The Legend of Zelda: My First Foray

“Some Shameless Zelda Month SEO”

Well, I might as well kick this thing off with something that should maybe net me some search engine results.  All the blogging websites tell me to write about things that are timely, relevant and something I know a lot about.  I guess The Legend of Zelda is something that fits those categories.

For those of you who stumbled on this site without looking for Zelda Month stuff, the Legend of Zelda is an action-adventure series of video games developed by Nintendo.  Zelda Month is an unofficial month of celebration taking place in November.  It was founded, if my sources are correct, by the youtuber PeanutButterGamer to commemorate the release of Skyward Sword for the Wii.  I’m gonna get in on this sweet community action before the month is over, even though there are only three days left or whatever.

But regardless of when you read this, November or not, I think it’s still got some relevance.  Or at least it isn’t totally contingent on a specific time of year, it’s just a story that I’m going to tell.  And that’s what I think this blog is going to be, anyway.  Stories.  Or something like that.  Let’s see where this goes.

The first time I was introduced to any game in the Zelda series was in the basement of my friends’ house, probably around the age of ten or eleven, and my brother and I would spend time at their house pretty often.  This story is fairly non-offensive, but I don’t know the legality of using names, so to clarify things, we’ll just call my friends “Ralph” and “Helen.”

Somewhere along the line of being friends with them, my brother and I found out that Helen played The Legend of Zelda games.  Me, being the uncultured swine of a 6^th grader that I was, made fun of her for it, as most dumbass prepubescent kids do.  I was absolutely sure that Mario was the best character and could beat Zelda any day.  We never really took to Smash Bros. to decide, though, so it never got settled.

The game in question at that particular time was Twilight Princess, as this was the age of the Wii.  Every so often when my brother and I would stop over, we’d find Helen playing Twilight Princess, and I’d immediately dismiss it as nonsense.  What a fool I was.

I distinctly remember that the first time I picked up the controls and really played a Zelda game was when Helen asked me to help her beat the Lakebed Temple.  It was a mid-game dungeon with a fairly complex layout, and she had a hard time completing it and figured enlisting the help of trusted allies was a fair course of action.

Needless to say, I couldn’t wrap my head around it.  We failed to complete the temple in the hour or so we spent picking at its puzzle-box design.  I remember seeing these giant gears in the dungeon and thinking, “What the hell do I do with those?”  I didn’t get it.  The game had beaten me.  And that was something I wasn’t used to.

I’ve been a fan of video games pretty much since I could stick a computer mouse in my mouth, and I’d gotten pretty good at them.  So this particular dungeon kind of locked itself in my head, taunting me.  I went home that day and thought about it, trying to see how the pieces fit together like some sort of watery jigsaw puzzle. It plagued my mind every time I visited Ralph and Helen’s house.  I had to beat that dungeon.

Helen managed to figure out the dungeon pretty quickly after my brother and I went home that day, I guess, so I never had an excuse to try it again at her house.  My one choice was to swallow my red-capped, overall-wearing pride and buy the game for myself.  And so I took a trip to Gamestop and bought a copy with my (exceedingly generous) allowance.

I bought my copy of Twilight Princess for the Wii (since I lacked a Gamecube), booted it up, and was immediately blown away.  I was very easy to impress at a young age, so even that god-awful tutorial was incredible.  I played the game, tearing through it, exploring every nook and cranny of Hyrule, changing Link into his fursona wolf, zipping through twilight monsters like an elven Rambo.  And then I got to the Lakebed Temple.

Nothing could stop me now.  Having completed a few other temples prior, I had more experience under my belt, and those damned water-wheels were no match for me. Finally figuring out how to use that stupid staircase, I overcame my previous defeat and triumphed in the face of adversity.  The rest of the game felt easy from that moment on, and I knew that I could do whatever I set my heart to.

I suppose this is the part where I should say something about the ingenious level design or art direction of the Lakebed Temple, to put the proverbial cherry on top of my self-righteous sundae, but looking back, it really isn’t that great of a dungeon.  All things considered, the whole game is kind of middle-of-the-road.  My favorite part, really, was the approach to Arbiter’s Grounds and that dungeon. If you ask me, the second half of the game is the strongest part.

This isn’t a review article.  The game came out over ten years ago, and hot damn does that makes me feel old.  Hindsight is always twenty-twenty, and even without a lens of truth (heh) I can see that the game hasn’t aged as well as others in the franchise.  But it was my first Zelda game, and it was what pulled me into the series.  And that series, to a certain extent, has made me who I am today.  Which is perhaps the most vague, cliché statement I can make, but it’s true.  I’m still a fan.

Twilight Princess has got a special place in my heart, if only for the reason that it let me experience the absolutely mind-blowing dungeon design of Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time, and Link Between Worlds.  And yes, I was one of those people who enjoyed Skyward Sword.  Like I said, I was easily impressed at that age.  That hasn’t really changed, but I’ll fight anyone who says that the Ancient Cistern or Sandship aren’t incredible.

Anyway, I have Helen and the Lakebed Temple to thank for getting me interested in one of the most exciting video game lineups in history.  From that first foray into the Zelda franchise, I’ve gone back to the games from the past and looked forward to the games in the future. I’ve reveled in the vastness of Hyrule Field and cowered underneath a falling moon.  I’ve defeated Gohma, Ghirahim, and Ganon.  I found the Master Sword and freed the Divine Beasts.  I’ve been there.  I’ve done that.

Happy Zelda Month.  It’s been a hell of a ride.  And with just a little luck, it’ll stay that way.