The Legend of Zelda NES: Tarnished by Time
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- Опубліковано 10 кві 2020
- Surprise! I'm doing Zelda now for some reason! And it all starts with the Legend of Zelda for NES, a game tarnished by time.
I have a Twitter you can follow: / ceegans
Zelda NES footage from: HCBailley - Ігри
![[OLD] Retrospective that I did on a pretty neat game](/img/n.gif)
I love Zelda. I got the first Zelda when I was 11 years old in 1988. My brother and I beat it with no guide and nothing more than the manual. We read that manual over 100 times for the hints it contained. I will never forget the feeling when I beat it. It felt so satisfying. Now I can beat it in an hour or so and remember still where everything is. I get why the younger generation will not get it but when Zelda came out we had never seen anything like it before on a console. Just the fact that we could save our progress was mind blowing. Before getting a NES, all i had was the Atari 2600 and that was fun as hell to us. We played it every day and I can imagine that looks like crap to most people now. I love this game and since then, Have bought a nintendo every time a Zelda game is released just to play Zelda. The only console i ever waited in line to buy was the Switch because Zelda was a launch title. It all started with this great little game. Good video though... I enjoyed it
Spot on. Zelda was social. You found out about the secrets etc by word of mouth. You asked friends etc. If you were lucky you had a friend with a with a subscription to the NES magazine where extra hints could be found. It seems like it took forever to beat as a kid and it was great fun. Went through it with my son in the Switch and he enjoyed it also.
It was my experience exactly.
I never felt that trying to discover the secrets of the map was 'grinding'. I didn't care for how long it took to burn every bush because the reward was often pretty good (a lot of money, a piece of heart or a medecine shop nearer to an important dungeon).
Also, killing enemies in that game is just... fun, and they also often reward you with something good.
"save our progress"
That was a very cool feature. That is, until you learned it was shakily implemented on the cartridge and it wouldn't take much of a power glitch to erase your save state.
@@bishopthefool I remember the loops i made to grind for Rupees. The red leavers in the desert and the blue tektites in the rocky area. It was always fun and satisfying to me
@@aaroneidinger I always heard of these glitches. I never had a problem. I must have been lucky i guess. I never pressed in reset when turning off either.
When I play this as a kid, we had so little other media to consume, so we were gladly burning those bushes
My god. The hours spent with the candle burning a bush, then walking off screen, just to return and burn another... Or drop bombs all along a wall, then hunt down more enemies in the hope they drop a bomb....
Like, why else do you need the red candle. I would burn every single bush on the screen and then pee a little when you found a secret. Kids these days with their tablets, smart phones, facebook, tik-tok or whatever, have no clue what it would have been like in the 80s. I'd burn bushes all night long and love every minute of it. lol
@@goofygal27 just so one of ur parents hit the cable and the game glicthed and u are scream at it,
And we did it on tube televisions....😂
"How are you supposed to find these things without a guide?" Answer: word of mouth. Once upon a time, EVERYONE had an NES. People swapped secrets on the school bus and whatnot. That's how I learned many of the secrets of this game.
i mean as fun as that is it's still a stupid idea now, if you can't beat the game with just the instructions the game gives you then it has failed in it's goal.
@@bt3743 I dont know off the top of my head, but I am pretty sure the manual did give you tips. The worst you can say is that it might take luck or blind determination to fine ONE of the dungeons. The rest you either dont need or can figure out.
The manual did give you hints, at the bottom of every page. And Miyamoto himself said that his aim was for kids to share discoveries and secrets with each other. The 80s sucked in a lot of ways, but that was one of the fun parts--discussing video games with each other; even the kids that didn't normally get along would talk about these games.
oh and the instructions...
You explore. You play. You discover.
Kirby does have better graphics, but that game was also came out in 1993 when Zelda came out in 1986.
I already had a SNES when I saw commercials for Kirby.
Right? They were barely able to get the ROM chips to work for Zelda at that time, where by the time of Kirby, they had maxed out and mastered every bit of what the NES could deliver.
It's so unfair to compare an NES game from 1986 to an NES game from 1993.
@@xenos_n. right? In 1986, they were still learning what the machine could do. By 1993, they had 10 years (from the 1983 Famicom) to master it. Even now, people create games for emulators that would run on hardware (other than that no ROM carts were ever actually designed to hold them) that show off what it could do.
@@josephD32 not to mention the extra chips that they added to carts that enabled them to do different things. By the time Kirby's Adventure came around, most of us were playing our Super Nintendo's and overlooked that game. It's rightly looked back on as one of the best NES games but at the time, no one cared because, SNES. The game even more resembles an SNES game than an old NES game imo. It's crazy how much a decade of hardware and programming development can do for a console.
A lot of the more cryptic stuff is probably explained in the manual.
Yeah, remember that? Games having manuals with actual useful information? Wild times, man.
It is. The manual has hints on every page and it even came with a map showing where the first 6 dungeons are.
Yes!!! We started our channel based around this fact of said bygone era!
Re graphics: when this came out most people were still playing Atari 2600 😋
Speak for yourself. I had an Intellivision :p
@@migangelmart i love my intellivision. after all of these years, Advanced Dungeon and Dragons or Sea Battle never get old
@@MrLoretano77 I had Sea Battle! I bought it at video rental shop, the kind with fake jewelry under glass and porn behind the curtain. I bought Burger Time on the playground in the 1st grade, but Astrosmash and Atlantis were my favorites.
@@migangelmart yes astrosmash is also great. I collect for intellivision. I love them all
@@migangelmart the first 16-Bit game console! Granted, was still 8-bit graphics, but still...
When looking at NES games, remember that the best games console available before was the Atari 2600, look at that graphic, then look back at Mario or Zelda and see why they were selling how good it looks. Also the graphic comparison with Kirby is not really fair, Zelda 1 was from 1986 Kirby was in 1993, there are 7 years of difference and technical advancement. If that was not enough Zelda 1 had to work with 128Kb of data while Kirby is one of NES biggest game at 768KB, not much by today standard but 6 times more space to work with than Zelda had.
Not to mention that Kirby's Adventure came out AFTER the SNES.
I agree with Kirby not being a fair comparison, but looking at excite bike and duckhunt, I still think this game looks pretty bad for 1986 standards, but I love a lot about it, for example, popularizing saving.
It's been around 32 years now, but I still remember the "grumble grumble" puzzle vividly. Why? Because it was the first and only time my mother ever helped me complete a video game. After I struggled for hours to determine what I was expected to do, she suggested that maybe the grumbling noise was suppose to be the creature's stomach.
This is why a lot of your criticism falls flat for me. What happened for me in this case is a exactly how The Legend of Zelda was meant to be experienced. Just you and your friends (and maybe even your family members) getting lost over and over, slowly putting all the pieces together for yourselves over a period of weeks, if not months. It's not supposed to finished quickly or efficiently. That's what makes it a true adventure, one of the greatest of all time.
Maybe in the future, when you're in a more patient frame of mind, you can try the second quest without a guide (and possibly with a friend) and gain some appreciation for what I'm talking about.
Being cryptic and bad on purpose is still being cryptic and bad
@@ksquidplaysminecraft Tbh noone nowadways has the patience for games like this. Thats why are getting the same shit all the time with countless tutorials and pinpoints and everything. Might build in a "Will play the game for you" bot for people getting stuck at being told exactly what to do
@@Snaps12345 There's a balance to be struck
Too much of either side of the spectrum is bad.
We also often forget that maybe, just mauybe, for an early NES game, the translation job was horribly botched up just because every letter in English is a syllable in Japanese (in terms of "display blocks on the screen, and memory alloc) and the JP version might very well be super talkative and more precise, but so early no one could have translated that better.
I kinda wanna check if there is a fantrad of Zelda 1 to test if my idea holds water.
That's cute, but not everyone has friends or a mother who cares about videogames. The game has charm, but it is and will be cryptic and flawed.
8:20 Well technically the drop rates aren't inconsistent, they are on a fixed table based on how many enemies you've killed, damage you've taken, and what you're killing.
right, it's actually very specific and predictable drops
Yep. This is actually pretty well documentedtoo. Simple research would tell how each item drops.
I think a lot of the problems you have are due to the fact that you grew up with more well designed alternatives.
I grew up with Zelda 1 and 2 and loved them. I'd spend hours just aimlessly wandering around and eventually finished both before I was 10. I didn't have any kind of guide, and I didn't have better alternatives. The worlds felt incredible and mysterious. I had no concept of technological limits so anything could happen. The vagueness was incredibly engaging to me. It was fun to bomb and burn everything.
Really, these games were a product of their time and playing it today as an adult doesn't at all compare to playing it back in the early 90's as a child. Even for someone that grew up with it. You need the imagination of a child and a very focused attention span to truly enjoy this game.
Also the logic of the grumble grumble thing was that the meat attracted moblins if you used it on the overworld. I don't remember having any trouble with that one. The worst one was the lake that disappears with flute. I found it on accident and freaked out.
Yeah the burn every bush thing was kind of common in old games. Often a kid would have like 5 games total and you would play the same one every day for months, so stuff like that was often to stretch out its play time.
Miyamoto said that the intent was for kids to share knowledge with each other--talk about the game at school, on the playground, and share their discoveries.
I remember going back and forth between screens recharging the candle and systematically burning every bush I could find. It's boring to do as an adult with better alternatives, but like you said, we didn't really understand the technical factors. Everything seemed magical and infinite as a kid.
@@johnschwartz1641 That's it, exactly. It's hard to describe to a modern gamer.
I did deduce, as a kid, that every screen held one--and only one--cave or stairway. With the exception of one or two of the 256 screens, every one had an entrance to something of some sort. Most notably, on the first quest, the screen with the bridge that was 1 up, two left of the starting screen. There were only two possible places to bomb and none of the rocks moved(after getting the bracelet.)
Yea dude its like reading really old books. Back in the day they didnt have anything for entertainment. So authors would purposely make stories long winded, add a shit ton of detail, go off of the main story a little bit (think lord of the rings). People wanted it that way because it was all they had. Its the same with these games. Kids in the 80s didnt have a ton of video game options. They wanted something that you could spend a ton of time trying to find.
20 years ago when playing this game, I would make my own maps and take pride in doing so.
I had a friend who's sister was an art student and we rented Zelda 2 once and she literally made a wall sized mural that was a map of the Zelda 2 overworld... both sides of the ocean.
It's weird (and interesting) seeing younger people take on older games. Different generations have different experiences, and that's one of the beautiful things about video games.
I love you my nigga
Yeah man it’s weird and also super cool watching these retrospectives. I hear things like “well I grew up with Skyward Sword!” And my mind is kind of blown haha, man it makes me feel old. Love hearing the different perspectives though.
@@GeddyRC i'm ok with hearing different prespectives but if someone is gonna do game reviews, it would be nice if they did any type of reasonable research before they start picking everything apart. You can't compare graphics from a 1986 game with one from 1993, it's just stupid, not interesting.
14:59 "The player shouldn't be able to recover health or bombs. Make them backtrack to the overworld if they want to do that." He says at the exact moment a fairy spawns in a dungeon.
bahahahahahhahahaha, perfect . I guess maybe he doesn't know fairies give health? He should, that became a consistent thing throughout the series. Also... oh, you can't replenish bombs in a dungeon? i guess he never killed anything from the bomb dropping group like a red wizrobe or a Gibdo. Dude, seriously, if you played this game for more than 20 minutes you would know that both hearts and bombs drop off mobs in the underworld.
And i guess he has never heard of potions? WOW!
Looking back at the NES library as a whole, this game is a well paced masterpiece. I love this game and always will. That being said. I can agree with near every one of your points.
The NES is very limited in what it could do, when as you said, you grew up on the GameCube. If you where playing it back in the day, you would likely have the map, and manual that came with it, and contained more hints and tips. Also, the designers have said that some of the puzzle design is influenced by the thought that kids would trade secrets on the playground. Effectively working together to beat the game. Manuals and help from friends isn't how we play games anymore, and without that, these old games begin to fall apart.
Thank you. In the box the game came with it had a huge, beautifully presented map of the overworld and i believe the first several underworld levels. They had the Old Men to give you hints for the other stuff. It was a game of adventure, not this shit now a days where you can die 8000 million times over and over and it means nothing. Games were hard back then, and that's how we liked it.
The NES is limited of what it can do isn't a good excuse considering Mario was better and it was created before Zelda.
Personally I love the cryptic bits of old nes games. To me it’s what makes a lot of them special, and some of my fondest memories are about me not having a clue what I was doing or did.
How did we figure it out without a guide? Just like life. Trial and error my friend. And lots of patience.
Also Nintendo Power and schoolyard rumors.
When the game was released it came with classic feelies in the box. The map it came with detailed where the first 6 dungeons were and had hints on it, in addition to the manual. These things were actually part of the game's design and it sucks that reteleases of the game haven't included them.
That's an often overlooked aspect of retro games. They weren't designed to be bought or played without the manual. There was only so much data they were able to put into an NES cart back in the mid 80's and they included manuals and the like to supplement the story and puzzle elements of the game. They are technically part of the game
I liked the boomerang, I liked throwing it and positioning Link so that the boomerang hit the enemy on its return path.
Simple pleasures.
You don't seem to understand what this game was for people who had never, *EVER* seen a game like this before. Prior to the NES, what we had was Atari. Do some research and see what Atari 2600 games look like. That's what we were playing before Zelda. A lot of us had never even used a cross pad controller before. We had used joy-sticks and "paddle controllers" (look those up.) The idea that a game had MUSIC coming from it was amazing. Link's laser sword flashing as it flies across the screen was something we stared at with open mouths.
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So yes, burning a bush and having it change to a staircase for us was so amazing that we definitely would dedicate time to burning every single one of them. Because when we found a secret, it was *MIND BLOWING!* "I can't wait for Heath to come over this weekend because I HAVE TO SHOW HIM THIS!!!" And then we'd spend hours and hours looking for another secret. Months of our lives went into this game. I remember getting to level 6 and being so scared of the Wis-robes that I couldn't keep playing for a while. I was terrified of them. Having like-likes eat your shield was enough to ruin your whole day (I was 7 years old and seriously threw a fit over that.) For us, this was a very deeply involved game because we'd seen nothing like it before.
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It's easy for a millennial who grew up with X-box to look at this and make comments about bad game play. But the reason you have an X-box is because of games like this.
isn't that the whole point of the video, it was good for its time, but it hasn't aged well?
Bruh this kid looks way to young to be a millennial. He's an old zoomer at BEST. You must not realize that some millennials were born in the 80's when this game was released.
@@zstylmn.5947 it hasn't aged...it is timeless homie.
But does he think the game is still fun today? No he doesn't. He doesn't give a crap if the game was fun in the 80s. The point of this video was did he thought the game was still fun to play today.
Totally agree, I grew up on Atari 2600 so games like Pitfall 2 seemed like a huge adventure to me, I grew up side by side with NES then Super Nintendo and Genesis and so on and so forth, I like new games from Ps4 and everything but I find myself going back and collecting alot of retro games I either had or always wanted, I dont think younger people will truly understand what is was to experience Zelda being 7 years old when it came out and the same for other classics like Contra, Castlevania, Mario 3, im glad I experienced the games I did during the era I came from.
When I first started this game, it seems so cryptic. But when I read the manual and started again, I realized these secrets arenot that cryptic because manual gives helpful information and hints about them.
played it not too long ago for the first time (at least longer than just the first dungeon) and without a guide. It began pretty frustrating but after a while you learn the rules of the game and how the secrets worked. At the end I really appreciated the clever design.
Unless you’ve played Zelda 1 when it first came out and while there was nothing else to compare it to, you can’t really fathom how great it was.
Naw I was born in the 2000s and I personally thought it was amazing, to me it gave suck a pure sense of adventure even without a guide. Btw I love games like spelunky so take that into consideration.
The younger generations are so used to games just giving them a giant arrow or a dot on a map to go to. It's funny hearing them barely able to fathom that older games you had to... *gasp*... figure things out for yourself or talk with other people. When you struggle with something then overcome it, it feels rewarding. Most modern games don't give me that feeling, because they just blatantly show you the path to follow and you just move from one set piece to the next, without much thought.
ya the real title of this video should be ignorant kid reviews old game without any context
@@vanillaa679 WOOT, best comment on the video. Thank you. that sums it up perfectly.
Because burning every tree and exploding every wall until you find the right one is fun.
@@chrono2208 ya it is fun thats my subjective opinion so you can not argue against it. get rekt bitch.
I appreciate that you made this video! I am glad you called out that this was literally the first of it's kind. I would love to recommend the book "Legends of Localization" (I didn't write it, just love it). It unintentionally teaches how to speedrun the game by explaining every component and elemental building block. I deeply love the game because of the lack of a map and the open exploration - even if rudimentary. I'm old enough that when this game came out, I had open summers and nothing else to do, so this was the only entertainment around. Loving it because of it's only kind I guess.
When you view this and other Shigeru Miyamoto lead games from this era you can easily see how far ahead of the curve they were. Zelda 1 was one of the first non linear open world games where once you knew the layout of the game you could break the intended sequence and play through the first three dungeons in your chosen order and grab most of the best items before you tackle any of the dungeons.
I was 8 or 9 when I got this game and beat it. This is the game that made me love video games. Getting through dungeon 9 was and finally beating Ganon is something I'll never forget.
I'll never get over how gorgeous Kirby's Adventure looks for a NES game! And the NES Zelda commercial is a gem LMAOO. I agree with the overworld exploration being lackluster. I remember I played NES Zelda when I was younger just so I could say I did it, and because of how tedious exploring the overworld can be I've never had the urge to go back and replay it.
First: Oh yeah it's kind of nuts just how good Kirby's Adventure looks.
Second: The commercial is so weird to me considering just how excited they are over what is a fairly simple looking game all things considered. XD
Third: Yeah the overworld is a little irritating to navigate, but honestly after going through the last several dungeons, that seemed like child's play. XD
@@DuoStuff I got through the first 2 dungeons on my own without a guide once, came back to the game a year later, and then had already fully forgot how to do them and died in the first dungeon
find the legend of zelda to be insanely replayable and have beaten it 5 times master mode 3 and almost once without a sword cuz ganon
When i got the game, we made the name ZELDA just because without knowing it would start the second quest. It was much more fun when we realized this and used out own name instead lol
@@DuoStuff well you have to think of the time period to understand how they're so suprised and excited.
3:16 the triforce of courage didn't exist until zelda2. it was called a triforce because its shaped like a triangle, not because there were three
It should've been called duotriforce or something.
ninja gaiden isn't poorly designed. its a great action game.
Well I guess I'm doing Zelda for a bit.
Fun fact: this is my most requested series to cover, because it got like, 10 requests. XD
I'd say my favorites are Breath of the Wild, Majora's Mask, and Wind Waker personally. =D
Yes I fully intend to head back into the Metroid series once we actually get a new game announced. My plan is to cover Prime, Prime 2, Prime 3, Prime Hunters, Other M, and Federation Force, alongside whatever new title gets announced.
@@DuoStuff Can you please take a look at the Five Nights at Sonic's fangame series if you do that kind of stuff?
I think something you need to keep in mind is that these old nes games came with instruction booklets that explain most of the things that you mention here. Like the burning bushes and moving boulders and other item uses and stuff would have been explained in the game's instruction booklet.Most of the things that you expression frustration with in this video are a product of the fact that you are playing the game decades later without having actually purchased the original game in its box with the instruction booklet.
I beat the original Zelda (and the 2nd quest, and the Adventure of Link) when I was 9. And yes, we tediously bombed every wall (you can hit two in a single shot by placing them wisely), and burning every bush. It was a Skinner Box; that little jingle from finding a secret kept you going.
So, something, something kids today, we didn't have "cracked walls" to tell us where to bomb BACK IN MY DAY AND THAT'S HOW WE LIKED IT!
Also yes it was fun, we made maps and marked where we found passageways and shared them with each other. This is what kids did in my era. We experimented, took notes, and mapped things out and helped each other.
I really enjoyed the perspective from a younger person playing it for the first time. You put it perfectly when you said that NES games are cryptic. That was partly to sell Nintendo Power subscriptions but also it really got all the kids talking about the games. When you discovered a new secret bush to burn in Zelda you couldnt wait to tell everybody at school about it the next day. Ultimately it was word of mouth much more so than guides that got us through games like this and especially point and click Sierra adventure games in the 80s and early 90s.
Except that Nintedo Power didn't exist when Zelda dropped
You're right that the game aged, the biggest point you already mentioned it : the time it was released in.
There was no precedent to compare Zelda to, so saying it lacked in execution is a little weird here, since they did it first. You have to give them credit for that part.
Agreed, the hidden stuff is almost impossible without a guide, but this comes from an era that information on games was literally traded on the schoolgrounds. There was someone that burned every tree one by one, and remembered or noted down where they are, so they were able to pass that to another friend, who didn't need to do it for those few screens.
So the game has aged... mostly because we have fine examples nowadays of what they could have done with better hardware and experience. Even just experience, they could design a far superior game within the NES limits nowadays. It's not the only game that has that problem, Metroid for example was a clunky, confusing experience without a guide and a map. Metroid II and Super Metroid clearly showed they had more experience in the matter by then.
So hats off for a game that paved the way for an amazing and beloved series. It's far from a perfect game, it's full of flaws, but that's what gives it its charm. Yet, I would never force anyone to sit through the entire game for the same reasons you noted. They should just dip their toes enough to see what Zelda once was.
technically Hydlde pre-dated zelda and was similar, though Zelda did everything better. If this little kid wants to pick apart a bad game he needs to go play that and then come back and apologize for not doing his research before making this awful game review.
I don’t think you can judge the game by today’s standard. It came to it in the 80s when there was no precedent. It made huge strides in how an adventure game would play, and even though the secrets were obtuse, the whole point is that you’d swap secrets in the playground. Love it or hate it, there is something magical about a world so full of secrets.
that's the point -.-
I beat this when I was 7 years old, in 1988 - it took me three months and it was one of the most gratifying experiences I've had in video games. This was the first time a game allowed me to feel that I was 'in a place.' I could explore that place, Hyrule, and I truly felt like I was on an adventure. I wonder how much Nintendo, not only with Zelda, positively impacted my childhood?
Legend of Zelda was great but NES had other magical games too.. Metroid is one of them
I really miss the the feeling I got when I played these games as a kid
@@billsimms2511 - Metroid absolutely felt similarly - like I’m in a place, trying to find stuff. Metroid might have been a bit less polished (no map for example) but that haunting atmosphere and the thrill of finding the hidden secrets. Love that game so much. Did you pick up AM2R? Also, Axiom Verge is my favourite Metroid game.
Coming from the age where the original Zelda was an exciting new game, the whole "can't do it without a guide" comment made me smile.
Back in those days, friends you'd make were often the sources of solutions for when you got stuck in games, and in trade you'd do the same (if you were privy to that detail), or simply be their partner in some two player game (either Co-Op or VS type games - taking turns sucked, and was usually reserved for playing with the younger sibling). Since AI was barely a thing, we'd be exercising hand-eye coordination instead, learning timings and developing reflexes.
We survived just fine... was just a different way of playing the game. And yeah, that kid that looked like he was having a wet dream over the graphics... we made fun of him too, we saw the graphics as pretty basic even back then.
I was the first person in my family to beat this game at the ripe old age of 6. No guide. Just a curious mind. Get off my lawn.
Corn Dogg I like you.
How?
Hagane no Saiyajin Hard work. People don’t believe I beat Metroid or Simon’s Quest at a young age either. Just keep at it.
I beat this game in 1988 without a guide. I was 6. You're whole complaint can summed up into "Nobody held my hand and told me what to do "
Exactly....I was 9 when I beat it and games like this were just common back then. Theres a reason people say nes hard. You got tips from your friends at school on the playground or from Nintendo power
3:08 - You may want to re-read the Zelda 1 story. The Triforce of Courage isn't in it.
I mean, he's impressed how consistent it is with the lore of the series, given how early in the series it is.
..it's literally the first game, lol.
@@josephD32 lol i'm starting to wonder if this "game reviewer" has any basic understanding of games at all.
The Item drops are not inconsistent. There is an RNG table speedrunners made to consistently drop whatever item needed whenever they need it.
I beat Zelda 1 in 89 with the help from a class mate’s older brother who had beat it before. I wrote him a paper with questions in school and the next day I got his answers. It was a real adventure back then and it took some time. But it was fun. :)
Good review. I agree with you for the most part but I think when judged by the standards of its era it would come out a little better.
The element I loved about this game is that you could get just about anywhere from the start (raft, bracer and stepladder areas excepted) and so grinding felt a lot less tedious. Also, enemies weren’t so difficult that it entirely disincentivized open exploration (unlike Zelda 2). This exploratory aspect differentiates Zelda from other popular NES series and why LoZ, WW and BotW are, IMO, the only authentic Zelda games of the entire series.
Hot take: the story in the LoZ intro and instruction manual is better than the timeline we got in Hyrule Historia.
Why? Just curious.
@@PuffyBuffy25 Couple of reasons. I thought it was pretty clear that when the older games (say, Wind Waker and prior) were originally made, there was not so much thought, or even intent, put into it so that all of the games' stories could be cohesively connected, which is why there were so many fan theories on what the Zelda chronology is supposed to be. The guys who made the timeline were so deadset on making one official timeline that they ended up copping out by saying three timelines sprouted from Ocarina. Why? Because they knew it was impossible to make it work so they had to come up with something so bizarre.
As an aside, Miyamoto was asked in 1998 what the Zelda timeline was. He actually said it went Ocarina 1, LoZ 2, AoL 3, and ALttP 4th, with Link's Awakening being anywhere you want to put it.
Also, I just don't like the idea that the original LoZ game is supposed to be a consequence of Link's dying at the hands of Ganondorf in Ocarina. My niece is 8, and she's just getting into Zelda. She loves the franchise mythology, but there is no way I'm going to tell her this timeline. I'd rather she just do what we all did prior to Hyrule Historia: play the games, absorb the story, and if you deem it necessary (I didn't) then make your own timeline.
So that's why the LoZ story is better than what's in HH. It's simple, not confusing, to the point, and just something you can share with young gamers.
@@mrmacross That makes sense.
"How to come up with puzzle difficulty instead of just blitzing the player with enemies in cheap rooms"
*Erases some enemies in MM2*
LOL If you're referring to Mario Maker 2, I have the reverse problem. I don't make my levels hard enough. XD
Definitely referring to Mario Maker 2. The first level I made and uploaded in MM1 was just a shite-fest with enemy placement and a couple puzzles, but then the second level is hundreds times better with puzzle elements and more fair enemy placement, but it was so hard I could never beat it. However, I moved it over to Mario Maker 2, piece by piece, and it will be the final level of the final world. I like making hard traditional levels, but I despise anything Kaizo related.
@@DuoStuff that doesn't surprise me. you seem like the gamer that pretty much will only like a game if it spoon feeds you every single thing.
I beat this game when I was six, no guide.
@@petermiller9878 Dumbs everything down, or gives you some direction? Zelda 1 didn't even have a proper overworld map, just a grey rectangle with a green, blue, or red dot indicating your position on the grid.
The Kirby comparison is a little unfair considering that Zelda came out six years before Kirby did. I think it'd be fairer to compare Zelda's graphics to other 1986 games that came out alongside it, instead of one that came out when developers understood developing for the console a lot better.
he likes kirby because its extremely easy. I beat kirby the day i got it. fun game but way too easy.
Many retro games needed the paper products that came with the game/magazines, it's like modern games needing always online features.
You've got a faulty premise here. The reason the game difficulty outscaled your ability was because you got through the first half of the game in a few hours instead of a few weeks, thanks to the guide you used. Anyone who sits down and tries to beat this game their first time playing it is going to be really frustated with the difficulty. Nintendo had access to the save function for the first time and they designed a game they knew would take a LONG time to explore fully, giving the player plenty of time to get the feel for Link's movements and attacks. I don't like to say it but most of your gripes with this game come down to git gud, dude. Yeah it's super easy to lose beam sword, avoiding that first hit is huge, get good. Darknuts are a pain to kill without bombs, get good. This was basically the first game you were supposed to put real time into, progressing slowly, exploring, mastering combat, rather than the put in a quarter and see how far you could get style of game design that had dominated markets for a decade before. People say the NES revived home console gaming, I say it was this game. Atari tried to "bring the arcade home" and mostly failed. Zelda gave us something new, a tiny, stylized world full of flavor and complexity, and a wall of difficulty you could throw yourself at endlessly, without having to pump coins into a machine. The arcade model doesn't allow for that level of difficulty, most people aren't going to keep playing a game that demands you improve as a player and charges you for the opportunity.
Absolutely right. I remember the challenge of beating the darknuts to get the flute seeming insurmountable. I practiced and practiced, got the master sword and the first time i got that flute, the sense of accomplishment was incredible. I remember we cheered and the adrenalin was rushing. Now, I can still beat them quickly but still have potion with me in case. Awww so many reasons why LOZ was and is such a great game.
You're right!!! This generation is totally spoiled.😔
@@abraxasvoice440 I wholeheartedly agree with the OP but generalising an entire generation as 'spoiled' is uncalled for.
@@papasscooperiaworker3649 . right but i know you get the point.✌
And you don't think that's a problem? With no defined goal in site, what do you think people are going to do? As for progress, if you don't memorize where each triforce piece goes into the one displayed on the overworld pause screen, it may be safer to just restart the whole thing if you're going back to it for the first time in weeks.
Great video! There are a couple things you might want to think about though... This was a very early game on the NES, and most of the nicer looking ones you mentioned came out later in the console's life, when a lot of the graphics processing was actually being done with the help of newer chips that were in the game cartridges themselves, and didn't exist yet when this one was made. Also, the only other console game even close to this at the time was Adventure for the Atari 2600 (the game from the end of the Ready Player One movie). If you spend about 5 minutes in that, it'll give you a whole new appreciation for how the first Zelda looked and felt to players at the time. But the biggest thing that gets forgotten about these games is that there actually was a detailed map and guide available at the time! It was the 80's version of micro-transactions, you had to go to the book store at your local mall and buy it in a book published by Nintendo (later this was replaced by Nintendo Power magazine). The guide book, the instruction manual, and the cartridge at the time were all considered part of the same experience, which is why so little of the story makes it into the game. There just wasn't enough memory even for a couple more lines of text to explain anything. It was also a common thing back then for players to rarely ever actually complete the games, but more often get as far as they could until the got stuck, lost interest, or a newer game came out. Since arcades were still the big thing then, the creativity all went into the first half (that more people would play) and the arcade style pile more and more on approach was used on the last half that was usually only seen by the kids who just really wanted to be able to brag to the other kids that they made it farther. It was a different world back then, but great job getting through it, and after seeing where it all started, it should let you appreciate the rest of the series from a whole new perspective!
When i got an NES on Christmas 1990, i was 6, and my brother was 8. We got Legend of Zelda in 1991. Back then you really only got games on birthdays, and christmas, or you rented them from the video store, unless you were rich. So you would play the same games over and over. I was able to beat majority of the first world between ages 7 - 8. Eventually over time you will find everything. You ask friends at school, or older relatives in your family. My uncle was 18 in 1991, and we would borrow his games, and read his Nintendo Power Subscription often. Eventually he gave my brother one of the 1989 issues, which had all the maps to all the castles, items, and secrets. Nintendo Power always had detail maps to long games like Metroid. But I didn't like looking at um because it felt so good when you found a secret or solved a puzzle on your own.
That ending was priceless. 🤣
It's fun to see a modern perspective on a retro game.
I think you had to experience it as a kid in the time it was released. No internet. No cheats. The only guide you might have is a hint in Nintendo Power Magazine. You'd find something, and couldn't wait to go to school the next day to share what you found. Lunchtime at school was quite literally the Zelda geeks at one table, the metroid geeks at another, etc. Lifelong friendships were created over games like this.
Listening to you downplay how incredible this was when it was first released just breaks my heart...
The manual it came with had a lot of hints of how to progress with even sealed pages with more secrets in case you were really stuck.
The mentality behind the design of the game is that kid at school would talk about the game and help each other find secrets to progress. So that's how you were supposed to solve it without a guide (but back in the time, there was also Nintendo Power that would provide an official guide).
Also, unlike the red candle, you can use as many time as you want the blue candle without changing screen.
I think the main issue with the games crypticness is that the developer wanted a community-driven game were friends would share their findings so using a guide is technically within the spirit of the game
It's kind of funny that someone with the internet is complaining about it, back in the day it was the playground lol.
I honestly love this game. Didn't play it as a kid but played through earlier this year.
I think it's the simplicity and the challenge of it. My imagination did so much of the work while playing, I just let myself get caried away with the whole "epic quest" mood
Kid from the 80s here. This game was made for kids in the 80s, not today. NES games were about $60, which is around $100,000 in today's money, so a game had to last. NES games had very limited memory, especially early on, so longevity was based on difficulty. You had to get good. That was the game. Castlevania, Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, you had to get good.
Another huge aspect of 80s gaming that's forever lost to time is schoolyard chat. No internet to look up guides or walkthroughs. You could buy one, but maybe one kid you knew's big brother had one. You and all your friends were playing Zelda for months, sharing secrets and stuff you'd discover. Some kids would lie to seem cool, there were also many untrue rumors. It was a different time. Zelda was incredibly cool in the 80s, future kids will get it.
That's really fair from your point of view! Keep it going man!
My Dad played through this game so often when he was a kid, that we had a neighbor that would come over asking him to play Zelda. Everyone had a Nintendo but not everyone could beat the game like my Dad.
To this day, I sometimes get out my original Nintendo Power magazine and get him to come play with me. It’s such a fun memory in my opinion, especially when my brother would come join me and my dad on my CRT TV.
It's worth noting that while Zelda can be vague about things, it's not really obtuse, though it may require reading the manual, which gave a bit of information. It doesn't really hold your hand because it wants you to explore and discover on your own, so you kind of hampered it's design by using a guide, as a lot of the enjoyment comes from your discovery, by trying things, or figuring them out on your own.
This is a super classic! First game I ever beat. I was 6. I remember that whole day! Right after school.
I agree the game is tough as nails, I beat it a long time ago. Probably not going to play it again but I do like it and I've got a t-shirt with the front cover of the game on it, it's a old classic that started a huge franchise and we all still love to this day
That opening description of fan reaction to Zelda games is the truest thing ever said.
You have taken the game grossly out of context.
Though, dungeon six is hell, as a kid I always completed both 7 and 8 before it (you don't have to do the dungeons in order for the most part).
There's a little bit of progresion with the step ladder and the raft and the recorder but you're right, you can do them out of order. 6 was bad yeah, but that's why you'd go down rupee alley and save up to buy the hyllian shield to block the beams from the wizrobes.
@@petermiller9878 Yeah that's why I added "for the most part". Level 1 needs to be completed before 6 (bow), 3 before 4 (raft), 5 before 7 (recorder), and 4 before 5/6/7 (ladder), and of course 9 left. Otherwise the rest is open.
That's assuming you are doing one trip per dungeon. As a kid I would just go in and out of them lol, screwed myself over a couple times with the wrong keys.
that's definitely a legitimate criticism. it was meant to be played with the instruction manual (or a guide), and people may not realize that. if i were to try to play a random game today, i wouldn't assume it was meant to be played with a guide.
that said, i have very fond memories of playing this with my older brother when i was 8 years old.
I loved the way this game made you figure things out on your own. Too many new games are like movies that you press buttons once in a while to keep the story moving. No real sense of accomplishment.
But it's TOO cryptic and that's the problem.
One big difference is that we were poorer back then. Seriously. That makes a difference because we couldn't afford to buy many games, and needed to get lots of mileage out of what we had. Designers knew this as well. Nintendo games padding out the length with gameplay and vague hints that required scouring the world over and over again, including burning every bush and bombing every rock, were GREAT! We love it! We had lots of time and not many games to play, and then when you eventually found something or figured something out, it was a BIG DEAL! No hand-holding was nice because it allowed us to feel so much more accomplishment when we eventually triumphed! Being poor was great.
I had to use a prophetic dream to find the hidden dungeon with the candle when I was like 7. I dreamed which bush to burn and somehow it was...
Dude that's actually wild. XD
I'm sorry that you need a game that holds your hand to enjoy.
Love this game. I thought this was the greatest game of all time when I was a kid.
I had a feeling I knew what the comments section would be like after watching this... 😂
Oh yeah people sure can't take differing opinions on NES games. Really weird but whatever.
DuoStuff I’m an NES head myself, but I can respect people’s differing opinions on games that I hold dear. That being said, you are a brave soul for criticizing LoZ lol
Well I'm just glad that when I get to Link to the Past's video, I'll be able to talk about one of the older ones that I really like. XD
Interesting point of view from the younger generation. Zelda 1 is a product of the times for sure and not what I would call 'timeless' but it's still a good NES game. Back then most kids only got maybe one or two games per year due to how expensive they were. Many were retailing for like $70 and adjusted for inflation that's well over $150 per game in today's money (ouch!). So naturally we either played outside or we played the same game over...and over...and over again. To keep us entertained and challenged games were made to be pulling your hair out hard and required a time investment to finish them and with the lack of games we owned compared to today, we had the time for it. If we didn't have Nintendo Power or couldn't call the gamer tip phone number, we literally did sit there and burn every bush and bomb every wall in Zelda 1 to find our way through it and we didn't mind it either. It's not like we had a pile of games waiting to be played like most gamers do today. If we were lucky and did our homework and chores, we might've been allowed to rent a game from the video store which is how we played more than the handful of games we owned.
That gold cartridge was an attention grabber at the video store! Man, I'm old.
The Gold Cartridge was part of the magic
This video is sacrilege. A knife to my heart. After the SNES, devs found it necessary to hold the player's hand from the beginning instead of letting the players learn and discover on their own. Using a strategy guide to make it "more fun" defeats the purpose entirely. I cant even tell you how much joy I felt when I burned a random bush or bombed a random wall and heard that secret chime. We heard from friends at school about where to get the master sword or how to open level 7 or where big shields only cost 90 rupees or how entering "Zelda" as your name puts you into 2nd quest. I had a 2600 when I was about 5 and a NES when I was around 9 or 10, so of course it's going to be nostalgic. I just find that the younger generation has been spoiled by newer graphics off the bat and going backwards is unthinkable for them. I think if all gamers graduated through consoles from the beginning, they would have much more appreciation for them. In 20 years when the PS9 is out, how are you gonna feel when your kid says your precious gamecube looks like garbage?
Hey duo there are alot more people here than usual keep doing what your doing
Thanks! I'm going to keep trying to make the best videos I can. =D
If you weren't a kid in 1987 you can't imagine how cool it was to see Zelda on an old TV tube. It was awesome, mind-blowing, no other video game could compete.
I was 7 and playing this in a department store wishing my Mom would buy this for me. I recently did a play through of it as I had honestly never beaten it. Some of the points you made I think were spot on but I still feel that the dungeons weren’t the absolute terrible. I mostly tried playing without a guide but ended up looking up a couple of things to help me get through it. I’m contemplating going back to try Quest B.
My nephew is five and he loves The Legend of Zelda. Now I never let him play it per se, he is five and was looking through my stuff and found my NES plugged up to my tiny old school tv. I was downstairs and when I went back up stairs I found him playing it. This is 2020 and he already played games that have far better graphics than LoZ, but this game is now one of his favourites. This tells me that the game is truly timeless. It isn't perfect but if it impacts generations later then the faults make it that much better.
Awesome! I've have similar experiences with my 7 nephews. I made sure to introduce them to NES games and they love them!
That game was special for alot of us when it came out. It was a community effort to bet the game. Everyone would talk at school about what secrets they find. Pre internet baby. But I think that is why the game is so special to people who got to play it when it came out. Your points are understandable.
I beat The Legend of Zelda back in 1989, without a guide. Took many hours of fun and exploring, taking notes of little tricks, and talking to friends. And that's what games needed back then. Games were expensive, especially for the kids, we were going through a recession, and there wasn't an internet. If we could beat the game in 10 hours with a guide people would have felt ripped off. As for the graphics and game play, you have to remember before NES the #1 system in town was Atari.
Always torn about the overworld secrets myself. But remember, secrets are called secrets for a reason. If you put cracks on the wall where you need to bomb, might as well use a door. No secret there.
Progression shouldn't be gated behind those kind of secrets
In those cases, you need to at least hint at there being something in that area involving bombs
Growing up we always used a guide, especially for the Zelda games. Our friends had them too. I grew up in the age of Nintendo Power though and it seemed pretty common. Also the guides were cool by themselves.
3 reasons why games were so hard back then IMO:
1. Being overly difficult was something that console games inherited from the Arcade era that preceded them. The whole point of the Arcade machines being so hard was profit obviously.
2. Being difficult makes the game feel longer than it really is. Remember developers back then had mere kilobytes to work with!
3. Profit! Nintendo's games were notoriously difficult and cryptic, so Nintendo had its own officially published guide in the form of a magazine, named "Nintendo Power". It had guides and secrets to help you finish games. You just had to pay for a subscription.
Proud to say I beat this game when I was a kid with only the manual it came with, kids back then were a different breed 😂
I first played this game when I was 3 years old. and I still occasionally have dreams about exploring this little 8bit land. I think it holds up for those who have nostalgia for it, as I love coming back to it. But I can't imagine what it's like to not have this be your first Zelda.
That said. The sheer giddyness of exploring this game, I never felt again until Breath of the Wild..
Most modern adventure games: here is where to go, follow the arrow. Here is a tool tip to tell you which button to push and when. If the puzzle is too hard, push the "hint" button. Still too hard? Go online. Save any time you want. If you die, we'll just put you back here about five steps, we won't make you start the level over again. Oh look another quick time event. These games are just about the "experience" now, not challenge. Games as movies. Dying is viewed as a negative experience so they go out of their way to make sure you don't, unless difficulty is literally part of the genre like DS.
If Zelda 1 was made today, you would have been told in the game "light the sixth block from the right by the water on screen C14" and there would have been an arrow over your head indicating direction on your way there. The bush would have been brown instead of green.
Neat video.
I myself have never finished the original NES LoZ, never used a guide and got stuck after the 3rd dungeon, but a friend of mine had pretty much the same problems with the game that you did. Atleast they improved upon most of these issues with A Link to the Past.
Also, forgot to put this in the last creepypasta video, but I suggest 'The Strangest Security Tape I've Ever Seen' it's not an amazing story, but I think it's a decent story. Then again, my standards are pretty bad, since I think Nurse Joy and the Jeff the Killer revision are mediocre but enjoyable at the same time.
First: yeah honestly it's not really worth delving into anyways. Stick to a Link to the Past. XD
Second: I'm probably going to do The Strangest Security Tape I've Ever Seen since a lot of people suggested it. XD
The Oracle Games are not forgotten. O:
Keep in mind that the better designed more expansive and immersive games of today took inspiration from LoZ1. It was a pivotal and vital step in the evolution of video games, and its influences are still being felt today.
But that doesm't mean the game itself is good
There ain't enough cheese in the world to compliment the amount of whine in this video
Legend of Zelda for NES is still a quality game
I played this game as a kid and really enjoyed it. Granted I died all the time and never got past Dungeon 4 but I sucked at every game so that's no difference. I actually did finally play through and beat it a few years ago and did genuinely enjoy it, but I will not say that any of your critiques aren't 100% true, cause they are. It's messy, but it's NES messy, and there's a certain charm to it, even now, for me. Then there's Zelda II which is just....a mess.
First: oh yeah I imagine growing up with the NES gives those games a bit of charm I don't get to see since I didn't grow up with it. It's why I personally have a weird fascination with the somewhat-good somewhat-gross Gamecube era of visuals and DS's super pixellated 3D. XD
Second: Zelda 2 is... Certainly something. You'll see...
@@DuoStuff Oh trust me, the GameCube is up there as one of, if not, my favorite consoles and a decent chunk of that is probably nostalgia XD And some DS games definitely don't look good now adays, but they also have a charm to them. They were trying their best lol.
Another old guy who played it as a early teen i guess...but manual included map and the nintendo mag helped. And i do believe your complaint regarding the difficulty is a sign of the times. Something a game needed to have to provide longiveity. Same as new assasins creed games are 100 hours with many people find too long. I do agree that it is not the best to play now. And while part of me still wants to play and finish the 2nd quest too, the bombing and burning and high difficulty aspect means i most likely never will (or eventvattempt...) thinking back of when I played it is still magical though..
I would definitely say that for the most part, the first Zelda games hold up pretty well, as opposed to Metroid for example which is just a tedious chore to get through.
However, the second Quest is just trash. Most of the designs and layout of the dungeon aren't so much puzzles as they're just exhausting and brute-forcing your way through until something finally works. bonding and humping every wall and burning every bush is the norm and it's just not fun in any way.
And I have no idea what they were thinking, hiding it behind the most obvious password in the whole world?
It takes all of the absolute worst aspects of the main quest and makes them the main focus.
I'm sure like around 10% of players back then just set their filename to be "Zelda" cause it felt logical and was then punished with this impossibly hostile slap to the face which likely discouraged them from wanting to play it.
Yeah I'm glad I didn't try the 2nd quest. I had heard it wasn't great, but boy it sounds worse than I could imagine.
I feel sorry that Zelda 1 is too hard for you. It was considered a mild challenge.
It's a baby's game. Jesus. I can do both quests on a lazy morning without losing a single life and have been doing so since '87. As for Metroid, I can do that in half an hour.
@@migangelmart Just because someone can beat Dark Souls with a ddr pad, that doesn't make the game easy.
You've played the game since you were a kid, of course you can beat it easily.
@@migangelmart see, I didn't play Metroid as a child and when I try to play it now, it seems overwhelming to me. I guess that's the difference with youth. I dont have the hours to spend or the patience figuring it out
I hated this game as a kid, but after Skyrim and having nostalgia for Super Mario I bought the Zelda cart... and loved it. In 1986 everything about it was new and novel, even the bosses, but it was a milestone and trendsetter. I recall a magazine that also told hints and tips, which I didn't have but any guide can be helpful, not be a problem, and still allow yo be fun. Nice video that came in my feed, thank you!
Lol, the Grumble Grumble was actually easy for most. Because level 7 comes very far in the game. The problem at the time was the how to find those trees and walls to burn! But for thwt you spoke to people. The sense of finding out a secret was immense
I remember the first time i ever played the original zelda i spent several hours finding some of the stuff you needed and dungeons. It took me way too long without a guide, and i ended up HAVING to use one.
Yeah if you don't have a guide this game takes so long to figure out. It's not even worth it. XD
@@DuoStuff the first zelda basically needs to be played with a guide
Part of the problem for many young people playing older games like those on the NES is that you are probably missing many of the important things that came with a physical cartridge. A map of the overworldd and a full manual played a huge part in getting new players started. Now games come with auto maps and complete tutorials that hold your hand through the beginning.
Next, like another person mentioned many people picking up an NES started playing video games with an Atari 2600, Intellivision or Colecovision. Adventure games on those consoles were EVEN MORE basic than Zelda. You think Link is a blocky little tank? Your guy in Adventure was a square. A literal square who changed colors with each new room you entered!
Face it kid, you're spoiled by the games you grew up on.
The good news is you're going to tell your kids you had to actually hold a controller and they'll laugh at your primitive games.
Watching people work on these classic games aimlessly is fun. Between friends and your shared copies of Nintendo Power, you're fine.
I'm gonna ruin Kirby for you in one sentence.
Kirby is the world's most kid-friendly vore.
Have fun with that.