The 10th Hour 9.18.09: Top 10 Zelda Items

Posted by Derek Robbins on 09.18.2009

The Legend of Zelda is renown for the items that you can obtain throughout your quest. This week, the 10th Hour is dedicated to the top-10 best items throughout Zelda. Did your favorite make the cut?

Hello and welcome to the 10th hour, this is your host every alternating week Derek Robbins! Well, let's see what we have going on here…

-Scribblenauts is an alright game, but I guarantee you most people will tire of it in a day or two. The problem with the game is that a lot of the key words have a same affect and while it masquerades as a game that lets you use a lot of imagination, I felt that it has too many limitations to let me feel truly creative. A shame, because it had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, this will likely just be a flavor of the month.

-Sorry for not posting the week before last like I was supposed to. Things at the paper are kind of hectic. This week I made sure to get a lot of my work that I was going to have to do today done yesterday. As a result, I got home at like 12:30. Ah, the things I sacrifice for you! Seriously, my job at the paper is going great. It's awesome getting to talk to athletes on a daily basis.

-I am playing through Final Fantasy VI for probably the 80th time. The game is still really amazing and I find that it is easy to play in 30 minute intervals. It doesn't have the same lengthy cutscenes as you see in later games in the series, so even with a busy schedule I can sit down and enjoy the hell out of it…Which I love. I actually couldn't find my copy of Final Fantasy VI advance and was going to buy another copy, but it turns out it was in my Pokemon Diamond case for some reason. Well, whatever.

-Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver was released in Japan, and already there is a patch out there that has all the essential menu stuff translated. Not only that, they are releasing new translation patches at a rapid rate. They even have some of the story translated in patch version 5. That is insanely fast work. So if you can't wait for the North American release of the Silver/Gold remakes, I think you should probably try to hunt these down. At the rate they are going, I would say by the time the next 10th hour I write comes out, they may have the whole game translated. Yeah, that IS insane.

Feedback

Sadly, since I missed my last scheduled start – which implies my work rate is less than that of the immortal Hulk Hogan – I will not be doing feedback this week. I plan on making my next start in the rotation though, so I will be commenting on the things you have to say about this column. So, feel free to say anything you want below. I will not take it too personally.



Top-10 Zelda Items

Seeing Larck do a list on the top-10 Mario power-ups got me thinking about a Zelda list of similar ilk. I mean, Link is Batman to Mario's Superman. The hero of time isn't imbued with any fantastical powers, but instead gets all of his shit done by using the items available to him. Where Mario uses strength, Link uses his wit (or lack thereof, depending on the user).

This list probably isn't meant to be taken too seriously since I felt fairly goofy while writing it, but this order of the list reflects my actual opinion. So, yeah, have at it and thank you for reading, or at the very least, skimming to see what the choices were.

Also, the Triforce isn't eligible. I tried to stick with items that can be equipped only. Apologies in advance.

10-) Spinner - Not to be confused with the "spinner belt" from WWE, the spinner was introduced in Twilight Princess and well…it's kind of a top thing. When I first heard of this item, my initial thought was: "Well gee, I guess I can steal Top Man's power in Zelda now"…but what I got was much different. You see, Link usually moves at a relatively plodding pace. He can run, but he can't jump. He is only as mobile as his current inventory allows him to be.

You see, instead of throwing the top out and unleashing it on your foes, Link hops on it and rides along grooves in the wall. Link can really get moving and, for a Zelda game, can get pretty fast. Probably the coolest thing about the top is the ability to jump from wall to wall. You have to do that to solve some puzzles, even. The spinner isn't exactly an iconic Zelda item, but it sure as hell is a fun one. It wasn't used as much as I would have liked for it to have been used in Twilight Princess, but dammit, what little I got made me love it and crave more.



9-) Roc's Feather/Cape - As I said with the spinner, Link is only as mobile as his current inventory allows him. Link only jumps, in the 3D games at least, if you move over to a ledge. Otherwise he has no upward mobility. Frankly, Larry Bird is more likely to throw down a dunk than Link. The Roc's feather changes Link and gives him that upward move he so desperately needs.

You see, no longer will pick-up basketball games in Hyrule go un-answered. Link won't be skipped over for Twinrova, or God forbid, Biggoron (The Shaq of Hyrule one can only assume). The Roc's Feather and the Roc's Cape gives Link the ability to leap! He can jump over those pesky holes in the ground now instead of just meander into them. Really, for Link, it's kind of a God send.

From what I can remember, this item hasn't made a transition to 3D. I mean, correct me if I am wrong, my memory isn't that great. I guess there isn't really a need for it since Link will half-heartedly leap on his own now. Still though, back in the early days, the little Hylian had some brain hemorrhaging going on…this little baby saved his life. It also apparently made a transition to Smash Brothers, since Link can now jump not only once, but TWICE!

Were you hiding a second feather on us Link? Well were ya?



8-) Deku Leaf - Wind Waker is one of my favorite games of all time. Look at it, the game is going to be beautiful no matter what generation we are in. People diss the Gamecube all the time, but there is no denying that the Wind Waker was a beautiful game. One of the first items I can remember seeing in previews for the game was the Deku Leaf. It showed Link gliding through the air with the wind at his back. It took us places where the Roc's Feather could not!

The previews did not really disappoint. If you pointed the wind in a direction favorable to you, you could take the leaf and just glide anywhere that you wanted to go. Hylian pilot tests probably seemed pretty daunting (if it's anything like San Andreas flight tests, I imagine Link rage quitted after a few attempts), but a pilot's license was no longer a need. The world seemed like a much more open world with the leaf.

Plus, it was just fun to use. I know. Fun? In a video game? I never would have guessed such a thing was possible.



7-) The Heroes Bow - On the surface, this item may not seem so spectacular. After all, several games include a bow and arrow. It's the same old trick, you shoot guys, they die, etc. Well, Zelda goes a bit beyond just allowing you to fire arrows at guys. You can also fire them at targets! You are able to imbue your weapons with various elements in order to conquer various obstacles.

Pesky ice-burgs don't bother Link anymore on his travels. He simply whips out the hero's bow and shoots them down with some fire arrows. If it is an overly hot day, the pool mobile doesn't have a damn thing on Link. Ice Arrows will do ya good for freezing, and assuming he aims at your arm or something, you may not even die! Have legions of the un-dead been harassing you? Don't you hate it when you are on your way to work and there is a legion of zombies out there just waiting to feast on your innards? Well, fuck that shit. Bust out a light arrow, or if you're going back in time, silver arrows work too!

That's not even the best of it though. You see, Link even has the ability to rig his arrows up with explosives. With his steady aim, he can target any large boulder or…anything that gets in his way and just blow it up. Yes, I am not sure how he rigs a bomb onto his arrows without blowing his little Hylian self up, but he does it! And that is awesome. Very few things in the Zelda world are cooler than bomb arrows.

- "You know kid, you can beat Ganon by using the silver arrows"

6-) Rod of Seasons - The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Seasons are two of my favorite Zelda games ever. I think Seasons is a great game and I think that Ages is a straight-up masterpiece with some of the best puzzles in the whole franchise. The best thing is that they came out at like the same time. I remember going from store to store in hopes of finally picking up a copy. Needless to say, it was a glorious day when I found them.

My favorite item from those two games was the rod of seasons. Yeah, the harp of ages was neat in that it allowed you to go back 10 years in time. The problem is, you are not allowed to go into the future. No offense to any of you people in love with the 90's (assuming you exist), but I really have no desire to go back to 1999. But the rod of seasons? That's another story.

The rod allowed Link to freely change what season it was. So let's say you are like me and you just fucking hate the summer. It's too hot. Game releases are very slow. Whatever. Well, with the rod of seasons you can advance the climate to whatever season you want. So, I'm afraid if it fell into my grasp, the world would be in perpetual winter. Not a nuclear winter, just your plain old every day winter. And it would be awesome.

I do not recall if Link got to ever use the rod of seasons in combat, but I can't shake the image out of my head of Link fighting Ganon and using the rod trying to get him to freeze and just give up and go home. "Bah, I will conquer Hyrule another day. For now, it is just far too cold!"

- not to be confused with a maraca.

5-) Double Clawshot - I for one was satisfied with just one clawshot. Being able to propel to far-off platforms seemed like a problem of the past. But then there were these crazy puzzles that appeared to require Spiderman aesthetics. After looking all throughout Hyrule for some sort of nuclear reactor to hook my man Link up, I gave up and instead found the next best thing. A second clawshot!

What was cool about this was that it allowed you to scale fairly high areas all throughout Hyrule. You could, in mid air, propel yourself from one area to the next. The ground was totally optional, and it is the most air that Link got to experience since the Wind Waker. He wasn't just gliding either like the Deku leaf, ah no, he was controlling where he was getting to go and that was just cool.

On top of that, I think that it made the clawshot a more effective weapon. Don't misunderstand, you could always use the clawshot as a weapon, but now you could do it while propelled in the air. No longer did Link have to un-hinge himself from wherever he clawshotted to and fight on the ground. He could just hang in mid air, shoot another clawshot, and kill whatever he wanted.

This was cool. You can dislike Twilight Princess all you want, but this was awesome.



4-) Grappling Hook - Speaking of awesome hook-related objects, this is my favorite item from Windwaker. When I first got it, I naturally assumed Link would do what any guy with a grappling hook would do – become a cat burglar. But no, Link found uses for this little puppy that were far beyond what I could have pictured. I mean, it wasn't just another hookshot. You could swing from object-to-object! It was like Link was Tarzan or something!

The big reason why I liked the grappling hook so much is because it netted one of the best boss battles in Zelda history. Well, in my opinion it was at least. In the fight against Ghoma, you had to use the grappling hook. Unfortunately, the dragon Valoo was an unfortunate victim of his antics, and the hook was the only cure possible. You also had to use it throughout his dungeon, and it was one of the coolest dungeons in Zelda history. I never really thought Link was much of a swinging guy, but this item totally proved me otherwise.

Yes, that was a horrendous pun. No, I am not taking it back.



3-) Master Sword - Probably one of the most iconic items in Zelda history, right next to the triforce which is exempt from this list. The master sword is always the sword that Link yanks from a stone of some sort. The sword proves that Link is a true hero, the hero of legend, one that will put an end to the evils of the world. It does everything from putting Link to sleep for several years while the world collapses around him, to awakening a long-lost city, to just confirming Link was the hero of legend.

Whatever the case, the sword is iconic and deserves to be on this list for that alone. I mean, Link killing foes with the Kokiri sword is cool and all, but it just is not the same. The master sword makes you a hero and it is Link's signature blade. It would be like equipping Cloud Strife with a knife or removing the "blade" factor out of a gunblade. Link just isn't the same without the master sword. If that's not a good enough reason for this weapon to be on the list, well, I guess I'll never think of a good one.

Also, no, real men did not use the Biggoron sword. Yeah, it was harder to get and technically caused more damage, but you could not even use a shield with that baby! Plus…it was too big for Link. This isn't Final Fantasy, our Hylian wunderkind uses sensible sized blades.



2-) Ocarina - Ah, the signature item from "Ocarina of Time" and what appears to be Links musical instrument of choice. I mean, he is also presented with a harp and several things when he transforms in Majora's mask, but you can tell the bread and butter of Link's musical abilities is the ocarina. He just doesn't seem the same without it, and really, it has pushed the instrument itself to iconic status. I mean hell, it was an instrument I had only heard of once before Zelda. Remember that episode of Doug with the talent show and Skeeter was going to play the Ocarina? Yeah, that's the only other time I had heard of an ocarina.

A matter of fact, my love for Zelda was so intense at one point that I went out and actually bought a clay ocarina. No, it wasn't one of those that you could buy out of video game magazines or whatever. I mean, I wanted that too (it had a triforce!), but this was the real deal. I practiced trying to master the songs from Zelda, because inside my young head, I wanted to be just like Link. It was sad, yes, but I was a child. For goodness sakes, I had fantasies about riding to school on a Charizard. Give me a break.

Of course, my Ocarina could never be as useful as Link's. Link's has the ability to let him communicate with people far away, teleport him anywhere, turn back earth's clock by three full days, awaken a scarecrow for the purpose of shooting him with a hook and yes, even awakening the wind fish to help save the world wake you up from a really bad dream. Link's ocarina is damn useful.

It gets ranked highly for its status in Zelda. I cannot see an ocarina without thinking of the franchise. You cannot say that about many other things in video games. I do not see a sword and think Dante, I do not see a gun and think Duke Nukem, I do not see a rat and think Pikachu, I do not see a paint brush and think of Okami. Whenever I see an Ocarina though, I think of that little Hylian without a fairy and smile. That's gotta be worth something, right?



1-) Transformable Masks (Majora's Mask) - There was no way that I was going to separate these items and place them as their own little segments on this list. That would be insane, I mean, I'm fairly sure you would be pissed if the top-4 slots were Majora's Mask, err, masks. The thing is though, these things were damn cool and introduced different play styles into Zelda. They weren't just content with having a rehash of Ocarina of time, the transformable masks helped make Majora feel different.

You had the deku mask which turned Link into a deku sprout. This was my least favorite as well as probably everybody else's least favorite. What it let you do was hop along water for a little bit and shoots bubbles. He can also burrow into deku flowers and get shot in the air, allowing him to fly for a short period of time. The deku mask also lets you look really cute, which I'm sure is a hit with some people, but I don't know many ladies with a thing for small, plant like creatures…so I guess it isn't for me. It also is the only mask that isn't blatantly based off of someone who has recently deceased. Instead of an ocarina, Deku Link plays a flute.

The Goron mask turns you into Darmani, a deceased Goron warrior. I fucking love this mask. The Gorons are probably my favorite race in Zelda, and getting to play as one was just a blast. Link ditches swordplay for the ability to punch. You can also do the famed Goron roll. That's right, you can now run and roll into your enemies with sprouted spikes. It was awesome! Needless to say, the Goron mask really ROLLED me over. Dahhh ha ha ha .(Okay, I'm going to stop that.) Instead of an ocarina, the Goron got to bang on a drum.

The Zora mask turns Link into a Zora rock star named Mikau. You meet Mikau as he is dieing, he explains the situation to you – through song – and he dies. He becomes a mask for you, which allows you to play as a Zora. Thus, hundreds of Zora Link/Princess Ruto doujins were spawned to my dismay. The Zora mask allows you to swim blazingly fast underwater, as well as breathe under said water and walk under said water. No longer are water stages the worst fucking stages in humanity (right next to ice levels), but they are actually pretty fun. You get a neato guitar instead of an ocarina as the Zora.

The Fierce Deity's mask isn't based off of a different species, instead it turns Link into a more adult form and makes him kind of a badass. The history of the mask isn't elaborated on really at all, but what does it really matter? Link is a hulking brute with a huge, huge helix blade that can pretty much destroy everything. The mask is so over-powered that the final boss of the game, Majora, seems weak in comparison. Hell, it's so powerful that you can only use it for boss battles. Regular play would just be TOO easy with it. This transforms Link into the ultimate badass.

The last of the transforming masks that I can remember is the giant mask. Unlike the others, it doesn't exactly alter gameplay. It just turns you really fucking big. No longer would the kids of Hyrule Forest be able to pick on Link for being about the size of Hornswaggle in platform shoes (Does that mean Link teamed up with a panda?). The giant mask turned you really big. It only had one real purpose, a boss fight, but it was still pretty damn awesome turning giant. Sure you could only use it in one place, but a man can dream right?

Really, the masks giving Link different ways to play the game made them the best items in Zelda history. You are free to agree that the ocarina or the master sword are more important in the grand scheme of things, but I do not think an item out there can come close to being as awesome as the masks that Majora's Mask bestows unto you. These little babies are a big part of the reason that Majora's Mask is my second favorite Zelda game ever.



Well, that's it for this week. Larck will be back with you next week. I'll see you in two weeks time. If you want to comment on this, I promise I will get back to you at some point. My e-mail is [e-mail] or you can simply comment below. I am sure you all have very varied taste on the top-10 best items in Zelda.

That's it, I'm out.

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