MattWalker
Windfall Walker
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2011
- Location
- Georgia
So, I figured, I would share my 'Zelda Testimony' with you guys. It's pretty short, but I think I'd like to explain why I love the Zelda series so much. Enjoy!
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In an era where stories are now a prominent feature in video games, gamers have come to expect a gripping story in most of the video games they purchase. Whether you’re solving a murder mystery in ‘Heavy Rain,’ or are locked in an international political struggle in the Final Fantasy world; whether you’re racing through time to stop an inevitable doomsday in ‘Chrono Trigger,’ or you’re trying to… well, let’s face it, ‘Kingdom Hearts’ never has had a consistent, non-convoluted story… video games now have stories.
But only one game series – a super-famous high fantasy adventure series first created by Shigiru Miyamoto in 1986 – not only has a story… but has a legend.
The Legend… of Zelda.
Ever since I was a child, I was a story-teller. I would write stories before I even knew how to write. Drawing pictures of brave heroes battling dragons, trying to save the princess in distress. Making little books by stapling together pictures and telling the stories to my family. I was crafting legends. ‘Legend-Crafter’ sounds pretty epic, does it not?
Eventually, I started to write more stories and make movies. Movies about heroes on journeys, men seeking ancient treasures, magic and mystery… I loved it all so much.
I grew up with the Nintendo 64, with games like Super Mario 64, and Banjo-Kazooie. Even these stories resonated deep within me. A man on a mission! To save the princess from the demon that had taken her away, and restore peace to the kingdom. Those games and stories changed my life.
In 2002, though, my life changed pretty drastically. My family decided to move, and in the process, I had to change schools. I lost all my friends. I lost my next door neighbors I’d often have my own adventures with in the woods behind my home. I was in a new school, and a new neighborhood, and I knew no body.
Then, one or two short months later, I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes. Not Type Two, that can disappear over time with proper diet and whatnot. Type One. The type that doesn’t go away. I was a lonely nine year old, with no friends, and I had to know inject myself three times a day, and draw blood four.
It seemed like the adventures were over.
During the time that I was feeling really down and physically sick, adjusting to Diabetes, my parents, in an attempt to cheer me up, decided to let me pick out a Gamecube game that they would buy for me. Since there weren’t really any I wanted in particular, I found one with a little blonde boy wielding a sword and shield, fighting enemies or something. Seemed cool enough, so I picked it out.
I had purchased ‘The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.’
That night, I was thrust into an adventure I never saw coming. I felt like a kid again, wrapped up in a legend that felt like it stretched back far beyond the history of our world. A story of adventure, romance; a story of good and evil, of a kingdom lost beneath the waves of time, waiting to be restored… and it was all up to me.
The Wind Waker was the first Zelda game I ever owned. The adventure on the Great Sea and the dungeons scattered across the flooded earth left me with a feeling of heroism. A feeling of being in a story I had not felt since I was a child.
Then, of course, I went on to play more. Games like Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64, where I discovered the legend of the land of Hyrule. The game ‘Link’s awakening,’ which remains to this day the only acceptable use of ‘It was a dream the whole time’ to finish off a story. ‘Majora’s Mask’ which felt like a dramatic film most of the time more than a Nintendo 64 game.
The Legend of my childhood (and well into my adult life) remains the Legend of Zelda.
Few games have such a rich mythology, history, and… well, Legend, as Zelda does. I believe it will forever be ingrained into my person as the game (and story) that got me to believe in Legends again.
Long live Hyrule.
Long live the Legend.
---
In an era where stories are now a prominent feature in video games, gamers have come to expect a gripping story in most of the video games they purchase. Whether you’re solving a murder mystery in ‘Heavy Rain,’ or are locked in an international political struggle in the Final Fantasy world; whether you’re racing through time to stop an inevitable doomsday in ‘Chrono Trigger,’ or you’re trying to… well, let’s face it, ‘Kingdom Hearts’ never has had a consistent, non-convoluted story… video games now have stories.
But only one game series – a super-famous high fantasy adventure series first created by Shigiru Miyamoto in 1986 – not only has a story… but has a legend.
The Legend… of Zelda.
Ever since I was a child, I was a story-teller. I would write stories before I even knew how to write. Drawing pictures of brave heroes battling dragons, trying to save the princess in distress. Making little books by stapling together pictures and telling the stories to my family. I was crafting legends. ‘Legend-Crafter’ sounds pretty epic, does it not?
Eventually, I started to write more stories and make movies. Movies about heroes on journeys, men seeking ancient treasures, magic and mystery… I loved it all so much.
I grew up with the Nintendo 64, with games like Super Mario 64, and Banjo-Kazooie. Even these stories resonated deep within me. A man on a mission! To save the princess from the demon that had taken her away, and restore peace to the kingdom. Those games and stories changed my life.
In 2002, though, my life changed pretty drastically. My family decided to move, and in the process, I had to change schools. I lost all my friends. I lost my next door neighbors I’d often have my own adventures with in the woods behind my home. I was in a new school, and a new neighborhood, and I knew no body.
Then, one or two short months later, I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes. Not Type Two, that can disappear over time with proper diet and whatnot. Type One. The type that doesn’t go away. I was a lonely nine year old, with no friends, and I had to know inject myself three times a day, and draw blood four.
It seemed like the adventures were over.
During the time that I was feeling really down and physically sick, adjusting to Diabetes, my parents, in an attempt to cheer me up, decided to let me pick out a Gamecube game that they would buy for me. Since there weren’t really any I wanted in particular, I found one with a little blonde boy wielding a sword and shield, fighting enemies or something. Seemed cool enough, so I picked it out.
I had purchased ‘The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.’
That night, I was thrust into an adventure I never saw coming. I felt like a kid again, wrapped up in a legend that felt like it stretched back far beyond the history of our world. A story of adventure, romance; a story of good and evil, of a kingdom lost beneath the waves of time, waiting to be restored… and it was all up to me.
The Wind Waker was the first Zelda game I ever owned. The adventure on the Great Sea and the dungeons scattered across the flooded earth left me with a feeling of heroism. A feeling of being in a story I had not felt since I was a child.
Then, of course, I went on to play more. Games like Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64, where I discovered the legend of the land of Hyrule. The game ‘Link’s awakening,’ which remains to this day the only acceptable use of ‘It was a dream the whole time’ to finish off a story. ‘Majora’s Mask’ which felt like a dramatic film most of the time more than a Nintendo 64 game.
The Legend of my childhood (and well into my adult life) remains the Legend of Zelda.
Few games have such a rich mythology, history, and… well, Legend, as Zelda does. I believe it will forever be ingrained into my person as the game (and story) that got me to believe in Legends again.
Long live Hyrule.
Long live the Legend.
