How the fuck do i get into the Legend of Zelda franchise?
go play breath of the wild
Ohhhh I like this thread. As a Zelda fan I actually have an answer to that. If you dont want to start by playing the first game and then going on release order, then start with ocarina of time. It is the most zelda game out of all of them and its the perfect point in the timeline because thats where it splits into 3. I would recomend that you play Ocarina of time, then majora's mask and after that twilight princess, those 3 games are awesome. Then try wind waker, phantom hourglass and spirit tracks. after that, play a link to the past, then link's awakening dx, the oracle games, a link between worlds and zelda 1 and 2. finally, you can play skyward sword and minish cap. As for botw and totk, you can save them for last. They dont seem to be very connected to the previous games though a lot of people think that all timelines converge into botw.
>>739124701Play all mainline games from ALTTP to SS. Play WW HD remake, SS remake, play OOT and MM on n64 or emu. Play ALTTP on snes emu. Skip everything else minus any handheld games between that might interest you. Anyone who tells you to play Zelda 1, 2 or any of the switch games is a tranny.
>>739125030I am sorry if my schizo esl rambling is too unfocused but as a summary:First:>Ocarina of timeSecond:>Majora's Mask>Twilight PrincessThird:>Wind Waker>Phantom Hourglass>Spirit TracksThird:>A link to the past>Link's Awakening DX>The oracle games>A link between worlds>The legend of Zelda>Zelda 2: The adventure of linkFourth:>Skyward sword>Minish capLastly:>Botw>Totk
>>739124701>How the fuck do i get into the Legend of Zelda franchise?play whichever one seems most interesting or whichever one is shilled most effectively to you. They're completely unrelated unless they're direct sequels.Majora's mask is the best one by far.
>>739125030>If you dont want to start by playing the first gameDude, that's a NES game, it's from the 80s!
>>739125030>Ocarina of Time is the perfect point in the timeline because thats where it splits into 3.Jesus Christ...
>>739124701First off. Don't follow dumbass timeline headcanons from retards online.Two, pick a game that sounds like something you'd enjoy and then tackle the rest of the series. BotW excluded because BotW and TotK aren't Zelda games.
>>739125164Thanks, my latin friend.
>>739127242>BotW and TotK aren't Zelda gamesbased
>>739124701Bruh, "of the Wild" zeldas are their own continuity. Zonais doesn't exist in other games.
LoZ (NES), LttP (SNES), MM (N64), and BotW (WiiU/Switch) are genuinely the only Zelda games worth playing. And even then LttP is the only one there that's more than a 8/10 or below.
>>739124701The official timeline does not matter one bitOcarina of Time is probably the most archetypal Zelda game, the most famous and the one that influenced later titles the most, as well as gaming in general. After OoT you can also play Majora's Mask which is the slow burn indie horror ludokino of Zelda if you get what I mean. But basically after you've played OoT you know what Zelda is and you know what a good Zelda game is like, and you can judge everything else by that baseline.The old or 2D handheld games are hit-or-miss. Zelda 1 was cool for the time but honestly not that interesting nowadays unless you are into retro gaming, for example. ALttP and ALBW are both pretty good actually. Minish Cap and Oracle games are decent. Don't bother with the DS games.Of the big 3D games, I like Skyward Sword though it had a lot of critics at the time. Wind Waker is nice IFF you enjoy comfy sailing, if not it will feel like a grind. Twilight Princess is cool to play through once, but only if you are already enjoying the franchise.BotW and TotK are basically completely games.tl;dr is start with Ocarina and then if you like it pick another one based on the summary above.
>>739124701You pick a Zelda game and play through it.
>>739124701You don't worry about this zoomer timeline shit that didn't exist until Skyward Sword and hasn't been relevant ever since. Start by going through the home console games from Link to the past all the way to Twilight Princess in release order. Then you can branch out from there.
>>739124701You can start with whatever game you want. Barely any of the LoZ games are connected, so it doesn't really matter which one you pick up first. With that said, I'd recommend starting with A Link to the Past and just skipping past the first two games entirely because they both suck.
>>739124701seasons, LA or LttP for 2D. Ocarina or TP for 3D
>zelda lore
>>739129694>Don't bother with the DS games.Oooooh, so you're one of THOSE little faggots.
>>739124701LttP or OoT, depending on your preference for 2D or 3D games.
>>739130227>skipping past the first two games entirely because they both suck.Holy shit taste. LoZ is a masterpiece and still better than almost any of the other 2D games.
>>739130424I could've sworn I wrote "...unless you already like the franchise enough by that point that you know you will enjoy a Zelda game no matter what" or something, I must have deleted it accidentally while writing another part of my postAnyway PH was actually my first Zelda game and I have very fond memories of it, but objectively it's just really a simplistic game. I think ST is better but it's also still not particularly notable. If you've played every other major Zelda game then the DS entries are perfectly serviceable but I wouldn't bother recommending them anywhere near the starting point.
>>739130673There is zero reason to play the first LoZ when A Link to the Past exists and does everything that game tried to do infinitely better.
>>739130905Nah, LttP is more linear and switched the dungeon design from being pure combat gauntlets to more focus on puzzle-solving.
>>739124995Fpwp>>739124701Start with Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword HD. When you take the waggle out of the games, they're two of the best Zeldas to exist.
>>739132397>Skyward Sword HDgenuine insanity
>>739124701Were does the CDI fit in this timeline.
>>739125030I say play Alttp first then Ocarina
>>739131264You only need to do palace of darkness first, after that you can do the dungeons in any order.
I used to be a timelinefag in 2010 and all the games since then really shat up the flow.
>>739124701FUCK this gay ass image in particular. I hate timelinefags.All LoZ games are retellings of the same legend. It's in the name, LEGEND of Zelda. Unless the game is stated to be a direct sequel (like Majora to OOT) all games are set in a different universe. Stop taking the Zelda timeline seriously. This series is not all that deep to be obsessing over this shit.Oh yeah and start with ALTTP
>>739132673This is also a reasonable take honestly
>>739130795PH is fine, nearly forgettable if not for Linebeck. ST deserves more credit for its genuinely funny and more emotional moments and how great its dungeons and soundtrack are (obviously, if you're only in a Zelda game for the fights, it's not really the one for you). Also, its Link & Zelda relationship/dynamic mogs any other game in the series by a long shot
>>739133061No. All the Zelda games are connected. They're not "retellings of the same legend". The fandom got that one from a random NoA representative over the phone sometime in the early 00s. Talking to the actual Zelda team will teach you that the timeline is very real, or it would have before BotW began at least.
>>739133061>All LoZ games are retellings of the same legend. It's in the name, LEGEND of Zeldaliteral legend fags are retarded. TP and WW are obvious direct sequels to OoT. Same with LA and the Oracles after LttP. Just because SS and BOTW made it convoluted doesn't mean there isn't a logical order.
>>739130673>>739131264Honestly LoZ is fun but unironically dated. There's not that much to do other than just run around exploring achieving nothing. There's obscure shit like bombing unmarked walls which are a product of its time.Back when you were a kid in the last millenium and this was the one (1) video game your parents had bought you, and you would just waste hours of your free time exploring this magical digital world unlike anything you'd seen before, it would've been great. You'd have the time to bomb every unmarked wall, and you'd be sharing tips with your friends at school when you discovered a secret. Nowadays you simply don't get this kind of experience anymore.Also the dungeons being basically combat gauntlets is also a limitation of its time. The Zelda franchise since then has never been about massive slash-em-up combat gauntlets, adventure puzzles are the main point of the games.So LoZ can be fun but you need a specific kind of autism to enjoy it nowadays and it is very un-representative of the rest of the franchise. It's not a good first recommendation to someone wanting to get into Zelda games today
>>739133384now read what you wrote but with Dark Souls and illusory walls instead
>>739133612I have never played DS, I spent my youth playing Zelda and nintendo games
>>739133875same, I justs started DS for the first time recently and it is exactly how you described LoZ.
>>739133384>There's obscure shit like bombing unmarked walls which are a product of its time.There's optional secrets in a game all about exploring?
>>739133250Not only this, but Nintendo MADE it this way, and THEY chose to make a Fallen Hero timeline. TotK did give us this beauty, so there's some bonus.
>>739133250I will give you WW since it literally very uncharacteristically name drops the Legendary Hero as Hero of Time but the Hero's Shade in TP being HoT was basically a retcon and it doesn't make sense for Hyrule to be the way it is hundreds of years later. At least WW had the flood as an excuse for technological regression
>>739133990The point is that LoZ is>here's this giant empty map, go find some dungeons somewhere o algoEven the non-optional stuff can only be found by exploring the map for while with no directions or anything.None of the Zelda games since then are like that, they are all story-based adventures. If anything BotW is more like LoZ in this respect, since it's just a big open world with random dungeons scattered everywhere. But obviously even that has more story and structure.
>>739134069I'm not talking about the shade. Did you play the game? Ganondorf's backstory getting sealed by the sages was what happened to him after the end of OoT when kid Link and Zelda snitch him out.
>>739124701
>>739134069>very uncharacteristicallyIt's completely normal for Zelda games to reference past Zelda games specifically like that. OoT is a depiction of the main past lore event we were given in ALTTP.The hero's shade being the hero of time isn't a retcon.
>>739134240>here's this giant empty mapStopped reading. There's enemies and at at least 1 environmental interaction on every screen.
>>739134534I admit I phrased it poorly, but fighting the same respawning enemies repeatedly is not particularly interesting content. It's devoid of objectives to achieve, is what I meant, until you manage to stumble upon the next dungeon or a hyper-obscure upgrade secret.
>>739134534>environmental interactionTrying way too hard to draw comparisons to a specific other game.The word you're looking for is item gates. Like the Zelda franchise is known for.
>>739124701Breath of the Wild is a full on reboot that has nothing to do with any of the ones before it so you can start there if you want, I guess
>>739124701Literally just play the one that interests you the most
>>739124701>the Fallen Hero timeline has more games than the other two timelinesGrim
>>739134343Not really. OOT was only said to be the Imprisoning War through word of devs before the game came out but the actual game had nothing to do with it and later on they course corrected in their lorebook and said the war happened between OOT and ALTTP. That's basically how the early timeline theories came to be, devs say "this game is a prequel/sequel to X" or "this game elaborates on Y" then the game comes out and the story is written in a way that fits the mold but never directly addresses it. WW is still the only game where the past deeds of a hero is explicitly attributed to a previous protagonist
>>739124701Play Legend of Zelda if you like NES games, Link to the Past if you like SNES games, or Ocarina of Time if you want to play a 3D game. You can use the PC port for OoT. Next game could be Link's Awakening or Majora's Mask if you went with OoT. From there just play what interests you.
>>739134620>is not particularly interesting content.Opposed to every other Zelda game where you fight randomly respawning enemies as well? With LoZ being really the only game where fighting enemies is not only fun, but rewarding because of how the loot drops work since rupees are actually important? The objective of the game is exploring, and exploring grants access to hidden dungeons and optional secrets. The game isn't even esoteric. Everything that isn't a couple of heart pieces or an old man who steals money from you is very well telegraphed.
>>739135256The point is in other zelda games you're generally going somewhere to do something (and fighting the randomly respawning enemies incidentally on your path there). LoZ gameplay, when blind, is just exploration so you're fighting the respawning enemies as your main gameplay while walking around the map aimlessly until you manage to stumble upon the next thing you have to find.Look if you enjoy the NES tier 8-bit exploration then more power to you. I did say you need to have a specific kind of autism to enjoy it in this day and age. If you have that autism then awesome. It's just not something you can recommend out of the blue to just anyone and expect them to enjoy it just as much.
>>739135004>the actual game had nothing to do with itYeah this I don't get. The original sealing war didn't include a Link so you think what you're seeing has nothing to do with it? OoT explains that at the end when Link gets sent back to the past. The hero was forgotten because he was only there for a week and nobody knew him that well, all the sages at least knew one other person who would make sure they got into the historic record. And the sages in the legend got mutated into "wise men" by the time of ALTTP anyway.>devs say "this game is a prequel/sequel to X" or "this game elaborates on Y"The devs had a physical model of the timeline they kept in the office. The timeline theories were attempts to guess what the official timeline looked like.>WW is still the only game where the past deeds of a hero is explicitly attributed to a previous protagonistGanondorf is there in TP because the sages tried to execute him in the child timeline ending of OOT. You see TP's depiction of the attempted execution. You can argue that this wasn't "the actions of the hero being attributed to a past hero" but it's undeniably you seeing the direct results of what OoT Link did.
>>739124701don't bother, it's not worth it. reductionist retards will tell you "hur dur, plot never mattered bro. it's the same story over and over." despite nintendo having an internal timeline and never saying the legend repeats. shit doesn't make sense anymore since botw and shit happens for brownie points. if they don't care neither should you, it's all reddit spectacle now
>>739124701Twilight Princess or Wind Waker are the best starting points for the series. You could just jump into either Tears of the Kingdom or Breath of the Wild though, not like any of these games tie into one another beyond very subtle references you have to strain your neck to see.
>>739132397>Skyward Sword HDRock solid reboot of the franchise, but the games did change drastically afterwards though.
>>739124701just play a game that looks appealing to you. the timeline is bullshit. there is some continuity between the games but even those can stand on their own as independent stories.
>>739133196>All the Zelda games are connectedNone of that shit matters when it comes to actually playing the game. Link getting on a random boat to explore another land after LttP in LA doesn't matter at all. They're not connected in any meaningful way.
>>739124701Play the one that piques your interest (as long as it's not a direct sequel) and enjoy
>>739136834and then there's fags like this retard, ignoring that at least half of the games depend on one another
>>739124701you just pick a game and play it. very few games are directly related to each other. i think just the oracles pair and botw/totk. literally everything else is standalone.
>>739136834They're still connected. Retards saying it's "retelling of the same legend" are stuck on the parts that are similar and ignore the parts that change wildly. Link doesn't save Zelda from Ganondorf every game, that one fucking early 00s rock parody is not part of the canon!
>>739134976the series modus operandi is to release a new first game in the timeline with a split that quarantines all the old games while they release new games on the New Timeline until repeating the cycle
>>739133061You're so fucking stupid oh my god
>>739137047And there's autistic retards like you pretending the Nintendo ever cared about the timeline outside of references for longtime fans for nostalgia. I'm sure this is the part where you act like Ganon in WW being the same Ganon from OoT is totally relevant to the how game actually plays out, as anyone ever gave a shit about storytelling in a Nintendo game of all things.
>>739124701Were does Tingle staring in thr wizard of Oz fits into the timeline.
>>739137047there is a big difference between "technically subsequent" and "depend on". almost all of the games are completely standalone and the events of the previous game has little to no bearing on the next. you're beyond retarded.
>>739135579>Dark Souls gameplay, when blind, is just exploration so you're fighting the respawning enemies as your main gameplay while walking around the map aimlessly until you manage to stumble upon the next thing you have to find.
>>739137175hell, with how much totk just erases the shiekah, it basically stands alone too. yes, a lot of characters remember you, but there are also characters that remember you in botw too. it really doesnt affect much.
>>739137190
I'm shocked that these two haven't been ported to Switch 1 or 2. Nintendo likes doing ports and could easily sell both for $60 each
>>739130420Link’s Awakening and Majora’s Mask are too based for going against the grain.
>>739132832>any ordergood luck going straight from pod to t rock
>>739137639Rumor has it that these ports are the key to Nintendo's launching Switch consoles in India.
>>739137497nta but why the fuck do you keep bringing up Dark Souls like it's some kind of checkmate?
>>739139898NTA, but I could see Dark Souls and Zelda 1 and 2 comparison. They became more story centric with Lttp onward though.
It's been a few years since I last played a Zelda, what should I replay?>ALBW on 3DS>Twilight Princess with the new PC port>Skyward Sword on dolphin
>>739124701Well first you have to play Wand of Gamelon to understand the story, then you're ready to move on to Link's Crossbow Training.Just kidding, pick one that looks fun and play that one.
>>739124701the timeline is a meme, just play whatever game you want. Sure there are some obvious connections between some games, but you dont need to play most of them in a particular order
>>739133061>Oh yeah and start with ALTTPAlways an ALTTPfag when it comes to autistically ignoring the timeline.
>>739124701anything but 2 or a cd-i gametimeline is fake btw
>>739124701they're all self contained. just play a game, nigga.
I love Kass!>>739124701The first one or lttp or oot or mm
>>739139898the argument is that LoZ is completely deprecated by its limited gameplay style and the time period but Dark Souls has identical gameplay in the modern day.
>>739124701Literally just start anywhere that appeals to you. There're a number of unofficial PC ports of some of games, so if you don't want to drop cash on a Switch or whatever, give those a try.Personally, I'd recommend OoT as the starting point, purely because it created 3D Zelda and gives you a good reference point for what subsequent games do well or poorly in comparison. There's also a really well maintained and supported PC port.
>>739124701Pick a game and play, same as any other series.
>>739124701Just play the good games, the timeline isn't as complicated as people make it out to be. Also, Hyrule Historia's notion of a "Downfall Timeline" is nonsensical anyway, the only split any game ever conveyed with its story was Ocarina of Time having two timelines at the end. Ocarina of Time is probably a good entry point, Majora's Mask is a great sequel, and then you might want to try a 2D game like A Link to the Past (Triforce of the Gods in Japan, there's no actual time travel of any sort in the game). Breath of the Wild introduces a colossal world and tries to capture the spirit of Zelda 1's map itself almost feeling like a dungeon at times, but it lacks the amount major dungeons the other games do. Zelda games also got easier up until Twilight Princess, at which point they steadily started getting harder again.
>>739124701>>739151049To clarify, Twilight Princess is probably the easiest of any Zelda game in regard to combat, but things started picking back up in the games after it.
Everyone saying to start with Ocarina of Time is wrong. It's a fine intro story-wise, but the gameplay is more dated than they want to admit. Auto jump and 24 fps is not a good into to the series.Link to the Past is a much smoother intro in terms of gameplay, chances are you've already played a clone anyway. It is the earliest possible intro to the story as well since the two before were incredibly bare bones in that regard. It's a short game so you can probably knock it out in an afternoon or weekend at worst. Then when you move on to Ocarina you'll get that transition to 3D effect that the game had at release, with familiar elements in new fidelity.
>>739124701Tmelinefags are retarded, delete that picture and play any game that looks interesting to you.
>>739124701start with spirit tracks
>>739142290>doing the smart thing? that's autismwhy do i see this so much online
Can someone explain to me what's supposed to be so bad about there being a timeline? I get not liking the officially released timeline, but there was a canonical timeline before 2011, we just didn't have an official answer to what it was. The thing that's bad about it is the arrangement of items (which is ultimately because it was beholden to Nintendo deciding which Zelda games they wanted to be canon and important), not the premise of the games having a continuity in the first place. I've heard some people claim it's "pointless" because you don't HAVE to know where a game sits on the timeline but I don't understand what "point" the timeline is lacking for this.
>>739152427You don't. You see like-minded or lack there of, idiots like yourself spouting the most asinine shit imaginable that you agree with despite evidence to the contrary. We had a whole public saga about retarded normalfags believing nonsense, it was called fake news.
>>739152668>You don'ti do see it a lot.i wonder why it is that whenever someone thinks, they are called autistic.i think that calling effort autistic is a defense mechanism for mediocrity.didn't read the rest of your post
>>739124701Literally play anything because the timeline is made up and doesn't matter.
>>739152791delete this
>>739124701First off, don’t look at the timeline, treat every game as its own separate entity. Secondly, play lttp and oot first to get the feel of the classic formula. If you hate both games then just play ubislop Zelda like everyone else.
>>739152874>treat every game as a separate entity>advises this while also telling anon to play two games with significant lore connections
>>739152782>didn't read the rest of your postWe both know you didn't have the brain capacity to. The point was mocking you openly in a public space, it wasn't meant for you to wrap your little head around.
>>739153149Lttp is the groundwork of every 2d Zelda that followed, and oot laid the ground for 3d Zelda for the next 13 years. If you don’t like one or both of those games then you know what to play next.
>>739153236it was because you started your post from a mistake.if you want people to read your post, don't make a mistake at the start
>>739124995Don't do this. Play A Link to the Past, Play Ocarina of Time, Play Majora's Mask and play Link's Awakening.Maybe play Wind Waker.Stop playing zelda.Simple as.
