The Legend of Zelda


 * This article is about the first game in the series. For information on the series as a whole, see The Legend of Zelda (Series). For the television program, see The Legend of Zelda (TV series).

The Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説, ) was the very first Zelda game released. It centers its plot around a boy named Link, who becomes the central protagonist throughout the series. It came out as early as 1986 for the Famicom in Japan, and was later released in the western world, including Europe and the US in 1987. It has since then been re-released several times, for the GameCube as well as the Game Boy Advance. The Japanese version of the game on Famicom was known as Hyrule Fantasy, abbreviated as HF. Some use this title to keep people from getting confused with the other games in the series. Also the NES cartridge for The Legend of Zelda was formatted in 1987, with a internal battery to facilitate game saves.

Story
A long, long time ago the World was in an age of Chaos. In the middle of this chaos, in a little kingdom in the land of Hyrule, a legend was being handed down from generation to generation, the legend of the 'Triforce'; golden triangles possessing mystical powers.

One day, an evil army attacked this peaceful little kingdom after he stole the Triforce of Power. This army was led by Ganon, the powerful Prince of Darkness who sought to plunge the World into fear and darkness under his rule. Fearing his wicked rule, Zelda, the princess of this kingdom, split up the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and hid them throughout the realm to save the last remaining Triforce from the clutches of the evil Ganon. At the same time, she commanded her most trustworthy nursemaid, Impa, to secretly escape into the land and go find a man with enough courage to destroy the evil Ganon. Upon hearing this, Ganon grew angry, imprisoned the princess, and sent out a party in search of Impa.

Braving forests and mountains, Impa fled for her life from her pursuers. As she reached the very limit of her energy she found herself surrounded by Ganon's evil henchmen. Cornered! What could she do? ... But wait!

All was not lost. A young lad appeared. He skilfully drove off Ganon's henchmen, and saved Impa from a fate worse than death. His name was Link. During his travels he had come across Impa and Ganon's henchmen. Impa told Link the whole story of the princess Zelda and the evil Ganon. Burning with a sense of justice, Link resolved to save Zelda, but Ganon was a powerful opponent. He held the Triforce of Power. And so, in order to fight off Ganon, Link had to bring the scattered eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom together to rebuild the mystical Triangle.

If he couldn't do this, there would be no chance Link could fight his way into Death Mountain where Ganon lived. Can Link really destroy Ganon and save the Princess Zelda? Only your skill can answer that question. Good luck. Use the Triforce wisely.

Gameplay
The game itself introduces a new level of gaming, one that includes roleplaying, action, adventure, and puzzle/logic. Barring Link's progress are creatures he must battle to locate the entrances to nine underground dungeons. Each dungeon is a unique, maze-like collection of rooms connected by doors and secret passages and guarded by monsters different from those found on the overworld. Link must successfully navigate each dungeon to obtain one of the eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom. Dungeons also hide useful items, such as a boomerang for retrieving items and stunning enemies, and a recorder with magical properties. The first six dungeons have visible entrances, but the remaining three are hidden. Except for the final dungeon, which cannot be entered until the previous eight have been completed, the order of completing dungeons is somewhat arbitrary, but many dungeons can only be reached using items gained in the previous one.

Nonlinearity, the ability to take different paths to complete the game, separated Zelda from its contemporaries. Link can freely wander the overworld, finding and buying items at any point. This flexibility enables unusual ways of playing the game; for example, it is possible to reach the final boss of the game (but not defeat him) without taking a sword. Nintendo of America's management initially feared that players might become frustrated with the new concept, left wondering what to do next. As a result, the American version of the game's manual contains many hints, tips, and suggestions for players.

The Second Quest
After completing the game, the player has access to a more difficult quest, officially referred to as the Second Quest, where dungeons and the placement of items are different and enemies stronger. Although a more difficult "replay" was not unique to Zelda, few games offered a "second quest" with entirely different levels to complete. Entering "ZELDA" as the player's name starts the second quest immediately. The Second Quest can be replayed each time it is completed.

Japanese Version
The Legend of Zelda was originally released in 1986 as a flagship title for the Famicom Disk System in Japan. Apart from facilitating data saving, the disk drive also added an extra sound channel on top of the Famicom's original five. This has caused the original release to sport a quite different sound compared to the more widespread cartridge release. This difference is most notable during the title screen.

The Book of Magic was known as Bible in the Japanese version of the game. This was likely changed because it violated Nintendo of America's, at the time, very strict content guidelines which among others disapproved of any religious content or references inside games released for their systems. Interestingly enough, all depictions of the cross were kept intact. Note that the legend of the three Golden Goddesses wasn't mentioned until 1991 in A Link to the Past.

Graphics and Audio
Being a game designed originally to be stored in an 8-bit cartridge, the game's graphics don't use too many elements, instead they use different colors for the same ones; the trees, in order to indicate the type of place they are placed in, are colored either green or orange; the dungeons are made of bricks painted blue, green, yellow or white. And so on.

The game features three background themes: The overworld tune, the dungeon tune and the final level's tune. Only the first theme was reused for subsequent games; in fact, over the years, it has become the franchise's signature music. Sound samples like the one when Link collects a new item and the one when a new path is open, are also frequent among current Zelda games as well.

Setting
Being this game the first in the franchise, it's the first time Hyrule is portrayed, and it's divided into numerous parts and landscapes, such as Lost Woods, Death Mountain, a central lake, a forest, a Graveyard, and a shore; as Link walks through them, he manages to find the hidden labyrinths where the fragments of the Triforce are kept. It's unkown whether or not the nameless regions reappeared in later games with official names.

Unlike most overworlds in the Zelda series, this incarnation of Hyrule is entirely explorable since the beginning, meaning that Link can go to almost any corner and space of it, in a total absence of linearity. It should be noted that it remains intact in the Second Quest, with the only changes being the locations of the labyrinths and those of special prizes.

Timeline Placement
Both this game and the second are linked in continuity, since the first game revolves around retrieving two of the major fragments of the Triforce, and Ganon is fought in order to rescue Princess Zelda; the second game revolves around finding the third major fragment in order to revive an incarnation of Zelda that was sleeping for a very long time, and to impede the revival of Ganon.

The game is set chronologically after A Link to the Past, according to the back of the box for the SNES game, although Shigeru Miyamoto said in an interview that A Link to the Past occurs last (after The Adventure of Link). However, Miyamoto said in a later interview that the original order was correct, saying that Ocarina of Time led into A Link to the Past, which in turn led into The Legend of Zelda.

Reception
The Legend of Zelda was commercially succesful, selling 6.5 million copies worldwide and being the fourth best-selling Nintendo Entertainment System game of all time; it's also the second best-selling Zelda game to date, the best seller being Ocarina of Time, which sold 7.6 million copies.

IGN journalist Craig Harris awarded the Game Boy Advance version of the game with an 8.0 out of 10, praising its faithful adaptation from the original version; Damien McFerran from Nintendolife gave the Virtual Console version (Wii) the same score, praising the length and the complexity of the quest. Nintendojo staff, when reviewing the GCN edition (Collector's Edition) praised the game for its "innovative and unique gameplay system, remarkably deep puzzle solving, and an epic score". Nintendo Power, in the December 2009 issue, placed the game third in the list of best The Legend of Zelda games, citing its influence on gaming industry and praising its gameplay.

Ports and Remakes
In 2003, Nintendo released a bundle for the GameCube which included The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition, in which this game was playable.

In that same year, Nintendo released Animal Crossing for the GameCube, a game that had emulated NES games featured. While The Legend of Zelda is not obtainable through normal gameplay, it is located within Animal Crossing's code and hackable via an Action Replay.

The Game Boy Advance also saw a port of the game into Nintendo's "Classic NES Series" re-releases. The game suffers from the same occasional lag present in the original NES release, despite the Game Boy Advance's superior hardware.

When Nintendo launched the Wii, The Legend of Zelda was a launch title in their Virtual Console service.

Also on the Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl has a feature in which the player can play short, timed demos of classic games (called "Masterpieces" in-game, but a player may only play them for a certain amount of time each. About 1-5 minutes, varying each game). One of these games is The Legend of Zelda. The game allows for two minutes of gameplay, enough time to explore a small part of the Overworld.

Legacy
The Legend of Zelda is the first installment in the Zelda franchise, and its success allowed the development of sequels. In one or another way, nearly every title in the series is influenced by the standards shown here; some of the examples include:


 * The distinction between an overworld and a dungeon, as well as the need of travelling across the former to enter the latter, and to clear the latter to take a further step to the game's completion.
 * The use of items to progress on the adventure, be it to beat enermies more easily or to open new ways and solve puzzles.
 * The introduction of Link, Princess Zelda and Ganon.
 * The introduction of the first two fragments of the Triforce.
 * The introduction of a number of recurring locations (e.g. Lost Woods and Death Mountain) and items.
 * The presence of a Second Quest (although very few subsequent games reused this concept).

Mistranslations
The Legend of Zelda is littered with mistranslations and odd quotes.
 * The entire intro story is written poorly, such as saying the "Triforce with power", instead of Triforce of Power. For the GBA and Virtual Console ports, the message was entirely rewritten.
 * This is the first and only Zelda game in which Ganon is written Gannon.
 * The Old Man is well-known for his vagueness in messages. One of his most famous quotations is "DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE", indicating the Dodongo's weakness to bombs. Another odd quote is "DIGDOGGER HATES CERTAIN KINDS OF SOUND".
 * The list of items is titled "all of treasures". The "of" was omitted in subsequent re-releases.
 * At the end of the intro, Link holds up a piece of parchment that reads "Look up the manual for details".
 * During the credits scene, Shigeru Miyamoto was mis-credited as "S. Miyahon", Takashi Tezuka as "Ten Ten", and Toshihiko Nakago as "T. Nakazoo". Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president of Nintendo at the time, was incorrectly labeled as the "Executive Producer".
 * When Link pays the Old Woman behind the waterfall, she will tell him to go "Up, up, up, the mountaintop." This was corrected to "up, the mountain ahead". This refers to the mountaintop where Link acquires the White Sword.

Trivia

 * The Moblin's quote "It's a secret to everybody," has become a popular meme among gamers over the years. It is first referenced in A Link to the Past when Link brings a chest to a man who stands next to a sign outside of the desert. He offers to open the chest under the condition that Link will "keep it secret from everyone else". It is also referenced in Ocarina of Time. If Link bribes the guard at the gate of Hyrule Castle, speaking after he opens the gate will result in him saying "KEEP IT A SECRET TO EVERYBODY." And in Majora's Mask, after talking to Kafei in his home behind the curiosity shop, he says "Keep what we just talked about a secret from everybody". It is even referenced in Twilight Princess when in Center Castle Town, Link can enter a door and walk up to a balcony, where a Goron sees the golden force around Hyrule Castle. He admits that he has kept it "a secret to everybody."
 * It is possible (although quite difficult) to make it through the game up until the last dungeon without a sword.
 * The last dungeon is over half the size of the entire overworld. If the entrance to the dungeon were placed directly on Spectacle Rock, the resulting world shape would be an L.
 * The game sold over 6.5 million copies on its first run.
 * According to "Twin Galaxies", the fastest completion time for The Legend of Zelda is 31 minutes and 37 seconds by Rodrigo Lopes on June 12th, 2006.
 * In Japan this game is also known as "The Hyrule Fantasy".
 * This is one of the only games where Link can only have a maximum of 16 hearts, the other 2 being Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.
 * Most Legend of Zelda cartridges are gold, but there are very rare late releases of the game in standard grey cartridges.