The History of The Legend of Zelda Series - From Pixels to Polygons

[Music] growing up in shinobi a rural town northeast of Kyoto Shigeru Miyamoto found himself fascinated by the exploration of the natural areas around his home during one such excursion Miyamoto happened upon a hole in the ground that he attempted to survey but his vision was obscured by the darkness the next day he returned armed with a lantern and shimmy down the hole finding himself in a cavern with multiple passageways leading into their own chambers exploring this cave captivated Miyamoto as he returned throughout the summer to gaze at the shadows on the wall created by the glow from his lantern over the years this story has become part of the legend of Miyamoto as it was a big influence on his future achievements in the mid to late 1970s toy company Nintendo enter the video game market with some arcade cabinets around the same time Miyamoto was just getting his start at Nintendo after presenting some of his toy creations to president Hiroshi Yamauchi nintendo developed an arcade game called RadarScope which they had hoped would become a big hit in america but unfortunately resulted in 2,000 unsold cabinets after a few years on the job Miyamoto was tasked with designing an arcade game to replace RadarScope in those cabinets his new game titled Donkey Kong ended up being a huge hit for Nintendo after a few more arcade hits such as Donkey Kong jr. and the original Mario Brothers Nintendo started their work on a home console in Denver in 1983 they released the Famicom in Japan which was renamed to the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES in America in the years prior the videogame industry had crashed in North America but the NES revived the industry with Miyamoto's pack and game called Super Mario Brothers in an attempt to continue the company's success Nintendo was looking to create a launch title for the Japanese add-on to the famicom called the Famicom disk system Miyamoto thought he should design a new game that fully exploited the advantages of the disk system Miyamoto co-directed the new game with Takashi Tezuka who directed games such as devil world and the original Japanese Super Mario Brothers 2 the original concept differed greatly than the end product we received he envisioned a game that allowed two players to create dungeons and explore each other's creations eventually the game formed into a one player experience that gave players a world to explore the dungeons hidden throughout Takashi Tezuka face the design of the protagonist linked off of Disney's Peter Pan the overworld was named Hyrule and it was heavily inspired by Miyamoto's childhood adventures exploring the countryside Miyamoto and his team had the concept down but they didn't yet have a title for the game of course the title of the game wasn't decided right at the beginning I knew I wanted it to be The Legend of something but I had a hard time figuring out what that something was going to be that's when the PR planner said why don't you make a story book for this game he suggested an Illustrated story where link rescues a princess who is a timeless beauty of classic appeal and mentioned there's a famous American author whose wife's name is Zelda how about giving that name to the eternal beauty I couldn't get behind the book idea but I really liked the name Zelda I asked him if I could use it and he said that would be fine and that is where the title The Legend of Zelda was born koji kondo the renowned composer behind the music for Super Mario Brothers return to compose music for this game at the time there weren't many games like The Legend of Zelda while it took some game design conventions from old Atari classics like adventure it also incorporated plenty of original ideas that helped establish a new sub-genre of the action-adventure game Miyamoto said the Indiana Jones movies were out around that time I wanted to bring that sense of adventure to a video game due to the capability of the Famicom disk system The Legend of Zelda was one of the first home console video games that let players save their progress which is more akin to PC games of the age this was helpful since the game was expansive and open-ended after starting the game the player is placed on a large map with no explicit instruction on what to do next and no arrow to point them in the right direction after link grabs a sword it is up to the player to explore and to figure out what to do Miyamoto superiors at Nintendo tried to convince him to make the game more linear since playtesters would often get lost in the game Miyamoto was stern on his idea though he believed that various people playing the game would talk to each other compare notes share the secrets that they have found and with their combined effort links quest would be less daunting and more rewarding The Legend of Zelda performed well enough to sell plenty of Famicom disk systems in Japan but since the disk system didn't exist in North America Nintendo faced some complications upon bringing the game overseas to bring the game West they needed to break the cartridge size barrier to allow for games with more data to include a save system they decided to add an internal Ram chip in the cartridge along with its own battery to keep it alive this save system would be the first of its kind and it also became the standard for cartridge based games that were too complicated for a password system all of this was wrapped in an elusive gold-painted cartridge which made the game feel even more prized did you see the latest Nintendo news letter wow nice graphics I'd like to get my hands on that game you mean you haven't played it yet we can play a win in to entertain system it's The Legend of Zelda and it's really rad those creatures from Guiana are pretty bad octorok some tic-tacs leavers too but with your help my hero falls to me yeah upon release the game was met with enough success than intend to quickly greenlit a sequel sequels were a funny thing for Nintendo back in the day for example the differences between Donkey Kong jr. and its predecessor nerve quite substantial the same can be said about Super Mario Brothers and the American super mario brothers 2 following suits Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link would also prove to be much different than the original Legend of Zelda with Miyamoto taking on a producer role and two Zuka setting his sights on other projects taking over the director's chair was Tadashi Sugiyama The Adventure of Link presented an overhead view while exploring the larger map but with switch perspective into a side-scrolling style while exploring towns or dungeons which is much more akin to the platforming genre this also made combat feel a bit more robust and buried than it did in the original game Zelda 2 also incorporated more RPG elements that were getting popular at the time for example the game included an experience point system that allowed players to upgrade their health or magic the game also ditched the desolate wasteland of the original for a more lively world with towns the player could interact with or at least attempt to interact with Zelda to proved to be more difficult than the original game including the introduction of what would become a fan favorite enemy Dark Link Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link performed quite well financially although it did not reach the heights of the original game history hasn't been kind to Zelda to as many view it as the black sheep of the series when compared to the original game and what would follow with a five-year long gap between Zelda 2 on the NES and The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past on the SNES fans had to be patient for the third installment in the franchise with that time returning game director Takashi Tezuka and his team were able to develop a fully realized world bristling with atmosphere from the moment that link leaves his uncle's house and travels to Hyrule Castle in the rain gamers knew that they were in for a true adventure that goes above and beyond what the previous two games had in store a Link to the Past proved to be more narrative driven than the original games were we gained a further understanding of the lore of Hyrule and the Triforce the protagonist isn't the same link we were accustomed to from the previous NES games instead this is a new generation of link arguably equipped with pink hair from here on out the series plays with the idea that Link and Zelda are reincarnated multiple times throughout the history of Hyrule the main villain of the series Ganon also comes back through various means throughout the series although not necessarily through reincarnation developers managed to make the world of Hyrule come to life with new characters and diverse locations hyrule favorites like Kakariko village make their first appearances here the gameplay took the best parts of the original Zelda and refined it to almost perfection the dungeons felt more unique the puzzles more varied the combat more fleshed out and the art design looked fantastic series mainstays like the Master Sword the hookshot and pieces apart were introduced with this release also this was the first game where players learned that they shouldn't attack the cuckoo's [Music] a Link to the Past had an interesting mechanic which let players switch back and forth between the two versions of the game world this parallel universe concept has been seen in many games since including future Zelda titles a Link to the Past performed well both financially and critically plenty of Zelda fans find a Link to the Past to be the best Zelda game ever released although that remains a widely debated topic what isn't debated is how influential this game ended up being for the future of the series [Music] fans did not have to wait long for links next outing this time available on a portable console the legend of zelda links awakening shifted backwards into the 8-bit realm on the monochromatic Gameboy system once again directed by Takashi Tezuka the game served as a direct sequel to a Link to the Past though it didn't take place in hyrule instead it takes place on : island after Link's shipwrecks there even with the downgrade and specs on the handheld the developers were able to incorporate many of the elements that made a Link to the Past great instant Link's Awakening for instance Link's Awakening features a quality narrative and introduces a variety of offbeat and quirky characters the dungeons in this game are made to feel more unique than in a Link to the Past achieved by giving each their own distinct music a first for the series though the majority of the game is played in an overhead view there were periodic side-scrolling sections reminiscent of Zelda to Nintendo's other properties even make appearances throughout the game such as a Chain Chomp goombahs Yoshi and even Kirby even weirder is that : island took inspiration from the fictitious town of the beloved American television show Twin Peaks Takashi Tezuka said at the time Twin Peaks was rather popular the drama was all about a small number of characters in a small town I wanted to make something that while it would be small enough in scope to easily understand it would have deep and distinctive characteristics you know this is excuse me a damn fine cup of coffee a colorized version of the game released on the Game Boy Color a few years later named Link's Awakening DX Link's Awakening ended up selling very well even better than a Link to the Past if you combined the sales from both releases at this point it seemed like the boy in the green tunic could do nothing wrong unfortunately there is a lot of history surrounding the ill-fated Philips CDI console Nintendo was to develop a CD add-on to the Super Nintendo with partners Sony and Philips ironically it would have also been named the PlayStation if it was released the name of Nintendo's biggest competitor today Nintendo never commercially produced this add-on but contractually Philips was allowed to develop games for their own platform using Nintendo licenses first there was Hotel Mario afterwards there were not one not two but three Zelda games on the Philips CDI first there was the cartoonish link the faces of evil and Zelda the wand of gamilon this later evolved into the more realistic looking Zelda's adventure technically wanda gamilon and Zelda's adventure were the first games that let players control Zelda herself although the appeal was limited phases of evil and wand of gamilon both feature side-scrolling gameplay similar to Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link except it is a lot slower and clunkier the Zelda's adventure had the more popular top-down perspective but that didn't help it much luckily for Nintendo the Philips CDI faded into obscurity and these games didn't tarnish the Zelda brand much as a result long before the downloading of games became as mainstream as it is today both Nintendo and Sega released their own versions of a downloadable game service Nintendo's was called the satellaview and it allowed games to be streamed over to the console in an episodic nature unfortunately this atella B was only available in Japan Nintendo remade the original Zelda game for the service called BS The Legend of Zelda BS standing for broadcast satellite instead of link the protagonist was the players own created avatar for the system due to the nature of the game being broadcasted to the system it had to be played in once it and it was only available for one hour each week that wasn't the only Zelda game offered on the Sotelo view though PS The Legend of Zelda ancient stone tablets was also released during a month-long events in 1997 it acts almost as an expansion to a Link to the Past but with an entirely new story and new dungeons each week players were given 50 minutes to play through one of the game's four segments each segment had two dungeons that needed to be completed if you didn't have enough time to complete the dungeons you would be unable to return to them the following week also this game allowed players to rent items temporarily instead of permanently obtaining them which is a concept Nintendo would later return to the Sotelo view games while an interesting experiment didn't really bring the Zelda series forward in terms of innovation luckily Nintendo had been hard at work creating a new Zelda game that would act as a prequel to all the other Zelda games that came before it on the newly released nintendo 64 console Zelda 64 later renamed to Ocarina of Time was in development for about four years which was completely unparalleled for Nintendo at the time newcomer to the series eg an Ummah directed the game throughout the development Nintendo showed off plenty of footage that differs greatly from the product we ended up receiving as this was the beginning of the console 3d era there wasn't much of a template to make games like Zelda work with the new perspective in the beginning Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time were being developed in conjunction as a result they influenced one another considerably instead of just making a 3d version of a top-down Zelda game Nintendo decided to go the route paved by Mario 64 with his camera since ocarina of time wasn't just a platformer they invented a target lock mechanic which they named z-targeting to make combat work in this new dimension players lock their camera onto the enemy they don't have to struggle with losing them off screen while this may seem commonplace today for a lot of 3d action games this was completely revolutionary for the time as the player rode their horses across Hyrule Field the world felt much more vast than it did in a Link to the Past although it did not have the light and dark world mechanic from the previous game this new link travels back and forth through time experiencing the game has a child and as an adult with the transition to 3d the developers could venture deeper into the storytelling department the game had some great pacing memorable characters and fantastic cinematography not to mention one of gaming's best soundtracks that is sure to stick in players minds forever on the gameplay side when players weren't exploring the overworld there were great dungeon designs filled with fun puzzles to break up the combat of the game ocarina of time also introduced plenty of races that we associate with Hyrule today like the gorons chica Kokiri and guru DOS one of the Garuda's introduces the antagonist Ganondorf which is the human form of Ganon from the previous games upon release The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time was almost universally greeted by exceptional reviews unsurprisingly it sold better than any previous Zelda game at the time and to this day is still viewed as one of the greatest games ever made to follow up on ocarina of time success the original plan was to create an expanded version of the game called burrow Zelda for the nintendo 64dd or disk drive system the game was reported to include alternate and more difficult dungeons and new enemies Nintendo was also working on another expansion called Zelda Gaiden which was to be a side story for link in a new overworld which we used the assets from ocarina of time due to the failure of the 64dd Nintendo had to rethink what they were going to do with these projects years later the remnants of eras Elda turned into the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Master Quest as for Zelda Gaiden Nintendo quickly turned it into a cartridge based direct sequel to Ocarina time called The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask once again eg o pneuma helm the director sees Majora's Mask featured similar gameplay to operate at a time but it also had a few big mechanic differences as link explores the new land of termina he has to contend with a Groundhog Day like three day in-game cycle once the third day hits a very angry moon will crash onto the planet and Link will need a reset time over and over again until he's prepared to stop the threat Majora's Mask wants players to learn the timeline of events and follow the story of many NPCs scattered across the world during these three days due to this Majora's Mask is much more sidequest nature than the other games majora's mask marks the first appearance of the creepy looking map merchant named tingle to assist him on his journey link collects an arsenal of masks that give him certain abilities there are a few transformation masks that let link turn into the different races of Hyrule like the Deku goron and Zora also the fan-favorite fierce deity mask was awarded to players who could collect all the other masks in the game The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask has a much darker tone than its predecessors the game is themed around death and dealing with grief there are moments in the game that feel very eerie and uncomfortable which makes majora's mask stand out in comparison to the other Zelda games even though Majora's Mask didn't sell or review as well as the last few major releases it is held on to a very loyal cult following over the years years earlier Link's Awakening and Link's Awakening DX prove that the Zelda formula works very well in a portable format which inspired Nintendo to continue creating 8-bit handheld adventures for the first time in the series Nintendo decided to outsource the games to another developer they place their faith into Capcom and flagship games to develop a trilogy of companion games that would interact with each other the idea proved to be a bit too ambitious so they scaled it back to a duo of games named Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons each game had a major mechanic to make themselves more distinguishable Oracle of Ages let players travel through time where Oracle of Seasons had puzzles that were time-sensitive due to the change of the seasons for dedicated fans who purchase both titles they could link the two games together to effect the world of the second game played overall Nintendo outsourcing the series to Capcom for a couple of titles seemed like a good move while Nintendo was working on the next big 3d Zelda game before the launch of the Nintendo GameCube they showed off a tech demo of how a Zelda game could look on that new Hardware after Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask this tech demo made fans excited for what another Zelda title could be with his graphic fidelity but fans got in the end was definitely not what they were expecting The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker brought forward a very ambitious new cel-shaded art style which showcased a much younger protagonist in a vibrant colorful world over the years this design of Link has been nicknamed toon this art style change had its critics at the time with some nicknaming the game Zelda but there is no denying how well the art style for the game has aged there is even an argument to be made that this was the best-looking incarnation for Ganondorf and the entire series the world of Wind Waker is much different than what players experienced in the previous games instead of exploring Hyrule via means of walking or on a horse players had a massive ocean to explore on a boat throughout the ocean link will find a bunch of smaller and remote islands with plenty of Secrets to discover although these design changes were controversial many found the winwaker a breath of fresh air for the series Nintendo made a game that was unlike anything that was made at the time between the amazing sense of adventure great atmosphere and the fantastic music Nintendo was able to pull off another classic unfortunately though the Wind Waker didn't sell nearly as well as earlier games like ocarina of time this isn't a mark against the quality of the product though it was more due to the fact that the GameCube itself did not do as well as previous Nintendo consoles Nintendo wasn't done with Toon Link after the Wind Waker released with a port of a Link to the Past on the GBA Nintendo created a bonus game called Four Swords they expanded on the Four Swords ideas with the GameCube spin-off called The Legend of Zelda Four Swords Adventures this game let players link their Game Boy advances to the GameCube to take on Ganon with friends for those wanting more of a single-player experience they can play the game without a gameboy advance connected Four Swords Adventures was definitely an interesting experiment in the Zelda series and you can see how this game could have been a bit of the inspiration that went into the Wii U many years later around this time eg an uma became the official producer over the entire Zelda franchise after doing directorial work on Ocarina of Time Majora's Mask and the Wind Waker he seemed more than qualified for the job to this day he has had a hand in every single Zelda game since ocarina at a time as either a producer director or supervisor Shigeru Miyamoto also continued working on the franchise and a producer role as well after the successful Oracle games Nintendo outsoar Zelda out 2 Capcom once again to create another full-length Zelda title on the Game Boy Advance The Legend of Zelda the Minish Cap had elements from the art style we saw from the Wind Waker but brought it back to the traditional overhead view the hook for the Minish Cap is that link can now turn almost microscopically small in certain situations to solve puzzles with the help of his hat named as lo how Numa said our first approach was to take our early image sketches and tried to convert them to 2d graphics on the Game Boy Advance one picture showed a tiny creature in a barrel and a tiny link another picture showed a corridor made out of the gaps between normal sized furniture and an unknown world opening up beyond stuff like that once we saw those images we could feel this is going to be an interesting game the Minish Cap was well received critically but it didn't exactly set the world on fire like the previous entries in fact it sold less than every main series Zelda game at that point if you look at the timeline of releases about one to two Zelda games are coming out almost every year since the new which could be a reason why it didn't sell as well gamers weren't exactly starved for a new Zelda title when Nintendo revealed the next 3d Zelda game fans were seriously ecstatic just listen to them [Music] many were looking for a darker Zelda title more in main of Link's Nintendo 64 Adventures and it looked like The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess was going to deliver in fact Twilight Princess proved to be even darker in tone than Ocarina of Time ever was although it followed the game's footsteps in a lot of ways for instance Epona Link's trusty steed from Ocarina Time and Majora's Mask makes a return in Twilight Princess not only that but it is believed that the hero shaped character that teaches the new link sword techniques might actually be the hero of time from the Nintendo 64 games throughout Twilight Princess link will transform into a wolf once he enters an area infected by the Twilight playing as wolf link varied up the gameplay a bit and added a unique twist on the Zelda formula that wasn't the only twist though since Twilight Princess was the first Delta game to release onto Nintendo consoles the GameCube and the Wii within a few weeks of each other on the Nintendo Wii they were able to add motion controls for Link when he swings his sword due to the fact that the majority of the world is right-handed the link in the past always was left-handed the developers decided to mirror the whole game on the Wii console aiming weapons like the bow used pointer controls from the infrared sensor on the Wii Remote which felt very natural the gamble to release this game on both consoles worked very well as Twilight Princess became the killer app behind Wii Sports for Louise very successful launch the game did well both financially and critically some critics noted that the motion controls for the sword on the Wii version felt tacked on and the visuals didn't seem as impressive for a game released on a new console Miyamoto himself was a bit critical about Twilight Princess citing that he felt it was missing something regardless the game proved to be a worthwhile adventure with a great story and some of the best dungeons we have ever seen in franchise history with the release of the Wii zapper a couple years later Nintendo made a shooter spin-off called Link's crossbow training that came with the accessory and used the assets from Twilight Princess it was a short but sweet arcade like experience that fit the Wii zapper way even after showing a more realistic art style with Twilight Princess Nintendo wasn't done with Toon Link still The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass was a direct sequel to the Wind Waker but now with an overhead view on the Nintendo DS Phantom Hourglass controlled quite a bit differently than the Zelda titles before it instead of using the traditional controls that were available the player would exclusively control link using the bottom touchscreen on the Nintendo DS at the time this was a pretty controversial choice looking back this style of play was much ahead of its time considering how mobile gaming has changed due to the touch screens on our phones even with the radically different controls it was still very much a Zelda game it added a nice sense of exploration by letting players draw on their maps and mark locations that they should visit and also to make notes some of the mechanics from the Wind Waker make their return like controlling a boat in a vast ocean unlike the Wind Waker though the player simply charts out a path for the boat to take automatically leaving the player to concentrate on defending itself until they arrive upon release the game performed well critically and financially Phantom Hourglass actually managed to sell twice as well as links previous portable outing diminish gap it wasn't too long afterwards that Nintendo started working on a sequel to Phantom Hourglass named the Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks this was set in a new Hyrule that took place a hundred years after the events of the Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass much like how the Wind Waker incorporated boat travel spear tracks was heavily based around a new concept for the Zelda series train travel once off the train the gameplay is very similar to Phantom Hourglass this game might be the most apt one to be called The Legend of Zelda throughout the game the spirit of Zelda works as your personal guide and she can also possess the Phantom's around her by possessing the Phantom's she can offer both offensive and defensive back up for length she can also be used to solve various puzzles inside a reoccurring dungeon in the game considering that Zelda is a relatively minor role at most of the Canon releases in the franchise this was an interesting change to see upon release the game did not perform as well as Phantom Hourglass before it these two Nintendo DS games proved to be an interesting experiment in the Zelda franchise Nintendo has shown that they are very willing to try new and married concepts when it comes to making new games in the series even when it comes to basic things like control Nintendo is far from done experimenting with how we interact with our video games tingle a fan favorite character most notably from Majora's Mask and the Wind Waker had a slew of spin-off games that weren't available in America freshly-picked tingles rosy rupee land was the first to released followed by the Club Nintendo exclusive tingles balloon fight vs and lastly ripened tingles balloon trip of love and rosy rupee LAN had some elements of puzzle solving and dungeon exploring we were used to from the Zelda series balloon fight vs was essentially a remake of the original balloon fight from the NES balloon trip of love was a bit more unique since it was a point and click game set as a parody of The Wizard of Oz fans had to wait about five years for the next big 3d Zelda game to release for the Nintendo Wii directed by hit amaro fujibayashi while Twilight Princess introduced basic motion controls the game was primarily a GameCube release that was ported to the week plenty of people wondered how a Zelda game would be if it was developed solely to work with the Wiis strengths at e3 2010 fans got their first glimpse at The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword using the Wii MotionPlus accessory Skyward Sword let players control the sword one to one with the Wii Remote some enemies require the player to slash horizontally or vertically to fight them due to this it is very important for the player to read the enemy stamps and decide what type of sword swing they should use simply swinging wildly like the player might have done on Twilight Princess just wouldn't work out how Numa said we had motion plus and when that technology came out we wanted to implement it in Zelda and so we started looking at the sword to be honest with you we weren't able to get the effectiveness we were looking for and we tried some different ways to implement it and it really wasn't going well for us and we actually decided that we're not going to put in motion plus let's just move on with something else but then we sports resort came out and it's swordplay mode used Wii MotionPlus really well so then we said wait a minute you can actually implement it in a way that allows people to use that sword very freely and very naturally so we went and talked with the development team and we were able to borrow some of their technology and then put it back into the Legend of Zelda there are plenty of other additions to the game play with emotion controls like throwing versus rolling a bomb on the ground depending on how you move the Wii Remote instead of a horse or a boat or a train link can now navigate the clouds above Hyrule using his loft wing which is a giant bird he can ride on when not riding on his bird link can run for a limited time without using an item with the introduction of a stamina meter true to Zelda tradition this new game had a completely new watercolor esque arts that made the world feel like it was hand-painted along with that this was the first game in the franchise to have fully orchestrated music Skyward Sword is set as the earliest game in the Zelda timeline for those people interested in the Zelda timeline Dark Horse released a book the same year that Skyward Sword came out that showcased the timeline if anyone watching this video doesn't know how the Zelda games connect with one another I'd recommend either buying the Hyrule historia book or watching the various YouTube videos dedicated to explaining the timeline when released Skyward Sword didn't sell as well as most of the 3d Zelda titles before it although it mostly received the critical praise that the Zelda series has been known for time hasn't been very kind for Skyward Sword has a lot of people find it to be the weakest 3d Zelda game common complaints were that the new control system didn't work as well as some people would like inversely there was also plenty of people who had never had an issue with the controls whatsoever and welcomed the change to the formula some people complain that the sky was less interesting to explore than what we have seen in the past for the Zelda series the developers at Nintendo surely heard this complaint and kept it in mind to make exploring the world interesting and rewarding for the next console bound Zelda title before that game would come to fruition Nintendo started developing titles for the Nintendo 3ds first was a remake of Ocarina of Time for the 3ds this remake had better visuals and some better quality of life features they also added the Master Quest mode from before with a mirrored twist similar to the Wii version of Twilight Princess a few years later they gave Majora's Mask the same treatment also on the 3ds the handheld wasn't the only system to see other Zelda titles make a comeback on the Wii U game errs were able to experience an HD version of the Wind Waker another few years later an HD version of Twilight Princess also made its way to store shelves unlike a lot of other ports or remakes that we see in the gaming industry Nintendo really spent their time with each game and tried to fix some of its shore Cummings in between all these remakes and HD remastered ports Nintendo was working on an original Zelda game for the Nintendo 3ds or at least a loosely original Zelda game The Legend of Zelda a link between worlds is a sequel to a Link to the Past so much so that they remade the entire map from the original game in Japan the name of the game is actually called The Legend of Zelda Triforce of the Gods too since Triforce of the Gods was the name of a Link to the Past in that region instead of traveling through the light and dark world versions of Hyrule link now travels between Hyrule and lorule Nintendo went back to the traditional controls from the other overhead Zelda games with this title there were a few mechanics added to a link between worlds that set it apart from the other Zelda titles the first was a wall merging mechanic that let link traverses a painting on most of the walls on the game this proved to be a fun mechanic for puzzle solving a link between worlds also added the ability to rent all the items you need for dungeons from a shop in the overworld this is a pretty big feature since it allows for a lot more freedom in the order the player can complete the dungeons of the game how Numa said in previous Elder games we created the scenarios and linked them together in a line but ultimately that becomes super linear I think that's not really that much fun what I wanted to do with this new game a link between worlds is to be able to give the players lots of choices and let them be able to think about things for themselves a link between worlds did very well critically Nintendo's risk on changing the structure that so many Zelda games had relied on for so many years was a success around this time Nintendo gave koete ECMO the reins to create a Zelda title on the Wii U and the same vein as their Dynasty Warriors franchise Hyrule warriors didn't play like most of the other Zelda titles as it was much more focused on large-scale battles Alette players control a huge roster of Zelda characters from the whole franchise it proved to be a very fun spin-off full of references to the whole series that long time fans would enjoy later in its lifespan the game would be ported to the Nintendo 3ds and the switch with additional content it didn't take long for Nintendo to develop another Zelda game in the same vein as a link between worlds The Legend of Zelda Triforce heroes was very reminiscent of the Four Swords games the game was developed around the idea of three player co-op action though could also be played solo multiplayer was much easier this time around due to the wireless capabilities of the Nintendo 3ds instead of the massive Link cables on the Gamecube in the GBA between their experiments on the 3ds Nintendo was in a good position to make a truly different and revolutionary new title for the series the first trailer for a new Zelda game on the Wii U was shown at e3 2014 it showcased a very different looking link in a gorgeous new open-world though The Legend of Zelda breath of the wild was originally intended to be released in 2015 multiple delays saw the game's release in 2017 alongside the Nintendo switches launched during development the dev team created a 2d style prototype in the vein of the original Legend of Zelda to test out ideas since the game heavily focused on open-world interactivity this proved to be a good test bed for the developers to use much like a link between worlds this new game proved to be a lot less linear than the previous entries in the franchise within the first hour or two of the game the player is presented with all the tools he will need to complete all the puzzles in the game if the player wanted to rush over to complete the final dungeon and defeat the final boss right at the beginning of the game they could returning game director Heidi Mara fujibayashi said after working on Skyward Sword we took in a lot of feedback from fans as well as way producer egi Numa had been thinking along with myself and then we came up with this concept of really breaking conventions and also we were looking to create the next iteration of Zelda it all kind of lined up to create this new direction with sets breath of the wild apart from a lot of open-world games of the modern era is the very intelligent use of sight lines the world was designed in such a way that there is almost always something interesting to see and explore in the distance the game introduces the concept of shrines hidden all over the vast landscape of Hyrule these shrines act as mini dungeons that give players the chance to up create their health or stamina meter upon completion there are bigger dungeons in the game but there aren't as many as there are in most of the other 3d Zelda titles much like Triforce heroes before it Lincoln don't many types of clothing or armor options with their own unique abilities breath of the wild also acted voice acting for the first time in a cannon Zelda title though I don't know if it matches the high bar of quality from the CDI titles here you can be the judge it sure is boring around here breath of the wild proved to be a huge success upon release it was the killer app that the Nintendo switch needed during its launch currently breath of the wild holds a sales record when compared to the rest of the franchise the Wii U version of the game ended up being the last Nintendo produced game to release on that console critically the game did very well with some people calling it one of the best games ever made a few years later indie developer brace yourself games created a spin-off title called cadence of high roll this took the rhythm game play from brace yourselves previous work crimped in the necrodancer and mixed it with the Zelda franchise primarily a Link to the Past since the Zelda franchise is known for its fantastic music this mashup was a match made in heaven between the Capcom Zelda titles Hyrule warriors and cadence of Hyrule Nintendo's experiments handing off the Zelda reins to other developers have proven to be very successful where does the franchise go from here in February 20 1999 ounce the remake of Link's Awakening on the switch the game showcases another fantastic new art style that the series can explore this game is set to be released on September 20th 2019 at e3 2019 Nintendo launched a teaser trailer for a sequel to breath of the wild this trailer had a much darker tone than the original breath of the wild so will be interesting to see where Nintendo takes that game we don't have a launch date or an official title for the game as of yet The Legend of Zelda is a franchise that lives up to its name it is a true legend for the gaming industry throughout the last 30 years the series brought forth so much innovation to how we play video games now millions upon millions of players across the globe have known the green tunic to embark on a grand adventure full of discovery and Wonder it has been able to maintain its relevance across multiple generations of people and is showing no signs of slowing it is a series that taught us that although it is dangerous to go alone courage will help you see it through thank you everybody for watching this is the fourth from pixels to polygons video I have made so if you're interested and learning the history of other franchises go ahead and click on the channel and watch some of the other videos currently we have one for Metroid Metal Gear and Resident Evil if you have any suggestions for videos you would like for us to make in the future go ahead and send a suggestion at the listed email on the screen thanks for watching you

Channel: CHANNEL REQUIRES DLC

Views: 373,986

Rating: 4.9397397 out of 5

Keywords: Zelda, The Legend of Zelda, History, Retrospective, Zelda Series, Link's Awakening, Link's Awakening Remake, Ocarina of Time, A Link To The Past, From Pixels to Polygons, Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, A Link Between Worlds, Skyward Sword, Minish Cap, Link, Hyrule, ZOMG_Logan, Channel Requires DLC, Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, Breath of the Wild, The History of Zelda

Id: IwKJqPWLrUg

Length: 45min 26sec (2726 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 15 2019