The Decline of The Legend of Zelda

Thats right folks, Brian feels the series has been a decline ever since the release of the very first title in the series. Thats a starch contrast to those of us that feel it started after Ocarina of Time, or even those that feel it really only started to decline with Twilight Princess and Phantom Hourglass. However, why do other Zelda’s seem to not be as good as the original?

“A lot of you wonder why I feel such love and adoration for such an old

and seemingly obsolete game. It’s a fair question and to be honest I’m

not sure I can express it in words. The game was a revelation at the

time it came out. There had been adventure games before, but nothing

like this. It was the enormous world, the special weapons, the idea

that a player had a choice of where to go and what to do that made this

game a cut above all others. A friend and I played it together, making

our own maps, tag-teaming the dungeons, going on my crazy hunches—

which my friend was always skeptical of (like finding the Red Ring in a

room invisible on the map; he didn’t want to waste the bomb). It was an

enthralling experience, and that probably lends to my warm feelings for

it. Perhaps you just had to be there. Still, there is no questioning

the quality of the game. The level design, graphics, superb musical

score, everything about the game exudes class and style. It was

unprecedented at the time and, as I would come to learn, something that

would never be repeated.”

As he goes on to say, it was with the following interation that Zelda immediately broke the mold of what made the original so great. The exploration was greatly reduced, things were much more linear, and some concepts the original had are long gone. Take the lasers shooting from the sword: Last time we even saw this ability was in The Adventure of Link, and even then it was limited as you could no longer shoot it all the way across the screen. Wait a second, isn’t OoT the pinnacle of the Zelda franchise?

“There has been a lot of talk on the site recently about whether or not

the venerable Ocarina of Time is in fact overrated. One might think

that I’m inclined to agree that it is, but I actually don’t. I think

Ocarina of Time is a true masterpiece and deserves every ounce of

respect and acclaim it gets. But how can that be when I have already

asserted that I still believe the original Legend of Zelda game to be

superior to all others? It’s simple really. Ocarina of Time is not

overrated, but other Zelda games are underrated, especially the first

one. Ocarina is an amazing game. At the time, translating a franchise

to 3-D successfully was a big achievement, and it wasn’t always done

well (still isn’t in some cases). Ocarina captured every bit of the

feel and spirit of Zelda and ushered it into a new age. When all is

said and done, however, I’d still rather play the original for all the

reasons I’ve already mentioned. That and the music is better (I’ve

never been much of a fan of the redone Hyrule themes when compared to

the original). So, in all respect due to my colleagues and readers,

Ocarina deserves its high place in history, but other Zelda games

deserve a place above even that.”

There you have it then, a person who logically places The Legend of Zelda above OOT, and feels all other games do not even come close. He has much more to say on the topic, including some thoughts on Link’s Awakening, A Link to The Past, and The Adventure of Link. Click here to check out the rest of the article.

As for my thoughts? Zelda is on a decline, but I am not so sure it started after the original release. While he makes a lot of valid points, and there really are a lot of things from the original game I want to see make a return (such as the truly open world), there are some things that I think happened that would make a title such as A Link to the Past much more reasonable for the start of the decline. In either case, I applaud Brian for his thoughts and am glad to see a perspective that doesn’t seem to be looked at too often. Truly, The Legend of Zelda was a masterpiece beyond comprehension.