My friend keeps on telling me that I should get the Zelda game but the trouble is there are so many games and I heard some are in a variety of chronic logical order so was wondering which game is best to play first for a newbie?


Edit: also might take other game recommendations

Any chronological order you have heard about has no bearing on whether or not you should play them, to be honest. The Zelda people at Nintendo have compiled a messy sort of timeline for the games it's really more trouble than it's worth. The entire thing is a retcon and adds nothing to the games themselves. Believe me when I say that you're better off just ignoring it.

So there's a lot of Zelda games and the one you play will probably depend more on what console you have. Here's a brief rundown done completely from memory. So sorry if mistakes are made. These are in no particular order. Just the order in which I think of them.

The Ocarina of Time is the Zelda game by which all other Zelda games are judged. While there were Zelda games before this one, OoT was the game changer. Many fans consider this to be the best one and it is definitely suitable for a beginner. It was the starter game for many fans. It's an old game and originally came out on the N64 but a remake was made for the DS (or 3DS maybe?). You really can't go wrong with this one.

Majora's Mask is a "sequel" to OoT. However, the events of OoT really have no bearing on the plot of the game and you can pick it up and play it perfectly fine without knowing what happened in OoT. This is a favorite game of many fans for its unique mechanics and overall difficulty spike from OoT. OoT is an adventure type of game where you travel extensively over the land of Hyrule trying to slay monsters and save the princes. MM has just one setting and is one giant gordian knot of a puzzle that you have to solve. This is also an older game but like OoT has a DS version you can play.

Breath of the Wild is the newest Zelda game and is on the Switch. Up until BotW the Zelda games had mostly been pretty linear adventure games. BotW said screw you to all its predecessors by making itself into a non-linear sandbox game and it is glorious. If you want you can head straight from the tutorial area to the final boss and skip all the in-between content. Last I checked the speed run times were under half an hour for this game. Personally I love this game. It both kept true to games that came before it and did its own thing in the most beautiful way possible. There's a sequel coming out eventually, too.

Twilight Princess was my first Zelda game and I replayed the hell out of it. Personally I liked it better than Oot (fight me, fanboys). Structure-wise it's similar to OoT in that it's a linear adventure game where you fight monsters and collect tools in order to save the Princess and the Kingdom. It was a release title for the Wii and I think there's a WiiU version but nothing for the Switch yet. The story's a bit darker than OoT and Link can turn into a wolf. What more do you need from a game? xD

Wind Waker's gimmick is that you cross the land of hyrule on a boat instead of a horse. The story is interesting and the mechanics are unique but it's not a personal favorite of mine. I thought the boat traveling was a bit tedious but I know several people for whom this is their favorite Zelda game so what do I know. xD It's another linear adventure game like OoT before it. It has a DS remake.

Skyward Sword is notable for being the game to come first in the timeline. Other than that it's pretty unremarkable and the motion controls are more annoying than helpful. It's on the WiiU. I definitely wouldn't use this as a starting Zelda game.

A Link Between Worlds is one of the newer games and was made for the DS (or 3DS maybe? I don't remember which). It's definitely worth checking out for its unique mechanics and puzzles. I hesitate to recommend it as a starting game since I think some of the story is better understood if you have a grasp of the formula beforehand (Zelda princess, link have sword, fight ganon, yadda yadda) but you can't go wrong with it regardless. It's clever and unique and you should totally play it.

Spirit Tracks is not worth playing. Don't bother. I hated it. xD

Four Swords is the only (to my knowledge) Zelda game to have a focus on multiplalyer. It's mainly co-op play where each player plays a different color Zelda and players have to work together to get past puzzles.

There's others like Minish Cap and Phantom Hourglass but I haven't played them so I won't say much. Both, I think, are similar to the standard adventure puzzle game made popular by OoT.

Overall... I think I'd recommend starting with Ocarina of Time if you have a DS, Twilight Princess if you have a Wii or WiiU, or Breath of the Wild if you have a Switch.