. I often felt much of the other Zelda games just felt like "point in the right direction and press a button to attack or satnd still to shield." The Experience and Magic systems felt very satisfying, and was my first real experiuence with grinding, which felt much more fun than other NES games I'd played at the time (DragonWarrior, for one, which grinding becomes a chore). I found it vey satisfying.
- The Bad: Oh, my, the skill level on this is intense. I do mention that there's a lot of ways to attack characters, but they require every one of those attacks to beat. And some of them require billions and billions of hits to take down, for minor experience (I'm looking at YOU, Bubbles!). And they all respawn if you move too far away - which is likely a limitation of the hardware, but it's a very hard limitation of the software.
- The Ugly: WHY DO YOU KEEP SENDING ME ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BEGINNING WHEN I DIE?!
- Jenn's Fave Music Track: I can hear the XP draining in my mind - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a7Sh82Mzdc
- In Short: Different doesn't always it worse!
