The Legend of Zelda (1986)

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The Legend of Zelda

Protagonist(s): Link
Genre(s): Adventure
Platform(s): Nintendo Entertainment System
Game Boy Advance
Release Date: 1986
Developer(s): Nintendo
Publisher(s): Nintendo
Series: The Legend of Zelda
Successor: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link


The Legend of Zelda, subtitled The Hyrule Fantasy in its original Japanese release, is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Nintendo and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka.

Plot

Set in the fantasy land of Hyrule, the plot centers on a boy named Link, the playable protagonist, who aims to collect the eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom in order to rescue Princess Zelda from the antagonist Ganon.

Why It's Legendary

  1. The game is based around a vast open world that can be explored freely, which was ambitious for its time, and has many secrets to be found, including heart containers that add a new heart to Link's health bar and a fairy fountain that completely heals Link.
  2. Many dungeons or mazes which provide many challenges and puzzles.
  3. Good graphics for the time.
  4. Great soundtrack.
  5. The game has a save feature which was revolutionary at the time as it allows the player to save the game at any time, thus eliminating the need for a password system.
  6. Many weapons and items to use that are divided between inventory and equipment.
    • Equipment
      • Sword - The beginning weapon that is the weakest in the game.
        • White Sword - It can be obtained once Link has five Hearts in his Life Gauge. The White Sword does twice as much damage as the original Sword.
        • Magical Sword - Requires that Link have at least twelve Heart Containers in his Life Gauge before he gives Link the Magical Sword. It has the same properties as all of the other Swords in the game, such as the ability to shoot Sword Beams, but the Magical Sword does twice as much damage than the White Sword, and four times the damage as the Sword.
      • Wooden Shield - Link's starting Shield. It is capable of blocking basic attacks, such as rocks fired from Octoroks or Arrows shot by Moblins. Link can upgrade the Shield by buying a Magical Shield from various shops around Hyrule.
        • Magical Shield - Unlike the basic Wooden Shield, it is capable of blocking not only arrows and rocks, but also most fireball and magical attacks as well as the Lynel's projectile sword attack. However, it cannot block a boss's fireballs. If a Like Like happens to devour Link's magical shield, he will revert back to using his standard shield and another Magical Shield would have to be purchased from a shop.
      • Blue Ring - When worn, Link takes half the amount of damage he would normally.
        • Red Ring - When worn, Link takes a quarter of the amount of damage he would normally.
      • Power Bracelet - Allows Link to push rocks on the overworld aside, revealing secrets.
    • Inventory
      • Boomerang - Link can use the Boomerang to stun certain enemies for a brief period of time. He can also use it to instantly defeat Keese and Gels. The Boomerang can also be used to collect items from a distance.
        • Magical Boomerang - Stuns enemies for much longer.
      • Bombs - Can be used to damage certain enemies or reveal hidden passageways in walls within Dungeons and the Overworld.
      • Bow - The Bow and Arrow deals 2 damage to enemies that can be inflicted by them. Pols Voices are weak to Arrows and will be defeated by them in one hit. Gohmas can only be defeated with the Bow and Arrow. Link can also shoot Silver Arrows from the Bow, which must be used as the final blow on Ganon to destroy him.
      • Blue/Red Candle - When used, the Blue Candle will emit a temporary red fire to a short distance in front of Link, which can illuminate dark rooms within Dungeons and damage certain enemies. It can be used to burn certain Trees throughout the Overworld, which will reveal hidden staircases that often lead to Caves.
      • Flute - This causes various effects. First, it allows Link to Warp to any Underworld dungeon he has cleared; if he is facing north or west, he warps to the next dungeon; if he is facing south or east, he warps to the dungeon before the one he is at. The Flute must also be used to dry up a body of water revealing the entrance to Level 7; in the Second Quest, it can unveil hidden caves, as well as the entrance to Level 6. Lastly, Digdogger is split into three smaller versions at the sound of the Flute.
      • Magical Rod - Allows Link to shoot projectile beams. The beams are similar to a Wizzrobe's and travel across the screen.
        • Book of Magic - Adds the power of fire to the Magical Rod.
  7. A lengthy adventure game that can take up to 10 hours to finish which was pretty long for the time.
  8. After completing the game, the player has access to a more difficult quest, officially referred to as the Second Quest, where Dungeons and the placement of items are different, with enemies stronger. Entering "ZELDA" as the player's name starts the Second Quest immediately. The Second Quest can be replayed each time it's completed.
  9. The game is considered a spiritual forerunner of the modern action role-playing video game (RPG) genre. Though it is often not considered part of the genre since it lacked key RPG mechanics such as experience points, it had many features in common with RPGs and served as the template for the action role-playing game genre. The game's fantasy setting, musical style, and action-adventure gameplay were adopted by many RPGs.
  10. The game received a remake that was only released for the Satella in Japan called BS The Legend of Zelda.
    • The graphics and sprites have been completely overhauled and they look great,
    • The difficulty has been toned down and thus makes it less of a chore.
    • The size of the world has been reduced and thus makes it a lot easier to navigate.
    • For the first time, Zelda herself is playable.

Bad Qualities

  1. The game hasn't aged well compared to later entries.
    • In addition to being earned after defeating bosses, full Container Hearts are found throughout the game including outside of dungeons, so Link doesn't have to assemble each with Pieces of Heart. While a few games later in the series reused the idea, most of the games in general do not.
    • There are no NPC-filled towns, and NPCs are rather rare. Ironically enough, this was rectified in the next game.
    • Collecting the map only alters the radar at the top of the screen, and doesn't affect the map Link creates in dungeons at all. In order to figure out where they haven't been, players have to actually compare the two.
    • Speaking of the map, there is no proper overworld map only a grid-like map.
    • The lowest Rupee units are not green (since Rupees shared their palettes with the enemy characters), but flash between yellow and blue (though they're identified as "yellow" only). Also, the manual called them "rubies," while the in-game intro referred to them as "rupies" (singular "rupy".)
    • This title, and to a slightly lesser extent the sequel, lacks the elaborate story-lines the series is famous for. There really isn't much in terms of dialogue and the fact there are so few NPCs makes it even more noticeable.
    • Firing arrows depletes your Rupees for every shot due to the game not having a proper ammo system for the arrows.
    • While Fairies are around to heal you (for a measly 3 hearts), there's no bottles to hold them in like the later games did, so you really had to be careful with taking damage. Link's Awakening and the Oracle duo also lack bottles but their fairies still heal more than 3 hearts. There are also permanent Fairies that are found at springs, but unlike the later Great Fairies, these are visually indistinguishable from normal Fairies.
    • The breakable walls aren't shown to have any indication that they can be blown up with a bomb.
    • The Compass only shows where the Triforce fragment is located. Later games would have the Compass show the location of the dungeon's treasure chests and the location of the boss. The Map and Compass in the first game were found by either killing all enemies in the room or were in just plain sight while later games would have the two items be inside treasure chests.
    • There are no treasure chests, so any item found inside of a dungeon either just appears out of thin air when all enemies are defeated, or it's just lying around in the open. A dungeon's major treasure would always be in an underground room.
    • Keys were interchangeable, meaning you could use any key on any door in any dungeon, making it possible to run out of keys. Luckily, you could also buy keys from a shop if you happened to run out, though the concept of buying keys would stay in the first game. Zelda II continues this trend, but you can bypass locked doors with the Fairy spell. Starting with the third game, all keys can only be used in the dungeons they're found within. On a similar note, this game and the sequel has the Magical Key, an item that basically acted like infinite keys so you could open every door. The item was never brought back in later installments.
    • In the manual, dungeons were named after the shapes of their maps: Dungeon 1 was "Eagle," Dungeon 2 was "Moon," and so on. In-game, the dungeons are simply numbered "Levels" (Level 1, Level 2, etc.). All subsequent games use more flavorful dungeon names.
    • Link cannot move diagonally.
    • Link only stabs straight forward with his sword instead of slashing with it.
    • Dungeons in this game acted more like labyrinths which you can easily get lost in and there weren't really any puzzles beyond "push a specific block to reveal the way". The sequel kept the design, but all future games afterwards would have their dungeons be more focused on puzzle solving and rooms being unique instead of copy pasted everywhere. Dungeons in the first game were also mostly just one floor with the basement being used as either shortcuts to other parts of the dungeon or a storeroom containing an item. Later games would use multiple floors and more complex room designs.
    • Upgrading your bomb capacity could only be done by old men hidden in dungeons. This was changed in future games where capacity upgrades would be done in the overworld or a town.
    • You're required to show an old woman a letter from an old man before she'll allow you to buy potions. Later games would not do this, but a few would have you procure a similar item to be allowed to buy the stronger potions. Likewise, the red potion here comes in two doses. Later games don't give double doses for potions, although a few games would use it for other potion-like items like milk and soup.
    • Along with the sequel, Hyrule Castle simply didn't exist and the concept of a king wasn't used until the sequel either, though he was a Posthumous Character in that game.
    • A few dungeons in this game contain two special items, an anomaly that would never be seen again in the series. Level 1 has both the Boomerang and the Bow; Level 8 has the Magic Book and the Magic Key; and Level 9 has the Silver Arrows and the Red Ring. Later games stick strictly to a one-item-per-dungeon rule, with rare exceptions.
    • Unlike in later games, Link has no Bag of Holding or Hyperspace Arsenal.
    • The Magical Rod is an item that lets you shoot magic waves as an effective means of a ranged attack. Later games would use similar rods like the Fire Rod, but the Magical Rod itself wouldn't return. Likewise, the Magic Book, which was used to enhance the Magical Rod, doesn't return in any game.
    • While most dungeons were out in plain sight, some were completely hidden and required a specific item or action to access them and you had little to no hints on where said hidden dungeons are. While later games would continue to use hidden dungeons, the game would usually go out of its way to tell you how to get there and/or how to access them. The hidden dungeon entrances themselves were simple staircases or doorways in this game, while later games would make dungeon entrances much more unique.
    • Defeating enemies are the only means of restocking consumable items (i.e. rupees, bombs, and hearts) in the overworld and dungeons. There are no pots to break or grass to cut, which would become iconic series attributes of later installments.
    • There is no Master Sword in this game; the highest attainable sword is the Magic Sword. Additionally, the Sword Beam can be performed with any sword (even the most basic wooden sword at the start of the game), while later games typically restrict this ability to the Master Sword or other higher-level swords.
  2. Some can consider the entire game as a guide game, meaning you need a strategy guide to even know what to do next or where to go. It was intentional by the developers since they wanted players to exchange information with each other as they played. That being said, there's still many notable moments below that makes a guide mandatory.
    • Starting with Level 2, the labyrinths in the second quest feature walls you must walk through (by holding down that direction for a couple of seconds) instead of bombing in order to proceed. There is nothing whatsoever in the manual or the game itself indicating this new twist in gameplay.
    • Obtaining the White and Magical Swords requires you to have a certain amount of Heart Containers, but the only hint you are given is you must "master using it" (referring to the sword). The Japanese version had a similar hint.
    • Pushing blocks in dungeons is required to reveal a staircase or to reach a visible one more easily. Nothing in the game tells you that you can push blocks.
    • Getting past the Goriya in a dungeon who says "Grumble, grumble..." will go away if you give him the food item. While one can argue that the grumble phrase is a hint that he is hungry, it's not obvious at first and can be mistaken for something else.
  3. Trial-and-Error: Due to graphical limitations, there's no clue as to which walls are bomb-able, which trees are burnable, and which screens have a "magic effect" when you blow the Recorder. Young Link is truly the most destructive fellow in Hyrule: in order to complete both quests (and particularly the second) you'll have attempted to destroy everything in the land. The original game came with a poster-size map of the overworld, so you could mark off your reign of terror as you went, and make notes of where the quest 2 dungeons are found (the overworld has the same layout, but the dungeons are remixed).
  4. Whenever you die, no matter how many hearts you have, you always respawn with three.
  5. The infamous 3rd dungeon that has its map look exactly like a swatsika
  6. Difficulty Spike:
    • Level 5-1. With little forewarning it throws Gibdos, Blue Darknuts, and Pols Voices at you. You'll need the Whistle to beat Digdogger at the end of the level, but 5-1 is the first level featuring a hidden passage, and the Whistle is in that section; two entire rooms full of Blue Darknuts must be cleared in order to progress through this area. If players ignore this path, they are quite likely to encounter Digdogger when they have no way to fight him. This is your first indicator that the Magical Sword is going to be needed moving forward.
    • Level 6-1 is the first level that throws Wizzrobes at you. Fighting a room full of Wizzrobes is a miserable experience even with the Magical Sword and Blue Ring, as there's simply no way to fight the things safely - even camping in the doorways doesn't work because the Blue Wizzrobes can walk into them and the Red Wizzrobes will occasionally appear in them. Mix in Like Likes which can eat the Magical Shield, and if they do you might as well commit suicide and Retry.
    • Level 2-2. Aside from being the first dungeon to introduce the Walk-Through Walls, it also throws a freaking Gleeok at you while you've likely still only got the Wooden Sword. It's a wake-up call that this second quest will not be pulling any punches.
    • Level 5-2 and 6-2 combine to form this.
      • They're both Wizzrobe dungeons. There is NO WAY to obtain the Magical Sword without going into one of them, and those horrible Blue Wizzrobes take 5 hits from the White Sword. 5-2 is actually longer and arguably tougher than 6-2, but the boss of 6-2 is a Gohma and the Bow is the hidden item of 5-2.
      • 5-2 also has one of the worst rooms in the entire game - a "spiral to a staircase" room with 5 Blue Wizzrobes. The layout makes dodging the Wizzrobes spells all but impossible, and you have to kill all 5 to open the room's door. You'll likely use both your potions clearing this one room. And yes, you have to clear this room to get to the Bow.
      • The only saving grace is that the Raft isn't very deep into level 6-2, and it's possible to go in just far enough to grab it, then leave and use it to get that last heart container you'll need for the Magical Sword.
    • Level 9-2 has one last trick to throw at you - an abundance of Red Bubbles and an extreme scarcity of Blue Bubbles. Link will spend a lot of time in this dungeon unable to use his sword, desperately dodging Wizzrobes and hoping he doesn't run out of bombs.
  7. Despite being a remake, the Satella version doesn't make much of quality of life improvements and is more or less the same aside from the obvious enhancements.

Trivia

  1. The title theme was originally going to be an 8-bit rendition of Maurice Ravel's Bolero, but because Bolero was not in the public domain in Japan at the time, it was changed to the title theme we hear today.
  2. The game's cartridge is gold, unlike most NES games which were grey.

Reception

The Legend of Zelda received highly positive reviews from critics and was a best-seller for Nintendo. Upon release in Japan, it sold 1 million copies on its first day of release, and sold a total of 1.69 million for the Famicom Disk System in Japan. In North America, the game was highly anticipated and topped the video game charts upon release. It became the first NES game to sell over 1 million cartridges in the United States during 1987, increasing to more than 2 million cartridges sold by 1988. It went on to sell 3 million cartridges in the United States by 1990, and eventually 6.51 million copies worldwide.

Critics lauded the graphics, Kondo's score, writing, and gameplay, hailing the latter as groundbreaking. In Japan, Famicom Tsūshin (Famitsu) magazine gave it a full score of 5 out of 5 stars, while the first Famitsu Best Hit Game Awards gave Zelda the award for best background music and listed it as the third best Game of the Year (just below Dragon Quest and Gradius). Upon release in North America, Computer Entertainer called it an "excellent" adventure game that exceeded expectations and said it had "more to offer than the typical hack-and-slash" epics, with "monsters to fight, secret doors to discover, and plenty of frustration" rewarded with new treasures, weapons, experience, places and discoveries. The review also praised the "very appealing" and "beautiful, fairy-tale" quality, the battery backup save feature, the "charming graphics, superb original music, excellent animation, and smooth transitions in scrolling between locations." They called it "an incredibly rich, deep gaming experience that goes far beyond the typical cartridge game" with appeal "to both male and female players" of all ages, making it a "must-have" for every Nintendo owner. Computer Gaming World in 1988 named the game as the best adventure of the year, stating that Zelda had been a "sensational success" in bringing elements of computer action-adventures to consoles. In 1990, the magazine implied that the game was a killer app, causing computer RPG players who had dismissed consoles as "mere arcade toys" to buy the NES.

The Legend of Zelda has received critical acclaim from modern critics and remains well regarded. It is often featured in lists of games considered the greatest or most influential. It placed first in Game Informer's list of the "Top 100 Games of All Time" and "The Top 200 Games of All Time" (in 2001 and 2009 respectively), thirteenth in Electronic Gaming Monthly's 100th issue listing the "100 Best Games of All Time", fifth in Electronic Gaming Monthly's 200th issue listing "The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time", seventh in Nintendo Power's list of the 200 Best Nintendo Games Ever, 77th in Official Nintendo Magazine's 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time and 80th among IGN readers' "Top 99 Games". Zelda was inducted into GameSpy's Hall of Fame in August 2000 and voted by GameSpy's editors as the tenth best game of all time. Editors of the popular Japanese magazine Weekly Famitsu voted the game among the best on the Famicom. In 1997 Next Generation listed the North American release in their "Five Greatest Game Packages of All Time", citing the die-cut hole which revealed the gold cartridge, full color manual, and fold-out map.

Trivia

  • The Legend of Zelda runs on a heavily modified version of the Super Mario Bros. engine. Coincidentally, this would repeat for their 3D equivalent with Ocarina of Time reusing the engine of Super Mario 64.
  • The Hyrule Fantasy was used as a subtitle for the Japanese version of The Legend of Zelda; however, this was dropped in subsequent games as adding a third subtitle (such as A Link to the Past) would have made the title too long. This choice was also made to avoid comparisons with Final Fantasy.
  • During development of the game, a rearrangement of Maurice Ravel's Boléro by Koji Kondo was used as the title theme. However, shortly before finishing the game, the developers learned that the song was still under copyright. Since they could not delay the release of the Disk System and the game itself, Kondo himself wrote the actual title theme in a single night.
  • Although the Master Sword did not yet exist for the franchise until A Link to the Past, the strongest Sword in the game (as well as its sequel), the Magical Sword, is seen as its precursor.
  • This game is the first and so far only instance anywhere in the franchise where the Triforce of Power was actually taken away from Ganon by Link and the latter obtains this piece of the Triforce by itself after he destroys the main antagonist with a Silver Arrow, despite this occurring at the very end of the quest.
  • The Flute in The Legend of Zelda was reused for Super Mario Bros. 3 in the Super Mario franchise as a way for Mario to warp between worlds.
  • Breath of the Wild, released over three decades later in 2017, marks a long-awaited return of the non-linear open world exploration gameplay from this game.
  • Most The Legend of Zelda cartridges are gold, but the late-release Classic Series version of the game came in standard gray. This packaging concept was reused for The Adventure of Link as well.
  • The game depicts the Triforce of Power upside down and is even used for the title logo and credits. An inverted Triforce would not be seen in the mainline series until A Link Between Worlds, 27 years later in 2013, for the Lourle counterpart.
  • The 1987 international NES release of the game marks the first time cartridges used save batteries to store in-game files. This was a novelty at the time, as most early video games well into the 1990s used passwords instead or have no way of remembering the player's progress at all.
  • The 1969 hit song "April" from the rock band Deep Purple is seen as an inspiration for Koji Kondo to create the title and dungeon themes of this game. It also has a slight basis for the Hyrule Castle theme in later games.

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