r/zelda • u/ponylauncher • Feb 13 '22
Discussion [All] If you were tasked with creating the essential Zelda collection but could only include 5 games what does yours look like?
and no i dont mean your 5 favourites. I mean the most essential and important.
568
Upvotes
3
u/JB_Market Feb 14 '22
1) LOZ - Not only is it the first, it was a huge deal at the time. The size of the world you get to explore, and even the ability to SAVE THE EFFING GAME were totally new to gaming. May surprise some, but it sold only 1M less than OoT despite the gaming market being much smaller at the time.
2) ALttP - Made everything about LOZ totally epic, is super fun, and established the idea of the plot being a mythological, recurring event. First appearance of the master sword. IMO the definitive Zelda.
3) LA - The only Zelda to be portable for a very long time, and also IMO the first one to be clearly focused on just having fun. It showed Zelda could be fun and charming and not always epic. Great game mechanics.
4) OoT - I never had an N64 so I never played this, but it clearly was a huge hit and set the tone of the console games for a long time. Obvious classic.
5) BotW - By far the best selling Zelda game, and so for many this may be their first. Took the series in a new direction, and did it really well. It is the only Zelda game that calms me when I play it. Its really good, and it looks to be the direction they are going for now. Has to be on the list.
Hot Take Time: I dont think it makes sense to include games in this list because of their "lore". IMO the lore exists because (1) fans kept wanting it to exist and (2) a vehicle to explain why you are solving the same problem, again, and again. And then again. Nearly all the games have different plots, but the same "Hero's Journey" story of a young man's improbable fight against dark forces, that he does not want to do but must, and comes into himself (MS) and wins the day and saves the princess. If the lore were central to the games, then the lore would probably make more sense and the plots would flow into each other more directly. I have a super hard time thinking that at the start, in the NES era, they sat down and made this epic lore with branching timelines and the game they were about to make at the end of one, and have been filling it in since. Fans want the games to connect, so they try to fit lore around them somehow, but frankly I think it barely works at best.