The Legend of Zelda (video game)

monsters with his sword in the overworld a large outdoor map with various environments. Throughout the adventure, Link finds and acquires various items that increase his abilities further, items are mainly found in caves scattered throughout the land. , as well as being purchasable from merchants. Defeated enemies sometimes drop items including hearts, which refill the life meter, and Rupees, the in-game currency. Rupees can also be found in hidden treasure caves and are used to buy equipment, information, and ability upgrades. Hidden in the overworld are entrances to eight large dungeons housing the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom. Each dungeon has a unique maze-like layout of rooms connected by doors and secret passages, often barred by monsters (which must be defeated) or by blocks (which must be moved to gain entrance). Dungeons also contain useful items Link can add to his inventory, such as a boomerang for stunning enemies and retrieving distant items, and a magical recorder that lets Link teleport to the entrance of any dungeon he has previously cleared. Once Link has collected all eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom from these dungeons, he gains access to a ninth and final dungeon in order to defeat Ganon and rescue Zelda. The game may be completed by traversing any given dungeon on the overworld and is largely flexible to players, although gameplay steadily increases in difficulty, and some rooms can only be passed by using items gained in previous locations. There are dungeons with secret entrances which must be uncovered while freely wandering the overworld after acquiring useful items. This freedom allows many ways of progressing through the game. It is possible to reach the final boss without receiving the normally vital sword at its outset. The game world contains 600 separate scenes, with the overworld consisting of over 97 scenes and the underworld consisting of nine multi-scene labyrinths. which alters many locations, secrets, and includes entirely distinct dungeons and stronger enemies. Although more difficult "replays" were not unique to Zelda, few games offered completely different levels upon the second playthrough. By starting a new file with the name entered as "ZELDA", this mode can instead be accessed without needing to beat the game first. == Plot ==

Setting Within the official Zelda Chronology, The Legend of Zelda takes place in an Era called "The Era of Decline", which is part of the "Defeated Hero" timeline that connects to an alternate reality scenario where the Hero of Time is defeated by Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time. In this era, Hyrule has been reduced to a small kingdom where the residents now live in caves, setting the background for The Legend of Zelda. Story The story of The Legend of Zelda is described in the instruction booklet and during the short prologue which plays after the title screen: The small kingdom of Hyrule is engulfed by chaos when an army led by Ganon, the prince of darkness, invades and steals the Triforce of Power, one part of a magical artifact which alone bestows great strength. In an attempt to prevent him from acquiring the Triforce of Wisdom, Princess Zelda splits it into eight fragments and hides them in secret underground dungeons. Before eventually being kidnapped by Ganon, she commands her nursemaid Impa to find someone courageous enough to save the kingdom. While wandering the land, the old woman is surrounded by Ganon's henchmen, when a young boy named Link appears and rescues her. Upon hearing Impa's plea, he resolves to save Zelda and sets out to reassemble the scattered fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom, with which Ganon can then be defeated. Obtaining the Triforce of Power from Ganon's ashes, Link returns it and the restored Triforce of Wisdom to the rescued Princess Zelda, and peace returns to Hyrule. == Development ==

The Legend of Zelda was directed and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka (credited as S. Miyahon and Ten Ten respectively in the closing credits). Miyamoto produced the game, and Tezuka wrote the story and script. Much of the programming was done by Toshihiko Nakago of Nintendo's partner SRD. Keiji Terui, a screenwriter who worked on anime shows such as Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball, wrote the backstory for the manual, drawing inspiration from conflicts in medieval Europe. and the game was originally intended to be a launch game for the Famicom Disk System. The development team worked on The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. concurrently, and tried to separate their ideas: Super Mario Bros. was to be linear, where the action occurred in a strict sequence, whereas The Legend of Zelda would be the opposite. This concept was carried over to The Legend of Zelda. Miyamoto was also in charge of deciding which concepts were "Zelda ideas" or "Mario ideas". Contrasting with Mario, Zelda was made non-linear and forced the players to think about what they should do next. According to Miyamoto, those in Japan were confused and had trouble finding their way through the multi-path dungeons, and in initial game designs, the player would start with the sword already in their inventory. Rather than merely simplifying matters for players, Miyamoto forced the player to listen to the old man who gives the player their sword, and encouraged interaction among people to share their ideas with each other to find the various hidden secrets, a new form of gaming communication. Relatedly, this concept turned into the root of another series to be developed many years in the future: Miyamoto said that Zelda became the inspiration for Animal Crossing, a game based solely on communication. With The Legend of Zelda, Miyamoto wanted to flesh out the idea of a game "world" even further, giving players a "miniature garden that they can put inside their drawer". The memory of being lost amid the maze of sliding doors in his family's home in Sonobe was recreated in Zeldas labyrinthian dungeons. Miyamoto was also influenced by The Black Onyx and Ultima, saying that he found the character's process of gaining strength to be fun. Tezuka finalized the designs for each "level" of dungeons and handed them all to Nakago in December 1985 so he could closely replicate them in the actual game. Nakago ended up using only half of all the dungeon pieces while copying the whole map. Miyamoto said it was good enough, and the team decided to use half of the left-over memory to create the Second Quest. Tezuka also wrote the setting to be a fairytale adventure, taking inspiration from fantasy books such as J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. According to Miyamoto, early concepts involved technological elements, with the Triforce fragments being electronic circuits and the game taking place in both the past and the future. The hero "Link" was named with the idea of being the one connecting the two. While the final game and subsequent games in the series follow a more traditional medieval-like sword and sorcery setting, later entries have incorporated some technology-based concepts. The name of the titular princess came from Zelda Fitzgerald. Miyamoto explained that "Zelda was the wife of famous novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was a famous and beautiful woman from all accounts, and I liked the sound of her name. So I took the liberty of using [it] for the very first title." Koji Kondo (credited as Konchan) As a result, Kondo wrote a new arrangement of the overworld theme within one day, which has become an iconic motif echoing throughout continued entries of the series. == Release ==

Japanese release In February 1986, Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda as the launch game for the Family Computer's new Disk System peripheral, joined by re-releases of Super Mario Bros., Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Soccer, and Mah-Jong as part of the system's introduction. It made full use of Disk Card media's advantages over traditional ROM cartridges, with an increased size of 128 kilobytes which would be expensive to produce on cartridge format. It was used to defeat the large-eared rabbit-like monster Pols Voice by blowing or shouting. American release When Nintendo published the game in North America, the packaging design featured a small portion of the box cut away to reveal the unique gold-colored cartridge. In 1988, The Legend of Zelda sold two million copies. Nintendo of America sought to keep its strong base of fans; anyone who purchased a game and sent in a warranty card became a member of the Fun Club, whose members got a four-, eight- and eventually 32-page newsletter. Seven hundred copies of the first issue were sent out free of charge, but the number grew as the data bank of names got larger. From the success of magazines in Japan, Nintendo knew that game tips were a valued asset. Players enjoyed the bimonthly newsletter's crossword puzzles and jokes, but game secrets were most valued. The Fun Club drew kids in by offering tips for the more complicated games, especially Zelda, with its hidden rooms, secret keys and passageways. Since Nintendo did not have many products, it made only a few commercials a year, targeting high quality for each. The budget for a single commercial could reach US$5 million, four or five times more than most companies spent. One of the first commercials made under Bill White, director of advertising and public relations, was the market introduction for the Legend of Zelda, which received a great deal of attention in the ad industry. In it, a wiry-haired, nerdy guy (John Kassir) walks through the dark making goofy noises, yelling out the names of enemies from the game, and screaming for Zelda. The original game was given an enhanced remake for the Super Famicom under the title BS Zelda no Densetsu (BSゼルダの伝説; lit. BS The Legend of Zelda) and broadcast via the Super Famicom Satellaview from August 1995 to January 1997. This version features remixed layouts of the original game map along with an original story, the player characters from BS-X, and a second remixed map was broadcast from December 1995 to March 1996. In 2001, the original game was re-released in the GameCube game Animal Crossing. An official re-release was included in 2003's ''The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition for the GameCube, and the game was again re-released on the Game Boy Advance in 2004 along with its sequel, The Adventure of Link'', as part of the Famicom Mini/Classic NES Series. In 2006, it was released on the Wii's Virtual Console, and a timed demo of the game was released for the 2008 Wii game Super Smash Bros. Brawl, available in the Vault section. All re-releases of the game are virtually identical to the original, though the GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Virtual Console versions have been altered slightly to correct several instances of unusual grammar from the original, most notably in the intro story. A tech demo called Classic Games was shown for the Nintendo 3DS at E3 2010, showcasing more than a dozen classic games using 3D effects, including The Legend of Zelda. Reggie Fils-Aimé, president of Nintendo of America, said that the games were slated for release on the 3DS, including The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man 2, and ''Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island'', using some of the 3DS's features, such as 3D effects, analog control, or camera support. The Legend of Zelda was released to the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in September 2011, as a part of the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program, and was later released to the Nintendo 3DS eShop on December 22 in Japan; in 2012, it was released in Europe on April 12 and on July 5 in North America. The version released to the Japanese 3DS Virtual Console was the cartridge version. The game was released on the Nintendo Classics service on September 18, 2018. A special "Living the life of luxury!" edition of the game, which grants players all equipment and extra items at the start of the game, was later added to the service on October 10. In November 2021, Nintendo released a Legend of Zelda edition of the Game & Watch console, similar to the rereleased Super Mario Bros. Game & Watch. This version includes the original Legend of Zelda, as well as Zelda II: Adventure of Link, and the Game Boy version of ''Link's Awakening. The Zelda Game & Watch also includes a modified version of the Game and Watch original, Vermin'', with Link replacing Mr. Game and Watch. == Reception ==

The Legend of Zelda received highly positive reviews from critics and was a best-seller for Nintendo. Upon release in Japan, it sold 1 million copies on its first day of release, and sold a total of 1.69 million for the Famicom Disk System (FDS) in Japan. In North America, the game was highly anticipated and topped the video game charts upon release. It became the first NES game to sell over 1 million cartridges in the United States during 1987, increasing to more than 2 million cartridges sold by 1988. and eventually 6.51 million copies worldwide. In Japan, a reviewer in the magazine Bi-Weekly Famitsu was impressed with the audio, smooth graphics and easy to control characters, and concluded the game's popularity was in its design, while difficult at first, players who put in the effort would be rewarded. In , all three reviewers complimented the game, with one writing that the large variety of weapons and many secrets and large map make made the game never grow dull. The single negative comment related to its high price of 15,000 Japanese yen. The first Famitsu Best Hit Game Awards gave Zelda the award for best background music and listed it as the third best Game of the Year (just below Dragon Quest and Gradius). Computer Gaming World in 1988 named the game as the best adventure of the year, stating that Zelda had been a "sensational success" in bringing elements of computer action-adventures to consoles. In 1990, the magazine implied that the game was a killer app, causing computer RPG players who had dismissed consoles as "mere arcade toys" to buy the NES. Upon release in Europe, Tony Takoushi reviewed the game in British magazine Computer and Video Games and called it a massive arcade adventure packed full of dragons, imprisoned princesses, traps and pitfalls. They said it has "an enormous country to examine" with "dozens of things to collect" along with hidden power-ups and bonuses, while praising the "supreme" playability and the "excellent" graphics and sound; however, they criticized the "hefty" price tag of £39 or in the United Kingdom. A 1993 review of the game was printed in American magazine Dragon #198 by Sandy Petersen in the "Eye of the Monitor" column, scoring the game 4 out of 5 stars. It was reissued in 1992 as part of Nintendo's "Classic Series" and featured a grey cartridge. The game placed first in the player's poll "Top 30" in Nintendo Powers first issue and continued to dominate the list into the early 1990s. The Legend of Zelda was also voted by Nintendo Power readers as the "Best Challenge" in the Nintendo Power Awards '88. The magazine also listed it as the best Nintendo Entertainment System video game ever created, stating that it was fun despite its age and innovated on the genre. GamesRadar ranked it the third best NES game ever made. The staff praised its "mix of complexity, open world design, and timeless graphics". Re-reviewing the FDS release in 1991, Hirokazu Hamamura complimented the games sound quality and said that the actions sequences were reasonably difficult. Another reviewer in the magazine said the game felt dated by early 1991, but no other similar game has surpassed it. It placed first in Game Informers list of the "Top 100 Games of All Time" and "The Top 200 Games of All Time" (in 2001 and 2009 respectively), thirteenth in Electronic Gaming Monthlys 100th issue listing the "100 Best Games of All Time", fifth in Electronic Gaming Monthlys 200th issue listing "The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time", seventh in Nintendo Powers list of the 200 Best Nintendo Games Ever, 77th in Official Nintendo Magazines 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time and 80th among IGN readers' "Top 99 Games". Zelda was inducted into GameSpys Hall of Fame in August 2000 and voted by GameSpys editors as the tenth best game of all time. Editors of the popular Japanese magazine Weekly Famitsu voted the game among the best on the Famicom. In 1997 Next Generation listed the North American release in their "Five Greatest Game Packages of All Time", citing the die-cut hole which revealed the gold cartridge, full color manual, and fold-out map. In 2016, The Strong National Museum of Play inducted The Legend of Zelda to its World Video Game Hall of Fame. == Legacy ==

The Legend of Zelda is considered a spiritual forerunner of the modern action role-playing video game (RPG) genre. The game's fantasy setting, musical style and action-adventure gameplay were adopted by many RPGs. Its commercial success helped lay the groundwork for involved, non-linear games in fantasy settings, such as those found in successful RPGs, including Crystalis, Soul Blazer, Square's Seiken Densetsu series, Alundra, and Brave Fencer Musashi. The popularity of the game also spawned several clones trying to emulate the game. Despite this, Miyamoto did not consider Zelda an RPG, but classified Zelda as "a real-time adventure game"; he said he was "not interested in systems where everything in the game is decided by stats and numbers" but what's "important to me is to preserve as much of that 'live' feeling as possible" which he said "action games are better suited in conveying" to players. The Legend of Zelda spawned a solitary sequel, many prequels and spin-offs and is one of Nintendo's most popular series. It established important characters and environments of the Zelda universe, including Link, Princess Zelda, Ganon, Impa, and the Triforce as the power that binds Hyrule together. GameSpot featured The Legend of Zelda as one of the 15 most influential games of all time, for being an early example of open world, nonlinear gameplay, and for its introduction of battery backup saving worldwide, to laying the foundations for later action-adventure games like Metroid and role-playing video games like Final Fantasy, while influencing most modern games in general. In 2011, Nintendo celebrated the game's 25th anniversary in a similar vein to the Super Mario Bros. 25th anniversary celebration the previous year. This celebration included a free mailout Club Nintendo offer of the Ocarina of Time soundtrack to owners of the 3DS version of that particular game, the first digital for Nintendo eShop release of ''Link's Awakening DX, special posters that are mailed out as rewards through Club Nintendo, and a special stage inspired by the original Legend of Zelda in the video game Super Mario 3D Land'' for the Nintendo 3DS. Sequels There have also been a few substantially altered versions of the game that have been released as pseudo-sequels, and ura- or gaiden-versions. As part of a promotional advertisement campaign for their noodles, Myojo Foods released a version of the original The Legend of Zelda in 1986, . It is one of the rarest video games available on the second-hand collector's market, and copies have sold for over , despite the game being identical to that of the original release. From August 6 to September 2, 1995, Nintendo, in collaboration with the St.GIGA satellite radio network, began broadcasts of a substantially different version of the original The Hyrule Fantasy: Legend of Zelda for a Super Famicom peripheral, the Satellaview—a satellite modem add-on. The game, , was released for download in four episodic, weekly installments which were rebroadcast at least four times between the game's 1995 premiere and January 1997. BS Zelda was the first Satellaview game to feature a "SoundLink" soundtrack—a streaming audio track through which, every few minutes, players were cautioned to listen carefully as a voice actor narrator, broadcasting live from the St.GIGA studio, would give them plot and gameplay clues. In addition to the SoundLink elements, BS Zelda also featured updated 16-bit graphics, a smaller overworld, and different dungeons. Link was replaced by one of the two Satellaview avatars: a boy wearing a backward baseball cap or a girl with red hair. Between December 30, 1995, and January 6, 1996, a second version of the game, , was broadcast to the Satellaview as the functional equivalent of the original The Legend of Zeldas Second Quest. MAP 2 was rebroadcast only once, in March 1996. == Notes ==