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What are the best Zelda-likes that still hold up?

With the recent sale of old Square games on PSN, I got to thinking about classic JRPGs and SRPGs and Zelda-likes and Metroidvanias and wondering if any of them hold up.

That's all I used to play and I want to share a lot of these games I have memories of with my daughter, but are any of them still worth it?

Well, it's time to find out as I play though a shitton of them over the next couple of years.

I will be going mostly in chronological order, with some exceptions. If a game had a great re-release that modernized it, I'll probably check that out. I'll be hitting up stuff that I played, mostly, with some that I didn't thrown in. I never played any NES Zeldas, really; for me, the genre starts at the SNES. I will be giving some other game a shot, to see if they click with me.

I don't feel "action-adventure" game does justice to what I'm looking for. I'm talking about Link to the Past style games. Overworld. Dungeons. Items that gate progress. Not turn based combat.

This list isn't every Zelda-like, obviously. But it's pretty damn close to a definitive, QUALITY version of that list.

List items

1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Obviously, this is the best. I would've started with this, but I actually beat it like a year ago. It's still the best.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Great memories of going through this a couple of times during family vacations, the Gameboy version, too! I'm old!

Clearly designed for handhelds, it's a much smaller experience after Link to the Past. I'm ripping though it pretty quick, thanks to a guide. The constant item swapping is annoying. Beat it 8/30. God, I forgot how little I liked the last two dungeons. It's an interesting Zelda and the story is surprisingly dark, but it's not one of the best ones. Tons of backtracking and though the island is small, it adds up. Plus having to find the key for most of the dungeons plus the entrance is lame. The items, some of the choices are odd. The side-scrolling stuff is neat but it just seems like a thing.

3. Ys I & II Chronicles

This is the first maybe.

And I just stopped during the final dungeon. I have no love for this series, this is the first I've played and it's old-school in an annoying way. As a historical piece, it's interesting, but from a pure gameplay, fun and timelessness angle, it's just not there.

I don't have any nostlagia for this series, so getting about 3/4s through the first is about as far as I go.

It's alright, but it's just not doing anything for me. It doesn't click like Zelda did. It's interesting, but there's a lot of old videogame bullshit going on here.

4. Soul Blazer

This would've been the second game, but I also beat it a year or two ago!

I really dig this "series" and it's still cool, if clunky. I love the bringing the world back to life thing; pretty much explains why I love Dark Cloud 2 so much. It's not timeless like Link to the Past but it's cool and weird. If Illusion of Gaia did the "bring a village back to life" thing like this, it would probably be one of my favorite games.