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For me, Twilight Princess. I usually don't pay attention to hype at all, so I wasn't expecting the Second Coming or anything like that, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But then, I'm easy to please in regards to Zelda titles; it could have been an exact, graphically updated clone of Ocarina of Time and my response would have been "Wheeeeeeeee!"

Ocarina and Majora's Mask tie for my second spot, Ocarina for the nostalgia factor and MM for the inventiveness. Wind Waker comes in third, for the dual reasons of making nerds rage and being a fucking beautiful piece of art.

I was always kind of "meh" to LttP, but I played it after I played OoT and MM, so I was relatively indifferent to the characters.

A Link to the Past is probably best appreciated in its context in history. There's quite the difference in plot, especially, between Zelda I and LttP.

Our (mine and Zaia's) Wii is the first console I've ever owned, so Twilight Princess is pretty much the only one I've really played (though Zaia downloaded Ocarina of Time on the Virtual Console, because she loves it). I'm interested to see what kind of Zelda game they can make specifically for the Wii (rather than port from the Gamecube, as TP seems to have been), since I heard recently there's a new one in the works.

Lord Woodlouse wrote:Our (mine and Zaia's) Wii is the first console I've ever owned, so Twilight Princess is pretty much the only one I've really played (though Zaia downloaded Ocarina of Time on the Virtual Console, because she loves it). I'm interested to see what kind of Zelda game they can make specifically for the Wii (rather than port from the Gamecube, as TP seems to have been), since I heard recently there's a new one in the works.

There have been rumors floating around for a few months now that a new Zelda was in the works. Well, rather, especially close to done. There's always a new Zelda in the works.

And you are correct: TP was intended to originally be a Gamecube game, and did enjoy a simultaneous release on both consoles. Delays pushed it back until it made more sense to launch it with the Wii rather than ceremonially close out the Gamecube. This actually enraged a portion of the fandom, to the point that a distressingly large fraction of the community refuses to play the Wii version and enforces a distinction between the two ("My favorite Zelda game is Twilight Princess Gamecube version"). Which befuddles me, but who am I to judge?

I'd recommend giving OoT a play, if for its significance if nothing else. It's kind of like reading Shakespeare: you're more doing it for the cultural context than the actual quality, although I'd also contend that the title has withstood aging very well.

Qwerty 42 wrote: And you are correct: TP was intended to originally be a Gamecube game, and did enjoy a simultaneous release on both consoles. Delays pushed it back until it made more sense to launch it with the Wii rather than ceremonially close out the Gamecube. This actually enraged a portion of the fandom, to the point that a distressingly large fraction of the community refuses to play the Wii version and enforces a distinction between the two ("My favorite Zelda game is Twilight Princess Gamecube version"). Which befuddles me, but who am I to judge?

I think the idea behind the GC/Wii distinction is that the geography was mirrored from the GC to Wii. Having played both versions, I find that the Gamecube version just feels and looks better, and my friend (who lent me the GC disc) agrees. This is purely subjective, of course, but preferring one version over the other isn't as crazy as it sounds.

As for me, my favorite Zelda game is Wind Waker, followed by Majora's Mask.

I guess really the biggest difference between TP and WW was that Wind Waker was grand and majestic, both in the scope of the story and gameplay, whereas Twilight Princess felt forced and claustrophobic. Not to mention that there's something slow and weary about the Hyrule of TP: maybe it's the muted-earth tones, maybe it's the slow walking speed of the character. I also strongly dislike the overworld music, and am lukewarm towards most of the rest of the tunes. Mostly though, I think there's a lack of explorer's spirit that's missing from TP: the act of discovering something cool that you had never thought existed, and never needed find. If the Spoiler subplot had been set aside as a sidequest, that would've improved the flow immensely, making the trade sequence halfway interesting, instead of arbitrarily arduous.

I've only played the first three, and I shall vote for them forz starting the franchise.

Ocarina of Time is my favourite, as LW said previously. There are many aspects to it that l love--l remember that feeling l got the first time l went into Hyrule Field and felt like it was absolutely HUGE, l love the time travel elements (without the time crunch stress of Majora's Mask), and l LOVE the use of music as answers to puzzles (since l'm a musician, l guess that's not terribly surprising). The music itself (not just the ocarina stuff) was great and the story felt really long--l remember when l first played it, l thought l must've been almost halfway done after l got the 3 spiritual stones, but then found out that's when the really good stuff began and l was completely in love.

Not sure what game would come second--l have played all of the ones on the main consoles (none of the portable ones) but haven't finished Twilight Princess yet so can't really judge it. l found Wind Waker to be tedious with the sailing (didn't care too much about the cartoony image but found the game annoying to get through), but l REALLY didn't like Majora's Mask. lt was an interesting idea, but the execution took all the joy out of it for me because, instead of getting to take my time to explore which is a big part of Zelda games for me, everything was rushed because of the ticking clock. Not my kind of Zelda game.

I voted for OoT for nostalgia's sake; it was, after all, the first Zelda that I was old enough to appreciate as well as the first 3D Zelda. In addition, it has my favorite video game track, Gerudo Valley.

I loved the Wind Waker plot, though. Even though the game is fairly lighthearted, when you stop to think about it, you're only a Hero because Hyrule lost. Yeah, Ganon has conquered Hyrule before, but this was the first time that the gods had to step in and slap him down.

Having played both the Cube and Wii versions of TP, I have to agree that the Cube version is superior. The Wii version feels...gimmicky, is the term I suppose. It's still fun, but it just doesn't feel quite right.

Stark wrote:I think Wind Waker; it's a great game with the added bonus that nerds hate it, so you can mock them for being myopic retards. Then again, I like Link as well and think Ocarina of Time was a giant pile of shit, so I'm not the regular Zelda fanboy.

I wouldn't say Ocarina of Time was a big pile of shit at all, it was a very good game, but somewhat overrated in the sense that is was pretty much a loose remake of A Link to the Past, and Majora's Mask was on hindsight the better and more innovative game out of the two N64 titles.

People savage The Phantom Hourglass and I personally found it frustrating in places, but it still has a lot going for it in terms of replicating the unique art direction and graphics of Wind Waker on the diminuitive DS almost perfectly, which is no mean feat.

I think it's -massively- overrated by an entire generation of people who, as Zaia says, were simply impressed by the 'feel' of the game. People like me hated the retarded controls (certainly more the N64's controllers fault), the 'you're dumb go here' herding, the unimpressive dungeons and a pile of other elements that were improved or removed by Wind Waker. People who like OoT and hate WW are just dishonest cowards because they're ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME except WW has better graphics, better controls and in general sucks less.

The entire internet being afire with OoT wanking nonsense like OMG GAME OF ALL TIMEZZZZ just makes me hate it more. OoT will -never- be able to be looked at clearly for most people. It's aged so badly that I couldn't even sit through the UNSKIPPABLE OPENING CUTSCENE when I tried to play it on Gamecube.

Stark wrote:I think it's -massively- overrated by an entire generation of people who, as Zaia says, were simply impressed by the 'feel' of the game. People like me hated the retarded controls (certainly more the N64's controllers fault), the 'you're dumb go here' herding, the unimpressive dungeons and a pile of other elements that were improved or removed by Wind Waker. People who like OoT and hate WW are just dishonest cowards because they're ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME except WW has better graphics, better controls and in general sucks less.

The entire internet being afire with OoT wanking nonsense like OMG GAME OF ALL TIMEZZZZ just makes me hate it more. OoT will -never- be able to be looked at clearly for most people. It's aged so badly that I couldn't even sit through the UNSKIPPABLE OPENING CUTSCENE when I tried to play it on Gamecube.

"Your favorite Zelda" doesn't necessarily entail "The Best Zelda".

Sorry for expecting people to have defensible opinions that make sense. I guess it's illegal to comment on trends almost as old as you are? The worship of OoT has existed since it came out and I doubt it'll ever go away. It's literally like saying Wolf 3d is better than any FPS ever simply because it was first and you really liked it when you were 12.

I personally though Majora's Mask was a whole step up from Ocarina of Time, simply because the setting and plot was more compelling. However, Wind Waker is probably my favourite. It's graphically very impressive, as it still holds up even after a few years. The choice for a vibrant cel-shaded look was raged at, but as a result it still looks pretty goddamn good. I also found it more compelling than any other Zelda game.

Is this where I say I've never played one?

weemadando wrote:Is this where I say I've never played one?

I dunno, do you need to pad your postcount with totally worthless one-liners?

Ford Prefect wrote:I personally though Majora's Mask was a whole step up from Ocarina of Time, simply because the setting and plot was more compelling. However, Wind Waker is probably my favourite. It's graphically very impressive, as it still holds up even after a few years. The choice for a vibrant cel-shaded look was raged at, but as a result it still looks pretty goddamn good. I also found it more compelling than any other Zelda game.

I've heard the same thing about MM, but as Zaia mentioned many people don't like games with actual consequences and timeframes and things happening, so I'm not surprised it doesn't get much love. WW has a really slow part to it that I could never get through due to ennui (ie after the temple rises and you need to do the islands to get all the super wands etc) but I found the Hyrule stuff pretty neat.

Stark wrote:

weemadando wrote:Is this where I say I've never played one?

I dunno, do you need to pad your postcount with totally worthless one-liners?

Ford Prefect wrote:I personally though Majora's Mask was a whole step up from Ocarina of Time, simply because the setting and plot was more compelling. However, Wind Waker is probably my favourite. It's graphically very impressive, as it still holds up even after a few years. The choice for a vibrant cel-shaded look was raged at, but as a result it still looks pretty goddamn good. I also found it more compelling than any other Zelda game.

I've heard the same thing about MM, but as Zaia mentioned many people don't like games with actual consequences and timeframes and things happening, so I'm not surprised it doesn't get much love. WW has a really slow part to it that I could never get through due to ennui (ie after the temple rises and you need to do the islands to get all the super wands etc) but I found the Hyrule stuff pretty neat.

It's not completely pointless, I'm wondering whether I should go with Phantom Hourglass or Twilight Princess as my first experience with Zelda... *edit* and consequently wondering my PH isn't on the poll?

weemadando wrote:
It's not completely pointless, I'm wondering whether I should go with Phantom Hourglass or Twilight Princess as my first experience with Zelda... *edit* and consequently wondering my PH isn't on the poll?

There can only be so many poll options. Isn't there a 10 option limit? You should know this, you've been here forever.

Schuyler Colfax wrote:

weemadando wrote:
It's not completely pointless, I'm wondering whether I should go with Phantom Hourglass or Twilight Princess as my first experience with Zelda... *edit* and consequently wondering my PH isn't on the poll?

There can only be so many poll options. Isn't there a 10 option limit? You should know this, you've been here forever.

Yeah, but didn't the latest big upgrade bump poll limitations up a bit?

I for the life of me cannot understand the love of Majora's Mask. I loathed that game, I powered through the last dungeon feeling like I didn't even complete half the rooms, and finished it. I felt overall that it was a crummy sprite hack that got handed off to some second hand team that made the first sequel feel like expert dead horse beaten trash. Years later after hearing of the love for the game I went back to it with an open mind, thinking maybe I was too young at the time it came out and would enjoying it more now. I couldn't even make it to the first dungeon before I yanked the cartridge and never came back.

The Oracles Duology however was pure gold, and on par with Links Awakening in terms of fun. Except for Goron dancing. FUCK GORON DANCING. Only reason I never completed a second play through.

I've heard the same thing about MM, but as Zaia mentioned many people don't like games with actual consequences and timeframes and things happening, so I'm not surprised it doesn't get much love. WW has a really slow part to it that I could never get through due to ennui (ie after the temple rises and you need to do the islands to get all the super wands etc) but I found the Hyrule stuff pretty neat.

I wonder if people seriously don't know about the Inverted Song of Time. People's complaints about MM would make sense to me if they were trying to rush through everything in normal time, but with the Inverted Song I typically have too much time left over to do things.

I've never understood the love for OoT. I found the game frustrating and boring, and never finished it despite several attempts. To me, it was a massive letdown after LttP, which might be my favorite SNES game of all time. Since the N64 was the last Nintendo system I owned until the Wii (and technically, Metatwaddle owns that, not me), I never played any of the later Zeldas, though if Stark is giving WW good reviews, then I'm inclined to try it out.

Wind Waker's only real fault is a critical shortage of dungeons. If they'd crammed in an addition dungeon or two instead of that time-wasting treasure hunt right before the endgame, the game would've easily still taken as long as it does without boring you to death.

I really like Majora's Mask, and I find it terribly amusing that
Spoiler Nonetheless, there are definitely some issues with it. The last dungeon was a real pain in the ass; even with the slow-down-the-clock song, I still was cutting it pretty close during the three-day period (in fact, the first time I did it, I had trouble finding the path to the final boss, ran out of time, and had to do it again). Some of the masks, particularly the Marriage Mask, are very difficult to figure out and get without doing tons of trial and error (or using a guide to find them all, which is what I did).

Schuyler Colfax wrote: "Your favorite Zelda" doesn't necessarily entail "The Best Zelda".

Protip: both of those are subjective.

Turns out the validity of an opinion is related to how effectively you can explain why you hold it. Saying 'I like xyz' is obviously less valid than saying 'I like jfk because of the abc features and effectiveness of the ugm'. Demonstrating ability to think > bald statements supported by nothing.