• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Favorite kind of Zelda game?

Which kind of Zelda game do you like the most?

  • Top-down Zelda (1, ALTTP, LA, OOA, OOS, MC, ALBW)

    Votes: 63 30.4%
  • Side-scroller Zelda (Adventure of Link, CDI games)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3D classic Zelda (OOT, MM, WW, TP, SS)

    Votes: 102 49.3%
  • 3D open-world Zelda (BOTW, TOTK)

    Votes: 36 17.4%
  • 3D, stylus driven Zelda (PH, ST)

    Votes: 1 0.5%
  • Zelda sucks

    Votes: 4 1.9%
  • Rhythm Zelda (Cadence of Hyrule)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Co-op Zelda (FSA, TFH)

    Votes: 1 0.5%

  • Total voters
    207

Mr Hyde

Gold Member
I enjoyed the original top down, A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening.

I enjoyed the 3D Zelda's such as Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.

I enjoyed the 2D side scroller The Adventures of Link.

And I enjoyed the newer modern Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

So I guess I enjoy

Angry Gary Oldman GIF
 
Last edited:

peronmls

Member
All of Eiji Aonuma directions of Zelda. If only Takashi Tezuka did another Dark Fantasy Zelda besides ALTTP
 

Drell

Member
All of Eiji Aonuma directions of Zelda. If only Takashi Tezuka did another Dark Fantasy Zelda besides ALTTP
I recently learned that Tezuka loved LOTR and that it was him who wrote the original lore with some inspiration from it. The mainstream narrative of Zelda's creation rarely mentions this and only talks about Miyamoto wandering in nature alone and getting lost in caves.
 
The best ones not made by Nintendo. Oracle of Seasons, Neutopia II, Okami, Darksiders II, and Baldo: The Guardian Owls.

hqdefault.jpg

Neutopia-II-172.jpg

esoqro.jpg

osrtedka5r88qy4w7pvg.jpg

news_gsy_review_baldo_the_guardian_owls-22514.jpg


P.S. Why is it called the Legend of Zelda when Link does all the work and Zelda is not always present?
 
Last edited:
My top 3 Zelda games are OoT, TP, and probably TotK. If they would actually implement more classic Zelda WITHIN a TotK open world game, that would be great. But until then, I want them to keep going with the classic 3D formula. It's been quite a long time at this point, and SS really wasn't a winner. We are going on close to 20 years since a new, excellent 3D classic style Zelda game.
 
My top 3 Zelda games are OoT, TP, and probably TotK. If they would actually implement more classic Zelda WITHIN a TotK open world game, that would be great. But until then, I want them to keep going with the classic 3D formula. It's been quite a long time at this point, and SS really wasn't a winner. We are going on close to 20 years since a new, excellent 3D classic style Zelda game.

What I want is a New Top Down 2D Zelda game not one that's a Remake of another Top Down 2D Zelda game. I did love Link's Awakening Remake though
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
Traditional Zelda fans will always prefer Classical 3D or Top-down Zelda.
It’s mostly the casual community that flooded the games when BotW introduced the new open world approach.
I like that too, but BotW and TotK are not as dear to me as OoT, MM, WW an TP are to me.

I dream of a hybrid between classical 3D (dungeons, items and exploration), paired with the massive world and exploration BotW/TotK brought to the table, but without the unnecessary weapon degradation and climbing, but instead item based progression and classical sword/shield combat rather than focus on gimmicks.
With living cities and settlements and traffic between them (TotK was already good here but Castle-town is missing),
 
Last edited:

Mozzarella

Member
Classic 3D Zelda, i just love the Zelda formula where it has dungeons, progression and special items with puzzles.
I do like the others but the classic formula was near perfect.
 

Tg89

Member
Too hard to say. Traditional 2D/3D and Open world are all amazing.

Been jumping back into TOTK and also recently played through OoT again (first time in like a decade at least), both such amazing experiences.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
I have no favorite, I love all of them and I'll miss one thing or the other while playing Zelda, hell I miss stylus Zeldas like the ones from DS, those were so great!
 
Not sure I'm partial to any one.

Skyward Sword is no. 1 and Twilight Princess is no. 3, A Link to the Past is no. 2 and Four Swords Adventures is no. 5, and then Spirit Tracks is no. 4. Hell, I'm also a big fan of Adventure of Link.

I do know what I don't like though.

My least favorite entries are BOTW and it's "sequel" and I found the GB games to be a chore to play as well. I do think the open world style can work and was still the right direction but Nintendo just can't seem to fill them with compelling things to do and earn so far.

I feel that Link's Awakening has less fat than the still great Link to the Past.

But I do agree on Zelda 2 being one of the best. I'm a bit of an outlier like that.
 

kainslayer

Neo Member
My favorite zelda is twilight princess,followed by minish cap then ocarina ,majoras etc. Botw had the wow factor and totk had a better story but still could not enjoy it.Too much of the same grind just to waste your time instead of giving you a great experience.A big turn off for me with the new
zeldas is the luck of puzzles and meaningfull sidequests and also where the f**k is the epic music ? I hate the "minimalist" aproach in music removed the epicness of the franchise.
Anyway its gonna be at least 7 years for a new installment so who cares by then.
 

Trunim

Member
OoT, MM and WW is really the crème de la crème. The new open world botw and totk didnt do anything for me, feels like its not my type of game anymore
 

SnapShot

Member
3D Classic

BoTW and ToTK are pretty good aswell but didn't grab me as well as OOT, MM and TP did

Tried the rest but just couldn't get into them
 

kunonabi

Member
I feel that Link's Awakening has less fat than the still great Link to the Past.

But I do agree on Zelda 2 being one of the best. I'm a bit of an outlier like that.

My problems with the GB games are mostly hardware related and I just hate long trading quests in games in general.
 

KungFucius

King Snowflake
This is a weird poll and Nintendo really should realize that people like all types and that all types can be successful. Give me a new ToTK and I will drop everything for a month. Give me a new ALTTP and I will drop everything for a week. Give me a new OoT and I will drop everything for 2 weeks. They could put out one of each on Switch 2 and make 210 off of me. Or 2 of each and make 420.

I think a Zelda game like OoT with Zelda as the main is a good way to expand the franchise.
 

Trilobit

Member
I love Wind Waker and it's one of my top favourite all-time games, but by the time BotW came I was sick and tired of the old formula. I'm really happy that they wanted to experiment that much with the formula. It was a great adventure to roam the map and discover new locations entirely voluntarily.

For New Switch I hope they expand upon that, but make amazing dungeons and secret locations. I also want the same type of quests that were in Wind Waker where you had to investigate what the NPC missions really wanted you to do. I love those kinda of "puzzles".

I don't really have any need for those building block type of gadgets after the last two games. I'd rather have just a more classic adventure feel like the picture below. I also wouldn't say no to more sailing and islands and making the climate a factor!

iu
 
Last edited:
N64. They should've used that remake engine on 3DS and made a whole new gaiden game out of it, instead of doing ALBW which was just a meh version of ALttP.
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
I replayed Link Between Worlds, Ocarina and Majora’s Mask back-to-back in December 2022 without a full day’s break between finishing each game. I had a break about two thirds through Breath of the Wild when it launched and afterwards I still felt the open-world fatigue.

I’d rather play a mixture of OoT 3D Zelda’s and LttP 2D/LbW 3D top-down ‘tile’ Zelda’s that release more frequently than the huge open world games. The top down games with visually distinctive tiles help more complex multi-step/room/tower level puzzle design, probably both for the designers and players but the freedom of 3D movement, 3D tools without full open world bloat is probably the sweet spot.

When I get a Switch 2 I’m more excited to replay Link’s Awakening (played GB and DX GBC versions multiple times) than I am to play Tears of the Kingdom for the first time.
 
Last edited:
Interesting how the "real gamers" overwhelmingly didn't pick the open world trash Zelda as their favorites.

Tells me a lot about the market Nintendo is targeting with their new approach to Zelda games.
I blame the poll for only allowing a single answer.
 

bobone

Member
I'd much prefer another OoT or TP rather then Fallout: Zelda Edition.
Its so much worse than that. Fallout has thousands of lines of dialog. Interesting quests and locations. Pretty decent character customization/rpg elements.

What does Nintendo offer you? Different colored moblins in an empty world? And you can attack them with a cool sword 3 times till it breaks?
A few copy paste characters that mumble a couple lines at you?
Also, no dungeons, interesting story choices, character customization, or music?

But that's obviously game of year material. No its BEST GAME OF ALL TIME.
 
I love the open world zelda games but until they get rid of the shitty weapon durability and improve the number of dungeons in the game, I gotta go with classic 3d zelda. Ocarina of Time is still the best zelda. I love finding items that allow me to progress through the game. I love dungeons. Shrines are also fun to find but quickly become monotonous.
 
My problems with the GB games are mostly hardware related and I just hate long trading quests in games in general.
I understand the lack of buttons, and will also give you the trading quest, but I preferred how the dungeon items had more utility beyond their dedicated dungeons and the greater connectedness between areas in Link's Awakening over LttP.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Beaten every mainline one (some multiple times) but my heart will always belong to traditional. Link's Awakening is about as close as games get to perfect and I have a particularly soft spot for the Oracles. Also replayed ALBW last month for the first time in a decade and it holds up impeccably.

As incredible as BOTW is I doubt I'll ever replay it. Maybe once in life. I could go play LA again right now.
 
Top Bottom