Reviewing every Zelda game number 1: The Legend of Zelda (1986)
This game blows. You need a guide to understand what is even going on, the story is non-existent, and the combat is about what you'd expect from an NES title. You can get dungeons in any order technically, and the game even encourages you to do so, but there isn't an actual reasoning to do it out of order given how the dungeons scale in difficulty. The soundtrack is like... fine. A big part of the game is that you don't get items in dungeons, but instead in some random shops. One time I was in a dungeon, and there were two locked doors and I only had one key, so I chose one and it was just some old guy saying something. You have to go out the dungeon and buy a key to go forward like what???
If not for the monumental impact this game had it would be like a 3/10, but because it led to peak eventually it gets a 6/10. Play Tunic instead.
