Gaming Zelda Fans Come Hither...

So instead of borrowing my friend's 3DS, I should just offer to buy it from him.

 

I've had one before but sold it off a long time ago. Same with the original DS. I've just never been a big handheld gamer for some reason. And based on the experience I've had with ALttP after several hours, I'm beginning to rethink this whole goal of playing through old Zelda games.

 

I posted my impressions of ALTTP in another thread but I'll quote them here. Keep in mind, I posted this after struggling mightily with the Moldorm boss fight, and my feelings have since softened after conquering that maddening pest.

Now after passing that part I did get into a decent rhythm. Got the Master Sword, felled Agahnim for the time being, and went back to the light world to do some casual exploring. Every time I glance at a guide I feel as if I'm missing out on things, items or weapons I should have, heart pieces I should've found, etc. So I decided to channel Breath of the Wild a bit and go off the beaten path and see what I could find. Didn't take me long to stumble across a big water monster that let me buy a pair of flippers for 500 rupees. Swam around and found a whirlpool that teleported me all the way across the map, so that could come in handy as long as I can remember the location. Anything else you might suggest doing before I go back and begin to tackle the dark world? Or should I just wing it and let the chips fall where they may?

Edit: And I may have begun the preliminary stages of looking for a 3DS to buy, since I've recently had a hankering for JRPGs and the 3DS/DS library seems like it's overflowing with quality titles, the Dragon Quest games notably (none of which I've ever touched). Did some light browsing and found that I'm most interested in the 2DS XL. My main hang-up is the fact that it's hard enough for me to keep up with all the games coming out on consoles these days, adding a whole nother pillar to my backlog is probably a bad idea. Maybe Nintendo will have something in the Direct tomorrow for someone in my position.

 

I give up. I go to the Dark World, Sahasrahla tells me to go to a specific dungeon that is marked on my map, I go there, find myself unable to progress, pull up a guide that tells me to use a magic hammer that I don't have and I have no clue where it is or how to get it... poor game design. I'm done. Maybe I'll try Wind Waker or Twilight Princess since I've got both of those on the Wii U and a pro controller on the way, but 2D Zeldas are a big no thank you for me now.

 

Funnily enough I just stumbled across that video this morning and didn't notice that it was brand new. Despite all the negative things about the game I've been spouting anytime I get stymied, there's something about it that keeps bringing me back. Maybe it's the fact that finding a negative comment about it is damn near impossible to find on an internet full of negative comments on just about everything (I've seriously never been in this small of a minority). Maybe it's the fact that its distant successor is one of the best games I've ever played and I'm determined to mine some of that satisfaction from it. Or maybe I just need that glorious music in my ear holes, no matter what I have to go through to hear it.

A couple nights ago I got stuck fighting Mothula in the third dungeon of the Dark World. Saved my state (hooray SNES Classic), shut it down, booted it back up on a whim this morning... and killed the pesky vermin in thirty seconds with no problem. Similar thing happened to me with Moldorm as well. Anyway, before heading to the fourth dungeon I'm wandering the overworld trying to get more heart pieces and items to help me out in the future.

And yes, @The2ndQuest , the hammer was in that very dungeon, I just missed the bombable wall in the dark room that would lead me to it. I can see how people often come back to this game for numerous replays. I'd imagine having familiarity with it makes it pretty fun to run through, in a similar way that I have fun breezing through Super Mario World in half an hour.

 

I remember hearing about the Chris Houlihan room in the ALTTP episode of Retronauts I listened to the other day. Wish there was an easier way to find it, but still cool it's in there nonetheless. A friend of mine showed me a glitch a few nights ago that enabled him to roll credits in about five minutes. It involved him getting into the castle at the beginning, jumping from the second floor onto the first floor, pausing while Link was in mid-air, saving and quitting, reloading, then getting hit at some point, which allowed him to phase through the walls of the castle and enter the final room. Something like that. Afterwards he said "There, you beat A Link to the Past. Now will you play Wind Waker?"

 

Only two dungeons left, the Ice Palace and Turtle Rock. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Well, over two decades after the first time I ever started playing A Link to the Past, I've finally beaten it. All items and heart pieces acquired.

It took some getting used to, and there were obviously some growing pains involved. But I eventually got the hang of things and fell into a groove about halfway through the Dark World's dungeons, and I came to see the game for how great it really is. I'm actually sad it's over, but I've still got plenty more Zelda games to look forward to playing for the first time, and that's a fantastic feeling.

And Ice Palace is far and away my favorite dungeon in the game. Just had a blast from start to finish exploring it and fighting off the enemies. It struck the perfect balance of exploration, challenge, and discovery, and I was bummed when I eventually came to the boss. I wanted to keep going deeper.

 

Finally finished Breath of the Wild. I was always of the camp that saw OoT as the pinnacle of the series and all ensuing console titles were just trying to be as good or significant. And while some were pretty great titles (Wind Waker, Twilight Princess), they couldn't quite measure up. There was always something absent.

Skyward Sword was a huge disappointment imo. I remember being excited about that game only to absolutely hate it. I didn't even bother finishing it. I think it's still in my old Wii, collecting dust.

Then Breath of the Wild came out for both the switch and the Wii U. So I dusted off my Wii U and decided to see what all the hype was about. I was kind of at a loss from the beginning. The game is definitely very different from previous installments and it took me a while to learn what to do with it.

But then I started treating it like The Witcher 3 and I fell in love with it. The story is rich. The voice acting is great. The music is very subtle until towards the end of the game, which I think makes those last few tracks all the more powerful.

Zelda delivers a very emotionally-charged perspective to the story. There are just so many layers and depth to this game.

It was nothing short of incredible.

General criticisms and praise aside, I found the final battles to be somewhat lacking. Ganon was a very one note character this time around. He didn't have the nuances of his Wind Waker self. He was just a thing, which might have been a missed opportunity for a story so emotionally driven. He kind of reminded me of Ruin from the Mistborn novels.

I'm also not quite sure what to make of Hyrule Castle. I was really excited about exploring it. I found the memory piece but I couldn't do too much more exploring. Instead of having a dungeon style layout like the Divine beasts, the castle is just a blatant, graceless deathtrap.

I think the games only weak moments are here at the end with the castle and the boss fight. And even though I got the full ending, I wasn't really all that satisfied with it I suppose.

But apart from the conclusion, the game is downright amazing.

 

For me, that was a good thing because I loathed the Divine Beasts' crap. The boss fights are the game's weakest aspect, but outside of those it's pretty damn good.

 

I skipped most of the combat shrines until I'd finished all the others, so by the end of the game I had a surplus of guardian weapons that I'd acquired in those. And then of course all the royal weapons I found in the castle on the way to face Ganon. But I had the Master Sword and the Hylian Shield, along with a fully upgraded Wild armor set. I refused to finish the game equipped with anything but those.

 

Like many of you I was hoarding my good weapons. I even went through the castle using my good weapons because I was worried about the master sword needing to recharge before I faced Ganon. But of course the Master Sword apparently doesn't need to recharge in the castle at all.

I also took some of the advice here and started exploring the castle more. I just recently after beating the game realized that the master sword deals severe damage to Castle enemies.

 

I think that's only true for Guardians or Ganon - it ran out on me when I was taking on a Lynel in one of the gatehouses.

 

Yep, that's the exact same glitch my friend used last week. That kind of stuff is fascinating.

Also, watching the intro to ALTTP is a good reminder that that game establishes a mood and atmosphere right out of the gate better than 99.9% of games today. It's a phenomenal opening sequence.

 

As openings go, ALTTP is one of the best. It's probably the first Zelda game to hand hold for a bit and then let you chose where you want to go next which I don't mind.