The Legend of Zelda: where to start and what to buy

The Legend of Zelda marked its 40th anniversary in February 2026. Back in 1986, Link picked up a sword for the first time to face evil, rescue the princess, and put an end to Ganon. If that story rings a bell, you’ve probably played an entry already: the simple idea repeats across most mainline games, always with new settings, mechanics, puzzles, characters, and side stories.

What Zelda is about (no spoilers)

Zelda’s legend has to be told from two angles: (1) what each game tells on its own, and (2) how the titles relate to each other.

On the first point, with a few exceptions, the stories are self-contained: you don’t need another game to follow the plot (same idea as many Final Fantasy entries, but that’s another article).

So why talk about links between titles? That’s what I love most about this universe. The series is named after a legend that repeats cyclically across eras: the prophecy of a hero who, with the princess’s power, would seal the darkness. Broadly, and with a few caveats, the games are different stories in which that prophecy played out; different eras, same world.

In the lists below I’ll always show the remake, HD, or otherwise most modern version that exists. Some of these titles are on Nintendo Switch Online (NSO from here on); I strongly recommend the dedicated guide at the end of this article.

Top-down

Bird’s-eye camera, like the original. Ordered by release year: if a remake or HD exists, that’s what I show so you see how it looks in 2026, but it stays in place by original launch year.

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Third person

Camera behind Link, like the more recent entries. Same rule: order by the original’s year, even if the screenshot is from a remake or HD.

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The Ocarina remake on Switch 2 is on the calendar and in the Switch 2 exclusives guide.

Where to start

Luckily Nintendo has put real work into remasters and remakes of its most iconic games, or at least into putting the originals on its subscription service. So today it’s easy (as long as you have a Nintendo Switch).

My recommendation, if you’ve never played one: start with Breath of the Wild. I’d also say skip guides and videos: jump in and see how alive the world feels and how well the systems work. If you love it, move on to Tears of the Kingdom, which is more of the same, in case the 60 or 100 hours you put into the previous one weren’t enough.

If you want lighter, more casual games, Echoes of Wisdom, Link’s Awakening, or Wind Waker are also easy to recommend. And you can play them in any order, as I said above.

By the time you’re done, the Ocarina of Time remake may already be out (a must-play stop). I’ll say more when we have a date and details.

And if you’re more into the classics, plenty of originals are on Nintendo Switch Online. More in this guide:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (remake)

In the latest Nintendo Direct they announced the remake of the first great 3D Zelda. It was a before-and-after in its day, so the bar is high. The trailer (below) shows carefully crafted 3D visuals: Nintendo looks like it’s cooking something people will be talking about in a few months.

I’m itching for it to drop. Are you?

In short

That’s enough to get oriented. In this series you can start wherever you like, and the timeline in the art books (Hyrule Historia and the like) is entertainment for once you’re hooked: you don’t need it to pick an entry point. Choose whatever draws you visually or by its mechanics, and have fun.

More info: The Legend of Zelda