Happy birthday, Zelda! Let's celebrate by taking a trip far away from Hyrule

This isn't the first time I've mentioned this on this site, but I was a Sega child who became a PlayStation teenager, while Nintendo consoles only briefly touched my life when I played after school at my friend's house. As a result, despite being almost the same age as both Mario and Zelda, I didn't really grow up with them. Mario's platformers did fill a void though - perhaps because they are well suited to short sessions - while I hardly touched a Zelda game until I became an adult.

The first game in the series I completed (after previously spending a few hours on Wind Waker and Twilight Princess) was, somewhat bizarrely, Phantom Hourglass, which I played when it was released in 2007. I have since made up for this gaming transgression and played a wide selection of both 2D and 3D Zelda games, but because I came to the party a little late, my view of the series has never been marked by the nostalgia that comes to mind when I think of other active series such as God of War or developers such as Remedy, who have been companions in my gaming life.

I have never marvelled at the technological achievements of Ocarina of Time, harangued over the childish graphics of Wind Waker, or lamented Breath of the Wild's farewell to traditional dungeons, simply because I only really delved into the series in connection with the release of Breath of the Wild.

My view of the series is therefore largely removed from the games' contemporaneity in favour of a more retrospective assessment. However, that does not mean that I do not have strong feelings for several of the games in the series, including the older ones. But my favourites tend to be the games that do things a little differently and thus stand out. When you move through a series relatively quickly, you also get tired of tropes, themes, and characteristics in a different way than if you play them as they are released.

And that brings us to the headline, because in the Zelda universe, no component needs a bigger break than Hyrule itself. Blasphemy, I know. But as I said, I'm not nostalgic. The vast majority of Zelda titles use the kingdom to a large or exclusive extent. A Link Between Worlds switches between Hyrule and Lorule, while Skyward Sword takes a slightly fresher approach by taking us back to a time before the formal formation of the land and even sprinkles Skyloft on top as an essential spice, but we actually have to go all the way back to 2007 to find a true main game that takes place completely cut off from Hyrule.

There is nothing wrong with Hyrule as such. I love looking out over Death Mountain or getting lost in the Lost Woods, but I would venture to say that we are in need of a fresher breath than Tears of the Kingdom's "islands in the sky and a dark underground". According to the Zelda wiki, 15 out of 21 main games take place in Hyrule, so there is a risk of mental fatigue setting in, even when we're talking about iconic locations. At least, that's how it has been for me, as I've played a large part of the 21 games and repeatedly visited the same places populated by the same tribes, while fighting the same enemies.

In my opinion, a few games in the series have succeeded really well in mutating Hyrule so much that it is actually a completely different location. Wind Waker technically takes place on top of a flooded Hyrule, but because you navigate the world by boat, it's a world of difference. Here, it doesn't matter so much that friends and enemies are reused because, as is often the case in the Mario series, it happens in a new context.

However, I still hope that our heroes will move away from Hyrule completely, because in my opinion, this has resulted in some of the series' most wonderfully bizarre moments in the past. And I like Zelda best when the series dares to embrace its inner eccentricity. Take my personal favourite, Majora's Mask, a dark, convoluted fever dream that, admittedly, did not bring technological advances like its predecessor, Ocarina of Time, but to this day remains far more appealing than the, in my opinion, somewhat stale version of Hyrule that the game offers. Termina, as the world is called in Majora's Mask, is a parallel world to Hyrule, into which Link falls, which is why there are familiar faces here too. But there is no Ganon. He gets a well-deserved break, which I can only applaud, as, to be completely honest, I have never seen the light (darkness?) in him. Instead, there is a demonic mask that houses the far more sinister villain Majora, and a terrifying moon that only seems to be getting closer and closer.

Another of my favourites is the first handheld title in the series, Link's Awakening, which got a charming remake in 2019. When the original title was released in 1993, it was in the wake of the now archetypal A Link to the Past, and the crazy and suspicious beings who call Koholint Island home are one of the best examples of the eccentricity that is fortunately an important component of the series. And if Link's Awakening's characters seem extra peculiar, it's not so surprising, given that director Takashi Tezuka stated in an Iwata Asks interview that Twin Peaks itself had been a major influence on Link's Awakening:

"When we were developing Link's Awakening, Twin Peaks was quite popular. The drama centred on a small number of characters in a small town... So with regard to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, I wanted to make something that was limited in scope and easy to understand, but still had a deep and distinct character."

And by setting the entire game on a relatively small island with a limited number of characters, Nintendo succeeded in creating a more narrative-based, character-driven game that blows A Link to the Past out of the water in that regard. The series' current lead, Eiji Aounuma, has since acknowledged that Link's Awakening largely set the course for the characters that populate the series.

With Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in particular, Nintendo has reinvented the series and redefined what a Zelda game can be in terms of mechanics and design. Now, I hope it's time to explore how to use the setting, tone, and characters to create fresh experiences, because historically, the new directions have brought a lot of energy to the series, whether it's Link's Awakening's crazy island community, Majora's Mask's acid-fuelled fever dream of a parallel world, or Wind Waker's maritime rediscovery of the game's visual identity and way of approaching the world. They push the boundaries and help create a richer universe. So congratulations, Zelda and Link. I hope you celebrate the day by venturing out into the world, because even though Hyrule is a lovely place, I'm sure there are many more amazing adventures waiting beyond its borders.