Topic: Reverse Legend of Zelda

Imagine a legend of Zelda game where, for whatever reason, the roles of Link and Ganon are reversed. Ganon is good, and Link is evil. Both still have the powers and attributes of their reincarnations (it's still Link's reincarnation, not Gannon's in Link's body).

Ganon gradually learns magic and how to control his powers, but he's good because he was raised by moral, kind, loving parents. Link is the son of the king (or alternatively grew up on his own in the woods or with goblins) and his totally ruthless. He wants the tri-force to expand his kingdom, but keeps his ambitions secret. Zelda is initially against Ganon, but learns of Link's plans and decides to betray him. In the process, she loses her part of the tri-force , as does Link and Ganon. They search for them in order to beat Link. He fights Link over part of the triforce, but is beaten because Link has found demise's old sword and it has further corrupted him. Ganon tries to get the master sword, but it rejects him, so he finds some way to further strengthen his magic When Gannon finally finds part of the triforce and challenges Link. When he defeats him, he gets both pieces (the two Link has found) of the triforce and makes a wish that his next reincarnation will not be so evil or that their cycle of reincarnation will stop or that Link will become good. When Link is separated from Demise's old sword, Ganon apologizes to the demon inside and either seals it away or destroys it so that no one else will be corrupted by it's influence.

Sound interesting to anyone? The inspiration for this mainly comes from how in one or two of the games, Ganon initially has noble intentions to help his people or avenge them which eventually go awry. It challenges the idea that just because he was bad in a past life means he has to be bad in every life.

I say yes. Just so I can see another crazy pathway on the Zelda timeline.

Can we give them light sabers too?

Nawh, but really it's an interesting concept, I'd love to see some kind of switheroo with the characters, perhaps they're both fighting, and inorder to seal ganon from being reincarnated, they both combine souls as one reincarnation, Linon (Link+ganon? No? ..) a balance between good and evil.

Then zelda stuff happens, and the story ends with them seperating and fighting or taking on another enemy.

Yeah, that's interesting story. I doubt Nintendo would ever want to make Link bad and Ganon good, but it would be cool.

Seems like a level in NES remix.

Either that or a rom hack.

That sounds like it would be pretty awesome. Though they would need to explain a bit, since Ganon is always supposed to be Demise's hatred for Zelda and Link reincarnated, making him inherently evil. And Link is always the reincarnation of the Hero. I"m sure they could find a way, though. Especially if it shook things up like that

I love the idea. To me, SS is when they really made Zelda seem like a mythological story rather than a video game series. So I am waiting for something like this, or making Link a girl, or introducing more mythological elements like in greek lore.

Could be interesting. The story would probably work itself out to be an allegorical critique of western imperialism.

That could be really cool. Narrative devices like parallelism (ToS: Dawn of the New World), dual protagonists (The Last of Us), and foils (Code Geass) tend to work out rather well in my experience.

@Haru17: That idea had occurred to me, but it doesn't seem like something they would use in a Legend of Zelda game. The new focus they are taking on the massive world concept where you make your own choices doesn't mix well with a story where you swap off between two characters. Maybe two separate modes?

I think that well placed cut-scenes or brief points where you play as Link once Gannon enters a certain area for the first time (it would be order based, with key locations triggering the next cut-scene. I.E: First Area A=Cutscene 1,Second Area B= Cutscene 2, and Third Area C= Cutscene 3, but First Area C= Cutscene 1 and so on.
That's the only way I see that paralellism working. Or I guess they would do a swapping thing where in order to access certain areas, you have to switch between Link or Ganon to complete the task. I.E Goblins are crowding a road you want to cross with Ganon. You switch to Link, who is in the castle, and take his men out to assist in killing them because they are a threat to the kingdom. Then you switch back to Ganon and continue along the road. Neither knows they have helped the other, and each character is left in a certain location when you switch between them.

I have thought up a good explanation for why Ganon is good and Link is evil that sort of even makes sense. Every iteration of Link is known for a certain quality or trait. They have all the traits that make them who they are, but every iteration has a different emphasis. Ganon's incarnation this time around emphasized justice (from Demise's point of view, his is just). This sense of justice worked against other traits Ganon has and lead to him being moral. Link, on the other hand, emphasizes Ambition, Determination, or Will. His "will" oppresses his people and causes his desire for conquest.

I just think Ganon could be a cool thing for gameplay too. Instead of chests with weapons, he gets tomes or something. He can transform into whatever, can use certain spells, control certain monsters, and who knows what else. He wouldn't use certain types because they would corrupt him or he thinks that they're just too evil. If they could incorporate teleportation into his combat, and properly incorperate the gamepad, that would be nice too. Physically, he would appear much leaner than other versions of Ganon, and Link would be much broader, making them a similar size and a more even match-up. In at least on fight, Ganon and Link would fight sword on sword in a very reminiscent version of shadow link and link.

If you want a REALLY long game, maybe the Dark Goddess who created Demise, furious at Ganon's betrayal (this being after Link is redeemed) begins attacking the world. If you want it really dark, the she kills the king and Ganon's adopted parents. Maybe Link and Ganon go questing together, maybe they lead their armies against some evil force, or something else, and seal her away with some hitherto unknown artifact.

The game ends with Ganon and Link as kings of their respective kingdoms, humans/elves working alongside Ganon's monsters. The Goddess is a constant threat despite temporarily sealing her away (heck, maybe she KNOWS about the timeline and wants to keep them in an endless cycle of killing or she's some extra dimensional force). As time goes by, Ganon's monsters become more human looking and become known as dark ones or something less offensive sounding something like that. In a potential sequal set centuries later, there are higher dark ones and lower dark ones. The lower ones live with humans and aren't really different. The higher ones are reclusive and masters of combat or magic and such, perhaps taking a similar place to fairies.

When disaster once again strikes, Ganon and Link (this time childhood friends) are again thrust into a quest against the Dark Goddess. Ganon struggles his being evil in his past lives and Link helps him struggle against temptations to give into his darker nature.

Maybe in that sequel, Zelda is evil, or the Dark Goddess has created a dark Triforce and her own version of the three heroes.

Link and Zelda either are corrupted and Ganon is forced to kill them or they sacrifice themselves to destroy the dark triforce. Ganon is enraged and briefly reverts to Demise, summoning a new sword or his old sealed one to fight the dark goddess. About to kill her, he stops himself, and this somehow also redeems Demise, allowing him to hold the Master sword. With both swords, he again seals her away and returns to the kingdom, distraught. He copes with his misery by planting a garden in honor of Link and Zelda, he personally talks and works with the people in the kingdom, and is by all accounts a just king. One day he risks his life to save a girl from a fire or some monster, only for it to turn out she has a special connection with one of the goddesses. As a reward for his selflessness and his complete turn away from his dark origins, the Goddess resurrects Link and Zelda. Ganon, delighted, rules his kingdom with Link and Zelda at his side as advisors. Years later, after his death, a smaller, more human looking version of Demise is seen talking with the original Link (and later, Zelda), making amends for the cycle of hate he created and finally ending his days as an evil being bent on conquest. The three go off into the light, into their next reincarnation.

This is a really cool idea, but I'll go to my same argument I do for making Link a girl: why change something old and risk alienating a fanbase when you can so much more easily create something NEW that does this, instead? Of course, in both cases, the change is the point, but I don't see any self-respecting company going for a drastic change like that when it would be so much easier and safer to make something new to do that.

Regardless, we need more female protagonists (not less male ones) and more to the point of this thread, I really wanna see this as a game concept. Nintendo won't do it with Zelda, but I hope they do something like this.

It could be interesting to see. Then again, I just want to see more Nintendo games starring past villains in general, especially if they're written like Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story (the Bowser part).

Heck, Hyrule Warriors already lets you play as Ganondorf for a few chapters. It was actually quite entertaining to play the bad guy

@UGXwolf: Oh, I know there's no way Nintendo would do this. Don't worry, I have no illusions about that. The only way it could happen is if the fans made such a huge noise about something like this that Nintendo actually heard, or if one of the directors was feeling especially creative.

This is just a " what if" .

Wish Nintendo had a suggestion box though. The fan base is the only reason people even bought Wii Us. Would be nice if they acknowledged that by giving us some degree of input.

I think a game more fitting for the setting and characters would be a game starring Zelda/Shiek or Impa that takes place during the Imprisoning War. At that point in the timeline Link has been defeated and is awaiting reincarnation, and it is the Knights of Hyrule and Sages that act to defeat Ganon. You could approach this from a Zelda escapes and has to gather the sages, is rescued at great cost by the Knights/Impa, or introduce someone else to be the "hero". Make it where you are not fighting to defeat a boss so much as fighting to rescue and escape an overwhelming force of Ganon/the boss. That would canonically provide a reason for Zelda or someone else to be the "hero" of the game.

@Darknyht: Like Super Princess Peach? There's a reason no one remembers it and that Peach hasn't gotten a standalone game since that one. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly exceptional, either. A Legend of Zelda game without Link wouldn't be treated in the same way as a regular part of the series (as in, less resources put into it). A game about Ganon would be totally different in some ways, but wouldn't really alter the formula in the way a Zelda-centric game would.

Zelda doesn't make as nice of a contrast either. It's like making a Mario game, except with Luigi. Pretty much the same thing. Granted, Luigi has some good games, but those aren't really "Mario-style" games, and Zelda doesn't have a dorky personality to lighten up the mood throughout the game the way Luigi does. So, she doesn't work that well in a Traditional LOZ game and honestly, she doesn't have a strong enough character to justify making a spin-off for her. She's just been cast as a supporting character too many times. And, while the lighter Mario games can joke about Peach's tendency for getting kidnapped, LOZ is really too serious for that to work.

Granted, a stealth or assassin style game with Shiek would also be interesting, but it would be a totally different style of game-play, and in that sense, not really a Legend of Zelda game, more of a spin-off. While a strong character, Zelda's alter ego still doesn't really have much personality to go on, and is mired in the mentor position.

Another (new) character coming in and taking the Triforce of Courage in the place of Link (in the time you suggested) would be one way to change it up. Give them a different play-style, maybe a heavier character or something. The problem with Zelda is that her attributes are totally different to Link's, and Impa is old at that point in the timeline.

You could go for a sort of tragic approach, like the Force Awakens, or play as the darker elements involved in the Legend of Zelda.

I dunno. Not like any of this is gonna happen, so why not wish, I guess.

@BattleEnder: If we are chasing unicorns, the game I am thinking really would be more of a RTS or Fire Emblem type game more than a true Zelda game. The "history" of that time is that most of the Knights of Hyrule died protecting the Sages that were holed up in the castle. As for the other "hero", I am not thinking a replacement for Link so much as the Knight-Captain who attempted to stand in the gap. In my mind, the story would end with his death much like the main character of Halo: Reach. The issue is that it would need to be presented as tragedy, which never seems to go well with games.