The COMPLETE History of The Legend of Zelda - Part 1 | Establishing Hyrule

[Music] introducing the Legend of Zelda is almost a lost cause it's one of the most famous gaming franchises of all time and a Hallmark of Nintendo's lineup not only that but it has shifted the gaming landscape on multiple occasions inspiring developers worldwide it is a phenomenon born of one boy's desire to explore and the gradual accumulation of lore that has captivated players young and old but there's more to this series than link rescuing Zelda from Ganon time and time again it's not afraid to get weird and experimental some of it works some of it doesn't but with the release of Tears of the Kingdom Zelda is celebrating 37 years of Adventures and it all began with Mario by 1984 the famicom had been released in Japan and Shigeru Miyamoto had directed his first game developed solely for the fledgling console devil world one of the key members of his team was Takashi tazuka and they found that they worked very well together it was tazuka's suggestion that they used to still popular characters of Mario and Luigi from the Mario Brothers arcade game in what they envisioned as an athletic title the beginnings of the platformer genre but while they were in the middle of that game's development Miyamoto began brainstorming ideas for a flagship game that could launch with the famicom disc system peripheral to that end he came up with a concept that would take advantage of the disc system's ability to rewrite data in it two players would craft their own Dungeons and then explore each other's Creations the development team even prototyped this concept but it was soon decided that the most fun part was the exploration so this new adventure title as it was codenamed was reworked into a single player game the idea firmly established Miyamoto quickly decided that this new game should be the polar opposite of Mario with Mario players always knew where to go and what to do that would not be the case with this game he wanted players to think and discover just like he did as a child in the outskirts of Kyoto young Miyamoto didn't have many toys to play with so he'd make slingshots or use Twigs to make puppets instead then there's the famous incident where he discovered a cave in the woods and decided to explore it with just a lantern in hand he wanted to recreate the excitement of these childhood memories drawing inspiration from the black onyx and Ultima the team's original idea was to have the player start in a dungeon as soon as the game began after all it was all about recreating miyamoto's own experience but over time the team decided that there should be an Overworld that connected all the dungeons as well navigating Lakes forests and Fields to find a way to these caves was just as much of an adventure as actually exploring them and it would require players to figure out how to actually reach these dungeons as the game began to take shape the team realized they were making a real-time Adventure game rather than the menu-based decisions of RPGs at the time this game would have immediate feedback if you pushed against an object that could move that object would move if you pressed a button to attack you would attack if you needed to use a key on a door the key would automatically be selected now they just needed a story one of the first ideas they had involve time travel as the player would travel between the past and future in order to stop the great evil signifying this journey it was decided that the main character would be named link as he would serve as the link between the two eras Hardware limitations caused that idea to fizzle out but the name stuck as did Link's design his Sprite was crafted by tazuka with the goal of making a character that would be recognizable in the same vein as Mario to that end it was decided to give link a long hat and long ears leading him to be an elf but the long ears also brought Peter Panda mine as tazuka was a Disney fan and decided to draw inspiration from that version leading to the green clothes with the time travel story dropped the team brought in kg to rui a screenwriter that had previously worked on the anime adaptations of Dr swamp in Dragon Ball to craft a new idea while little of the story would be conveyed in game to rui's narrative would be included in the the manual to help give players a better idea of Link's motivations everything was kept much more simple with most of it taking inspiration from classic medieval European conflicts the only thing that remained was a title Miyamoto knew he wanted to call it the legend of something but he didn't know what it was then that a PR planner suggested that he craft a storybook showing link saving a princess with Timeless Beauty and classic appeal he could even name the Princess Zelda after the wife of F Scott Fitzgerald as he felt the name fit the princess's concept while Miyamoto didn't like the storybook idea the name Zelda struck a chord and so the Legend of Zelda was born foreign a legend has long been passed down about the Triforce three golden triangles with mystical Powers naturally this tale is alluring to those with dark Ambitions such as the self-proclaimed Prince of Darkness Ganon leading an army of monsters he successfully invades Hyrule and lays claim to the Triforce of power in an attempt to Halt ganon's Conquest Princess Zelda split the Triforce of wisdom into eight pieces scattering them across Hyrule she then asks her nursemaid impa to find someone courageous enough to face Ganon Zelda herself is then captured by Ganon forcing impa to flee his minions thankfully she was saved by a young boy named link who she imparts hence the origin of her name the quest gather the pieces of the Triforce of wisdom stop Gannon and rescue Zelda of course very little of this is conveyed in the game itself waiting at the title reveals a shorter version of the backstory in the manual and starting the adventure plop's Link in the Overworld with no Direction other than a nearby cave but that of course was its selling point it was absolutely non-linear players could receive a sword from the old man in the cave but it was also possible to progress through the entire game without it barring the final fight with Ganon the dungeons were numbered to indicate the suggested order based on difficulty but players could choose almost any order if they wanted the Crux of the game was not only the exploration but showing players becoming Stronger by finding new items more health and better equipment it may look like an RPG but none of the trappings of the genre were present in essence the idea was to find new items which would help link progress in some way not all the items are necessary but they do make the various enemies easier these range from usable items like a boomerang that can stun enemies a bow for long range attacks bombs to reveal hidden Pathways a candle to burn away bushes and a flute to quickly warp the previously completed dungeons each of these can be upgraded in some way while the flute could be used for other means such as revealing the entrance to the seventh dungeon then there's the equipment which includes better swords and shields rings that increase Link's defense and a power bracelet to push heavy rocks in the Overworld discovering everything let alone navigating the dungeons left many in Japan confused but rather than simplifying the game Miyamoto left it unchanged in fact link was supposed to start with his sword but he took it away to encourage players to talk to the old man and immerse themselves in the world of Hyrule he hoped that players would talk amongst themselves to compare notes and help each other discover all the secrets and sure enough that was exactly what happened and while many aspects of The Legend of Zelda were meticulously planned out such as Miyamoto insisting that the flute music should have a mysterious quality to it others were handled on the fly one of the most infamous was the origin of the title screen music the composer Koji kondo had created Five songs for the game in total and planned for Maurice ravel's Bolero to serve as the title screen song as its Tempo perfectly matched The Opening screen scrolling however just before the game was to be sent out for production he learned that the copyright for the song hadn't yet expired so he had to create a new one in a single day what he decided was to take the Overworld theme and change its Tempo to match the scrolling composing one of the most iconic pieces of music in all of gaming likewise the idea of a second Quest wouldn't have happened if not for a mistake when designing the dungeons each one would be mapped out on graph paper first with each Square representing a single room tazuka used this method to create the entire map for the game before handing it over to one of the programmers on the team toshihiko nakago he entered the map data exactly as he was shown not realizing that tazuka had made a mistake and only used half the data nakago had coded meaning the game was only half of its intended size however Miyamoto actually preferred this smaller Map size and decided that the extra space should be used to create an unlockable second Quest and while this idea wasn't new it was the first time the new playthrough was radically different as it changed dungeon layouts and item of locations in addition to the typical difficulty increase since the disk system was never released in the west The Legend of Zelda had to be downgraded in some way for the eventual International release the sound quality saw a dip along with some extra sound effects just so the game would fit on a cartridge however Nintendo did make sure the save functionality remained thanks to a battery backup rather than forcing players to utilize unwieldy passwords while hype for the game was increasing Nintendo wanted to entice players even more thanks to the special golden cartridge in fact the Box contained the game had a cut on the shield to Showcase it but perhaps even more significant than that is that Nintendo decided to actually produce commercials for it as up to this point NES commercials basically focused on the system itself accessories like the light gun and Rob and the variety of games Zelda would be the first with a dedicated commercial in fact it caught two of them did you see the latest Nintendo newsletter whoa nice Graphics I'd like to get my hands on that game you mean you had played it yet we can play it on my Nintendo Entertainment System it's the Legend of Zelda and it's really rad those creatures from Guyana are pretty bad on Direct Tech tax levers too but with your help our hero pulls through yeah go link yeah the Nintendo Entertainment System your parents help you hook it up the Legend of Zelda sold separate watch Zelda become a legend on your Nintendo Entertainment System times [Music] Legend of Zelda a never-ending Adventure new for your Nintendo Entertainment System but Nintendo of America also knew that the game might be difficult for some players especially with it being so open-ended they printed special guides in a map to include within the box as well as a warranty card to become a member of the Nintendo fun club members of the service would receive a bi-monthly newsletter filled with crossword puzzles jokes and especially game secrets this encouraged kids to become members helped by making the first issue completely free of charge the Legend of Zelda was released in August of 1987 and by early 1988 there were over a million fun club members this was encouraging enough that Nintendo of America president monoro arakawa decided to launch the Nintendo Power Magazine simply put it all worked with some claiming that the Legend of Zelda sold a million copies on its first day in Japan while the authenticity of that is questionable the game did ultimately sell 1.7 million copies in Japan alone it's released in the US solid immediately topping the sales charts with it becoming in the first million seller in the States in 1988 by 1989 it reached 2 million units sold and hit 3 million a year later by 2004 Nintendo revealed that the original game had sold 6.5 million copies worldwide while players were undeniably excited for the game based on previews strong reviews and Word of Mouth carried it Forward everything from the graphics to the music to the Revolutionary gameplay was lauded by critics in Japan the precursor to famitsu fumitsu soojin awarded it a perfect score and was declared the third best game of the year only ranking below Dragon Quest and gradius in America similar praise was given especially with it Rising above the typical hack and slash fair that many had grown familiar with the fairy tale-like quality of the presentation was also highly appealing with some critics saying it was the killer app the NES needed suddenly hardcore PC RPG players were taking notice realizing that the system had more than shallow arcadey experiences it was a cultural Touchstone and a massive influence to the action RPG genre despite it not fitting into that category where before many games like dragon slayer had players bumping into enemies to damage them Zelda introduced an attack button that made combat more tactile with all the success a sequel was naturally in the cards [Music] however Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link which was released less than a year later in January of 1987 did not begin as a sequel instead it began with Miyamoto imagining how a side-scrolling game that utilized up and down movements for attacking and defending could be fun he envisioned it as an expansion upon the swordplay in the original Zelda incorporating elements that just weren't possible with the top down View and because this wasn't planned to be a sequel an entirely new development team was recruited for the project however rather than directed himself Miyamoto took on a producer role and tapped to Dashi sugiyama as the Director tsukiyama had previously worked as a graphic designer for baseball and ice climber as well as a game designer for clue clue land he was joined by yasuhisa yamamura as co-director who had previously worked as a designer on baseball however this would only be his first of two directing credit it's as he mainly went on to work as a map and level designer and director for future Nintendo projects all the way up to Super Mario Maker 2. as this was a new team Koji kondo did not return as the composer instead the music was created by Akito nakasuka who previously composed the soundtracks for ice climber and excitebike for most of the development the team traded the game as either its own entity or as more of a spin-off to The Legend of Zelda for a long time the game was only known as The Adventure of link as it would feature the same protagonist from the first game because of that Takashi tazuka who was working on Super Mario Brothers 2 and 3 at the time contributed a story concept that would serve as a continuation it wasn't until the game was nearly finished that the team decided to officially label it Zelda 2. picking up a few years after the end of The Legend of Zelda the game finds a now 16 year old link disturbed by the sudden appearance of a mark on the back of his hand he goes to impa who tells him the story of Ages past when the king of Hyrule had hidden the Triforce of courage in the valley of death before casting a magical barrier this barrier couldn't be broken until six crystals were placed in their respective statues in the Palaces across Hyrule the king only told this to his daughter Zelda which angered her brother the prince manipulated by the court magician the prince demanded the location of the remaining Triforce but Zelda refused it was then that the magician attacked Zelda placing her in a deep Slumber but left shock that he in turn was stricken dead the prince could only grieve for his actions and lost sister declaring that every princess must be named Zelda in her honor the only way to awaken this still slumbering Zoda was to place the crystals and reach the Triforce of Courage thereby creating a complete Triforce however the minions of Ganon have begun to stir believing that the blood of Link could be used to resurrect their Master now he must travel the entirety of Hyrule to set things right while battling these minions and the special Monsters the king of Hyrule placed to guard the statues it's a plot that builds up the lore of Hyrule while continuing the established story but Zelda 2 is remembered more for its gameplay and how different it was compared to the original there was still an Overworld that link had to navigate in order to find the Palaces and continue his journey but the combat took place on a separate screen enemies would appear when walking off a road and touching them would bring link to a 2d action stage here the monsters could be fought using Link's new combat prowess and battles would end when reaching the edge of the screen but the 2D perspective allowed for dynamic combat where he could block attacks with a shield and attack high or low that in itself was especially helpful as some enemies had their own Shields or fought with long range weapons link could also learn upward and downward stabs that would expand his combat repertoire this 2D view wasn't limited to combat as link can visit the various towns peppered around Hyrule where he would gather information on where to go next palaces which served as the game's dungeons were also completely 2D where Zelda 2 feels truly different from its predecessor is the implementation of an experience point system and match defeating enough enemies allows link to level up either his health attack or magic making him gradually grow stronger as the game continues however each of these attributes can only be leveled to a maximum of eight with each level earned afterward granting Lincoln extra life and that in itself was a major change as link only had three lives losing a life would have him restart where it happened but losing them all would result in a game over that sent him back to the starting location albeit with all the items and levels he had collected up until that point while special link dolls could be found they gave him an extra life they weren't exactly plentiful the same could be said of healing as well as enemies no longer dropped Health restoring Hearts players could really only heal by leveling up finding a fairy discovering a handful of heart containers that expanded his maximum health visiting healing women in towns or using his healing magic magic is learned from old men scattered around Hyrule with eight in total Shield causes enemies to only inflict half their damage jump allows link to jump higher life is his cure spell and fairy turns link into a fairy so he can reach even higher places and even slip through locked doors then there's fire which grants a long-range Fireball attack with each swing of his sword reflect to allow his shield to counter magic attacks spell to transform enemies into weaker slimes and thunder to attack everything on screen there are items in the game like the original but they're far more situational and usually limited to reaching new areas Zelda 2 is notably more difficult than its predecessor thanks to the limited lives and the greater focus on combat platforming was also a factor with Bottomless Pits meaning instant death creating frustration when an enemy attack knocked link back into one but this difficulty was a conscious Choice as harder games were popular at the time among game enthusiasts it also had the side benefit of making the game last longer for players tsugiyama would later comment that the game was balanced in such a way that even the team found it challenging he did feel bad though as he spoke with a father who was playing the game for his son and was unable to defeat the final boss despite having everything that he could in the game like the original Zelda 2 was released on the famicom disc system before being converted to the cartridge format for our Western release however while the fds version had richer sound there were a multitude of changes that tightened up the gameplay changed how items were collected and even added a new boss one of the more fascinating changes was the experience system in Japan the leveling thresholds were much lower and all stats were the same cost encouraging players to customize them based on their play style but for the international releases the required experience was increased and the stats had different amounts necessary making for a more linear progression despite these changes Zelda 2 was still a sales Success With Many retailers in North America reporting that they had trouble keeping the game in stock it too came with a box with a cutout to reveal the golden cartridge though there was no map and guide this time around while Regional numbers aren't available Nintendo reported that by 2004 it had sold 4.4 million copies worldwide critics also enjoyed many of the changes with it becoming the second best reviewed game in famitsu in 1987 only trailing behind Dragon Quest 2. many American critics felt it was an action RPG unlike any other with Nintendo Power awarding it their game of the year for 1988. its Legacy however is one of the more divisive as the series has gone on while many of the elements Dota 2 introduced have returned in future games the style of gameplay experience system and limited lives have stood out as anachronistic it still has its fans and is considered a good game but even Miyamoto feels like more could have been done with it in a 2013 interview with Kotaku he mentioned that oftentimes when Nintendo designs games they have a plan for the design but it evolves throughout the development process but with Zelda 2 he regrets that they only created what was originally planned the hardware just wasn't capable of expanding on what they wanted such as bigger enemies it was a learning variance to be sure but thanks to the success of these first two games a third had already been approved however it would be several years before this new game was released by this point Zelda was already popular enough to have its own American cartoon that debuted on September 8 1989 but it also received an American exclusive game simply titled Zelda as part of The Game and Watch line released in August of 1989 it even had a unique story well as much as a gaming watch could have eight dragons decide to take over Hyrule and kidnap Zelda locking her in a dungeon that can only be opened by the Triforce which they hold the pieces to now it's up to link to defeat them all and save Zelda Zelda Game and Watch utilized a multi-screen clamshell design where the dungeon action took place on the bottom screen while the upper screen displayed links items and the boss fight against the dragons while the structure of the game is like the original Zelda the gameplay is more like Zelda 2 with link needing to dodge enemy attacks before striking with his own sword the sword beam is available when at full health as well just like the previous games the game was highly praised at the time for capturing the essence of the console experience on handheld but saw equal criticism for how easy it was especially if players were able to collect many of the items so to Game and Watch even saw a few re-releases over the years first as part of the Nintendo mini Classics line in 1998 which were keychain size remakes of Game and Watch titles this is also how Europe first got to experience the game that version then saw another release in 2007 with artwork from a link to the past and four Swords Adventures then there's the version found in Game and Watch Gallery 4 for the Game Boy Advance however it's the final unlockable in the game and requires all 220 available Stars these are earned by scoring over a thousand points in every other game making it a bit of a challenge to unlock amazingly Japan never received any version of this game and watch until 2016 when Gallery 4 was released on the Wii U Virtual Console not to be confused with the gaming watch the Zelda game watch was a multi-purpose wristwatch sold by no Sonic Industries now Sonic had made a name for itself by selling pop culture themed wrist watches for children eventually they expanded this idea to include simple LCD games getting the attention of the games industry at the 1982 Consumer Electronics Show this allowed them to obtain licensing agreements from several big Publishers including Sega Midway and Nintendo this in turn led to the Zelda game watch released in October of 1989 that came in four different colors red white black and pink the gameplay is based on the original game and features link traveling through four dungeons consisting of four rooms each in order to reassemble the Triforce each room follows a pattern of Link needing to find a weapon in order to defeat the enemies which then grants a key the key is used to move to the next room where all his weapons are lost again and the process is repeated this only changes in the fourth room where the boss appears instead of a key it's always the same boss so the strategies never really change after completing the fourth dungeon the game resets to the beginning once again while I've been unable to verify the claim from multiple sources the Zelda game watch reportedly sold more than 12 million copies likely owing to the unique portability and low cost while the watch itself was considered stylish at the time critics found the game failed to evoke the feeling of playing the console version it was notable for conveying the idea of multiple screens but the gameplay was too simple and unrelated to the original it was also difficult to see considering the size of the watch screen the game eventually saw a European release in 1992 but never came to Japan while these LCD games were releasing Miyamoto had reunited the original team behind the first Legend of Zelda in order to create a third game work began while Zelda 2 was still in development and the super famicom had already been revealed internally from the beginning Miyamoto wanted to return to the top-down perspective of the first game but the problem was that games had progressed a lot in the years since the original fantasy settings were common and the puzzles of The Legend of Zelda were no longer that unique something new would have to be done to stand out to this end the team looked back at what they had wanted to achieve with the first game that the console simply couldn't handle but with the extra power of the super famicom suddenly these ideas were possible not only that but Miyamoto wanted animations to match the prettier Graphics one of the first that came to mind was diagonal movement and along with that the ability to attack at the same angle with the sword however when the team attempted this they found that stabbing diagonally hindered the operability of the game so instead they had link swing in a wider Arc so that he could hit enemies that weren't directly in front of him it also led to the introduction of the Spin Attack so that players could fight enemies in all directions but there is more to think about as well considering the super famicom's controller naturally contained more buttons how would the button layout in this new game work through trial and error the team experimented to see which actions fell best and most satisfying even when interacting with with the world with the a button they didn't want the button press to solve everything in an instant as that would lose the joy of discovering puzzle solutions but they also didn't want to make it so complicated that figuring out the context became a puzzle unto itself the team compromised by introducing some switches that required link to push or pull it to interact promoting a sense of experimentation to the player one other idea the team had When developing the original Legend of Zelda was the ability to travel through time allowing link to go back and forth between the past and future the concept was discussed again for this Sequel and there was an attempt to implement it with the team experimenting with a multi-world structure this would mean that any events in the hub world would have an effect on the three overlapping worlds eventually they realized that three worlds might be too confusing for players and the time travel concept was shelved yet again however there is concept art of a futuristic Zelda that likely ties into the stage of the design ultimately the overlapping worlds were diminished to two with kensuke tanabe who previously directed The American Super Mario Brothers 2 and served as the scenario writer here suggested a dark and light world that players could switch between in fact tanabe had many ideas regarding this new story that the team wanted to emulate a major one being the discovery of Link's Destin sword and how the light filtered through the thick Woods to illuminate it this scene was so important and impactful to the player's Journey that it even served as the box art for the Japanese release the concept tied into the idea of an exciting adventure and everything from the opening to progression to Link's new design tied into this link was redesigned to appear more mature and appealing to a western Market that said Miyamoto never wanted him to be overly cool there was a sense of playfulness that he wanted to come through otherwise link would just be another cool character and lose that sense of being well link his growth was another major facet for the team as they wanted to encourage a connection between him and the player obtaining new weapons and items were paced in such a way that the player always felt like they were getting strong stronger no matter what their playstyle might be this idea extended to letting link use more than just a sword as a weapon they envisioned A system that allowed link to use any item in either hand and even combine them in new ways such as equipping the bow and bombs at the same time in order to create bomb arrows however Miyamoto insisted that link should always have a sword in hand with the idea being shell for now that said the other items were made more Dynamic allowing them to be used as secondary weapons in fact this could be seen as the Genesis of one major Zelda Trope over the years the item found in a dungeon will be the one that helps defeat the dungeon's boss originally the helmishore king could only be damaged with bombs the hammer found in the dungeon was completely useless against this boss but because they went through the trouble of putting the hammer in the dungeon Miyamoto decided they should go back and reprogram it to be effective not all of miyamoto's ideas were implemented though one of the oldest was the concept of a party for link that the player could swap between alongside his more physical style would be a magic user and a girl who specialized in reconnaissance the early designs for that girl were somewhat fairy-like so when the party idea was scrapped miyabota decided to use it instead for the fairy spell in Zelda 2 where it also maintained much of its utility Cuts also came about due to Hardware limitations the team wanted the game to be far more open-ended but there simply wasn't enough space to do it all let alone the sheer amount of planning to accommodate it and that's despite the game being developed on a cartridge with twice the space than was typically available on the super famicom while kensuke tanabe handled the game's script it was up to newcomer yoshiaki koizumi to create the manual for this third game a graduate of Osaka University of Arts koizumi was a writer and artist that joined Nintendo since it was located nearby he wanted to create drama in his works the kinds of stories fill with dramatic tension that captured the imagination and as the manual writer he actually had a lot of free Ram in which to do that as they were the ones who created most of the backstory for a game at least at Nintendo so while the plot structure was all tanabe koizumi was the one behind the lore as he had to figure out what each of the game elements meant thanks to his artistic skills he was also able to create far more such as the design of the goddesses and their Associated star signs but yes all the backstory found in the manual was koizumi's doing finally in November of 1991 one year after the launch of the super famicom The Legend of Zelda Triforce of the Gods was released in Japan it would come to North America in April of 1992 with the name changed to a link to the past as Nintendo of America wanted to avoid any overt religious references Europe would finally see the game in September of that same year and for many all over the world it would be an unforgettable experience [Music] thank you foreign the past there was a gang of Thieves led by a man named Ganondorf who sought entrance to the sacred realm where the legendary Triforce was kept Ganondorf succeeded and swiftly killed his followers as a dark power flowed out of the realm the king of Hyrule realizing the danger began a hard-fought war with the help of the seven sages to seal the newly renamed Ganon within the sacred realm centuries later a wizard named agonim gained power within Hyrule Castle turning the soldiers to his side and starting a search for the seven maidens that descended from the sages realizing that agonym planned to open the sacred realm Zelda telepathically contacts link for help as she's been imprisoned in the castle dungeon while he's successful in rescuing her link still has to face agonim and so sets out to discover a Legendary Blade capable of banishing evil the master sword A Link to the Past is a landmark in fleshing out the lore of the Zelda series as it not only lays out the origins of Ganon but introduces one of the most iconic swords in all of gaming it serves as a prequel but also puts forth the idea that like Zelda Link doesn't have to be the same character every time in terms of gameplay A Link to the Past expands upon nearly every facet of the previous two games the camera returns to the top down view of the original while magic towns and villagers are implemented from Zelda 2. however the experience and live system was cut entirely never to return instead the game introduces the concept of upgrading items the bag that held bombs or a quiver that held arrows could be expanded so that the player could have more on them at any one time likewise the returning Boomerang could be improved to go farther and fly faster even the master sword can be made stronger with enough exploration the sheer amount of items was also increased with the introduction of the Pegasus shoes to run faster the Zora flippers to swim the hook shot the cross gaps the Fire and Ice rods to cast Elemental spells and Bottles so that players can hold potions fairies and even bees for later use not all of these items were found in dungeons either fostering a sense that exploration was often rewarded either with the aforementioned items rupees or the new heart pieces in the original Legend of Zelda players could find five extra heart containers in addition to the eight awarded from dungeons to Total 16. while Zelda 2 only had four that simply boosted the health meter without the need to level up A Link to the Past only Awards heart containers from completing dungeons with 24 heart pieces hiding in Hyrule to make Link's Total Health a whopping 20 units another massive change was the dungeons themselves no longer were they a single floor but multi-level affairs with those multiple floors often interacting with each other for the player to figure out it provided a sense of scale and expanded upon the simple puzzle solving of the original but the dungeons were simplified in other ways compared to the first game the keys found within the dungeon only worked with that dungeon and a boss key had to be found creating a set of goals for players to complete each time but perhaps What A Link to the Past is most known for is the light and dark Worlds at a certain point in the game link discovers a dark world that mirrors the location and landmarks of Hyrule more difficult enemies abound but it's necessary to explore as switching between the two worlds is often required to reach new areas or find certain items it added to the vastness of this High rule encouraged even more experimentation and is an element that many games still emulate to this day if you're familiar with the Legend of Zelda at all you've likely heard the praise heaped Upon A Link to the Past everything from its gameplay to the graphics to its soundtrack which introduced Zelda's Lullaby in particular has been lauded by critics and fans alike it was the first game to nearly reach a perfect score in famitsu with a 39 out of 40 and was awarded Game of the Year in most Publications to this day it's still considered one of the best games of all time let alone one of the best on the Super Nintendo unsurprisingly its sales were just as strong despite releasing in late November it became the best-selling game in Japan in 1991 topping the charts for three months in a row in the US it was the third best-selling game of 1990 2 only trailing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Street Fighter 2 with 1 million units sold as of 2004 it reached 4.6 million copies sold worldwide with another 1.9 million units reached courtesy of the Game Boy Advance Port Miyamoto and his team had succeeded not only at refining the Zelda formula but establishing it going forward the question was where does it go next well if you live in the Japan that would be an exclusive LCD game also titled The Legend of Zelda Triforce of the Gods for the barcode battler 2. the barcode battler was a handheld device released in Japan that came with special cards each with its own barcode similar to Nintendo's eventual e-reader accessory for the Game Boy Advance each card would represent either a player enemies or power-ups and scanning each in turn would set up the game once the game began the players would battle and victory was determined by the scan stats however any barcode would work with a handheld and players were encouraged to experiment and discover new monsters or power-ups from everyday household products the barcode battler was a huge hit in Japan and a successor was quickly greenlit the barcode battler 2 featured an extended single player mode a greater variety of scannable elements and an output Port that allowed it to interact with certain super famicom games while Nintendo licensed this feature they also allowed for special cards based on Mario and Zelda to be made in the case of Zelda this meant a game Based On A Link to the Past as this was released in 1992. players would choose either a warrior Link card or a wizard Link Card whose stats would then be recorded and displayed on the battler next players would swipe an enemy card for link to battle if he was Victorious then the next enemy could be swiped in there was some strategy involved as there were 10 item cards that could be swiped between fights to heal link or Grant him a boost in strength or defense these items would then be discarded but if a wizard type enemy Was Defeated an item could be restored to the pile after every other enemy was defeated the Ganon card could then be swiped if he was defeated the player 1. the barcode battler was released outside of Japan where it floundered completely as it had no Graphics sound or even controls it failed to stand out next to the much more impressive Game Boy and Game Gear while it captured the imagination of Japanese youth scanning barcodes for stats simply wasn't exciting for Western kids because of this Nintendo never bothered releasing the Mario and Zelda card sets in the west speaking of the Game Boy the handheld was released during the development of a link to the past it was already a solid hit and had launched with its own Mario game however as Takashi tazuka would later reveal in an interview there were no plans to bring a Zelda game to the system but after the completion of a link to the past the chief programmer of the game kazuwaki Morita obtained a development kit for the handheld and began experimenting with it there were no formal plans for this team to make a Game Boy game so instead they would do their regular work during normal hours then mess around with the dev kits as a kind of after hours project in time he was able to create a prototype type for a zelda-like game upon seeing this progress tazuka suggested that a Zelda game should actually be produced for the Game Boy and requested a second development kit originally his idea was to create a port of a link to the past but as time passed tazuka realized that there was more and more that he wanted to do having come to the SNES games production halfway through there were elements that he wanted to implement but had no time with a clean slate and more ideas piling up he made the decision that this game boy Zelda should be something entirely original and that was made even more clear when he brought both kinsuke to nabe and yoshiaki koizumi back to create the characters sub-events and main story tazuka had a concept in mind as he had grown fond of the TV show Twin Peaks and wanted this new Zelda game to emulate the feeling of suspicious characters in a small town to that end he laid out a set of requirements for this new world it would not take place in Hyrule would feature a relatively small playing field there would be no mention of the Triforce and Princess Zelda would not up here in tazuka's mind this would create a game that was small enough in scope to easily understand while including deep and distinctive characteristics and much of this was able to come about because Miyamoto was busy with other projects at the time this lack of oversight led to many of the Hallmarks of this game boy title such as the appearance of characters from other Nintendo games not only did a Yoshi doll appear in a claw game but so did piranha plants Goombas and chain Chomps even an enemy that looks suspiciously like Kirby appeared back when the character was still relatively new and there's way more cameos Beyond even these examples tazuka has admitted that this free-form grab bag approach would not be possible today but during development he felt like they were almost making a parody of The Legend of Zelda with how weird they were getting but he also felt no one would really mind because it was only for the Game Boy and yet this game would establish many of the Hallmarks of later Zelda games such as an owl that would help guide link side quests and subplots that would flesh out the people of the world and even fishing kazuwaki Rita who kicked off this whole Endeavor is credited with adding the fishing minigame to this game boy title as he was a fan of the hobby it wasn't even something planned at the beginning it was another Edition done without oversight and yet according to the eventual series producer Aji awanuma this game was pivotal to what Zelda became in the future and its shift to a greater focus on Story the series would have been very different going forward without it and that goes doubly so for its story all of the major conventions of the tale would stem from yoshiaki koizumi as it was his idea to feature the island and its secret however he still worked within tazuka's guidelines as it was tazuka who originally thought of a giant egg on a mountain for a link to the past when that wasn't used he wanted to find some way to incorporate it here however it's not like the game had no oversight as Shigeru Miyamoto did play test the game in the later half of development with his suggestions helping to tighten up the design even further even the story elements were eventually run past him and mostly approved but after a year and a half of development The Legend of Zelda links Awakening released in Japan in June of 1993 with North America receiving it only two months later the story finds link on a small sailboat returning to Hyrule after training in a foreign country however he's caught in a massive storm and his boat capsizes shipwrecking him on Coho land Island there he's found by a young girl named Marin who helps nurse him back to health but he soon learns that the only way off the island is to wake a creature known as the wind fish who Slumbers inside a giant egg now he must Brave eight dungeons in order to obtain the instruments of the sirens and make his way back home but there's another secret to the island waiting to be discovered as dictated by tazuka Link's Awakening has quite the different story as Zelda is only briefly mentioned Ganon only makes a visual appearance and the Triforce doesn't appear at all instead there's more focus on the individual people on the island of which there aren't many Marin is given a particular highlight but the others are provided some time to shine as the game progresses this Center activity is even encouraged thanks to a trading Quest that grants a special item in terms of gameplay Link's Awakening follows the formula established by A Link to the Past with players controlling link from a top-down view however there are a handful of 2D sections when link is underground that take advantage of his eventual ability to jump thanks to the new Rock's feather item the big change though was the ability to assign different items to the A and B buttons as mentioned before this was a suggestion for a link to the past but Miyamoto insisted that the sword be on hand at all times however the limited buttons necessitated the change allowing the player to assign the items any way they wanted in order to solve puzzles since Coho land island is significantly smaller than Hyrule the developers decided to pack in each area with more to discover in addition to the returning hard pieces link can find secret seashells that can be exchanged for rewards it's also possible to come across pieces of power or Guardian acorns that temporarily increase Link's attack and defense respectively the dungeons also hewed closer to A Link to the Past multi-level design rather than the original game's flat layout Link's Awakening was met with solid sales upon release in Japan and North America topping the charts in both regions in fact it helped boost sales of the Game Boy by 13 that year making it one of Nintendo's most profitable years up until that point in total the game sold 3.8 million copies making it another solid success for the series critics were just as kind to it with many lauding how well it fit the portable while still containing plenty of depth the music was composed by Kazumi totaka who previously created the music for Super Mario Land and Mario Paint as well as newcomers minako homino and kozway Ishikawa the trio crafted a soundtrack that was also highly praised however the graphics were a sour point to some as the monochrome nature of the Game Boy made certain things difficult to see there are also complaints on how items had to be constantly switched in order to make progress slowing the game's Pace still it's seen as a landmark handheld title that got better with time thanks to Ports and remakes the first was Link's Awakening DX released in December of 1998 across all regions it was designed to take advantage of and promote the new Game Boy Color only just missing its launch by a few months the main draw of this version was the new color graphics and a brand new dungeon that took advantage of the increased palette but there were also other minor changes to enjoy including a new photography Quest that featured 12 special pictures around cohalant that could then be printed thanks to the Game Boy printer otherwise certain Graphics were tweaked and various bugs and glitches were fixed to make what many consider to be the definitive version this translated into an additional 2.2 million sales and reviews that praised the changes even if some felt the overall game wasn't all that different but there was still one more re-release on the horizon as Link's Awakening was remade for the Nintendo switch in 2019 this version saw significant changes to just about every aspect of the game in order to modernize it while keeping it faithful to the original the most noticeable being the updated Graphics which took on a more a plasticine look emulating the feel of a diorama the Remake also took advantage of the more powerful Hardware by having the top down camera scroll from area to area rather than a hard shift making it feel like one continuous World link is also able to attack diagonally instead of being limited to the four primary directions otherwise kohaland Island was filled with more to see and collect even more heart pieces were added to the game allowing link to have a maximum of 20 Hearts compared to the originals 14. likewise the number of secret seashells was increased to 50. in addition to the rewards in the original game players can obtain items that enhance the new chamber dungeons run by a character that appeared later in the series dampe The Chamber dungeons allowed players to create their own dungeons by collecting panels in the game the panels would decide not only the layout but the puzzles enemies and mini bosses that would be encountered the game also included pre-fabricated dungeons that could be filled in then completed in order to earn further rewards however this mode did replay place the photo Quest introduced in Link's Awakening DX otherwise the map was updated to allow notes and pins to be placed making exploration potentially easier the final big change ensured that item switching was lessened by having Link's sword and shield equipped at all times while assigning buttons to the Pegasus boots and power bracelet critically Link's Awakening on switch was seen as a fine update to the original it wasn't exactly needed but the quality of life improvements were appreciated many did note that the game suffered from slowdown on occasion which interrupted the flow others were split on the visual Style with some enjoying the diorama look While others felt it took away from Link's classic Sprite design commercially it became the best-selling version of the game reaching over 6 million units sold as of the end of 2021 however 1993 saw the release of two other Zelda games that have become infamous one of the most well-known stories of the game industry was how Nintendo and Sony almost created a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo that would allow for larger games and full motion videos negotiations began as early as 1988 though Nintendo would continue to deny the existence of the deal up until March of 1991 but finally at that Year's Consumer Electronics Show Sony revealed the add-on dubbed the PlayStation but only a day later Nintendo announced that it would instead create the add-on with Philips supposedly the deal between Sony and Nintendo broke down due to disagreements on how the revenue would be split hence Nintendo's sudden decision this incident was the powder cake that pushed Sony into making their own console also called the PlayStation but without a dash that is its own history but there's one other factor that ties into 1991. the Japanese release of the Sega CD add-on while it initially saw respectable sales it wasn't long before things began to decline both in Japan and after its October 1992 release in North America the writing was on the wall that the project would be a bust convincing Nintendo to scrap the idea of a CD add-on for of the SNES entirely in order to make amends for canceling the project Nintendo allowed Phillips to choose five of their characters to license for games on their CDI console and that is how Mario and Zelda ended up on a console not owned by Nintendo something unfathomable in this day and age amazingly the fact that they were licensed wasn't even the most insane aspect of this deal no that would be Phillips not realizing what kind of opportunity they had been given and that's because the CDI wasn't really designed to be a gaming console it was created to combine audio text and Graphics in order to impact Education and Training points of sale and perhaps even the home entertainment industry the CDI media could store up to 744 megabytes of data including up to 72 minutes of full motion video as this was before the widespread use of the internet Philips aimed to introduce interactive multimedia content to the general public at a lower price than a computer with a CD-ROM drive that's why so many of the releases for the CDI were squarely edutainment software such as Museum tours or interactive encyclopedias it could play video games but Phillips didn't want to compete with dedicated consoles what they didn't count on was the introduction of cheap low end PCS that vastly outsold them this had the added effect of making video games the best-selling software for the CDI and as I've already said the console wasn't exactly developed with dedicated gaming in mind but for the Zelda games Phillips decided to contract out development to animation magic which was led by Dale descharon he had become familiar with the console shortcomings as he had initially joined a different CDI developer Spinnaker software although desharone only planned to stay with Spinnaker for a year the constant delays of the cdi's launch kept him with the company for four years after these launch games were released Spinnaker discontinued plans for development on the console this prompted desharone to found animation magic bringing along many of his old co-workers it was around this time that the deal to use Nintendo's characters came about prompting the various teams to pitch their ideas using Nintendo's various characters Phillips chose the one using the biggest names but were enticed in particular by animation Magic's proposal maximized the quality of the games by combining the funding to develop one game engine that could be used for two games one focused on link and the other focused on Zelda this benefited not only Phillips who would get two games out of one company right away but animation magic as they were only allotted six hundred thousand dollars per game for Zelda in the 2007 retro gamer interview with Des Sharon he laid out how that money was spent back in 1991 a U.S technical employee cost a hundred thousand dollars a year to support with that money going between the salary taxes office space equipment their insurance and administration costs their team consisted of three programmers other than desharone an audio engineer who also handled the music compositions for artists a producer and a single freelance writer who wrote the scripts in addition to the Personnel costs a one gigabyte hard drive back in 1991 cost three thousand dollars money was tight and the team was given just over a year to create these games despite these fast turnarounds Phillips insisted that animation magic use every aspect of the CDI namely fmv's high resolution graphics and CD quality music that was all fine and good but again the CDI just wasn't designed for traditional games as was evident from its specifications the video memory was so limited that animation magic could only scroll about two screens horizontally and this was to say nothing of the controller which was famously unresponsive the trickiest aspect though was how to use the limited budget to create Philips required fmvs fortunately for desharone he was put in contact with Igor razboth a Russian man who had been living in the states for the past 12 years but with the Berlin Wall coming down he wanted to return to the country and build a company that provided some type of service to the Us Des Sharon suggested animation to rasboth as it would be cheaper than American animators in turn rasboth traveled to the Soviet Union found six animators that would live in apartments near the studio for six months and be given computers and scanners to work on the fmvs these animators worked on animation paper that would then be scanned into the computer and cleaned up before transferring to the CDI as far as the voice acting desharone hired Local Union actors to fill the various roles as they were 10 minutes of cutscenes in each game surprisingly animation magic had very little input from either Philips or Nintendo Nintendo had to give approval to the design documents and character designs though they seem to only truly care about the look of Link in Zelda for their part Phillips only wanted it to look new and to take advantage of the CDI it's why animation magic decided on a 2d side scroller rather than a top-down Adventure what would be more fun didn't matter it was all about the looks and so with this unenviable production under their belt animation magic released linked the faces of evil and Zelda the wand of gamelon for the CDI on October 10 1993. it is written only link can defeat Ganon great I'll grab my stuff there is no time your sword is enough how about a kiss for luck you've got to be kidding the faces of evil finds link traveling to the land of koredi where Ganon has taken over and began enslaving the people to stop Ganon link must find a way into the eponymous faces of evil and Conquer each in turn in the wand of gamelon the island of gamelon is under attack by Ganon and so the king of Hyrule travels there to stop him when no word is heard from him LinkedIn goes to save the king but even link goes missing prompting Zelda to travel to gamelon herself to find her missing friends and save the country from Ganon despite the two different stories that featured unique characters locations and bosses the games played identically despite this being the First Time Zelda was ever playable both Link and Zelda are equipped with a sword and shield at all times with attacks limited to normal and low strikes unlike Zelda 2 new sword attacks cannot be learned the sword can only be upgraded defeating enemies drops restorative hearts and rubies not rupees that can be spent in shops around the world however they must be stabbed in order to be picked up while the games feature a world map it mainly serves as a way to select new areas that would then be played in 2D Link and Zelda then had three lives if they died they would restart at the beginning of an area if every life was lost they would be kicked back to the map though they would retain any items they had found it was possible to find hearts that increased their Max Health but exploration was less emphasized new items were mainly bought and few changed up tactics in any meaningful way puzzles were minor and dungeons didn't even feature in the games although official sales numbers were never given Edge magazine reported in 1994 that they were respectable for the system Japan never received the games but at the time of release European critics actually found the game to be quite stunning praising the animation graphics and cut scenes North American critics were slightly less kind as they found the gameplay dull and repetitive however as the CDI sales waned the games were re-evaluated to be cheap Ventures that failed to excite interest in the system their reputation only worsened over time with many discovering the awkwardly delivered voice lines the inconsistent and downright weird animation and the backgrounds that could be a nightmare to navigate oftentimes players would perform the right action at the right place but rather than a single bomb opening the way more than 10 were needed with no indication that it was even effective however there has been some further reappraisal by some who find that compared to the other games found on the CDI these twin Zelda games were actually some of the best it was simply unfair to compare them to Nintendo's offerings speaking of Nintendo one of the major reasons they decided to let Philips have access to their characters is because they didn't see the cdis any kind of threat in the console market and that certainly proved to be true the games came and went with little recognition until the Advent of the internet when the game's cutscenes were used for early YouTube poops and comedic reviews while Nintendo refuses to acknowledge their existence to this day a the wand of gamelon and the faces of evil are more well known now than they ever were at release however the canceled PlayStation wasn't the only add one technology Nintendo was looking at for the super famicom in April of 1995 Nintendo released a satellite modem that contained a megabyte of ROM space and an additional 512 kilobytes of ram known as the saddle of view it allowed players to download games magazines and various other types of media through satellite broadcasts provided by the Japanese Company Saint Giga for its part Saint Giga was known in the country for its nature sound music but had started to struggle financially due to the Japanese recession Nintendo decided to rescue the company by purchasing a 19 stake and making them part of the saddle of you project as Nintendo began developing the peripheral Saint Giga revamped his broadcasting schedule to include a super famicom hour that provided gameplay tips and news for the system this prepared listeners to associate the broadcast with the super famicom so that Nintendo and other third-party developers could eventually broadcast their games despite being for a game console though Nintendo stressed to Publications at the time that much of the saddle of View's content was meant for adults with video games only taking up a small portion of the air time to use saddle of view players would purchase or rent a special broadcast satellite tuner directly from Saint Giga that would then include a monthly subscription to both companies the peripheral itself cost roughly 150 dollars and would include a custom 4-way AC adapter and a v selector that connected the console to the tuner games and other broadcast information would then be stored on memory packs that could then be Rewritten with new content the saddle of view also included a required system cartridge called bsx the town whose name was stolen the BS and most saddle of view games stood for broadcast satellite bsx served as both a menu system and a game itself it featured a central Hub with buildings representing each of the peripheral services this allowed play players to create an avatar purchase items play mini games participate in contests and receive updates from Nintendo and Saint Giga there was one other significant aspect to the saddle of you the SoundLink system with this the games could be broadcast with live voice acting meaning that these could only be played on a live schedule unlike other games on the service the first game to take advantage of the SoundLink feature was BS The Legend of Zelda which had its first broadcast in August of 1995. the game is essentially a remake of the original though it retains the backstory of a link to the past where it differs is its connection to bsx as the player's Avatar discovers a portal in a fortune teller's tent that brings them to the Hyrule of the first game from there they can meet the old man who gives them a sword and tells them to recover the eight fragments of the Triforce from The Dungeons across Hyrule recover the master sword and defeat Ganon however the player Avatar was limited in how far they could progress due to the unstable nature of the portal the portal would only open on Sunday and even then only for an hour at the end of that hour the Avatar would be sent back to their world where they would have to wait for the next Sunday thankfully the old man would keep track of their money and inventory so that they could resume from roughly where they left off the old man could do more than that though as he was able to telepathically relay when the Great Fairy was kidnapped or a useful item washed up on the seashore these story elements obviously tied into the nature of the saddle of you add on the game was divided into fourths with each episode tied to two dungeons that the player could progress through this was done by limiting players to certain areas by either withholding the needed items or placing obstacles that would be removed later this would ensure that players would experience the game at a similar Pace while tailoring the experience to the live SoundLink recording doing this not only provided an orchestral score but voice acting that conveyed the story mostly through the old man who was portrayed by the late kiyoshi Kobayashi you may know him as the voice of Daisuke jegan in lupon III Zelda and Ganon both headlines as well marking the game as the first example of voice acting in a Zelda game developed by Nintendo despite ostensibly being a remake of the first Zelda there were significant changes to the design even beyond the time limits the Overworld map was cut in half from an 8x16 grid to an 8x8 one the dungeons were also redesigned spelling out saying Giga along with a skull and sword in spite of these changes the general landmarks of the game were basically the same as the original making it familiar to returning players what was different was how the game would sometimes automatically pause to accommodate dialogue [Music] these conveyed events that included item upgrades that made them infinite use increasing the likelihood of certain enemy drops and Merchant discounts it was also possible for the old man to cast spells that would summon a healing fairy or outright destroy all the enemies on screen finally he could convey changes such as obstacles disappearing enemies becoming stronger or weaker fairy Springs no longer working or the existence of limited time pickups like the red ring or magical sword in episode 4. even fighting Ganon was a limited time event accessible for only the final 15 minutes of the last episode he didn't wait in a dungeon though instead he appeared in the very first cave where the Triforce was used to open a secret door to his chamber finally there was the competitive aspect of the game where players could compare points in order to win prizes these scores were calculated based on whether Ganon Was Defeated how many pieces of the Triforce they were able to collect the number of restarts necessary how much they had been hit and the number of rupees that were collected considering that each rupee counted as one point and over a thousand could now be held they became the most important factor in achieving a high score although exact numbers aren't available the game seems to have been a massive hit in Japan the lead up to its initial run was lauded as a Summer Event and after its initial four-week broadcast sync Giga was inundated with postcards from fans asking for a rerun Nintendo obliged with a second broadcast in September for those who might have missed the first and that proved so popular that a third was run in October and a fourth in November even a year later the game overwhelmingly won a poll on what should be run again in January 1997. seeing the success of the game Nintendo decided to create another version titled map 2. this worked much like the original famicom game's second Quest and remixed the locations of many items while completely changing the map design of the eight dungeons this time they spelled out Nintendo released in late December of 1995 BS The Legend of Zelda map 2 would get its own rerun in March of 1996. neither game has been officially re-released by Nintendo making the experience lost media especially for Western fans only just discovering the game's existence thankfully certain players kept the data for the game on the rewritable memory packs making it possible to dump it onto the internet fans have since patched this data to remove the pauses and time limits while stringing the four episodes together some have even replaced the protagonist with link however the SoundLink aspect of the game is impossible to preserve leading fans to either provide text versions of these moments introduce fan dubs or cut them entirely Nintendo has brought back some saddle of view games in various forms over the years so it's possible they could preserve it themselves though it's unlikely at this point back in the west there was one more Zelda game release for The Philips CDI and it's arguably even worse than the more notorious faces of evil and wand of gamelon however this game was not developed by animation magic instead it was handled by Verity's Corporation a developer that primarily focused on edutainment titles for PC 3DO and CDI like animation magic veritis was given little oversight on how to develop the game from either Nintendo or Phillips their only instruction was to build off the template of a link to the past while still highlighting the three CDI features Phillips was so proud of like the previous Zelda CDI games viridis was given little budget to work with their solution was to create a game with realistic looking Graphics using digitized actors that would hopefully show off the capabilities of the console but verities wasn't exactly set up for the challenges of that kind of project the budget was so limited that they couldn't afford to rent a studio to film their actors instead they hung a mirror on the office ceiling then used a camera on the floor pointed up to record the actors as it was a top-down game why didn't they just Mount the camera well that was because the ceiling was far too low for the necessary shot and to capture the walking animations they had the actors walk on a treadmill of course if heridys didn't have enough money to rent a studio they certainly didn't have enough to hire professional actors instead all the characters were portrayed by the in-office staff with their receptionist playing Zelda during the FMV cutscenes while the composer played the old astronomer gaspara to Aid in the fmvs the team painted a wall in the office bright blue while indoor backgrounds and enemies were crafted by Jason bakutis who had actually worked on Hollywood projects like Critters 3 and Freddy's Dead As for the Overworld terrain there was no budget to get reference photos for various locales so instead they were pulled from the photo shoots for riddies could manage around Los Angeles as well as vacation photos taken by the staff pictures of Hawaii are some of the more notable locations but they were just typical family photos never intended for something like this some of the artists were also assigned to photograph different textures to use for the in-game scenery despite these efforts the CDI just wasn't powerful enough to handle their ideas the team wanted a massive game filled with over 600 screens and 160 different NPCs the president of varides even boasted early on that a single playthrough could take as much as 300 hours to complete none of these ideas came to pass Instead The Limited memory meant there were only a minuscule amount of NPCs and a far smaller map even the highly detailed backgrounds and Sprites had to be reduced in size and muted in color the music and sound design also ate up the available Ram causing the game to slowly load between each screen transition amazingly the game was mainly programmed by a single person the only thing he didn't handle was the inventory system and the tracking for the game's progress in the end Zelda's Adventure went through two years of play testing longer even than was spent developing it before it was released in May of 1996 exclusively in Europe as by that point Phillips had stopped publishing games in North America as evident from the title the game also focused on Zelda as a protagonist though the developers of verities claim they took no inspiration from Zelda the wand of gamelon Zelda's Adventure begins with hyrule's astronomer gaspra discovering that Ganon had conquered the land of tolamak and captured link now Zelda must travel to this new kingdom to retrieve the seven Celestial signs in order to stop Ganon and save link it says Bare Bones as one would expect with short FMV cutscenes playing after Zelda obtains each of the celestial signs in terms of gameplay it Hues much closer to the original game and a link to the past as it features dungeons though they must be explored in order rather than a sword Zelda is equipped with a wand that can be used to whack enemies or cast different spells found throughout the game each spell cost Rupees to use and and varies from different weapons to types of magic it's a robust list with 18 different spells available there are items in the game as well but few are actively usable like in other Zelda games instead most are required to progress or reach a new area and are often used automatically while sales numbers for Zelda's Adventure are hard to come by it releasing exclusively in Europe at the tail end of the cdi's life isn't a great sign the game is considered a rarity these days though whether it's worth having is another debate critics Savage the game with many citing the blurry unappealing Graphics its inability to play music and sound effects at the same time long load times between screens and the trial and error necessary to figure out what attack defeats which enemies those who had a fondness for the previous Zelda CDI games struggled to find anything positive in Zelda's Adventure however there are a few critics who find this to be the superior game due to it adhering closer to the Zelda formula back in Japan 1996 saw the release of the super famicom's follow-up the Nintendo 64 4. yet in spite of this new system support for the satellite view add-on continued with the anticipated follow-up BS The Legend of Zelda the ancient stone tablets which was first broadcast in March of 1997. serving as a pseudo sequel to A Link to the Past this once again sees the player Avatar entering the fortune teller's tent this time they discover a golden bee that leads them back to Hyrule where they're discovered by Zelda she explains that six years have passed since the end of a link to the past and that recently she's had premonitions of ganon's return worse is that link has left on a journey leaving Hyrule unprotected only by finding the eight ancient stone tablets can they turn back ganon's Rising forces and discover how to defeat the villain along the way the player Avatar dubbed the hero of light is aided telepathically by Zelda the fortune teller and a few others for the most part the gameplay in the ancient stone tablets followed the formula of BS Legend of Zelda the game was split into four episodes with each lasting an hour but rather than explore a truncated version of the original game Games map here the player had access to the light World version of A Link to the Past map but there were definite upgrades to the formula for one the implementation of SoundLink would no longer pause the game allowing players to continue their tasks voice acting in general was more prominent with it occurring not only at the beginning and end but during side quest as well like the previous game there were preset points during each episode where special events would happen this could range from fairies appearing magical attacks being cast and temporarily unlimited ammo for various items new to ancient stone tablets though were special events such as Zelda getting attacked by monsters rescuing a priest from the river or even something simpler like the weather changing or Monsters appearing on Moss unique to ancient stone tablets were the addition of more shops that sold ammunition upgrades sword enhancements or even rental items mini-games were added to the mix that allowed players to gamble for the chance to increase their rupee count this had the bonus effect of making the score competitions for prizes more Fierce as there were various secrets to find for Eva even more rupees the location of these events would even change in reruns so returning players wouldn't have an advantage there were also tweaks to the gameplay of a link to the past with players able to change directions while using the Pegasus boots and the removal of cracked walls forcing players to test them for a weakness which was introduced in Link's Awakening ancient stone tablets proved to be another popular game for the saddle of you gartering enough of a fan response that it was rebroadcast three more times first in June of 1997 then in December of 1998 and most significantly in May of 1999. that date marked the final SoundLink broadcast as Nintendo's relationship with Saint Giga had begun to sour due to the company's refusal to take on a debt management plan and failure to obtain a broadcasting license it's somehow fitting that the saddle of use SoundLink program began and ended with Zelda and like BS Legend of Zelda fans have managed to preserve a version of ancient stone tablets as there's been no indication that Nintendo will ever re-release it but that concludes part one of this look at the entirety of The Legend of Zelda's history when I return with part 2 it's time for Nintendo to take the series into the third dimension see the evolution of Link's 2D adventures and bring in a figure arguably just as important to Zelda as Miyamoto himself it's a fascinating Journey with some of the most documented history in gaming and I'm looking forward to covering it all but absolutely let me know some of your favorite or most infamous memories of any of the games I covered here and if you'd like to see even more retrospectives I've covered shimagami tensei the Xeno series and golden sun with plenty more planned for the future I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have for future subjects and any support to our patreon at patreon.com gvgaming is greatly appreciated in fact I'd like to take this opportunity to announce a new goal for our patreon if Good Vibes gaming reaches ten thousand dollars in monthly Revenue our patrons will be able to vote on a super retrospective for me to cover what does that mean basically I'll bring this level of depth and research to a game series with over a hundred entries whether that's Mario Pokemon Mega Man Final Fantasy or sonic but whether you support our patreon or just watch our videos it's all appreciated and hey please consider subscribing to the channel hitting that like button or ringing the bell if you haven't already I'll see you soon for part two of this three-part retrospective until next time bye foreign foreign

Channel: Good Vibes Gaming

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Length: 73min 55sec (4435 seconds)

Published: Mon May 08 2023