Zelda Week | The History of Zelda.

But, how did it all begin, the world that Link inhabits, is not like ours, is somewhat different and it’s this unique touch that makes the legend into what it’s scaled to today. In 1987, the story began, oh and also your Webmaster was born….

“Eons ago, the World of Hyrule, a place far away from our own, was in utter chaos, and in this destruction, the legend of the Triforce, 3 golden triangles with unique segments of different strengths, was being passed down from generation to generation. But, the forces had been mutilated, deformed as such to allow evil, in the form of Ganon, the prince of darkness, to obtain and use a piece of the 3, the Triforce of Power. Fearing the attacks by the pig like beast, the Princess Zelda split the Triforce of wisdom into 8 smaller fragments, discarding them across the realm, and commanded her most trustworthy nursemaid, Impa, to find a hero with enough courage to destroy the bastard. But, upon hearing of the princesses’ escapades, he, as all stereotypical villains do, locked her in a dungeon, complete with, well, nothing. Fleeing through the forest, the maid eventually reached the eternal limits of her energy and was cornered by Ganon’s even stupider henchmen. What could she do with the remaining ounces of breath, and the lack of willpower to overcome the meter high moblins. But, not all was lost, from the depths of the forest came an armed youth complete with your average sword and shield, and saved the poor maid from seeping to the void of the afterlife. Link was informed of the situation with the triforce and the locations of the Wisdom pieces… and coupled with the triforce of courage; he could fight his way into Ganon’s tower and rid the world of Hyrule of the irrefutable tyrant.” There are other versions to the tale, but the original generation of Link spawned the legend told above, but it all ties together, with the endless tale of the mystical triforce.

The world of Zelda began in a land not as distant as Hyrule, the place being a small town in the lands of Japan where a young boy enjoyed the wonders and adventures that the stereotypical heroes of the past lived for, the exploration into caves, the vanquishing of mystical creatures, with these thoughts and aspirations being sown into his
mind. As he grew, he attended colleges and lectures, and eventually encountered a company known as Nintendo. The young and creative designer was known as Shigeru Miamoto-san. Whist working at the company, he had several different games ideas and it wasn’t before long since he spawned one of the most magnificent franchises of all time, The Legend of Zelda.

The first game to be created by Miyamoto-San was named "The Legend of Zelda" and appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System [nes] in the US and PAL regions and the Famicom as it is called in Japan. The concept of the game, in reflection to the legend, was essentially to save Zelda, as you do in most tales, but also to build up the sense of power and skills thought an adventure of swords and shields and to boost one’s levels and to explore the excellent pixelated world of Hyrule. Although the game looks primitive now, it was one of the most highly developed titles of its time. Spawning across eight major dungeons, it had the immense depth that similar games of the period were deficient in, coupled with an innovative real time battle system was something that had lacked exploration in previous games of the genre, and Nintendo brought this forward – a free roaming RPG of the late eighties, get out! But, believe you me, it’s very similar, gameplay wise, to the classic titles in the franchise – even though it’s hard to believe, the mechanics are there, all implemented to allow the player to be link, to field the shattering blows the forged swords make on the deformed life forms, crawling into the depths of caverns and caves, and the triumphant cheer of obtaining an upgrade, weapon of treasure piece. In this year, the epic tune that literally everyone must have heard by now is omnipresent within the game – bing, bing etc, all in short staccato beeps, but, still adding some atmosphere into an adventure that perhaps benefited more so to the ecstatic tones than gamers realised.

Due to the immense profit increase of the previous game, Nintendo decided to expand the legend somewhat, and could percolate into another form of portraying a story, in a sick twist between Mario and Zelda, "Zelda II - The Adventures of Link" was born. The Princess has been lulled into a deep slumber, and Link, now older and perhaps more wiser, had to seek 6 crystals in order to wake the princess from eternal rest. As I mentioned earlier is Zelda a cross between Mario? Perhaps this could be true to some extent, but the gameplay mechanics remained consistent throughout. Link is back, and guess what? He has to save Princess Zelda once again! This time, though, she’s fallen under a spell that has left her in a deep slumber. But, who is responsible for such an uneventful ties of deception… Ganon, is dead? Perhaps, or did his followers enchant some mystic resurrection of the Triforce… The game excels in what it had aimed to do, provide gamers with a unique action game, but adding the RPG element to it in side scrolling fashion. But, the dedicated fans of the new genre were perhaps a little disappointed in the way that the developers had verged into, but it seems that a change was useful in that the developing bodies could see which formula works, and they did… they did.

Between 1988 and 1992
a new Nintendo system had been developed using newfound 16-Bit technology and was funnily named the Super Nintendo Entertainment System [snes]. With the additional power to their lead console, it seemed that the right choice to advance the series was to essential replicate the original successful formula into a great upgrade to the series found in "A Link to the Past". Link is living his peaceful life in the outskirts of the local village with his uncle, but as usual, trouble is afoot and this time in the form of dastardly wizard, Aganahim. The deluded power mad servant to the throne has imprisoned maidens, in order for him to divulge lightworld, wreaking havoc into darkness. The final maiden is princess Zelda, who's been guarded within her own castle and is, by means of telekinesis, contacting link and he ventures out, after his uncle, to once again save the world of Hyrule... It's a Zelda game from Nintendo, this is where the game probably excels the most - every pace you make will be useful, each location is as compelling as the next, even when you have to sprawl the lands of Hyrule just to get there. Each dungeon was compact with miniscule and rather complex puzzles that raised the difficulty levels progressively.

In 1993, straight after developing one of the best Zelda titles, the company went small, no, not in profits or anything, but, created a pocket version of Zelda, "Link's Awakening", the first of the titles not to take place in Hyrule. Nintendo wanted to use the excellent formula found in the Snes classic, but, instead of demoting the game somewhat, they decided to couple the successive gameplay with a new location, the island of Koholint. Compelling gameplay still working to the levels of expectations, even though it was portable – and the excellent package shined through. The main aim of the title was slightly different from past escapades – instead of saving Hyrule, he had to return to Hyrule. How? Well, the story lead to Linking having to recover eight instruments of the "Siren" in order to wake the "Wind Fish", also calming the rampant island of Koholint.

After the release of LLTP on the Snes, it seemed that that was it – the last console based Zelda title, but, Nintendo had been in the developing stage to translate the series into a fully 3D world, and they delivered, it took 5/6 years, but, it was worth the development time and so making one of the World’s greatest role playing games of all time.

Between ’93 and ’96, Nintendo developed their new 64-bit system hence the name Nintendo64 and the ability to perform complex 3dimentional physics, the next Zelda title was sure to leave the 2D pixel days behind. Not many expected the transition to do the franchise justice, but, it did and it performed remarkable - "Ocarina of Time". After a mass wait, the title finally was released for the N64 in December 1998. When the time came for the fans to prove their skills once more, fans claimed the title to be the “best game of all time”, and something that would constantly be referred to today, and it still is.
The game was essentially a prequel to the original saga, or so most think, a similar tale with slightly remixed themes and story, but the characters involved still retained their qualities. In terms of how it had evolved from its predecessor, well, a graphical boost, by far, and a totally unique way of playing with the Z-targeting system implemented to enable some better strategy when it comes to both attacking and playing in defence. The main aspects that made this title one of the very best was the sheer expansion of the world you’re in – it would take around 40 to 50 hours to complete the game, in total, and probably miss some less essential sections. But, the game had its minor drawbacks which being some of open areas, Hyrule field as an example, being far too open – and the amount of enemies and sub locations, although varied, were far too tedious to get through, although it also provided some excellent settings in to which you could explore, but perhaps lost the initial burst of compact battles found in the Snes classic. Overall and excellent edition to the franchise, considered as one of the best titles to grace a Nintendo console, full of immense playability and one of the longest adventures to date.

Several years later, in 2000, a new adventure, the last on the dieing Nintendo64 - "Majora's Mask", changed the initial concept of gameplay found in the franchise. Finally, perhaps, and rightly so, a timed version of Zelda, essentially pitting you against a dominating force, time, and thus you needed to escape such realities and it was a frustrating battle against evil, which was more like time that Majora himself. Although this was set in a parallel land to Hyrule, I felt that it did have perhaps major development and a decent storyline to couple the events of 3 days, and having to replicate events added to the minor touches found in the game. Also, it was a more personal story with characters being developed upon during the time you replicated and extremely clever use of narrative and plot leaving the user to actually want to go back and redo the key areas. Time travel, and the use of the ocarina once more were the best tools to a game that some despised, but, it may have not been Ocarina of Time, but a worthy finale to end the reign of Zelda on the Nintendo64.

In 2001, both the Oracle games were released on the Game Boy colour, a joint game on separate cartridges, in a similar guise to the Pocket Monsters series. The evil characters have dominated the worlds, and it’s up to Link to stop domination before it’s too late. Also appearing in pocket form was the classic remake of A Link to the Past, but, now on the GBA and coupled with a new multiplayer title from Capcom – The Four Swords. The title is pure gaming bliss, requires intense skill and derivation, and some multiplayer team skills… or not so it seems.

Now, in 2003, the highly anticipated Zelda sequel, “The Wind Waker” has officially been released on Nintendo’s next generation console, the GameCube and entices the qualities found in the Nintendo64 classic, Ocarina of Time and the gameplay found in the Snes version, all designed and moulded into a “cell shaded” world complete with some of the best gameplay to date.

The Legend of Zelda, such brilliance and emotive prowess, some deep sensations of exploration and skill, overcoming such challenges in life – the franchise has grown into something that we can all, in some way, relate to. Zelda, a story caressed by several generations and will be continued for many to come. It has just started, and will prosper… but, will we find out, one day, what evil keeps seeping back to torment the world… and how Link is reborn again….