You get a new verb for each item... does that mean dodongos are verbivores?

@tomdekler9280

2 ай бұрын

Absolutely grandiose wordplay that unfortunately doesn't hit a chuckle.

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

@@tomdekler9280 even with a guide I still cannae find who asked

@tomdekler9280

2 ай бұрын

@@shoogles_ ah but what you did find was an insult where there was none. Puns are at their best when they're more clever than funny, and I love this comment for being too clever to land immediately. It was my bad for forgetting to write that part down.

“A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game cannae pump your prostate” Miyamoto probably

@waytoobiased

2 ай бұрын

It’s the most important part of good game design!

@goldenphonautogram6141

Ай бұрын

Delays are temporary, but perfection is forever.

When Miyamoto said, "Ah, now your prostate's pumpin'." The trajectory of my life really started to change.

@iamjustkiwi

2 ай бұрын

This may be the most lewd thing I've ever read and I've seen some stuff. Well done 👍

@ssg-eggunner

2 ай бұрын

Miyamoto is crazy for that No wonder he's depicted as fucked on a blue background and weird haircut

@TheTrueFool

2 ай бұрын

Yeah, Miyamoto's fuckin' crazy, but he did make Nintendogs, so you have to respect his craft.

@leolordful

2 ай бұрын

Wait.... what? Where did this cum from? can anyone explain?

@leolordful

2 ай бұрын

Can someone explain what this prostate quote is about? I can't find anything on google.

I'm glad to know that Miyamoto is always thinking about my prostate when designing games

This thumbnail is great. Ik it's more meme-y than the previous vids' thumbnails I've seen, but I hope u keep it bc I think this fits perfectly for the content+concept of the vid

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

Thanks so much! I'm definitely keeping it. I changed a lot about my process this video and had a ton of fun doing it!

Stroopwafels AND two Zelda games? That’s a good positive connection. Also, I truly have to applaud you captioning all of these long videos. It really makes a difference :)

I really love watching someone explain the reasoning for how and why they have a very different opinion, in a way that really makes sense. I Hated the original Zelda for the reasons you loved it so much. I like clear direction. I like bosses that are puzzles more than they are motor skill checks. I love those moments when you can identify a problem, with a Loose sense of the solution, and then later the moment of "I remember where I wanted something like this!". Ocarina of Time is still probably my second favourite Zelda of all time. That or Wind Waker. (First place doesnt really count: I love Hyrule Warriors but outside of all the nostalgia it really isn't what "a Zelda game" means to most people.) But I really appreciate knowing why Zelda 1 is your favourite.

@haruhirogrimgar6047

2 ай бұрын

I recently got stressed out playing A Short Hike and was anxious for my few hours with BotW for a similar reason. If you just make the world super open, every time I have 3 directional choices in front of me I have the other 2 clawing at the back of my mind. I choose the left road, now it splits two more ways, and on and on. This game sounds like another nightmare to me personally. At most make it a Metroidvania. Have 4 paths, but 2.5 of them are locked off at the start. But even then I like "Microvania's" and linear Metroidvanias (ala Ori + Fusion) more than the alternative sprawl.

I'm living through the "bombable wall effect" again right now, with a different series, Etrian Odyssey - a series, that, in the DS era, set out to bring the oldschool dungeoncrawler experience, right down to drawing your own maps. In the first couple games, hidden shortcuts were only possible to find by meticulously checking every wall (luckily by just pressing A instead of bombing every wall). However, somewhere down the line, they started being "marked" by some visual cue, like conspicuous flowers that then end up being *the* marker for the rest of the game. It's not a huge deal, but I *do* notice a different reaction in me. Rather than "YES, I found a shortcut!", it's "oh thank god, a shortcut", way before I even needed to check. The games also got more story interactions as they released, as well as story modes in some of the games (the Untold remakes). In some games, your story progress (so far, mostly EO4) dictates where you progress, rather than your own curiosity. They also become way more accommodating in terms of difficulty progression and even skill progression (by gating entire sections with character level rather than the player's investment choices) as they go on, rather than pushing the player to see if they can break through the barrier that is the difficulty by some feat of their ingenuity (like learning how to use the tip of the sword in Zelda, you may find a strategy in Etrian that suddenly makes your life way easier but may not be as obvious as "just level that next skill"). I realize it's a different series and EO's turnbased vs Zelda's action combat, but I couldn't help but think of how similar the series' progressions seem to be, despite EO starting a ways in the 2000s. I find both series fun still in their later iterations, but with both I feel a bit more removed as the player, as the elements get fleshed out more.

@ZoruaHunter

2 ай бұрын

I thought being able to see the shortcuts was intentional, like the levels were designed with the knowledge that you'd have all the shortcuts. I can't imagine playing these games without them, having to take the long way around every time you return to a floor

@justsomejojo

2 ай бұрын

Of course it's intentional, that's a given. And once you get familiar with the games you tend to get a feel for when there should be a shortcut somewhere (because, as you said, it gets tedious otherwise). What I'm saying is that by making them visible, the task of relying on your own intuition and curiosity to find them is taken off your hands, which I personally think is a shame. It's worth noting that the very first game (and in part the second one) aren't as good with placing shortcuts (there are very few, especially early on), but as the series goes on, they become more common.

Tears of The Kingdom became my instant favourite game of all time upon completion, but now knowing it outsold Wario Land 3? Nintendo must rescind the Zelda series in its entirety...... can't stand for this horrible injustice....

@ssg-eggunner

2 ай бұрын

#FreeWario 🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥

@nintendofan707

2 ай бұрын

You need to play better games.

@デススマイルズ1

2 ай бұрын

@@nintendofan707 I've played a countless array of fantastic games including that of every prominent Zelda title (It's my most cherished IP).. yet.. ToTK is still my favourite.. Isn't that remarkable? Not for you, because surmising praise of new Zelda games as the result of inexperienced players (Why even do this? It's so childish) is a proxy to bash them for shallow reasons, but for me it's great! I love video games

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

@@デススマイルズ1 hell yeah bud, video games are great

@angelmendez-rivera351

2 ай бұрын

@@shoogles_ One question: when you say "leave the toxic fandom culture" out the door in the comments ruleset, what do you mean exactly? I want to be able to comment, but I find the rules to be a bit too vague, so I have no idea if something I want to say will accidentally fall under that description or not. I am asking out of genuine interest, not to be antagonistic.

Feel that "every bush can now hide a secret" might just incentivize someone to literally burn every single push they come across to find any potential secrets which is less than ideal.

@gavinwilson5324

2 ай бұрын

If they want to, then they can. It's not as tedious as it sounds. There's never more than one secret per screen, and most of the bushes on a given screen aren't accessible, and therefore don't need to be checked. With that in mind, a systematic search can be relatively quick, and even fun. Especially if you take a break and do something else whenever you get bored. Plus, many of the bushes that hide secrets are more conspicuous than the rest, speeding up the process even more and rewarding the player for paying attention to the world.

If I were to nominate a game that came out recently that captures the "magic" of the first Zelda game, it would have to be TUNIC. How? It's secret to everybody.

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

I'm going to reinstall it right now.

@Temulgeh

2 ай бұрын

i love tunic so much

@brotbrotsen1100

2 ай бұрын

One of the best games recently in general tbh. And if you want a fully realized game in the zelda 2 style i recommend "phoenotopia awakening", i just love what indies did for old concepts.

@codes5_real

2 ай бұрын

FEZ is also a pretty good one too…

@weiss_cream

2 ай бұрын

Tunic is quite possibly my favorite game of all time.

I'm but a little baby born in 2000, so I never got around to any of the oldschool classics while they were still fresh, but that really didn't take away from my enjoyment of some of them, with the original Zelda being one of my absolute favourite games. I really don't get why it hasn't been replicated to death several times over, even today I still think it could thrive, provided it had more modernised graphics, obviously. I guess it's just one of those games done so well we never have to try it again.

@kirigherkins

2 ай бұрын

impossible, nobody was born after 1999

@adrianpaul1985

2 ай бұрын

@@kirigherkins And we all died in 2012 too

@ssg-eggunner

2 ай бұрын

There was actually a remastered version released on the satellaview BSX but it's lost to time

@ktk44man

2 ай бұрын

There certainly aren't many direct imitators but I think the classic Zelda is more influential than we realize (not that it isn't recognized as being massively influential). Look at the binding of Isaac, this is one of the most successful indie games of all time and I think much of its core gameplay is Zelda inspired despite being a roguelike

@plebisMaximus

2 ай бұрын

@@ktk44man It's absolutely influential, not saying it isn't, but as far as spiritual successors go, there's pretty much none. Which I find really sad, I feel like there's still a lot of potential to be drawn out of the ideas and design philosophy. I love Isaac for sure, but it's not really that much like Zelda past how the dungeons are structured into mostly single-screen rooms with secrets and items hidden here and there.

46:20 - Metroid Other M moment

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

I'm unravelled, why have you done this to me

@samquik

2 ай бұрын

Sensemove is lowkey fun. it trivializes some combat encounters, but the sound and slow-down are nice make it feel good dangit

@marsbitrona5920

2 ай бұрын

Are you mad? You can't talk about the gameplay of Other M! If you do anything besides complaining about the cutscenes, we may be forced to accept that the game is actually quite good. The Earth could fall off its axis!

@contextsensitive8484

2 ай бұрын

@@marsbitrona5920 in my experience, most critiques of Other M focus equally on how both the story and gameplay are flawed. Never played it, but would like to out of completionism

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

The gameplay is worse than the story.

Zelda 1 was always way before my time and I never quite clicked with the game - until one day, my bored friends and I at college decided to do a speedrun race in the virtual console version on 3ds that we all had. None of us had really played it before, so we had very little idea of what to do. Before long we were sat there with our 3DSes, announcing to each other when we found a new secret or item or dungeon, very slowly making progress through the game. After a certain point we forgot we were supposed to be racing, and started cooperatively working through the game, one discovery at a time. It was a lot of fun to play through the game with friends like that. I don't think we finished - I think the enemies in Level 5 were too hard - but for the first time I could see what a fun adventure the first Zelda game could be. You did a great job capturing that spirit of Zelda 1, it captured how I felt about the experience of playing it exactly.

I've gotten very bad with always playing games with some sort of guide. I think that's a part of why games aren't fun for me anymore. I'm not discovering how to complete a puzzle or defeat an enemy on my own, I'm just copying what someone else did. This video has inspired me to start playing games the way I did as a child before I had internet access. Using a guide that tells me exactly where to go and what to do because I'm afraid of possibly missing an item is making me miss the discovery and adventure and imagination.

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

It's a struggle, isn't it? I play a lot of games on my PC, where the solution to any problem is just an Alt+Tab away. You have to stop yourself which is a very different feeling to not being able to look this stuff up in the first place!

I absolutely love this video. Very well thought out and well edited, keep it up! Been digging into my backlog of retro games I never had time to truly give the attention they deserve, and now Zelda 1 is being bumped up the list! Thanks for taking the time to explain your thoughts to us!

I think these "short" videos are where your talents really shine. They are much more focused, clear, and effective. It seems like you had fun making this one. I enjoyed it!

Funny cuz even your complaints about the enemies sometimes being hard to read is still just another one of the game's strengths for me, making it personally fun and engaging, because it's still not impossible to figure out and strategize how to approach said enemies. Also, because the laser sword gives you a cushion, it incentivizes you even more not to take a hit; but not only that- it makes reaching full health after a long drought of low hp feel suuuper rewarding and powerful (especially in a tougher dungeon). If there was one "complaint" i have about this game, it's that its raw elements (graphics, music, sounds, general structures, and events) are so few and limited that it's now hard to _feel_ the original unique feelings they gave me when i played this game early on in my childhood just due to how much exposure I've had to its entirety -- it's hard not to be so used to it. And obviously that's not even a criticism of the game, lol, it's just an unfortunate matter of the natural circumstances. Even so, this is easily a fundamental game for my brain, where replaying it will always be a comfy cozy homey vibe, so I'm happy to listen to an hour of praise for it. This even helped me recapture (even if just for a moment) a tiny bit of the freshness this game once had on me. 😌

thank you for making this video. im a young'un and this video encapsulates what is so great about the first zelda. It is the most immersive zelda ive played. never felt as in danger as i have playing this game.

I literally just rewatched Sonic Spitball a few days ago and then boom, new Shoogles. Really gets the prostate pumping, doesn't it?

great video, over time death mountain has become my favorite dungeon in the series as well. 'ganon's castle' has had a lot of great iterations over the years with wonderful presence and atmosphere, usually with a "one last go at every item/puzzle mechanic" design, but the sheer size and difficulty of death mountain makes the level more daunting through texture than any of the others can do through art and music

This is genuinely wonderful analysis. I'm a scholar tying up a degree in art history and a second in computer science, and the method you employed to analyze this game is wonderful. Genuinely inspirational.

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

I'm really glad to hear that! Thanks so much

One thing Zelda 1 does brilliantly that was unfortunately lost in its sequels is putting rules on its secrets. Yes, it has its cryptic puzzles too, but "bomb every wall, burn every bush" actually isn't the best approach to it. There are patterns to where walls can be bombed on the overworld and another pattern for dungeons. The one exception is Death Mountain, but you get a direct clue about how to find it. Likewise, only the bushes in single rows are burnable and, early on at least, they're often telegraphed by being colored differently than the border elements. That design choice means the exploration of each screen is both wide open, as any screen can (and most do) harbor a secret, and constrained. You have to search everywhere, but not actually everything. Link to the Past fumbled that aspect of the original and forced the series down a much more linear path. That model isn't without its charms but I'm glad to see they can still capture some of what made Hyrule Fantasy so compelling while maintaining the LttP-style's strengths.

@cinnamonnoir2487

2 ай бұрын

I'm confused as to why you think A Link to the Past messed up this aspect of design. It does most of the same things that the original Zelda did. There are patterns on walls to indicate that they're bombable, and in the few cases where that pattern doesn't show up you can test it with your sword, so you don't have to bomb every wall. Bushes that conceal holes are usually placed off by themselves and/or bordered with decorative patterns. I would argue that secrets in ALttP are actually _better_ telegraphed than the ones in the original Zelda, which are sometimes totally baffling, especially with the awkward translation on several of the hints. It seems to me that you're cherry-picking examples to make the original game seem clearer than it actually is, and you don't cite examples from later games at all. If you don't like linearity, that's fine, but your comment suggests that the major problem you have with A Link to the Past is its approach to secrets.

@zachhiggins1668

2 ай бұрын

​@@cinnamonnoir2487Why are you arguing with someone's opinion?

@ssg-eggunner

2 ай бұрын

​@@zachhiggins1668why not?

@zachhiggins1668

2 ай бұрын

@@ssg-eggunner lol what do you mean why not? Because it's an opinion. It's literally insane to argue with an opinion. It's like arguing that someone thinks food tastes good. Are you trying to mess with their head or something? That's not ok

@ssg-eggunner

2 ай бұрын

@@zachhiggins1668 idk man, it looks like this guy just tryna educate the other one (by informing them of ALTP's wall patterns) instead of telling them what to think

I do love the feeling of the Zegend of Lelda 1 but I've never done a full playthrough! I really should try again! Also, fantastic video dude, really clear and concise

Your retrospectives never miss. Love the analysis here, and you've really helped me understand what eactly it is that I've felt has been missing from the Zelda series... ever since Zelda 1, apparently.

I wish I was this skilled at explaining my love for my favorite game that has heavy criticism leveled towards it. Truly this was a really good delving into Zelda 1, Shoogles.

Honestly part of what makes it so enjoyable is the simplicity of it. I feel like theres too much to keep track of in BOTW and TOTK. Gotta have food to heal, gotta have a stockpile if weapons in case they vreak, gotta have different armor sets for different climates, and a host if Shiekah Slate and Rauru Arm powers. And those things are really cool features, yes, but what makes Zelda 1 so special is the fact that it really is just "here's a sword, go".

Super here for this, picking out something underappreciated that struck a chord with you and going through exactly how and why! That sense of exploration and openness is really fantastic.

This is such a damn good retrospective. Nailing it every time, man, the quality and sincerity of your writing is wonderful. This video manages to sum up what makes Zelda 1 so great, and you do so by essentially philosophising the process of playing it. Watched this once and a bit already, definitely one of those videos I'll keep coming back to. Love it, man, every upload of yours is a gem. Edit: Pierce Brosnan ate Mrs. Fitzsimmons' sea bass.

@GigaWiiU64

2 ай бұрын

His voice is so soothing, it’s really therapeutic

Zelda 1 was the last game I really played fully before I hit a massive depression phase in mid 2022, legitmately one of the most interesting games i've ever played, I'm still amazed how well they did the game on the first go, how dae you get aw this shite down in one go ya fucking smart bastards.

Great video! I can say that even in the speedrunning community Zelda stands out as a game that has many routes to completion for getting fast times. You can take easier routes that take more time (gathering extra equipment), or you can gather minimally required gear and make your way to the end as fast as possible. Swordless is a category as well, so you can indeed never enter that first cave! (We consider the game finished by entering Gannon's room, as you cannot beat Gannon without a sword.)

(49:17 and 51:12) This is untrue, in fact they had SO MUCH memory left over after they finished making the game that they decided to create an entire second quest with new cave and dungeon locations, as well as completely new dungeon layouts.

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

RAM, not ROM. You're right though - the Second Quest was added because Takashi Tezuka, after spending ages arranging the dungeons to maximise the available space, was told that he'd accidentally used only half the allotted memory.

A 1 hour long video on Zelda 1 in 2024? HELL YEAH!!

I feel the same way. I can't think of another game that gave me the sense of adventure and drive to explore that classic Zelda did. It captured something special that's difficult to explain now, like how wandering around burning every shrub, bombing every wall and pushing every block could be appealing. Maybe because it was pre online guides and it really was you going through the adventure with nothing but a map, a basic understanding of the game mechanics and asking other human beings for help. It took me over a year to beat the game as a kid with my uncle popping in every few months to ask about my progress and giving me a few hints when I got stuck. It's also the only game that truly felt like a personal achievement to beat, because it was the result of the time and work I'd put into solving the puzzle of the world of Hyrule, not just mashing buttons really well. I think anyone who really appreciates the first games can see BotW wasn't a return to form, so it's nice to see that restated here. The original game had linearity that that fed into a sense of accomplishment when you found the way to get past a problem that had blocked you before. Choices were there, but they were limited and that's necessary both to give the player a sense of progression, but especially if you're trying to tell a story at the same time. TotK was even worse...

Theoretically, how valuable would the life potion be compared to the heart container if you couldn't simply buy them? The heart container offers greater longevity over a long time, but the life potion could give you the instant burst of health you need to get you through a tight spot that a single heart wouldn't help much with. It could become a more reasonable trade-off.

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

I agree! I was thinking about it a lot as I was writing and it really is just that the Life Potion is fairly easy to get your hands on without having to give anything up. You can only carry one at a time as well of course which is a big limit.

@ruolbu

2 ай бұрын

I can see a world in which the potion is a unique item and every guide and older brother or more experienced school friend advises you to take the potion as one more heart is not as valuable in the final level as not dying in a crucial moment. But then it becomes bothersome to some people that they can never get a full set of hearts and thus they challenge themselves to just never need the potion. alas, not the world we got

I love that because you're describing hitting a fat pig demon thing this is the one time it's correct to say "coup de gras" instead of "coup de grâce".

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

This would have been the most ambitious joke of my career had I even thought of it.

I learned all my zelda 1 secrets from my mom and uncle like god and Miyamoto intended

I like that instead of the world of Hyrule opening up as you progress, it's all just there from the very beginning - your perception and approach to the world is what changes, not the world itself. It has the spirit of a Metroidvania but takes it even further by having 90% of the world free to explore. It feels like a formula that's impossible for the modern gaming landscape despite how fun it is to play.

@ssg-eggunner

2 ай бұрын

"Impossible" >copies Zelda 1 >changes layouts only slightly >change designs and claim it to be other game done.

@bandannadoo

2 ай бұрын

@@ssg-eggunner lol I guess I meant more so that it wouldn’t be accepted by people, like that they wouldn’t be able to get away with it. It would be impossible for them to make a game like this now without getting a ton of flack for being too cryptic and not having any in-game instructions

@littlemoth4956

2 ай бұрын

This is such an overdramatic way of just saying that they just placed a map down and spent literally zero time and effort creating a sense of progression or sequence. Fun as it may be, let it be known that this only exists due to ignorance of game design and/or laziness. All other games have progression systems to prevent them from essentially being a grocery list of objectives.

@littlemoth4956

2 ай бұрын

@@bandannadoo "without getting a ton of flack for being too cryptic and not having any in-game instructions" By who? The imaginary people you made up and decided make up the majority of the general public's opinion on things so that your opinion can seem rarer and more contrarian? I have literally never seen a game being denounced for something like that.

@bandannadoo

2 ай бұрын

@@littlemoth4956 They made a game without any concrete set progression and it actually works, to the point where you can do dungeons out of order and get certain items far earlier than others. The fact that its set up this way makes every playthrough unique in interesting ways. It's set up carefully enough that you don't need a set progression system to be able to get through it because they have NPCs give out hints as rewards for exploring. Also games get denounced for being cryptic all the time, including this game itself. I don't know why you're acting so offensively against this random comment when what I'm saying is basically parrotting stuff that was said in this video. I just really like this game and think it's fun. I'd say it's very difficult to make something fun on accident, so most of my thoughts here are just reasons why I think the game works so well.

"Sigmund Freud identified four aspects to the personality: the id, the ego, the superego, and the pig bastard"

18:21 GENIUS. So many newer Zelda games are built on this duality of two worlds interacting with each other, like the time travel in Ocarina or the dark world in Link to the Past. Never thought I'd see that the same duality is in the first game too

this is absolutely one of the best game reviews I've seem so far on youtube

i was just gushing in a discord gc about my favourite yter essayists and you ranked high, and now it's complemented by a new upload that perfectly showcases the things i highlighted about your work i really enjoy: passion-led discursive essay topics that take on more of a kindness-first approach. i've been consistently recommending your channel to friends, both from a jokey "i have a great recommendation for an 11-hour long video to put on in the bg while you do your taxes" angle and also from an "i have rewatched his balan wonderrrworld video on repeat for more days than i care to admit because i really connect with the feeling of wanting to convey something joyfully creative and wonderful about a piece of work that is generally poorly received (valid or not)" angle. there's a lot of stuff about this video to praise, but for me the thing i wanted to say the most is that i really enjoyed your screen presence and charisma with the camera. you've done a lot of videos with talking head cutaways and it feels like you've slowly been finding a naturalistic presentation over each one, but the incredibly relaxed and conversational feeling is totally nailed down in this video. it has this very comfortable balance between presenting a proper formal essay on a topic, but also the feeling of sitting with a friend at the table sharing a cuppa and just listening to them infodump to you about something they really like. i hope that makes sense?

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

I changed a lot about my approach with this video to try and make it more conversational. I'm really glad you felt that, thank you!

32:24 The way you talk about the game's secrets really made me step back for a minute. Finishing the second quest back in high school thoroughly obliterated my desire to ever touch Zelda 1 again, which is unfortunate, because it means the second quest is my most enduring memory of the game. The miserable experience of having to bomb every rock wall and burn every bush just to find all the dang dungeons made me forget that the regular quest (i.e. the intended experience for most players) is (relatively speaking, at least) fairly reasonable in terms of what it expects from you.

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

Yeah, I remember not being too fond of the Second Quest. It was made because Tezuka only used half the allotted dungeon memory by mistake, so they used the other half for the "Hard Mode." Dunno if it's because of that, but I do think it's a much sloppier, more uneven experience. I think I've only done it once.

good lord, I was already playing that falconhoof sample in my mind, and then you actually played it

7:09 okay pausing the video to just comment on how this was a fantastic cutaway reference

@Dinbon194

2 ай бұрын

umineko pfp umineko pfp umineko pfp umineko pfp umineko pfp umineko pfp umineko pfp umineko pfp umineko pfp umineko pfp umineko pfp

Thanks for pointing out the issues of Hero with a Thousand Faces.

What a sensational, thoughtful commentary. Top marks! Zelda 1 has always held a special place for me. It has wayyy more to offer than the first Mario or Metroid game. Definitely punches above its weight. Liked and subbed!

Zelda 1 was innovative for its time and when analyzing older games we should always take context of the time it was realised in Thanks for this analysis of The Legend of Zelda I really like it

Zelda 1 will always hold a place in my heart as it's got one of my fondest memories playing a game. When I first played it, I could not for the life of me find one of the earlier dungeons (either 2 or 3 I can't totally remember) so I was running around the entirety of Hyrule just to find it, and in the process I found basically every other dungeon location lol. It was so funny cause each time I would cross the screen and see the monster's mouth I would be like "oh my gosh this has to be it I finally found it" only to be faced with it being like the 6th dungeon or something. Eventually, after much trial and error and a big break I looked up a walkthrough specifically for finding this dungeon and nothing else. The fun part is that, after defeating that dungeon, I knew where all the other dungeons were and some of the secrets too, so I was fully prepared to make my way through the rest of the game. Even though I did look up a walkthrough, it was still a tremendously satisfying experience to piece everything together backwards like that and it's why Zelda 1 is one of my favorites.

@MbBadd

2 ай бұрын

Now, imagine for a moment, there was no walkthrough, and you only had schoolyard rumor and maybe if you were 'spolied' you got a magazine, book, or VHS rental to help you. That was how it was back when Zelda 1 was brand new.

I didn't really have that experience of Breath of the Wild, I found it got way easier as the game went on, because you can just spam hearty meals to stop yourself from ever dying

Love your videos, the format and humor are great for getting to the heart of the games!

Your section about secrets and discovery really appealed to me as an Outer Wilds enjoyer. If you haven't played Outer Wilds, I hope you fix that ASAP. I'm currently playing Animal Well, which is recapturing a lot of that Outer Wilds magic for me again. Would also highly recommend that game, too.

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

That's another of those games I have to go back to. I was enchanted by it until I brought my ship in slightly too fast to the underwater planet, shat it, and turned it off.

@telekinesticman

2 ай бұрын

@@shoogles_ It's now become my favourite game of all time, I very annoyingly recommend it to everyone I know. Would love to hear your thoughts on it if you ever finish it! The DLC is a must, as well.

man what an amazing analysis. love that game. Zelda II

Wizards and Warriors III: Kuros vision of power is my nostalgia fave :) There are a lot of ways to play it. You can go for the streamlined approach, finding the statues, joining and rising the ranks of the guilds and beating the game. Or you can meander about getting in to every house and room and searching for and matching treasures for the wise men for their useless gossip. You can take a pacifist route and dress appropriately for the segregated areas or attack the otherwise neutral (and sometimes challenging!) NPC's right out of the gate and test your new weapons on them as you accrue them. You can go in to the inn's and taverns but your weapon gets left behind. You can still take all the battle stances though so making Kuros dance to the catchy music is a nice time waster. And if you're not dressed appropriately for the area you are in the proprietor will escort you to the door and kick you out. Such a great game. If you're not careful you can be soft locked by running out of money to buy keys if you wasted your keys or bought too much food after failing the guild's tests too many times. The rewards for completing the guild's test feel rewarding, third level thief lets you open any door or chest, third level wizard lets you slowly levitate anywhere you want to go, and the knight's weapons are a blast! The throwing axe of the 2'nd level knight's guild is fun to avoid so your weapon boomerangs around you and you can even beat the game with it if you're having trouble finding or beating the third level of the knight's guild for it's enormous shooty sword. Because there are so many ways to play it, it's a game that can you can play in whatever mood you might be in. You can be the righteous and effective hero and never pester an NPC, you can be a monster and slay whatever citizen crosses your path, you can be a disruptive rogue by dressing wrong and being attacked on site by the NPC inhabitants of the area you are in and goof around in taverns dancing and being kicked out. A very fun and overlooked game.

I played through Zelda 1 for the first time recently (well....... much of it, at least - it got too challenging for little old me) and I loved it so much. Perfect game.

My boy referencing FINNEGANS WAKE in a Zelda video? Sign me up to riverrun past eve and Adam’s

I love how you are able to beat this game without ever using the sword except for the very final boss. It’s just a testament to the amount of freedom this game offers you. Sure, nowadays, I am sure games have done much more crazier things for you to bypass what is standard for most players, but the fact that this game gave you so much freedom as a 1986 game is just insane to me! It does it so elegantly too.

Zelda 1 is a fascinating bit of history for me. I'll never really find it fun - the progression and polishing of gameplay mechanics over the decades simply makes Zelda a bit too rigid and barebones for me to find very enjoyable, as is the case with most NES era games, but what I *can* do is absolutely respect the genius that went into developing it. Its full of really clever ideas that were revolutionary for the time and still respectably hold up today as functional game design, and for that, it has my praise.

Wow. What an excellent video. I often revisit the original Legend of Zelda and am still in awe of it. I'm not very good at it but it's very enjoyable. I love most of the other Zeldas save for Breath of the Wild and it really is that removal of structure that I can't get behind. Zelda 1 is deliberate and you constantly feel like you are just getting better thanks to what you discover. With Breath of the Wild I felt like I was going in circles. The enemies got spongier, the weapons would break so I'd have to fetch new ones, the hours would wane on but it just felt like a damn time sink with ludicrous collectible numbers that had no worthwhile reward that even the original Zelda could pull off. The Link to the Past formula is a sweet spot because it seemed like a Metroidvania/Action RPG hybrid but I cannot deny that it does get a little rigid. But if I can admit that we need the current Zelda fans to admit that these new ones are a little too open. Neither direction can top Zelda 1. In Zelda 1 I felt like I was progressing closer to beat Ganon whereas with Breath of the Wild I felt like I kept going in a loop until I got sick of it and decided eh, guess I'll beat Ganon. At this point I'm sick of trying to love BOTW (my olive branch is Tears of the Kingdom) but I do like that I'm not crazy in thinking that the original Zelda was more than just 'freedom for freedom's sake'. Thank you!

@angelmendez-rivera351

2 ай бұрын

*But if I can admit that we need the current Zelda fans to admit that these new ones are a little too open.* There is a _huge_ difference between saying that your personal preferences best align with Hyrule Fantasy, the debut of The Legend of Zelda, versus saying that the rest of the fandom needs to align their personal preferences with yours and that there is somehow such a thing as "too much openness." Maybe it would too extreme to call it offensive, but at the very minimum, what you are insinuating here is simply unreasonable. Also, as a side point, it does not help that you focused all your critique of the modern open world formula on Breath of the Wild, while it being the case that the flaws you mentioned for Breath of the Wild are all addressed in Tears of the Kingdom. I am not saying you have to like Tears of the Kingdom, because again, this is all about your personal preference, ultimately, but it does not make a good argument for you to just ignore the very things that directly and explicitly address the contents of your argument.

@pupcornnerd

2 ай бұрын

Actually I very much enjoy Totk for those exact reasons which is why I consider it my olive branch. For me I’d go so far as to say it renders BOTW pointless. To clarify, my stance is to reach a compromise going forward where linear design and open design aren’t pitted against one another. Both elements can be utilized for further experimentation.

@angelmendez-rivera351

2 ай бұрын

@@pupcornnerd Okay, this is fair enough. I do think you phrased your idea very weirdly in your comment, but if your point is that you want to more of an effective hybridization of modern ideas with older ideas, then sure, I agree. I also agree that Tears of the Kingdom does in many ways render Breath of the Wild obsolete, but this is also a natural consequence of improvement. Breath of the Wild may have introduced a new formula, but Tears of the Kingdom was designed specifically with the intent of refining it and perfecting it (or at least getting closer to this). I think they succeeded, as should be the case.

@pupcornnerd

2 ай бұрын

It’s all good. My focus was really on praising the video and highlighting that choice and structure in Hyrule Fantasy while explaining how out of the entire series Breath of the Wild sits near the bottom for me despite loving the original so much. Sorry for wording it weird. As a longtime fan I am too passionate and constantly feel I owe it to Nintendo to love BOTW but after TOTK it gives me less reason too. Hope that makes sense.

I'll never understand the potion hate, it effectively triples your health while a heart container is just a heart container, plus it's extremely useful in 2nd quest

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

I'm genuinely so glad someone feels this way

@tehslackerer83

2 ай бұрын

@@shoogles_ i speedrun the game so my opinion is slightly skewed compared to most

this might be the only time ive genuinely tried to subscribe to a channel i was already subscribed to lol. I dont know when i subscribed or what your last video was but this showed in my feed and i was instantly hooked. great video man keep it up

This is like an expanded an extremely well put form of Egoraptor's Sequelitis. The attention to how the game design encourages or discourages players is very interesting and very well thought out.

Really enjoy your channel, man. Keep it up!

i was watching your response to sequelitis video literally yesterday thats scary

I think the opening of Zelda 1 is extremely flawed, for example what would you lose if link started in the cave and got the sword immediately? Nothing, literally nothing, in fact I think it gains by grounding link as at least somewhat real, spawning in the middle of that clearing like how'd he get there unarmed as he was. It also avoids the initial player confusion by not hiding the sword, and you still get to make your choice about what direction to go first, except now there aren't any really wrong answers, you get to explore and play the game. I get what you're saying about viewing the game in context of its time, but I think you have to look at it with some of that beneficial hindsight too. Was it impressive? Sure. Was it great? Sure. But it was impressive and great for its time, and frankly it's been far outstripped in every element by games that came after. I think you're guilty of the thing you were pointing out when you talked about botw, the game is absolutely structured and littered with choices, the main difference is how much of that structure you want to engage with, do you do every shrine? Some or most? Do you seek out the memories? It's up to the player. Your point about progression also sounds like nonsense to me, you get tougher enemies to fight and don't have to waste your time thrashing weaklings with your powerful weapons. The progression is absolutely there.

@cinnamonnoir2487

2 ай бұрын

I also think people tend to read a little too much into that opening screen. Games came with manuals back then, and the manual explains a lot of things that design critics these days assume were meant to be figured out through context clues. The Legend of Zelda's manual instructs you to enter the cave on the first screen and get the sword; in fact, it actually tells you how to get all the way to the first dungeon, as well as hinting at the existence of many other useful things like the Magical Sword. Critics like Matthewmatosis had a certain experience with the game based on _not_ reading the manual and then jumped to the conclusion that their experience was the one intended by the developers. I think it's just as likely, if not more likely, that the reason for making the player enter the cave to get the sword is simply to reinforce how important caves are, and also to provide an excuse for why the first screen has no enemies on it, so the player can walk around and get adjusted to the controls. It's a good design choice in my opinion, but a simple one, not a thesis statement for the entire game. Reading the manual for any classic game designed before the mid-90s tends to dispel the romantic notions that people have subsequently developed about the intuitive, freeform genius that the game supposedly embodies.

@ssg-eggunner

2 ай бұрын

Man only if the FDS and MMC1 supported more storage for the opening screen...

@scorpionsapprentice3248

2 ай бұрын

the only thing i cannot defend about skipping the sword is that it is required to attack ganon. if the magic rod's melee attack could work against him, then a true swordless run would be possible. even so the game does place you in front of the cave so it becomes clear that you should enter but players don't have to. in fact, you never need to get the wood sword and go straight for the magic sword if you have enough hearts.

@scorpionsapprentice3248

2 ай бұрын

@@cinnamonnoir2487 i miss the manual but the only problem is that if you did not have it, then it could make the experience more difficult. that being said though, virtual consoles can have scanned images of them.

@lordteensie6156

2 ай бұрын

@@scorpionsapprentice3248 but that's not clear, a new player without info has no idea what they're supposed to do and could end up running around the entire map without the sword, they may still find it eventually but again, what is being gained by not starting link in the cave

Ironically the one game that's felt the most like a return to zelda 1 is the indie game entry everyone has forgotten about. Cadence of hyrule will let you go everywhere in any order and how you go about this is based on player skill. All obstacles are randomly generated and while it does get old on your 2nd playthrough it's fresh enough to feel kind of cryptic on your first go. I wish more people tried it.

Thats pribably the best thumbnail ive ever seen

I loved Zelda 1 as a kid. These days though, it's a game I appreciate for its place in gaming history but don't really enjoy trying to replay anymore.

Zelda 1 was my absolute fav for decades, but BotW came out and now they are both my fav Zelda games, no others come close.

I'm going to take a moment to appreciate that while the thumbnail says "best" the title specifies that this is your favorite. I'm just so friggin tired of people saying "X is best" lately, especially when there's some fandom consensus that's usually contingent on a few popular content creators and/or the current age range of the largest active player group. It never stops at just praising the current favorite- it always seems to come with tearing down some other title or era, aiming primarily at the rationale of the people they deemed foolish enough to have enjoyed it then in the first place. (IE: how were they so ignorant of these gamebreaking flaws?) I don't usually post before watching, but I cant watch all this at the moment, and the length suggests you put in enough effort to earn engagement anyway until I can get around to it. Old school Zelda always needs more love, even though I'm more a Zelda 2 person myself. (its the music, Its just too good)

@angelmendez-rivera351

2 ай бұрын

In my experience, unless a person's career specifically revolves around formal and objective critique and analysis of videogame design, and unless they have formal education and labor experience with the trade of game development, a person talking about "the best" or "the worst," or even simply just talk about "good" or "bad," as opposed to merely admitting that what they are saying is an explanation of their personal preferences, is completely useless. So much of the gaming community these days uses this kind of objective terminology as if they have the qualifications and skills to evaluate a videogame, but at the end of the day, they always just end up reviewing the game solely on how well it aligns to their personal preferences rather than addressing objective merits, and when this happens, they also usually make factually incorrect statements about the game. I tend to find this incredibly irritating, but this is probably just part of the trend where humans just love to pretend that they are experts at every topic even if they have absolutely no idea about what they are talking. Unfortunately, this phenomenon of tryin to praise some games while simultaneously putting down other games is not exclusive to modern games being praised at the expense of older ones. It happens in the other direction too. In this video's very comments section, there have been those who have praised Hyrule Fantasy at the expense of Breath of the Wild, for example. Personally, I think this is partially inevitable, because games within the same franchise are always naturally going to be compared, no matter what. However, I do think it would be helpful for the gaming community to learn to judge games by their own merits.

Just wanted to mention that the new games are more structured than you'd think. Rather, especially in Tears, there's that exact same kind of balance between exhilirating freedom on the surface and more tense, structured experiences in caves, shrines, and monster camps. As soon as you decide to engage with the more linear parts of the game, your freedom becomes challenged in a very similar way to zelda 1. Not to mention how you can apply challenges to your runs to make them more interesting, like not eating any meals with healing properties, or never using fast travel (a personal favorite, and much harder than you'd think when it comes to leaving certain areas of the depths/getting to the recall shrine). Although, unlike Zelda 1, Tears doing this feels more like you're opting into it rather than it being as challenging for every player, which is fair enough as I see it.

Bloody brilliant video! Instant sub!

The end of the video made me want to rewatch sequelitis once again

appreciate you experimenting with short form video, keep it up!

When you brought up the Hero’s Journey I started sweating (I’ve read The Hero With A Thousand Faces and squirmed in the presence of many who tout its greatness), but your commentary that it is NOT universal and QUITE fallocentric (for those unaware, the phrase “hero-penis” is in the book) was much appreciated.

Solid video. The only criticism is that I'm now craving a stroopwafel. I've been really fascinated with the randomizer scene over the last few years and I'm curious if you've seen any of it. While it won't fully create the novelty of exploring Hyrule for the first time, it can create a new NES Zelda experience with new starting locations, item locations, caves and dungeons, darknuts on the overworld and octoroks in dungeons, and you can even choose to play as the old man if you desire. They even have merge randomizers involving multiple games with passageways between games. For example - Super Metroid/Link to the Past or SMZ3 where you can find the power glove in Brinstar and Screw Attack in the Tower of Hera.

I’d love to see this style of video more. Shorter, but detailed. I tend to just listen to videos, so I’d be fine with only a few visuals

Fantastic video, you sir have made me very interested to finally sit down and play this one. You've unintentionally explained to me why Ocarina of Time Randomizer (which I highly recommend) is so much more engaging than the vanilla game. Since you don't necessarily have what you need to progress, you need to think about everything that is accessible to you at all times, as well as the different use cases of the items. As someone who does not enjoy most of the series unmodded, it's exciting to hear there is a game that captures this appeal with it's base design.

Shoogles, you're an absolute legend. thank you for putting this out and chugging along. your pokemon diamond video was also fantastic. the finding of prozac video of yours is also one of my all-time favorites, one whose lessons on game design and mental health helped me and i unironically reference between friends. dog bless ya

@shoogles_

2 ай бұрын

Aw heck mate, thank you! I'm really happy to hear that.

A lot of these reasons are the same reasons that I fell so madly in love with Dark Souls

Absolute banger video. I grew up with a 64 so the only Zelda I got to play was OoT and Majora's Mask, but now I'm really excited to try out the original!

I love The Legend of Zelda! "LEAVE YOUR LIFE OR MONEY." I love the first quest of The Legend of Zelda!

Shaymay junpscare lol, always good to see a new vid from you

hell yeah, new Shoogles video :D

new shoogles video = instant joy

It's interesting that you spent as much time as you did talking about Zelda as an offspring of RPGs, considering that that's an angle people rarely talk about it from nowadays, thanks to the fact that the mutations Zelda introduced to the RPG template sort of turned it into its own distinct genre. I wonder if that may have also contributed to the perception of Zelda II as "The Black Sheep" of the series, since that one leaned way harder into the RPG side than the first game.

If nothing else, not that this is a bad video, lad deserves extra respect for putting in his own subtitles.

21:20 wait there are people that saw it as changing color instead of draining?

A few years ago I decided I was going to do a blind playthrough of this game without looking up anything to prove a point. You definitely can beat it with nothing but the tools the game itself gives you. Incredible exploration, the original Metroid too but you probably want to chart your own map.

Hell yeah stroopwaffles, absolutely goated snack

This was a very interesting vid. Zelda 1 is one of the ones I've never played but now I want to give it a try.

I love your video essays man! But man, it’s honestly sad I’ll never get to experience that generation of gaming where people will have to group together and talk about the secrets they have found while eating at a restaurant or something like that, together. I feel like the closest thing we’ll have to this feeling for games again, is ARG’s.

Albeit Zelda 1 isn't my favourite Zelda title on the franchise (that spot is reserved for the Oracles duology), it's definitely high up there. I played it for the first time last year and had a blast, even going as far as to go the extra mile and begin charting a map of my own. Its charm has not been lost in the slightest, and it's somewhat embarrassing that I waited so long before I actually tried it, but hey, better late than never.

I personally really enjoyed the more casual structure of the video, looking forward to what comes next!

It's almost uncanny to watch a video that so perfectly mimics my own thoughts on Zelda 1 and the series as a whole. You didn't read my mind for this script, did you? I think I'm owed some royalties here.

I can't believe shoogles is doing shorts now 😔

I miss living in Scotland

The classic era games are still the best 🙌

Discovered your channel today! Subbed!

7:06 YES! YES!!!! YESSSS!!! Dude I'm _screaming_ right now. I just started thinking "You know who he sounds like right now" and you immediately delivered One, single cognitive beat before you resolved the gag- That was perfect

@TheBlackLantern34

2 ай бұрын

Came right to the comment section exactly for this. Incredibly satisfying set-up and pay-off