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    The Legend of Zelda

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    Nintendo's flagship fantasy action-adventure series created by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka in 1985, the Zelda series is the source of many revolutionary gameplay conventions, and continues to be one of the most popular and critically acclaimed video game franchises of all time.

    What is the worst Zelda game? (Poll)

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    dancinginfernal

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    #151  Edited By dancinginfernal

    Majora's Mask is getting alot of hate in this poll. That's another game that unfortunately fell into the Zelda 2 situation of having to live up to it's predecessor. Both situations ultimately resulted in the developers trying to do something radically different. Majora's Mask however, kicks OoT right off it's high horse, and does something that no Zelda game has managed to do in the 14 years since it's release.

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    ArbitraryWater

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    @hailinel: thats because very few people even know of them there were so bad. Unless people have played Zelda's Adventure or the other two they don't KNOW bad zelda games

    I'm pretty sure if you inhabit these corners of the internet, you at least know of the CDi Zelda games, so the obscurity argument doesn't work and anyone with eyes can see the general amount of terrible emanating from them. Also you are responding to posts that are 8 months old.

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    JoeyRavn

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    Phantom Hourglass was an abomination, especially that stupid temple you had to go through every time you got a thingy. It's the only Zelda I couldn't finish once I started it... and that's why I haven't even bothered checking out Spirit Tracks.

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    pr1mus

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    All of them except A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening.

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    crusader8463

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    #155  Edited By crusader8463

    Only ones I ever enjoyed were the Gameboy Colour one, Links Awakening DX, and Twilight Princess. I never liked the NES/SNES stuff, hated all the N64 ones, and have not played anything past Twilight. Infact the only reason I got Twilight was because for some stupid reason, tax return, I bought a Wii at launch and that was the only thing at launch that didn't look like complete garbage.

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    coffeeminstrel

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    For me, it has to be Skyward Sword. That game only lead me to hours of frustration and unhappiness. That being said, the cutscenes were gorgeous and for the first time In the franchise the characters came to life like we've never seen them before.

    @vexxan said:

    I love Zelda games but I cannot for the life of me make it through Zelda II because I'm simply do not enjoy playing it.

    Also Adventure of Link.

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    gokaired

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    Majora's Mask is getting alot of hate in this poll. That's another game that unfortunately fell into the Zelda 2 situation of having to live up to it's predecessor. Both situations ultimately resulted in the developers trying to do something radically different. Majora's Mask however, kicks OoT right off it's high horse, and does something that no Zelda game has managed to do in the 14 years since it's release.

    Yeah!! Haterz >:(

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    MideonNViscera

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    #158  Edited By MideonNViscera

    The first one sucked some pretty serious balls.

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    Lysergica33

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    Twilight Princess. Everything about that game was just... eurhghhhh..... Perfectly functional gameplay, and I actually quite enjoyed the dungeons but the vibe of the world and art design left me feeling very cold. Was like it was trying to ride the coat-tails of the glory of OoT and Majora's Mask or something. I haven't played Skyward Sword so I can't comment on that one.

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    Ezekiel

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    #160  Edited By Ezekiel

    Of the four 3D games I played, I like Twilight Princess the least. It was pretty formulaic and easy. But Wind Waker isn't far behind. The sea and naval combat were tedious at times, Link's attacks demanded almost no precision, the enemies didn't deal enough damage and Ganon's Tower seemed too familiar. I haven't played Skyward Sword.

    I don't know about the top-down games. I played the ALttP, Link's Awakening, Oracle of Seasons and The Minish Cap, but only finished Minish. The other three weren't direct enough for me. After finishing a few dungeons, I wandered the overworlds until I got bored and forgot about them. I guess the perspective doesn't incite as much patience and curiosity in me.

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    DonutFever

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    TWILIGHT PRINCESS

    NO

    FUCKING

    CONTEST

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    Hailinel

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    TWILIGHT PRINCESS

    NO

    FUCKING

    CONTEST

    You're going to have to do better than that. Especially as long as the CDi Zelda games remain a part of reality. Twilight Princess is far from being the worst Zelda game. Comments from most people I've read that claim to hate it don't even cite why they hate it.

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    deactivated-5d7530f19fbe4

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    I haven't beaten Zelda II, though from what little I've played, I would probably consider it the worst. But, since I haven't, I would say Skyward Sword. I still thought it was good, and it was nice that they mixed up some of the puzzles and general game play a bit, but I also felt that the world and characters as a whole were less compelling than in the other games. And the game's incessant need to remind me what each and every item I've picked up several times just because I reloaded the game was annoying.

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    toowalrus

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    #164  Edited By toowalrus

    @hailinel: It's because they herded some goats, said "this is boring" and quit. I was extremely displeased with the game... until the shield-faced digital twilight monsters descended from the sky, the game does get interesting, it just takes awhile. It's not my favorite Zelda game, but it's certainly not even close to the bottom of the list.

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    Daneian

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    #165  Edited By Daneian

    @hailinel said:

    @donutfever said:

    TWILIGHT PRINCESS

    NO

    FUCKING

    CONTEST

    You're going to have to do better than that. Especially as long as the CDi Zelda games remain a part of reality. Twilight Princess is far from being the worst Zelda game. Comments from most people I've read that claim to hate it don't even cite why they hate it.

    I'm playing through it again and there's a lot that I don't care for. On the larger scale, the pacing at the beginning is an issue. It just takes too long to get to your first dungeon. I understand why its done that way though. They wanted to have the wolf form from the beginning so needed to spend a decent amount of time establishing the world before they flipped it on its head, but none of that opening content is very interesting including the goat herding. Because you start in the twilight realm, the game needs a mechanism for you to return it to normal, but their answer- which involves hunting down a dozen insects- is slow and plodding and feels like busy work. And you do it three times.

    I realize functionality was shoehorned onto the controller but the games combat is significantly diminished because of the wii remote, wich lacks fidelity and response. The horse combat certainly doesn't make it any more fun, since the scenarios where you're chasing after moblins riding boars or defending the carriage involves rubbing up on your enemies to get your attack of. And the wolf's is worse. The regular attacks lack a satisfying punch and the jump attack cover too much ground. Its not even as tight as regular Links combat. I'm not sure where the issue here is, but the combat just doesn't cohere.

    I also know story isn't really the meat and potatoes of Zelda, but many of the story beats lack clarity and context. When did Zant invade Hyrule and when is that compared to the opening? Why did Link get randomly thrown into the dungeon of Zelda's castle after he turned into the wolf for the first time? And the second act is just as weak and doesn't do a good job of explaining why you're collecting the mirror fragments. You just kinda start doing it.

    The first few dungeons are incredibly straight forward, to the point where you are just running through them without any real obstacles, be they enemies or puzzles. They only exist for the sake of the weapons, many of which have little use outside of the dungeons that they either appear or in the sequences directly leading into them. Does the game really need the slingshot or the Dominion Rod or the Spinner? Because they have no real use, Hyrule Field just becomes the dumping ground for their gameplay, making those spaces unnecessarily large and lifeless and forces a behavior of running around to see which caves you can check off your list so you have something- anything- to do. It makes exploration a chore rather than a joy.

    And you don't even really get anything substantial from it. Really only heart pieces or rupees. You're collecting so many heart pieces that they stop being special and since Nintendo increased the number required to make a heart container from four to five, the entire thing just comes off as a shallow collectathon. Same for the rupees, since you regularly get more than you can hold in your wallet and when you collect one from a treasure chest that exceeds that limit, the game wont even let you take them so that chest just sits there. And since there's very little to actually buy since the game goes out of its way to give you exactly what you need next exactly when you need it, it just becomes frustrating. You'll only really be buying bombs and arrows when you need more and one of three potions or lantern oil, many of which you can get any number of other ways. But the merchants only sell these same items. The only real thing to do with your money is donate it to Malo Mart (all 3100 rupees of it) so you can ultimately get the last armor and have it suck away the rest when you wear it. Kinda makes me feel like I'm doing it for the sake of having something to do.

    Twilight Princess' fundamental problem is that it tries to distill the idea of adventure down to 'finding secrets' rather than 'earning rewards' so puts those secrets everywhere. When you put them everywhere, they can't be worth much so you end up with a 40 hour checklist.

    Edit: Sorry this is so long but I've been doing a lot of thinking about Zelda. It bums me out that this isn't even everything that i think is wrong with the game.

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