The Legend Of Zelda Series

The Legend of Zelda series (ゼルダの伝説 シリーズ Zeruda no Densetsu Shirīzu; often shortened to just "Zelda series") is a series of action-adventure video games created by Nintendo and industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto beginning in 1986. It is considered one of the most influential video game franchises ever created.

Overview

The Legend of Zelda games feature as their central character and protagonist a young Hylian named Link. Link is frequently called upon to rescue Princess Zelda, for whom the games are named. The main villain of the series is known as Ganondorf (Also known as Ganon). The action occurs in the mythical land of Hyrule. Story-wise the earlier games did not deviate much from the standard "save the princess" theme, but later installments have diversified their themes somewhat. Another important element in the series is a divine relic known as the Triforce; which consists of three golden triangles known as the Triforces of Wisdom, Power, and Courage, all together being the united full Triforce. These were, according to the game, left behind by three goddessess of power, wisdom, and courage after their creation of the world. Each piece will bestow its own divine essence on the one who possessess it; typically Ganondorf has the Triforce of Power, Zelda has the Triforce of Wisdom, and Link has the Triforce of Courage. If ever one person obtains all three pieces, it is said that the Triforce will grant the deepest wishes of their heart. However, at the core of all Zeldas is not the plot, as the stories of the individual games do not always match up, but a successful mixture of complex puzzles, strategic action gameplay and exploration. This formula has remained fairly constant throughout the series, with further refinements and additions featuring in each new game, and it has made the Zelda franchise one of Nintendo's most successful game series, along with their Mario, Metroid, and Pokmon series. The Legend of Zelda was principally inspired by Miyamoto's explorations as a young boy in the forests surrounding his childhood home in Kyoto. Miyamoto has mentioned that several elements of his 'adventures' through those woods were taken into the Zelda games, like a lake he suddenly found one day in the middle of the forest, which at the time surprised him for being a totally new discovery for him, and which according to him, has been a recurrent element in all of the Zelda games (both the lake and the exploration and discovery factors).

Games

The following is a list of the main installments of the series, with the original year of release and the platforms they appeared on. Note that the two Oracle games were released simultaneously.
  1. The Legend of Zelda (1986 Japan, 1987 America and Europe - Famicom/NES, re-released on Game Boy Advance in 2004 as part of the Classic NES Series)
  2. (1988 - Famicom Disk System/NES, re-released on Game Boy Advance in 2004 as part of the Classic NES Series' Famicom Disk System-selection)
  3. BS Zelda (1990 - Super Famicom, Satellaview)
  4. (1991 - Super Famicom/SNES)
  5. (1993 - Game Boy, Game Boy Color)
  6. (1993 - Super Famicom, Satellaview)
  7. (1998 - N64, GameCube)
  8. (2000 - N64, GameCube)
  9. (2001 - Game Boy Color)
  10. (2001 - Game Boy Color)
  11. featuring Four Swords (2002 US, 2003 Japan - Game Boy Advance)
  12. , a.k.a. Ura Zelda (2002 Japan, 2003 US - GameCube)
  13. (2002 Japan, 2003 US - GameCube)
  14. (2003 - GameCube, by Nintendo of America, never to be sold separately)
  15. (2004 Japan, US, 2005 Europe - GameCube)
  16. (2004 Japan and Europe, 2005 US - Game Boy Advance)

Upcoming games

A game, tentatively called The Legend of Zelda or The Legend of Zelda GCN, is confirmed and will be released on the GameCube platform. The game will feature graphics even more realistic than those found in Ocarina of Time instead of the cel-shaded cartoon look of Wind Waker and Four Swords Adventures. In a further departure from Wind Waker, Link is once more in his "adult" form, similar to the second half of Ocarina of Time. Link will also ride and fight on horseback. The release date is expected to be during Q4 2005. Further rumors about about the game have spread throughout the internet. Digitally altered images were released depicting realistic looking screenshots of the title screen, complete with made up names for the subtitle. Further speculations range far and wide, and have little basis. In addition, a Zelda game for the Nintendo DS has been announced. It has been rumoured it will be a "Four Swords" style game.

CD-i games

Beyond the commonly recognised games, there have been three Zelda games made for Philips' CD-i multimedia system under a special license agreement. These were made without any involvement from Nintendo and they deviated significantly from the other games in style and gameplay. In 1990 Nintendo licensed the rights to some of the characters, including Link, Zelda and Ganon, to Philips, in the hopes of gaining Philips as a partner on their way to making a compact disc-based console. Philips used the characters to create three CD-i games. Like the system they were created for, these were never very popular and can today be considered obscure and not canonical. They were:
  1. (1993) - Philips' CD-i
  2. (1993) - Philips' CD-i
  3. Zelda's Adventure (1994) - Philips' CD-i

Chronology

The chronology of the fictional Zelda universe is debated among fans. The publication dates of the games are of little help; when considered in that order, the story jumps about and has seeming inconsistencies. However, as the series' name implies, this lack of continuity is understood and accepted by players and developers alike as a facet or inherent quality of the story's "legend" nature. Shigeru Miyamoto was quoted in Nintendo Power, Nintendo's official magazine, as saying that was intended to be the prequel to The Legend of Zelda on the NES. "Ocarina of Time is the first story, then the original Legend of Zelda, then Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and finally A Link to the Past. It's not very clear where Link's Awakening fits in--it could be anytime after Ocarina of Time." This quote of Shigeru Miyamoto is reinforced by the fact that ends with Ganon stealing the Triforce of Power and vowing revenge on the descendants of his enemies and Link departing with the Triforce of Courage. The Legend of Zelda begins with Ganon already posessing the Triforce of Power and the Triforce of Courage having been lost for centuries. However the back of the box for the Japanese version of A Link to the Past states that the game is set in ancient times before the original NES games. Also, at the time of its release it was plainly obvious that Ocarina of Time was telling the back-story of A Link to the Past and how Ganon got trapped in the Dark World. Shigeru Miyamoto himself even mentioned that the idea of the storyline of Ocarina of Time came from the back-story to A Link to the Past in an interview before Ocarina of Time was released. Also note that Link's Awakening could not have come any time after Ocarina of Time because it features shadows of Agahnim and Ganon with a trident (both from A Link to the Past) and the prologue in the game's instruction manual mentions that Link had fulfilled a prophecy and defeated Ganon, though the people of Hyrule worried what may come of his ashes. The character design in the official artwork of Link's Awakening also matches that of A Link to the Past exactly. Because of this evidence it seems that Shigeru Miyamoto may have made a mistake or been misquoted in the interview in which he says that the NES games take place before A Link to the Past. A Link to the Past says that the Master Sword rests forever afterwards. This does not mean that it is the last game chronologically though, as most of the Zelda games (including the first two on NES) do not feature the Master Sword at all. This makes the most official order for the first six games thus:
  5. The Legend of Zelda
Mr. Aonuma, director of and , suggests where fits in. In an interview regarding Wind Waker, he is quoted as saying this: "In terms of the storyline, we've decided that this takes place 100 years after the events in The Ocarina of Time. We think that as you play through the game, you'll notice that in the beginning the storyline explains some of the events in The Ocarina of Time. You'll also find hints of things from The Ocarina of Time that exist in The Wind Waker." Mr. Aonuma continues: "There's also a more complicated explanation. If you think back to the end of The Ocarina of Time, there were two endings to that game in different time periods. First Link defeated Ganon as an adult, and then he actually went back to being a child. You could say that The Wind Waker takes place 100 years after the ending in which Link was an adult." It should be noted that "100 years" was probably a mistranslation and should have been taken as "hundreds of years" (as is said in the game itself). A minority of Zelda fans have theorized that this means that the time travel in Ocarina of Time created two separate parallel universes, resulting in two timelines. These theorists generally propose the following scheme:
  • Child Link time-line
  5. The Legend of Zelda
  • Adult Link time-line
The major flaw in this "split timeline theory" is that The Wind Waker references some of the storyline events from Majora's Mask with the Tingle legend. It is vague where and belong. However it is a new generation featuring a Link and Zelda who have not met before, Ganon is deceased (not sealed or imprisoned somewhere) and the complete Triforce is resting somewhere inside of Hyrule Castle. Because of this the games would have to take place either generations after Link's Awakening or generations after Adventure of Link. Some fans dismiss this notion however, as both of the Oracle games feature the Master Sword as a bonus item and the end of A Link to the Past stated that the Master Sword rested forever. However other fans have argued that the line at the end of A Link to the Past shouldn't be held as being the last word, or that it could be a different Master Sword in the Oracle games, or that the Master Sword in the Oracle games is nothing more than an Easter Egg as it has no importance to the story and can be gained in numerous ways depending upon what order you play the games in and what swords you have already obtained.
  • The following games do have a place in side the continuity, at least they have their own, but exactly where is heatedly debated amongst fans of the Legend of Zelda at the moment. A substantial number of people have come to the conclusion that The Minish Cap does fit somewhere before Ocarina of Time because in The Minish Cap's introduction we are shown a Link (prior to the one we play as in The Minish Cap) that does not wear a cap. Because of this some fans have come to the conclusion that the Link we play as in The Minish Cap is the first Link to wear a cap and all other Links with caps (including the one from Ocarina of Time) are following this established tradition. However this is just a theory and the game could be set generations after The Wind Waker. One thing we can be sure of is that it is set before A Link to the Past, because the Game Boy Advance remake of A Link to the Past features a bonus dungeon named Palace of the Four Sword (in which the Four Sword has been split into four separate swords) and the plot of The Minish Cap revolves around the creation of the Four Sword.
  1. The Minish Cap
  2. Four Swords
  3. Four Swords Adventures
One prevalent theory of how the Four Swords game fit in is this:
  1. The Minish Cap
  2. :(Many things point to this being first, in the timeline, including its beginning in a world devoid of monsters and the previous Link not wearing a cap. Alternatively this could be placed generations after The Wind Waker.)
  3. :GENERATIONS PASS.
  4. Ocarina of Time
  5. :(Many things also point to this being the first game in the timeline, including the origin of Ganon and Link's tunic being the same as the clothes worn by the Kokiri race he was adopted into whilst he was very young.)
  6. Majora's Mask
  7. :GENERATIONS PASS.
  8. The Wind Waker
  9. :GENERATIONS PASS.
  10. Four Swords
  11. Four Swords Adventures
  12. :(In Four Swords Adventures Ganon finds a powerful trident and the only other games he uses a trident are A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening (the Shadow that takes on his form) and the Oracle games. This points towards Four Swords Adventures being set before these games.)
  13. :GENERATIONS PASS.
  14. A Link to the Past
  15. :(After Four Swords Adventures, Ganon is placed in the Four Sword. This has been shown as a much easier seal to break, so if the Four Sword was moved to the Sacred Realm, then Ganon quite probably could have broken free of it and hid the segments of the Four Sword in The Palace of the Four Sword, within his Pyramid of Power, as shown in the Link to the Past remake.)
  16. Link's Awakening
  17. :GENERATIONS PASS.
  18. Oracle of Ages/Seasons
  19. :(Alternatively this could be placed generations after The Adventure of Link.)
  20. :GENERATIONS PASS.
  21. The Legend of Zelda
  22. The Adventure of Link

History

The first Zelda appears relatively crude and simple by today's standards, but it was a very advanced game for its day. Innovations included the ability to use dozens of different items, a vast world full of secrets to explore, and the ability to save progress via battery backup. The game also featured a "second quest" where, once completing the game, players could replay the game using a similar overworld layout but with all the items and dungeons re-arranged. Its formulaic story put the player in the shoes of a boy hero in the land of Hyrule set out to rescue the Princess Zelda, by first collecting the 8 fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom. Beside its technical innovations, the gameplay, which consisted mainly of finding items and using them to solve puzzles, battle monsters in real-time, and interact with the environment, was a successful formula, and was widely copied, including by later Zelda games. The game was wildly popular in Japan and America, and many consider it one of the most important videogames ever made. A modified version known as BS Zelda was released for the Super Famicom's satellite-based expansion in the early 1990s in Japan. The second, also known as Zelda II, was a departure from the concept of the first game as it exchanged the top-down view for a side-scrolling one and introduced RPG elements not found in other installments of the series. Many consider it the "black sheep" of the series; it is sometimes deplored for its difficulty and lack of adherence to series staples. However, Zelda II has its adherents despite its comparative unpopularity. The third, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (initially known as Super Zelda), returned to the top-down view and added the concept of an alternate dimension, the Dark World, to explore. It was released for the Super Nintendo in 1991 and re-released for the Game Boy Advance on Dec. 9 2002 in North America, combined with the multiplayer addition Four Swords. The fourth game, Link's Awakening, was the first Zelda to appear exclusively on Nintendo's Game Boy handheld, and additionally was the first not to take place in Hyrule. It was re-released for the Game Boy Color in 1998 as Link's Awakening DX with some additional features. After a relatively long hiatus, the series made the transition to 3D with Ocarina of Time, the fifth game in the series. Ocarina of Time, initially known as Zelda 64, retained the core gameplay of the previous games and was very successful both commercially and critically. The popular Japanese magazine Famitsu gave the game its first ever perfect 40/40 score. It is also the number one ranked game at Game Rankings. Appropriately, it is considered by many fans to be the best game in the series. Ocarina of Time saw a limited re-release on the GameCube in 2002 when it was offered as a pre-order incentive with The Wind Waker and featured a previously unreleased expansion known as Ura Zelda, containing remixed versions of the game's dungeons. The sixth title, Majora's Mask, used the same game engine as the previous Nintendo 64 game, but added a novel time-based concept which led to somewhat mixed reactions from series' fans. Gameplay changed in that Link could transform into other versions of himself with the aid of masks. While keeping the same graphical style of the landmark Ocarina of Time, it was also somewhat of a departure, particularly in atmostphere - the game was much darker and had a sense of impending doom, due to the moon being poised to fall upon the land of Termina (an alternate dimension of Hyrule). The next two games, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons were released simultaneously for the Game Boy Color platform, and, by exchanging codes, could be combined to form a single story. They were not developed by Nintendo, but rather by Capcom under the supervision of Miyamoto. The next Zelda was initially believed to be a development of the more realistically styled N64 games, but Nintendo surprised many when it was revealed that the GameCube game, The Wind Waker, would be cel-shaded - a more cartoon-like style of graphic design first seen in Sega's Jet Set Radio. Initial fears that this would affect the quality of gameplay that many fans had grown accustomed to were eased when the game was released to be critically acclaimed in Japan in 2002 and elsewhere in 2003. It featured gameplay based around control of the wind and sailing a small boat around a massive ocean-based world, and puzzles requiring the use of enemy weapons or sidekick-like secondary characters. Next in the Zelda series of games was The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures for the Nintendo GameCube. It was another huge departure from the previous Zelda games in terms of gameplay, since it focused around multiplayer gameplay. For the multiplayer features of the game, each player was required to use a Game Boy Advance system linked to the Nintendo GameCube via a GBA to GCN cable. Although it focused on multiplayer, a single player feature was included, where a Game Boy Advance system was optional. On May 11 2004 at Nintendo's pre-E3 press conference, they revealed the latest game in the series for the GameCube, currently titled The Legend of Zelda. This game was expected to use the cel-shading graphical style from The Wind Waker. However, the new game has a more realistic look, similar to the Spaceworld 2000 technology demo. Not much has been released about the title thus far, though it appears to be quite similar in gameplay design and atmosphere to Ocarina of Time. On Jan 13 2005 Nintendo released a new game for the Game Boy Advance, in America. The central concept of The Minish Cap is Link's ability to shrink in size (and thus literally combat evil on all scales) with the aid of a mystical living cap named Ezlo. The new Nintendo portable console, Nintendo DS, unveiled at 2004's E3, is expected to be home to a new take on the Zelda series. Although no information other than its existence has been released, a new game in the Four Swords series has been confirmed for the Nintendo DS.

Cartoon series

The Legend of Zelda was made into a cartoon series as a "show within a show" in the live action Super Mario Bros. Super Show TV series produced by DiC. The animated Zelda shorts were aired each Friday instead of the usual Super Mario cartoon that aired during the rest of the week. The series loosely followed the first Zelda game. Due to the Super Show's syndicated nature, only 13 animated Zelda shorts were featured within the show's entire 65-episode run. Here, Link and Zelda battled Ganon on a daily basis while keeping Hyrule safe.
  1. The Ringer
  2. Cold Spells
  3. The White Knight
  4. Kiss'N Tell
  5. Sing for the Unicorn
  6. That Sinking Feeling
  7. Doppelganger
  8. Underworld Connections
  9. Stinging a Stinger
  10. Hitch in the Works
  11. Fairies in the Spring
  12. The Missing Link
  13. The Moblins are Revolting
After the cancellation of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, the DIC incarnations of Link and Zelda appeared in various episodes of during the second season of the show, where they helped Captain N and his friends fight the evil Mother Brain.

See also

External links

 

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