27.
No, that is not the number of times I’ve beaten A Link to the Past, nor is it the number of times it took me to beat Dark Link in Ocarina of Time. 27 is how old I was when I beat my first Zelda game.
Yes, that is correct.
Aside from the Super Nintendo, I have always had a Nintendo home console at my disposal, so Zelda has been always an option for me, even as a young kid growing up. But then why did it take me so long? Is it because I’m terrible at games? While partially true, it doesn’t tell the whole story.
I remember my mom taking me to our local video store to rent out a video game (yeah, I’m old). If I remember correctly, I was around 5-6 years old and undecided about which video game to try out. That’s when she pulled that golden cartridge off the shelf: The Legend of Zelda. She showed it to me and asked, “What about this one?” I immediately said “Yes.”
I came home excited, ready to try out the new game with the shiny gold cartridge. Yet the only thing I experienced was frustration. It was hard! Maybe it was not meant for kids my age (debatable), but it made me turn off my NES as well as my interest in the franchise as a whole.
With every new Nintendo console that released, whether gifted to me or bought on my own, I would go out of my way to try out the new games Nintendo had to offer — except Zelda.
I never bothered playing anything related to Zelda; the truth is, the interest was just not there. Even when Ocarina of Time was being heralded as the greatest video game of all time, I did not bat an eye. I shrugged my shoulders and moved on to the next available game. So what finally drew me to Zelda? Two wonderful words that every gamer loves to hear: free game!
In 2014, the Wii U was struggling. It is now considered a disappointment by many people, since there was confusion about whether it was another console or simply an accessory. Plus, the marketing for the console didn’t really help at all. So when Mario Kart 8 first came out, everyone who purchased the game in the United States was offered a chance to download one of four other games for free. One of those games was The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD.
I had a lot of friends who were huge fans of Zelda encouraging me to try it out. They kept telling me how fun it was and that I should take the time to play it. While reluctant, I told myself to just try the game out for a few hours, and maybe I would end up enjoying it. Besides, I didn’t spend any money on the game, so I felt like I had nothing to lose.
Now I’m sure you can predict what happened next: I played the game, started to enjoy it, beat it, and have been a Zelda fan ever since. It’s more predictable than the hero winning in about 95% of the superhero movies. Yet what captured me wasn’t the exploration, the pirate-style voyage across the sea, or anything else like that. It was actually Link’s sister and grandmother.
In my ignorance, I never knew Link had family members. I always thought he was just a nomad, a loner with no family. I learned later on through other games that he’s had an uncle (A Link to the Past) and a mom (Ocarina of Time), but I never envisioned him with a family member. From what I always understood of the character, he was just a silent protagonist with no background. I also never realized that his name was intended to be a “link” to the player.
So, when I played The Wind Waker, I immediately connected to Link because of his family. Growing up with a little sister and my grandmother, I viewed him through my eyes. He really was that “link” between me and the game.
When the plot revealed that I have to go off on an adventure to save Link’s sister from Ganondorf, and I saw Link emotionally waving goodbye to his grandmother, it genuinely moved me. Like Link, I would do anything to help my sister if the circumstances called for it. And as Link waved goodbye to his grandmother, not knowing if he would see her again, it reminded me of saying goodbye to my grandmother for the final time as she was battling Alzheimer’s. The connection was immediately there.
Much like the waters that washed Hyrule away at the end of the game, tears flowed from my eyes during that moment. At 27 years old, that moment alone made me want to continue the game and, afterward, fall in love with the series I had once ignored. And now here I am, 34, trying to go back and play the games I’ve neglected. I now have the chance to play them for the first time and celebrate both their joys and their frustrations.
Hopefully I can do it for years to come. Perhaps 27 more.
