The Legend of Zelda Series

[Fynn]

To me, the most overrated is Ocarina of Time. Yes, it’s an important stepping stone for gaming, but I feel it doesn’t really stand the test of time. Many other Zelda games have done things it has just much more effectively, and it’s especially evident how vanilla OoT is nowadays when you compare it to its immediate successor, which is by far a more interesting gaming experience even today.

Most underrated is either Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword, though for different reasons. Twilight Sword gets overlooked a lot but I feel it takes all the best aspects from Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time and just makes them work so well. I love the style and the tone and I don’t even care if a lot of the items are just used for one dungeon, the dungeons themselves were still very engaging. Now, Skyward Sword May not be my favorite, but I really don’t feel it deserves its reputation as the franchise black sheep. Yes, it’s much more confined than the other games, but that doesn’t immediately make it bad. It’s gorgeous, it’s got a very interesting story, and some of my favorite dungeons in the series (the Great Cistern is still the most fun I’ve ever had in a Zelda dungeon). And while we’re at it, yes I feel the motion controls actually added to the experience.

[Bubba]

Yeah, I agree that Ocarina of Time hasn’t aged the best. It’s still in my top five Zelda’s though but mainly for the nostalgia value. Twilight Princess is my favourite 3D Zelda by far.

[WarZidane]

Most overrated, probably BotW, though OoT is indeed not far behind. Majora's Mask is in a weird spot where it's underrated and overrated at the same time.

As for most underrated, I'd agree with Fynn's Skyward Sword mention. I don't agree that the motion controls added to the experience, but the amount of neglect it gets is undeserved. I still think part of the reason is that the "core fanbase" was over the Wii by the time Skyward Sword released, which may just be bias because that was the case for me.

[Lord Golbez]

Ocarina is the most overrated and probably the second to worst Zelda game (I haven't played all of them, hence the probably). It's not good. It's a drastic step back from Link to the Past (aside from being 3D, but that shouldn't excuse lame and boring 3D). The overworld is boring and empty (except some lame collectibles) and feels too small, because there's just one bland main area connecting to a few other areas. The dungeons are almost all so boring I just want to be done with them. Not just overrated. Bad and overrated.

[I Took the Red Pill]

Overrated: BoTW, Majora
Underrated : A Link Between Worlds, Minish Cap

[Wolf Kanno]

For overrated, I'm probably going to go for the group consensus and say Ocarina of Time. I know I do rant about this game a lot, but I will say that I do still really like it. I just don't consider it to be the best game ever made, let alone the best Zelda. In some ways, its a bit like FFIV to me objectively. It did a lot for the Zelda franchise, but in the long run, it's one of the more vanilla entries in the series in terms of design and content. It has not aged very well, but thankfully the 3DS remake fixed a lot of the technical issues like the spotty Z-targeting, and an enhanced gyroscope to make using the bow significantly easier. I still feel that most of the boss fights in the game are still pretty fun.

For underrated, I have a few. I'd probably third Skyward Sword which I do feel is a flawed but still pretty fun game. I honestly don't even feel like the motion controls are the issue here for me, I feel it really was just making sword combat too much of a focus, as I feel it severely limited the creativity of the bosses and enemies found in the game, as well as undermining most of the special tools. It recycled too many bosses for me and I feel the game might be the worst offender in terms of dragging out stuff. With that said, when SS shines, it really shines well.

Another choice would be Spirit Tracks, which gets even overshadowed by its DS prequel Phantom Hourglass. While its over-world and side-quests are underwhelming, especially coming off Wind Waker and PH, not to mention the game is pathetically easy; it has more interesting puzzles to solve, a better recurring Tower Dungeon, and it may be one of the funniest entries in the series. It also allows Zelda to be playable and she's honestly one of the best incarnations of the character I feel I've seen in the series.

My third choice for underrated is Four Sword Adventures, which took the interesting, if terribly executed idea from the Four Swords mini-game that came with the GBA port of LttP, and actually made a pretty damn fun party game out of it. While a single player playthrough is not exactly ideal, if you can actually manage to get a full team playing this game, it's actually a real blast. It also has a better plot than Four Swords.

Also I found this amusing video and was curious to hear what everyone's take is on this.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

Zelda 1: Had a massive setback in this game. I was plunging into the final dungeon, and had finally acquired both the Red Ring and Silver arrows, which turned out to be pretty easy because the means to even reach Ganon kind of requires you to pick them up on the way in 2nd Quest. Anyway, it was super late and so I quit right there, but instead of quitting the game and suspending it, I accidentally shut my 3DS completely down. When I booted up, I discovered I had not actually saved in this file since getting the Key Item in Dungeon 5, so now I basically have to redo Dungeon 5-9 all over again. This is what happens when you game too late and do stuff half asleep...

Spirit Tracks: As I suspected, there was another Temple to explore. I finished the Spirit Tower and actually had a fun boss battle where Zelda was able to participate. Not terribly difficult but still really fun and unique. Basically the boss stays out of your reach in a caged arena and tries to smack you with his grappling claw hand. You need Link to lure and dodge the attack so it gets stuck on the ground, and then have Zelda in her Phantom body grab it and drag him down into the arena so you can hit him. Anyway, in typical Zelda fashion, we finally reach the big bads, only to learn we're too late. Malladus has been resurrected in Zelda's body, but is still having adjustment issues, so he escaped with his servant on a Demon Train. Fearing how godlike the demon may become if it learns to tap into Zelda's reservoir of spiritual power, we get sent to the Sand Realm to retrieve the Bow of Light, which should be powerful enough to force Malladus out o Zelda's body, though there is a slight possibility this could destroy Zelda's body as well. Getting to the Sand Temple sucked, to even find the entrance to the Sanctuary where the guardian resides, I had to travel around the desert and take not of where these giant heads were staring to determine where to bomb and find the entrance. This game loves these kind of puzzles, but it's also here that the touch screen has some issues with finesse, not helped by my DS having seen better days.

Once that was done, I had to learn the Lokomo song of this region, which is always a bitch, because unlike other rhythm games, this one doesn't tell you how you're doing until you're finished and gives you a pass/fail judgement. This sucks, cause the game never tells you where in the song you're screwing up so you can fix it. After that, it was dealign with three new challenges: I got to fight Gohma in a cave using the train, which was a bit of a bitch because it took awhile to realize the bomb barrels in the cave are meant to force it to open its eye, not to actually hurt it. The next part involved a bit of a Lost Woods puzzle, but I ended up solving this rather easily. The final challenge was the fact the dungeon actually had cannons protecting it all around the temple and I needed to destroy all of them to get the entrance opened. Normally this wouldn't be much of an issue, even being on the train, but I took some beatings from Gohma and had to be careful with my low health.

The temple itself, like all of the themed temples, was ridiculously easy compared to the trouble of getting here. I also learned that this was the game that introduced the Sand Wand, which allows you to raise sand from the ground like a pillar. It's much more user friendly in this game than ALBW, the puzzles for it are also much more interesting. So I had fun despite how easy it was. The boss was also interesting because it was a strange redo of the boss from the Arbitar's Grounds in TP. The boss is in the center of the room launching boulders at you. You use the sand wand to halt the boulders and then redirect them into various catapults strung around the arena, which you launch back at him and shatter parts of his spine. The challenge is that parts of his spine have armor plating that protects it, so you may have to arm the catapult and then run away from it so the boss will track you and expose the weak part of its spine, at which point you have to use your bow to strike the catapult switch to damage him.The boss fights in this game are fairly easy, but like TP, I appreciate how much more involving they can be. With the Bow of Light obtained, I now have to go back to the Spirit Tower again to retrieve an item the villains left behind which will allow me to find them. I was also awarded the Lokomo sword, which may go down as the worst sword upgrade Link has ever received in the series. I don't believe it raises his damage, and it can only stun Phantoms in the tower without the need of the Light artifacts to power up your basic sword. The Bow of Light is a much more interesting item. You can charge it to create powerful piercing arrows of light that can actually kill multiple enemies in a row if you time it right. I'm amused that the weapon quest of this game is for an item normally associated with Zelda, whereas Link's sword upgrade feels like an afterthought. In fact, it seems silly the Lokomo never bothered to give it to you in the first place considering how unimportant it was. So yeah, I need to head back to the Tower, but I'm going to try and finish up the last few quests and complete getting all the stamps and heart containers.

[Lord Golbez]

Why is the bow of light usually associated with Zelda? I kind of always regarded the "bow of light" as just another version of the silver arrows from the first game and LttP.

[Wolf Kanno]

Why is the bow of light usually associated with Zelda? I kind of always regarded the "bow of light" as just another version of the silver arrows from the first game and LttP.

She's usually armed with it whenever she does actually fight in any Zelda media. She uses it Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Spirit Tracks. She's also the one that tends to give them to Link throughout the series. Its also a weapon she uses frequently in Hyrule Warriors. Funny enough, the first time she used them was in the first manga adaption of Link to the Past, as she ends up being the one to kill Ganon. The one thing that amuses me about the Light/Silver Arrows is how their use changed with OoT. In the first and third Zelda titles, Ganon can only be defeated by the arrows, but you need the Magical/Master Sword to stun him long enough to hit him with it. Starting in OoT, it becomes the other way around with the Arrows being the only thing that can stun Ganon while the Master sword has to finish him off.

Update Time!

Zelda 1: 2nd Quest is complete, and it was a bitch having to restart half the game practically. On the brightside, my save did happen after I acquired the Magical Sword, so at least it wasn't a total loss. Redoing the levels wasn't too bad, and I even had an easier time with money drops which made tackling the 7th dungeon much easier since it has that annoying monster you have to feed to get past as well as two rooms with Old Men shaking you down for money or heart containers. The only bad thing that really happened in this playthrough was getting knocked into a Like Like early in the final dungeon and losing my Magic Shield. Thank god for the Red Ring, otherwise, I would have seriously been chugging my Potion of Life to make it to the end. I was also incorrect about Level 9 being a bit easier. Turns out getting the Silver Arrows traps you in a dead end, and instead of being able to backtrack to the previous room that would lead you to Ganon's chambers, you have to take a shortcut that sends you back to the start of the dungeon. Still, Ganon didn't give me as much trouble as the Wizzrobes did. I still don't think these enemies have ever been more terrifying than in their first incarnation. So done and done.

Spirit Tracks: Finally collected all of the Heart Containers, the Pirate Hideout mission seemed impossible until I figured out how the scoring system works. After that, it was unlocking the Ends of the Earth Station which was a puzzle cave using the Sand Wand to solve. Finally, my last Heart Container involved getting the Gold Membership from Beedle, which was a bit more annoying because most of his wares are cheap, and the few items that are costly are once a day items, so I had to manipulate the time on my DS just to get on with it. That leaves only two more Force Gems to acquire, but honestly the prizes for both is not worth the effort. One gets me another piece of Rare Loot I can use to make the best Train parts, and both unlock new tracks with more bunnies to collect, but seeing how I need to catch another 13 of them to get the Sword Beam scroll, I'm probably not going to bother. I did acquire the final stamp for Niko, so I'll at least get the upgraded spin attack scroll. I'm currently back at the Spirit Temple doing another chamber, and this one has been a doozy because in addition to requiring most of my items, I also need to frequently switch which types of Phantoms Zelda uses. I've already gone through all four types so far and I don't think I'm anywhere close to being done with this place. Considering it's the closest thing to a final dungeon this game gets, it has been pretty interesting so far.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Spirit Tracks: Aye Carumba! and I thought the fight against Ganondorf in Twilight Princess was dragged out, Malladus has been a total chore to take down. When you first enter the Dark Realm, you have to play Train Pac-Man where you collect Seeds of Life to power up your train and need to use that short invincibility time to take out all of the minor demon trains. On the one hand, it's easier than Pac-Man cause the Seeds of Light regenerate across the map when your invulnerability wears off. On the other hand, your mobility is much more restricted because of the train mechanics and I kept getting nailed thanks to trying to redirect my movement and dealing with enemies that move faster than me once my super mode is gone. After this, I had to fight the Ganon Train as fans call it, which was a much more interesting fight. He changes tracks a lot and tries to ram you but his cable cars also have weapons to hit you with. I died a few times in this phase because the final phase changes the rules a little. First off, you don't realize this phase is timed, basically you only have so much track and once you reach the end, its game over. What really perplexed me was that once you're down to just fighting the engine, the engine generates energy beam attacks which you can destroy, so like taking out the passenger cars, you think the idea of the fight is to destroy all of them. This turns out to be wrong, your actual goal is to speed past the train and directly attack the Ganon face in order to stop the train once and for all. The beam weapon will constantly regenerate and kill time until you lose room to go.

The actual fight with Malladus begins and the goal is to get Phantom Zelda to reach the boss in order to grab them because they'll use a shield otherwise to block all your attacks. Malladus also fires a beam that requires Zelda to work as a shield for Link. What makes this phase a pain in the ass, is that Malladus' servant Cole is floating around the stage and summon phantom mice which scares Zelda until Link can kill them all except, if one of the mice touches Zelda, she loses control of her body and Cole takes control of her until you cut off the strings which becomes increasingly harder the closer you are to Malladus because he'll snipe you if you move out of the cover of Zelda's body. The other issue is that the train floors shift, forcing you to readjust Zelda's pathway, which takes just enough time for Cole to launch a successful mouse attack. In the phase I have now, Zelda is trying to channel power to stop Malladus who is coughing up lava balls at her that Link much deflect with his sword. This here is the phase that sadly brings attention to my biggest gripe with the DS Zelda titles, mainly that I felt it was stupid to tie both moving and attacking to the stylus controls. Especially since a strike and a roll are almost the same input, so I'm taking way more damage than I feel I should cause Link is rolling into these lava balls instead of slashing at them. I finally ran out of potions and died, so I may end up redoing the Demon train portion again. *sigh* I vaguely remember Phantom Hourglass also pulling some counter-intuitive game change for its final boss fight as well.

[Lord Golbez]

In Link Between Worlds the Bow of Light is used to both stun and defeat Ganon (sort of).

[Wolf Kanno]

In Link Between Worlds the Bow of Light is used to both stun and defeat Ganon (sort of).

It is still used mostly to knock him out of the painted form so you can actually hurt him with the Master Sword.

Update Time!

Spirit Tracks is done. I opted to track down the rest of the bunnies and finish up a few quests to get the Beam Sword scroll and upgrade my train despite not needing the upgrades anymore. I'm very much split on how I feel about the Malladus fight. On the one hand, I feel like the controls of the game really get in the way of the fight, and makes it tougher than it really needed to be. On the other hand, this might be one of the most cinematic final bouts in handheld Zelda title. Barring the Demon Train/Dark World opening, the main fight has four phases. The first phase has Phantom Zelda protecting Link as she tries to reach Malladus to grab him and let Link nail him with the Bow of Light, all the while, Link has to protect Zelda from phantom rats and Cole possessing her. This is easily the roughest part of the fight as trying to multitask both characters while both enemies are attacking is a pain. The second phase involves Zelda, back in her true body, gathering her spiritual power to weaken Malladus. Link has to deflect projectiles Malladus sends towards Zelda, if she gets hit, you have to start the whole segment over. This is the part where the controls can be a bit of a pain, but as long as you stay calm and battle carefully, this is actually the breather part of the fight, especially since his projectiles will occasionally turn into hearts to heal you. The third phase is the one that throws most people off. Zelda gathers her power and needs Link to do a duet with her using the Spirit Flute, this part is a bitch. While I normally like the way the flute works in the game, the simon says sequences are a pain because you never know how well you are doing until the end. This was especially tough cause you had to play fast and the song has a few skips that require you to be careful when you're blowing into your DS as not to screw up the song by playing an extra or wrong note. After this point, you enter the final phase where Malladus gains a weak spot on his back, so Link has to draw his attention while Zelda uses the Bow of Light to strike the weakness. The bottom screen shows Link and gives you the command for Zelda to shoot, while the top screen shows her perspective. You have to wait until you get a gold lock on before firing, and even then Malladus moves around a lot, so its still a pain to hit him. Once her gets knocked out from his weak spot, his real weak spot on his head appears, but you have to destroy his horns to even reach it, so this cat and mouse game plays out about three times with each strike having him add new attacks to his arsenal. Once you finally expose his full weakness, Link strikes him with the Lokomo sword and tries to shove it into Malladus' weak spot at which point you have to rub the bottom screen. During this point, Zelda comes along and helps Link shove the sword through Malladus before he finally dies.

I watched the pretty neat ending, and was amused to learn that the final part of it will actually change a little bit based on the answer you give to Zelda before the final boss fight concerning your plans after the final battle. It was pretty cute.

Overall, Spirit Tracks felt like a better game than Phantom Hourglass. While PH has the more interesting setting and better overworld, ST has the better dungeons and story. Zelda in this game ranks up there with Midna for me as one of the best side kicks Link has had, and it was great to finally play a Zelda game where Zelda is both a prominent character in it, and actually has a great story arc. My main beef with the game is that the puzzles in the themed temples were a wee bit too easy for my taste. Course this game was likely made for a younger type of fan, so I guess I shouldn't complain. The actual Spirit Tower could be really brutal and ultimately was the most fun dungeon to go through. It especially fixed my issues with the Ocean Temple, which was always a bit too repetitive for my taste, whereas this dungeon has enough variety in its sections built around using Phantom Zelda to get through that made it fun. Of anything, I really wish Phantom Zelda got more use in other dungeons.The villains weren't that great, but I liked them more than PH's set of villains, but they are not as interesting as the Nightmares in Link's Awakening or Majora or Vaati.

So question for people since the last time I asked this was like two years ago in this thread, how would you rank the Zelda games you've played?

[Fynn]

There’s a lot of those, so they’re pretty hard to pick, not to mention these types of lists constantly shift around for me. As of now, though, I’d rank them like this:

12. Zelda II
11. Ocarina of Time
10. Minish Cap
9. Zelda I
8. Wind Waker
7. Majora’s Mask
6. Link’s Awakening
5. Skyward Sword
4. A Link Between Worlds
3. Twilight Princess
2. A Link to the Past
1. Breath of the Wild

[Lord Golbez]

Oh. Is the Master Sword used for the killing blow? I forgot. I knew you switched between but thought the painting was the last one.

Anyway ranking them.

AKA the good ones ( these are close enough together that I could change my mind on any ranking at various times)

1. Breath of the Wild
2. Link to the Past
3. Link Between Worlds
4. Legend of Zelda
5. Link's Awakening


AKA the weird/okay ones
6. Phantom Hourglass
7. The one with the kangaroo or some trout

.
.
.
AKA the bad ones (ranking almost doesn't matter because I hate both but one is clearly worse than the other continuous numbering is passed up as those numbers are reserved for games I haven't played but are definitely better or games I've played and forgot to list)

2nd to worst: Ocarina of Time
Worst: Zelda II (I was gonna say aka the fake Zelda game, but there are other more fake Zelda games - the CD-i games - that are almost certainly even worse than this game)

[Wolf Kanno]

I've never played a Zelda game I haven't enjoyed in some way. My rankings would probably be...

13. Four Swords - I feel like I'm cheating here, considering this game barely has a plot and started as a multiplayer spin-off for the GBA port of ALttP. Still, this is easily the roughest entry to play, especially by yourself since it can be a pain controlling two different Links. Like it's superior sequel, Four Sword Adventures, this game would likely be more fun if you can play with more than just one person.

12. Phantom Hourglass - A cute sequel to Wind Waker which I actually played before I ever touched Wind Waker. I feel like its a real charming game with my only gripes being how much I felt mapping all of Link's controls to the stylus hurt the overall game, forcing the enemies and puzzles to be a bit on the easier side for my taste. Having to replay the Temple of Ocean after every dungeon also got a bit tedious. Linebeck is a good character, but I feel Zelda fans overhype him a bit. I did enjoy the overworld and side content, but I felt the game often went a little too far with the DS functions.

11. Spirit Tracks - PH's sequel, this game is even more lighthearted than PH and WW which is pretty refreshing for the series. Zelda is easily one of the best companion characters in the series and I loved how they retooled the ideas of Phantoms from PH in her use. Sadly, many of my gripes from PH were not remedied outside of the Spirit Tower being genuinely more fun than the Ocean Temple which made backtracking to it feel less like a chore. The overworld is quaint, but a little tedious compared to its predecessors. At least the game had more memorable bosses and pretty epic final battle.

10. Zelda 2: The Adventures of Link - I have a serious soft spot for this relic of a game. Maybe it took getting into Dark Souls to finally appreciate the game's brutality and obtuse puzzles but I honestly had a blast going through this game. It was nice to play a game where even small victories like a small level upgrade, or discovering an item felt incredibly rewarding. With that said, the Lives system and having Link restart at Hyrule Castle are serious scrappy mechanics. Of allk the Zelda titles I've played, I feel a proper and expansive remake of this game would likely be well received cause I feel the bones are good in this one, it just needed better tech and more polish to really shine.

9. A Link Between Worlds - This is a game I wish I liked more than I actually do. I honestly found the game to be pretty forgettable outside of the final story moments, and I feel part of that is due to the game being too derivative of Link to the Past for my taste, combined with how dungeons felt much less rewarding due to the "item rental mechanic" and more non-linear nature of the dungeon structure that made most of the dungeons feel forgettable and removed that sense of growing stronger I really enjoy about the series. Its a solid game, and certainly a great intro entry for top down Zelda titles for fans who only have played the 3D entries, but I'm honestly surprised how often I forget about this game. I even initially forgot it on this list which is why I changed its ranking.

8. Skyward Sword - Of the well known console entries, I feel SS is the most underrated entry of the 3D Zelda titles. While its hardly perfect, I feel fans tend to blow the negatives out of proportion. I also don't feel the motion controls hurt it as much as just making swordplay the game's main design. Even if they somehow were able to map the swordplay to a standard controller, I feel most fans would just finally see the game's real issue which was too many repetitive boss battles, too much backtracking, and too many plot coupon quests. For a game that was trying to push for more exploration with larger maps, the game feels more linear in nature. I did eventually come around to the Demise/Hylia plot element which I still feel is a bit of a cop out, but I'm not quite annoyed as I used to be. Despite all that, this game has some really underrated dungeon design, Zelda and Groose are fun characters, and I feel this game has my favorite incarnation of Impa in the whole series. Ghiriam is overrated though.

7. Ocarina of Time - I feel my thoughts on OoT would likely be similar to my thoughts on FFIV if I looked at it from a pure objective perspective and took off the nostalgia goggles once in awhile. Its a solid and fun game and an important stepping stone for the franchise, but at the end of the day, I feel its the most vanilla entry in the series. Not bad, but not exactly what I would call great either. I do have a similar problem with it when discussing it with fans like I do with FFVII in that I feel the game is a bit overrated and fans often are too blind to the game's imperfections. I have mellowed out a bit on this though, especially since the 3DS port fixed a lot of the technical issues I had with the original. Music is definitely really good in this titles, and I appreciate the fact the series finally got more of setting with unique races than the previous installments.

6. Wind Waker - I will leave the majority of my thoughts on a future blog entry, but suffice to say that WW may have the best incarnations of Link and Ganondorf in the series. I also love just how expressive the characters are in this game and its visually the most impressive Zelda I've seen. It has some really good ideas, but it gets held back by some weak difficulty and a third act that stunts all of the game's momentum. Still, I understand why so many fans love this game.

5. Majora's Mask - Even now, a few years after I finally beat this beast of a game, I'm still debating on whether the Groundhog Day Loop mechanic is brilliant or a scrappy mechanic that hurts the core game. I think it really comes down to what you consider the "core game" is. If you feel its dealing with the residents of Termina, then I would agree its a great mechanic. If you feel its the standard Zelda dungeon aspect, then I would likely agree its a scrappy mechanic that just adds artificial difficulty to the game. Still, it was a really memorable experience for me and I'm glad I got a chance to conquer what used to be the black sheep of the N64 era.

4. The Legend of Zelda - A classic that dominated my childhood, I hate saying a game is ahead of its time, but honestly Zelda 1 really was. My favorite NES memory was conquering this game. I finished Second Quest this year, and had a blast being seriously challenged once again by a game I loved since I was a child.

3. Link's Awakening - My current Zelda regret was waiting so long to finally playing this game properly. I had wanted to when it originally came out but, like a lot of games that came out when I was a kid, I sort of forgot about it. Picked it up a few years ago and played it during the Zelda marathon I did in this thread and it easily jumped into my top three entries. Great story, cool dungeons, and I loved how you could use two items at once to garner special effects. This game also has some really crafty and awesome dungeon puzzles. The cast was also pretty underrated until recently.

2. Twilight Princess - Easily my favorite 3D Zelda so far, TP was a game I was really excited for. TP has one of my favorite stories in the series and Midna is easily the best original companion in the series. TP also has my favorite collection of dungeons and bosses in the 3D Zeldas. Such a groovy game.

1. A Link to the Past - Easily my favorite entry and the game that cemented me as a Zelda fan. LttP was awesome for finally giving the series a better narrative and introducing all the elements Zelda would be well known for. The Light/Dark world mechanic was really well done in this game, and I still feel its one of the best executed gimmicks in the series.

I still need to play the Oracle games (which I own) to figure out where they would be. After that, it's just trying to get the means to play Four Sword Adventures, Breath of the Wild, Minish Cap and Tri Force Heroes.