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The Legend of Zelda

Video game series

  • 47 min read
  • 10 chapters

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The series centers on the various incarnations of Link, a courageous young boy of the elf-like Hylian race, and Princess Zelda, a princess within the bloodline of the goddess Hylia. They fight to save the land of Hyrule from Ganon, an evil warlord turned demon king who wishes to use the Triforce, a sacred relic that can grant any wish its user desires when complete, to remake the world in his own dark image. Zelda's role has often been that of a damsel in distress or donor who assists Link. If someone with a heart that does not possess a balance of Power, Courage, and Wisdom, attempts to touch the Triforce, it will split into three triangles and bond with three people whose hearts embody the required virtue. While the conflict with Ganon serves as a backbone for the series, some games have featured other settings and antagonists, with Link traveling or being sent to these other lands in their time of need.

Since The Legend of Zelda was released in 1986, the series has expanded to include 21 entries on all of Nintendo's major game consoles, as well as a number of spin-offs. An American animated TV series based on the games aired in 1989 and manga adaptations commissioned by Nintendo have been produced in Japan since 1997. The Legend of Zelda is one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, having sold over 150 million copies as of September 2024. The series is also known for its high level of quality, with many of its entries considered among the greatest video games of all time.

Gameplay

Gameplay of The Legend of Zelda games feature a mix of puzzles, action-adventure, and exploration. These elements used to be constant throughout the series, with small refinements and additions in each new game. Later installments include stealth gameplay, where the player must avoid enemies while proceeding through a level, as well as racing elements. Depending on the game, players control Link or Princess Zelda from a fixed top-down perspective, or in a 3D game world with a free-roaming camera.

Zelda games can be beaten with a minimal amount of exploration and side quests, but the player is frequently rewarded with helpful items or increased abilities for solving puzzles, or exploring hidden areas. Some items are consistent and appear many times throughout the series, while others are unique to a single game. Staples of the series include bombs that can both act as weapons and open blocked or hidden doorways; boomerangs, which can kill or paralyze enemies; keys for locked doors; shields; bows and arrows; light sources; magical rods, hammers, musical instruments; digging tools; and a grappling hook-like device named the hookshot. Items can be bought, rented, or found as a puzzle-solving reward, depending on the game. In 2017's Breath of the Wild and its 2023 sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, swords and other weapons originally found in dungeons or purchased from shops are now found in the game world and stolen from defeated enemies. Items are generally used through by swapping out to one or more selected button prompts through a menu, while the sword is usually fixed. Echoes copied by Zelda in 2024's Echoes of Wisdom also attack or clear paths with bombs. Early in certain Zelda games, swords are given to Link and/or found in a secluded area. More powerful swords, or special sword abilities, can be discovered by Link or taught to him in the games. Existing weapons can also receive upgrades.

The motion controls of 2011's Skyward Sword, using either the Wii's Wii MotionPlus or the Nintendo Switch's Joy-Con, simulate sword fighting by swinging the controller in specific directions to attack enemies, or counter an enemy's attempt to block. Breath of the Wild introduced a physics engine—allowing for physics-based solutions such as crushing an enemy via rolling a boulder onto it—and what was called a chemistry engine, a rule-based state calculator in which various elements (fire, water, wind, etc.) interact with other objects and elements in different ways. Echoes of Wisdom is also a departure from other games' style of combat, as the playable Zelda is primarily unable to directly hit enemies on her own. Instead, she uses an item called the Tri Rod to create echoes via coping objects and enemies and recreating them to solve puzzles and defeat enemies, even if the object or enemy in question is not in the area or region her current situation is. Another physics-based technique in late 2010s and 2020s Zelda titles involves using certain abilities to allow Link or Zelda to remotely move or drop objects on top of enemies, drop enemies down holes, or propel themselves across gaps.

Although the games contain role-playing elements (Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is the only one to include an experience system), they emphasize straightforward hack-and-slash-style combat. This has led to much debate over whether or not Zelda games should be classified as action RPGs, a genre on which the series has had a strong influence. In 1992, series co-creator Shigeru Miyamoto disagreed with the label, classifying Zelda as "a real-time adventure game". He said that he was "not interested in systems where everything in the game is decided by stats and numbers" but wanted "to preserve as much of that 'live' feeling as possible", and felt that action games are better suited to convey to players. In 2012, Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki listed A Link to the Past as one of his top RPGs, alongside video games such as Dragon Quest III, Wizardry, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and the collectable card game, Magic: The Gathering.

The games pioneered a number of features that were to become industry standards. Released on the Famicom Disk System and NES in 1986 and 1987, the original Legend of Zelda was the first console game with a save function that enabled players to stop playing and then resume later. In 1998, Ocarina of Time introduced a targeting system that let the player lock the camera on to enemy or friendly non-player characters which simplified 3D combat.

Overworld and dungeons

Many mainline Zelda game consist of three key areas: an overworld which connects all other areas and allows multidirectional movement, giving players some degree of freedom; areas of interaction with other characters (like caves, towns, or hidden rooms) in which the player can purchase equipment, gain special items or advice, or complete side quests; and dungeons (or temples, towers, etc.), labyrinthine areas found underground (with some exceptions), comprising a wide range of difficult enemies, bosses, and items. Each usually has one major item that can be essential for solving its puzzles and often plays a crucial role in defeating its boss and/or progressing through the game. In 2013, A Link Between Worlds introduced a more open-ended progression system by allowing Link to rent items to reach and beat the last seven dungeons. Following this, every main dungeon in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom can be accessed in any order before reaching the final boss in their open world setting. Neither game has items hidden inside dungeons for progression, but the latter involves the help of specific companions to solve tasks in their respective Temples.

Navigating a dungeon is usually aided by locating a map, which reveals its layout, and a magic compass, which reveals the location of significant and smaller items such as keys and equipment. In games released after the NES, dungeons include a special "big key" or "boss key" that unlocks the door to fight its boss. In place of a big key, Breath of the Wild has Link use his Sheikah Slate to activate all the control terminals inside the dungeon before its boss attacks him, and Tears of the Kingdom has companions reach and interact with the locations of multiple locks in the relevant Temple to open the door to the boss. The original Zelda on the NES had its dungeons known as "the underworld" in contrast to the overworld, but later games had broad sections located underground or behind rifts that were not dungeons in of themselves, but connected to the overworld or other dungeons, such as Subrosia in 2001's Oracle of Seasons, the Depths in Tears of the Kingdom, and the Still World in Echoes of Wisdom. Some games, like Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures and Tri Force Heroes, have no broadly-connecting overworld, and use randomly picked levels, a linear progression of numbered levels, or a hub world like Hytopia Castle Town.

Sailing and gliding

While a raft first appeared in the first game, they had limited use and can only be boarded from a dock. Sailing is—by design—the only way to traverse the island-dotted overworlds of The Wind Waker in 2002 and Phantom Hourglass in 2007. By Breath of the Wild, rafts' sails could be propelled by wind using the chemistry engine, and logs could also be used as makeshift boats. The introduction of Ultrahand and Zonai machine parts in Tears of the Kingdom gave players the ability to build a raft or a flying machine out of parts. While gliding had previously been used for puzzles and minigames with the guidance of chickens known as Cuccos, and an item to help scale cliff faces appeared in 2004's The Minish Cap, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom use both elements more prominently. In the games' open world, climbing walls and gliding off them on a paraglider makes it possible for the player to plot out multiple routes; in contrast to the way some players had been "glitching" up mountains players while controlling Geralt in The Witcher series and Dovahkiin in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), here it is not considered unintentional climbing. Instead of mountains being impassable walls they are fully climbable for the players by design. Tears of the Kingdom also allows Link to be launched into the sky and travel further with either Zonai machines or gliding. The Reverse Bond ability in Echoes of Wisdom also has Zelda attach herself to a climbing spider or flying bird monster to progress through the game world.

Health and fairies

In most Zelda games, the player's HP or life meter is represented by a line of hearts. The player usually starts with three hearts; their max health can be increased by finding heart-shaped crystals called heart containers. Full heart containers are usually received at the end of dungeons and dropped by dungeon bosses. Smaller "Pieces of Heart" are awarded for completing side quests or found hidden throughout the game world, and require a certain number (commonly four) to form a full heart container. Health can be replenished by picking up hearts left by defeated enemies or destroyed objects, consuming items such as potions or food, or going to a Great Fairy Fountain to have the Great Fairy heal Link completely. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom broke from this tradition, and had Link hunt and cook his food or find potion ingredients in cut grass rather than freely be given hearts to pick up. Occasionally, the player will find fairies hidden in specific locations; they can either heal Link immediately or be kept in empty bottles, and will revive him the next time he dies.

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