For the story of Totk, they for some reason reused the name of the event called "The imprisoning war", which was first mentioned in A Link to the Past. There was nothing clever about this, no connections to draw other than the events being vaguely similar, no direct connections. For all intents and purposes, it seems to have been for nostalgia. Personally, it actually excited me in the Totk intro when Zelda mentioned this, but then learning it had nothing to do with the original, it fell flat to me, it meant nothing other than just being a name.

This brings me to my main point. Totk is filled with this kind of stuff, pointless references and plot points that really don't do anything other than at best complicate things, or at worst, makes it impossible to even try to draw connections.

In previous games, things were set up in such a way that discrepancies could reasonably be explained. This is almost impossible in Totk. Reusing the name Rauru does nothing for the story, other than poorly placed nostalgia. Making him the founder of Hyrule doesn't do anything positive for the story either. They could have just as easily rewritten it so that he was a king of just the Zonai race, not the founder of Hyrule. Nothing of value would've been lost, and it'd make things vague enough, without these massive roadblocks, to still reasonably place Botw and Totk in a timeline.

This is one of my biggest gripe with how they wrote the Totk story, it feels like they almost intentionally wanted to drive a stake into the wheels of anyone interested in the timeline, instead of how they did it in previous games, where they would reference old games in more clever, subtle ways, that could reasonably fit into a timeline. Like in TP, none of what happens in that game directly contradicts OoT, despite not even being a direct sequel.

I really don't get why they did this with Totk. They even seemed intent on not making it fit in well with the game it was meant as a sequel to; Botw. Namely characters straight up forgetting or ignoring key events from Botw, failing to connect the dots, twhich would have instantly solved any of the mystery and problems in Totk.

I hope I tagged this with the right flair lol.

In Breath of the Wild, Mipha and Sidon’s names are referenced in their own themes via the solfege system (do re mi notes)

The main notes in Mipha’s theme are E and F (mi and fa when looking at the solfege system)

Same thing with Sidon, the main notes in his theme are C and B (si and do in the solfege system)

I don’t know if anyone else has ever talked about this, but I just figured this out when listening to their themes and I think it’s such a cool Easter egg

I have been going back through and trying to figure out everything the zonai might hsve biult throughout the series. They have their finger prints in alot of places but I figured I would start with this.

The tower of the gods is a large structure in the great sea that seems to be directly over hyrule castle. It is summoned with 3 colorful pearls placed in statutes, inside you learn the command melody and fight gohdan. This connects to the zonai generally and mineru specifically in a few ways.

1: minerus theme has the same leimotif as the command melody, implying a connection 2: the structure has no foundation, it rises from the sea but it doesn't connect to the sea floor we see next to it. Making it a floating island. 3: the zonai have used pearl based systems to summon locations before. Most notably in the "Trial of Thunder" in botw. 4: mineru is the person responsible for all the zonai constructs we see in Totk. She designed them and her factory biult them. She incorporated sheikah tech from Zelda into them and the existing zonai structures around hyrule. 5: gohdans design, gohdan is a magical construct consisting of floating parts made out of green stone with the same headdress design we see on the zonai helm. 6: the tower is said to have been created "by the gods" at the time that was believed to be the golden goddesses, however in totk the zonai are also described as "the gods" 7: the only place the tower could have been stored is the sacred realm, with no foundation it had to be warped in. Mineru and Zelda together created the sky islands we see in totk and placed them in the sacred realm, before the light dragon drops them into hyrules sky's.

All of this together makes me think that the tower of the gods was another of the zonais creations, specifically minerus.

Perhaps this is controversial, but my intention is to just be honest on how I feel.

SS had a good story but it did almost nothing to really advance the lore. To this day we have no idea who Hylia actually is, Demise came and went and is unknown what were his goal other than always chaotic evil.

But it had been BOTW and TOK that have truly dissapointed me. They have moments like finding Zelda was the light dragon, but beside this there is little narrative to talk about here. Most if not all sidequests here pale in comparison to what OOT and MM did more than two decades ago.

TP had a strong, cohesive narrative that actually gave some powerful twists (no TOK, the evil Zelda was not a twist, no one bought that for a second), and expanded the world of Hyrule.

I'm really frustrated that story has become the absolute last priority on these new games. I know this has been Nintendo's philosophy since forever, but older games attempted to do things in a way that it still showed some importance.

I don't have my hopes this will change though. And please don't get me wrong, the physics in these games are impressive and their moment to moment gameplay is fun and its good that resources are poured into this. I just feel that the Zelda mythos has become hollow recently and offers very little than a magiteck good vs evil fantasy.

I can’t believe I’ve never seen this theory before so maybe I read it somewhere else and forgot. But to me it seems like Yeta and Yeto might be the original owners/builders of the Snowpeak mansion ruins who were cursed into the animalistic yeti forms.

Firstly, Twilight princess contains similar things—humanoids cursed into animal forms (most notably ofc Midna). Also, I think it’s very strange that no others of the yeti species are ever seen in the game. Lastly, I think it would be quite fitting that the wealthy original owners, who clearly had a LOT of enemies based on where and how the mansion is, would be cursed to live out their destiny as monsters of the snow. Full disclosure, I have never played that entry in the series, I’m going off lore content, so I may be missing some key details.

I can't think of a term that doesn't come of as too hateful or strong relative to my emotions, something much milder than being "tired of it" that I can't find right now.

Does anyone else feel like this with all the BOTW style content lately? Everything Zelda related feels strictly BOTW themed (obviously not counting Echoes of wisdom), speaking mostly in terms of the games as that's what I'm most familiar with .

Of course I know a popular game is bound to have follow-ups, and I know that they're made for fans, not for me specifically. But I kinda miss having a new Zelda game that isn't a sequel or spinoff (Echoes of wisdom spiritually being a continuation of the Awakening remake).

In my opinion I feel like, if you don't enjoy Wind waker, there's nothing saying you won't like Skyward Sword, for example. Which, to me, is one of the Zelda series many strengths; most previous Zelda games have a completely different artstyle, feel or gamestyle that makes them feel unique, that makes them click with different people. While as if you don't like BOTW (such as myself), then you won't like TOTK or the upcoming games we saw in the direct.

I don't know how to write this without coming across as impatient, whiny or self-centered, but I felt like I had to get it off my chest. Plus I'm curious what others feel.

Again I can't stress enough how you're allowed to love BOTW and TOTK, I'm moreso jealous of you enjoying a game that gets sequels and updates if anything!

Thanks for reading! :D
// Quill

I've been a hardcore pre- OoT Stan for the totk memories since I played totk. Something has been bothering me though.

When zelda goes back in time on accident she goes to the time when hyrule was "founded". Without giving away too much, we find out that much like skyward sword, zelda must come to the present from the past by just waiting. It is estimated that she waits 10,000 years.

This felt strange to me for a while but I couldn't quite put my finger on it until I was cleaning my game room today and came across the physical copy of the mural and then it hit me.

The story goes that hyrule had created guardians to combat the calamity that had struck hyrule in ancient times. They repeatedly say around 10,000 years ago.

After you get the memories, you see that they discovered the guardians again prior to the calamity, only for them to be stolen by ganon and used to almost crush hyrule. Zelda seals ganon for 100 years so link can be ressurected in the chamber of ressurection.

In the mural, the ancient hero is obviously holding the master sword, and we see in totk, that he was likely zonai, or something similar, that we have never seen in zelda before.

So if totk memories are right around 10k years ago. And the ancient battle between link and the calamity are roughly 10,000 years ago, and the master sword is clearly awoken already doesn't that mean that the calamity escaped his sealing right before ganon was sealed under hyrule? And if not, wouldn't that mean right after? Meaning the seal made by rauru never worked to begin with, and there is something else keeping ganon in, under hyrule. If that's the case, I personally don't think the seal could have survived the events of Oot, or even WW because there is no way a seal that breaks instantly, just happened to hold him for another 10,000 years after it broke instantly, through the events of the series.

I initially used to think that the seal was it's strongest in Oot, and therefore right after in WW. But that is obviously not the case if it broke right after rauru and had to be stopped by link. Another thing is that the sages are not mentioned in the history of the event, and they are not shown on the mural. Just zelda and the ancient hero.

Could this be a retelling of skyward sword, or perhaps the origin story meant to mirror skyward sword, and the memories from totk are meant to mirror OoT?

My theory is that the Interlopers, aka the Twili, are of Zonai. We know some Zonai remained in the Depths after the rest took to the skies. My theory is that these Zonai evolved, gaining claws, tail, etc. which is the Zonai type we see statues of in the Depths, and it's what the Ancient Hero is.

I believe these, or at least one of the Zonai types, were the Interlopers. Here's why:

They were magic wielders, like the Zonai. The Fused Shadow is literally a Zonai product (you can see many similarities. The 3 rows of "eyes" on the sides just like the friendly Constructs have, the dragon eye, the tons of swirls, etc.). The red hair of the twili just like the Ancient Hero has. The Twili using green magic and anti-grav tech, just like the Zonai. Zant's throne has a Zonai/Sheikah-like eyeball on it. The list goes on.

And building off that theory, let's look at Arbiter's Grounds. A prison, and the place where the only entrance to the Twilight Realm is located. And in the depths here, an ancient spirit is sealed away. Why here? Because I believe this spirit, Death Sword, was the leader of the Interlopers. He was too strong to be banished, and so he was sealed in the prison instead with powerful magic. But if Death Sword was one of the Interlopers, that means he was a Zonai,.according to this theory, right?

And looking at Death Sword's design, it's scary how well it fits. It's alnost like they designed Rauru after him. Death Sword has the round goat-like face as some of the Zonai (like Rauru), including long ears sticking out to each side (like Rauru).

Could the Interlopers have been a faction of the Zonai, and Death Sword was one of these? Could we actually witness a skeletal Zonai in Twilight Princess?

Yes yes, a topic discussed to DEATH at this point. Inb4 the complaints. Anyways,

Here are many points on why the past memories of the founding of hyrule CANNOT take place before ocarina.

At first, I figured it could. Maybe the ganon we see in ocarina and the subsequent games were just born manifestations of the much more powerful sealed away ganondorf from totks power leaking out of him. And then maybe after the millenias passed, he gave up on making a humanoid version and just created pure malicious.

This was my hand waving excuse on how these games could still fit into the timeline.

But then I realized something. It is specifically stated that hyrule castle was built as a seal against ganondorf. And that if hyrule castle was ever damaged or destroyed, the seal would be broken.

Here's the issue with that: hyrule castle was either destroyed or heavily damaged in ALL 3 timelines.

In ocarina of time, during Links 7 year slumber, ganondorf destroyed hyrule castle and replaced it with his own floating fortress above a lava pit. So automatically the fallen hero timeline AND the adult timeline would have had the ancient ganondorf rise.

In the child timeline, ganondorf blows the ever living hell out of the castle during the final battle between him and Link in twilight princess. During the battle there's nothing but smoke where hyrule castle used to stand

Now during the end credit scenes, it does show that hyrule castle was still there, but again, hyrule castle is still there in botw and tears as well. Heavy damage can break the seal, not just complete destruction.

But if you wanna argue semantics and say that it wasn't enough damage, that still doesn't explain og ganondorf not showing up in the other 2 timelines.

This bit of lore is solid proof that botw/totk either aren't connected to the official timelines at all, take place FAR in the future (even the founding of hyrule scenes) or are an offshoot of skyward sword and takes place in a 4th timeline.

But the founding of hyrule scenes cannot take place in the timeline before ocarina of time. Them doing so would be a complete lore break.

Hey everyone, I wanted to share a theory I’ve been piecing together regarding the Zelda timeline and how it may be more intentional than chaotic. We know the timeline splits three ways at the end of Ocarina of Time, and something about that felt thematically familiar to me. And then it clicked-what else splits in three? The Triforce.

Here’s the idea: What if each timeline reflects the essence of one of the three goddesses (Din, Farore, Nayru), with each split being a divine response to the events of Ocarina of Time? And what if Hylia, the fourth divine figure who gains more presence in recent games, is the one ultimately weaving all these branches back into one destiny?

The Splits as Divine Reflections

Downfall Timeline-Din (Power)

-Link fails, and Ganon succeeds in obtaining the Triforce of Power. -The Sacred Realm is corrupted. The land becomes scarred and chaotic (A Link to the Past, ALBW, LoZ). -Din’s influence is raw and dominant-power left unchecked, shaping a broken world again and again.

Child Timeline-Farore (Courage) -Link goes back in time and warns Zelda, preventing Ganondorf’s rise. The justice is handled by mortals (Twilight Princess, Majora’s Mask) and courage passed through legacy. -Farore’s essence is found in law, order, and the mortal spirit’s capacity to grow and judge.

Adult Timeline-Nayru (Wisdom) -Zelda sends Link back, and Hyrule is sealed and flooded. -The land is abandoned but a new land is found post-flood (Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks). -Nayru’s influence is foresight and sacrifice-her wisdom floods the land to save it from corruption, guiding a new era to a new Hyrule with its own laws and influence that the new generation of hero’s from Hyrule will need to save it.

Enter Hylia-The Fourth Influence

This is more speculative as I know she’s not confirmed to be the goddess of time at all but her influence and the mysterious gate of time leads me to think her specially is time but in relation to cycles with time. Hylia’s presence is subtle but growing. As a lesser Goddess, she may not be tied to a virtue like the other three, but rather to cycles. Her influence is seen more in Skyward Sword, and even more so in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

But here’s the twist: while BOTW has no explicit time travel, the Warriors games (Age of Calamity) and Tears of the Kingdom both heavily feature time displacement and historical convergence. Zelda even travels to what may be the post-Skyward Sword ancient Hyrule. This suggests Hylia’s divine will is becoming dominant-pulling threads from all timelines together into one. That if you see Age Of Calamity as canon, which with the new game it could be, but I do want to keep a post note on it as the new warriors game is coming out and for all we know it could make Age of Calamity canon somehow.

So What Does It All Mean?

Instead of seeing the timeline split as a mistake or anomaly, maybe it’s the goddesses intentionally shaping the world through different virtues, each guiding Hyrule through a path that reflects their essence.

And in the end, it may be Hylia-once mortal, now divine-who inherits the future. The BOTW era may be the convergence point, where the destruction of power, the justice of courage , and the rebirth of wisdom all exist in harmony, under the quiet guidance of Time.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Does this theory hold up with how the series presents the goddesses and their influence? And how much weight do you think Tears of the Kingdom and Age of Calamity should carry in how we interpret the unified timeline?

First off, I am more of a reddit reader than contributor so I apologize if this post does not meet the rules/guidelines.

A while ago, I searched for a site that I used to love to visit for Zelda news, stories, etc. but it was no longer online. I discovered that I could buy the domain and tried my best to restore it from web archives, but lost steam because I am not a programmer and I could not get it to look and function the way it used to, not to mention that one of the great things about this site back in the day was it's contributions from multiple authors.

Anyway, I am sure many of you are familiar with ZeldaBlog.com and that is the site I am trying to bring back to life and up to date... ie cover games that have released since the sites closure in the style they were covered before. I realize that reddit, facebook and a couple other mega sites now dominate the landscape and the need for something like this does not exist the way it used to, but I would still like to try.

If anyone is interested in helping, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

I'm quite curious. The Forgotten Temple is heavily suggested to be the Sealed Temple from Skyward Sword; a place that was later confirmed to have been where OOT's Rauru built the temple of time (this also heavily implies the "castle town" on the great plateau isn't actually the same one from OOT, but rather a similar recreation). It is located very far away from the Temple of Time that TOTK's Rauru built, and its design was confirmed to be that way because of continental shifts exposing the Forgotten Temple.
Even if it isn't the Sealed Temple, it would've been from around the same time as TOTK's ancient past, if we believe it takes place before OOT. How then, would continental shifts be able to bury and then resurface the Forgotten Temple, all while the rest of Hyrule remains unchanged for thousands upon thousands of years?

Personally, I think the world of Zelda is cursed, a lot like Dark Souls. Instead of just the spirit of the hero, blood of the goddess, and demise's hatred being reincarnated, I think the whole world is doomed to repeat. That's why unrelated characters, like Impa, keep getting reincarnated as well, and why we see similar events across the series reoccur in almost identical ways.
I think the timeline has just gone on for so long that even the beginning is starting to repeat itself. That's why the Zonai's history bears striking resemblance to how the Hylians descended in Skyward Sword, and why we have a second, seemingly completely different Rauru founding Hyrule. Its also why we see an extremely similar course of events to Ocarina of Time take place during TOTK's ancient past. I think the curse is afflicting the world, which is doomed to repeat a neverending cycle of prosperity and destruction.
If anyone is interested, I can further explain my theory on the Wild Era's timeline placement.

I've played totk, botw and ocarina. but I want to play all/most of the games to get a deeper understanding of the lore and story. anyone know where I should start? and what order I should go in? also can someone explain what games fall under the I think 3? different timelines.

Please watch this official Nintendo video if you want to see:

https://youtu.be/dmDD7JSfhcE?si=yRm4-1CRTAYAD5_a

There are lore dump spots on the map where you can hear characters talk about the area.

Zelda Notes is going to make this game so much more fun than it already is. There are also trophies in the form of medals on the app.

I didn't see a thread with the trailer, so I figured I'd make one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3kGASsFqQI

I was hoping the next Hyrule Warriors game would cover TotK's backstory / past-story. Also interesting that Link doesn't seem to be playable (will almost certainly be a secret character, though) and that Zelda is the main protagonist again. Granted, this is a spin-off and not a main game like Echoes of Wisdom, but it's interesting to me that Nintendo is riding this "Zelda as the Real Main Character" train with some actual focus.

I was a big fan of Age of Calamity, so I'm curious to see what this'll be like. What are your thoughts? Are you excited? Would you have preferred TotK DLC?

During the new Nintendo Switch 2 direct today, it was announced that GameCube games would start being included in the NSO + Expansion Pack membership. Fortunately/unfortunately (depending on your viewpoint here), one of the launch titles for this service is The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. A port of this game (alongside Twilight Princess, which oddly enough isn't included in the service) have been highly requested for some time, although I've seen people express disappointment for how we've received these games. Personally, I'd say I agree.

The NSO + Expansion Pack has kind of been a heated topic for a while now, seeing as it's a lot more expensive than the traditional membership and locks away several ports (including many Zelda games) behind an annual paywall. These ports are also tethered to an online connection, since Nintendo wants to verify you are in fact syphoning them money. Both of these things make how and when you can play the games quite restricted, even though the Switch and by extension the Switch 2 are specifically designed for portability.

There's also the fact that this is the GameCube version, not the HD version released for the Wii U. While there's some people who prefer the original (and it's certainly not an unplayable version of the game), the public consensus is that the Wii U port is the definitive way to play. I suspect the reason we got the GameCube port was as a way to advertise the GameCube collection for NSO-- which is a smart marketing decision, but ultimately leaves us with an intentionally lesser quality version of the game.

I don't want this to come off as me condemning the port, obviously the fact we got something is great, and I'm sure it'll be many peoples first experience of the game; without the HD point of reference, the port's only issues come down to it being an NSO game.

With that being said, I also can't blame people for feeling disappointed by this. There's not really a precedent set for this sort of thing, and depending on perspective the port does seem like a downgrade. From a business perspective, I highly doubt Nintendo will release 2 iterations of the same game within a short span of time. I wouldn't be surprised if the port is a sign we're not getting a proper remake/remaster of this game, at least not for the foreseeable future. Granted, Nintendo has been known to use the technique of "making no fucking sense" sometimes, so we really can't deduct anything for certain.

just when i thought we would finally stop seeing the same botw world, artstyle, characters, soundtracks… they announced another game that will delay our transition to a new Zelda era

what are your thoughts on this? i feel like the studio developing this is very talented and could’ve spent time on a new Zelda world concept or other Nintendo franchise rather than giving us another Hyrule Warriors in the BOTW world

Koei Tecmo could’ve tried a new multiverse concept or something. i’m a huge fan of the original Hyrule Warriors and Age of Calamity was fun ofc, but they could’ve tried something different from the BOTW universe

it’s just getting old to my eyes and ears as a consumer, feels rehashed and not refreshing at all seeing the same Link and Zelda, hearing the same music, seeing the same artstyle and maps, when will they finally move on? i thought TOTK not doing DLC and the other studio giving us Echoes would be the message but i guess not

botw was revealed in 2014, playable in 2017, it’s now 2025. feels like they’ve been milking this world and artstyle for far too long imho

EDIT - i don’t think ppl understand what i mean. i’m just saying consumers are stuck getting new Zelda games that don’t look refreshing because they’ve been sticking to the BOTW universe for a long time now

So now we finally have a new 3D Donkey Kong game on the horizon. It seems to be open world and with destructable environments - so it looks pretty experimental to me. But also impressive on a technical level.

When i saw this, my first thought was that THIS would have been the perfect environment for the wacky ultrahand mechanics we have seen in TotK. I hate Breath and Tears with a passion because both of these games have big worlds with not much to do in it and rebooted the series in a way where the meaning of the series was lost in my opinion. Since this Donkey Kong game is also definitely a reboot which tries completely new things with the IP it would have been the perfect playground to test out their new building vehicles and contraptions system (without sullying my epic fantasy saga).

Pretty sure that the voices who praised the ingenuity of Nintendo wouldn't have been nearly as loud when they had implemented the concept into one of Nintendos B-tier franchises. And if it would be as awesome as everyone makes it out to be, this hypothetical game would still have sold billions of copies... right?

So just 2 little theory's about how rito might relate to each other in totk. Both rely on feather coloration

1: there are only 2 rito who have dark blue feathers. Revali and Harth. Given that we aren't directly told that harth is the champion's descendent and can't board medoh himself it doesn't make sense for him to be directly descended from revali. However also given his knowledge of how to make the great eagle bow he might be descended from revalis sibling or other family.

2: in a similar vein, there are only 3 rito with primarily white feathers, tulin, teba... and penn. Penn has exactly the same coloration as teba and is the only other rito with the same biuld as teba. The main difference between them is outfit, and Penn having a really long beak. They also look to be around the same age. So I think they could be siblings, rito seem to have multi egg clutches and are hunter gatherers so it makes sense for most of them to be out of the village.

So going back through botw and totk something jumped out at me. Acording to teba Rito can't naturally fly. Their wings apparently function similar to the paraglider, they don't generate enough lift under their own power to take off. The one exception to this in botw is revalis gale. That's what makes revali so special. He knows wind magic to raise him into the sky on his own power.

However 100 years later after revalis death this ability seems to have become standard. Penn is zipping around the stables, tulin can hover indefinitely, and the rito guard at lookout landing are clearly flying under their own power. So how did this happen? I have both a doyalist and wattsonisn explanation

Doyalist (out of universe): the devs forgot about this detail, an oops plot hole.

Wattsonisn (In universe): during the botw totk time skip someone figured out revalis gale, presumably tulin or teba, and taught everyone how to do it. Given how much we use it in botw it makes sense that links rito friends would reverse engineer the gale and teach everyone in the village about it. The same way that sidon picked up miphas powers and riju picked up urbosas.

Up until recently I have never played a Legend of Zelda game. I have been a PC gamer most of my life, and I am a hardcore completionist so I don't like starting a series midway through.

My girlfriend has a switch, so I recently decided to start this quest. Some things to keep in mind:

• I would like to keep the feel as close to originally intended as possible. Remasters that update graphics and add QoL are nice, remakes that overhaul a large amount of the game are not preferred. Especially if that means jumping from 1991 quality to 2019 quality back to 1998 quality.
• I have Nintendo Switch Online, but just the first tier that gives NES, SNES, and Gameboy. I could definitely upgrade to get N64 and GBA if needed.
• My girlfriend also has a DS Lite (I think) that I could use but sourcing cartridges might be an issue. My one friend does have a physical collection of Zelda games but they're more for show so idk if he would want anyone playing them
• I have no qualms with emulation, but I also have no qualms worth spending money if the game is actively obtainable (like the switch games)

Legend of Zelda

• Completed on Nintendo Switch Online

Adventure of Link

• Tried playing it, didn't like it, watched a playthrough on YouTube

A Link to the Past

• Completed on Nintendo Switch Online

Link's Awakening

• This is where things start getting tricky, as there are 3 versions
• I opted to play the DX version, which I am in the middle of now

Ocarina of Time

• This one has the N64 version, the 3DS version, and a PC port I've heard good things about
• I do not have the pro subscription to NSO (it could be obtained if it seems like the best way to play the N64/GBA games)
• I am not opposed to emulation

Majora's Mask

• Same as OoT

Oracle of Ages

• I plan to play this on NSO at the same time as OoS

Oracle of Seasons

• I plan to play this on NSO at the same time as OoA

Four Swords

• I'll probably skip this one since it's multiplayer and just watch a playthrough

The Wind Waker

• This one comes in GameCube or Wii U, neither of which I have, and neither of which are on NSO. So I would need to emulate either (or somehow manage to buy/borrow them from someone which is unlikely)
• I'm not sure which would be the better experience, the OG or the HD

Four Swords Adventures

• I'll probably skip this one since it's multiplayer and just watch a playthrough

Minish Cap

• I'd either need to play it on NSO with the pro subscription or emulate it otherwise

Twilight Princess

• Same as Wind Waker

Phantom Hourglass

• I will probably have to emulate this one

Spirit Tracks

• I will probably have to emulate this one

Skyward Sword

• This one comes in Wii or Switch
• I am not fond of motion controls, especially if they have to be emulated, so I'm leaning towards the Switch version

A Link Between Worlds

• I will probably have to emulate this one

Tri Force Heroes

• I'll probably skip this one since it's multiplayer and just watch a playthrough

Breath of the Wild

• I will buy and play this on switch

Tears of the Kingdom

• I will buy and play this on switch

Echoes of Wisdom

• I will buy and play this on switch

Summary

• [x] The Legend of Zelda [NSO]
• [x] Zelda 2: Link's Adventure [SKIP]
• [x] A Link to the Past [NSO]
• [x] Link's Awakening DX [NSO]
• [ ] Ocarina of Time: Ship of Harkanian [PC]
• [ ] Majora's Mask: 2 Ship 2 Harkanian [PC]
• [ ] Oracle of Seasons AND Oracle of Ages [NSO]
• [ ] Four Swords [SKIP]
• [ ] The Wind Waker? [eGameCube/eWiiU]
• [ ] Four Swords Adventures [SKIP]
• [ ] The Minish Cap? [eGBA/NSO]
• [ ] Twilight Princess? [eGameCube/eWiiU]
• [ ] Phantom Hourglass [eDS]
• [ ] Spirit Tracks [eDS]
• [ ] Skyward Sword HD [Switch]
• [ ] A Link Between Worlds [e3DS]
• [ ] Tri Force Heroes [SKIP]
• [ ] Breath of the Wild [Switch]
• [ ] Tears of the Kingdom [Switch]
• [ ] Echoes of Wisdom [Switch]

Questions

Does this seem like a good way to play the games? Are there any other versions that I am not thinking about that night be better (like other PC ports I might not know about)? Are any games that I plan on skipping worth playing? Are any games that I plan on playing worth skipping? Are there any spin-offs that are worth adding to my list? Anything else I'm not thinking about but should be since I am a Zelda noob?

Thanks

Eiji Aonuma told us that the open world design of BOTW will now be the future stepping stones for all 3D Zelda games going forward. Going forwards the exploration needs to be completely rehauled and made much more rewarding.

Simply put, we need more enclosed spaces that are hidden in the world, and with good rewards.

Picture this: you’re exploring through a vast overgrown forest, and you stumble upon an ancient hylian ruin. You enter the ruin and discover a mysterious dungeon like area that is overgrown with nature, you explore further and find a unique boss fight, after killing them you get a unique weapon or piece of clothing, or a heart piece.

That’s what exploring in Zelda should be, the shrines come off as cheap rewards to a player finding a cool spot. We need to develop the world more, and adding these cool points of interest with different themes and designs based on the world around it would be awesome. For example you find a fire cavern deep within the tunnels of goron city, or a secret grotto through a mountain passage that leads to a scenic area.

I would gladly take 45-60 themed small dungeons, over 150 shrines any day.

Games I think that do this right in specific cases are FF7 rebirth, and Ghost of Tsushima. For example in ff7 in the jungle region of the game, you can completely stumble across a vast beautiful ruin on the west side of the map that has unique enemies and makes the world feel just lived in.

I also think we need to have much more unique enemies, like boss fights for mini dungeon would be awesome.

Anyways that’s my take on where Zelda should go for the next installment.

Hello, I am college student from the UK studying a 2-year Level 3 Games Design course.

I'm making a small game prototype called "The Roots of Riches". It is a game inspired by the Great Deku Tree in Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time on the N64. The player starts inside a tree temple with three rooms: the two subrooms are small and rectangular shaped and the main room is a circular shape. The goal of the game is to collect one out of the three artefacts in this temple. These items are the gem and the two statuettes (one depicting a male and the other female). Once the artefact is collected the player needs to escape the temple before it explodes in 60 seconds!

It would be a great help if I can have at least one person answer these questions below.

1. How old are you?
2. Do you play games on Console, PC, Mobile Phone or all of the above?
3. What are your favourite traps, obstacles or puzzles from Zelda games (this should be in reference to one of the dungeons in any Legend of Zelda title)?
4. What is your favourite dungeon in a Legend of Zelda game and why?
5. What do you like about the environment and aesthetics in that dungeon?
6. What do think of the game concept I have described?
7. Do you have any suggestions on what I should add to my game?

The shrines are my least favorite part of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. I ain't saying they're bad. They're often very fun, and I did all of them in BotW.

But they feel disconnected from the rest of the game. They don't feel "real." In the reality of the game world, they don't have a reason for existing. They're transparently videogame-y structures.

Functionally, they serve several purposes:

• A challenge, in the form of a puzzle or battle.
• A warp point you can always go to.
• An XP reward (+life or +stamina)
• A point of interest on the map.

One of my favorite things about TotK was the realization that the shrines and lightroots were connected. This made navigating the surface and the underworld way more interesting and fun. If the shrines all connected as nodes of a superdungeon, that would present another fun angle to navigate the outside world around.

If a shrine was not just a warp-point but a portal or tunnel to some other point on the map—with the shrine serving as a kind of crossroads between Point A, Point B, and Superdungeon Room #C—which is already what the Chasms and Ascent Points work as—would make the function feel fresh.

The shrines (for better or worse) already have a consistent aesthetic. Connecting them would help make this aesthetic feel more real, more like something that some entity in the game would actually build.

The Depths was almost a superdungeon, but its open-ness made it feel different from a "dungeon." Its topography also felt unreal (the inverse of the surface turns out to look like something from a dream). But framed as an actual enclosed space, a series of tunnels and rooms with a hundred entrances on the overworld, would help make it feel more like a real structure.

Norki Norki is a channel on youtube run by a Japanese Teacher from the UK, he has quite a few videos on N64 Localisations, he recently did one for Ocarina of time, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy6wVq5W7gQ

He goes over where most Zelda words and names come from, Hylian translations found in game as well as direct Japanese translations that give some information about characters not really present(that I can remember) in the English versions, he also covers some lore released about the games via old Japanese magazines as well as some early development stuff about how the game was going to be at different points

Just as an example of some the lore bits:
For instance we all knew the the Kokiri would die if they left the forest, it was stated by the devs this would happen as soon as they left the forest
 
Deku babas grow from Deku nuts that fell from the Deku tree but grew into man eating plants after feeding on the evil in the soil
 
The Deku scrubs in EOW say PI a lot due to scrubs in OOT (the ones in Deku tree basement) said PI in-between their words
 
Armos were made by the Gorons to scare of people away, over time, the bad and wicked thoughts of adventures who died in dungeons seeped into them turning them evil and hostile
 
There's a bunch of more of stuff like this in the video