I also second the inclusion of caves.

And yeah, Wind Waker was amazing. I replayed it just before BotW came out. Enjoyed it much more this time around than when it came out back in the day.

 

Forgive me if I posted this before - it's funny how everyone loves WW now. When it came out there were very high levels of butthurt from "real gamers" due to the cartoon style graphics.

 

I'm actually torn between the two. While WW had a slightly more interesting caves that lead into dungeons Breath of the Wild had a better time exploring vast areas before the mini dungeons. We all of course want both.

This was much easier back in the 80's when everything was new but to her everything is new.

Btw she hates the birds much like her mother is scared of it. The sound it makes is apparently annoyingly scary.

Another thing I noticed is she sometimes pauses and gasps at the auto jumps. particularly interesting since she finished BOTW before is trying to finish WW.

Lastly, there's always the magic of the first Zelda you played. Most likely your first is right up there.

When WW came out, it felt like playing an adventure cartoon show. Amazeballs.

 

I loved WW when it came out. Just something about the animation of the cell shaded graphics really added to the enjoyment. I'm in the minority though, in that my favorite is Twilight Princess, and I did very much enjoy Skyward Sword.

Of the games released on home consoles I'd have to say:

Twilight Princess
Wind Waker
Majora's Mask
Skyward Sword
Ocarina of Time
Breath of the Wild

 

LTTP
WW
BOTW
OOT
ALBW

 

At the risk of sounding contrarian, I don't really want both. I've never cared about "vast areas" in games. They always just seem like a way of padding out the run time without actually adding anything of substance. Really, I just don't put much stock in the idea of an overworld, as one typically understands it.

Certainly I like doing certain things in the overworld, but I prefer the overworld be compact, dense, and consistently interesting in design. Or, failing that, at least clear about where interesting things are likely to be (e.g. the islands in WW). One of my biggest gripes about BotW is that it's massive, but there's too little that I actually care to do (pretty much just the shrines and Divine Beasts/Hyrule Castle) and from the beginning it's not clear where much of anything is going to be.

As to the mini dungeons, too many of them (or anything) breeds tedium. Give me more full on dungeons and less disconnected, bite-sized chunks.

And since we're listing top (whatever number) games:
Majora's Mask
Wind Waker
Skyward Sword
Twilight Princess
Ocarina of Time
Breath of the Wild

 

My wife tells me the same exact thing. She watched me play and laugh at how much fun I got from just running around. That pretty much sums up my game time.

Since my botw saves met their demise at the hands of my nephew, I dread having to find all 120 shrines again.

 

I'm in that same minority; Twilight Princess was awesome and it was exactly what I was looking for for a matured Ocarina of Time. A little linear at times and not super challenging but I still loved it and especially the aesthetic. It's easily in my top 5.

 

I agree. Twilight princess is to me the best of the terrestrial based traditional Zelda games. I'd put BOTW in its own category because it breaks so many of the rules of the series.

 

Yeah, I remember the WW hate lol. Many were still at the time caught up in the mindset that graphics should be ever more "realistic," rather than stylized. I liked the game a lot when it released, personally.

It aged very well though, and I can honestly say I enjoyed it even more the second time around. I was able to appreciate it more.

 

I still want the HD version.

I want to try and see how my daughter reacts to Skyward Sword.  

I remember liking it in the beginning until it became very repetitive. Haven't finished it yet. Same with Twilight. One Zelda I can't stand is Majora.

People can also change their minds about games. It doesn't matter if they did or not back then. it's like changing their minds about liking some dish. I don't know if that will happen with Majora. So boring. If it's food one thing my palette can not take is liver. Maybe I just haven't found one that serves it right.

 

I have WW, TP and OOT all tied as favorites because each time I replay one I think "oh this is my favorite one!" The HD versions of TP and WW are very much worth owning.

Skyward Sword is just below those, I love it and have played it three times but the map being broken up so much hurts it overall.

Like Mark I kind of put BotW in its own category. Also it hasn't been out long enough for me to fairly rank it.

Majoras Mask never did it for me. It's the only Zelda game I just can't get into, and I've tried many times because I WANT to like it.

 

I hope they do HD WW and TP for Switch. That would be nice. I can still play them on my Wii but I'm curious about how they look in HD.

I'm also kinda mixed on MM. I like that they tried something different. Overall I dig it but my experience is tainted due to issues with the game locking up a lot. I think I mentioned this some time ago. I remember it locking up even on N64, and it was worse on GameCube/Wii when playing via the bonus disc that came with WW. It was a real problem to me, especially considering the extremely restrictive save system on the original and bonus disc version.

There are some parts of Skyward Sword I really liked. Particularly the death mountain part where you lost all your stuff. I loved that. But yes having the map broken up sucked. They should have connected the worlds somehow.

 

Wait?

You can't one hit enemies with the sneak strike anymore? I remember doing this with low level 3-6 weapons. Or maybe I'm not remembering it correctly. It's been months since I played.

 

You mean on hard?

Sneak strike does 8x normal damage. It still works but because all the enemies have been leveled up it doesn't one hit kill all that much. Especially if it's not with a high damage weapon.

 

Favorite Zelda games
A Link Between Worlds
Breath of the Wild
Oracle of Seasons
Ocarina of Time
Majoras Mask

As for what I would like to see in the future. I agree that they should keep Breath of the Wild structure but add more exploration with under water areas
and caves.

I would also try and do a more traditional set up for dungeons where you receive a permanent item in the dungeon to use but nothing to break the free flow of the game. If it was my choice you would have received a slate upgrade in the divine beasts.

 

Normal mode.  

I wish I had the DLC.

 

Didn´t WW come with OoT?

 

It had OOT, MM, and the two NES games. And there was a WW demo.

I forget how it was distributed exactly. The demo would suggest it wasn't given out with preorders, but rather to try to entice people to preorder WW.

It used to sell for a decent price. I haven't checked lately - maybe i should.

 

Now that I've had a chance to play for a bit, I'm enjoying it a LOT, but I still have some criticisms. Here's the short version though:
I like that there are multiple ways to approach most problems and get to most locations. I like that so many of the quests are optional or can be taken in various orders. What I don't like is that getting all the cool tools at the beginning means the rest of the game is basically grinding, farming, crafting, and fetch quests. There are no big new shiny toys for me to look forward to now--just lots of little ones, and upgrades to the ones I've got. I'd like to see the next game balance the flexibility of BotW with the previous style of earning heart containers and powerful tools and weapons in more conventional dungeons. Having a huge map to explore is fun, but it would be a lot more fun with the promise of huge rewards rather than incremental ones.

There were two OoT releases on the GC in North America that I know of. One (the one with the WW demo, Majora's Mask, and the NES games, but no Master Quest) was available as part of a system bundle or as a mail-away reward. The other was just OoT and the Master Quest, and was a preorder bonus for WW.