The Legend of Zelda



The Legend of Zelda is the first installment in the The Legend of Zelda series, released in 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and is succeeded by The Adventure of Link. The Hero of Hyrule is the main protagonist and Ganon is the main antagonist. Ganon's minions serve as the villainous faction.

It is the first game in the series, but it is the penultimate game set in the Downfall Timeline. Hyrule entered The Golden Era after Yuga-Ganon was defeated, in which the wise Hyrule monarchs used the Triforce to govern the land. After the king's death and the attempt of the Prince of Hyrule to assemble the complete Triforce, Hyrule was lead into the 'Era of Decline'. The Prince of Darkness, Ganon was revived, leading to the events of this game.

In 1995, the first game was remade for the NES available only via the Satellaview add-on for the SNES titled BS The Legend of Zelda.

Official Description
A long, long time ago the World was in an age of Chaos.

''In the midst of this chaos, in a little kingdom in the land of Hyrule, a legend was being handed down from generation to generation, the legend of the 'Triforce'; golden triangles possessing mystical powers. One day, an evil army attacked this peaceful little kingdom and stole the Triforce of Power. This army was led by Ganon, the powerful Prince of Darkness who sought to plunge the World into fear and darkness under his rule. Fearing his wicked rule, Zelda, the princess of this kingdom, split up the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and hid them throughout the realm to save the last remaining Triforce from the clutches of the evil Ganon. At the same time, she commanded her most trustworthy nursemaid, Impa, to secretly escape into the land and go find a man with enough courage to destroy the evil Ganon. Upon hearing this, Ganon grew angry, imprisoned the princess, and sent out a party in search of Impa."''

"Braving forests and mountains, Impa fled for her life from her pursuers. As she reached the very limit of her energy she found herself surrounded by Ganon's evil henchmen. Cornered! What could she do? ... But wait! All was not lost. A young lad appeared. He skillfully drove off Ganon's henchmen, and saved Impa from a fate worse than death."

"His name was Link. During his travels, he had come across Impa and Ganon's henchmen. Impa told Link the whole story of Princess Zelda and the evil Ganon. Burning with a sense of justice, Link resolved to save Zelda, but Ganon was a powerful opponent. He held the Triforce of Power. And so, in order to fight off Ganon, Link had to bring the scattered eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom together to rebuild the mystical triangle. If he couldn't do this, there would be no chance Link could fight his way into Death Mountain where Ganon lived.

Summary
The story of The Legend of Zelda is described in the instruction booklet and during the short prologue which plays after the title screen: A small kingdom in the land of Hyrule is engulfed by chaos when an army led by Ganon, the prince of darkness, invaded and stole the Triforce of Power, one part of a magical artifact which alone bestows great strength. In an attempt to prevent him from acquiring the Triforce of Wisdom, Princess Zelda splits it into eight fragments and hides them in secret underground dungeons. Before eventually being kidnapped by Ganon, she commands her nursemaid Impa to find someone courageous enough to save the kingdom. While wandering the land, the old woman is surrounded by Ganon's henchmen, when a young boy named Link appears and rescues her. Upon hearing Impa's plea, he resolves to save Zelda and sets out to reassemble the scattered fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom, with which Ganon can then be defeated.

During the course of the tale, Link locates and braves the eight underworld labyrinths, and beyond their defeated guardian monsters retrieves each fragment. With the completed Triforce of Wisdom, he is able to infiltrate Ganon's hideout in Death Mountain, confronting the prince of darkness and destroying him with the Silver Arrow. Obtaining the Triforce of Power from Ganon's ashes, Link returns it and the restored Triforce of Wisdom to the rescued Princess Zelda, and peace returns to Hyrule.

Trivia

 * The Hyrule Fantasy was used as a subtitle for the Japanese version of The Legend of Zelda; however, this was dropped in subsequent games as adding a third subtitle (such as A Link to the Past) would have made the title too long. This choice was also made to avoid comparisons with Final Fantasy.
 * During development of the game, a rearrangement of Maurice Ravel's Boléro by Koji Kondo was used as the title theme. However, shortly before finishing the game, the developers learned that the song was still under copyright. Since they could not delay the release of the Disk System and the game itself, Kondo wrote the actual title theme in a single night.
 * Most The Legend of Zelda cartridges are gold, but the Classic Series version of the game came in standard grey cartridges.
 * The 1969 hit song "April" from the rock band Deep Purple is seen as an inspiration for Koji Kondo to create the title and dungeon themes of this game. It also has a slight basis for the Hyrule Castle theme in later games.

Continuity

 * Zelda I is the penultimate game in the Downfall Timeline. It takes place a few hundred years after the events of TriForce Heroes and A Link Between Worlds. Sometime between these games, Ganon and Yuga unfused.
 * The Spectacle Rock in this game was hinted at possibly being the same one from Breath of the Wild.
 * Several locations return in this version of Hyrule, such as Death Mountain and the Lost Woods.