Current Events > If all Zelda games were released as brand new TODAY - which would be best?

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If all Zelda games did not exist yet, and they all released simultaneously worldwide, as-is, TODAY - which one would be received as the best game?

Assume they all had release date 5/30/2023 and the world had no prior exposure to any of it. It just all magically appeared ready to play on whatever modern system - but they play as they play.

I couldn't fit everything ever so I picked a bunch.

In other words - which one is objectively the best game, removing all personal bias or nostalgia?

TotK. Assuming a simultaneous release, people would just say that BotW was a pared down diet version of TotK.

Other 3D games would be lambasted for being very out of date gameplay-wise and for having horrendously slow openings (except MM on the latter).

Not sure if SNES LttP or Switch LA would be better received, but LttP would definitely be better received than LA's original Game Boy version or from the original LoZ. But that'd be more indie darling praise versus major, widespread appeal.

Zelda II.

CaptainStrong posted...

Zelda II.

Ah, a fellow poster of culture, I see.

would love to see what someone said who had no history fo zelda or even any video games , taking on the whole zelda franchise

Assuming released today with today's graphical quality and the like, probably Majora's Mask if I'm being honest, maybe even Twilight princess. Darker fantasy shit has taken off pretty hard since Souls/Berserk popularity.

Both games I didn't much care for though.

R_Jackal posted...

Assuming released today with today's graphical quality and the like, probably Majora's Mask if I'm being honest, maybe even Twilight princess. Darker fantasy shit has taken off pretty hard since Souls/Berserk popularity.

Both games I didn't much care for though.

I'm assuming they release with their current graphical quality - all products judged as-is.

Oracles of seasons and ages with the disrespect, I see how it is.

Impossible, the game before the most recent release is always the best.

Unquestionably Tears of the Kingdom.

A Link to the Past could maybe squeak by with 16 bit charm.

CaptainStrong posted...

Zelda II.

Fuck, no. This makes zero sense.

OoT remains the most solid, with a good balance of gameplay and narrative, executed near flawlessly. Majora's Mask too.

Twilight Princess was almost there, but Wolf Link feels like an afterthought, the second-half of the game is not as good as the first, and Ganondorf needed to be more present through the game.

SilvosForever posted...

I'm assuming they release with their current graphical quality - all products judged as-is.

Probably BotW or TotK then.

Adventure of Link would be seen as a retro take on Soulsgames.

I mean, if you made a ranking of how they'd be received it would more or less be newest to oldest in terms of release order. Possible exceptions being LTTP sneaking in over the older 3D Zeldas as a "cute indie throwback to 16-bit adventure games" and Zelda 2 definitely being worst

Isn't the latest game unfairly predisposed to receiving the best acclaim because reception of games these days seems to be about highly determined by having state of the art mechanics? Without consideration for the time in which they were released, all games before BOTW would be highly disadvantaged. Funny enough, it's only the ones that came before BOTW that I've actually played, as surprising as that may be with this username. Anyways, my personal answer (not taking into account the state of technology) would be MM or maybe just treat OOT and MM as one game and we'll go with that.

Oracle of seasons/ages

Games wouldn't be the same as they are today without the Zelda franchise.
So, they wouldn't be releasing into today's landscape, but a different one.

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