THE LEGEND OF ZELDA REVIEW (+ HOMEBREW CHALLENGE)

 

After finishing the Main Quest of Age of Calamity, I’ve laid my Nintendo Switch Controller to rest this week and since our beloved franchise turned 35 years old a few days ago, I decided to take a trip back to the past and replay – once again – the original title.

To make it even more challenging I decided to add a new homebrew challenge I called “Hero’s Challenge for Original LoZ”.

I also played a “remastered” version through one beloved application called “Zelda Classic”. In this PC application you can play the original Zelda game, but also remastered versions of it or fan-made Quests, with some of them being really good. The remastered version I played, was with GC graphics, with the textures looking a lot like the Oracle Games.

You can download Zelda classic here (https://www.zeldaclassic.com/)

Now let’s jump into my opinion of the game that started it all, with my usual pros and cons list.

The things I liked about the game:

1. I really love the freedom this 35 year old game offers. It’s really amazing that this game was created and released in 1986 and it can still hold on to gamers of today.

2. The only way to find anything in this game is via exploration. From dungeons to upgrades, everything is up to you to find. The exploration and discovery part, is much more rewarding than BotW for me.

3. The dungeon difficulty progression is very organic. Every dungeon is training you for the next one, except dungeon 6, which is much harder than dungeon 7, so my advice for you is to complete the 7^th dungeon first, so you can get the Magic Sword and then visit the Wizzrobe-infested 6^th dungeon.

4. The last Dungeon, Ganon’s Lair, is one of the greatest dungeons ever created in any fantasy game of retro gaming. It is a maze, infested with the worst enemies you have met so far. You can get lost for hours in there, trying to find both of the items the dungeon offers and Ganon’s Room, but it can take a few minutes if you know where you are going.

5. I know the tracks of the game are few compared to today’s standards. But every single one of them is amazing, nostalgic and they are part of video game history. From the classic overworld track, to the more cryptic dungeon theme, to the sad game over track and even to the Ganon’s Lair creepy theme, this game offers some of the most well-known music of video game history.

 

Now for the things that could be improved:

1. The absence of map makes the game unfair to the new player most of the time. I don’t have any problem navigating into Hyrule now, but when I was younger it was really hard for me to remember where everything was.

2. There are only 3 NPCs in the whole game although the roles might change depending the situation you meet them. The infamous old man (who has more than one roles in the game), the old woman (potion maker) and the Shopkeeper, that is all.

3. The Ganon fight is kinda bad. It really is just a guessing game. You thrust your sword in the air, hoping you will hit him. Do it three times and he will be ready to be killed with one Silver Arrow. Anticlimactic as hell.

4. The story doesn’t make any sense. Princess Zelda destroyed her Triforce into 8 pieces and hid them in 8 Dungeons. Okay… But why are these dungeons full of Ganon’s minions, and since they are there, why don’t they take the pieces back to their  Demon King, but stay there to protect each piece individually? Worst plan ever.

 

In conclusion, is original Legend of Zelda a good game? Well, for me, Original Legend of Zelda is the best video game it can be. I really get the newer fans that don’t like it or they feel kinda off while playing it but for me it will always be in my top-5 games of the franchise (higher than BotW). I respect what it created with the little resources that were available back in the day and what it did bring to the whole video game world. If you never played this game, I dare you to try it.

 

At the end of the game my Quest Log was looking like:

16 Hearts

4 Deaths

Sword: Magic Sword

Shield: Magic Shield

Armor: Red Tunic

Items: Magic Boomerang, Bombs, Bow and Silver Arrow, Red Candle, Flute, Magic Rod, Potion Recipe

Upgrades: Raft, Ladder, Power Bracelet, Magic Book, Magic Key, Giant Bomb Bag

Triforce Pieces: 8

Rupees: 76

Time: 02:32:00

 

Homebew Hero’s Challenge for Original Legend of Zelda

If you are like me and you want to upgrade the difficulty of a Zelda game you have finished multiple times in the past, you can try my Homebrew Challenges.

In my playthrough of original LoZ, I was under the Hero’s Challenge Rules, that I created myself.

The rule is really simple:

You can pick up healing items (hearts & fairies) only if there are no enemies around. If a heart drops you have to kill all the enemies on the screen before you pick it up. Otherwise you have to use a potion.

If you are interested, give it a try.