No more games, no more pretense — this is our list of the top 25 Zelda items of all-time. Whether they were weapons or shields or utility items, these are the panel’s selections for the coolest or most useful inventory slots in the series. We’ll be counting down one by one until we reach the #1 pick on Jan. 31.
9) Heart Container – 4 votes, 245 points
Chris: Simple but effective, right? I mean, I’m a health whore in just about any adventure game or RPG I play. Nothing’s more versatile than HP, when you boil it all down. Why focus on magical/physical defense when you can have them both? What’s more attractive than a giant, sprawling health bar for Sora in Kingdom Hearts? Hell, I played an awful life-gain deck in Yu-Gi-Oh for a while. I have a problem.
The construction makes sense. You get Pieces of Heart for exploring or solving puzzles or overcoming obstacles. Heart Containers are (with rare exceptions) reserved for the big bad boss creatures that constantly stand in Link’s way. It’s an appropriate reward for a large challenge.
Or, you know, a priest can just have one in his sanctuary. Whatever works.
Shaun: This one’s sort of cheating, but I appreciated that Link’s health was tied to a physical item, because that meant if you chose to, you could forego ever collecting them at all. It’s one of the nice ways this series stays versatile with its challenge level and replayability.
Joseph: Can’t every item be a heart container? Sure, you would not get very far, but you would be invincible. Take that, Ganon.
Cary: Was there anything better in a Zelda game than watching your string of hearts grow longer and longer? Well…probably. But gaining a new heart was always pretty special, especially when you got a full heart after a boss battles. Sure, finding heart pieces strewn about in order to fill your heart meter was okay too, but they were just one more thing to locate in a veritable sea of things to locate. At the end of a boss battle, you knew you were going to get a full heart, and that was awesome.
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