This really is not just one of the best zelda openings, but game openings. A tutorial that feels like the epic castle rush at the end of any other game.
Side note about the switches in the sewer, they do hint as to which one is the real one. If you approach the one on the left, Zelda says nothing. She only talks to you as you approach the one on the right. That’s the intended hint. I agree that it’s annoying not having bombs or the dash boots to access that secret room when you first go through the dungeon, but the fact there is a secret entrance that drops you in that exact room, to avoid going through the whole sewer again, makes up for it IMO.
It's been ages, so I can't remember whether the game manual (blast from the past) mentioned how to pull levers like that. If it didn't, then in theory the only way to even know how to pull it would be to approach the right one.
The little jingle when you boot up the game and the triforce pieces come together....PEAK NOSTALGIA!!! This was the first Zelda game I ever played and it's near and dear to my heart as well :) I think all of your points are great! I have to say, I never really realized before why I always enjoy starting this one more than a lot of the others, and you described the reasons why perfectly. It's definitely not something to dread! Thanks for the amazing videos, Capt! We appreciate you :) xoxo
This was the first video game I ever played and to my 3 year old self the world felt as real and open as Bethesda games are. In retrospect my younger self dramatically overestimated the size and scope of the game but damn if that opening jingle doesn't take me right back to those days where it felt like I was about to experience the most mind blowing piece of fiction imaginable.
SNES was my very first games console, and I was a kid when LttP released. It’s not hyperbole to say this game CHANGED MY LIFE. I had no idea a video game could transport me into a whole new universe the way LoZ has done and continues to do - no matter how old I get. Thank you for the nostalgia.
What a great opening to the game. The music is so epic, I still think of it when playing newer games - as in how much cooler everything would be if they had the same soundtrack! And the rainy beginning is so atmospheric, I will never forget it; it was only my second experience in console gaming after Super Mario World and is etched into my brain in every little detail. Somehow nothing today can match that very peculiar "it's a perfectly rainy afternoon to delve into a fictional world" vibe this game managed to create.
I love how Zelda 3 get you immediatly at the heart of the action, no long dialogues, no choirs, no crappy fishing useless mini game, it manage to give you the games mechanics, the story, and the atmosphère at the same time, and you never feel in a tuto, not even once, when there at the top Nintendo really nailed the game disign in a way that you don't need to be told things to understand them, I miss that in modern gaming.
I’m a fairly new subscriber, but this series hooked me on your channel and your content. It all started with the dungeon design video of the original NES Zelda.
Fun fact: if you don't pick up the lantern in Link's house you have two more chances to get it again later. Once in the chest in the room right after getting the sword from your uncle and again in Zelda's cell. A lot of speed runners will avoid picking up the lantern until getting to Zelda's cell
Bananas? Are you a Yiga?! Hi, I don't know for how long I was subscribed but yesterday got suggested to your channel in my home page and I'm enjoying this one serie with the 2D Zelda games! 🙌🏼😌
I've played this game over and over since it came out when I was 10, and I only today realized that the shields the guards use in the opening NEVER show up again in game. Those are some heavy-duty shields, they could have made for a cool fight where you needed to remove the shields, (perhaps with the Hookshot, or by hitting them with the ice or fire rods to heat/cool them to extremes) before you could attack the soldiers.
MAN YOUR INTROS ARE SO GREAT!!! I only played this for the first time within the last few years, and it really is such a good one! The music in this one is amazing, it's perfect for setting the tone and ambiance! I love that this game gives the player so much choice at the start of the dungeon. Definitely not overtly hand holdy, but like you say it gets you where you need to go! Oof I hated the ball and chain knight 😝 I got it pretty quickly, but I do remember struggling with him at first 😂 I really enjoyed this break down! This is a great first dungeon, and definitely sets the player up for success ☺️ nice video! Excited for the next one 😁👏🏼🍔
I love this one, as much as I loath its predecessor. I don't understand why you don't like coming back to dungeons later, I really like it, it's great to have a reason to revisit places in the game. Your other criticisms, I agree with, but this is really, overall, the quintessential Zelda game to me. I'm really hoping Tears of the Kingdom brings the spirit of A Link to the Past into 3D, the same way Breath of the Wild did for Zelda 1.
hyrule castle introduced many first in the zelda series. it was the first mini-dungeon, have a companion escort, interconnected with other dungeons (in fact the sewers and tower sections are different dungeons), different exits, permanently closes, and has no boss.
also, alttp probably has the best tutorial in the series. other entries generally just throw random chores or force you to grind before the game begins or there is a cutscene that is needlessly long and unskippable.
This was my first Zelda game, I played it when it came out on the SNES #old but after the first 3 dungeons I had to have my dad do the "hard" ones, as I was only 7 #notthatold--but I did beat Ganon at the end. Peak nostalgia. So stands the test of time. Played it again on my original SNES console over lockdown on a CRT tv and had all the feels My fave part of your vid is when you were saying the music was great (hell yes) and you synced the word "triumphant" with the boss key appearing from the iron knuckle (or dark nut?)--I always got a kick out of how the boss key is as big as Link in this game >D and I agree that the boomerang is underutilised, in this dungeon and in the game as a whole. I thought OOT did a good job of rectifying that
This was also my first Zelda game! It hits me so hard in the nostalgia every time, so there is almost certainly going to be bias in the upcoming videos hahaha. n Thanks for watching and being a good egg. #Notold
I understand the love of the opening of ALTTP, it's definitely the best opening, but I don't mind the openings of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword either, I understand their inclusion and if I want to replay a game for the story they settle me right into the world with how day to day life goes for these characters. How things are before calamity strikes. I get that for repeated playthroughs these intros get repetitive and boring, but if I'm replaying a game it's usually because I want to experience a game again and mostly forgotten parts of the games. Plus some mechanics like the Loftwing flying needed a long tutorial just due to how different it controls to anything else in the series. Plus If I want to replay a Zelda game sooner I just boot up a randomizer which skips 90% of the story anyways, plus I get to create my own story and reasons for things happening the way they do in the randomizer lol. Long comment short I fully agree ALTTP has the best intro but I'm also totally fine for long winded "boring" intros to lull me into the world and setting (probably because I don't replay games too many times)
A Link to The Past is an oddity for me. Despite it being the single greatest source of nostalgia in my life, it's far from my favorite game even within the Zelda franchise, which I'm not nearly as fond of as I once was. Don't dislike them, just aren't my favorite thing on the planet as an adult. It created the Zelda formula and like many great firsts, it has been surpassed in my eyes. However unlike so many other franchises that near obsolete their earliest entries, this one stands alone to me. Most franchises improve by building on the strengths and fixing the flaws with their formula, and this alone is the case where I see no flaws to fix. Future Zelda games are better in my eyes purely from the ways they built on what made A Link to The Past work and put their own twists on it. Well BOTW aside, as that set out to break away from the formula. Despite the limitations of the GBC, I see the Oracle titles as the most creatively ambitious titles on the platform let alone within the 2d Zelda formula. Majora's Mask with the surprisingly dark and mature tone is a game I bounced off hard as a kid but made me adore the franchise again as an adult. OOT was largely ALTTP in 3d and that was impressive enough but Majora's Mask built on it to be something very unique within the franchise and Nintendo as a whole. A Link Between Worlds (despite my dislike of the artstyle) literally added a whole new dimension to this version of Hyrule and it's one of my favorite worlds in gaming because of it. If not for the proto BOTW nature of the game, I'd see it as almost completely obsoleting the original due to how faithful yet innovative it was. Yet none of this could ever have been possible without the, in my eyes, flawless foundation laid here. If Ocarina is arguably the most important 3d game of all time, I'd strongly argue A Link to The Past is the most important 2d game to the development of the medium. Mario 64 showed the world how to do 3d, Ocarina showed the world how to make a 3d world filled with characters, puzzles, aiming, lock-on and general combat mechanics and essentially everything modern gaming is built on. It could do none of that without this game to use as a blueprint. I see other Zelda games and other games in general as better than it, but I can't think of a single other triple A equivalent game that I'd call truly flawless.
The Boomerang is usefull. It freezes Enemies like Guards and Rats. And Snakes. It's very helpfull. Funny you managed your way through the castle without using it.
I suppose if you really try to sus out the intentions of the devs with this choice, it seems fairly apparent they wanted dedicated, separate introductions to the boomerang's dual functions for combat and puzzle solving. In all fairness, the boomerang is a fairly involved item to give to the player virtually off the rip, and especially given the series' relative infancy and contemporary player inexperience with the series' still-developing formula, I think, for the time, it was reasonable decison to give players ample space to play with the boomerang before getting into puzzles
It was such a small point in the video, like “if I had to pick something to improve it would be this” but not really something that bothers me THAT much. I’m surprised it’s getting as much attention as it is
It's been a while since I played this game vanilla, but doesn't Zelda tell you that you need to pull the right switch in that last room? Or am I getting that confused with another game?
Also, the opening section of this game is built like this because games were better and harder back then. We were forced to figure it out and GET GOOD SON! Kids nowadays need this slow tutorials, especially with how much more complicated games and their controls are. We had 4 buttons and a D-Pad. They have 8 buttons, thumbs sticks that break apart the movement into two axis control, and a d-pad. We also had top down or side scroll, they have 1st/3rd person views. It’s funny to watch my 7 year old run around in Minecraft and Fortnite and just kill it. But then hand him the controller with Super Mario Bros SNES, and he can’t get past the first level. lol.
It's "a link" as in a connection, not literally sending the character Link to the past. There is no time travel in the game, but Link is descended from the knights of Hyrule and wields the master sword. He is the connection to Hyrule's history. The japanese title translates more literally to "Triforce of the Gods" which actually might be a better title for the game though.
I hate the Great Plateau, it's so Baren and Empty that it bores me and I still haven't even finished that section because of how much I hate it. The "Chores" section of other 3D games serve a narrative purpose, the same person that LOTR starting in the Shire serves. The Great Plateau, fails to invest me in wanting to save this world since it seems already dead. In Twilight Princess the beginning is honestly my favorite part of the game, the later half loses me when so many character important early on mostly disappear.
This really is not just one of the best zelda openings, but game openings. A tutorial that feels like the epic castle rush at the end of any other game.
Side note about the switches in the sewer, they do hint as to which one is the real one. If you approach the one on the left, Zelda says nothing. She only talks to you as you approach the one on the right. That’s the intended hint.
I agree that it’s annoying not having bombs or the dash boots to access that secret room when you first go through the dungeon, but the fact there is a secret entrance that drops you in that exact room, to avoid going through the whole sewer again, makes up for it IMO.
It's been ages, so I can't remember whether the game manual (blast from the past) mentioned how to pull levers like that. If it didn't, then in theory the only way to even know how to pull it would be to approach the right one.
The little jingle when you boot up the game and the triforce pieces come together....PEAK NOSTALGIA!!! This was the first Zelda game I ever played and it's near and dear to my heart as well :) I think all of your points are great! I have to say, I never really realized before why I always enjoy starting this one more than a lot of the others, and you described the reasons why perfectly. It's definitely not something to dread!
Thanks for the amazing videos, Capt! We appreciate you :) xoxo
PEAK NOSTALGIA. I'll take it!
Thanks Rinnnnnnnn it was my first zelda tooo. I'll always love this game.
@@CaptBurgerson Yeah, not nice to have cut the jingle taht play after that ! Peak of frustration !
This was the first video game I ever played and to my 3 year old self the world felt as real and open as Bethesda games are. In retrospect my younger self dramatically overestimated the size and scope of the game but damn if that opening jingle doesn't take me right back to those days where it felt like I was about to experience the most mind blowing piece of fiction imaginable.
This game deserves the Link's Awakening treatment
I would like a moodier theme for it, scenes like the one in the video, the dark world, and the introduction scene would benefit from it
Honestly the first 3 games all should get remakes. Especially AOL. That games issues are almost entirely due to archaic design philosophy.
Forgot to mention the one guard on the roof who laments he's doomed to be brainwashed like the rest.
SNES was my very first games console, and I was a kid when LttP released. It’s not hyperbole to say this game CHANGED MY LIFE. I had no idea a video game could transport me into a whole new universe the way LoZ has done and continues to do - no matter how old I get. Thank you for the nostalgia.
What a great opening to the game. The music is so epic, I still think of it when playing newer games - as in how much cooler everything would be if they had the same soundtrack!
And the rainy beginning is so atmospheric, I will never forget it; it was only my second experience in console gaming after Super Mario World and is etched into my brain in every little detail. Somehow nothing today can match that very peculiar "it's a perfectly rainy afternoon to delve into a fictional world" vibe this game managed to create.
My Link just wants to sleep 😴
I love how Zelda 3 get you immediatly at the heart of the action, no long dialogues, no choirs, no crappy fishing useless mini game, it manage to give you the games mechanics, the story, and the atmosphère at the same time, and you never feel in a tuto, not even once, when there at the top Nintendo really nailed the game disign in a way that you don't need to be told things to understand them, I miss that in modern gaming.
I fully understand your love of ALttP’s keyboard, it’s just so cool!
I just recently started a new playthrough of ALttP, I'm so glad this video is up at the same time
I'd love to see dungeon design videos for oracle of seasons and time. Great series
In due time 👀
Jumping right into it with a mini dungeon where you actually meet the princess and learn by doing seems awesome ❤
I’m a fairly new subscriber, but this series hooked me on your channel and your content. It all started with the dungeon design video of the original NES Zelda.
Fun fact: if you don't pick up the lantern in Link's house you have two more chances to get it again later. Once in the chest in the room right after getting the sword from your uncle and again in Zelda's cell. A lot of speed runners will avoid picking up the lantern until getting to Zelda's cell
Yup! I made a short about that very thing
ua-cam.com/users/shortscNxGy3-dydc?si=haL87OAZHnX6a3zd
Bananas? Are you a Yiga?!
Hi, I don't know for how long I was subscribed but yesterday got suggested to your channel in my home page and I'm enjoying this one serie with the 2D Zelda games! 🙌🏼😌
Yes I am! But 🤫
Thanks for being here! Glad you’re enjoying!
@@CaptBurgerson hahahaha I knew it!
Thanks for taking the time to reply, I'm loving the serie so far! 🙌🏼😊
I love alttp it’s definitely one of the most cathartic action adventure games out there
Watching thus series again starting here. 😊
I've played this game over and over since it came out when I was 10, and I only today realized that the shields the guards use in the opening NEVER show up again in game. Those are some heavy-duty shields, they could have made for a cool fight where you needed to remove the shields, (perhaps with the Hookshot, or by hitting them with the ice or fire rods to heat/cool them to extremes) before you could attack the soldiers.
MAN YOUR INTROS ARE SO GREAT!!! I only played this for the first time within the last few years, and it really is such a good one! The music in this one is amazing, it's perfect for setting the tone and ambiance! I love that this game gives the player so much choice at the start of the dungeon. Definitely not overtly hand holdy, but like you say it gets you where you need to go! Oof I hated the ball and chain knight 😝 I got it pretty quickly, but I do remember struggling with him at first 😂 I really enjoyed this break down! This is a great first dungeon, and definitely sets the player up for success ☺️ nice video! Excited for the next one 😁👏🏼🍔
I've been Loving this series
Although not necessary, the boomerang makes the mini-boss battle much easier.
I love this one, as much as I loath its predecessor. I don't understand why you don't like coming back to dungeons later, I really like it, it's great to have a reason to revisit places in the game. Your other criticisms, I agree with, but this is really, overall, the quintessential Zelda game to me. I'm really hoping Tears of the Kingdom brings the spirit of A Link to the Past into 3D, the same way Breath of the Wild did for Zelda 1.
It would be so cool if you could eventually cover A Link Between Worlds. When you get time of course!
The plan is to do them all
Solid take on dungeon design. Subscribed!
Excellent video Capt
Damn, this is such a well made video. Thank you! Can't wait to watch the rest!
hyrule castle introduced many first in the zelda series. it was the first mini-dungeon, have a companion escort, interconnected with other dungeons (in fact the sewers and tower sections are different dungeons), different exits, permanently closes, and has no boss.
also, alttp probably has the best tutorial in the series. other entries generally just throw random chores or force you to grind before the game begins or there is a cutscene that is needlessly long and unskippable.
The boomerang is used to stun the prison guard outside Zelda's cell.
It CAN be used for that, but you can beat him without using it very easily
@@CaptBurgerson true, but that could be the reason it was there.
I'm looking forward to this series. I love A Link to the Past!
This may just be the shortest wait time since the last dungeon design video
Heck yeah, and it’ll be equally as shortestest this time next week 😉
@@CaptBurgerson now THATS what I’m talking about 🤘 🤘
This was my first Zelda game, I played it when it came out on the SNES #old but after the first 3 dungeons I had to have my dad do the "hard" ones, as I was only 7 #notthatold--but I did beat Ganon at the end. Peak nostalgia. So stands the test of time. Played it again on my original SNES console over lockdown on a CRT tv and had all the feels
My fave part of your vid is when you were saying the music was great (hell yes) and you synced the word "triumphant" with the boss key appearing from the iron knuckle (or dark nut?)--I always got a kick out of how the boss key is as big as Link in this game >D
and I agree that the boomerang is underutilised, in this dungeon and in the game as a whole. I thought OOT did a good job of rectifying that
This was also my first Zelda game! It hits me so hard in the nostalgia every time, so there is almost certainly going to be bias in the upcoming videos hahaha. n
Thanks for watching and being a good egg. #Notold
Nolan North was dreamy as Ganon.
I don't think we have any official confirmation of who voiced Ganondorf in TOTK yet?
I understand the love of the opening of ALTTP, it's definitely the best opening, but I don't mind the openings of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword either, I understand their inclusion and if I want to replay a game for the story they settle me right into the world with how day to day life goes for these characters. How things are before calamity strikes. I get that for repeated playthroughs these intros get repetitive and boring, but if I'm replaying a game it's usually because I want to experience a game again and mostly forgotten parts of the games. Plus some mechanics like the Loftwing flying needed a long tutorial just due to how different it controls to anything else in the series. Plus If I want to replay a Zelda game sooner I just boot up a randomizer which skips 90% of the story anyways, plus I get to create my own story and reasons for things happening the way they do in the randomizer lol. Long comment short I fully agree ALTTP has the best intro but I'm also totally fine for long winded "boring" intros to lull me into the world and setting (probably because I don't replay games too many times)
I’d give this game a 10/10 and this video a 11/10
A true classic
A Link to The Past is an oddity for me. Despite it being the single greatest source of nostalgia in my life, it's far from my favorite game even within the Zelda franchise, which I'm not nearly as fond of as I once was. Don't dislike them, just aren't my favorite thing on the planet as an adult.
It created the Zelda formula and like many great firsts, it has been surpassed in my eyes. However unlike so many other franchises that near obsolete their earliest entries, this one stands alone to me. Most franchises improve by building on the strengths and fixing the flaws with their formula, and this alone is the case where I see no flaws to fix. Future Zelda games are better in my eyes purely from the ways they built on what made A Link to The Past work and put their own twists on it. Well BOTW aside, as that set out to break away from the formula.
Despite the limitations of the GBC, I see the Oracle titles as the most creatively ambitious titles on the platform let alone within the 2d Zelda formula.
Majora's Mask with the surprisingly dark and mature tone is a game I bounced off hard as a kid but made me adore the franchise again as an adult. OOT was largely ALTTP in 3d and that was impressive enough but Majora's Mask built on it to be something very unique within the franchise and Nintendo as a whole.
A Link Between Worlds (despite my dislike of the artstyle) literally added a whole new dimension to this version of Hyrule and it's one of my favorite worlds in gaming because of it. If not for the proto BOTW nature of the game, I'd see it as almost completely obsoleting the original due to how faithful yet innovative it was.
Yet none of this could ever have been possible without the, in my eyes, flawless foundation laid here. If Ocarina is arguably the most important 3d game of all time, I'd strongly argue A Link to The Past is the most important 2d game to the development of the medium. Mario 64 showed the world how to do 3d, Ocarina showed the world how to make a 3d world filled with characters, puzzles, aiming, lock-on and general combat mechanics and essentially everything modern gaming is built on. It could do none of that without this game to use as a blueprint. I see other Zelda games and other games in general as better than it, but I can't think of a single other triple A equivalent game that I'd call truly flawless.
The first game chronicly in the downfall timeline
The Boomerang is usefull.
It freezes Enemies like Guards and Rats. And Snakes. It's very helpfull.
Funny you managed your way through the castle without using it.
It is useful, but my point I guess was that are no puzzles built around it like with other dungeon items.
@@CaptBurgersonwhy does there need to be? LOL
I suppose if you really try to sus out the intentions of the devs with this choice, it seems fairly apparent they wanted dedicated, separate introductions to the boomerang's dual functions for combat and puzzle solving. In all fairness, the boomerang is a fairly involved item to give to the player virtually off the rip, and especially given the series' relative infancy and contemporary player inexperience with the series' still-developing formula, I think, for the time, it was reasonable decison to give players ample space to play with the boomerang before getting into puzzles
It was such a small point in the video, like “if I had to pick something to improve it would be this” but not really something that bothers me THAT much. I’m surprised it’s getting as much attention as it is
It's been a while since I played this game vanilla, but doesn't Zelda tell you that you need to pull the right switch in that last room?
Or am I getting that confused with another game?
She says “that lever” but doesn’t specify which one haha
I think the first Zelda is pretty good, a bit held back by the hardware maybe, but still a great game.
3:02 missed the ability to throw down a jacked a lantern pun.
The best Zelda game.
Great Take on how to do a Proper not a Tutorial, Tutorial to speak.
I want an actual 3D Zelda Remake of A Link to the Past in REAL 3D. Not a Top Down View.
Then it wouldn’t be A Link to the Past
Also, the opening section of this game is built like this because games were better and harder back then.
We were forced to figure it out and GET GOOD SON! Kids nowadays need this slow tutorials, especially with how much more complicated games and their controls are.
We had 4 buttons and a D-Pad. They have 8 buttons, thumbs sticks that break apart the movement into two axis control, and a d-pad.
We also had top down or side scroll, they have 1st/3rd person views.
It’s funny to watch my 7 year old run around in Minecraft and Fortnite and just kill it. But then hand him the controller with Super Mario Bros SNES, and he can’t get past the first level. lol.
What’s the point of the game being called “ a link to the past” if ur just gonna have link get called Burger? It’s A Burger To The Past. Not Link.
It's "a link" as in a connection, not literally sending the character Link to the past. There is no time travel in the game, but Link is descended from the knights of Hyrule and wields the master sword. He is the connection to Hyrule's history.
The japanese title translates more literally to "Triforce of the Gods" which actually might be a better title for the game though.
A good burger can also link disparate peoples across time, space, and dimensions
I hate the Great Plateau, it's so Baren and Empty that it bores me and I still haven't even finished that section because of how much I hate it. The "Chores" section of other 3D games serve a narrative purpose, the same person that LOTR starting in the Shire serves. The Great Plateau, fails to invest me in wanting to save this world since it seems already dead. In Twilight Princess the beginning is honestly my favorite part of the game, the later half loses me when so many character important early on mostly disappear.