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Discussion Favorite Zelda game from 21th century

Favorite 21th century Zelda

  • The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

  • The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

  • The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

  • The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

  • The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

  • The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

  • The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes

  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Results are only viewable after voting.
balgajo

balgajo

Koopa
21th centuty, both 2D and 3D Zelda DNA were already kind of established and I'm curious to know people's favorite entry.
If you want also share your other favorite ones among those.

Not counting spin-offs and re-release/remasters/remakes.
 
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No Majora's Mask?

Edit: oh right, the 21st century technically started in 2001, not 2000.

Anyway, to answer the question, I think it'd be Wind Waker for me.
 
It's tough because the arc of the series bends toward elaborate dungeons and less exploration, so the later a Zelda game is, the less it is my favorite. But it's close between Minish Cap, which is my second favorite of the 2D Handheld Zeldas, and Breath of the Wild which felt like coming home. I give it Breath of the Wild by a hair. I never played Tri Force Heroes, though.

My sleeper hit in the list of Spirit Tracks. I didn't love Phantom Hourglass - the return to the central dungeon was repetitive, and the big open sea feels like this giant environment where you can stumble upon cool new islands, but instead it's more like a JRPG random encounter fest, with the actual sailing on autopilot. I don't remember hating it, but years later I can remember nothing about it except the parts that frustrated me.

Spirit Tracks I bought in the same bundle with Phantom Hourglass, and I nearly didn't play it, despite being a huge Zelda fan. But when I got there, I loved the train so much more than the boat - it admitted what it was, so I never felt let down by it, and having a very limited number of ways to get around appeased my completionist instinct by making it obvious what I had and had not uncovered in an area. The central dungeon felt clever with the way it changed, instead of repetitive, and getting to control Zelda was a lot of fun.

My only knock against it is my DS was stolen before I did the final dungeon, so I never actually completed it.
 
Joe said:
No Majora's Mask?

Edit: oh right, the 21st century technically started in 2001, not 2000.

Anyway, to answer the question, I think it'd be Wind Waker for me.
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The idea was seeing people preferences after N64 gen. Though 21th century is a cooler way of phrasing it. ☺️
 
Link Between Worlds for me, but I feel like I could also have picked Minish Cap or TotK on any given day too.

I just feel that LBW is so complete and elegant in its core ‘turn into a 2D painting’ thing? It’s used for moving to the other world, for shortcuts, puzzles, defence in combat (the boss where you can literally hide on its shield is inspired), exploration. Just runs neatly through the whole game. No fuss, no convoluted hour-long tutorial. Just something that’s simple to grasp, elegant game design and seperates it from LTTP.
 
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I don't really include the Oracles, theyre more like late to the game GBC/past century releases. The Wind Waker I consider the game to be Zelda on the new century.

I vote for BotW although TotK is the better game.
 
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Voted for Twilight Princess. It is close between it and Wind Waker for me, but ultimately I prefer the world, characters, and music of TP. Both are great though.
 
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A lot of post 2000 Zelda titles fall into the "yeah but" category where they're remarkably strong games yet have that one or two areas where I was a bit let down by... except for Link Between Worlds.

The gameplay is incredibly strong, the story is just present enough to still be significant, it's a great balance between structure & non-linearity, and the pacing is just about perfect. When literally the only flaw I can think of is that its stuck on the 3DS and doesn't have an HD console port, that's telling about how great it is.
 
Twilight Princess was probably the most impactful to me at release and I've revisited it a ton so even though I'm a bit more mixed now, I voted for it. Breath of the Wild would come close after.
 
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In terms of dungeon design, Skyward Sword is rightfully number one, and the design of the Time Stone is thoughtfully creative; botw and totk are rightfully tied for number one from a comprehensive gameplay perspective.
 
Twilight Princess is my vote. I love its slow paced beginning, artstyle, weird characters, color palette, bloom. Probably don't like the dungeons as much as Oot but it definitely has my second favorite set of dungeons in the series. No problem with the bug collection thing but I dislike how long it takes to open up.
PixelKnight said:
Link Between Worlds for me, but I feel like I could also have picked Minish Cap or TotK on any given day too.

I just feel the LBW is so complete and elegant in its core ‘turn into a 2D painting’ thing? It’s used for moving to the other world, for shortcuts, puzzles, defence in combat (the boss where you can literally hide on its shield is inspired), exploration. Just runs neatly through the whole game. No fuss, no convoluted hour-long tutorial. Just something that’s simple to grasp, elegant game design and seperates it from LTTP.
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I really enjoyed ALBW. This game is definitely the one I'd like to see the most translated to 3D. You have a core ability but also items. You have freedom but also a nice narrative. And of course a plot point where it unlocks new places to explore.
 
everyone-gary-oldman.gif
 
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Skyward Sword (HD). I really love the motion control combat, the artstyle is gorgeous, the dungeons and music are sublime, and it's just a vibe in general. I have yet to play any 3D Zelda before it though, so I have no experience with Ocarina, Majora, Windwaker, and Twilight Princess. My Zelda experience is limited to BOTW, TOTK, Links Awakening remake, and Skyward Sword HD.
 
BotW, easily. I'd sooner replay it than TotK because I feel the latter is bogged down by bloat and menu drudgery. Also, korok seeds are way less fun to obtain due to the God awful "I need to reach my friend!" ones scattered everywhere. I really hope the rumors of a higher resolution and frame rate port of BotW are true.

Wind Waker is right up there too, though. I haven't played the others on the list yet.
 
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Tied between Twilight Princess and Tears of the Kingdom. But totk might be recency bias and TP might be nostalgia.
 
(21th sounds like saying 21st with a lisp)

I would say BOTW. I know it's been discussed to death, so all I'll say is that I just have nostalgia for it, even though TOTK is better in most ways gameplay wise.
 
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Magic-Man said:
Skyward Sword (HD). I really love the motion control combat, the artstyle is gorgeous, the dungeons and music are sublime, and it's just a vibe in general. I have yet to play any 3D Zelda before it though, so I have no experience with Ocarina, Majora, Windwaker, and Twilight Princess. My Zelda experience is limited to BOTW, TOTK, Links Awakening remake, and Skyward Sword HD.
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Oh dang. Definitely feel like you'll enjoy the others just as much as Skyward Sword at least. Here's to hoping for ports of tp/ww in switch
 
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Honestly I am pretty tied between Twilight Princess and Tears of the Kingdom. Both are a joy to play, and have such wonderful worlds to explore. I really enjoy the stories in both and have some fun with their sidequests. Twilight Princess also holds a special place in my heart since its the first zelda game I have ever owned and beaten. I think I might have to have to go with Tears of the Kingdom because I love the amount of creative it gives to the player, but I will say it is a really hard choice. I would honestly just choose both.
 
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TOTK is technically the better game, but BOTW was such a leap forward for the franchise and does so much new that it gets my vote.
Zelda's team on an absolute tear though - last three Zelda games are LBW, BOTW and TOTK. After Skyward Sword I thought that they were cooked and Nintendo should let EAD Tokyo or another team have a crack at it, but they bounced the fuck back.

Hope they mess with the structure more for the next one.
 
My answer's probably BotW but I voted ALBW to spread the love

But really, almost every Zelda game truly excels at something. BotW and TotK are basically neck for me, some of the best open worlds in all of gaming with unmatched sense of discovery and exploration. ALBW has the smoothest gameplay and the wall merging mechanic is elegant, intuitive and ingenious. Twilight Princess has the best dungeons in the franchise. Skyward Sword has a banging soundtrack and turned the overworld into an extension of the dungeon experience, which personally I loved. The Oracle games have amazingly vibrant settings and great dungeons too. Minish Cap is probably the prettiest pixel art game of all time. Etc.!
 
that was hard, struggled to choose between botw (absolutely blew my mind by the sheer scale of it), skyward sword (fantastic story, characters, art style and soundtrack) and twilight princess. had to go with the latter as it started my zelda obsession, had great dungeon design and midna is by far the best companion.
 
Breath of the Wild, by far. While my personal verdict is still out on Tears of the Kingdom, Breath just nails every aspect of Zelda that makes the series great.
 
Tears of the Kingdom is my favorite. I’ve never spent so much time with a video game and had so much continuous fun with it. I did the story completely out of order because I just went off exploring as soon as I got the paraglider. It was somehow even more fun than Breath of the Wild with exploring and finding new stuff. I really enjoyed using puffshrooms and muddle buds to fight large groups of dangerous monsters. I absolutely enjoyed beating up the monster pirates! I enjoyed seeing how the world was just starting to rebuild 5 years after Link defeated the Calamity. I’ll never forget how I was poking around a certain part of the world and accidentally found something that was supposed to be for the late story but I found it in the middle of my adventure! I loved going after the depths and beating up Yiga and finding all the light roots.

Breath of the Wild is a close second for me. I haven’t felt so childlike and amazed and absorbed in a video game action-adventure since the original Legend of Zelda.

Both are 10/10 all time classics and I would not argue with anyone liking one over the other.
 
ThanatosIntern said:
Twilight Princess. The vibes are just 10/10 and I still think it's the greatest game ever made.
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I've been sitting on TP for years hoping for a remaster. I think I'll just play the original if there's no news by the time the Switch successor is announced. I've heard way too many good things about this game to not play it.
 
I utterly love the top down Zeldas and have a lot of nostalgia for Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, the Oracle games and Minish Cap, but ultimately I think I have to give the crown to the open air Zeldas. Just pure delight in exploration of the world via exploration of its mechanics. Still blows my mind TotK runs on a tablet with innards from 2017.
 
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It's a really difficult decision, but ultimately my pick would be TotK. For me, it's the culmunation of (almost) everything I love about the series. Exploration, discovery, freedom, experimentation and an epic journey.

Even though I somewhat miss the "traditional" dungeon solving and progression, this nitpick is easily forgiven.
 
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Had to sleep on it, but eventually settled for Tears of the Kingdom. I actually think very highly of many of the 21st century Zelda titles. Like @oldpuck I've got a soft spot for Spirit Tracks, so it was nice to some love for that game.
 
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