The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda is an action-adventure video game franchise created by the Japanese designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka and developed and published largely by Nintendo, beginning with the 1986 release of the original game.¹ The series is built around a fantasy world seen, in its first installment, from a top-down perspective, through which the player navigates dungeons, solves puzzles, and battles enemies in a richly detailed setting.¹ Players assume the role of Link, a young hero questing to rescue Princess Zelda and thwart the villain Ganon.¹ Within this structural framework the original game blended several styles of play, ranging from simple exploration to questing, combat, puzzle-solving, and role playing.¹

The original game was conceived by Miyamoto while Super Mario Bros. was still in development, with the help of story writer Takashi Tezuka.¹ In the mid-1980s most console titles, including Super Mario Bros., were side-scrolling platform games in which players raced through levels collecting items and dispatching enemies, and for his next project Miyamoto planned a very different approach.¹ He conceived The Legend of Zelda as a fantasy-themed adventure with role-playing elements and a sprawling narrative unfolding in an open-world environment.¹ That narrative drew on Miyamoto’s memories of his own childhood in the Kyoto countryside, and his goal was to replicate the wonder of wandering the forest and exploring caves.¹ The game was mainly inspired by these explorations of the hillsides, forests, and caves surrounding his childhood home.¹⁰ Miyamoto had first risen to fame in the industry as the mastermind behind Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros..¹

Two design choices set the original apart from its contemporaries: its top-down view and its abandonment of one-directional progression through a predetermined set of levels.¹ Instead it allowed mostly nonlinear open-world play that could be continued across multiple gaming sessions thanks to battery-enabled save functionality.¹ The initial Japanese version was one of the first titles designed for the Family Computer Disk System, a peripheral for the Family Computer (Famicom) console, the Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System.¹ The biggest advantage of the Disk System, and the feature most important to The Legend of Zelda, was that it gave players a way to save their progress.¹ The North American and European versions were ported to a cartridge with a battery-backed memory system that preserved this game-saving capability.¹

Narratively, the series centers on a small cast from the mythical land of Hyrule.¹ According to the games’ lore, the world was created by three goddesses—Din, who created the land; Nayru, who created order; and Farore, who created life—who before departing fashioned the Triforce, a magical object of three golden triangles entrusted to the goddess Hylia.⁶ The Triforce grants a wish to one possessing the three virtues of power, wisdom, and courage, and splits into three pieces—the Triforce of Power held by Ganondorf, the Triforce of Wisdom carried by Zelda, and the Triforce of Courage borne by Link—when their balance is improper.⁶ In the original game Ganon has already seized the Triforce of Power and pursues the Triforce of Wisdom, which Zelda breaks into eight segments and scatters through underground dungeons before being kidnapped, leaving Link to recover the segments, defeat Ganon, and rescue her.¹ Most subsequent games followed the same format as the original, though a few deviated significantly, and most featured either the same cast or their ancestors or descendants.¹

Released in Japan in 1986 and elsewhere in 1987, The Legend of Zelda was an immediate hit, selling more than 6.5 million copies to become one of the best-selling NES titles in history.¹ Its success launched a long series of sequels.¹ The first, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Japan 1987, elsewhere 1988), departed sharply from its predecessor as a more traditional side-scrolling game with greater emphasis on combat, and followed a teenage Link on a journey to awaken the sleeping maiden Zelda.¹⁶ The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991) brought the series to the Super Nintendo and restored the original game mechanics, opening with young Link awakened by a telepathic message from Zelda, locked away by the evil wizard Agahnim.¹⁶ The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (1993) was the series’ first portable game, stranding Link on Koholint Island in search of eight musical instruments.⁵⁶ The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) brought the series to the Nintendo 64, casting Link in a quest to summon the seven sages and imprison Ganondorf after his conquest of Hyrule.¹⁶

Later entries include The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (2000), The Wind Waker (2002), Twilight Princess (2006), Skyward Sword (2011), A Link Between Worlds (2013), Breath of the Wild (2017), a remake of Link’s Awakening (2019), Tears of the Kingdom (2023), and Echoes of Wisdom (2024), the last casting Princess Zelda herself as the playable hero when Link and the King of Hyrule go missing amid strange rifts swallowing the people of Hyrule.¹⁶ Several titles broaden the cast and premise still further: Skyward Sword opens on the floating island of Skyloft with Link wielding the Goddess Sword, The Minish Cap shrinks him to the size of an insect, and Four Swords and Tri-Force Heroes split the hero into multiple cooperating figures.⁶ Nintendo presents these games as installments in a branching timeline tracing the history of Hyrule, which splinters after the events of Ocarina of Time into Child and Adult paths and a third line in which the hero falls in battle.⁶

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Official Game Trailer - Nintendo E3 2016Nintendo of America

Beyond the games, the franchise has been adapted into a cartoon series, comic books, board games, and more.¹ A 1989 animated television series, created by Bob Forward and running thirteen episodes, followed Link and Princess Zelda as they protected the Triforce of Wisdom from Ganon.² The series, certified TV-Y7-FV and running about fifteen minutes per episode, voiced Zelda through Cynthia Preston and Link through Jonathan Potts.² A live-action film adaptation directed by Wes Ball, with Miyamoto among its credited writers alongside Derek Connolly and T. S. Nowlin, and starring Bo Bragason and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, was in post-production with an expected release of April 30, 2027.⁸ The series’ music has also been issued on disc, including a compilation of its scores.³

The games incorporate recurring themes of courage, wisdom, and power symbolized by the Triforce, and the franchise has been widely regarded as a pioneer in video game design.¹ Players and commentators have linked individual installments to broader cultural and design currents; the Shadow Temple of Ocarina of Time has been described as an early influence on the “Souls-style” of game design.¹¹