Daily Debate: Which Zelda Game Has the Best Pots?
Posted on April 18 2020 by Alexis S. Anderson
We ask the hard hitting questions here. And nothing could be of more importance than figuring out which one of the many pots that appear throughout the Zelda series is the pinnacle of fragile, hand-crafted vessels. Some are simple, some ornate, and others too pixelated to know for sure, but they’re all an integral part of the Zelda experience. I look forward to slashing a few (dozen) pots in every new title, but not all pots are created equal. So, which game’s are the best?
There a couple reasons why a pot in Zelda might stand out: how it looks, its significance in the game, and the grand-daddy of them all, how satisfying is it to break? In this series, tactility is crucial to a pot’s design; its weight, its sound as it breaks, what it contains, how it can be broken, and the ease with which this destruction can be done, all contribute to a pot’s memorability. Now, with that criteria comes the difficult task of selecting one game’s pots to reign supreme.
The major contenders for me are The Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time. Pots are everywhere in Ocarina of Time and can be broken in a myriad of ways, but the clincher here is the pot room in Castle Town. A whole room filled with pots deliberately for the player to hack away at? It’s unforgettable, and a charming acknowledgement of how synonymous breaking pots had become with the series. Then The Wind Waker goes absolutely mad with water jars, warp pots, a pot lady, and of course, the ever-so-tempting-to-shatter “Extremely High-Class Bone-China Vases.” These pots are memorable, uniquely useful, easy to break, and sometimes quite fancy. In terms of looks, significance, and joy-of-breaking, I think the selection of pots in The Wind Waker takes the cake.
A part of me hesitates to crown The Wind Waker the winner because I’m personally nostalgic for wantonly destroying pots with just a flick of my wrist in Twilight Princess on the Wii. If it were purely based on my fond memories, I’d go with Twilight Princess in a heartbeat, but as this is a very serious investigation, I am honor bound to go with the game that meets the criteria best.
But what do you think? Is there another game that deserves more credit for its pots? Are there any other criteria these pots should be judged by? Share your thoughts in the comments!
This Daily Debate was inspired by Discord user @GJTPJ.
Alexis S. Anderson is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon who joined the writing team in November, 2014. She has a JD from the UCLA School of Law and is pursuing a career in Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law. She grew up in the New Jersey suburbs with her parents, twin brother, and family shih-tzu.
