Ranking The Difficulty of Every Zelda Game | Zelda Difficulty Tier List
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- Ranking The Difficulty of Every Zelda Game | Zelda Difficulty Tier List
In this video we rank every main series Zelda game by difficulty. Do the NES games live up to their brutal reputation? Are all the newer games too easy? Find out!
#Zelda #ZeldaGames #TierList
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Majoras mask is extremely difficult if you were a kid in the 90’s no tutorials vids and you had to figure out how to do the dungeons on a time limit
Figuring out how to do the first three days was impossible for me as a kid
I agree, especially since it wasn’t available to the public in the 90s.
I feel like I had a guide book, maybe just looked at gamefaqs but I guess my mom preordered it because I had the gold controller, and yeah majora's mask was definitely very challenging, the final boss especially without fierce diety's mask was impossible for me as a kid. The only way I've beaten that game was getting that mask, I tried so many times taking him as Link and it was rough.
Honestly the hardest game in the series is oot master quest which isn't in here. oot isn't that bad outside the last 3 adult dungeons, but master quest is insane.
It was getting certain masks and specific times that made it really difficult. And Stone Tower was a nightmare to figure out without a guide.
it took me literally years to figure out how to do the ikana castle part and climb the stone tower to get to the temple. but it was worth it because I love Majora's mask. Also, the fucking Goron level right before facing Majora pissed me off it was so hard.
My first boss in BOTW was Thunderblight. Yeah I had a hard time
Same dude I got fucking smoked lmao
I know I'm like 6 years too late but I just finished botw for the first time yesterday. I was so tilted fighting Thunderblight lol definitely hardest boss in the game for me
@@jacobzawadzki2051 Don't worry, it's normal. Besides, it's never late to play BOTW. I hope you liked it. I played it 5 years ago for the first time, kind of forgot everything and played it again last year. This time I also went straight to Gerudo and got destroyed.
I also just beat botw for the first time I had no issues but I didn’t face any blights until I nearly completed the entire map.
@@rafaelc.c. I absolutely loved it. I'm going to try to go for 100% now and hopefully get that done before TotK comes out
Majora's Mask is best played with no guide, but with your older brother sitting on the couch next to you to ask for a hint when you really need one
Love this!!
For the person reading this message I hope you are doing good, I want to share this in a lot of comment sections so it can reach everyone possible including you so please read until the end:
God loves you a lot and he wants you to be saved and happy, nothing in this world like money, fun or popularity can fill the emptiness in your heart, only his son Jesus who died for you can fill you who might not nothing know about him. He knows you more than yourself. You who turned your back to him, he is still waiting for you with his arms open to receive you again. You who fought against him and have done things that are unforgivable in your eyes, he will always see you as his son and he already paid the price for all your sins. Even if the world doesn’t forgive you, all you will need is God and everything will be alright, so trust God and no one else. Repent from your sins and never go back to them, and the most important thing is that you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior with your voice and your heart. When you do all these things, pray to God and read the Bible(Christian Bible) so that you get to know God. Follow it’s word completely, because some people might say that the times and things have changed, but God never changes, the Bible says that the heavens and earth will pass, but his word will never pass and that means that the things God didn’t like back then he still doesn’t like today. So don’t let anyone tell you that now you can have sex before marriage or something like that just because everyone does it, because the Bible says that wide is the path to destruction and many walk through it. When you pray, ask God to guide you so that you always walk in his righteousness and so that he gives you strength so you don’t fall to sin, and don’t just say I am a Christian and never read your bible or end up not praying because being a follower of God means building a father and son-daughter relationship with him. Fast and pray and be his son not only in words but also in your actions.
Today God has showed grace to you who might be depressed, empty, are being hated or hates, or maybe you don’t receive genuine love, this is even for you who enjoys or is comfortable with your current life. Whoever you who is reading this is, know that God is calling you to give you a future and a hope in this life and in the eternal life. Trust him, because he loves you so much that is beyond understanding, and the time is short.
After you finish reading this message you might die or Jesus might return, so be ready and follow him, for today he stretched his hand to you because he loves you and cares for you and he doesn’t want you to lose your soul. It will be hard because living for God means denying yourself and the things that you might like, but it will be the best decision you will make in your entire existence and I promise you it will be worth more than any of the things that you don’t want to let go of. Make the right choice, because today God has stretched his hand to you who he loves so much that he even died for knowing all the bad things you have done. That is how much love he has and will always have for you.
I don’t know you but you might be going through hard times, so keep these words in mind that God gives hope to the hopeless and he heals any wounds including the ones from the heart, and he can do the same for you regardless of anything. Thank you for reading this message, God bless you always
Breath of the Wild is kind of as easy as you make it. But at first not having lots of hearts it is difficult. But there is a point where you can get overpowered and then the game comes easy. But that takes a lot of shrines and divine beasts
There is master mode in DLC and game overall is hard.
Its also extremly difficult to find EVERY shrines without TH-cam.
It’s kinda like Bethesda RPGs, where if you do a load of sidequests and postpone the main story, nothing will ever be difficult.
Naw…..once you have like 4 extra hearts….it’s pretty easy
@@JM-pm1yb 😂
As stated, unless you're in master mode where you can get one hit killed even with 28 hearts and hitting enemies with weapons feels like a complete waste of time.
I'm playing through Zelda II right now. I can NOT IMAGINE trying to get through this thing without save states.
I don't think the original comes close in terms of difficulty.
Saw my friend beat it (zelda 2) on a nes In high school. He also best contra and punch out.
He played every weekend for like 10 years. I beat breath of the wild in 2 weeks. So yeah. Zelda 2 is the holy grail of wtf hard games.
@@PlaygroundMafia I got a gameover on my first random enemy encounter.
The original is very annoying, I like the second one better.
Second Zelda gets really hard in death mountain but once you pass this you can take your time.
The Iron Knuckles in most palaces are going to be a challenge and sometimes you cannot help but get lost.
First Zelda is much less difficult but the problem is it is too open world, you do not know where to go but this is also part of what made the came a cult classic, you can pick dungeons in any orders you want providing you got the stuff you need for that dungeon.
Anyways there is a reason why nes games are still played to this day, they are very rewarding and fun once you master them.
Zelda 2 is not the hardest game on the nes however
No guide, no save states, no internet....we just tried everything we could and pushed through.
I broke 2 Wiis with Zelda 2 on them over how hard it was for me as a kid
As a kid, I had to order a strategy guide for Ocarina of Time & Majora’s Mask. It was actually quality time for the whole family- my brother and I would trade playing the game and my mom would read the guide for us to tell us what to do next.
Based mother
For the person reading this message I hope you are doing good, I want to share this in a lot of comment sections so it can reach everyone possible including you so please read until the end:
God loves you a lot and he wants you to be saved and happy, nothing in this world like money, fun or popularity can fill the emptiness in your heart, only his son Jesus who died for you can fill you who might not nothing know about him. He knows you more than yourself. You who turned your back to him, he is still waiting for you with his arms open to receive you again. You who fought against him and have done things that are unforgivable in your eyes, he will always see you as his son and he already paid the price for all your sins. Even if the world doesn’t forgive you, all you will need is God and everything will be alright, so trust God and no one else. Repent from your sins and never go back to them, and the most important thing is that you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior with your voice and your heart. When you do all these things, pray to God and read the Bible(Christian Bible) so that you get to know God. Follow it’s word completely, because some people might say that the times and things have changed, but God never changes, the Bible says that the heavens and earth will pass, but his word will never pass and that means that the things God didn’t like back then he still doesn’t like today. So don’t let anyone tell you that now you can have sex before marriage or something like that just because everyone does it, because the Bible says that wide is the path to destruction and many walk through it. When you pray, ask God to guide you so that you always walk in his righteousness and so that he gives you strength so you don’t fall to sin, and don’t just say I am a Christian and never read your bible or end up not praying because being a follower of God means building a father and son-daughter relationship with him. Fast and pray and be his son not only in words but also in your actions.
Today God has showed grace to you who might be depressed, empty, are being hated or hates, or maybe you don’t receive genuine love, this is even for you who enjoys or is comfortable with your current life. Whoever you who is reading this is, know that God is calling you to give you a future and a hope in this life and in the eternal life. Trust him, because he loves you so much that is beyond understanding, and the time is short.
After you finish reading this message you might die or Jesus might return, so be ready and follow him, for today he stretched his hand to you because he loves you and cares for you and he doesn’t want you to lose your soul. It will be hard because living for God means denying yourself and the things that you might like, but it will be the best decision you will make in your entire existence and I promise you it will be worth more than any of the things that you don’t want to let go of. Make the right choice, because today God has stretched his hand to you who he loves so much that he even died for knowing all the bad things you have done. That is how much love he has and will always have for you.
I don’t know you but you might be going through hard times, so keep these words in mind that God gives hope to the hopeless and he heals any wounds including the ones from the heart, and he can do the same for you regardless of anything. Thank you for reading this message, God bless you always
For the person reading this message I hope you are doing good, I want to share this in a lot of comment sections so it can reach everyone possible including you so please read until the end:
God loves you a lot and he wants you to be saved and happy, nothing in this world like money, fun or popularity can fill the emptiness in your heart, only his son Jesus who died for you can fill you who might not nothing know about him. He knows you more than yourself. You who turned your back to him, he is still waiting for you with his arms open to receive you again. You who fought against him and have done things that are unforgivable in your eyes, he will always see you as his son and he already paid the price for all your sins. Even if the world doesn’t forgive you, all you will need is God and everything will be alright, so trust God and no one else. Repent from your sins and never go back to them, and the most important thing is that you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior with your voice and your heart. When you do all these things, pray to God and read the Bible(Christian Bible) so that you get to know God. Follow it’s word completely, because some people might say that the times and things have changed, but God never changes, the Bible says that the heavens and earth will pass, but his word will never pass and that means that the things God didn’t like back then he still doesn’t like today. So don’t let anyone tell you that now you can have sex before marriage or something like that just because everyone does it, because the Bible says that wide is the path to destruction and many walk through it. When you pray, ask God to guide you so that you always walk in his righteousness and so that he gives you strength so you don’t fall to sin, and don’t just say I am a Christian and never read your bible or end up not praying because being a follower of God means building a father and son-daughter relationship with him. Fast and pray and be his son not only in words but also in your actions.
Today God has showed grace to you who might be depressed, empty, are being hated or hates, or maybe you don’t receive genuine love, this is even for you who enjoys or is comfortable with your current life. Whoever you who is reading this is, know that God is calling you to give you a future and a hope in this life and in the eternal life. Trust him, because he loves you so much that is beyond understanding, and the time is short.
After you finish reading this message you might die or Jesus might return, so be ready and follow him, for today he stretched his hand to you because he loves you and cares for you and he doesn’t want you to lose your soul. It will be hard because living for God means denying yourself and the things that you might like, but it will be the best decision you will make in your entire existence and I promise you it will be worth more than any of the things that you don’t want to let go of. Make the right choice, because today God has stretched his hand to you who he loves so much that he even died for knowing all the bad things you have done. That is how much love he has and will always have for you.
I don’t know you but you might be going through hard times, so keep these words in mind that God gives hope to the hopeless and he heals any wounds including the ones from the heart, and he can do the same for you regardless of anything. Thank you for your time, God bless you always
I can imagine the cheering and shouting during difficult parts of boss fights 😂
It's interesting how more players are realizing how easy TP really is, that's what I've been saying for years, I agree with your points but I want to add about the combat: most enemies attacks in TP deal 1/4 heart of damage, it gets ridiculous because you'd expect big and scary beasts to make a lot of damage, specially with the game's darker art style, also this game introduced auto shield which makes combat even easier.
Then there's the Ball and Chain sub-boss who does an abnormal amount of damage an it makes me think the game was a lot harder during development and they lowered the strength of enemies but overlooked that one sub-boss.
Not if you played on Wii, the sword attacks are really clunky with the shake of the wii remotes and sometimes it won't read your input which makes it really difficult sometimes. I cant imagine he put BOTW in difficult where it's the easiest from the list.
Links awakening is simultaneously the easiest yet hardest game I’ve ever played. The towers and just knowing on where to go next or how to do stuff was extremely difficult
Honestly I'm surprised all of the game-boy titles were that high up. Sure maybe the last couple dungeons were tricky, but aside from that I just don't see it.
Only real trouble I had with them is that the battery back ups for all three of the cartridges had all went kaput, which meant that I had to beat the games in one sitting, as my saves would vanish if I turned off the system.
It's a strange one. The puzzles are real head scratchers, but the fights are kind of easy. I think some people have an easier time with its puzzles than others. I usually have to blunder a bit before I remember the solutions, even after 10+ replays.
I got walled harder in the gb games then the Nes ones. Yes I am serious.
I've only played the Switch version, and I have to say it's the easiest I've played along with Skyward Sword.
That’s why it’s so good!
Links awakening was my first video game ever as a kid, and Majora’s mask was what I had on the N64. Glad to see you ranked them as being more difficult, cause I was always confused as hell as to what I needed to do to progress further
Link's Awakening was the easiest along with Skyward Sword. I played the Switch version, not sure if the GBC version is harder.
I do think it's interesting how BotW kind of fluctuates depending on the person.
As far as the main story goes, I found it to be super easy, but going for 100% is much harder, especially with the DLC
BOTW is tricky cause it basically has a reverse difficulty curve. Even despite the level scaling, as you gear up, the game gets easier and easier. More hearts and better weapons makes combat easier, more stamina makes exploration easier, and better gear and food makes the survival aspect easier. Not to mention the champion abilities which can break the game in half (Ravioli's Gale especially)
I think twilight Princess is difficult because of the dungeons. Guess it depends on the player.
The water one cough cough temple of time and snowpeak r ez
@@soliduszor I feel like lakebed temple was harder than temple of time and snowpeak. Also, maybe City in the Sky was difficult to some, makes sense to me. I'd say Wind Waker is easier than TP.
@@ruvimperna5532 the water one is hard I meant
@@soliduszor yeah same i thought zelda TP was hard at the time, got blocked many times and didn't knew what do to do
the dungeons were a bit difficult, but they were also very linear. It was pretty hard to get lost in them.
I think oracle of ages needs to be in extremely difficult. Game was a brain buster
Fr the best puzzles to be found in 2d Zelda. Jabu jabu is one of the best dungeons in the series.
Majoras mask drove me crazy as a child
I'm playing the 3DS version right now and it's driving me crazy. The Great Bay Temple is brutal and I'm stuck with the boss.
Figuring out how to do the Anju & Kafei Quest without Guide or Internet was insane
Use the bomber's notebook. It makes it very manageable. It's far less obtuse than say, solving a puzzle in Grim Fandango.
That damn mask. 😂
Most of these are pretty accurate but man, Oracle of Ages is sooo much harder than seasons :O
Ages is based around combat compared to Season's puzzles
@@nicoborken9963 if anything it's the other way round
@@-siranzalot- I might have mixed it up lol never played the games just heard it like that
I remember recently trying to play Majoras Mask without any previously knowledge or reference and thinking to myself this game is impossible
I just started playing it recently for the first time on the 3DS, a hour in and I feel a bit overwhelmed. But I don't want to have to rely on a guide.
ALBW is a lot more challenging on its hero mode setting; at the very beginning it’s very frustrating to survive but once you’ve got everything it’s bearable
Yeah but Hero Mode doesn’t truly make the game harder, it just forces you to be better at the combat or else you’ll die loads more. It’s not like it makes the combat itself any harder, because not getting hit is just as easy/difficult as it was before.
@@SmoothTurtle840 "doesn’t truly make the game harder, it just forces you to be better at the combat or else you’ll die loads more"
So... it does make the game harder, lol.
@@papersonic9941 Read the latter half of my comment
As someone who grew up with the NES, I felt like the NES games were extremely difficult. It took me months to beat Zelda 2 - we had no Internet (it didn't exist) and if you missed out on that exact issue of Nintendo Power, you were kind of screwed if nobody at school knew the answer. I was probably the first person to beat it at my school though.
I think the trickiest parts in Zelda 2 were things like finding the town by chopping trees, or using Spell to make a house rise from the ground. There's a couple of other obtuse things. I actually got really good at the combat in this game - I played it so much that when I revisited it more than a decade later, I cleared Death Mountain in a single attempt - all that muscle memory stuck with me. I could not believe all that muscle memory stuck. But the last palace is a pain. Took me forever to beat it.
Zelda 1 was equally bad. I just remember bombing and burning everything, and I found the hints to be complete garbage. I eventually got so good at this game, I could beat the entire first and second quest without dying a single time. I played this game for years as a kid, off and on. But, it took so long to get that good. Unfortunately, unlike Zelda 2, I actually forgot so much about Zelda 1 when I revisited it - I sucked at it :/ Never going to put the time in that one again though.
I found Ocarina to be a pretty obtuse game. Again, no friends playing it at the time and I didn't use a guide. I remember being stuck in many places talking and talking to people and just running around a lot. Not the most fun experience - I grew out of that type of game by then. Didn't enjoy Ocarina. I feel like Twilight Princess or even Wind Waker was a lot better in pretty much every respect.
Generally, if I want to replay a Zelda game, I'd play one that is Easy to Difficult on your list. The NES and GameBoy entries just don't do it for me anymore. They are ugly, clunky and pretty obtuse. I got better things to do :/
I didn't play the NES games until way later so I just used a guide from the start. I imagine the game felt a bit more magical back then though with all the mystery behind it.
The first Zelda I played was ALTTP but I only played a little bit OOT was my first real dive into Zelda and whenever I got stuck I had my buddy who was an expert at the game bail me out lol.
@@GameEssays
Why would you just jump right into using a guide at the start of a game? What's the point of even playing the game at that point?
@@abstractdaddy1384 it's almost impossible without at least some sort of guide
@@soliduszor
You say that to me like you think I've never played these games. I beat Zelda 1 and 2 without guides, not to mention many other games that some people would call "impossible".
I'll admit I'm pretty good at figuring out puzzles, riddles, and other such things, but these games are far from impossible.
I understand some people needing a guide eventually for certain parts, but it's incredibly lazy and, quite frankly, pathetic for someone to just turn a game on and not even try to do any of it by themselves.
@@abstractdaddy1384 The point of all games is to have fun playing it not running around in circles for hours trying to figure out which of the hundred trees you have to walk into is, call us pathetic but literally no one cares.
I found Zelda 2, AoL being the most difficult to finish. Felt so great finishing the game after so long. The first was tough to complete, and my favourite has to be Majora’s Mask. That was the third most difficult adventure that I had ever finished.
Congrats on completing AoL! Definitely not easy.
@@GameEssays Have you played Trial of the Sword in BOTW? If not, go back and play it then rate BOTW again.
I’m glad you gave respect to Zelda 2. Hardest part to me was always getting the final palace. Modern gaming and save states makes it doable, but rips your heart out when you need to go back to the start and run that gauntlet just to GET to the final palace.
Zelda 1, I was able to play from memory after 20+ years of not playing. I played through it in 50 minutes, start to finish. Zelda II, is no joke. I got up to Death Mountain without a guide, but after that, especially on the final palace, I caved and looked it up online. I would go as far as to say, especially if you've never played it before, Zelda II is IMPOSSIBLE without help. I'll stand by that sentence.
My older brother beat Zelda 2 at age 7 without a guide. It's not impossible, just trial and error.
@@mopbrothers True, and also, very impressive what your bro did!
@@mopbrothers
You really think someone would do that, just go on the internet and tell lies?
Zelda 2 is on par with the likes of Ninja Gaiden and Ghosts n Goblins as one of the hardest NES games of all time.
@@Snarflez I was 10 when I beat it in 1990. But I'd be lying if I said it was only because dumb luck. I thought I'd never find that hidden town. Finding the 6th palace wasn't a picnic either until I figured out what call for help at the three eyed rock meant. The second quest on Zelda 1 was every bit as hard.
Just played Links Awakening and it surprised me how difficult that game was. Eagles Tower and Turtle Rock had me frustrated more than I'd like to admit, lol
Love Ocarina of Time, but I was never able to beat Majora's mask as a kid and even as an adult, the whole time restriction is just too stressful for me personally. I still remember playing Link's Awakening on the gameboy as a kid and having absolutely no clue how to progress and having no way to find out, as the internet wasn't really a thing
I'm playing Majora's Mask 3D right now and am losing my mind. Online guides help but the time limit makes everything so stressful.
Solid list overall. For myself Id drop breath of the wild down to easy. I breezed through that game, had a great time doing so. I think the water temple in N64 version of ocarina alone gave me more trouble then the entirety of breath of the wild lol. But yeah great list, cheers.
I found tp water dungeon more confusing compared to water temple. somehow just got water temple right by luck though and missed the big water slide in tp.
Yeah, you go main path and beat just main things than its “easy” but overall on master mode, and finding all shrines without TH-cam is extremly difficult.
Not to mention master The tricks in fights, like you can see on TH-cam.
That’s on another level.
@@chrisandreas3142 100% any Zelda game is difficult without a guide. BotW gave you a couple tools to help you do it without guides unlike earlier games though(I still used guides though lol). Master Mode also isn’t very hard. If you are stacked up on arrows and weapons you will never have a problem. Enemies just have more health and regenerate health.
@@OldBenKenobi2318 what Zelda game is harder than BOTW ?
@@chrisandreas3142 Almost any of them. Botw is one of if not the easiest Zelda game. It’s one of the only Zelda games you can beat without a guide. You can also beat it by just going straight to the castle. Other games may not have as many things you have to collect for the 100% but the few things they have are almost impossible to find without a guide. Botw is difficult to 100% without a guide but still possible. Zelda 2 is an example of a game that is harder. It’s pretty much impossible without a guide.
When I was a kid, majoras mask was insane… Given I didn’t know how to save so I did a full playthrough without turning off my gamecube and only turning off my tv
wow
Mate I had no idea it was on gamecube. Just hit Amazon thanks
@@diegocruz4447 yeah zelda collectors edition. Has zelda 1, 2, ocarina of time and majoras mask. Kinda expensive but it’s worth it.
You could also unplug the AV cables.
@@BTG514 I know they are color coded but 4-5yr old me couldn’t understand what went where
Majoras mask back in the day without a guide I imagine would be in the extremely difficult category.
Twilight Princess and Wind Waker in the same tier is pure madness
Why? TP is definitely easier than Ocarina and Skyward Sword.
@@aleckermit no. WTF
@@regenbogenkumpel761 yes
Madness? TP is one of the easiest games ever despite its "realistic and edgy" graphics 😆
Do you think they're so different from one another? I absolutely love them both, but they are definitely easier than Skyward Sword
Zelda 2 deserves to be listed as most difficult.
I do think it could warrant its own tier, but I can accept it being shared with its predecessor reasonably enough, especially if you factor in the second quest. Some of those wizzrobe rooms are so #&$%#^ dangerous.
Eating glass would be easier than that game
I would say BotW could be placed in either easy or not-too-bad category. I think BotW gets easier once you familiarize with the control layout.
On the other hand. OoT I would say it is a hard game, not at the level of MM, but it is a hard game overall if you dont have a guide. I've watched people that had never played OoT before and they struggled a lot.
I agree with you!!!
The '80s were rough, is what we're saying.
NES games did not mess around
A link to the past had the perfect difficulty, I feel.
It had "the perfect" a lot of things
I feel like it was just a bit too hard (thinking about the boss with the spikes moving and the second to last dg) but yes. Great Great game, and I'd say it was a "difficult" game for me
If you get the medallions the game because stupidly easy. It’s really difficult, but you can become stupidly overpowered
This is awesome man! I remember playing Link's Awakening on my GB Colour and I'm currently working on Breath of the Wild!
Awesome to hear! Breath of the wild is amazing. I'm looking forward to playing the Link's Awakening switch remake soon.
We're currently in the middle of a blind Twilight Princess playthrough, and I've gotten stonewall stuck on what to do next so many times. -_-
I played links awakening and the oracle games as a kid and never beat them because i got stuck and didnt know what to do.
Even though I never beat those games, I still loved them and their style
A couple personal takes:
- Zelda II is by far the hardest, even if it is more doable than some believe. It's a great game that deserves to be played, but section like the road to the final dungeon are absurd.
- Link's Awakening is definitely not one of the harder games in my opinion. I never struggled on knowing where to go and beat it without a guide in about 10 hours. The later dungeons get tougher for sure, but you are eased into it very slowly.
- BOTW is easy once you've played it for hundreds of hours, so I think by now most have an opinion that is skewed by their ancient save files. The first few hours of the game, especially if spent in combat with few hearts and limited gear, are some of the toughest fights you'll find in a Zelda game. I'd rank it similarly to how you did, but I think the difficulty has almost been forgotten over time.
- Minish Cap's low difficulty is seriously detrimental to the game. I breezed through the game in no time, and the general lack of thought provoking dungeons and a big enough overworld to feel the slightest bit lost is kinda disappointing. Compare it to games like A Link to the Past, where more challenging, abundant dungeons are placed in the overworld separated by entire dimensions.
Zora eggs are hard to complete and finish the dungeon when u know exactly what to do lol
It's not hard at all if you get the stone mask early. Great bay temple is less complicated than people make out.
This is actually a very accurate tier list. I would mabey move BOTW down a spot becasue after you get a few of the Champions abilities the game becomes quite easy and the ending boss battle is a joke. Other than that great list.
Thanks! I was on the fence about it's placement. I remembered getting my butt kicked a lot at the beginning of my first playthrough and that's what convinced me to at least put it at difficult. I totally thinks it's fair to have it down a spot though!
@@GameEssays Yeah for sure man BOTW is a tough one to rank beacuse you're right, it really does kick your ass in the begining. Keep up the good work these Zelda tier lists are interesting.
what about the final dlc boss though? it is the hardest boss of any zelda game imo
When I was a kid, I spent hours roaming around Oracle of Ages (I didn’t get seasons until much later) not knowing what the heck to do. It may just be me, but I remember that game being significantly harder than Link’s Awakening. Minish Cap was way, way easier though.
BOTW was only difficult right in the beginning when you only have 3 hearts and come across enemies before you really understand how combat works in the game. But after that, the game becomes so easy! Lionel is probably the most difficult enemy, but if you're struggling, you can literally just pause and eat a ton of food to regain hearts and you can seemingly have an unlimited number of fairies. The bosses in the game were laughably easy, with the exception of Thunderblight Ganon (but again, you can just eat 1000 apples and be fine) and the final boss was a joke. Most of the puzzles in the game were really easy too. 🤷🏻♀️
Fore oracle of ages, I basically needed a guide around 80% of the time, especially at jabu jabu's belly.
Progression in links awakening is tricky for a first timer. And majora's dungeons all still hold up as challenging. Love it
"this is an extremely difficult game"
_Places it in very difficult._
Ocarina of Time is definitely a "Difficult" game back in the day, no internet, no guide, it was hard as hell.
The first 3-day cycle of Majoras Mask and the great bay temple were soooo hard as a kid without help.
But the great bay temple theme is soo good though.. You wanna stay in here forever. The ambiance is insane in there
ocarina just for the water temple must go insta extreme diff :') i was 7 years old when it came out and i played it and i dropped it off for about a year cause i was hardstuck at water temple (there was no internet or walkthroughs at that time also)
My first ever video game was Minish Cap and i managed to beat the first 2 dungeons when i was literally 3 fucking years old, which i think says a lot about the difficulty of that game haha. i can't imagine being born a little earlier and having to grow up with oracle of ages though, yeesh
Well, depends. It's the normal version or hero mode? Because Twilight it's one of the few hero modes that I need to use fairy in the beggining. The well can be very hard too. Botw in master mode can be really hard, in the begining and in dlc's (master sword dlc alone can rank the game as a "hard"). Majora is a pain in the butt to reach max heart, one of the most hard games. Ocarina have some random difficult, to say at least (fish, poes and cemitery heart). Wind walker is very confusing and Skyward in hero mode can be a pain, but more in hylian shield run...
Zelda 1 on NES is a lot more difficult today than it was years ago. Back then you depended on word of mouth from friends or people at school. But now many people you know are probably not playing it.
Nothing wrong with using savestates especially for NES games xD
How do you all know what to do? I'm 33 and playing my first zelda on switch and figuring out what to do is sooo hard, I have to Google everything, like hidden paths to get to your location etc
Wind-Waker is extremely difficult without a guide solely for the triforce shards. Everything else about the game is extremely easy, but looking for the triforce pieces is maddening as hell without any help.
It's not that bad, they're pretty obvious apart from the Golden ship.
i was never able to beat majoras mask as a kid bc it was so hard, but every time the game got released, gamecube, Wii, 3ds, i bought it hoping that this would be the time i beat it. eventually i just got fed up with not beating it that i decided i was gonna learn the game inside and out and somehow ended up learning the 100% speedrun for it and all the wacked out glitches. now ive beaten the game close to 100 times, but still never the intended way. tbh i still don't know how to get the mirror shield without doing a weirdshot into the room that has it as well as numerous puzzles and dungeons i probably don't know how to get through normally.
I never managed to beat Skyward Sword because how difficult i thought it was with the motion controls. The boss battles where you need to do the exact right movement can be so annoyingly difficult due to the sensitivity of the controller
"This is an extremely difficult game" *puts it in very difficult*
The only difficult part about OOT is the ganondorf/ganon boss fight the game spells out where to go. Sheik tells you "head to kakariko graveyard" there are only a few things you can do in the graveyard this early on depending if you have planted a bean or not but anyway the game tells you exactly where to go and if you don't go there fast enough Navi will literally spell it out for you when you talk to her. And about the things you can do in the graveyard at this point is as adult link ride the the bean plant to get a heart piece OR move the one gravestone that appeared out of nowhere in the adult graveyard and if you are STILL clueless the diary in Dampes cabin LITERALLY tells he BURIED it in a secret place
When I was younger, I played both Zelda 1 and 2 without guides on the 3ds virtual console. I almost finished zelda 1 completely without a guide, except I needed to find out why ganon just wouldn’t die (i missed the silver arrows), and honestly it wasnt super bad. Exploration in Zelda 2 was also kinda straight forward, but towards the end I needed to make rather extreme use of the save state feature, so I guess it’s placement is fair. Oracle of Ages should be higher imo, and is probably the hardest 2d zelda, as it has a pretty confusing trade quest, and some of the late dungeons (like jabu-jabu) are infamously brutal. Idk where I’d put TP, but in the same tier as wind waker just seems wrong. Like TP is significantly harder than WW and I don’t think this can really be argued.
Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures are extremely hard, like, Nintendo expects me to play Zelda AND have friends
I think I have the ambassador version of 4 swords on the 3ds now that you mention it...never beaten it of course.
Hang on to it cause you can't get it anymore!
I’m so jealous. I wasn’t gaming much at the time so I missed out on it.
@@josetakapele I lucked out at the time I was buying everything right away Nintendo when I had more time and money lol.
@@chriscollectsthings that’s me right now lol
If you’ve ever tried to play spirit tracks on the wii u, you know.
1: blowing into the microphone mechanic is way to difficult. I ended up just rubbing my finger on it to activate.(yes my lungs are fine)
2. Your attack is the same your movement so half the time you will run into the enemy rather than attacking.
3. That one room with the long mine cart track. If you mess up once you lose a heart. This can bring death instantly considering how hard it is to time when you have to shoot the switch.
This guy is INSANE to put skyward sword as ok. The motion controls make it infuriatingly difficult. I'm sure it's a pretty easy game on the switch
Phantom Hourglass I was stuck on the 2nd island for years… didnt know about the mic being a feature
Are you going to rank the games by how much you like them? I’m pretty new to Zelda and watching your videos are hyping me up to get more games
I'm doing the slow burn for that haha. I have reviews for Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass. I'm slowly reviewing and scoring each game and building my ranking list. I'm working on the next review, should be out in a week or so.
@@GameEssays is the best part in u
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I picked up Zelda 1 on the 3DS virtual console, and it was the first Zelda game I'd ever played. It was super frustrating, even with a guide (that is, switching back and forth between the game and the 3DS browser). I remember making some decent progress until I got either bored or frustrated, and I haven't been back to it since then.
Honestly it completely put me off Zelda games for a really long time.
I beat 9 zelda games so far now I'm tryna beat twilight princess next but to me ocarina of time and ocarina of time master quest are the easiest for me tbh but Zelda 2 I done give up on that.
So weird, but as a dumb 11-year-old I managed to defeat Link's Awakening back in 1994, yet as a (presumably) more intelligent 23-year-old, Wink Waker had me completely stumped. Three uni degrees later, including a Master's, and I still ain't finished that bloody game.
8:46 Just FYI that place is called Pinnacle Rock
I will only comment on the ones I have finished, which are:
Zelda 1
Zelda 2
A Link to the Past
Link's Awakening
Ocarina of Time 3D
Oracle of Seasons
Oracle of Ages
I will also add that it's a practice of mine to attempt my first run-through of a video game without consulting guides or faqs. And, basically...I agree with where you placed these! I would only swap the tiers you assigned to A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening. My first time through ALTTP, I missed so many items that would have really helped that I struggled through a lot of the later dungeons. Link's Awakening felt no easier to figure out, but I did a lot less dying in that one. Took me forever to figure out Eagle's Tower's pillar puzzle, though...good grief.
as no english speaker OoT was really hard being a kid, I didnt understand any of the instructions and everytime I was stuck I just had to speak with everyone
Back in the 80's and early 90's those "very/extremely difficult" games were just called "games"
Maybe I just suck at puzzles, but I found I got stuck in Ocarina of Time a lot more than BOTW or Skyward Sword.
Eagle tower in links awakening took me about 3 hours without a walkthrough, turtle rock i needed one
Glad its not just me!
Bro the tower of spirits in spirit tracks is crazy hard. It took me years to finish that game and I still couldn't do it without a guide. Also if we're counting difficulty, then the spirit pipe mini game is one of the hardest things in Zelda, because of how broken it is.
Spirit Tracks is one I need to replay, it's been a long time since I played so my memory of it was not great.
I beat the 8 bit ones in the 80s with no guide as a child but gave up on Majora
Minish cap WOULD probably have been easy if I wasn't playing on a touch screen emulator lol.
#1 Zelda2 #2 Zelda 1 #3 Majora's Mask (time limit). Pre-video prediction.
Post video, The Switch Link's Awakening is easier. Play it on hard mode, I had fun and I remember when the Gameboy version came out. I love Zelda 2. It's almost like one those games when real life sucks, I say to myself paying bills and getting to work on time is easier than this. So it's therapy really. The game never gets any easier. I'm just glad I know where everything is.
I was close. The Gameboy games I didn't have a hard time with. The exploration is a pain in the ass, and there were some really tough Boss fights, but I was a kid. I either played Nintendo or with Lego. So a tough game was a FANTASTIC waste of time. Take care Essay!!!
Playing zelda 1 without a guide honestly wasnt that bad to me. Very difficult still, and I was spamming rewind on switch online, but it worked out and was fulfilling to figure out.
Ah yes my favorite 2d platformer, Link Between Worlds!
In seriousness,nice vid
😂
majora mask extremely difficult if you dont know how play the song who slow the time. ocarina of time, temple of water extremely diffulcult, the rest is medium/easy.
Botw has to be under very or extremely difficult based on the fact you have a hard mode, if you have that option, have to rate it as if I’m playing it on the hardest settings
“Major’s Mask can be extremely difficult.”
*places in very difficult*
I agree with most except for Minish Cap holy shit that game got really tedious towards the end. Albeit I played on emulator on my keyboard because my controller didn't want to work properly.
I have a few quibbles about how he's rated the difficulty of some of these games.
Because of BOTW's rough start, I rate it as extremely difficult. All Zelda games are cheesable at high enough levels, but to what level is the question. I guess BOTW is very VERY cheesable when you're strong and the game becomes much easier than any other game, but if you want to take its real measure, do the EX Sword Trials. Those take away all your lovely goodies and set you back down to zero for all three tiers. It's a survival game at low levels. I think even though those are optional content, BOTW still qualifies to be considered extremely difficult. Plus parrying Guardian's beams is kind of tough. At the moment, it's around 50% success. Failures are debilitating even with 14 hearts and a single piece of Ancient Armor jacked up to level 2. Earning the strongest gear isn't a simple matter. If you take the time, the game becomes your playground, from what I've read.
Zelda 1 was definitely tough and is worthy of its rating of Extreme Difficulty. In that game, rooms filled with enemies are tougher than most bosses simply based on how they move. You can't quite predict where they'll go. But then again, when I was younger, I remember having a somewhat easier time.
A Link To The Past's bosses are the toughest opponents in that game. Dark World's dungeon's bosses, in particular, but the Tower of Hera's (I wonder who Hera was in Hyrule? Did they mean Hylia and mistranslated?) boss is particularly annoying. He might not kill you, but he'll knock you around silly unless you're fast.
Link's Awakening I don't recall having been particularly tough. But it sure was a classic. I'd rate that one at Difficult or Not Too Bad.
For Skyward Sword, if your gyros are wonky, that game goes up to Very Difficult. Getting the right slices/gestures for each enemy isn't quite simple. If your memory sucks, it goes even higher.
Like for BOTW, Windwaker's sword trials are probably what you should measure the difficulty of the game by. That pushes the game up to Very Difficult. I don't think those trials were optional, unlike in BOTW. That game had a number of similar gauntlets but this one was a real doozy. Savage Labyrinth, I think.
Majora's Mask is very difficult, mostly because I hate being put on a timer, particularly for the whole game. You have to reach your objective within 3 in game days. I don't know how many puzzles can be continually worked on if you go over that timeline, but I believe dungeons all reset.
As for Ocarina of Time, the bosses were among the easiest, but then again, that might just be due to poor hindsight. I haven't beaten it any time recently. Some of the rooms of monsters were fairly tough. But this game is indeed a must play. (I really would love to get a remake from Nintendo of this one)
Zelda II was always too weird for me, too different. Also the change in format made the game much more difficult. Based on how it looks now by current standards, I know that BOTW is the game they really wanted to make but couldn't with the technology of the time. Because the game is so strange, I've hardly felt any desire to play it.
As for the rest, I didn't play those long enough to evaluate them, so I can't say whether those ratings are spot on or not imo.
Zelda 1 is extremely difficult when you play it the first time, especially without tutorials. But on second or third playthrough, once memorize it it becomes just difficult( its just my opinion)
I agree. I remember playing this for the 1st time with my friends we played it for hours. back then no internet and we dudnt have Nintendo power magazines. we relied on finding it ourselves or friends at school. it's all we talked bout. now I no it like the back of my hand. I'm 42. I've always wanted to beat adventures of link. never did but I'm in the middle of it now and I'm not gonna stop and quit I'm gonna beat it. it's been haunting me for over 30 years.
Only major disagreement is on BOTW. I'd throw that in Very Difficult based mostly on early-to-mid game combat. Compared to other Zelda games, you'll likely die far more than others until you are able to farm shrines and stronger gear, which can takes tens of hours until you're not one-to-two shot killed in the wild.
2:34 I died 174 times during my first playthrough of A Link to The Past; yeah, i'm really not proud of that...
I'd say it pretty much goes:
*1. The Adventure of Link*
Total BS. Never come close to finishing it, probably never will unless it gets remade
*2. The Legend of Zelda*
Starts out okay but gets pretty frustrating after around the halfway point
*3. Majora's Mask*
Racing against the clock is obviously the main challenge here
And then #4 is kind of a tie between ALttP, LA and the Oracles, mostly just because they weren't as forgiving as the more recent games
Gotta disagree with you about Twilight Princess. I'd probably put in the "not too bad" category myself. The combat isn't too difficult, but some of those puzzles are insane. The stone guardian puzzle in the sacred grove remains the bane of my existence to this day. I've played through the game at least three times now and I still need to use a guide to get past it.
Oracle of Ages should be moved up to Extremely Difficult. Jabu-Jabu's Belly is arguably the third hardest dungeon in the entire series behind only Zelda II's Great Palace and Zelda I's Death Mountain. Smog is arguably the third hardest boss in the entire series behind only Majora's Mask's Gyorg and Zelda II's Thunderbird.
I didn’t think Ocarina of Time was too difficult but I was stuck on the water temple for a little while. I would also agree with you on Zelda ll, that game made me rage sometimes
Skyward Sword is way harder than TP and BotW... you NEVER "have to fight a lynel early" as you claim.
The combat in Zelda 2 makes Battle Toads look like Barney. Shit's crazy
Queen Gibdo and King Gleeok are fucking crazy
I managed to beat Zelda 1 at age 9 with no guides (and the Internet didn't exist yet). It took weeks, but I did it. I wish I could recapture the feeling of playing it again for the first time.
Zelda II, thankfully a guide existed (a guide for a bunch of games with a Zelda II section) but it only went up to a certain point. Most of the eastern portion of Hyrule (level 4, 5, 6, great palace) I had to figure out.
Alright but if we gonna put botw at not too bad we gotta AT LEAST mention the DLC that comes with it as an honorable mention. The master trials was one of the most challenging yet funnest experiences I’ve had in any Zelda game. Maybe I’m just a noob but I don’t even remember the amount of times I died before I finally completed it
Played every game on there multiple times, and I fully agree with this, good video
I've just been binging videos like this to figure out the next game I want to try lol. I'm between Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword right now.
Do both but start with ocarina
When I got a NES back in the day, my brother Borrowed Zelda 2 from his friend. So I had Super Mario Bros and Zelda 2 and boy did I play Zelda like I was possessed.. I was 7 years old and I beat that game over and over again :P Sure. Death Mountain took some time with alot of trial and error, mostly Error.
First, Another banger. Keep it up.
I've only played Zelda on the main Nintendo systems. The first 2 games my older brother had and barely remember them. I have yet to play Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild. So going easiest to difficult..
Twilight Princess (Wii)
Link to the Past (SNES)
Ocarina of Time (64)
Majora's Mask (64)
Skyward Sword (Wii) (This one doesn't really count as I didn't get very far due to the controls difficulty for the Wii. I'll revisit once I get the Switch).
Zelda II was my first videogame ever. I was 3 years old and I didn't beat it until I was a grown ass woman.