Many of us remember days in the schoolyard, discussing our latest video game discoveries and, furthermore, dreaming of what we might do with a favorite franchise if we were ever given the reins.
Many a boy or girl imagined what their ideal version of what Mario, Sonic, or Zelda might look like if they had the keys to the kingdom, and that doesn’t always stop after grade school.
In college, a classmate of mine and I bonded in an English course over a shared love of old Nintendo franchises, particularly The Legend of Zelda and its myriad successors. We talked about what we loved about the old games and what we imagined the next game might possibly look like.
My friend had his own dream for a new direction for the Zelda franchise. He longingly described a darker, creepier Hyrule in which the Legendary Hero, appearing when Ganon arose once more, confronted the Dark Lord and, well, lost.
Instead of playing as a fated hero, the player would instead play as a common Hylian just trying to survive the rise of darkness and find their own way to a better future for Hyrule without the finger of destiny upon them.
Never mind, of course, that this was already, in part, the plot of the most recent Zelda title, The Wind Waker. That game was far too bright and cheerful, in aesthetics, at least, to fit his demands. The Wind Waker, of course, is one of the saddest Zelda titles in the series in many ways, its plot one of regret and loss under its candy-colored cartoon shell, but it’s quite a disguise.
For that matter, the adult half of Ocarina of Time fit his demands well enough, but its connection to the lighter kid portions of the game, no matter how melancholy they leaned, seemed to rule it out for him, too.
No, he wanted a darker, more gothic Zelda, one where despair battled with the unchosen hero at every turn.
What he was actually describing, really, was Dark Souls, just a few years too early.
I had reservations about his idea. It sounded like a great game, just not a great Zelda game. I tried to modify it, suggesting the fallen hero passed on the mantle to the new player character, or that the player character would turn out to be the Hero all along in the end, but my friend was completely against “chosen one” narratives, which were, I suppose, far too hopeful in their destined direction.
My modifications were probably a bit prophetic, too, suggesting the feeling, if not the literal plot, of Breath of the Wild, with its ruined Hyrule and a lost hero returning to save it at last. But Breath of the Wild would likely have been too colorful, despite all its rueful melancholy, for my friend, too. He wanted dark. I just felt he no longer wanted Zelda.
It was a tonal confrontation more than one of plot, in the end. He was drifting away from the Nintendo approach and likely found it in other franchises going forward. I was content with where I was.
I haven’t seen or talked to him since college, years ago, so I don’t know if he ever played Dark Souls and finally got the dark fantasy saga he’d dreamed of. I hope so.
Me, I’ll stick with Hyrule, colors and all.
