So a month or two ago I picked up the Minish Cap and plowed through it, much to my enjoyment. The game was awesome, but one thing really stuck out to me. Despite the top-down styled view of the game, some of the actual fights really stood out to me, especially the Darknut duels. After the Wind Waker, I kind of figured that the new Darknuts were going to be mostly pushovers who were more bark than bite, but Minish Cap taught me otherwise. I will never forget the final battle sequence where you had to fight 3 at once with a timer at the same time, and one of them was the extra-elite black ones. I thought Nintendo did a phenomenal job with that, making it essentially into a sword duel despite the view. You had to stay on your toes the entire time, and there was a pressure because you knew that if you didn't finish in time you'd get a gameover. So my question of discussion for you guys is thus: in any of the games, were there any battles that really, really stuck out to you? Bosses included
For me there are quite a few, I could go into the iron knuckles of the first Zelda game for the NES, or the ridiculous fights against dark link in the Adventure of Link. But for me, the one that stands out the most was Phantom Ganondorf for Ocarina of Time. It was back in the 90's and we had gotten it for Christmas right after it came out. I was pretty young, yet still was able to make my way through the forest temple to face the boss and when Phantom Ganon came out at me I legit thought it was the real deal. I felt lots of emotions of nervousness and just awe that I was fighting Ganon, then when I found out it was only a mirror of him it just felt like an epic experience, like this was just a shadow of what I would have to face later on. Ocarina of Time really is a great game, lots of experiences like this helped shape my love for it and my childhood.
I was an eight year old when I played OoT. Cue my parents going "E for Everyone? Sounds good." LIES, LIES OF DECEIVING. Normal stuff until one dungeon. Not even a real dungeon. The bottom of the well. As an eight year old, I wasn't prepared for the monstrosity of Deadhand. FRIGGIN DEADHAND. That guy was terrifying for this game, because the motif, the appearance of him, and how he immobilizes you. Not being able to move is one of the scariest things you can do. http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/8476/deadhand.jpg
ReDeads in Wind Waker. Friggin' creepy. The Earth Temple and the Savage Labyrinth. Scared me so badly when I first played the game. Still creep me out to this day.
Three things that I can think of off the top of my head. I had to keep them all related to either fear or difficultly, since if I went off of awesomeness I'd be typing all day. 1) The ReDeads from Wind Waker. There was this room where you enter on a balcony, and the small lower floor is ringed with ReDead coffins. I must have stayed on that balcony for days before working up the nerve to jump down. They terrified me. 2) The Second Imprisoned battle was probably one of the most frustrating / difficult boss fights for me, especially with that time limit. 3) Koloktos for the first time. The leg thing didn't click until near the end, so until then I battled him the hard way. I learned just how epic and intense fighting someone the hard way, with a legitimate threat of death, is.
The ReDeads in OoT. Everyone seems to have that one Zelda monster that creeps them out, and for me it's totally the OoT ReDeads. Nothing else in the game scared me that badly, but those ReDeads... Something about them. Another one that stands out to me is Bongo Bongo. I can't remember why, but that fight definitely stands out in my memory. There's also the darknuts from two games. TP, and the original LoZ. In LoZ, it's because they are ridiculously hard to beat. A room with a bunch of blue versions of these guys has stopped me from advancing further in the game for years at this point. They. Just. Don't. Die. The ones in TP I remember for being fun to battle, so that's a bit better. Finally, there's Zant. I completely loved Zant. Sure Ganon took the final battle from Zant, but Zant was way better in my opinion.
I agree with Double and Tsu... The ReDeads and DeadHand were both freaking scary for me when I was a kid! I think I even had some nightmares about DeadHand lol.
Yeah, Phantom Ganondorf was definitely a crazy fight. They gave you such little amounts of space to do the fight, so you really had this feeling of looking over your shoulder constantly. And the redeads... that scream I will never forget. They did such a good job with it, and you really understood exactly why even Link would freeze in fear over it; it even made you think how much it would affect someone who wasn't the embodiment of courage itself.
The single most memorable boss battle is easily against Ganon in OoT. No arguments, you cannot disprove it.
