Zelda turns 25.

[Flarecobra]

Happy Birthday to the LoZ francise. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcRJGbgOaxA)

Anyway, to celebrate it, why don't we share fond memories from the games?

I remember once playing Oracle of Ages, I was pretty close to death, and running like mad for a fairy spring, when I started slashing at some octorocks, ended up getting two fairies in a row.

:dance: <-- This was my very reaction.

EDIT: Can one of the Mods throw on a "Games" tag please? I kinda forgot when I made thread.

[h4x.m4g3]

I'll never forget the first time my brother was playing through Ocarina of Time. He had gotten up to the spirit temple but couldn't figure out how he was supposed to learn the song to get back as Young Link (he knew that much was obvious). After two days of fruitless attempts he finally brought the strategy guide. The solution, was to walk back out the doors, every time he reached the temple he used the Ocarina to teleport back to the temple of light while in the entrance.

[Kim]

Majora's Mask.

All of it.

Or, failing that, the Ben story... (http://inuscreepystuff.blogspot.com/2010/09/majora.html)

[Ryong]

I can't decide, really.
a) Either one of the boss fights in Minish Cap where you have to disable the boss then go tiny and go inside it to hurt it. I always liked the size-changing mechanic and having it in a boss fight was awesome.
b) "Okay, screw this, I'm going to play through all of Link to the Past at once." and then I did.

[Loyal]

Seconding Majora's Mask. If OoT was great, MM was just divine. Nearly all the music was memorable, the story elements were engaging, and despite reusing about 90% of the models in OoT it still all felt incredibly fresh and new. How many games these days can get away with that?

The rewinding-time, 72-hours-recurring thing was also pretty fantastic since it meant the world could move and events would happen without the player's input, without actually depriving the player of any content.

[MuMu]

The broken bridge on OoT, my cousin was unable to fix it so he just went "I'll ride on Epona and she'll jump through the gap" and I was all "derp that's impossible, why would they put that in the game." Then he did it. It was awesome.

[PCD]

Link's Awakening was the first Zelda game I played as a kid, and as much as I loved it, I could never figure out how to get anywhere in the sixth temple. No matter how I looked, there just wasn't anything to do there. This was before internet was a thing, so I just decided to restart the game once I got to that point every time. It reached the point where I could get up to that point in the game without dying at all.

A couple years ago, I realized there are tiles on the floor of the sixth dungeon pointing to a spot on the wall you need to bomb.

[EVILNess]

I remember being very young, like not even being able to read yet, and just wandering the map looking for new things. Bombing every wall, burning every bush. Leaving no stone unturned for the location of some hidden treasure...

[tacticslion]

I haven't played all of them (a complete shame), but I've generally enjoyed the ones I did play.

Original: the lousy maze - my dad and I used to tag-team playing the NES games and it took us forever to figure out the maze. After we did so, we finally bought the strategy guide... and never used it, as we owned the rest of it. ALSO, as it turns out, I've never actually played the original base game, only the second quest. When we bought the game, we didn't really read the instruction book outside of the basics, and so always typed in "Zelda" as the character name (you know, since it was called "Legend of Zelda", we figured the little guy had to be "Zelda"), which was the pass code (though we didn't know it) to the Second Quest. I only found out that the guy's name was "Link" from the strategy guide - and by that point we'd beaten the game with all three saves. Good times.

LoZ II: I hated this game with a passion 'cause it was so different from the original - and it could be quite difficult at times, if you weren't levelled-up properly. I remember, though, after having tremendous difficulty, finally managing to defeat the first boss - the horse-headed thing - one day when a friend of mine came over to visit (he encouraged me on). It was such a feeling! Then I got pwned by some random bat in the next dungeon. That was... unpleasant. I never really gave this game a chance, and would like to some day.

LoZ - LttP: I loved this game. Loved it. It was my favoritistestest game of all time (at least until Chrono Trigger came out later) and I replayed it endlessly. I still remember thinking that Aggie was the big-bad and being totally blown away when he turned out just to be Gannon (in-hiding-disguise! [tm]). Also, I remember how difficult it was to get the lousy super-bombs to get to the Fat Fairy.

LoZ - OoT: I thought this was a fantastic game, though by this point I didn't have too much time on my hands. Still, it was one of the richest environments and non-Square Soft story environments I'd run across, and I loved the insight into the world of Hyrule... though I was somewhat confused about it's location in continuity with the other three games. Riding Epona around was one of the best things ever. As was summoning the Scarecrow. Which I did all the time. At inappropriate moments. Fun. That said, I find Tingle difficult to forgive.

LoZ - WW: What a fantastic game! Favorite Moment: when Gannon was beaten to the Triforce. I laughed so hard it was difficult to play the next fight. I also liked that the Princess wasn't.

LoZ - TP: I enjoyed this one a lot - especially all the cinematic and suggestive elements. Favorite moment? I dunno? I was quite annoyed that Midna just kinda goes home forever, after all the time you've spent with her. It just seemed lame. I still enjoyed the story quite a bit.

So: huzzah to Zelda!

EDIT:
Oh yeah! Evilness, I loved bombing the daylights out of everything that even vaguely looked like it might be a crack! Every bush! Every blade of grass! None would survive my wrath!

Nonsie: the heck is that?

[Donomni]

Zelda was directly responsible for me getting a Gamecube, what with that one Black Friday and the Wind Waker/Zelda Collection Disc bundle. Zelda is also not-so-coincidentally responsible for hating Black Friday forever.

So, happy 25th, Zelda. Are you still in college? Do royalty even go to college?

[Oron]

A friend a couple rooms down in my dorm did a play-through of Ocarina of Time during exam week last semester. Our RA insisted he fight Twinrova and Ganondorf.

He hadn't played the game in years.

It came time for him to fight Twinrova. My friend sat there and gave him instructions, and he still struggled. Urgings became more urgent. Encouragements turned to commands. Voices were raised. We were eventually screaming at our RA what to do over and over again while he ran around flustered. Then he died. We all left the room. I think it took him something like eight tries, but he eventually got it.

Not sure how he handled Ganondorf.

[CelesJessa]

Link's Awakening was the first Zelda game I played as a kid, and as much as I loved it, I could never figure out how to get anywhere in the sixth temple. No matter how I looked, there just wasn't anything to do there. This was before internet was a thing, so I just decided to restart the game once I got to that point every time. It reached the point where I could get up to that point in the game without dying at all.

A couple years ago, I realized there are tiles on the floor of the sixth dungeon pointing to a spot on the wall you need to bomb.

When I met ne of my best friends she was stuck in LttP for the longest time, and the first time she came over to my house she brought the game so I could help her. The solution she was missing: pulling a statue's tongue.

My favorite Zelda game has to be Ocarina of Time. I have played it so many times and I am a boss at the mounted archery minigame.

[mauve]

When I was seventeen and went into my first surgery, I got put into the pediatrics ward for a few days to recover.

Each room had a nintendo system. My room had LoZ: MM. That was my very first time playing a Zelda game. I was on pain killers through an IV, so I doubt I did a very good job. All I remember is running into walls a lot as a deku kid and thinking it was hilarious. That's as far as I got before the kid in the next room wanted to play and took my Zelda cartridge away.


I also remember getting Link to the Past for my GBA and thinking it was so hard.

[synkr0nized]

I CAN'T WAIT TO BOMB SOME DODONGOS!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELJoKR9zl-g)

The original animation doesn't use the oh so bad CD-i animations, but this is the actual source (http://www.somethingawful.com/d/flash-tub/zelda-cdi-remix.php).



e: So I didn't ever get into the second one on the NES; it was so meh. My favourite is probably still A Link to the Past, though Ocarina of Time is quite amazing. Ocarina of Time 2 Twilight Princess sure was fun, but it didn't capture me as well.

I liked Link's Awakening so much that I bought a Gameboy Color mostly to purchase the color version. It's probably because it was more or less the SNES's A Link to the Past sequel both in gameplay and plot.

[Loyal]

When I met ne of my best friends she was stuck in LttP for the longest time, and the first time she came over to my house she brought the game so I could help her. The solution she was missing: pulling a statue's tongue.My version of this was that bit in OoT's water temple, where you have to raise the water level in the middle room and go through the floor where a floating block used to be.

I was stuck there for YEARS before I finally discovered GameFAQs.

[PyrosNine]

Well, my first memory of Zelda was the Nes game, but I didn't play it because I was poor, it was just something all my friends had and I didn't. But then, later my sister got a Super Nintendo, and it came with Mario World, and she complained that it wasn't the game for her.

So we got Lttp. And since then, our household has been big on the Zelda. Me and my sister would take turns, and we would use the same name for our character, "James", as my sister thought it sounded cool, and so did I. Even though Sis grew out of games, she still takes the time to play Zelda, coming over to play through OoT, Lttp, whenever possible. When I bought Zelda Phantom Hourglass, she played it nonstop, and when I bought Zelda Spirit Tracks, she's STILL playing it. (that pacman thing at the end was too friggin' hard!)

I am attempting to buy her daughter a princess Zelda costume, since she really likes princesses, and me and my sis know one really great one...

My greatest Zelda moment was when I beat OOT over the course of a single day, just to see if I could do it. My worst zelda moment was when, a few years later me and my sister discovered the OOT speed run on speed demos archive, where we became violently mad at both the sheer oneupmanship and the horrible rape of Zelda!

Also, 25 is my favorite number.

Also also, I've begun the legal name changing process to give myself an extra middle name so my full initials, including the collection of last names I have, will spell out J.A.M.E.S.

[pochercoaster]

Ocarina of Time was one of the very first video games I owned. I played the shit out of that game... The amount of time I spent on it took up a very large chunk of my childhood.

I remember being giddy the first time I found the sinking lure (think I found it a total of 4 times). I was also petrified of re-deads because they're extra creepy when you're 8 years old. (WHY IS HE HUMPING LINK'S FACE?) Also that white fleshy mini boss with the hands that you fight when you're young Link in the well of Kakariko village...

The first time I played through OOT I completed the water temple before the fire temple and I think I completed the spirit temple before the shadow temple. Did anyone else get them out of order like me?

[Arhra]

In Ocarina of Time I still remember coming out of the Temple of Time in the future for the first time.

I... I didn't want to play any more.

Frickin' Redeads...

[Roland]

Ah man, the memories...

-The first Zelda game I ever played was Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. I died. A lot. And no, I will never forget that Game Over screen. Never.

-Finding the Ice Rod in A Link to the Past. At the time I thought this was the single coolest item ever. Seriously. This is probably the biggest reason why I will never complain about the unoriginality behind ice-based equipment or levels. I just find them too awesome to complain about, really.

-Link's Awakening. All of it. This was probably the first game I actually started having dreams about. This is probably the first game I ever played for over a hundred hours. Sadly, my cartridge got screwed up pretty badly when I learned about that game's unique sequence breaking tricks and abused them for my own amusement.

-Pulling open a grave in Ocarina of Time, going inside the newly opened grotto, and coming face to face with a fucking Redead without knowing what it was or how to fight it. I sent the game back to Blockbuster the next morning, and didn't play it again for another year. And I'm still afraid of the bastards, to the point where I refuse to fight one up close if I can help it.

-Getting stuck in the Shadow Temple in Ocarina of Time. I'd wanted to spend as little time as possible there, so I broke sequence and skipped it almost entirely, doing the Spirit Temple (my favorite) first. When I came back, I still did the minimum necessary, up until I got stuck at the very end. My strategy guide was pretty good up until this point: The last Small/Silver Key in the dungeon was not listed, so I ended up stuck for a good week until I decided to check out another guide at the store. So I went into the listed room once I got home and fought and Invisible Floormaster. As soon as I "killed" it I turned off the Eye of Truth and... promptly got strangled to death by an invisible Mini-Floormaster. It was every bit as traumatizing as my first Redead encounter.

-Playing Majora's Mask for the first time at Toys R Us and loving it so much that when it came out, I bought the Collector's Edition (Gold Cartridge) even though I couldn't play the game.

-Getting into a heated argument with my mother over that very fact. I'd been entirely willing to put off being able to play it until I could get the N64 Expansion Pack thing, whereas she believed I'd deliberately wasted my own money and her time.

-Majora's Mask. Every single moment of it. I still have my gold cartridge sitting on my table, right next to my monitor. Also I had a childhood crush on Anju. Yeah... I will say, though... Goron Link was probably my absolute favorite thing about that game. So much so that a few times I went and bought Chateau Romani on the First Night just I could do laps around Clock Town.

[Lost in Time]

My all time favorite game ever is Link to the Past. I played that forever as a child and one of the reasons I waited so long to trade in my SNES. One of my favorite dungeons in that game was the Thieves Village (I think the 4th crystal in the dark world) where I rescued the maiden and I thought it was way to easy. That twist made me play that one over and over showing all my friends what happens.

I was also a big fan of the Oracle games, usually beating them without dying in a single sitting. Even beating the hidden final dungeon when linking the two games together.

[Specterbane]

Good grief, Zelda. I'm not even a Nintendo fan as much these days, but I remember making a deal with a friend who owed me a bunch of money from paying rent for him to get him Gamecube and games just so I could go out and pick up a used copy of Master Quest to finally play Ocarina. This was in 2008, mind you.

But my earliest memories of Zelda come form my older brother saying I wasn't allowed to play his game (the golden cartridge of LoZ) and getting frustrated trying to get LoZ II to actually work right on the old system...good times.

[Bells]

Fucking Water temples how do they work?

[Loyal]

Fun fact: That ain't water. It's tears.

[phil_]

I remember being giddy the first time I found the sinking lure (think I found it a total of 4 times).I don't have time at the moment to write up a big post about Zelda right now, but I gotta give an internet high-five to a fellow sinking-lure-finder. That Hylian Loach was real and probably still sitting in the tank on my old save. I'll have a look if I decide to actually do a proper post.

[Bifrost]

Ah, Zelda. The source of my burning hatred of water levels. Although the second dungeon in LttP was kinda fun, I'll admit. But they still had a terribad frozen water level, and that totally counts as the soul-destroying water level of the game.

All of my hate. ALL OF IT.

My first Zelda memories are from playing "with" my mom as a kid (read: running around aimlessly looking at stuff then asking/whining at my mom to play through the actual dungeons). It's probably part of the reason that I'm one of the rare Zelda fans that actually loves Adventure of Link; I grew up watching my mom play it (and being terrified of the game over screen. I was, like, five, don't judge me) and I really liked the story told in the manual. I thought it was cool. :B

I also remember getting the Zelda Collector's Edition back when the Gamecube was relatively new; it was my first experience with OoT and MM, and while I loved OoT (up to the gog-damned Water Temple), I hated MM when I first played it because of the time limit. I like it now (except for, guess what? THE WATER DUNGEON GHDJGFYFDFHGJFH), especially the memory scenes with Skull Kid and the fairies. c:

More recently, LttP is one of three Zelda games I have ever actually completed (and I'm pretty sure one of those was a fluke (up yours, General Onyx!).), and I was SO FREAKING PROUD OF MYSELF because Ganon has thwarted my attempts at victory with his burny bats from batspace since aforementioned years of aimlessly wandering around.

[rpgdemon]

I don't have time at the moment to write up a big post about Zelda right now, but I gotta give an internet high-five to a fellow sinking-lure-finder. That Hylian Loach was real and probably still sitting in the tank on my old save. I'll have a look if I decide to actually do a proper post.

Lies and slander, it doesn't exist.

I have tried EVERYTHING suggested, and it never worked.

[phil_]

It's not about trying. It's a Tao thing; you wouldn't understand.

[CelesJessa]

I don't have time at the moment to write up a big post about Zelda right now, but I gotta give an internet high-five to a fellow sinking-lure-finder. That Hylian Loach was real and probably still sitting in the tank on my old save. I'll have a look if I decide to actually do a proper post.

I found the sinking lure too! Although catching the Hylian Loach with it is kind of a killjoy when it adds the little disclaimer on the tank about how you cheated to get it.

[phil_]

If it's in the game, it's legit, fishing shop guy! You scrub!

But, yeah, I never got the piece of heart for fishing because of that. I don't care; I caught a legend.

[Amake]

In Link to the Past, the big cave network high in the mountains. That was about the first time I went somewhere in a game without either a player's guidebook or a friend who'd played it before telling me to. (I was a very cautious gamer.) I found it all by myself and went in there all by myself, and felt like I was the first person in the world to go there.

And that's the height of Zelda for me.

[pochercoaster]

Lies and slander, it doesn't exist.

I have tried EVERYTHING suggested, and it never worked.

I think it's random. I found it 4 times simply cause, as I said, I played the shit out of that game. Also, you guys caught the fisherman's hat too right?

I even found a few glitches/somewhat broke the game on my own before I even looked up any of it on the internet, although I can't exactly remember what I did.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

LTTP was my first and favourite.
Link's awakening I have played like 3 times and could never finish. I think too much digging for seashells always put me off and without the sword upgrades it just got harder and harder.
Had a soft spot for Twilight Princess- though very easy, I remember taking the Cave of Trials pretty soft until that last room when Hoshit..... Nearly died but kicked it up a second time. Then I ran through it a second time without healing or restocking items cause surely it'll be the same the second time through....
I totally caught the Hylian Loach fair and square! Cause I'm master of fishing.

[tacticslion]

I totally caught the Hylian Loach fair and square! Cause I'm master of fishing.

Yeah. I don't think I ever actually used the Sinking Lure...

[Marc v4.0]

OoT was buggy to the point that I think glitches were an intended feature of the game

[akaSM]

Link's Awakening has some great moments. For instance:

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5398/photo06.gif

It was the first Zelda I played :3. I'll always remember the Southern face shrine and the ending, the Ballad of the Wind Fish is amazing.

[CelesJessa]

This is relevant and totally awesome. (http://www.nineinchsandwich.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/zelda_25th_anniversary.jpg)

[Bells]

So... weird thing... I just remember Skyward Sword.

Is... anybody still looking for that one? Cause, i gotta say... not much over here. I mean, the trailer was majorly unimpressive to me. And it's not like the Wiimotion Plus was a huge blast of success... and the Wii is kida phasing out...

Just saying... but i think we will still hear of Skyward Sword on the 3DS

[Kim]

Wiimotion Plus is actually really great, it's just that no games use it because nobody wants to buy it. Motion Plus is actually the biggest reason I'm excited for Skyward Sword. Not sure how the Wii is phasing out, it's been getting more and more first party games, which has always been Nintendo's strongest point. It's third party games are ass, but that's what the DS and 3DS are for. I mean, I have reservations about Skyward Sword, but worst case scenario has it being only as bad as Twilight Princess and people who aren't me seem to really like that game.

[Satan's Onion]

Speaking of Link's Awakening, anyone else try to steal from the Mabe Village shop? You can really only do it once--the shopkeeper will kill you the next time he sees you--but walking out with the 980-rupee bow for nothing? Worth it.

[Premmy]

Speaking of Link's Awakening, anyone else try to steal from the Mabe Village shop? You can really only do it once--the shopkeeper will kill you the next time he sees you--but walking out with the 980-rupee bow for nothing? Worth it.
Being called "THIEF" by the game is it's own reward

[Roland]

This is relevant and totally awesome. (http://www.nineinchsandwich.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/zelda_25th_anniversary.jpg)

For the life of me, I could not figure out what that giant eyeball just over the "villains" section was. And then it hit me.

They made this (http://www.zeldawiki.org/images/5/5e/Shadow6%28Dethl%29.gif) look amazing.

Goddamn I miss that game now. The 3DS needs to come out sooner so I can play it again.

EDIT: Alternatively this (http://images.wikia.com/zelda/images/3/3c/Bellum_%28boss%29.png) but that boss was lame, so I'm going to pretend it wasn't that one.

[Krylo]

I was thinking it was Goma (http://www.forumla.de/attachments/super-smash-bros-brawl/6059d1188573693-der-neue-giga-bowser-goma.jpg), myself.

Edit: Speaking of Link's Awakening, anyone else try to steal from the Mabe Village shop? You can really only do it once--the shopkeeper will kill you the next time he sees you--but walking out with the 980-rupee bow for nothing? Worth it.

Could've sworn that's only if you got CAUGHT stealing. I think if you time it right and walk around behind him, you can do it more than once. But I might be misremembering, it has been years since I've played that game, and I'm not cracking out my gameboy just to check.

Prem is totally correct in that being called thief was a reward in its own right.

[bluestarultor]

I was thinking it was Goma (http://www.forumla.de/attachments/super-smash-bros-brawl/6059d1188573693-der-neue-giga-bowser-goma.jpg), myself.

Edit:

Could've sworn that's only if you got CAUGHT stealing. I think if you time it right and walk around behind him, you can do it more than once. But I might be misremembering, it has been years since I've played that game, and I'm not cracking out my gameboy just to check.

Prem is totally correct in that being called thief was a reward in its own right.

Nope. If he sees you, he won't let you leave.

[Bobbey]

This is relevant and totally awesome. (http://www.nineinchsandwich.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/zelda_25th_anniversary.jpg)

That is absolutely beautiful :O Only thing though, I can't seem to find Sheik anywhere, but since Sheik IS Zelda and she's already in that picture, I can see why it would be unecessary for him to be present.

Memorable Zelda moment: Renting the OoT cartridge for the first time after watching my cousins play through the game often (saw one of them battling Ganondorf in his first stage). Opened up a game that was already started, the person who had rented it before me was in the Forest Temple, so I decided to go explore it. I entered the big room, saw an elevator, took it down to the basement, followed the blue carpet to a big door, went into a circular room with paintings, figured this was a dead end and attempted to leave...yeah, the person had finished the temple but had not beaten the boss. I had some knowledge about how to battle ennemies in the game, but I had never fought a boss before. Eventually, I figured out I had to shoot him with my arrows when he came out of the paintings. After finishing that part, I realised he was doing the exact same thing as Ganondorf at the end of the game, so I attempted to imitate my cousin. I won, with barely any life left, and no fairies.

I was SO happy when he finally was defeated. It made me want to play the game even more.

[Bifrost]

This is relevant and totally awesome. (http://www.nineinchsandwich.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/zelda_25th_anniversary.jpg)

This. Is. Glorious.

Tell me who made this so that I may construct a religion around them, because clearly they are an artistic god.

Also: Bobbey that stopped being a spoiler like ten years ago why are you spoiling it

[Bobbey]

Also: Bobbey that stopped being a spoiler like ten years ago why are you spoiling it

Some people might actually have not played that game in particular, and since it's a pretty big thing in the game, I prefer to take it safe and not spoil it for someone.

[Bifrost]

I thought the statute of limitations on spoilers for video games was roughly a year or so? Also anyone who's played any of the Smash Bros. games has had that spoiled for them, iirc. >_>

...Idk, it just feels like spoilering out something from the original Crystalis, even though less time has passed between then and now for OoT.

[Loyal]

The statute of limitations on a spoiler is inversely proportional to how prolific the spoiler is. For instance, the Statute of Limitations on Harry Potter's Book 6 expired before the book was even released.

[krogothwolf]

Except it's not really a spoiler anymore since Zelda can transform into Sheik in Super Smash Brothers Melee and Brawl since the Comp or other characters transform into it regularly, and isn't it shown in a cinematic somewhere as well?