When you first played The Wind Waker, did it feel like you had already met Aryll before? Maybe its her chipper demeanor, or the way she dresses? Or could it be the strange love she has for seagulls? There’s something about Aryll that makes her seem instantly familiar to Zelda fans. This is because she…
Some people might try to point out that Toon Link never made an appearance on the Nintendo 64. Some people might be annoying and trying to spoil what is a beautiful example of “Please, God, let me have this.” I’ve never given it much thought, but the design of the N64 does offer modders a…
It’s no surprise that the Master Sword is a crucial element to driving the main plot forward in the Zelda series. Drafted as the “Magic Sword” in the first Legend of Zelda title, the Blade of Evil’s Bane has become a staple weapon in most games since A Link to the Past. Breath of the…
It is an unfortunate truth in game development that content gets created only to be scrapped or unfinished. A lot of work and testing goes into making games, from the mundane of making ramps to see how the player character responds to slopes in the engine to rooms designed solely to test the various mechanics…
In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the Great Sea is host to a plethora of fascinating locations to visit and explore. Areas like Windfall Island or Dragon Roost Island are large and dense, filled with characters to meet, items to collect, and most importantly, feature story progression! But other areas, such as the…
At the end of Windfall Island’s main path, at the highest point of the island, Link finds a number of interesting homes and businesses, but it’s the impressive and almost-monumental windmill that draws his attention. This town is full of life, surely this windmill is the centerpiece of the excitement, right? Link’s eagerness fades quickly…
There’s nothing like a map to make a fantasy story seem more tangible. You open a massive tome and there, in the early pages before you’ve even met your characters, or even in the endpapers right within the cover, you’ve already experienced a sprawling continent or entire world of nations, city-states, mysterious regions and magical…
The Zelda series has seen its fair share of mini-games. Whether it be the Shooting Gallery or the Treasure Chest game, the series has always included a variety to choose from. However, there is one mini-game that most people despise with a burning passion. Of course, I’m talking about the infamous Squid-Hunt from The Wind…
It must have been a rough night. Why else would Link be passed out facedown on the wooden floor of the watchtower? That doesn’t stop Aryll from startling awake her fatigued brother, though. In her upbeat manner, she reminds Link that it’s his birthday, snapping him out of his lethargy. Maybe Link just got the…
Everyone has heard the Cinderella story a million times, so things get interesting when we flip the story around. What happens when we take the girl who has it all — the dresses, the money, the luxuries of life — and sweep everything right out from under her? What kind of person is this girl…
The Legend of Zelda has always boasted a well-rounded cast of inspirational female characters. Last year on International Women’s Day I made an article about a few of these ladies who made an impact on me, but of course, there are still so many more to talk about! From fearsome warriors to kindhearted princesses, The…
Video games like The Legend of Zelda are built as massive quests. In each and every game, Link has a final objective, the culmination of all his hard work he will expend during the long hours ahead. Usually, this is a fairly broad goal, or interwoven goals. Rescue the princess. Defeat the Dark Lord. Save…
Few races in the Legend of Zelda series have carried the same level of renown as the Zoras. Though their relation to a group of enemies that bear the same name is unknown, the peaceful Zoras now have a twenty-year-old reputation as being one of the most majestic races in Hyrule. The Zoras first appeared…
I had to stop and read the sentence again. My book had just made an off-hand reference to a roc as some kind of bird flying over the mountain pass. I laid the book down as the gears began to shift in my head. Every time I played a Zelda title where Link acquires an…
Sometimes the greatest secrets in games aren’t those hidden in a place where most players would never think to look, locked behind a complex button input, or buried deep within a game’s code. Sometimes, they are in plain sight. I would probably never have figured out that the poses of the monks in Breath of…
