Very different game (if you’ve played the pathfinder games, it’s a similar feel).

Honestly, my memory is too rose tinted to offer an honest review on bg1 and bg2… They were amazing for their time, and have aged well in my elderly opinion.

They’re less dialogue driven than bg3 (planescape torment will scratch that itch), and a bit less forgiving, but they’re damn good fun!

Early games were designed to delight, slightly more modern games are designed to both delight and advertise.

It’s the difference between “I can’t beat this boss so I’d better go level up for 20 mins, ooh I unlocked a new spell” and “I can’t beat this boss I had better prep for a 10 hour grind, this is so I can find the X to craft the Y so I can begin to make the Z which offers me a 1 in 10 chance to unlock the option to craft a new spell… Or I could just pay $5 to skip that bit by buying the spell…”

No, I really enjoyed BotW for the same reason I enjoyed OoT! Both innovated and both were very different games exploring different concepts. BotW will forever be my go-to for “open world done right”, and OoT set up a solid action game with strong puzzle elements; that said, fuck the water temple.

Games that break genuinely new ground are rare, in the case of both the old and new Zelda’s there are good and bad (the nds era was a bit of a stagnation), the really groundbreaking titles push the hardware through skilled coding and amazing game loop design.

Also, no spoilers for tears please, it’s on my list once I get a few weeks vacation!

MM is hard to top; it’s peak early LoZ (in an old man’s opinion). It took a familiar engine, added two new major mechanics, and told the first really dark story.

Awakening is the one to play first, it’ll set you up for later games nicely, and it was originally a Gameboy (not GBC game). It took the Zelda formula from the earlier NES iterations, and made a content-rich world.

I’d say save ages and seasons for last (when you get your carts!). They’re amazing games that really show how far the GBC could be pushed, and are very much taking the awakening engine and doing wonderful things. The fact there is linked content between the two means you should also keep a pen and paper handy!

My GameCube is still in service - slowly but surely working through Twilight Princess between work and other things!