Zelda Week Day 1: A Retrospective

I made the last post without realizing that the world was mere days away from celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series.  That day is today: on February 21, 1986, The Legend of Zelda graced the shores of Japan.

So far as my opinions and experiences go, Zelda is my favorite game franchise. It's the one to which I have been the most devoted, and for good reason.  Despite its evolution and all of its different iterations over the years, it has remained consistently fun and engaging, and I think the only other franchise that boasts comparable longevity and quality is the Mario series.  And, while I do love Mario, the Zelda series is more to my liking in terms of setting and gameplay.

I have spent quite a chunk of time playing these fantasy action-adventure-pseudo-RPGs, so, in the spirit of this occasion, I am going to deem this Zelda Week here at WaAtSoS.  Each day, I am going to (ideally) make a post about something Zelda-related.  Since I have played nearly every game of the main series, I am just going to start by talking a bit about my experiences with each game and bank on the hope that I think of some other topics in the meantime.

Also, I am doing these in chronological order by release date, rather than the order in which I played them, because I don't know.

The Legend of Zelda (1986 - NES)

This game is older than I am, and it took a while for me to get around to playing it.  My first attempt was actually with a used cartridge I bought at a GameCrazy and an NES that had belonged to my cousin.  I never was able to get past the title screen, probably because both pieces of hardware had suffered well over fifteen years of abuse (at least the cartridge was gold and shiny).  A couple years later, I bought the "classic revival" version for the GBA and played it.  It was fun, but it was hard.  Enemies could be merciless (it did not help that you started in the same place with three hearts no matter how far your progress was), later dungeons were almost impossible to beat in one try, and sometimes I just had no clue where to go in the over world.  Still, no matter how rough, the classic Zelda formula was there, and it was easy to imagine how innovative and sprawling a quest it would have been in 1986.  I think I got stuck somewhere in the middle of the "second quest" and moved shamefully onto something else.

The original is far from my favorite iteration of the series, not because it is a bad game, but because they have made significant leaps and bounds since then.  I still consider The Legend of Zelda a worthwhile playthrough, both because it is enjoyable on its own merit, and, more importantly to me, it provides insight into what made the Zelda series magical from the start.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1987 - NES)

Although I had known about this game for years, I only got around to playing it last year on a DS-based emulator.  I knew it primarily for its reputation as the "black sheep" of the franchise, and most histories/reviews referred to it as the weirdest, if not worst iteration of Zelda.  Well, when I went into completionist mode to catch up on the Zelda games I had not played, I downloaded a ROM and tried it out on my handheld.  After all, it was only the second game, and the series did fine afterward, so how bad could it be?

Honestly, I liked it.  It was definitely different.  Hoo boy, was it different.  There were random encounters, battles and dungeons were sidescrolling, you literally collected experience to raise your level, life meter, and abilities, and combat was a complex balance of attacking and defending which more often than not boiled down to luck and guesswork.  I will be honest, I made extremely liberal use of the emulator's save states and rewind function, because I likely would have quit the game in frustration otherwise.  I cannot comment on whether the game's difficulty was a product of myself not having grown up with NES games, or just poor design on the creators' behalf, but it is definitely the hardest Zelda game I have played.  Not my favorite one either, but it was worth it for the experience, and I have to admit that the combat did become more fun the further I got into the game.  Having abilities like a downward and upward thrust provided enough variety to keep me going, and it was really satisfying to beat a particularly difficult enemy without taking damage, based purely on the 1337ness of my timing (and not the 14m3ness of my cheating)

It's reputation as a black sheep is deserved, but if you're a fan of the series, I would not shy away from it.  Except for the hardest of core, though, I would recommend taking advantage of an emulator with save states and time manipulation, just to save you some grey hairs.

A Link to the Past (1991 - SNES)

This is often lauded as the greatest of the the 2D Zeldas, and it is many fans' personal favorite.  Unfortunately, it has been a long, long time since I have played it, so my recollections are going to be short.  I never owned an SNES, so I did not get to play it until its GBA re-release in 2002.  I think what struck me more than anything else was the truly epic nature of the quest - two huge overworlds, twelve dungeons, and numerous gameplay innovations which would later prove to be staples of all later quests.

What stands out in my memory is how lively and colorful this iteration of Hyrule was.  This is one of the first games I remember playing on my GBA SP, taking advantage of the backlit screen and running around fighting Armos and Stalfos well into the night.  I wish I could recall more, since it is definitely a classic, but I guess that just means I need to replay it sometime soon.

Link's Awakening (1993 - GB)

Well, I actually never played the original, only the deluxe version which came out for the Game Boy Color in 1998.  This game was my first exposure to the 2D side of Zelda, and I remember clearly my first experience with it was thanks to a friend who lived down the street from me.  He let me play his copy of the game a bit, although it was not until five or six years later that I was able to play through the entire thing (and many thanks to Elyse for generously lending it to me).

What I like most about Link's Awakening is the music--both the 8-bit compositions themselves and the importance that music played in the plot, which would set the standard for later games like Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker.  It was worth it to collect all eight instruments just to hear the full arrangment of "Ballad of the Wind Fish," although there is something sublimely haunting about the "a cappella" version:

Those high notes at the end still give me chills.

I actually replayed this pretty recently.  Well, most of it.  I got through Eagle's Tower and was on my way to the eighth dungeon when my save state got fucked somehow and I lost all of my progress, at which point I was nowhere near willing to do everything over again.  That sucked hard, but actually playing the game was a true treat.  One of my favorite things about the Zelda series was how well it translated both into a home console and portable handheld setting, each one having its own charm.


Before I go, Happy 25th Birthday to the Legend of Zelda!   Here's to another 25!