Bonus Comments:
Just wanted to add a few comments I didn’t get around to making in the video. These will be added whenever I feel like it. Also, possible bonus comic coming.
- I criticized the magnifying glass because it creates a sense of paranoia about missing secrets if you don’t have it on. On top of that, it’s only useful a few times.
- The difficulty level was satisfying. I died several times, though for some reason most of those deaths came during dungeon crawling instead of boss battles.
- With the exception of the final battle, I never came close to running out of magic power. While some of the magic powers seemed useful, I never felt the urge to play around with them.
- Speaking of the final battle, Ganon’s final form, through predictable based on the previous Zelda games, was pretty badass.
- The other sidequest I did was the Gerudo Training Center. Cool quest, useless prize.
- I liked that the different shields/tunics merely granted different abilities instead of granting extra overall defense as well. You don’t really need that in an action RPG, and it makes the game more challenging.
- Here’s A LINK TO a post I wrote in THE PAST about A Link to the Past
- Obligatory embedding of The Return of Ganondorf
- Okami is the poor man’s Zelda?
- No sword beams?
- One other sidequest I tried was the marathon runner, in case you were still wondering why I didn’t care about the sidequests.
- The text speed was way too slow. Completely forgot about this until I started Majora’s Mask. Much better.
- Ocarina of Time manga: +
- Majora’s Mask: + (dropped). Neat gameplay, too much bitch work.
YOU HAVENT PLAYED FFX????? CURSE YOU. CURSE YOUUU!!!! I haven’t played Link to the past or ocarina. wow man, i actually really liked this review. finally something besides ign or gamespot that doesn’t suck complete balls that doesn’t say “ummmmm” 50 million times. I’ve no clue about the girls besides Zelda herself lol. Hmmm, yeah dungeons are very mixed bag for me. I really liked Phantasy Star Online dungeons to be honest. Sidequests were boring to me in what I did play of this game to be honest. I REALLY enjoyed evrything from Windwaker though.
P.S. nice with the hat >_<
Yeah, I played FFX. Then I watched about five of my roommates and their friends play it throughout college. I was only listing the PS1-generation FF games. (Edit: I also played FF Tactics.) FFX was the first PS2 game in the FF series.
The ummmmms were all edited out. All 50 million of them. I’m still trying to work out the right video-making process to balance quality, time, and effort. This video cut down a fair amount on previous time/effort levels, but I’m confident there’s still room for laziness.
Nice video! Your editing was solid. Probably could’ve used video footage from the game to keep more happening visually, but well I didn’t really get bored. Surprised you gave the game ++, if only because I so far don’t like it. Then again, I’ve played better, even from the franchise.
Yeah, this would’ve been a perfect candidate for video footage since it was emulated. Too bad I didn’t plan on doing a video review from the start. Wasn’t even sure if I’d be reviewing it at all.
Ocarina of Time is basically Link to the Past in 3D. Can’t justify giving only one the ++. I have no plans to play any other Zelda games right now since these two seem to be the most widely praised in the series.
On the surface, yes. However, among the Cool, Hip crowd, Majora’s Mask is usually considered the best in the series by a longshot. It’s the most original, most open-ended… and one of the most interesting games ever made.
Play Majora’s Mask, though.
It’s the only Zelda game that actually tries something, tries to be different, tries to have a plot (and what a fucking good one it is), it’s actually a little hard (harder than Ocarina of Time at least), the level design is less memorable, but the world design is even more impressive. Worth playing as a complement.
I have deemed this issue poll-worthy.
majora’s Mask….there’s a game I completed and said: WHAT A PIECE OF SHIT.
Recently I replayed it and said: Hey, pretty good actually.
I didn’t actually say those things outloud though.
When I first played it, the Great Fairies scared the shit out of me. They are pretty……..creepy. I do agree that Link to the Past is much better than Ocarina of Time. I also don’t get why everyone on the internet says that Ocarina of Time is the best Zelda game ever. At least to me, it isn’t.
Not everyone is into well-endowed, scantily clad, floating women who can upgrade their magic and heal their wounds. Some people don’t like puppies either. To each his own.
Ocarina has the edge in characters, graphics, and dungeon design. Link to the Past has the edge in weapons, tools, magic, world design, and length. I do consider Link to the Past to be the better game, but not by much.
Now go and play Twilight Princess.
Comparing Twilight Princess to Ocarina of Time is like comparing Super Mario Bros 3 to Super Mario Bros 1.
They’re both built on the same graphics and engine. However, with Twilight Princess, Nintendo had time to improve on it and make a vastly longer and more dynamic game.
It even has a better plot.
Majora’s Mask is more like Super Mario Bros. 2 (original and weird gameplay).
If you’re comparing it to Super Mario Bros. 3 (+++), how can I refuse?
Answer: If it loses in the poll.
Update: It may even get mercy-ruled.
I gotta play link to the past……
Now what should I comment on?
Malon is definitely the best, and Zelda’s awesome because she’s also Sheik, and Sheik’s a badass, and that’s a quality I rate highly in a girl.
The game get’s better the more you play it. Side Quests and exploration yields awesomeness, as well as newer ways to get stuff. The order of dungeons can also be done in different ways (at least the shadow and spirit temples).
The real question is: What tunic/shield combo was your favorite (only one acceptable answer: Red-Mirror Shield….and silver gauntal….gauntl………..wrist thingies).
Link to the Past offers a run-of-the-mill story and almost nothing in terms of characters. Otherwise it’s the pinnacle of what the Zelda franchise could accomplish in 2D. Worth playing if you don’t mind going retro on the graphics.
Sidequests are for bored kids who won’t get their allowance to buy a new game until next month.
Red/red/silver was my top choice, but it looks like later versions of the game replaced the silver on the mirror shield with a new gold design to walk back on its Sharia creep, so I’d probably go red/red/gold in those.
You chose the correct colors. Red Red Gold all the way. When I’m an adult I don’t breath a sigh of relief until I get the red tunic.
Holy shit, how have I NOT been Red Tunic Link of Halloween??????
Red > Blue > Green
As a practical matter, it’s more likely you’ll run into surprise heat than surprise submersion. Red also matches the ultimate shield best, even if the shield isn’t as ultimate as it should be. I do like blue though. In Link to the Past, red and blue both get screwed. You’re stuck with Green for about 75% of the game. Then you get blue for three dungeons before Red takes over in the final dungeon.
I find it disturbing that the manga went with green on both covers.
Yes, I have an awesome library.
I really didn’t think Ocarina of Time was all that. Leaving aside the massively empty overworld, the made-for-an-8-year-old plot, etc… I was severely underwhelmed by the puzzles. It’s really dated game design – “You can’t get past this area until you have that item, so go get that item and you can get past this area.” At least the torch-lighting was cool.
For me, it’s a solid +. A decent time-waster, but pretty overrated.
The overworld sucked and the plot was disappointing. Dungeons were great though, if those are the puzzles you’re referring to.
MaybeI don’t game as much as you do, so perhaps I’m too easily impressed, but these dungeons were about as long and intricate as I’m willing to go without them becoming bitch work.Every RPG I’m aware of has lame, artificial roadblocks. Not saying I like it, but as a matter of laziness, it’s much easier to block off a path entirely than to program everything past the roadblock to act differently before and after key events.
I guess I’m too used to modern games, where they don’t necessarily lock you out of certain parts of the game, or if they do, it’s really obvious. Take that Hookshot upgrade – I probably spent about an hour trying to figure out why I couldn’t hookshot to a certain ledge in the Water Temple, because it didn’t occur to me that they would have something as stupid as a Hookshot upgrade that made it shoot longer.
You should play Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden (++). Free, great plot, no artificial roadblocks, short, better than Chrono Trigger. I have a half-written post about it somewhere.
http://www.talesofgames.com/related_game/barkley-shut-up-jam-gaiden/
Not sure about “better than Chrono Trigger” but Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden is great, yeah.
The Hookshot upgrade was bullshit. No excuse for that.
This game looks amazing. Your post must feel half-written no matter how much you write.
Well, at least you referred to me as “a guy” instead of “a stupid asshole.”
Feel free to prove me wrong.
which games do you consider a +++ ?
Excellent question. I’ll add to this list as I remember more games. Also, keep in mind that I haven’t played many games in the first place, at least for someone who reviews games for fun.
NES:
– Super Mario Bros. 3
– TMNT III (I loved this game, but I was a huge Turtles fan, I only played it at friends’ houses, I and haven’t played the game in 20 years, so perhaps this game isn’t nearly as good as I remember it being)
SNES:
– Street Fighter II
– Chrono Trigger
– Yoshi’s Island
PS2:
– God Hand
I’ve played several excellent games on the PS2, but for some reason I can’t recall any others I’d give the +++.
My dearest Baka-Raptor,
Sorry to be late at checking out your blog, you keep doing an amazing job anyway.
I just love this game and all other zelda games beginning with a Link to the Past.
This one and majora’s mask was the one’s I’ve played to exhaustion and you put excellent comments about the game’s odds and the things I liked the most up to this day.
If you like 3d zelda games you should definitely play those on the nintendo wii (twilight princess and skyward sword), they’ll just blow out your mind. There’s no history rip off, and nintendo this time made an excellet job with story and everything else. It is a must for a Zelda Fan. In my opinion those two are the best zelda games ever created.
You said some spots were difficult to trigger or something, that happened to the n64 version as well.
Now enough said, just check this video and see that even a blind man can play ocarina of time:
If you have patience and free time, watch those two reviews from Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.
Now with the new console generation moving to ps4, wiiu and xbox720 you can finally move to the former 7 years old wii console generation era. lol.
http://www.ign.com/videos/2006/11/18/the-legend-of-zelda-twilight-princess-nintendo-wii-review-video-review-480p
http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/11/11/the-legend-of-zelda-skyward-sword-video-review-spoiler-free