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?
Link to the Past was so cool when it came out and such an upgrade. It’s still my favorite zelda game (and it has a randomizer and great community!). I didn’t play OOT until sometime in my 20s and hated how clunky it was; I still prefer the non-3d zeldas.
For us in the west, lttp seemed like such a huge upgrade, because very few people here saw any of the evolution steps inbetween like Neutopia. It’s a really fascinating to discover the things we missed in that era.
I can recommend you to play A Link Between Worlds on the 3DS. It is a successor of some kind, playing in the same world. And man, the Dark World music remix is excellent.
Very much a worthy successor to the first.