The Legend of Zelda has no mainline misses. Not every game may be beloved by everyone. I for one am not a fan of the Wilds games, and I know there was some issues between the fanbase and Skyward Sword before its remaster, but every mainline game has been extremely successful and very well made.
Locking on to a single target in third person so you automatically face them as you move around is an OoT original. Dark Souls ripped the combat from OoT and turned it up 1000 notches.
Every single 3rd person 3d action game is heavily inspired by OoT. It's the LotR of gaming, you can't escape it.
Yeah, Zelda 2 gets shit for almost no legitimate reason. It's actually aged insanely well compared to most games from the NES era. Easily one of the best action games on the console. Hell, I think it holds up better than Zelda 1, but both were fundamental in shaping the series.
I never got the hang of Zelda 2, but even I admit it was a good game and it does hold up well. Zelda 1 would probably hold up better if they didn't do the same formula, just better, with the A Link To The Past.
As fun as Zelda 1 was back in the day I think it's an awful game to play today without a guide or childhood memories to guide you. In that way I think Zelda 2 might have aged better. Honestly with Zelda 2, if a game over just set you back to the start of the dungeon if you died in a dungeon, or the last town you visited if you died outside of a dungeon, it would be 1000x better and I'd have no major complaints.
I too think zelda 2 is better. the more cryptic secrets are actually mentioned by ingame NPC's.
Zelda 1 progression is like "yay you bombed the right rock out of 100, you may buy a potion now"
Zelda 2 is the only Zelda game that I really want a remake of, because I think taking that gameplay style but modernizing it would get the most out of a remake. Where as the Oracles etc I don't really feel like 'need' a remake they still hold up imo.
Honestly, have a game over start you back at the start of the palace you died in, or the last town you visited if you died outside of a palace, and suddenly the game becomes exponentially better.
The gameplay in itself is pretty good especially for when it came out there needs to be a port with difficulty settings (easy, normal, hard, original). Saying it’s not like other Zelda’s is ridiculous. The series always evolves and tries new things.
Zelda 2 is pure cancer. It is easily one of the hardest games I've ever played and it simply isn't designed well. There is hard games then there are hard games that become impossible because the game doesn't work very well. That's zelda 2. Needing a walkthrough, super focus, and luck is just too much to beat a single game.
Zelda 2 has beaten TF out of me every time I go near it. It's a rabid animal clawing at my carpal tunnel at all times. Zelda is a game of it's time best case scenario.
The problem with zelda 2 isn't that it's too hard, it's that it changed the gameplay to a different genre. And Nintendo themselves knew that because the next two games went back to the original's top down format and took out the experience system
I’ve finished every single mainline Zelda, most of them multiple times, outside of two.. skyward sword , and Zelda 2. Skyward Sword was more just a me thing, it was fine, but Zelda 2 is legit ass.
Skyward Sword was annoying to play; too long and repetitive with the reused areas and bosses, but the story might be the best of the entire series. One of the few games that has made me tear up
I liked it more than the original Zelda, I'm sorry 😭
Not saying it's a fantastic game, but you gotta judge it based on what people had at the time. The original Zelda isn't exactly a masterpiece by modern standards, either, but back in the 80s, it was a revolution. Not saying Zelda 2 was as revolutionary, but we gotta consider the time it came out
yea i liked zelda 2 just fine. it's just obviously the black sheep of the zelda games. I thought it wasn't as successful but I looked it up and it seems that it was.
I have to disagree though, I think the orginal zelda is a masterpiece, modern standards be damned. THey had lots of limitations of the time and the hardware and they made use of it all to create one of the greatest games of all time.
Honestly even the spin offs are mostly praised. Maybe the DS titles fell off. But the Awakening, oracles, and minish cap have a pretty die hard fan base.
Definitely the low point of the series (I'll even include TP and Between Worlds into the mix) but they're honestly not that bad in the grand scheme of things.
Even at it's most formulaic each game has at least a bunch of highlights one-off sequences (the bosses and minigames in particular are arguably the best they've ever been in the series) and they never feel like lazy iterative sequels either.
The only big mainline Zelda game I think was a genuine miss was Phantom Hourglass, even the first time I played it I thought it was a weak entry, and even then its still a decent game on its own right. The rest of Zelda is just so good by comparison lol
My issue with Phantom Hourglass is that it felt more like a DS tech demo extended into a Zelda game like Spirit Tracks felt like it was designed as a Zelda game first lol
I remember it had surprisingly fun (if not forgettable) dungeons. I still preferred Phantom hourglass, but I was one of those weird kids who actually really liked it.
The biggest miss for me with the BOTW series was the weapon durability. I know plenty of people love it, but I just hate it. Everything else is about is great though.
Where the hell did you come up with this? The Wind Waker sold millions of copies on the GameCube, not to mention all the other releases we got between WW and TP: Four Swords/ALttP, Four Swords Adventures, The Minish Cap.
These were some of the most prolific and successful years for Zelda, there was absolutely no chance of the series dying 😂
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u/EmKir Aug 29 '26
The Legend of Zelda has no mainline misses. Not every game may be beloved by everyone. I for one am not a fan of the Wilds games, and I know there was some issues between the fanbase and Skyward Sword before its remaster, but every mainline game has been extremely successful and very well made.