After the success of Dungeons and Dragons and video game conversions of role-playing mechanics like Ultima and Wizardry, more and more developers in the 1980s began to try their hand at delivering their own fantasy epics.
More straightforward Japanese takes on the genre began with Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy which were both released on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Naturally, Nintendo themselves was also gearing up for their own fantasy game unlike any other.
The Legend of Zelda was the result of this, with Shigeru Miyamoto taking cues from his own childhood adventures in the Japanese countryside. Sprinkled in with Tolkienesque fantasy tropes and open-ended exploration, Nintendo soon had a golden franchise on its hands.
Within the gaming sphere, the discussion on whether The Legend of Zelda and its many sequels are considered JRPGs would reignite time and time again. We here at IGN Southeast Asia are here to say that these games definitely are but with a Nintendo twist.
Monsters and Mazes
The core mechanics of the role-playing genre was codified by Dungeons & Dragons before being retooled and remixed through different iterations and the conversion of the genre into digital programs.
Of course, with its fantasy roots being firmly intact, game developers often kept to magical worlds of elves and orcs when it came to making their own spin on things. With the advent of Japanese role-playing games, Dragon Quest introduced a livelier world while Final Fantasy brought in more sci-fi elements into the mix.
When it comes to The Legend of Zelda, it opted to feature action-based combat instead of the genre’s defining turn-based gameplay. Players had to instinctively use Link’s sword, staves, and other weaponry to defeat the forces of Ganon.
Levelling up didn’t come in the form of the increment of individual player statistics, but merely with an increase of Link’s overall health in the form of hearts. Link’s equipment also got stronger linearly, with set upgrades for his swords and armour that players could acquire, with even recent games like Final Fantasy XVI sought to replicate.
Playing With Power
Things changed with the second game in the series, as Zelda II: The Adventure of Link putting the more traditional JRPG elements front and centre. Link could level up as he defeated enemies and even cast magic, all while exploring the world in a sidescrolling manner compared to the original’s top-down presentation.
While it wasn’t exactly a Metroidvania, along with the original Metroid and Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, the NES was seeing more and more action games taking in full-on role-playing game mechanics.
Even other Japanese role-playing games were experimenting further with what it means to be an RPG, with the Ys games simplifying the original Zelda’s take on the genre even further and Shin Megami Tensei introducing monster-catching mechanics.
As the series progresses, Zelda kept to the first game’s more linear RPG progression, while refining other aspects of the series. From more nuanced storytelling in Ocarina of Time to Wind Waker’s open sea exploration that still has not been replicated within the franchise.
Winds of Change
If anything, it seemed that other JRPGs were taking more and more cues from The Legend of Zelda, with games like Kingdom Hearts, NieR and Okami taking the action-oriented JRPG to a whole new level throughout the 2000s.
That said, around this time was when Nintendo’s coveted Zelda formula began to stale as well, with many fans citing Skyward Sword and its forced motion controls being the final straw. A Link Between Worlds saw the breaking of the coveted Zelda formula, while Breath of the Wild reinstated a brand new one.
On top of giving players a true open-world Hyrule to explore, more JRPG aspects like equipment management, item synthesising, and even proper health bars for enemies and bosses were implemented as well.
This was all kept in the game’s sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, which upped the ante even further with its Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts style of vehicle and machine construction mechanics. So while players could tackle the game as a typical action RPG, they could also tinker with a custom war machine to do all the battling for them.
Link was even joined by a myriad of companions in Tears of the Kingdom, the first time any semblance of a traditional JRPG party system is ever implemented in a Zelda game. Who knows what other JRPG conventions Nintendo will play around with in the future, all we know is that they will always put in their own unique spin on things.
