Zelda memories

***Marilink*** · 10-30-2011, 10:51 AM

I liked the idea of the "How did you meet Mario" thread, so I thought I'd throw one in here, too. Zelda is a series that carries a lot of nostalgic weight for me, and I know it is for other people too. So what memories do you have of playing Zelda? It could be something in your life at the time you were playing LttP, it could be something in Majora's Mask that made you emotional, or anything like that,

There are tons of these for me, but one that stands out is how attached I got to the characters of Link's Awakening when I was little. Like, I didn't even want to beat the game because I didn't want them all to disappear. I specifically remember telling my brother, "Why do I have to wake the Wind Fish? I don't want to!" It still makes me a little sad every time everyone disappears.

***CaptHayfever*** · 10-30-2011, 11:36 AM

My cousin's house. Zelda II. Nightmares about the death & game over screens.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

**Crazyswordsman** · 10-30-2011, 11:57 AM

Way, way, way too many Zelda memories, often resulting in dreams that happen over and over and over again. The Helmsaur King is probably the most recurring, and a mysterious area in Gerudo Valley/Haunted Wasteland with absolutely nothing in it gets second place. During this dream I had no sword. -CSM

CuccoLady · 10-30-2011, 02:21 PM

OoT. Oh, so much.

I played that game so much that I had memorized pretty much every NPC dialogue at every point in the game and didn't need the Lens of Truth to know exactly where the invisible hookshot targets and invisible spikes in the Shadow Temple were.

There was a point in middle school where my best friend and I would pretend to be Farore [me] and Nayru [her], because our favorite colors were green and blue and we were convinced that our astrological symbols represented courage and love, respectively. Good times.

MM came shortly after that and one of the main reasons I enjoyed it so much was that one of my favorite NPCs from OoT [for whatever strange reason], the cucco lady, was a super major side character with a super adorable sidequest in it. I recognized all of my OoT peeps in the new game with alternate personalities and was like OMG THIS IS AWESOME. I then played it over and over again, with every single mask every time. I've never played the game without doing every character's sidestory.

I love a lot of the other games, but these two are REALLY the ones that have a huge amount of nostalgia for me.

Bomby · 10-30-2011, 11:30 PM

My friend's cousin lent him his SNES for a while back when we were in third grade, and a ton of games for it. My sister had played Zelda II years earlier, and said it sucked, so I had always just assumed that Zelda must be a crappy game series, but then eventually I decided that I wanted to try out his copy of A Link to the Past out of curiosity.

It's still my favorite video game like 15 years later.

***The Doctor*** · 10-31-2011, 06:22 AM

I got Legend Of Zelda for Christmas along with my first ever console (NES) back when I was five/six. Me and my Dad use to play it a lot, and we use to try and get futher than each other. He was the first one to complete it.

However I loved that game. The Zelda Game I played to death was a LttP. I missed out on most of the consoles after Snes. (Never had a UN64 (although I played a lot of games on ROM.....okay, just Super Mario RPG) and I brought the Gamecube very late into it's lifespan (however I managed to borrow a special Zelda disc which had MM and OoT), and I have really tried to play WW but I get bored of sailing.

Then as the Wii came out, I brought TP before I even got a Wii (they were in high demand, and I got my console three months after ordering one.) And finished the story in that one.

But after all that LttP has to be my favourite. Colourful. Quirky. Loved the Storyline. I've lost count of how many times I've completed it. Closely followed by LoZ and TP. Thinking about getting a 3DS after Christmas along with OoT.

**Valigarmander** · 10-31-2011, 08:31 AM

My first experience with the Zelda series was most likely when I was young and would play around on my uncle's OoT file. "Playing around" usually meant running away from ReDeads, beating up Cuccoos, sprinting around Hyrule field on Epona, falling down the well in Kakariko Village repeatedly, and so on. The first game I owned myself was Majora's Mask, and I thought it was great.

I don't remember playing TLoZ or AoL a lot when I was younger, but I did spend a lot of time admiring the artwork in the manuals. They don't make them like that anymore.

Glux · 10-31-2011, 08:50 AM

Sitting on my neighbors front porch (which was a cement step), and playing Link's Awakening on his GameBoy Color... Oh, man those were great times... It was the coolest game ever and I remember when we beat it it we were so ecstatic... I remember I thought it was really cool that the credits mentioned the Super Mario Club. Back then it was cool to see Mario mentioned in a non-Mario game, but obviously now I know a little more about the whole Nintendo thing.

Then that next Christmas I got Ocarina of Time. Still not knowing what "Zelda" was at the time, I played the Hell out of that game... still works, still my favorite!

Chaos Deviot · 10-31-2011, 06:29 PM

I started with the first game.

I've beaten every game except Majora's Mask and Wind Waker(those are my favorite, but they're fairly hard for me), as well as Phantom Hourglass. I haven't started Spirit Tracks yet.

Also, I never played the CD-i games.

**S1x** · 10-31-2011, 07:55 PM

In LttP, I used the mirror right on the border of a stone you could lift with a secret passage underneath. I dashed into it, I heard a "thud", and everything stopped. The screen turned gray and then a glitchy mass of I don't even know.

I didn't play on that cartridge for a long time.

Daos · 10-31-2011, 09:30 PM

The original Zelda. The gold cartridge in my friend's library called to me. I was in love with my first play.

**X-3** · 10-31-2011, 09:33 PM

I think the first time I played Zelda was when I rented OoT and got stuck in the basement of the Deku Tree. Or maybe it was when I got Oracle of Seasons for Christmas.

***Cosmonautical*** · 10-31-2011, 11:23 PM

I would see the gold cartridge for the very first Zelda at friends' houses and at the rental, and tried it repeatedly. The game was too hard for me but I was pretty amazed by its potential for exploration, especially with the art style and gold cartridge lending it some really strong mystique. I almost regret playing through the game eventually, as I found it absolutely breathtaking to have such an open world and unique cartridge and other-worldly enemies.

The creativity at the time was unparallelled and as a child especially I couldn't even begin to find influences anywhere in it, it seemed like it existed solely unto itself. The only other Classic games I had to compare were Metroid and the Adventure of Lolo for totally strange and new things in the same vein, although each took a completely different slant.

I was also impressed at the time by the amount of sheer dedication that I knew would be required to tackle something like Zelda. There were no quest markers on the maps, or often no maps, and there were no hints to get you through the lost woods, and it was a battle and a struggle to make it through each screen!

Years later, I got my first complete and most excited exposure to Zelda 3: A Link to the Past. The Super Nintendo was more than young - it had barely launched - and Nintendo was touring malls to display new and unreleased games! My brother and I begged our mom to take us, and so we went. I still remember the layout and the look of the game stations and the experience of playing through the raining night section and then first dungeon of the game.

Panfan · 11-01-2011, 08:08 AM

First time I ever played a Zelda game, LoZ, at my grandparents' house with who is now my brother-in-law.

Speed · 12-07-2011, 04:13 AM

In a hotel room. They had one of those pay to play things set up with an N64 and I played OOT until my mom realized every time I hit "continue playing" it cost her money and she put a stop to that **** then and there.

Got Majora's Mask as a birthday present a few months later.

monstrman · 12-07-2011, 12:40 PM

Same thing as speed, but replace N64 with snes and OOT with LTTP

Random User · 12-07-2011, 07:44 PM

I recall skulking around my house years ago when I noticed my father playing ALttP. He played for a good two hours and I was there beside him, quietly watching him play. I was intrigued by the game, and asked if I could play it once he was done. He didn't mind if I did, so I set out on my first Legend of Zelda game. I never got the chance to beat it, unfortunately.

For whatever reason, I named Link "Grape."

Chaos Deviot · 12-08-2011, 09:06 AM

Beating Zelda I's first quest. My god, it was hard. I always fail at the second Quest. I blame the one-way doors. Why u no work two-way?!

1-up Salesman · 12-28-2011, 06:32 PM

Ah, the memories.

I was very little. It was my birthday, actually. After the cake, there was a wrapped gift in the room, looking very peculiar. I opened it, finding that a Philips CDI was inside, with a copy of a sports game.

I was amazed by the graphics, and how vivid and realistic they seemed. The sound effects made it feel like you were right there with the characters, and everything about it was just so fun. A few months later, that Christmas, I got Link and the Faces of Evil. I was amazed by the box-art, showing off a man in green readying himself for battle.

I put in the disc, and I was amazed by what I saw. The cutscenes were incredibly realistic, like nothing I had ever seen. The lines felt like they came out of Lord of the Rings. It was so amazing. I tried and tried to beat it, and I eventually did later on. Ganon gave me nightmares, with his evil look and horrid intention. His frightening cry of "No" still as he's defeated and sucked into a magic book still gives me chills to this day.

...Nah, I'm just kidding. OoT was my first game, I never got the Master Sword. I was really little so I wasn't that great at it and it freaked me out. I played the original SSB a lot and Link was my favorite due to Link wearing green (one of my favorite colors, especially back then) and having a sword, so it made me really like the series.

10-30-2011, 10:51 AM	#1
*Marilink* Gotta catch 'em all! Supermod! Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Location, Location. Gender: Posts: 29,118 Thanks: 2,536 Thanked 1,823 Times in 1,008 Posts	Zelda memories I liked the idea of the "How did you meet Mario" thread, so I thought I'd throw one in here, too. Zelda is a series that carries a lot of nostalgic weight for me, and I know it is for other people too. So what memories do you have of playing Zelda? It could be something in your life at the time you were playing LttP, it could be something in Majora's Mask that made you emotional, or anything like that, There are tons of these for me, but one that stands out is how attached I got to the characters of Link's Awakening when I was little. Like, I didn't even want to beat the game because I didn't want them all to disappear. I specifically remember telling my brother, "Why do I have to wake the Wind Fish? I don't want to!" It still makes me a little sad every time everyone disappears.

10-30-2011, 11:36 AM	#2
*CaptHayfever* Smash SuperMod Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: (n) - the place where I am Gender: Posts: 27,661 Thanks: 1,991 Thanked 2,486 Times in 1,513 Posts	My cousin's house. Zelda II. Nightmares about the death & game over screens. And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

10-30-2011, 11:57 AM	#3
Crazyswordsman This key doesn't work. Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Booyaville (yeah!) Gender: Posts: 10,791 Thanks: 1,019 Thanked 686 Times in 467 Posts	Way, way, way too many Zelda memories, often resulting in dreams that happen over and over and over again. The Helmsaur King is probably the most recurring, and a mysterious area in Gerudo Valley/Haunted Wasteland with absolutely nothing in it gets second place. During this dream I had no sword. -CSM

10-30-2011, 02:21 PM	#4
CuccoLady Anime and Cartoons Mod Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: THIS LOCATION REMINDS ME OF A PUZZLE, LUKE Gender: Posts: 9,077 Thanks: 2,825 Thanked 1,222 Times in 822 Posts	OoT. Oh, so much. I played that game so much that I had memorized pretty much every NPC dialogue at every point in the game and didn't need the Lens of Truth to know exactly where the invisible hookshot targets and invisible spikes in the Shadow Temple were. There was a point in middle school where my best friend and I would pretend to be Farore [me] and Nayru [her], because our favorite colors were green and blue and we were convinced that our astrological symbols represented courage and love, respectively. Good times. MM came shortly after that and one of the main reasons I enjoyed it so much was that one of my favorite NPCs from OoT [for whatever strange reason], the cucco lady, was a super major side character with a super adorable sidequest in it. I recognized all of my OoT peeps in the new game with alternate personalities and was like OMG THIS IS AWESOME. I then played it over and over again, with every single mask every time. I've never played the game without doing every character's sidestory. I love a lot of the other games, but these two are REALLY the ones that have a huge amount of nostalgia for me.

10-30-2011, 11:30 PM	#5
Bomby You just freaking blew Joe Biden's mind! Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: WHAT?house Gender: Posts: 19,492 Thanks: 513 Thanked 1,449 Times in 849 Posts Blog Entries: 5	My friend's cousin lent him his SNES for a while back when we were in third grade, and a ton of games for it. My sister had played Zelda II years earlier, and said it sucked, so I had always just assumed that Zelda must be a crappy game series, but then eventually I decided that I wanted to try out his copy of A Link to the Past out of curiosity. It's still my favorite video game like 15 years later.

10-31-2011, 06:22 AM	#6
*The Doctor* The Last Timelord. Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: In the TARDIS Gender: Posts: 13,880 Thanks: 915 Thanked 656 Times in 426 Posts Blog Entries: 1	I got Legend Of Zelda for Christmas along with my first ever console (NES) back when I was five/six. Me and my Dad use to play it a lot, and we use to try and get futher than each other. He was the first one to complete it. However I loved that game. The Zelda Game I played to death was a LttP. I missed out on most of the consoles after Snes. (Never had a UN64 (although I played a lot of games on ROM.....okay, just Super Mario RPG) and I brought the Gamecube very late into it's lifespan (however I managed to borrow a special Zelda disc which had MM and OoT), and I have really tried to play WW but I get bored of sailing. Then as the Wii came out, I brought TP before I even got a Wii (they were in high demand, and I got my console three months after ordering one.) And finished the story in that one. But after all that LttP has to be my favourite. Colourful. Quirky. Loved the Storyline. I've lost count of how many times I've completed it. Closely followed by LoZ and TP. Thinking about getting a 3DS after Christmas along with OoT.

10-31-2011, 08:31 AM	#7
Valigarmander The Bee's Knees Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: The land of rain and trees (Oregon) Gender: Posts: 29,755 Thanks: 1,649 Thanked 5,701 Times in 2,581 Posts Blog Entries: 20	My first experience with the Zelda series was most likely when I was young and would play around on my uncle's OoT file. "Playing around" usually meant running away from ReDeads, beating up Cuccoos, sprinting around Hyrule field on Epona, falling down the well in Kakariko Village repeatedly, and so on. The first game I owned myself was Majora's Mask, and I thought it was great. I don't remember playing TLoZ or AoL a lot when I was younger, but I did spend a lot of time admiring the artwork in the manuals. They don't make them like that anymore.

10-31-2011, 08:50 AM	#8
Glux Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Home Gender: Posts: 7,122 Thanks: 647 Thanked 360 Times in 236 Posts Blog Entries: 3	Sitting on my neighbors front porch (which was a cement step), and playing Link's Awakening on his GameBoy Color... Oh, man those were great times... It was the coolest game ever and I remember when we beat it it we were so ecstatic... I remember I thought it was really cool that the credits mentioned the Super Mario Club. Back then it was cool to see Mario mentioned in a non-Mario game, but obviously now I know a little more about the whole Nintendo thing. Then that next Christmas I got Ocarina of Time. Still not knowing what "Zelda" was at the time, I played the Hell out of that game... still works, still my favorite!

10-31-2011, 06:29 PM	#9
Chaos Deviot The Betrayer Join Date: May 2004 Location: Mt. Moon Gender: Posts: 1,813 Thanks: 171 Thanked 52 Times in 49 Posts Blog Entries: 1	I started with the first game. I've beaten every game except Majora's Mask and Wind Waker(those are my favorite, but they're fairly hard for me), as well as Phantom Hourglass. I haven't started Spirit Tracks yet. Also, I never played the CD-i games.

10-31-2011, 07:55 PM	#10
S1x VGF RPG Mod Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Loading...... Gender: Posts: 7,289 Thanks: 26 Thanked 493 Times in 201 Posts Blog Entries: 1	In LttP, I used the mirror right on the border of a stone you could lift with a secret passage underneath. I dashed into it, I heard a "thud", and everything stopped. The screen turned gray and then a glitchy mass of I don't even know. I didn't play on that cartridge for a long time.

10-31-2011, 09:30 PM	#11
Daos Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Earth Gender: Posts: 6,228 Thanks: 146 Thanked 245 Times in 179 Posts	The original Zelda. The gold cartridge in my friend's library called to me. I was in love with my first play.

10-31-2011, 09:33 PM	#12
X-3 Useful as an Owl Join Date: Jan 2004 Gender: Posts: 15,947 Thanks: 753 Thanked 1,213 Times in 790 Posts Blog Entries: 10	I think the first time I played Zelda was when I rented OoT and got stuck in the basement of the Deku Tree. Or maybe it was when I got Oracle of Seasons for Christmas.

10-31-2011, 11:23 PM	#13
*Cosmonautical* Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I rub my tilde all over your asterisk Gender: Posts: 28,103 Thanks: 2,158 Thanked 5,338 Times in 2,433 Posts	I would see the gold cartridge for the very first Zelda at friends' houses and at the rental, and tried it repeatedly. The game was too hard for me but I was pretty amazed by its potential for exploration, especially with the art style and gold cartridge lending it some really strong mystique. I almost regret playing through the game eventually, as I found it absolutely breathtaking to have such an open world and unique cartridge and other-worldly enemies. The creativity at the time was unparallelled and as a child especially I couldn't even begin to find influences anywhere in it, it seemed like it existed solely unto itself. The only other Classic games I had to compare were Metroid and the Adventure of Lolo for totally strange and new things in the same vein, although each took a completely different slant. I was also impressed at the time by the amount of sheer dedication that I knew would be required to tackle something like Zelda. There were no quest markers on the maps, or often no maps, and there were no hints to get you through the lost woods, and it was a battle and a struggle to make it through each screen! Years later, I got my first complete and most excited exposure to Zelda 3: A Link to the Past. The Super Nintendo was more than young - it had barely launched - and Nintendo was touring malls to display new and unreleased games! My brother and I begged our mom to take us, and so we went. I still remember the layout and the look of the game stations and the experience of playing through the raining night section and then first dungeon of the game.

11-01-2011, 08:08 AM	#14
Panfan AND HE PRAYS Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Grayskull Gender: Posts: 18,807 Thanks: 1,405 Thanked 2,251 Times in 1,339 Posts Blog Entries: 15	First time I ever played a Zelda game, LoZ, at my grandparents' house with who is now my brother-in-law.

12-07-2011, 04:13 AM	#15
Speed Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: If there's a bright center to the universe I'm on the planet it's farthest from Gender: Posts: 3,747 Thanks: 1,598 Thanked 320 Times in 224 Posts Blog Entries: 1	In a hotel room. They had one of those pay to play things set up with an N64 and I played OOT until my mom realized every time I hit "continue playing" it cost her money and she put a stop to that **** then and there. Got Majora's Mask as a birthday present a few months later.

12-07-2011, 12:40 PM	#16
monstrman Member Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: LET'S SAAAAAVE THE WOOOORLD. Gender: Posts: 1,035 Thanks: 87 Thanked 53 Times in 42 Posts Blog Entries: 5	Same thing as speed, but replace N64 with snes and OOT with LTTP

12-07-2011, 07:44 PM	#17
Random User Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Equestrian Republic of Spanglidesh Gender: Posts: 3,562 Thanks: 321 Thanked 195 Times in 143 Posts Blog Entries: 4	I recall skulking around my house years ago when I noticed my father playing ALttP. He played for a good two hours and I was there beside him, quietly watching him play. I was intrigued by the game, and asked if I could play it once he was done. He didn't mind if I did, so I set out on my first Legend of Zelda game. I never got the chance to beat it, unfortunately. For whatever reason, I named Link "Grape."

12-08-2011, 09:06 AM	#18
Chaos Deviot The Betrayer Join Date: May 2004 Location: Mt. Moon Gender: Posts: 1,813 Thanks: 171 Thanked 52 Times in 49 Posts Blog Entries: 1	Beating Zelda I's first quest. My god, it was hard. I always fail at the second Quest. I blame the one-way doors. Why u no work two-way?!

12-28-2011, 06:32 PM	#19
1-up Salesman Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Letting you guys know that I'm planning on continuing Attack of the Spammers soon. Gender: Posts: 4,095 Thanks: 2,162 Thanked 250 Times in 194 Posts Blog Entries: 9	Ah, the memories. I was very little. It was my birthday, actually. After the cake, there was a wrapped gift in the room, looking very peculiar. I opened it, finding that a Philips CDI was inside, with a copy of a sports game. I was amazed by the graphics, and how vivid and realistic they seemed. The sound effects made it feel like you were right there with the characters, and everything about it was just so fun. A few months later, that Christmas, I got Link and the Faces of Evil. I was amazed by the box-art, showing off a man in green readying himself for battle. I put in the disc, and I was amazed by what I saw. The cutscenes were incredibly realistic, like nothing I had ever seen. The lines felt like they came out of Lord of the Rings. It was so amazing. I tried and tried to beat it, and I eventually did later on. Ganon gave me nightmares, with his evil look and horrid intention. His frightening cry of "No" still as he's defeated and sucked into a magic book still gives me chills to this day. ...Nah, I'm just kidding. OoT was my first game, I never got the Master Sword. I was really little so I wasn't that great at it and it freaked me out. I played the original SSB a lot and Link was my favorite due to Link wearing green (one of my favorite colors, especially back then) and having a sword, so it made me really like the series.