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?
My first gaming memory was watching my dad kill Ganon when I was probably 4 or 5.
I have played Link to the Past so many times over the years, probably most recently when I got a switch in 2018. I’ve actually still never beat the preceding 2 main games, having been turned off by their lack of direction too many times.
These days I think Tears of the Kingdom is my new favourite (although Ocarina and LTTP will always be in my favourite games of all time list). I found the story to be better than average for Zelda, and the final boss battle in that one is just amazing - maybe not very hard, but I can’t remember any game with a more spectacular ending.
I didn’t expect such a good fight in Tears, after the battle in Breath. BTW I completely ignored Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, until 2024 / 2025. And in fact, in the beginning I “hated” Breath for some of the concepts like breaking weapons and no classic dungeons. But I’m so glad to played them, because they are great experiences in their own right. Shows we should not judge too fast.
The last dungeon theme of Tears, when you enter the flying Castle on the outside, also impressed me a lot. And yes, the story, as it unfolds the truth (we don’t spoil here… :-)) was heart breaking, a feeling I never had before in a Zelda game. As to which is my favorite Zelda game? I really don’t know anymore. There are couple of games I need to play, especially Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. There was a time in my life when I didn’t play much games… and I missed some of the greatest classics.