The Legend of Zelda (video game)



"MANY YEARS AGO PRINCE DARKNESS "GANNON" STOLE ONE OF THE TRIFORCE WITH POWER. PRINCESS ZELDA HAD ONE OF THE TRIFORCE WITH WISDOM. SHE DIVIDED IT INTO "8" UNITS TO HIDE IT FROM "GANNON" BEFORE SHE WAS CAPTURED."

"GO FIND THE "8" UNITS "LINK" TO SAVE HER."

The original Legend of Zelda is a top-down Action Adventure Hack and Slash video game with a very nonlinear setup, designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, and developed and published by Nintendo in 1986. It is the very first game in what would come to be The Legend of Zelda franchise (linked here if that's what you were looking for.

Originally the first game to be released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan, in North America and Europe, it was the first game for the Nintendo Entertainment System to use a battery-backed save feature, and was released in a gold cartridge rather than standard gray as a gimmick.

The story, as told through the opening title scroll - which was originally full of Engrish, and revised in the Japanese cartridge re-release (used for the Collector's Edition, GBA and Wii Virtual Console rereleases) - is that the evil Ganon had stolen the Triforce of Power, and captured Princess Zelda, holder of the Triforce of Wisdom. However, to keep it from falling into Ganon's hands, she had split it into 8 pieces and hid them in the eight dungeons across Hyrule. Link, the hero, must gather the 8 pieces, allowing him to enter Ganon's lair and defeat him, claim the Triforce of Power, and Save the Princess.

Successfully beating the game allowed you access to a much harder "second quest" that features revamped dungeon layouts, trickier item placements and even a couple of new enemies. Both the original adventure and the second quest would eventually be remade as BS-Zelda, an enhanced version for a satellite-based Super Famicom add-on, and the game has also been re-released several times:


 * A hidden NES game (which only ended up being available through hacking) in Animal Crossing
 * As part of the Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition Compilation Rerelease bonus disc, which came with each Nintendo GameCube
 * As part of the Game Boy Advance Classic NES Series
 * On the Wii's Virtual Console
 * As part of the 3DS Ambassador Program
 * It is also present on Super Smash Bros. Brawl as one of the unlockable "classic games" made available by completing a specific challenge; however, once the game is started, the player only has a limited amount of time to 'sample' the gameplay.

Not to be confused with Zelda Classic, a Freeware recreation of the original game and Second Quest that also comes packaged with a program for creating your own Zelda-style quests.


 * Death Mountain: The recurring location's first appearance, and the site of the final dungeon (specifically located in Spectacle Rock).
 * Gannon Banned: Named for the mistranslation of Ganon's name provided in the title scroll.
 * Wall Master: These notorious enemies make their first-ever appearance.
 * The Lost Woods: The forest maze makes its first appearance in the series here.


 * Heart Container: The first game in the Zelda series and among video games in general to use a Life Meter composed of hearts, The Legend of Zelda also introduced Heart Containers that could extend the meter.


 * Ability Required to Proceed: Played With in a sense - as the first entry in the series, it naturally establishes the standard of "use the dungeon item to progress and defeat the boss" for following games, but its open-world structure also makes it more possible to circumvent this compared to some later entries. A skilled player can defeat bosses through unorthodox means and get very far into later dungeons without most of the items you're expected to have by then.
 * The sword in particular that most players are used to carrying is only absolutely needed to defeat the Final Boss, and the game can be completed without one up to that point.
 * As far as straight examples: For bosses that guard Triforce Shards, bombs are required to dispatch Dodongos and arrows are needed to kill at least one variant of Gohma.
 * For accessing the dungeons themselves, the raft from Level 3 is needed to reach Level 4, the recorder from Level 5 uncovers the location of Level 7, and a fire source (usually a candle) must be used to open the entrance to Level 8. And of course, you'll need all 8 Triforce Shards to access Level 9.
 * Within the dungeons, the ladder you obtain in Level 4 is needed to reach the section of the labyrinth containing the boss Gleeok and the Triforce Shard.
 * Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: You can only hold 255 rupees in this game, and some good items tend towards the three-digits range in price. It doesn't help that Rupees technically count as ammo for the bow.
 * Magic Shields can be 90, 130, or 160 Rupees depending on which shops you visit. Said shield can also be eaten by Like Likes, monsters that resemble a pile of evil pancakes, which means leaving the dungeon for a fairly long bout of Rupee farming.
 * The much more optional Blue Ring costs 250 Rupees - potentially worth it for an early source of halved damage, but still unreasonably expensive.
 * Affectionate Parody: The Legend of Neil.
 * All There in the Manual: The backstory leading up to the beginning of the game is explained in the manual. The world surrounding Hyrule was in an age of Chaos, and legends of the Triforce were passed down from generation to generation; the Prince of Darkness Ganon stole the Triforce of Power, and Zelda split the Triforce of Wisdom into eight shards and hid them throughout Hyrule to save it from Ganon's clutches. Impa, her most trustworthy nursemaid, was given orders to secretly escape into the land and find a man with enough courage to destroy the evil Ganon. While fleeing from Ganon's search party, the cornered Impa was saved by a young man named Link, to whom Impa told the whole story - Link then took it upon himself to defeat Ganon and his henchmen and restore the Triforce of Wisdom.
 * Animated Adaptation: The Legend of Zelda cartoon was primarily based on this game, with elements of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
 * Asteroids Monster: Zols and Vires, which split into Gels and red Keese unless hit with a strong enough weapon. The second Digdogger in Level 7 also splits into three miniature copies when the Recorder/Flute is played.
 * Attract Mode: Idling on the start screen treated you to a scrolling and famously-misspelled explanation of the game's plot.
 * Awesome but Impractical: The Magic Book/Bible adds a lingering fire effect to Link's Magical Rod blasts, which gives it more utility in lighting rooms and burning groups of enemies... except that several enemies are outright immune to fire, including ones that would be damaged by the rod blasts otherwise!
 * Bat Out of Hell: Vire and Keese.
 * Betting Minigame: A "money making game" NPC can be found in several locations. 3 rupees are on display in their cave, and would either give or take a certain amount when stepped on - only one of them would give you a net profit, and you had to leave and re-enter the cave if you wanted to try again. The game's Engrish made this somewhat hard to understand for players.
 * Blackout Basement: This starts occurring (and is most prevalent) in Level 4 of the first quest, where nearly every room is pitch black, with Level 5 being a close runner-up; dark rooms appear more intermittently in later dungeons. A single application of a candle lights the entire room.
 * Blind Idiot Translation: To the point that it actually impacts the difficulty of the game - a lot of the trial-and-error aspects of the game would have been averted if the messages had been rendered properly, and indeed Japanese speakers who played the Japanese version have traditionally cited the enemies as being the primary reason for the game's Nintendo Hard difficulty, rather than the difficulty of finding dungeon entrances and hidden treasures.
 * Perhaps the most infamous example - where a message revealing the location of the Magic Key in the first quest's eighth dungeon in Japan instead said "10th enemy has the bomb" stateside - turned out to be a complete aversion (and in hindsight, one that might have been easily spotted as such). The former message was swapped out entirely for the latter, and its main "crime" is being about as vague as any other hint given by the old men: After killing nine enemies that can death-drop items in a row without taking damage, killing a tenth such enemy with a bomb will guarantee that they drop a set of bombs. Pop Fiction has an entire 2013 episode dedicated to deciphering the phrase, and the feature sees frequent use in speed play and races.
 * Good Bad Translation: On the other hand, the game also gave us a fair amount of memorable and meme-worthy lines.
 * Bold Inflation: Used in the intro scroll.
 * Boss in Mook Clothing: Darknuts are immune to most forms of attack from the front due to their shield, and are additionally outright immune to fire, arrows, or bolts from the Magic Rod (though not to hits with the Rod itself). They frequently appear in groups and walk around at a steady pace, making attacks from the side dangerous since they can turn towards you with no warning. Red ones take four Wooden Sword hits or two Bombs to defeat - their presence in the third dungeon is a sign for many players to seek out the White Sword. The blue ones are even faster with twice as much health in addition to the above, and start appearing in level 5.
 * Boss Room: Averted - boss rooms looked and worked much like any other room in a labyrinth, and the roars of a boss monster served as one of the few indicators that you were close to it.
 * Cave Mouth: The entrances to the first six labyrinths are these.
 * The Champion: The trend of Link being Zelda's champion throughout the serious arguably starts here - the reincarnation of the pair through timelines, as theorized by fans and later confirmed by Hyrule Historia, confirms as much.
 * Classic Cheat Code:
 * Naming your saved game ZELDA (or at least starting the name with ZELDA) starts you off on the second quest.
 * Pressing Up + A on the player 2 controller takes you to the Continue/Save/Retry screen immediately, so you can save without having to die.
 * Clown Car Grave: Touching a gravestone will generate an invincible ghost called a Ghini, as well as damaging you if you touch it from the front (since the Ghini will fade in almost immediately). These Ghinis fly at random across the screen, similar to Peahats, and each graveyard also has a less invulnerable Ghini roaming the map like a normal enemy - killing it will also destroy the other Ghini.
 * Comic Book Adaptation: The Valiant Comics Legend of Zelda series authorized by Nintendo was based on this and Zelda II.
 * Convection, Schmonvection: Every dungeon located on Death Mountain in the first quest has lava in place of water. Not only is it non-hazardous, but Link can also cross narrow flows of it with a wooden ladder. The lava is also completely invisible in the dark.
 * Creepy Cool Crosses: All the tombstones in the graveyard have crosses on them, as do Link's shields and even the Magic Book. Word of God explains that the motif is caused by the fact that the original plan was to have Christianity as the main religion in Hyrule; the three goddesses weren't invented until after the two NES games were released. The Magic Book is also explicitly a Bible in the Japanese version.
 * Critical Annoyance: A beeping repeatedly plays when you're down to your last heart.
 * Cyclopean Creature: Tektites, Armos, Ghini, Digdogger, Gohma, and Patra.
 * Damage Discrimination: Played straight with Bombs, and averted with flames from the Candles and the enhanced Magic Wand.
 * Denial of Diagonal Attack: Link is only able to move in four directions and his main attack is a straight-forward stab, which makes it somewhat difficult to attack things that you'd rather not be standing directly in front of. You can throw your boomerang diagonally with a bit of dexterity, but that's it.
 * Disc One Nuke:
 * If you know where to look, are somewhat good at evasion, and willing to grind Rupees for a few minutes, it is possible to get three of the five overworld Heart Containers, the White Sword and the Blue Ring before entering the very first dungeon in the first quest. The three extra hearts and the White Sword can be obtained easily and will allow you to breeze thru at least the first half of the game, but the ring is very expensive at 250 rupees (5 away from the maximum). If you want to buy it quickly, but you're not in a mood to farm or else cheese the money-making minigame via Save Scumming, you'll have to spend some time finding hidden caches of Rupees. It's well worth it for an item that halves damage, though.
 * It's also possible to get the Magic Key very early in the first quest, with only the bow and arrows required to do so. Granted, it's rather difficult with this bare minimum, but you never have to worry about keys from that point, making dungeon exploration a breeze.
 * Early Installment Weirdness:
 * There are no NPC-filled towns, and NPCs themselves are rather rare - as a result, there is little character interaction other than the vague hints given by various old folks, and the "side-quests" consist largely of hunting down optional upgrades and Rupee caches.
 * Pieces of Heart did not yet exist; instead, full Heart Containers are obtained from defeating the main dungeon bosses, and were additionally found in caves around the map.
 * The presence of crosses is because Christianity was initially planned to be Hyrule's religion (as discussed above), and is not mentioned in any context within the game itself; the mythology of the Golden Goddesses would come later in the series.
 * Also of note is that Link is going after the Triforce "with" Wisdom, and is not yet the holder of the Triforce of Courage.
 * Arrows did not yet have their own dedicated inventory slot - as such, they only have to be bought once, and use the Rupee count as ammo instead.
 * As discussed in the Interchangeable Antimatter Keys below, there were no dungeon-specific key counts and only two types of key - "proper" Boss Rooms didn't exist, thus there were no boss keys. You could buy normal ones for 100 Rupees a pop, and it was possible to obtain more keys than there were locked doors in a labyrinth, so spare keys could be used to navigate through later levels quicker - finding the Magical Key in the eighth labyrinth renders normal keys completely obsolete.
 * Eleventh-Hour Superpower: The Silver Arrows are an example of this for those tackling everything strictly in level order, as they are found within the ninth and final labyrinth and are necessary to defeat the Final Boss.
 * Empty Room Psych: While most levels were fairly straightforward, the ninth dungeon and several second quest dungeons tended to feature these.
 * Exact Words: Some caves contain an old woman who says "Pay me and I'll talk". All of them will supply you with info if you pay them their maximum offered amount... except for one who merely replies with "Boy, you're rich." You have to give her the middle amount instead for her to pony up the real information.
 * Faceless Eye: Patra.
 * Feed It a Bomb: Dodongos make their debut in this game, and feeding one two bombs would cause it to die a slow death (the flickering sprite still caused Collision Damage until it croaked). The actual smoke of the explosions could also severely weaken a Dodongo, allowing you to kill it with any other weapon - doing so always results in more dropping, making Dodongos a good way to replenish your bomb count.
 * Feelies: The game came with a poster-sized map which had the locations of most of the dungeons and could be used for taking notes. Much to the general annoyance of people who owned the original, this map has not been re-released with any of the remakes.
 * Flash of Pain: Both Link and the enemies when hit.
 * Flip Screen Scrolling: In both the overworld and dungeons.
 * Game Mod: Several mods of the first game exist, many of which are made via Zelda Classic - the best-known (and best) is probably Zelda Challenge: Outlands.
 * Giant Eye of Doom: Tektites, Digdogger, and especially Gohma and Patra.
 * Give Me Your Inventory Item:
 * A friendly-but-hungry Goriya blocks a path through Level 7 with a and requires the Food item that can be found in shops to get past.
 * Certain old men in the Second Quest will force you to . Yes, that's either 50 rupees or one of your precious Heart Containers. To add insult to injury, you usually can't leave these "mugging rooms" unless you comply... or you can use the Up+A trick, or else attack them and intentionally die to the blasts from their fires.
 * Go for the Eye: Again, Gohma and Patra.
 * Guide Dang It: Try to get through the second quest without looking at a map. Just try. You'll probably get to about Level 3 before giving in.
 * Here There Were Dragons: Unlike later games, magic (while it does show up) doesn't play a large role. The artbook Hyrule Historia officially calls the NES games "The Era of Hyrule's Decline".
 * Heroes Want Redheads: The sprite and artwork of Princess Zelda depict her with red/brown hair.
 * Holy Burns Evil: The Silver Arrows.
 * I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Death Mountain debuts here.
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: A dragon called Aquamentus is the boss of the first and seventh dungeons, while the multi-headed Gleeoks appeared in the fourth, sixth and eighth dungeons.
 * Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Used to a higher degree here than in any other title in the series. Not only would keys transfer over from dungeon to dungeon, but you could even buy extras if you somehow managed to fluff the puppy and run out. There's also a "Magical Key" in the eighth dungeon that is reusable.
 * Invincible Minor Minion:
 * "Bubbles" are flaming skulls that disable Link's ability to use a sword for awhile, with absolutely no way to kill them. This was even worse in the Second Quest, where two new versions were added -- a red one which took away the sword ability completely, and a blue one which restored it. Touching the first required touching the second, which was sometimes in a completely different room.
 * Ghinis will appear if you touch most of the headstones in the graveyard past the Lost Woods. Subverted in that while these are normally invincible, you can "kill" them if you defeat the Ghini that was initially roaming the graveyard section when you entered.
 * Kid Hero: According to the Hyrule Historia, this incarnation of Link is only ten years old.
 * Kill It with Fire: You can emit a flame with either of the Candles, as well as the upgraded Magic Wand after you find the Magic Book.
 * Knockback: Occurs with both Link and the enemies - splitting enemies are sent flying all the way across the screen if hit with weak enough weapons. Link can actually get knocked back into another enemy, and will take damage if the Mercy Invincibility wears off while he's still in contact.
 * Law of Chromatic Superiority: If a monster has a red or orange version and a blue version, the blue version is generally tougher. The only exception is the second quest's Blue Bubbles, which are far less annoying than the red versions.
 * Legendary in the Sequel: Done by both the sequel itself, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and by way of reincarnation through the timelines, as detailed in Hyrule Historia.
 * Lost Forever:
 * In both quests, there are old men who offer you a choice between a Heart Container or a red potion. You can buy red potions, but you can't buy Heart Containers, so selecting the potions means missing out on them permanently.
 * In the second quest, some of the old men in the dungeons ask for 50 rupees, and if you don't have that you must give up a Heart Container. Not as in one unit of health, we mean one heart of your life capacity.
 * Ludicrous Gibs: Of a sort, yes.
 * MacGuffin: The eight pieces of the Triforce.
 * Man-Eating Plant: Peahat, Manhandla and (arguably) Leever.
 * The Maze:
 * The Lost Woods and the Lost Hills are overworld examples - the Lost Hills are a lesser example.
 * Level 9 in both quests, and the majority of the labyrinths in the second.
 * Nintendo Hard: Only somewhat more forgiving than the second game. Focusing more on combat than puzzles, this is the hardest of the standard style games. If you started on the later games, it even combines with Surprise Difficulty.
 * No Swastikas: Averted - The third dungeon in the first quest forms a manji symbol. The Angry Video Game Nerd lampshades this, calling it a swastika at the beginning of his review for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
 * Oculothorax: You probably might not guess this from the game itself, but Digdogger (who hates "a certain kind of sound") is one of these.
 * Patra is an entire squadron of these
 * Post-Endgame Content: Clearing the game immediately gave you access to a harder "second quest", which starts you with the usual three hearts and Wooden Sword but remixes dungeon locations and layouts to be extra-hard.
 * Pursued Protagonist: As explained by the manual, Princess Zelda's nursemaid Impa has been charged with finding a hero who can save Hyrule from Ganon. She is pursued in the forest by Ganon's mooks, only to be rescued conveniently by our soon-to-be Kid Hero.
 * Rainbow Speak: The introductory scrolling text qualifies.
 * Recurring Boss: All of them except the final boss.
 * Level 4: Manhandla, boss of the third dungeon, returns as a midboss.
 * Level 5: Three Dodongos show up for a miniboss battle, where a single one served as the final boss of the second dungeon.
 * Level 6: The two-headed dragon boss of the fourth dungeon, Gleeok, shows up as a midboss sporting a third head.
 * Level 7: The fifth dungeon's boss, Digdogger, returns for a miniboss battle, followed later on by another trio of Dodongos. Later still, another Digdogger appears, and this one splits into three during the battle. Finally, the boss of this level is Aquamentus, the boss of the first dungeon.
 * Level 8: A total of three Manhandlas appear in this dungeon, as do two Gohmas - which, due to the Law of Chromatic Superiority require three times as many hits to defeat as the one that served as the final boss of the sixth dungeon. The final boss is a four-headed Gleeok.
 * Ring of Power: Two optional rings exist that reduce the damage Link takes, which is great for survival in general. The blue ring halves damage, and the red ring reduces it to 1/4th. In practice, this means that a normal hit dealing a half-heart of damage to Link takes two hits to do the same damage with the Blue Ring - this can be pretty nice for maintaining your Sword Beam power in particular.
 * Save Game Limits: Sort of. You have three save slots, and unless you know the Player Up+ A code, the only way to save manually is to die. This unfortunately doesn't work in the Virtual Console re-release, which for whatever reason is ported from the Game Boy Advance re-release.
 * Schizophrenic Difficulty: The game hits a major difficulty spike about halfway through the first quest with the introduction of tough enemies such as Wizzrobes and Darknuts. The beginning of the second quest is even harder, as you must deal with such enemies much earlier on and with less equipment/life at your disposal. The difficulty rapidly subsides as you near the end of the second quest, however - the immediate presence of stronger enemies means you begin to acclimate to them sooner, and after a certain point enemies can't be made much stronger. The difficulty of the second quest's late stages come more from increasingly complex/confusing dungeon layouts.
 * Self-Imposed Challenge: As one of the oldest video games, it's been subject to many of these.
 * Minimalist Run: A number of players have worked out how to get through the entire game (except for the final boss) without using a sword.
 * Speed Run: The current Any% record according to speedrun.com is this 27-minute 54-second run by Schicksal without using the Up+A trick. Schicksal also has the fastest Second Quest completion time without using Up+A.
 * Sequence Breaking: Later games carefully worked out where you could find and use keys so that none were left over and no doors were left locked; this one didn't do that, so you can easily clear level 2 with about six or seven of them in reserve, making it even easier to beat some of the later dungeons.
 * Sequential Boss: Level 6 in the second quest has a battle against Manhandla in one room, immediately followed by Gohma, before you can claim the Triforce Shard.
 * Skeleton Key: The Magic Key functions as one, rending regular keys completely obsolete.
 * Spell Book: It's not necessary for Link to be able to use the Magic Wand, but it does make his shots burst into flames. Ironically, this actually weakens the power of the wand, as some enemies who would be injured by the magic are impervious to fire. Many Genre Savvy players don't bother picking up the book, since it's not a required item for anything.
 * Stationary Boss: The multi-headed Gleeok has a stationary body, though it also subverts this: once you damage one of the heads enough, it detaches and begins moving and firing on its own.
 * Stock Sound Effects: Aquamentus, Gleeok and Ganon all use a low-quality, low pitch pterodactyl roar lifted straight out of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Something similar may also apply to the noise made by Manhandla, Digdogger and Patra.
 * Sword Beam: If your life meter is at maximum, you can fire these at distant enemies; notably, unlike many later Zelda titles this sword beam carries the same power level as the blade itself, and is not exclusive to higher-level swords. Even so, this makes getting the White Sword or even the Magical Sword as early as possible is a major boon.
 * Talking with Signs: Link holds up a sign reading "PLEASE LOOK UP THE MANUAL FOR DETAILS" in the opening title scroll.
 * Teleport Spam: The Red Wizzrobes appear and disappear constantly, and are only vulnerable when partly or completely visible. Blue Wizzrobes can moves normally, but will warp short distances to phase over and through obstacles.
 * Tutorial Failure: In the instruction manual, the Pols Voice enemy is said to "hate loud noise". Naturally, the player would assume that their weakness would be the flute - but it does absolutely nothing to them, because "loud noise" refers to the built-in microphone found in the Famicom (the Japanese version of the NES), whose functionality was removed entirely for the American release. This is given a Call Back in later games, where musical items will also kill Pols Voices.
 * Unfortunate Names: Seriously, Manhandla? Its original name was even worse: Testitart.
 * Unwinnable: Technically possible in the second quest. Several rooms have all their doors slam shut until you defeat all of the non-Bubble enemies in them. If you get tagged by one of the red Bubbles (which remove your ability to use a sword until you touch a blue Bubble) in such a room without a blue Bubble, then you're down to whatever subweapons you have on hand. It's quite possible to be out of weapons (if you haven't gotten unlimited-use ones like the wand or the red candle yet) and end up stuck in the room. Fortunately, you can just quit and retry via the Up+A trick in all instances.
 * Useless Useful Spell: Part of what makes the second quest so difficult is that certain "useless" items get a lot more mileage on their next go around, as they become essential to finding many helpful power-ups. The only indication you receive of this is finding said items much earlier in the game than before.
 * Video Game Cruelty Punishment: If you attack the peaceful dungeon dwellers (usually old men), they respond by having their campfires shoot fireballs at you until you go away. The ones encountered on the surface simply can't be hit.
 * Villain Forgot to Level Grind: In the first quest, the first dungeon boss Aquamentus returns as the boss of the seventh dungeon with no improvements whatsoever. Three hits with the White Sword (two with the Magical Sword) is all it takes, and the Magic Shield can block its beams.
 * Averted in the second quest with originally weak enemies such as Stalfos, who can now throw swords, and the Rope snakes, who now take more hits (and flash).
 * Warp Whistle: The Whistle teleports Link to any of the dungeons he's discovered.
 * Warp Zone: Link can use the Power Bracelet to uncover a Warp Zone with stairways that lead between four areas.
 * Wide Open Sandbox: Quite possibly the Ur Example.
 * A Winner Is You: "THANKS LINK, YOU'RE THE HERO OF HYRULE."