The Past is Beautiful: A Hero Lost in Time

The Past is Beautiful: A Hero Lost in Time

Lets talk about the Legend of Zelda for a moment, one of the most celebrated series in video game history. Now, I’m not going to pretend to be a diehard fanboy. In all truth I’m a filthy casual player when it comes to these games. Why? Well that’s a question we’ll answer later in this very one-sided conversation.

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My first journey to Hyrule was with Oracle of Seasons in the early 00’s, around the time Malcolm in the Middle was still in heavy syndication and it did not yet pose a moral dilemma to find Britney Spears attractive. I only had periodical access to the game as I borrow a copy from a school friend on an irregular basis, so I never made much progress. In fact, according to zeldadungeon.net, I only ever made it through about 3/10ths of the game. You might be wondering how the Hell it’s possible to form a solid opinion on something after seeing so little of it: well, this little taster for a young kid was all that was needed to send the imagination into meltdown pondering what else was still hidden in the expanses of this unknown world. I could change seasons on a whim. One moment my green spritely heroHer would be marching along with the cinnamon and marmalade leafs of autumn crunching under boot and the next he would be running through the green meadows of Spring hacking up blades of grass to find rupees and hearts. I had knocked out sentient cannons from inside a kangaroos pouch and battled an emoji snake in the depths of a puzzle-filled dungeon.

This was clearly a land of lunacy. Every time you loaded up that cartridge you were signing yourself into a mental asylum, and it felt oddly homely, but that was it for my adventures in Hyrule. Years passed without much thought being given to that land except for glances over the shoulder of my brother as he played Twilight Princess on the Wii. Now with two of the most iconic titles of the series – Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask – having been remade on the 3DS, I as a full-grown man baby once again ventured into a world that I had not explored since childhood. The experience left an already pretty shattered psyche divided; having finally played these games to almost 100% completion I’ve formed some conflicting thoughts on them.

The hype around the rerelease of Majora’s Mask back in February is what really enticed me to return. It’s no understatement to say the game is renowned for its darkness. Essentially the game’s story is a metaphor for the five stages of grief and finds Link lost in the land of Termina, a place blanketed by death and sorrow. This, along with the urban myths that have been established around the game such as the Ben Drowned Creepypasta, make it seem like it would be perfect for a person that would have been an emo, if it wasn’t for growing up on a council estate and having no fashion sense. After a fortnight of having the 3DS glued to my palms I had stopped Skull Kid and that horrible grinning moon from offering sweet release to the souls of Clock Town, leaving only the archery mini game in the swamps incomplete. It was an unrewarding experience.

Okay, before I get into the negative I’ll state a positive, one thing’s for certain, the Legend of Zelda has no shortage of rich lore and fascinating creatures from Deku Scrubs and Gorons to the Zora (a race whose existence gives rise to some disturbing examples of rule 34).

 

Troy McClure a man who brought a whole new meaning to the phrase sleeping with the fishes.

 

But the lack of a protagonist who can truly be invested in is something that is sorely missed. Don’t get me wrong: I appreciate what Link is; he’s the literal link between worlds, a vessel for us to explore Hyrule. The problem is, I don’t want to be the Hero of Time. The biggest adventure I’m likely to go on is from the sitting room to the kitchen in search of biscuits during a Netflix binge. Link, the bearer of the Triforce of Courage should probably be a bit more interesting than that and yet, he doesn’t. A game that actually parodies this rather well is Anodyne, a 2013 indie game that borrows heavily from the early Zeldas by putting a player character, a boring generic teenager called Young armed with a sweeping brush into a bizarre dream world.

It gets really bizarre

I said the experience was unrewarding and what I mean by that is for all the puzzles solved and side quests completed it all felt as if it was for nothing. Not in terms of the story; again I find the over-arching lore of the games fascinating, but when you know that practically every task you complete will only reward you with a heart piece or a mask that will be used only to accomplish another task for a heart piece it becomes a bit tiresome. Even solving the puzzles that marred your progress through the dungeons and defeating the bosses that awaited within didn’t lead to the release of an overload of endorphins as they honestly for the most part were just not that challenging. Except for the swamp archery and the Gyorg Child mini dungeon. They were painful.

To answer the question I posed earlier, I think this is why I can’t see myself ever becoming a diehard Zelda fan. The King of Red Lions has already sailed on that one. I waited too long to return. If I had kept playing the games as an inexperienced child and formed more nostalgic memories of them while gaining the satisfaction of besting what at the time probably seemed like impossible dungeons, I’d probably be one of the other many thousands growing increasingly rabid waiting for more news on the Wii U title. Originally I had intended on this article being a discussion on what sort of game that upcoming title should be. As I got about half way through it I realised I really had no right to express an opinion on it as I have really no idea what the Legend of Zelda is today. Skyward sword? A Link Between Worlds? I have no idea what these games are like other than they’ve both been released to mass critical acclaim. My entire opinion of the franchise is based on some memories from when I was nine and as to how easily I beat the remakes of two games from fifteen years ago.

So what has been the point of this article you may be asking, why have I regaled you with these tales? The conclusion of all this I suppose is nostalgia is a very powerful thing. It’s a terrifying realization that games I feverishly love to this day are games I’ve not played in in nearly a decade, most notably the eight main series Final Fantasy games released on the PS1. How different would my opinion be of the hundreds of hours I must have spent grinding in them in my early adolescence if I were to do it now? It’s unlikely that I would have the patience to equip the cursed shield in FFVI for 256 battles to dispel it or put 999 AP into the mimic class of FFV. So while a series I never truly invested in and can only appreciate as an outside spectator goes from strength to strength, my feelings for a beloved franchise that hasn’t quite gone the same way have now been cast into doubt… I can’t help but feel I’ve made a huge mistake by opening this can of worms.

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