If I want to get into the Legend of Zelda franchise, should I start at the beginning and play them all, or should I just play the ones that are considered the best?
If I want to get into the Legend of Zelda franchise, should I start at the beginning and play them all...
Ryder Carter
Thomas Gutierrez
How much do you know about Zelda, and what's your tolerance for old school NES games?
Kevin Davis
Start based on your 2D vs 3D preference.
2D: A Link to the Past
3D: Ocarina of Time
Ryder Clark
I've played around in a few of the games as a kid because I had pic related on Gamecube, but never finished any of them. I was recently gifted Breath of the Wild, and I'm wondering if I should go back and play them all, or just go into BotW?
I don't mind 2D, so if I don't end up playing them all Link to the Past seems like a good start
Gabriel Parker
I'm personally of the opinion that you'll get more out of some of the references and such in Breath of the Wild if you've played some other titles first, but we're also in an era where a lot of Zelda fans' first game was BOTW and it doesn't seem to have too much of a negative impact on their enjoyment of the series.
You're probably somewhat aware of this already, but BOTW plays notably different from the other 3d titles.
The big three other than BOTW in terms of contemporary popularity are probably Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Wind Waker, which I've also heard referred to as "The Ganondorf Trilogy" since he's in all of them. I think at least playing those before BOTW might help your enjoyment, but it's not essential.
Ayden Reed
Most of the gamea are self-contained, so you can start wherever.
The only exceptions are Zelda II, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Four Swords Adventures and Phantom Hourglass. And even then their stories are mostly unrelated to the previous installments.
Jackson Young
I think I'll try to play the original, A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Wind Waker then before BotW
Wind Waker is a sequel?
William Rogers
>Wind Waker is a sequel?
To Ocarina, yes. But like I said, it's mostly its own thing with just some callbacks.
Brody Ross
All of the Zeldas except BotW are pretty formulaic, which is exactly why they felt the need to change everything up after Skyward Sword got a lukewarm reception. I would still recommend playing through OoT though and then you can go onto BotW.
Anthony Cook
Wind Waker, along with Twilight Princess, make reference to Ocarina of Time. They feature different Links generations after OOT.
It's just some lore stuff, not essential to playing each game.
Eli Long
Meant to ask this when I originally replied, but how janky is the original? Is it still fun today if I haven't really played many NES games?
Gotcha
Guess there's no point in playing through the whole series then
Samuel Baker
If you play the series in chronological order you'll get tired of it well before you get to the end. Before BotW they all had the same core gameplay loop of go into dungeons -> do puzzles -> get new item -> use new item to solve puzzles. People argue whether Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, or maybe TP were better than OoT, but they're all almost reskins of the same thing with a few different twists.
Just play OoT since it's historically important and playing BotW beforehand might 'spoil' you. Then you can do whatever you want.
Levi Nguyen
>Before BotW they all had the same core gameplay loop
Nah just play the NES LOZ, its botw but better and not shit.
Michael Johnson
earlier posts probably have more detail but absolutely not, do not play the first or second first
in my opinion A Link to the Past is the absolute best starting point. it basically laid a lot of the modern groundwork for all future games, and is also still really fucking good to play, and looks really nice.
I would say A Link to the Past and then Ocarina of Time. That will set you up to then play whatever you want after, be it older games, or newer.
Jonathan Perez
>how janky is the original
I feel like that's hard to describe, especially if you haven't played many games of that era. The controls are kind of rudimentary to today's games, obviously, but it's good for an NES game.
Do you still own that Zelda collection?
Also, just out of curiosity and not because it would make a huge difference, but how would you rank how important gameplay, story, and characters are to you?
Nolan Allen
>Telling someone in 2022 new to the series to play NES legend of zelda
bro, cmon, you trying to scare him off on purpose?
Ryan Sanchez
user I'm going to say, I honestly mean this, don't play the original first. I think you should play A Link to the Past first, then Ocarina of Time, THEN decide if you want to play the original. I care about you and want you to have a good time with your journey (I did something VERY similar about 10 years back, however I had already played a few Zelda games when I was a kid, but I still went through them all).
A Link to the Past ----> Ocarina of Time ----> Whatever your heart desires. The boomiest of boomers might say to play the first one first but I just disagree, you're more likely to drop it I'd say, and this isn't anything against you personally.
Jordan Thompson
Don't listen to the people telling you to play LTTP first. Play II first, then go onto Ocarina. You'll be much more impressed.
Bentley Miller
>Play II first, then go onto Ocarina. You'll be much more impressed.
kek well you're not wrong about that
Joseph Foster
>Do you still own that Zelda collection?
Yes
>Also, just out of curiosity and not because it would make a huge difference, but how would you rank how important gameplay, story, and characters are to you?
Gameplay is the most important to me. I don't have too much time to play games nowadays, so I tend to forget the stories of games as I play them over such long periods of time
I will take your advice
Robert Myers
Twilight Princess has the hunkiest Link.
BOTW changed Link from twunk to twink, making it the most disappointing.