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Topic: IGN top 10 Zelda game list

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blaisedinsd

judging by IGNs recent Zelda list my opinion that Skyward Sword is the best Zelda is unpopular.

I think 3D and 2D should be judged seperately. I prefer 3D overall as they are deeper games in my view.

1. Skyward Sword
2. Ocarina of Time
3. Wind Waker
4. Twilight Princess
5. Majora's Mask - haven't finished it yet but not a fan of this 3 day cycle thing with schedules

My favorite 2D zelda (haven't played them all)
1. The original
2. Link between worlds
3. Link to the Past
4.Phantom Hourglass
5.Spirit Tracks
6. Links Awakening (barely remember playing this it's been so long)
7. Adventure of Link
8. Minish Cap (havent finished this)
9. Havent playes ages or seasons.

So since they lumped ages and seasons together my main question is which 4 Zeldas should be left off the list?

I would leave off
Ages Seasons
Minish Cap
Adventure of Link
Majoras Mask

IGN left off Adventure of Link and Skyward Sword and the DS titles. I feel this is controller discrimination mostly, backlash against touch and motion controls. Those games had good controls and were good zelda titles. I would leave off either Majoras Mask or Minish Cap as both games have been difficult for me to get in to as I find them obtuse to where I need to check walkthroughs too often. Ages and Seasons just because I haven't played it. Adventure of Link I beat in the 80's on NES when it was new and it was rewarding to beat but not a game I want to go back to.

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RR529

Yeah, Minish Cap is one of my favorites as well, behind only ALttP (my #2) & TP (my #1).

Haven't read IGN's list yet, but will (if only for the fact I like lists...).

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blaisedinsd

minish cap is a capcom game, I hold that against it

IGN list
10. Season and Ages
9. Minish Cap
8.Twilight Princess
7. Link Between Worlds
6. The original
5. Links Awakening
4. Majoras Mask
3. Wind Waker
2. Ocarina of Time
1. A Link to the Past

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Eel

Curiously enough, some of the best Zeldas have been made by Capcom.

They nailed down the 2D style pretty well. I wonder what would happen if they got the opportunity again.

Edited on by Eel

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Peek-a-boo

Skyward Sword simply cannot conceive to be labelled as the best Zelda game for several unavoidable reasons:

a) Repetitive.

I found this on the web, listing the places the story pushes you onwards to visit:

Skyloft (1) Faron Woods (1) Skyloft (2) Eldin Volcano (1) Skyloft (3) Lanayru Desert (1) Faron Woods (2) Skyloft (4) Eldin Volcano (2) Skyloft (5) Faron Woods (3) Skyloft (6) Lanayru Desert (2) Skyloft (7) Eldin Volcano (3) Faron Woods (4) Eldin Volcano (4) Faron Woods (5) Skyloft (8) Faron Woods (6) Eldin Volcano (5) Lanayru Desert (3) Faron Woods (7) Lanayru Desert (4) Skyloft (9) Faron Woods (8)

Skyloft being the exception, since it is your home town, but visiting Lanayru Desert FOUR separate times and Faron Woods SEVEN separate times is repetition described to a tee.

And having to 'fight' The Imprisoned THREE separate times with almost no variation (in gameplay) during each encounter was a forgettable exercise in tedium.

b) Fi.

At first, I liked her.

Then she got on my nerves about ten seconds after her introduction.

Her constant interruption, her Casio calculator personality, her immensely irritating health and battery life warnings, her repetitive and monotonous dialogue as well as her knack to be abruptly disruptive during those important story moments makes Fi the most joyless companion in any Zelda game.

And her 'percentage statistical speak' along with the teeth-grindingly slow text made me actively dislike Fi.

c) A little 'big' adventure.

In a game where there is only a dozen or so locales in Skyloft, the vast majority of whom are oblivious to what you are doing during your quest (to save them).

With the repetitive locations, relatively small actual gaming area and a tiny number of species/people you come into contact with, it feels as though you are saving a small village rather than the world.

I also became somewhat dulled with the 'world' at the halfway mark, let alone by the end of the story.

d) A lack of new ideas.

The only thing that could really be called innovative is the art style, which sits somewhere in between The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess with an Expressionist twist. I very much liked the visuals, personally.

The idea to set the world above the clouds appeared to be a good one, but the excision comes to nothing.

e) You have picked up so-and-so! Again, and again and again!

Skyward Sword will pause to tell you what a such-and-such is every darn time you pick up a such-and-such in an environment where you've never picked up a such-and-such before. You'll pick up a "jelly blob" after killing an enemy, and then we'll zoom right up into Link's face.

This follows by a text window: "This may look like a piece of useless gunk" — whoa, whoa, let's just stop right there. The game is recognizing one of its elements as looking "like a piece of useless gunk".

When you power the game down and then power it back up later, it gives you the description again. Holy lord — it's maddening.

Funnily enough, the general consensus was that the motion controls were the number one worse thing about this game and yet, they were perfectly fine for me!

Sure, I had to recalibrate the Wii remote more times than I would have liked to however, they worked just fine and dandy. If anything, they made the game more involving.

TL;DR — Skyward Sword is in no logical way the best Zelda game.

Edited on by Peek-a-boo

Peek-a-boo

Freeon-Leon

Change TP with ALTTP on that list and maybe I'll agree.

And isn't like "cool" to think Skyward Sword is bad? I know it's not thee best but it's cerrainly better than the Oracle games. Wich are great too.

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bitleman

@Freeon-Leon Don't worry. It will be considered as a great game when the next big on will be out. It's the Zelda cycle. It's been like that since Majora's Mask.

bitleman

Grumblevolcano

@bitleman Well I can see the situation already. BotW will be wrecked by Zelda fans because of going in a western 3rd party RPG direction (Skyrim, Witcher, etc.) and say that Skyward Sword is way better so they should go back to that style.

Edited on by Grumblevolcano

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SuperPaperLuigi

I guess, from a purely arbitrary viewpoint, I'd have to say leave out the Capcom Zelda's and Zelda 2 but keep the original Zelda because you kind of have to?

In terms of what the market wants to hear and how they have to be seen to think, I think IGN probably are pretty much spot-on.

But I've never really been one for zealous and jingoistic toeing of party-lines, so...

...the Zelda's I have on my shelves:

Windwaker
Twilight Princess
Skyward Sword (which I'm yet to play)
Phantom Hourglass
Spirit Tracks
Link Between Worlds

Zelda's I personally wouldn't play again:

Oracle of Ages / Seasons
Minish Cap (although having said that I'm quite a way into my second play-through at the moment).
Link's Awakening
Ocarina
The original Legend of Zelda and Zelda II

I haven't played Majora's Mask...I just couldn't face it after Ocarina. I hear stylistically it's really interesting and that the structure of the game is quite unusual for the series but I just didn't like Ocarina's core gameplay.

I'd love it if Nintendo condensed the 3 Capcom Zelda's plus an extra Seasons into a 3D HD remake in the Link between Worlds engine, maybe with picture-links wall-walking ability to sidestep and smooth out the older style game design...

...I think they should make a combined/condensed Seasons Trilogy where you can also visit the Minish and call it "Legend of Zelda The Trilogy of Seasons"...or some such thing.

Edited on by SuperPaperLuigi

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kkslider5552000

I mean, at least you didn't just copy the link to IGN's list without anything else.

imho though

1/2. Majora's Mask/Twilight Princess (literally can't choose between them)
3. Link's Awakening
4. Wind Waker HD
5. Skyward Sword
6. Minish Cap
7. Ocarina of Time
8. Hyrule Warriors
9. Link to the Past
10. Link Between Worlds

3-8 are very close for quality

Long explanation:
Best I can explain why X game beats Y is as such. I slightly prefer 3D Zelda so let's start with that. Majora's Mask is the best story Zelda game, maybe by a country mile depending on how you look at it. Gameplay has held up well too. Compared to Twilight Princess, the other dark 3D Zelda, which has the best gameplay but the story, while good, can be too tryhard dark or disappoint compared to its high points.

Link's Awakening is partially because I think I played it at the perfect time for me, but also because its story elements are shockingly compelling and everything works as a 2D game to be compelling and it is a more interesting LTTP the same way Majora's Mask is a more interesting OOT with really good writing. But again, prefer 3D Zelda.

Wind Waker HD made the game almost as good as when I first played Wind Waker, but I'll never enjoy that game quite as much as I did when it first came out in 2003 (especially the dungeons). It was 3rd for me for a while solely because of my first time playing it then. HD version made me appreciate the world they created though. Swift Sail was the best addition, seriously, you can't overstate that.

Skyward Sword I did love, despite any issues it had. But I did love the controls and sidequests and most of the general gameplay. The main story once it got going. Make a few improvements in pacing and add a better partner and it would've been right below MM/TP imo.

Minish Cap is an amazing Zelda game. Love everything about it, except for a couple of side quests. ...and maybe the swamp. It's simply that it doesn't tend to reach the high points of anything above it imo.

Ocarina of Time is a classic and I love it. It's not the best Zelda game and I'm baffled at how anyone could think it is in 2016. And I'm one of those people that was there when it was new AND it was like one of the 3 or 4 first 3D games I ever played AND I finally beat the whole game in 2003, which will forever for me be the best year of gaming ever because I was 12 for most of it. So if there's anyone who should be on the GOAT train, it's me. And I'm not.

...that being said, it is remarkable how well it has held up, despite any quirks or dated graphics. Especially compared to NEARLY EVERY GAME TO COME OUT ON THE CONSOLE BEFOREHAND. Still great, still a great source of nostalgia. Excellent video game! Mostly hurt by the fact that the other 3D Zeldas did the same things except better.

I put over 200 hours into Hyrule Warriors. I think I've played 2-3 other games in my life for more time than Hyrule Warriors. It's not the best, and when you don't succeed at anything on the Adventure map, it is the most useless waste of time but it is so great otherwise. Never have I enjoyed such sheer repetition to such a degree. But it's not the best Zelda. It's only partially Zelda at all. But it is great at what it is, and I wish I had the time to play more Warriors games. Also, it's weird comparing this to the other Zeldas.

Link to the Past is a great game, but with a style I don't entirely get. I saw someone once put it best that this game is essentially the awkward transitional period between Zelda 1 and OOT, and yeah...it really is. It's great at being that and was the perfect Zelda for SNES but it doesn't really do the best to expand upon what made Zelda 1 compelling (especially in retrospect) and OOT I just feel is a similar sort of game but better and more compelling. I do realize Zelda 1 is not on this list, I'm saying a game closer to that on SNES would've been better than LTTP, imo.

A Link Between Worlds I think might be a better game than Link to the Past, but there's 2 things that ruin that a bit for me. First thing is that the newer video game elements don't always fit that well with what is partially a game from the early 90s. It's not a huge deal but it makes the game seem kinda awkward at times. But more importantly, I just don't like LTTP's overworld. It's mostly boring to me, somewhat from a gameplay perspective, and especially from a story perspective. After LTTP, most Zeldas tended to have good story and really enjoyable characters, but LTTP to me is super generic in that regard. So a decade plus of good story is just not there for the sake of simplicity of a game from the early 90s except also not being a game from the early 90s. It's...weird.

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Undead_terror

MM will always be my fav Zelda game, as a matter of fact, I recently played it again just to explore the world I pretty much adore, I would say my second fav would be oot, but the rest I'm not too sure. I can say the best spin off series would have to be Hyrule Warriors, not like Zelda has much spin offs to begin with, but still a fun game I need to get around to playing again, so much left to finish.

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Haru17

Freeon-Leon wrote:

Change TP with ALTTP on that list and maybe I'll agree.

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shaneoh

Well at least IGN has the Oracle Games on the list, guess they have some taste. The ten I rate most are as follows:
10. Skyward Sword
9. Phantom Hourglass (despite having not finished it, 95% of the way there).
8. Majora's Mask
7. Wind Waker
6. A Link Between Worlds
5. Link's Awakening (my first Zelda)
4. Twilight Princess
1. Ocarina of Time 3D, Oracle of Ages & Seasons (gyro aiming and Master Quest are enough to distinguish 3D from the n64 version).

Was not a fan of ALttP and Minish Cap. Hyrule Warriors would feature on there, but I decided to focus on the main games.

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Octane

This list is an official fact; anyone who disagrees is a Zelda casual;

1. The Wind Waker
2. Twilight Princess
3. Ocarina of Time
4. A Link to the Past
5. A Link Between Worlds
6. Link's Awakening
7. Majora's Mask
8. The Legend of Zelda
9. Spirit Tracks
10. Phantom Hourglass

Octane

Haru17

When I swam out into the ocean in the beach levels in Super Mario Sunshine, I expected the invisible wall. What I didn't expect is that the same invisible wall in The Wind Waker would make people blind to the game's faults.

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Octane

And despite that, the world opens up faster than Hyrule in TP

Octane

SuperPaperLuigi

@Octane That's probably the thing I like least about the earlier Zeldas, the speed at which everything opens up. It's can be like a drip-feed of content at times, but then I'm always making multiple passes of every area because I can never remember precisely what's where and can never be completely sure I've not picked up or learned something that'll help me solve something when I get there.

Right now I'm playing Minish Cap and I decided not to leave the main story path until I'd fused hella-kinstones but it's stopped giving me that opportunity, I think because there's stuff left unclaimed on the map...

...for me (with the approach I seem to have developed) there's enough circling of the environments involved already for me to go chasing after random chests to spawn new kinstone fusing opportunities...I'd much prefer to pupulate the map completely with that stuff and then do one pass once I've got all of the items, but I guess that kind of defeats the object of them being there in the first place.

Edited on by SuperPaperLuigi

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Haru17

Octane wrote:

And despite that, the world opens up faster than Hyrule in TP

Yeah, there sure is a lot of water that you can't dive under in The Wind Waker.

Untitled

Edited on by Haru17

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Octane

If that means WW had to miss out on a cumbersome water temple with murky visuals and a pushover boss, then there's nothing of value lost.

Octane

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