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Bowsette Plus-Ultra

wah
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Bear with me for a moment. I can already hear people typing N-O, but give me a moment.

I'd like to draw attention to the Assassin's Creed games. For the first six eight or so entries in that series, the games centered on a specific style of character: a hooded edgerunner with a penchant for shopping at Hot Topic and stabbing people in the throat. There was a certain formula to how the characters were designed and portrayed. Everyone adhered to the titular "assassin's creed".

Then Assassin's Creed: Odyssey came out. Despite its plot connecting directly with other games and its characters all being connected to the franchise's usual assassins, it doesn't follow the specific formula that its precursors did. Assassins and templars are present, as is the usual plot about order and chaos and stabbing people in the neck, but there was a degree of discontentment among a few fans. Some decried this alleged shift from the series' formula as the markings of a new, unrelated game. There were some who suggested that it should have been named something else. "Warrior's Creed" or whatnot.

To bring it back around to Zelda:

Despite the series' name, The Legend of Zelda is rarely a legendary tale about Zelda. Though she was somewhat more prominent in the instructional manuals of the first two Zelda games, she's never actually been a main character except in Spirit Tracks, I know. It's been a series almost exclusively about Link and Link alone, with Zelda serving serving either as set dressing or a secondary character.

We've seen a degree of rebranding in the Hyrule Warriors games. Despite being part of the same series, they've opted to distinguish themselves. Would the rest of Zelda of Zelda benefit from rolling with more distinct titles while operating under a larger Zelda umbrella?
 

mαrkαsscoρ

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the branding is too well known and has stuck around for too long for nintendo to have any need to change it

besides, other series have done similar, in the Ys series for instance, only the first two games are about Ys the kingdom, none of the other games even mention the kingdom of Ys, a brief reference at best, yet the Ys branding has stuck
 

Dio

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Assassin's Creed is the brand name and it is what helps the titles sell. Despite differences Odyssey is still an AC game just as Majora's Mask is still a Zelda game even though the actual princess is unimportant to the plot.
 
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It's something that should have happened a long time ago, but I think it's too late now. As markasscop suggested, Nintendo probably draws in about half of their sales on just the title alone, so they certainly aren't going to take a risk like that. If it were up to me though, I'd change it to either Legend of Ganon (since he's really the closest thing to a constant the series has) or Legend of Hyrule (since Ninty can't be arsed to go anywhere else)

Luckily, I don't think it's that important. Nobody ever says The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, they just say Majora's Mask or MM. So it's not like the series title gets in the way of anything.
 

Jimmu

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As such a key series for Nintendo I don't really think it would be in their best interest changing the series name for their future major Zelda titles. If they give the impression that it is a spin-off then I think there is a significant enough proportion of people who will pass on it.
 

Uwu_Oocoo2

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Like most people here, I'd have to go with no. The title has become so ingrained with the series, if Ninty wanted to change it'd they'd have to have done it decades ago. By now, that's just what the series will always be identified with. Hyrule Warriors is an exception because it's its own spin off series. What I can see them doing though is using subtitles for groups of games within the series. For example, a group may be-

The Legend of Zelda breath of the wild

The Legend of Zelda breath of the wild The Sequel

The Legend of Zelda
breath of the wild Oocoos conquer the world

So that way a subscribes can remain connected while still being a part of the main timeline. Even with that though, the classic title remains as the overhead. Only true spinoffs are the exception to that rule.


I also think that, branding aside, The Legend of Zelda is a good name for the series. Yes, she isn't the main character. Yes, there's no actual "Legend" in the games and Zelda mostly gets kidnapped a lot. She's still an important character. She's in almost every game just like Link is. Since Skyward Sword their fates have been interwoven, and even if it isn't told in the form of some ancient tale, players can see this story unfold across the series. It started with Hylia reincarnating as Zelda, and ends with her sealing the evil every time. She gets kidnapped a lot. But I consider that a compliment to her that Ganon considers her enough of a threat to try and get her out of the way with his first blow. I prefer that to what they did in BotW, putting too much of a focus on her trying to live up to their title. Not a problem with the series title, but with people's perception of it.
 

twilitfalchion

and thus comes the end of an era
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The name doesn't make sense and hasn't really made sense for most of the series, but it's so iconic now that it'd be silly to change it. The Legend of Zelda:tm: is nearly as well known as Mario as a household name in gaming. There's really no good reason to do anything with it now.

Good point as well that the games' subtitles are usually used far more often than the series name, so it's even less of a potential issue than it could be.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

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Like most people here, I'd have to go with no. The title has become so ingrained with the series, if Ninty wanted to change it'd they'd have to have done it decades ago. By now, that's just what the series will always be identified with. Hyrule Warriors is an exception because it's its own spin off series. What I can see them doing though is using subtitles for groups of games within the series. For example, a group may be-

The Legend of Zelda breath of the wild

The Legend of Zelda breath of the wild The Sequel

The Legend of Zelda
breath of the wild Oocoos conquer the world

So that way a subscribes can remain connected while still being a part of the main timeline. Even with that though, the classic title remains as the overhead. Only true spinoffs are the exception to that rule.
in a sense, they already did that w/ Four Swords, it'd give you a set of expectations if they were ever a new one
 

Hyrulian Hero

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Granted, other legendary tales are often named for their hero but Link would be no hero were he not rescuing Zelda. Sure, saving the world is great and all but the personal journey is one by which he becomes a hero by rescuing the princess. Even the creators have left this by the wayside in some ways but they are trying to keep the game from getting stale in its twentieth iteration. In the same way that the meaning of man implicates woman, it makes sense to me that we put the focus on Zelda since that's exactly what Link does (legendarily).
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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From a business standpoint, changing the name of something is always a huge risk, and the longer a name change is put off the harder it will become to ever make that change. 36 years in, it's too late to change the name of the franchise. I think the only way a name change could work is if the change was associated with a full reboot of the series, and by reboot I mean everything is changed visually and narratively, not just a major gameplay change. A reboot like that also carries its own risks as well.
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

wah
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The name doesn't make sense and hasn't really made sense for most of the series, but it's so iconic now that it'd be silly to change it. The Legend of Zelda:tm: is nearly as well known as Mario as a household name in gaming. There's really no good reason to do anything with it now.

Good point as well that the games' subtitles are usually used far more often than the series name, so it's even less of a potential issue than it could be.

I guess a better question for this thread would have been what could the series name could have been changed to early on in order to be more accurate.
 

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