My name is Susan, and I thought it would be a fun, harmless New Year’s resolution to play all of the Zelda games, in order, from beginning to end, before the end of 2009.
I never played Zelda as a kid or otherwise. My experience has been confined to a few months of sitting quietly while my high school boyfriend doggedly attacked the Ocarina of Time on his then-cutting-edge Nintendo 64. Once I asked him if I could play and he scoffed.
In 2008, ten years later, three things happened:
1. I got a Wii as a wedding present.
2. I got a new job that stressed me out for months on end.
3. I decided to read only nonfiction books for the whole of 2008.
By the end of 2008, I felt that I truly deserved, after my year of plodding along without novels (my true love), the exact opposite of 2008. So I decided to make 2009 my year of fantasy. What’s the opposite of nonfiction writing? Giant, complicated, inexpensive fantasy novels! As many unicorns and princesses as possible please!
My husband rolled his eyes at this, even though I am enjoying it immensely. I think he thought he married a really hip, avant garde lady.
Well, he’s wrong. Now I’ve got the bug. The unicorn/elf bug, and it can’t be stopped. I added “learn to play Dungeons and Dragons” to my 2009 list (and I will say that it was very easy to convince some dudes to get this rolling) (no pun intended), I fired up Lord of the Rings on audiobook to listen to on my iPod at the gym, but it was when I announced my intention to try to beat all the Zeldas, I realized I was in way over my head.
It’s the end of March and I’m not even close to beating the first game. It turns out that being an elf with a magical sword is HARD, and I have no idea what I’m doing. So I need your help. It may not be done by 2010, but it will be done.
Come, explore Hyrule with me. I know I can do it, but it sure feels good to hear you tell me so.
It is called Hyrule, right?
Congrats on learning to play D&D! It’s one of the BEST time-wasters ever! But if you’re just learning now, I wouldn’t recommend the new version (4.0). Go to a used bookstore and get the book for 3/3.5 edition: it’s cheaper and it’s a great edition!
Good luck on playing all of the Zelda games in a row! Are you doing just console games, or hand-held games too?
I’ve never been able to make it through the first Zelda game. Since you have a Wii, maybe it would be fun to play them in reverse order? That way you can enjoy the beautiful graphics of Twilight Princess and get some practice for the far-more-difficult earlier games. It’d be like watching Star Wars movies in the order they were released! Although that makes later continuity less enjoyable….
I always thought it would be fun to pick a Zelda timeline theory that makes sense, then play the games in that order:
http://www.zeldawiki.org/Zelda_Timeline
Most of those would have you starting with Ocarina of Time.