Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Ranking

[SuperMario]

So I am about 150 hours into Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, so I have a fairly good assessment on the game and what it has to offer. I was curious where other people rank the game among Legend of Zelda games. It's tough to compare it to other games for the fact that it is the only open world game. Among gameplay, I think it is the best out there. There is so much to do, and it is a lot of fun to play. Story definitely lacks, though. Not a lot to it. Taking what every game offers into consideration my top 5 Zelda games:

1. A Link to the Past
2. Twilight Princess
3. Breath of the Wild
4. Majora's Mask
5. Ocarina of Time

Where does everyone else rank it?

[Lord Varys]

Not yet gotten around to playing it, I'm afraid. I'm savoring it as long as I can. Have recently done a replay of The Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD, and am right now about halfway through Skyward Sword.

It is difficult to make list there. There are very few Zelda games I don't like. In principle I very much prefer a game with a good story to games where there is just a lot to do. Will have to wait and see. But, man, 150 hours sounds like good fun. Didn't do everything in Twilight Princess last time but it was also close to 100 hours of fun.

Story-wise I really like the classics, A Link to the Past (my first one) and Link's Awakening.

[SuperMario]

19 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

Not yet gotten around to playing it, I'm afraid. I'm savoring it as long as I can. Have recently done a replay of The Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD, and am right now about halfway through Skyward Sword.

It is difficult to make list there. There are very few Zelda games I don't like. In principle I very much prefer a game with a good story to games where there is just a lot to do. Will have to wait and see. But, man, 150 hours sounds like good fun. Didn't do everything in Twilight Princess last time but it was also close to 100 hours of fun.

Story-wise I really like the classics, A Link to the Past (my first one) and Link's Awakening.

Yeah, Twilight Princess might have my favorite story as well as its soundtrack. Midna's Lament

But A Link to the Past still takes the cake. I Remember getting the game in 1992 on my SNES (that still works to this day!) and just falling in love with it - the story, the soundtrack, the gameplay, the adventure. So great!

But I definitely recommend tearing into Breath of the Wild when you finish SS. It's one of those games you can really just get lost in. I love turning off the map and just exploring. Many memorable moments for sure.

[Rhom]

Link to the Past is still my favorite as well.

I haven't made a lot of time for BotW.  I find myself more annoyed with it than anything due to the constantly breaking items.  I see what they are trying to do, but an axe ought to last me longer than two or three fights.

[DaveSumm]

34 minutes ago, Rhom said:

Link to the Past is still my favorite as well.

I haven't made a lot of time for BotW.  I find myself more annoyed with it than anything due to the constantly breaking items.  I see what they are trying to do, but an axe ought to last me longer than two or three fights.

I kinda know what you mean, I'm in awe of the game and it is amazing.....but it gives you the perpetual feeling that you're not actually good at it. You're constantly having to forage and eat and find stuff and break stuff, in previous games you could look back and say "yep, I've done well there", but here it just feels like you've survived along with all the other average joes in Hyrule. In a way that's part of its charm, but at the same time I don't feel hugely satisfied when I put it down.

I always find it hard to judge games against each other, I mean if you'd never played Ocarina and were handed it along with Breath of the Wild there's just no competition. But as far as how amazing it felt at the time, maybe...

1. Ocarina of Time
2. Breath of the Wild
3. Skyword Sword
4. Wind Waker
5. Twilight Princess

Those are the ones I've played anyway.

[Lord Varys]

2 hours ago, SuperMario said:

Yeah, Twilight Princess might have my favorite story as well as its soundtrack. Midna's Lament

TP has a good story, and the one flaw it had back in the original version - that blurry picture, especially in the twilight realm, is gone in the HD version. What is a little bit of a setback there is the fact that it is, perhaps, too sober and less playful. There are very few funny games and side quests in the game (at least not as far as I'm aware). The world is so large but then there are so few characters in the castle town and elsewhere it is really a shame.

Compared to OOT, MM, and TWW (which has so many interesting and memorable characters on the main island) this is somewhat of a letdown.

But then, I really like the LotR-like slow beginning of TP, the character of Midna, the dark feeling, and the twists in the story. 

2 hours ago, SuperMario said:

But A Link to the Past still takes the cake. I Remember getting the game in 1992 on my SNES (that still works to this day!) and just falling in love with it - the story, the soundtrack, the gameplay, the adventure. So great!

Yeah, I know what you mean. I can play that game literally blind. But that is something only people of our age group can understand. It is different for people who were born too late or too early.

I'd say the world design of ALTTP is what I like best in a Zelda game. A mostly open world with some regions that are only accessible after a certain point when you have gotten certain items but which gives you the general feeling that you can go anywhere. OOT, MM, and TWW kept that feeling, too. TP and SS not so much. Especially SS could have greatly profited if the world had actually been connected so that you could explored it like a real continent. I'd not have minded the guided structure for the beginning, but later on it might have been interesting to go find a way or entire region connecting Eldin, Ranelle, and Phirone.

2 hours ago, SuperMario said:

But I definitely recommend tearing into Breath of the Wild when you finish SS. It's one of those games you can really just get lost in. I love turning off the map and just exploring. Many memorable moments for sure.

I've realized I really like the dungeon design of SS. Very good riddles despite the fact that the first three dungeons aren't that large. It doesn't make things too easy.

[RumHam]

Link to the Past still holds up as an amazing game today. I also really love the urgency and plot of Majora's Mask. 

The recent DS follow up to A Link To the Past was fun, but suffered a lot from their attempt to adopt an open world structure. I think Breath of the Wild suffers a bit from that too. It's certainly a great game engine and world, but four dungeons is not enough and the shrines become so monotonous after a while. The earlier games had so many different items and combinations of items to use in the puzzles. Breath of the Wild pretty much relied on the sword, bow, torch, and the four runes for it's puzzles. I for one would not have minded finding a shrine and noting I'd have to come back to it once I found the hookshot. 

[Lord Varys]

8 hours ago, RumHam said:

Link to the Past still holds up as an amazing game today. I also really love the urgency and plot of Majora's Mask. 

I had trouble getting into MM but when you do it is really fun. They really put a lot of effort there into making the town believable, giving every character his or her own story. And the eerie feeling of doom is pretty unsettling.

It is a shame that they no longer do this kind of freaky follow-up game, putting the established character models world into another setting. That's what they did with LA after ALTTP and with MM after OOT. And it worked pretty well, especially considering that this also gave the various incarnations of Link a little more to do. And it is actually a pleasant experience to play the sequel of a game that is mostly the same way as the predecessor insofar as the controls and the game play are concerned. 

8 hours ago, RumHam said:

The recent DS follow up to A Link To the Past was fun, but suffered a lot from their attempt to adopt an open world structure. I think Breath of the Wild suffers a bit from that too. It's certainly a great game engine and world, but four dungeons is not enough and the shrines become so monotonous after a while. The earlier games had so many different items and combinations of items to use in the puzzles. Breath of the Wild pretty much relied on the sword, bow, torch, and the four runes for it's puzzles. I for one would not have minded finding a shrine and noting I'd have to come back to it once I found the hookshot. 

Yeah, the use of items throughout the game in the riddles to come is something the newer games no longer do. Replaying TP I realized that they had some of that at the end, in Hyrule Castle, but that's not exactly a large and proper dungeon. The general tendency is that you use the specific item you find in a dungeon mostly in that dungeon, and then you rarely need it any more.

The lack of dungeons in BOTW is a little bit disappointing. I really like a lot of dungeons, which is also the reason why ALTTP stands out as one of the best games. It has twelve dungeons in total, if I'm not mistaken (the three small ones to collect the amulets, Hyrule Castle, the seven big ones where the girls are kept, and then Ganon's Tower in the end).

Not every game has to have so many but it should be more than five I think. TWW could have been a lot better if there had been more dungeons. If I remember correctly you only have two for the jewels and then only two to restore the power of the Master Sword. Those triforce pieces should have been in dungeons, too, at least some of them.

ALBW should have gone with a more guided structure and not gone with that routine of loaning items from the weirdo. That essentially made it clear that you needed only this or that item for a particular dungeon, and if you can go to every dungeon at every time things get sort of arbitrary. Being able to explore the world freely doesn't mean you should be able to face every challenge at the same time.

[SuperMario]

1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

I had trouble getting into MM but when you do it is really fun. They really put a lot of effort there into making the town believable, giving every character his or her own story. And the eerie feeling of doom is pretty unsettling.

It is a shame that they no longer do this kind of freaky follow-up game, putting the established character models world into another setting. That's what they did with LA after ALTTP and with MM after OOT. And it worked pretty well, especially considering that this also gave the various incarnations of Link a little more to do. And it is actually a pleasant experience to play the sequel of a game that is mostly the same way as the predecessor insofar as the controls and the game play are concerned. 

Yeah, the use of items throughout the game in the riddles to come is something the newer games no longer do. Replaying TP I realized that they had some of that at the end, in Hyrule Castle, but that's not exactly a large and proper dungeon. The general tendency is that you use the specific item you find in a dungeon mostly in that dungeon, and then you rarely need it any more.

The lack of dungeons in BOTW is a little bit disappointing. I really like a lot of dungeons, which is also the reason why ALTTP stands out as one of the best games. It has twelve dungeons in total, if I'm not mistaken (the three small ones to collect the amulets, Hyrule Castle, the seven big ones where the girls are kept, and then Ganon's Tower in the end).

Not every game has to have so many but it should be more than five I think. TWW could have been a lot better if there had been more dungeons. If I remember correctly you only have two for the jewels and then only two to restore the power of the Master Sword. Those triforce pieces should have been in dungeons, too, at least some of them.

ALBW should have gone with a more guided structure and not gone with that routine of loaning items from the weirdo. That essentially made it clear that you needed only this or that item for a particular dungeon, and if you can go to every dungeon at every time things get sort of arbitrary. Being able to explore the world freely doesn't mean you should be able to face every challenge at the same time.

I agree on the dungeons and that is one of the reasons BOTW is only number 3 on my list and why ALTTP and TP are 1 and 2. I think the dungeon design in Twilight Princess is among the best. Snowpeak Ruins in that yeti's mansion is one of the best dungeons ever along with probably the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time.

[Lord Varys]

6 hours ago, SuperMario said:

I agree on the dungeons and that is one of the reasons BOTW is only number 3 on my list and why ALTTP and TP are 1 and 2. I think the dungeon design in Twilight Princess is among the best. Snowpeak Ruins in that yeti's mansion is one of the best dungeons ever along with probably the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time.

In regards to the dungeons I really like the tendency in TP to make the dungeons exceptional. Snowpeake Ruins just being a large mansion and not another temple was a pretty good idea.

Thinking about it, I'd make more categories in such a list:

Classic 2D Zeldas:

1. A Link to the Past

2. Link's Awakening

3. The Legend of Zelda

4. The Adventure of Link

(not gotten around yet to play the Four Sword games, the Oracle series, and The Minish Cap)

Classic 3D Zeldas:

1. Ocarina of Time

2. Twilight Princess

3. The Wind Waker

4. Majora's Mask

[SuperMario]

19 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

In regards to the dungeons I really like the tendency in TP to make the dungeons exceptional. Snowpeake Ruins just being a large mansion and not another temple was a pretty good idea.

Thinking about it, I'd make more categories in such a list:

Classic 2D Zeldas:

1. A Link to the Past

2. Link's Awakening

3. The Legend of Zelda

4. The Adventure of Link

(not gotten around yet to play the Four Sword games, the Oracle series, and The Minish Cap)

Classic 3D Zeldas:

1. Ocarina of Time

2. Twilight Princess

3. The Wind Waker

4. Majora's Mask

Both good lists. Haven't played Oracle or Four Swords, but Minish Cap is a great game. Has good humor, story and good dungeons. I have your 2D list the same, but I would tuck Minish Cap between Link's Awakening and LoZ.

[Lord Varys]

52 minutes ago, SuperMario said:

Both good lists. Haven't played Oracle or Four Swords, but Minish Cap is a great game. Has good humor, story and good dungeons. I have your 2D list the same, but I would tuck Minish Cap between Link's Awakening and LoZ.

I've got them all but still have to really play them. I've tried them all once but didn't get all that far. But I remember that I liked what I saw of TMC. But I'd not count them among the Classic 2D Zeldas. Those would only be the ones up to 2000. 

The Oracle series is actually pretty good if you like ALTTP and LA.

Have to wait and see how I'd judge SS after the replay right now. I really like the dungeons and the story but the confined isn't all that great. However, I like the fixed starting point, and the mini games and stuff you can do in the sky. It could have been more, though. But it is much better than in TP in that regard. And some enemies and riddles are pretty tough. And the idea to figure out ways to find and enter dungeons is also pretty good.