Action-Adventure Review: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time changed up the formula, successfully bringing The Legend of Zelda series into the 3D era.

The game followed a child Link, who has been raised by the ageless Kokiri. With an ocarina, he can play tunes that act as spells to control time and space around him. One song will send him forward and backward in time. Link resembled the ageless Kokiri he was raised with as a child, but as an adult, he towers over them. Adult Link can explore areas that have changed dramatically as a child, but he can also use the ocarina to go back in time to when he was a child to influence things in order to change them.  This aspect reminds me of Sonic CD, albeit with a lot more interaction between time periods due to the fact that Ocarina of Time is a story-rich action adventure.

The game mechanics have been translated well into the three-dimensional age. Like Super Mario 64 before it, the game is very different from its two-dimensional counterparts, but it retains enough of the formula that it fits perfectly within the universe. Link can now travel in complete three-hundred-sixty-degree directions. However, the basic gameplay is still there. Link has to buy equipment or acquire it from non-player characters. He travels to dungeons where he gains keys to unlock doors and chests. In some chests, he finds dungeon keys that will unlock large dungeon doors and some chests. He also can find equipment in chests that he needs to use to get through future dungeons.

The music has always been a strong point of the series, and that continues here. There is the obligatory updated theme song, but there is also a lot of music that is unique to this game. It's fantastic, taking advantage of the audio hardware of the Nintendo 64, and a lot of them will remain in your head long after playing the game. There are also the usual fun little musical motifs that play when certain actions are completed. The short chest opening music still acts as an earworm when thinking of the game, even decades after its release. The characters, including Link now have grunts and yells. This aspect is kind of charming, and it remains in The Legend of Zelda series to this day. The one drawback is the voice of Link's fairy companion, Navi, who will yell "hey" or "listen" whenever there is a new piece of information. It is cute the first few times, but it becomes grating after a while. There are only a couple of voice clips, which is a shame, as this could have been alleviated with multiple recordings of the lines or by using multiple words.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a great example of how to translate a two-dimensional game into three dimensions. It gives additional abilities that come with the new perspective but keeps the basic gameplay that made the original games so much fun. It also adds a fun mechanic with the titular ocarina which has musical spells that affect time and space. The graphics aren't as impressive as they once were, but the unique style still shines through the incredibly blocky characters and environments. The music is fantastic, and most of the grunting and yelling voice work is charming. Navi the fairy becomes annoying after a while, but she isn't enough to take away the enjoyment of this fantastic game.

Final Verdict:

4½  out of 5

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Review

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Review Soon

Action-Adventure Game Review: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link went in a completely different route from its predecessor which led to a game that, other than the Philips CD-i games, is the most polarizing entry in the entire series.

The team behind Zelda II opted for a side-scrolling action adventure with platforming and role-playing elements as opposed to the top-down action-adventure sword-fighting of the original. It did have top-down sections, but only as the map that Link walked through to get from town to town. 

Like the original game, Link gained abilities as the game went on that would help him in later parts of his quest. However, this time around, Link earns the ability to cast magic. As such, Zelda II has a health bar as well as a magic bar. Most abilities consume a certain amount of magic, so it is important to use your magic sparingly. Magic can be refilled by talking to specific people in the villages or from certain items dropped by defeated enemies.

Although the combat and exploration were different, it did add some elements that returned in future installments. The villages were explorable and you could talk to villagers who would sometimes do things to help Link or have helpful items in their houses. Future games would revert to using hearts to represent life, but the magic meter bar returned to keep track of things such as energy to cast fire or ice.

The story is, in my opinion, the best part of the game. As this was released in 1987, at a time when cartridge space was tiny due to the cost of memory chips, most of the story was told through the manual. The story in the manual is as follows. Before the events of the first game, the Kingdom of Hyrule was prosperous due in part to a mystical artifact known as the Triforce. The King of Hyrule had two children, a boy, and a girl. After he died, the Triforce of Courage was split into pieces. The prince sought the help of a magician to acquire the pieces of the Triforce that he did not inherit. It was believed Princess Zelda knew much about the Triforce, so the magician interrogated her. He threatened her with eternal sleep if she did not reveal what she knew, and when she remained silent the magician made good on his threats. Distraught by his sister's state, the prince ordered that all female descendants of the Hylian monarchy be named Zelda.

This leads to the game itself. Link sets off to find the missing pieces of the Triforce of Courage to wake the sleeping Princess Zelda. He begins his quest in the palace where the princess lies asleep. If Link fails in his quest, the evil Ganon is resurrected. This leads to a red game over screen, which flickered in the original release but has been toned down in re-releases due to fear of causing epilepsy in the children and adults who play the game. This is accompanied by an evil laugh which is also heard in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! and its variations. All of this, combined with the spooky silhouette of Ganon, scared me as a kid. Yet, it also made me determined to do better as I didn't want to see that game-over screen again. I still saw it multiple times, as the game is tough as nails, but it gave me the motivation to keep playing.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is a game that doesn't deserve all of the hate it gets. It is the most different of the Nintendo games in The Legend of Zelda series, and it is really difficult. However, it is not more difficult than other games that are still praised from that time, such as the Mega Man series. The Nintendo Entertainment System was chock full of difficult games. The random encounters of enemies on the map were also certainly annoying, but in the late 1980s, this was common in role-playing games developed in Japan. 

The combination of platforming, magic, and role-playing elements was certainly interesting. If this wasn't part of The Legend of Zelda series it would no doubt be better remembered today. The story and atmosphere make it very memorable. The musical pieces, from the classic theme song to the palace combat tunes are also extremely memorable. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link definitely deserves to be played with a fresh set of eyes. You might find yourself actually enjoying it.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

The Legend of Zelda Review

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Review

Action-Adventure Review: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

After the release of the side-scrolling action RPG, Zelda II: The Adventures of Link, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System follow-up went back to the formula that made the original game so popular.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was a top-down action game much like the original The Legend of Zelda. However, it added many elements that made it the superior game. The story was expanded from the first game's plot. It started off similarly in that the legendary hero Link had to find the powerful Master Sword so that he could rescue Zelda, the princess of the Kingdom of Hyrule.

However, it soon became a much different game when the evil wizard Agahnim accomplishes his goal of sealing the Sacred Realm thus keeping that world plunged into darkness. Now Link has to travel back and forth between the Dark World and the Light World to rescue the young maidens descended from the seven wise men so that they can break the seal.

Unlike its predecessors, A Link to the Past included a world map that could be accessed at any time with the press of a button. This makes it a lot more fun because you don't need to memorize areas or create or use paper maps. It also has new items Link can acquire, such as boots that will allow him to run across areas with his sword stuck out. This makes the game less tedious because you can move quickly across areas.

Music has always been a strong point in The Legend of Zelda games, and A Link to the Past is no exception. It has great, memorable new music as well as a fresh take on the overworld music that uses the extra instruments that are available with the SNES sound chip. The graphics also are pleasing as they take advantage of the upgraded technology available in Nintendo's 16-bit powerhouse.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past improves upon its predecessors in every way. From the great art style and excellent music that takes advantage of the technological leaps between 8-bit and 16-bit hardware, to the larger worlds and an overhead map to make those worlds more enjoyable, A Link to the Past is leaps and bounds above the games that came before.

Final Verdict:

5 out of 5

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Review

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Review

Action-Adventure Mega Review: The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda was an action-adventure game that takes what had been done right in the genre before and adds enough new elements to set the standard going forward.

The Famicom Disk System received The Legend of Zelda first, followed by the Nintendo Entertainment System version, then the Famicom proper. The NES and Famicom version has fewer instruments. However, the music survived intact when brought over, as the music is fantastic, is memorable, and is still being used in motifs within the current games in The Legend of Zelda series. The other change is that the NES didn't have a microphone, so a microphone trick to defeat an enemy doesn't work in the later NES and Famicom versions. The secret way to beat the enemy changes depending on the version played but can be beaten using a sword without knowing the secret.

The story is about a legendary hero known as Link who has to save the princess of Hyrule, Zelda, from the evil Ganon. He does this by collecting all of the shards of a golden triangle object of great power known as the Triforce of Wisdom. The Triforce pieces are guarded by bosses in dungeons spread throughout the land of Hyrule. The dungeons can be visited directly in some cases, while they have a puzzle that needs to be solved in another. Alongside a Triforce piece, each dungeon also has a treasure hidden inside that will give Link new items such as a raft that can travel across the water in spots where docks are present or a ladder that can go over gaps. These items, as well as items purchased in shops with rupees which are sometimes dropped by enemies or found in caves, can be used to get into dungeons and traverse those dungeons once inside.

The ways to discover the dungeons range from simple exploration to keeping an eye open for areas that can be used with items, to using cryptic words spoken by the townsfolk as clues on what to do next. The overworld and dungeons are full of interesting, odd, and colorful enemies. If Link has a full heart bar, which increases by collecting heart pieces, the sword lets out a beam that can kill enemies from a distance. This helps to give an advantage in battle. The game is tough, sometimes even if you know enemy patterns, so saving and loading using emulators such as the Virtual Console or the NES emulator that is available with a Nintendo Switch Online membership is my recommended way to experience this classic.

The Legend of Zelda set the bar for two-dimensional games in the series, from the overhead perspective to dungeons, items, and enemies. It has since been surpassed by later games that make the game more intuitive, so it is not as impressive as it once was. However, as a torchbearer for the action-adventure genre, it is absolutely worth playing at least once.

Final Verdict:
3½ out of 5

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Review