cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43419708
Known in Japan as The Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend of Zelda. The main title was dropped in the US to make the name shorter and some claim it was to avoid confusion with the upcoming Squaresoft Final Fantasy game, which would debut a year later.
The Legend of Zelda was inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto's explorations as a boy in the surrounding areas of his home in Sonobe, Japan. One of his most memorable experiences was finding a cave entrance in the middle of the woods. After some hesitation, he entered the cave and explored its depths with the aid of a lantern.
The story and setting were developed by Takashi Tezuka. He drew inspirations from fantasy books such The Lord of the Rings. The legend of the Triforce was written with inspirations from the battles of medieval Europe. The Master Sword was introduced as their version of Excalibur in A Link to the Past, which is regarded as reminiscent to the legend of King Arthur. Princess Zelda was named after American novelist, socialite and painter Zelda Fitzgerald. Tezuka modeled Link's appearance after the eponymous character of Walt Disney's Peter Pan.
What is your favorite Zelda memory?
The series become increasingly linear starting with Zelda 2 until BOTW. The first game hides a bunch of stuff in the world and then gives you clues to find them and you can tackle them in any order you figure out the puzzles in. The wizards and witches give you cryptic hints, whereas the later games are just straight up like "hey go here, touch this item to this thing". It's super liberating to live and die by my own intuition.