Sometime last year, I was told for the umpteenth time that I should play Tears of the Kingdom. At that point, I hadn't even played Breath of the Wild yet.

Being the pinnacle of silly ideas that I am, I decided that yeah, I would play Tears. But I really should play Breath first, since Tears is a sequel and all. And you know, while we're here in Zelda brain space, why not just play every single main-line Legend of Zelda game in release order while I'm at it?

It's only 17 games, after all. I gave myself until the end of 2023 to complete the challenge. What follows are my impressions and general reviews of each game, from what I remember playing through it and looking back on live-tooting the experience. If you'd like to go read the original toots yourself, screenshots and all, I used a hashtag so you can find them all here: #HarlanPlaysZelda.¹

Note for clarity: In the headings below, I include the system the game was originally released on, and the system I ended up playing it on, if it's different.

The Legend of Zelda (Released on NES/Played on Switch)

I began this journey by wandering. An old man provided a sword, I found an island with a dungeon inside, all was well. Quite soon afterward, I got stuck trying to find the second level. Seemingly, it was nowhere to be found. This was when I learned an important lesson regarding playing old games, NES ones in particular:

Read. The. Manual.

Old games were extremely limited by storage space and computing power, so much so that features we take for granted nowadays (like a tutorial) are non-necessary things that they didn't have room on the cartridge for. Games came with manuals to make up for this. Far from spoilers, these manuals explained the backstory, the controls, and more. As I discovered, the manual for the first Zelda game included most of the map of the overworld, directions to the first and second levels, enemy briefings, and suggests that you learn to make your own maps for the different levels and missing overworld maps.

The manual changed everything. I literally printed chunks of it out, and had them there by me as reference just as a kid in front of the TV in the 80s would have!

I ended up finishing the game in two sessions. The last level/dungeon was quite rough, and the manual's recommendation to make your own maps actually came in very useful. That last fight with Ganon was tough and frankly not that fun, since the fight was all about finding Ganon while he's invisible with very little to go on. Overall, especially considering the manual as part of the experience, it was a really fun, short game.

Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link (NES/Switch)

I read the manual this time.

This game has a reputation. I found myself surprisingly really enjoying Zelda II even more than the first game. I enjoy games like Dark Souls (much, much more on that in a future post), where part of the game is learning about the different enemies and how to play to counter each one. Zelda II was all about that. Tough for sure, but satisfyingly difficult.

I did "cheat" a little bit, by using the Switch's emulator controls to rewind and retry certain parts of the game. However, I don't consider it cheating, since the game was running entirely through official Nintendo software and hardware. The rewind feature is part of it, and therefore fair game. I made this distinction early on, and especially for the end of Zelda II and for a couple of the other games on this list, I'm glad I did - I may not have been able to complete the challenge at all otherwise.

The most brutal part of the game were the last few dungeons. Not the enemies in them, the actual level design of the dungeons themselves. There were a lot of points with really long dead-ends, loops, false floors that set you back a very long ways, and points where the only way forward was to look for a false wall, sometimes lifted off the ground a little. Even with the mapping abilities hammered in by the first game, going out of your way to check every single floor and wall is extremely time-consuming and, from a game designer standpoint, just plain mean.

The cruelest part, hands down, was in the last dungeon. There's a very long path to follow that turns out to be a dead end. After backtracking the whole way, you try another direction, just as long. It finally ends, and as you go up to the wall to check to see if it goes any further, you fall down through a false floor, right to where the first path dead-ended. So now you have to do both long pathways again, just to make absolutely sure that the end of that second path isn't ACTUALLY false and where you need to be going. (It isn't.)

That said, the final fight against Dark Link was the pinnacle of satisfaction in difficulty. The thunderbird boss right before it was random chaos incarnate, but Dark Link made up for it with a moveset that really felt like it was mirroring you and all the techniques you spent the game learning.

Overall, it felt nice that Zelda was dipping into what would become elements of action RPGs with movesets and experience points and such. Really really enjoyed this game.

A Link to the Past (SNES/Switch)

Before tackling this challenge, I remembered A Link to the Past as my favorite 2D Zelda game.

After tackling this challenge, I discovered A Link to the Past is still very good. Not my favorite, we'll get there, but very very good.

You have so many options. The map feels extremely wide open, and opens up somehow even more with the right items and abilities. You can approach fights in lots of different ways, and most importantly, the game feels really good to play. The hitboxes seem to favor the enemies, but overall, it feels great to swing a sword in this world.

That said, I have three main gripes with this game. First off: the Moldorm boss in the tower dungeon. The one that bounces you off the platform, making you climb the tower over and over again, where the boss has its health refreshed every time, while you have very limited supply of hearts on the floor below. It's just really really annoying. Round 2 with this boss later in the game isn't as bad, while you have an over-leveled sword, but damn I hate that boss so much.

The next thing is that sometimes the freedom you have to play the game the way you like works against you. Now and then, there are puzzles that require the use of a specific item. It's not always obvious what you're meant to do, especially if you don't have the requisite item yet. In the dungeons, this isn't much of a problem - the item you find in the dungeon is invariably the thing you need to make the puzzle go. But in the open world, it's a lot less obvious, to the point where I had to look up a puzzle or two just to make sure I wasn't wasting my time poking something with the blue staff when I should be poking it with the red staff, or something.

Lastly, a story quirk. At the beginning of the game, it totally has you believing that your uncle dies! Giving you his sword and his mission, leaving him there in the castle sewers for who knows how long, and not seeing him again; that is, until the epilogue of the game, where uncle has recovered and is totally fine. Quite the retirement plan there, unc.

Overall, especially with a critic's mindset, I still liked the game a lot, but it didn't quite hold up as well as it did in my memory.

Link's Awakening (GBC/Switch)

There is a remake out there. I didn't play it. The version I played is Link's Awakening DX for the Game Boy Color. So some of my gripes probably were addressed in the new remake - I don't know. So, starting with the cons:

Whenever you brush up against a pot or rock, even after getting the power bracelet that lets you push them around, the game will show you this message you have to push the button multiple times to clear, suggesting that you need the power bracelet to move the thing. The only way this message doesn't appear is if the power bracelet is actively one of the two items you have equipped. It feels like I spent an enormous part of my playtime dismissing that message. The Power Bracelet should be a passive upgrade you have, not another one of the 12 items to juggle every few seconds.

A similar message appears every single time you pick up a Guardian Acorn or Piece of Power, explaining what it is. Again with the maps and compasses in the dungeons as well. I had the thought that I'd probably rather not have a compass than click through the same message for the 6th time.

On to the goods:

The shovel. It's so satisfying to use. I loved destroying whole fields over and over with it. And considering you need to grind a LOT of rupees to get stuff done, I love that the shovel made that process more fun.

The final fight being an amalgamation of various past bosses was very fun, especially the callback to Agahnim from A Link to the Past.

This game is essentially A Link to the Past, Game Boy Edition. The plot is a bit different, but in a good way. The NPCs from ALttP were forgettable quest-givers at best, but there was enough character in the characters, and enough of a relationship there that even though the island and everyone there is a dream, you can't help but second guess yourself when it's time to wake up.

Ocarina of Time (N64/Switch)

To be fair, I've never been on the Ocarina of Time bandwagon. I didn't grow up with this game like so many others I know. My first taste of Nintendo was the Wii. So I'll be a bit rough on this one.

The controls were gross. To be fair, it's a super early 3D game - they were all pretty gross to play at that time. The Switch's emulator didn't make things any easier with how they remapped the N64 controller to the JoyCons. The controls were enough of an issue that for Ocarina and for Majora's Mask, any time aiming a bow or slingshot needed to happen, it was really rough, and I had to do the bare minimum necessary with the ranged weapons.

After getting used to the controls, the only other consistent problem in the game was a lack of direction. The prime example is getting the hookshot. You are told to go to Kakariko, nothing more. In reality the next steps are to go to the graveyard PAST Kakariko, then look for a particular grave and do a weird event that feels more like a side-quest than the main path through the game. And often, I found myself in a place where I straight up had no idea where to go next. I'm not one of those players that skips through dialogue quickly, either - if anything, I'm reading everything twice. I still needed online guides to tell me where to go next in many cases.

The water temple is indeed still the water temple and it sucked.

Another point about Ocarina is that the plot is pretty much copy/pasted from A Link to the Past. (Yes, again) The wish-granting Triforce is in the Sacred Realm and Ganon[dorf] wants to overcome the Sages to get there and claim that wish. I get that that's literally what the series is about, but it really gets old after the third time, and later games do a great job of remixing this same concept to make each one feel fresh. The only plot difference between ALttP and Ocarina is where Link comes from, and the fact that in ALttP, Ganon got the Triforce pretty early on, while in Ocarina, Ganondorf gets it much later in the game.

At the end of the day, Ocarina of Time is Fine. I'm not impressed with it, since the only newness it brought was 3D, which was ruined somewhat by the jank controls. Kudos for making Zelda an actual character that you actually talk to and work with, though. That was nice.

Majora's Mask (N64/Switch)

I wasn't looking forward to Majora's Mask at all. Ocarina left a disappointing taste, and the only thing I knew about Majora's was that there's an ongoing world timer that resets every so often and makes you do things over again, and I was not looking forward to the mental pressure that would add. So maybe it was low expectations, but I was

Absolutely. Blown. Away.

Controls are still jank, yes. The timer is indeed a thing.

I loved this game. I loved how you got to know an enormous host of characters, not just by talking to them, but by seeing the human aspect of how they all react to the world ending in 3 days or less. I loved that the timer ended up not being a problem (it moves really slowly, and ocarina songs make it even slower), and actually added to the dramatic tension of the world and the people in it. I loved going through the game like Bill Murray on his 300th Groundhog Day, with a perfectly memorized pattern of things to do to get the exact outcome I was after. I loved the slow reveal of the story of Skull Kid from the giants around the world. I loved collecting the masks, getting the lost lovers together, and filling the time journal with notes. I loved how good a Zelda story can be when it's not tethered by Triforce crap.

Then facing the tortured Skull Kid at the end like the bully you now feel empathy for. Damn.

When the white time card appeared reading "Dawn of A New Day" I got downright emotional.

Majora's Mask blew my expectations out of the water and to the moon.

I still can't aim a bow to save my life though. That shooting range in the swamp can f*** right off.

Oracle of Seasons / Ages (GBC/Switch)

I can sum these two up mostly by describing them as Link's Awakening, but without the issues. Exactly the same gameplay, none of the annoying repeating messages!

On top of that, I LOVED the way the two games interacted. It doesn't matter which one you play first. At the end of one, you get a code. You put that code in at the beginning of the other game, and it becomes the sequel! I played Seasons first and Ages second.

These were times when taking codes back and forth between the games for various secrets got tedious, but overall, it was a joy, and it brought me back to when I'd discover secrets in games naturally myself without discovering them online first.

Big thumbs up for both these games!

The Wind Waker (GC/WiiU)

I played the remastered version of the game for the WiiU. Supposedly this makes the game far less monotonous as the game doesn't have to load chunk after chunk as you sail, making the travel a lot faster.

It's still a game about exploring islands on the sea, though. It's the sea. It's going to be tedious. About 80% of my time in the game was spent on a boat going somewhere to see if maybe that was where I was meant to go. The actual navigating itself was very Shadow-of-the-Collossus-ish, which I appreciate.

The combat is nice and smooth, a huge improvement over Ocarina and Majora's. And the final fight against Ganon is tough but fun, even though Zelda did more damage to me than Ganon did!

Overall a good game, but I wouldn't want to play it again. Especially with another ocean-based game later.

The Minish Cap (GBA/Switch)

Before I did this challenge, I remembered this game fondly. Kinda, not so much now.

First off, it was really short. The game was over in a couple of play sessions, and it seemed like half the length of the other 2D games. Between only 6 dungeons, a small overworld, and fast travel on top of that, this game blew by.

The kinstone fusions were a good idea. I don't think they really hit the right way here though. They are absolutely everywhere, so it feels like they're stealing the gameplay limelight. And while the color of the stones hint at what they'll reward you with, it didn't feel great having the same mechanic reward you with a shortcut or even plot progress in one place, and a mere handful of rupees in another place.

The upside? The dungeons were fantastically designed! I loved the puzzles, the closest I remember the other 2D games getting was the tower in Link's Awakening that had you destroy pillars.

It was also refreshing to see a villain that wasn't Ganon or someone trying to resurrect him. On the flip side, Vaati had no real character, they just filled a "need more power" stereotype.

Twilight Princess (GC/WiiU)

My full bias will be on display here: This is my favorite. Other people grew up with Ocarina of Time - Twilight Princess was my introduction to Nintendo as a whole. Also, wolf link is Peak Design and I will not be taking questions.

It it as good as I remember playing it originally? No. Especially the second half of the game. Let's start with the issues.

The main problem is Ganondorf, again. It's getting really old when there's some cool baddie out there only for them to get tossed aside when you discover that it was Ganon All Along. Especially just earlier playing Zelda II, Majora's Mask, Link's Awakening, all fine or great Ganon-free stories, it's so tiring fighting this pig monster/imposing man again.

It's made all the worse considering Zant. I love Zant as a villain! He's power-hungry and devious, as Vaati was, but ALSO had a really good backstory as a usurper of the Twilight Realm. The fact that he's creepy as hell and totally unhinged (that last fight against him, good grief) makes him that much better. What a waste of good character potential.²

Now the positives.

Only Majora's Mask can compete on characters and story here. None of the other games had such a wide cast of characters, where you remembered each of them, and saw them all develop and grow as people. Colin's coming-of-age trials, Telma and Renado's fling, Ilia's strength of will as an amnesiac, Rusl being Rusl. Getting the Master Sword, and Midna's conversion are especially satisfying, narratively speaking.

Discovering the new areas is generally really awesome too. I know it's not popular, but I especially like the Snowpeak area, and the history detective lead-up to the City in the Sky. In the first half of the game, collecting the light drops from the bugs can get annoying and tedious. Kudos to them for really mixing it up with the third set of light bugs though, especially that last boss one.

Gameplay was great. Combat is smoother and smoother with every game. Fighting darknuts with the secret skills you learn is super satisfying, and I still play the Cave of Ordeals over and over.

So yes, not as flawless as I remember it, still damn good though.

Phantom Hourglass (DS/3DS)

Phantom Hourglass surprised me! There were problems initially - this game wasn't ever rereleased, so my options were to either emulate it or find a physical game card to put into my old 3DS. Emulation mostly worked, but it was riddled with issues. For example, rolling requires you to make a looping gesture with the stylus, which wasn't reliable when using a mouse or trackpad on an emulator. For another, there's a "puzzle" where you clean off a map by "blowing the dust off" (read: blowing into the DS microphone) which wasn't wanting to work via emulation either. I ended up restarting this game a few times because of issues like these and trying different emulators.

Personal technical issues aside, like I said, this was a surprising game! Being the first Zelda game for the DS, of course it had to involve platform gimmicks, like the aforementioned stylus-based movement system (hated) and the "puzzles" involving blowing the microphone, closing the system, etc (loved). The misses weren't bad enough that they were a hindrance, you get used to the stylus movement after a bit. And a couple of those hits were ingenious, I still think back about closing the two screens together to make a mirrored map imprint with satisfaction.

This is a direct sequel to Wind Waker, which means this is another sea game. With all the tedium of navigating the seas. This one is better than Wind Waker in that regard, because of two things. First, it's a DS game, and the sea straight up cannot be that big. This game only has 4 sectors of ocean to explore instead of a 10x10 grid of them, and those 4 sectors are pretty densely packed. Drawing symbols with the stylus to fast travel helps too. And for the times when you are at sea for more than 20 seconds, there are so many random enemies and targets to shoot at, that the time flies nicely.

Linebeck surprised me too. I went from despising the guy more than Navi to internally cheering when he arrived in cutscenes. I really wasn't expecting to rank Linebeck right next to Midna in the Link's Companions Ranking, but here we are.

The main problem was the dungeon - yes, that one. The thing with this game is that there's one dungeon and you return back there several times throughout the game as you get items and abilities so that you can go deeper and deeper each time. As you clear areas and get further in the dungeon, you set up shortcuts and routes that make return journeys faster and easier - which is good, since the titular Hourglass is a countdown to how long you can physically be in the dungeon. Clearing the regular dungeons around the game add time to the hourglass, while the items and tablet codes unlock the doors to get deeper. It's a really cool idea, but the return trips end up being even more tedious than the at-sea parts.

Spirit Tracks (DS/3DS)

Think of this one as just more Phantom Hourglass - only on DS, not rereleased, taking advantage of platform gimmicks. There's some differences though!

Your boat is switched out for a train. Travel is similar, complete with things to keep you engaged as you go. The stylus movement is simplified as well - rolling is a double tap instead of drawing a loop, for example. There's still a central dungeon that you return to multiple times, but organizing the place into wings makes it much nicer - no need to retrace your steps.

The most notable difference is Zelda. In every other game she's either the quest-giver, the MacGuffin, the boss-assist mechanic, the damsel in distress, or some combination of these. Not much of a character and not very dynamic. In Spirit Tracks, however, she not only has a really fun character, acts as a game companion, and actually is stronger than Link is, but she manages to do it all while DEAD. If that doesn't one-up every other Zelda incarnation, I don't know what does.

This game's pitch is that Zelda's spirit has been forced from her body, so she follows you around to make sure she gets it back. As a spirit, she can possess enemies in the main dungeon, making for fun tag-team dungeon clearing gameplay. While Knight-Zelda is around, she's more effective at fighting everything than Link is. It's a fun twist on the formula, and Zelda ends up being a great and not-annoying companion as well!

Both of these DS games go SO HARD in their bosses. Really intense and fun, and never shying away from using both screens, whether it's for mechanics, selling a sense of scale, better visibility, etc. Another observation: these games seem to be among the best top-down games in the series, and yet no Ganon presence. Hmmmmmm...

Skyward Sword (Wii/Switch)

As the first 3D Zelda game since Twilight Princess 5 years earlier, Skyward Sword is, as the kids say, mid.

There's some redeeming qualities: It's cool to see areas in different ways as you go through the game. The first time seeing a place, spirit realms, flooded areas, making it a stealth mission, etc - this was neat. The combat, while annoying to get used to, was good once I got over the hump. Having more options, swing directions, etc makes combat more interesting, at least in theory. Having Link's model just standing there awkwardly pointing the sword in certain directions maybe dulled that for me.

However. [Google] Fi is really annoying, and reminds me of other similarly named annoying things. The story had whole chunks that made no sense. If any part of it had to make sense, it had to be the thing about Demise's curse at the end. It didn't really seem to land logically, to me - it made about as much sense as the ending of most of the later seasons of Supernatural.³ Almost as if some poor time-crunched writer just needed to connect 20 games' worth of lore by any means necessary.

Like, why is Link shown as a bumbling daydreamer, then is suddenly an expert swordsman the moment things go wrong? His absentmindedness is never addressed again all game. Then there's Groose. He has this whole redemption arc, but it doesn't feel like it means anything. Groose hangs out being sad for a few days, gets advice from an old lady, and suddenly has achieved self-actualization? He was hardly present all game, at least seeing him more often actively trying to help out would've gone a long way. The end of the game seems extra convenient as is.

Finally, those controls really took a step backwards. You can't just move the camera around. You need to hold down a button for the right stick to control the camera vs the sword direction. While I liked the deeper combat, making camera control harder makes it one step forward, two steps back.

If a game can leave an aftertaste, this one somehow did.

Breath of the Wild (Switch)

Breath of the Wild is huge. In many ways. It's a massive world with a lot in it to explore, but it's also made a huge splash in the gaming world. Usually Nintendo property tends to fly under the radar, but it was nothing but BotW for solid months when this came out. I played it last year for this challenge for the first time, some time after its impact wore off somewhat. I expected to spend a lot of time playing, considering its sheer volume of content, but I ended up finishing it within a couple of weeks of casual playing.

Usually I'm a bit of a completionist, I've tried at least to collect all the heart pieces in the other games on the list. With this generation of Zelda games, however, that's near impossible to do, and still stick to a timeframe. I'm satisfied with the progress I got though - a little over half the shrines, around 100 korok seeds. After lost count games, I'm beginning to feel the burnout a bit, so I knew that going for more would ruin me and my chances at finishing this thing before the end of the year.

So thoughts, then!

It's a fantastic game. Feels great to play, super easy to get lost and distracted, a good thing in an open world game, or laser focused in quests. It did feel like all the equipment in the game was made out of wax with how often they broke. If you find a weapon you like, it sucks when it breaks and you're not sure where to find more. A consumable that repairs your weapons, or being able to pay blacksmiths at stables to repair your equipment would have been a welcome sight.

And Hestu, the fellow who takes your korok seeds and gives you slots to carry things? What a great guy, I mean, come on. I do hate that he'll just up and move now and then, and you have to rediscover him again before he'll do more upgrades. It's such a huge world; without a marker, you really have no choice but to look up online where he went.

The story is quite good as well. I'm not usually a fan of flashbacks and such tropes in storytelling, but somehow, having a quest to get the memories, bit by bit, and likely out of sequence, makes it much better.

When the game came out, I had the thought that if there's only 4 of these divine beasts, that's only 4 dungeons in the game. Even with Minish Cap having just 6 really good ones, that felt like not quite enough. Having played it, I can only barely call the divine beasts dungeons at all. A divine beast is more like a single room of a dungeon. And not only are they nowhere near as involved, they all have the exact same objective with near copy/pasted dialogue explaining them. The story segments leading up to each divine beast was great, and had the same buildup as story leading up to a dungeon in previous games. So when you finally get aboard the thing, it's really disappointing to see just one puzzle room and a boss up there.

If there's anything this challenge taught me, it's that dungeons are a major part of the DNA of a Zelda game. And in a massive open-world sandbox RPG game, I expected divine beasts/dungeons to be the only parts of the game that game designers had tight control over, so of course the dungeons would be really good. It looks to me that those resources went to all the shrines around the world instead. The shrines ARE good, to be fair, and it's necessary to have a decent fast travel system in a game like this. But in my silly little opinion, you can attach fast travel to towns, stables, and landmarks any way you like. You can upgrade health and stamina by other means.

Instead of over 100 shrine puzzles, which get annoying and tedious after around the 60th one, I would have liked to see 5-10 really good dungeons in their place. I'd love to see the divine beasts be way bigger and have unique puzzles and mechanics in each one, instead of just "Push these 5 buttons." Maybe a dungeon as part of each region's story in preparing for the beasts? Maybe a couple of large ones that have no direct story connection at all, and instead reward you with awesome armor, an alternative fast travel network, or even large upgrades, like a whole ring of stamina, 5 hearts at once or something. I'm spitballing here.

Great game! One of the best open world games I've ever played. Doesn't really feel like a Zelda game though.

A Link Between Worlds (3DS)

Yes, this is out of order. This game came out well before Breath of the Wild, but my copy was misplaced, so I played them out of order. It's a good thing I did too, I think I needed a break/palette cleanser between the two massive recent releases.

That's not to say I enjoyed this one, though. It was a hugely frustrating experience.

Here's the rundown: This is mostly yet another copy/paste of A Link to the Past, but with updated graphics. The overworld map is intentionally nearly identical. There is still a "dark world," it's just called Lorule instead (🙄), and the entrance points are in different places. The gimmick is the magic of being able to merge with the wall and travel along walls, through thin crevices, etc. The other unique thing about this game is that you can do the dungeons in any order you like. Each has an item that enables the puzzles within, but all the items are available from the vendor at the beginning of the game - to rent.

This concept is alright, but the problems arise when you die. Especially in a dungeon. In other games, if this happens, you respawn at the entrance to the dungeon and you give it another go. Here, that still happens, but the vendor also comes along and takes the item you were using back. This means when you die, you have to then travel back to the home hub, re-rent the item which costs rupees, then travel back to the dungeon again and NOW you're able to give it another go - now that the flow is off and you're used to somewhere other than the dungeon again. If you couldn't guess, I had a LOT of early-game deaths, which made the whole experience extremely frustrating.

Later in the game, the option opens up to simply buy the items outright instead of renting them! However, the items are VERY expensive, and if you've been dying and re-renting equipment over and over, you don't have as much money as you otherwise would. It takes a lot to get that snowball rolling. Eventually I did get that snowball going, and the experience of the game was a lot better from then on, but dang, it shouldn't have taken that much work to get there.

It's not all the game's fault, though. I got all the way through to the end of the game, and it congratulated me on beating it on hero mode. Hero mode. The mode where you deal less damage, and take more. It's no wonder I was having trouble with the difficulty of it. I had forgotten that I started it on hero mode.

So a lot of my experience can be traced back to me being dumb, but that doesn't change how the rental mechanic works. Especially if you don't play action games as much, it eats up a lot of your money and time in the first half of the game. If I could change one thing, I'd want to add a button to the game over screen when you die. One option is to respawn normally, with the vendor taking his things back. The other option would be to spend the equivalent amount of money to keep the rentals you have on you as you respawn.

Besides that major flaw in the gameplay loop, it's fine. It's a perfectly normal Zelda game. The story is maybe better than average, owing mostly to the lack of Ganon, and a nice play on the concept of a mirror world with mirror versions of all the characters. Still comes off as a little kitschy, but that's fine.

Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)

And now here it is. The latest one. The reason I did this challenge in the first place. The time had come. And I somehow decided to stop posting my thoughts online at this point, haha! So I'm going off of pure memory of when I played the game 9 months ago.

Mostly, it was more of the same as Breath of the Wild. Still a world-class open world RPG. This time with many improvements:

• Equipment does seem to last longer, a great quality of life update.
• The verticality of the updated world was extremely fun and made for great exploration. The sky bits were my favorite, while the underworld just got boring to explore after not very long. I was SO done and ready to leave well before I got that last map waypoint down there.
• The story is even better than the last one. There are "flashbacks" but because they involve Zelda's adventures as a time traveller, they feel less like flashbacks and more like "meanwhile, in the past" cutscenes. Also, the characters are all well written and developed, especially between the two games.
• The engineering side of the game sure was present. I feel like it didn't actually impact the game all that much, or it did so too much. Either you do the obvious thing the game is screaming at you to do, or you can pull these devices out in crazy ways and sequence break entire sections. But at the end of the day, more working options in a sandbox is a net positive.

Meanwhile, some issues are still there.

Hestu is still far too mobile and hard to find for a unique NPC that upgrades you.

The dungeon outlook is slightly better than in BotW, since dungeons do exist - The Fire Temple, Lightning Temple, etc. They're still only one per region, which is far fewer than I'd like to see in a game. They still need work on individuality though. Upgrading from "Push 5 buttons" to "Trigger 5 doodads" is really like going from a C- grade to a C. There's so many games full of good ideas to draw inspiration from! Melt the frozen boss blocking the door, save the monkeys from their possessed king, escort a thing from the deepest point of the dungeon to the entrance, make a literal maze, hunt Poes, raid a ghost ship with time-travel mechanics. You really can't get too weird here.

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And that's that.

I originally wanted to do a full-on ranking or tier list of them all, since we got this far. As I thought about it, I realized that the 2D games and the 3D ones are so fundamentally different that you can't effectively rank them together anyway. Between that and the fact that I'm very tired of thinking about the damn Legends of Zelda, I'm just going to cut to the chase and present 3 awards:

⭐️ Favorite 2-D Zelda Game: Spirit Tracks

Spirit Tracks wins because it successfully brought together fun and impactful characters, great dungeon/boss design, and a well-executed central dungeon concept. Bonus points for successfully integrating a gimmick and having it work out well too.

⭐️ Favorite 3-D Zelda Game: Twilight Princess

It was a toss up between this and Majora's Mask, my only two S-tier Zelda picks. Twilight Princess wins out because of more modern controls, a more straightforward story, and more impactful character arcs. And maybe just a touch of bias as well. At the end of the day, I'm more likely to want to replay Twilight Princess than Majora's Mask, so it just clinches the award.

⭐️ Least Zelda-Like Zelda Game: Breath of the Wild

Really, a mark of shame. To reiterate, this is not a bad game, and this is not a bad game award. This is only marking Breath of the Wild as the game that most departed from the formula.

And there you have it. I did enjoy doing the challenge, so much so that I set myself challenges for the future as well. The current plan is:

• 2024
  • The SoulsBorne games by FromSoftware
  • The Marathon Trilogy by Bungie
• 2025
  • The Metroid Series by Nintendo
  • The Resident Evil Series by Capcom

Being most of the way through 2024 already, I'm mostly done with the SoulsBorne games already - only Elden Ring remains. The Marathon Trilogy will be quick, I expect, being 3 shooters from the same era as Doom. Those are generally fast playthoughs. I plan on writing similar posts about these other challenges. Stay tuned!

Until then, I'm happy to simply be done with Zelda for a while- wait, another one? This year? All about Zelda?

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Footnotes