The Legend Begins

Felt like doing something simple

OK, sorry this took so long, been playing other games, moving, going to school, going to work. You know, life. I actually finished Zelda one about a week and a half ago and already started on Zelda two a bit, though I've also gotten really into the Banjo games again, maybe I'll do a review of those too.

So, The Legend of Zelda, what can I say? It's fun, really fun, and no matter how much criticism I give it that's what's important. Even when I was dying, even when I was astounded by the crazy prices of some things, even when my Big Shield was getting eaten and Wizzrobes were shredding me like a cheese grater I was still having fun.

Released in 1986 as the big launch title for the Famicom Disc System, and in 1988 in the US as the first game to have a battery backup allowing players to perform the task now taken for granted, saving your game. The quakes sent out by this game had to have been huge, and I only wish I was alive at the time, I know how I felt about saving your game when I first played this one since it was my first game that allowed saving, but it probably wasn't nearly the same.

First file select screen ever. For the record, in my file my name was Zilla (my Zelda 2's is Gamera), and my death count was around 30.

So anyways, this game is a classic, and an important milestone in modern gaming history, but how does it stack up? Seeing as it was my first time playing it in about 14 years my memory of it was fuzzy at best. Well, when I first turned it on, I picked up the sword, and then proceeded to get totally lost.

Yep, it's one of those games.

I eventually found two pieces of heart and then stumbled my way into Level 3, which I quickly exited and then remembered where Level 1 was.

Before dungeons though, let's talk about the overall game itself. If you're going to play Zelda 1 and you're only experience with the 2-D games is A Link to the Past or any of the Gameboy ones you need to immediately throw out everything you know. For starters, Zelda 1 moves on a psuedo-grid, meaning only four directions, and Link only stabs, he doesn't slash across a quarter of the screen. You have no idea how difficult that makes the game in comparison to the others. On top of that, Link moves relatively slowly, there are a lot of enemies on most screens, you can only block attacks while standing still, gathering rupees takes incredibly long amounts of time unless you get lucky or know the trick to Money Making Game, things are expensive, you can only carry two full heal potions at once and they're expensive to buy, Arrows drain from your rupee supply, you can only carry 8 bombs (though you can get up to 16 if you, you guessed it, pay a high amount), bombable things have no indication you can bomb them, and bosses are usually the easiest part of a dungeon, to the point where you fight three of the level 2 boss in level 3.

And yet you're surprisingly not screwed. Turns out all Dodongos dislike smoke.

And despite, or perhaps because of all that, the game is amazingly fun and charming. Unlike later Zelda games cash is never really useless, the challenge is real, but it doesn't feel like an issue, and combat is the main focus of the game.

The reason the challenge never becomes overwhelming in this game, is the same reason the lack of challenge can become rather tedious in the later games, and it comes from one brilliant design choice. No matter how many times you die every life gains you progress. Any doors you opened stay open, any items you got you keep, any keys you got you keep, any rupees are kept. If you die in a dungeon a few times you can just leave, go grab the blue ring or Magical Sword, or a potion and then run back in and try again. Everything will be there just the way you left it. This means no matter how challenging it gets, you never lose, you just need to dust yourself off and keep going, and with saving you can take a break and come back to it later.

So I keep talking about the challenge, and I talked about the restricted movement and limited potions, but why else is it challenging? Simply put, the regular enemies. Some of them are tough, really tough, and rooms are swamped with them. Examples:

This is a Blue Darknut. It can appear in groups of up to I believe eight. It takes several hits to kill, it can only be hit from the side or back, it likes to chase you, it moves faster than you, it does multiple hearts of damage, and it is often fought in claustrophobic obstacle heavy rooms where you NEED to kill all of the Darknuts to progress. If you don't have your sword beams then these guys, while not impossible, or freaking tough. Good luck with that

These are Wizzrobes. They teleport or move invincibly, they shoot attacks that do lots of damage and they come in fairly large groups. Their attacks require you to either move quickly or stand still to not die, and they can only be blocked with a big shield. They are often paired with:

Like Likes. These guys eat your big shield if you didn't know. It's never a good idea to stand still OR  move haphazardly around a Like Like. Good luck with that.

This is Ganon. He's a boss, not a regular enemy though I'm sure you knew that. I'm just mentioning him because in this game Ganon is invisible while you fight him. Good luck with that.

So yeah, Zelda is hard (although Zelda 2 is so far tougher than I remember it), and it's some of the most fun I've had with a game in the past few months. I've been playing plenty of great games so it's strange isn't it? I wasn't playing easy games at all so the challenge isn't the reason, but it was just so unexpectedly difficult due to an unfamiliarity with the controls. I was having an easier time with Ninja Gaiden. The reason I had fun with it though, is the simplicity. The game starts right away, and kicks you into the adventure. No opening cutscene, just some text scroll if you wait. No bullshit training level, no stupid scenes when you enter an area, no loading screens, nothing bogging it down, and the game comes out all the better for it in a gaming world populated with overemphasis on garnish.

So I'm going to have to give Zelda one a Play. You don't have to play it all the way through, but if you haven't played it yet you do need to get off your butt and see what gaming is like without all the fancy stuff over top. Don't get me wrong, that stuff has its place, definitely, and in the later games I'm definitely going to start going over the strength of the intro and story, but every once in a while you just need to embrace the simplicity.

For the record:
1) I didn't beat Second Quest. Darknut's in the second dungeon? Guys that take away your heart containers? No thanks.
2) I was playing this old school with my Top Loader, and trust me, I tried it on an emulator but the NES controller really does make a difference.

So, see you next time.