Rank the Zelda Games

[Forsaken Lover]

Never played a LOZ gme.

Put downthe pitchforks and tortches, I am willing to learn.

Hence the thread. Recommend the best games.

[Pumpkin]

Depends on what you like. Majora's Mask and Wind Waker are my favourites. MM is very sidequest heavy, if you're in to that, and it has a time mechanic where you have to reset time every 3 odd days and most progress will be undone in a way. It's also focused a lot on the personal stories of the NPC's and stuff. WW is very bright and cartoonish and has Link actually emote and it a pretty sweet story. The travel can be kind of annoying though and it really feels like you're on rails in the beginning.

[Crop]

Oh my god play A Link to the Past immediately!

[Bubba]

Oh my god play A Link to the Past immediately!

[Formalhaut]

I will concur with Pumpkin: Majora's Mask is very NPC-centric. Through the three days, you really get to involve yourself with the townspeople and understand their stories.

It's also one of the darker Zelda games. I mean, the entire plot is a doomsday moon, and it does a good day of cranking up that sense of dread and urgency.

[Vermachtnis]

Wind Waker is my favorite. It's so much fun and it really feels like you're on an adventure. And there's so much optional stuff to do. And it's very pretty.

[Depression Moon]

A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, or Majora's Mask are my recommendations, but I've really only played 4 of them and never finished the 4th.

[Wolf Kanno]

Counting only the entries I've played from least to favorite:

Zelda II - The black sheep of the franchise that fans are willing to talk about (sorry CD-i games). It is a really different experience from the rest and has some odd design choices in it. If you plan on playing it, I suggest using a guide just to find your way through it since the hints are terrible.

Four Sword entries - there are two of them but I'm putting them together since they're essentially the same games. They are great fun if you have friends to play with and take advantage of the co-op but the games are an utter chore in solo play.

Phantom Sword - Made more as a game to show off the features of the DS, the game is fun, but the story and world are pretty bland while the gameplay is pretty simplistic and repetitive.

Spirit Tracks - Same as above except less repetitive and the Train angle is amusing. Also having Zelda as an actual partner character is a treat. She tends to lampshade the plight of previous incarnations of the character.

Skyward Sword - Made as a game to show off the features of the Wii and new Motion Plus controller, the game suffers from overly-complicated combat. The new design changes are interesting but don't work all the time. While the world and characters (easily my favorite incarnation of Impa) are great and the game pulls off some really cool visual effects, I don't really like how the story kind of messes with the traditional dynamic of the characters by giving an origin story of why they reincarnate.

Ocarina of Time - Being the first 3D entry measn this game has some bugs with the interface and hit detection. The 3DS Remake fixes quite a few problems. Not a bad game but many of it's coolest ideas and puzzles were lifted from the superior Link to the Past. The game's best aspects is fleshing out Hyrule into it's own fantasy setting with unique races and creatures. Also the music being a central focus was a nice touch.

Wind Waker - This game does some really cool things with the mythos and has some really cool design elements to it. I really loved the story for actually deconstructing elements of the series and the Hero's Journey. The art direction is also one of my favorites within the series. Sadly the game has some awkward elements like the Wind Waker feeling a bit too contrived, and the hunt for the Triforce of Courage was just an annoying ploy to eke out another few hours of a game already testing the patience gameplay padding.

Link Between Worlds - This game has some great design decisions that really shake up the Zelda formula and one of the more original plots in the series with a really sympathetic villain that doesn't quite get hijacked by Ganon. While I love the game design choices, I probably would have ranked this higher had it not lifted Link to the Past's world map nearly wholesale, as I feel like the game often took advantage of that game's good design instead of relying on it's own merits when it came to exploring the world.

Majora's Mask - I'm on the fence sometimes with this game. I keep going back and forth on whether it's core gameplay mechanic (groundhog day loop) is brilliant of the bane of the game. What keeps me coming back is the game's really interesting world and characters. It's definitely the creepiest entry for good reason.

Link's Awakening - I was really impressed with this Gameboy entry. The premise is really cool and the game kind of breaks the foruth wall quite a bit. This game also introduced a bigger focus on NPC characters and developing the world which Ocarina of Time took notes of. The story certainly influenced Majora's Mask as well since the plot can be a bit unsettling when you think too much about it. The gameplay is a bit unorthodox but lends itself really well, especially with the dungeon design.

The Legend of Zelda - The original and still classic. The game lacks the story and characters of the later installments but has some of the most forward thinking design in the series. Waht's cool about this game is the non-linear nature of the world and it's heavy focus on "try everything" to solve puzzles was pretty novel for its time. With that said, it can be incredibly frustrating for players who need direction, the game has vague hints and no reliable means of knowing where you need to go next. It's easy to find dungeon three before dungeon one for instance. The game is also vague on some of the rules so you can easily screw yourself out of a 100% completion game if stuff like that matters to you.

Twilight Princess - Easily my favorite of the 3D entries and Midna is easily the best partner character in the series. I really love the game's story and characters. It also has many of my favorite dungeon and boss fights as well. On the flip side, the game does re-use too many elements from Ocarina of Time and it also has some pretty gimmicky items that are useless outside of their respective dungeons. It's tied with Wind Waker for the coolest final battle against Ganon.

Link to The Past - Pretty much created the standard "Zelda Formula" in terms of design and one of the last entries (before Link Between Worlds that is) that allows you to sequences break. The game introduced the mythos of the Zelda series and Ganon's backstory. It also debuted many of the series famous music themes and ideas. More story driven than it's predecessors, the game is still incredible light on plot or character compared to the 3D entries. It also suffers that middle ground issue where the game can be really bad about hiding its secrets making it easy to miss out on some cool elements, but it also has the issue of creating the Zelda Formula, which can make the boss battles less exciting than they were in the NES entries.

[Del Murder]

1. A Link to the Past - 2D is better than 3D Zelda, and this was the climax of 2D.
2. The Legend of Zelda - The original Zelda is probably the single most robust game of all time and it holds up well even today.
3. Ocarina of Time - They somehow got the 3D right the very first try.
4. Link's Awakening - This side story of sorts was really fun and opened up the gameplay by simply allowing you to map both buttons to sub weapons.
5. Twilight Princess - The true successor to OoT and it was beautiful

Too lazy to post reasons for the rest:

6. Majora's Mask
7. Link Between Worlds
8. Wind Waker
9. Skyward Sword
10. Oracle of Ages/Seasons

All the rest follow. They're all good really. Zelda II is probably at the bottom since it changed the formula a lot (which they quickly changed back and haven't really touched since).

[Forsaken Lover]

I guess opinions on Twilight Princess have really gone up over the years. I remember a lot of hatred for it.

[Del Murder]

People who hate it probably still hate it, they just aren't as vocal anymore. I always liked it.

[Aerith's Knight]

1. A Link to the Past - 2D is better than 3D Zelda, and this was the climax of 2D.
2. The Legend of Zelda - The original Zelda is probably the single most robust game of all time and it holds up well even today.
3. Ocarina of Time - They somehow got the 3D right the very first try.
4. Link's Awakening - This side story of sorts was really fun and opened up the gameplay by simply allowing you to map both buttons to sub weapons.
5. Twilight Princess - The true successor to OoT and it was beautiful

Too lazy to post reasons for the rest:

6. Majora's Mask
7. Link Between Worlds
8. Wind Waker
9. Skyward Sword
10. Oracle of Ages/Seasons

All the rest follow. They're all good really. Zelda II is probably at the bottom since it changed the formula a lot (which they quickly changed back and haven't really touched since).

This.

You are a good man, Murder.

[Wolf Kanno]

People who hate it probably still hate it, they just aren't as vocal anymore. I always liked it.

I blame the Zelda Cycle.

67906

I remember when Majora's Mask and Wind Waker were the red headed step childs of the series and now both of them are ranked as some of the best entries in the series. So yeah, the new entry is always the "bad" entry until the next game comes along. TP became much more popular after Skyward Sword was finally released for instance.

[escobert]

Oh my god play A Link to the Past immediately!

[Aerith's Knight]

I still don't get why everyone hates Twilight Princess.

The world was nice, the story was alright, no part of it was boring. Very little backtracking, some nice secrets.

I mean, sure, Link to the past and the original zelda are way better, but that is really no comparison.

[Galuf]

Twilight Princess is my favourite, its dark like MM but has more of a story rather than sidequests (though MM is more darker and is my 2nd favourite)

OoT is pretty fun wee game, i like to casually play that because it isnt so hard or anything.

and the rest i havent played much tbh, but AlTTP is good but haaaaaaard as hell, well except the 1st 2 are harder than hell (but thats just me)

and Links awakeing is tough but just a fun wee land to run through

[Skyblade]

I still don't get why everyone hates Twilight Princess.

The world was nice, the story was alright, no part of it was boring. Very little backtracking, some nice secrets.

I mean, sure, Link to the past and the original zelda are way better, but that is really no comparison.

The two common complaints I've heard:

1. Hyrule Field is boring, and way to big. I kind of get this one, but I feel that the overworlds are boring in most of the 3D Zelda titles. There's very little to find or explore on the overworlds, with them mostly just being used to travel from hotspot to hotspot (go from village, to dungeon, to cave, etcetera). But this isn't unique to Twilight Princess. There's very little in the way of activities to do on the overworld in most 3D Zelda games. Without Poe hunting, Ocarina of Time's Hyrule Field would have, what, three bombable rocks and that's it? But a lot of people think that, between the size and the way it was split into multiple areas, there should have been more to do in most of those areas.

2. The "darkness" is mostly just aesthetic, not a dark tone or theme the way Majora's Mask was. I don't really get this one much, partially because I feel that Majora's Mask wasn't that dark either, but rather, hopeful and uplifting. I do think that they went way overboard with the use of heavy shading in Twilight Princess, as Hyrule seems incredibly muted color-wise the entire time. But, eh, it didn't bug me too much.

[Aulayna]

1. Majora's Mask
2. A Link to the Past
3. Ocarina of Time
4. Skyward Sword
5. Twilight Princess
6. The Minish Cap
7. A Link Between Worlds
8. The Wind Waker
9. Link's Awakening
10. Oracle of Ages/Seasons
11. Phantom Hourglass
12. Spirit Tracks
13. The Legend of Zelda
14. (if you want to count it as it's technically not mainline) Hyrule Warriors
14. Adventure of Link
15. Four Swords Adventures
16. Tri-Force Heroes
(the bin) CD-i Series

15 & 16 are only worth a look if you have people to play with. They're OK single-player but a lot more fun multi-player.

[Galuf]

1. Majora's Mask
2. A Link to the Past
3. Ocarina of Time
4. Skyward Sword
5. Twilight Princess
6. The Minish Cap
7. A Link Between Worlds
8. The Wind Waker
9. Link's Awakening
10. Oracle of Ages/Seasons
11. Phantom Hourglass
12. Spirit Tracks
13. The Legend of Zelda
14. (if you want to count it as it's technically not mainline) Hyrule Warriors
14. Adventure of Link
15. Four Swords Adventures
16. Tri-Force Heroes
(the bin) CD-i Series

15 & 16 are only worth a look if you have people to play with. They're OK single-player but a lot more fun multi-player.

and Dont ever look in the bin.

its the worst bin youd ever look at.. :barf:

[Ayen]

Out of the ones I played:

1.) Ocarina of Time
2.) A Link to the Past
3.) The Legend of Zelda
4.) Oracle of Ages
5.) Oracle of Seasons
6.) Twilight Princess
7.) The Wind Waker
8.) Majora's Mask
9.) Link's Awakening
10.) Four Swords Adventure
11.) Adventure of Link

With the exception of the last one I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.

[Pumpkin]

MM is much too low down on that list