Tag: Article

The last article I wrote began with a call to arms for Nintendo. They were being left behind in the new culture of gaming, I said, because of their reliance on gameplay to the detriment of their story. I pitched a grand vision of a single Link’s tale concluding in the upcoming game A Link Between Worlds. I talked about how they should allow that story to connect with the gameplay by allowing players to traverse a Hyrule changed since…

Time is concept that is very common within the Legend of Zelda series; with 16 installments over 27 years, the series has brought us a total of six games which have used the idea of time in some manner. Time has also played a factor in the grand scheme of Zelda in the form of the timeline itself. Ocarina of Time has three alternate outcomes — two of which were a consequence of Princess Zelda sending Link back in time…

In a series like Zelda, with so many foes of every variety — villains, bosses, and regular enemies — it’s no surprise that not all of them are that well fleshed-out. The vast majority of bosses are never elaborated upon, though even as early as A Link to the Past you had a boss with an actual backstory in Blind. The villains, while they often have plenty of story details to their name, can also tend to be very simplistic…

Zelda stories have changed. You could make the argument that many follow the same framework, with a princess being captured at some point, a villain wreaking havoc, and a world to save. Medallions or other relics might play a role in unlocking something somewhere. However, you could also take a look first at the original, 8-bit Legend of Zelda, where most of the character interaction consisted of talking to old men who were disconnected from the rest of the world,…

Outlining the biology of Zelda races is an exciting and daunting task. After my previous article regarding the biology of the Gerudo, I have gone deeper into this study and have developed biological theories on the Goron race as well. Gorons have appeared in every Zelda game released after their first appearance in Ocarina of Time — with the exception of Four Swords — and this provides us with a lot of material to examine in attempting to understand the…

Let’s talk about stories. To those of you familiar with my article work on this site, you will know that I have a deep passion for storytelling, and specifically, story structure. I’ve written about the monomyth — or, as it is more commonly called, the “Hero’s Journey” — and how this literary phenomenon is reflected within the Zelda series. I’ve talked at length about Joseph Campbell’s theories and their pertinence to both the series and video gaming at large. It…

Gameplay is without a doubt the most important feature of a Zelda game. Nearly every release has emphasized it over every other aspect — with the exception of Twilight Princess, which was designed to be a more cinematic experience — and rightfully so. Gameplay is the main feature of video games in general. The interactivity video games provide is something that no other visual medium can hope to recreate, making it an important factor in any video game, even if…

“Psychopomp” is a really funny-sounding word that simply refers to a figure or entity who escorts deceased souls to the afterlife. Each psychopomp has different rules, behavior, treatment or transportation of souls, and indeed even send them to different afterlives. With legends about what happens when people die being so prominent in religions both old and new, it should be no surprise that the Zelda series takes a lot of influence from the many psychopomps featured in them. While of…

I’ve gone on the record as saying that Majora’s Mask is my favorite game of all-time. While that has changed recently (blame Bioshock Infinite), it remains one of my favorites and the single best game in the Zelda series by my vote. I could explain at great length the many reasons why that is, but what all of them boil down to is that the game is so wonderfully enigmatic, so incredibly intriguing in so many ways, that I can…

Overworlds tend to be the most memorable parts of Zelda games. While most of the gameplay generally takes place in the dungeons or towns scattered throughout, the overworld shapes the character and tone of a game. The Great Sea is one of the most interesting locations yet featured as an overworld. While some may dislike the Triforce quest or the supposed emptiness of the Great Sea, it no doubt defined and summarized the basic character and tone of The Wind…