[ALttP] Genuinely, how did the old heads beat these games pre-Ocarina of Time without a guide book or the internet?
That's not to say OoT and MM aren't also slightly confusing at times, but I would definitely say all games Wind Waker onwards became much more user friendly and navigable.
I've never actually beaten any Zelda game before Link's Awakening, and even then I've only beaten the switch remake. Decided to finally play through A Link to the Past fully. It's the first Zelda game I ever played, but I never beat the game past the Dark Palace. I've restarted and attempted to beat it like 15 times in my life, I would always just stop playing it for some reason or another.
So this time I decided enough was enough and I would beat it no matter what. I am currently at Ganon's Tower and nearing the end.......I legitimately have zero idea how anyone could beat this game without a walkthrough. And I know if I inevitably finally want to beat the original and Zelda 2 it's not going to get much better. It just blows my mind that you're supposed to have figured out that you needed 2 of the 3 medallions to beat the game......and I have absolutely no idea where in the game it potentially tells you "this is where Ether is. This is where Quake is." Sure, the symbols appear at Misery Mire and Turtle Rock, great!......wouldn't have been able to tell you at all their locations without a walkthrough.
So back in 1991, pre internet, no guide book. How the hell did y'all do it? Just a bunch of trial and error? A shit ton of back tracking? Maybe I'm just so used to modern gaming but honestly playing ALttP in 2026 is grating as hell. If I wasn't playing the game on my 3DS virtual console with the ability to have a save state........as much as the Zelda series is my absolute favorite game series of all time I really dunno if I'd be able to rank it so high. Which is a goddamn shame because everything up to the Dark Palace as it always had been was excellent and then I feel every dungeon after that has been a painstaking slog to get through. Swamp Palace was slightly annoying but hey every Zelda's gotta have an annoying water dungeon lol but then Skull Woods through Ganon's Tower? Man.
I also wanna point out I hate that Misery Mire had you have to fall through the floor to get to that one chest.....I realize through trial and error I probably should have fell through the floor instead of wracking my brain trying to figure out what I was doing wrong for almost an hour before resorting back to the walkthrough (as I do at least try and do everything without the guide as much as possible). But that hole in the floor was solid black......not the transparent drop that every other floor drop in the game had, and I wanna say that was bullshit. I appreciate the dungeons that I could complete without a guide but kudos to the ones who did this shit legit, I absolutely could not.