As of April 2010, The Legend of Zelda series has sold over 59 million copies since the release of the first game, The Legend of Zelda, and continues to be successful worldwide. The original Legend of Zelda is the fourth best selling NES game, of all time. The series consists of 15 official games on all of Nintendo's major consoles, as well as several spin-offs. An American animated series based on the games aired in 1989, and individual manga adaptations which are officially endorsed and commissioned by Nintendo have been produced in Japan since 1997.
Gameplay
The Legend of Zelda games feature a mixture of puzzles, action, adventure/battle gameplay, and exploration. These elements have remained constant throughout the series, but with refinements and additions featured in each new game. The player is frequently rewarded for solving puzzles or exploring areas. Most Zelda games involve locating and exploring dungeons, in which puzzles are solved and enemies fought, then defeating the dungeon's boss. Each dungeon usually has one major item inside, which is usually essential for solving many of the puzzles in that dungeon and often plays a crucial role in defeating that dungeon's boss. Some items are consistent and appear many times throughout the series, such as bombs, boomerangs, magic swords and shields, and bows and arrows, while others are unique to a single game. The series also consists of stealth gameplay, where the player must avoid enemies while proceeding through a level, as well as racing element.
Chronology
Though the chronology of the Legend of Zelda series is subject to much debate among fans, numerous materials and developer statements have partially established an official timeline of the released installments. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is a direct sequel to the original The Legend of Zelda and takes place several years later. The third game, A Link to the Past, is a prequel to the first two titles and is followed by Link's Awakening. Ocarina of Time is also a prequel, taking the story many centuries back and implicitly telling the Imprisoning War from the manual of A Link to the Past. The ending of this game caused the timeline to split, with the child era leading into the direct sequel Majora's Mask, and Twilight Princess set more than 100 years later. The Wind Waker is parallel and takes place in the other timeline branch, more than a century after the adult era of Ocarina of Time. Phantom Hourglass is a continuation of Link's and Tetra's story, followed by Spirit Tracks about 100 years later. Skyward Sword will be a prequel again, taking place before Ocarina of Time. At the time of its release, Four Swords for the Game Boy Advance was considered the oldest tale in the series' chronology, with Four Swords Adventures set sometime after its events. The Minish Cap precedes the two games, telling the story of Vaati and the Four Sword's birth. There have been no statements about the placement of the Oracle titles, or about which timeline branch some of the earlier installments are meant to be set in.
Inspiration
The Legend of Zelda was principally inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto's explorations as a young boy in the hillsides surrounding his childhood home in Kyoto, Japan where he ventured into forests with secluded lakes, caves, and rural villages. According to Miyamoto, one of his most memorable experiences was the discovery of a cave entrance in the middle of the woods. After some hesitation, he apprehensively entered the cave, and explored its depths with the aid of a lantern. Miyamoto has referred to the creation of the Zelda games as an attempt to bring to life a "miniature garden" for players to play with in each game of the series.
Hearing of American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife Zelda, Miyamoto thought the name sounded "pleasant and significant". Paying tribute, he chose to name the princess after her, and titled his creation The Legend of Zelda.
History
According to the in-game backstories, long ago, three golden goddesses descended and created the land of Hyrule. Din, the Goddess of Power, with her powerful, flaming arms, cultivated the empty space, and created the red earth. Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom, bestowed her divine Wisdom upon the land, and created the world's laws to give a sense of justice and order to the world, and to guide the people in the goddesses' absence. Farore, the Goddess of Courage, endowed Hyrule with her powers, creating life to follow this justice.
After their work was completed, the goddesses left a sacred artifact called the Triforce, which could grant the wishes of the user. It consisted of three golden triangles (each also called a "Triforce"—one of Wisdom, one of Power and one of Courage). However, because the Triforce was not divine, and could not judge between good and evil, the goddesses placed the Triforce in an alternate world called the "Sacred Realm" or the "Golden Land", hoping that a worthy person would one day seek it.
According to legend, the discoverer of the Triforce will receive the Triforce as a whole – along with the true force to govern all – only if that person has a balance of power, wisdom and courage. If the heart of that person is pure, the Sacred Realm will become a paradise. If the heart of that person is evil, the Sacred Realm will become a nightmarish world of evil. If they are unbalanced, they will only receive the part of the Triforce that represents the characteristic they most demonstrate, with the remaining parts of the whole transferring into the people in Hyrule who most exemplify the other two traits. The Triforce was first distributed as such starting in Ocarina of Time, with the Triforces of Power, Wisdom, and Courage being transferred to Ganondorf, Princess Zelda, and Link, respectively. While the Triforce of Power and Wisdom have been part of the series since the original The Legend of Zelda, it was only in The Adventure of Link that the Triforce of Courage was first introduced, being obtained by Link at the end of his quest. The triforce, or even a piece of it, is not always distributed as a whole. Such as in Wind Waker, Link must find all the pieces (called Triforce Shards) of the Triforce of Courage before he can return to Hyrule.
The fictional universe established by the Zelda games sets the stage for each adventure. Many games take place in lands with their own back-stories. Termina, for example, is a parallel world while Koholint is an island far away from Hyrule that appears to be part of a dream.
