Legend of Zelda What makes a great zelda game?

[Dragoon Fighter]

Most people agree that OoT is the greatest zelda game ever. Personally, though I prefer Link to the past, the fact a huge mojority of people have the opinion of OoT is the greatest Zelda game ever and you have a right to belive that, same if you really like another zelda and proclaim it to the best ever, but all that got me think as to this really simple question.

Why?

Why do so many people prefer one zelda game over another? What quaitys of a good Zelda do people like to see? What seperates a good zelda form a great zelda? What is it in Zelda that makes a Zelda a Zelda (other than zelda)? Finally, What makes a great zelda game?

Note: I mean none of this as rude for I am a zelda fan my self I just turly whant to know why other people have the opinions they have. Not that any opinon is wrong that is impossible I just wish to know for the sake of knowing why.

 

[*JuriHan*]

Most people agree that OoT is the greatest zelda game ever. Personally, though I prefer Link to the past, the fact a huge mojority of people have the opinion of OoT is the greatest Zelda game ever and you have a right to belive that, same if you really like another zelda and proclaim it to the best ever, but all that got me think as to this really simple question.

Why?

Why do so many people prefer one zelda game over another? What quaitys of a good Zelda do people like to see? What seperates a good zelda form a great zelda? What is it in Zelda that makes a Zelda a Zelda (other than zelda)? Finally, What makes a great zelda game?

Note: I mean none of this as rude for I am a zelda fan my self I just turly whant to know why other people have the opinions they have. Not that any opinon is wrong that is impossible I just wish to know for the sake of knowing why.

OOT's enviroments were immersive, memorable, and all a pleasure to play through. The music was equally good. I loved the concept of how you can travel through time between young and adult Link and see how Hyrule changed between the time period. The game's length was perfect, and offered plenty of dungeons... this is something that Majora's Mask dropped the ball at (altho it still is pretty **** good, my 2nd fav...)

Wind Waker is decent, but I disliked the cel shading approach to it. However graphics don't make a game, yet the gameplay still had some flaws that really dragged down the overall experience:

1. Sailing
2. Not getting warp until mid-late game-ish
3. Did they really have to make it MANDATORY that we had to go to EVERY square on the map and feed the fish food?
4.Triforce fetch quest at the end was terrible, not fun at all.
5. Ganondorf turned out to be a weak villian. He was just trying to help his people... the Gerudos iirc. Not very evil, where he actually killed people in OOT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCig_h5pBLU&feature=related

6. Link's VA was terrible imo.

I will say I love and was fascinated with the concept of hooking your gameboy advance up. I enjoyed this and it really made the game better for me, although overall it's not as good as oot or mm


Twilight Princess.... it just felt uninspired. Nothing about it really stood out to me. I can only remember 2 pieces of music, and only two areas- Hyrule Castle and the snow area. I like this one the least, and I probably won't be buying any new Zelda titles because of it. =/

 

[MarioMariox2]

The story is the heart of a Zelda game, the "Gannon-banned" fourth-triforce piece that puts everything together.

What makes Zelda games are the seamlessly perfect choices of characters, their actions, emotions, music, and atmosphere at the perfect times mixed together with the puzzles and adventure that are amazing enough bring a tear to Professor Layton's eye. Simple, yet intricate has always been the policy of Nintendo and it has never failed once.


Why are the 3D games recognized as the "best"? It is the cinematics that bring these elements to the next level.

My explanation is most likely incomplete or maybe not up to par but that's what I can say for now.

 

[Ganonsburg]

@ SNO, Ganon sent his henchmen to kill the two sages that were praying for the Master Sword. He didn't kill them directly, but it's still something.

I think a Zelda game is made a Zelda game by the way you're immersed in the world. The world needs to suck you in and hold you there, make you connect with the NPCs, and make you feel the need/pressure to save the world. This is why Ocarina did so well, because it took the idea that we got to freely roam and turned that into a 3D world like that we actually live in. MM took that, and gave the NPCs more personality and made you feel a great sense of peril. WW expanded the world greatly, but didn't have as deep a sense of peril or as human NPCs, although it was still a step up from OoT. So on and so on.

It's also the fact that Zelda is a game designed to make you think some. You don't just go in there and kill the enemies (although, due to the easiness of the recent games you could get away with it mostly). You have to take a moment to know what you need to do.

 

[Vibe219]

I think there is a lot of things that you should take into consideration:

The world: This might be one of the biggest ones. What is is like to travel from place to place? That was a major turn-off for WW. You just surfed and surfed and surfed to what it seemed like nowhere.

The dungeons: The dungeons had to be challenging in the way of monsters and puzzles. The older games like LttP and even Oracle of Seasons and Time do a good job of this I think. It makes the game harder and well more addicting. The dungeons in the recent games (Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, Minish Cap) are WAY too easy.

Final Boss: The battle with the final boss leaves a last impression on you and the game. I was extremely disappointed with TP final battle. I personally love the battle with Ganon in WW (not the speech before).

There are many more of course. I think taking everything into consideration LttP is one of the better games. The other games have a few disappointments that are extremely noticable throughout the game.

 

[finalark]

3. Did they really have to make it MANDATORY that we had to go to EVERY square on the map and feed the fish food?

Despite the fact that my first time through the game the only squares I had filled in were the ones that filled automatically?

 

[MarioMariox2]

Despite the fact that my first time through the game the only squares I had filled in were the ones that filled automatically?

Final ark as a Nintendo fan your sig is hilarious.

 

[Phantom7]

Despite the fact that my first time through the game the only squares I had filled in were the ones that filled automatically?

That's exactly how I did it the first time. I never even bothered worrying about that annoying fish guy.

But what makes a good Zelda game - Why even ask? All Zelda games are good, anyway (except PH and FSA to certain extents). What made OoT better than the others was the dungeons, story, difficulty, etc., really simple things.

 

[Ryu Shimazu]

It's hard to find an adventure series better than Zelda, thats why. It's not that it's "Zelda" that makes it better, it's all the elements, and the image they create. I wonder how many people actually get that Green = Life, and Link is Courage/Life to Gannons Power/Death. Also Ganon wears black, which represents evil/death. <.< It's weird how colors have meanings.