this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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Today is the 40th Anniversay of Zelda! (lemmy.world)
submitted 21 hours ago by ApollosArrow@lemmy.world to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
27 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43419708

Known in Japan as The Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend of Zelda. The main title was dropped in the US to make the name shorter and some claim it was to avoid confusion with the upcoming Squaresoft Final Fantasy game, which would debut a year later.

The Legend of Zelda was inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto's explorations as a boy in the surrounding areas of his home in Sonobe, Japan. One of his most memorable experiences was finding a cave entrance in the middle of the woods. After some hesitation, he entered the cave and explored its depths with the aid of a lantern.

The story and setting were developed by Takashi Tezuka. He drew inspirations from fantasy books such The Lord of the Rings. The legend of the Triforce was written with inspirations from the battles of medieval Europe. The Master Sword was introduced as their version of Excalibur in A Link to the Past, which is regarded as reminiscent to the legend of King Arthur. Princess Zelda was named after American novelist, socialite and painter Zelda Fitzgerald. Tezuka modeled Link's appearance after the eponymous character of Walt Disney's Peter Pan.

What is your favorite Zelda memory?

top 27 comments
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[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 15 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Happy birthday, Link and Zelda!

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 6 points 17 hours ago

Your Gannon snub has been noted...

Happy Birthday, Big trident Pig-Man!

[–] thethrilloftime69@feddit.online 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I wasn't old enough to have played the OG Zelda when it launched, but I recently played it. It is still an unbelievable masterpiece to this day. It accomplishes things that Zeldas that came after didn't. It's my second favorite Zelda of all time.

[–] ApollosArrow@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Rare to see it being the favorite for someone who has only recently played it!

[–] thethrilloftime69@feddit.online 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

The series become increasingly linear starting with Zelda 2 until BOTW. The first game hides a bunch of stuff in the world and then gives you clues to find them and you can tackle them in any order you figure out the puzzles in. The wizards and witches give you cryptic hints, whereas the later games are just straight up like "hey go here, touch this item to this thing". It's super liberating to live and die by my own intuition.

[–] ApollosArrow@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago

I think the argument was that having it be linear allowed for better puzzles since you’d progressively need more items per dungeon. I think they kept the freedom more on the handheld games than the main 3D ones. If memory serves, you could do most of the dark world dungeons in any order, in A Link to the Past as well as a Link Between Worlds. Echoes of Wisdom recently also gave some ability to choose dungeons. I’m curious what the future holds post TotK.

[–] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

I played this game all the way through without a guide about 3 years ago. It has NES jank but the only really frustrating parts are unlocking the dungeon with the flute and with the candle. Everything else had a hint to tell you how to find it or was just out in the open

The key was to write everything down. The dungeons are fine, it’s just the overworld that needs hints

[–] arniegeddon@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

By some sort of crazy coincidence I completed the original Zelda today. Has been on my list for years!

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

...yes but what about the second play through. There's changes to the game after you've beaten it once?

[–] arniegeddon@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

Nah, just the once at the moment. That's enough for me just now.

[–] ApollosArrow@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

Still haven’t managed to actually get through it. The first two are still on my list.

[–] ViatorOmnium@piefed.social 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

The fuck it is, 1986 was 20 years ago, and I will not argue about it.

[–] JelloBrains@piefed.zip 5 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

I just finished the first quest of the game for I guess close to the 40th time yesterday, it has been my go to for almost 40 years apparently, holy crap how time really does fly.

I have never finished the second quest though. :/

[–] coolfission@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (3 children)

I remember playing Zelda I on an emulator. The progression was absolutely brutal since the game doesn’t give any hints on where to go. I don’t know how people back in the day did it without guides and walkthrough vids. Still an amazing game that was really ahead of its time (and I believe the first console game to save!)

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 4 points 16 hours ago

It was designed around needing to explore, but since there was always enough stuff to find and the enemy strength was one signpost of the type of area it was, it never felt tedious. The 80s and early 90s was also part of the era where you weren't getting new games all the time, so if it took awhile to figure out the next step it wasn't a big deal because it was the only thing you were focusing on.

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago

I played it as a kid, though to be fair the only progress was made when my dad played. It was mostly brute force, "ok, can't go any further here let's try another path." And eventually you were at the final boss. My dad eventually got to the end and thought he got lucky, that he'd just happened to go through the rest of the game first and collected everything he needed. I don't actually think it's possible to get to Ganon in the first game without going through all the dungeons.

[–] ApollosArrow@lemmy.world 5 points 18 hours ago

I think the original game brought a printed map for you to fill in, plus some information in the manual. All of which obvious those of is who have emulated would not have.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

What is your favorite Zelda memory?

Drawing in the missing map squares from the published map that came with the game:

[–] m4ylame0wecm@lemmy.zip 2 points 18 hours ago

Hand drawn overworld map. I forget the scale, probably 1x4 US Letter, colored pencil. Replaying using my map was great.

[–] ApollosArrow@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

This is one of the things I feel like I missed out on from the earlier games. I think the closest we had to it again was drawing on the maps for the DS.

[–] notsure@fedia.io 3 points 20 hours ago

Here take this, it is dangerous to go alone!

[–] db2@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

With all due repect of course.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

What am I missing here?

[–] db2@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Which thing?

  • The age joke
  • Fuck Nintendo
  • Mr Rogers with the middle fingers
[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago

You covered my confusion, thanks

[–] ramasses@social.ozymandias.club 2 points 20 hours ago

Fuck nintendo