On February 21, 1986, "The Legend of Zelda" was released in Japan, a video game that would revolutionize the history of entertainment.
Despite having a classic history, it was popularized by its innovative playing style, iconic characters and splendid music.
35 years and 100 million games sold later, the franchise is still cult.
Mid-1980s, Japan: Nintendo is touched by grace.
After some stammering, the video game publisher has just released
Super Mario Bros
, an instant classic that propels Mario to the rank of superstar.
Nintendo does not want to stop there.
A few months later, on February 21, 1986, the company presented
The Legend of Zelda
, on Famicon (then on NES a year later).
A less classic and more ambitious adventure game.
A bet that also proves to be a winner since it is the beginning of a saga which, 35 years later, is still one of the most popular in the history of video games.
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A story of universal chivalry
The Legend of Zelda
is an action-adventure game in the
medieval fantasy
genre
with a very classic story: a valiant knight is tasked with saving the kingdom of Hyrule and its princess captured by Ganon, a half-human evil creature, half-beast.
A scenario inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario's dad, by the film
Legend
, by Ridley Scott, in which a young Tom Cruise plays a candid young man, very in love with a princess, and forced to fight against a demon.
Nintendo's brain takes the main elements of the film, mixes them in Japanese style, and thus is born
The Legend of Zelda.
A story of chivalry which is however not an epic epic.
Shigeru Miyamoto places the game in a bucolic, almost relaxing setting.
For this, he draws on his memories of walks in the countryside and the forest around Kyoto, when he was a child.
With the exception of the combat phases,
Zelda therefore
relies heavily on exploration.
At the time, it was obviously pixelated at will, it was mainly about crossing caves and dungeons in view from above.
Nintendo had doubts about the game's potential, but gamers immediately embraced the concept.
Link, hero of a revolutionary game
And yet, great confusion surrounds
The Legend of Zelda
: contrary to what the title suggests, Zelda is not the hero of the game!
It is actually the princess to be saved.
The hero is called Link.
He's a little blond knight recognizable from the first episode by his green pixie hat, sword and shield.
It is he that we control in this adventure punctuated by puzzles, fights and treasures to discover.
Like Mario, Link does not speak but he quickly becomes very popular and we find him later in all the games of the license.
Beyond the iconic characters,
The Legend of Zelda
is distinguished by two innovations.
First, the game map, in the open world, offers total freedom.
We can go where we want when we want.
There are no specific indications or missions.
And then, for the first time in a video game, you could save your progress using a battery built into the cartridge.
A revolution that made it possible not to start from scratch every time you left.
A rich saga punctuated by masterpieces
The overwhelming success of
The Legend of Zelda
pushed Nintendo to develop the franchise.
A second game,
The Adventure of Link
, was released in 1987. Over the years and the technological evolution of consoles, the universe of the series expands.
The story always remains essentially the same but the Japanese publisher enlarges the world, diversifies the settings and adds characters.
The series thus offers some of the greatest video games of all time:
A Link to the Past
(1991),
Link's Awakening
(1993),
Ocarina of Time
(1998, the highest rated game in history by critics) ,
The Wind Waker
(2003) or even the latest
Breath of the Wild
(2017).
In total, 19 games have been released in 35 years in the main series and a dozen other side episodes, on all consoles.
The franchise has taken every imaginable form, from 2D to 3D, from RPGs to puzzle games.
It is estimated that all
Zelda
titles
have sold around 100 million copies worldwide.
Zelda is also a musical phenomenon
Finally, there is one element that has helped make
The Legend of Zelda
a cult series: its music.
They are the work of Koji Kondo, also composer of the soundtracks of the
Super Mario
saga
.
In addition to the main theme, a veritable ode to infinite adventure since 1986, he has produced some of the most beautiful video game music, sometimes epic, sometimes soothing.
With a top:
Ocarina of Time
and its poetic soundtrack.
There is the music of the games and the music inspired by the games.
An intergenerational cultural phenomenon,
The Legend of Zelda
has fueled the imagination of many artists, especially in French rap.
According to a count of the specialized Youtube channel Le Regulation, it is the ninth most cited video game by French-speaking rappers.
Among them, Nekfeu, PNL and especially Vald, of which
Zelda
is the favorite game series.
A franchise firmly rooted in pop culture,
The Legend of Zelda
still has a bright future ahead of it.
Nintendo has two new games in the pipeline.
The first is a remake of
Skyward Sword
, released in 2011 on Wii, remade for the Switch and scheduled for July 2021. And then, probably in 2022,
Breath of the Wild 2
, the sequel to one of the greatest games of the last years.