“It’s Dangerous to go alone! Take this.”
These were some of the first words seen in one of the most revolutionary console games in videogame history. The Legend of Zelda was released in 1986 in Japan for the Family Computer Disk System. Over a year later, and with plenty of anticipation, it was finally released in North America and Europe on the Nintendo Entertainment System. An action/adventure/RPG game, The Legend of Zelda was a game that revolutionized video games forever. It was the first home console game to include an internal battery that could save data in the United States. Most Legend of Zelda games contain 3 save slots, and this game was the first to introduce this trend. The Legend of Zelda is ultimately known for revolutionizing the RPG, open-world, and action genres, even despite not always being considered an RPG.
With the age that Legend of Zelda was released in, there was no quick way to get some walkthrough of the game, making it a true exploratory game. No people went into this game knowing what they could possibly find or do. It was a true open world game; you don’t know what you’ll find, and you have to explore to find out. You can truly play the game any way you want; the dungeons don’t necessarily have order to them, you get to choose how early you want to enter a dungeon, you can choose what things you choose to try and search out for, and so much more. The open world aspect of Legend of Zelda made it a true adventure game; you were truly free to go wherever you chose to go.
Continuing to think about the spatial elements of Legend of Zelda, another thing I found to be amazing was the vastness of the map. You aren’t really shown a map (when originally bought in the 80s, it would come with an incomplete map that had nine secret panels), so you have no idea of everything that is out there. This element of mystery also helps the player want to explore more; you won’t know of everything that’s out there until you explore. This mechanic really entices the player to search around and figure out the different things you could do. They never outright tell you that you can burn bushes and find secret passages, or that there’s side quests in general, but people took time to explore the game and find all these secrets. The space that this world takes up is so vast and interesting, and the lack of rules in the game was truly a way to let players explore and find things on their own.
In fact, the lack of rules was actually a major game mechanic that heavily influenced the game and many games to come. When you first enter the game, you are this small character in the midst of the scene, surrounded by paths to different screens. However, there is a cave entrance that stands out, almost calling to the player to enter. There, you meet the old man who gives you a sword, with his iconic line; “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.” This is meant to show the players a newer concept in games; communicating with NPCs to learn about the objectives and what they might need to do. This new aspect in games actually led to the creation of another iconic game years later, Animal Crossing.
I fully believe that Legend of Zelda was revolutionary in every sense of the word within the gaming world. It was a game that actually appealed to both men and women, which was rather unseen during this time. When being compared to the gendered marketing of games like DOOM, Legend of Zelda fully embraced the idea that anyone can be a gamer, despite it being a “typical boy hero girl in danger” scenario. It also was one of the first games to be so open; Miyamoto himself said he wanted this game to be nonlinear and exploratory, that he wanted people to see that there is so much more to games than a singular objective. He wanted the players to feel immersed into a world, to feel like they’re living in this world. It has shaped so many games; it shaped the original concept of Mario being a more linear game as to not compete with Zelda in such a way, it shaped Animal Crossing to be the game it’s been and continues to be today, and it had influenced the entire Legend of Zelda series, as many of the games hold on to the original treasures of the first game. It has shaped open-ended and action games for generations to come, and its influence is still seen to this day.
I really liked your review! It’s definitely true that this game revolutionized the spaces that you can explore in a video game, and while reading your review I couldn’t help but connect it to my experiences with Breath of the Wild. For example, you mention how at the time there were no online tutorials to guide you along and that the map provided was incomplete. It really helps to create a sense of awe and mystery, which is very fitting considering it’s an adventure game. While played BotW, I really relied on online tutorials sometimes, especially for getting all of the Korok seeds as well as some of the trickier Shrines. But that really does defeat the purpose, doesn’t it? I also love how BotW hearkens back to the open world nature of this game, especially given Skyward Sword’s linearity.
I just wanted to add a fun fact to this! The connection between Breath of the Wild and the original NES Legend of Zelda is actually really deep. When the developers at Nintendo were working on Breath of the Wild, they very intentionally wanted to make it a callback to the NES game. They wanted to bring back its sense of open-ended freedom to go anywhere and do anything, just with a modern coat of paint and polish.
In fact, they first built a prototype of their concept for Breath of the Wild in the very same style as NES Legend of Zelda. You can see a video of their GDC 2017 presentation on this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk5swSyJ5zQ
You’ll notice the very deliberate aesthetic they chose to use for the prototype. It’s amazing to see how the DNA of a game from over 30 years ago is remixed and carried on in the modern day.