Tag: Editorial

In games like Ocarina of Time, designating a specific element to each dungeon made perfect sense because each corresponded to a Sage of said element. In many Zelda games a similar pattern is followed, either by having the player collect element specific items within the temples or placing them in provinces that bear the same elemental traits as the dungeon residing in it. This made receiving and using specific weapons in each temple viable, but with a new age of…

“I have scattered the seeds of the future.”  SPOILERS FOR THE WIND WAKER FOLLOW

The art style of each Zelda game can turn into a hotly debated topic; while some think that Twilight Princess has a dark and mature visual tone, others see it as dark and drab. I believe that in these debates, the most important aspects of the art are lost, namely how well they mesh with or add to the rest of the game.

I just got back home from Montreal, and between seeing the sights and eating smoked meat sandwiches, I had the chance to see a performance at the Master Quest edition of the Symphony of the Goddesses. Things have certainly changed a fair bit since I last saw it in 2012, and I thought I’d give my two cents on what was, is, and could be done with the show, for anyone still on the fence about grabbing some tickets. Hit…

Welcome to the twelfth and final installment of Piece of Heart, where we look at The Legend of Zelda series through the eyes of a literary professor and examine how its literary elements enhance the gaming experience. This week’s lesson is titled “It’s Never Just Heart Disease… And Rarely Just Illness.” We’re going to take a step away from the weather in setting, to look at the weather in one’s soul. A disease of the heart is almost always caused…

Welcome to the eleventh installment of Piece of Heart, where we look at The Legend of Zelda series through the eyes of a literary professor and examine how its literary elements enhance the gaming experience. This week’s lesson is titled “…So Does Season.” Similar to geography, the season during which a game takes place has a profound affect on the overall theme of the adventure. For instance, Winter usually denotes death and hopelessness, so the despair surrounding Queen Rutela’s death…

While I consider myself a life-long Zelda fan, I’m ashamed that at the age of 27 I have yet to completely finish the first game in the series. Thankfully, in the last few weeks I have changed that, and can now say that I completed the entire Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was a long and arduous journey but it was one well worth my time; there were a few gameplay mechanics that really stuck to…

Welcome to the tenth installment of Piece of Heart, where we look at The Legend of Zelda series through the eyes of a literary professor and examine how its literary elements enhance the gaming experience. This week’s lesson is titled “Geography Matters…” The gist of it is that certain environments breed certain types of people– culturally, psychologically, financially, historically, and otherwise. Aside from general settings, specific geographical monuments also have significance. The effect of geography is easy to see in…

The Legend of Zelda has a long and storied past with mobile systems; indeed, the marriage of the two dates as far back as the series’ fourth game, Link’s Awakening.  In this article, I take a look at the design of portable Zelda games by comparing Link’s Awakening, the oldest, and A Link Between Worlds, the youngest, side by side.

Welcome to the ninth installment of Piece of Heart, where we look at The Legend of Zelda series through the eyes of a literary professor and examine how its literary elements enhance the gaming experience. This week’s lesson is titled “Flights of Fancy”. This chapter could be wholly devoted to Skyward Sword since the name itself implies a departure from land, but instead we’ll examine literal, figurative, and ironic instances of flight that occur throughout the Zelda series. The Legend…