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Board 8 > What's the worst mainline Zelda game?

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andylt
05/11/23 5:51:15 PM
#1:


Link's Crossbow Training










With Tears of the Kingdom's sky-high review scores coming in, I've gotten to thinking again about what an absurdly consistently rated series Zelda is. Even most of the games I've listed here got great reception when they came out. But what's the franchise's weakest entry? I included the lowest scoring games reviewwise and the ones I see bashed the most often. Mainline only, sorry, no CD-I or Tingle here.

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UshiromiyaEva
05/11/23 5:57:31 PM
#2:


Where's BotW

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swordz9
05/11/23 5:58:29 PM
#3:


Would probably say Zelda 2? Zelda 1, 2 and BotW are bottom 3 of the LoZ games Ive played and theyre not very far apart either
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GuessMyUserName
05/11/23 5:58:33 PM
#4:


Skyward Sword
The Legend of Zelda
Four Swords Adventures
Minish Cap
Tri Force Heroes
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Four Swords

never got around to the DS games

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BlueCrystalTear
05/11/23 6:01:09 PM
#5:


Of what I've played, Skyward Snore. It actually made me appreciate Phantom Hourglass more.

Haven't played Zelda II though!

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LightningStrikes
05/11/23 6:02:41 PM
#6:


Its absolutely Zelda II. I finished it for the first time this year and there are a lot of decisions there that were bad at the time. The issue is not that its different actually a lot of those differences came back in a cool way. The issue is that its a slog with frustrating enemies, constant backtracking, and times where it just expects you to know where an invisible wall is.

I havent played Tri Force Heroes and kind of feel like the multiplayer games almost shouldnt count even though they are canon series entries. I wouldnt be shocked if thats the true answer however.

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_SJimW_
05/11/23 6:05:26 PM
#7:


Zelda II is one of the few games where the "too hard" complaints actually seem legitimate to me

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KCF0107
05/11/23 6:05:52 PM
#8:


Four Swords Adventures is probably my second favorite in the series

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GuessMyUserName
05/11/23 6:08:47 PM
#9:


FSA was awesome

I was kinda hype for Four Swords because of it when the Anniversary Edition for DSiWare was announced but I don't really remember being as engaged. Would definitely give it another shot coming to NSO though.

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masterplum
05/11/23 6:10:05 PM
#10:


I voted skyward sword as the worst real Zelda game

But Zelda 2 is worse yeh but I dont even know I would call it a mainline Zelda game.

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Uglyface2
05/11/23 6:12:22 PM
#11:


I haven't played six of the games on that list. I can't really answer without having done that.

I couldn't get into Breath of the Wild, but that's less an issue of quality than it is of my not liking the design.
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FFDragon
05/11/23 6:14:11 PM
#12:


Breath of the Wild is the only Zelda game I couldn't bring myself to finish

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tcaz2
05/11/23 6:17:21 PM
#13:


Zelda 2 is probably the worst actual game of the bunch but I kind of give it some slack because of its age.

Phantom Hourglass is the only (other) one on the list with no redeeming qualities at all.
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Paratroopa1
05/11/23 6:18:14 PM
#14:


zelda 2 rules
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RaidenGarai
05/11/23 6:22:18 PM
#15:


UshiromiyaEva posted...
Where's BotW


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tazzyboyishere
05/11/23 6:24:37 PM
#16:


Tri Force Heroes and its not even fucking close. Absolutely miserable, broken game that deserves to be remembered as a complete failure on every count.

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junk_funk
05/11/23 6:37:31 PM
#17:


Phantom Hourglass is my fourth favorite Zelda game. But Spirit Tracks was the worst overall. Easy.

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Leonhart4
05/11/23 6:40:36 PM
#18:


where's OoT

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WazzupGenius00
05/11/23 6:52:14 PM
#20:


Its actually insane that the team that made ALBW went on to make Triforce Heroes

LightningStrikes posted...
times where it just expects you to know where an invisible wall is.

an NPC tells you X palace has an invisible wall the one time that this is mandatory. Its not unreasonable to just check every dead end in that one palace.

Now, finding New Kasuto is something I dont know how anyone did it on their own. You can get a hint that there is a town hidden somewhere, but no indication of where, and Im also not sure the game ever tells you that you can cut down forests with the hammer.

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SomeKindOfJoke
05/11/23 7:01:11 PM
#21:


Had to vote Triforce Heroes but as far as real Zelda games go I really dislike Minish Cap

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MMXcalibur
05/11/23 7:03:11 PM
#22:


Skyward Sword almost made me swear off Zelda.
It was awful.

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Lopen
05/11/23 7:07:14 PM
#23:


Leonhart4 posted...
where's OoT


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_SJimW_
05/11/23 7:11:00 PM
#24:


GuessMyUserName posted...
FSA was awesome

I was kinda hype for Four Swords because of it when the Anniversary Edition for DSiWare was announced but I don't really remember being as engaged. Would definitely give it another shot coming to NSO though.

It's a lot shorter than FSA. FSA is a full-fledged Zelda game, Four Swords was a side mode that was bundled with the GBA port of aLttP. Four Swords Anniversary is just a port of that side game, they probably wouldn't have offered something as substantial as FSA for free.

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Radix
05/11/23 7:12:15 PM
#25:


you forgot to put botw on there

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LiquidOshawott
05/11/23 7:55:27 PM
#26:


Honestly the NES games are both pretty cool, prefer both over Twilight Princess (and 1 may be just outside my top 5 in the series)

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NBIceman
05/11/23 8:55:34 PM
#27:


I'm not a Zelda aficionado but I still don't understand the vitriol for Skyward Sword. Spirit Tracks is pretty easily the worst of what I've played.

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HeroDelTiempo17
05/11/23 9:25:12 PM
#28:


I'm actually real confused on why Spirit Tracks is over Phantom Hourglass, at the time I thought it was a pretty clear improvement. Like yeah the overworld is literally on rails but the overworld in both of those games suck ass

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MZero
05/11/23 10:08:07 PM
#29:


Zelda 2 is the worst. I played Phantom Hourglass for like 5 minutes but hated moving with the touch screen

Zelda 1 is pretty decent. FSA and SS slap

Haven't played the others

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Seanchan
05/11/23 10:13:53 PM
#30:


tcaz2 posted...
Zelda 2 is probably the worst actual game of the bunch but I kind of give it some slack because of its age.

Spirit Tracks is the only (other) one on the list with no redeeming qualities at all.

Triforce Heroes is pretty bad as well. OG Zelda falls into the same "slack because of its age" category. Skyward Sword isn't great but it's FAR better than those.

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colliding
05/11/23 10:23:34 PM
#31:


I was confused seeing most of these options since I don't consider most of them to be mainline.

Mainline = Loz, AoL, LttP, Oot, LA, WW, TP, SS, BoTW

But I guess that doesn't really make much sense since I have LA on there

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SocialistGamer
05/11/23 10:49:18 PM
#32:


No way is Zelda 2 worse than the DS games.

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foolm0r0n
05/11/23 11:01:00 PM
#33:


Omitting TP and adding Four Swords to a poll about mainline Zeldas..?

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_Blur_
05/11/23 11:04:14 PM
#34:


NBIceman posted...
I'm not a Zelda aficionado but I still don't understand the vitriol for Skyward Sword.
Groupthink is a helluva drug

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...
I'm actually real confused on why Spirit Tracks is over Phantom Hourglass, at the time I thought it was a pretty clear improvement. Like yeah the overworld is literally on rails but the overworld in both of those games suck ass
Agreed. They're both mediocre games (which makes them bad games because they're Zelda), but Spirit Tracks is a marked improvement.

Zelda 1 got my vote. Never played Zelda 2 or Triforce Heroes

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foolm0r0n
05/11/23 11:10:46 PM
#35:


NBIceman posted...
I'm not a Zelda aficionado but I still don't understand the vitriol for Skyward Sword.
They used the same boss THREE TIMES! Can you even imagine another Zelda game doing that, and then getting a 93 metacritic?

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LeonhartFour
05/11/23 11:11:21 PM
#36:


foolm0r0n posted...
They used the same boss THREE TIMES! Can you even imagine another Zelda game doing that, and then getting a 93 metacritic?

so it's the Super Mario Sunshine of the series

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paperwarior
05/11/23 11:16:03 PM
#37:


Some of the bosses kicked ass at least.

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ctesjbuvf
05/11/23 11:27:09 PM
#38:


It's basically objectively Zelda II

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Ashethan
05/11/23 11:49:19 PM
#39:


The slander on Zelda 2 is disgusting. Zelda 2 is one of the best Zelda games. Too hard? I suck at video games, and even I don't think it's too hard. Sounds like skill issue to me.

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MacArrowny
05/12/23 12:08:27 AM
#40:


foolm0r0n posted...
They used the same boss THREE TIMES! Can you even imagine another Zelda game doing that, and then getting a 93 metacritic?
Is this a joke about OoT and BotW reusing bosses

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foolm0r0n
05/12/23 12:56:18 AM
#41:


Yeah

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tcaz2
05/12/23 1:00:50 AM
#42:


MacArrowny posted...
Is this a joke about OoT and BotW reusing bosses

Count how many eye bosses are in Link to the Past, too.
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KamikazePotato
05/12/23 1:04:23 AM
#43:


As someone who hasn't played Skyward Sword - from what I know, that re-used bosses are big, focal point, plot-important setpieces. That's much lamer than random dungeon bosses being re-used. People would've complained too if every Breath of the Wild temple boss fight was the same.

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tcaz2
05/12/23 1:10:29 AM
#44:


Honestly I dont think its the fact The Imprisoned fights are repeated that is an issue, its that, played as intended with no speed strategies, the fights are REALLY slow and there is a lot of waiting involved.
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Paratroopa1
05/12/23 1:11:27 AM
#45:


_Blur_ posted...
Groupthink is a helluva drug
yeah it can't just be that I just don't like it, it must be groupthink!
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ChichiriMuyo
05/12/23 1:28:50 AM
#46:


Zelda 2 is not a bad game. It's different, but not bad. It's actually quite fantastic for what it is. The hate on it is not justified.

Is the difficulty curve kind of insane? Yes. Is the final boss nearly impossible without cheese strats? Absolutely. But there is a reason why the term "NES hard" exists. It's a library full of hard games, and I wouldn't put Zelda 2 on or even near to the top 10 since you can grind for stat boosts if you really need to.

Compare that to something like Dragon's Lair where most players can't even get off the first screen without memorizing every nasty little detail and coping with horrendous controls. Friday the 13th and Goonies 2 both have maps that you need to rely on and are absolutely befuddling. Battletoads at a point starts throwing stuff at you so fast you can only just barely react and the two player mode makes everything so much harder because you can team kill and one player's failure is both player's failure. I could go on, but do I really need to?

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MZero
05/12/23 1:52:39 AM
#47:


ChichiriMuyo posted...
Compare that to something like Dragon's Lair where most players can't even get off the first screen without memorizing every nasty little detail and coping with horrendous controls. Friday the 13th and Goonies 2 both have maps that you need to rely on and are absolutely befuddling. Battletoads at a point starts throwing stuff at you so fast you can only just barely react and the two player mode makes everything so much harder because you can team kill and one player's failure is both player's failure. I could go on, but do I really need to?

Those aren't mainline Zelda games though, they're spin-offs

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Xtlm
05/12/23 4:25:37 AM
#48:


I borrowed Spirit Tracks from a friend once, played it for barely 20 minutes hated it and gave it back like the next day lol

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pjbasis
05/12/23 4:34:22 AM
#49:


Zelda II is great

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Zylothewolf
05/12/23 5:08:32 AM
#50:


Zelda II is better than the original!

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ChichiriMuyo
05/12/23 5:17:06 AM
#51:


I kinda wish I could poll the people who voted Zelda 2 to find out how much of it they have actually played and when in time they played it. When I got it as a kid I didn't care that much that it was different from the first. There was nothing to say that sequels had to be the same. None of the DK games were. Mario 2 was different. The two arguments against Zelda 2 I always come across are about it being different and it being hard, and at the time neither of those were actual concerns for a lot of people. Again, back then games were both hard and less formulaic.

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