Despite there now being at least 22 games in Nintendo’s long-running Zelda series (depending on your tolerance for allowing your count to include weird CD-only titles, crossbow training simulators, and *shudder* Tingle), it can often be a tricky thing to define what traits actually make a game Zelda-like. Is it the swords? The green tunics? The satisfying “duh-duh-duh-duhhhhhh” of a brand-new tool being lofted above a pointy-eared hero’s head? It’s a question that the series itself often makes tricky to answer, with genre-defying entries like platform-based RPG Zelda II, or the free-form exploration of 2017’s critically beloved Breath Of The Wild—to say nothing of Nintendo’s recent announcement of a sequel to Hyrule Warriors, a game that stretches the series’ iconography to its breaking point in the service of letting players mow down whole armies of Moblins at a time.
In order to explore this topic—and to note, before the year is out, the 10th anniversary of the first Darksiders, as unlikely and heavy-metal-infused a Zelda clone as has ever existed—we’ve assembled this chronological listing of legends of people other than Hyrule’s most consistently kidnapped princesses. In doing so, we were forced to trim the “Zelda-like” concept down to a few key but instructive rules. Most, if not all, of these games are about exploring hostile spaces—often with a sharp dividing line between an “overworld” and the puzzle-filled dungeons below. Most rely on a steady supply of new tools that expand the player’s ability to navigate and master their environment. And most, pointedly, do not involve the player getting stronger directly by killing things. (That last one might feel academic, but it’s the distinction between a game like, say, Secret Of Mana, where beating enemies levels up your stats, and one where beating a boss drops another precious heart container into your lap.)
To this pared-down list, we’ve applied a few simple questions. Who is this game the legend of? What’s it about? How much of that precious Zelda DNA does it carry? (Rated from one to four big friendly Zelda hearts.) And—most importantly—what, if anything, is its equivalent to the Hookshot, the prototype for all truly great Zelda tools? Decidedly non-comprehensive (but hopefully enlightening), we can only hope that this trip through all these other legends helps refine the idea of what makes The Legend Of Zelda one that’s been repeated so insistently across the last 34 years of gaming history.
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How can Darksiders, that barely resembles a Zelda game outside the puzzle, have more hearts than 3D Dot Game Heroes, which literally looks and plays like a Zelda game 🙁
This list was bought by Nordic Games!
If Darksiders is a “Legend of “ game then Blood Omen :Legend Legacy of Kain (PSX), definitely is . Top down , underworld dungeons , upgradeable weapons , upgradeable forms that give you access to new parts of the map, it totally works as “Zelda, but you can drain innocent villagers of blood “ which , when you compare it to Link ransacking peoples houses for gems , isn’t that bad…
God I love that game. Soul Reaver has its moments, but Blood Omen is dated in a much more satisfying way. It has the hallmarks of an early PS1 game (voice acting, embedded videos, grisly violence, endless load screens), but it’s also a 2D game with a very 80s/90s design sensibility. Clocking two goons with a mace and absorbing their blood simultaneously just never gets old.
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Zelda is one of those franchisees I’ve never really got into in any serious way. I played Ocarina when it came out but it wasn’t until 3-4 years ago that I owned a NES or SNES so missed all the early games, plus those on Gameboy.I dug Ocarina but it’s a series I’ve just never had any particularly strong attachment to compared with the Mario series.
cool story bro
If you’re interested in getting into it, I recommend starting with A Link to the Past on the SNES – it’s great and really solidified the series’s core gameplay mechanics (the two NES entries are definitely not good starting points IMO). All the later 2D Zelda games really take off from that point.I love the 3D Zelda games too, I just feel like the 2D entries are generally better.
Quick shout out to Landstalker for the Sega Genesis. Im old.
Yeah! Alundra is basically a Landstalker sequel.
That isometric view and the hidden pathways.
Blossom Tales should be on here, as it’s an honest-to-god homage, and a fantastic play.
Woah woah woah. Tingle doesn’t deserve that!
Anybody play Lord of the Sword on Sega Master System?? I consoled myself with that one when everybody else had Zelda 1 and 2 (and it was way too hard for little me).
I’ve been playing some old Castlevania games with my son, and we just got through Castlevania 3 with game genie codes and copious use of save states. All I could think was how brutally unpleasant the game would be without cheating – like, just an endless, joyless slog. But when I was five I definitely loved the three levels that I could successfully play.
I place Okami above most Zelda games. I first played the Wii version and the celestial brush with the Wiimote was a bit spotty, but the rest of the game was so good. I picked it up on the Switch and using the touchscreen to draw was a huge improvement.
I have huge nostalgia for the first Zelda, but every time I’ve tried to come back to the series as an adult, I just couldn’t get into it. But Okami I replay at least once a year.
I fucking adore Okami – one of my favorite games ever. Still remember the first time I bloomed a big tree and how insanely pretty it was. Played it twice on Wii (got all beads!) and again last year on Switch. I found the Oracle games kind of bloated and lacking charm, but Capcom really killed it with this one. Just random bits like killing demons for most of the game and then suddenly you’re getting ingredients for the effete demon chef. The only genuinely bad gameplay moment was the t-shirt design subgame.
having just done an all-bead run on PS4, i cannot believe i survived doing that on the Wii. you have to do a huge enemy gauntlet for one of the beads and it made my hands cramp on a normal controller, so i can’t imagine how my hands didn’t fall off swinging the remote for every damn attack
You mention the beads. That is one of the worst design choices I’ve ever seen in a video game. Receiving no reward until you collect every last bead is a recipe for getting every player to drop the side quest once they realize they must’ve missed a bead. I had 98 on my first play through and even with a guide couldn’t figure out which ones I’d missed. The game had a few other issues, but that was the one that irked me to the point of not being able to consider it a masterpiece.
I just replayed Okami a few weeks ago and there are a few sore spots — the “dungeons” aren’t all that interesting, a lot of the brush techniques are just the same thing with different elements, some of the advanced techniques are really finicky and hard to pull off or aim, most of the enemies are palette-swapped three or four times — but it’s still so good. The soundtrack alone is spectacular.I played the Wii version first, too, and only now do I realize that version actually (for some reason) cut the credits and the post-credits scene from every other version, so the ending wasn’t actually as abrupt and unsatisfying as I thought as a kid.
Even though the touch screen controls are certainly easier to handle, the Wii version is still my fave. Partly because I got pretty good at not messing up the paintings, and the feeling that your actually swinging a brush around never got old. Still pissed at capcom for continuing to rerelease the game without a proper sequel (excluding the DS game).
Alundra is still one of my favorite games. Gosh I miss Working Designs.
There’s something about Alundra that niggles at my mind. I played it so long ago that I can’t remember. Something akin to the ending of Link’s Awakening.
One of the things about it that was particularly memorable to me is the dungeon theme that uses a bloody-murder scream as an instrument (followed by several huge drum beats, no less).
Death to slideshow articles.
No love for Illusion of Gaia (SNES)? You play as Will, a
young man who was mysteriously the only survivor from his father’s
expedition to the Tower of Babel a year ago. He fights with a flute, but
can also use it for telekenesis as well as music.Importantly, you’re also able to transform into the Dark Knight Freedan, a proper knight with a proper sword.There’s
another late-game transformation that I won’t spoil for anyone who
hasn’t played it. There’s no Hyrule, like Zelda, where you make your way
from one end to the other; instead, the story has you going across the
world, with versions of the Great
Wall of China, Ankor Wat, and the Great Pyramids all making appearances.
The gameplay is very much in line with Zelda as well, though you don’t
get nearly the items in Zelda.Honorable mention to its
(not released in the US) spiritual sequel, Terranigma, which has similar
gameplay in a different environment.
Wasn’t this an unconnected sequel to Soulblazer?
Yeah, Soulblazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma are seen
as a spiritual trilogy – none of them are connected by stories (except
for the most minor elements), they’re just all made by Quintet on the SNES and have a
lot in common in terms of gameplay and overall style. I think
Soulblazer is the weakest of the three but that’s just me.
Terranigma is, for my money, one of the two or three best games on the SNES. Even if you didn’t care for Soul Blazer or Illusion of Gaia, give that one a shot. It’s a work of art, and it’s utterly criminal that the article didn’t feature it.
Personally I’d put Illusion of Gaia a little above Terranigma (both are higher than Soul Blazer), but I’ll admit that might just be nostalgia. But I agree that all three are worth playing.
Yes! I was going to comment specifically about this game because it was maybe my favorite SNES game – probably because it was a random Christmas present and I had no expectations and then it scratched all of my Zelda itches. Especially the underlying melancholy that reminded me of my favorite kid’s lit like The High King series – as your companions come and go. I put together a Retropie specifically for this game and Terranigma.
Seconded. IoG is one of the few games I come back to and play at least once a year (along with SoulBlazer, A Link to the Past, and the SNES version of Shadowrun).
Besides the unfortunately-designed enemies, how is Gunman’s Proof only a 2-heart ranking?Because goddamn, the gameplay looks like it deserves a 12-heart ranking.
I would love to read this, but the G/O media slideshows immediately lock up y work laptop. I assume it’s good, but a fat herb means I’ll never know.
Giving Beyond Oasis 1 on your how Zelda is this scale is kind of insane.
What about Fable?
“The visuals look like a slightly crummier version of the first Zelda”Uhhh, the graphics in Golden Axe Warrior are vastly superior to the first Zelda.
Well, people hit Illusion of Gaia and Okami so I’m just here to rep Elliot’s Quest, which is like a metroidvania Zelda 2. I have a soft spot for Zelda 2 because it was the first one I played so the platforming and overworld towns in Elliot’s Quest delighted me. Also the boss fights were NES-level difficult.
The touch controls on Oceanhorn are very reminiscent of Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, and the dungeons have a similar design because of that mechanic. I wasn’t a fan of the controls, but I do think Spirit Tracks is the most underrated Zelda; it’s charming and the mechanics are unique.
everyone’s covered the good stuff, so i’m just gonna cape for The Hobbit (GameCube, PS2, Xbox, probably?). Is it very much like Zelda? Not really, other than the third-person swordplay and puzzles and exploration. Was it very good? Probably not. Did I love it as much as every Zelda game as a kid? Absolutely.
I’m kind of baffled at the proposed direction of the new LoTR game they announced a while back, the one where you play as Gollum. It’s apparently a stealth game— I can get using Zelda as an inspiration for LoTR, but Metal Gear Solid? Gollum doesn’t have the access to guns and tranq darts like Snake does, so it sounds (in theory, at least) like it’d be tedious. Someone jokingly suggested “I’d rather play as an Ent than Gollum,” and all jokes aside, I’d actually kinda like to see that.
I really like Okami, by the way. I had trouble getting my brother to sit down and play a Zelda game, but Okami was what finally got him into taking a chance on it. It’s a solid game on its own merits, too, having a few quirks that make it stand out on its own.
Yessss, I loved that Hobbit game! It was fun and the music was really catchy.
Use to play Nintendo all throughout the 90’s, but transitioned into ps1 and ps2 and so forth at a certain point. The one series that kept me attached to Nintendo was Zelda. There is something about the games that even though they are made with kids in mind (that’s not a slight, I think that is smart) it has a crazy attention to detail and does almost everything perfectly. The one I didn’t like was Skyward Sword because I can’t stand motion controls, but I am aware that game was amazing though. As long as they keep inventing new systems on each main Zelda game, I am sure they will always have the big spotlight.
Minit and Ev0land are two more very Zelda-like indie games.
StarFox Adventures?
I kinda liked Okami, but when I thought it was over and was mostly delighted, it went on for three times as long and I ended up pretty worn out.I don’t remember the controls on Darksiders being any kind of good, though maybe the combat was fine. (it was the puzzle-solving that was a pain, from what I remember)
Secret of Mana for the SNES really should have been mentioned. Did you play Zelda and wish there was a multi-player version? No? I don’t believe you.Also Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, while it technically is a traditional turn-based RPG, manages to incorporate so many Zelda tropes that you’ll hardly notice the difference.
Don’t know if there is a specific reason that 2013 is the last entry on this slideshow, but I would definitely add Hyper Light Drifter to the list. Played it early on in quarantine and was pretty blown away.
Beyond Oasis is great. That is all.
Came to make sure Alundra was mentioned. I’d love to see that game ported. So underrated.
How dare you compare zelda to a shity phone game
Read the first one as “Golden Ass Warrior” at first and was pretty confused.
Anodyne is a great Zelda-like, the soundtrack can be deeply entrancing. I’m gonna listen to it right now actually.
I LOVED Darksiders and its “Zelda meets God of War” design. Too bad the second one decided to fuck with the formula with the MMO-style random loot drops and multiple variations of the same weapon.
Oceanhorn is another Zelda clone that I found on sale on PSN and loved, though it feels a bit short. I tried the sequel demo in the Apple Store, but I just can’t play game like that on my iPhone. Waiting for it to get ported to PSN.
Same on Oceanhorn. Except I played on PC. Very fun, though the controls could be a little iffy at times. Didn’t even know there was a sequel/prequel. Also have to wait for a PC release, because I absolutely cannot play games like this on my phone/tablet. I just really REALLY hate touch screens.