Hello, Victory Road. As a personal hard-core Legend of Zelda fan, I wanted to make the most detailed thread about Zelda. I put everything I could into this thread. Enjoy.
Obviously, I've been a big fan of Zelda. I've probably played every Zelda title to date, and completed a large percentage of them over and over. What follows next is my personal experiences with every title.
The Legend of Zelda/Zelda II (NES) I was never fond of this one because I found these particular ones simply harder to enjoy being that I wasn't born in this era. I played Zelda II and while I found it to be a fun game, it was exceptionally difficult for me and I only got through one dungeon.
A Link to the Past: I first played this on the GBA port, and it was nothing short of amazing. I found myself surprised that the earlier two games before these did not feature the Master Sword! To me, the Master Sword is probably the top thing I love about Zelda, besides it's music and generally all-around engaging gameplay. I loved the Dark World especially, it seemed like a new concept at the time.
Ocarina. Of. Time: Do I really need to say more? This closely ties with my other favorite, Windwaker. The longest and most rewarding Zelda title, content based, with 3 dungeons as child link, with 7 dungeons as adult link if you count the Light Temple. I first got this game at a game store called Rhino's Games for $10 to play on my dad's Nintendo 64 before I got my own. I remember sitting in the back room of his rented doublewide playing on that TV, taking me a while to gather rupees to buy the shield. This was Zelda at it's best. Later on that year, I bought $20 N64 for my own from the same place and continued this game, taking it back and fourth between my dad's place always trying to complete that one temple or explore that one region of Hyrule that always caught my eye.
Part way through of Ocarina, when I couldn't figure out how to get inside Jabu Jabu's belly, my stepsister had come to stay with us for a while. At that time I lost OOT- I was watching TV with my stepsister in the living room when my mother comes up to me with the Ocarina cartridge asking if it's mine, and I said yeah. This caught my stepsister's eye- I liked that gleam. Pure, unadulterated zelda fun. She's completed the game before, asked me if I was able to do so, and when I answered I was stuck, she offered to help me out after she was done watching the television program. Giddy as a link with the bunny hood, I obviously said sure and got away to hooking up the n64 in my room, which was hers for the time being. I didn't mind.
We're in Zora's Domain, and she teaches me how to catch fish with the bottle- I didn't know I could do that! It blew my mind! I watched in amazement as she taught me a lot of things I didn't know about Zelda. It was a great time being a ten-year-old. It really was. Before she moved, I also got her to play one of my favorite games- Paper Mario, and drive her to completion. But that's another story. After she did move back to her hometown, I picked the game back up and found my way to the last two temples, the Spirit Temple and Shadow Temple. After a while of more Dungeon solving, I finally found myself face to face with Ganon.
This was it. The final battle. All my effort and dedication had finally paid off- It was time to finish the King of Evil once and for all! I failed to defeat him the first few times, but I didn't give up. With the Master Sword on my side, Navi sprouting her usual "Hey, listen!", and Zelda just standing there doing nothing to help, Ganon transformed into his real self. "GANON" the screen read in bold font. Just "GANON." That's when you know it just got real. Sword in hand, I took him on. What a battle it was. As Zelda sealed in Ganon with the power of the Seven Sages, my heart was racing as I dashed directly to him and slashed away.
One. Two. Three.
Dead.
Ganon splatted his last bit of (green) blood as I delivered the final stab to finish him, once and for all. I was so joyous. That was it. Ganon is dead. I did it. I enjoyed the final ending and teared up a bit during the end credits music, as was when I was writing this post. This was a truly amazing game and I hated for it to end.
Ahem. Now that my epic story of ocarina has drawn to a close, it's time to continue.
Majora's Mask: The first time I saw this cartridge was when my cousin brought it over when we stayed. Unfortunately the N64 never had the expansion pack, so I was never able to play it on the original system. I played it later via the Virtual Shop Channel but it's not one of my favorites, as the whole three-day time system thing was too much pressure on me and I only got up to the Deku Palace. I may pick it up later.
Wind Waker: This closely ties in with Ocarina of Time as my favorite Zelda game, ever. This was the game I got after ocarina and it was the second disk to be inserted into my awesome shadow lugia edition gamecube (rip. shadow lugia, I miss you) and what a game it was. Everything I liked about this game was awesome- even the sailing. Yes, I liked the sailing and listening to The Great Sea while exploring uncharted islands and finding new secrets. I liked talking to all of the NPC's and seeing what they had to say and doing all of the side quests. The overall flow of Windwaker was just great- and tetra was a...well, you get the idea. I even did a live stream over at justin.tv doing a whole play though live and had people watch me do it along the way- it was an awesome weekend!
Oh man, people. This thread is far from finished, I will keep updating it when my mind can spit out more creativity that was my Ocarina of Time depiction. Please share your stories and favorite/least favorite things about Zelda.
The wind, it is blowing.
. Likewise, two of them were mini boss-less dungeons, soooo... The count is three before the master sword (Deku Tree, Dodongo's Cavern, Inside Jabu Jabu's Belly), five with a boss after the master sword (the five Temples you play in), two without a boss after the mastersword (The Well as a kid, The Ice Cavern as an adult), and the final boss dungeon... Which sorta seems like what you originally said, but using modified technicalities (I would assume combining the bossless dungeons with what comes next)...