Topic: What are the Essential characteristics of a Zelda game?

Story in Zelda games, bar a few exceptions, is always more an excuse for adventure than actual plot. In ALL mainline episodes (except maybe the NES ones), you'll get some sort of introduction, but at some point you'll ALWAYS be asked to visit [insert number] dungeons to retrieve [insert number] [insert type of artefact] in order to save the world. What makes a Zelda game is to me :

Gameplay :

• A wholesome map with different biomes, always including — but not restricted to : a forest, a mountain and a body of water.
• Landmarks on the map such as at least one village, a temple/church, a cemetery. Hidden caves.
• Enemies whose characteristics are representative of the biome they usually spawn in. Also applies to non-hostile NPCs since OoT.
• Boss fights with a logical, but not obvious strategy to beat them, usually relying on a newly acquired item.
• The usual weapons/shields with occasional enhancements (multi-homing boomerang, mirror shield...).
• One unique weapon/accessory around which the whole gameplay/plot/puzzles of any given episode or dungeon evolves (ocarina, conductor's baton, hourglass...).
• Recovery items and maximum-HP/stamina extending items scattered around the map.
• Merchants.
• Fire/Ice mechanics.

Story :

• Spatial/Time/Dimension discontinuity in the plot.
• The game opens on ancient lore featuring a fallen/mysterious/unknown hero(ine), inspired by/originating from the Triforce (the latter being named or just hinted at).
• The introduction serves as a tutorial, or has only one way forward and introduces some of the game's mechanics and then the player is given more freedom to roam across a seemingly open map until a certain item (or lack thereof) prevents them from going further

Themes :

• Stolen/orphaned childhood
• Growing up too fast after facing loss/mourning
• Uprooting, forced displacement
• Being an outcast
• Greediness for power
• Helplessness and lost causes
• ...

@damien33ad the shrines aren't the feature that are essential to Zelda - just like dungeons aren't. What's essential is the puzzle solving and occasional combat elements. Those are present in both Shrines and Dungeons.

How many Zelda games do you have to have played to get a say in this? I've only beaten 3 and am part way through another 3 or 4 currently.

To me, a Zelda game needs:

• Link and Zelda, and a touching bond between them, portrayed with a minimalist style
• Sound design consistency (consistent sound design is almost as important in Zelda games as it is in Star Wars)
• 'Folk' culture, mythology and themes - woodland, water, music
• Sense of adventure
• Puzzles

And yes, @WoomyNNYes, a quest log should be retrofitted to all existing Zelda games that don't have one.

What I don't think the games need (necessarily):

• mini games - I really don't care for them in Zelda games and rarely put any time into them.

@gcunit Yeah, I'd really love to jump back into Ocarina of Time 3DS, but I've never play through the game before, and forgot what my objectives are.

Essential characteristics of a Zelda game? Well, it has to have Link in it, and of course Zelda, and a world for Link to explore and... well, that's pretty much it for the essentials.

Zelda isn't in Link's Awakening, Oracle of Seasons/Ages (whichever one you play first, that is), and only has a brief cameo in Majora's Mask.

They have to get you to commit to the ‘Zelda cycle’ (i.e the last one is the WORST GAME EVER, the one before is perfection that must be emulated exactly).

If you're currently playing through them for the first time, I'd say you have a fresh perspective on what makes a Zelda game.

Too many people's perspectives have been calcified and they can't see past replaying the same experiences over again.

You can list the characteristics of a Zelda game that are common to the series but you wouldn't be seeing the forest for the trees. You could say a Zelda game needs dungeons but then if you have a Zelda game without dungeons and it still feels like a Zelda game, we're missing something.

Probably depends on which ones you've played. It's pretty easy to bucket them into ones that are very similar...

Bucket 1: TLoZ, ALTTP, all of the handheld games (including Link's Awakening)
Bucket 2: Adventure of Link
Bucket 3: OOT, MM, WW, SS
Bucket 4: BOTW

I think you'd need one from each bucket - however, bucket 2 is easily the least important since it's one game from 30 years ago. Bucket 4 is also only one game, but it's also got a sequel coming, and could be the standard for Zelda going forward.

items are a phenomenal way of evoking a feeling of genuine progression. besides the lack of dungeons, the lack of items is the next biggest loss from botw. shrines dont cut it, not by a longshot. dungeons and items go hand in hand. im incredibly biased here of course, but i believe skyward sword proved that nintendo can write a pretty great story. characters like groose and that games portrayal of zelda are very memorable and some of the best characters in the series. botw had nothing of the sort, along with the almost cringeworthy voice acting. its not that i really want to rag on botw, i just think it had the most potential in the entire series to be something even greater, and they kinda blew it.

I wonder, since Adventure of Link is almost universally considered the odd one out, is it because it does not have the essential characteristics of a Zelda game? I think if we do think it has these characteristics then its status as an outlier would make it useful for determining what makes a Zelda game.

I'd assume some of them can't do that for the previous 3D Zelda, since they'd have to stop pretending motion controls are bad. :V

Zelda games have a lot in common with Metroidvanias.

Coining the new term Zeldoidvania.

I would just like to clarify something that I couldn't be bothered to articulate when I made my earlier post.

The points I've made are more what defines the Zelda games I've played. I'm fresh enough to the Zelda scene whereby I don't think I'd be insisting that a new Zelda game must have anything in particular. I like to be open-minded and am so glad I can just appreciate Breath of the Wild for what it is, rather than grumble about any features it may be lacking.

I think items and progression are very much a part of Breath of the Wild, they’re just presented differently from usual. There are gates, but this time you have many options for getting through (defeating the enemies for the magic key, picking the lock, brute forcing it open, climbing or paragliding over the fence, going the long way around, finding the secret passageway, among others). There are items and tools (the Sheikah Slate and its modules, which you unlock and upgrade gradually, the paraglider, single-shot bows, multi-shot bows, long-range bows, many types of armour each with useful properties, sledgehammers, torches, swords that can start fires easily, weapons for electrocuting or freezing enemies, elemental rods, elemental arrows, explosive arrows, axes, korok leaf, champion abilities, octoballoons, among others) that you gradually acquire over the course of the adventure to help solve puzzles, explore the world, and defeat enemies but there is always more than one way to accomplish the same goal.

For example Hyrule Castle is accessible early on, but you’ll need a way to get past all the guardians (which most people can’t do until mid-end game). Once inside you must get to the top. Revali’s gale, swimming up the waterfalls with the Zora armour, following the main path (featuring more guardians and a couple Lynels) and sneaking in through the docks are all viable means. Still some people find a rock they can cling to and launch it with Cinetis and a sledgehammer in a perfect trajectory that takes them directly to Ganon’s Lair a la Pinky and the Brain. Guardians will give you trouble early on, but you will gradually discover and exploit their weaknesses (guardian weapons, master sword, ancient arrow, and shield parries are all effective against them). Weapon durability is a subtle way to ensure that you can’t ravage a camp full of silver enemies right off the bat but as you go, you’ll get better and better weapons to destroy them easily. More interesting than just having a peg that you must pound with the hammer from level 5 in order to access the route to level 6.

@damien33ad

That's a good point about ingenuity and what you said above about trying something new. Not just for Nintendo but for the players.

At least that's my impression of a Zelda game. You wander around the world, you explore and try things. A lot of games have that so that isn't just what a Zelda game is, but for me that is essential.

I've never played a Game Cube or Wii Zelda game (really hoping Nintendo ports them to Switch.) So maybe there's something those games have that I'm missing. But I can see a clear connection between what I like about the games I've played and BotW. And I feel that BotW does a Zelda game perfectly by freeing up the Metroivania-like restrictions and leaving the world as a sandbox.

I agree and I would add good music!

For me, Breath of the Wild is not even a The Legend of Zelda game.

I'd argue that Zelda is most defined by its world. While the series certainly has strong iconography and well defined but varied gameplay/structure, the nature and character of the worlds in Zelda games remains consistent across all entries.

Scale/A Sense of Grandiose Adventure: A Zelda game is never small. In scale and/or presentation, a Zelda game takes place in a large and diverse environment. Whether gated or open, the main goal is to convey the idea of a grand quest and adventure.

Discovery and Awe: The world is full of mysteries, hidden secrets, and new sights. The world of a Zelda game is a strange, whimsical, wondrous place. Things aren't always what they appear to be at first glance. Grand secrets exist just out of sight in all places, grand or mundane.

Folksy Hope Under Threat of Evil: The world is explicitly threatened by some evil/malevolent force. Despite this, the people living there continue to persevere although still acknowledging losses. Humanity and human spirit thrive even in the struggle. There are real stakes and things worth saving.

I'd like to add one more half related bullet point:

Tools and Ingenuity: The world and environment are overcome and navigated using tools and ingenuity. The hero's power is not innate, but derived from the tools acquired and it's the application of the tools scenarios is the hero's most noticeable talent.

So, since my thread got locked: can anyone help elaborate to me, a non-Nintendo guy that hasn't been super impressed by the Zelda series what makes it so loved?

For clarity, I've played enough of LoZ, AoL, LA DX, and Phantom Hourglass to have completed a few dungeons, and in LttP I reached Turtle Rock dungeon and in Ocarina I completed the Spirit Temple. But I haven't finished any of the games.

I've liked similar games but I feel like there's a lot of hype and nostalgia involved in talking about the games (especially Ocarina, which I thought had aged poorly even when I first played it in 2004.)

Still, I'd love to have my mind changed. I envy the passion Zelda fans have for their series and I'd like to be that enthusiastic about it too.

If anyone has a suggestion of where to start with the series I'd be willing to hear it. Just not handheld and not Ocarina. Emulation is fine. The Switch one I'm tentatively interested in but I'm not big on open world games and I don't have a Switch yet.

@damien33ad I wanted to keep my separate thread on the subject and am sorry to hijack it, but the mods locked it and told me to come to this thread. I'd have loved to have kept the topics split. Take it up with them if I'm in the wrong thread, this is their Frankenstein.

Anyway- I no longer have my N64 or 3DS or the copies of Ocarina and I disliked the experience enough that I don't want to restart it. If I could start back up from Ganon's castle I might do it, but my copies are long gone and I haven't had my N64 since 2014. I tried when I had the 3DS and gave up after accidentally quitting on the mountain 2-3 hours in and having to start over from the elf village. I hate crossing that stupid field so much and you have to do it so many times. I also remembwr having a lot of trouble with a boss you have to hit shots back at and the timing feeling "off". Conversely I don't see what people hate about the water temple, I thought the forest temple was way worse.

I was thinking if I tried again I'd go for LttP since it's the one I enjoyed most (even as a Sega kid, the 16-bit era was great on both the major consoles). But barring that I'd consider Wind Waker or Twilight Princess, I do still have a Wii and a GC memory card. Unfortunately both games are also prohibitively expensive now.