Ranking EVERY Zelda Game Based On Story

From D Tier to S Tier, let's rank every main series Legend of Zelda game based solely on its story and background lore. From Skyward Sword to Spirit Tracks, Oracle of Seasons to Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess to Tears of the Kingdom, which is the best story? Note that this video will contain spoilers for every game in the series!

Huge thank you to @MonsterMaze for the 3D Storybook animation. Be sure to check his channel out for high quality Zelda content!

or Instagram: @zeltikinsta
► Music in this video:
Nintendo

Sources:

Gameplay footage used:

0:00 Intro
2:00 D Tier
9:28 C Tier
17:54 B Tier
37:24 A Tier
59:34 S Tier

#Zelda #Nintendo #LegendofZelda

[sandwich]

S+ tier is obviously Link’s Crossbow Training. Best story by far

[Sean.Vosler]

The beauty in OOT is how the story means one thing when you play it as a kid, and an entirely different thing when playing it as an adult… much like the time jump in the game itself

[aratherbritishdinosaur]

Zeltik managed to make Zelda II seem like one of the most banger stories ever.

[domhyrule]

Tears of the Kingdom is brought down by how much I hear them say Secret Stone. Call it a Spirit Gem or something

[TheFantomMenace]

The entire time I was holding my breath, waiting for you to rank the wind waker in some low spot. When it got to the top three I was delighted, especially since you also put majora's mask and twilight princess at such a high ranking! Wonderful tier list

[kodykozak]

I don’t know why I cried a little bit when you talked about Twilight Princess, and how the kids idolized Link even before he proved them right.
Great video, as always

[pedrogarcia]

I'm gonna defend the old games by saying that in those days the game's manual IS part of the game. Reading them was considered part of the experience and it was assumed that everyone playing would read the manual fully before starting the game.

[Arob]

For Link’s Awakening:
The seagull and Marin make me think, what if everyone on the island was real, but they were actually just nearby creatures? The wind fish trapped Link in his dream, so why not others? Maybe they’re all just fish, bugs, birds, etc. And while they had a different life in the dream, their true lives were outside the dream

[AndreasVNesje]

A link to the past was such a groundbreaking game, a gigantic leap in storytelling compared to its predecessors. It's the first game with dual worlds, a recipe that many games copied. In my eyes, A tier.

[silencedsymphony]

Finally revisited Skyward Sword and forced myself to really give it an honest shot. After more than 95 hours I've finally completed it and completely fallen in love ❤ Easily one of my favorites now!

[meganwilson]

I am glad that Spirit Tracks got good representation on the list. I think that game is very underrated.

[lilkorok]

wind waker story is literally SO good, and it's actually pretty deep. i love how it's dark emotional story is masked behind the bright colorful cartoony graphics of the game. such a good game.

[beewhiched]

I'm glad that most people agree that Twilight Princess at LEAST should have been S tier

[LegoReaderhello]

Ocarania of time was my first zelda game. It is considered the important one since from there, many games affect the timeline depending on what point they set off. For instance, Majora's mask takes place when Link returns to the past

[blueshoals]

I love seeing Majora's Mask getting the love it deserves.

The depth of its narrative is simply unmatched.

[TayoEXE]

You nailed why I love Majora's Mask. I felt compelled emotionally to save NPCs because they felt like real people. Real fears, hopes, and dreams. The game literally helped me learn how to empathize with people better. It's darker, but all the more rewarding if I can help NPCs I normally wouldn't care all that much about.

[orealvinny]

Ocarina of time and Majora's mask stories will be forever the best for me. Not only because of the amazing plot, the meaning of the adventure, little details and subjectiveness, but also because of the development of the best Link for me, the Hero of Time, the one who has the most characteristics of a hero.

A hero, the concept of one who sacrifices himself, his life, dreams, pleasures, all in order to protect humanity. And to do so he gives up his own humanity. Truly an hero of Time, because he gave up his own time to save Hyrule, and don't even got recognized like a hero in the timeline he ended up staying. This Link shows that being a hero isn't always that bright, in fact, majority of the times it isn't. A hero can save everyone, but who will save the hero after?

[darby]

I adore listening to you explain stories and talk about theories. Something about your cadence and voice man, good stuff

[bethanyellico]

A few thoughts about Tears of the Kingdom... I agree that the open-world, do things at your own pace, in any order, really harms the delivery of the story. However, for players who are paying attention, there are ways to find the memories in order. If you follow the "Impa and the Geoglyphs" questline, you find a hidden room in the Forgotten Temple that shows, from left to right, all of the geoglyphs in the order you should visit them. I used this on my first playthrough and was able to receive the complete story in order, and it really landed well. Additionally, once you finish the Zora's Domain questline, Muzu will be at Lookout Landing. He will tell you the location of one geoglyph at a time, again in chronological order. This doesn't completely solve the problem, but I do think it helps a lot.

[JJMomoida]

I would put Majora’s Mask up there at the top because it revolves around an idea I find very interesting in both fiction and reality: how people deal and cope with grief and conflict. I find that involving so many of the faces in Termina *really* helps build a connection to that world. Majora itself is just an evil mask, but how it affects the world and its characters is very interesting to me.