Summary
TheLegend of Zeldaseries is gaming royalty, and has been delighting fans of fantasy adventures the world over since since 1986. The series has always rewritten the rules of game design and raised the bar in some way for player expectations, and no more has this been evident in its 3D entries, which reinvented open worlds, experimented with time-travel, stylized graphics, motion controls, and immersive physics simulations.
Through it all, every game feels unmistakably “Zelda-like,” drawing themes of courage against fear or grief and light versus darkness, each game allowing players to explore Hyrule or some other fantasy land in search of weapons and sacred objects to defeat a great evil. EachZeldagame here is ranked based on its contribution to the lore, its gameplay merits, innovations, storytelling, world and level design, art direction, and emotional resonance.
Skyward Swordis something of a black sheep. Built around the Wii’s motion controls, the swordplay mechanics seem like the perfect match on paper. While it had moments of satisfaction, it wasn’t the killer feature that Nintendo might have hoped for. Additionally, the sky overworld lacks the majesty ofWind Waker’s seas orBotW’s fields, and it leans heavily into backtracking.
For all ofSS’s mechanical turbulence, there are pockets of brilliance: tightly designed dungeons, the time-shifting Lanayru Desert, and a genuinelytouching relationship between Link and Zelda. Skyward Sword took a risk in going further back in the timeline than before, and for the most part, provided a satisfying enough edition to the Zelda canon.
IfBreath of the Wildtook open-world games and squeezed them into aZeldagame,Tears of the Kingdomtookfreeform sandbox gameslikeMinecraftor evenKerbal Space Programand squeezed them intoBreath of the Wild. Besides the well-implemented Ultrahand mechanics that completely rewrote the rules of the open world, there were more than enough additions to warrantTotKbeing a standalone release, including the sky islands and underworld area.
However, even with additions to the map, its world struggles to step out of the shadow ofBotW. Some (especially long-time) fans took issue with the lack of deep dungeon content, which was set aside for the additional freedom offered byBotW’s fusion and engineering gameplay. That being said, there is still a tidy balance between creativity-driven emergent gameplay and classicZeldastorytelling and exploration to make it a solid 3D entry.
After the bright, open skies and sea ofWind Waker, many fans were yearning for another atmospherically oppressiveZeldagame with adult tones, andTwilight Princesshit that mark perfectly. Although it in some ways feels like a retread ofOcarina’s Hyrule and suffers from the then-popular brown-gray smudge color palette,TPis one ofZelda’s best worlds to explore, with its impressively massive world with its own memorable set pieces, and is moodily beautiful in its own right.
WhereOcarinaoccasionally used perspective tricks, blurry forest barriers, and prerenders to flesh out its world (for example, Hyrule Castle Town),Twilight Princessfully-rendered an extensive world for the player to get lost in to their heats' content, whether on horseback through the back canyons of Hyrule or through the bustling streets of the kingdom’s capital.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of TIme marks the first time that The Legend of Zelda made the jump to 3D, giving players the ability to explore Hyrule in an entirely new way.
It is a testament to theZeldaseries, and the game that kicked off the 3D revolution, that there are games higher on the list thanOcarina of Time. The game that not only wrote the rules for 3D adventure games but also set the bar for tight, intuitive lock-on camera controls, context-sensitive interaction, fluid swordplay and combat, and engaging puzzles in the third dimension.Ocarinanot only innovated in what is now calledthe immersive-sim genre, but its innovations have scarcely been matched since, even in immersive sims themselves.
While games under the immersive sim umbrella have players piling boxes for a platform,Ocarinahad players using the force of gravity to break the tension of a spider web in the center of the first dungeon’s room.Ocarina’s story, music, items, and dungeons are iconic and still enjoyable today, but to be among the first games to capture the essence and spectacle of true adventure in a 3D space and to do it so effectively is a great feat. WithoutOcarina’s legwork, the later games in the series would not have enjoyed such success.
While the series had typically set gaming trends in the past,Breath of the WildsawZeldago true open world. Casting aside the rigid structure of previous games,BotWtrusted players to get lost and find themselves in a wide-open Hyrule. Nintendo took all the best facets of open-world games (freedom of exploration, emergent gameplay, and lateral-thinking-based problem solving) and refined them with clever design tricks.
Shrines, physics-based puzzles, survival mechanics, anda dynamic weather systemall fed into a world that could be explored through climbing, gliding, or riding and felt less like a backdrop and more like a character: responsive, mysterious, and brimming with opportunity. AlthoughZeldalikes to redefine its mythos and lore with each edition, like its approach to open-world design,BotWpicked out the best parts of its history and remixed them into more than the sum of its parts.
The Wind Wakeris a prime example of why creatives can’t always (or shouldn’t) give an audience what it thinks it wants. Following the then-realistic renderings of the N64 games,Wind Waker’s cel-shaded graphics generateda boiling sea of controversythat has since, thankfully, simmered down. However, it is precisely thanks to this pioneering choice that it has, out of every 3DZeldagame, held up the best visually and, in many cases, critically.
Given the art direction of the most recent two games,Wind Waker’s bright, clean design proves that intention and style trump realism. It isn’t just the “interactive cartoon” aesthetics that placeWind Wakerhigh in the hierarchy. Beyond the bright and appealing exterior lies a compelling adventure story chock-full of surprises, a highly polished game feel, and soul-soaring moments (specifically when traversing the Great Sea). Rather than rest on its merit, theZeldaseries opted for a fresh horizon withWind Waker, embracing risk and whimsy without sacrificing depth.
In a striking example of how art imitates life,Majora’s Maskwas developed in a mere twelve-month cycle. While this mind-bogglingly short development time would not have been possible withoutOcarina, the former took its predecessor’s excellent foundations and expanded upon them.Majora’s Masknot only realized the potential (and embraced the limitations) of 3D space, but 4D space as well. The clockwork world of Termina overflows with soul and memorable moments thanks to the meticulouslydetailed backstories and schedules of its characters, tragic figures whose terminal courses Link can correct in large and small ways through his intervention.
The resettable three-day limit can be a great source of stress and is one of the biggest hurdles toMajora’s enjoyment. However, this bold temporal limitation provides a sublime tension for Link’s quest, perfectly framing Termina and its inhabitants as an incomplete canvas of troubles to explore, resolve, and perfect as they traverse a world locked into an inevitable fall. Despite these overwhelming odds, the game gently urges its player to keep moving forward, three days at a time. Between its festive minigames, frequently eerie atmosphere, innovative mask mechanics, and profound themes, no player returns from Termina quite the same.
