Today as of this writing, I have sitting on my apartment a copy of the newest game in the series of The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the kingdom. This marks a long wait for a lot of us that we’ve been patiently counting down from the moment the first trailer dropped way back in 2019. Back when most of us were wide eyed and hopeful of the future. That is until 2020, now we are just wide eyed and black eyed for the future.
Still, the fact I am this excited for a game in this series to anyone who knows me is not surprising. My wife is probably happy it’s finally out so I stop pouring over YouTube videos on theories behind the game and lore and will just now play it. (Spoilers: It won’t stop it just stall it till I’m done with it.) I know it is a popular series and with good reason, and also cause I found myself reflecting on the past of my history with the games I thought this be a good post for this. So let’s get on with it…
Part one: This is something that from the outside does not make sense.
For those who only know me from streaming and or just ranting in general, the fact I am even talking about a series steeped into fantasy is kind of mind boggling. To many people I am a giant robot loving, space ship obsessed through and through science fiction nerd who the even thought to go into a land with sorcery and elves and mystical swords is kind of insane.
The answer to that is simple: most of the time you are right, I will admit however that I am a little more nuanced than this really. I enjoyed game of thrones (yes, even the last season, it wasn’t perfect but hey it is what we got.) I also actually own the extended cut of the lord of the rings movies. At one point it was a thanksgiving tradition to just binge those every thanksgiving weekend cause it was the only time off that was long enough to even do that with. That is but a few examples. I will say though gun to my head and had to make an impulse choice. I am science fiction as my first answer, so yes people can do both and sometimes it can be more nuanced than people realize.
Part two: It took a bit for it to finally click
That all being said, when I was a kid and the Super Mario Bros. Super Show was on, I always got annoyed when Friday was interrupted by episodes of the Zelda cartoon. There can be an argument made that it was cause it was not the best thing to ever grace the screen as to why I probably did not like it. Also, like I said I was raised on transformers and those type of things. So there was a bit of bias. After some time there were of course more games and also this new little thing called a Super Nintendo, my march with science fiction continued unabated but did make stops in the lands of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and other games that caught my eye. At the time, my sisters were living in Maryland and I went to stay with them for a bit, to accommodate the fact I kind of had to hang out by myself a bit they got a Super Nintendo and some games, these were random ones but one that stuck out was A Link to the Past. Having nothing else to do, I started playing it and well...it only took about 7 so years but the game hooked me. I always was pushing just a little further, Every day I just kept going and going till I finally got to the first dungeon in the dark world. After that my time there was up and I had to leave the game behind...for now…
Part three: The Legend of Zelda : Un lien vers le passé, deuxième partie
Fast forward a few years and I am at a Kmart, I was rummaging through games, this was the transition to the Nintendo 64 and Playstation 1 era. Long before retro was really a thing most 16-bit games were at that point on the discount bin. Being a kid who only had an allowance of a certain amount and a gamer you had to back then scrummage around for anything to play until a holiday or birthday came along to get your next big game. A random Thursday night here I am got about twenty bucks and games are on sale for that in the bin. What do I find in this but a copy of that SNES game I played awhile ago and never finished. Sensing this, I take it to my father and say I’m getting this. He nodded his head took it and kind of looked at it.
“Hey Brandon?”
“What, did I get the price wrong?”
“No, but did you take a look at the box? I think this game is in French…”
“Why would they sell a game in French in America?” (For context I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio which is near Lake Erie.)
“Well...if you get this game I’m not returning this.”
I moved aside the warnings, a kid being a kid in my mind I thought “No, I will not be denied this one.” As we were going home I looked at the box, I saw a big red thing on there some words in french. “Okay,” My young mind thought “Maybe this is sort of like a dual language thing, you can toggle between the two.” I explain this to my father he nodded his head the way a father who knows you are pretty much screwed does. Like when you tell a parent “I can do this.” And they are giving you enough rope to hang yourself. We get home I rush to my room took out the game and opened my copy removing the plastic tossing the instructions aside and slotting this inside, I boot up the game. Okay I see “Nintendo Presents.” Right, that is in English, so far so good. I see the Triforce come into view, okay also good...title screen says the title in English. Alright, I am in business, dad doesn’t know everything. I enter my name, all letters I type “Brando” as for some reason the game then NEVER let me put the last letter in. (Or an odd prophetic sign of my future in laws?)
Okay, name is in everything has been in English alright, time to get into this I hit start
…
…..
……
The game is in French….
I tell my Dad and he laughed and said “Well, guess you need to figure it out…”
I spent the next few months after recalling my getting the sword with no guides, I didn’t have internet at home at the time (Something to people of today would look at me in confusion about) and through a process of just rummaging through this world eventually after months beat it. I beat this game I started in another state on another SNES, and I have NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON!
Years later I’d tell people this story and most said “Yeah, you didn’t really miss anything in the story…” Also, as time has gone on, I have gotten another physical copy and first thing I did was take it home and checked this was in English this time, also I spent twenty dollars on that cartridge too. So, the moral of the story is: if you HAVE to buy Link to the Past, don’t spend more than twenty bucks…
Part Four: The lost weekend of time
If you did not know, 1998 was a year where A LOT of games that are considered legendary came out. Among those, and many consider the best Zelda ever even was The Ocarina of Time, I am not about thirteen, Still allowance territory. However I was at Best Buy one day and saw a display for the next Zelda game, this was about August September and the game was coming out Thanksgiving weekend so November. What crappy math skills I had told me if I saved my money until then, I could get a copy at launch. With that I took my five dollars in hand to the register and per-ordered my copy, still burned by the French incident (which I am sure my father pointed out) I put my claim down, I’m getting this game.
For the next three months I waited, patiently for my allowance to grow in size till I got to that magic number, seeing things on TV about it coming, like some sort of insane long play of the Gabbo bit from the Simpsons. The months went by, my gaming now having to be held up I asked my brother if I could borrow the copy of Diddy Kong racing he got for his son. My response was “I’m waiting for Zelda.” He handed it to me with a nod of “I get it, you’ll be rewarded soon, enjoy your kid game until then.” (For the record, I remember playing it going “Wow, this really isn’t bad.”) Finally the fated day came, my dad called me he told me he’d be home at four and we’d run to the store and get the game. He knew I was being patient and wanted to reward me I guess. It was Wednesday night, my school for Thanksgiving usually gave us Wednesday to Sunday off as a fall break. He came home I got in the car went to Best Buy, took all my money I had been saving a bunch of fives maybe a ten or two as well and piled on the table. I also factored in tax, the girl at the counter took my money went in the back and I remember this conversation:
“Oh, that the new Legend of Zelda?
“Yeah, I’m gonna get mine after work.”
“Oh, I can’t wait to play as Zelda and how they look in this game.”
(Look, it was the 90’s and gaming was still new and niche, not everyone is gonna know stuff alright?)
The woman came back handed my me copy of the game in the shiny gold packaging, suddenly those months of patience and waiting were now in my hands. We went to get some food, I remember the radio talking about the weather the next few days, I got home and ate my food, and took my game into my families game room with the pool table that was barely used and my crappy hand me down computer from the 80s (I had a dot matrix printer at the time). Put the game in the system and fire it up. I remember taking in the screen as the title slowly faded in, the piano playing the theme was soft, and just Link and a horse running around. I let it go for a bit, I knew even then I was playing something special. I wanted to slowly take it in. I went to the menu and entered my name, happy as hell that I could finally put that elusive “N” at the end of the name. No longer would I be called “Brando” in this world. Now, it was officially me. I remember playing the first dungeon in that night, Thanksgiving my brother who lent me the game came in and even he was like “Wow, what is this?” him and his young son watching as I was learning how to aim with the slingshot. As that long weekend went on time became very hard to know. I’d turn it on in the morning, sun went down in the game and I turned it off, and like five hours went by. “How could I lose this much time?” I thought to myself, this went on for the rest of the weekend.
I’d play this game every second I could, my friend came over seeing this game and being stunned at the game like I was. We’d tell our friend at school about it, how mind blowing this game was being. I remember the Water Temple driving me crazy, to the point I’d even start a new save and power through the game till I got to that temple. Found the one thing I was missing, went to my original file and continued on...yeah it was stupid but for some reason, I did this…
I eventually finished the game and finishing it with the big reveal of Gannondorfs final form and shoving the Master Sword down his throat, spewing red blood (Yeah I had that copy) everything about that game was just, amazing this game just blew every expectation and everything I played up until that point out of the water. To be honest, unless you were someone playing that game in that era it is hard to explain just how epic everything was, once in a lifetime is something I would say about experiencing this game to this point. Every other Zelda game until Breath of the Wild was measured up to this game, and thy really did not meet it.
Part Five: the in between years.
There were other games that came out after it obviously, but as I said everything since then just could not reach that moment. They were good games, I enjoyed Wind Waker and it’s deceptive cute style hiding one of the darkest post apocalyptic stories in gaming. We then had Twilgit princess, the thought of return to the classic “Adult” style Zelda games which to be honest and to this day feels very repetitive like “Well you want a shiner Ocarina of Time? Here, take it and shut up!” I felt let down, I was not a fan of the game. The scenes were cool, GanonDorf was back and kicking ass now with a sword. You had a duel with him, he’s his bad ass self but the game just felt...eh.
Also a lot of my life at this point was on other things, I remember Twilight Princess going about an hour out of my way to get my Gamecube copy. Cause I did not have a Wii yet, complaining I had to wait a few weeks extra cause I did not get a Wii. My time with the series became more and more disinterested when Skyward Sword came out and I just could not get into that game, great story interesting mechanics. But, just could not got into this one, while I enjoyed Zelda games, I felt maybe time had passed since then and while I’d look forward to it, it be just another notch nothing earth shaking. Well, Nintendo decided to do a swerve on me.
Part Six: Breath of the Wild and return to mind blowing
I was working as a delivery driver, I remember being excited by the game not so much the switch at the time. I knew I’d get one, but I just thought for the time being “Well, I’ll get the Wii U copy.” Sensing it be hard to get, I found one in a random Walmart on the east side of town. Coming home that night, I put the game in after dusting off the system not expecting anything to come of it. I figured well I’d go back to Horizon: Zero Dawn and bounce back to this when I was done. Turns out it be the other way around. This game had me hooked, it felt fresh it felt very new and trying things. I died in this game? I rarely died in Zelda what the hell, also I died really stupid…
I went all in with this game, this consumed my life when I was not at work or teaching or talking with my then fiance, it was this game. I eventually I did get a switch and I bought the game for this and started from scratch, finding I experienced that awe and wonder still, got the DLC finished the champions ballad and just falling in love once more with this series.
Today, I am now married to that same woman, she got me things of the series that I cherish. She doesn’t I think quite get the depth of why I enjoy this series. Finishing this post up I am finding myself remembering a lot of good times with my parents relating to these games. They are both gone now, but reflecting to myself about how I said to my mom that thanksgiving weekend “Hey I know I like take out, but can we actually have a meal besides thanksgiving here this weekend?” Cause we were xmas shopping. To driving down to my sister’s for Christmas that year and just pouring through magazines I got for hints or ideas of how I could move ahead in the game. The lesson my father taught me using my ignorance and mistakes. To the sense of surprise he had I actually held out and got that game.
Even now, looking back on Breath of the wild and being blown away by the fact it had science fiction elements (bordering on fantasy I admit). The story sucking me in, liking the new take on a Princess Zelda as a scientist instead of wielder of the triforce of wisdom (which she is still kinda). That while you are sleeping your wounds away is using what little power she could channel to hold back evil. Meeting the new characters of the series sort of now seeing how I am now meeting new people in my life as well. It is odd as this game seems to grow beside me. I could go into the minutia of this series and why this is that, why the timeline acts as it does or theories about why they connect of if they don’t. I probably won’t be playing this game till Monday, my wife’s parents are in town and of course they are priority. I’ll be fighting the urge all weekend to play as the kid from 1998 inside me is going to be going “WHY ARE YOU NOT PLAYING THIS NOW!” But, when I boot it up and take in that screen and everything once more. He’ll be satisfied again and I think so will I..
-The Chaos Director
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I love this and it brought back so many memories! Very well written it felt like i was back in the 90's watching Super Mario Brothers and Playing sega. I remember going to Toys R Us to get sega games and grabbing one of those sheets you bring up to the cash register. I ran into one of those sheets the other day no idea where it came from as i didn't grow up in this house but yeah it was trippy. Do you remember this video game show called the funhouse? I think it was back in the late 80s/early 90s. But it made me think about that too! Really great article!