Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The Legend of Zelda : A Tasteful Retrospective

                     Would Frodo Baggins from the Lord of the Rings just hand the Ring of Power over to Sauron just for the challenge of hunting Sauron down and kicking that ass? Hell NO. But Link, from Legend of Zelda would do it and kill Sauron before he even grows his first Pubic Hair!




The History 
           On the year I was born, 1986, a simple video game would come to the home console that would significantly change gaming. Shigeru Myamoto is by far one of the most outside thinking video game developers in the history of gaming. His first major success was to to pull his construction worker out of Donkey Kong and give him a certification in Plumbing with Mario Bros. on the Famicom (the NES). While most gaming companies focused on Arcade gaming styles on the home consoles, Myamoto waned to focus on core game play and a goal that would keep gamers playing. 
            Myamoto wanted his games to reflect his childhood passion and desires. One great passion was Myamoto's passion for exploration and discovery. This passion would be translated into an 8 bit world in The Legend of Zelda. In the Christmas season children would open up a box to behold a game in a golden cartridge containing a game unlike any other. The game begins with Link (you could give him any name) in a room with an old man. The man says "It is dangerous out there, take this" and presents Link with a Sword. You can actually make the choice not to take the sword, but you will die! While the game play was clearly the definitive trait that launched the popularity of this game, many of the fans were caught up in the "Legend" of Zelda and the mysterious Triforce that they adventured this new world for. 



                 The Story
        The Legend of Zelda is a story of fantasy, war, and even reincarnation. The Story's center is Link, a young boy who is plunged into a dangerous quest to save his country from invasion. According to its original Hyrule Historia, The people of  Hyrule were relocated to the sky during a great war with The Demon, Demise. The war would lead to a godess relinquishing her immortality and leaving her sword for a Hero to reclaim and face the Demon. Link  would become that Hero. He decended from the sky and defeated the Demon in battle, becoming the Hero of Man. The people of  Hyrule would decend as well to settle their kingdom with the fiive noble races of earth. 
             But Demise would not be stopped and he was born again in the Guerudo Valley as Ganondorf. Ganondorf would return to Hyrule with the intent to seize the kingdom from within. He would curse the Great      Gaurdians of the earth, The Great Deku Tree, and Lord Jabu Jabu, and kill the King of Hyrule. However, Link and Zelda were borne into this world again and together are able to thwart Ganondorf in "The Ocarina of Time". The Legend would become obscured into three deep storylines after the events of the 'Ocarina of Time' since that adventure tore the fabric of time after many events involving time travel. 

The Triforce 

                In the Masterpiece, The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past, viewers would see this symbol of three triangles coming together to form a golden symbol that would forever shape the Zelda series. This is the Triforce, a relic left behind from the creators of the planet as a symbol of their existence. The Triforce would stir the interest of the Demon, Demise and start the neverending cycle of battles that tell the games story. The Triforce has three attributes, Wisdom , Power, and Courage. Only one that posesses all three attributes is worthy of controlling the relic.  But Ganondorf shatters the Triforce when he touches it and the relic split into three. The pieces would bond to the three people that had an affinity for its attribute. Link was given the Triforce of Courage, Zelda was given the Triforce of Wisdom, and Ganondorf was left with the Triforce of Power.  Ownership of the Triforce varies based on events of games but these are the essential places that each fragment of the Triforce resides and their masters. 



The Games 

The Legend of Zelda 1986  :                                                  Delicious 
The Legend of Zelda 2 Link's Adventure :                           Satisfying 
The Legend of Zelda "A Link to the Past :                          MASTERPIECE Delicious 
The Legend of Zelda "Link's Awakening":                         Delicious
The Legend of Zelda "Oracle of Seas/Ages":                     Unplayed 
The Legend of Zelda "Ocarina of Time" :                          MASTERPIECE Delicious 
The Legend of Zelda "Majora's Mask":                            Delicious 
The Legend of Zelda " Windwaker" :                                 MASTERPIECE Delicious
The Legend of Zelda  "The Twilight Princess"                   Delicious
The Legend of Zelda  "Minish Cap":                                  Great Tasting  
The Legend of Zelda  "The Phantom Hourglass"              Great Tasting 
The Legend of Zelda  "Spirit Tracks"                                 Great Tasting 
The Legend of Zelda  "Skyward Sword"                             MASTERPIECE Delicious 
The Legend of Zelda   "Ocarina of Time 3D"                     MASTERPIECE Delicious 
The Legend of Zelda   "A Link Between Words"               Unplayed 
The Legend of Zelda    " Windwaker HD"                          Unplayed (can't wait) 

Well if I missed any games let me know in the comments below. I will get to Oracle of Seasons and Ages 
and I plan on doing in depth reviews of the more popular games such as skyward sword. If anyone wants me to 
do an in depth review of any Zelda game let me know in the comments below and I promise I will get to it. I officially 
own every single Zelda title with the exception of  Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of ages. The Panasonic titles 
do not count and were not considered in the Hyrule Historia so please don't make me try to 
review those terrible games



The Legend
               For over 25 years Nintendo has been able to keep the legendary story of Link and his epic battle that takes place in his Universe for hundreds of years. The country of Hyrule evolves from a desolate empty land that is wracked with wars between Gods and Man, to a industrial world connected with railways and vast city towns. It is my assumption that Nintendo will keep the franchise going for another 25 years and maybe even make it into the Box office. This was a Tasteful retrospective of one of the most Delicious franchises in modern gaming history. 



          

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