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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, Majora’s Mask is my least favorite Zelda game, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.
Okay, that’s technically not true. My least favorite Zelda game is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. But Majora’s Mask is right there with it. As far as the handheld versions of the game, my least favorites are Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.
Unless you’re a new listener, you very likely know that I’m a massive fan of The Legend of Zelda franchise. I’ve played and beaten every game in the series. My wife will tell you that I pretty much go from one Zelda game to another non-stop. Since I have access to 15 different Zelda games on my Nintendo Switch, there’s plenty of variety to keep me from ever getting bored with them.
My first memories of playing Zelda were visiting my friends Josh and Jason when I was a kid. We were a Sega house and they were a Nintendo house, but I loved going to their house to play Zelda. Sometimes we’d swap systems for a few weeks which gave me even more time to play the game uninterrupted.
That first game was released in 1986 and it essentially created the action-adventure RPG sub-genre. The game begins with your character, Link, standing in the middle of a field. There are open paths to the west, north, and east. To the northwest is a cave.
Most people are drawn to the mystery and allure of the cave, so they go there first. Once inside, they encounter an old man with a long white beard wearing a red robe. He says, “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.” He then gives Link his first item: the wooden sword.
Armed with the wooden sword, Link exits the cave and his adventure begins. If link chooses the western path, he’s met with a horde of red tektites. The paths to the east and north are filled with bands of enemies called octoroks. Each of these enemies are capable of being defeated by a single blow from Link’s wooden sword. Link starts the game with 3 heart containers of life. If any of these enemies strike him, he loses half a heart with each strike.
As Link continues northward he encounters more enemies: a burrowing enemy called a leever, a water creature called a Zora, and a flying threat called a peahat. It’s about this time that link also encounters a bridge. Once Link crosses the bridge he finds himself in a small forest. One of the trees has a haunting face with a mouth large enough for Link to walk into.
As Link enters the mouth of the tree everything changes. Inside is not a tree at all. Instead, Link finds himself in a dungeon. It’s the first of nine dungeons found in the game. Each dungeon is filled with enemies more abundant and dangerous than those found outside.
Compelled to keep moving forward, Link meanders his way through each room, uncertain of what awaits him through each doorway. Eventually he finds keys which open locked doors. He also finds a map which reveals the dungeon’s layout and a compass which shows him where the dungeon’s ultimate treasure is located.
As he continues to explore, he finds a bow which will come in handy later in the game after he acquires arrows. He keeps moving forward. Entering an important room of the dungeon, Link is faced with the most powerful foe yet: goriyas capable of hitting Link with a boomerang that takes an entire heart from his life.
Link will need to take down three goriya’s in order to conquer the room, but in doing so he is rewarded with a boomerang of his own. As he enters the next room the roar of the dungeon boss can be heard in the distance. Using one of the keys he’s picked up along the way, Link opens the door to the boss’s lair.
Standing before him is a beast called Aquamentus. With the body of a dragon and a head adorned with a unicorn-like horn, Aquamentus is massive. He bellows out three large fireballs which Link will have to avoid if he hopes to take down the intimidating creature.
The menacing green creature is three times the size of Link. His fireballs only deal half a heart of damage to Link, but Link’s boomerang is useless against the foe. Link will have to get close and thrust his sword into Aquamentus six times in order to defeat him. If Link is victorious his health is increased by one full heart and the dungeon’s true treasure is his for the taking: a piece of the triforce!
What an epic adventure!
And this is the formula for most Zelda games. The player starts out in some sort of safe environment where they quickly learn basic skills and acquire fundamental equipment needed before adventuring out. Once they leave the safety of the opening environment, they encounter enemies which enable them to test their skills, gain familiarity with the controls, and boost their confidence. Moments later their first real test is upon them as they enter the game’s opening dungeon.
Most games in the Zelda franchise are linear in that they guide Link from dungeon 1, then to dungeon 2, followed by dungeon 3, and so on. But the first game was not like that. If you chose to go west instead of north, you’d eventually find yourself standing toe to toe with a pack of lynels.
Lynels are capable of throwing swords across the entire screen and a single blow deals two hearts of damage. Link’s life can be taken from him before he even understands the movements and attacks of the enemy, leaving the player dumbfounded and crying out in shocked defeat.
When Breath of the Wild came out in 2017, it returned to these roots. Players could take their adventure in nearly any direction, but first they’d need to get some advice and gear from an old man with a white beard.
Once the player advances out of an area called the Great Plateau, there is literally no limit or boundary. They can take their adventure in any direction they choose. Fresh off the Great Plateau I chose to take my adventure northward where I quickly found a place called Lake Kolomo. In the middle of the lake is a small island, so I decided to explore.
In the middle of the island I found a pile of rocks and decided to check them out. As I approached them, they suddenly came to life and a towering enemy called a stone talus stood before me. One hit later and I was dead, greeted by the game over screen and the death song.
I tried again and again and again and again. My daughter, watching from the couch, asked me if that was my favorite song. Puzzled, I said, no?” She retorted, well you sure play it a lot. Eventually, I gave up and decided to take my adventure in a different direction.
Here’s what I learned.
Do these adventures in the world of Zelda sound familiar to you? Perhaps, like me, you’ve spent a fair amount of time battling the various monsters and enemies found around the kingdom of Hyrule. Perhaps you’ve found yourself rage quitting after hearing that death music for the thousandth time. Or, perhaps my story of Zelda today reminded you of some challenges you’ve faced in the real world. Maybe you’ve come around a corner and been blind sided by a foe that you never saw coming that you never even had time to react to.
Perhaps a wise white haired person in your life has given you advice and practical tools to help you in the quest of life, but you’ve found it wasn’t enough to get you through.
Perhaps you found some early success when you were starting out, but you’ve found it hard to advance since then.
Here’s the thing. Those tools and resources that were once helpful for us are never meant to be the thing that gets us through to the end.
In the original Zelda game, Link can earn a new sword, the white sword, once he has expanded his health to five hearts. Once Link has twelve hearts, he is capable of wielding the most powerful sword in the game, the magical sword. In case you’re wondering, the Master Sword didn’t come into the Zelda franchise until the third game, A Link to the Past.
Not only that, but as Link expands his adventure, he’ll find a larger shield that protects him from more powerful attacks as well as a blue ring and then a red ring. Each ring makes Link half as susceptible to enemy attacks as he was before. Both the shield upgrade and blue ring upgrade are purchased at great cost, but make Link’s adventure much more sustainable.
In much the same way, as we adventure in our jobs, parenting, relationships, and all facets of life, we should be leveling up. We should be improving our skills, learning better methods, finding lessons in defeat, making notes for future battles, and investing in tools which will help us reach our ultimate goals.
In Breath of the Wild, once I had some better armor, weapons, and experience, I was able to return to Lake Kolomo and easily defeat that stone talus which had so easily destroyed me over and over and over again earlier in my adventure.
Rage quitting is the easy way out. It teaches us nothing, improves none of our skills, and offers no long term gains. Yes, sometimes we need to take a break and regain our grit, our composure, our determination. Perhaps we need to reassess our strategy and point our adventure in a new direction.
But don’t ever give up and don’t ever stop learning. Life is the greatest adventure of all, and just like Zelda, the most treasured parts are often found when we persevere and overcome our greatest challenges and fears.
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
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