The Legend of Zelda has a passionate fan-base with a wide variety of takes. Recently I have been looking ahead to the future of the Zelda franchise, and in the comments I’ve seen some wild takes. Today I’m going to be responding to your Legend of Zelda hot takes.

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@JadeJohnsonIndustries

Breath Of The Wild was so innovative, that if Link can’t go shirtless and barefoot in the next game, it shan’t sell anywhere near as well!

Yes Jade, agreed. It is a coincidence that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are the highest selling Zelda games of all time, and both start with Link shirtless. I think not!

@soulrebellion

Impa should be a Sheikah warrior more often than boring old lady

Thanks Soul. We see Impa the Warriror in Ocarina of Time, and Hyrule Warriors. She is an old lady in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, although we saw a hybrid in Echoes of Wisdom with Impa being an old lady AND a warrior, beating up loads of troops inside Hyrule Castle. I know what you mean though, it would be good to see Warrior Impa a little more often.

@TymenVogt

Majoras mask is extremely overrated, the amount of dungeons is way to small, and the bosses (except of goht) just have really boring fights. The 3day cycle element is poorly executed. While the masks are fun in concept, they are all just really wierd and boring the only one that’s even slightly fun is the Gorron mask, I like the dark theme, but it is extremely poorly executed, the idea is one of the best in the series, but they aren’t liven up to in the actual game.

Thanks TymenVogt. I don’t agree with this one. Acutally, I think Majora’s Mask is underated and not as appreciated as it should be. Yes the masks are weird, but I think that is the point. The fact this was created in a year after Ocarina of Time, with such a unique theme, still amazes me to this day.

@daniel8181

Ocarina of time’s “puzzles” arent actual puzzles, but instead busywork, the game forces exposition on you constantly (horrible approach to storytelling, especially in video games), about half the game is fetch questing, and Fi isn’t any more annoying than Navi.

Thanks daniel8181. This is a BOLD take. I don’t think the puzzles are busywork, for example navigating through the desert with the Lens of Truth towards the backend of the game is good. Yes there is some exposition, but it was innovative for it’s day… it’s a 27 year old game. I have to disagree with Fi and Navi, I look back much more fondly on Navi saying “Listen”, rather than Fi’s constant interuptions in Skyward Sword.

@GamingReinvented

Making Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity about time travel was the right move. Yes, you could say past a certain point it’s not the BotW prequel people wanted. But gameplay wise, a game where you have a meaningful final level and boss works a lot better than one where the ending is literally a hopeless battle against Guardians.

Thanks CM30. I think you’re right, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity’s focus on time travel is probably the right way. However, I am going to drop a hot take here myself. I don’t like Dynasty Warriors or Muso games, and I don’t consider Hyrule Warriors canon… and you can tell me how you feel about that in the comments.

@GameAGuy

Twilight Princess and Majora’s Mask, Skyward Sword are my least favorite games of the entire series.

My top 5

BOTW
TOTK
Link to the Past
Wind Waker
OG NES Zelda

Thanks GameAGuy. Good list, albeit a little top heavy with recent games. My top 5 would be A Link To The Past, Breath of the Wild, Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker and Zelda 2. Yes, Zelda 2, I said it. It was my first ever Zelda game, so I have a weird nostalgic view of that game.

@vianabdullah2837

Majora’s Mask 3D is a fantastic remaster. I don’t think it’s a hated game overall but some YouTubers have complained about aspects like Zora swimming and Deku hopping. While ignoring the massive improvements to the UI, graphics, performance, save system and how you do side quests.

Thanks Vian. I actually agree with this one, MM3D is a good resmaster. Sometimes youtubers just hate on things for the sake of it for views, and yes… I do see the irony of me saying this during a reaction to your hot takes! I would still like to see another MM remaster, this time with modern graphics and better camera controls and bring MM to the mass market.

@ChristophKammerl

A 2D side scrolling Metroidvania Zelda game akin to Monsterboy and the cursed Kingdom would be the best Zelda ever

Thanks Christoph. I totally agree with this one, personally I would love to see Zelda II: The Adevnture of Link brought back as a Metroidvania Zelda hybrid.

@DrShemp-sv6gf

I personally am not a fan of the more sci Fi heavy elements in the more recent entries of the franchise. I enjoy the medieval fantasy so much more and when magic is traded in for technology, my interest is traded in for disappointment

Thanks DrShemp. I agree with this one, I prefer the fantasy elements too. There are rumors that The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was supposed to have a sci-fi futuristic third world, but it eventually got scrapped. They thought three worlds would get too complicated for the audience. There is also the concept art of Princess Zelda in futuristic dresses to solidify this rumor. Additionally, the iconic Triforce was planned to be three electronic chips.

@vitormoraes8320

Twilight princess visuals are terrible, colors have no saturation, piss filter, grimdark stuff, and the preference for it doesnt show maturity, its more likely teenage angst edgy behavior. Its possible to depict mature themes with lighthearted visuals and wind waker did it better than TP

Thanks Vitor. I think a preference to visuals or art style is entirely personal. I don’t mind the art styles tried out by different Zelda games. Twilight Princess was a result of the audience reaction to Wind Waker. People went absolutely crazy when Wind Waker first came out ont he Gamecube… I was just happy to get a new Zelda game to be honest. For me it’s about the gameplay and mechanics. Riding the seas annoyed me more in Wind Waker than the visuals. As for Twilight Princess, I see what you’re saying, but I don’t think a preference for it doesn’t show maturity… I think people of all ages can like or dislike a variety of styles. Again on the gameplay aspect, I wasn’t a fan of playing as a Wolf in Twlight Princess… rather than having any issue with the visuals.

@MartKart8

When Nintendo uses force controls for any game, especially Zelda games, such as touch screen controls, I hated blowing into the mic to play the pan flute, as most notes wouldn’t register, forced swinging movements on the Wii.

Thanks MartKart8. I see what you mean here. Nintendo has to incentivise their audience to use these new technology gimicks. While the motion controls did get boring in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, at the time this was a pretty good concept. I actually like blowing into the mic to play the flute, that is pretty neat. However, Nintendo sometimes does go over the top with it’s “innovations”. They should be solving a user need, like the analogue stick and camera controls on the N64, and innovation or invention should be done just for the sake of it. It will be interesting to see what Nintendo do with the Switch 2 and how it’s received if they decide to put something into the next Zelda game, because Zelda game tend to drive console sales, and usually jump on the bandwagon when it comes to Nintendo gimmicks.

@diogenesstudent5585

I never want to see windwaker remade again after this time. Ever.

Thanks for this. I’m not really sure how you could remake Wind Waker. The graphics for me stand the test of time, much better than Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword. We’ve also seen what a 2D Wind Waker could be with Phantom Hourglass, so I doubt we’d see a Wind Waker remake. We have been hearing about the Wind Waker HD port to Switch for literal YEARS, but that’s most likely down to Nintendo porting so many games from Wii U to Switch. You can’t really blame them though. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is essentially a Wii U game that’s sold nearly 70 million copies. It sold 2 million copies in the final quarter of 2024 alone, which is more than new games like Dragon Age The Veilguard. Just goes to show the Wii U games were great, but the Wii U didn’t really work at the time.

@darkdragonmedeus705

Majora’s Mask was a phenomenal sequel that is a huge improvement over Ocarina of Time and paved the way for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom based on how much freedom you had to move around or bypass things.

Majora’s Mask was a great sequel, and it’s incredible they made that in a year, especially when comparing the dev time between Ocarina / Majora’s to BOTW / TOTK. I’m not sure how much influence MM Had over the modern day open world games, there are hints of open-world in there.

Wind Waker was what I consider the weakest 3D Zelda title; it’s still an amazing game, but the Parry mechanic literally took out all the challenge the game could have had.

Personally I don’t agree WW is the weakest 3D title, I’d have to give that accolade to SKyward Sword.

The Oracle games are grossly underrated and a product of the time showcasing what 2D Zelda games should be more like.

This is a good take, the Oracle games ARE underrated, and hopefully we’ll see a remake of them one day soon.

A Link to the Past is still the best Zelda game besides Tears of the Kingdom.

I have to agree with this one, A Link To The Past is a near perfect Zelda game for me.

Skyward Sword is a top 5 caliber Zelda title and was the best 3D Zelda game besides Majora’s Mask when it first came out.

I’m not a huge fan of Skyward Sword.

Echoes of Wisdom was almost top 5 caliber and was a phenomenal masterpiece that really could pave the way for future top down Zelda titles.

Echoes of Wisdom was fun, although the buzz died down very quickly. While I think the mechanics were interesting, looking back now I don’t think it’s up there with other Zelda games, it’s a little too passive with it’s mechanics.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was NOT the worst mainline game in the series (Looks at Triforce Heroes for that)

I definitely agree with this one, Zelda 2 is great, and I’d love to see it come back one day.

This is more so a Warm take since both sides, but Tears of the Kingdom was the perfect sequel that blew Breath of the Wild out of water in every way and made it look like a tech demo.

Tears of the Kingdom was excellent. I don’t really get the hate, objectively it’s better than Breath of the Wild in nearly every way.

@MartKart8

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess is over rated, it’s an OK good, it’s the one in the series that goes to far to try to look realistic, while the others don’t. (past and present)

I’m not sure about this one. I rate Twilight Princess. The story is fantastic. While some of the wolf mechanics don’t quite work for me, I think there’s a lot about this game to love.

That’s it for your hot takes. As for my hot takes, well, I think Zelda 2 deserves much more love than we give it, and Tears of the Kingdom really isn’t that bad… the fact that it came out with zero bugs with that level of game physics is almost a miracle, and if you complain about it then that’s why we don’t get nice things.

I’ll be back another day with more Zelda hot takes. Let me know in the comments if you like this kind of thing.