favourite zelda game ?

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and it’s not even close. I always enjoyed playing video games, and I too loved A Link to the Past, but OoT is the game that made me truly fall in love with video games. Merry Mayhem actually just completed a stream playthrough of Ocarina on her Twitch channel and will be starting Majora’s Mask next, so I’d encourage checking that 0ut. I will be doing one of Ocarina of Time 3D on my Twitch as well once I complete my Twilight Princess playthrough!

Ocarina of Time remains my #1, with Wind Waker and Twilight Princess coming in as close runner-ups.  Amazing games that I can play any day.

Also Ocarina of Time by a mile. It was my first Zelda game back when it came out. I’ve played all the others since, and Majora’s Mask was my favorite for a while. But there’s just something about Ocarina of Time that draws me back, plus it being my first Zelda game. The whole N64/Ps1 era is my favorite time in video game history, so that also plays into it.

Man, I loved Zelda back in the day. I spent much of the 2000’s on Zelda fansites, listening to official remixes of the soundtracks, reading scans of the manga and getting pretty deeply involved with the fandom (and sometimes getting into petty fights with other fans over crap that didn’t matter, because I was a little dipshit back then and didn’t really know any better). Still love this series, kinda. Just haven’t gotten around to playing Breath of the Wild yet.

My first exposure to this series was in the late 90’s when I went over to a friend’s house and watched his older brother play Ocarina of Time. The game just enthralled me and I knew I had to play it. It wouldn’t be until I got a GameCube and the GC port that came bundled with the first releases of the Wind Waker did I finally get to experience it, but damn, I was hooked.

While I’d definitely rank OoT very highly as a subliminal piece of game design, it’s actually far from my personal favourite. It’s a solid game which laid the foundations, but I appreciated Nintendo’s efforts to do something a bit different in subsequent 3D games. I’d actually rank Majora’s Mask at number one: The 3-day time limit required thinking ahead and micro-managing on what to do to spend time efficiently, and it’s atmosphere was dark, twisted and surreal. I loved the side quests which better fleshed the people that lived in this world and gave you a reason to care about them: I wanted to give them a tomorrow to live for.

The Wind Waker is a dream to play. OoT and MM were designed to give the player a challenge, but WW is a more relaxed experience and a delight for the mind and the senses to wallow in. I remember people giving the graphics shit at the time, but they’ve aged like fine wine. I’ve 100% this game a couple of times, and sailing the ocean hasn’t gotten old.

Twilight Princess is less remarkable than others, to me, but it’s still enjoyable overall, and is the “Ocarina sequel” that people had been wanting. Not quite as twisted as Majora’s Mask, but still pretty dark, and I like those kind of stories (Midna is still the best tsundere).

I actually really liked Skyward Sword. Probably not a very popular opinion. It certainly takes its time to get the ball rolling, but once it did I was wholly submerged. I could respect Nintendo’s efforts to break away from the standard formula they had been using since Ocarina, and the motion controls at least now felt like an integral part of the gameplay instead of an afterthought (it speaks volumes that Nintendo had to develop additional hardware to deliver on what they wanted to do with the Wii in the first place, though…). Ghirahim and Demise were some of the best final bosses in the whole series.

I also enjoyed the Hyrule Warriors spin-off on the Wii U. It was fun, simple action game to play with friends and I couldn’t help grin at all the fan service. The main plot was basically just weeb shit, mind you, but they did one thing Nintendo would’ve never thought to do: That Ganondorf came closer to winning than he did at any point in the main series because he learned how to weaponize fangirlism. That’s amazing.

Like, seriously, ladies. The next time time a dark, evil overlord gives you a pep talk on how to get the man of your dreams, please reconsider. For all our sakes.

Currently Breath of the Wild, minus 1 or 2 sjw elements. Never thought anything would match the original for me.