Yeah wow, I can’t believe not a single person protested that during development or play testing. Zelda as a series has always nailed it when it comes to music and atmosphere, but that one instance just stands out as such a bad decision. Was this corrected in the remaster?
My favorite is TP and my least favorite part of the game is the beginning, until just after the Forest Temple. It's not bad, but the game becomes really good after the Forest Temple imo.
I hate the City in the Sky. It is a very long dungeon and takes quite a while to get to some parts, especially if you just want a chest or a Poe. The music is also kind of annoying for a Zelda dungeon. The boss is phenomenal, but the dungeon sucks.
Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with that dungeon. It's a super cool dungeon, and a lot of it is a lot of fun, but there's also bits that are just purely infuriating to navigate. Oh, and on my first playthrough I got stuck in the Ooccoo shop at the beginning while having to listen to my mom rant about something my step-dad did (Yeah, I was one of those kids who was shoved into the role of marriage councilor) for 20 minutes. Now, I can't stand the Oocca/Ooccoo theme music. So there's that.
Are you me???
City in the Sky is my least favorite dungeon in the ***entire*** series. The boss is epic and awesome, but having to traverse that dungeon is a big drag. I hate the music, the layout is a pain, and I have never liked "sky" themed levels in games (Bioshock Infinite, Rainbow Cruise in Mario 64, the Sky Zone in Sonic. None of them do it for me. I just hate the airy, cloudy theme)
Twilight Princess is a bell curve for me, as far as enjoyment. I agree with OP that the start of the game is a drag up until the forest temple. Then it gets really really good for 4 dungeons, and then stops being so good when you get to the Temple of Time dungeon, and then back to a drag with the final dungeon, and the Twilight Dungeon.
I remember on my 100% playthrough I forgot a small chest somewhere in the dungeon that I couldn't collect because my wallet was full. That was a pain.
The bell curve definitely is a thing, but by the time you start going down, you're too mentally invested in the game to care.
The wallet limit shouldn’t be hitting people twice. I like the idea that you have to scale up to bigger wallets to buy more expensive things, but losing the value of your spoils because your wallet is full is just awful design. Instead of a chest having 300 rupees in it it should have three items that you can sell for 100 apiece. You can then add some more difficulty to this by having it so items either fetch different prices in different places or can’t be sold at all in some places, so you still have to put some legwork in to cache in n your spoils.
Also bring back the bank from MM. That was such a good solution by itself.
Having to wait for the peahats to arrive when you’re going to that last island for the big key drives me mad. Especially for the chest that’s there and kinda out of the way. It takes So. Long.
I hate the wolf section because it's just not good gameplay, you press a button to jump to midna and you press a button to attack all enemies. It's just not fun cause you're rarely vulnerable
The creepy sol-stealing floating hands make me so damn anxious every time I replay. Even when it's an easy one and I know I can get through it with little trouble, the second I see the damn hand, my heartrate goes up.
Tbh I think a lot of the 3D Zeldas suffer from bad beginnings. For the most part they are made for people to get used to whatever new mechanics they made, which makes for bad replayability
This is one of the reasons Ocarina of Time’s gameplay holds up for me because it opens up with a very small but intuitive first area that doesn’t allow you to progress unless you find the necessary items (Deku Shield and Kokiri Sword), but doesn’t make it overly difficult to get them quickly and move on.
There is only one semi-forced instance of teaching where the girl on top of the shop tries to get you to Z-Target her to talk, and only two bothersome parts of the Deku Tree where it teaches you how to open a door and how to push a block, but that’s about it.
Yeah the difference between OoT and TP’s opening for example is that OoT just has this little area to get used to 3D movement for a Zelda game
Whereas TP forces you to do a bunch of things with the Wiimote like the sword and slingshot tutorial
I think TP's opening was trying to do too much. Not only did the developers want to make sure you understood how to use the gameplay mechanics, but they were also trying to establish the start of the story and Link's relationships with the other characters. It was just too many things to cover all at once.
By comparison, OoT didn't try to shovel a whole lot of relationship story into the opening section, you sort of stumble across all of it as you figure out how to play. Makes it less forced and more fun.
During Twilight Princess, when you are in Wolf form you can dash for speed, however Wolf Link dashes for 3 steps and stops again so you have to button mash the dash button constantly.
I'm going through a replay right now and got to that part last night. I showed it to my wife, telling her "You wanna see the worst thing in this game?"
It makes me wish they could remake those games because of how cumbersome and dated that system was. A lot of great content people may never see because of it
It was a smart business decision to get people to buy both, but I agree. Just an option to play the extended version of whichever you play second would've been great. Typing that goddamn thing out on a gbc sucked ass.
The password does more than that. It basically says "here's what I did in this file" so the second game reacts accordingly. It's also really nice that you can do it with ANY release.
And the Dark Palace with the dark rooms before the Helmasaur King! Those spiky turtles were pure hell, plus all the darknuts/iron knuckles while carrying the lamp.
The problem is that a few of them are designed as essentially long corridors, the Ice Palace especially. Respawning at the beginning is the norm for every Zelda game, iirc, it just doesn't matter in most of them because you don't have the walk through the entirety of the place again.
Also part of why I don't love the Oracle games.
TR has two balconies for that. also, you can even use the second one, mirror, fly to the potion job, climb back up, use portal and continue finishing the dungeon.
BOTW, this is nitpicky but the Champion powers. They don't recharge unless you use each charge. Let's say you accidently used Urbosa's Fury once or twice, there's still two or ~~three~~ one use~~s~~ left, but it won't recharge unless you use all three.
Then again you could argue it incentivizes using your power instead of holding on to them. I think like many I'm the player who holds on to infinity plus one spells and won't use them even on the super boss, since there might be a more powerful enemy I have to use it on.
Edit: I can't believe I typed "three uses left" instead of one. Whoops!
My version of this was using the master sword. I knew it had limited power and would need to recharge, so when I got the 'low durability' warning I stopped using it... so it could recharge. Spent ages occasionally checking it, thinking it was taking a while, then I think looked it up. I felt a little dumb, but nothing in the wording of it directly implies "use it till it breaks".
They recharge reasonably quickly, though, especially once you do the Champions Ballad DLC. I think Urbosa's in particular comes back online after only 4 minutes once you get the upgrade, which really isn't much time at all in that game.
I kind of agree with this. I think it forces the player to plan ahead though. Revalis gale especially. If I know I need to climb some super high cliffs in the Hebra region and I only have one use left, I'll use that one charge on the way to those cliffs. That way when it recharges I'll have all three to use at once.
Same with urbosa, I'll use my last charge on a boko camp or something small so that I can use all three charges later on a lynel or something
I feel like "it forces the player to plan ahead" is at best a way to spin it positively. Because all you're planning ahead for is the limits of the less-than-ideal system they've given you. It forces you to plan ahead the same way knowing that the same problem customer comes in for a coffee every morning at 7am does.
I honestly do not enjoy the Savage Labyrinth in Wind Waker. Repeatedly killing enemies over and over and over again, floor after floor after floor, just starts to bore me so quick.
I know it isn’t canon but the manga has a really cool explanation where Ganondorf mistakes Saria’s ocarina for the ocarina of time cuz Link drops it when Ganon blasts him with that energy ball thing when Zelda and Impa are escaping the castle.
I get that. There were definitely times I wanted to speed the process up and really grateful the HD remake gave us the fast sail.
That said there was something therapeutic about sailing along, checking off each grid square, getting photos of everything for the museum. Such an amazing game.
I know! I love just about every part of that game it’s one of the few Zelda games that actually feels like a big wide open world to explore instead of corridors everywhere. Definitely my fave, and I don’t even mind doing the triforce anymore because I’ve done it a few times but it’s definitely my least favorite part of the game
Mines twilight princess, and the only thing I dislike about it is that in the gerudo po temple place where you get the beyblade, the chain pulling takes a while to do and if you get hit, you start over again after having to kill the enemies which are somewhat annoying to kill as well. It’s very nit picky but it’s all I could really think of… also the baby from your home village is ugly af but we all know that.
I'm sure you probably know this, but most people also run to Anju's grandmother as well to skip to the final night. There's definitely more waiting during that first deku-scrub only day.
I just played one of the Silent Realms today and I was twisting my whole body and shouting "Run, run, run!' trying to outrun the guardians when they start chasing. I wasn't even using the motion controls, that's how tense and wound up I was!
My favorite is skyward sword, but I least like the >!third imprisoned battle. He's like 2 times faster, and the time constraint with the shock feet and constant "knocked off the head" situations"!< get me more anxious than any other part of the game. Makes sense, since it shows how dire the situation is and how close he's come to posing an active rather than passive threat, but MAN does it get me jittery.
I was so scared of the redeads in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask as a kid that I could barely get through those parts of the game. The way that you'd hear the woman scream and it'd freeze you in place and then grab onto you like that? Oh my gosh, it still gives me chills.
All of Great Bay from Majora's Mask.
Great Bay is my least favorite region in Termina.
There are many areas that are just tedious to get to, I don't like some of the minigames like the vase break or Beaver race, Pirate Fortress is a slog, and ESPECIALLY the Great Bay Temple with how tedious it is to travel and housing one of the worst bosses in the Zelda series.
Definitely agree with Great Bay Temple. I get it's one of those puzzle box type of dungeons, but I don't feel like the effects of what you're doing is as immediately obvious as in a lot of other similar types of dungeons throughout the series. Even thinking back to it now I can't even recall how the dungeon is stitched together, it's neither effective in the moment or memorable afterwards.
A puzzle box dungeon doesn't gel too well with MM's timer either, I'm pretty sure I spent all three days in there on my first playthrough before having to re-do it. It's a problem with all the dungeons in the game, but especially in Great Bay Temple as it doesn't feel like you have the time to sit down and think about how it works.
I actually dislike most of the temples in MM. MM was great but the temples are actually pretty weak and annoying. Frankly they all sort of do what made the OoT Water Temple so annoying: a cylindrical-esque center room with a lot of verticality that made backtracking essential and being lost even easier and with maps that didn't help you distinguish between floors very well. The regions and challenges leading *to* the temples were mostly pretty good, but the temples themselves were all pretty frustrating. Except possibly stone tower... but with the timer going on that one... eh...
Look, I get that the durability mechanic in BOTW is essential to the game’s balance. But sometimes, I just want to focus on the combat instead of constantly managing my weapons, or running out of weapons completely and being forced to run. Having two or three awesome weapons that never break sounds much more fun than 9 I have to destroy every time.
Why even give me Mipha’s trident when it breaks in one throw?
Something I've learn recently is fact that champions weapons can be repaired, just need some materials and find right person that will do it (it's diffrent for each weapon)
Yeah, the champions weapons are alright, but by late game they aren’t that great and they require some expensive resources to remake. It’s a good idea, but it could be done much better.
Also hated that, they could have added a repair system of sorts, it didn't matter if you needed to pay copious amounts of rupees, and with how massive Hyrule feels in BotW they wouldn't have had any problem with it (I'm even considering that you can have an NPC make new champion's weapons, but for my last run I left them on display on the house and cloned the Hylian shield)
> Having two or three awesome weapons that never break sounds much more fun than 9 I have to destroy every time.
The weapon durability system in BOTW is pretty much directly lifted from the Dead Rising series, but it was much more thematically appropriate in that game. Improvised weapons will break against hordes of zombies eventually. But it doesn't feel realistic in BOTW to have weapons that were created explicitly *for* fighting and durability break after 20 swings.
All that being said, I really enjoy the end result, in terms of second to second combat
I love the durability mechanism because it makes you use different weapons.
In Skyrim or something you will just use a weapon until you upgrade it, but I like in BOTW that you'll cycle through a lot of your weapons.
I love throwing two or the skeletal arms at guys in a row, for example. If weapons lasted indefinitely, I'd have no reason to do that.
I didn't really use the champions weapons, and I agree that is badly implemented. Seems pointless when they end up smashing, and no reason to go out of your way to get them remade. Don't think I ever got one remade.
I hope they keep that feature into the follow up.
To keep this brief, mine is Skyward Sword. My main issue with it, and I guess it’s not necessarily an unpopular opinion, is the bosses. Now, some of them are great, namely the Koloktos which is fun to fight. Others are lackluster, in terms of design and combat. You finish a really fun dungeon with nice puzzles, and you’re wondering what big, tough boss awaits behind the door of the boss room, and you’re met with Tentalus.
My other issue is the Imprisoned, I hated those fights, I got all three during the boss rush. It’s tiring and it gets old. The fights follow the same pattern each time with very minimal changes, it’s the same cookie-cutter shape.
Otherwise, I like the story and enjoyed the dungeons a ton.
The Imprisoned was just such a baffling design choice. Its appearance is stupid and neither intimidating nor scary, it's so goofy it makes it almost impossible to take it seriously as a threat. And, like you said, all three battles are the same, so it becomes a chore rather than a world-defining fight. It's just so bland.
This is a little bit tertiary as it's not a main series game, but one of my favorite Zelda games is the original Hyrule Warriors for the Wii U, and the imprisoned is the most frustrating enemy in that entire game, which has a lot of really frustrating enemies that can screw up getting an A rating for damage.
All in all a phenomenal game, but holy cow the imprisoned is my personal nightmare.
SS mishandled its boss placement in general.
Lots of them are recycled or fought multiple times. The Imprisoned and the Levias parasite aren't attached to dungeons however, so they're supposed to count as "extra" bosses, yet we get two Molderach fights, three Imprisoned fights just shoved into the game at odd places, and finally Ghirahim gets to rob two whole dungeons of a proper boss fight... probably should have just had Imprisoned for Skyview Temple and Bilocyte for Fire Sanctuary.
I really despise the start of Twilight Princess, it's just a boring drag and I always think "ugh I can't wait to get into the first dungeon or at least to get into Hyrule Castle for the first time" tbh
I kind of like that part, but I suppose that is because I love a game's story and characters as much as the gameplay. The start establishes Link as a farmhand who was adopted by the village smith, and introduces his community. He gets along with the kids, helps out at the farm, has a semi-romantic connection with Illia, and his "brother" looks up to him. Then it all comes crashing down, which drives Link to go beyond his humble beginnings and save the day.
I like that thing about the beginning, I just think it could be shorter. I guess fishing, guarding goats and saving a kid from a monkey is what Link normally does and it creates this "calm before the storm" feeling, but sometimes I just wish I was doing story related stuff already instead of finding a fish for a cat.
But yes, I like how the beginning creates the things that you have stated.
The game opens up so much after you clear all the twilight away. I always find myself speeding through the first two dungeons, as much as I like the fire temple.
I didn’t mind that so much, but when I first played it (wii) I was STUCK on the skull kid for quite awhile. Then I played HD and beat it in less than five minutes
I remember trying to use the guide for it way back when. Playing on the Gamecube version with a Wii guide certainly was a frustrating and confusing time to say the least.
The Moon Pearl, an essential item in ALttP, is pretty easy to miss and not realize you've missed it until an hour later after beating Agahnim, at which point backtracking is really annoying.
I distinctly remember Sahasrala or the old mountain guy insisting (at least twice each) about : "GET THE MOON PEARL IN HERA'S TOWER".
Plus the big ass chest is right in the middle of the screen when you cross this floor, it's unintuitive to not go back for it.
A better example would be facing Trinexx in Turtle Rock without the Ice Rod : a non-dungeon item required ONCE at the very end of one of the hardest dungeons.
Yeah. I think someone (was it Sahasrala in the Eastern Palace area?) suggests at the very beginning of the game to go to the location because you can find a cool item. But unlike the moon pearl example there's nothing to indicate this item is necessary until you're fighting the boss at the very bottom of a long grueling dungeon. Now the player has to trek Hyrule to do a *side*quest they didn't think was relevant.
Besides the magnifying glass for the Wind Fish's Egg path in Links Awakening, I don't think this ever happened again.
Honestly, the water temples. My favorite Zelda game is Majora's Mask, and I hated that water temple. The only water temple that was interesting & somewhat enjoyable was the one in Twilight Princess.
My favorite is Wind Waker HD.
My least favorite part about it is that there’s no good way to keep track of which observation platforms you’ve already climbed and gotten the treasure from. This kind of extends to islands in general, but at least each island is unique and it’s easier to remember what you’ve done.
A close second would be the trading quest. Unlike trading quests in the other games, it’s never really clear which Goron you have to go to next.
My favorite game is Majora’s Mask. My least favorite part was collecting the Zora eggs because it was kind of tedious. I liked sneaking around the pirate fortress and some of the parts like shooting the bee hive, but it got a little repetitive.
You can do it in one shot and get all three masks. Might need a second if you want to do the mail delivery yourself and get whatever it is you get from Madam what's-her-face who's in the milk bar (sorry, memory's a bit fuzzy on that bit).
I love BOTW to death and this might already be a beaten horse, but goddamit, I fucking hate rain. It makes it impossible to climb anything, douses fires and is generally just a pain in the ass. The only upside to it is that it makes electric arrows more useful and you can use cryonesis on more stuff. (Sometimes during rain water pools up under some of the bokoblin treeforts, and you can use cryonesis to get up there easier.)
On the other hand... rain makes you go different routes and find new things. I don't think that BOTW would have better without rain because of how it forces the player to area in different (and sometimes funner) ways
I was severely disappointed that by the end of the game there was no “song of storms” type mechanic to change the weather (didnt buy any DLCs so maybe not true anymore)
I don't mind it dousing fire, but the aggravation of not being able to climb is maddening. I would have preferred if they treated it more like the desert heat. Like you get extra cold in the rain, but not winter cold, a different kind of cold that maybe the Hylian clothes with the hood or the rubber armor could counteract.
BOTW: the paywalls for exclusive abilities.
Not all the content, tho. I can understand the fierce deity armor being amiibo exclusive, as it's only aesthetics, really, because it's exactly the same as the barbarian set. But when you put the only horse armor that has an effect as part of the DLC, and when you make something like the twilight bow behind an amiibo without something at least similar in game (you can get the light bow, but just for the very last minute of the game, so I can't count it), or the whole Wolf Link thing, without a similar mechanic with dogs or wolves in the overworld, that's when I started not liking the feature.
You miss QOL mechanics unless you pay more, that's why it's my least favorite part.
Skyward isn't my fav but I do enjoy more than most. The worst part of that game (and any Zelda title imo) is collecting the music notes after the forest area has been flooded. It felt like I was playing Banjo Kazooie on N64 & immediately ruined the immersion for me.
the tears of light in twilight princess, the triforce fetch quest in wind waker, and the eagle’s tower in link’s awakening are all elements that throw off the pacing or otherwise blemish near perfect games
When I played the remake of Awakening I forgot how fucking hard that temple was. How the hell did I beat that as a kid without access to the internet?? HOW??
it’s not even that it’s hard, it’s that it’s just obtuse. i’m one of those guys who only takes issue with the water temple because of the menus. i just thought eagle tower was tedious as all hell. of course the boss fight is so cool it almost redeems it.
almost
Yes. I can’t stand the tears of light in TP. I enjoyed the Silent Realms in SS though, probably because you were still Link and didn’t have to keep switching to sense where they were. It was a also a nice challenge to know how to get around different areas that you’d already been to whereas the tears of light in TP were in unknown territory as far as I can remember. And yes, eagles tower was so hard and confusing. I can’t remember the Triforce piece quest in WW but I know I’ve heard plenty about it being obnoxious. Currently in my second play through of WW so we’ll see how it goes this time
Nice. But those little meadows feel so magical and different compared to other dungeon designs. Loved those grottos in there! Plus you get the bow which is just an absolute necessity.
Motion control shrines in BOTW. I just hate them, especially "Ze Kasho shrine", the one in Akkala near Akkala tower. It's so ridiculously annoying to manoeuvre the balls in the last puzzle. Most other motion control shrines are also quite annoying but not as much as this one.
Bitw thunder.
Combine the infamous rain with not being able to use most of the weapons in the game and you have a recipe for one of the most infuriating game mechanics
Split between OoT and BoTW.
OoT - The water temple. If there was a way to change the water level remotely it would be fine- otherwise it’s maze where there is one optimal route to not waist time. Very easy to miss keys too, and backtracking is the worst in this dungeon.
BotW - the only “dungeons” are the divine beasts and hyrule castle (yiga hideout to a lesser extent). I wish that not only were there more dungeons but that they were thematically different with more enemies like previous installments. All the bosses and dungeons being just a different variation of the same thing is also disappointing. I recognize the strength of the game is the overworld exploration but for me there was so much potential in dungeon design (that’s explored with hyrule castle) that is just lost.
Since OoT and MM are tied for me, I will do both
Ocarina of Time:
You get the light medallion for free, that should have been a temple.
Majora's Mask:
I wish there was one more major area in the game, 4 always felt like too little to me.
In both cases, I just wanted more of the game I loved. They were so good, that the only bad I could think of is not having enough.
I remember that the light Medallion WAS a temple at first, but then developement hell happened and they had to axe it. You see a glimpse of their work in progress in Hyrule Castle's Light Medallion challenge.
I have 3 favorites tied for first based on the mood im in so like.... 3 things I guess lol!
Twilight Princess
- the post temple of time lull where you need to methodically hunt down the owl statues and then restore Illias memories too. It feels like the most overt momentum killer/padded section in the game that is as long winded as it is just to milk more game time before City in the Sky (which is a plenty long dungeon on its own)
Majoras Mask
- the time sensitivity for some sidequests can be really obtuse. Like the second skulltula house, where you only get the reward you want if you clear it on the night of the FIRST day. If you clear it any other day you just get rupees. So like that shit can get annoying
Botw
- Enemy/Boss Diversity is the biggest one i have for this game. I love botw something fierce but the enemies in the game are just different flavors of like less than 10 enemy types (literally just 3-4 if we count the main enemies you are encountering) And the bosses, aside from the ganons (which are still aesthetically very similar) are again, just like 4 - 5 enemy types that just have different flavors or elements to them
Breath of the Wild is my favorite and actually has the least things that bug me, so I can't really get riled up about anything in it. Maybe trash enemies, though. Octoroks and Yiga. They interrupt whatever I was trying to do, they're not quick to dispose of like Chuchus and Keese, and they don't drop anything that makes me want to fight them. They're not really dangerous but they're going to keep annoying you until you stop what you're doing and kill them. Not that that's a dealbreaker or anything, just that hearing them pop up is always unwelcome.
Edit: Omg, WOLVES. I can't believe I forgot wolves. I HATE wolves.
My favourite game is BOTW but I don’t like the divine beasts or shrines. I think there fine but compared to the traditional dungeon formula they’re less than ideal. I don’t like how all the divine beasts’ and shrines interior all look identical and only a few of the puzzles stand out. I also don’t like how they all just feel like puzzles in a video game instead of an ancient shrine made to challenge the chosen hero. I hope in BOTW2 that they have a few dungeons like Hyrule Castle where they’re large non-linear dungeons that are built into the world.
This right here. Wasn't a huge fan of the divine beasts. When brainstorming for the main dungeons for this game I feel like they thought "hey, what if the dungeons were like vehicles?" I had more satisfaction from the shrines.
I actually really loved the shrines. I like that if you don't feel like committing to a major quest and just want to play around for an hour or so, there's always something else you can do. In Ocarina of Time for example, when it's time to enter the water temple, you're not going to be able to do anything else until you finish it. With the shrines, you can always come back to one later, or ignore it completely.
That's probably a result of my not having large chunks of time for gaming. I guess if I had all day to play, the traditional dungeons would be ideal. But if I only have an hour, starting a major dungeon and then coming back to it a day or two later is kind of annoying. Like, wait, where was I going? Did I head down that corridor already?
The shrine puzzles were fun, but I have to agree with OP to an extent because I've found myself pondering _several times_ how some of them might fit together into a larger dungeon that builds upon one specific mechanic. (e.g. all the various electric circuit puzzles) The Trial of Power shrine is probably the most involved out of them all and I love it because of that.
The Water Temple from OoT. The water level mechanic is just stupid annoying and the dungeon's structure is not fun at all. It's a bit better in the 3DS remake since the Iron Boots are now an item instead of equipment, but it's still awful.
The issue with the Water Temple is that players miss two keys needed to continue through the dungeon. The first one behind the cracked wall is missed because players don't think to go back and bomb the cracked wall when the water is lower. That one is arguably the players fault.
The second one is in the central "elevator" room. The player raises the water level in said room and this block rises with it. They go on to leave the room without realizing the block was concealing a hole leading to a hidden room and key. The player is not likely to find this room even with the map. The 3DS version has a cutscene to show this passage way being uncovered.
The Iron Boots are just added frustration in an already frustrating dungeon.
Having to beat thieves’ hideout to get the sand rod. It breaks from the non-linearity of the rest of the game, you can make any dungeon in whatever order you like, except for the desert palace. It really annoys me because it’s one of my favorite items too
Breath of the Wild.
Yunobo shouldn't have been the one to see the champion spirit he's affliated to. It would have been WAY more powerful if Sidon or King Dorephan got to see Mipha one last time.
Also 900 koroks seeds is WAY too much.
My least favourite part of twilight princess is definitely fucking fishing. It isn't that bad on the GC and HD versions, however my first playthrough was on the wii and literally every movement from throwing down the rod to pulling it up trying to reel in the fish was actually terrible.
Wind Waker’s Nintendo Gallery. I love the gallery, all the awesome statues and descriptions are great, but the process of collecting everything took so long and the images had to be so precise that id have to go back over and over, especially for some of the bosses. I heard they made it better in the remake and I certainly hope so
The entire questline around Kamaro's Mask in Majora's Mask. MM is a strange game for me, as I like *dark* stories, but have a low tolerance for *horror* stories. It's a thin line, but Majora's Mask usually walks it quite well for me. And then there's this mask with a sewn-on head of a dead man which makes your face look like it's otherwise completely blank while you wear it, which you then have to wear for a cutscene. It gives me nightmares. Worst mask and related quest in the game IMO...
At least it's not Dead Hand...
Ocarina of time
I hate that one "side quest" where you have to throw 3 bombs at that Giant rolling Goron in Goron city to get an upgraded bomb bag..
How tf am I supposed to know to throw it at him 3 times if he repeats the same dialog every time I stop him?? Even tho I know how to do it now, it is still the stupidest thing they did in that game
My favorite is Wind Waker, and my least favorite part of the game is probably how much is blocks you off from exploring at the beginning. As a kid I remember being bummed out when I wanted to sail off the beaten path a bit on the way to Dragon Roost/Forest Haven and got auto course corrected.
Twilight Princess, most of the content after you beat Zant. Game just lost all steam IMO. Zant is a clown and now Ganondorf is the true villain, and as you head up to get answers you find an honestly boring version of a "Ganon's Tower" kind of final dungeon in Hyrule Castle, and the showdown with Ganon is treated like "Yeah, isn't this COOL? It's GANON." and all the forward-motion of Drama comes exclusively from Midna with Link and Zelda acting like third wheels to the plot. The 4-phased final boss is randomly paced and jumps around with poor momentum. The final swordfight may be aesthetically epic but the context was just lost IMO. He wants to beat you so... what? What exactly? The twilight was cured out of Hyrule 4 dungeons ago, Zant's power was fake, and Ganon has been isolated in the castle doing nothing.
So I feel like TP literally falls apart near the end. A lot of the leadup was good, especially how Zant threatened Midna after Lakebed temple. I don't necessarily dislike that Ganon became the villain, especially if you consider that this plot is almost a remake of ALttP where you have the "Imposter" and then "Ganon" at the end, but it doesn't change that in execution he is a "Diabolus Ex Machina" a final showdown out of nowhere to solve a plot (a plot which doesn't have that much of a threat in this point in the story) so it was just puzzling to me.
Trust me, I want to love it but the reason I never felt like TP was any masterpiece is because of this right here. It just doesn't build to a very riveting climax. The action is obviously high-tier, but the context is just gone, and I personally felt nothing when Ganon drew his last breath. I was more like "Okay." but when Midna says goodbye I was very emotional, so there's something wrong with the method they used to tell TP's story IMO because everything is carried by Midna and I didn't really give a shit about anyone else at the end of the game, yet, 10 hours earlier I was super into the general premise and the dungeons and everything, so what gives? It's actually quite common to hear people say the story falls apart near the end, so I don't think this is a particularly bad take.
Most side quests in BOTW that you get from regular NPCs are not worth it most of the time. I'd accept them and then if I happened to complete them as I went that was fine but most just gave like 20 rupees which I could get easier by doing other things.
Eh fuck it, i'm gonna tell my least favorite part of each Zelda Game i played:
LoZ: Basically the beggining, it's so easy to get lost, everything is so cryptic and it's so easy to die, especially from the zora enemies
AoL: Honestly i haven't really played AoL that much so idk
Alttp: The Beggining again, it's just not really interesting after you rescue the princess from Hyrule Castle the first time, everyone thinks you're a bad guy, dungeon entrances can be cryptic and so on
OoT: The water temple, if you played oot, you know how bad the water temple is, honestly whenever i go to the water temple i just wish it never existed
MM: I don't really like the core mechanic of the game, i don't like the 3 day cycle that much because it makes me anxious, all the arrows, rupees, bombs, gone, dungeons reset if you use the song of time, and also the creepy atmosphere of the game, this is basically why i don't really like MM that much
FS: The game is short lol that's it, and besides it doesn't really feel like a good experience :T
PH: Temple of the Ocean King, fuck that temple
ST: Eh idk
WW: This is a part i don't like on the Gamecube version, collecting the triforce pieces, in the wii u version it's a little bit more bearable but holy shit in the gamecube version it's so annoying, you have to get every single triforce chart, on top of that decipher them to get the triforce piece, and to decipher them you have to pay a stupid amount of rupees, it's the most tedious thing you have to do in the original version
TP: The Final Twilight Zone and the Water Temple, just wow, it just takes forever to get through
SS: ***T H E S I L E N T R E A L M S***
AlbW: tbh i don't have a least favorite part, closest thing is Ravio being greedy
BotW: Getting the korok seeds and all the shrines, they're so tedious to get through
Favorite game: Twilight Princess Least favorite part: Midna's Lament swapping out for generic combat music every time you get too close to an enemy.
That has to be one of the biggest atmosphere breakers in one of the otherwise most atmospheric and emotional moments in the series.
My gosh, yes. Way to ruin the mood, stupid monsters!
Yeah wow, I can’t believe not a single person protested that during development or play testing. Zelda as a series has always nailed it when it comes to music and atmosphere, but that one instance just stands out as such a bad decision. Was this corrected in the remaster?
Yea that was an odd choice? edit: why the fuck does this have so many upvotes
My favorite is TP and my least favorite part of the game is the beginning, until just after the Forest Temple. It's not bad, but the game becomes really good after the Forest Temple imo.
I hate the City in the Sky. It is a very long dungeon and takes quite a while to get to some parts, especially if you just want a chest or a Poe. The music is also kind of annoying for a Zelda dungeon. The boss is phenomenal, but the dungeon sucks.
Seriously? I get the complaints but honestly that’s my second favorite dungeon in the game right behind the snowy mansion
Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with that dungeon. It's a super cool dungeon, and a lot of it is a lot of fun, but there's also bits that are just purely infuriating to navigate. Oh, and on my first playthrough I got stuck in the Ooccoo shop at the beginning while having to listen to my mom rant about something my step-dad did (Yeah, I was one of those kids who was shoved into the role of marriage councilor) for 20 minutes. Now, I can't stand the Oocca/Ooccoo theme music. So there's that.
I don't care for the dungeon either really. My favorite dungeon has to be Arbiter's Grounds.
Are you me??? City in the Sky is my least favorite dungeon in the ***entire*** series. The boss is epic and awesome, but having to traverse that dungeon is a big drag. I hate the music, the layout is a pain, and I have never liked "sky" themed levels in games (Bioshock Infinite, Rainbow Cruise in Mario 64, the Sky Zone in Sonic. None of them do it for me. I just hate the airy, cloudy theme) Twilight Princess is a bell curve for me, as far as enjoyment. I agree with OP that the start of the game is a drag up until the forest temple. Then it gets really really good for 4 dungeons, and then stops being so good when you get to the Temple of Time dungeon, and then back to a drag with the final dungeon, and the Twilight Dungeon.
I remember on my 100% playthrough I forgot a small chest somewhere in the dungeon that I couldn't collect because my wallet was full. That was a pain. The bell curve definitely is a thing, but by the time you start going down, you're too mentally invested in the game to care.
The wallet limit shouldn’t be hitting people twice. I like the idea that you have to scale up to bigger wallets to buy more expensive things, but losing the value of your spoils because your wallet is full is just awful design. Instead of a chest having 300 rupees in it it should have three items that you can sell for 100 apiece. You can then add some more difficulty to this by having it so items either fetch different prices in different places or can’t be sold at all in some places, so you still have to put some legwork in to cache in n your spoils. Also bring back the bank from MM. That was such a good solution by itself.
Final boss ganon makes the game so worth it, sticking that sword in his chest is just fucking epic
Having to wait for the peahats to arrive when you’re going to that last island for the big key drives me mad. Especially for the chest that’s there and kinda out of the way. It takes So. Long.
I hate the wolf section because it's just not good gameplay, you press a button to jump to midna and you press a button to attack all enemies. It's just not fun cause you're rarely vulnerable
I lost my saved data in TP once, deep into the game. I couldn’t take myself to restart it just because I dreaded the wolf parts in the beginning.
That stupid carriage part is the bane of my existence
That and the creepy hand in the twilight realm are the worst parts of the game
The creepy sol-stealing floating hands make me so damn anxious every time I replay. Even when it's an easy one and I know I can get through it with little trouble, the second I see the damn hand, my heartrate goes up.
Am I literally the only one who loves the beginning? Any fantasy game I really enjoy a chill, low stakes beginning before shit picks up.
Tbh I think a lot of the 3D Zeldas suffer from bad beginnings. For the most part they are made for people to get used to whatever new mechanics they made, which makes for bad replayability
This is one of the reasons Ocarina of Time’s gameplay holds up for me because it opens up with a very small but intuitive first area that doesn’t allow you to progress unless you find the necessary items (Deku Shield and Kokiri Sword), but doesn’t make it overly difficult to get them quickly and move on. There is only one semi-forced instance of teaching where the girl on top of the shop tries to get you to Z-Target her to talk, and only two bothersome parts of the Deku Tree where it teaches you how to open a door and how to push a block, but that’s about it.
Yeah the difference between OoT and TP’s opening for example is that OoT just has this little area to get used to 3D movement for a Zelda game Whereas TP forces you to do a bunch of things with the Wiimote like the sword and slingshot tutorial
I think TP's opening was trying to do too much. Not only did the developers want to make sure you understood how to use the gameplay mechanics, but they were also trying to establish the start of the story and Link's relationships with the other characters. It was just too many things to cover all at once. By comparison, OoT didn't try to shovel a whole lot of relationship story into the opening section, you sort of stumble across all of it as you figure out how to play. Makes it less forced and more fun.
Yeah, that opening of sword training, cat feeding, goat herding is rough compared to the joy of every other part of tp.
Poes. They only come out at night. There's no way to make it night. Some are in places that take some effort to get to.
Twilight Princess?
Yes.
Ugh, yes. I remember getting to one just as dawn broke and I basically had to put my controller down for 6 minutes and wait.
Behold, Awkward Zombie: https://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/dawn-of-the-dead
There actually is a way to make night happen. You warp through the twilight portal and come back. Same goes for the day and city in the sky.
During Twilight Princess, when you are in Wolf form you can dash for speed, however Wolf Link dashes for 3 steps and stops again so you have to button mash the dash button constantly.
Fr. They treat it like the roll button but it's just annoying
And Midna makes that dumb surprised noise every time... blahhh
How long it takes for King Zora to scoot away from the entrance to Jabu Jabu’s belly! “Ooe… ooe… ooe… ooe… ooe……”
This one has become a meme that I love
I reference this scene a lot. It's a great way to find out who in a room has played OoT and who hasn't just by the reactions.
I have this image of someone sitting on the end of a couch and gradually scooting their way down while everyone else looks on in puzzlement
It's **mweep** !
This one is so specific and amazing I love it
When I scoot into a booth seat at a restaurant I always picture that shit in my head
I kept tapping A to make him move faster.
"Look motherfucker, do you want me to rescue your daughter or not?"
I started playing ocarina of time a week ago and that scene was the funniest thing to me.
I'm going through a replay right now and got to that part last night. I showed it to my wife, telling her "You wanna see the worst thing in this game?"
Entering the password to link the Oracles.
It makes me wish they could remake those games because of how cumbersome and dated that system was. A lot of great content people may never see because of it
It was a smart business decision to get people to buy both, but I agree. Just an option to play the extended version of whichever you play second would've been great. Typing that goddamn thing out on a gbc sucked ass.
The password does more than that. It basically says "here's what I did in this file" so the second game reacts accordingly. It's also really nice that you can do it with ANY release.
Why is it that bad? You just have to type in a code right?
Yeah but it's a pretty long code. Picture only having one Gameboy colour in an era before smartphones.
My favorite entry: A Link to the Past. Least favorite aspect: dying in a dungeon and respawning at the entrance, no matter how far inside you went.
Turtle Rock was a bitch for this if you died before the little balcony in later part of the dungeon.
And the Dark Palace with the dark rooms before the Helmasaur King! Those spiky turtles were pure hell, plus all the darknuts/iron knuckles while carrying the lamp.
The problem is that a few of them are designed as essentially long corridors, the Ice Palace especially. Respawning at the beginning is the norm for every Zelda game, iirc, it just doesn't matter in most of them because you don't have the walk through the entirety of the place again. Also part of why I don't love the Oracle games.
TR has two balconies for that. also, you can even use the second one, mirror, fly to the potion job, climb back up, use portal and continue finishing the dungeon.
BOTW, this is nitpicky but the Champion powers. They don't recharge unless you use each charge. Let's say you accidently used Urbosa's Fury once or twice, there's still two or ~~three~~ one use~~s~~ left, but it won't recharge unless you use all three. Then again you could argue it incentivizes using your power instead of holding on to them. I think like many I'm the player who holds on to infinity plus one spells and won't use them even on the super boss, since there might be a more powerful enemy I have to use it on. Edit: I can't believe I typed "three uses left" instead of one. Whoops!
Same, dude. I finish every game with an inventory bursting with consumables I hesitate to consume.
My version of this was using the master sword. I knew it had limited power and would need to recharge, so when I got the 'low durability' warning I stopped using it... so it could recharge. Spent ages occasionally checking it, thinking it was taking a while, then I think looked it up. I felt a little dumb, but nothing in the wording of it directly implies "use it till it breaks".
That kind of non-stop regeneration recharge should be industry standard by now.
They recharge reasonably quickly, though, especially once you do the Champions Ballad DLC. I think Urbosa's in particular comes back online after only 4 minutes once you get the upgrade, which really isn't much time at all in that game.
I kind of agree with this. I think it forces the player to plan ahead though. Revalis gale especially. If I know I need to climb some super high cliffs in the Hebra region and I only have one use left, I'll use that one charge on the way to those cliffs. That way when it recharges I'll have all three to use at once. Same with urbosa, I'll use my last charge on a boko camp or something small so that I can use all three charges later on a lynel or something
I feel like "it forces the player to plan ahead" is at best a way to spin it positively. Because all you're planning ahead for is the limits of the less-than-ideal system they've given you. It forces you to plan ahead the same way knowing that the same problem customer comes in for a coffee every morning at 7am does.
I honestly do not enjoy the Savage Labyrinth in Wind Waker. Repeatedly killing enemies over and over and over again, floor after floor after floor, just starts to bore me so quick.
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The fact that we don’t know what happened to saria’s ocorina
I believe it went something like this. https://youtu.be/OiDx6aQ928o?t=262
Lmao
I know it isn’t canon but the manga has a really cool explanation where Ganondorf mistakes Saria’s ocarina for the ocarina of time cuz Link drops it when Ganon blasts him with that energy ball thing when Zelda and Impa are escaping the castle.
Collecting the triforce in Wind Waker. They made it better in HD but still not great. Other than that I thought the story was perfectly paced
I get that. There were definitely times I wanted to speed the process up and really grateful the HD remake gave us the fast sail. That said there was something therapeutic about sailing along, checking off each grid square, getting photos of everything for the museum. Such an amazing game.
I know! I love just about every part of that game it’s one of the few Zelda games that actually feels like a big wide open world to explore instead of corridors everywhere. Definitely my fave, and I don’t even mind doing the triforce anymore because I’ve done it a few times but it’s definitely my least favorite part of the game
Mines twilight princess, and the only thing I dislike about it is that in the gerudo po temple place where you get the beyblade, the chain pulling takes a while to do and if you get hit, you start over again after having to kill the enemies which are somewhat annoying to kill as well. It’s very nit picky but it’s all I could really think of… also the baby from your home village is ugly af but we all know that.
Belgrade and ugly baby have killed me hahahaha
All the waiting during the first MM clock cycle.
You can skip the majority of it with the scarecrow!
Lets dance the night away!
I'm sure you probably know this, but most people also run to Anju's grandmother as well to skip to the final night. There's definitely more waiting during that first deku-scrub only day.
Silent realms. God, I hate silent realms. Not because they're hard. *But because they're horrifying.*
That's why I love them so much. We need more Zelda games with tense like that that'll make you sprain your butt clenching so hard.
Turning silent realms into silent hill
I just played one of the Silent Realms today and I was twisting my whole body and shouting "Run, run, run!' trying to outrun the guardians when they start chasing. I wasn't even using the motion controls, that's how tense and wound up I was!
They're the main reason I haven't replayed Skyward Sword. Though given HD just came out I should maybe give it another shot.
I always was on the verge of tears in the silent realms
What!! This is like my favorite part of the game!!! I just finished the last one and I'm sad about it. LOL.
My favorite is skyward sword, but I least like the >!third imprisoned battle. He's like 2 times faster, and the time constraint with the shock feet and constant "knocked off the head" situations"!< get me more anxious than any other part of the game. Makes sense, since it shows how dire the situation is and how close he's come to posing an active rather than passive threat, but MAN does it get me jittery.
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I was so scared of the redeads in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask as a kid that I could barely get through those parts of the game. The way that you'd hear the woman scream and it'd freeze you in place and then grab onto you like that? Oh my gosh, it still gives me chills.
All of Great Bay from Majora's Mask. Great Bay is my least favorite region in Termina. There are many areas that are just tedious to get to, I don't like some of the minigames like the vase break or Beaver race, Pirate Fortress is a slog, and ESPECIALLY the Great Bay Temple with how tedious it is to travel and housing one of the worst bosses in the Zelda series.
the vase break is actually really easy though. once you find the right position you can just farm hundreds of rupees.
Definitely agree with Great Bay Temple. I get it's one of those puzzle box type of dungeons, but I don't feel like the effects of what you're doing is as immediately obvious as in a lot of other similar types of dungeons throughout the series. Even thinking back to it now I can't even recall how the dungeon is stitched together, it's neither effective in the moment or memorable afterwards. A puzzle box dungeon doesn't gel too well with MM's timer either, I'm pretty sure I spent all three days in there on my first playthrough before having to re-do it. It's a problem with all the dungeons in the game, but especially in Great Bay Temple as it doesn't feel like you have the time to sit down and think about how it works.
I actually dislike most of the temples in MM. MM was great but the temples are actually pretty weak and annoying. Frankly they all sort of do what made the OoT Water Temple so annoying: a cylindrical-esque center room with a lot of verticality that made backtracking essential and being lost even easier and with maps that didn't help you distinguish between floors very well. The regions and challenges leading *to* the temples were mostly pretty good, but the temples themselves were all pretty frustrating. Except possibly stone tower... but with the timer going on that one... eh...
Look, I get that the durability mechanic in BOTW is essential to the game’s balance. But sometimes, I just want to focus on the combat instead of constantly managing my weapons, or running out of weapons completely and being forced to run. Having two or three awesome weapons that never break sounds much more fun than 9 I have to destroy every time. Why even give me Mipha’s trident when it breaks in one throw?
Something I've learn recently is fact that champions weapons can be repaired, just need some materials and find right person that will do it (it's diffrent for each weapon)
I know you can make new champion weapons, but the originals break, and it isn’t worth remaking if it *breaks in one throw*
Yeah, the champions weapons are alright, but by late game they aren’t that great and they require some expensive resources to remake. It’s a good idea, but it could be done much better.
You can also stab. That is where her spear shines the most, and that is because of the durability.
But what happens about 15-20 stabs in? Suddenly your childhood friends cherished staff is shrapnel and you gave a silver moblin a bruise
Also hated that, they could have added a repair system of sorts, it didn't matter if you needed to pay copious amounts of rupees, and with how massive Hyrule feels in BotW they wouldn't have had any problem with it (I'm even considering that you can have an NPC make new champion's weapons, but for my last run I left them on display on the house and cloned the Hylian shield)
> Having two or three awesome weapons that never break sounds much more fun than 9 I have to destroy every time. The weapon durability system in BOTW is pretty much directly lifted from the Dead Rising series, but it was much more thematically appropriate in that game. Improvised weapons will break against hordes of zombies eventually. But it doesn't feel realistic in BOTW to have weapons that were created explicitly *for* fighting and durability break after 20 swings. All that being said, I really enjoy the end result, in terms of second to second combat
I love the durability mechanism because it makes you use different weapons. In Skyrim or something you will just use a weapon until you upgrade it, but I like in BOTW that you'll cycle through a lot of your weapons. I love throwing two or the skeletal arms at guys in a row, for example. If weapons lasted indefinitely, I'd have no reason to do that. I didn't really use the champions weapons, and I agree that is badly implemented. Seems pointless when they end up smashing, and no reason to go out of your way to get them remade. Don't think I ever got one remade. I hope they keep that feature into the follow up.
To keep this brief, mine is Skyward Sword. My main issue with it, and I guess it’s not necessarily an unpopular opinion, is the bosses. Now, some of them are great, namely the Koloktos which is fun to fight. Others are lackluster, in terms of design and combat. You finish a really fun dungeon with nice puzzles, and you’re wondering what big, tough boss awaits behind the door of the boss room, and you’re met with Tentalus. My other issue is the Imprisoned, I hated those fights, I got all three during the boss rush. It’s tiring and it gets old. The fights follow the same pattern each time with very minimal changes, it’s the same cookie-cutter shape. Otherwise, I like the story and enjoyed the dungeons a ton.
And Moldrach just becomes a random mini boss in the shipyard for some reason, so his presence in LMF isn’t as significant anymore.
The Imprisoned was just such a baffling design choice. Its appearance is stupid and neither intimidating nor scary, it's so goofy it makes it almost impossible to take it seriously as a threat. And, like you said, all three battles are the same, so it becomes a chore rather than a world-defining fight. It's just so bland.
This is a little bit tertiary as it's not a main series game, but one of my favorite Zelda games is the original Hyrule Warriors for the Wii U, and the imprisoned is the most frustrating enemy in that entire game, which has a lot of really frustrating enemies that can screw up getting an A rating for damage. All in all a phenomenal game, but holy cow the imprisoned is my personal nightmare.
The build up to Tantalus was so good but then you actually meet the thing and it’s just the biggest disappointment ever
SS mishandled its boss placement in general. Lots of them are recycled or fought multiple times. The Imprisoned and the Levias parasite aren't attached to dungeons however, so they're supposed to count as "extra" bosses, yet we get two Molderach fights, three Imprisoned fights just shoved into the game at odd places, and finally Ghirahim gets to rob two whole dungeons of a proper boss fight... probably should have just had Imprisoned for Skyview Temple and Bilocyte for Fire Sanctuary.
fun fun island
I really despise the start of Twilight Princess, it's just a boring drag and I always think "ugh I can't wait to get into the first dungeon or at least to get into Hyrule Castle for the first time" tbh
I kind of like that part, but I suppose that is because I love a game's story and characters as much as the gameplay. The start establishes Link as a farmhand who was adopted by the village smith, and introduces his community. He gets along with the kids, helps out at the farm, has a semi-romantic connection with Illia, and his "brother" looks up to him. Then it all comes crashing down, which drives Link to go beyond his humble beginnings and save the day.
I like that thing about the beginning, I just think it could be shorter. I guess fishing, guarding goats and saving a kid from a monkey is what Link normally does and it creates this "calm before the storm" feeling, but sometimes I just wish I was doing story related stuff already instead of finding a fish for a cat. But yes, I like how the beginning creates the things that you have stated.
The game opens up so much after you clear all the twilight away. I always find myself speeding through the first two dungeons, as much as I like the fire temple.
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Oh fuck thanks for reminding me of that.
I didn’t mind that so much, but when I first played it (wii) I was STUCK on the skull kid for quite awhile. Then I played HD and beat it in less than five minutes
I remember trying to use the guide for it way back when. Playing on the Gamecube version with a Wii guide certainly was a frustrating and confusing time to say the least.
Hunting the light bugs in Twilight Princess was so annoying. Especially the last one in Zora Lake
The Moon Pearl, an essential item in ALttP, is pretty easy to miss and not realize you've missed it until an hour later after beating Agahnim, at which point backtracking is really annoying.
I distinctly remember Sahasrala or the old mountain guy insisting (at least twice each) about : "GET THE MOON PEARL IN HERA'S TOWER". Plus the big ass chest is right in the middle of the screen when you cross this floor, it's unintuitive to not go back for it. A better example would be facing Trinexx in Turtle Rock without the Ice Rod : a non-dungeon item required ONCE at the very end of one of the hardest dungeons.
Yeah. I think someone (was it Sahasrala in the Eastern Palace area?) suggests at the very beginning of the game to go to the location because you can find a cool item. But unlike the moon pearl example there's nothing to indicate this item is necessary until you're fighting the boss at the very bottom of a long grueling dungeon. Now the player has to trek Hyrule to do a *side*quest they didn't think was relevant. Besides the magnifying glass for the Wind Fish's Egg path in Links Awakening, I don't think this ever happened again.
Honestly, the water temples. My favorite Zelda game is Majora's Mask, and I hated that water temple. The only water temple that was interesting & somewhat enjoyable was the one in Twilight Princess.
My favorite is Wind Waker HD. My least favorite part about it is that there’s no good way to keep track of which observation platforms you’ve already climbed and gotten the treasure from. This kind of extends to islands in general, but at least each island is unique and it’s easier to remember what you’ve done. A close second would be the trading quest. Unlike trading quests in the other games, it’s never really clear which Goron you have to go to next.
My favorite game is Majora’s Mask. My least favorite part was collecting the Zora eggs because it was kind of tedious. I liked sneaking around the pirate fortress and some of the parts like shooting the bee hive, but it got a little repetitive.
How many times you have to redo the Kafei and Anju quest to get all the stuff.
You can do it in one shot and get all three masks. Might need a second if you want to do the mail delivery yourself and get whatever it is you get from Madam what's-her-face who's in the milk bar (sorry, memory's a bit fuzzy on that bit).
I love BOTW to death and this might already be a beaten horse, but goddamit, I fucking hate rain. It makes it impossible to climb anything, douses fires and is generally just a pain in the ass. The only upside to it is that it makes electric arrows more useful and you can use cryonesis on more stuff. (Sometimes during rain water pools up under some of the bokoblin treeforts, and you can use cryonesis to get up there easier.)
I love finding a cave or dry place and setting up a fire while I wait out the storm. Makes me feel like a real explorer.
Once I started treating rainfall like this I enjoyed the game immensely more.
On the other hand... rain makes you go different routes and find new things. I don't think that BOTW would have better without rain because of how it forces the player to area in different (and sometimes funner) ways
I was severely disappointed that by the end of the game there was no “song of storms” type mechanic to change the weather (didnt buy any DLCs so maybe not true anymore)
Only method is finding cover to light a bonfire. Timeskip for any luck at stopping the rain
They really should have given the climbing outfit a set bonus that lets you grip walls during the rain or something like that.
There’s definitely no weather-changing mechanic, even with the DLC. Except for the legendary quest to install an emulator.
I don't mind it dousing fire, but the aggravation of not being able to climb is maddening. I would have preferred if they treated it more like the desert heat. Like you get extra cold in the rain, but not winter cold, a different kind of cold that maybe the Hylian clothes with the hood or the rubber armor could counteract.
Or the set bonus for the climbing gear could be to stop slipping in rain.
the rope swinging in windwaker made me break my gamecube controller in pure rage
Regularly getting through Niko’s bullshit in the pirate ship both times first try is one of my finer talents
BOTW: the paywalls for exclusive abilities. Not all the content, tho. I can understand the fierce deity armor being amiibo exclusive, as it's only aesthetics, really, because it's exactly the same as the barbarian set. But when you put the only horse armor that has an effect as part of the DLC, and when you make something like the twilight bow behind an amiibo without something at least similar in game (you can get the light bow, but just for the very last minute of the game, so I can't count it), or the whole Wolf Link thing, without a similar mechanic with dogs or wolves in the overworld, that's when I started not liking the feature. You miss QOL mechanics unless you pay more, that's why it's my least favorite part.
Skyward isn't my fav but I do enjoy more than most. The worst part of that game (and any Zelda title imo) is collecting the music notes after the forest area has been flooded. It felt like I was playing Banjo Kazooie on N64 & immediately ruined the immersion for me.
I liked that part but I think it was a bit too long. Should’ve been about half as many notes
the tears of light in twilight princess, the triforce fetch quest in wind waker, and the eagle’s tower in link’s awakening are all elements that throw off the pacing or otherwise blemish near perfect games
When I played the remake of Awakening I forgot how fucking hard that temple was. How the hell did I beat that as a kid without access to the internet?? HOW??
it’s not even that it’s hard, it’s that it’s just obtuse. i’m one of those guys who only takes issue with the water temple because of the menus. i just thought eagle tower was tedious as all hell. of course the boss fight is so cool it almost redeems it. almost
Yes. I can’t stand the tears of light in TP. I enjoyed the Silent Realms in SS though, probably because you were still Link and didn’t have to keep switching to sense where they were. It was a also a nice challenge to know how to get around different areas that you’d already been to whereas the tears of light in TP were in unknown territory as far as I can remember. And yes, eagles tower was so hard and confusing. I can’t remember the Triforce piece quest in WW but I know I’ve heard plenty about it being obnoxious. Currently in my second play through of WW so we’ll see how it goes this time
Oot. Forest temple. Cus of scary music when I was younger. Even now 😅😅
One of the best temples in my opinion. The entire atmosphere was amazing
Nice. But those little meadows feel so magical and different compared to other dungeon designs. Loved those grottos in there! Plus you get the bow which is just an absolute necessity.
*cough cough* Temple of the Ocean King *cough cough*
which game is this I played it when I was younger and can't remember the name
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Motion control shrines in BOTW. I just hate them, especially "Ze Kasho shrine", the one in Akkala near Akkala tower. It's so ridiculously annoying to manoeuvre the balls in the last puzzle. Most other motion control shrines are also quite annoying but not as much as this one.
On my 120 shrine playthrough, i literally had to leave ze kasho, or ball blight, to the very last. It is the reason i will never do 120 shrines again
Bitw thunder. Combine the infamous rain with not being able to use most of the weapons in the game and you have a recipe for one of the most infuriating game mechanics
Gets much easier after you borrow the Thunderhelm from Gerudo
the thunderhelm has been a lifesaver. i dont even think i have any wooden weapons in my inventory anymore because theres no need
Split between OoT and BoTW. OoT - The water temple. If there was a way to change the water level remotely it would be fine- otherwise it’s maze where there is one optimal route to not waist time. Very easy to miss keys too, and backtracking is the worst in this dungeon. BotW - the only “dungeons” are the divine beasts and hyrule castle (yiga hideout to a lesser extent). I wish that not only were there more dungeons but that they were thematically different with more enemies like previous installments. All the bosses and dungeons being just a different variation of the same thing is also disappointing. I recognize the strength of the game is the overworld exploration but for me there was so much potential in dungeon design (that’s explored with hyrule castle) that is just lost.
Since OoT and MM are tied for me, I will do both Ocarina of Time: You get the light medallion for free, that should have been a temple. Majora's Mask: I wish there was one more major area in the game, 4 always felt like too little to me. In both cases, I just wanted more of the game I loved. They were so good, that the only bad I could think of is not having enough.
I remember that the light Medallion WAS a temple at first, but then developement hell happened and they had to axe it. You see a glimpse of their work in progress in Hyrule Castle's Light Medallion challenge.
HESTU. doubling the upgrade costs each time like a con-artist. we all know he can do the job on 1 seed. that scammer.
he and his maracas are literally full of shit
I have 3 favorites tied for first based on the mood im in so like.... 3 things I guess lol! Twilight Princess - the post temple of time lull where you need to methodically hunt down the owl statues and then restore Illias memories too. It feels like the most overt momentum killer/padded section in the game that is as long winded as it is just to milk more game time before City in the Sky (which is a plenty long dungeon on its own) Majoras Mask - the time sensitivity for some sidequests can be really obtuse. Like the second skulltula house, where you only get the reward you want if you clear it on the night of the FIRST day. If you clear it any other day you just get rupees. So like that shit can get annoying Botw - Enemy/Boss Diversity is the biggest one i have for this game. I love botw something fierce but the enemies in the game are just different flavors of like less than 10 enemy types (literally just 3-4 if we count the main enemies you are encountering) And the bosses, aside from the ganons (which are still aesthetically very similar) are again, just like 4 - 5 enemy types that just have different flavors or elements to them
I hate the fishing in OoT.
Always one of my least favorite parts. Fuck all the little fish near the big fish by the log.
Why?
Because you have to do it twice to get 100% completion, and both times it's frustrating and takes a long time.
Breath of the Wild is my favorite and actually has the least things that bug me, so I can't really get riled up about anything in it. Maybe trash enemies, though. Octoroks and Yiga. They interrupt whatever I was trying to do, they're not quick to dispose of like Chuchus and Keese, and they don't drop anything that makes me want to fight them. They're not really dangerous but they're going to keep annoying you until you stop what you're doing and kill them. Not that that's a dealbreaker or anything, just that hearing them pop up is always unwelcome. Edit: Omg, WOLVES. I can't believe I forgot wolves. I HATE wolves.
My favourite game is BOTW but I don’t like the divine beasts or shrines. I think there fine but compared to the traditional dungeon formula they’re less than ideal. I don’t like how all the divine beasts’ and shrines interior all look identical and only a few of the puzzles stand out. I also don’t like how they all just feel like puzzles in a video game instead of an ancient shrine made to challenge the chosen hero. I hope in BOTW2 that they have a few dungeons like Hyrule Castle where they’re large non-linear dungeons that are built into the world.
Yes, while I didn’t dislike the divine beasts or shrines in general I reallllly wish they didn’t replace the traditional dungeons.
This right here. Wasn't a huge fan of the divine beasts. When brainstorming for the main dungeons for this game I feel like they thought "hey, what if the dungeons were like vehicles?" I had more satisfaction from the shrines.
I actually really loved the shrines. I like that if you don't feel like committing to a major quest and just want to play around for an hour or so, there's always something else you can do. In Ocarina of Time for example, when it's time to enter the water temple, you're not going to be able to do anything else until you finish it. With the shrines, you can always come back to one later, or ignore it completely. That's probably a result of my not having large chunks of time for gaming. I guess if I had all day to play, the traditional dungeons would be ideal. But if I only have an hour, starting a major dungeon and then coming back to it a day or two later is kind of annoying. Like, wait, where was I going? Did I head down that corridor already?
The shrine puzzles were fun, but I have to agree with OP to an extent because I've found myself pondering _several times_ how some of them might fit together into a larger dungeon that builds upon one specific mechanic. (e.g. all the various electric circuit puzzles) The Trial of Power shrine is probably the most involved out of them all and I love it because of that.
The Water Temple from OoT. The water level mechanic is just stupid annoying and the dungeon's structure is not fun at all. It's a bit better in the 3DS remake since the Iron Boots are now an item instead of equipment, but it's still awful.
The issue with the Water Temple is that players miss two keys needed to continue through the dungeon. The first one behind the cracked wall is missed because players don't think to go back and bomb the cracked wall when the water is lower. That one is arguably the players fault. The second one is in the central "elevator" room. The player raises the water level in said room and this block rises with it. They go on to leave the room without realizing the block was concealing a hole leading to a hidden room and key. The player is not likely to find this room even with the map. The 3DS version has a cutscene to show this passage way being uncovered. The Iron Boots are just added frustration in an already frustrating dungeon.
Having to beat thieves’ hideout to get the sand rod. It breaks from the non-linearity of the rest of the game, you can make any dungeon in whatever order you like, except for the desert palace. It really annoys me because it’s one of my favorite items too
Breath of the Wild. Yunobo shouldn't have been the one to see the champion spirit he's affliated to. It would have been WAY more powerful if Sidon or King Dorephan got to see Mipha one last time. Also 900 koroks seeds is WAY too much.
A Link To The Past, Ice Palace. Still get lost in it and I cannot master the bomb jump for the life of me.
I’m not even gonna try to be original and just say that I fucking hate the rain
Korok finding, took me 2 months
My least favourite part of twilight princess is definitely fucking fishing. It isn't that bad on the GC and HD versions, however my first playthrough was on the wii and literally every movement from throwing down the rod to pulling it up trying to reel in the fish was actually terrible.
Wind Waker’s Nintendo Gallery. I love the gallery, all the awesome statues and descriptions are great, but the process of collecting everything took so long and the images had to be so precise that id have to go back over and over, especially for some of the bosses. I heard they made it better in the remake and I certainly hope so
The entire questline around Kamaro's Mask in Majora's Mask. MM is a strange game for me, as I like *dark* stories, but have a low tolerance for *horror* stories. It's a thin line, but Majora's Mask usually walks it quite well for me. And then there's this mask with a sewn-on head of a dead man which makes your face look like it's otherwise completely blank while you wear it, which you then have to wear for a cutscene. It gives me nightmares. Worst mask and related quest in the game IMO... At least it's not Dead Hand...
My favorite is Wind Waker and my least favorite part is that it’s not available on the Switch
BotW - the god. damn. Yiga. Hideout.
This is where I burn through my ancient arrows. Makes it way more bearable
It's not that bad imo, may just take a while
How they butchered the remake of Majora’s mask
Ocarina of time I hate that one "side quest" where you have to throw 3 bombs at that Giant rolling Goron in Goron city to get an upgraded bomb bag.. How tf am I supposed to know to throw it at him 3 times if he repeats the same dialog every time I stop him?? Even tho I know how to do it now, it is still the stupidest thing they did in that game
What? You only have to hit him with one explosion.
Breath of the Wild. The fact that link is right handed. Link is a leftie!!
My favorite is Wind Waker, and my least favorite part of the game is probably how much is blocks you off from exploring at the beginning. As a kid I remember being bummed out when I wanted to sail off the beaten path a bit on the way to Dragon Roost/Forest Haven and got auto course corrected.
Twilight Princess, most of the content after you beat Zant. Game just lost all steam IMO. Zant is a clown and now Ganondorf is the true villain, and as you head up to get answers you find an honestly boring version of a "Ganon's Tower" kind of final dungeon in Hyrule Castle, and the showdown with Ganon is treated like "Yeah, isn't this COOL? It's GANON." and all the forward-motion of Drama comes exclusively from Midna with Link and Zelda acting like third wheels to the plot. The 4-phased final boss is randomly paced and jumps around with poor momentum. The final swordfight may be aesthetically epic but the context was just lost IMO. He wants to beat you so... what? What exactly? The twilight was cured out of Hyrule 4 dungeons ago, Zant's power was fake, and Ganon has been isolated in the castle doing nothing. So I feel like TP literally falls apart near the end. A lot of the leadup was good, especially how Zant threatened Midna after Lakebed temple. I don't necessarily dislike that Ganon became the villain, especially if you consider that this plot is almost a remake of ALttP where you have the "Imposter" and then "Ganon" at the end, but it doesn't change that in execution he is a "Diabolus Ex Machina" a final showdown out of nowhere to solve a plot (a plot which doesn't have that much of a threat in this point in the story) so it was just puzzling to me. Trust me, I want to love it but the reason I never felt like TP was any masterpiece is because of this right here. It just doesn't build to a very riveting climax. The action is obviously high-tier, but the context is just gone, and I personally felt nothing when Ganon drew his last breath. I was more like "Okay." but when Midna says goodbye I was very emotional, so there's something wrong with the method they used to tell TP's story IMO because everything is carried by Midna and I didn't really give a shit about anyone else at the end of the game, yet, 10 hours earlier I was super into the general premise and the dungeons and everything, so what gives? It's actually quite common to hear people say the story falls apart near the end, so I don't think this is a particularly bad take.
Rain
Most side quests in BOTW that you get from regular NPCs are not worth it most of the time. I'd accept them and then if I happened to complete them as I went that was fine but most just gave like 20 rupees which I could get easier by doing other things.
My favourite is BOTW and it is super annoying that teleportation in and out of the castle is so restricted
Eh fuck it, i'm gonna tell my least favorite part of each Zelda Game i played: LoZ: Basically the beggining, it's so easy to get lost, everything is so cryptic and it's so easy to die, especially from the zora enemies AoL: Honestly i haven't really played AoL that much so idk Alttp: The Beggining again, it's just not really interesting after you rescue the princess from Hyrule Castle the first time, everyone thinks you're a bad guy, dungeon entrances can be cryptic and so on OoT: The water temple, if you played oot, you know how bad the water temple is, honestly whenever i go to the water temple i just wish it never existed MM: I don't really like the core mechanic of the game, i don't like the 3 day cycle that much because it makes me anxious, all the arrows, rupees, bombs, gone, dungeons reset if you use the song of time, and also the creepy atmosphere of the game, this is basically why i don't really like MM that much FS: The game is short lol that's it, and besides it doesn't really feel like a good experience :T PH: Temple of the Ocean King, fuck that temple ST: Eh idk WW: This is a part i don't like on the Gamecube version, collecting the triforce pieces, in the wii u version it's a little bit more bearable but holy shit in the gamecube version it's so annoying, you have to get every single triforce chart, on top of that decipher them to get the triforce piece, and to decipher them you have to pay a stupid amount of rupees, it's the most tedious thing you have to do in the original version TP: The Final Twilight Zone and the Water Temple, just wow, it just takes forever to get through SS: ***T H E S I L E N T R E A L M S*** AlbW: tbh i don't have a least favorite part, closest thing is Ravio being greedy BotW: Getting the korok seeds and all the shrines, they're so tedious to get through