4 Reasons A Link Between Worlds is the Best Zelda Yet

Back when Nintendo was just pushing the 3DS onto an unsuspecting world, there was a lot of talk about where the Zelda franchise was going. Skyward Sword had been in the works for a long time, and now Ocarina of Time was getting a pretty major facelift in the form of Ocarina of Time 3D. So naturally people started to wonder, if Ocarina of Time was getting remade, what was next? Many people have rallied long and hard for Majora's Mask, though unfortunately that has not yet come to fruition. However, it didn't take long before Shigeru Miyamoto himself piped up saying he would love to remake A Link to the Past. 

Now I don't know if you know this, but I love me some Link to the Past, so I was pretty hyped about the possibility of a remake of my favorite Zelda game. Then along comes word that A Link Between Worlds was coming, and was a direct sequel to A Link to the Past. I was instantly interested in the game. I didn't even make the connection at the time, that this was our HD remake. We probably aren't going to get an HD Link to the Past. At first this realization made me kind of sad, but I think it's for the best. A Link Between Worlds is probably a better game than an HD Link to the Past could have been. A Link Between Worlds is probably the best Zelda game to date, in fact. Here are some reasons why:

1) The Controls

It wasn't that long ago that I talked a bit about the importance of good controls. They matter a lot. You can tell a game is going to be fun if you pick it up and just controlling your character feels good even without goals or challenges to overcome. A Link Between Worlds has this feel. From minute one you can tell just how responsive Link is to your slightest nudge on the circle pad. He rockets around Hyrule at what seems like a blistering pace, and yet it never feels like he is out of control. He goes where you want, when you want. It seems simple, but it goes a long way when you can't blame stupid deaths on bad controls.

Of course a lot of this precision comes from the simple fact that the 3DS uses the circle pad to control Link's movement. If you think about it, just about every 2D Zelda game has always used the d-pad for character movement. This of course comes with the inherent disadvantage of only being able to handle 8 different directional inputs. So it's not really a big surprise that given the 360 degree movement of the circle pad, A Link Between Worlds feels like a breath of fresh air. Granted there was Four Swords Adventures on the GameCube, and it's controls never really felt quite so awe-inspiring. But we won't talk about that.

2) The "Magic" Meter

One of the things that A Link Between Worlds does best is making little changes that challenge the Zelda norm. Zelda has been around forever, and there are so many mechanics that have just existed from game to game, virtually unchanged in 20+ years. One of the biggest, but subtlest things A Link Between Worlds changes is the way it handles items, and more to the point, ammunition. You don't have to collect bombs or arrows or magic. Every item in the game uses the same resource; a "magic" meter which regenerates at a pretty rapid pace.

This actually has a pretty profound effect on gameplay. At first I was a little dubious, because it means for example, I can only shoot x arrows in y period of time. But gradually I realized that because this meter always refills itself, I had so much more freedom to use items. There is no saving your magic so you can use the Fire Rod to solve puzzles, or holding on to arrows to use them on the boss. You can throw bombs at random enemies all day and it's all good. It makes combat seem a lot more free to be done how you see fit, rather than relying on your sword to do everything. It cleans up the UI nicely, too. It's interesting, because I noticed a similar effect with the more freeform magic system in the Adventure of Link, but for the past 25 years the series has steered away from that.

3) Truly 3D 2D

Link Between Worlds occupies this intriguing space wherein it's a game which is fully rendered in 3D, but it plays like a 2D game, but requires you to think in three dimensions. It's kind of amazing really, that with 3D games having existed for over 15 years, it's a game masquerading as 2D which nails the third dimensional game play better than most "proper" 3D games. Never does a puzzle say " look up, there's a switch on the ceiling you can't see, LOL 3D". Instead it just takes advantage of the fact that in 3D you can so easily render multiple elevations, change perspectives, transition to the backside of a wall, whatever.

The top down view means you can always see exactly what the designers want you to be able to see, but it's still a world where you can merge with and walk around on the walls and smoothly transition between different elevations. I mean sure, we've been pushing blocks onto lower floors for a long time now, but A Link Between Worlds forces you to look at every room in an entirely different way. Every wall has the potential to be a road. The only other game I can think of that has a similar feel to it is Portal. And I think we all know that comparing anything to Portal is pretty glowing praise.

4) The Nostalgia Dance

Let's be real here for a second. I was always going to love a Link Between Worlds. My body is physically unable to dislike a sequel to A Link to the Past just because of my history with the game. So as you can probably imagine, a Link Between Worlds is nostalgia overload for me. The sounds enemies make when you die or when you pick up rupees made me happy. The orchestrated songs from Link to the Past delighted me. The almost identical overworld map gave me all the feels. How many times have I made the journey between Kakariko Village and the Eastern Palace? This time felt little different from when I was 6. It feels like every nook and cranny of A Link Between Worlds was constructed with a nod to fans of A Link to the Past.

What's more impressive though, is that underneath all the similarities, A Link Between Worlds is it's own game. Every iota of this game perfectly maintains the feel of it's predecessor, but it's a brand new experience. The motto of this game may as well be "the same, but different" because it's stamped all over the place. Despite the similarities it still delivers on substance for returning players, and it's still hugely enjoyable for those who are not. The game is great with or without the nostalgia factor, and the fact that Nintendo has managed to strike such a great balance is pretty impressive. Although with that said, I'll never forgive them for changing the way the tempered sword sounds.

Wind Water and Making Travel Fun

As any fan of the Zelda series likely knows, an HD remake of the game is coming to the Wii U this October. This announcement sparked a bunch of discussion among people I know, and as with most Wind Waker discussions, this eventually lead to a conversation about traversing the open ocean. It's a pretty notorious and ill-loved aspect of Wind Waker, and a direct source of a lot of hate on the game. So after some discussion and some thinking, I thought I would spend some time talking about this aspect of Wind Waker, and travel time in video games in general.

So at it's root, the issue here is pretty obvious. Travelling for large amounts of time is typically uneventful and boring. This isn't always the case, some games manage to make it interesting, but I'll talk about that more later. Essentially what it comes down to, is that there needs to be something to occupy your mind continually while travelling. Sometimes this can be as simple as having something really pretty to look at. Travelling can in itself occupy some brain power too, especially if navigating something like a city, which would also them have traffic and such. However if you are crossing a distance large enough for it to be labelled as "travelling", then chances are the points in time where you need to wonder "which way do I go now?" are far enough apart that there is plenty of time for boredom to creep in. And yet, other times you may be travelling by air or by sea. In which case, you are likely moving in a straight line and navigation isn't even a worry. 

So let me give you another example of a game that does travel time poorly. You may have heard of Just Cause 2. It's an open world game with a massive world which focuses on blowing up property and doing silly things with the grappling hook. However it also so happens that the world is so large, getting from one point to another can take an agonizingly long time. To make matters worse, being set in the fairly rural island nation of Panau, the roads are fairly unoccupied, and more to the point it's almost always better to fly places anyways. Flying awesome jets is cool and all, but soaring through the skies in a straight line for 5 minutes at a time is pretty dull. It's to the point that, dying is really only annoying because it means you are going to need to make that journey again. The only times that travelling is fun, is when you discover a secret of some description (which only exist on the ground), or you are grappling hook jumping (which is slower than most vehicles). I've personally never dreaded travel more than in this game.

With that said, let's now move on to the other end of the scale. I've never not dreaded travelling as much as in Saints Row the Third. The game does 2 main things to keep travelling fun. First off, it's entire city is designed to be dense rather than vast. It never really takes that long to get from one place to your destination. The other, is that it offers constant opportunities for rewards along the way. Going on foot? Might as well go streaking at the same time. Going by car? Drive in the opposite lane and dodge cars. Going by air? Fly close to the buildings, barely missing. All these things reward the player with Respect points, and this means that you always have something to do no matter where you are going. What's more, it adds challenge to travel - it's certainly harder to drive against incoming traffic, but if you are rewarded for doing so why would you ever not do it?

So the question then becomes, where does Wind Waker play into all this? Personally I feel like it depends a lot on how you play the game, but for the average player it probably lands closer to the Just Cause side of things. The Great Ocean is doubtlessly vast and mostly empty, but It's not devoid of distractions. To me, being something of a completionist, I never found the ocean that boring. It was always enough to always be on the lookout for baddies, treasure and the splash of fish in the distance. There aren't always a lot of active things to do, but for those that care about them, there are plenty of things to be on the lookout for. By the time you start to feed all the fish and find all the treasure, you start getting warp spells to aid in your travelling. For someone who maybe doesn't care about dredging up every sunken treasure or  feeding all the fish to uncover the map, I definitely see why this seafaring would be dreadfully boring though.

In the end of the day, the only reason Wind Waker's ocean was ever so big was really because of the technical limitations of the Gamecube. The game's engine needed enough time to make sure nearby islands were properly loaded before the player came in range, and increasing their travel time was the way to do it. The HD remake will have improvements in place to make the experience more painless, and it's unquestionably for the best. I think we all know that the game's real bugbear was that money grubbing &*$% Tingle anyways.

Evoland Review

About a week ago, I heard about this game by the name of Evoland, a really interesting little game spawned from a LudumDare creation. As a game that is both inspired by and a tribute to the like of The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy, I was instantly intrigued. It struck me as a very whimsical game that would be just up my alley, and so I picked it up as soon as it came out. I've now played the game to completion, and normally I wouldn't bother making a post about such a small game, but it was interesting enough that I think it's worth talking about.

So I already mentioned that Evoland is a sort of tribute to oldschool games, but in truth that's not entirely accurate. While the game is chockfull of references and clearly takes a lot of inspiration from old RPGs, it's more of a tribute to the evolution of games than any particular title or genre. True to it's name, Evoland's biggest claim to fame is the fact that it literally evolves as you progress. Think Upgrade Complete or DLC Quest, but finding your upgrades rather than buying them. When the game starts you are a simple 8-bit character with a Gameboy style black and green color palette. You can't even move left, but as you explore you uncover better colors, sound effects, higher resolutions, menus, and even 3D. As far as the gameplay itself, it begins as a typical top-down adventure style game a la Zelda, but you soon unlock turn based battles as well. One of the things I was most skeptical about going into this game was the fact that it features both this Zelda style adventure mode and the Final Fantasy style Turn Based mode.

Now I'm going to be kind of blunt. Evoland isn't a particularly good game. Gameplay wise, it's pretty mediocre and unsurprisingly suffers a lot from a lack of focus. As nifty as all the references are, it suffers a lot from trying to do too many things, and subsequently having most of them end up disappointing. What's more, I found that there was a very palpable dissonance between the game modes. It felt very strange to get through an adventure mode dungeon with only half a heart remaining, only to have full health upon getting into a random battle on the world map. What's more, the tools you can use in adventure mode have no bearing on turn based combat. Similarly, all the equipment and experience you gather for the turn based combat does nothing for adventure mode. It's especially noticeable because because the game is a mere 3-4 hours short, and so you never experience either mode for more than a couple areas. Stuff like your experience level just doesn't end up mattering at all.

Evoland's turn based combat is ultimately pretty bad. While pretty much every enemy is amusing, the battles are just boring and very shallow. There isn't a battle you can't win by having one character attack every turn and the other heal. It's not even a targeted heal, it just heals both characters. However on the flip side of things, the Zelda mode is actually pretty good. While it's combat isn't that great either, it's got some surprisingly clever puzzles. For example, early on you encounter an impassable block called a "Dimensional Tile". Later on when you return to the area in 3D mode, you realize it was just slightly raised, and 3D you can step right over it. This kind of thing becomes especially important when later areas actually contain crystals you can strike which will switch between 3D and 2D mode. This is unquestionably when the game is at it's best. Being able to experience a couple of areas in both 3D and 2D is pretty cool, and using that as a game mechanic is genius. Mechanically it's not that different than something like the crystal switches you might see in the Zelda series, but aesthetically it has a totally different feel to it.

Unfortunately though, Evoland is a game with nothing to offer but novelty. It's charm and uniqueness is such that the first couple hours are pretty easy to get through without even noticing the gameplay flaws. After the first hour and a half or so though, new things stop showing up and the game goes down hill pretty rapidly. Playing the game for gameplay's sake just isn't entertaining. The game becomes a bit of a chore to get through, and I found myself caring a lot less about completeness. Granted, "completeness" doesn't really seem to be rewarded particularly well. In the early game chests were exciting, as they usually meant some new feature being unlocked. By the end chests are just annoying. You go out of your way to get them, and are literally rewarded with a gold star. What function do they fill? As far as I can tell they are nothing more than a collectible to get because why not. Some chests contain playing cares, which can be used to play Double Twin, a clone of Final Fantasy VIII's fantastic Triple Triad mini game. Even that manages to be a poor imitation of the source material, though.

Which is ultimately what Evoland comes down to. It's an extremely unique game, it's overflowing with charm and fun references to games I love. Despite these things, it's a game that still struggles to be competent in it's own right. It deserves a lot of praise for doing such interesting things, I can't even begin to fathom how they did this (in Flash, no less). The experience of actually playing the game is just quite lacking, even down to frame rate issues, glaring bugs and lack of native controller support. I greatly enjoyed the references, and I think with more time the game could have been great even despite the splitting it's focus. As it stands though, I tend to think 2 hours of novelty and 2 hours of mediocrity is perhaps not worth the $10 price stamp. I'm glad it exists though.

"Top 10" Zelda Games

A while ago I made a post wherein I listed off every Final Fantasy game in order from worst to best, based solely on my own opinion. I also mentioned that I wanted to do the same thing for The Legend of Zelda, and so that's the plan for today. The fact of the matter is, Final Fantasy and Zelda have been the two series that I've held dear for pretty much my entire life. There are many other series I've liked, but none have ever quite earned the same regard in my eyes. So you can imagine how annoyed I am that neither series has released a solid game since about 2002...

ANYWAYS. I'm gonna shut up now and move on the the actual point to this post even existing.

(14)

I mentioned in a previous post what the general train of thought regarding The Adventure of Link is, and truth be told, I subscribe to that train of thought. The fact of the matter is that the game is a massive departure from the series and is lacking in most of the areas that make Zelda games so great. It's soulcrushing difficulty makes it a game that is supremely difficult to enjoy. Back in the day when being frustratingly hard was the norm, it may have been a different story, but today it just makes the game unplayable.

The game is certainly not without redeeming features though. If the game were not so hard (or if you've mastered all the tricks you need to make it through alive), it would actually be pretty good. It's RPG elements like leveling up and visiting towns are very neat additions that add the the game's depth. It also maintains a lot of the feel of scouring the world for all the hidden little items and upgrades, something which I consider absolutely core to the Zelda franchise. There is fun to be had here. There just isn't much. I certainly don't plan to play the game through again.

(13)

My feelings on the original Legend of Zelda are pretty similar to my feelings on the original Final Fantasy. It's a game that we obviously owe a lot to. In fact I would say that The Legend of Zelda was more of a trailblazer than Final Fantasy. The fact of the matter is, however, that it suffers a lot because of it's age. The controls can be pretty finicky until you get used to them. Much of the game's hidden goods are hidden in unreasonable locations that could only be discovered by literally checking every square inch of the game. Really this is the kind of stuff that you more or less expect out of a game released in 1986, but it does make the game pretty unappealing to a more modern audience.

Truth be told though, if you look at the game objectively it's pretty impressive. The fact that Nintendo managed to create this game on the NES is kind of amazing. It's a huge, open game in a way that games simply weren't back then. For a kid back in the day, being able to sink ridiculous amounts of time into this game was a godsend. The secrets may be super obscure, but man are there a lot of them. The fact that you pretty much need a walkthrough to play this game isn't great, but I think it's one of the few games that's worth it for any serious gamer to play through even today. If for no other reason than because basically every line of dialogue in this game is now an internet meme.

(12)

If I'm totally honest, I'm a bit of a fanboy when it comes to Zelda. I manage to get excited for every one, and Spirit Tracks was no exception. If there was one Zelda game I could have done without playing though, Spirit Tracks would definitely be it. The NES Zelda titles are at least culturally significant, but Spirit Tracks is just a straight up mediocre game. It's better in ways than Phantom Hourglass, but worse in other ways. It has some pretty interesting mechanics, but I think when it comes down to it, I just feel like Spirit Tracks is missing the Zelda spirit. It look and sounds like a Zelda game, but for most of the game it feels like an imitator.

That said, there are good parts in this game. It takes forever to get to them, but they are there. Most of the game is overly easy and uninteresting, though. The train aspect of the game is interesting and does a decent job of making the world worth exploring. There are a moderate amount of places to go and things to do off the beaten path. It can also be kind of zen just riding along while your train chugs along to the music. Ultimately though I found the whole train gameplay to be kind of lame. It tends to be either uninteresting or really frustrating. It was a pretty good idea for making the world interesting and explorable while still being pretty restrictive (something they needed to do on the DS), but in the end it feels like a shell of a game.

(11)

Truth be told, it's a little hard to know what to say about Four Swords Adventures. I feel like a lot of people don't even know it exists, or get it confused with the Four Swords mode of Link to the Past on the GBA. I wouldn't really blame them, either. It's only barely a Zelda game, it wasn't really marketed all that much (to my knowledge, anyways) and it's kind of a headscrather why a "full" game was made out of this. That's not to say it isn't good or anything, it's just a bit of a confusing title all around.

Unsurprisingly, it's a game that is significantly better played with 4 players. I never had that opportunity but I can imagine it being a lot of chaotic fun much like the original Four Swords. What I will say though is that even if you are playing in loner mode, they did a pretty good job making the game work with a single player. Switching between different formations and controlling four Links at once is definitely an interesting experience. Some of the game's dungeon crawling isn't half bad, either. Its just a bit unfortunate that so much of the "Zelda" elements were stripped out of the game to accommodate the four player madness. A necessary evil, but one that makes this game a bit of a hard sell.

(10)

So clearly I didn't like Spirit Tracks a whole lot, but I feel as though Phantom Hourglass did a little bit better. Despite the controls, gameplay etc being pretty much identical, I think Phantom Hourglass created more interesting situations for those controls to shine. The concept of having a timed dungeon that you have to traverse over and over again is a bit flawed, but at the same can be pretty interesting. Maximizing your time and uncovering new shortcuts as you get new tools can be kind of neat. They also try really hard to make use of all the bells and whistles the DS has to offer, which is neat even if it doesn't end up working in many cases.

The biggest downside to the game is that outside of the dungeons, the game feels very empty. traversing the world isn't the most fun ever. It just doesn't feel like there is much out there for you to discover, which makes it feel a lot less like a true Zelda game in my eyes. Ultimately though, it feels like a game that is still worth playing unlike Spirit Tracks. The DS Zelda formula isn't too shabby and it's existence is valuable, but I feel like we really didn't need more than one of them.

(9)

At this point Skyward Sword has been out for a little over a year, and still I have a bit of trouble deciding how exactly I feel about it. On one hand it's motion controls definitely add to the games engagement and tend to make combat more interesting. On the other hand those same controls tend to be at the root of several annoyances, like having to re-calibrate or unintended sword swings. In the end I think a player is more likely to notice and remember the annoyances, which says to me that it wasn't worth the good that came of the motion control. It was an interesting experience controlling Link so directly and I'm glad it exists, but I really hope the next installment in the franchise returns to a more traditional approach.

Beyond the controls though.... Skyward Sword just seems like a big hot mess. The world is huge and not only is it annoying and slow getting around on your giant bird, but there really isn't anything interesting out there. As mentioned previously, this is a bit of a deathblow to any Zelda game, in my eyes. What's more, with the exception only a couple cases, the dungeons are all pretty simple and seemingly uninspired. No exploration and (mostly) bad dungeons most definitely do not make for a good Zelda game. There are a ton of other little things that I could complain about, but therein lies the problem. When the game is good, it's really fun. Most of the time it's doing one thing or another to be annoying, though. It makes for an overlong, somewhat mediocre experience.

(8)

Link's Awaking has always been a pretty amazing game in my opinion. Not necessarily because it's super awesome, but because of just how much they managed to squeeze out of a Gameboy. I don't think a game ever sold me as well on portable gaming quite so well as Link's Awakening. Here was a complete Zelda experience in your hands. It really is everything a Zelda game needs to be, too. It's not a small game, and there are no obvious places where corners were cut like in say, the DS Zelda titles. It's also pretty cool that the game has a lot of little quirks to it that set it apart from the console games.

Why then is it so far down this list? Well, truth be told it just isn't a game that ever really "clicked" with me. Sure, it's an amazing achievement, and definitely not a bad game by any stretch. I always find that it's very forgettable, though. I can pick it up, play for a while, have a great time, and then decide I've had enough and never go back.It's hard to really pinpoint what about the game causes that. Perhaps the simplistic graphics just don't pull me into the world. Perhaps the narrative just doesn't light a fire that gets me going. Whatever the case may be, Link's Awakening is objectively a great game, but not one that ever resonated greatly with me personally.

(7)

For the most part, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons fall into the same boat as Link's Awakening. They are games which are stunningly well put together for Gameboy Color titles. The worlds are more impressive than Link's Awakening, and the mechanics of time/weather changing are really quite neat. They create some pretty fun mechanics and have some really fun and quirky tools. It was also pretty ingenious to implement the cross connectivity and interrelated story between the two games. It's certainly more interesting to me than say, Pokemon Red/Blue's relation.

However as mentioned, I have the same personal issue with the Oracle games, as with Link's Awakening. They are great games, but just don't seem to "stick" to me. I think the Orcale games have it a bit better, though. In truth the only time I played the Oracle games, I did so with my nose in a walkthrough. I hate to miss things, but at the same time I think I ruined the games. I do believe that if I were to play through the games again on my own steam they would be a lot more memorable. This is something I must do at some point. Had I not made the dumb decision to ruin my first run through the Oracle games, they would likely be higher on this list.

(6)

Oh Twilight Princess... Probably the most controversial game in the franchise. A lot of arguments stem from Twilight Princess' "darker" approach. Personally I feel like there is room for both the semi-realistic dark approach Twilight Princess took, as well as the more cartooney style the series has typically used. If anything I thought Twilight Princess took the wrong approach to "dark". It wasn't "dark" the way we were led to believe, it had a lot of black and surreal stuff, but it could have stood to be a lot darker thematically. I think that would have been more interesting. As it stands the game is pretty forgettable to me, I honestly couldn't tell you what the actual plot of the game was.

On the gameplay side of things, Twilight Princess is a really weird mix. On one hand, it has some really good dungeons and some interesting items. Some items (*cough*ballandchain*cough*) are duds, but others *dual clawshot) are real cool. I also really like how the game steps up the combat. Not only does Link get a wider arrange of on-demand abilities, but it also makes you feel like Link is legitimately growing. In most Zelda games Link just collects stuff - tools, heart containers, etc. In Twilight Princess you actually learn new abilities. It's semantics really, but it's neat to me. The big downfall to me, is that Twilight Princess' overworld is dull. It's big, it's annoying to get around, and I don't feel compelled to explore it. The dungeons go a long way to making for a fun game, but it lacks a lot of the magic touch that makes for a truly great Zelda game.

(5)

The Minish Cap is one of those games that, I think anyone who has actually played it would say was underrated. I'm sure a lot of people don't even realize it exists. Regardless, Minish Cap is a lovely little game that really manages to strike true to what it means to be a Zelda title. The world isn't huge, but every inch of it is a puzzle. With the selection of tools available to you, the kinstone system, and the ability to change Link's size at certain locations, virtually everywhere you go holds some secret that you will eventually be able to solve. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in spades with density. Which I think its a smart approach. A game like Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword feels big and empty. If you don't see anything, you aren't compelled to search. Minish Cap leads you by the nose and makes you remember those spots for when you do get that item.

As far as the rest of the game goes, I always found it pretty compelling. The plot is just present enough to push you without being too overbearing. The dungeons are all well put together and present you with some interesting challenges, and interesting tools to solve them with. One of Minish Cap's strengths is also, undoubtedly, it's aesthetic. Much like Link's Awakening it manages to stay true to what makes a great Zelda game, but also carve out this little niche of absurd little things it does that's totally different from any of the other titles. Some of that is just the fact that hey, you can't shrink down to minuscule Minish size in the other games, but it extends beyond that as well. Whatever the case may be, Minish cap is a surprisingly solid title that puts many of the series' biggest console releases to shame.

(4)

Ahh Ocarina of Time. Ocarina of Time is one of those games that I feel is kind of hard to have a serious discussion about. It's like Final Fantasy VII (except probably worse) in that a lot of people just love it unconditionally and anything negative is heresy. It's not an entirely unwarranted stance to take, either. I remember when the game was in development I read a magazine article claiming it was the best game ever made, and to a lot of people that is still true. I don't subscribe to that belief personally, as you can probably infer from the 3 games left to go after this one. However the fact of the matter still remains that, there really isn't a whole lot negative that you can say about the game.

The game is huge, there's always something interesting to go do, there are actually people around to add depth to the world. That's really what it comes down to, I think. The game feels like the most "real" version of Hyrule out there. You feel compelled to explore it, solve peoples' problems and whatever else. The dungeons are all quite well crafted and between the puzzles and the huge aesthetic variance in each, are all pretty unforgettable. Equally unforgettable is the moment when you first jump forward in time and all of a sudden become a fully grown badass with a real sword, but realize the world has practically been destroyed. The game's execution is just about perfect. The only real issues that it faces are a very standard formula, and being created in the early days of 3D. Even the 3DS remaster of the game can't remove that stank.

(3)

Speaking of the "standard formula", hey look, it's Majora's Mask! Masjora's Mask is an odd one for me. It's one of those games that I just couldn't really appreciate as a kid. Sure I enjoyed it, but I never really got the overall tone of the game, or appreciated how different it was from the norm. For one, the apocalyptic tone to the game is really refreshing, and not something that you see in games all that often. The game is dark in a way that Twilight Princess can only dream of being. The time limit also has the really interesting effect of both compartmentalizing your play, and breaking the game into easy to consume chunks.

I'm always a fan of games that make me plan my actions out, and Majora's Mask is one of the only non-RPGs to do that. Every times you roll back time there's probably a plan bubbling in your brain as to what you are going to do that cycle. Having the Bomber's Notebook is great too, as it creates almost a literal checkbook of things to do, while also hinting at what you need to do to make it happen. Much better than hunting for a stray rock in some corner of the map. It also manages to be really reasonable about applying a time limit and having it be a real and appreciable thing, but without making it overly restrictive. What's more, you can pretty easily feel like you achieved something every cycle. Everything you do feels pretty pointed, and it just feels good to achieve things. I would talk about the dungeons, but in truth it feels a lot like more Ocarina of Time dungeons. Which isn't a bad thing.

(2)

Before I say anything, I should point out that I'm a ridiculously big fan of cel-shading. It's possible to do it wrong, but that's the exact opposite of what Wind Waker did. I don't normally care all that much about graphics, but Wind Waker is a truly beautiful game. It's very crisp, very colorful, and very stylized. Some people don't like it, but I think in a lot of ways it really makes the game. It's not just that though. Wind Waker is just such a bright and colorful game, and to me that is when Zelda is at it's best. Dark games have their place, but vibrant colors just bring a world to life. Zelda games are all about the world and exploration, after all. That said, Skyward Sword was quite colorful, too. I enjoyed the aesthetic of that game quite a bit too, but it just isn't as crisp and timeless as Wind Waker.

Colors and cel-shading don't make a game, though. It's a little hard to pinpoint what does it for Wind Waker though. Lots of people complain about things like exploring the ocean being boring. They are very valid complaints, but not things that I personally ever minded that much. To me it's really neat how the world is subdivided into areas on the map, and each area is guaranteed to have something worth doing in it. Sure the ocean is big and not super interesting, but you know that when you find land there will be something neat there. Though the boat could serve to go a little faster I suppose. Wind Waker is also probably the most epic game in the franchise. The sequence in which you get the Master Sword is amazing both in epicness, as well as being very cool visually with the cel-shading art style. I can definitely see where people would take issue with the game, but for me the only real complaint is that the game isn't hard enough.

(1)

Ahh Link to the Past. I don't think many people would put it at the top of their list of favorite Zelda games. Those people are not me, however. I have a lot of memories around this game, and it's essentially the game that changed gaming from something fun to do, to a way of life for me. Nostalgia aside, I still believe it is the best Zelda game out there. Of course this is a very personal opinion. Objectively you could probably make very real arguments that it is inferior to others. In my mind however, it's the purest Zelda experience there is. Two worlds full to the brim with secrets to discover. Not only that, but two interconnected worlds. While I would say discovering there is a Dark World is less epic than the time skip in Ocarina of Time, I would also say it's gameplay repercussions are much greater. What's more, the Dark World feels strange and evil without just being dark. It's still very vibrant (it's the Golden Land, after all), it just uses yellows and purples instead of green.

On the dungeon side of things, Link to the Past may not have super amazing tools or mega complex puzzles. I think there is something to be said for the simplicity that 2D brings though. Like I said, it feels more "pure". You are challenging your wits. Everything is right there, you never have to worry about missing something because you didn't look up, or what have you. If you get stuck, it's because you haven't figured out the puzzle yet. It's not like many other games of the time either, wherein you can get stuck because the game wants you to do something that isn't obvious. Link to the Past exists in this magical spot where it has all of the charm but none of the downsides to your typical 2D game. It may not have any fancy polygons, but I still consider it the best Zelda game. I've certainly played it more times than any other.

The Legend of Zelda and Magic

When I was contemplating what to write my next post on I initially decided to make another ordered list, similar to what I did for Final Fantasy, but for The Legend of Zelda. However while I pondered what exactly I liked and disliked about each game, I quickly came upon a bit of a revelation that I think is pretty interesting. There really wouldn't be any way to squeeze my thoughts on the matter into a couple paragraphs in an "ordered list" style post, so I figured I would promote it to a full blown post of it's own. I still plan to attempt to orderfy the Zelda games in the (possibly) near future, but for now I am going to pontificate on the topic of The Legend of Zelda, and magic. More specifically I want to talk about the second game, The Adventure of Link.