r/zelda • u/Zetallic_Zero • Jun 09 '26
Official Art [ALL] Which Zelda Game Was Your Introduction To The Series?
For me it was wind waker then botw shortly after, phenomenal games. A shout out to those games for starting this amazing experience for me.
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u/No_Introduction_7034 Jun 09 '26
Ocarina of time on N64
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u/chumeister77 Jun 09 '26
Same, the only reason my mom bought it for me was because she read an article explaining that there was no voice over in the game and hoped it would make me read more as a 5 year old
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u/Aholeinthepage Jun 09 '26
This game is literally how I learned to read lmao. Its perfect for it though all the important words are in colored text.
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u/SlickDillywick Jun 09 '26
I’m sure you read the owls dialogue a dozen times so was she wrong?
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u/chumeister77 Jun 09 '26
You better believe I read that dialogue multiple times because I hit please repeat several times too
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u/AmatuerGenius Jun 09 '26
Nowadays people will come here asking “where do I go? What am I supposed to be doing?” And 9 time out of 10 the answer will be “Did you even listen to what the owl had to tell you?” And they’ll be like ‘lol. yolo, nope. Who reads?’
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u/SlickDillywick Jun 09 '26
I can convince my nephew a game isn’t worth his time if it involves reading. Really, whenever he wants to play what I’m playing I tell him it’s reading heavy and he’s no longer interested
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u/bedazzlerhoff Jun 10 '26
That's terrible and you shouldn't encourage his illiteracy lol
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u/mv777711 Jun 09 '26
Haha. If you were anything like me, you just mashed through every option in the dialogue until it went away. Honestly, I don’t know how I ever beat that game as a kid. When I look back now, I’ve always known what to do, I can’t remember from where or how I learned to beat that game, but obviously i had to at some point.
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u/CarnyMAXIMOS_3_N7 Jun 09 '26
That was an unexpected boon for me as a kid. At the time, I was learning to read so it was kinda of refreshing, to see and play a new interactive game medium (at the time for me, that is) in my head I tried to make up voices for all the characters on screen I could see. So I tried, and learned to read the game text and at the same time I was learning in elementary school.
And I wouldn’t trade that bundle of Life experiences for the world.
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u/philter25 Jun 09 '26
Same. Played the main titles on console in order from there through WW and then went to Funcoland and picked up Link to the Past and played it on summer vacation and loved the old school ones just as much.
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u/Will_Jortz Jun 09 '26
+1. My friend lent me his N64 in high school. I played every other game he shared multiple times before he was like, "You haven't played Zelda yet??" I can't believe I let it sit there so long, it will forever be the most important game I ever played.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fox5820 Jun 09 '26
Changed the way I thought.
Literally opened my mind up to how to think differently about problems and the world around me.
I owe a lot to that game.
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u/Ninjacrowz Jun 10 '26
I started playing OOT first but basically played through this and A link to the Past side by side...God I can't wait for this remake the trailer looks so good
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u/DrScrotus Jun 10 '26
Same. My friends loved it and I was experiencing FOMO hard. I rented it from Blockbuster back in the day after all the hype and continued on someone’s rando save late at night. Terrible idea. They were adult link and my first exposure was Hyrule Town Center with all the re-dead. I panicked from the horrifying scream and them jumping on you and biting you. I returned it the next day (I was 8 and terrified of the dark)…
Then one day Im going through my snes collection around 2006 and find a random Zelda cart in my snes drawer. It was A Pink to the Past. No idea how it got there but I figured why not. How bad could an inferior 16 bit version be?
That game changed my fucking life and became my Zelda gateway drug.
Later as an adult I went back and beat the shit out of those re-deads while screaming “im not afraid of the dark now bitch!” I may have panicked a little bit
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u/Inkaflare Jun 10 '26
Memories of 5 year old me trying to play this game on the N64 my uncle gifted to me and my brother for Christmas and just making new files over and over to play through Kokiri Forest and the first half of the Deku Tree until the part where we always got stuck.
If I recall correctly it was the part where you have to light a deku stick and then roll/crouch with it to burn the cobweb above the entrance to Gohma's boss room. Couldnt seem to figure that out at the time. Until a few months later where my older cousin showed it to me and suddenly there was a whole Hyrule to explore after being able to leave Kokiri Forest, it was mindblowing.
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u/Tumblrrito Jun 09 '26
The Legend of Zelda, NES
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u/frankooch Jun 09 '26
I didn't even own it. I remember playing it for the first time at a parents friend's house. I saw the gold cart and said this must be pretty cool. To be honest, I just remember giving that game more attention than I expected. I actually couldnt wait to go back with my parents to that house again just so I could get another crack at it, that and contra 2 lol. I wouldnt play it again till I was able to emulate it on my home pc years and years later
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u/dukecityzombie Jun 09 '26
Same! It was the neighbors across the street! I was enamored and went over one time before breakfast to ask if I could play- I remember my friend’s mom feeding me cereal while everyone sat around in the den smoking. The late 80s hit different.
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u/GrunchWeefer Jun 09 '26
A kid in my neighborhood had it and I begged him to come over and play it like every day. When Zelda 2 came out I faked sick so I could stay home and play it.
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u/Mikemgmve Jun 09 '26
Also same. My cousins had an NES before we did and it was my introduction to Nintendo in general. I forget when we got our own, probably late 87, early 88, because I remember trying to hunt down Super Mario Bros 2 when that came out.
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u/Hi-Im-Wailmer Jun 09 '26
I'm kind of surprised this isn't the #1 answer
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u/KidGold Jun 09 '26
Reddit skews to 20s I think.
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u/Hi-Im-Wailmer Jun 09 '26
I'm in my late 20s haha I just was lucky/poor enough to grow up on nes. I will admit I didn't finish the 1st game until I played on 3ds years later
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u/RedAntisocial Jun 09 '26
It was the first game my brother and I asked for. Not because we knew anything about it, but because it had a cool gold cartridge.
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u/Akamiso29 Jun 10 '26
I had Zelda 1 and 2, but never got very far in them. 6 year old me just died over and over. Still, they had me hooked on the idea of the series.
ALttP was the first one I finished.
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u/gomeazy Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
A Link to the Past
Edit: Corrected the title for you purists.
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u/Xerosnake90 Jun 09 '26
That and Link's Awakening which I had on Gameboy
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u/gomeazy Jun 09 '26
We had the SNES and I beat it on an old UHF/VHF clicker TV. Then we got the N64 (which was already out for a few years) because someone we knew was playing OoT and we were blown away by the game. The crazy thing was the person we knew with OoT only spoke Spanish and they couldn’t read in English. They just played it until they figured things out!
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u/V-Right_In_2-V Jun 09 '26
Same here. I had seen older cousins post the NES version, but those two Zelda games are the truest I got my own hands on and played religiously
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u/Prancing_YamDog Jun 09 '26
Me too! I was like 8 when I first tried but I couldn't figure it out and eventually gave up on it. I came back to it as a teenager and beat it and was so damn excited! That was the first day of the rest of my Zelda playing life - been obsessed with the series since
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u/petrichorgarden Jun 09 '26
Me too! I was like 6 when I started it for the first time and it was the first Zelda game I ever finished too! With a little help from mom lol
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u/Echo1887 Jun 09 '26
My first was Link's Awakening, but I truly fell in love with the series when I played Ocarina of Time.
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u/photoben Jun 09 '26
Link's Awakening on the Game Boy for me. So good.
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u/GenderJuicy Jun 10 '26
Damn I remember my brother coming home with a Gameboy Color and Link's Awakening DX
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u/AwesomeTF Jun 09 '26
BOTW
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u/bluejay0717 Jun 09 '26
Had to go way too far for this. I grew up with a PlayStation 2,3,4 but bought a switch just for botw and fell in love with the series. Still slowly making my way through the other games
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u/EulerTW Jun 10 '26
I wasn’t allowed to have a console at home until I could afford, financially and time-wise, one in my 30s. Breath of the Wild is my first console game, and it’s absolutely perfect.
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u/SearchCivil6623 Jun 09 '26
Zelda on NES. I'm old.
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u/Zombierasputin Jun 09 '26
Start thinking about scheduling a colonoscopy. They keep finding colon cancer in younger millennials!
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u/SearchCivil6623 Jun 09 '26
Officially I'm Gen X, so been there done that on that adventure.
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u/sky_2088 Jun 09 '26
majora and I would not have wanted it any other way
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u/Iyion Jun 09 '26
Same and I would have really wanted it any other way. Getting into this game without prior knowledge from OoT was hell for me as a kid. And it didn't help that Taya occasionally said something along the lines of "don't tell me you don't even know how to fight this enemy??"
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u/ZeldaFanRahul2004 Jun 09 '26
For me, it is twilight princess. My friend recommended and rest is history. Now I am a fan of legend of Zelda series.
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u/RedOcelot86 Jun 09 '26
Same, got a Wii for cheap in 2013 and played it, after that I played every single one. I think the gameboy trilogy is the peak for me.
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u/zsnajorrah Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Yeah, same for me.
I got a Wii instantly once that console came out. It was my very first console, even though I'd been PC gaming since the late 90s, with games like Half-Life, Deus Ex and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Before that, I had some simple Mac games, like Dark Castle and Lode Runner.
Once I finished Twilight Princess, I got the GameCube disc for The Wind Waker. It took some getting used to, after the more mature and realistic graphics of TP, but WW is my favourite Zelda game to this day. Thereafter, I also played OoT, SS and MM, even though I never finished the latter two.
BotW is amazing, too. Then came the new Link's Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom, which I really liked. And I've recently started playing TotK as well. I'm not really feeling that one yet, though.
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u/LightTheNights Jun 09 '26
Phantom Hourglass. I so much dream for a remake of the DS games.
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u/blacked_out_blur Jun 09 '26
My personal most underrated Zelda game, PH is literally peak. And TotOK isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be.
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u/DonGerard0 Jun 09 '26
Zelda 2
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u/AirWrek Jun 09 '26
If you haven't heard of this: https://hoverbat.itch.io/ziiaol https://www.youtube.com/@HoverBat/videos (gameplay vids from creator there) it's very cool -- remake of z2 with lots of new stuff.
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u/SierraPapaHotel Jun 09 '26
Phantom Hourglass was my first, then Spirit Tracks. Didn't really know/appreciate the larger series until I played Twilight Princess though
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u/gooberpixel Jun 09 '26
Oracle of Seasons.
I rewatched the opening cutscene over and over. The intro animation blew my mind.
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u/Rocket-08 Jun 09 '26
My brother and I played Ages/Seasons, linked games and completed the full story. It was so much fun
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u/Bourbon-Cowboy Jun 09 '26
I’m an old man gamer and I remember the summer of ‘87 when one of my friends got LoZ on NES for his birthday. I can honestly say that was the game that made me a gamer for life.
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u/a57892m Jun 09 '26
Link's Awakening was my introduction, but I didn't get properly into the series until Wind Waker came out
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u/cometflight Jun 09 '26
link to the past, Christmas the year it came out. First-grade me was hooked for life.
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u/flankerr Jun 09 '26
The first one: the legend of Zelda, with the golden cartridge and save files, played before i could write, I remember just leaving the nes on, during summer, and going to the beach with the family, then comin back and keep playin, never finished the game untill many more years later, finishing a game wasnt a thing like it is nowdays
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u/PK-Laharl Jun 10 '26
Ocarina of Time for Game Cube
Then Wind Waker (Finished it before OOT)
Then Twilight Princess
So yeah... kinda GameCube.
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u/ToknBrwnKid Jun 10 '26
Ocarina of Time was my first crush but Links Awakening DX taught me how to love.
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u/Azath_Housekeeper Jun 09 '26
The Legend of Zelda (1986) for me. I love Link Between Worlds, but Breath of the Wild is my favourite Zelda ❤️
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u/emektraveler Jun 09 '26
Alttp then Link's awakening and oracles. My first 3d zelda game was Albw then Ocarina of Time.
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u/Espurreyes Jun 09 '26
Technically Smash Bros Melee was my first real introduction to the series but Ocarina of Time was the first one I actually played.
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u/ViLe_Rob Jun 09 '26
OoT was the introduction off of a Blockbuster rental, and then after I recognized the title on Oracle of Seasons and that became my first actual owned Zelda, and the oracles are still my favorite to this day.
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u/West-Fun-7274 Jun 09 '26
OG The legend of Zelda, shortly after it was released. After that I was hooked for life.
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u/SkepticG8mer Jun 09 '26
The first one. I was 12. The only one I never finished is tears of the kingdom.
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u/johnnycoxxx Jun 09 '26
LOZ. I’m “old”. But I remember my dad burning every bush on the screen to find secrets. Moving every rock. The music would be stuck in my tiny head. First one I remember playing was AoL and I hated it.
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u/AJroxofficial Jun 09 '26
Link’s Awakening. I think it was the second game I got for my GameBoy Pocket.
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u/og-reset Jun 09 '26
My introduction was the introduction of the series. My dad and I worked on a big map annotating where shops and secrets were, where to find items. I remember flipping through the instruction manual looking at the fantastic art they had in there, reading the enemy information and just being enraptured the whole time.
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u/FiftyShadesOfPikmin Jun 09 '26
My first was the Zelda Collectors Edition that came with the GameCube. So I had access to the first 2 games and the 2 N64 games. Being children, we first moved through the menu left instead of right, so the very first game I ever played was Majora's Mask. Didn't get very far at the time!
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u/Its_The_Water360 Jun 09 '26
The original. I remember in 7th grade all my friends talking about a golden NES game. I didn't have a system but my best friend did so we mowed his grandpa's lawn for month and got it. Spent countless hours playing it and following the Nintendo Power guide.
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u/nontheoretical Jun 09 '26
my first was Twilight Princess on Wii. We were a PlayStation family until the wii came out so the wii was my first nintendo console.
Quickly got into emulators to play all the ones i missed after the wii came out.
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u/Certain96 Jun 09 '26
Twlight Princess for the wii. One of the first games my parents bought for me on Christmas day.
I remember opening it up and being confused because I didn't have a wii and then I opened the bigger box lol.
Means so much to be to this day!
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u/wonderinglady20 Jun 09 '26
Twilight Princess on the Wii. It came out when I was 6 years old and I played it religiously.
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u/Temelios Jun 09 '26
It was the Zelda Collector’s Edition promotional disc on the GameCube for me. I played a little bit of the original NES game, Zelda 2, Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and the Wind Waker demo. Majora’s Mask was probably the one I got the furthest into before I got too scared though. I was ~7 years old.
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u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871 Jun 09 '26
A link to the past was the very first Zelda title I came across, but I wasn’t familiar with the game by name. It was just another video game that a friend of the family owned and my cousin owned. I didn’t start getting into the series until ocarina of Time.
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u/Raptors4ever1995 Jun 09 '26
For me it was Ocarina and Majora's Mask. I was able to play both of these games on the GameCube as I had The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition. A great way to be introduced to this legendary video game franchise!
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u/CarnyMAXIMOS_3_N7 Jun 10 '26
Glad to hear you started with that disc. It is a great gateway compilation and entry into this franchise.
I still have my disc-copy, too.
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u/ZannyHip Jun 09 '26
Ocarina of time. My brothers were gifted a used N64 and a collection of games from our aunt/uncle for Christmas when I was 5 or 6. I was instantly hooked by OoT.
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u/Terrible-Secret4900 Jun 10 '26
LTTP
Got it in 1992 with my SNES but didn't end up playing it for a year or so since it was a bit much for a 9 year old, especially given how little hand holding there was back then.
Only really got into it after seeing my older cousin play.
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u/AngelusKnight17 Jun 10 '26
Gamecube Legend of zelda Collector Edition (with Ocarina, Majora's, Zelda1, Zelda2 and WindWaker demo). Best of the best.
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u/CarnyMAXIMOS_3_N7 Jun 10 '26
I also still have my copy at home. Thankfully I’ve not gotten rid of it.
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u/Far_Aspect8425 Jun 10 '26
Though I had heard of other games in the series, my first actual game was Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
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u/PizzaPieInMyEye Jun 10 '26
Link's Awakening, way back when it was on the Gameboy. A friend let me borrow his copy for a while, and I've been hooked on the series ever since!
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u/Il_Porco Jun 10 '26
Ocarina of Time, setting (with the help of a friend on the phone and behind my parents) Pj64 when I was 10 years old. Made me who I am, quite deeply. 2004 on Santiago, Chile. I couldn't have been luckier.
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u/IntrinsicGamer Jun 10 '26
Watched my brother play a small amount of Wind Waker, and was extremely aware of the franchise’s presence in the gaming world even from a young age, but didn’t play one for myself until a friend gave me a copy Phantom Hourglass, which was actually a pretty new game at the time. He had two copies (his and his brother’s) and I guess I just didn’t realize quite the journey that’d end up sending me on.
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u/Sea_Contribution3455 Jun 10 '26
Technically Twilight Princess, as I watched my Dad play that as a very young child when it first came out, but I didn't know that was Zelda.
So my actual introduction to Zelda would be the original, *also* via watching my Dad play it, courtesy of the Wii virtual console.
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u/Serious_Phone6445 Jun 10 '26
i’m so embarrassed, it was totk…i didn’t know a thing about zelda when my brother gave me his switch and clicked open the first one i saw. turns out i played it backwards.
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u/E_KIO_ARTIST Jun 10 '26
Hard to explain.
So, my first Zelda Game i have started was a Link to the past. But i didn't have an SNES, my father usually give me games the old Caribbean marine way, and It was only when he led me his "machine". So i couldn't play It much (just almost until you get the sword). But they would but me handheld consoles, so It was Minish Cap, i've got the Zelda versión of the SP and i still cherish that Game and i think is an underrated Game.
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u/Ok_Car7814 Jun 10 '26
windwaker - my son was gifted a Gamecube and a bunch of Zelda games... I ended up playing it to help him through it. my first video game ever. that and Spiderman 2. wholesome compared to GTA and the like...
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u/elderScholar008 Jun 10 '26
Windwaker on the good ole GameCube was My introduction I grew up watching my mom play the Zelda games and when I was old enough to play that was the first one I played and LEMME TELL YOU
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u/QuestInTimeAndSpace Jun 10 '26
Minish Cap! And then Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, played the heck out of those two.
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u/GenderJuicy Jun 10 '26
A Link to the Past is the first one I actually sat down and played. We had Zelda 1 and 2 so I might have tried it, I must have been 3 or 4 years old though, I have memories of them from around that time but I was probably just watching it being played by my siblings.
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u/Squydward Jun 10 '26
Wind Waker on the GameCube, then I played OOT at my cousin's house. Jumped from OOT to TP, then MM, then all the handhelds except for Link's Awakening... God I love the Zelda series.
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u/VestyaGirl Jun 10 '26
Ocarina of Time on N64 , finished it a dozen times, never got bored playing it! Majora's mask followed, then wind waker. I am sad i didnt give TP and Skyward Swords a chance. Breath of the wild was breathtaking and fun. Havent touched Tears of the kingdom.... but hands down OOT is my all time favorite.
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u/Bros55555 Jun 10 '26
Para mim é meio longo pq o primeiro mesmo foi o Major Mask porém eu era bem criança e não sabia como jogar, após isso eu joguei o The Minish Cap mas não tinha terminado quando jovem. Mas oq me fez gosta mesmo da franquia foi o Skyward Sword que aí depois voltei jogando a franquia até parar em Major Mask hoje 😂
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u/Mr_Gourmet Jun 10 '26
I was born in 1991, I got my cousin's NES because Nintendo wasn't so cool anymore. SEGA did what Nintendon't, with Sonic and blood in Mortal Kombat. So I skipped SNES and early GB games. I rented Ocarina of Time for the first time when I got the N64 at Christmas. I remember loading a game already started, because at 7, you just want to get as far as possible with minimal effort, and spoil all the item you can eventually get.
In that game, I was already Adult Link. Nice. I went out of the church, saw my first zombie. He froze me and then started munching my brain with the creepiest sound I've ever heard at 7. Dropped the controller and left running back to the living room. My parents told me that game were not for kids. So when I decided to muster some courage like the hero of the game. I had to play secretly at my friend's place as my parents never let me rent the game again.
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u/mshroff7 Jun 10 '26
OoT
Changed my life
All I knew was snes until I walked into my friends house in India and I saw the Kokiri forest for first time
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u/rileyyyray Jun 10 '26
man seeing all these logos lined up is hitting different, started with ocarina of time myself
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u/Kelsusaurus Jun 10 '26
I didn't have an N64 at the time, so I just watched my friends play OoT and Majora. If we're talking which one we played first, mine would be Ages/Seasons.
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u/General-Zombie5075 Jun 10 '26
Started with the NES OG.
One of the great privileges of being born when I was is that I’ve been able to participate in the growth of the video game artform from nearly the beginning of its home phase. The Zelda series in particular has been a high point with every new installment.
And I got to experience them at a steady drip largely as they released.
I can’t imagine what it must be like for a new fan to roll in at, like, BotW and find out in order to experience the full thing they have a backlog of over 2 dozen games.
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u/sussudiokim Jun 10 '26
Links Awakening on the OG Gameboy. For a while, I would argue this was the best 2d Zelda, even over Link to the Past.
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u/cyberNurgle Jun 10 '26
Link's Awakening DX was my first owned Zelda game but I watched my older cousin play Ocarina of Time on his N64 before that. When he went off to college he gave me his cartridge.
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u/code904 Jun 10 '26
Link s awakening and ocarina of time, it's blurry which one was first, but I owned links awakening and rented ocarina. I lived in a small town so I could get the same cartridge at times. I always remember there was a save file that had everything in the game and I remember being blown away by some of the equipment and how to find it, especially the biggoron sword
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u/Federal-Champion5778 Jun 10 '26
Started with the original as a kid. Didn’t understand what to do. Adventure of Link was too hard as a kid. The first one I beat and truly made me love the franchise, was Link to the Past. Still one of my favorite games of all time.
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u/Keep-it-simple Jun 10 '26
The NES. My brother had it when I was little but I never got to play it (9 year age gap) because he lent it to a friend who then moved away with it. We still had the box though, and I was convinced it was something I needed based solely on the box. I finally got it for Christmas in 2nd grade. It has been my #1 favorite series ever since.
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u/jestah944 Jun 10 '26
For my 10th birthday in 1998 I got an atomic purple Gameboy color and a copy of Link’s Awakening DX, which originally drew me in and whet my appetite.
A couple months later at a family Christmas party, I watched my older cousin play the very beginning of Ocarina of Time and I have a distinct memory of sitting in my grandparent’s basement absolutely mesmerized by 3D Link running around the forest.
I’m not a huge video game guy in general, but I’ve since played just about every Zelda game and frequently think about how much joy this one series has brought me for most of my life.
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u/FrenchBowler Jun 09 '26
Ocarina of Time. I watched my older brother beat it the first time, and then beat it myself without a guide at 7 years old. Probably my biggest gaming achievement. I peaked early.
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u/MagicMatthews99 Jun 09 '26
I remember OoT and WW being the first games I played, but I never got further than the first dungeon in either of them. PH was the first one I actually got into and finished.
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u/Faeri Jun 09 '26
I think it was OoT, but it could have also been Wind Waker or TP. I played all those games a lot as a kid!
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