Legend of Zelda, The, is a fantasy adventure video game series developed by Nintendo for play on the company’s video game consoles and other devices. A video game console is a specialized gaming computer that connects to a television . In the main Zelda games, the player controls an elflike boy named Link on a solitary quest. Zelda is the name of a princess whom Link must often rescue. Armed with a sword, shield, and other magical items, Link must explore puzzle-filled dungeons and battle fantastical monsters. Critics have widely praised the Zelda games for their rich, interactive worlds, engaging puzzles, and dramatic musical scores.
The Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto created the first Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda, released in 1986. The game’s spirit of adventure and mystery were inspired by Miyamoto’s recollections of his childhood explorations of a cave by lanternlight. He took the name Zelda from Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of the American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald . The Legend of Zelda became the first video game to enable players to save their progress across multiple play sessions.
Sequels to the game featured increasingly complex gameplay. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991), for example, challenged players to explore a parallel “dark world” that mirrored the game’s main world. In The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (1998), players use a magic ocarina (flutelike instrument) to manipulate the passage of time. Early Zelda games, like most early electronic games, featured two-dimensional gameplay. The Ocarina of Time is considered a pioneering work of three-dimensional play.
Since 2000, Eiji Aonuma, another Japanese designer, has led development on most Zelda games, with Miyamoto playing a more advisory role. Aonuma’s games include The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002), in which players control the wind to sail across a vast ocean. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006) was noted in part for its darker, spookier tone. Aonuma also produced The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011). The game introduced virtual sword fights that closely track the player’s swings and thrusts with the game controller.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) was praised by critics for expanding the open-world feel of the game. The game enabled players to explore a vast wilderness guided by their curiosity. A sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023), expanded on this model, enabling players to interact with their environment in more complex ways.
