Recently, I began to question myself: “What if this Zelda game never existed? How would that affect the entire series as a whole? Would the Zelda series still exist if it weren’t for this game?”
I’m probably going to get some hate for this, but I absolutely despise the fact that some people call Ocarina of Time the absolute best Zelda game in the series as well as even the best in the video game in history. Sure, yes, Ocarina of Time has done a number of contributions to the future of the video game industry, but I’ll be saving that in a later article in the “What if this Zelda Game Didn’t Exist” series. Please note that I decided not to do this article series entirely in a chronological order and merely decided to pick one game at random and discuss about both its strengths and flaws.
First up, I’m going to be talking about A Link to the Past. Originally released by in 1991 on the SNES series, this expanded the original Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. It was the first in the series to have the mystical Master Sword as well as the complete Triforce in the game. There were a number of things in the game that make it one of my personal favorites. So naturally, I would think, “What if A Link to the Past didn’t exist?”
Kotaku recently had an interview with Bill Trinen about the state of the Legend of Zelda series and how Stephen Totilo, the article writer, believes the next Zelda title, A Link to the Past 2, may finally be able to escape Ocarina of Time‘s shadow.
“Or was it? I’ve got a theory about this new game. It’s all about the series finally escaping the long shadow of the most revered Zelda ever made. That would be Ocarina of Time, the game one of its lead creators—and the man who oversees the creation of all Zeldas—has said the series has never surpassed.[...]
[...]Also “merely” good were the pair of most recent console Zelda games, the Wii/GameCube Twilight Princess and last year’s Wii-only Skyward Sword. Those last two, good as they are, exemplify the Zelda series’ recent decline. Previous console Zeldas were top Game of the Year contenders by fans and critics; those last two, for anyone who owned more than just a Nintendo system, were not.” - Stephen Totilo
The article writer also goes on telling about Bill Trinen had talked to a colleague of his, stating about how the Legend of Zelda team actually works.
“They kind of shuffle people in and out, so they’ll sort of have their core group, but then they’re bringing new people in and out, so that helps bring in fresh ideas. Each of the different games will have their main lead director, or maybe depending on the game, they may have two…Generally the way that the Zelda team operates is they may have one or two people who carry over or take the lead, but they do a lot of kind of jumping in and out in terms of moving from handheld to console, or vice-versa.” - Bill Trinen
