Favourite Zelda Game?
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I'm not much of a BOTW fan, I proffer very story heavy and linear games because without an interesting story I get rather bored with most games, doesn't matter how good the gameplay is, if I'm not invested in the characters and story I ain't gonna be finishing it. It's just the way I am and always have been, which is why Skyward Sword is definitely my favourite Zelda game. The more consistent story focus, lovely art style, really good and prominent music with gameplay I was perfectly happy with, I didn't hate it like some people. It also had a really good atmosphere that was one of the parts I really liked about BOTW and past Zelda games. It also gave me the opportunity to actually like and care about Zelda which I have never done before in any Zelda game. Which gave a lot of the game a real impact which I really liked. So yeah, Skyward Sword is my favourite Zelda game, coming from a guy who's only played Ocarina, Twilight, Windwaker, BOTW, SS and a handful of the handheld ones so I'm not overly experienced in the series.
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I find Skyward Sword to be incredibly dissapointing. Not because I had high expectations when I played it, but because of the amount of good that's in it. The characters are great, the music is on point, the story is fairly decent and there's a good variety in gameplay. There are a ton of fun minigames, there's a vast array of items to choose from and although the rest of the world leaves a lot to be desired Skyloft is very nicely fleshed out. The combat is also a lot of fun, especially the Girahim battles.
It's really sad that all of this is brought down by the clunky motion controls and repetition. There isn't a single aspect in SS that doesn't return at least once, generally more. The Imprisoned battles are a good example of this, as well as the fact that you have to go through the Forest Temple again after already having completed it once before.
My pick's going to be Twillight Princess, but I've also only played and finished TP and SS so my options are very limited.
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Probably a tie between BotW and Link Between Worlds, different reasons for each though. LBW was what got me into the series since Ocarina and Majora just didn't do it for me, and BotW has been so fun to just sink time into every day. LBW was a shorter experience and more direct, and BotW is more open and freeing. I love both styles so it works for me.
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Alright, don't kill me...... Twilight Princess.
I'm aware i'm in the minority that thinks this way, but I'll just give a bit of reasoning behind my preference.
I've always liked darker and more somber things in games, not to the extent of "edgy goth blackness life is pain" type of stuff, but sometimes I'll get really bored of seeing colorful characters hopping around on screen and pretending that everything is fine, going to defeat the evil wizard who is going to take over flower land, etc, so I'll go through a catalog of games from the early to mid 2000's, to get a taste of darkness. This is one of the reasons I enjoy Majora's Mask and further more, Twilight Princess so much. WW and BotW are awesome in their own, more expressive and colorful ways, but darker Zelda games just feel so right for the franchise.
While Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess are both dark games, the darkness is portrayed differently. Majora's Mask is dark in the sense that the plot is dark. A child, lost to the forest, was possessed and used as a puppet by a voodoo mask, who then plots to bring the moon crashing down over the land of Termina, killing the inhabitants, and wiping out everything. Talking to folks, they express their genuine concerns, regrets, and pleads, praying that this nightmare will soon end. It's not your average "Ganon/Ganondorf has the Triforce of power, he is evil, go stop him" plot line, and with the added time mechanic, there's an actual sense of urgency.
Twilight Princess is dark in the sense that the game is atmospherically dark. Like MM, there are dark elements to the story, but it pushes a darker, melancholy art style. This was in part due to the boom in realism that was seen in games during the early to mid 2000's, where every game used color pallets of darker, muckier browns and greys, which appealed more to teens and adults, as opposed to the colorful cartoons that were designed for kids. A good example is the world around you while Link is exploring the world of Twilight. Waking up after being ambushed by a group of goons, finding yourself in an unknown altered reality of your world, taking the being of a feral beast. Everything is black and dark, it's hard to see in areas, and the music helps to set this tone of uncertainty, as you wander the lands of shadow. Twilight Princess's dark atmosphere isn't evil however, as much as it is sad. There is unsettling music, and the world is all plagued in darkness, but it doesn't feel like the world is dark BECAUSE it's evil. An evil has caused the darkness to spread, but the darkness was already a world of it's own, the Twilight. It hadn't conflicted with the light world before Zant came along, and the Twili beings were peaceful, and didn't have any negative desires. When you're riding around in Hyrule field at night, it gives a saddening feeling, and doesn't try to seem evil, just still, and calm.
Aside from atmosphere, Twilight Princess strays away from the Ganon formula, as Majora did, in favor of a new, unique evil force. In Twilight Princess, Zant is the villain you are greeted to, and is shown to be a dark, cunning, villain. He overthrows Midna, and seeks to take over Midna's rightful place as ruler of the Twilight realm. So he turns the Twili people against Hyrule, attacks the castle, and vows to plunge to world into a state of eternal Twilight. Like Skull kid and Majora, this is a nice change up, and stays true to the title of the game; The Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess, Midna being that Twilight Princess. It is sad that the story could have been a bit better however, if Zelda and Ganondorf were removed completely, as they were in MM. The royal feud between Midna and Zant could've been a fine story on it's own, but nope, Zelda and Ganondorf were shoehorned into the game. Zant would have felt like a much stronger and independent villain, had he not been under the influence of Ganondorf. Up until the end, he was a collected and presumably intelligent antagonist, who was revealed to be insane when you finally come toe to toe with him. Instead of Ganondorf showing up and being like "Hey, I'm here now, you failed, so I'll take over" (I know he was shown to be in the game through the flashback of his banishment) Zant's craziness could have caused even more destruction, and after beating him once, he grows stronger in power through the forces of Twilight, and becomes a much larger threat. Same thing with Zelda. If Zelda had died permanently after healing Midna, her death would have been more meaningful, and had a bigger impact. But no, Zelda came back at the end, because something something she had a light bow.
I feel like if I keep going on about my feelings about this game, I'll just bore most people to death, so I'll leave it here. Sorry for the overuse of words like "dark", It's just my way of trying to get the point across. I acknowledge that Twilight has many flaws, and even though It's seen as an edgy Ocarina of time to most, it stands as my favorite Zelda game.
Maybe that's just because TP was my first Zelda game.
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Ocarina of Time has always been my favorite mainly because I found it to be the easiest to pick up and play at the time. I just thought it was much easier for me to get into as well compared to other ones I have like Majora's Mask and Link to the Past (those games are pretty good too of course). Considering buying Twilight Princess for GameCube as I have been getting my Zelda spark back as of late trying to beat Wind Waker after a 1-year hiatus from after beating both Earth and Wind temples.
So hey how about that Link's Awakening remake huh? Should have been called Link's RE Awakening and that was most definitely a missed opportunity. Hopefully they remake the Oracle of Ages and Seasons games that would blow my mind.
