My Zelda tier list

I (not so) recently1 finished Echoes of Wisdom and after a ramble about the Zelda games I’ve played and enjoyed, Star implied that I should do a tier list.

So, here we go, way too much effort put into telling the Internet my opinions on things: how I feel about every main series Zelda game so far2.

The Legend of Zelda

The OG. By today’s standards there’s a lot to dislike about it, but I still think it’s really good. You have to remember the context of the game in that ROM sizes were limited and a lot of the game really relied on you having the physical manual. You know how important the manual was to Tunic? Where do you think it got that from?

Plot-wise there’s not a whole lot to it (not like plot was even a thing that games had back then), but there’s still some great gaming to be had in it. Also like Tunic it’s a game which works a lot better if you play it for the first time; once you know the secrets it kinda stops being fun.

Anyway, I give it a solid B.

I really do not like how these days everyone thinks of this game as being the “black sheep” or being totally wrong just because it’s different than all the other games. All the games were totally different from each other at this time. The original Legend of Zelda doesn’t have much to do with the later Zelda games either! The series was new! It wasn’t even really a series yet!

And, at the time, everyone I knew loved it and thought it was incredible. Including me.

Yeah, some of the localization choices make for some awkward solves (the Bagu/Error pun really does not translate, for example) and I am pretty sure I would have never finished it without Nintendo Power, but I love that they were trying something different and that it wasn’t the same game as before. Because if you’re just going to do the same thing over and over again, why bother?

This has some of the best music in the whole series, at least from a composition standpoint.

Adventure of Link was great. Not perfect. But also nowhere near “bad.”

A tier.

This was the first Zelda game that really made plot the focus of things. It also established a lot of series standards, such as the idea that Link has a family and that he’s been pushed into a great adventure. It also establishes a bunch of the gameplay standards, like having to collect three tokens that (retroactively) represent the three Triforce gods, which then causes a rift to happen and then parallel realities take place. Its overall map design is also the fundamental basis of so many other games in the series now.

It also has some incredible dungeon and puzzle design and some great lore-building. I also love how it feels like a lived-in world and that it gives a feeling of how the world was before there was a big calamity; the fact that Zoras are (mostly) friendly in it makes you wonder what the heck actually happened later to make them into enemies, for example. And what happened to make Great Fairies so wealth-obsessed, anyway?

Nearly every Zelda game since ALttP has been basically a remake of ALttP if you boil it down, and the first time was great.

S tier.

Right off the bat, this remains my favorite Zelda game of all time. The unsettling dreamy feeling, the uncanniness of the crossovers with other Nintendo games, the fact it has sidescrolling segments (including some boss fights) like Adventure of Link, the incredible music that also integrates directly into the story, the moral ambiguity of Link’s role in the plot? Chef’s kiss all around.

S tier.

Ocarina of Time

I loved Ocarina when it came out, because it was so cinematic, and because the graphics were (for the time) amazing; what do you mean the horse kicks up dust?! And there’s a day-night cycle, with sunset and twilight?! And there were some incredible moments where you really get a great sense of scale, in ways that no other Zelda game before or since has managed to capture. Like when first encountering the boss Dodongo, holy cow.

It’s far from a perfect game, though. Ocarina has the dubious distinction of being the game that introduced the obligatory stealth sequence into the series, and that is by far my least favorite Zelda trope. It felt out-of-place in the game. Entering Hyrule Castle was an annoying “tutorial” mechanic for a thing that didn’t really meaningfully make sense anywhere else, aside from vaguely foreshadowing the later Gerudo Fortress sequence, which was better but still kinda sucked.

The music is pretty good. I played the original version which had all of the accidental Islam stuff in it. I understand why they removed it in later versions (and they were right to) and what they replaced it with is also pretty good. I like how the music uses thematic elements to try to tie things together, but it felt like it was kind of done in a facile way. Link’s Awakening did the thematic cohesion thing far better.

As with most games with cutting-edge graphics, the visuals have not aged well at all.

I still have a fondness for this game but it’s not one that I feel like playing again.

B tier.

People always talk about the Switch version as being “the remaster” but this was the original remaster.

I didn’t really care for any of the additions. Color kind of ruined the mood for me, the color dungeon felt gimmicky, and all of the other stuff they added (such as the camera sidequest) felt egregious.

I’d say I don’t know why this exists, but I do know why: it was to justify people rebuying the same game for the Gameboy Color.

C tier.

Majora’s Mask

Hoooo boy, this one is hard for me to judge.

I loved this game so much. The setting, the mood, the feeling of dread, the meditations on mortality, the fact it was also trying something different than the games that came before it, some absolutely beautiful music and moments and so on.

But I… never finished it.

The daily cycle mechanic wore on me, and I got super fed up at a sidequest that caused me to literally throw my controller in frustration and I never went back.

Having watched other people play through it, I still love it. Or at least I love the idea of it. But I don’t think it’s fun for me to play.

So it’s simultaneously A and C tier for me, so it averages out to B tier.

Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages

When these games came out, they felt like weird fanfic to me and I didn’t get very far in them.

The thing is, Link’s Awakening was literally weird fanfic and that’s my favorite Zelda game.

Someday I’ll go back and try these games again, because everyone tells me how incredible they are, and I can’t really explain why they “don’t feel like Zelda” to me. I think it’s just because it boots into a Capcom logo.

Well also I didn’t like how the rupees looked or behaved, but that’s an incredibly silly reason to not like a game.

So, I’ll give them another try at some point.

For now: Rating withheld.

Four Swords

I never played this one aside from a brief demo at a store (Target, probably), but it looked super gimmicky and very much not what I like Zelda games for. It’s also worth remembering it was just a multiplayer-only “B side” to the completely unnecessary GBA remake of A Link to the Past, and I do not understand why it’s considered a main-series game when, say, Age of Calamity isn’t.

D tier.

Wind Waker

This game was super divisive when it came out because of the art style. I had very mixed feelings about it, and I ended up not actually playing it until later and I ended up loving it.

Some of the late-game was tedious (the “triumph forks” bit especially). This one actually made the obligatory stealth sequence kinda fun but I still wish it weren’t in there. I loved that Zelda was an actually fleshed-out character who was super annoyed at being damseled.

This game also has the single best version of Ganon in the entire series. He’s even a sympathetic character! With an actual motivation beyond “take over the world to destroy it!”

I have mixed feelings about this game being the one to firmly establish that there’s a split timeline; I thought it was very clever for the story itself, but I don’t care for where the series as a whole has developed as a result of it. But that’s not a problem with the game itself.

When I finished this game I did feel like the dungeons could have been better and there could have been more of them. Some of the overall progression was a bit tedious.

This is one of the rare games that I liked enough that I actually played the second quest, though, even though the second quest is literally just the first quest but you wear the lobster shirt (and there’s a joke about your grandma not-giving you the hero’s tunic).

For that matter I guess it’s one of the few Zelda games to even have a second quest.

Anyway. B tier, I guess? Let’s give it a B+. Or A-. This is all so arbitrary anyway.

Four Swords Adventures

I never played it aside from a brief demo at a store (Best Buy, probably). It seemed super gimmicky and very much not what I like Zelda games for. It looks like a lot of people loved it so I’ll withhold judgement I guess. But if I had to give it a rating based on what I’ve seen, it’d get D tier.

The Minish Cap

I tried this one but, like the Oracle games, I just couldn’t get into it. Someday I’ll give it another try though.

The impression I get is that it tries too hard to explain world aspects that didn’t need to be explained and that combined with it being a third-party developer makes me feel like it’s in “weird fanfic” territory.

Twilight Princess

Awoooooooo.

I loved the story and the music, and some aspects of the visual design. A lot of the artwork felt kind of “grody” to me though, like it was very much a product of its time, trying to be “gritty” and “modern.” There were also some really asinine gameplay bits (like the obnoxious escort missions) and I really didn’t like how a lot of the random cutscenes took me out of the gameplay for no good reason.

Like, oh hey, Link’s a total badass! Doing all sorts of stuff, nothing can stop him!

Then he walks through the door, and OH NO, a bokoblin is pointing an arrow at him! Whatever shall he do?!?! Oh gosh this is so scary! He’s frozen in his tracks, even though he’s encountered way worse stuff throughout the game!

Oh hey cool these random folks he met at a bar as part of a B-plot have arrived to save the day!

So yeah little things like that really bothered me.

Midna’s heckin cute though. Well, her imp form. Not her canonical form. Fortunately her canonical form only appears in the ending.

A story thing I didn’t like so much about this is that one of the coolest moments in Ocarina of Time was, for me, realizing that the game was filling out the backstory of A Link to the Past. But then this game ended up retconning that and now a flashback from this game was that backstory instead. So that felt a bit egregious and weird to me. And I didn’t care for how Nintendo were starting to really lean in on the timeline thing.

But some of the other stuff they did with the timeline thing (like the implication that OoT link ended up living an extremely unfulfilling life because his entire adventure had been erased from history) was really cool, too.

Man I have mixed feelings about this game.

A tier, I guess?

Phantom Hourglass

The hub dungeon was the single worst thing about this game.

The obligatory repeated stealth sequence in said hub dungeon was the single worst thing about the hub dungeon, making it the worst thing about the worst thing.

No I did not finish it.

C tier.

Spirit Tracks

I really wanted to like this game but THAT FUCKING STEALTH SEQUENCE AT THE BEGINNING which I COULDN’T EVEN GET THROUGH DESPITE TRYING FOR MANY HOURS meant I never even got to see any of the actual plot. I know that trains are involved and Zelda gets fucking murdered (and then gets better later).

D tier.

Ocarina of Time 3D

A completely unnecessary remake, just to sell the 3DS.

Personally, I liked the original water temple.

D tier.

Skyward Sword

The art direction on this was very pretty.

The story felt like it only existed to fill out timeline shit.

The actual gameplay was tedious, and the implementation of stamina and durability was really bad.

D tier.

The Wind Waker HD

I felt like the “improved” graphics were a detriment, and while I hear the late-game was improved, playing this I was reminded just how much I hated stealth segments and the relative fun of it the first time around wasn’t enough to get me through it this time.

C tier.

Oh gosh I loved this one a lot. It took what made A Link to the Past great and gave me more of it. Really good dungeon design, pretty good (if predictable) story, and the painting mechanic was interesting but not so overdone that it wore out its welcome.

This is one of the only Zelda games I’ve bothered to 100%, and one of the few that I played the second quest of (and I think the only one where I finished it).

It also had a stealth sequence but it was so well-done and integrated into the rest of the game that I didn’t mind it at all.

Also there are direct musical references to Adventure of Link.

A tier.

Majora’s Mask 3D

A completely unnecessary remake, where they also turned the moon from an uncaring force of nature into an actually Look I Am Evil thing, and the other random changes they made did not sit well with me either.

D tier.

Tri Force Heroes

My 3DS (which I bought used) came with this preinstalled on it. I didn’t care for it.

D tier.

Twilight Princess HD

I didn’t feel like this added anything over the original, and the original could still be played on the platform it came out on, so, why did this exist?

The limited edition amiibo is nice, at least.

C tier.

Breath of the Wild

I was super worried about this game because, like Skyward Sword, it had stamina and durability.

But BotW’s implementation of them was really good and I actually felt it added to the game immensely.

I liked that it had enough plot to keep me engaged in the story, without having so much plot that it bogged things down. The voice acting kinda sucked (except Revali, but I have non-game-related reasons to not want to hear his voice either) and I wish it had better dungeon design overall.

I did end up playing this one a lot (like, 300 hours?) and while I didn’t 100% it I did extract a lot of enjoyment out of it before finally hitting a “nah I’m good” wall.

The DLC is extremely worthwhile although it’d have been nice if it came out before I’d already saturated the main game. It has an incredible “mega-shrine” that had me grinning and giggling, and was a perfect example of the sorts of dungeon design that could have been. And the reward for completing it would have been incredible if only I hadn’t already fully explored the map!

A tier.

Also because the stamina and durability were so well-implemented I went back and tried Skyward Sword again because maybe I’d misjudged it, but nope, Skyward Sword still sucks.

It was nice to revisit Link’s Awakening and to see what the various quality-of-life improvments brought to the table, but I felt like it lost a lot in the translation to a more modern presentation. It was also a bit silly how this was now a quasi-3D game in a 3D engine and so on but where every single detail of the world was slavishly devoted to how things were in the original just because “that’s the way it was.” I’m a bit mixed on the art style as well.

I found it interesting that they included the DX color dungeon but none of the other DX additions.

The dungeon builder mode had a lot of potential but I ended up not bothering with it very much.

B tier, I guess.

Skyward Sword HD

I hear that this fixed a lot of the gameplay problems with the original, but it still has the same story, and I haven’t played it. I did buy the Zelda+Loftwing amiibo because it was on sale at Target for like $5. I’ll probably never play the actual game.

Tears of the Kingdom

I really wanted to like this one. The plot was a bit better than BotW (although still pretty shallow), and had some really good themes of sacrifice that were undermined by its own ending. The dungeons were a lot better than BotW, but they were still kinda short. The depths were really neat at first but ultimately felt like a big nothingburger.

All in all the game feels like it’s a really big open world with a lot to do but no reason to do any of it.

I played it right up until the final boss encounter and then decided I’d had enough.

C tier.

Echoes of Wisdom

Oh gosh I have such mixed feelings about this one too.

I love that Zelda is finally the main character (well, for the second time3, we don’t talk about the first time). The story is good. Tri is a great companion. The music is fantastic. Null is a great villain, and I love the implication that the gap in the middle of the triforce meant something all along.

I don’t really care for the overworld’s visual style. It feels less like a Zelda game and more like a Zelda-themed Miiverse/Streetpass game. I thought it’d grow on me as I played it but it never really did.

The stilled world looks fantastic though.

A lot of the game felt like “what if Tunic were actually a Zelda game,” and I loved it a lot. The main quest was a lot of fun. I ended up missing a lot of sidequest things which would have probably added a lot to the game if I’d thought to even do them, but after finishing the main quest it all just felt kinda pointless.

This one did a good job of making the stealth segments enjoyable and different-enough that they weren’t tedious or super frustrating, and the fact they were recurring made it also feel like they were an actual part of the gameplay and not just an arbitrary progress gate. Plus, they offered multiple solution approaches.

I love the echo mechanic, and how you can do combat if you need to but they purposefully limit it so that you have to use puzzle solving most of the time. You can even play the entire game without ever switching into combat mode if you want.

The actual story flow was so weird, though. All of the interesting stuff happens at the beginning, then the three obligatory Spirit Stone pickup dungeons happen (and they just feel like tutorial dungeons), and then it just kinda… railroads you into a sudden ending. And for most of that ending sequence you aren’t even doing anything, you’re just there to watch and lightly-assist Link. So it all ended up feeling very disappointing at the very end.

It’s telling that the current Any% world record is 33 minutes long, of which about 25 minutes is unskippable cut scenes.

So, yeah. Mixed feelings.

B tier.

Hey, how can we convince people to buy a nostalgically-named shotgun accessory for the Wii that ends up not being useful for anything?

OR:

You know what the Zelda series really needs? A low-effort asset-flip rail shooter.

F tier.