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Best/worst story in a Zelda game

Dragmire

Member
"lol wat? zelda gamez have stories? lol"

Okay, now that we got that out of the way... I have two questions: first, which Zelda games have the best and worst stories? And second, is there really any answer for best story other than Ocarina of Time?

It's not my favorite game in the series at all, though I loved it back in the day and played it several times. But the story of the sages awakening, and Link being held in the Temple of Time for seven years... it resonates the most with me because of all of the characters finding their place in this epic story. It's just empowering. Also, I loved Sheik and a lot of the temples had pretty interesting stories behind them, like the Fire Temple and Lord Jabu Jabu.

Worst story would obviously go to one of the first two Zeldas, which had almost no story. But disregarding those games, I would say Minish Cap. I just didn't care for the game's style and the story was completely bland and uneventful for me.
 
Worst story would have to go to Link's Awakening.
It was all just a dream? Fuck you for employing the worst cliché ever.

For the best, I've got to agree that Ocarina of Time was great, but I give the edge to Wind Waker for actually expanding on the underlying mythos of the games.
 

NeonBlade

Banned
If we are talking about story line, and not gameplay ( because MM is the best Zelda from a gameplay standpoint ). Strictly on a storyline and narrative basis, the Zelda series is garbage for stories but for me, it goes like.

(1) Links Awakening
(2) Wind Waker
(3) Twilight Princess
(4) Majoras Mask.

The worst in the rest I haven't named.
 

[Nintex]

Member
TP by a landslide. There is finally a well thought out character(Midna) although Ganondorf feels tacked on at the end but you won't hear me complaining about that. Overall the story from the Zelda series is rather weak:
Hero Link sets out on a journey>Something bad happens>Hero Links sets out on a more difficult journey to find the Triforce/Fused Shadows/Pendants/Songs/Weapons/whatever>Hero Link's defeats Ganondorf/Vaati/<insert endboss here>

The second and third best are Link's Awakening and Zelda Four Swords Adventures
 

Dragmire

Member
Twilight Princess's story wasn't bad, but it could have been better. And I was never a fan of the teen wolf thing that was going on in the story.

badcrumble said:
Worst story would have to go to Link's Awakening.
It was all just a dream? Fuck you for employing the worst cliché ever.
And is that really how Adventures of Link ends? I don't remember that. Or are you talking about Link's Awakening (which had an awesome story imo)?
[edit] Shoot, you edited...
 
[Nintex] said:
TP by a landslide. There is finally a well thought out character(Midna) although Ganondorf feels tacked on at the end but you won't hear me complaining about that. Overall the story from the Zelda series is rather weak:
Hero Link sets out on a journey>Something bad happens>Hero Links sets out on a more difficult journey to find the Triforce/Fused Shadows/Pendants/Songs/Weapons/whatever>Hero Link's defeats Ganondorf/Vaati/<insert endboss here>
I wonder if Nintendo will ever try to change this pattern in future Zeldas.

It IS getting old to me, we need a new revolution. :D
 

snoopers

I am multitalented
I absolutely loved the story/universe of Link's Awakening (the game is my favorite Zelda too). Worst ? Hmm... From the Zeldas I have played, I'd say Phantom Hourglass, even though I found the game very good. The story is just not very ambitious.
 
It was all just a dream? Fuck you for employing the worst cliché ever.

It's not a cliché if it's an integral part of the story throughout.

Anyway I'd say the best is by far Majora's Mask, because there's a lot of it that you only pick up though unnecessary and excessive stalking, plus the overall tone was so moody. The worst was clearly the first Zelda game.
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
badcrumble said:
Worst story would have to go to Link's Awakening.
It was all just a dream? Fuck you for employing the worst cliché ever.

For the best, I've got to agree that Ocarina of Time was great, but I give the edge to Wind Waker for actually expanding on the underlying mythos of the games.

(neutral) badcrumble
Banned
(Today, 07:28 PM)
 
Xeke said:
Wow, that's a classy knock at a great game. Sweet dude. You're an allstar.

Don't get me wrong, I love the game. Great art direction, amazing music, quite fun to play, I even got through the stealth sections without any major hassle at all. But the story is fluff that tries to parade around like it's worth telling. Zelda games at least know that the story isn't the real reason we're playing it.

And seriously, who named the game? Because there is not a single morally ambiguous moment in it. There's never even the slightest reason to stop and say "hey, maybe [x] isn't so bad after all", because every moral distinction is made obvious in the first five minutes of the game. They were made obvious in the trailers! A much better title would have been "Very Clearly Labeled Good and Evil".
 

Crushed

Fry Daddy
Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask were pretty good, because they so different.

Wind Waker comes close behind, because it actually managed to do a good job humanizing Ganondorf.

Twilight Princess after that, because of the showing of emotion and character personality, but the Zant/Ganondorf twist pretty much ruined it.


It's pretty much all downhill after that.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
You're not going to have a lot of people that agree, but yeah, I feel OoT has the best and most epic story of the Zelda series. MM will probably be getting the most votes by sheer virtue of it being different. I'd rank the series (well the 3D ones) like this, personally:

OoT
WW
MM
TP

A person could make legitimate arguments for each one of these except TP, imo. It was interesting at first, but fell completely apart little more than halfway through.

badcrumble said:
For the best, I've got to agree that Ocarina of Time was great, but I give the edge to Wind Waker for actually expanding on the underlying mythos of the games.

Actually, I'd say OoT expanded on the mythos more than WW. You had the whole explanation of the origin of Hyrule by the goddesses and all.
 
i think they need to do away with any story in a zelda game. i miss the times of only having to sit through a few narrative blurbs and then getting into the exploration.

a good example of how zelda's changed in this regard: my (non-gamer) dad and i would play the hell out of the 8/16-bit zeldas, with him playing them more than me. then last xmas i showcased my wii. of course he dug wii sports. so i tell him there's a zelda on it, and he's like, bring it on. he doesn't even make it past the village sequence, and i can't blame him.

its not just with zelda. mario galaxy also makes gamers sit through some retarded narrative before any gameplay (though not near as bad), which, if mario 3 did the same, it would not have sold 19 million copies
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Tyrone Slothrop said:
i think they need to do away with any story in a zelda game. i miss the times of only having to sit through a few narrative blurbs and then getting into the exploration.

a good example of how zelda's changed in this regard: my (non-gamer) dad and i would play the hell out of the 8/16-bit zeldas, with him playing them more than me. then last xmas i showcased my wii. of course he dug wii sports. so i tell him there's a zelda on it, and he's like, bring it on. he doesn't even make it past the village sequence, and i can't blame him.

its not just with zelda. mario galaxy also makes gamers sit through some retarded narrative before any gameplay (though not near as bad), which, if mario 3 did the same, it would not have sold 19 million copies

That rationale doesn't work for Zelda, since OoT sold millions more than any of the 2D Zeldas.
 

Dragmire

Member
Tyrone Slothrop said:
i think they need to do away with any story in a zelda game. i miss the times of only having to sit through a few narrative blurbs and then getting into the exploration.

a good example of how zelda's changed in this regard: my (non-gamer) dad and i would play the hell out of the 8/16-bit zeldas, with him playing them more than me. then last xmas i showcased my wii. of course he dug wii sports. so i tell him there's a zelda on it, and he's like, bring it on. he doesn't even make it past the village sequence, and i can't blame him.

its not just with zelda. mario galaxy also makes gamers sit through some retarded narrative before any gameplay (though not near as bad), which, if mario 3 did the same, it would not have sold 19 million copies
That's not a bad point. I'm playing Contra 3 on Virtual Console right now, and it's funny how little explanation goes into the story, yet it works! You're riding a motorcycle, then you grab onto a helicopter, then it launches you at an enemy. No explanation and really, it's not needed.

But I don't think it would work in Zelda. Instead, they should just let you skip the story scenes even during the first viewing. I wouldn't skip them, personally, but I've known people that hate sitting through them.
 

Crushed

Fry Daddy
solid2snake said:
i would say, the wind waker story was pretty bad. what, where is the OoT's Link and what about this disney Link?
...that's not story. That's "you looked a screenshot and said 'lol kiddy'."
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
What's bad about PH's story? Haven't played it, and probably won't either, so feel free to spoil (in spoilers, of course).
 
Oblivion said:
What's bad about PH's story? Haven't played it, and probably won't either, so feel free to spoil (in spoilers, of course).
...It just is.

Lineback and sailing are the only good parts of Phantom Hourglass.
 
Oblivion said:
That rationale doesn't work for Zelda, since OoT sold millions more than any of the 2D Zeldas.

i think there were many factors in Oot's success. one being that it'd been 7 years since a console zelda in 1998. another is i think FF7 had warmed everybody up to in-game cinematics, which were fresh and new at the time
 
Majora's Mask by a mile, provided you actually talk & listen to the other characters and learn their patterns. That really makes the story into something special....it's one of the greatest fairytales written. One of the most imaginative and beautiful, melancholy games of all time. It's incredible.
 
Link's Awakening and MM are both top notch, and WW is very close (spoiler cuz no one beat the game
underwater Hyrule castle was the greatest moment in Zelda for me.
).
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Btw..

Odysseus said:
the one where you saved the princess

That could go for a billion things if you generalize it like that. By that logic, the accounts of Perseus, Theseus, Repunzel, Super Mario Bros., and a multitude of other things have the same story. Hell, let's go one step further, and say every game that has a bad guy and a good guy is exactly the same story.
 

Alts

Member
Links Awakening, although I agree with RiskyChris about that particular moment in Wind Waker. The silence was so eerie, it was incredible.
 

SantaC

Member
Best

1) Link's Awakening
2) Majoras Mask
3) Zelda WW

Worst

1) Twilight Princess
2) Zelda PH
3) Minish cap
 
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