Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@jump Like Boom Box, a decent but shovelware-ish Wii game is not the Jaws or Schindler's List of games.

Sure it is. Like Jaws, Boom Blox bites.

@Xyphon22 I've never played A Night In The Woods. It's on Switch IIRC so maybe I'll give it a go and see what I think about it.

@App Yes, it is. And it's been on sale for like 40% off a couple of times and I seriously thought about buying it then. Glad I didn't. If you like VNs (there's a lot less actual gameplay than I thought there would be, which is part of my issue with it) and struggle with the things the characters do I'm sure it's fine, but like I said with Celeste, a great game should draw you in even if those things aren't true, and this one is not a great game in my opinion.

Here's mine: Ocarina of Time is the worst 3D Zelda. I would never deny that OoT had a tremendous effect on the game industry and was a landmark game for its time, but it has since been surpassed and bettered by its sequels. I think it's overrated and nostalgia blinds people to its relative mediocrity.

I thought the worst 3D Zelda was Genshin Impact...?

@Krull I've been playing Genshin Impact recently and it's actually a lot of fun and does enough to separate itself from BoTW. Yes, it does clearly borrow a lot of mechanics and aesthetics, but it has its own fully realized world and plenty of unique gameplay elements. I figure your comment was meant to just be a joke, so this isn't necessarily directed at you, but just felt like getting it out there.

I think I'd also agree that OoT is the worst 3D Zelda but only because it has a lot of tough competition. There's only six 3D Zelda games, and they're all pretty top notch. My first time playing OoT wasn't until after I played Majora's Mask and Wind Waker, so I wouldn't say I have high nostalgia for it either. I'd probably rank them as:

1. Wind Waker
2. BoTW
3. Majora's Mask
4. Skyward Sword
5. Twilight Princess
6. Ocarina of Time

Although to be honest I think it's pretty close between Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time.

For my own unpopular opinion, at least I think it is, I find Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia to be the best Fire Emblem game. I haven't played the ones that weren't localized but I've played all of the others, and it's still by far my favourite. I enjoy the characters, presentation, mechanics, music, story, and battles more than any other Fire Emblem I've played. I enjoy the way it handles magic, and the weapon system in general. The voice acting is really wonderful as well.

@SwitchVogel Everything you said about OoT is true, but I still don't think it's the worst 3D Zelda. That title goes to Twilight Princess IMO. I really didn't like the dark atmosphere compared to Skyward Sword's bright and colorful worlds.

Skyward Sword is my favorite 3D Zelda game. Don't judge

@App Well, I'd put Twilight Princess only just above it; that one very much felt like a modern interpretation of OoT. I still enjoyed it, but it felt like a slog in many parts.

And I can see where you're coming from with Skyward Sword. There are a lot of valid complaints about that one, but I personally LOVED the motion controls and the more focused story. Plus, that was Nintendo at its best with Zelda dungeon design; I really hope we see some of that come back in BotW 2. I liked the shrines, but the Divine Beasts in BotW felt more like a last minute addition than they did properly planned out dungeons.

I agree about OoT. It's a product of it's time though, but a lot of it is simply archaic in design.

I did love tp though. It felt like a proper "remake" of oot. It felt better on wiiu than on wii though. I never finished it in wii. The controls felt wrong and the graphics had that smeary blur to it that gave me a headache, especially in anamorphic.

I always thought Nintendo to be pretty nonsensical in their release schedule. The spacing between some franchise games feels right, like Zelda usually feels about right and there's usually something new and fresh in them and it doesn't feel tired.
But others seem not so much, though. Mario is too much of the same, too often, IMO. While others are largely ignored for years (sometimes decades).
Mario Odyssey just feels like an upgraded Mario 64, and they'll keep pumping out Mario games that are more of the same, but at the same time completely ignore other franchises for many years because there's "nothing new" to do with them. Nintendos need to have some gimmick in each new release is both good and bad. A new hat gimmick is enough for Mario, but F-Zero goes ignored for coming up on 20 years because there isn't room for some bizarre new gimmick to throw in it when people don't even want a new gimmick for that; just some glorious HD F-Zero racing.

Twilight Princess feels weird and clunky most of the time, in my experience playing it.

I do like places and ideas from it, but gameplay-wise I find it poor.

Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword are my favorites

OoT and BotW are my least favorites

I’m pretty much the opposite of most people

I find that odd. Like...what is different about it for the gameplay to be poor? It's the most 3D Zelda to ever 3D Zelda, its mostly just Wind Waker without a boat.

Well, I’ve only played two Zelda games... but Spirit Tracks is way underrated and OoT is the most overrated.

Honestly my most controversial 3D Zelda opinion (?) is that the original Wind Waker is the worst one, in hindsight. After the HD version, I don't know why you would ever want to go back to that one. I'd play the N64 OOT Water Temple over and over again long before I go back to GCN Wind Waker sailing even once.

Doesn't help that the dungeons aren't quite as strong as other games and the story doesn't live up to how much I loved it as a kid.

That being said, surprisingly HD Wind Waker made me like the sailing and going around various islands more than a lot of the main quest. I would never have expected that, even knowing the improvements going into the game.

@kkslider5552000 it's just several repeated moments like, I have several memories of me playing and trying to move Link precisely and he just overshooting or acting buggy, sometimes getting stuck, refusing to do actions I want him to do, or doing the wrong thing entirely. Little annoying things like that.

Some of the same things happen in all 3D Zeldas. But I remember TP being the worst Non-Skyward Sword gameplay experience.

@kkslider5552000 I need to replay Twilight Princess, but doesn't the time spent as a wolf change the gameplay a fair amount? Not to mention, the original version had a pretty different control scheme on the Wii. I liked TP, but it's my least favorite 3D Zelda. A 9/10 still.

@kkslider5552000 There are a lot of great aspects to Windwaker, like the sense of exploration, music, and all the personality put into the animations.

But you can’t help but think what the game could’ve been if they were given more time. If they would’ve added a couple more challenging non-linear dungeons and made the sailing less tedious it could be the best pre-BOTW 3D Zelda. I don’t hate the shard quest but it felt haphazardly shoehorned in the game at the end.

But there is a lot to admire about it regardless.

Oh sure. Like always, when I say "worst 3D Zelda", that still makes it better than the majority of games out there (even on a system not popular enough to have tons of shovelware, like the GCN). And the reason I don't want to replay it again is less because its bad and more because any desire or reason to do so died with the HD version existing.

Though I do find it funny that people's reactions to the game have generally gone from "let's blast it for having "kiddy" graphics" to "let's praise it for its graphics over anything else".

@kkslider5552000 I think it's funny that WW is like the last game I can remember going in that pattern. It seems most big Nintendo games follow the pattern of:

1. When it releases - "This is the greatest game ever!"
2. About a year later - "This game is horrible for many reasons!"
3. A few years down the line - "This is a really good game, right near the top of its series."

This has definitely been the case since Skyward Sword. It, BotW, Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade 2...this seems to be a common pattern among gamers.

As for WW and back on topic, I was the exact opposite of what you said. I loved the graphics when they were first shown off (most people were upset simply because it was revealed after that awesome realistic E3 concept), but it is easily my least favorite 3D Zelda. Looking at the list of 3D Zeldas, I guess OoT would be near the bottom simply because the others are amazing, but Wind Waker, Minish Cap, and Link to the Past are my three least favorite in the series.