The Legend of Zelda

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This article is about the first game in the series. For information on the series as a whole, see The Legend of Zelda series.

Template:Infobox CVG The Legend of Zelda (Japanese: ゼルダの伝説: The Hyrule Fantasy, Zeruda no Densetsu) is the first game in the Legend of Zelda series of videogames, made by Nintendo under the direction of game creator Shigeru Miyamoto, who also created Mario. The game was inspired by Miyamoto's imaginary adventures in the hills of Kyoto as a young child. It was released in Japan as the first game for the Famicom Disk System add-on to the Famicom in February 1986. As this add-on was not released outside of Japan, it was released in the US and other countries on the regular NES cartridge format in 1987. The music, including the classic Zelda theme Template:Audio, was composed by Koji Kondo.

The game is set in the imaginary land of Hyrule and revolves around a young Hylian named Link, who must rescue Princess Zelda from the clasps of the villain Ganon by collecting eight pieces of an item known as the Triforce.

The game was included in The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition for the Nintendo GameCube. In 2004, Nintendo re-released the original Legend of Zelda for the Game Boy Advance, as part of the Classic NES Series. The game was also re-released in 1994 in Japan as a Famicom game, rather than a Famicom Disk.

1 Game overview
2 Innovations
3 Controversy
4 The second quest
5 The third quest?
6 Re-releases
7 External link

Game overview

The game begins with the player controlling Link armed with a small shield. A simple sword (often belived to be wooden due to its coloring) is immediately available in a cave behind him. To advance further, Link must explore the overworld, a large outdoor map with a variety of environments, fighting an assortment of small creatures in order to locate the entrances to nine underground dungeons. Each dungeon is a unique, labyrinthine collection of rooms connected by doors and secret passages and guarded by a variety of monsters, all of which are different from those found in the overworld. Link must navigate through each dungeon to obtain the eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom along with other useful items, many of them necessary to complete his quest. For example, the third dungeon contains a raft which is needed to reach the entrance to the fourth dungeon. Other available items include upgrades for Link's sword and shield, bombs for uncovering secret caverns, and a recorder with magical properties. The first six dungeons have visible entrances, but the remaining three are hidden from view. The order of completing the dungeons is relatively arbitrary, but the ninth and final dungeon can only be entered after collecting the entire Triforce of Wisdom.

Nonlinearity, the ability to take different paths in completing the game, is an important element of Zelda which was largely absent in its contemporaries. Although the dungeons were designed to be completed in order, there are many possible orders. Similarly, Link can wander the overworld, finding and buying items at any point. This flexibility enabled some unusual ways of playing the game; for example, it's possible to reach the final boss of the game without taking a sword, which in a normally-played game is the preferred primary weapon. Nonlinearity is also a source of frustration, however, often leaving players wondering what to do next.

Innovations

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Link (figure in green at right) battling in the overworld.

Its gameplay defied categorization at its time of release, incorporating elements from action-adventure games, role-playing games, and puzzles. The game was one of the most successful of its time, selling 6.5 million copies.

Zelda featured many technical innovations as well. Its cartridge was the first to feature a battery that allowed the player to save his progress across multiple sessions with the game (previous games used passwords, often long and complicated) by pressing Up and Start in the second controller. In addition, the plastic casing of the cartridge was gold just like the box instead of the usual gray, making it seem special from the very beginning. It was later re-released in a gray cartridge in 1990.

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Link, carrying all of the many and varied items he acquires in the course of his quest.

The first Zelda appears relatively simple by today's standards, but it was a very advanced game for its day. Innovations included the ability to use dozens of different items, a vast world full of secrets to explore, and the freedom of relatively nonlinear gameplay. Many of these innovations became staples of the Zelda series and other games which followed its lead. The game was wildly popular in Japan and the United States, and many consider it one of the most important videogames ever made.

Zelda is also considered one of the spiritual forerunners of the console role-playing game (CRPG) genre. Even though it contains gameplay elements different from those of a typical computer or console RPG, its aesthetics, such as its bright, cartoony graphics, fantasy setting, and music, would be adopted by a number of later RPGs, and its commercial success helped create a market for involved, nonlinear games in fantasy settings, such as those found in successful CRPGs.

Some RPGs that have been compared to Zelda include Square's Seiken Densetsu series, and more recently, Alundra and Brave Fencer Musashi.

Controversy

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Screenshot of the third dungeon in the original Legend of Zelda

The nine dungeons that a player must traverse to complete the game each have the shape of an easily recognizable object (eagle, lion's head, snake, etc.) which make them easier for the astute gamer to navigate. The third labyrinth has the shape of what appears to Western audiences as a left-facing swastika. This shape is actually a manji, a Buddhist symbol of good fortune. In Japan, where the game was initially released, swastikas and similar shapes are relatively benign, which explains why a symbol so offensive to many Western audiences could be included. In the United States, there were surprisingly few complaints about the manji, but years later, when Pokémon became popular in the United States, Nintendo was forced to alter one of the cards due to complaints regarding a manji.

The second quest

The player could play through the "second quest" either by completing the game, or by entering "ZELDA" as the character's name.

The basic overworld map is slightly changed, but the locations and layout of the dungeons is completely different, and most of the items and secrets are in different places than before. For example, only two of the nine dungeons now have visible entrances, and the fifth dungeon is where the fourth dungeon used to be. In this regard, the second quest is much more difficult than the first. While a more difficult "replay" was not an innovation unique to The Legend of Zelda, few games offered a "second quest" with entirely different levels to complete. This added a great deal to the replay value of the game.

The layout of the first five dungeons spell out "ZELDA," (the first takes the shape of an "E," the second an "A," the third an "L," the fourth a "D," and the fifth a "Z.") and the seventh and eighth ones are shaped like a "G" (seventh is an upside-down G, while the eighth is a regular G).

The third quest?

A modified version with updated graphics, a smaller overworld, and completely different dungeons, known as BS Zelda, was released in 1995 for the Satellaview, the Super Famicom's Japanese-only satellite-based add-on. Several Japanese sources allude to this as being intended as a "third quest", much like The second quest (above). When the game was rebroadcast in 1996 they changed the dungeons (and probably the overworld as well); this revision apparently had a smaller broadcast audience and is known only as "~map2~". This second map could well be thought of as a "fourth quest". Additionally, Link was replaced by the Satellaview mascots, a boy and a girl; the girl had red hair while the boy wore a backwards baseball cap. Additionally, Zelda Classic allows users to create custom quests with new tile sets and level layout.