[Guitar Woman]

Maybe, yeah.

I've always hated Link to the Past, but it was also the very last Zelda I played, so I may just be taking for granted things that it did well and that later games copied. I still hate the dungeons, though, they're too samey-looking and the puzzles are boring/arduous, especially in Level 4.

That's the thing about it, too, I usually refer to most dungeons in Zelda by name instead of "level 1, level 2, etc," because they're so awesome and memorable that you instantly know what I'm talking about when I say "Forest Temple" or "City in the Sky," but you'd have to think for a second if I just said "Level 4/Level 7." They did start naming dungeons and having some varied overworld progression in LttP, but the levels were still just primitive mazes with palette swaps, and you didn't really think of them as actual places. Link's Awakening introduced actual dungeon features and themes and shit and gave all the levels some personality, in addition to, again, make its dungeons not awful and full of fucking tedious keyhunts.

Meanwhile, Link to the Past still feels like a NES game with beefed-up graphics. Example: All the dungeons in the game have the exact same visual design. Even the dungeon carved into a mountain at the desert, all 7 in the bizarro pocket universe, and the giant, eldritch Pyramid where Ganon is imprisoned, have the exact same walls, curtains, floor-tiles and carpets as all the other ones. They've also got the same damn soundtracks until you get to the dark world; It's not distinctive and it's incredibly monotonous to look at/listen to after a while.

Not to mention it was just generally shit. I guess I just like Zelda better when it feels like a storybook that's come to life.