The Legend of Zelda was a defining part of my childhood and, if we’re being honest, my adult life too. It’s one of the series I think back on with the fondest memories, comprised of the games I played on an evening after school with my Mum watching and helping from behind me on the sofa, as well as the games cartridges that never left my Game Boy while out and about or on holiday.
I have lived and breathed this series ever since my Uncle first introduced me to the first game on the NES when I was around 5 years old. And now here I am, in my thirties, using the knowledge that I’ve garnered from playing these games to write yet another guide about them. I always knew all those hours would pay off one day!
We often get asked about which the hardest The Legend of Zelda games are, the ones that provide the biggest challenge, and the titles that keep you trying the same level again and again until you suddenly look at the clock and discover it’s 3 am. I’ve compiled a list of the toughest Zelda games I’ve ever played and, more importantly, what makes them so difficult. These are games that me and the Retro Dodo team have played extensively over the years, and we have the balding heads and stress levels to prove it!
Table of Contents
1. Zelda II: Adventure Of Link
- Release Date: 1987
- Developers: Nintendo R&D4
- Publishers: Nintendo
- Average Completion time: 10-12 Hours
- Buy Digital: Nintendo Switch Online
- Buy Physical: eBay
The Adventure Of Link isn’t just the hardest Zelda game going, it’s also one of the hardest games around full stop. I still have no idea why Nintendo decided to make this game so tough; I like a certain level of tension when I’m playing games, but having to start again every time you die is just insanity!
I know what you’re thinking; there has to be a password system so you can just head straight to the point you died at, right? No; no such system exists. It’s hard as nails and probably the main reason why I’m bald today. You’ve really got to hold onto those lives! Of course, you could always play using the Nintendo Switch and make a save state, but something feels wrong about that. Think of all the people who had to feel the pain back in the day, all the sorrow every time Dark Link dispatched their hearts with more ease than me winning a pasta-eating competition.
So many things about the The Adventure Of Link make it feel like it doesn’t belong in the Zelda canon. I think the fact that it’s side-scrolling as opposed to top-down like the previous games irks me a little too. All in all, it’s not one that I go back to with fond memories, more the kind of memories that would make for a great stint in a rage room.
2. Majora’s Mask
- Release Date: 2000
- Developers: Nintendo EAD
- Publishers: Nintendo
- Average Completion time: 20 – 22 hours
- Buy Digital: Nintendo Switch Online
- Buy Physical: eBay
Majora’s Mask is loved by gamers all over the world and is undoubtedly one of the most intriguing Zelda games in the series. It took me a long time to get through it as a child and scarred me a little bit as an adult, but I’m back to loving it again. There’s no denying how hard it is; any game where you are timed and need to continually turn back time in order to complete tasks is always going to be tough, and I distinctly remember having a terrible time trying to complete all of the intricate elements to get the Sun Mask.
I think the timing factor plays a huge part of it; it’s the reason why I had such a tough time with the first Pikmin game too, adding that tense countdown that makes things so much more nail biting. It wasn’t just me who felt the time pressure while playing it, however. During my research on Eiji Aounma for his work on Wind Waker, I discovered that he, along with the rest of Miyamoto’s team, was tasked with making Majora’s Mask in just a year using the character sprite designs from Ocarina of Time. It was a mammoth task that mirrors my feelings while playing it, and I bet they wish they could have been able to turn back time now and again to give themselves more hours in the day!
The 3DS version made things a little easier for players by adding specific points in time to warp to, whereas I had to wait until the precise moment on the N64. I think that, like Adventure of Link, if you’re going to play the easier version, you’ve got to experience the original in all its vein-popping glory to appreciate just how difficult it was.
3. The Legend Of Zelda
- Release Date: 1986
- Developers: Nintendo EAD
- Publishers: Nintendo
- Average Completion time: 10-12 hours
- Buy Digital: Nintendo Switch Online
- Buy Physical: eBay
A gold cartridge for a gold level of difficulty. The original The Legend of Zelda game is an absolute classic and the title that started it all. If it were a pushover in terms of difficulty, then we probably wouldn’t have half of the titles in this list today. The thing is, this game isn’t actually that long. The average time for completing The Legend of Zelda is about 10 hours, which compared to months and months of playing Tears of the Kingdom is incredibly short. You could complete it in a day (or a few minutes as this speedrun shows), but it’s the difficulty level that keeps you coming back to the same point again and again… or more likely leaving it for days before coming back to pass a certain section.
This was the very first Zelda game we’d ever got too, and it came out in a day where you couldn’t just nip onto the internet to find out how to complete a specific level or ask someone who had played it before on a forum. Everyone was in the same boat together, and that boat was sinking quickly in the middle of Lake Hylia.
For many people, heading back to play this first game is going to provide problems because of the control system too. If you came to the series in Breath of the Wild and could go everywhere, then the linear system and annoyingly relentless enemies in The Legend of Zelda will quickly grind down your resolve. Or as I like to call it, ‘character building’.
4. Tears Of The Kingdom
- Release Date: 2023
- Developers: Nintendo EPD
- Publishers: Nintendo
- Average Completion time: 60 – 80 hours for main objectives, 6 months + for all objectives if you’re me
- Buy Digital: Nintendo
- Buy Physical: Amazon
This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but I think Tears of the Kingdom could be too big. I love the new direction The Legend of Zelda has gone in recent years with the arrival of Breath of the Wild and finally being able to do everything I’ve always wanted to while exploring Hyrule, but Tears of the Kingdom is just so vast that my main problem at any given time is deciding what to do.
The Autobuild function has fans making and recalling some amazing devices, but mining for Zonaite takes up massive portions of the game. I make a vehicle, it gets stuck, and then I have to leave it to go to the depths to get more Zonaite. And the enemies inside The Depths are insanely difficult to defeat too; I’ve come across Gleeoks and Constructs that have killed me so quickly I’ve not even had a chance to eat some of my meals to regain hearts. The same goes for the Gleeok on the bridge over Lake Hylia too, it destroys me every single time!
Arguably, the game is a lot harder if you go exploring off the beaten path and look for everything before you should. But then again, the game promotes that way of thinking, what with so many side quests to embark on and the prospect of finding the Master Sword imprinted in your mind after knowing how much easier things were after finding it in Breath of the Wild. I felt like the Shrines have been a lot harder too this time around, with some just making me scratch my head and wondering what on earth to do. I love Tears of the Kingdom and games definitely need to be difficult to make the most of the higher price points these days, but I’ve not played it as continuously as I did BotW. I’ll complete it though… one day.
5. Skyward Sword
- Release Date: 2011
- Developers: Nintendo EAD
- Publishers: Nintendo
- Average Completion time: 35-40 hours
- Buy Digital: Nintendo
- Buy Physical: Amazon, eBay
The motion controls on Skyward Sword were cool, there’s no denying that, but they made swimming an absolute pain. I hated navigating water probably more than I hated the entire Water Temple (and don’t worry, the hardest Zelda level of all time is definitely going to be talked about in depth during this article). I would end up twisting my Wiimote around in circles trying to flow in the right direction, only to throw it onto the sofa in a rage and realise that it was attached to my wrist… The same went for aiming shots too; the idea of being more involved with Link’s abilities for the first time still makes me feel like a child at Christmas, but it definitely made it harder to dispatch enemies when caught in a skirmish.
Skyward Sword doesn’t have tough bosses in my opinion, but the dungeons themselves provide a long-time Zelda fan like me a pleasant level of difficulty when running through them. There’s also the quest to get the Hylian Shield which is quite taxing, and Lord Ghirahim is a sneaky foe that definitely shouldn’t be trifled with.
6. Breath Of The Wild
- Release Date: 2017
- Developers: Nintendo EPD
- Publishers: Nintendo
- Average Completion Time: 50+ hours for main objectives, 300+ hours for all objectives
- Buy Digital: Nintendo
- Buy Physical: Amazon, eBay
Breath of the Wild is an open-world marvel with so much to explore and enjoy from the very beginning. With the arrival of upgradeable armour, weapons that break, and colour-coded enemies with varying degrees of attack power (not to mention the Lynels!), it ramped the difficulty up and proved a learning curve that gamers had to get to grips with pretty quickly. It’s a refreshing level of difficulty, however, and one that forces you to explore but carefully, discovering ingredients to upgrade armour so you can go back to places where you were defeated in order to continue your search for even more powerful weapons and items.
It’s also difficult in the sense that you want to be able to progress faster than you physically can; early bows don’t have the range that you might hope for, so you sometimes end up putting yourself at risk and running in with a sword instead of getting crafty with bombs or sneaking up on enemies. I remember watching my friend returning to one of the early Bokoblin skulls again and again on a first play-through because they kept being defeated – we weren’t used to Link losing all his hearts due to having no armour at the beginning of a Zelda game, but man, it makes the whole game a lot more exciting. Gone are the days when three lots of successful hits could kill a boss – there’s so much more to think about when getting an enemy’s health bar down now, and the different forms of Calamity Ganon were tough to beat!
I’ll tell you what else is hard too – getting through Kokiri Woods to get to the Deku Tree. It’s Pro-Controller-snapping levels of hard, but the reward is certainly worth it once you arrive! And everyone remembers the first time they actually defeated a Lynel; it’s arguably the best feeling in the world, other than beating the Trial of the Sword and fully charging up the Master Sword!
7. Ocarina Of Time
- Release Date: 1998
- Developers: Nintendo EAD
- Publishers: Nintendo
- Average Completion Time: 30-50 hours
- Buy Digital: Nintendo Switch Online
- Buy Physical: eBay
Three words: The Water Temple. I wonder if Miyamoto knew that this dungeon would go on to become one of the toughest levels to navigate in any Nintendo game. Sure, the Spirit Temple was tough too and the Gerudo Fortress before it proved to be a stealthy nightmare for first-time gamers, but the Water Temple breaks me to this day. It was even tougher in the Master Quest too, with more enemies and a change in the design of some areas as well as hidden items to uncover. Honestly, my 3DS almost ended up on eBay a couple of times during my last play-through.
Ocarina of Time is a truly beautiful game from start to finish – everything about it is perfection. And yes, despite my protestations, that also includes the Water Temple. I know it’s an absolute pain to complete and super tough, but the design, the thought processes behind it, the brain power it takes to complete; it’s all executed perfectly. Collecting all of the heart pieces throughout the game is undoubtedly pretty difficult, as are bosses like Twinrova and timing your shots when batting back Ganondorf’s magical attacks, and I’ve fallen at the hands of more than a couple of Lizalfos over the years. It was difficult enough for me to have to follow a small guide I got free with Nintendo Official Magazine as a child – I would have been lost without it!
8. Link’s Awakening
- Release Date: 1993
- Developers: Nintendo EAD
- Publishers: Nintendo
- Average Completion time: 15-20 hours
- Buy Digital: Nintendo
- Buy Physical: eBay
I’m a huge fan of the Zelda game that wasn’t supposed to be a Zelda game. Ever wondered why Kirby, Cheep Cheeps, and Chain Chomps appear in this game? Miyamoto saw the development for the game and thought it would make a great Zelda title, making for a bit of a mish-mash of ideas that works very well but provides a weird playthrough.
There are some gnarly levels in this game – Turtle Rock and Eagle’s Tower provide a challenge on any version of this game. The temptation to go and hang with Kirby in Eagle’s Tower is too big; he’s a bad guy, so don’t go near him! The level structures are pretty complex and require you to go back and, in some cases, triple-check previous areas to eventually find a room you’ve missed in order to progress. Some of the bosses caused me some grief on my most recent Switch playthrough too, and finding all of the sea shells adds an extra level of difficulty for the 101% club.
9. Oracle Of Ages/Seasons
- Release Date: 2001
- Developers: Flagship
- Publishers: Nintendo
- Average Completion Time: 15-20 hours
- Buy Digital: Nintendo Switch Online
- Buy Physical: eBay
Oracle of Seasons & Ages definitely tried to capitalise on the duo-title nature that Pokémon implemented from the get-go. For those of you who haven’t delved into these games before, Oracle of Seasons and Ages form two halves of the same story, with the full picture only being completed after playing both games. There’s even a password feature to unlock different items in the opposite game.
I’ve always preferred Season over Ages as it’s more action-based and, in my opinion, a little more fast-paced, and while I also love the puzzle-based Ages, it’s undoubtedly more of a head-scratcher. Still, the dungeons in these games shouldn’t be entered into lightly and are both demanding, as is trying to navigate your way through the early parts of the game.
Because of the way each title is set up and the limitations of the Game Boy Color, players have to move through screens that load new parts of the level as they progress rather than walking fluidly from one area to another, meaning it’s incredibly easy to miss characters who have important pieces of information. There’s not a lot of guidance in terms of where to go and what to do next either, leaving players to dig in and just explore for answers the way the gaming gods intended.
10. Minish Cap
- Release Date: 2004
- Developers: Capcom, Flagship
- Publishers: Nintendo
- Average Completion Time: 15-20 hours
- Buy Digital: Nintendo Switch Online
- Buy Physical: eBay
The Minish Cap is one of my favourite GBA games and one that I go back to time and time again. Its arrival on the Nintendo Switch Online expansion pack has certainly helped people delve into the earlier top-down Zelda catalogue too, which can only be a good thing in terms of preserving the history of the series.
The Minish Cap’s difficulty lies mainly in switching from being normal-sized to minuscule Picori-sized play and finding the specific places to transform (as well as putting up with Ezlo). It’s a great mechanic that makes you think about every stage of the game and note certain areas that might need to be revisited when in different sizes. The bosses themselves don’t prove much of a problem, but the enemies aren’t strangers to making things difficult for you at every corner. Like Oracle of Seasons, it can be a bit difficult to navigate if you’re coming from the more open-world Zelda upbringing, but this Capcom-created Zelda outing is definitely one that everyone needs to play if they’re a fan of the green-garbed hero!
