The Legend of Zelda

To do an honest review of this game, I think you need to make an effort to ignore this game's legacy and try to see it for what it was at the time of release.

Nintendo had originally designed the Famicom as a way to play arcade-style games at home, but many of the system's early hits turned out to be ports of PC games like Hudson's Lode Runner or Chunsoft's Portopia. Audiences were showing that they were interested in more complex and long-form experiences, and many developers were striking gold by catering to this desire. It was to keep up with this shift in audience expectations that Nintendo designed the Famicom Disc System, and Zelda to go along with it.

So, while many contemporary accounts of this game focus on the elements that later became tokenistic to the series like the open-ended world, or the dungeons, or adventure-like progression, these aspects aren't really what made the game special at the time of release. After all, they had already been done in western PC RPGs like the Ultima series, and in Japanese adaptations like Hydlide and Dragon Slayer. Instead, what was actually groundbreaking in Zelda was how these tropes were rethought not just to be simpler to accommodate the Famicom's limitations, but redesigned in order to play to the system's more arcade-oriented strengths.

For example, while the swordplay may seem clumsy to the modern player, but when contemporaries like Dragon Buster or Tower of Druaga, you will see how much more effectively Nintendo was able to apply arcade-like speed and collision detection to the RPG format. Believe it or not, having a single button-press result in Link extending and then retracting his sword in a single slash with a discernible hit box was a notable innovation that made this game stand out from its contemporaries.

But perhaps the most important and influential change was how the designers decoupled character growth from combat. In the traditional RPG game loop you fight enemies to gain experience until you are strong enough to venture further into the world. Nintendo scrapped this system, and instead tied character growth to discrete items (like heart pieces) which you would find by exploring the world. Now, instead of grinding to gain the means to progress, you would be rewarded for using your mastery of the game's mechanics to venture out into the world and discover secrets. It was a re-contextualization of the format that resulted in a dramatically more accessible and dare I say, "fun" experience, and has probably touched every modern action-adventure game in some distant way.

Again, Nintendo weren't the first to attempt to marry reflex-based arcade mechanics with RPG progression, but they were certainly the first to do it in such an elegant and concise way, while retaining or even adding to the depth of the genre. And though the game may not hold up the expectations of modern gamers for 'quality of life' (although I have much to say about that as well) I think if you can ground your expectations in a historical context and let go of your idea of what makes a game easy to play, it still holds up quite well.

If someone were to argue against Mario’s golden boy status in the echelons of Nintendo’s back catalog in favor of The Legend of Zelda, I would not voice a dissenting opinion against it. It’s telling how much of a monolith Nintendo is in the realm of video games that the two greatest gaming franchises of all time are both their properties. The Mario and Zelda franchises have been dueling for the prestigious status of being Nintendo’s top franchise since the golden years of the NES era. Games from both franchises have been the brightest shining examples on their respective Nintendo consoles. Mario may have more mascot potential and wider general appeal, but there has always been something grander about The Legend of Zelda. When a new Zelda title is released, it feels like a monumental affair. The Mario series is consistently adequate, but we as gamers have always expected much more from Zelda. Every subsequent entry to the Zelda franchise is expected to be the crowning achievement for Nintendo, the pinnacle of gaming for each generation. Considering Zelda’s track record, expecting this for each game is understandable. This standard for Zelda was set incredibly high as early as the first Zelda title on the NES, the only game that can rival the first Super Mario Bros. in terms of influence on the video game medium.

In essence, The Legend of Zelda is the archetypal fantasy story in video game form. All of the elements from the oldest of fantasy tales are present in Zelda such as the hero’s quest, a damsel in distress, a wicked villain from some nether realm, magical aid, swords, and shields, etc. The makeup of Zelda should be familiar to anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of the fantasy genre, regardless of what medium. The key difference is the endearing source of inspiration that separates The Legend of Zelda from its fantasy sources. Shigeru Miyamoto has claimed that the prime inspiration to create The Legend of Zelda was to capture the wondrous sense of adventure he would get galavanting around the woods near his house as a child. I wouldn’t know this feeling because I spent my childhood playing video games (just kidding), but I can use my imagination. It’s the sensation that the world is vast and life has no clear objective. It’s the sense of freedom and appreciation for the beauty of the world that one only has time to explore when they are young. This is the core of The Legend of Zelda with the fantasy makeup and its relatively discernable fantasy quirks as secondary aspects. Old fantasy tropes are most likely what Miyamoto conjured up when he was playing in the woods, and this elevated his experience and sense of excitement.

Nintendo committed to this sense of getting lost in the wonderment of nature by making The Legend of Zelda free-flowing by design. The game begins with a young boy in a green tunic brandishing a small shield in what appears to be a forest setting (or at least from what I can tell from the 8-bit graphics) with no context. People who are at least somewhat familiar with the game know to enter the cave on the beginning screen and talk to the old man to receive the sword, but even this isn’t made very clear. I’d imagine plenty of kids in 1986 venturing off without ever entering the cave, wondering why they are rendered defenseless against all of the enemies. There is absolutely no facilitation when it comes to directing the player through The Legend of Zelda, and that’s the underlying magic of it. Mostly all of the entire map of the game can be explored as soon as the player starts it. The world map is designed like a grid in that each part of it occupies the same rectangular space no matter where the player is. There is also a loading sequence whenever the player enters another space on the grid, a minor foible common in the NES era. With this foible in mind, I’m thoroughly impressed that the developers could render this spacious, non-linear world on an early NES game, so the minute hiccup of loading through each screen is understandable. The lack of concrete direction intertwined with the vastness of the game’s world expertly conveys the feeling of getting lost in a fantasy setting. The world of Zelda consists of marshy plains, craggy mountain paths, deep blue lakes, etc., and is something to be in awe of. Sure, one has to use their imagination a bit due to the 8-bit graphics, but the scope of the world presented here gives it that spectacle. The Legend of Zelda’s world design was something to marvel at.

One could argue that the lack of guidance or assistance on the game’s part gives the game a sense of aimlessness, but that isn’t true. It also doesn’t have to come with negative connotations. Little direction gives the player the incentive to dig through every nook and cranny in Hyrule. There is a secret seemingly in every square inch of the world map. The player can burn bushes with the candle, blow up a wall with a bomb, play the flute in a designated area, etc. to unveil the world’s secrets. It’s always incredibly satisfying to discover something new in this game. The secrets also come with a plethora of rewards. Uncovering these hidden areas will reward the player with extra rupees, shops with special items, a gambling mini-game that can earn the player tons of rupees (or drain them), etc. The most valuable items the player has to search for are the heart containers which increase Link’s maximum health. Heart containers are earned through beating the game’s bosses, but this won’t be enough to unlock the hidden sword upgrades in the recesses of the overworld. This gives the player all the more incentive to scrounge around Hyrule to get the most out of it.

This is when I have to play devil’s advocate. While I greatly appreciate the non-linear direction and lack of stringent progression, the game verges into being cryptic all too often. The secrets are located in very specific places on the map and it would be quite surprising if anyone found these secrets on their own without using a guide. This was even more concerning when this game initially came out due to the lack of resources available to aid the player. I’m convinced the guides in Nintendo Power were created because of The Legend of Zelda. Using a guide sort of diminishes that sense of gratification with exploring, but many of these secrets are much too difficult to find. Most of the items are perks rewarded with exploration, but some items like the bait are found in secret shops. Finding these secrets wouldn’t be too much of a hassle if the player’s bomb inventory was infinite. As it stands, the player only has access to eight bombs, and this number is only increased by four near the end of the game. Attempting to uncover a wall with a secret in it will most likely result in having to pay gobs of money refilling bombs. The game even has the nerve to fine the player a sum of rupees for destroying a wall which is cruel and unusual. This also extends to navigating through the dungeons as progression is often furthered through placing a bomb in the center of a wall. This isn’t nearly as hard to pinpoint due to the enclosed spaces, but I often found myself having to exit the dungeon prematurely to restock on bombs. While we’re on the subject, another unfair aspect of the game is being revived with only three hearts. At the beginning of the game, this isn’t much of an issue because the player might not have more than three to five heart containers, but this becomes an issue as the game progresses. The enemies will most likely obliterate the player soon after being revived, and heart pickups aren’t common enough to be relied on. This makes venturing out to buy potions and or locating a fairy fountain to replenish one’s health after dying in a dungeon just as much of a hassle as restocking on bombs.

Claiming that The Legend of Zelda is a directionless excursion wouldn’t be telling the whole truth. There is still one main objective in this game and it is presented to the player even before the first screen. An evil beast named Ganon has taken a mystical, powerful artifact known as the Triforce of Power. Princess Zelda has scattered the other part of the Triforce, the Triforce of Wisdom, into eight pieces and has scattered them all over Hyrule away from Ganon’s keep. The main objective is to find all eight pieces and then defeat Ganon to gain back the stolen Triforce of Power from him. These eight pieces of the Triforce are kept in eight dungeons, colossal architectures found in eight corners of the Hyrule overworld. Inside each dungeon is a maze of enemies in close corners, hidden switches and passageways, and a foreboding music track that accompanies the player’s trek through each dungeon. While the dungeons may all have the same core objectives, they are all designed differently which in turn makes each one as enjoyable to traverse through. Each of them offers different enemies, different challenges, different routes, etc., providing variety for the player and compensating for the graphical restrictions. My only complaint with the dungeons is that there is a specific order they have to be completed in. Each dungeon is numbered and each subsequent dungeon is more difficult than the next (mostly). The problem here stems from the game’s non-linear world design. The first dungeon is a little more conspicuously located, but it’s common for players to accidentally stumble into a number of the dungeons unknowingly. This makes me wish that the player could complete the dungeons in any order they wanted as I feel it would be more appropriate for the game’s overall direction. Because the dungeons have to be completed in a certain order (made so by the progression of items), it negates the core design of Zelda’s world.

Another disappointing aspect of the dungeons is the bosses. The range of enemy types in The Legend of Zelda are incredibly diverse and make up the foundation of Zelda’s character just as much as the three main players do. Their pack-like nature also adds challenge to the game. The bosses on the other hand are indicative of how early this game was made in the NES library. Boss battles were still in the primitive stages at this point, so many of them were either too simple to defeat or were used continually to pad the game (take the slew of Bowser encounters from Super Mario Bros. for example). The Legend of Zelda is guilty of both of these. Aquamentus is an exciting, yet simple boss as an introduction, but after this there are so many bosses that either die with one precise hit or end up being a gimmick. The only boss that offered a substantial challenge is Gleeok, the only foe that made me feel inclined to utilize the maximum health sword blaster move. Whether the boss is laughably simple or the Gleeok wild card, there are numerous encounters with all of them. Some of them even repeat their role as guardians of a Triforce piece and are just as underwhelming as they were the first time. Even the fight against Ganon, the mighty king of darkness, is a combination of the gimmicky, simple aspects from the previous bosses. The final dungeon is a royal pain in the ass, so I guess I can be relieved that Ganon is relatively stress-free, but it feels so unsatisfying all the same.

I always thought that my relatively positive opinion of the first Legend of Zelda was the same I had for Super Mario Bros. Like the first NES venture with the Italian plumber, its unparalleled influence on the medium of gaming is enough to warrant my respect while I feel lukewarm about the game as a whole due to its primitive qualities. Upon playing the first Legend of Zelda, I enjoyed it much more than I did when I first played it years ago and have gained a newfound appreciation for it that extends beyond a point of respect. The Legend of Zelda is an incredibly ambitious game for an early NES title or any NES title in general. Its open-world design might be a tad askew with progression, but I greatly appreciate that the developers were willing to make the game atypical to convey the feeling of walking through nature. While it isn’t perfect by any means, the developers did the best they could with what they had, and this ambition created a monumental wave of influence that cannot be overlooked. I thoroughly enjoyed my time getting lost in The Legend of Zelda.

Playing this game once again in 2016, i realize how much the whole Souls franchise is based on it.

Similarly to Super Mario Bros. [スーパーマリオブラザーズ] on the same system, this is also a game that is very influential and also a foundation for the rest of The Legend of Zelda [ゼルダの伝説]. In fact I think they have similar pitfalls of a lot of the level design just not aging the most well and this game in particular pretty much requires you to have a guide on hand for as much as possible. A good portion of the secrets and even some of the progression are honestly quite cryptic or easy to miss without one. The game also gets really difficult very quickly with some of the later dungeons going with the philosophy of "here's our equivalent of Hammer Bros. and we're gonna place 5-7 of them in this room that you're required to defeat, have fun :)". Resetting with only 3 health every time upon death is quite annoying too and probably would have made me hate the game had fairy fountains not existed. Still though, I'm happy future games in the series are much more intuitive in that design while also featuring more elements and keeping the best parts of this game. Things like the sword upgrades, the shops, and even general combat and some of the dungeon puzzle solving were quite fun despite this game not having aged super well. The different weapons in the game are really nice too and help freshen up the combat, though I wish some of them were more fun or rewarding to use than others (I never used the magic rod). Overall, the core gameplay is fun and that's enough for me to get quite a bit of enjoyment out of it and it's definitely worth giving a shot, even outside of its historical significance.

Going into the first entry in the Zelda series, I was expecting to have a rough time, in part due to what I've heard about the hidden secrets throughout the map. I played a majority of the game without the guide, and those secrets would later catch up to me, but I'll speak about my guideless experience first.

I decided to initially do the game guideless due to the praises of people who played the game in their childhood around its release and took the time to thoroughly explore the map, figuring out each detail by themselves. In retrospect, I respect those people so much for what I think would have been many hours spent bombing areas and burning down random trees, but that's a different story. So I went and got the sword from the old man, opened a photo editing program, created a grid, and went about mapping the world.

Mapping the world was probably the most fun I had playing the game. The feeling of exploration and uncovering the secrets of the map is still wonderful nearly 40 years after release. It was also a good time to master the swordplay. Although clunky-feeling and difficult to get used to at first, I found myself having fun taking on more difficult enemies and screens as my swordplay progressed. In combination with the shield, the combat system is surprisingly fun yet complex for an NES game. Through just exploring, I was able to find all dungeons except the 8th and cleared 1-5, with the secret items (and I should have found the 9th, but it was one of the 3 rooms at the top of the screen I had not yet mapped). I also found most items, except for the power bracelet because I didn't want to check every single statue, which I did on the screen next to it (curses) and had not quite found the magic sword even though I had written down the hint about talking to the old man at the graveyard (double curses). Since the 6th dungeon is really annoying to beat without the magic sword and I didn't want to scour each grave to find it, I ended up using a guide to get it. The 6th dungeon also dramatically increases how many hits you take, with some very difficult rooms and the introduction of my mortal nemesis, the blue wizzrobe, so I also had to use a guide to locate the heart containers hidden around the map. I have no idea how I would have found those without a guide besides hours of bombing random suspicious spots, and some even not suspicious, like a seemingly ordinary rock wall. I also used a guide to see some important items that had been in shops I had already documented. In retrospect, I should have used the original NES pamphlet that comes with the game to see what the items were, because although I had noticed they were unique items when I saw them in the shop, I passed them up not knowing what they would do.

After using a guide to find the boss room of dungeon 7 (which was supposed to be uncovered using a somewhat cryptic hint), it was onto dungeon 8, which was only accessible by burning some random tree with a candle. What???? That's kind of stupid, although if you were going around the map looking for it, the tree would stand out as somewhat out of place.. I was able to clear the dungeon and find the fancy key on my own, and was proud of myself for that.
Onto the 9th dungeon...

In my opinion, the 9th dungeon is stupid and is designed to waste your time. Although in previous times I had said I used a guide, it was somewhat possible to do it without, One look at the map and it's pretty obvious that it's unnecessarily complex. Sure, you could spend hours making a map of the place and charting each room until you know which spots to bomb and which rooms lead to where, but that would probably add on half an hour to an hour of grinding for bomb money, making the 10 minute round trip to the fairy fountain each death, and slamming your head into the wall until you fall unconscious. Hell, there's even a very useful item in a room that isn't even a room on the map (which you have to bomb to get into). It also introduces this unnecessarily hard enemy, the Patra, which spins around multiple bugs that deal quite a bit of damage in a large radius, which you have to stand just outside to hit the bugs with your stubby sword. Despite being small bugs, they take multiple hits to kill, so you'll end up spending around a minute and a half on these things. Luckily, I decided to kill one that had the map, which in the only cool part of the dungeon revealed the map as a skull shape. From this point, after exploring all I could and failing to find the correct walls to bomb, I pulled up a guide to find the remaining multiple staircases and bomb walls that were necessary to reach Ganon.

After taking out one more pre-boss Patra, I mentally prepared myself for the final boss fight. After such a hellish dungeon, surely the boss fight would be entertaining and exhilarating. Nope! The first Ganon fight ever is laughably awful. Ganon turns invisible, teleports around, and spawns projectiles that are more annoying than intimidating, as you have to swat around to hit him and often get hit by the projectiles that you don't have any sense of where they come from as a result. Ganon only takes a few small hits before turning brown, at which point I tried to stab him before eventually switching to my bow and silver arrows (found guideless !) to land what I didn't realize was the killing blow. After all the adventuring and dungeon clearing and swordfighting, the final boss was only visible for like 10 seconds and took probably less than a minute to defeat. Wow.

Despite failing so harshly at the finish line, I mostly enjoyed this game. Alongside Mario 3, it shows the best that the NES can offer, and was way ahead of its time. The overworld feels so lively, the progression through getting different items is intensely rewarding, and the dungeons (BEFORE 9) are very fun (NOT YOU WIZZROBES) with some bosses that are actually entertaining to fight (NOT YOU GANON. ANYONE BUT YOU). Despite the game's flaws, I'd encourage anyone to play this with an NES gudiebook and map the game out for yourself (and then start lookin at some real guides to find overworld heart containers if needed and to clear the 9th dungeon).

I don't like this game. It's definitely not fun to play, the movements janky, and you need a guide if you don't want to go insane. However, this game rides on it's historical relevance, and it is better than it's contemporaries at the time.

It's very simple, but of course it will be - you'd have to wait for the SNES first for proper complexity. The movement is all solely one direction only - no diagonals here. I'm not entirely sure why this is, diagonal movement doesn't complicate the programming. You have a sword and bow, and some bombs. It's not really a hard game, especially if you have a guide telling you where some overworld secrets are. The dungeons are all also super simple, with none of the puzzles you'd really come to see in the later games. I mean, there are kinda puzzles but not like the later games.

It's honestly hard to say much about this game. It exists. You can play it and probably have fun today. It's not great. I don't know why you'd play this game today. But sure, it's not bad.