Known in Japan as The Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend of Zelda. The main title was dropped in the US to make the name shorter and some claim it was to avoid confusion with the upcoming Squaresoft Final Fantasy game, which would debut a year later.
The Legend of Zelda was inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto’s explorations as a boy in the surrounding areas of his home in Sonobe, Japan. One of his most memorable experiences was finding a cave entrance in the middle of the woods. After some hesitation, he entered the cave and explored its depths with the aid of a lantern.
The story and setting were developed by Takashi Tezuka. He drew inspirations from fantasy books such The Lord of the Rings. The legend of the Triforce was written with inspirations from the battles of medieval Europe. The Master Sword was introduced as their version of Excalibur in A Link to the Past, which is regarded as reminiscent to the legend of King Arthur. Princess Zelda was named after American novelist, socialite and painter Zelda Fitzgerald. Tezuka modeled Link’s appearance after the eponymous character of Walt Disney’s Peter Pan.
Zelda A Link To the Past was for a very long time my favorite game of all time. There are so many great moments during all Zelda games I played, but one particular moment still is my favorite. See, back then I didn’t own a console and could only play A Link to the Past on the friends SNES whenever I visit him. It was also my first Action Adventure game I ever played and I didn’t know games could be this big.
The moment was, when I defeated Agahnim for the first time (after the 3 medallions) I thought that I finished the game. What happened next was unbelievable. (Sounds like clickbait YouTube title, lol, but I try to avoid any spoilers… just by principle.)
It stayed that for me albeit Majora’s Mask came very close to dethroning it. Then came A Link Between Worlds, and that was even better. So yeah nowadays I very slightly prefer that.
This was my experience as well. I didn’t have an SNES, and so every opportunity that I could play this at my friend’s house, I did. I never got all the way through until I emulated it in university.
I did, however, get a Game Boy, and Link’s Awakening became my defining Legend of Zelda.
Lol same for me. Link’s Awakening was the first Zelda game I played through on my own Game Boy. This was basically my dream game from the SNES in small format for me. I have so much memories of this game too, the entire game was not even about Zelda. After that I got a SNES and well the rest is history.
My first gaming memory was watching my dad kill Ganon when I was probably 4 or 5.
I have played Link to the Past so many times over the years, probably most recently when I got a switch in 2018. I’ve actually still never beat the preceding 2 main games, having been turned off by their lack of direction too many times.
These days I think Tears of the Kingdom is my new favourite (although Ocarina and LTTP will always be in my favourite games of all time list). I found the story to be better than average for Zelda, and the final boss battle in that one is just amazing - maybe not very hard, but I can’t remember any game with a more spectacular ending.
I didn’t expect such a good fight in Tears, after the battle in Breath. BTW I completely ignored Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, until 2024 / 2025. And in fact, in the beginning I “hated” Breath for some of the concepts like breaking weapons and no classic dungeons. But I’m so glad to played them, because they are great experiences in their own right. Shows we should not judge too fast.
The last dungeon theme of Tears, when you enter the flying Castle on the outside, also impressed me a lot. And yes, the story, as it unfolds the truth (we don’t spoil here… :-)) was heart breaking, a feeling I never had before in a Zelda game. As to which is my favorite Zelda game? I really don’t know anymore. There are couple of games I need to play, especially Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. There was a time in my life when I didn’t play much games… and I missed some of the greatest classics.
If you want to experience a similar kind of nostalgia, may I suggest a brand new game called Under the Island. Just came out a few days ago, and for me, it hits that sweet spot in terms of pixel graphics and acquring new gear and re-exploring old areas and using the new gear to unlock more things to do and see.
I have no affiliation to the game or the devs, just really want to promote it because it is very obvious they put a lot of love and effort into it and it’s always nice to see someone’s passion and being able to experience it.
Anyway, it’s like $15 on steam right now, plays great on a SteamDeck, and is just really well done. It’s not a super deep story or anything, just a really fun time, fun and easy game play, and lots of side quests and things to explore for $15. ❤️
Also Final Fantasy 6 has a mind blowing moment of this scale too. Nowadays one expect games to be big and we know beforehand how long it takes to finish them. One of the downsides of the internet.
Chrono Trigger had a similar effect on me, where Magus seemed like he just had to be the BBEG… Then you realize that was just the first drop on the rollercoaster.
Link to the Past was so cool when it came out and such an upgrade. It’s still my favorite zelda game (and it has a randomizer and great community!). I didn’t play OOT until sometime in my 20s and hated how clunky it was; I still prefer the non-3d zeldas.
For us in the west, lttp seemed like such a huge upgrade, because very few people here saw any of the evolution steps inbetween like Neutopia. It’s a really fascinating to discover the things we missed in that era.
I can recommend you to play A Link Between Worlds on the 3DS. It is a successor of some kind, playing in the same world. And man, the Dark World music remix is excellent.
I bought this game on layaway at the local small department store and rode my bike a few miles every week from my house to the store to make the payments for it. That story makes me feel 100 years old.
Yeah but their R sound sits between an R and an L sounds. They don’t have a separate L and R sound. Hence when they transliterate foreign words they use ラリルレロ both for L and R sounds. It’s why Japanese mix up their Rs and Ls when they talk or write a foreign language like English or Spanish. It’s much harder for them to hear the difference since they didn’t grow up hearing L and R as separate sounds. But also the way they learn foreign languages doesn’t help either. Since they use their kana system to learn pronunciations.
But non native Japanese speakers also have a hard time pronouncing the R the Japanese way. It’s like a rolling R but only a single tap to the palate.
So, there’s a fun fact about that related to the Zelda series. You know how the Hylian language kind of sneaks out in enemy names? Like, Stal- is a prefix meaning skeletal, -fos is a suffix meaning warrior, so a stalfos is a skeletal warrior? And a lizalfos is a lizard warrior? A stalchild is a skeletal child. -orm or -arm means worm creature, like Moldorm.
Well, in the games prior to the N64, geld- meant desert or sand. The geldarm is a sand worm creature, the geldman is a sand man like enemy from Link to the Past. Then in Ocarina of Time there’s a race of women from the desert called Gerudo. Hmm.
Just the end of the syllable because you can’t end a syllable with a consonant. For t/d, the vowel used “by default” is o. If they wanted to say gold, they’d write gorudo. Geldman is gerudoman (because n is the only consonant that exists as a standalone).
I actually did proofread a few times. By now I think I’ve had to admit to myself that I may have mild dyslexia, and should see about getting diagnosed. I usually have to read through something multiple times, and even then, typos will remain. I do appreciate you pointing it out though! I’ve updated the title.
These things used to be funny and irk me a little, but everyone is on their phone and dealing with life, your mind read it the right way, who really cares.
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Playing Breath of the Wild helped me process depression.
There is something very serene about BotW. I was recently looking into some mods to see if I can get back into the game.
Zelda A Link To the Past was for a very long time my favorite game of all time. There are so many great moments during all Zelda games I played, but one particular moment still is my favorite. See, back then I didn’t own a console and could only play A Link to the Past on the friends SNES whenever I visit him. It was also my first Action Adventure game I ever played and I didn’t know games could be this big.
The moment was, when I defeated Agahnim for the first time (after the 3 medallions) I thought that I finished the game. What happened next was unbelievable. (Sounds like clickbait YouTube title, lol, but I try to avoid any spoilers… just by principle.)
It stayed that for me albeit Majora’s Mask came very close to dethroning it. Then came A Link Between Worlds, and that was even better. So yeah nowadays I very slightly prefer that.
This was my experience as well. I didn’t have an SNES, and so every opportunity that I could play this at my friend’s house, I did. I never got all the way through until I emulated it in university.
I did, however, get a Game Boy, and Link’s Awakening became my defining Legend of Zelda.
Lol same for me. Link’s Awakening was the first Zelda game I played through on my own Game Boy. This was basically my dream game from the SNES in small format for me. I have so much memories of this game too, the entire game was not even about Zelda. After that I got a SNES and well the rest is history.
My first gaming memory was watching my dad kill Ganon when I was probably 4 or 5.
I have played Link to the Past so many times over the years, probably most recently when I got a switch in 2018. I’ve actually still never beat the preceding 2 main games, having been turned off by their lack of direction too many times.
These days I think Tears of the Kingdom is my new favourite (although Ocarina and LTTP will always be in my favourite games of all time list). I found the story to be better than average for Zelda, and the final boss battle in that one is just amazing - maybe not very hard, but I can’t remember any game with a more spectacular ending.
I didn’t expect such a good fight in Tears, after the battle in Breath. BTW I completely ignored Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, until 2024 / 2025. And in fact, in the beginning I “hated” Breath for some of the concepts like breaking weapons and no classic dungeons. But I’m so glad to played them, because they are great experiences in their own right. Shows we should not judge too fast.
The last dungeon theme of Tears, when you enter the flying Castle on the outside, also impressed me a lot. And yes, the story, as it unfolds the truth (we don’t spoil here… :-)) was heart breaking, a feeling I never had before in a Zelda game. As to which is my favorite Zelda game? I really don’t know anymore. There are couple of games I need to play, especially Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. There was a time in my life when I didn’t play much games… and I missed some of the greatest classics.
If you want to experience a similar kind of nostalgia, may I suggest a brand new game called Under the Island. Just came out a few days ago, and for me, it hits that sweet spot in terms of pixel graphics and acquring new gear and re-exploring old areas and using the new gear to unlock more things to do and see.
I have no affiliation to the game or the devs, just really want to promote it because it is very obvious they put a lot of love and effort into it and it’s always nice to see someone’s passion and being able to experience it.
Anyway, it’s like $15 on steam right now, plays great on a SteamDeck, and is just really well done. It’s not a super deep story or anything, just a really fun time, fun and easy game play, and lots of side quests and things to explore for $15. ❤️
That moment and what happened after defeating the Elite Four in Pokémon Gold both blew my mind as a child.
Also Final Fantasy 6 has a mind blowing moment of this scale too. Nowadays one expect games to be big and we know beforehand how long it takes to finish them. One of the downsides of the internet.
Kinda like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. “Wooo, we beat Primal Dialga and saved the world! Now lets live a normal life. Wait why am I getting kidnapped-”
The fact you were only about 25% through the game was pretty crazy to me back then too. It’s still one of my too Zeldas.
I remember experiencing that moment like 4 times in Ōkami
Chrono Trigger had a similar effect on me, where Magus seemed like he just had to be the BBEG… Then you realize that was just the first drop on the rollercoaster.
Link to the Past was so cool when it came out and such an upgrade. It’s still my favorite zelda game (and it has a randomizer and great community!). I didn’t play OOT until sometime in my 20s and hated how clunky it was; I still prefer the non-3d zeldas.
For us in the west, lttp seemed like such a huge upgrade, because very few people here saw any of the evolution steps inbetween like Neutopia. It’s a really fascinating to discover the things we missed in that era.
I can recommend you to play A Link Between Worlds on the 3DS. It is a successor of some kind, playing in the same world. And man, the Dark World music remix is excellent.
Very much a worthy successor to the first.
Its so interesting to me that the theme was arranged in one night.
An Intriguing Tale of How The Legend of Zelda’s Iconic Opening Song Almost Never Happened It could have been Ravel’s Boléro
It’s amazing how many things happened so quickly, like the goldeneye multiplayer being a thing created over the weekend before launching or something.
Pictures you can hear.
Now release Twilight Princess on the Switch
I bought this game on layaway at the local small department store and rode my bike a few miles every week from my house to the store to make the payments for it. That story makes me feel 100 years old.
My brothers and I went to a neighborhood friend’s house every day after school for months because he had an NES and this game!
It is dangerous to go alone!
I like how Zelda inspired The Binding of Issac, which laid the groundwork for so many amazing modern games
Do they pronounce it “Zeruda” over there in Japan?
Yeah but their R sound sits between an R and an L sounds. They don’t have a separate L and R sound. Hence when they transliterate foreign words they use ラリルレロ both for L and R sounds. It’s why Japanese mix up their Rs and Ls when they talk or write a foreign language like English or Spanish. It’s much harder for them to hear the difference since they didn’t grow up hearing L and R as separate sounds. But also the way they learn foreign languages doesn’t help either. Since they use their kana system to learn pronunciations.
But non native Japanese speakers also have a hard time pronouncing the R the Japanese way. It’s like a rolling R but only a single tap to the palate.
They do, because the Japanese table of phonemes is very limited compared to English.
But they will typically deemphasis the ru by making it quick and attached to ze.
“ZEru DA”
So, there’s a fun fact about that related to the Zelda series. You know how the Hylian language kind of sneaks out in enemy names? Like, Stal- is a prefix meaning skeletal, -fos is a suffix meaning warrior, so a stalfos is a skeletal warrior? And a lizalfos is a lizard warrior? A stalchild is a skeletal child. -orm or -arm means worm creature, like Moldorm.
Well, in the games prior to the N64, geld- meant desert or sand. The geldarm is a sand worm creature, the geldman is a sand man like enemy from Link to the Past. Then in Ocarina of Time there’s a race of women from the desert called Gerudo. Hmm.
What is the -o suffix used for?
Just the end of the syllable because you can’t end a syllable with a consonant. For t/d, the vowel used “by default” is o. If they wanted to say gold, they’d write gorudo. Geldman is gerudoman (because n is the only consonant that exists as a standalone).
Nothing I’m conscious of, though a lot of the names of races or peoples end in an oh or ah sound. Zora, Rito, Gerudo, Shiekah,
Basically. The R sound isn’t the same as English’s R so it’s a bit misleading in romaji, but basically yes.
Crossposting a typo is so funny. Ok, so I know proofreading is old-fashioned, but even in a title?
Mistakes happen mate. Not everyone can be as perfect as you.
I actually did proofread a few times. By now I think I’ve had to admit to myself that I may have mild dyslexia, and should see about getting diagnosed. I usually have to read through something multiple times, and even then, typos will remain. I do appreciate you pointing it out though! I’ve updated the title.
These things used to be funny and irk me a little, but everyone is on their phone and dealing with life, your mind read it the right way, who really cares.