The Legend of Zelda is a franchise I hold very near and dear to my heart, but unlike other video game series that have affected me in multiple ways, I never really acknowledge this one as much, so I figure that it’s finally time I give this series it’s long awaited love from me.
With Tears of the Kingdom coming out in a few months, I decided to replay every Zelda game (and play some new ones), now I say “every” Zelda game, as in every Zelda game I have access to not including spin-offs, this list includes:
The Legend of Zelda
The Adventure of Link
A Link to the Past
Link’s Awakening
Ocarina of Time
Majora’s Mask
Wind Waker
The Minish Cap
Twilight Princess
Skyward Sword
And Breath of the Wild
Well, now that you know this, here’s my review of the very first game in the series: The Legend of Zelda
So I love the Zelda series, each game I’ve played is absolutely incredible each in their own way, I love the atmosphere, the whimsical feeling of each game, the darker undertones, the puzzles, boss fights, and the great stories of each game.
Obviously with the original game in the series, there isn’t gonna be all this stuff immediately here, so I’ll go over the positives that this game has
I’ll start off by saying it’s a fun game, exploring the world in the technically first open world game is just something so nice to see, to truly go back in time and see how this all started, it’s great.
I must say, for a first game, there’s a shit ton of enemy variety here, you got almost every staple Zelda enemy here.
Of course the biggest positive here is the impact this had on the gaming industry, not only giving us the first Zelda game, but giving us open world and more explorative adventure games altogether, without this game, I doubt a lot of the games I loved would’ve been made today, it’s the reason why I gave this game a 6 instead of a 5.
Well, onto the negatives………..yeah, I can cut this game slack since it is the first in the series but just, oh god.
I think the main thing that drives most things in the other Zelda games is the story, but that’s like almost non-existent here, I mean it’s probably told in like a magazine or something but I don’t exactly have an 80s gaming magazine on me, it just loses a lot of the motivation to play the game when you have 0 idea what’s even happening, but it is an overall minor complaint because well, the NES just couldn’t handle much text on screen so it would’ve been hard to convey the story in game.
One thing I can definitely say that applies to nearly every NES game is that this game has not aged gracefully, the game barely tells you where the hell to go or what the hell to do, I hate when a game holds my hand a lot but I also hate when a game gives you fuck all for advice, they have the hints from the old man in the cave but like his locations are so random that the hint doesn’t even help, it’s very obtuse and not in a good way.
Lastly, the dungeons are just kinda plain, they’re not bad, but also just kinda………there, same with the bosses too, they’re just………..there
In comparison to many of the other games, I don’t have too much to say honestly, it’s a game I respect more than I actually like, I respect what it did from the gaming industry, but I don’t think that excuses it for its faults, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it as someone’s first Zelda game.
I know i made it sound like I dislike this game, but I absolutely do not, I still enjoy it overall and again, immensely respect it for what it did for gaming in general
But if you do ask me, this series didn’t truly begin until A Link to the Past
Next up is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, I’m actually very interested to try this one out, hopefully I enjoy it.
With Tears of the Kingdom coming out in a few months, I decided to replay every Zelda game (and play some new ones), now I say “every” Zelda game, as in every Zelda game I have access to not including spin-offs, this list includes:
The Legend of Zelda
The Adventure of Link
A Link to the Past
Link’s Awakening
Ocarina of Time
Majora’s Mask
Wind Waker
The Minish Cap
Twilight Princess
Skyward Sword
And Breath of the Wild
Well, now that you know this, here’s my review of the very first game in the series: The Legend of Zelda
So I love the Zelda series, each game I’ve played is absolutely incredible each in their own way, I love the atmosphere, the whimsical feeling of each game, the darker undertones, the puzzles, boss fights, and the great stories of each game.
Obviously with the original game in the series, there isn’t gonna be all this stuff immediately here, so I’ll go over the positives that this game has
I’ll start off by saying it’s a fun game, exploring the world in the technically first open world game is just something so nice to see, to truly go back in time and see how this all started, it’s great.
I must say, for a first game, there’s a shit ton of enemy variety here, you got almost every staple Zelda enemy here.
Of course the biggest positive here is the impact this had on the gaming industry, not only giving us the first Zelda game, but giving us open world and more explorative adventure games altogether, without this game, I doubt a lot of the games I loved would’ve been made today, it’s the reason why I gave this game a 6 instead of a 5.
Well, onto the negatives………..yeah, I can cut this game slack since it is the first in the series but just, oh god.
I think the main thing that drives most things in the other Zelda games is the story, but that’s like almost non-existent here, I mean it’s probably told in like a magazine or something but I don’t exactly have an 80s gaming magazine on me, it just loses a lot of the motivation to play the game when you have 0 idea what’s even happening, but it is an overall minor complaint because well, the NES just couldn’t handle much text on screen so it would’ve been hard to convey the story in game.
One thing I can definitely say that applies to nearly every NES game is that this game has not aged gracefully, the game barely tells you where the hell to go or what the hell to do, I hate when a game holds my hand a lot but I also hate when a game gives you fuck all for advice, they have the hints from the old man in the cave but like his locations are so random that the hint doesn’t even help, it’s very obtuse and not in a good way.
Lastly, the dungeons are just kinda plain, they’re not bad, but also just kinda………there, same with the bosses too, they’re just………..there
In comparison to many of the other games, I don’t have too much to say honestly, it’s a game I respect more than I actually like, I respect what it did from the gaming industry, but I don’t think that excuses it for its faults, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it as someone’s first Zelda game.
I know i made it sound like I dislike this game, but I absolutely do not, I still enjoy it overall and again, immensely respect it for what it did for gaming in general
But if you do ask me, this series didn’t truly begin until A Link to the Past
Next up is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, I’m actually very interested to try this one out, hopefully I enjoy it.