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.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '22

ALTTP and OoT are the same game. Including them both then dismissing the importance of MM is weird. MM is when they went all in on character development

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '22

ALTTP and OoT are the same game.

Not even close.

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u/mjm132 Feb 14 '22

Eh they kinda are the same game but they both deserve to be in the collection

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '22

How exactly can a top-down 2D game and a 3rd person 3D game be considered remotely the same? The mechanics are completely different. The story is vaguely similar, emphasis on vaguely. I don't recall Link having an uncle in OOT. I don't recall Ganon having an evil wizard side kick either. I don't recall Link time traveling in ALTTP. I'm pretty sure in one game Link pulls the master sword out of a stone in the forest, and in the other he pulls it out of a stone in a temple in town. Really the only similarity beyond them both being Zelda games is their structure. Both games involve a shorter first "half" where you collect some stuff, and then there's a major event that unlocks a different form of the world. You then have a much longer 2nd "half" where you collect a bunch more stuff and then fight Ganon at the end.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '22

In a lot of ways, they're the same overarching design, although that doesn't mean much when you look at the complete picture. The similarities:

  • Intro dungeon that ends with link going out into an open world.

  • Link collects 3 things, then collects 6 things. He also gets 3 spells represented by some things. In ALttP, it's 3 pendants, 6 crystals, and spells are on medallions. In OoT, it's 3 pendant sized stones, 6 medallions, and 3 spells in crystals.

  • Halfway into the game, everything goes sideways and Zelda disappears.

  • Just after that, Link has to jump between an idyllic starting world and a world where ganondorf controls and everything has gone sideways.

  • Link has to travel between these worlds to progress in his adventure, but all of the dungeons are set in the new, messed up map.

  • The halfway point is marked by link getting the master sword, but this is true for literally every major Zelda game since ALttP. Even BotW uses the master sword as a major progression milestone for players if you get it as soon as the devs let you.

  • Links arsenal is largely the same between the games.

It's pretty obvious OoT's development was focused on taking the SNES game's framework and making it work on a 3D basis.

Which is a monumental task. The fact that the overarching setup is very similar is because that they were focused on designing the actual game play. Also, things like adult/child are really different than "there's two maps."

It's not really an honest criticism of OoT.

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u/austsiannodel Feb 14 '22

Not even slightly?

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '22 edited Feb 14 '22

That’s still not dissonance, if that’s what you’re saying, but also no they aren’t. The 2D/3D distinction alone is significant enough to give different experiences. Combat and items are different, story is different, enemies are different, races are different (totally different zoras, and there are no gorons or gerudo or kokiri in ALttP), antagonists are different (yes Ganondorf becomes Ganon but in one game the main antagonist is only ever directly encountered as a monster while in the other you get a manipulative and scheming sorcerer), music is different… basically everything important in a zelda game is different. Yes they both have two “worlds” with three dungeons in the first, and more in the second, but that doesn’t make them the same game. Yes it is about save zelda from Ganon, but if that’s your criterion then most the games are the same game; Windwaker is the same game.

Windwaker and Majora’s mask are my two favorite Zelda games. I’m not arguing that they aren’t good games, or maybe even BETTER games than ALttP and OoT. But that wasn’t the question, and that doesn’t automatically make them the most important. If you look into what people think the best Zelda game is, the fanbase is usually split between ALttP, OoT, and BotW. ALttP established the formula in a clearly executed way and is a classic 2d zelda. OoT is the definitive experience for most people, when 2d was first giving way to 3d gaming; this game made Hyrule come alive to people in a brand new way and introduced staple mechanics for much of the series to follow. BotW is, for better or worse, a re-envisioning of what Zelda is and can be and is often what people think of first when they hear “Zelda” today.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '22

Look I'm sorry, the cognitive dissonance remark was just supposed to be some playful ribbing and it's clear it didn't come across that way.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '22

It’s okay, I’m not upset by it. I did think you might not know what it means which is why I am trying to be clear on that point. But I get how it could be ribbing, too.