This is a translation of an article on Nintendo of Japan’s website; part 4 of a 6-part series on The Legend Of Zelda in celebration of the series’ 30th anniversary. Translation mine, all other contents, text, images are copyright by 任天堂株式会社. See below for a link to the original article.
Part 4 of our six-week The Legend of Zelda nostalgia project is about “the Hyrule of the past and the present“.
The next addition to the series, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, scheduled for release in 2017, is set in the same Hyrule as the first The Legend of Zelda game from 1986. For this article, I compared these two worlds of Hyrule from differing eras.
Comparison No. 1: The Old Man
Start playing either game and you’ll soon meet the Old Man. In the first game, you will receive the sword from him. How kind he is…
In the new game, he won’t give you any weapons. Instead, you can help yourself to the roasted apples and torches he keeps at his side. In this game, you have to find your own weapons by snatching them away from enemies. Talk about survival skills!
Comparison No. 2: Spectacle Rock
In the first game, there is a place where two boulders are lined up. If you step back a bit, they look like a pair of spectacles. That’s why the place is called “Spectacle Rock”.
And indeed, Spectacle Rock makes an appearance in the new game as well. They’re more mountains than boulders, but they are clearly shaped like spectacles, don’t you think? You’ll have to see for yourself when the game is released.
Comparison No. 3: The Raft
The first game had a raft that moved automatically as a means to cross bodies of water. A raft exists in the new game, too.
When you have to cross rivers and can’t swim through them because of the intense cold, the raft is indispensable. If you look closely, you can see that Link seems to be able to make his own wind. That’s right, in the new game, he can cross rivers by creating wind at will and steering the raft in any direction of his choosing.
Comparison No. 4: Skulls
Finally, I compared game objects shaped like skulls. In the first game, the rooms of the last dungeon formed the shape of a skull.
In the new game, there are skull-shaped enemy hideouts. You can make use of their shape, for example by dropping one of the lanterns that can be seen in the eyes, to sweep all of the enemies at once.
What do you think? I heard that there are many more connections like that between the original The Legend of Zelda and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Searching for them seems like a good way to enjoy the games.
See you next time!
edited by: 企画部 ひろＰ (HiroP)
Original article: ハイラルの今と昔を比べてみた
Original text and images are copyright by 任天堂株式会社
List of related articles:
- A look at the “puzzle solved” sound in the original The Legend of Zelda
- I started up a Famicom Disk System that was slumbering in the depths of the storehouse
- Why was The Adventure of Link so unusual?
- Comparing the Hyrule of the Past and the Present
- The Legend of Zelda’s 30th birthday
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