The Magic of the First Legend of Zelda | Game Maker's Toolkit

I'm sure you've heard this phrase before:
"we're going back to our roots".

Like, a developer makes a game about inching
through a creepy mansion and then, several

years later, that same series is now about
jumping over a helicopter on a flippin' motorbike.

Yeah. So, Capcom says "we're going back to
our roots" and Resident Evil returns to claustrophobic

corridors, hoarding herbs, and ruining your
favourite jeans.

It's all about identifying what made a series
so great in the first place - and taking a

good, hard look at a franchise to see if it
still carries the essential DNA of its earliest games.

The next series to do this is, perhaps, my
favourite of them all: The Legend of Zelda.

For the next game, Breath of the Wild, Nintendo
will be going back to its roots, by looking

to the very first Zelda game for inspiration.

Which, I think, is pretty exciting. Because
despite its simple graphics and general retro

clunkiness, Zelda 1 remains as one of the
very best entries in this series - and it did

things that no other Zelda game has done since.

Designer Shigeru Miyamoto made The Legend
of Zelda to capture his childhood experience

of exploring the Japanese countryside.

He's said, "I went hiking and found a lake.
It was quite a surprise for me to stumble

upon it. When I traveled around the country
without a map, trying to find my way, stumbling

on amazing things as I went, I realized how
it felt to go on an adventure like this".

He wanted players to feel that same sense
of adventure when they were exploring the

fields, forests, lakes, deserts, mountains,
and graveyards of Hyrule.

So, you definitely don't have a map in this
game - there's just a grey box that shows

your position in the world. And you aren't
told where to go - the text crawl says that

you need to track down eight pieces of the
triforce, but how that happens is up to you.

You're just let loose in a clearing, and told
to get on with it. You don't even start with

a sword - you've got to enter this cave to
grab that. A way for Miyamoto to tell players

that this game isn't going to hand them anything
on a silver platter.

You're given a huge amount of freedom, from
the very beginning. You can technically explore

the entire world right now, perhaps striding
off west and coming across a lake, or heading

off east to squeeze through a canyon before
you burst out onto a beach.

Sure, games like Skyrim let you go anywhere
you like - but in that game you make the choice

between following a quest or freely exploring
the map. There's no such choice in Zelda 1

- it's just all curious exploration, never
knowing what you might come across next.

Maybe a shop. Or a secret. Or the entrance
to one of the game's dungeons, which are these

tricky underground mazes filled with treasure,
bosses, mysterious messages, and one of the

eight pieces of the triforce.

The dungeons are numbered, but there's rarely
anything stopping you visiting them out of

sequence and accidentally stumbling into one
of the last dungeons in the game. In Zelda

1, surprises lurk on every screen.

Part of what makes this game so enchanting
is that it's mysterious and oblique. You're

given no companion character to provide hints
and assistance, and the few friendly faces

in Hyrule offer up cryptic riddles that need
to be deciphered.

But they are intoxicating. I remember this
guy, who said "did you get the sword from

the top of the waterfall?" and I was like
"No?!" and then found myself following the

stream up into the mountains with giddy anticipation.

And this is a game that encourages experimentation,
as much as exploration. Items like the blue

ring and the piece of paper and the candle
and the magic croissant are just added to

your inventory without description. and you'll
simply have to figure out what the heck they do.

Zelda 1 just felt indifferent to the player's
existence. It had whatever the opposite of

hand-holding is. You know, you're just dropped
into a world and told to explore it. It was,

to sum it up in a single word, an adventure.

I'm sure it was mind-bending 30 years go but
I played it for the first time... in 2017

and it still enraptured me so if you haven't
experienced it yet and you think it sounds

interesting - please go grab it and turn off
this video because I'm about to spoil the

crap out of it.

Years later, Miyamoto said "We were very nervous
since The Legend of Zelda was our first game

that forced players to think what they should
do next. We were afraid that gamers would

be bored and stressed by the new concept".

Luckily, they weren't. The game was successful
and led to a couple sequels.

But I don't think he had any reason to worry,
because - and this shouldn't come as a surprise

to anyone who watches my stuff - but it's
because Nintendo knows how to make video games.

So, yes, Zelda 1 does offer a huge amount
of freedom. You can go anywhere you like,

and visit - though not necessary finish - the
dungeons in any order you want. But the designers

use some clever tricks to help guide you through
the game, stop you getting lost, and make

the world naturally open up, piece by piece.

For one, the world map just isn't that big.
It's only 16 screens wide and 8 screens high,

meaning you can learn most of the layout in
a few hours. To make it feel bigger, the map

is turned into a giant maze with winding pathways,
dead ends, and chokepoints.

Also, Zelda keeps some of the map away from
you until you're more experienced with the game.

Not through actual locks - only two screens
and two dungeons are literally impossible

to reach at the beginning of the game -

But through, what you might call "soft locks",
which discourage exploration of certain areas.

One of these, is challenging enemies.

These centaur dudes, and screens filled with
tricky foes, will quickly kill you if you

only have a few hearts. And dying in the overworld
sends you right back to the first screen

so instead of trekking all the way back to
where you just got pummelled into a fine pixelated

mist, you're more likely to just try going
off in another direction.

Another soft lock, is information.

To access this whole area over here, you either
need the ladder from dungeon four, or you

need to know the correct path through the
lost woods. That's a maze that will keep turning

you around if you don't know the right order
to take its many exits - and to get the solution

you need to find this woman, and pay her some
rupees.

These locks also help you find the dungeons
in a more sensible order. If you're just wandering

around the main part of Hyrule, you'll only
stumble upon the entrances for the first three

dungeons. The remaining six are more hidden.

The fourth dungeon requires the raft. The
fifth is on top of the magic mountain, so

you'll need another solution. The
sixth is in that western area I just talked

about. And the seventh, eighth, and ninth
dungeons are just hanging out in Hyrule - but

hidden away so you'll need special items and
clues to find them.

Ah yes, the clues. Zelda is, like I said,
a mysterious game, and not one to quickly

give up its secrets or tell you where to go.
But, if you listen carefully, you'll realise

that these old men and women do give Link
cryptic hints that actually detail almost

everything you need know to get through the
game.

Some tell you about the boss's weakpoints.
Others give you clues about finding more powerful

gear. Some tell you stuff that doesn't make much sense... though, you have to

remember that the game's English translation
isn't perfect.

Zelda fans fevershly argue about the meaning
of this clue, which says "eastmost pennisula

is the secret", but it wasn't written by the
game's designers. In the original Japanese

version, that same man tells you that shooting
arrows costs you money.

Anyway, other characters tell you how to find
the most hidden dungeons.

In the fourth dungeon, this guy tells you
to "walk into the waterfall" - where you'll

find the hint you need to find dungeon number
five. In the sixth dungeon, a man says "there

are secrets where fairies don't live", which
should help you find the entrance to seventh

dungeon in the only pond without a fairy.

The clue for the eighth dungeon is more obtuse,
I'll grant you. This guy tells you to look

out for the tree at the dead-end - which I
guess is referring to the entrance to dungeon

eight? I mean that's how I took it, and ended
up in the penultimate dungeon in my first

hour with the game.

But, maybe this is why I kept seeing that
bogus claim that you need to burn every bush

and bomb every wall to beat Zelda 1. Nah mate.

There are hidden rooms behind random bushes
and walls, and they don't have telltale signs

like big ol' cracks. But that actually makes
them... secrets. So it's a genuine surprise

when you find them.

And you really want that stuff. Zelda 1 can
be brutally hard, so any help - whether that's

rupees or heart containers - is more than
welcome. But it's all optional stuff, so you

can beat the game without it.

Of course, there were some genuinely tricky
bits. I won't deny that. Especially in the

dungeons, which I'lll cover in more detail
in the NES episode of my dungeon design series,

Boss Keys.

But, if you got stuck, all hope was not lost
because Nintendo encouraged you to look beyond

the game for help.

There's the manual - which you are told to
read in the opening text crawl. Both the main

text, and the bonus tips that are hidden behind
a protective seal, give you loads of help.

It describes all the items in the game, reveals
that there's a secret on almost every overworld

screen, and gives up the locations of the
last three dungeons. Though, the English manual

is also filled with translation issues, like
this erroneous claim that the warp whistle

can take you to the ninth dungeon.

You could also ask a friend. Miyamoto purposefully
designed the game to encourage communication

between gamers, saying "I wanted them to talk
with other Zelda players and exchange information,

ask each other questions, find out where to
go next. That's what happened - this communication

was not a competition but it was a real life
collaboration that helped make the game more popular".

So The Legend of Zelda is a game that gave
players the freedom to dictate their own journey

through Hyrule, allowing for surprises and
sequence breaking. And the game felt mysterious,

with secret passages, weird items, and cryptic
hints.

But I think the team used clever design to
make a game that felt free, but didn't let

you get lost. Mysterious, but far from inscrutable.
And completely indifferent to the player - while

secretly helping them reach their goals.

But in more recent Zelda games, you no longer
feel free, everything is explained, and that

guiding hand is no longer secret.

In more recent entires, the overworld is often
restricted until you've hit certain points

in the story, dungeons can no longer be completed
out of order, and you're stuck with chatty

companion characters who tell you what to
do and where to go.

I mean, these games are all fab in their own
way - well, almost - but none of them share

Zelda 1's unrestricted sense of adventure.

And you might think that this is just how
modern games are. And that I'm just being

a nostalgic old fart.

But I'm not so sure. Well, I am a nostalgic
old fart. But, games with that sense of freedom,

mystery, and surprise still exist.

Indie games like Hyper Light Drifter and The
Witness are enchanting, wordless odysseys,

which capture those feelings.

And games like Fez have arguably found even
better compromises between mystery with accessibility

- like these maps which point you towards
secret areas, but don't completely give the

game away.

And everybody's already made this connection
but Dark Souls definitely feels like a modern

take on Zelda 1 - complete with secret walls,
cryptic hints, and communication between players.

So the question is not, "can you make a game
like Zelda 1 today".

The question is, "can Nintendo make a game
like Zelda 1 today".

They made a bold start with the non-linear
Link Between Worlds on 3DS. But the real test

will be with Breath of the Wild. Just how
much is Nintendo willing to go back to its roots,

To give The Legend of Zelda that feeling of freedom, mystery, and surprise?

We'll see.

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Oh, and if you're still not sick of Zelda
stuff then look forward to new episodes of

Boss Keys. To be honest, I'm struggling to muster up the
enthusiasm to replay these DS games

but I started this ridiculous project
so I shall finish it. Look out for that video

in March, I guess?