Zoomerfag here. Why is Zelda so beloved? I don't really see why it's so succesful...

Zoomerfag here. Why is Zelda so beloved? I don't really see why it's so succesful. Is it one of those "You had to be there" franchises?

It's more popular than ever, how do you come to your conclusions?

I mean it in a if you played Ocarina of Time or whatever when it launched you'll love everything else coming out now

It's hard for me to be unbiased as I have childhood memories with the N64 ones. But I think the world is cool, I dig the weirdly cozy atmosphere, and I like puzzles.

Yes, Zelda is one of those franchises that was revolutionary, but other games have refined and perfected the formula

Millennial nostalgia. I'm 40 years old.

So are we all pretending In this thread that botw wasn't beloved by zoomers?

Yes.
That and all of Nintendo franchises and icons, they're just millennial nostalgia and are still popular because they were the first.
Unfortunately, they've stuck like cancerous parasite to gaming, influencing things in worse directions.
Baby's first actual open world + "look I'm a real gamer!" bragging rights.

Bullshit, every zoomer I know that has a switch liked botw

Dungeons are cool I guess

Zoomerfag

Stop the falseflagging, you nigger.

Make it clear that I'm a zoomer so that some oldtroon won't accuse me of being one derailing the thread from the actual matter at hand

Get accused of not being one

This site is full of niggers

As I said, baby's first actual open world game.

Original series was well-liked and established early on

one of the few games to have a non-awkward transition to 3D

Consistent quality across titles

The series defined a genre and helped move games toward being less arcady by being one of the first to let you save progress.

I dont blame you for not know since the series has been shit for almost 2 decades but for a little while it was pretty fucking awesome. You could still try the early games, but if you think you need a guide to get through them I'm afraid you might be retarded.

No. I played OoT when it came out, and because of it, I hate whatever the new shit is. Because of what we could have got.

I thought that was Skyrim

I've been playing open world games since they were possible, GTA3 I guess? and I loved BotW. It deserves all the praise it gets and more. I'm sure you've got 5 open world games you think are better.

I've never met a person who played any Zelda game.
It's probably a consolefag thing. Aka it was only popular in like US, Japan, France and UK maybe.

Oh woe is me I'm a famous multimillionaire actor who is genuinely loved by kids and adults all around the world with a beautiful wife and daughter but MUH DEPRESSION D: D: D: GONNS KILL MYSELF LOL

fuck off

It was actually Parkinson's. The later stages do all sorts of bad stuff to mood and it being an incurable degenerative disease doesn't help matters.

Nah, you're right. BOTW wasn’t just millennial bait — zoomers genuinely loved it too. The freedom, physics, and exploration resonated with a whole new generation. Just because it’s people’s first experience with open-world doesn’t mean it wasn’t impactful. You don’t have to invent reasons to hate a game just because it’s popular.

It's fucking zelda bro. There is a period in your late teens where you become a heckin hardcore gamer too good for good games but if you stick with the hobby your fundamental will return.

That's baby's first moddable game.
People born in the early years of generation Z (1997-2004), especially those in third world countries, can't be considered zoomers by the pejorative meaning of the word nowadays.

Oot was literally the original YELLOW PAINT

t. millennial who liked oot as a babby until he played the other games and realized it was a downgrade

If I my parents named me after a videogame character or some celeb shit Id've murdered them in their sleep

Zelda is a real name, My great gran's name is zelda. Its german.

liked Zelda

killed himself

"""german"""

Zelda and Lin[c|k] are both common names in Europe, so much so that they have name days in many countries. Nintendo chose those names to go with the boreal, vaguely medival European setting of the first game.

Zelda is a nickname for the feminine name Griselda,[1] from Old High German Grisja Hilda, 'Grey Battle-maid'.[2][3] It is also (Yiddish: זעלדאַ or זעלדע, Hebrew: זלדה) the feminine form of the Yiddish name Zelig,[1] (זעליג) meaning 'blessed', 'happy'.[4]

So one actually sounds like zelda and one sounds like heebs making up a reason why "im totally not jewish goys please dont deport me"

I know a lincke, cool dude.

why do people like a franchise with good games?

He didn't want to turn into a demented husk like Bruce Willis has.

Where's your 5 open world games that are better than Wilds Zelda?

It basically invented the action adventure game. I know the 2600 had adventure and ultima was doing the texted based stuff but, zelda was the first adventure game that was anything close to what modern games are

Is it one of those "You had to be there" franchises?

Sure, in the sense that your zoomer brain has been hardwired to be addicted to constant stimuli and instant gratification and gambling, so it wouldn't be possible for you to appreciate games made in a time when media needed to have actual substance.

GTA 3
Morrowind
Assassin's Creed 1
GTA 4
Watch Dogs 1

Honorable mention goes to Bully.

the first games were masterpieces but the series turned to dogshit after oot

I've played 4 of those and disagree entirely. GTA3 sucked when it was new! Morrowind is great but the only thing it shares in common with Wilds is being an open world. Maybe Watch Dogs is just the total GOAT that would convince me otherwise but judging from the rest of your list I doubt it.

GTA 3 for the sheer unpolished quality that allows you to create all sorts of chaos and for nonfactor and unscripted situations to happen in your missions is (in my opinion) a necessity for any open world game. Moreover, there was nothing like GTA 3 at the time of its release with the sheer freedom it gave player to roam around and explore. I believe it should be a blueprint of how every open world game to be designed.
As of 2025, I still hold Watch Dogs 1 as the best open world game in existence, more so with lively city mod that improves the experience further.

I'll agree on the emergent gameplay point. All my time in GTA3 was spamming cheat codes and creating chaos. But I played very little of the game. It just wasn't that fun.

kek good point

There's really nothing like it.

No idea. The NES was my first console and I didn't enjoy zelda 1 and 2 much back then. Then the SNES came and with it a link to the past and it blew my mind. Now I haven't touched anything nintendo since the nintendo 64.
I guess some people change, some don't.

They were some of the first major non-platformer action/adventure games with a big interconnected world. When the first Zelds game out, it was a huge cut above every other similar game. Then A Link to the Past expanded on that and made it more accessible. Then Ocarina of Time did that in 3D, with the best open 3D world outside of an RPG. Then the 3D games iterated on that in new and interesting ways, giving you a different adventure each time. Then when they got too linear and formulaic, they released Breath of the Wild which threw out the formula and was mostly nonlinear.

On top of being aesthetically engrossing and having lots of exploration, Zelda games had decent combat for their day and lots of fun tools to play with. The 3D ones are mostly easy enough and past the NES they're all fairly accessible and intuitive games. So, the series naturally has a lot of mainstream appeal.

with the best open 3D world outside of an RPG.

*up to that point

Zelda doesn't excel at anything it just does a lot of things passably and to a high degree of polish

writing is ok

characters are ok

combat is ok

exploration is ok

puzzles are ok

whole package / brand is highly appealing and "luxury"

It's basically the tourist trap of videogames, this is why a lot of women are into it also.