 Hey everybody, I am Nathaniel Rappeljantz from Nintendo Prime and today I want to talk to you about the Zelda series specifically What defines exactly what a Zelda game even is and this is a tricky question because I Stand on a pedestal That views Breath of the Wild and the adventure of Link as the two Greatest Zelda games to ever exist and yes I don't have to look far to find people who agree with me on Breath of the Wild But I do have to look extremely far to find people who agree with me on the adventure of Link Which was my favorite Zelda game of all time until the release of Breath of the Wild and the reason I feel I Need to preference what I'm about to say with those notions is that I feel When you are looking to define a series no matter what that series is whether it's the Mario series Whether it is the Zelda series whether it's the Call of Duty series or Madden or Racing games whatever it might be there has to be some core elements that make that game what it is make that series What it is make that franchise what it is where when you play this game You know that it is X game in X franchise as an example when I play the adventure of Link I know that that is a Zelda game not just because of the name of the game not just because it stars Link But it feels like a Zelda game to me just as much as the Legend of Zelda for NES does or a link to the past or Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask Twilight Princess Skyward Sword or the link between worlds even Triforce Heroes feels like a Zelda game to me Even though it's in a different way in terms of its approach to the game And so when I kind of view the general gist of what makes a Zelda game be a Zelda game It has to be a definition that includes the entire game the entirety of the series as it exists today So that means it has to include a game of Breath of the Wild has to include the adventure of Link as to include Triforce Heroes and Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures. It does not have to include games like, you know, Link's crossbow training Tetra's trackers The tingle games because those are kind of side games, you know Hyrule Warriors doesn't have to have anything to do with the main lines all the games I'm talking about the main core games in a given franchise So as an example a Mario Party does nothing to do with the main line franchise for Mario Just like Mario Kart doesn't really have to have anything to do in terms of what makes a Mario game a Mario game and As I sit back and I think about this question deeply and I wrote an editorial on this very topic Over on Nintendo Prime, which I will link down in the description below. Yes, we have a website I Kind of came to a conclusion that Zelda games are essentially built off of two elements and these elements are going to feel extremely broad And that's because when you're trying to encompass the whole of the Zelda series It's really hard to boil things down to what makes it specific to Zelda Because it's an action-adventurous series at times it ventures into the RPG type of genre It did that a little bit with Skyward Sword. It definitely does that with Breath of the Wild and Zelda 2 was quite literally an RPG. So The series is dabbled into different gaming genres, but they've all been action based, right? You know, they're not turn-based combat. We're talking about action games that have adventure aspects that sometimes dabble in RPG elements now When I say this I Feel like the Zelda series is perfectly encapsulated in terms of its definition in Breath of the Wild And I'm not just saying that because Breath of the Wild is my favorite Zelda game and that's the direction I prefer Zelda games to go in the future I mean, I could argue that maybe Zelda games should have been open world a lot sooner Just like the very first game in the series was but that's that's all a personal aside The things that these games all have in common beyond Link right because Link is literally in every single game So you could always say that you need Link as the main character for it to be a Zelda game But I feel like that's a really simplistic explanation that doesn't really dive into what makes Zelda feel like a Zelda game and to me the two elements are exploration and Adventure Now as I said those are two very broad elements because a lot of games gonna have exploration and adventure Skyrim has exploration and adventure The Witcher series has exploration and adventure Uncharted has exploration and adventure. So They're very broad terms but reality is that every single Zelda game falls under these terms and How it gets to that exploration and how it gets to that adventure is what uniquely makes it Zelda So some games work on an item progression system, right? So you have to Go like let's do is Ocarina of Time as an example because that's just fresh on my mind I just played it a few weeks ago. I did kind of see how it lived up after playing Breath of the Wild and You start off that game with nothing you go You find the Kokiri sword and you buy a shield you progress to the first dungeon You get a slingshot that helps you progress to the next dungeon you get another item You progress to the next dungeon till you get another item progress the next dungeon and that games progression is basically built around the dungeon system and That's the way a lot of Zelda games are built Twilight Princess as an example might as well not even have an overworld and yes You're hearing me say that right now. Twilight Princess's overworld is practically pointless because the entire game takes place inside dungeons that's just be real and There's nothing wrong with this right that there is a certain type of Exploration a certain type of progression a certain type of adventure you can get inside of a dungeon So that's why when a lot of people say that it's all the games are dungeon crawlers I get it because that's basically what they have been since Ocarina of Time Everything that happens between the dungeons is kind of fluff. It's kind of irrelevant Everyone's just playing to get to the next dungeon and that's probably why we saw things like the Amount of dungeons totally balloon in a game such as Twilight Princess and even in Skyward Sword which I adore and I know some people would chastise it because of how linear it is It kind of took dungeons outside of the dungeons So you basically had to complete a dungeon in the overworld to get to the dungeon then you'd revisit that dungeon later and Do more dungeon stuff again a lot of things very very You know reliant on that dungeon aspect So I understand people that wanted to find the series as a dungeon crawler However, defining the series as a dungeon crawler Kind of excludes a lot of aspects right like would you describe the adventure of Link as a dungeon crawler that works on an item progression system? No, no you won't what do you describe the very first sell the game as a dungeon crawler that works on an item progression system? Well maybe um the thing is Items are still used to progress in the Legend of Zelda for NES but you don't have to visit the dungeons to necessarily get some of these items some of the items are found outside of dungeons and You don't like the whole game doesn't feel Secluded right dungeons have always been like their own things separate from the world But instead of the dungeons in the Legend of Zelda NES felt like the world itself, right? They didn't feel like there was a lot of difference between a dungeon and the overworld in terms of how you explore it and how you Approach it and how you solve puzzles and how you fight enemies and you know eventually bosses so There's that element That some games about themselves up on and then other games about themselves up on more of a progression system based on Discovery and what I mean to say is let's just look at Breath of the Wild since that recently came out And that's the game. I feel like best defines the series That game Breath of the Wild Approaches the players progression in a way that deals with discovery As an example, there are multiple ways you can view progression in this game One you can view progression is whenever you beat the emboss which you can do right after you get off the great plateau It's difficult. It is possible. Good luck if you try to do it Another way is that it does have dungeons. There are 120 shrines You can view the shrines as how many of those you complete helps progress you forward Although that's it that helps make the character stronger, but I don't know if that's necessarily the way people view progression But progression in this game is really through discovery So when you discover the four divine beasts and you beat them that makes you more powerful it gives you new abilities and You fight bosses and it feels the most like a traditional Zelda game in the sense there However, the thrill of discovery in this game isn't just about the divine beast It's not even just about Link finding all of the memories from his past it's encompassing the grander world into that sense of exploration and discovery and It takes it to a level that Zelda has really never been at Zelda one was the closest we got to it and Breath of the Wild kind of brings it full circle Bringing elements from what Zelda has done since all the one plus bringing back what's all the one was which was a truly open world built on exploration and discovery And obviously adventure I said it was exploration and adventure that obviously builds up the Zelda series So every games an adventure every games about exploring in some fashion Skyward Sword was about exploring the history of the Zelda series it was about exploring the relationship between Link and Zelda in between Hathia and Zelda and between the Master Sword and Phi and all these elements coming together the way that it dealt with dealt with it was more of a Exploring what's next in the Zelda lore versus exploring the world itself There wasn't a lot of exploration of the overworld as an example But there was a sense of adventure and in my opinion going through Skyward Sword So when I think about the defining aspects of the series a lot of people gonna think green tunic which again that would mean breath of the Wild doesn't count It would mean Link which again every single Zelda game is headlink It would mean Princess Zelda which every single Zelda game doesn't actually have Princess Zelda in it Some people even think it just takes the Triforce right not every single game even talks about the Triforce so It's really hard to me to sit there and define the series as just two things exploration and adventure But I feel like that's really all it takes. I think after that everything that happens in between is really just Filling in the gaps of what type of exploration and what type of adventure the developers want you to have and That's really where things get separated because this isn't the Witcher. This isn't Skyrim. This isn't Uncharted. This is Nintendo's Action-adventure game that is based around exploration and adventure Nintendo doesn't really have another game quite like this the closest would be maybe Metroid, but Metroid is more It's a space game for starters Whereas Zelda is based in the medieval ages, but it's just a very different type of game. It's based more on isolation whereas Link is kind of doing his own thing in Hyrule he's he's learning his place in Hyrule and Well, I could talk at length about what makes Breath of the Wild special a lot of what makes it special is Almost exclusive to Breath of the Wild and that's fine But what makes it a Zelda game is its approach to exploration and its approach to adventure and how Nintendo feels in the gaps and I feel like those two elements is what makes the whole series come together because the series hasn't always been an action-adventure game It hasn't always been an RPG. It hasn't always been a game built on item progression It hasn't always been a game built on dungeons and boss fights It hasn't always even been a game based on single-player play if we want to you know Try Force Heroes, Force Swords, Force Swords Adventures There's been avenues where the game has canon-wise gone into multiplayer. The game hasn't always been focused on Zelda or Ganondorf but the game has always been focused on the adventure and The exploration that gives us that adventure and the various ways that it explores exploration inside of that Zelda series and That's really it. I feel like this game the series could basically do anything it wants as long as it bases itself around Exploration and adventure and as it may be on the side of that discovery Because discovery is kind of an element of exploration and adventuring because if you don't discover anything right if you just explore freely or Even lent you know even down a set path if you're just exploring down a path the game guides you if There's nothing to discover at the end of that path. It's kind of pointless So I guess maybe there's that third element of discovery in there But that's really it and what I want to throw out to you guys is what defines the Zelda series to you As I said some people in the comment system over on Nintendo Prime.net have told me you know that they view the item progression system as a defining feature of Zelda and That's I mean, that's that's a kind of a cool way to look at things I disagree because that kind of discludes part of the games And that's where I want to bring this conversation full circle because I want you guys to tell me What element you think brings all of Zelda together and you know elements that do not Disclude any specific game so not elements that only apply to some games But say don't apply to the multiplayer games or elements that apply to the multiplayer games I don't apply to the single-player games or elements that apply to the entire series But don't include the adventure of link or elements that imply to the entire series We don't include Breath of the Wild or elements that only apply to the 3d Zelda games and ignore the top-down 2d games I want to know from your guys's perspective from you guys our viewers our listeners What elements of the Legend of Zelda series? Defines what Zelda is and it could be blanketed You know as a giant blanket applied to every single Zelda game that's ever released in the canon timeline Whoo, it's a lot and then once you guys let us know We'll come firing right back at you talking more in-depth about this with multiple viewpoints and Discussing your guys's viewpoints in a new episode of Zelda inquiries that I am planning to get out later this month I know folks. It's been a while since Zelda inquiries has happened There's been a lot of time spent with playing Breath of the Wild and getting more in-depth with that And we're gonna be taking some fan topics for that in the future But for now, I just want to know from your guys's perspective How do you define the Legend of Zelda series in a way that encompasses all of the mainline games? Again, I'm Nintendo Rebel Jants from Nintendo Prime signing out