Universe of The Legend of Zelda
[1] The storyline of each game varies, but follows a common overarching plot that involves Link travelling through Hyrule to rescue Princess Zelda and save the world from evil, which is typically the series' main villain, Ganon.
A recurring plot element in the games is Ganon's attempts to obtain the Triforce, a mystical artifact that will enable him to possess ultimate power.
Skyward Sword was established as the beginning of the series' history and involves the antagonist Demise cursing the first incarnations of Link and Zelda so their descendants appear in an endless cycle to protect Hyrule from evil.
Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto conceived the land of Hyrule as the setting for the original The Legend of Zelda, describing it as "a miniature garden that you can put into a drawer and revisit anytime you like".
[7] Miyamoto and Tezuka started working on The Legend of Zelda during the development of Super Mario Bros.[8] Initially, the game did not feature an overworld.
In addition to its underworld, the Hyrule map consists of a large overworld created out of a grid structure that is much larger than can be displayed on a single screen.
Players were required to begin their adventure in the centre of Hyrule and use instinct alone to find an old man inside a cave who gives Link a sword and declares, "It's dangerous to go alone!".
The gameplay diverged from the fast-paced games typically found in arcades like Super Mario Bros, by offering players an open world to explore, puzzles to solve and a fantasy story that centres on a protagonist embarking on an adventure to save a princess from an evil villain and bring peace to Hyrule.
The transition from a 2D to 3D world occurred with the release of Ocarina of Time, due to the capabilities of the Nintendo 64, which gave players the opportunity to experience a more realistic game environment.
[19] He described Ocarina of Time as a "huge project" due to the fact that it involved making the game environment from 3D polygons and was larger in scale than anything that he had previously worked on.
[24] Hyrule and its characters in Ocarina of Time were depicted in an art style that drifted towards Western fantasy, although Miyamoto said there was no intentional replication of cultural elements from one specific country.
Aonuma said that he wanted to remove the small connecting areas of The Wind Waker and replace them with open expanses, but the world ended up feeling smaller than he intended.
The civilization of the Hylians was developed with a focus on their castle in the style of medieval Europe to return to the roots of the series,[33] while the ancient technological features of the Sheikah were inspired by the Jōmon period of Japanese history.
[35] This measurement of distance allowed Hyrule to be scaled up to an enormous world that appears twelve times the size of its predecessor in Twilight Princess.
[43] The creation myth was elaborated upon in Echoes of Wisdom, with the goddesses creating the world to be a prison for a primordial chaos entity named Null that had previously consumed anything that tried to form within the void.
Skyward Sword expanded on this history by detailing the rise of Demon King Demise and his dark forces, who attempt to take the Triforce and destroy the world.
The goddess Hylia stays to protect the Triforce and leads an army of free people into battle to weaken Demise and seal him away from the world.
[47] In Japan, an explanation of the Hylian alphabet was written on the back of the instruction manual for The Wind Waker with a phonographic writing system, or syllabary, like the Japanese language.
These embody the essences of their respective goddesses, and present a power struggle and balance of morality between the central characters, Ganon, Zelda and Link.
[74] The sword traditionally rests in a stone pedestal hidden in sacrosanct locations indigenous to Hyrule, such as the Temple of Time or the Lost Woods.
Characters like Navi, Midna, and Fi serve a tutorial function in their respective games and comment on events as they transpire in the story.
[90] The supporting cast of Breath of the Wild, featuring characters such as Mipha, Prince Sidon, and Urbosa, has proven to be popular among fans of the series.
Noelle Warner of Destructoid ranked all of the settlements in Breath of the Wild and chose Tarrey Town as the favourite location, because players must build it from the ground up, making it one of the longest side quests in the game.
[154] Kate Gray, writing for The Guardian, was impressed by the beauty and large scale of the game world, noting that "the greens of the open plains contrast with the dark black of Death Mountain, which is streaked with orange lava on the distant horizon".
[155] Andrew Webster of The Verge responded positively to the grandness of the game's massive open world: "The scale could have been daunting, but the joy of discovery and the satisfaction that comes from finding your own way make it inviting instead".
[160] Liz Finnegan for The Escapist commented on the original game's influence on the RPG genre, particularly its nonlinear open world, and opined that "Zelda's design inspired countless other titles to adopt the action-adventure-exploration hybrid with a top-down perspective and expansive, cohesive overworld.
[163] USGamer's Nadia Oxford commented on the significance of Ocarina of Time and considered it to be "a genius work of game design".
[165] Keza MacDonald of The Guardian also commented on the influence of Ocarina of Time, noting that it was one of the first real 3D adventures and that it "remains eminently playable today because so many of the things it invented became standard for any 3D game that came after it".
He cited several other subsequent game worlds that bear similarities to Breath of the Wild, including Genshin Impact, Immortals Fenyx Rising and Horizon Forbidden West.
[169] Both the miHoYo development team of Genshin Impact and Sam Barlow, creator of Telling Lies have cited Breath of the Wild as a significant source of inspiration.
