Discussion Fami favorite 3d Zelda game (post TOTK edition)

[Phendrift]

Looking at these results is just making it hit again how much they absolutely nailed it with BotW and TOTK to a point that it shouldn’t have even been possible. Like almost half of the results prefer the two most recent games that switched the series up completely, out of seven total.

It’d be more believable if the series was mid before and then became great. But no, they took what was probably the most venerated and consistently acclaimed gaming franchise of all time, overhauled it completely, and made it even more acclaimed and loved

It could have been an absolute recipe for disaster in so many ways, look at FFs struggles, but somehow it just worked. It’s unbelievable to me, even considering the vocal minority that prefers the old style

 

[Kreese]

Considering that, for now, non open air is more than half, why are you calling the vocal forum minority?

I guess you can look at that way and are correct but we're also pitting 2 games up against 5 and those 2 still nearly have 50% of the vote and have much more votes than their contemporaries relatively speaking. Thus far, BOTW and TOTK are by far the most popular choices. As more open air Zelda games come out the gap will only widen in their favour.

 

[takriel]

1. OoT 3D / TotK
2. BotW
3. Skyward Sword HD

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

It’s 50% now for the open air duology anyway

 

[Mekanos]

People pitting the linear and open world Zeldas against each other will never make sense to me outside of trying to knock one down a peg

It's like comparing Super Mario Bros. 3 to Super Mario 64, they're completely different styles of games despite shared iconography and some gameplay ideas

 

[Phendrift]

People pitting the linear and open world Zeldas against each other will never make sense to me outside of trying to knock one down a peg

It's like comparing Super Mario Bros. 3 to Super Mario 64, they're completely different styles of games despite shared iconography and some gameplay ideas

You’re not wrong, but this is a situation where one replaced the other. As someone who prefers the new style a lot but still does love those old games, I can feel how those who prefer the old ones might have disappointment or even annoyance at the new ones. There’s no way around it for now, this new style is a full replacement for the classic style that Nintendo has shown no intention to go back to.

For SMB3 and Mario 64, maybe before NSMB the pitting against eachother would’ve made sense. But nowadays we have separate branches of 2D and 3D Mario that both get made. At this point, any “traditional” (SMB3) Mario lovers would be more likely to take their grievances out on NSMB for not living up to SMB3 rather than Mario 64 for switching things up and ushering the series into 3D.

 

[ethanswift]

Easy. Wind Waker is the GOAT.

 

[Mekanos]

You’re not wrong, but this is a situation where one replaced the other. As someone who prefers the new style a lot but still does love those old games, I can feel how those who prefer the old ones might have disappointment or even annoyance at the new ones. There’s no way around it for now, this new style is a full replacement for the classic style that Nintendo has shown no intention to go back to.

Hence "knocking down a peg"

I get being disappointed that linear 3D Zelda is indefinitely on hold, but these threads always boil down to people sticking a flag in their camp and going "nuh uh, mine is better than yours," but with a franchise that's over 35 years old, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that people get protective of certain iterations of it

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

1. Tears of the Kingdom
2. Majora’s Mask
3. Breath of the Wild
4. Ocarina of Time
5. Skyward Sword
6. Twilight Princess
7. Wind Waker

My ranking might change in the future but right now I put the most recent entry at the top. Tears is flawed for sure but nonetheless one of the most awe inspiring games I have ever played. Every corner I turned there was something to pique my curiosity, every 5 minutes the game did something to surprise me. The fact that it leaves such an impression despite being literally built on the foundation of its predecessor is testament to the strength of its ideas and their implementation. Two months later I still keep thinking about it and have to fight the urge to replay it in the hopes that they will release Master Mode difficulty for it.

It's closely followed by Majora’s Mask which will most likely forever stand out as the most unique entry. It’s weird, it’s unsettling and emotionally resonant in ways that games rarely manage to be. Its time travel conceit is not just a neat gameplay twist but the central thematic lynchpin. Every time I go back to it I’m taken in by Termina and its inhabitants, twisted and often tragic reflections of Hyrule. It just goes to show how much you can do with very little.

BotW is a highly meditative and sublime experience, a game greater than the sum of its parts and the first 3D entry that managed to recapture that sense of adventure from the very first game. Zelda was starting to become more and more about following someone else's story rather than writing your own and BotW put the player back in the driver's seat. I was worried that the sequel might make it obsolete but I see them more as two sides of the same coin. Where TotK is all about community, BotW is about loneliness, nature and introspection. TotK pushed the mechanical complexity up to 11 whereas BotW still has its deceptive simplicity.

OoT is the blueprint, the most perfect execution of the formula and every game following in its footsteps has failed to match it. It has a little bit of Tolkien/Middle Earth syndrome in that it feels almost a bit generic or vanilla these days because later games (even from other series) mined so much from it. However, over the years its become even more apparent how expertly crafted it is and how it strikes that perfect balance of overworld and dungeon gameplay, something that later entries mostly failed at.

Then there's a big gap...

Skyward Sword is easily the "worst" game on this list but nonetheless an interesting (and in retrospect necessary) experiment in blending the series' various "layers". In the context of the series I respect it more for trying out new things even though it stumbles a lot. If it weren't for its misguided approach to repetitive content I think it could have been one of the all time greats.

This was a commonly expressed sentiment back in the day but the longer I dwell on it, the more Twilight Princess feels like a pastiche of Ocarina of Time. It's what you get if you took that game and just wanted to make something better without understanding what made it great in the first place, "improving" its various elements without any regard of how everything fits together. Twilight Princess has some of the best dungeons in the series and obviously Midna so I can't hate it for that alone. But it completely drops the ball when it comes to the connective tissue. It's also a really ugly game and they somehow managed to remove the only sliver of character it had from the HD version. I never expected a Zelda game to have this little sauce.

I will never forgive gamers for prematurely condemning Wind Waker when its aesthetic trappings turned out to be the few redeeming elements. It's not a bad game per se but just an exceedingly boring one most of the time. Almost everything in it feels a bit undercooked: The simplistic dungeons, the drab overworld, the intriguing story that just somehow peters off at the end. Even as a teenager, when I wasn't super tuned into the development side of games, I could feel that Wind Waker was unfinished. Revisiting it with the HD version just drove that point further home. Still, probably the most fun and charming rendition of Link and great vibes.

 

[Vookatos]

After Tears of The Knigdom's release, it probably takes the #1 spot. BotW definitely felt a bit too sterile at times, which TotK improved upon massively.

After that? Jesus... Hard to say considering many of us haven't replayed BotW, which now just seems obsolete, too. I'll just skip that one for now
Maybe Wind Waker at #2? Frankly, nearly every 3D Zelda has some issue or another in terms of pacing which makes it hard for me to rank. WW had its second half gutted, TP had the worst beginning known to man (I actually don't mind the first hour or so, it's the stuff after), SS had Fi...

Before replaying Twilight Princess I would've put it as my #1 or #2, but the bug hunt and twilight world being just a whole bunch of nothing kinda took the wind out of my sails, so I guess #3. Still love the dungeons and the music.

Majora's next, at #4. Great atmosphere, but a bit too cryptic at times in regards to bonus content.

Ocarina would be #5 because I could never replay it without the fast Iron Boots romhack. When one part of the game is so dreaded on replays, I feel like it should be held against the original.

Skyward Sword was once #1 until I replayed it and realized that all of that game is backtracking and talking. Frankly, the only games I don't respect are the ones who don't respect me and that includes my time, so at this point I doubt I'll ever replay Skyward Sword ever again. A shame, really, it has some alright parts. Probably gonna be dead last until I die, as I doubt Nintendo can make a worse 3D Zelda unless it's 10 minutes of content stretched to 30 hours.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

Ocarina would be #5 because I could never replay it without the fast Iron Boots romhack. When one part of the game is so dreaded on replays, I feel like it should be held against the original.

Is this the same thing as the 3ds game did, where the hover and iron boots are now equipment that can be assigned to buttons like all the other items? It was always a weird design decision

 

[Vookatos]

Is this the same thing as the 3ds game did, where the hover and iron boots are now equipment that can be assigned to buttons like all the other items? It was always a weird design decision

Yeah, this. Have no idea how it went through testing without altering menus or simplifying the water temple.

 

[PixelKnight]

The Wind Waker
Ocarina of Time
Tears of the Kingdom
Breath of the Wild
Twilight Princess
Skyward Sword
Majoras Mask

The first four is really just that I love them all for different reasons and any of my criticisms of them are very minor really. I may choose any of them as my favourite 3D Zelda on any given day.

TP I think of as it’s ‘just’ a very good game in a series with loads of great ones (and most of my favourites are the 2D entries so this lot are already a few steps down the list). SS I have fundamental issues with it in terms of pacing and repetition and the use of the Wiimote for some things. MM is the only one I haven’t finished, I gave up a few hours in as I just found messing around with the time of day and the minor problems of the NPCs all so dull in comparison to the others.

Good to see such variety in peoples favourites. It’s a bit like FF in that with a series that’s been running for 35 years with stacks of good entries, it’s no longer possible to please the entire fanbase with any one entry, making variety and creativity and surprise strong elements of the series as a whole instead.

 

[grobla123]

Oot/mm/ww/okami (albw doesn't count), then totk/botw, then TP then darksiders 1, then SS (still good)

 

[Yavga]

Nothing will top Ocarina of Time for me and it still was the only game with the whole package: Gameplay, Music, Story, Progression, Atmosphere, heavily themed dungeons.

BotW and TotK were a nice step away from the usual formula but they have not managed to captivate me in the way Ocarina of Time did.
I discovered that in a Zelda game I prefer a focussed, lineair and more cozy game above a stretched open world with 1000's of things to do.

I hope the next game might lean a bit more towards Wind Waker in that there is a giant open spaceous world to traverse but also very focussed areas and that there will be a clear boundary between these 2 types.

1: Ocarina of Time
2: Link to the Past
3: Wind Waker
4: Breath of the Wild
5: Twilight Princess
6: Oracle of Seasons/Ages & Link's Awakening
7: Tears of the Kingdom
8: Minish Cap
9: Majora's Mask
10: Skyward Sword

 

[Deleted member 3433]

My two favorite video games of all-time are on lonely heights...

1. Tears of the Kingdom
2. Breath of the Wild

[and then there's the rest:]

3. Twilight Princess
4. Ocarina of Time
5. Skyward Sword
6. Wind Waker

 

[Christo750]

I have a very soft spot for Twilight Princess and think it gets way too bad of a rep. That’s been my favorite 3D Zelda for a long time until Tears of the Kingdom. They each offer something different but TOTK shows that when it comes to classic and open-air style Zeldas, you actually can have the best of both worlds. Open-Air 3 is going to be exciting when it happens.

 

[Koren Lesthe]

1. Majora's Mask
2. Tears of the Kingdom
3. Breath of the Wild
4. Ocarina of Time
5. Wind Waker (HD)
6. Twilight Princess
7. Skyward Sword

 

[xtoc]

1. OOT
2. BOTW/TOTK
3. MM
4. WW
5. SS
6. TP

• I didn't like the tears collection stuff with SS,TP
• I wasn't happy that WW feels like a unfinished zelda game. It was a good direction, and could be so much better if there was more time. But collecting the triforce instead of use them in dungeons is timefilling in a bad way.
• MM , i didn't like the transformations. And it's using a starmodel where the town is the main place which feels not immersive.
• TOTK&BOTW : Dungeons & Items issue
• OOT is a mastepiece, but the only issue i had during it's release is that the openworld hyrule field compared to zelda lttp is dull. After replaying the game, i appreciated the game a lot more.

Overal:
I hate tutorial sections

Thas somewhat my negative points from that list. Yet a lot of them are still masterpieces.

 

[Bowser Sr.]

Wind Waker probably has my favorite aesthetic and scenario writing, but BOTW is a game that grabbed me so hard and so bardly I suddenly found myself staring at an obscenely large "playtime number'' on my Switch profile, so I know for sure it is the winner.

 

[Rampo360]

So far it's Breath. Tears I only played 40 hours but I'm not convinced yet. I appreciate the huge effort and amount of new stuff but it hasn't clicked for me yet and the shrines so far rely too much on crafting.

 

[Earthbounder]

1- Tears of the Kingdom
2- Breath of the Wild
3- Ocarina of Time
4- The Wind Waker
5- Majora's Mask
6- Twilight Princess
7- Skyward Sword

All of them are at least 9/10 games, though.

 

[neil]

Pretty certain mine is TOTK now. Just a great game with so much fun stuff to do. I'm in no rush to finish it and that's so rare for me.

 

[GPKs3]

I ranked TotK barely above BotW, but it took me a while to arrive at that conclusion. I look at BotW/TotK the same way I look at Super Mario Galaxy 1/2.

BotW/SMG1, the first time playing, was pure magic and awe. Incredible games I wish I could experience all over again with a clean slate.

TotK/SMG2 took everything their first entries did and pushed them further with more polish and refinement.

 

[balgajo]

I guess you can look at that way and are correct but we're also pitting 2 games up against 5 and those 2 still nearly have 50% of the vote and have much more votes than their contemporaries relatively speaking. Thus far, BOTW and TOTK are by far the most popular choices. As more open air Zelda games come out the gap will only widen in their favour.

My impression is that if a poll like this were made before Totk we'd get around 50% to BOTW. Don't think if we have a third open air game like BOTW and TOTK it will make people move from non open air -> open air. The opposite is also valid but I don't think they will create another non open air one. So while I agree that in the real world those are the vocal minority, in this forum it is far from being the case. Which actually surprised me tbh.

 

[touchfuzzy]

1. Tears of the Kingdom
2. Wind Waker
3. Breath of the Wild
4. Twilight Princess
5. Ocarina of Time
6. Majora's Mask
7. Skyward Sword

Facts.

 

[Hailinel]

My impression is that if a poll like this were made before Totk we'd get around 50% to BOTW. Don't think if we have a third open air game like BOTW and TOTK it will make people move from non open air -> open air. The opposite is also valid but I don't think they will create another non open air one. So while I agree that in the real world those are the vocal minority, in this forum it is far from being the case. Which actually surprised me tbh.

Not everyone that likes BotW likes TotK, and not everyone that likes TotK likes BotW. It's a statistical fallacy to assume that all TotK voters would have otherwise voted for BotW if it wasn't present.

 

[Ab]

Basically what this means is that even on this very site of enthusiasts open air Zelda is preffered by the majority while a somewhat vocal minority like the older formula.

This is why TOTK and BOTW's sales are so good. The mainstream love open worlds and they make up the lion's share of the sales.

Well, yeah botw brought a whole new fanbase. At least doubled the franchise in sales

 

[Tamantayoshi]

This poll makes me a little salty haha. I think skyward sword (and the ds zeldas for that matter) are underrated. The motion and touch controls make those games super unique and creative imo. And while I love totk it's just too derivative of botw for me to put it over botw. All great games though.

 

[meatbag]

My impression is that if a poll like this were made before Totk we'd get around 50% to BOTW

IIRC Resetera did run a poll about the best 3D Zelda before TotK released, and yes BotW did get around 50% of the votes. That said I don't think the votes for BotW and TotK are interchangeable, and it would be fallacious to assume so.

Don't think if we have a third open air game like BOTW and TOTK it will make people move from non open air -> open air

Well obviously if you don't like the open air formula, why would you somehow like a game built on that formula? And anyway, the majority of the BotW/TotK fanbase is new blood. Heck for TotK Nintendo even explicitly mentioned that the people buying TotK have not played BotW.

 

[Mango]

While I'm not meaning to discredit BOTW or TotK, I really feel like you can slap "open world" on to anything nowadays and immediately get the attention of everyone. Thus while the games are good, I think the larger pull may be partially attributed to the mass market appeal of "open world." The games are also just a lot more open ended and replayable which is both a blessing and a curse.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

While I'm not meaning to discredit BOTW or TotK, I really feel like you can slap "open world" on to anything nowadays and immediately get the attention of everyone. Thus while the games are good, I think the larger pull may be partially attributed to the mass market appeal of "open world." The games are also just a lot more open ended and replayable which is both a blessing and a curse.

Open-world games fly under the radar and bomb all the time. It obviously helps to widen the appeal but it's not like some kind of secret panacea that'll automatically make your game more successful.

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

While I'm not meaning to discredit BOTW or TotK, I really feel like you can slap "open world" on to anything nowadays and immediately get the attention of everyone. Thus while the games are good, I think the larger pull may be partially attributed to the mass market appeal of "open world." The games are also just a lot more open ended and replayable which is both a blessing and a curse.

I mean yes, it's a popular genre, so a new entry in it gets more eyes than a, for example, Zelda Visual Novel would

But open world games still flop or underperform all the time (Far Cry 6, Immortals, Mass Effect Andromeda, RAGE 2, Saints Row, Gotham Knights, Days Gone). You have to be a good open world to achieve the kind of reception and success the open air duology has managed.

 

[balgajo]

While I'm not meaning to discredit BOTW or TotK, I really feel like you can slap "open world" on to anything nowadays and immediately get the attention of everyone. Thus while the games are good, I think the larger pull may be partially attributed to the mass market appeal of "open world." The games are also just a lot more open ended and replayable which is both a blessing and a curse.

Critics seems also to be pushing the industry in this direction. Since 2010 the only non open world games to receive a 96+ metascore were Odyssey and Mass Effect 2(edit: also bg3). It is like the drama genre for film's critic.

Mario Odyssey
Mass Effect 2
Baldur's Gate 3
----------------------
RDR2
GTAV
Elden Ring
Skyrim
BOTW
TOTK
Arkham City

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

Critics seems also to be pushing the industry in this direction. Since 2010 the only non open world games to receive a 96+ metascore were Odyssey and Mass Effect 2.

Mario Odyssey
Mass Effect 2
----------------------
Baldur's Gate 3
RDR2
GTAV
Elden Ring
Skyrim
BOTW
TOTK
Arkham City

So, some things:

1. Baldur's Gate 3 is not open world
2. You missed Disco Elysium
3. You missed The House in Fata Morgana
4. 96 as the threshold is a bit arbitrary. Bring it to 95 (which is a "round" number, and is where the cutoff between low 90s and GOAT tier 90 games occurs), and you also add:

• The Last of Us
• Persona 5 Royal

Open world games are definitely more popular and (rightly) accrue the lion's share of acclaim, but it's not as lopsided as you are assuming. 7/14 95+ games since 2010 are not open world. One of them came out this month. Since 2020, there have been three games that hit 95 or above, two of them are not open world.

 

[Mango]

@Dardan Sandiego @Hero of Hyrule

Take a look at Pokemon Arceus and Violet. While you can say they have their redeeming factors, more so Arceus than violet imo, both games gained more interest out the gate than something like Pokemon Sword, or at least that's what I saw personally. Many even handwaved Violets/scarlets problems because "it was the most fun they've had with a pokemon game is in forever."

The same thing happened with Sonic Frontiers, people were more willing and interested to give the game a shot, people who never seemed interested in Sonic, once Frontiers was announced.

None of this is to say these games are bad, except for violet/scarlet, but "open world," "go where you want," "play how you want," all just gain more interest by default imo.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

@Dardan Sandiego @Hero of Hyrule

Take a look at Pokemon Arceus and Violet. While you can say they have their redeeming factors, more so Arceus than violet imo, both games gained more interest out the gate than something like Pokemon Sword, or at least that's what I saw personally. Many even handwaved Violets/scarlets problems because "it was the most fun they've had with a pokemon game is in forever."

The same thing happened with Sonic Frontiers, people were more willing and interested to give the game a shot, people who never seemed interested in Sonic, once Frontiers was announced.

None of this is to say these games are bad, except for violet/scarlet, but "open world," "go where you want," "play how you want," all just gain more interest by default imo.

My point was that attention by itself isn't worth much if you don't have a game that people want to play. 3D Zelda games also got more attention by default than the 2D entries.

 

[balgajo]

So, some things:

1. Baldur's Gate 3 is not open world
2. You missed Disco Elysium
3. You missed The House in Fata Morgana
4. 96 as the threshold is a bit arbitrary. Bring it to 95 (which is a "round" number, and is where the cutoff between low 90s and GOAT tier 90 games occurs), and you also add:

• The Last of Us
• Persona 5 Royal

Open world games are definitely more popular and (rightly) accrue the lion's share of acclaim, but it's not as lopsided as you are assuming. 7/14 95+ games since 2010 are not open world. One of them came out this month. Since 2020, there have been three games that hit 95 or above, two of them are not open world.

I didn't include them the 95 because appeared too much games and I got lazy...XD
I didn't include the other two because they don't have a seal due to the low amount of reviews.

Just checked it and in fact Baldur's Gate isn't an open world. Had a really wrong assumption about the game. But yeah, the share is big and the remaining are distributed over the other genres.

95 would add:
RDR
Persona 5 Royal
TLOU
Portal 2

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

@Dardan Sandiego @Hero of Hyrule

Take a look at Pokemon Arceus and Violet. While you can say they have their redeeming factors, more so Arceus than violet imo, both games gained more interest out the gate than something like Pokemon Sword, or at least that's what I saw personally. Many even handwaved Violets/scarlets problems because "it was the most fun they've had with a pokemon game is in forever."

The same thing happened with Sonic Frontiers, people were more willing and interested to give the game a shot, people who never seemed interested in Sonic, once Frontiers was announced.

None of this is to say these games are bad, except for violet/scarlet, but "open world," "go where you want," "play how you want," all just gain more interest by default imo.

I would say I disagree on several, several counts:

• Pokemon Legends was a legitimately great game that accrued acclaim for its merits and strong word of mouth, helping it achieve great success critically and commercially (the latter undercut by the announcement of S/V)
• Pokemon Scarlet/Violet got dinged by critics massively for their shortcomings
• Sonic Frontiers got dinged by critics massively for its shortcomings
• Pokemon Legends and Scarlet/Violet both sold well... as do all Pokemon games lol. Sword/Shield are the second bestselling games in the series. Scarlet/Violet came three years after them, on a 100 million+ install base, which reflects in them getting a better start out the gate in spite of the harsher critical respone

Now that said, I do agree that open worlds are inherently more exciting and generate a lot of interest, but:

• It has to make sense for the franchise (i.e., people were happy when Pokemon or Sonic went open world on principle, less so when MGS went open world. A Resident Evil or Metroid game going open world would generate a lot more pushback)
• It has to be good while retaining what people like about that franchise in the first place (Halo Infinite going open world generated a lot of interest at first, but it sputtered out once it became clear it was poorly done and at odds with why people play Halo; ditto FFXV)
• Inherently, open world design is more interesting to the vast majority of all parties involved. It is creatively more challenging and fulfilling to developers, it is more lucrative for publishers, it is more exciting for players, and all of this is reflected in it being more amenable to critics as well

For people who do not jive with open world design as much, I do empathize, because everything seems to be trying to cash in on the trend; however, since the very beginning, video games have been explicitly trying to immerse players within their worlds and allow them to function within those with few to no constraints. Open world design is the ideal that most games and developers have been working towards all along, and it was only the technical limitations that existed until the HD era that prevented it from being more pervasive, and causing a fallback on abstractions like overworld maps or the OOT style hub and spoke design to represent that same motif instead.

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

I didn't include them the 95 because appeared too much games and I got lazy...XD
I didn't include the other two because they don't have a seal due to the low amount of reviews.

Just checked it and in fact Baldur's Gate isn't an open world. Had a really wrong assumption about the game. But yeah, the share is big and the remaining are distributed over the other genres.

95 would add:
RDR
Persona 5 Royal
TLOU
Portal 2

Can't believe I somehow missed Portal 2 and RDR... lol

Fair shout on not wanting to include Fata Morgana and DE (for all we know, they would score lower with more reviews, sure). But yeah, BG3 is not open world lol, it's a classic isometric CRPG.

 

[amara]

1. Breath of the Wild
It really embodies the 'wild' in its name. Fighting against the environments and guardians, rewarding you with incredible discovery
2. Majora's Mask
It's story is so creative and unsettling. Termina felt like a living world with the NPC interactions
3. Ocarina of Time
It's the most well-rounded Zelda. The pacing, exploration, story, dungeons, etc
4. Tears of the Kingdom
A lot of things I loved about botw were toned down or removed in this. I do appreciate the innovative mechanics but the game was full of repetition I didn't enjoy
5. Skyward Sword
Dungeons and overworld puzzles were fantastic but it was padded too much resulting in horrendous pacing
6. Wind Waker
I don't remember much of it but I do recall disliking the dungeons and the sea exploration in general. Story and art style are great though

I haven't played Twilight Princess. Maybe I'll get to it soon.

 

[AngryAlchemist]

Do we really have to go over the same points that have been made in every other thread over and over again? Who cares if open world games are inherently more popular. The poll was for people voting for their favorite Zelda games and you got it. The old vs new formula is such a repetitive topic at this point.

 

[Mango]

@Dardan Sandiego

Word of mouth and the general quality definitely helps but all I'm saying is that the initial boom in interest for BOTW was probably helped by it being so open. Which is likely why they leaned so hard into how open it was during the lead up to release.

@Hero of Hyrule

I'm not really talking about reception just initial interest and appeal. I think people are just naturally more interested in "bigger" and "more open" games.

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

@Dardan Sandiego

Word of mouth and the general quality definitely helps but all I'm saying is that the initial boom in interest for BOTW was probably helped by it being so open. Which is likely why they leaned so hard into how open it was during the lead up to release.

@Hero of Hyrule

I'm not really talking about reception just initial interest and appeal. I think people are just naturally more interested in "bigger" and "more open" games.

I agree with that (and it's basically what I say in the bottom half of my post), open design games do inherently appeal to people more than the alternatives, but that's coming down to the whole premise of video games being to lose yourself in them to begin with lol

 

[meatbag]

I think people are just naturally more interested in "bigger" and "more open" games.

It’’s more the “open” than the “big” that people like. That is to say, the general trend is that people like having avenues for self-expression. Whether it’s the sandbox physics of TotK, or the dating options in Persona 5, or the ludicrous number of permutations in the fantasy adventure of Baldur’s Gate 3– people are drawn to games that give them choices.

Which is likely why they leaned so hard into how open it was during the lead up to release

It was also their vision for the game, anyway. To spark a sense of adventure. The open world was clearly crafted for that purpose.

 

[Stilt Village]

Just doing this off the cuff, not too seriously... Probably Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, and Tears of the Kingdom near the top. Bottom is probably Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild even though they were the ones I was most fond of at the time I first played them, oddly enough. They really suffer from being open world games with a lack of interesting stuff in them. Skyward Sword just above those because it's all highs and lows, and I'm not really sure what to make of Ocarina. I feel like it slightly mitigates the worst aspects of other 3D Zeldas, but they're still very much present, and it doesn't make up for them by excelling at anything beyond the other entries aside from music. I've probably also just played it too many times. Feels like it should go either dead center or dead last, it's hard for me to muster strong feelings on it compared to the rest.

 

[Mekanos]

Not everyone that likes BotW likes TotK, and not everyone that likes TotK likes BotW. It's a statistical fallacy to assume that all TotK voters would have otherwise voted for BotW if it wasn't present.

Yeah I mean I think BOTW is a great game but if this poll ran before May I would be voting for Majora's Mask

Games can speak to people in certain ways other than just a dichotomy of open vs linear

 

[Twilight]

1. Breath of the Wild
2. The Wind Waker
3. Majora's Mask
4. Ocarina of Time
5. Twilight Princess
6. Skyward Sword
7. Tears of the Kingdom

Could swap between Breath and Wind Waker as my number 1.

 

[Kreese]

Wow... TOTK has slaughtered everything in this poll... love to see it.

BOTW was great when it came out but the problem is going back now is redundant. If it had a stronger narrative it would stand out more against TOTK but even in that regard TOTK is way ahead.

 

[Red Monster]

I haven’t played Majora’s yet so that title is excluded from my list.

1. Ocarina of Time
2. Skyward Sword
3. Wind Waker
4. Twilight Princess
5. BotW

…

huge freaking gap here

…

6. Tears of the Kingdom

Breath and Tears are so far removed from what I want out of Zelda games that I can hardly think of them as Zelda games anymore. But at least I enjoyed my time with BotW. TotK feels like an overstuffed mess full of stuff I don’t care about.