A lenda de Zelda inventou a fórmula; Link para o passado aperfeiçoado

The Legend of Zelda was a revolutionary accomplishment of video games, but it would take Nintendo just five years to improve on the formula so much, the original would wind up looking like an early prototype for what was to come. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, celebrating the 30th anniversary of its US release today, April 13, is one of the greatest video games of all time, and set a standard that Zelda games in the ensuing years struggled to match. It holds up beautifully--its design is as awe-inspiring in its elegance as it is a pure delight to play now as it was in 1992.

The opening minutes are an incredible encapsulation of efficient game and story design. You wake up on a stormy night hearing a psychic plea for help from Princess Zelda. Your uncle, conspicuously carrying a sword and shield, leaves and tells you to stay put. You venture outward, following the path to the castle, only to discover your uncle is critically wounded. He gives you his sword and shield and you begin the adventure in earnest, exploring the castle, fighting your first few enemies, and ultimately escaping with Princess Zelda.

This 20-minute slice of the game is the entire experience in miniature, hinting at what is to be iterated on over and over in the next dozen-plus hours. In just a few minutes you understand the major threat, a sorcerer who has seized power from the king. You feel the sense of adventure that led Link to leave the house when he was told not to. You infer that Link is special and fated somehow, having received the message from Zelda. You learn how to explore both exterior and interior spaces through the journey to the castle followed by exploring the castle itself. You realize the basics of dungeon exploration through the use of keys. You're gently eased into combat starting with rats, then guards, then tougher guards. And for it all you're rewarded with a sense of accomplishment: escaping to safe haven in a church, before being directed to the next stage of your quest.

Nintendo is known, especially in this early era, for teaching you everything you need to know without tutorials. You learn by doing. Super Mario Bros. Level 1-1 is the classic example for elegantly walking you through the most essential mechanics with nothing more than stage design. The opening of A Link to the Past may match it with minimal tutorial prompts and a much broader scope. Then just as this section ends, incredibly, the game does it again.

Once you've ostensibly rescued Zelda and taken her to a safehouse, the next stage of your quest begins: finding the three magic pendants to prove you're worthy to wield the legendary Master Sword. Keep in mind that this was the first time the Master Sword was a story element of any note. While similar swords had appeared in the original Legend of Zelda, including a white-and-blue blade that belonged to an unseen "Master," this was the story-critical Blade of Evil's Bane. It even had its own poetic prophecy:

"The Hero's triumph on Cataclysm's Eve wins three Symbols of Virtue.
The Master Sword he will then retrieve, keeping the knights' line true."

Acquiring the three pendants to obtain the Master Sword felt like an appropriately heroic quest. Finding a heroic artifact that can banish evil and defeating the sorcerer Agahnim would have been a perfectly straightforward quest, and once again, the game unfolds itself progressively. As you explore the three dungeons, you're once again learning critical information about how the world works. The overworld opens up, and you're encouraged to explore and find critical items that feed back into dungeon design. You begin to find your first pieces of equipment in the dungeons, to discover how their intricate puzzles work, and how the dungeon items play an instrumental role in each boss. Again, this was new for the series--items and bosses had existed before, but they never had this level of symbiotic design relationship.

After obtaining all three pendants and retrieving the Master Sword, Zelda is discovered and taken, and you go to set things right against the villainous Agahnim. This has all the hallmarks of a video game climax, right down to the heightened tension of your charge being kidnapped by the big-bad. But just when it seems like you've triumphed and the game is over: you haven't, and it isn't. Everything you've done so far has been a precursor for the game opening itself up once again, with the advent of the Dark World.

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O espelho escuro de Hyrule era familiar - marcos semelhantes e colocações inimigas - mas mais perigosas e sinistras. Foi quando você descobre que não há apenas uma princesa para salvar, mas sete, descendentes dos sete sábios que selavam Ganon nas gerações do mundo das trevas no passado. E isso significa mais sete masmorras. Todo o jogo até este ponto foi a bordo de você para esta jornada. Todo o trabalho e aprendizagem intuitiva que você pegou sobre como se envolver com o mundo entra em uma fase final, em que você tem que usar a dinâmica entre os mundos para abrir outras masmorras.

Quando a série Zelda começou a envelhecer em um nicho mais confortável na era 3D, os fãs, muitas vezes reclamaram que se tornaram mantendo a mão, tornando a série monótona e sem vida. A respiração do selvagem foi saudada como um pouco de ar fresco, sem uma parte pequena, porque era tão aberta e minimalista com seus tutoriais. Quando fãs pinheiros para os dias mais simples de Zelda e comemorar tirando as peças calculadas estranhas que construíram ao longo dos anos, muitas vezes atraímos comparações com a sensação de maravilha e meia sem palavras no primeiro jogo.

Mas um modelo mais apto para jogos modernos pode ser um link para o passado. Trinta anos depois, é uma obra-prima do design elegante do jogo, abrindo-se graciosamente em fases meticulosas que cada uma constrói sobre tudo que você fez antes. A estrutura mais flexível da respiração da natureza pode ser a direção da série 'para o futuro previsível, mas um link para o passado foi a fundação. O jogo de décadas é tão agradável e maravilhosamente projetado como o dia em que saiu e absolutamente vale a pena revisitar.