The Beginning of the Legend: A Look Back At The Legend of Zelda 35 Years Later

The Beginning of the Legend: A Look Back At The Legend of Zelda 35 Years Later
May 18, 2021

By Ryan Porzl

1986 was a big year for video games as it was that year where many famous franchises made their debuts and one of them was The Legend of Zelda. Released in early 1986, The Legend of Zelda told the story of an elf boy who journeyed through a kingdom known as Hyrule to save it while claiming a magical item known as the Triforce. Little did anyone know, the game would not only be a huge success but launch one of the most popular and beloved franchises in video game history. With the 35th Anniversary having come and gone in February 2021, we'll take a look at the game that started it all to celebrate the game and franchise's 35th Anniversary.

Characters-

Link- The protagonist. An elf boy who journeys through Hyrule to find the eight shattered pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom and free Hyrule and Princess Zelda from Ganon. Link embarks on his journey after saving Zelda's nursemaid Impa and agrees to save Zelda and the Kingdom.

Princess Zelda- The princess of Hyrule who scatters the eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom to various dungeons upon Ganon's invasion and sends her nursemaid to find the chosen one courageous enough to save Hyrule.

Ganon- The antagonist. The Prince of Darkness who invades Hyrule and steals the Triforce of Power which bestows upon him great strength. Link journeys to find the scattered Triforce of Wisdom in order to stop Ganon and free Zelda and Hyrule.

Plot-

The story begins when a creature named Ganon, the Prince of Darkness, invades the Kingdom of Hyrule and drives it into chaos. During the invasion, Ganon steals the Triforce of Power making him even stronger. As this was going on, Princess Zelda breaks the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and scatters them to eight dungeons. Prior to her capture, she told her nursemaid Impa to find the warrior with the courage to save Hyrule. During her travels, Impa is eventually jumped by Ganon's forces but is saved by a young elf boy named Link. Impa explains to him to situation to which Link agrees to save Zelda and the Kingdom. After acquiring a sword, Link journeys through Hyrule, fighting his way around the kingdom, and eight dungeons as he collects items and the Triforce fragments. After collecting all eight, He ventures to Death Mountain where he confronts and defeats Ganon with silver arrows. He retrieves the Triforce of Power and returns them to the freed Princess Zelda which restores peace to Hyrule.

Gameplay-

The gameplay of The Legend of Zelda is a style that has been used for almost all the games in the series since it's inception. Combining action and RPG elements, the game is played from an overhead perspective as the player plays as Link as they journey through Hyrule fighting various creatures, exploring the land and caves, acquiring items, and fighting their way through eight dungeons which contains a fragment of the Triforce of Wisdom. Throughout the journey, the game gets more tough so Link can not only acquire special items to help him advance but stronger swords, bracelets (which are armor), and shields which increase his strength and defense as well as heart containers to increase his health. Many elements that would be staples in future games appear here as well which is probably not surprising. The theme from the title screen and overworld would become the theme song for the franchise. Many classic items such as bombs, bow and arrows, and boomerangs would all make appearances. There's the fact that there's around eight dungeons as most Zelda games have seven or eight before the final boss. Link can shoot a sword projectile from his sword if he has full health. Link can gain upgrade armor via bracelets or shield upgrades with new shields or sword upgrade with stronger swords. There's heart containers which can increase Link's life. Shops to buy items. Secrets that can be found by either blowing up a wall with a bomb or lighting a tree on fire with the candle. Link can kill enemies that either drop items like bombs and arrows or hearts or rupees (the game's currency). The dungeons feature keys to unlock locked doors, a map to help the player navigate through it, a compass to help them find out which room has the boss, a special item that helps Link on his journey, and upon defeating the boss, they gain a heart container to increase their health and an item which, in this case, is a Triforce fragment. As is also the case with many Zelda games, The Legend of Zelda is nonlinear which means the player can tackle any dungeon they want, whenever they want provided they have the items they need to advance.

As is also usual with Zelda games, the player has one life and if they lose all their health, it's game over but they are given infinite continues which allow them to continue where they last left off or the ability to stop the game so the player can play another day. The game also has three save files in the beginning which allow the player to save their game and return to where they last left off. Perhaps the main difference here as opposed to future games is instead of exploring villages and houses, the player explores caves which usually contain people or creatures that can offer Link advice, rupees, items, or be shops where Link can buy items. An interesting feature in the game is after the player has beaten the game, they can play a harder version of the game called "Second Quest" which features harder enemies and dungeons, locations, and secret areas in different areas. This option can be accessed if the player writes "ZELDA" on their save file.

Behind the Scenes-

The Legend of Zelda was co-created by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka with both as co-director, Miyamoto as producer, and Tezuka as the designer and writer. Miyamoto is one of the biggest names in video game history as he already created the iconic Donkey Kong and Mario franchises while later creating F-Zero, Star Fox, and Pikmin for Nintendo. Tezuka is a long time video game designer, producer, and director having served as director, writer, supervisor, game designer, and producer for a variety of games in the Mario, Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Luigi, Yoshi, Pikmin, Mario Kart, and Mario Party games. Koji Kondo would compose the score having come off doing the first Punch-Out!! in 1983 and Super Mario Bros. in 1985. Kondo would later contribute to other Mario, Zelda, Yoshi, Pilotwings, Star Fox, and Super Smash Bros. games.

Development of the game began in 1984 and was worked on by the same team as Super Mario Bros. with both games being worked on at the same time. Originally, Zelda was to be the launch title for the Famicom Disk System. Since it was being developed the same time as Mario, the decision was made to try to make them different with one of the most notable examples being Super Mario Bros. was linear while The Legend of Zelda was not. One of the few similarities between the games was getting a high score didn't matter as Miyamoto wanted players to focus on finishing the game. Miyamoto was also the one in charge of deciding what ideas fit Zelda and what fit Mario. According to Miyamoto, Japanese gamers had a hard time finding their way through the dungeons at first. He also said the original plan was for Link to start with his first sword but Miyamoto wanted players to have to pay attention to what the old man who gives you the sword was saying as a way to encourage players to pay attention to what characters say to Link especially to help find secrets. This was considered a new form of gaming communication.

Miyamoto was inspired by the overworld from his explorations as a boy and like his experience, wanted the player to have a limitless wonder that can be felt through unknown exploration. Miyamoto also was inspired by getting lost as a kid in his family's home via the sliding doors when creating the dungeons. Tezuka came up with a fairytale setting after being inspired by fantasy books like The Lord of the Rings. The name "Link" came from as a way to connect players inserted into this interactive world, as something of a blank slate and not their individuality or methods while the name "Zelda" was inspired by novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife Zelda as Miyamoto liked the name while finding her to be famous and beautiful. Miyamoto came up with the "coming of age" type motif as a way for gamers to identify with, using a "journeying as an ordinary boy strengthened by trials to triumph over great challenges and rise to meet evil".

When Nintendo released the game in North America, the cartridge was gold, a feature that would be used in it's sequel Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. In an attempt to keep the fanbase, Nintendo of America released a Fun Club where subscribers could get a newsletter that started at 4 and eventually grew to 32 pages. Along with the success of magazines in Japan, Nintendo knew game tips were sought by gamers and those along with game secrets were the things that the newsletter subscribers wanted most. The Fun Club grew it's subscribers by offering secrets for games like Zelda which could be considered complicated. Eventually, the Fun Club grew to one million subscribers which eventually led to the creation of the Nintendo Power magazine in August 1988.

Release-

The Legend of Zelda was released on the Famicom in Japan on February 21, 1986, on the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America on July 14, 1987, and the Nintendo Entertainment System in PAL regions on November 15, 1987. The game was critically praised as CVG scored it 9/10, Dragon scored it 4/5 stars, Famitsu scored it a perfect 5 stars, Jeuxvideo.com scored it 19/20, RPGFan scored it 99%, Total! scored it 78%, and Video Games (DE) scored it 84%. The game also sold very well. It would sell a million copies on the first day of it's release in Japan while eventually selling 1.69 million units on the Famicom. The game would also be the first game that was sold in the United States to sell a million units in 1987 and by 1990, sold over 3 million. Eventually, over 6.51 million copies of The Legend of Zelda would be released around the world. By 2021, it sold over 118 million copies while being the fourth highest selling NES game of all time.

Critics praised the majority of the features in the game such as the music score, the story, and graphics while the gameplay was considered groundbreaking for the time. The game was also voted by readers of Nintendo Power for "Best Challenge" in the 1988 Nintendo Power Awards while also being considered by Nintendo Power as the greatest NES game ever released. It was voted number one in the player's poll Top 30 in Nintendo Power's first issue. GamesRadar would later place it third in it's list of the greatest NES games of all time. Over the decades, The Legend of Zelda continues to get strong reviews. In 2001, it was first place in Game Informer's "Top 100 Games of All Time" list and in 2009, placed first in EGM's 200th issue "The Greatest 200 Video Games of Their Time" list. It placed 7th in Nintendo Power's of the 200 Best Nintendo Games Ever, 77th in Official Nintendo Magazine's 100 Greatest Nintendo Games of All Time list, and 80th in IGN's Top 99 Games list voted by readers.

Aftermath-
The Legend of Zelda proved successful that the game has been re-released many times over the decades. It was first re-released on the NES in North America in 1992 and then a Japanese NES version was released in 1994. Since then, the game has been re-released on the Game Boy Advance in 2004, the Wii Virtual Console in 2006, the 3DS Virtual Console in 2011, and the Nintendo Switch Online in 2018. Along with re-releases, The Legend of Zelda spawned a franchise which became one of the biggest in video game history with dozens of games being released over the next 35 years while Link, Zelda, and Ganon have been regulars for Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series. Zelda's popularity also led to merchandise, cartoons, books, and CDs including orchestra versions. The franchise has also continued to inspire other games and franchises. According to Rockstar Games founder and Grand Theft Auto director Dan Houser, he claimed if anyone that did a 3-D game and said they didn't borrow anything from Super Mario 64 or the Nintendo 64 Zelda games then they're lying. He not only said GTA was inspired by Zelda but described Grand Theft Auto III as "Zelda meets Goodfellas". Soul Reaver and Uncharted director Amy Hennig said the Legacy of Kain series was inspired by Zelda while Soul Reaver and Uncharted creator Richard Lemarchand said Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past was the inspiration for Soul Reaver with it's approach to combining gameplay with storytelling. CD Projekt Red said The Witcher series, specifically The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was inspired by Zelda. Final Fantasy director Hajime Tabata claimed The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as the inspiration for Final Fantasy XV's huge overworld. Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed director Raphael Lacoste said Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was inspired by Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.