Okay so. A primer on the Zelda franchise:
Nintendo dislikes video games with stories, and they nakedly hate video game franchises with overall lore. Nintendo wants to make video games that are mechanically fun, “it’s fun to jump on the thing.” “It’s fun to swing a sword ad the thing.” “It’s fun to throw a ball at the thing.” Look no farther than their primary flagship franchise, the Mario series, for games with an excuse plot and highly polished primary gameplay loops. You can tell they truly, madly, deeply resent their secondary flagship franchise, the Zelda series, for being a more narrative driven adventure saga that attracts gamers who like deep overall lore.
Ocarina of Time is the most important game in the Zelda series’ deep overall lore.
queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 5 hours ago
I think so, I think Ocarina of Time earns its high esteem, and Ship of Harkinian irons out a lot of the QoL issues that make the original annoying, like being able to toggle boots without going into the menu.
After you finish OoT I’d recommend running Majora’s Mask via 2 Ship 2 Harkinian as well. It’s less popular than OoT but every bit as good, I think. I can’t pick just one, but if I had to pick a “#1 favorite video game of all time”, Majora’s Mask would be a finalist. It’s really good.
Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 4 hours ago
Thanks man, will do! As there were tons of Zeldas: it’s a finished story I can even follow without knowing any other title? I assume so, also assuming it’s not just great gameplay but also great story.
wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 hours ago
Each game is meant to playable as a standalone thing, any direct storyline continuation from previous titles is covered in the game itself. Technically Ocarina of Time and Majora’s mask are a pair with MM as the sequel, but either can be played alone with no real loss of context. MM does build on gameplay of OoT though.
It’s not a spoiler to say that across the game series it’s generally a plot about some reincarnation of the three central figures of Link, Zelda, and Ganon. There’s often implied reincarnations of other characters too across multiple games, but that’s mostly just callback fluff for fans. There’s one game set first in the in universe timeline that sets up the impetus for the reincarnation cycle, and one game that splits the timeline into a few branches based off three different interpretations of the ending.
The two main newest ones, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, are a two-fer as well, and are a new timeline or convergence of the split timelines depending on who you ask.
For a first time player, don’t worry about it. Whichever game you play will give you what you need to know. Any understanding of the “grand series plot” just adds some extra oomph to scenes in later released games than OoT and MM.
gartheom@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Most Zelda games are completely standalone and can be played in any order without really having any overlapping story. I think technically Majora’s mask is a sequel to Ocarina of time but you don’t need to play them in that order.
queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 hours ago
There’s an overarching storyline with some timey-wimey bits that I read at one point and have since forgotten. I haven’t played all of them so maybe there are continuity assumptions elsewhere but both of the n64 titles can be played without knowing anything else about the series. MM complements OoT, but even then they don’t have to be played in order to be appreciated.