The Legend of Zelda is perhaps the most iconic video game series of all time. Boasting 19 mainline entries, and an endless swathe of critical acclaim and awards, it's hard to find someone who hasn’t at least heard of the action/adventure story of Link and Zelda.

It all began back in 1986 with the release of the first game for the Famicom in Japan. The game begins immediately with an open ended structure, giving the player multiple paths to follow, and an open world to explore. You explore and fight, get stronger and overcome challenges, and discover secrets along the way. It might sound inconsequential, but on release Zelda was breathtakingly audacious in its design, with its non-linearity and enormous world.

But is it still an impressive title today? Non-linearity and open worlds are par for the course now. And while Zelda has been massively influential, that just means there have been thousands of attempts at refining and improving over what the original game offered. Has The Legend of Zelda truly stood the test of time, or is it simply just a historical landmark?

On this episode, we discuss:

Exploration and Secrets

• Zelda, like many games of its era, boasts a huge manual, complete with a partially filled map to get you started on uncovering its many secrets. Is the process of exploring and finding secrets enjoyable, or is its reputation as obtuse and frustrating to figure out justified?

Progress and keys

• Zelda is stunningly non-linear, with most of the gameworld immediately accessible if you know what you’re doing. Does the design of giving the player more utility and power through their progress instead of straight up keys lead to a more engaging open world? Or does the metroidvania formulae do it better?

Combat

• Just how enjoyable is the moment to moment gameplay of Zelda? Enemies can be fast and furious, and the game wil often sling a lot of projectiles at you. Does the game give you the tools to skillfully deal with the obstacles in your way, or is it just about hit trading and tanking through damage?

We answer these questions and many more on the 122nd episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Zelda OST: Koji Kondo

The full manual can be found here

What other games have been heavily inspired by Zelda that we completely blanked on? What were your experiences exploring the world for the first time? What Zelda game should we play next? Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!

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