Hello, and welcome to episode number one thirty one of The Cheese Steaks,
a controller's podcast presented by Fox PHL, The Gambler one or two point five
FM, fourteen eighty AM and I Heart Radio. This is Jason Vanella.
You know, I've been a r away for a bit, not gonna lie.
Went through a bit of a month hiatus. There had my show that
went on Mary Poppins at St. Francis over in Springfield. That was a
good couple of weeks. Then I came down with a bit of a cold.
Sounded like dust for a little bit. Probably still will. Maybe I
might sneak in here, might see here. I feel a little you know,
weird voice stuff happening, just you know, try to ignore it.
Sorry about that, but I had to record something. I had to come
back this week, and the reason for that is because it's Zelda week.
Yep. Zelda Tears of the Kingdom has released today. As you're listening to
this, my version is probably downloading on my switch as you hear this.
I'm not sure when I want to be able to jump in myself. I
did not review it was not part of the initial reviews of although if you
want to check those out. I hope you like the number ten because there
were a lot of them, and we'll get into that. We will start
the episode with the what the critics are saying about Tiers of the Kingdom,
and then I want to move into more discussion about how to get into Zelda,
classic Zelda versus modern Zelda, because every time I feel like a new
Zelda comes out of this debate starts up again about the classic version versus the
new way to play, and kind of gauge you know, what Zelda is
now or what it's going to be. And then finally we'll start with the
best entry point for new Zelda players is that this new game should you try
something different, I mean there for all of Nintendo's wacky like shop preservations sort
of things, most if not all, of the Zelda games are available to
you right now, I think, with some exceptions. So um, we'll
go through what would be the best one to start with if you were getting
into Zelda for the first time at the end of the episode. But first
let's start with that review round up four Tiers of the Kingdom and whole Boy,
is this game really impressing people? Ninety seven average on open Critic,
which is just absolutely absurd. The highest rated game ever on the platform,
which is saying something considering elden Ring was last year and probably was the previously
highest rated before that. Thanks to Darren Bontas over at game Spot, he
provided a very good review round up, and we're going to go through a
couple of the more choice quotes, plus some things that I was seeing on
Twitter from folks who had reviewed the game. So let's start with that.
Game Spot. Their reviewer was also ten out of ten. Steve Watts quote
here is Tears of the Kingdom is a canvas for your own creativity, a
book to write your own stories, a world to create your own legends.
It gives you back as much as you put into it and beckons you to
soar borrow, engineer, solve, adventure, and explore. And that seems
to be right off the jump. The big takeaway from all of these reviews
is the freedom that this game gives you, even more so than what Breath
of the Wild gave you. Someone said in their review, I want to
say it was Igenne tom Marks. He said that Breath of the Wild some
areas felt unfinished or they didn't like they didn't get their full creative vision all
the way through. But now playing Tiers of the Kingdom, the entire game
looks like a rough draft, and that to me was eye opening. Look
I'm not naive, I'm not. This is my first rodeo. I did
not expect Tears of the Kingdom to come out and be panned or like a
Red Fall situation, no offense to Red Fall. I did not expect people
to hate it. Did I expect people to like it this much? No,
Honestly, I really thought that based on what I was seeing, it
was just you know, I don't want to say Breath the Wild one point
five, because there was definitely more to do, like the sky the sky
islands and building things and stuff like that. So I want to say that
it wasn't just derivative or just small iterations. But I also didn't think it
was going to be different enough to really get people's eyes opening like this.
But man, I was wrong. And then Tom Marx in his IgM review,
he continues that the game is an unfathomable follow up to one of the
greatest games ever made, somehow improving upon it nearly every way, be that
with simple quality of life improvements, a genuinely exciting story which we'll get to,
or wildly creative new building mechanics that make you rethink what is possible.
That is some high praise there from Tom Marks. And speaking of the story,
it seems that Gannendorff, his absence in the first game, is heavily
remedied in this one. Someone's saying that in comparison to the lad game,
he's back and he's chatty, which I'm fine with. I feel that the
first game, that wonder of not knowing what the overall villain, what to
expect from the overall villain, and that feeling of you know it fitting in
with the rest of the game, where the entire game was a curiosity,
including the main malevolent force, and you don't see it until the very end
or whenever you decide to take on high roll Castle. I appreciated that,
But here bringing him in and making him more of a major part of the
story, it sounds like it was the right call not to mention Giant Samurai
Daddy that he is. But I like that he's back. I like that
he has a more prevalent part of the story, or more of focus in
the story at least it sounds like. And then again the word I say,
the word focus, But in a game like this, the word focus,
I guess doesn't really apply because it's so open ended. I was reading
times another GameSpot article how Long to Beat Tiers of the Kingdom, said that
fifty hours is probably a minimum, right. If you just do the story
things, you're going to be in this game for a long time, and
if you want to complete everything, you're looking at one hundred plus hours.
So saying that anything is a focus is a bit of a misnowhere because you
can't really focus on anything other than whatever you decide to do when you first
turn the game on. In that moment, little chunks of the story a
side quest here, a discovery there, that's what you're focusing on. Obviously,
when you get back to the main story beats, you can talk about
the main players like Ganad Orphan, Lincoln Zell are there, but it's not
really You can't really say that this game is focused because it's so open,
it's so much to do. At least based on the reviews that I've been
reading, Jordan Midler from VGC another ten out of ten says the game reinterprets
Breath of the Wild for the better. Instead of removing all the aches and
pains of that game, it completes the circle by adding gameplay based solutions to
annoyances and encouraging you to let your imagination run free. Easily one of the
very best games on the Switch again, freedom, imagination. Words that are
going to be coming up, but big one here is not removing the aches
and pains of the old game, but completing the circle. So instead of
taking away breakable weapons, they just allowed you to make weapons out of anything.
That was one of the coolest parts of that one reveal from about a
month ago, I would say maybe a little more where they were creating bomb
arrows on the fly or creating weapons by sticking two items together right then and
there. That I think is huge for this game. I think it's going
to be one of the biggest parts of the entire game is seeing people experiment
with different ways to take on enemies using just what's around them. There's a
very primal survival sort of feeling to that that I imagine is a big part
of what's making this game feel so good for the folks that are playing it.
I am very very excited to dig into myself. But reading these ten
out of ten reviews, I've definitely given me some sparks on what I want
to do when I first start. Another one from inverse another ten out of
ten. This is Hayes Madison. The game is so much more than a
sequel, total reimagining. There's that wording in of what Nintendo did with Breath
of the Wild in twenty seventeen. There are still some minor quibbles like cooking
and clumsy horse controls, but all that pales in the face of the many,
many things this game does write and I do not like to hear about
the clumsy horse controls. That was a problem that I had in the last
game. But there is a horse related thing that I saw from kind of
Funny on YouTube. They do those. They had a short from Blessing Blessing
Junior who that's not his name, is a Blessing Junior from Blessing who said
that one of the coolest things about this game is that he went to the
stable in Tears of the Kingdom for the first time and all of the horses
that he had raised in the old game were still there. So it takes
the hole having to train a horse thing right out of the equation. I
love that that's one less tedious task I have to do, allowing me to
jump right back into exploration of the entire world. Yes, please, that's
fantastic. More of that, please, But yeah, I'm not excited to
expect this to be completely without quibbles, but it sounds like if cooking and
horse controls are it, I think we're in a pretty good spot. Nintendo
Life also ten out of ten, a glorious triumphant sequels one of the best
games of all time, unfiltered bliss to lose yourself in for hundreds of hours.
We can't wait to see what the world will do with the game,
and that, Yeah, that is one thing that I am now that the
game is out in the public. I am excited to see again going to
the experimentation of the weapons and stuff like that, what players decide to do
in this high fantasy sandbox essentially that they've been given to build or to you
know, the way they approach battles or puzzles or things like that. I
had already seen in some gameplay. I think it was game spots gameplay.
Actually, they built this massive like flying raft with guns laser guns for lack
of a better term, underneath it, and they flew it to a sky
island with a bunch of enemies, and and that raft took out most of
them, and then he jumped down and slashed the rest of them. It
was very Star Wars esque, but in Zelda and that that really piqued my
interest. I am curious to see what goes on there. So here's one
that is not a perfect score. It is nine point seven five out of
ten from Game Informer. It might as well be a perfect score from Kyle
Hilliard, good fella friend of the show. To Doc get the same goosebumps
exploring High Rule as I did in the past, but I did experience new
emotions, both a granular level from solving individual puzzles and on a larger scale
by going back to one of my favorite video game locations. They say you
can never go home again, but I adored returning to High Rule with all
new tools that I can get behind that. I imagine that's something I'm going
to have to feel for myself once I start my playthrough. But hearing that,
you know, it still invokes those sort of reactions or emotions after spending
dozens of hours in the world in the first game, and now coming back
to spend dozens of hours more. The fact that it's still can elicit those
feelings out of players is very good. Games Radar with a four and a
half out of five game builds on what breadth of the Wild previously we've heard
that already, and with a platform like that to work on, the result
can't help but be fantastic that with the occasional hiccup and execution, the end
result is a game as broad as it is deep, and something that comfortably
justifies the six year weight and then the final one. Here you're a game
or four out of five stars and astonishing quite literally top the bottom se equal
adding complexity and splendor to the formula without sacrificing its enchantment. I wonder if
Edwin Evans Thirwell is a magic the Gathering player with a phrase like sacrificing the
enchantment. But yeah, so, Zelda, good y'all. I mean,
if I could really sum this up in three words, Zelda, good y'all,
there are some caveats obviously, if you did. If Beth of the
Wild wasn't your jam this may not be your jam either. There are still
some things from the previous game that annoyed people that are still here, like
the weapons grading, the grading system, and the aforementioned horse controls and cooking
and things like that. But it sounds like these are minor squabbles or minors
what is the word I'm looking for, minor complaints. Let's just say,
in the grand scheme of the entire game, and I'm thinking that even problems
of before are lessened based on the decisions that they made here, as described
earlier in one of the other reviews. So yes, the media gaming media
world was enamored with this one. Reviews were absolutely bonkers. Ninety seven percent
top critic average on the tiers of the Open Critic four Tiers of the Kingdom.
Not a surprise that it's reviewing well, but it is a surprise that
it's reviewing this well, if that makes sense. Moving, so, let's
go to the top five on Open Critic for twenty twenty three. So far,
Tiers of the Kingdom takes the first spot. Resideval four remake is second
at ninety two, the surprise Hi Fi Rush coming in and number three with
an eighty nine Vernal Edge, which is a console RPG, only has six
reviews, but it's reviewing it in eighty eight, so I wonder if just
more people have to review that one cassette Beasts, which came out of nowhere
and is apparently phenomenal at eighty six, Theorism Final bar Line also at eighty
six, Optopath Traveler two, eighty five, Star Wars Jedi Survivor also eighty
five, The Space for the Space for the Unbound and excellent indie adventure title
from Mokagin Studios at eighty five, and then Hogwarts Legacy at eighty four.
So I know I said top five, but that's actually the top ten so
far for twenty twenty three as per Open Critic. I'm not sure what's going
to be able to get into that list from here on out, but there
are some heavy hitters coming in the next six weeks between Diablo four and Street
Fighter six and Final Fantasy sixteen, Yes and Amnesia the Bunker for the low
key horror fan or the for the independent horror fans. There's a lot to
like, a lot going on in the next couple of weeks, but right
now it's all Zelda, all the time, and if you're planning on going
to High Rule, it sounds like based on critical reception, you will not
be disappointed. Coming up after the quick break, we will talk about Classic
Zelda versus Modern Zelda, which your your preferences might be, where you might
sit on that spectrum, and where I personally find myself in recent years being
pulled when it comes to Nintendo's High Fantasy franchise. Stick around all right,
Welcome back to Chief Steaks and Controllers, Episode one thirty one. The High
Rule episode just got done talking about the reviews for Tiers of the Kingdom.
I know I'll be tearing into High Rule as soon as possible later today after
downloads on my console and work is done and all that good stuff. But
I want to move on now to an interesting conversation. Every time a new
game comes out in this franchise, I feel like a debate starts once again
between Old Zelda versus New Zelda, Modern Zelda versus Class Zelda. Where you
fall in that time frame. And there's an one review in particular that makes
this apparent from Gfinity E Sports, not a place you would expect your review
for Zelda would come from, but that does not mean that it's not worth
it's merit. And this is the lowest review that I've seen for Tiers of
the Kingdom at six out of ten. And right here is an interesting paragraph
about thirty to forty hours in Tiers of the Kingdom looks to be a victim
of Nintendo's obtuse marketing strategy, from hearing next to nothing about the game to
getting almost too much information in the week's leading to release. The suddenly fast
moving cloud of information was makes too quickly into a pot already simmary with speculation
reaching up a willing point that people making concrete claims from veague assumptions. And
then he gets into classic Zelda, right, like what a classic Zelda is,
and I want to I want to kind of dig into what he says
here. So it's I'm sad to say that the legend of Zelda Tears the
Kingdom just isn't worth the weight for me personally. It takes too much from
the one title in the series it took me years to finish, and does
too little to invigorate the classic Zelda magic back into its reused world. So
there it is. Classic Zella seems to be a mantra that always appears,
like I said, when a new game is launched, But what does that
mean anymore? Like obviously you could say, you know, and he has
Zelda. Well, okay, so what's anys Zelda? It's a top down
the venture title takes about forty five minutes to an hour complete if you're talking
Zelda two, because Zelda two is a whole different animal, which a lot
of people, if you recall, panned as being not as good as the
other ones linked to the past. Okay, now we're talking. It builds
on the first game. It you know, puts in the new graphics,
the new dungeon structures, things like that, Okaine of Time that seemed this
seems to be the lynchpin, right, Okarine of Time seems to be the
the catalyst for this debate, if you ask me, because that's where three
D happened. That's where you know, a full fleshed out story happened.
That's where the series really evolved from you know what it was with a you
know, it was a popular game, but I don't think it was as
popular at least growing up to me, I didn't hear about it as much
as I heard about Mario or even like you know, Street Fighter two and
stuff like that. Maybe that was just my circle of friends but just weren't
playing Zelda as much, right, Okurative time change that okerative time put that
thing squarely on the map for everyone in my group at least. And then
from there we never Backmador's Mask, which I personally have never played, but
I know enough about it, Twilight Princess, which is for a long time
once my favorite wind Waker, and the list goes on. So we need
to find then what people were talking about when they're talking about classic versus modern
Zelda, because that conversation has shifted, Right, there was a time going
into Skywards Sword where people were yearning for a change to the formula it did.
It wasn't you know, modern classic Zelda versus modern Zelda. It was
formulaic Zelda versus open Zelda. Right, Starting with the karein of time,
you had a couple of dungeons, then a central point, then a couple
more dungeons to gather items. As you gained items, or as you gained
weapons and tools in each dungeon, you use that tool for the rest of
the dungeon, and then you fought a boss, and then you moved to
the next dungeon. So it was very structured formulaic in that regard. Part
of what made Zelda great and the original game was that you could go anywhere
you wanted. You'd get your butt kicked if you weren't ready in certain areas,
but you could go wherever you wish to go. Okareend of Time put
that formulaic, linear esque linear ish structure into it. It followed that through
Majora and through Windwaker. Although Windwaker's Ocean gave the presentation of an open world
you could sail wherever you wanted, but you could only advance the story in
certain places. There wasn't as much. There was some discovery in Windwaker.
It's a it's an interesting outlier, but I don't think it was as fundamental
to that feeling as people might think, at least not now. Then maybe,
but not now and then Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, which has its
own problems, and now hear Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
So between Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild, people wanted Zelda to
get back to that classic Zelda field. So first it was, you know,
get rid of the formula, and then Skyward Sword came out and it
was all right, now we need something a little more open, we need
something a little more free. Just drop us in, let us adventure all
that, and then Breath of the Wild came out and now Tears of the
Kingdom. People are asking for that class Zelda. But what do they want.
Do they want Links Awakening again where it's it's like the remake in twenty
nineteen, where it's that classic top down not isommetric, but you know,
screen to screen to screen sort of movement. Do you want the three D
Zelda format where it's story story, a couple of dungeons, story story,
more dungeon story, story end. Do you want that structure back? What?
Unfortunately, just saying classic Zelda, you have to be more specific now
because there are multiple Classic Zelda's. In my opinion, I think they do
a good job of catering to both of those folks. At least they were
with a link between worlds. And then when Skywards sort of when that came
out at the time, Skyward's Sword, Let's not Forget still has one of
the highest highest regarded single dungeons in any Zelda game ever. The motion controls
were you know, poop and doing things like dowsing were admittedly very dumb,
but when it when it shined, when it shown, it really shone.
It was really really well designed in certain places. Um Twilight Princess, same
thing. I loved Twilight Princess for a while. It was my favorite Zelda
of all time, more than wind Waker, more than Akarena, more than
linked to the past, more than all of them. I loved the the
darkness to it right like the whole Twilight realm, really appealed to me.
The hero shade was very cool, learning the moves of the hero from the
hero. It's that it's himself even though he was you know, dead.
Story implications there were really really cool. I thought Midna probably the best sidekick
of any of the sidekicks that they employed. Navi was annoying. Fee or
five whatever her name is was fine at least meant more to the overarching Zeldas
story. But still I think Midna's attitude and midness personality kind of pushed her
over the edge for me. Robably protested a lot for me as far as
what I wanted in games at the time. So that that was always a
favorite of mine, probably my favorite of that structure of that era of Zelda.
But but now now I think we're in best Zelda mode, right.
Best Breath of the Wild was the six year old me or ten year old
me imagined in my head as I was playing Linked to the Past. Is
what Breath of the Wild ended up being. Yeah, and it sounds like
Tears of the Kingdom was just going to expand on that. There's your modern
Zelda, modern Zelda. There is no debate. It's Breath of the Wild.
It's probably Tears of the Kingdom at some point, as more people play
it, they still you know, they modernized some class Exelda in that time.
I mentioned Links Awakening, I mentioned Link between Worlds, which was essentially
a sequel to Link to the Past. So there has been some modernization of
the classic formula. But I think now there is a clear divide from where
modern is. I think modern Zelda is clearly defined as Breath of the Wild
and Tears of the Kingdom. But after that, class Axelda gets a little
hazy and you need to be a little more specific. Can't just say I
want class Exelda again, because that could mean any one of a multitude of
things. It's kind of like how as a pro wrestling fan, the first
thing I think of is when a promotion, a new promotion, says they
want to get back to the roots of professional wrestling. We want to take
professional wrestling back to its roots. Unfortunately, that is a format that always
progresses, and when you try and go back to the roots of wrestling,
you end up making a subpar product, an inferior product. There's a great
Brian Zane wrestling with regret, great wrestling YouTube, are not sure if you've
ever watched it. He talks about this in his review of the AWF,
a shortlift promotion from the mid nineties that talks about getting back to the roots
of pro wrestling with a round system where instead of you know, it was
just one match, which is a bunch of different rounds over and over again,
and how ultimately that promise of going back to its roots didn't work.
I find some similarities in that to video game discourse in general, when they
talk about classic versus modern there is a way to bring good retro gameplay to
the current scene. I think Yacht Club Games is a perfect example of being
able to do that. Between Shovel Night and the upcoming Mina The Hollower.
But taking a franchise back to what made it so good in the first place
is difficult because a lot of that is steeped in nostalgia, right. A
lot of what made those games very good is that you were a kid playing
them. They do those experiences translate as well when you're an adult, or
should they try and modernize them to now so that you can have those same
feelings you had when you were a kid as an adult. That is the
line that developers have to tight rope tight walk, tight rope walk as they
are making games for the first time, sorry, as they're designing a new
game for the first time. I should say in a franchise, I'm fine
with something like Tears of the Kingdom. Keep building, making things more modern.
Eventually you're gonna get to a point where it's too big, and then
players will have what I call a paralysis of decision. They'll turn on a
game, they'll have fifty million things on their map to do. They'll decide,
screw it, I'm not doing any of these. They'll walk around for
an hour and then turn the game off. That's what I call playing a
Ubisoft game in this day and age. But with Zelda, I don't think
there's ever going back to classic Zelda. You're gonna have a classic esque,
You're gonna have a modernized classic, let's call it. But you're never going
to be able to go back to the feelings that Link to the Past engendered.
You're never gonna be able to go back to the first time you turn
on Anchoreen of Time. That's never going to happen. You're going to have
the first time you turn on a modern Zelda and how that makes you feel.
But it's not going to be the same similar, maybe, but it's
not going to be the same as what classic Zelda made you feel like.
So I think the whole, ultimately, the whole classic versus modern Zelda debate
is pointless, right, I mean, if you want to class Ezelta format,
that's fine, but it's going to be a modern version of it.
If you're if you're pining for to the past, so bad, just go
play Link to the Past. Right. Zelda needs to modernize, and in
Tears of the Kingdom it sounds that they've done that by building on the last
time they modernized in Breadth of the Wild, moral combat. It sounds like
it's going to do that by rebooting the franchise again after rebooting it in two
thousand and nine, not fifteen years later. At least it seems like it.
I could be wrong, but based on their marketing, with the clock
that hits nine ten, eleven skips twelve goes to one, sounds like they're
rebooting again or at least going back to the time of the Great Kongoloo.
That is the challenge a game developer, a game designer. Chasing that feeling
of classic, you know, childhood favorite games is a fool's errand it's a
fallacy. It's never going to happen. You need to make a game in
that with that name on it that engenders modern feelings of you know, love
and nostalgia and things like that. You're never going to get back to where
you were, That's impossible. This is the industry that only moves forward.
Even when it seems retro, it's still moving forward because a game like Shovel
Night, yes it looks like classic Mega man, you know, two D
platforming, but there's a lot under that hood that give it more depth.
I just think that pining for the days of classic games ultimately will leave you
more disappointed than just trying to appreciate the modern stuff that's here now. But
that's me. I could be wrong at Big Finale on Twitter, tell me
I'm wrong. I'm open to the debate. I am not closed minded on
this. I would like to hear your feelings on that. But after the
break, we're going to get into the best way to enter Zelde. If
you've ever played Zelda game before and you're wondering what the hype is all about,
what would I suggest to be the starting point for a new person coming
into the franchise for the first time. And I'll just say right now,
spoiler alert, it is not want of Gamelon on CDI you can be safe
in that knowledge. Stick around, all right, Welcome back to Chiefs Takes
the Choler's episode number one thirty one, zooming right along here to the final
segment of the show, and we've been talking about the new Zelda. We've
been talking about classic versus modern, But now we're going to talk about a
good entry point. What is the best entry point for someone who is brand
new to the Zelda franchise, has never played the game before, but wants
to get into it, wants to see what this whole Zelda things old event
wants with this guy run them around as green pajamas, and you know,
figure out maybe which game they don't want to play in the franchise for the
first time. I have a couple of ideas of where to start, and
it would depend, honestly on that birth particular tastes. If they don't mind
they're an older game, right, if they're like my age, mid thirties,
potentially older. I almost said late thirties. I am not late thirties
yet, don't you put that on me. If they're around my age or
older and they've been playing for a very long time and they've played old retro
style games, just didn't put Zelda on their radar. Maybe they were a
PC player, or maybe they were more into platforms when they were a kid,
or like me, when they were first growing up, they were more
into Mario and Punch Out, Street Fighter and stuff like that, and didn't
really get into the adventure stuff until later. I would be comfortable saying the
first Zelda or linked the past right for that kind of person who has retro
style gaming under their belt. In some regard, I would go back and
say, go back and play the first one. It's forty five to fifty
minutes. Go in and do it, and enjoy it and love it,
and then you'll understand. Maximilian Dude, one of the best fighting game YouTubers
on the planet, recently played the first Zelda for the first time on his
channel. That was exactly what I'm talking about. The kind of reactions he
was getting being a gamer for as long as he has been is what I
imagine someone else in his position would do. So if they're an older an
older fellow or less who has been playing games for a long times like me,
then I would say, you know Zelda one or linked to the past
Zelda two. I would not say first, I would tell them to play
it, but just to get the feel for how the franchise has iterated in
the past. I would definitely not start them with the Adventures of Link,
just because that is a major barrier and they would get the wrong impression of
what the entire franchise is if they started with the first NPC you can talk
to or one of the first saying I am error. I just don't think
that would work out for them very well. So I would not start them
with Adventures of Link. But if they're a little younger, right, if
they're let's say mid to early twenties and they started playing around PS two GameCube
era something like that, then I would say something like Win Waker, Twilight
Princess, maybe Akarina of Time three D. Specifically, I feel like Okarina
of Time for sixty four, as great as it was at the time,
visually has not aged as well as other Zelda titles, So if you didn't
play it, then you may not get as much out of it as it
pertains to the wonder of being in that world, if that makes sense.
So if I'm going to introduce someone to the three D style of Zelda,
I'd go a little further in the timeline. Have them play Win Waker,
have them play Twilight Princess, get them accustomed to the format, and then
say, Okay, go back and play Aquareine of Time. They're not going
to appreciate it as much as we did when it first launched, but I
think that's just the cost of not playing it until now. Whether they weren't
old enough to play it then or weren't interested then in it, then I
think that's the issue because while gameplay it's you know, it's where it's one
of the main reasons Zelda is where it is today. Look, visuals graphics
were only revolutionary at the time, and they have not aged well okerate of
time. Three D does a good job of bringing it into a more modern
look if they have a three DS or access to a three DS, But
if they don't, Win Waker with its timeless cartoonish style or Twilight Princess,
which also you know isn't comparable to today either but also is not as blocky
let's say polygonal as N sixty four was, would be a good start as
well. Younger than that, like high schooler, middle schooler, I may
stick with wind Waker or Twilight Princess. Maybe move into Skyward Sword with motion
controls as much as they think Skyward Sword HD on switch is a good bridge
there, as it kind of lessens the whole dependence on motion controls, still
uses them to a point, but not as much. That might be a
good gateway into that game, but I would probably still say wind Waker or
Twilight Princess for like a teenager for the same reasons that I say it for
the mid to early twenties, and I guess late twenties, like all of
twenties, I guess, just because I don't know that operend of Time or
Major's Mask kind of translates as well. And Skyward Sword did things so wildly
differently as far as like dependence on motion controls and dungeon structures and storyline and
stuff like that. It's easy to say Skyward Sword because it's the first one
on the timeline, but I feel like to get that Zelda feel Twilight Princess
or Windwaker would be the best choices to start. And then for the younger
folks, I would say Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom,
just because of how much you can do in these games. Like my daughter
live at the age of one, was able to run around Breath of the
Wild and you know, look around, jump on stuff, shoot all of
my shock arrows into the sky somehow, just tinker around. It's very much
super Mario Odyssey in that regard, where you can have someone with high gills
who's doing all the things you need to do and getting all the items and
stuff like that, or you can have a young kid who's just mucking around
in a world jumping on things and seeing what works and what doesn't, and
I think the Breath of the Wild Tears the Kingdom are the best for that.
So ultimately, the answer to what is the best entry point for the
Zelda series, in my opinion, is how old you are? Depending on
how old you are, how old the person that we're talking to is.
There is no one clear this is the Zelda you need to start with.
It is not a binary question, for lack of a better term. There
are multiple answers here depending on the age and experience of the person who's asking
the question. Now, are you're going to find a lot of people who
have never played the Zelo game before. No. I imagine that there are
plenty of gamers who have played at least one, But I don't think that
it's as ubiquitous as some people make it seem. I feel like if you're
going to introduce the franchise for the first time, you need to be careful
in how you do it, because it's if you take someone who is,
you know, a gamer for thirty plus years, maybe they played elden Ring
and they loved it, and you throw them right into Breath of the Wild
they're going to say this, I mean, didn't I do this in Elden
Ring, Right, So you want to take them back to the retro era,
let them see how it started and build them from there. Someone who
is younger, like high school age or just out of a college age,
they may think they may not be ready to go back to retro if they
were even into retro at all, and they may not be interested in a
full on, hundred hour open world, do whatever you want sort of games.
You have to find that middle ground in a place like Windwaker or Twilight
Princess or something of that. Ilk Link between worlds on three D s would
be a good option too, if they wanted to try something that was retro
with a more modern feel. Okarina of Time three DS. Same thing.
But a lot of people may say operative Time as the first one, and
I just don't know that that's going to do what the person requests. The
person suggesting it would want it to do, right. They say that because
it's the most popular Zelda game or the most famous Zelda game, or what
have you. But ultimately that is a tough nut to crack now thanks to
its limited visual identity and to the now sort of rudimentary dungeon designs. Back
then they were great, but now they're they're just kind of there right ocherative
time. As much as I love it does not age as well as some
people would like it too. I know that's a hard pill to swallow,
but it just doesn't. It's it's it's it's not. It's a fundamental part
of the industry now. It's a fundamental building block to where we are now.
But it is one that definitely has as its cracks and one that shows
its age more than other timeless classics if you ask me. It's not to
say it's not a great game. It is one of my favorites of all
time and will remain and will remain so it will definitely be one of the
highest regarded games I ever play. But I have to be honest with myself.
It's not perfect. It's definitely not perfect now, and there are better
games in the franchise to be that first one. I would recommend anyone getting
into the franchise to play it eventually, but I wouldn't lead with it.
Whether they're you know, a brand new, like ten year old kid playing
games for the first time, or they've been playing games for thirty years like
I have. I wouldn't lead with Akarreina of Time, and some people might
find that controversial, but I just don't think it would be a good first
Zello game for people. I think there are better options. And I also
think that the question is completely dependent on who's talking to you. Is it
a veteran of gaming who's been playing for thirty years and just didn't have a
Nintendo or what have you, or is it someone brand new to gaming who's
playing a game for the first time. That's how you have to approach these
things. You can't just pick this is the Zelda you should start with.
That's another fallacy. It's another fool's errand you have to ask the questions and
then come to a logical conclusion that makes the most sense. But as I
said before the break, that question will never be answered with the words wand
of Gamelon or Zelda's Adventure because the CDI Zelda's we can all agree our total
poop, but they are good for some jokes. Excuse me, princess.
And with that we were at the end of episode number one thirty one of
Chief Steaks and Controllers, presented by Fox PHL, The Gambler one or two
point five FM, fourteen eighty AM, and iHeartRadio. If you're listening to
these words at the end of this episode, you have reached the final moments.
And as always, I appreciate that you are here listening to these That
means you were entertained and educated enough to stick around for forty five plus minutes
and listen to me talk about a guy in green pajamas who runs around try
and save a princess and has been doing so for nearly thirty five years now.
Thank you as always for your support and your patients. I apologize for
the brief hiatus I took at the end of April in the beginning of May,
but I am back now and I'll be running all the way up to
Summer Games Fest. When I do go out to Los Angeles to check out
play days, I will be in attendance for Jeff Keeley Summer Game Fest Live
YouTube Theater in Los Angeles. I will be there as well, just hanging
out and I will be seeing some stuff and some things while I am out
there with a full report the week I come back for sure, and hopefully
maybe some interviews I can talk with some folks and let you listen to their
voices about the things that we are playing on the floor at sg F.
But with that, I am Jason Finelli. This is Chief sixty and Scholler's
podcast. As always, I hope you have a fantastic weekend. I hope
you have an even better week were right behind it, and we will be
back next time with more of the latest and greatest from video games. Here
on Cheese, Steaks and Controllers bout hour