The Legend of Zelda was released in North America in 1987, being one of the first open-world adventure videogames ever released. The map is a simplistic 8x15 grid, with one of these frames from the grid showing at a time. The player is free to explore the map at their own discretion. Unlike many other games for the NES, The Legend of Zelda does not have a set way to play through it. While level numbers typically correlate with difficulty, the game does not force the player to start with the first dungeon. Instead, with an open world, it is possible to find other dungeons to complete first. The trip to get to the first dungeon from the origin point is a total of six of these frames. Meanwhile, the trip to get to the third dungeon from the origin point is only a total of seven of these frames. In comparison, these dungeons are very close, especially considering that from the origin the second dungeon is eleven frames away. While the first open-world videogames were released in 1984, two years before The Legend of Zelda, this game was by far the most popular, which let the open-world genre of videogames start to become popularized.
The Legend of Zelda also had the makings of the start of the popularization of the RPG genre for videogames. As the game progressed, the character received upgrades. This varied from increases in health, to increases in strength, to more abilities, and to increased defense. One buff would also let Link carry more bombs around. While these came from items received by the character and not by leveling like traditional RPGs, it still laid the groundwork for these increases in stats. For Nintendo, this was different from Mario, who does not get any buffs to his abilities throughout his games. Thus, The Legend of Zelda created some groundwork for RPG style of videogames to be popularized.
The game would also demonstrate which of these abilities he had with a HUD. This HUD had his life total, type of sword, rupee count, key count, bomb count, which secondary item was equipped, and map of the area. This HUD was not the only thing to signal the character’s traits, as when Link receives the Blue Ring, his tunic changes color from red to a light blue to signal that he has the upgrade. Afterward, when he has the Red Ring, his tunic changes color again to red. With the blue ring, the damage he takes is half of what he would normally take, with the red ring cutting it in half again. However, a flaw with this idea was that the HUD would not show quarter hearts, so it would round damage up to the nearest half-heart until the player took damage again. Despite this slight flaw, the HUD in The Legend of Zelda is amazing for a game that came out for the NES.
Being the first in the series, the story is much more vague in this game. The intro to explain the plot happens after waiting on the start screen for a few moments. It explains that Gannon had stolen the “Triforce with Power” from the kingdom, so Princess Zelda who had the “Triforce of Wisdom” split it into eight pieces and hid them. It is up to Link to find these eight parts and save Zelda.
However, if you skipped this intro to jump into the game immediately, you were greeted with a relatively blank frame of the world with a cave. Inside the cave, an old man gives you a sword saying the classic line, “It is dangerous to go alone! Take this.” As the game would progress, he would hand the player stronger swords with the line, “Master using it and you can have this.” The idea of mastering it was not further explained in-game, but it was judged by the amount of health of the player. This is likely due to the fact that the player gains an extra heart of health after defeating each boss. He would also give various hints throughout the game, mentoring the player. For his last impact on the story, he had the player deliver a letter to an old woman, who would then sell the player potions to heal. This was the only story the player received from the game, with exception to the intro.
The player would explore through the world at his point. Many hidden passages are spread throughout the open-world game, often being opened by the player burning down a tree with their candle, or bombing a wall. Some of these would have the old man offering to play a gambling game with the player’s in-game currency. Others could have a non-hostile mob NPC give them money, saying “It’s a secret to everybody.” Some would have a shop, where the player could purchase various items to help their journey. A few would be entrances to late-game dungeons. Lastly, the most humorous outcome, the old man would fine the player 20 rupees of in-game currency stating, “Pay me for the door repair charge.”
It is also interesting how the names and story evolved over time. The rest of the intro explains the names of the sprites, many of which do not have their iconic names. For example, the Master Sword is called the Magical Sword, and the Hyrulian Shield is called the Magical Shield. These names were likely simplified due to The Legend of Zelda being the first game of the series. Also, in this game Link has the power to learn magic through the ‘Magical Rod,’ which Link does not use in future games. To further differentiate it, in this game Link uses the Triforce of Wisdom, whereas in future games he uses the Triforce of Courage. It is interesting to see how the original differs from the games that followed it, especially due to the frequency of these changes.
Since its release 33 years ago, The Legend of Zelda has helped popularize the open-world and RPG genres in videogames. It has also lead to one of the largest franchises throughout all of videogames. While the story was more or less a simple hero rescuing the princess story, the gameplay elements of the game lead it to be a hit with audiences. Attention to detail was put within the game, with secrets hidden throughout its massive world.