My Opinion on Zelda - Pt. 2

Well, here we are. The next post where I'm going to talk about my thoughts on the rest of the Zelda series.

At one point in time, I stopped being a Zelda fan. I'm not sure how it happened, but I just didn't care about Zelda. Maybe because it was because it was such a long wait between the last Zelda game and Twilight Princess, that I just forgot how fun the Zelda games really are.

The last Zelda game... I think it was Minish Cap, which would make sense because it's the only game in the game in the series that I still haven't played. So, I was waiting even longer to get my Zelda fix. When Twilight Princess came out, I didn't even care for it... I wasn't going to get it.

When it came out for GCN, a friend of mine, who was and still is a Zelda fan, showed me some gameplay from Twilight Princess. Watching her play, seeing the wolf mechanic (which I have to admit, I didn't even know there was a wolf mechanic in the game) of the game, and seeing Link holding up that Master Sword slashing those enemies on the new Hyrule field and it's amazing new field music... It snapped back into me: I NEEDED to play a new Zelda game! I immediately went out and bought this game, and my God, I wish I bought it sooner.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons (GBC)
Great fun, even more so than Link's Awakening. I heard about these games in a magazine, so I asked my dad to pick me up Ages. In the magazine, I read that Ages was more puzzle oriented than Seasons (which was action oriented) so I thought my tiny little eleven year old brain could master the "challenging" puzzles of Ages. And it did... after a lot, a lot of hard work and patience.

I can still remember quite a bit of Ages. It probably has the hardest puzzles out of any of the 2D Zelda games, and probably second hardest puzzles in the entire series, next to Majora's Mask.

Remember kiddies, by "hardest puzzles", I mean "hardest to figure out".

Unfortunately, I can't remember too much about Seasons. I only beat it once, and I didn't even own it... you see, when I was twelve my family got our first computer. I soon after learned about Emulators and ROMs and thought that it was amazing that I could play any game I wanted after just a few clicks. You see that "Other" symbol under Seasons in my backloggery? Yeah, that's from when I was twelve years old, and I was playing the ROM of the game, just so I can play it once. It was also a linked game, from my real life Ages, and I also got to fight against Ganon for the first time. At the time I couldn't understand how my real life game was being transferred to a computer.

After that, I took a password from a cheats website and played my Ages game under a linked game, just so I can fight Ganon in that too.

I think I've played and beat Ages more than most Zelda games... I don't know what it is about it, but it has this charm that just makes me want to go back to it once and a while, and just beat it again.

I plan to play it again soon, and after that, I'm going to link it with Seasons for the second time in my life to remember everything about that game and to finally Complete it for my Backlog.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GCN)
I was extremely excited for this game to come out. This game was the reason why I signed an account on GameFAQs, so that I can read the news about this upcoming game, and read people's impressions on the Japanese version. It was such an exciting wait, and I couldn't help myself but read all the spoilers in the game. I kept thinking, "Cool! I can't wait to see this happen when I play!" I was so young, and this was the first game ever where I read all about it. And it would be my last.

I made a grave mistake when I read all those spoilers. I never thought that knowing something would ruin it, because I was never connected to the outside world until shortly before Wind Waker came out, so I assumed that it would be just as awesome to experience it in first hand. But, knowing what was going to happen, and knowing all the plot twists of the game... it made me not appreciate the game as much as I would have liked, and I ended up putting the controller away as soon as I defeated Ganondorf.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the game then, it was just that I was disappointed with it. But it wasn't the game's fault, it was all my fault for spoiling everything to myself. After I beat that game, I vowed to never spoil myself about video games again, especially games in the Zelda series.

Enough about that, let me actually talk about the game now...

After my recent playthrough, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I have to say that the game is absolutely beautiful. There is no game out there that matches the beauty that this game offers, and it's all because of that perfect art style and the way the game was textured using cel shading. No game will ever match the beautiful waters of the world, the smooth models of the characters, and the amazingly atmospheric dungeons. If there's anything to praise about this game, it would be the graphics.

This game was another different step for the series. There is no field, it's all oceans and you have to sail to every location. And let me tells ya, it's a big world. Everything is done in real time so you have to wait quite a while to get from island to island. However, it didn't really bother me. I find sailing the waters of Wind Waker nice and relaxing. I hate it when those sharks come and attack me, they ruin my relaxation!

The gameplay is a step up from Ocarina and Majora's Mask. Controlling Link has never felt so smooth. And they added counter attacks into this game, which made it a bit easy but also wowed us with the crazy moves Link can do. I also love the little "ding" sound effects the game will play with each strike you give to your enemy.

The final battle is absolutely amazing, probably the second best in the series. You and ol' Ganny, on top of a tower, with tons and tons of water falling and crashing down all over you... no other game in the world has you fighting in this scenario. It's just too bad that all you gotta do is wait for Zelda to shoot a bunch of Light Arrows and Ganondorf, which makes this battle less about skill and more about waiting for the right time to press the "A" button.

In the end, the game is excellent and deserves to be recognized more. Of course, due to it's "kiddy" look, a lot of people overlook this gem for games such as Halo and Madden... *sigh*

The Four Sword Series (GBA/GCN)
The Four Sword series... there are three games in all. Four Sword on the GBA, which was an added game to the remake of A Link to the Past for the GBA, Four Sword Adventures, which is a direct sequel to the GBA game for the GCN which utilized GCN to GBA controls, and Minish Cap, which is loosely connected prequel to those games, but is also a prequel to all Zelda games.

I was lucky enough to have a friend with A Link to the Past so the two of us got to play Four Sword. It's different, I gotta say. There are four areas, all of which you need to collect as many rupees as possible before fighting the boss of the area. I don't really remember how a lot of the puzzles were like, but because the game required teamwork, a lot of puzzles involved you and your friend somehow. And it seemed like the areas would change every time you played it, so the game kept it fresh.

Because it was just an added bonus, however, the game doesn't have much story and the areas aren't really that long or complicated to beat. Fighting Vaati, though, was pretty cool. In the end, it was all good fun.

Four Sword Adventures was a huge expansion on the world the GBA game gave us. It also made it clear that this world is the same world seen in A Link to the Past and even happens a couple hundred years before the Imprisoning War mentioned in A Link to the Past. It also shows us how Ganon obtains the Trident he uses in most of his games, which is pretty important I would think.

Adventures was quite fun, and I had the same friend to help me. It greatly expands on the gameplay seen in the GBA Four Swords, and even gives us a bit of backstory to Vaati. There are eight parts of the world to explore, each with three levels within. Best of all, every level was unique in design and look, which didn't make it feel repetitive at all. All in all it's a very fun game, and very important to the time line of the Zelda series.

Finally, Minish Cap... which I can't talk about too much. I can only really talk about the story aspects, which I don't even know about too much of it anyway.

I have played Minish Cap before (ROMs, guilty!) but I never played past the first dungeon. What I can gather is, this game is a prequel to all Zelda games because it gives no mention to the Master Sword, Ganon, or even the Triforce. The game even tries to further strengthen this by showing how a cap-less Link gets his hat, and by showing a humanoid Vaati (who is all but human in the other games) releasing all kinds of demons and beasts into the world, when none existed before. So, not only does this game explain why there's monsters in the world of Hyrule, but even also explains why the hero in all the games wear a green hat.

Apparently the game also explains the origin of the Four Sword and how Vaati came to be sealed in it, but I don't know too much about that.

The graphics are nice and colourful, but they're the same Wind Waker based sprites used in Four Sword and Four Sword Adventure. The gameplay is comparable to A Link to the Past but with complicated puzzles instead of tough enemies. That's about all I can say about Minish Cap. All in all, it seems like Minish Cap is a strong game in the series, especially with its story.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
I know Hourglass came out after Twilight Princess, but I think it would be better to finish off with Twilight Princess instead.

Phantom Hourglass, I have to say, was a bit of a disappointment. The way the story was handled was a bit annoying, and the music is terribly bad. In fact, I was so disappointed with the music, that I put the game down for over a year!

The music... it's all generic and bland. The only good song, really, was the ocean song, which was based off of Wind Waker's anyway. What disappointed me the most was the dungeon music. Even Link's Awakening used different dungeon music for each dungeon, but Phantom Hourglass went and used the generic cave music (similar to the cave music in A Link to the Past) for all of its dungeons. Even the Temple of the Ocean King used this short and irritating loop, and it was just annoying.

I'm one of the few people who actually liked the Temple of the Ocean King. You had to go back in that dungeon multiple times to figure out where to go next, and I didn't mind it one bit. It was probably the only challenging part of the game.

Speaking of the challenge, there was very little of it. A lot of the puzzles in the game were based on observation and note writing rather than logic and strategic thinking. A lot of people had difficulty with some of the puzzles in the game, though, so I guess that means I'm a pretty observant guy since I had no problems what-so-ever. I blazed through the dungeons in minutes.

Another little annoyance with this game is that there were no heart pieces, just heart containers. The only other Zelda games in the series that didn't have heart pieces were the first two... and well, I just prefer heart pieces.

With all the bad points this game has, it's just too bad that this game has some of the best touch screen features ever used in a DS game. The gameplay is so smooth, and sword fighting was as simple as swiping the stylus across the screen. All of the items were used with the touch screen, and they were used in new and different ways because of this, which made it very fun to play.

Although Phantom Hourglass was a bit of a disappointment, the gameplay was more than worth it. I'm a firm believer that the touch screen on the DS should be optimized for games like these, and this game was definitely thought through. There are no gimmicks in here, people.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
As I said, this is the game that brought me back into the Zelda series, and for a very good reason. Link has never looked so good before, and all of the bloom and brown in this game was used perfectly. The 3D Zelda games have always used a Day/Night system and this game does it best.

While no game can touch the art style and graphics of Wind Waker, this game has its own style, and it's perfect for Zelda games. No other Zelda game uses the a realistic style better than this game.

Zelda wasn't really that big of a character in this game, but her replacement, Midna, was excellent. She's a "Tsundere", or a "Mean Personality with a Soft Inside" kind-of girl. And she fits her personality pretty well. Later in the game, when she starts to respect Link a lot more, she shows off more of her soft side, and even shows how scared she is of Zant and his powers.

Zant is another character with a bit of personality. Through-out the game, we see him as a badass who can do anything he at his will. But when confronted, the bastard will freak out and start panicking. It shows that underneath the badass exterior, he's just a coward, who wanted nothing more than power, and he couldn't get it.

Ganondorf returns, and this time he's ruthless. He's PISSED, he's angry that he was sealed off in the Twilight Realm for all those years. He does everything in his power to make sure everyone understands how angry he is. But, as always, his arrogance and underestimations of Link prove to be the fall of him, this time for good.

The overworld in this game is probably the best in the entire series. We get this huge overworld that is filled with so many things to find, and so many creatures to fight. There are secrets all over the place, and makes us wish that Ocarina of Time had an overworld as good as this. And the music... it's the best overworld music in the series. The way it seamlessly goes into a battle version of itself when fighting enemies, and back to normal after you defeat them is just perfect. Riding Epona has never felt so good.

The dungeons are another story, unfortunately. The game probably has the weakest dungeons in the series. You only ever hold one key at a time, and the door is usually near-by too. The visuals and designs are great, but the music... not so much. None of that catchy stuff we hear in the older games. The Temple of Time is the worst, in terms of layout, music, dungeon item, AND boss!

A lot of the items are also pretty useless. The Slingshot is quickly replaced by the Hero's Bow, the Gale Boomerang is useless outside of a few puzzles, the Spinner, Dominion Rod, and Ball & Chain are all pretty useless outside of their dungeons, with the exception of Ball & Chain because it's pretty fun to use on enemies. The Double Clawshot, however, is one of the best item ideas ever created and I hope it's used in more Zelda games in the future.

Finally, the boss battles in this game are fairly disappointing. A lot of them, like against Armogohma, are nothing but anti-climatic. Morpheel and Argorok are two exceptions and are fantastic Shadow of the Colossus-like battles and it makes me hope that future Zelda games will have similar battles.

The final battle against Ganondorf, though... that is epic. No light arrows here, this time it's all about skill. Ganondorf manages to be the hardest boss in the game, and rightfully so. He's the final boss, so it should be hard and epic. In the final cut-scene, it shows Link impaling Ganondorf through the stomach, and then Ganondorf dies because the Triforce of Power leaves him.

In the end, Twilight Princess was a fantastic addition to the series. Although, even with a few failed ideas, the game shouldn't be called one of the worst games ever. I don't understand people who say this. This game is a worthy addition to the Zelda series.

It's hard for me to rate the Zelda games in a certain order, especially the 3D ones. The world might not be different if the Zelda series never exist, but my world certainly would be. I'll never make the mistake of not caring about Zelda games ever again.

With Spirit Tracks on the way, and a new Wii Zelda game being made, I hope that series remains strong for a long time. Quality is always a must with Zelda games and Nintendo hasn't failed me yet. If I ever get the chance to work on a Zelda game, I'll make sure to put everything I have into it. It would be an honour to work under Mr. Miyamoto in the Zelda Team.

My Opinion on Zelda - Pt.1

I just completely complete, for the first time, ever, Majora's Mask. In the past, I didn't care too much on getting all the heart pieces, doing all side-quests and getting every single item. But now... I feel like it's a requirement. I HAVE to get everything or else I'll never be happy with the outcome. Although most Zelda games are easy, and getting everything just makes it easier, it needs to be done. Maybe one of these days I'll do a 3 Heart Challenge, or something.

Anyway, I've decided to give an opinion on all the Zelda games I've beat. Just something that may be interesting to read. After all, people love (or should I say, love to hate) opinions. Might as well, I have Zelda on the brain. I'm going to write up to Majora's Mask for now.

The Legend of Zelda (NES)
Old. Just... old, and it feels clunky. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it was amazing at its time, and while I didn't grow up with it, I'm not biased just because it came out on the NES. I tend to play my games with an open mind, it's actually kind of hard for me to be against something until after I get a taste of it, and I got a taste of this game when I was young. Like I said, I didn't grow up with the game, I played the game when my dad busted out his NES from Italy. It had been a couple years or so since I beat Ocarina of Time, so I was heavily interested in seeing the roots of this game.

And I enjoyed it. In fact, I loved it at first. Me and my dad went and beat the game. He showed me all the secrets in the game; dungeon locations, secret rupee locations, bombable/walkthroughable walls, all that stuff. And we beat it. Both quests. It was great, and I have fond memories of that time. But that time ain't today. Today, as a video game developer in-training, I can see through the nostalgia and find that this game is just overrated and mediocre. An overrated mediocre game...

As I said, the game is clunky. It's not the NES Pad's fault, it's fine when playing games like Super Mario Bros. 3. It's the programming; the way Link moves around is just a hassle. Link can stand on any pixel on the screen, and yet he can't move in eight directions. It's very annoying in a game series such as Zelda.

Next we have the overworld and dungeons; a lot of screens are repeated, and it all looks so bland. I know, the NES has limitations, and repeating screens would take a load off the NES's memory. However, I then would play a game like... Super Mario Bros. 3, and Dragon Quest IV. Those games are amazing games that hold up even today, and yet The Legend of Zelda remains to be mediocre. Yes, yes, I know there are more reasons to it, but the facts remain clear to me: The Legend of Zelda potentially could have had better overworld and dungeon layouts.

One thing that bugs me in particular is the enemy formations. Whose idea was it to put eight or so Darknuts in such a cramped room in Level 5? The fact that you have hit their backs makes it an absurd "challenge". Don't get me wrong, I love me a challenge in games, but not something so difficult that it makes you rip your hair out. Especially since the game is relatively tame with the enemy formations up until that point. After that, sans Level 6, Darknuts appear like this everywhere in the dungeons, and it's just a pain. Hitting their backs... so annoying with the already bad controls.

And yet, even though I don't think this game is all that great anymore... I'll still probably replay it again sometime. I always replay it again. I guess I'm just a masochist.

There's probably more, but this getting way bigger than I thought it would. Hopefully, the others won't get this behemothly huge...

Zelda II: Adventure of Link (NES)
Ugh. I know everyone loves to bash this game. I'm not going to try to bash it... I love the idea, and the direction this game could have gone great. But... it didn't.

First off, the thing that bugs me a lot is the collision detection. Especially dealing with Iron Knuckles. Takes forever to kill those things... Yes, the time it takes to kill some monsters is just frustrating.

I really like the leveling up system in this game. And it doesn't take much to level up... just one or two half-hour grinding times, plus a hour of grinding in the beginning... a lot less time consuming than regular RPGs. Zelda II is probably one of the first few NES games to feature Status choices, which works pretty well.

This game also introduced Magic to the Zelda games, and it works out pretty well in this game... my only complaint is that some spells take too much MP to use, even after getting Level 8 Magic and all the Magic Containers.

Now, another HUGE complaint for me, are the layouts yet again. The overworld is fine, it's all the side-scrolling action. The towns, caves and palaces are all the same, and all bland. Especially the palaces. They suffer the same thing the original Zelda game suffers with the dungeon layouts, and a lot more. Since you can't see the entire room AND there's no dungeon maps to help you through, the palaces become labyrinths that test your patience and sanity. It's my biggest pet peeve, and it's what turns me off from Zelda II. I only really completed it because it's Zelda. I didn't need much more of a reason than that.

So yeah, Zelda II, not that great. I somewhat like the gameplay, and I like the RPG aspects but everything else just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
Excellent. One of favourites. This was my first Zelda that I've ever played. And it was in French too, which didn't help me much. It took me ages to do anything in the game... and yet, I still loved it.

The graphics aren't detailed, but it works. Although the dungeons are somewhat bland (a lot of them have pallet swapped tiles), they all have unique rooms and shapes; none of them look the same. And even though a map is there to help you along the way, you don't need it because all of the rooms are easy to remember where they are and the dungeon layouts are simple. Aside from the Ice Palace (which is my favourite dungeon anyway), the dungeons are easy to get through (although maybe just a little too easy...). None of the dungeons are hellish labyrinths of death where you get lost forever.

The difficulty is just perfect in this game. Enemy formations aren't annoying, the hard enemies aren't bunched in every room, they're mixed with the easy enemies and in balanced ways. Not to mention, getting hit by a lot of the later enemies HURT, but they're easy to avoid and don't take forever to kill. The game isn't grueling difficult like its prequels, and it ain't easyfest like it's sequels. Like I said, A Link to the Past's difficulty is perfect.

The gameplay set the bar for later Zelda games. It had the classic item-dungeon gameplay the first game did, and the magic bar the second game had. The game fused the two and made it work in perfect harmony, and it was used for every Zelda game afterwards. And unlike a certain other game in the Zelda series, all of the items served a purpose. They were all useful in their own ways and were needed to be used frequently in the dungeons. I have to say, A Link to the Past had the best item usage out of any Zelda game.

Now I know it seems like I'm calling A Link to the Past perfect, but it's not. Close, but it's not, no game is perfect. But, it is a timeless game, in my opinion. To be enjoyed for an eternity. A Link to the Past is a game I can see myself playing on my death bed.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (GB/C)
Fun. Not bad for its first game on the GameBoy. Apparently, I owned the original Link's Awakening a very long time ago but I couldn't find the sword so my dad returned it to the shop. Nearly a decade later, I went and bought the DX version used, and found out why I had such a hard time finding that sword.

Although I didn't have nearly as much difficulty as I seemed to have had all those years ago with this game, I had a lot of fun playing through it. The graphics are great for a GameBoy game, the colours (on the DX version) are nice and colourful. You can walk diagonally like you should in it, and there was a ton of different items all with their own usages.

This also introduced the whole Fetch Quest thing that later Zelda games adopted, where you start by getting the Yoshi Doll and giving it to the Mother for a Ribbon, which you give to the Chain-Chomp Dog for some Canned Food, and etc. For some reason, I don't mind doing Fetch Quests in Zelda games.

The difficultly is a bit on the easy side, but there were definitely a couple puzzles that kept me stumped for a good 10 minutes. When a game does this to me, especially a Zelda game, I love it.

Although the resolution is quite small, the game still works. This is also the first Zelda game to not feature Zelda as a main character at all! This was one of the first few Zelda games to show us that Link doesn't need to save princesses in towers being kept by a giant man-bear-pig-monster-demon in order for it to be fun. I think Link's Awakening is one of more original Zelda games.

Not much else I can say, though. Since I didn't really grow up with the game, I don't have any nostalgic feelings towards it to let me feel emotionally attached to the game, so I don't have much to say about it. It is fun, though!

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
Amazing. I know I'm not the only one to consider Ocarina of Time one of the best games ever made, and it's up there on my favourite games of all time list (I should compile one of those one day).

My last playthrough was the first time I ever fully complete it, however. And, I still enjoyed it. Even Skulltula hunting was fun. It feels good to have all 20 hearts while fighting the final boss, although it was too easy. Although it always was.

I'd have to say that this is when Zelda games started to get easy. Other than the Iron Knuckles (who damage output gets cut down to two hearts end game anyway), none of the enemies really damage you more than one whole heart. I kind of wish that there was a difficulty option in Zelda games because of this.

I'm sure the puzzles are amazing and tough to figure out the first time through, but I don't remember my first time through. The only thing I really remember is fighting Ganon a lot of times because I had a lot of fun doing it.

The graphics at the time were very good. It was a first year Nintendo 64 game and it probably blew everyone's mind at the time. However, at the time, not even Mario 64 blew my mind for some reason; all I cared about was playing the game and having fun with it. Ocarina of Time is no different.

The gameplay features were pretty revolutionary at the time, I guess. It's hard for me to talk about this game as if I've only played it through once but I'm just so used to everything about it that it just seems natural.

Talking about today's standards, however, I have to say that the gameplay still holds itself together. Since this game, the other 3D Zelda games didn't really change much in the gameplay department. Don't fix what isn't broken, I have to say.

Also, let me talk about Master Quest for a bit. My last playthrough was actually a playthrough of Master Quest, and it was the first time I've ever played through it, even though I owned it for a long time.

It was pretty fun trying to figure out new puzzles in familiar settings. However, only the dungeons have changed, for the worse in my opinion. In fact, a lot of the dungeons don't allow you to explore the entire dungeon, unless you want to collect Skulltulas.

So, my last playthrough gave me a bit of a bad taste in my mouth but that taste doesn't make my opinion on Ocarina of Time worse.

What I always loved about Ocarina of Time is the whole triangle between Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf. These three are the most important characters in this game, all fit their roles the best; this game is the best hero toppling evil villain to save princess game ever made.

The final battle gives me shivers whenever I play it. All other bosses have some sort of subtitle, like "Parasitic Armored Arachnid: Ghoma" and "Phantom Shadow Beast: Bongo Bongo", but I absolutely love how Ganondorf yells and transforms... and all it says is "Ganon"... Fantastic... I don't know why but it just sends shivers down my spine, it's just so... perfect... I love it. And then the final battle... The music... and the fact that you can only see Ganon's face when lightning strikes... I have to say, that the battle with Ganon is the most epic battle in any video game ever. I don't think any final battle will ever top Ocarina of Time's.

Even though I still have a lot to say, I think a lot of people would have the same things to say about it... its settings, its music, its characters. It's all amazing, even today. I just wish I could forget everything about it so that I can play through it again and blow my mind properly this time.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64)
Awesome. Just... awesome. I'm probably in the minority here who thinks that Majora's Mask is not one the black sheep of the series, but I absolutely loved playing through Majora's Mask.

Like with Ocarina of Time, I can't properly remember my playthrough of this game. But, playing through it now, it amazes me the amount of detail there is in this game... the characters, the settings, the story, a lot of it is insane for a game that's supposed to be on a "medieval" console.

And the graphics hold up even today. In fact, this game may have the best graphics on the N64 and can even top early PS2 games.

The time limit never bothered me. Not as a kid, and not even today. In fact, because of the time limit, this is one of the few Zelda games that are different from the normal games of the series. It does things boldly that no other Zelda game tries to do, and gives you a sense of impending doom. It makes you want to rush as fast as you can and save all of these people from dying.

About those people... it's amazing on how so many people in this game's world has a personality. All of those who aren't regular NPCs (which there aren't that many in the first place) have a story of some sort and all of them need some help. That's something not many games even today can manage to do.

The whole mask system is pretty fun, although the only masks that are worth it are the transformation masks and the bunny hood. Still, all masks served a purpose, and no matter how small it was, it was worth it.

There's an unfortunate amount of dungeons in this game... in fact, it has the lowest amount in the entire series: Four dungeons. That's all. But all four of those dungeons are unique in the series, and these four are the hardest four out of any Zelda game ever made, in my opinion... the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time doesn't hold a candle to the Great Bay Temple in this game.

I have to say that the Ocarina in this game feels pretty tacked on... It was pretty important in Ocarina of Time, but in this game you only have to play the songs a couple of times. The only songs that really help are the Song of Time (and its variations) and the Song of Soaring.

What really disappoints me about the Ocarina in this game is how the Quest Songs don't play its full version after you play it, like in Ocarina of Time. You only hear the full version once and never again (unless you want to do filler stuff again). And a lot of the Quest Songs aren't that catchy anyway.

This is getting pretty long, but I have to comment on Majora himself. Most Zelda games have Ganon/Ganondorf being an evil guy who wants the Triforce, but the games that don't have ol' Ganny have villains with similar goals... except Majora.

Majora is a twisted demon who wants nothing more but to amuse himself by destroying the world with it's own damn moon. Like Kefka from Final Fantasy VI, these villains are fun to see because they are the most interesting.

Overall, I feel that Majora's Mask is an excellent Zelda game and deserves more love from the fans of the series.

Well, that's it for now. I probably have a lot more to say about these games, but I don't want to bore everyone with my ramblings. Tune in next time when I talk about the rest of the Zelda games, and my thoughts on the future of Zelda games.