That moment and what happened after defeating the Elite Four in Pokémon Gold both blew my mind as a child.

The fact you were only about 25% through the game was pretty crazy to me back then too. It’s still one of my too Zeldas.

This was my experience as well. I didn't have an SNES, and so every opportunity that I could play this at my friend's house, I did. I never got all the way through until I emulated it in university.

I did, however, get a Game Boy, and Link's Awakening became my defining Legend of Zelda.

If you want to experience a similar kind of nostalgia, may I suggest a brand new game called Under the Island. Just came out a few days ago, and for me, it hits that sweet spot in terms of pixel graphics and acquring new gear and re-exploring old areas and using the new gear to unlock more things to do and see.

I have no affiliation to the game or the devs, just really want to promote it because it is very obvious they put a lot of love and effort into it and it's always nice to see someone's passion and being able to experience it.

Anyway, it's like $15 on steam right now, plays great on a SteamDeck, and is just really well done. It's not a super deep story or anything, just a really fun time, fun and easy game play, and lots of side quests and things to explore for $15. ❤️

Chrono Trigger had a similar effect on me, where Magus seemed like he just had to be the BBEG... Then you realize that was just the first drop on the rollercoaster.

My first gaming memory was watching my dad kill Ganon when I was probably 4 or 5.

I have played Link to the Past so many times over the years, probably most recently when I got a switch in 2018. I've actually still never beat the preceding 2 main games, having been turned off by their lack of direction too many times.

These days I think Tears of the Kingdom is my new favourite (although Ocarina and LTTP will always be in my favourite games of all time list). I found the story to be better than average for Zelda, and the final boss battle in that one is just amazing - maybe not very hard, but I can't remember any game with a more spectacular ending.

I remember experiencing that moment like 4 times in Ōkami

It stayed that for me albeit Majora's Mask came very close to dethroning it. Then came A Link Between Worlds, and that was even better. So yeah nowadays I very slightly prefer that.

It’s amazing how many things happened so quickly, like the goldeneye multiplayer being a thing created over the weekend before launching or something.

There is something very serene about BotW. I was recently looking into some mods to see if I can get back into the game.

I can recommend you to play A Link Between Worlds on the 3DS. It is a successor of some kind, playing in the same world. And man, the Dark World music remix is excellent.

For us in the west, lttp seemed like such a huge upgrade, because very few people here saw any of the evolution steps inbetween like Neutopia. It's a really fascinating to discover the things we missed in that era.

They do, because the Japanese table of phonemes is very limited compared to English.

But they will typically deemphasis the ru by making it quick and attached to ze.

“ZEru DA”

So, there's a fun fact about that related to the Zelda series. You know how the Hylian language kind of sneaks out in enemy names? Like, Stal- is a prefix meaning skeletal, -fos is a suffix meaning warrior, so a stalfos is a skeletal warrior? And a lizalfos is a lizard warrior? A stalchild is a skeletal child. -orm or -arm means worm creature, like Moldorm.

Well, in the games prior to the N64, geld- meant desert or sand. The geldarm is a sand worm creature, the geldman is a sand man like enemy from Link to the Past. Then in Ocarina of Time there's a race of women from the desert called Gerudo. Hmm.

Yeah but their R sound sits between an R and an L sounds. They don’t have a separate L and R sound. Hence when they transliterate foreign words they use ラリルレロ both for L and R sounds. It’s why Japanese mix up their Rs and Ls when they talk or write a foreign language like English or Spanish. It’s much harder for them to hear the difference since they didn’t grow up hearing L and R as separate sounds. But also the way they learn foreign languages doesn’t help either. Since they use their kana system to learn pronunciations.

But non native Japanese speakers also have a hard time pronouncing the R the Japanese way. It’s like a rolling R but only a single tap to the palate.

Basically. The R sound isn't the same as English's R so it's a bit misleading in romaji, but basically yes.

I actually did proofread a few times. By now I think I’ve had to admit to myself that I may have mild dyslexia, and should see about getting diagnosed. I usually have to read through something multiple times, and even then, typos will remain. I do appreciate you pointing it out though! I’ve updated the title.

These things used to be funny and irk me a little, but everyone is on their phone and dealing with life, your mind read it the right way, who really cares.

Mistakes happen mate. Not everyone can be as perfect as you.

Your Gannon snub has been noted...

Happy Birthday, Big trident Pig-Man!

Hand drawn overworld map. I forget the scale, probably 1x4 US Letter, colored pencil. Replaying using my map was great.

This is one of the things I feel like I missed out on from the earlier games. I think the closest we had to it again was drawing on the maps for the DS.

I think the original game brought a printed map for you to fill in, plus some information in the manual. All of which obvious those of is who have emulated would not have.

It was designed around needing to explore, but since there was always enough stuff to find and the enemy strength was one signpost of the type of area it was, it never felt tedious. The 80s and early 90s was also part of the era where you weren't getting new games all the time, so if it took awhile to figure out the next step it wasn't a big deal because it was the only thing you were focusing on.

I played it as a kid, though to be fair the only progress was made when my dad played. It was mostly brute force, "ok, can't go any further here let's try another path." And eventually you were at the final boss. My dad eventually got to the end and thought he got lucky, that he'd just happened to go through the rest of the game first and collected everything he needed. I don't actually think it's possible to get to Ganon in the first game without going through all the dungeons.

there were game magazines :p

There was a hotline you could call and ask for help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj2drENV9uk

...yes but what about the second play through. There's changes to the game after you've beaten it once?

Still haven’t managed to actually get through it. The first two are still on my list.

Rare to see it being the favorite for someone who has only recently played it!

This can be my “If I am stuck in the desert” option.

What am I missing here?

Thank you! I figured it deserved more than just a gif post!