History ScrappyMechanic / TheLegendOfZelda

* In ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity'', the fact that weapons have hidden seals that are unlocked at later levels is highly frustrating as, without a guide, you can make a weapon loadout that doesn't gel well with it's unchangeable hidden stats, wasting all those seals.

** Having to pause and go to the equipment screen to change between normal boots and Iron Boots countless times in the Water Temple, where you need to walk on the bottom in some places and float in others to complete it. Made worse by the fact that it takes ages to switch to the pause screen, as every time the player presses the Start button, the game slowly generates a screenshot of the game in order to use it as the background for the pause screen, not showing this one until the process is finished.
*** This was thankfully rectified in later games and the game's 3DS remake, as the Iron and Hover Boots become items that can be equipped to one button, thus making switching in and out of both items less time-consuming.

* Having to return to the central temple in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'', and repeating the same levels after each new item is found, in a [[TimedMission timed]] [[UnexpectedGameplayChange forced-stealth section]] with [[InvincibleMinorMinion invincible baddies]] gets old ''real'' fast. There's a checkpoint in the middle, but it ''keeps the elapsed time''. So, if it took you 10 minutes to get to the checkpoint, it deducts 10 minutes from your hourglass every time you skip to it. Thankfully, near the end, the player at least gains the ability to kill the Phantoms. [[SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound Hearing them die]] is worth ''all the trouble''.

** Rain and thunderstorms. Rain makes climbing much more difficult, due to making the climbable surfaces wet and slippery and will drain your stamina much more quickly than usual. Thunderstorms are especially dangerous as having metal weapons and shields (which are usually higher-end items compared to wooden items) equipped means you turn into a living lightning rod. You will be struck by lightning, unless you swap out for other, less durable inventory (assuming you even ''have'' them to begin with), the Thunder Helm, which is only gained by completing all of the Gerudo Town sidequests, but only after [[spoiler:you beat the Divine Beast Vah Naboris]], or a complete set of Rubber Armor upgraded to Level 2 (which is possible before entering any of the [[spoiler:Divine Beasts]], but the three parts of the armor are scattered in three shrines across Hyrule, with only perpetual thunderstorms in the areas where the shrines are as a hint).

* In ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity'', the fact that weapons have hidden seals that are unlocked at later levels is highly frustrating as, without a guild, you can make a weapon loadout that doesn't gel well with it's unchangeable hidden stats, wasting all those seals.

* Generally speaking, Link's sidekicks have a tendency to be [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper a little too overly helpful]]. The fact that they give you pointers on where to go is fine, but sometimes the screen will have a notification pop up where you have to press a certain button so they can speak to you. Some, like [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker the King of Red Lions]] and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Midna]], only ever speak to you like this when you're in a spot that triggers them, which aren't that frequent. But then there are the big three: [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Navi]], who started the trend ''and'' became the local AntiPoopSocking spokesperson of the game come the 3DS remake, [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap Ezlo]], whose trigger points are exceedingly common [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWsy-leD6Kk (SHUT UP, ELMO!)]], and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Fi]], who combines Navi's 3DS issue above with reminders that you're low on health or battery juice (whichever comes first) and [[CaptainObvious aggravatingly obvious]] hints ("There is a switch here. There is an 89% chance you should push it") all annoyingingly drawn out since she talks in [[RoboSpeak Robotic]]-[[ExpospeakGag Expo]]-SpockSpeak. Arin of the ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'' describes her as "[[UpToEleven Navi times a million]]" without a hint of joking.
* The way [[GameOver Game Overs]] are handled in ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' are the cruelest out of all the Zelda games so far:
** When Link loses all his lives, he restarts back at the temple where Zelda sleeps. Some of the palaces are very far from that starting point, which means you're forced to walk all the way back to where you last left off. The fact that the final palace [[AntiFrustrationFeatures is exempt from this rule]] shows that it could've been done, the developers just chose not to.

* In the ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' GBA port you need to play through ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwords'' in order to unlock the bonus content added to [=ALTTP=]. Sadly, ''Four Swords'' is multiplayer-only. For introverted players or people who just don't have any friends with Game Boy Advances, playing the game is impossible, and even if you forked over enough money for three more [=GBAs=] and four wireless adapters, trying to play the same game on four controllers at once isn't exactly a manageable task. The fact that the Game Boy line's been discontinued for several years only adds to the problem nowadays.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''

** There's another infamous Scrappy Mechanic relating to Kaepora Gaebora, the owl who repeatedly delivers [[WallOfText long-winded exposition]] that's only useful the first time you play. The default choice for ShallIRepeatThat is "yes," meaning many players who {{button mash|ing}} their way through his speeches end up inadvertently prompting him to give the whole speech ''all over again''. Thankfully, should that happen, you can simply press B to skip all the text at once up to the point where he asks you again. But [[GuideDangIt it's never explained that you can do that]].

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask''

** Swimming. Zora Link can be ''extremely'' frustrating to control, giving both the Great Bay Temple and its [[ThatOneBoss infamous boss]] unfavorite status among many players. And the kicker? The 3DS remake traded one problem for a new one, as swimming is now infinitely more controllable but also much ''slower'' unless you use magic power to dash. Problem with this, however, is that there are still a few ledges in which Zora Link needs to make a 'Dolphin Leap', a maneuver in which Zora Link needs to use his speed to leap out from the water to land on a platform. As you swim slower, this presents a problem getting the speed to make the jump unless you use your magic, but then you might have a hard time angling your jump when you can't easily see over your barrier.

* ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'': The sailing deserves special mention here; while it's essentially the same mechanic as Epona the horse, at least Hyrule Field has more visual diversity. Epona also didn't require you to play a song every time you wanted to change directions for max speed, and the Great Sea is much larger than Hyrule Field. Of course, a BrokenBase has developed around this mechanic, as about as many fans who hated the mechanic also loved it. Slightly changed in the UpdatedRerelease with the addition of a "Fast Sail" that doubles your speed and eliminates the need to manually change the direction of the wind; of course, the issue of whether it's needed or it ruins the experience of the game leads back to the same argument.

** Being able to carry only one item at a time is, in theory, an interesting deviation from the expected gameplay which adds an extra level to the game's puzzles. In practice it merely pads the levels with BackTracking as you're often offered several items with no clue which one you need, reducing the puzzles to "guess which one you need and if you're wrong wander back and get the right one." Most players feel, since the game's core mechanic centers around controlling four Links at once, they could have at least had the option to give each Link a different item, which you can do... in multiplayer only, and then only one item per actual player, so refer back to the previous entry.

** You found a silver rupee! That's worth a whopping 200 rupees... but your wallet is full, so let's put it back for now. Some may find it better than the alternative used in previous games where any found rupee would be wasted if you tried collecting it with a full wallet, but they may think otherwise while searching for the last "unopened" chest in a dungeon. This feature is so annoying to the fanbase, Nintendo actually took the time to announce it would be removed in the HD Wii U Remaster.

* ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina Of Time]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' all suffer from some loose and dodgy horseback controls that, while greatly improved for Twilight Princess, still manage to be a source of spontaneous and random frustration. Particularly for jumping fences which, in theory, you need to approach straight or Epona will just stop. In practice, it really boils down to whether or not Epona feels like jumping as you can seemingly approach a fence perfectly straight and still fail to jump it, forcing you to ease her around to get enough distance to jump again. This is almost solely the reason the Ingo / Gorman races are [[ThatOneSidequest so reviled]] by Ocarina / Majora fans and why a guaranteed way to make a Twilight Princess fan shudder is say "[[ThatOneLevel protect the wagon]]."

** The Adventure Pouch is essentially a separate inventory where you can store up to 8 (with upgrades, up to 4 initially) items of your choosing. Except that said items are things that ''didn't even use up an inventory slot in previous games'', like Shields and Bottles. By far the most irritating, however, is the way ammo expansions work. Rather than simply getting a bigger quiver/seed satchel/bomb bag that replaces your old one, you have to ''buy an extra quiver/satchel/bag and have it use up an inventory slot'' just to be able to carry even 10 extra bombs/arrows/seeds. Said inventory slot could be used for a bottle or even a ''shield''. Oh, and in order to have a full life meter, you need to equip two 'life medals', meaning if you want it to look like you have OneHundredPercentCompletion, you'll ''need'' to use up two precious slots on those, effectively giving you only 6 slots to work with. Also, if you want to have all 5 bottles with you, you only have one slot left, which WILL contain your shield.
** There's also treasure. When you pick up a new type of treasure, you get the usual animation of Link holding it up and a text box announcing what it is, followed by your tally of that item going up by one. All well and good, except that this aspect resets ''every time you start up the game;'' anything you haven't picked up ''in the current game session'' triggers the time-consuming cutscene all over again because, evidently, [[ViewersAreGoldfish you are woefully incapable]] of remembering what a bird feather is between game sessions (or woefully incapable of looking it up on the inventory menu). Wanna know how bad this feature is? LetsPlay/{{Chuggaaconroy}} made a RunningGag counter of how many times this came up in his playthrough. And according to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GShYngULjN0 this video]], the tally ends at ''[[UpToEleven 223 redundant explanations]]''. Thankfully, this can be avoided by picking the item up with the beetle.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'' has a frequent amount of AntiPoopSocking compared to the other games. "You've been playing for a while. Why don't you take a break?"
** On the Nintendo 3DS, the platform-jumping section in Death Mountain isn't too serious. On the 2DS, or with the three-dimensional mode turned off (which many players do to avoid ''migraines''), it's a nightmare. It doesn't help that you're following signs to find Rosso's Ore Mine, which turns out to be [[spoiler: a useless pile of rocks that's only important because it's ''near'' important things]].

** Friendship tokens are required to make some outfits. You can only get them through local multiplayer, and you can only earn one for each unique system you play with. If you don't know a lot of other 3DS owners, you're out of luck- though, at least Download Play counts, meaning the other players don't need to own the game. The December 2 update allows players to purchase Friendly Tokens at the shop stall in town or win them in the daily treasure game. While getting enough tokens for the outfits is still bound to be slow and somewhat random, at least it makes it possible for players who don't know lots of other local 3DS owners.

* ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors''

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild''

** [[BreakableWeapons All weapons and shields are now subject to durability,]] and will easily break if overused. You will need to constantly switch out weapons in your current inventory, and often replace them with drops defeated from baddies or found in chests. However, the game will still allow you to open chests even if you have a full inventory...meaning you'll see Link open the chest, the item summary pop up, followed by the popup reading "Your inventory space is full", then the chest closing, all of which takes about 10 or seconds, and ''not'' counting how much time you take to pull up the menu to actually discard a weapon to make room for a new one. This gets very tedious very quickly. Even the [[UnbreakableWeapons Master Sword]] does not escape from this. Prolonged usage of the Master Sword will render in temporarily unusable until it recharges.
** Rain, and thunderstorms. Rain makes climbing much more difficult, due to making the climbable surfaces wet and slippery and will drain your stamina much more quickly than usual. Thunderstorms are especially dangerous as having metal weapons and shields (which are usually higher-end items compared to wooden items) equipped means you turn into a living lightning rod. You will be struck by lightning, unless you swap out for other, less durable inventory (assuming you even ''have'' them to begin with), the Thunder Helm, which is only gained by completing all of the Gerudo Town sidequests, but only after [[spoiler:you beat the Divine Beast Vah Naboris]], or a complete set of Rubber Armor upgraded to Level 2 (which is possible before entering any of the [[spoiler:Divine Beasts]], but the three parts of the armor are scattered in three shrines across Hyrule, with only perpetual thunderstorms in the areas where the shrines are as a hint).

* ''HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity''
** The fact that weapons have hidden seals that are unlocked at later levels is highly frustrating as without a guild, you can make a weapon loadout that doesn't gel well with it's unchangable hidden stats, wasting all those seals.

** There's another infamous Scrappy Mechanic relating to Kaepora Gaebora, the owl who repeatedly delivers [[WallOfText long-winded exposition]] that's only useful the first time you play. The default choice for ShallIRepeatThat is "yes," meaning many players who {{button mash|ing}} their way through his speeches end up inadvertently prompting him to give the whole speech ''all over again''. Thankfully, should that happen, you can simply press B to skip all the text at once up to the point where he asks you again. But it's never explained that you can do that.

** There's another infamous Scrappy Mechanic relating to Kaepora Gaebora, the owl who repeatedly delivers [[WallOfText long-winded exposition]] that's only useful the first time you play. The default choice for ShallIRepeatThat is "yes," meaning many players who {{button mash|ing}} their way through his speeches end up inadvertently prompting him to give the whole speech ''all over again''.

* In the ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' GBA port you need to play through ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwords'' in order to unlock the bonus content added to [=ALTTP=]. Sadly, ''Four Swords'' is multiplayer-only. For introverted players or people who just don't have any friends with Game Boy Advances, playing the game is impossible, and even if you forked over enough money for three more GBAs and four wireless adapters, trying to play the same game on four controllers at once isn't exactly a manageable task. The fact that the Game Boy line's been discontinued for several years only adds to the problem nowadays.

* ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle of Ages]]'' added a mechanic for the Mermaid Suit where you have to ''constantly tap the D-Pad'' in the direction you want to swim in, not hold the D-Pad as usual. This makes the sixth and seventh level bosses extremely annoying, thanks to both fights being fought underwater (the sixth boss is both under and above water). Made even worse in their Virtual Console release on the 3DS: You either have to double tap the circle pad (which is as inefficient and potentially inaccurate as it sounds) or, on an original 3DS at least, an incredibly stiff D-Pad.

** Ragdoll physics is the last thing you want to be dealing with when fighting enemies, especially powerful ones like [[EliteMook Lynels]]. If you get knocked down or are sent flying and you're near a hill, you can't do anything but helplessly watch Link tumble down the hill and rack up ScratchDamage the longer he rolls down the hillside until he comes to a complete stop. Fighting near a steep cliff is extremely risky since one good swing at Link is all it takes to send him flying into the abyss and instantly dying on impact.

** The dash mechanic. Link's stamina can only be enhanced through temporary ([[RandomlyDrops and]] [[ItemCrafting expensive]]) potion effects, and given that Link walks so slowly otherwise, you'll find yourself constantly having to press the dash button just to get around. In addition, climbing walls and stuff now takes up stamina whereas in previous games you could take as long as you wanted to climb a wall so long as you didn't fall off. There are usually Stamina Fruits in both cases to mitigate the issue, but it still can easily trip up new players.

** When Link loses all his lives, he restarts back at the temple where Zelda sleeps. Some of the palaces are very far from that starting point, which means you're forced to walk all the way back to where you last left off. The fact that the final palace [[AntiFrustrationFeature is exempt from this rule]] shows that it could've been done, the developers just chose not to.

* In the ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' GBA port you need to play through ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwords'' in order to unlock the bonus content added to [=ALTTP=]. Sadly, ''Four Swords'' is multiplayer-only. For introverted players or people who just didn't have any friends with Game Boy Advances, playing the game was pretty much impossible, and even if you forked over enough money for three more GBAs and four wireless adapters, trying to play the same game on four controllers at once isn't exactly a manageable task. The fact that the Game Boy line's been discontinued for several years only adds to the problem nowadays.

** Swimming. Zora Link can be ''extremely'' frustrating to control, giving both the Great Bay Temple and its [[ThatOneBoss infamous boss]] unfavorite status among many players. And the kicker? The 3DS remake traded one problem for a new one, as swimming is now infinitely more controllable but also much ''slower'' unless you use magic power to dash.

* The ''[[CriticalAnnoyance beeping]]''. Almost every game in the franchise beeps when you're low on health, and while some aren't as bad as others, overall the beeping is loud, incessant, distracting, and absolutely will not stop until you replenish health. It gets very grating very quickly, and adds unnecessary stress to a player who's already struggling to stay alive. WebAnimation/{{Dorkly|Originals}} even [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ywmGaMBi9g did a sketch]] where said beeping is so annoying it ''defeats Ganon''.

* The GameOver mechanic in ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' is the cruelest out of all the Zelda games so far:

** Having to pause and go to the equipment screen to change between normal shoes and iron boots over and over and over in the Water Temple, where you need to walk on the bottom in some places and float in others to complete it (thankfully, the remake and next games have the Iron and Hover Boots as items you can equip to one button for easy switching). Made worse by the fact that it takes ages to switch to the pause screen, as every time the player presses the Start button, the game slowly generates a screenshot of the game in order to use it as the background for the pause screen, not showing this one until the process is finished.

** The mechanic of being only able to call your horse at certain locations. While the grass needed to call it are stragetically set, it is annoying to have to walk back to a certain location since it's the closest place where the grass is located. Fortunately, the horse is barely needed after you advance in the game. This mechanic is made ''worse'' by when, very late in the game, you obtain an item that replaces the need for finding the grass and allows you to call the horse wherever you are, as long as it isn't inside a dungeon. And this item is given to you at a point when you have access to teleportation practically all over the world map, making it much less useful than it would have been earlier.

* Having to return to the central temple in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'', and repeating the same levels after each new item is found, in a [[TimedMission timed]] [[UnexpectedGameplayChange forced-stealth section]] with [[InvincibleMinorMinion invincible baddies]] gets old ''real'' fast. There's a checkpoint in the middle, but it ''keeps the elapsed time''. So, if it took you 10 minutes to get to the checkpoint, it deducts 10 minutes from your hourglass everytime you skip to it. Thankfully, near the end, the player at least gains the ability to kill the Phantoms. [[SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound Hearing them die]] is worth ''all the trouble''.

** While opinions on the motion controls vary, the lack of a left-handed option causes no small amount of agony to southpaws.

** Rain, and thunderstorms. Rain makes climbing much more difficult, due to making the climbable surfaces wet and slippery and will drain your stamina much more quickly than usual. Thunderstorms are especially dangerous as having metal weapons and shields (which are usually higher-end items compared to wooden items) equipped means you turn into a living lightning rod. You will be struck by lightning, unless you swap out for other, less durable inventory (assuming you even ''have'' them to begin with), or the Thunder Helm, which is only gained by completing all of the Gerudo Town sidequests, but only after [[spoiler:you beat the Divine Beast Vah Naboris]].

->''Enjoy dealing with each installment's signature annoying mechanic like [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap Kinstone merging]], the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass Temple of the Ocean King]], [[labelnote:*HNNG*]]link[[/labelnote]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures cables]]... all of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]''...''
-->--''[[WebAnimation/SoThisIsBasically So This is Basically Legend of Zelda]]''

* The ''[[CriticalAnnoyance beeping]]''. Almost every game in the franchise beeps when you're low on health, and while some aren't as bad as others, overall the beeping is loud, incessant, distracting, and absolutely will not stop until you replenish health. [[MostAnnoyingSound It gets very grating very quickly]], and adds unnecessary stress to a player who's already struggling to stay alive. WebAnimation/{{Dorkly|Originals}} even [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ywmGaMBi9g did a sketch]] where said beeping is so annoying it ''defeats Ganon''.

** Swimming. Zora Link can be ''extremely'' frustrating to control, giving both the Great Bay Temple and its [[ThatOneBoss infamous boss]] unfavorite status among many players. And the kicker? The 3DS remake made swimming ''even worse'', being much slower unless you dash, which uses magic power.

** The emotes used to communicate to other players. Not only are they highly spammable, but they don't do a very good job of conveying what needs to be done in any given situation, and can't be directed at a specific player. According to WordOfGod, working with and deciphering them is meant to be part of the fun, [[TropesAreNotGood but most players don't see it that way]].

* Generally speaking, Link's sidekicks have a tendency to be [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper a little too overly helpful]]. The fact that they give you pointers on where to go is fine, but sometimes the screen will have a notification pop up where you have to press a certain button so they can speak to you. Some, like [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker the King of Red Lions]] and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Midna]], only ever speak to you like this when you're in a spot that triggers them, which aren't that frequent. But then there are the big three: [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Navi]], who started the trend ''and'' became the local AntiPoopSocking spokesperson of the game come the 3DS remake, [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap Ezlo]], whose trigger points are exceedingly common [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWsy-leD6Kk (SHUT UP, ELMO!)]], and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Fi]], who combines Navi's 3DS issue above with reminders that you're low on health or battery juice, whichever comes first.

->''Enjoy dealing with each installment's signature annoying mechanic like Kinstone merging, the Temple of the Ocean King, [[labelnote:*HNNG*]]link[[/labelnote]] cables... all of ''Skyward Sword''...''

* The ''beeping''. Almost every game in the franchise beeps when you're low on health, and while some aren't as bad as others, overall the beeping is loud, incessant, distracting, and absolutely will not stop until you replenish health. [[MostAnnoyingSound It gets very grating very quickly]], and adds unnecessary stress to a player who's already struggling to stay alive. ''WebAnimation/DorklyOriginals'' even [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ywmGaMBi9g did a sketch]] where said beeping is so annoying it ''defeats Ganon''.