Daily Debate: If You Were Forced to Erase One Zelda Game from History, Which One Would You Choose?
Posted on August 27 2019 by Rod Lloyd
The Legend of Zelda is one of those special video game series that has no truly bad game within it. Even the lesser regarded games have their fair share fans and feature a few shining moments. As a diehard Zelda fan, I can’t really say that any game in the series doesn’t deserve to exist. But what if… I was forced to choose one? If, with a gun pointed to my head, I had to select one Zelda game to erase completely from the boundaries of both reality and history, which one it be?
In the spirit of honesty, I must point out that I’ve presented this question as a Daily Debate before. Back then, I made the argument that The Wind Waker should be the Zelda game erased from history, not because it remains to be one of my least favorite entries — though there’s something to that — but because removing it would thus remove the outrage originally associated with the title. “What if Twilight Princess had been the only 3D Zelda game on the GameCube? How exciting would that have been,” I thought.
But after a few years of consideration, I have changed my mind on the subject. I now see that removing The Wind Waker from history would change the nature of the Zelda series as we see it today. The Wind Waker proved that The Legend of Zelda could succeed with multiple different art styles, with various different tones, and with many different ways of presenting an adventure. The Zelda series is so diverse today; just look at the trailers for Link’s Awakening and Breath of the Wild 2. And we can certainly thank The Wind Waker for helping to usher in that diversity.
But what game would I erase then? Well, I think now that I would remove Skyward Sword from history; again, not because it is a bad game, but because it seems to be forever bound to the technology of the Wii. Skyward Sword, with its emphasis on motion controls, was a noble experiment for sure, but we now know it as the Zelda game that Nintendo seems most dismissive of when speaking on remakes or remasters. Eiji Aonuma was even caught off guard when asked about remaking the game without motion controls in a recent interview.
Skyward Sword realistically can’t work without motion controls; and as we move farther and farther away from the Wii generation, the chances of the game getting a re-release in any form becomes more and more unlikely. I don’t like the thought of a Zelda game that cannot be re-released. So to avoid any disappointment on the part of the fanbase, I’d choose to delete Skyward Sword from history (if I had to, at least).
If you were forced by an unjust god to delete a Zelda game completely from history, which one would you sacrifice? How different do you think the Zelda series and history itself would be without this game? Join the debate in the comments below!
Rod Lloyd is the Editor-In-Chief at Zelda Dungeon, overseeing the news and feature content for the site. Rod is considered the veteran of the writing team, having started writing for Zelda Informer in 2014 as a Junior Editor. After ZD and ZI officially merged in 2017, he stepped into the Managing Editor role and has helped steer the ship ever since. He stepped up to lead the writing team as Editor-In-Chief in 2023.
You can reach Rod at: rod.lloyd@zeldadungeon.net
