“What Makes a Zelda Game?”

The Legend of Zelda series has been around for over 35 years and includes many mainline console entries, portable titles, and other spinoffs and remakes. Over the decades, the Zelda franchise has gone through many changes while keeping some elements relatively the same. Many passionate fans have had countless discussions on the many details of the series but some consider Breath of the Wild (as well as Tears of the Kingdom) to not be a true Zelda experience since it’s so different from the others. So I’m here to ask the question—what exactly makes a Zelda title?

(Note: I won’t be covering some games like Four Swords Adventures)

(Dates given are typically for NA releases! -Ed)

The Legend Begins

1986 saw the release of The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System and many gamers at the time had never seen a game quite like it. You play as a young boy named Link who is tasked with saving Princess Zelda from the evil grasp of Ganon. It’s a game that allows you to explore any direction in a world filled with monsters, dungeons, and many secrets. There are 8 dungeons to find, some are hidden or out of reach until you obtain a specific item, but it’s very possible to tackle them out of order if you so choose. It paved the way for what an action-adventure title could be and influenced many games to come.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was released the following year in 1987 but looked and played very different than its predecessor. You still play as Link fighting to save the princess, but this time you walk around in a top-down view of Hyrule and switch to a side-scrolling perspective when entering towns, dungeons, and battles. It’s also the only game in the series to feature significant RPG mechanics where you earn experience as you defeat enemies and level up. Every other game in the series falls under the action-adventure category.

Links to the Past

With the launch of a new generation of consoles, the Super Nintendo saw the release of the highly regarded The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in 1991. By revisiting the original game, this third entry established the formula that would be followed by many future titles in the franchise. You once again freely explore Hyrule but you proceed through the dungeons in a specific order before the final showdown in Ganon’s castle. Going through each dungeon you usually gained an item that will allow you to reach or open up new areas to explore. It also introduced the concept of dual-maps which is used several times in the series where Link is able to explore normal Hyrule and an alternate world, this time being a ‘Dark World’.

The first portable release, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening released in 1993, was a bit more experimental. It’s the first game that didn’t take place in Hyrule, instead taking place on a mysterious island that Link washes up on after a shipwreck. You are tasked with gathering 8 instruments in order to wake the Wind Fish so that you may escape the island. The setting was different but the formula remained mostly the same, Link needed to explore 8 dungeons in order, each one finding an item that would allow him to reach new areas previously blocked. It was also a much quirkier title than previous Zelda titles, opting to have a weird and humorous tone with many of its oddball characters.

Entering a New Dimension

Now we jump to 1998 when The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released for the Nintendo 64 as the series’ first 3D title. Once again featuring an alternate world where Link could explore Hyrule in the present or 7 years in the future after Ganondorf had taken over. The formula remained the same, however, proceeding through around 8 dungeons and temples in linear order, progressing through item acquisition, jumping between worlds with link. Nintendo was once again experimental with the next title: The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask released in 2000 with a time loop mechanic that found Link repeating the same 3-day cycle in order to complete his goals. This title had only four dungeons, much fewer than previous titles but still needed to be tackled in a specific order while gaining useful items for the next area.

New Worlds, Old Blueprints

Around this time is when Nintendo seemingly got very comfortable with The Legend of Zelda series being iterative. Each new title brought a new story, art style, setting, or mechanic that set it apart from the others while the core formula remained familiar. This could be said of the next three portable titles: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons released in 2001, and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap in 2004. Perhaps it has to do with Eiji Aonuma who joined the Nintendo team while they developed Ocarina of Time. He became the series producer going forward. Maybe Nintendo felt like the formula worked and didn’t feel the need to stray too far from it. Regardless, the formula did work as each new title sold millions of copies.

When The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker arrived in 2002 it was the biggest departure of the series in terms of visual aesthetic and exploration. It featured an appealing cel-shaded art style that still holds up well to this day. Fans at the time were outraged that their serious adult Link was replaced by this cutesy big-eyed kid Link, though. The game also featured a mostly underwater Hyrule and your main mode of transportation is via sailboat. Despite all this, Wind Waker remains critically acclaimed and luckily a large majority of fans came around. The initial backlash, however, caused Nintendo to do a “course correction” of sorts for the next title.

The Sunset

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess came to consoles in 2006 but Nintendo chose a very dark and serious tone for this entry with fully grown Link. Despite all these drastic differences in style and tonality, both Twilight and Wind Waker remained true to the old formula. The same could be said of the next two portable titles on the Nintendo DS, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (2007) and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (2009), though they were direct sequels to The Wind Waker and featured the same cel-shaded style.

This sequence of iterative titles reached a climax with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in 2011. Not only was the formula more of the same but the overall exploration was reduced to a series of smaller areas. The game was arguably the most linear the series has ever been. It once again featured dual worlds with Link being able to jump from a sky world to the surface world, but you proceeded through each area in the order that the game demanded, the player having very little choice. The game was released to critical acclaim but has since become a low point in the series for many longtime fans.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Luckily, fans began to see a light at the end of the tunnel with the release of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds in 2013. This title is the spiritual sequel to A Link to the Past as it featured a very familiar Hyrule, but instead of a dark world, Link now gets to explore an alternate world called Lorule. Nintendo returned to the notion of tackling dungeons in any order players choose. Using a clever mechanic of item rentals, players could borrow (or pay for, if they had enough rupees) whatever item they wanted so they could explore specific areas of Hyrule. It was a welcome change that was praised by both fans and critics.

Fast forward to 2017. The Nintendo Switch released along with arguably the greatest launch title ever: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Not only did Nintendo give fans an open-world Zelda game (a nod to the original) but players had unprecedented freedom to explore in any direction they choose. You could climb almost any surface, scale almost any mountain, discover almost any secret whenever you could. This seemed like Nintendo once again over-correcting in a similar way they did with Twilight Princess to the over-bearing restrictiveness of Skyward Sword, but this time going in the right, familiar direction. This led to the game being the best-selling and most profitable entry in series history.

Keeping in line with freedom of choice, players could also tackle the four divine beasts in any order. The divine beasts are this game’s version of dungeons which were also very different. Some fans would even argue that Breath of the Wild doesn’t contain any dungeons at all. Certainly, the divine beasts and the many shrines are unlike anything that the Zelda series has given us. This led some to go as far as claiming that Breath of the Wild isn’t a true Zelda game, which begs the question…

What Makes a Zelda Game?

Some things have stayed constant in every single entry—You wield a sword and shield, you use items such as bombs, and you explore a world filled with secrets and discoveries. But many adventure games could be described this way. What’s unique about Zelda titles is how you always play as Link, a hero that is reincarnated time and time again in times of need, and the games are thematically similar. Progressing through dungeons, acquiring new items, and conquering a final boss at the end has always been constant. Of course, there are now a lot of Zelda clones with the same philosophies, but something about the Nintendo-developed series gives it a special touch.

I don’t think makes a strong case for the argument that Breath of the Wild isn’t a true Zelda experience because there are no traditional dungeons. After all, Ocarina of Time contains a dungeon where you’re literally inside of a whale. So why couldn’t these robotic divine beasts also be dungeons? You enter them, you find a map, you solve puzzles, and you fight a boss at the end. Recall that Majora’s Mask had only four real dungeons, as well. And just like the very first Zelda, the freedom and exploration in Breath of the Wild is paramount. The developers knew this when they returned to the original to “rediscover the essence” of the series.

Other series such as Final Fantasy have drastically changed art style, mechanics, setting, creative teams, themes, even genre with each new entry, why doesn’t Zelda?

A Link to the Future

Games in long-running series have always needed to change, iterate, and evolve in a way that makes sense for the series for it to be a success over the course of many entries. Otherwise, the games could eventually become rather stale as in the case of Skyward Sword. Breath of the Wild was a needed change and one that may become the new norm for the series moving forward, but even in this change, tradition was upheld. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild and looks to be another huge open-world adventure. Could this be the new/old formula for the Zelda series moving forward?