Alttp is a weird one for me in that its a childhood game I used to love but gradually developed a dislike for over the years. This recent playthrough however has helped to dispel most of that dislike, and while its not as fun as it was when I was kid, its still a pretty good time.
It’s also kind of hard to talk about it I guess? Everyone already is aware of what makes it good so to get that out of the way: gameplay is pretty easy to get into with tight controls and fun item variety at your disposal, and the open(ish) world is fun to explore with plenty of secrets (and enemies to beat) with the items at your disposal; progress is never made confusing either, so even if you’re not interested in exploring you’ll know how to reach your destination. The dungeons are kiiiinda hit or miss: I’d say they’re generally fun but some are either unnecessarily frustrating while others are pretty unremarkable. Visuals are still good, so is the music. Pink hair Link is so awesome. The writing is probably the worst part in that its pretty bland, including the dialogue (though, that could be chalked up to the localization, I’m not sure.) Still, it does its job well enough, and the world building is still interesting.
That pretty much summarizes my thoughts on it overall. I’m going to further discuss thoughts about certain aspects including all the dungeons in more depth:
Alttp has a pretty strong introduction by leading you into a dangerous situation immediately. This part always stood out to me, and even for this replay it immediately gripped me. The dungeon within the palace itself isn’t particularly interesting but it gives a solid idea on what to expect while making you get used to the basic controls. It’s after this point that you’re given access to the world at large.
Alttp has two worlds: the light and dark world, with access to the latter one obtained later. The strongest aspect both share is the exploration and the parallels between them. The game does a good job at making its worlds interesting enough for the player to feel willing to explore them, with enough secrets and such to make it worthwhile. While some areas can’t be progressed due to lack of an item or so, you’re generally free to go where you want without any major limitation. This especially is true when you gain access to the dark world, where (most) dungeons can be completed without your progress being impeded by doing so. The parallel aspect also makes for a fun gimmick where affecting one part of a world can allow for progress of some sort in the other. Usually the simplest way this is done is by utilizing the terrain differences between the worlds to reach inaccessible areas: for example, if a cliff with a heartpiece can’t be reached in the light world, the dark world may have a path to that cliff, and once you reach that part, you can use the magic mirror to teleport to that exact location in the light world and get the heartpiece. Other ways this parallel gimmick is involved include interacting with characters in the dark world that are important to someone or someplace in the light world.
Most of the items at your disposal usually prove vital at several points in the game, though this necessarily doesn’t feel balanced or these points of importance are pretty far between. An easy comparison example would be the consistent usefulness of the power glove and its upgrade in reaching inaccessible parts of the world and dungeons, while the bow and arrow generally isn’t required or even particularly useful besides for select instances. Some items quickly lose most of their usefulness either by just not adding much to combat or better options existing. The ice rod particularly bothers me though, for something that seems like an optional item to be obtained only to be revealed its required for a boss way late into the game. Regardless though, even if they may not be required or thoroughly useful you can still make effective use of these items to make combat easier for yourself.
While the writing is on the bland side I think the general atmosphere and world building of alttp makes up for it at least. The legend of the triforce itself is interesting and seeing how the dark world relates to the light world is pretty cool; all the different locations within the game are fun and its cool to stumble upon interesting characters from time to time.
Could just be me, but alttp also has kind of a lonely atmosphere to it that I didn’t feel the same for other zelda games I’ve played. Part of it is probably since you’re branded a criminal at the start of the game, and though most of the npcs are generally nice to you, the light world generally becomes more hostile towards you with the increase in enemies after a certain point and npcs needing to hide. The dark world is hostile from the start, with no real npc that’s friendly besides for a select few who have a quest related to the light word. Most of the npcs that exist in this world only really care about money and will want something from you in return. Most of these reasons is likely why the world of alttp always strikes me as isolating up until the end, I quite like it.
The dungeons are, as said, hit or miss. The first three pendant dungeons are actually one of the more memorable ones for me as I got stuck at them as a kid and were often where I dropped the game on replays. They’re generally basic, serving more to teach the player various gimmicks or item use that can be expected to come up several times in later dungeons. The eastern palace stands out for me a little more due to having the first major boss you fight, where you’re expected to rely on your bow to beat them effectively (even if you can just do it with your sword, if you hate yourself.) The desert palace is, fine. It’s boss(es) is probably one of the ones I least like in the game, weird fucking worm thingy called Lammolas, that can be annoying to hit without getting damaged yourself. Tower of Hera introduces the gimmick with the orb thingies that bring down red or blue blocks which come up several times later in the game, and here its pretty easy to manage. The boss isn’t particularly special other than that you can fall down into a lower level of the dungeon, and the dungeon also has the additional objective of obtaining the moon pearl to actually progress in the game, even if you beat the boss. The road to that tower actually stands out to me more honestly, the location is just interesting even if a bit frustrating to get to, and its also when you first get an experience of the dark world.
The real meat of the dungeon gameplay lies in the dark world with its total of 7 dungeons, of which besides the first and last one you can do in any order.
The Dark Palace isn’t particularly remarkable other than that it makes it clear it and the proceeding dungeons are going to be more advanced than that of the light world’s. The boss also indicates the same, being more visually interesting (imo) and requiring the use of an item to beat it. Swamp Palace is the 2nd dungeon and one I’m fond of, I like its focus on water and swimming and the hookshot grapple you get here I find to be one of the most fun items to use in the game. The boss similarly is fun, requiring use of the hookshot.
I fucking hate Skull Woods. It’s less of a headache on a replay but its still annoying. The forest in the dark world is actually pretty cool looking with the bone theme, with the path leading to the boss being represented by what looks like a creepy looking skull of some alien bug creature. The concept of the dungeon is neat with multiple entrances and exits but it can become frustrating really fast if you happen to lose track of where you’ve been. This gets worse with some of the rooms having a hand that falls down and takes you back to the entrance if you get caught, as well as the several gibdos within the dungeon that need a lot of hits to get rid of. While not specific to it, the holes in this dungeon were also just extra annoying to me honestly, probably just cuz I wasn’t liking the dungeon overall. The boss, Mothula, is one of the more difficult bosses due to the moving spikes. I usually do this dungeon later, after the 4th and 6th one.
Gargoyle’s domain is one of the more interesting ones for me with its parallel to the thief hideout in the light world, while having a boss that was alluded to from a few characters earlier in the game as well. It’s not really remarkable otherwise; the boss ends up being pretty memorable with his initial disguise until you bring him to an empty room (after meeting a certain requirement) to reveal his true form, and its a decently difficult boss fight. I’m not sure if its hinted at ingame, but the way to reveal his true form can be figured out by his name.
The Ice Palace is pretty weird and difficult. The ice physics are super annoying making Link extremely difficult to handle, made worse in rooms filled to the brim with enemies (god bless hookshot grapple for oneshotting the green penguins tho). The boss isn’t too difficult but it does require you to have your magic meter up to get rid of its ice enclosing with the fire rod (the bombos trick makes it significantly easier as you only need to use it twice to get rid of it, then let the eyes have it with the fire rod). Generally people, I included, do the 6th dungeon first just to get the cane of somaria, as it can bypass a block puzzle in the ice palace that requires some backtracking. Apparently this dungeon’s layout was modified a bit for the gba port, that’s funny.
Misery Mire isn’t really that interesting, honestly? It’s layout was a little confusing but that was mostly it. I still like it though, I’m just fond of its look and the colour palette, as well the swamp area the dungeon is located in. The boss is pretty pathetic honestly? It doesn’t really require much thought other than occasionally dodging a hard hitting lightning strike, which is easy. It’s also the third mono-eyed boss for some reason. Turtle Rock has an interesting gimmick using the cane of somaria but its pretty bleh otherwise for me, with the look being that of generic caves found throughout the game and some annoying rooms where lasers can hit you (but this isn’t too difficult to avoid, especially once you get the mirror shield). The boss is similarly pathetic to the previous one, you just have to be careful about your magic use as you need both the ice and fire rods (you get a big refill before the boss room at least).
I’m not a fan of Ganon’s Tower. Something about it just feels less like a solid final dungeon incorporating some gimmicks from previous dungeons (and kind of a boss rush), more like a haphazardly made tower with previous gimmicks slapped onto it for the sake of making a callback to previous dungeons. That’s probably too mean, but something about it just felt too messy and dragged out for my liking. You fight Agahnim again but its weirdly easier this time I believe, depending on your luck you can strike back three of his own projectiles back at him lol. So much for duplicates. The real final boss fight, Ganon, is super cool imo. Its just a fun boss fight set up at the pyramid instead (where you start off in the dark world when continuing a saved game), really cool music and just ganon being a menacing but fun boss fight. There’s a neat trick you can do if you want to make the latter half of it easier, where you light up the bottom left torch before the bottom right one goes out. This makes the bottom left one the only one to go out, making that part of the fight significantly easier to manage.
End credits roll, everyone’s back to being happy. The king is not decomposing anymore. Overall, even if its not the same extreme love I had for it back then, I ended up being fond of alttp again. It has its ups and downs, but I had a good time, and it was nice to feel all that nostalgia of the times I played it and other snes games a child. I’d definitely recommend this game to anyone, even if you end up not liking you can still see how the gameimproved on Zelda 1’s ideas and the series continuing to evolve from here on out. This review was kind of a disorganized mess (much like ganon’s tower), but I conveyed some feelings I very much wanted to just put out there lol.
Oh yeah minish cap is better
It’s also kind of hard to talk about it I guess? Everyone already is aware of what makes it good so to get that out of the way: gameplay is pretty easy to get into with tight controls and fun item variety at your disposal, and the open(ish) world is fun to explore with plenty of secrets (and enemies to beat) with the items at your disposal; progress is never made confusing either, so even if you’re not interested in exploring you’ll know how to reach your destination. The dungeons are kiiiinda hit or miss: I’d say they’re generally fun but some are either unnecessarily frustrating while others are pretty unremarkable. Visuals are still good, so is the music. Pink hair Link is so awesome. The writing is probably the worst part in that its pretty bland, including the dialogue (though, that could be chalked up to the localization, I’m not sure.) Still, it does its job well enough, and the world building is still interesting.
That pretty much summarizes my thoughts on it overall. I’m going to further discuss thoughts about certain aspects including all the dungeons in more depth:
Alttp has a pretty strong introduction by leading you into a dangerous situation immediately. This part always stood out to me, and even for this replay it immediately gripped me. The dungeon within the palace itself isn’t particularly interesting but it gives a solid idea on what to expect while making you get used to the basic controls. It’s after this point that you’re given access to the world at large.
Alttp has two worlds: the light and dark world, with access to the latter one obtained later. The strongest aspect both share is the exploration and the parallels between them. The game does a good job at making its worlds interesting enough for the player to feel willing to explore them, with enough secrets and such to make it worthwhile. While some areas can’t be progressed due to lack of an item or so, you’re generally free to go where you want without any major limitation. This especially is true when you gain access to the dark world, where (most) dungeons can be completed without your progress being impeded by doing so. The parallel aspect also makes for a fun gimmick where affecting one part of a world can allow for progress of some sort in the other. Usually the simplest way this is done is by utilizing the terrain differences between the worlds to reach inaccessible areas: for example, if a cliff with a heartpiece can’t be reached in the light world, the dark world may have a path to that cliff, and once you reach that part, you can use the magic mirror to teleport to that exact location in the light world and get the heartpiece. Other ways this parallel gimmick is involved include interacting with characters in the dark world that are important to someone or someplace in the light world.
Most of the items at your disposal usually prove vital at several points in the game, though this necessarily doesn’t feel balanced or these points of importance are pretty far between. An easy comparison example would be the consistent usefulness of the power glove and its upgrade in reaching inaccessible parts of the world and dungeons, while the bow and arrow generally isn’t required or even particularly useful besides for select instances. Some items quickly lose most of their usefulness either by just not adding much to combat or better options existing. The ice rod particularly bothers me though, for something that seems like an optional item to be obtained only to be revealed its required for a boss way late into the game. Regardless though, even if they may not be required or thoroughly useful you can still make effective use of these items to make combat easier for yourself.
While the writing is on the bland side I think the general atmosphere and world building of alttp makes up for it at least. The legend of the triforce itself is interesting and seeing how the dark world relates to the light world is pretty cool; all the different locations within the game are fun and its cool to stumble upon interesting characters from time to time.
Could just be me, but alttp also has kind of a lonely atmosphere to it that I didn’t feel the same for other zelda games I’ve played. Part of it is probably since you’re branded a criminal at the start of the game, and though most of the npcs are generally nice to you, the light world generally becomes more hostile towards you with the increase in enemies after a certain point and npcs needing to hide. The dark world is hostile from the start, with no real npc that’s friendly besides for a select few who have a quest related to the light word. Most of the npcs that exist in this world only really care about money and will want something from you in return. Most of these reasons is likely why the world of alttp always strikes me as isolating up until the end, I quite like it.
The dungeons are, as said, hit or miss. The first three pendant dungeons are actually one of the more memorable ones for me as I got stuck at them as a kid and were often where I dropped the game on replays. They’re generally basic, serving more to teach the player various gimmicks or item use that can be expected to come up several times in later dungeons. The eastern palace stands out for me a little more due to having the first major boss you fight, where you’re expected to rely on your bow to beat them effectively (even if you can just do it with your sword, if you hate yourself.) The desert palace is, fine. It’s boss(es) is probably one of the ones I least like in the game, weird fucking worm thingy called Lammolas, that can be annoying to hit without getting damaged yourself. Tower of Hera introduces the gimmick with the orb thingies that bring down red or blue blocks which come up several times later in the game, and here its pretty easy to manage. The boss isn’t particularly special other than that you can fall down into a lower level of the dungeon, and the dungeon also has the additional objective of obtaining the moon pearl to actually progress in the game, even if you beat the boss. The road to that tower actually stands out to me more honestly, the location is just interesting even if a bit frustrating to get to, and its also when you first get an experience of the dark world.
The real meat of the dungeon gameplay lies in the dark world with its total of 7 dungeons, of which besides the first and last one you can do in any order.
The Dark Palace isn’t particularly remarkable other than that it makes it clear it and the proceeding dungeons are going to be more advanced than that of the light world’s. The boss also indicates the same, being more visually interesting (imo) and requiring the use of an item to beat it. Swamp Palace is the 2nd dungeon and one I’m fond of, I like its focus on water and swimming and the hookshot grapple you get here I find to be one of the most fun items to use in the game. The boss similarly is fun, requiring use of the hookshot.
I fucking hate Skull Woods. It’s less of a headache on a replay but its still annoying. The forest in the dark world is actually pretty cool looking with the bone theme, with the path leading to the boss being represented by what looks like a creepy looking skull of some alien bug creature. The concept of the dungeon is neat with multiple entrances and exits but it can become frustrating really fast if you happen to lose track of where you’ve been. This gets worse with some of the rooms having a hand that falls down and takes you back to the entrance if you get caught, as well as the several gibdos within the dungeon that need a lot of hits to get rid of. While not specific to it, the holes in this dungeon were also just extra annoying to me honestly, probably just cuz I wasn’t liking the dungeon overall. The boss, Mothula, is one of the more difficult bosses due to the moving spikes. I usually do this dungeon later, after the 4th and 6th one.
Gargoyle’s domain is one of the more interesting ones for me with its parallel to the thief hideout in the light world, while having a boss that was alluded to from a few characters earlier in the game as well. It’s not really remarkable otherwise; the boss ends up being pretty memorable with his initial disguise until you bring him to an empty room (after meeting a certain requirement) to reveal his true form, and its a decently difficult boss fight. I’m not sure if its hinted at ingame, but the way to reveal his true form can be figured out by his name.
The Ice Palace is pretty weird and difficult. The ice physics are super annoying making Link extremely difficult to handle, made worse in rooms filled to the brim with enemies (god bless hookshot grapple for oneshotting the green penguins tho). The boss isn’t too difficult but it does require you to have your magic meter up to get rid of its ice enclosing with the fire rod (the bombos trick makes it significantly easier as you only need to use it twice to get rid of it, then let the eyes have it with the fire rod). Generally people, I included, do the 6th dungeon first just to get the cane of somaria, as it can bypass a block puzzle in the ice palace that requires some backtracking. Apparently this dungeon’s layout was modified a bit for the gba port, that’s funny.
Misery Mire isn’t really that interesting, honestly? It’s layout was a little confusing but that was mostly it. I still like it though, I’m just fond of its look and the colour palette, as well the swamp area the dungeon is located in. The boss is pretty pathetic honestly? It doesn’t really require much thought other than occasionally dodging a hard hitting lightning strike, which is easy. It’s also the third mono-eyed boss for some reason. Turtle Rock has an interesting gimmick using the cane of somaria but its pretty bleh otherwise for me, with the look being that of generic caves found throughout the game and some annoying rooms where lasers can hit you (but this isn’t too difficult to avoid, especially once you get the mirror shield). The boss is similarly pathetic to the previous one, you just have to be careful about your magic use as you need both the ice and fire rods (you get a big refill before the boss room at least).
I’m not a fan of Ganon’s Tower. Something about it just feels less like a solid final dungeon incorporating some gimmicks from previous dungeons (and kind of a boss rush), more like a haphazardly made tower with previous gimmicks slapped onto it for the sake of making a callback to previous dungeons. That’s probably too mean, but something about it just felt too messy and dragged out for my liking. You fight Agahnim again but its weirdly easier this time I believe, depending on your luck you can strike back three of his own projectiles back at him lol. So much for duplicates. The real final boss fight, Ganon, is super cool imo. Its just a fun boss fight set up at the pyramid instead (where you start off in the dark world when continuing a saved game), really cool music and just ganon being a menacing but fun boss fight. There’s a neat trick you can do if you want to make the latter half of it easier, where you light up the bottom left torch before the bottom right one goes out. This makes the bottom left one the only one to go out, making that part of the fight significantly easier to manage.
End credits roll, everyone’s back to being happy. The king is not decomposing anymore. Overall, even if its not the same extreme love I had for it back then, I ended up being fond of alttp again. It has its ups and downs, but I had a good time, and it was nice to feel all that nostalgia of the times I played it and other snes games a child. I’d definitely recommend this game to anyone, even if you end up not liking you can still see how the gameimproved on Zelda 1’s ideas and the series continuing to evolve from here on out. This review was kind of a disorganized mess (much like ganon’s tower), but I conveyed some feelings I very much wanted to just put out there lol.
Oh yeah minish cap is better