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Murdar Machene
New Member
Title: bimmy
Joined: Nov 06 2005
Location: the black warriors turf
Posts: 3207
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Completely overrated game, impossible to play without an explicit walkthrough. Literally no way possible anyone could figure the game out without a guide, and if anyone here says they didn't use the guide they're full of shit. Everyone had Nintendo Power and if you didn't you had a friend who heard the tips from someone who did.
I wish Nintendo would give this game a Zero Mission style remake. Give it real boss fights, an actual map instead of a square block of shit, fix the horrible controls and the fact you're stuck on an invisible grid that forces you to move the wrong way randomly.
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24886
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I mean, you didn't need a walkthrough, but yeah, you hit the nail right on the head. Everyone was playing the game back in the day, so everyone knew somebody who could tell them where to go next, or somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody. You'd wander around recess looking for answers until you finally found someone who told you how to find Level 7, or how to get the old lady to talk to you.
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Valdronius
Moderator
Title: SydLexia COO
Joined: Aug 22 2005
Location: The Great White North
Posts: 4465
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I know it's my birthday, but you don't have to quote me just to be nice. You're allowed to have your own opinions.
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| Klimbatize wrote: |
| A Hispanic dude living in Arizona knows a lot of Latinas? That's fucking odd. |
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LeshLush
Joined: Oct 19 2009
Location: Nashville, TN
Posts: 1479
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| Syd Lexia wrote: |
| Everyone was playing the game back in the day, so everyone knew somebody who could tell them where to go next, or somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody. You'd wander around recess looking for answers until you finally found someone who told you how to find Level 7, or how to get the old lady to talk to you. |
I miss this so much. The way that the internet has taken over the social aspect of video games has robbed it of pretty much everything that made it fun.
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GPFontaine
Joined: Dec 06 2007
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 11244
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The social aspect of the game was awesome for kids who could go to school and talk about Zelda.
I recall being given three hints for the first quest beyond the fact that the user manual and map which both offered some basic starting assistance.
Hints I needed as a 6-7 year old kid to be able to complete the legend of Zelda (ok... I got to Ganon, but never beat him until I was like 9-10):
1. I needed a map of the final Labyrinth
2. I needed to be told about the location of the master sword
3. I needed to be told about getting through the Lost Woods
No doubt my save count was super high and I probably sank 20-40 hours into the game to get that far. This summer I played it again and beat it in about 2-3hr. Knowing where everything is changes everything.
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Not Sure
Too Good At 2D Games
Title: Master of the Universe
Joined: Dec 03 2007
Posts: 1767
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LoZ is definitely my favorite NES game. The first quest was a lot more reasonable in terms of being able to find your next destination. The second quest, on the other hand, I'll concede was pretty bullshit without a guide. The boss fights weren't much, but it was an early title. And I thought the controls were perfect.
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My Youtube Channel | 2012 NES Challenge standings
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." |
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@om*d
Title: Dorakyura
Joined: Jul 10 2010
Location: Castlevania
Posts: 4226
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| Not Sure wrote: |
| The first quest was a lot more reasonable in terms of being able to find your next destination. The second quest, on the other hand, I'll concede was pretty bullshit without a guide. The boss fights weren't much, but it was an early title. And I thought the controls were perfect. |
This.
I never had too much of a problem finding my way the first time I played this game. Sure, there was a bit of time spent trying to figure out stuff like the lost woods, but nothing major, maybe 10 minutes at most. My intuition told me to bomb and set fire to everything, so I ended up discovering a lot of stuff by just messing around.
Some of the above posts sound like the kind of complaints that come from people with a lack of imagination.
I definitely miss the social aspects of getting hints for games from people via word of mouth. I would never have beaten a game like Castlevania II back in the day without tips from friends, as some of the tips NPC in that game gave you made no sense.
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Murdar Machene
New Member
Title: bimmy
Joined: Nov 06 2005
Location: the black warriors turf
Posts: 3207
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| Valdronius wrote: |
| I know it's my birthday, but you don't have to quote me just to be nice. You're allowed to have your own opinions. |
oh happy birthday dude 
I really like the atmosphere of the game, from the wasteland-like hellish world populated by only evil shithead monsters and people living in caves, to the memorable and good music. Discovering secrets IS fun, but I feel like too much of the game centers around hidden things.
As far as the controls go, this is just a personal thing, but any game with an "invisible grid" (dig dug 2, zelda 1) pisses me the fuck off. Basically how it works is, your character's stuck on a grid you can't see, and he'll take the path of least resistance to snap to whichever portion of the grid is closest. So, say you want to dodge UP to dodge a wizrobe's fireball, if you're not aligned on the grid properly, your character will walk slightly to the side, THEN up. Typically in my experience, the time your character spends aligning himself to the other axis than the one you pressed is time enough to get hit and waste your attempt at dodging altogether. Pretty damn frustrating, and not what I'd call "perfect controls" by any means. Link to the Past has perfect controls if you want to give any zelda that title.
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slapolakinkaido
Title: Illegitimate Son of God
Joined: Jul 14 2009
Posts: 1565
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Hey it's an old game. Controls weren't by any means perfect. But it was seriously one of my favorite games when it first came out. And probably my favorite Zelda game due to the nostalgia. My guess is this is not the first Zelda game you played.
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Beach Bum
Joined: Dec 08 2010
Location: At the pants party.
Posts: 1777
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I never enjoyed it but then when I played it I was still pretty young, like 6 or 7, and all I ever did was wander around getting lost. Think I found one of the dungeons during the entire time I owned it, but then I rarely played it because I couldn't find anything to do except kill the same shit over and over again.
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24886
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The Second Quest is more fair, because by the time you get there you already know all the game's dirty tricks.
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i'll_bite_your_ear
Title: Distillatoria
Joined: Jun 09 2010
Location: van down by the river
Posts: 3707
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To be honest i never played the first Zelda game, but i heard about all the kryptic parts. Burning the bush, bombing that one rock etc.
I would like to play it one time but i really don't like to play games on an emulator and my NES is broken.
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it was the best of times
it was the blurst of times |
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LeshLush
Joined: Oct 19 2009
Location: Nashville, TN
Posts: 1479
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| i'll_bite_your_ear wrote: |
To be honest i never played the first Zelda game, but i heard about all the kryptic parts. Burning the bush, bombing that one rock etc.
I would like to play it one time but i really don't like to play games on an emulator and my NES is broken. |
Wii Virtual Console?
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Klimbatize
2010 NES Champ
Title: 2011 Picnic/Death Champ
Joined: Mar 15 2010
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 5000
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| LeshLush wrote: |
| i'll_bite_your_ear wrote: |
To be honest i never played the first Zelda game, but i heard about all the kryptic parts. Burning the bush, bombing that one rock etc.
I would like to play it one time but i really don't like to play games on an emulator and my NES is broken. |
Wii Virtual Console? |
Yeah I don't do emulators either so I had never played it before until I got it on my 3DS as an Ambassador. I played like 30 minutes of it but found myself more annoyed than having fun. If I had played it as a kid, I'm sure I'd love it.
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i'll_bite_your_ear
Title: Distillatoria
Joined: Jun 09 2010
Location: van down by the river
Posts: 3707
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| LeshLush wrote: |
| i'll_bite_your_ear wrote: |
To be honest i never played the first Zelda game, but i heard about all the kryptic parts. Burning the bush, bombing that one rock etc.
I would like to play it one time but i really don't like to play games on an emulator and my NES is broken. |
Wii Virtual Console? |
I don't own a Wii and i don't like to use webstores. I also like to NES controller and the NES, i would like it more to play it on the original console.
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it was the best of times
it was the blurst of times |
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Murdar Machene
New Member
Title: bimmy
Joined: Nov 06 2005
Location: the black warriors turf
Posts: 3207
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| Klimbatize wrote: |
| LeshLush wrote: |
| i'll_bite_your_ear wrote: |
To be honest i never played the first Zelda game, but i heard about all the kryptic parts. Burning the bush, bombing that one rock etc.
I would like to play it one time but i really don't like to play games on an emulator and my NES is broken. |
Wii Virtual Console? |
Yeah I don't do emulators either so I had never played it before until I got it on my 3DS as an Ambassador. I played like 30 minutes of it but found myself more annoyed than having fun. If I had played it as a kid, I'm sure I'd love it. |
Yeah I've been playing it on the 3ds too, my friend was an ambassador too.
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GPFontaine
Joined: Dec 06 2007
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 11244
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| Murdar Machene wrote: |
| As far as the controls go, this is just a personal thing, but any game with an "invisible grid" (dig dug 2, zelda 1) pisses me the fuck off. Basically how it works is, your character's stuck on a grid you can't see, and he'll take the path of least resistance to snap to whichever portion of the grid is closest. So, say you want to dodge UP to dodge a wizrobe's fireball, if you're not aligned on the grid properly, your character will walk slightly to the side, THEN up. Typically in my experience, the time your character spends aligning himself to the other axis than the one you pressed is time enough to get hit and waste your attempt at dodging altogether. Pretty damn frustrating, and not what I'd call "perfect controls" by any means. Link to the Past has perfect controls if you want to give any zelda that title. |
I'll agree that I have a hard time with the grid and am hit much more often because of feeling like I was jammed by it... still I'll give it one thing, it is consistant. Sometimes on modern titles, I'll hit an invisible wall and be totally confused about why or how it exists.
| Syd Lexia wrote: |
| The Second Quest is more fair, because by the time you get there you already know all the game's dirty tricks. |
Unless you thought it was clever to name your character Zelda when you first started playing. Also, walking through walls became a necessity.
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24886
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Weren't there invisible walls in the first quest though, I forget? I thought there were, starting in Level 5...
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GPFontaine
Joined: Dec 06 2007
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 11244
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I thought they were only in the overworld for the bonus coins in the top right map corner.
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24886
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JohnnyBenz
Title: The nip killer
Joined: Feb 08 2013
Location: Northeast MS
Posts: 318
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I remember how I got my first copy of the original Zelda, trading Battletoads for it with a kid I went to school with in the 4th grade. It was the gold cartridge, too! But yeah, the game definitely tapped into the power of community, but unfortunatly my community couldn't get anywhere in the game either so I was forced to go it alone. I might have beaten the 2nd castle... I did eventually beat it a few years ago for the GBA, but I never even attempted the 2nd quest.
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Greg the White
Joined: Apr 09 2008
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 3112
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I had the same experience that Vald and Murdar did with the game. I really feel like anyone who beat it and loved it before the internet:
A) Had Nintendo Power
B) Heard secrets from a friend
C) Latchkeyed their way through it just rubbing everything together for hours as a kid.
It's still a good game, just not a pick-up game. It had great art design, obviously great music, and neat gameplay, but finding secrets and some dungeons was kind of frustrating just trying to load up the emulator and play. Once I ran through it with a guide, though, I was able to enjoy it. I'm guessing people will say I took the mystery out of it, but I say I just skipped past the worst-designed parts of the game to play a good game.
I would be down for a Zero Mission-style re-make. Maybe give it some LttP-style dungeon crawling, while still giving it some of the better simple exploration that made the early ones such satisfying time-sinks.
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So here's to you Mrs. Robinson. People love you more- oh, nevermind. |
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slapolakinkaido
Title: Illegitimate Son of God
Joined: Jul 14 2009
Posts: 1565
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| Syd Lexia wrote: |
| Weren't there invisible walls in the first quest though, I forget? I thought there were, starting in Level 5... |
No, you had to use bombs. Walk through walls were only in the second quest dungeons.
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ReasonableRam
Joined: Feb 01 2013
Location: Vestal, New York
Posts: 12
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I must say that I admire the passion in which the OP stated his case.
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What the fuck *doesn't* require the Goron Special Crop? |
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24886
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| Greg the White wrote: |
| It's still a good game, just not a pick-up game. It had great art design, obviously great music, and neat gameplay, but finding secrets and some dungeons was kind of frustrating just trying to load up the emulator and play. Once I ran through it with a guide, though, I was able to enjoy it. I'm guessing people will say I took the mystery out of it, but I say I just skipped past the worst-designed parts of the game to play a good game. |
Here's a couple of things people don't realize. This game was very much a holdover of Days of Video Games Past, and of all early RPGs, where the manual was half the game. The Zelda game manual had explicit instructions on how to find the first two dungeons.
There were also hints printed along the bottom of the instruction manual pages.
Additionally, it came with a sealed insert with additional clues. Such as a full map and additional hints. I don't remember if it gave the solution to the Lost Woods (I think it did), but definitely put a ? on the lake that hid Level 7.
So the game was never meant to be played through blindly. To a player who knows the rules, it can be very fun to play through blindly, but otherwise, yeah, it's frustrating.
Trying playing Atari era adventure games like Riddle of the Sphinx or, well, Adventure. They are COMPLETELY unplayable without the manual. With Zelda, you at least have a chance to figure out what to do without a manual.
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