The Legend of Zelda (Series)

[queenzelda]

I actually remember getting my first N64 but at the time it was the one with the red cart you had to add to the console just to be able to play Majora's Mask. I didn't get OoT until I found it in one of the bins for cheap. The store we went to was going out of business and I got both MM & OoT pretty cheap. Same with the N64. My brother ended up buying Super Mario N64. We used to love messing up Mario's face on that thing. XD

I remember watching the opening of OOT and I couldn't wait to play. My brother and I took turns playing. I did the first area getting the sword/shield. He did the dungeon I did the town, etc. It was a lot of fun exploring the game, not knowing what to expect.

[ShiraNoMai]

I had my N64 handed down to me from a family friend, and one of the few games she provided me with was Ocarina of Time. I never beat it. I got to Adult Link and the Spirit Temple and I got stuck? I'm not quite sure on what but, whatever it was, I stopped playing then. I had gotten the Collector's Edition for Gamecube (my first not handed down home console) and that had OoT (MQ) and Majora's Mask on it, plus a demo of Wind Waker (the only time I had played that game until WiiU), but my friend borrowed it most of the time so I just watched him play through both games.

I did finally wind up finishing the game myself when I got the 3DS remaster, which felt great to do at the time because of my aforementioned history of it. Fantastic game.

Love watching randomizers of it these days. The game has so many checks that I honestly can't believe people out there remember them all

[Dragon Lord]

For everyone else who wasn't miraculously ignorant of Nintendo's existence in the 90's and did play this game though, what are your memories of your first time playing it and how do you feel knowing it's now 25 years old?

I got it for Christmas the year it came out. Having spent a lot of my childhood up to that point playing A Link to the Past multiple times, I was pretty excited for a new LoZ game. The game definitely didn't disappoint for little 9 year old me. Of course now days I look back on OoT and notice a lot of things about it that I don't really care for any more, and it's fallen out of my top Zelda games. I'd probably still put it in the top 5, but I definitely think Majora's Mask is better in almost every way in comparison.

But back then it was a good time. Pretty sure I spent that entire Christmas day after opening presents playing the game.

[Moonface]

IGN | 'The Grass is Greener:' Tears of the Kingdom Developers Look Back While Responding to Classic Fans
IGN published an interview today that they conducted with the Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi about their feelings on the legacy formula, the timeline, and Tears of the Kingdom's success, and it's a pretty good read: https://www.ign.com/articles/zelda-tears...ujibayashi

On returning to the older style of Zelda games:

It's interesting to hear you say that because one of the discussions that I've seen among Zelda fans is, "Gosh, I miss the more traditional linear Zelda of the past." And I'm wondering, how do you feel about that given the direction of the series toward a very free-form, open-ended kind of design?

Aonuma: Well, I do think we as people have a tendency to want the thing that we don't currently have, and there's a bit of a grass is greener mentality. But I also think that with the freedom players have in the more recent games in the series...there still is a set path, it just happens to be the path that they chose. So I think that that is one thing I kind of like to remind myself about the current games that we're making.

But also, it's interesting when I hear people say those things because I am wondering, "Why do you want to go back to a type of game where you're more limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?" But I do understand that desire that we have for nostalgia, and so I can also understand it from that aspect.

On fans wanting the older approach to dungeon design to come back:

Speaking personally, I really enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom's design, and I think a lot of people were grateful for the much more intricate dungeons. I think why a lot of fans valued Ocarina of Time and games like that were the clever dungeons that felt like a very crafted, very deliberate experience. And with Breath of the Wild, especially initially, the dungeons felt quite a bit simpler by comparison...but I think there's sort of a hunger for those very classic dungeons like the Water Temple and things like that.

Aonuma: That was kind of our intention with Tears of the Kingdom, as you mentioned, which was to put a bit more density or thoughtfulness into the design of the dungeons in the game. I mean, when we think of Breath of the Wild, one of our guiding principles was to rethink the conventions of the series, and that applied to our thinking about dungeons as well. So we kind of broke apart our previous assumptions about the way we've made dungeons so far with that game. And I think the result was simpler approach that you saw in dungeons in that game.

But then we did hear the desire from fans for a bit more of a designed dungeon, and that led to our approach to dungeons for Tears of the Kingdom. And so as we proceed, whenever we're making a game, we look back at our past and then consider where we are now with the freedom that we give to the player in these games.

On Zelda being a playable character at some point:

I want to talk a little bit about Zelda for a moment. I remember when the trailer first appeared, my first thought was, 'Oh, now Zelda's adventuring too. Maybe this is co-op, maybe Zelda will be playable.' But of course, she had her own story in Tears of the Kingdom. What you think of the desire among fans for Zelda to have a bigger role, and to even be playable?

Aonuma: Yeah, it is interesting when you think about the name of the series, the Legend of Zelda, but Link is always the main character....Zelda has always been involved, and they have a relationship and their own rules in each of the games, but it is true that I think there's always room for thinking about this type of thing and Zelda's role. And there may be some sort of possibility for something like that in the future.