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Franchise description

In 1986, the development team of game designer Shigeru Miyamoto worked concurrently on two equally ambitious projects for the recently released Famicom/NES: Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. The team made a conscious effort to conceptually separate the two titles; while Mario was a linear platformer, Miyamoto wanted Zelda to feel like an open adventure that forced the player to think about what they should do next, and also to convey the idea of a game "world" that could be explored at one's leisure. Miyamoto drew his inspiration from his experiences around Kyoto in his early life, where he explored nearby fields, woods, and caves and realized the feeling that could be instilled by going on such an "adventure". Meanwhile, Miyamoto designed the player character, Link, as a coming of age motif for players to identify with; Link begins the game as an ordinary boy, but is strengthened by his quest until he triumphs over a great, evil force. Further revolutionary features of the title were a replay mode that, very unusually for the time, contained an entirely new set of more difficult levels - the "Second Quest" - and the first-ever instance of password-free progress-saving in any cartridge-based system or game, made possible by battery-powered RAM.

The Legend of Zelda, released in the Americas in August of 1987, was an all-time bestseller for Nintendo, and much like Super Mario Bros. before it, it often appears on the highest spots in game publications' listings of the greatest games on the NES. It is often considered a spiritual forerunner of the RPG genre, more specifically the action RPG genre, despite lacking key RPG mechanics such as experience points, and is largely responsible for a surge of RPGs that focus on real-time action combat as well as puzzles. It was the spawning point for one of Nintendo's longest-running and most popular video game franchises, which as of 2013 has released over fifteen "primary" installments and several spin-offs. The now well-known "Zelda-style" Action RPG formula is central to almost all of the main series, which in some ways is ironic because the first Zelda sequel ever released, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, was the only game to feature a considerably different style of gameplay: a side-scrolling platformer with JPRG elements.

Link, Princess Zelda, and Sheik in their Ocarina of Time designs, as depicted in the opening movie of Melee.

At least two other releases in the main series were arguably revolutionary in their own right. The third game, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for Super Nintendo in early April 1992, advanced many of the conventions introduced by the original game's formula to resemble what a modern-day top-down Zelda-style game traditionally features, with refined combat, item-usage, puzzle-filled dungeon aspects, and more detail to the archetypal story. It is widely considered today to be one of the greatest video games ever released, and the many Zelda games that make use of this top-down style are typically relegated to Nintendo handhelds. However, even more momentous was the late-1998 release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64, which seamlessly converted the Zelda formula into a fully realized and detailed three-dimensional world presented in the third person, and introduced what has since become common elements in 3D action-adventure games: a target-lock system to orient the player-character towards specific enemies and circle strafe around them in combat situations in areas with a freely rotatable camera, and context-sensitive buttons. On its initial release, it received perfect review scores from the majority of video game publications that reviewed it, and it sold over seven million copies worldwide. Like A Link to the Past for the top-down 2D perspective, Ocarina of Time introduced to the series the 3D-style of gameplay regularly used by console-based Zelda releases, which typically are the "biggest" releases in the series.

It is customary for at least one main Zelda title to be released over the lifespan of a given Nintendo console or handheld. Many of these adhere by default to a realistic, comparatively "adult" aesthetic, starting with Ocarina of Time and including titles as recent as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword; however, in early 2003, a radically different "younger" alternative look and style was introduced into the series with the release of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for the GameCube. This introduces a heavily cartoon-stylized, cel-shaded design and graphical style both to Link and the rest of his world, and this exact "Toon Link" design and aesthetic is reused in several subsequent releases on Nintendo handhelds, all of which are separate from the games featuring the "adult" aesthetic. Given the nearly-Mario-scale importance and relevance the Zelda franchise has had both to Nintendo and to the industry as a whole, it is unfailingly one of the first franchises confirmed for a starring role in each game in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games. Later games in the Smash Bros. series have featured content from both the realistic and the cartoon Zelda styles.

Recurring elements of the Zelda franchise include Link and Hyrule Castle, shown here in the first trailer for SSB4.

Each of the Zelda games, for the most part, are self-contained variations on the same basic "legend": In a fantasy land named Hyrule, which had been created by a trio of goddesses that subsequently left behind embodiments of themselves and/or their power in a three-triangle artifact called the Triforce, a great evil - most often a demonic being named Ganon, or alternatively a powerful humanoid sorceror named Ganondorf, depending on the game - threatens the land, and the only hope is for a young boy or man garbed in green, Link, in cooperation with a princess named Zelda, to go on an adventurous quest across Hyrule to smite the evil, most often with a blessed blade in an altar named the Master Sword. There is almost always some sort of variation to a given installment's narrative that ties both into the story and the gameplay; in some games there is a parallel world that Link must explore, while the world may be mostly covered in ocean in other games. Link himself may undertake his quest under a different set of circumstances each game, such as in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess when he can transform into a wolf and receive assistance from an imp-like creature named Midna, or The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap where a talking hat he acquires allows him to shrink and grow back in size at will. Even Zelda's backstory, role, and relevance can vary between games, such as whether she is a classic damsel-in-distress or a capable ally of Link, but very rarely is any sort of romance between her and Link even implied.

Besides instances where some games are direct sequels and continuations to each other, there is usually no relevance in continuity between any of the seemingly independent portrayals of Hyrule. But this did not stop fans from speculating wildly on how all of the titles could be ordered in a chronological timeline that assumes Hyrule in all of these games is, in fact, the same world in different stages of its history, and that the reappearances of Link and related characters represent different individuals that are unwitting reincarnations of eras and Links from the past. But due to contradictions between games that arise when trying to place them all in a linear timeline, estimates were made that the Zelda chronology branched off into separate directions. On the 25th anniversary of the franchise, Nintendo posted an official timeline for the series that affirmed that there were, in fact, three separate timeline branches, and explained which games belong to which branch. The official ordering of The Legend of Zelda series is explained below:

• "Legend of the Gods & the Hero of Time": The beginning timeline before its triple-branch. After the creation of the heavens and Hyrule, the earliest chronological game is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (released on the Wii in November 2011), taking place on floating islands in the sky named Skyloft, which the goddess Hylia had lifted to safeguard the Hylian people from the monster hordes of the demon king Demise infesting the lands below. The original incarnations of Link and Zelda, living on Skyloft along with the other Hylians during this time, are involved in a quest that explains and lays the groundwork for the patterns shown in the rest of the series. Following this, the Sacred Realm wherein the Triforce resides is sealed, and Hyrule Kingdom is established. Then, in both The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (released on the Game Boy Advance in January 2005) and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (released as part of a Game Boy Advance remake of A Link to the Past in December 2002), separate Links fight the wind mage Vaati. Finally, in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (released for Nintendo 64 in November 1998), a child Link takes part in a pivotal moment of the timeline when an evil human sorcerer, the original Ganondorf, covets the Triforce beyond the Sacred Realm, and Link must regularly travel back and forth between periods separated seven years apart - with Link himself assuming the form of a teenager during his time in the later period - and receive help from the enigmatic Sheik in order to defeat Ganondorf and the monstrous form Ganondorf eventually assumes, Ganon.

• "Hyrule's Decline & The Last Hero": This first timeline branch assumes Link is defeated in his battle against Ganon in Ocarina of Time. This leads to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (released for the SNES in April 1992), where a Link has to contend with the revival of the demonic Ganon at the hands of the wizard Agahnim. The most recently Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, is a direct continuation of this setting. Link then contends with separate villains named Onox and Veran in The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (a simultaneous, interlinking pair of Game Boy Color games released by Capcom in May 2001), which may lead to another revival for Ganon that Link must destroy. The same Link stars in one more game, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (released for Game Boy in August 1993), where during a voyage outside Hyrule to hone his skills, Link washes ashore on Koholint Island, and must wake the island guardian, a whale called the Wind Fish, to return home. Taking place in an era after this are The Legend of Zelda (released for NES in August 1987), where a Link defeats a revived Ganon and saves a princess named Zelda, and the follow-up Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (released for NES in December 1988), where the same Link goes on a quest to awaken a different Zelda while avoiding getting killed by followers of Ganon seeking to revive the demon once more.

• "The Dark World & The Hero's Descendants": The second timeline branch assumes Ganondorf was never able to enter the Sacred Realm in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and therefore much of that game's quest never transpired and Link never left being a child; instead, Ganondorf faced execution. Beginning this "child timeline" is The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (released for Nintendo 64 in October 2000), where Link ends up in an alternate world called Termina, where a Skull Kid under the evil influence of the eponymous mask has set the moon on a collision course into the land. Link must use a time-resetting method to repeatedly relive the 72-hour time period before doomsday so that he has the time to set up the means to avert Termina's fate. A century later, in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (released for GameCube and Wii by December 2006), a Link is thrust from a life as a ranch-hand into a world-spanning quest against the forces of the king of an alternate twilight realm, Zant, and he is forced into the form of a wolf whenever he enters a twilight-covered area of Hyrule and must accept help from the Twilight native Midna to compensate. Finally, in The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (released for GameCube in June 2004), another Link goes to battle against Vaati's last chronological appearance.

• "The Hero of Wind & A New World": The third timeline branch is the one that results from Link's defeat and sealing of Ganondorf in the Sacred Realm, as seen in the ending of Ocarina of Time; it is referred to as the "adult" timeline. At a later date, Ganondorf is revived, and the gods flood Hyrule to seal him back; this sets the stage for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (released for GameCube in March 2003), where a young Link sets sail on what is initially a quest to rescue his sister from a monstrous bird, but later on becomes a fight against a once-again-revived Ganondorf. A direct sequel to this game is The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (released for Nintendo DS in October 2007), where a ghost ship steals away Link's ally Tetra, and he must enlist the help of a reluctant steamboat captain, Linebeck, to rediscover her. Finally, a century later, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (released for Nintendo DS in December 2009) takes place on a newly discovered continent that has since been civilized with an extensive railroad network, and an incarnation of Link that is an aspiring railroad engineer is accompanied by Zelda's disembodied spirit on a quest to discover why the tracks are disappearing.

Trivia

• The protagonists are based on certain characters.
  • Michael Freeman is based on the Mii Brawler.
  • Jordan Freeman is based on the Mii Swordfightter
  • Frank Mason is based on the Villager.
  • Stefanie Freeman is based on the Mii Gunner.

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