My Experiences with The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System is a classic among classics. I approached this expecting a clunky, preliminary adventure RPG game. Once I got into it, I was pleasantly surprised with what I had found.

// The Green Guy Isn’t Zelda?

The Legend of Zelda sets you off on your adventure to find the pieces of the Triforce, defeat Ganon, and save Zelda. Pretty standard stuff, but this is where it came from.

You begin with a sword – delivered by the old feller with the iconic line – that can stab directly in front of you. It also shoots blasts when Link is at full health. Neat! You also have a shield that deflects incoming projectiles. Also neat!

You navigate the world one screen at a time. When you hit the edge, it pans to the next one in the grid.

The combat takes the form of a top-down action game with almost a bullet-hell-like aspect in the later dungeons. The game feels good to play. Link’s movement and attacks feel smooth for a game from the 80s.

// Roguelink

I was surprised to see just how much The Legend of Zelda played like a Roguelite.

Each time you die you spawn back at the start of the world, or at the start of the dungeon. You maintain any health upgrades and items you get along the way, slowly building up your Link.

This works with the slow exploration of the world to make each life feel less like a blind run through the wild, and more like a planned expedition. Before you know it you’ll be flying through the early areas that used to be scary.

I very quickly re-framed the game like this in my mind. While the comparison isn’t perfect, it was enough that it stood out to me right away.

// Rupees Nuts

Like any good Zelda game, you collect rupees as you explore which can be cashed in when you find the random old people hiding in caves selling off their random crap. Items aren’t cheap, so you’ll want to do a little exploration and weigh your options before slapping it all down on the first thing you see.

Collecting rupees is easy, you just kill dudes. Thankfully because the combat feels good it’s never a chore. I found I was clearing every screen each time I got to it well into my playtime because the combat was satisfying and fun. Even if I didn’t need the rupees.

While the world isn’t massive, it’s still an open world. You can take off in any direction you like. It was legitimately fun to explore and learn the area totally on my own. The lack of quests or map markers made this feel like a legitimate exploration.

There were no red skulls over the enemies’ health bars when you went in the wrong direction (mind you there are no health bars at all) but you could feel you were out of your depths because the game was kicking your butt more than usual.

What I appreciate is that this game engages your imagination and sense of adventure, in addition to actually making you think. You’ll need to consider what areas to explore, think about which dungeons to hit, and think about where you can return to once you’ve got some new items.

I was always concerned that I would lose interest in some of these older games because they offer you such little guidance. I was concerned my brain had been rotted by the map-marker-laden open world games of today; that my attention span had been whittled down to a whopping 3.4 seconds.

This couldn’t have been further from my actual experience. Being forced to explore and get creative engaged me so much more than many of the big, AAA RPGs have in recent years.

// Manual Labour

I try to avoid making any, “back in my day we had XYZ thing,” statements because I don’t want to sound like a decrepit wheeze-bag. But one thing I genuinely miss are game manuals. 

I recognize that the need for them has gone away as video games basically all include tutorials built into the game. Back in the NES days, it was akin to the manual with a new appliance. You would actually benefit from reading it because it tells you how to play the game.

However, I didn’t have a manual for this game. I tackled this legend the old-fashioned way – pen and paper. As I explored Hyrule I drew the map in a notebook as I went along, leaving notes on the locations of shops and dungeons.

I would later have the bright idea to look it up online. They actually included a lot more in the manual than I expected. There was a semi-competed map of the world, as well as directions to the first couple of dungeons. The book also includes tons of super cute illustrations of link and the various enemies in the game. You also find details on the items, baddies, and other things. There’s even lore!

I love this kind of thing, and I recommend you give it a flip through if you do as well.

In the end I went in more blind than I needed too, but I don’t regret it. I really enjoyed the process. If you play the game, don’t hesitate to read the manual though. I had to look up a couple of things that stumped me later in the game.

// Conclusion

I was delighted by how much I enjoyed my time with The Legend of Zelda. Exploring while scribbling down my own map felt like a journey back in time.

The game is fun to play, challenging, fun to explore, and not too long.

It’s also worth noting that you’ll be listening to the same song on loop almost the entire time you play the game. By the end of it, I still wasn’t sick of it! If that’s not the mark of a good song then I don’t know what is.

This has been my favourite title so far in the GCRetro journey! Sorry Mario.

If you enjoy The Legend of Zelda series, I highly recommend you fire up the original on Nintendo’s emulation app and give it a try. But it’s dangerous to go alone, so download the manual first!