when was the first legend of zelda game released
The Legend of Zelda The Legend of Zelda, the first game of the series, was first released in Japan on February 21, 1986, on the Famicom Disk System.[56] A cartridge version, using battery-backed memory, was released in the United States on August 22, 1987, and Europe on November 27, 1987. The game features a "Second Quest," accessible either upon completing the game, or by registering one's name as "ZELDA" when starting a new quest. The Second Quest features different dungeons and item placement, and more difficult enemies.[57]
The Legend of Zelda The chronology of the Legend of Zelda series was a subject of much debate among fans until an official timeline was released on December 21, 2011, within the collector's book Hyrule Historia, which was originally exclusive to Japan and was later released in the United States.[30][31] Prior to its release, producers confirmed the existence of a confidential document, which connected all the games.[32][33] Certain materials and developer statements once partially established an official timeline of the released installments. ZeldaÂ II: The Adventure of Link is a direct sequel to the original The Legend of Zelda, and takes place several years later.[34][35] The third game, A Link to the Past, is a prequel to the first two games,[36][37][38] and is directly followed by Link's Awakening.[39][40] Ocarina of Time is a prequel that takes the story many centuries back; according to character designer Satoru Takizawa, it was meant to implicitly tell the story of the Imprisoning War from the manual of A Link to the Past, with Majora's Mask directly following its ending.[41][42] Skyward Sword is then a prequel to Ocarina of Time.[43] Twilight Princess is set more than 100 years after Ocarina of Time.[44][45]
The Legend of Zelda The Legend of Zelda was principally inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto's "explorations" as a young boy in the hillsides, forests, and caves surrounding his childhood home in Sonobe, Japan where he ventured into forests with secluded lakes, caves, and rural villages. According to Miyamoto, one of his most memorable experiences was the discovery of a cave entrance in the middle of the woods. After some hesitation, he apprehensively entered the cave, and explored its depths with the aid of a lantern. Miyamoto has referred to the creation of the Zelda games as an attempt to bring to life a "miniature garden" for players to play with in each game of the series.[11]
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Similarly to the original Legend of Zelda (1986), players are given little instruction and can explore the open world freely. Tasks include collecting multipurpose items to aid in objectives or solving puzzles and side quests for rewards. Breath of the Wild's world is unstructured and designed to reward experimentation, and the story can be completed in a nonlinear fashion. Development of Breath of the Wild lasted five years. Wanting to reinvent the series, Nintendo introduced elements such as a detailed physics engine, high-definition visuals, and voice acting. Monolith Soft assisted in designing landscapes. The game was planned for release in 2015 as a Wii U exclusive, but was delayed twice due to problems with the physics engine. Released on March 3, 2017, Breath of the Wild was a launch game for Switch and the final Nintendo game for Wii U. Two downloadable content packs were released later in 2017.