Topic: How does saving works in couple Zelda games?

Hello!
I was wondering how exactly the saving works in Zelda games like Minish Cap and Link to the Past.

I just goty cartridges and I am super happy to play the games for the first time but I have one issue. The saving.
So, first I went to the Minish Woods and I saved and took a break then I started the game again and I was at the entrance of Hyrule Castle ... all my stuff that I had gathered are saved but not my location.

I have searched the interenet but nobody was asking this question and I find it weird. Is there something wrong with my cartridge?

The same is with my Link to the Past. I also got Links Awakening for the original gameboy but there thew save works from the last loading door you have used like entering a building. After you load you will be at the door you have used last.

Is there a place where this information could be found for all Zelda games? Same stupid stuff could be said about my Ocarina of Time. Allways loading in my house in the Forest

I don't remember how many games it affects but yeah, certain Zeldas (especially older ones) would always start you in the same 1 or 2 places, regardless of where you saved. The main exception being the dungeons.

@Zuljaras I'd guess and say that it's due to technical limitations.

Zelda games have alway been quite large compared to other games at the time. If they had to save your exact location and everything that's happened around Link then that's quite a few variables to keep track of and save onto the cartridge. The amount of space left for saves wasn't that big back then either so it's easier just to have a few starting points and allow the environments to refresh.

Ocarina of Time probably had the same issue but it would have been even more difficult as one of the first 3D games of its kind. A N64 cartridge wouldn't have enough space to keep track of everything at once, the game was built with a list of objectives that it would "tick off it's checklist", such as unlocking a door or defeating a boss. Other things such as exact player locations would be far more complicated.

It's easier for the system to be told to load you at the beginning of an indoor area like the Temple of Time than the middle of Lake Hylia. It's the reason that there are shortcuts in the Lost Woods and each Temple has a song for teleporting to it. It just wasn't possible at the time to save and load anywhere.
Discs and modern cartridges have a lot more space and faster speeds for reading data so those problems just stopped happening for newer games.

...it's also an easy way to escape a dungeon when you are low on hearts

It's the same in most, if not all, Zelda games- they rarely put you back exactly in the same spot where you saved (even breath of the wild).

The difference is that in the older ones, the "checkpoints" were fewer in number and farther away from each other.

Thanks for the info. They should have made it like in the metroidvania Castlevania games with save rooms. But I guess it is "better" to be confusing for the players