majora's mask, twilight princess and tears of the kingdom definitely have my favorite openings! the ocarina of time title screen itself also is soo good.
Oh yes! You see things differently... You know WHY things happen or WHY Rauru says what he says... You notice little details... The game is just one year old but whenever I play the opening, I already get nostalgic!
I personally would have swapped windwaker and link to the past but it’s a solid list. TOTK is probably my favorite ending too. Loved the redemption of grabbing Zelda’s hand.
that music swell as link wakes up and realizes what's happening is so triumphant too, i honestly don't know how theyre going to top it when it comes to endings
Tears of the Kingdom, that opening just does something to your brain. You know what’s going to happen, you want to turn back but you can’t. You have to continue. The music slowly getting more intense as you get closer and closer to the source of the weird fog. The suspense just building and building, then culminating to the scene with Ganondorf, the broken master sword, link’s arm being absolutely wrecked, yet he doesn’t even hesitate to try and save Zelda. Then some calm as you leave the shrine of awakening and take a sky dive with the pan around the great sky islands, the music crescendoing with the opening title, then the end as you splash into the pond and your back, utterly confused and thoroughly traumatized by what just happened to Zelda.
I strongly feel you missed the point of Twilight Princess, it shows link already has responsibility, he didn’t just wake up and decide to save the world. He responsible for the farm, he’s set to be the next mayor, he takes care of and plays with the kids and everyone else in town. He goes out to save them and the intro lets you the character build those attachments. I personally think this is the best intro because it’s not reliant on graphics to win, it’s the story and the weight that makes it better
day 159 of mentioning that on 5/6/2023 hyrule gamer made a video where, at 43.46, he spent 12 seconds simping about the ancient gerudo soldiers edit: why does this have so many likes ITS NOT THAT FUNNY
Amazing video, but I believe that the Oracle games should have ranked a bit higher because the art was really good in my opinion, especially the shots of Din and Nayru interacting with the people.
ToTK really blows the competition outta the water on this one. No other Zelda villain came remotely close to the menace of Gannondorf in those first few minutes.
i 100% agree with your take on the twilight princess opening being a good length, especially for someone who can appreciate the game from a narrative perspective. Towards the end of the game, I love how when you look back on Link's journey , you remember that he was once living a peaceful life in Ordon village. You spend enough time in this part of the game for it to leave a memory. It reminds me of the hobbit.
As someone that has problems with twilight princess the opening wasn't one of them. I wished there were more moments where the world actually shined in twilight princess.
I find it hilarious how sometimes you accidentally leave two takes of the same line in the video. I do the same thing all the time, and it’s fun to see a bigger RU-vidr make the same mistakes.
Absolutely agree with TOTK. The intro is simply phenomenal. With especial emphasis on the atmosphere, visuals, sound design and music. Also, I think nostalgia plays a part here as OOT was my first Zelda game, and is my number 2 on this list behind TOTK.
Breath of the Wild takes the cake for me. Words alone cannot describe that feeling of stepping out of the Shrine of Resurrection for the first time, and being met with the sweeping shot of Hyrule's vast landscape while the opening theme played.
Skyward sword is really special to me, so for me its way higher in the ranking. I don't know why, but the game has just always seemed perfect to me. I think the fact that they gave Link the most personality he's ever had in any Zelda game is really what makes me adore it.
Do one for ranking endings. My favorite is also TOTK, as it connects to BOTW so smoothly. The Switch remake of Link's Awakening is a very close second, with the anime-style.
I put Majoras mask at number 2 because I include the clock town portion for the first 3 days to be part of the intro and there are so many people to interact with, make connections with, all while learning the mechanics of the game and how missions work. It's really dark depending on how deep you look and you can get a true feeling of widespread dread if you talk to everyone in clock Town. I have to put twilight princess at number 1 because the story telling, graphics and sense of urgency and danger really pull you in. What really does it for me tho, is the music. I go to sleep to the OST for this game. TotK barely loses to end up in 3rd for me. It's cool, expansive, detailed and hearing Ganon actually speak was pretty cool.
Totk might not be one of my favorite games in the series but that opening was next level and I loved it! While you and Zelda are descending further into the depths the atmosphere just feels so sinister and the ominous music just puts me on edge. It's like watching a horror movie before things go south, you know it's going to happen but you can't do anything but watch. That and I do love the sky diving aspect. Has that call back to SS but better.
Can't argue with #1! Regardless of what I felt about TOTK as whole I remember the opening leaving me in chills and so excited. TOTK opening is the all time best Zelda opening.
Something I love about the opening of Tears of the Kingdom in relation to the rest of the game is Link failing to save Zelda foreshadowing the final actions you as a player will do to save Zelda at the end and catching her. My personal fav ending from my fav game, great video!
Idk, I personally LOVE Spirit Tracks's opening. First off, the title screen is really epic with the train coming out of a tunnel and the music shapikg up to be epic and playing thqt soft sweet melody which is so emboematic of our protagonists' relationships, this being the first game where it really feels like this is Link AND Zelda's quest. In addition, the opening moments are further hyped by the fact that Zelda DIES IN THE FIRST FEW MINUTES. Zelda has been petrified before, or turned into a painting, or kidnapped, but it always feels reversible. But when the villain just kills her? Ur like, "Dude what the heck?" One of the best beginnings to a Zelda game, top 5 for me
I think windwaker was best... something about the music just makes the story shine. You have the medieval style music as they show the hieroglyphic style art. Once they mention that the hero never showed up it transitions perfectly to a more somber style of music. Then once it gets upbeat the title screen hits with that amazingly upbeat fiddle type song. I love it.
I don't see why Zelda 2 and The Legend of Zelda are so far apart in the rankings. They're almost the same but Zelda 2 has better visuals. Zelda 2 is the last game to give you complete freedom at the beginning until Breath of the Wild.
BoTW/TOTK force you to do a really long tutorial to gather unnecessary abilities before you can find the world I pretty much could have freed the Deku Tree in the time I finished one shrine.
Great idea. And a great list. I agree with many of your entries. Though I’d probably rank Skyward Sword a little higher. It’s tough to choose with so many games. Would love to see a follow up to this ranking the ends of the games. Perhaps from final boss through credits. There are some really good and emotional conclusions to these games.
I got TOTK on opening day it was done downloading by the time the game first came out but sadly I had school so I didn’t start playing until 5:15 in the morning of the day it launched
Man i love this, haven't finished the video yet but this is a fun thing to rank (also yes Phantom hourglass is super underated, i love that game so much) Also 1000th like on the video lol ^^ Edit: also yeah I'm so on board with the Twilight princess placement (it was literally my first video game, i wont deny bias)
I personnaly love the botw opening the most. The simplicity is perfect for me. You just get dropped in. No story, no nothing. You as the player knows just as little as link who has lost his memory. I just love it. I also like gameplay infinitely more then story. I don't care for a good story, if the gameplay is good. Even though a good story certaintly is a good thing to have. Maybe that's why botw is so perfect for me hahahha
So i realise my opinions about intros are roughly the same with the exception of the bottom 2 and some middle placements...... I also realised and remembered how great Zelda music really is!
As much as I want to see other Zelda ports to Switch, I really want to see the multiplayer ones come over with online play. Four Swords in particular is one that I couldn't play with friends when it came out, because not many of my friends had a GBA at the time.
TotK's intro might have been exciting when first experiencing it, but in light of what followed, it turns out to be completely hollow. When you have a tantalizing set up, it falls completely flat if you don't follow through.
I must say I didn't expect my first zelda experience, aLttP, to be ranked that high. But the game in itself was super discovery! And soon after finishing it, I could play OoT, and that sealed the deal: I was a zelda lover !
It's honestly crazy that Nico managed to last at bare minimum 120 years and not lose a step. He's probably the oldest living Hylian in the franchise at this point.
I get that you don't liké the Oracles but their intro cutscene were super cool honestly... Not liking these games doesn't mean you have to put them down everytime
Ranking Zelda 1 at 10th confirms to me that the ranking is based more on narrative than gameplay. At least Zelda 1 and 2 don't waste your time with direct dialog (SS on Wii) and put you right in the action
The absolute madness that it takes to put WIND WAKER AT 6! I'm sorry, personally that's at least top two to me. The storybook format, the music timing, the slow morphing of the song into something sinister, it all just smacks of a story to call "A Legend". Never had to disagree with you so much but it was inevitable.
Oh man.. you lost me right off the bat. Oracles opening is fascinating to me because it depicts a residence for the completed Triforce in the world Link inhabits - not a separate realm, and also arguably not Hyrule Castle since later we see that this Link and Zelda haven’t met before. So is it a special fortress to house the Triforce? Or is it Hyrule Castle and Link accessed the sacred relic without meeting the princess first? We also see a function of the Triforce beyond just granting wishes, as it exerts a will to affect the world on behalf of good. Anyway, Oracles are good
Have you ever thought about doing some original scenarios in the Zelda universe? I watch Riches and Liches on here and he does some really cool original scenarios where it works well with the Dungeons and Dragons/Forgotten Realms lore. While Zelda is obviously not D&D, it could be a good way to keep people engaged with Hyrule during what's probably going to be a painfully long Zelda drought. If you did release videos like that, I think a lot people would be down to watch it even if it's not canon and you're especially knowledgable with Zelda lore.
Twilight Princess nearly dies for me in the opening. Honestly for all the reasons HG loves it. The tutorial and such takes way too long, and is just.... boring. I would also have put the OG Zelda near the bottom for how little there is to it. Great game, and I get limitations of the time and all, many NES games just drop you in. But it doesn't hold up well against newer games. And the broken English text just comes off more laughable than anything anymore.
I'm definitely one of those people who think the intro of Twilight Princess drags on too long. For my first playthrough, it was fantastic, but now that I know the ropes and how ... unnecessary at least a quarter of the tutorials felt. I wish the game allowed for some freedom for people who ARE familiar with the gameplay and allow them to explore Ordon at their own pace. Which is a shame because if you could skip the tutorial aspects of the dialogue, it would be my favourite intro! Ordon is a cosy happy town with one of the best songs in the franchise. I love the NPCs. I just don't like having my hand held.
I agree with the top 2 from story perspective. but if I consider the gameplay they might be the worst. not getting the glider before getting to the surface is a miss opportunity and drags the tutorial part of totk too much. I feel something similar with TP, we get tutorials for everything before really starting(I never understood why force you to learn a secondary mechanic like fishing before the basics) and we have to go through the tutorial 2 more times, one as a wolf and another one as the proper link, not his villager persona. So the opening is the longest and quite ahead of the rest
i hate to say it i really do but twilight princess or OOT or MM shouldve been over TOTK right now. to me, its just a frustrating weakness of recency bias. while yeah, i love TOTKs opening upon ALOT of rewatches and seeing it up to its release, but like BOTW, id give it a few more years to call TOTK the greatest thing since sliced bread. but thats just me.
really?? why consider Ocarina's first dungeon in it's "intro" but not the other zelda's? that feels weird to me, and is honestly the only reason why Ocarina of Time would be ranked that high, but then again, that'd probably anger a lot of fans if you put Ocarina in it's rightful place by talking about *only* the opening.
I wish the TotK opening was very slightly changed so that Raru's hand catching Link is the reason he fails to catch Zelda. Or at least make it clear that's what happened instead of what we got if that was what they intended.
The opening of Breath of the Wild should be number one on the rank over Tears of the Kingdom’s It allows the players to be emerged to a new world with Link accompanying them to exit the Shrine of Resurrection. With the wildlife SFX and the composing of Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata, and Hajime Wakai, it makes us transported to a new Hyrule that is new and unfamiliar to us. There is no other Zelda games can top this opening sequence.
I have to disagree on your top 2. They should be switched. TP is the only zelda game in which I feel emotionally invested in the characters. It's more than "princess in trouble. Go save her" it's the story of link becoming the hero the children already see him as even though he's not yet, and becoming the man the adults see him as even though he kind of still acts like a child at times.
At least you called out your bias! To be fair there really is no bad Zelda ga… CD what? What was I say? Ah yes there really is no bad Zelda game and by extension no truly bad Zelda opening. Twilight princess is an amazing game most aspects of the game deserve either a 8,9,or 10 / 10 with most being a 9 or a 10 I LOVE this game! However if any part of this game deserves a below average 6/10 the slow paced minimum 90 min slog fest that is its opening is it.😢
I was hoping to see TotK at the top because honestly, that opening is just so damn good. The music, the atmosphere... I remember playing it in the middle of the night when the game released and my heart was racing. It's just so good. And I can really agree with most of this list, especially number 2. Twilight Princess deserves so much more love than it sometimes gets. And now I want to play 4 Swords Adventures again. I miss that game.
