Category: The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom continues the series’ legacy of strong, stirring musical compositions. Its music complements the player experience while heightening or relieving tension during gameplay and cutscenes. Some of its pieces are also just a joy to hear outside of the confines of the game and are already beloved by Zelda fans (see the winner of Zelda Dungeon’s 2024 Musical March Madness for a prime example). Composer and musician DarkNuck is one of those fans…

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a gorgeous game that has inspired many in the fan community to create their own takes on many of its iconic characters and landscapes. Some have produced amazing pieces of fan art, while others have created remixes and covers of the game’s music. No matter the medium, the creativity within the community shows how much fans admire and want to honor the masterpiece that is Tears of the Kingdom. One group…

One of the most thrilling parts of my favorite Zelda games is the iconic moment where Link retrieves what is known as the “Blade of Evil’s Bane,” or sometimes the “Sword that Seals the Darkness,” or its most common name, the Master Sword. Link has a whole bunch of different weapons in his arsenal in every entry in the series. Sometimes those weapons are even other magical swords, but there is something about a Zelda game that includes the Master…

In my household Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth has taken over our main TV since its release in February. My husband guided my way through the original about 15 years ago and while it won’t replace my love for all things The Legend of Zelda, I respect Final Fantasy VII as a game and as a great example of deep storytelling. Compared to Zelda, it has a way more complicated, intricate plot that takes several twists and turns. Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and crew…

I love solving the shrines. It’s one of my favorite parts of the game, and I’m always so disappointed when I get to a shrine to discover that it’s a blessing and not another puzzle to solve.  I know in theory you’ve already solved a quest or task to reach the shrine, but you can’t have too many puzzles, can you? I was very pleased when I realized Tears of the Kingdom has 32 more shrines than Breath of the…

Motion controls have been a staple of 3D Zelda since the 2006 release of Twilight Princess for the Wii. That game, despite being designed for GameCube without motion controls in-mind, was a hit. Since then, we’ve seen varying levels of motion control implementation across the series’ 3D titles. Skyward Sword extrapolated upon Twilight Princess’ controls, utilizing Wii Motion Plus capabilities in an attempt to simulate one-to-one swordplay. Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora’s Mask 3D used the 3DS’ and 2DS’…

The creative process in video games, films, and television is very complex, and it is always fascinating to see how characters, settings, and story events evolve over the course of development. One of the best tools for exploring the development of a project are “making of” or “art of” reference books. These books often contain concept art from different points in a project’s development along with interviews with key figures involved in the project. Over the past decade, Nintendo has…

Everyone’s favorite professional wrestler and actor, John Cena, caused rumors to bound throughout the Zelda fandom by posting a no-context photo of 8-bit Link from the first game on Instagram earlier this week — unintentionally or otherwise. There wasn’t even an accompanying description. Sifting through the comments, the cryptic image caused many to question, “But, what does it mean?” No matter what it means, it’s certainly amusing. The obvious assumption is that John Cena is being cast in the upcoming…

The first set of DLC for Breath of the Wild, dubbed The Master Trials, was made available just three months after the game’s release on the 30th June 2017. Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi stated that The Master Trials was created for “core gamers and people who wanted an extra gameplay-based challenge.” To that end, the DLC introduced several new features that increased the challenge of the base game, including Master Mode and the Trial of the Sword, and new features that…

Speedrunning is a part of the Zelda community that I do not have a lot of experience with. The first time I paid any attention to speedrunning was in Spring 2019 when I attended my first Zelda Dungeon Marathon. Even getting into the mindset for speedrunning (let alone doing very well in my runs) is very challenging because it requires me to play Zelda games at a pace that is different from how I usually play Zelda games. I enjoy…