MM is hands down the best Zelda game - just because the atmosphere is so dense and sad and crushing. So, while it isn't as "epic" as OoT, I'd say it's definitely more immersive, and the feel of it is Kafkaesque in it's Groundhog Day style of story-telling. I'd prefer the non-linear weirdness of MM to OoT's classic tale anyday. That being said OoT is still fantastic.

You could probably skip Zelda 2 without missing too much, they introduced side-scrolling elements that were kinda meh. I'm just replaying Link to The Past at the moment and daaaamn, that game has held up so well. I think this might be my 5th or 6th time playing and it's awesome every time.

This - a thousand times this. My thoughts on the game exactly. MM just brings you on an entirely different level than any other Zelda game, although OoT is definitely my second favorite. I'm actually doing a playthrough of Twilight Princess currently, got bored with it around the Ice Temple place when it first came out. It's good, though certainly not even close to the N64 titles. I'm not sure what my 3rd favorite title is, maybe The Minish Cap, loved the hell out of that one.

Zelda 2 doesn't look that bad, IMO.

I recommend Link's Awakening on top of all this. It's really well done for being one of the earlier Gameboy titles (IIRC).

I liked Zelda 2, though it isn't very Zelda-ish compared to many of the rest of the games.

Surprised to see no mentions for Link to the Past, my personal favorite. Ocarina of Time was more or less just a 3D version of it. I played one of the full game hacks, Parallel Worlds, and it was pretty decent.

I mentioned it a few posts up. Definitely my favorite but I'm kind of biased towards the 8-16 bit era. It's what I grew up on and aside from the huge nostalgia LttP is such a tightly crafted and well designed game.

In my current play through I just got the master sword. I first played it over 20 years ago so it's almost like catching up with an old friend. I don't remember things exactly but as soon as I come across an area it's like 'oh hey, isn't there something secret there?'. So awesome.

LttP is the only Zelda I really like.

Come at me bros.

*Comes forth but trips on trenchcoat in the process and lands face-first into the dirt, ruining the fedora*

Short version: I've beaten OoT and once I got past the childhood part, it engaged me enough to burn through the rest of the game in a few days. I've since tried replaying it and gotten bored and quit by Jabu Jabu's Belly three times in a row. I don't know if the game just has a slow start and I never had the momentum to get to the interesting part again or what, but I feel like the best game ever should make me want to beat it more than once. I've always wanted to play MM but never had an opportunity.

Only other Zelda I've ever gotten past the first dungeon in was Link's Awakening. I was on the seventh dungeon when I was like 8 years old before I got Pokemon Blue and then didn't touch the Zelda cartridge again until I was like 20. I dunno, I guess I'm just not a fan of the Zelda formula *shrugs*

Having played and watched a variety of Zelda titles over the years, A Link to the Past is the only one that's ever inspired me to actually revisit it, the only one that ever felt really quintessential. The others always were/seemed cool in their own ways but ultimately didn't really do much for me. I never had any exposure to Majora's Mask, though I was always curious about it and it sounded more interesting than OoT, concept-wise.

So just beat both episodes of the BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea DLC. The first one was fun, pretty much the gameplay of BioShock Infinite set in Rapture. It wasn't mind blowing or anything and didn't add anything all that new, but a fun and worthwhile addition nonetheless. Episode 2, however, was amazing. Instead of Booker, you get to play as Elizabeth. The gameplay is now all about stealth. They also briefly incorporate Columbia into the game, which is definitely a plus. The plot, as per usual, is a total mindfuck. It is cool how they ended it, however, as it explains how the plot of BioShock Infinite is related to the first Bioshock. Definitely one of the best DLCs I have ever played.

Nicely said. The game was pretty damn creepy back when I was a kid and drenching in awesome atmosphere. I still favor Link to the Past the most, but OoT is very nostalgic for me.

Now this might sound extreme, but I see Majora's Mask as the beginning of the series really changing. Look at all the games up to OoT, and they were simply about the dungeon crawling, littered with dungeons, exploration, and being on your own adventuring around most of the time. They were too the point. MM only had four main dungeons and instead, the game was packed in with fetch quests, missions, and a bunch of other stuff. Arguably more interactive, but for me the simplicity behind OoT is why it's still my favorite 3D Zelda to this day. Twilight Princess' second half got awesome and that one had a lot of dungeons, same with Skyward Sword. But they still had a lot of NPC quests and weird mini game like moments spread throughout. Maybe it's just me?

Some might hate me for this, but Wind Waker is easily one of my least favorites. I can firmly say this having replayed it with the Wii U HD release. It turned into quite a chore to get through after awhile. I wouldn't even call those islands, the game is made up of tiny rocks and 90% ocean. Some of the controls were actually really frustrating too (rope swinging). The music... where was it? lol. The story and characters were great, it had some cool new items, and I won't knock on the art style... but yeah. I guess I can see the aesthetics winning some people over with it, but it's near the bottom for me. If Hyrule emerged and covered the oceans throughout the game, that could have been cool.

Phantom Hourglass is the only Zelda I've played that I couldn't even finish (well actually I've never managed to beat Zelda II, though I'm a big fan. I just always get stuck somewhere). I didn't like it at all, so I didn't even bother with Spirit Tracks despite hearing it was an improvement, it just looked too similar to me. I wasn't too big on Minish Cap either. On the other hand, maybe I'm an odd fan about it, but I've consistently loved the 3D games. Twilight Princess has a rough start but was damn good in the second half to me, and those who skipped out on Skyward Sword because of the Wii mote bull shizzle complaints, have no idea what they're missing out on (I loved the more down to Earth Zelda in this one, and THE MUSIC). I also thought the art direction was pretty much perfect, kind of fits in with the standard Nintendo look nowadays, it was really colorful and charming.

Link's Awakening is absolutely amazing and impressive for a GB title. It's damn easy whenever I revisit it, but yeah. Great game. The Capcom Oracle games are really awesome too. A bit overly complex sometimes (the overworld in Ages, damn those mountains were insane to navigate back and forth/etc), but all around great stuff.

Love the first game, but it's arguably more of an action game really, with some cryptic as hell game design at times haha. It's funny how brutal it gets later too, if you don't have the better swords and stuff... those rooms filled with enemies that destroy your health instantly, gets pretty frantic.

I guess my list would be something like:
Link to the Past
Ocarina of Time
Link's Awakening
Skyward Sword
Twilight Princess
Majora's Mask
Oracle of Seasons
Oracle of Ages
Legend of Zelda
Zelda II
Minish Cap
Wind Waker
Phantom Hourglass

LttP, OoT, LA and Zelda 1-2 are about the only ones I've replayed more than twice. So my memories could be jaded, who knows. I've been kind of wanting to revisit Twilight Princess soon. Skyward Sword I know I'll have to check out again, though I wonder if I can somehow start in Hero Mode (on my Wii U, without transferring my Wii saves). And I definitely need to replay Majora's Mask. I think I'll probably check out Minish Cap again since it's on the Wii U VC.

Now one thing I do remember loving about Majora's Mask however, is that it was pretty damn challenging. So I'd say it's the hardest of the 3D ones for sure. I always compare OoT/MM to Metroid Prime 1 and 2... a bit more of the same, but they really beefed up the difficulty and I loved that.


I still find that Dark Souls is most comparable and influenced by Zelda and its design in a lot of ways.

Sure. There's lot of great games out there inspired by Zelda. They're generally better than Zelda, too.

Alundra is the best pure-Zelda game ever.

Wind Waker is one of my favorites personally, and to a large extent that's just going to come down to personal taste - I find the sailing/exploring really fun, but for those who don't, obviously that's going to detract from the overall experience because it's such a big part of the game. So, I'm not gonna argue that point with you. What I WILL argue with you about is the music! Wind Waker's music is fucking awesome, and for me at least it's easily as memorable for me as OoT's.

The epic, amazing ocean theme was one of the reasons I enjoyed the sailing/exploration so much:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q09rgchmUuQ

The various upbeat themes for each island really captured the idyllic nature of village life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Y_GAV_T10

And, weirdly, they really did a good job with the shop themes. The potion shop theme in particular really sticks with me. Dig that sitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdgSes-dytQ

So, yeah, I guess you just weren't listening very closely.

Anyone checked out Quest for Infamy yet? Been hearing mixed reviews but I will probably check it out anyway. Pretty clear Quest for Glory and Sierra circa 1994 influences in the screenshots I've seen and it's apparently pissing off certain reviewers with its "misogyny" - which means its probably fucking awesome, if not QfGIV awesome (which is pretty much impossible anyway).

Ooooooo, looks interesting. I loved Sierra, KQ/SQ/PQ.

Guess you forgot there's no music whatsoever HALF the time you're sailing around, when it's night. Or cue the random battle music with the frequent encounters. BORING

The dungeon themes weren't even there or melodic and those are what I usually look forward to most.

BORING!!!

I can't say much about Twilight Princess' score either. OoT/MM are miles better, and it's not even fair to compare them to Skyward Sword. Overall I'd give it to Link to the Past and Link's Awakening for having the best music in the series. LA had different themes every dungeon which was awesome. Link to the Past had the Dark World, and LA has Tal Tal Heights.

Tal Tal Heights Megaman X style!

WW's score was okay, it had its moments but I definitely wouldn't say it compares to those of games like LttP, LA, OoT, MM, or even TP, whose score I like quite a bit. Just failsafeman fellating over WW again, nothing new. LttP and LA have the ending themes, both of which rule a ton. OoT and MM have a ton (esp. Gerudo Valley and Stone Tower Temple, respectively); hell, even the Oracle games have the Sadness theme, which is fucking great. I guess if I had to rank the games (haven't played any DS ones or Skyward Sword) it would go thusly:

Majora's Mask
Ocarina of Time
The Minish Cap
A Link to the Past
Oracle of Ages
Link's Awakening
Oracle of Seasons
Twilight Princess
Wind Waker
Adventure of Link
Legend of Zelda
Four Swords Adventures (piece of shit)
Four Swords (piece of shit that required 2 GBAs with 2 copies of the game connected by that cord nobody ever got, and was only like 2 hours long)

Adventure of Link is really fun when I'm in the mood, but yeah it's hard as hell. I got to the final dungeon in like 2008 or something, but just lost interest, been slowly making my way through it again recently. Haven't beaten the original game either yet, trying to find the dungeons is just frustrating.

Despite my preference overall for OoT, I will say that the Ikana Valley area of MM has to be my favorite area of any Zelda game period. So unsettling and bizarre, even by that particular game's already lofty standards, with amazing dungeons and music.

Forest Temple music from OoT is also one of my favorites in terms of sheer weirdness. Really drives home the point that you're dealing with cosmic and natural forces beyond your understanding.

Well some of the dungeon themes were more ambient I guess but there were still plenty of melodic ones. Yeah, you just weren't paying attention.

Haha I don't even count those Four Swords games.

You'll have to check out Skyward Sword sometime Jophelerx.

I went in thinking I would like Ages more than Seasons, assuming Ages would be a bit like LttP. Not really the case though. Both are amazing, but Seasons caught me off guard and was the one I preferred. Still, you can kind of view them as one big game. A shame the third never happened... I think that was the original plan?...

The best tip for Zelda II is to abuse jump/down attack. You'll do kind of a ducking stab move and it always hits enemies in the faces, you can usually manage to hit those knights/enemies that have shields and stuff too in narrow paths. Like the first though, very cryptic design at times (how about that cave maze), so for me the real challenge is just trying to figure out where the hell to go next.

Stone Tower gets my vote for hardest dungeon in the 3D ones. People who claim that with the Water Temple, clearly never made it that far in MM. The SoTN gimmick to that temple was ludicrous and I'm sad it's never been attempted again, but I can't fathom how complex it was constructing it haha.

Shantae fans: What's new in the Director's Cut of Risky's Revenge compared to the DSi version? I'm told the mode with 1/2 defense but more magic use is from the iOS port, but since I have the DSi version (on my 3DS), I'm contemplating if it's worth $10 at this point.

I'm partial to Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link over other Zelda titles, probably because Legend of Zelda was one of the first games I played (it was either that or Metroid for my first game). I also played it to completion at least 10 times. The temple theme in Adventure of Link still does it for me, too, and I played that one at least a dozen times. Only beat it twice, though.

Haven't really connected with a Zelda game since. Not sure why.

What was everybody's favourite temple from Ocarina of Time? I've always loved The Forest Temple. The atmosphere and layout...one of the greatest moments on the N64. Hardly a runaway decision either, as there are so many great choices.

Mine's probably also the Forest Temple, which would be high in the running for favourite dungeon in the whole series. It really is basically the perfect Zelda dungeon; it's so completely memorable, and I love how it revolves around finding those four Poe ghosts. You also get the bow. The difficulty is cool because it's definitely harder than the three childhood dungeons, which were each pretty much a breeze, but it's not hard enough that you'll get stuck for hours and end up throwing your controller at the nearest wall or pet. Oh, and Phantom Ganon is easily one of the sweetest bosses in the game. Such a great fight at the end of such a weird, creepy temple.

And I think this goes without saying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmsZyC0UXUU

My second favourite OoT temple would be the Spirit Temple. It's incredibly memorable, and I love traveling through the desert just to get to it. It's also the only temple that requires you to switch between child and adult, and it works in a really cool way. Twinrova is another wicked boss fight.

I just replayed OoT earlier this year on my 3DS and I can assure everybody that this is the ideal and definitive way to game OoT. The graphics enhancements are simply gorgeous, the controls beautifully streamlined, and listening to that music with headphones is euphoric. It's the answer to anyone who thinks OoT has disappointingly aged since 1998. Now please, Nintendo, stop teasing us and remake Majora's Mask in the same way.

They remastered it for 3DS? But 3DS can't be emulated! How will I be able to enjoy OoT64 with the knowledge that a better looking version exists?? Curse you Nintendoooo!

Okami says hello.


So I beat Star Ocean The Last Hope International. The only good thing I can say is that it's better than Final Fantasy XIII. It had a main story that made sense. You were invested and interested in what happens. There was some character development that was just poorly handled.

Both games had a boring grindy last dungeon. Star Ocean however, wants to be mean and not give you a save point in forever. And you risk a complete waste of 3 hours of dungeon crawling only to die on some cheap clowns. I very narrowly escaped that fate. Even as brutally challenging as Shin Megami Tensei is, it isn't that mean.

Final Fantasy XIII basically needs to be a completely different game in order to be good. Star Ocean could've been good if it only had some good basics:


- If it had good and consistent hit detection and invincibility frames while evading it would've been a nice little button mashing RPG. It felt too cheap.

- Helpful AI. If you can't create helpful AI be a turn based JRPG instead, giving the player complete control.

- Don't have Lymle say "Kay?" after every god damn sentence. This was seriously dialog in the game. "Lymle, are you OK?" "I'm Okay, Kay?" WTF!

- Make the main character actually badass and not feel sorry for himself most of the game. They try to establish him as an ambitious and compassionate rookie and he spends the game doing nothing and not helping anyone.

- Tone down the fan service. Just have Reimi. Her outfit was a bit too sexy for someone who is 2nd in command of a star ship. That's fine. Be a little flashy and over the top. They also had to have a half naked pre-teen cat girl named Meracle. Myuria was a pair of boobs to enjoy. In Myuria's flashbacks she actually had a decent story but she was also fully clothed and you could take her seriously. When you play her, she's a stripper though.

- Save points in the final dungeon.


It had interesting environments on various planets and spaceships, music was tolerable, a fine main story, and a varied cast of characters all with their own story. Star Ocean shouldn't have failed this badly.

I've played through half of Brothers: A tale of two sons (up to the castle tower thing) and I'm terrified to go on because I suspect:

I've been meaning to check out Star Ocean The Last Hope. It looks cool but yeah I've heard some complaints about it.

Oh boy, I just found out there's a RetroArch Android app, and it works like a charm! RetroArch is an open-source based multi-emulation system that uses various well known emulator cores and runs them inside a shared UI. Also the app seems to support a number of usb gamepads if they're connected through the micro-usb port. Pretty amazing stuff imho.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... arch&hl=en

Kahalachan holds the truth.

Someone needs to play some Guilty Gear AC+R with me on PS3, damnit.

I tried to watch HellBlazer play Okami once or twice. I think I fell asleep both times.

"Some complaints"? Ugh, from everything I know about that game, it sounds like my worst fucking nightmare. You couldn't pay me enough money for me to spend a single minute on that shit. I never thought I'd ever say this, but I think I'd rather replay FFVIII in its entirety than touch that game. 'Kay?

Yeah the Four Swords games are pretty dismal. I beat the Gamecube one...by myself... >_> I think I was like 14 or something though. I definitely do plan on playing Skyward Sword after I finally beat Twilight Princess, I've heard good things. Would also like to check out A Link Between Worlds, probably will pass on PH and ST though, the latter especially sounds godawful. I definitely prefer Ages to Seasons, but it really depends on whether you like the time travel mechanic or the seasons mechanic more I'd say...I'm just a sucker for time travel. And yeah Stone Tower is by far the hardest 3D dungeon, nothing even on OoT Masterquest comes close. Just fucking ridiculous, especially if you're getting all the stray fairies (which I always do).

Diamhea: Fire Temple's probably my favorite on OoT, although Forest is very close. If we're talking MasterQuest (don't know who all has played that one), then Spirit Temple hands down. Challenging and engaging the whole way through. Out of the entire series, I'd be very hard-pressed to pick one specifically - the water one from Oracle of Ages stands out in my memory, so I guess I'd go with that one currently. Dunno if any OoT temples would even be in my top 10.

Just played a CSGO match with a pro player, actually beat their team and killed him a bunch! Hahah. His team sucked though. We had 2000 viewers!

/waste of life

To be honest with you, I think watching other people play video games is like watching someone else eat when you're hungry

But yeah, come on, Morrigan! You should give it a try. I bet you won't regret it. That game isn't as lauded as it is just because.

Nah, there are some games I genuinely enjoy watching. I realize not every game is like that, and that some are really fun to play and boring to watch, though. But Okami seriously put me into a coma. *shrugs* Didn't it have this neverending tutorial?

Oh yeah, the tutorial..... Alright, I'll give you that. The first twenty minutes or so can really grate on you, but once the pace picks up, it never lets you go. Beyond that, though, I have zero complaints with the game. Seriously has everything you could ask from an adventure game of its type; colourful, unique visuals, amazing music, a solid combat system, memorable dungeons, cool boss fights, tons of fun little sidequests, and a long running time that never gets boring. A real classic.

Well you'd think those complaints were good warnings against the game, but I'll at least give some pros on the game so you can make an informed decision.



1. The Bonus Board system is unique and interesting. It basically rewards you after each battle based on how you've been battling. So, if you kill an enemy with a critical hit, you get a 10% bonus to all experience. You keep your bonus board bonuses you get hit with a critical hit, die, or run from battle. The bonus boards all stack. So if you kill with 10 critical hits, you get 100% boost in experience earned. If you get ambushed you get a bonus for extra SP (which is used to level up special moves or passive bonuses). If you kill using only special moves, that's a bonus to regenerate health and MP after battle. If you kill multiple enemies at the same time you get a bonus for a percentage boost of money earned after each battle.

Stacking bonuses and keeping them make the battles a bit addicting. It's a way to make grinding more fun if you ever have to grind. It also makes the game itself addicting. Normally you might want to stop playing at a certain part and just save and quit. If you have a full bonus board, it's tempting to press on until it gets broken.


2. The story is decent and character backgrounds are interesting. Even Lymle being as bad as she is has a good reason to fight. It's just her English dialog is so bad it's hard to enjoy it. It's like a good meal ruined by piling on too much of the wrong spice. If you switch to Japanese voices you won't have to hear "Kay?" all the time but it will still show up in the subtitles.


3. Good environments and level design. I did enjoy seeing the various villages and planets. They aren't as varied as I would've liked but they aren't so generic that each area isn't a new experience.

4. Nice cutscenes. It seemed high budget and enjoyable to watch.


The best thing to take from this game is the word "average" or "below average" Nothing special and lots of flaws.

I really don't like watching others play most of the time, ever. My perfect example is always Xenogears. That'll put you asleep, on the other hand playing it, it's one of my favorite JRPG's of all time. I bet the Suikoden's would be the same experience too.

My favorite OoT dungeon would probably be a toss up between the Forest and Fire temples. I recall the location of the Fire Temple being pretty cool and the whole thing just felt massive, yet it didn't always have a lot of literal ground to cover... but you were surrounded by an ocean of lava. It felt like you were kind of lost there (the game did this a lot though in the best ways). The Spirit temple was a highlight too, but I recall it being very easy, along with the Shadow temple. The difficulty curve kind of went backwards on those for me. Though on the Master Quest the Spirit temple and Ganon's Tower were way tougher than the original.

Skyward Sword had awesome dungeons across the board.