Zelda’s 40th anniversary highlights four decades of reinvention

An artist can’t possibly know the long-term impact their work will have when they first unveil it. On Feb. 21, 1986, Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda in Japan, and now, as the series marks its 40th anniversary, that early gamble has become a defining story in video games.

Nintendo has kept the series relevant through continual reinvention. When the top-down play of the first game felt like it had run its course, Zelda went 3D with Ocarina of Time and built the framework of what a modern adventure game looks like. Later it took the risk of cel-shading with Wind Waker, challenging assumptions about realism, and Breath of the Wild once more shifted adventure game design language.

I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on what makes Zelda so enduring. After writing a critique of Yakuza Kiwami 3, reader debate highlighted a key distinction: "I would argue that Zelda is actually the inverse of the soap opera: it's a folk tale." Princess Zelda and the rest of the cast in Tears of the Kingdom are expressive and charismatic.

Japan

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