11 Specific Reasons I Love The Legend of Zelda 11-7
11. SOUND EFFECTS
Yup, while some of the sound effects like Navi yelling "Hey! Listen!" at you or the dreaded sound of your hearts blinking in the top left corner of your screen might be annoying, it doesn't mean the sound effects are bad. If anything it lends to my argument that Zelda has some of the most effect use of sound effects in video games.
After all, in a game without voice overs (the CD-I games had voice overs and we know how "wonderful" of an idea that was), then Nintendo has got to use their amazing power of sound design to try and create something that is as pleasing to the ears as it is to the eyes. A short list of my favorite Zelda sound effects:
10. PUZZLES/SECRETS
One of the coolest things about Zelda is solving complicated puzzles and occasionally unlocking secrets you weren't even supposed to really find. The puzzles are usually fun if they're difficult but solveable, but there are secrets you can discover on the side.Usually, the secrets to be found are pretty vanilla, like alternate paths to your goal (like the ability to get to the Triforce and beat Link to the Past in under ten minutes), but then there are the more impressive secrets.
Another one Link to the Past, is the Chris Houlihan Room. The room is actually used to put Link's sprite somewhere for a moment between each room, while the game figures it out, and therefore if you've ever gone through a door in Zelda...you've been there. Now, if you manage to break into the room by force, you will discover a butt-load of Rupees and an inscription dedicated to a winner in a Nintendo Power magazine contest, Chris Houlihan. Note, the glitch is only in the SNES version of the game and no in the other expansions.
There are many other glitches and secrets to be found in each games. A quick google search can help you find more of the ones they've discovered...so far.
9. EXPLORING
Zelda is series that helped to innovate the genre of adventure gaming, dropping a young hero off in a strange world, with a simple quest to save the princess. One of the best parts of a Zelda game is exploring the world of Hyrule (or whatever other world there is). Because all the games take place in approximately the same setting, but the setting changes drastically as each game is set ages apart, it a lot of fun to see how all the different landmarks have changed.
You can go to Farore Forest and see how in one game it is dark and mysterious with strange theives and sprites and in another game there are little bird people and a water serpent that guards a nearby lake.
You can go to Lanyru Desert where in one title there can be vultures and sand monsters with a sinking sand temple in one day and in the next there are boar riding buggers guarding a pyramid with a stadium on top of it.
And those are just a couple of examples of the evolving environments of Zelda.
8. WEIRD CHARACTERS
This is something that, as Zelda games get more and more advanced and able to support more characters, has become more and more important. The characters that populate this world, even the grunting mute Link, are pretty strange. There are of course the characters that are obviously less than human like the Zorras and the Gorons, but Link's friends tend to be strange.
Pictured above is Tingle. I don't even want to talk about Tingle. His popularity baffles me; he is a full grown man that dresses up as an elf and sells Link maps. I've never played OoT long enough to meet him. For me, the weird characters I remember most are the creepy hand ghost that wants toilet paper, all of the creepy gambling clowns, bug-collecting creeps, baby-faced merchants, cowardly pirates, and so many more characters that Link befriends.
And the villains are even weirder; Moblins, Octoroks, and so many more. The bosses are real creepy and we'll definitely give Ghirahim his time in the spotlight this week.
But despite their strangeness, most of them are likeable, lovable, or so unique that they make the world of Zelda so uniquely populated by awesome characters.
7. WORLD DESIGN
And really the bottom 7 of this list are mostly made-up of elements that contribute to the compelling world design of the Zelda series. As I said in the section about exploring, just traveling around the game world and looking in caves can be a lot of fun, and thats because the world created is all at once familiar and unique; a western fantasy setting pushed through the lens of Japanese mythology to build something that the Western audience loves.
Everyone has their own very favorite Zelda world and collecting maps is a big part of the game. The reason getting a new map or section of a map is satisfying is that it gives you clues like "desert" or "forest" or "mountain" and you know you're about to be going to a new realm. Maps begs to be used to help you explore and exploring is adventure.
If the worlds of Zelda were boring and recycled, no one would care, but over twenty-five years they have managed to continually please new players and fans alike. Hopefully, we'll see more interesting worlds like those of the Wind Waker titles or the sky islands of Skyward Sword (while ditching the lack of exploration of Skyward Sword) rather than recycling everyone's favorite setting (except mine, I dig Link to the Past more), Hyrule from Ocarina of Time.
6-1 coming later this week...
