A truly timeless game. Sure, Zelda games since have done more, and in many (not all) cases better, but I'm talking about this game as itself, not in comparison to other games in the Zelda series. And this game has soul. It has one of the best progression systems in any Zelda and highly rewards exploration while keeping truly out of the way or tedious tasks to a minimum. The prime example is that of Golden Skulltulas - the major rewards are achieved at 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50, and it's easy to get smaller numbers. Several of these are in dungeons and are virtually impossible to miss, and the only drive to get all 100, where you really have to backtrack and scour the land, is completionism.

This game clearly has a point of view. Everything has a point. Every single one of the temples has some sort of importance to the location it's in and the story overall. Even though I'm not particularly fond of Jabu-Jabu's Belly or the Fire Temple, they integrate into the world seamlessly and the puzzles aren't that bad, that I can forgive them as temporary road blocks to the actual good dungeons.

I also don't find many technical problems with this game, despite being from the N64. The camera cooperates for the most part very nicely, with the Z button allowing for a quick refocus most of the time. There are a couple of problems with Z-targeting, especially when several enemies are around at once, but it's largely not a problem for camera control.

I really think this is just such a fantastic Zelda game and it has oodles of character pouring out of it with very little to criticize, especially for the time it came out. A game I keep coming back to over and over, and for damn good reason. Excellent game.