Just beat A Link to the Past for the first time. Some thoughts:

When people were saying that Ocarina of Time took a lot from ALTTP, they weren't kidding. Going back and forth between worlds, after going to a different world, having the game REALLY open up, the Master Sword, the Golden Realm/Land, etc.

Music is the best so far. Nothing really grinded my ears like in the first two Zelda games, which I SUPER APPRECIATE! Also, hearing Zelda's Lullaby is always a treat

First time having the Ganon psyche-out.It kinda didn't fit at all. But this is the era of having "second-forms" to bosses and what not. So it's bad but understandable for the time, I guess.

Unlike the first two Zelda games, I don't think I would mind going back to this one at all. I was missing two heart pieces and an item by game's end and I'm itching to go back and get them.

This is the start of the item switching issue that we see in OoT, Majora's Mask, and Wind Waker. It's not as harsh in this game, since it's so simple, but this is where I started to notice it. And I know it might be an issue in the first two Zelda games, but I was having OTHER issues with those games that kinda distracted me from this one.

Overall, I think I would place ALTTP and OoT at about equal (with a personal preference on OoT because I was exposed to that as a kid as opposed to playing ALTTP now as an adult). Both have similar short-coming in some sense and DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT in others just because of the 2D vs 3D nature of things. Happy I finally played one of the best Zelda games to date.

Sorry, gotta ramble a bit. Just beat The Legend of Zelda: The Adventure of Link for the first time. I like a lot of what it's trying to do with the high and low blocking/attacking. Also can see where they got some of the ideas for the 3D Zeldas. Temple music and intro music are awesome to listen to, but like the first game, the rest of the soundtrack isn't too remarkable. And it's hard. I like the idea of the level-up system, since I'm a sucker for RPG mechanics and I do like the magic system, tho some spells are way more useful than others. Also, I kinda screwed myself a bit when I used keys up and could go back to dungeons I beat. So that part super sucked. I think I would rate Zelda 2 at about the same place as Zelda 1. Both have interesting ideas and succeed at those ideas to different extents but also fail hard too. I'm happy I played it but don't know if I'll go back. On to Link to the Past.

So, Breath of the Wild has made me super curious about the Zelda franchise. I decided to go through and play all the main titles in the series. Finished Zelda 1 two weeks ago and moved on to Zelda 2. Impressions of Zelda 1: I defientely wouldn't have liked this as a child. It is interesting to see where BotW got so much of it's inspiration. Some of the music is pretty annoying tho and it is hard, but not TOO hard like I was led to believe. Mostly just hard to figure out where to go.

I'm currently liking Zelda 2 a bit more, but just because I think I like the combat more. I am getting hard stopped at the Maze temple and the temple over the ocean.

Minish Cap is DONE! TL;DR: This is the "Everyone is here!" of Zelda games and it's a real treat. People who played previous games would probably get a bit more out of it, but it has enough charm to hold up on it's own. Would recommend.Going to say this right off the bat, this is a solid ass Zelda game. It has some shortcomings (what doesn't) but it's still fun enough to keep you going and if you've played other Zelda games to this point in the franchise (Zelda 1 to Wind Waker) I feel like you'll get a lot more out of it. But this isn't absolutely necessary to enjoy the game, since it has enough charm to stand on it's own. Let's begin with ramble.

Story and characters aren't much to write home about, as usual, but there are some good implications for the rest of the franchise here. Introduction of Vaati begins here (timeline-wise) as well as Link's ICONIC CAP! And this is where, if you played other Zelda games, you'll get more out of this game since "EVERYONE IS HERE!" So many characters are here from all other Zelda games. Anju, Malon, Talon, the Oracles from Seasons and Ages, Snot-Nose from Wind Waker, gorons, etc. None of them really give you an impression of who they are on there own in the game, but seeing them all again is like a reunion and I welcome it. But, you don't really gain an attachment to anyone beside Ezlo (who is your talking magic cap companion in this game.) The game does introduce the Minish, a race of imps or elves or something that are very small and only children "pure of heart" can see. They live their lives hidden away and helping the people of Hyrule, since happiness seems to sustain them or give them magic. They also created a special sword called the Four Sword and helped Vaati gain his magic powers (unintentionally, but still a good way to show how powerful the Minish can be.) Minish are very cute and charming, but no one (with one exception) really stands out too much, like the rest of the characters here.

Gameplays very well. The sword feels very quick and responsive, tho it does feeling lacking in comparison to Wind Waker at this point. There are ways to make the combat more engaging by learning through sword masters (there are a few hidden through out Hyrule) but the way they gate keep the really great abilities till pretty late into the game. Also, the game suffers a bit from 2-D Zelda's item switching to just two buttons. The Game Boy Advance has four buttons you can use, but the left shoulder button is a hint system (talking to Ezlo and fusing kinstones. More on this later) and the right is dedicated to context sensitive acts (lifting, talking, grabbing, rolling). Neither one of these two can have an item assigned to them and, honestly, I didn't really need to talk to Ezlo that much. Not all the items are always useful in combat, which is disappointing after Wind Waker. Also, you sword can be upgraded after certain points in the game to allow Link to create clones of himself that parrot each input you use (minus items, since those are locked out while clones are used). After you upgrade you sword once, you first gain one clone. Eventually, you get up to 3 for a total of 4 Links on screen at once. And the game makes good use of this ability for puzzles and bosses. I especially like the boss use more, THO you do have to charge up a spin attack and move along a special tile to use the ability. And charge up time is looooooong. Too long. One of the sword masters can speed up the charge time and I would highly recommend finding at least this swordmaster. Another hangup I had was with the bow. You look in a direction and press the bow button and if you hold it, there's no way for Link to change direction and I've found myself wasting arrows a lot when an enemy juke me but simple moving upwards and to the left while I'm facing right with an arrow. You can recover by using another item, but it just never felt right to not be able to change direction.

Side quests are pretty disappointing on the whole. They introduce a collecting system with Kinstones. You can get them through chests, cutting grass randomly, purchasing (bread place gives them randomly IN THEIR BREAD. Hyrule needs a health department BADLY! Can also be bought way later one after you complete a "side quest" at a shop in town) or by defeating certain enemies. The Kinstones you recieve are only halfs of a whole. You have to go around to NPCs (mostly) and see if they have a bubble appear over their head. If you do, you press the L button and a menu pops up, showing you all the kinstones you've collected. You look at the kinstone the character has and notice it's oddly shaped. Find the half that you have that fits, select it and press a and USUALLY something appears in the overworld (a chest, an enemy, a new NPC, big beanstalk to the sky, or a new path). Some of them are kinda neat but too many net you rupees or seashells and feels lacking. There are over a hundred stones you need to fuse to gain something I imagine but it just wasn't rewarding enough to finish them all. ESPECIALLY if you got seashells, ANOTHER collectible used to gain figurines from the figurine man from Wind Waker. Also, there are certain NPCs that you can only help for a limited time. After a certain point, they're gone and you can't gain the items they would have given you. Which is really disappointing for a person that likes to collect everything in a Zelda game. Now I know, I guess. Another issue I had was not being able to see with NPCs you could fuse with at a glance. You had to walk up to each one and see if the bubble popped up. MMOs kind already solved this issue, but I will grant that with the GBA's small screen, it would be hard to solve this problem in the same way. Also, start fusing kinstones early and often.

Music is a lot of the tracks we've heard before, but on a GBA. And they sound good. the original tracks the Capcom came up with sound GREAT but for some reason, didn't sound like Nintendo in comparison. Perhaps it was just my imagination however. Was very surprised but pleased with them all.

The world is neat. I like the mechanic of shrinking down to Minish size and seeing things from a different perspective a la Honey I Shrunk The Kids. The addition of the minish gave the world a whimsy feel and the cues from Wind Waker's art helped a lot too. Tho the game doesn't really reward exploration too much until you started fusing all the Kinstones, since kinstones are where all the meaty rewards are.

Dungeons do a good job using the shrinking with the items you gain. It's just another evolution on the 2-D formula and it's just solid here. No real complaints. Capcom added another warp tile here, give you two points to warp to the beginning of the dungeon from, solving an issue I had with dungeons in Link's Awakening and the Oracle games. However, I didn't die until the last boss of the game, so I never really had a chance to run into that particular issue. My only real complaint was how the game tried to used the shrinking form for dungeon bosses (EXCEPT THE FIRST ONE! Fighting a regular sized Chu Jelly but as small as an insect was a good idea!) just broke up the action a little too much for my liking.

Overall, Minish Cap is a very solid Zelda game. And it's not made by Nintendo. Story and characters are lacking A LOT but that seems to be par for the course for 2-D Zeldas. The world itself, the art, music, and Minish gimmick are very endearing. Also, if you played the other Zelda games to this point, you would definitely get more of a kick out of the characters. Minish Cap doesn't really master anything, but it's good in so many areas that it's such an easy recommendation to many people. I can see and understand why people would say "this is my favorite Zelda game." Another surprise in my Zelda-thon run. Very happy to have finally played this game. I actually want Capcom to make another Zelda game (unless those people went to Nintendo or somewhere else. Just get this team back together to make another Zelda.) You can feel how much love this team had/has for Zelda as a whole. Well, onward to Barkerville. Twilight Princess is next for me.... yay -_-

Alright, Zelda update. Just beat Wind Waker (again). tl;dr This is one of the best Zelda games ever made. Hands down.

This is one of my favorite Zelda games. After beating it, that hasn't changed. I don't remember getting QUITE as attached to exploring the world like I did with previous Zelda games (I tried to find little easter eggs in Majora's Mask back in the day) but seeing the world covered in oceans is something I don't see very often in any video game. It's a unique setting with a striking artistic style that holds up so well. I am totally and utterly biased for Wind Waker.

The story isn't TOO complicated, but it's still interesting enough. Actually, scratch that. The CHARACTERS are the pretty big draw here. The addition of voice lines adds a new flavor to everyone and with the art style, everyone can express what they feel in the moment so much better. You feel motivated to save Link's sister because you see that Link wants to save her, at any cost. When she's kidnapped, you see Link fly into a state and completely forget there's a cliff as he rushes off to try to get her back from the bird. Talking to the man who runs the Battleship-style minigame and have him be EXTREMELY not happy with the state of his life but then put his all into it when the game's a-go, going "sploosh" and "kaboom". It makes you want to explore more and see what's around, when you can possibly see someone that will just make you smile. it also helps they added a handy item to help document some of your adventures, tho it's better in the HD Remaster for this (at least, until the Miiverse was shutdown....)

The music is so fantastic, I don't know what to say. Just go listen to the soundtrack on YouTube. Having an actual orchestra adds a whole level of depth to the familiar tracks. The original scores are so catch and really capture the island theme. There are so many moments where you just wanna stop and listen to the tracks. I remember never wanting to listen to other music when I was playing this game as a kid and this still really stands. Just, go listen to it. It's so good.

I feel like this is where my bias will show through (if it hasn't already) but the combat feels SO GOOD. Having more buttons for items is nice. having a second stick is AMAZING. It's not perfect, but coming out of N64 Zelda games, it feels sooo nice. And having the ability to zoom the camera out as wide as it can go is very nice too. Gives you a more tactical view (when you're able to go out that far). Adding the counter system was a very nice touch. Made the fights feel more dynamic at times, especially when your surrounded. I think the biggest issue I would have with gameplay/combat is that you can only have one item on the z-button/r-button. That means the two other item buttons you can use are on the face so when you want to move the stick and use the item at the same time, you can't if the item is on said face buttons. I usually kept my bow on R but there were plenty of times when I wanted to switch to my boomarang mid combat but needed to change my viewing angle.

Speaking of items, I felt like they were really well thought out in this game. All the items felt needed and could almost be used for every combat situation too. They introduced a few new items: the grapple claw, which Link throws onto a wooden beam above to use to swing across gaps or use his weight to activate a mechanism (can also be used to grab enemy specific items mid-combat) or ring a bell, and a deku leaf that allows Link to glide (as long as he has magic in his meter) or knock down enemies with a gust of wind (the wind can and is used to blow gears and move platforms on rope systems.) We also have the Zelda Staples of Bombs, bow and arrows (normal, fire,ice,and light), hookshot, metal boots, mirror shield, boomarang (which is probably the best boomarang in the series so far), and a hammer (it's a skull!). The usable items aren't bloated out like in OoT or Majora's Mask, so they all are unique in what they do and can all be viable in the right circumstances. It's JUST right.

The world is big and vast. There is a lot of space between islands, so it can feel a bit empty at times. But hearing the roaring ocean, encountering sharks, seeing the distance shadows of islands in the distance just make you want to explore a bit. Also, littered through the overworld are sunken treasure. Hearts, money, charts lay in the chests (plus some story important items...) It really fits with the ocean theme. Also, I don't know much about the technical side of video games, but using the ocean in the way they did to hide loading screens is just brilliant. it's not perfect tho. You will still see a low resolution version of an island suddenly turn into the actual model of the island as you get closer. Also, seeing the ocean waves change from calm to rocky to stormy to night is really neat. Seagulls will also start following your boat when you get good speed going. It's nice. HD version gives you the change to buy a special type of sail that makes the wind follow you no matter what direction you're in (normally, you would have to use a song to change wind direction) and doubles you speed, so the sailing isn't AS painful. But with a warping song, sailing wasn't that bad to deal with in the first place.

Side quests are mostly just collectathons. It's not great, but it's not unbearable. It's fine, I would say. A lot of the items you need to collect, you need to get from enemies, which makes the grapple claw SO IMPORTANT, since killing enemies usually randomizes what they drop. Grapple claw guarantees you get the enemy specific item, making farming more efficient. There is also a trading sidequest and you don't really get much out as an end result. I felt like Nintendo was getting a bit tired of trading quests themselves, so they gave the player the best item in the game early onto the quest so they didn't have to go through all the steps. Which is weird. There is also a figurine side quest which is pretty involved. You get a camera in the game to take pictures. Pictures of characters and enemies can be brought into a person at Forest Haven to be made into figurines that are kept in a gallery that a player can walk up to and view. It's nice, but you don't get anything out of it of gameplay relevance so I can see people being turned off about it. Ultimately, unlike in other Zelda games, you're not really filled with a sense that you're helping people. It's more like they're just doing the thing they didn't want to do themselves cause just one thing is stopping them. Majora's Mask still best sidequests I suppose.

I love this game. Adore it to pieces. When I was approaching the end of this playthrough, I stopped playing for almost a week. I didn't want to get to the end. Every Zelda game fills me with a sense of longing when I get to the end of them. This is the game that hits the hardest with that sensation. There are parts of the game that are not for everyone. Coming back to it as a man of 31, I can see that now. But, there is so much more in this game worth playing for, especially if you're a Zelda fan. I'd say give it a shot (if you can, of course). This one is worth it. Hell, the soundtrack alone will stay with you for daaaaays.