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?
This was my experience as well. I didn’t have an SNES, and so every opportunity that I could play this at my friend’s house, I did. I never got all the way through until I emulated it in university.
I did, however, get a Game Boy, and Link’s Awakening became my defining Legend of Zelda.
Lol same for me. Link’s Awakening was the first Zelda game I played through on my own Game Boy. This was basically my dream game from the SNES in small format for me. I have so much memories of this game too, the entire game was not even about Zelda. After that I got a SNES and well the rest is history.