LogFAQs > #975285733

I Coveted That Wind
Link (Soul Calibur II)
Fierce Deity Link
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Ganondorf (WW)
Paraglider
Zelda/Sheik in Smash
Ocarina (Instrument)
Midna
Legend of Zelda (Theme)
Nintendo
Link (GameFAQs)
Gerudo Valley (Theme)

Good!
Cadence of Hyrule
Master Sword
Princess Zelda (Spirit Tracks)
Koji Kondo
ReDead
Triforce
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Gerudo Outfit (BotW)
Swordless Link Trick (OoT)
Cia
The Missing Link
Goron
Hookshot
Champion's Tunic (BotW)
Hearts
Rupees
Bombchu: The Zelda Wiki only says that "chu" is the Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound a mouse makes, so this really ought to be called a bombsqueak. But I mean... is this a Pokemon reference? Pokemon came out in 1996 in Japan, and OoT came out in 1998, so 1997 was probably when most of the work was done. As a kid, I always assumed this was a Pikachu reference, at least. Here's the thing about bombchus: they're really cool, and really useless. For no particular reason, they're rarer than normal items, especially in OoT, so you can't just go ham with them like you can with bombs, secure in the knowledge that if you waste them, you'll find more soon. They're super difficult to aim without Z-targeting, and even with Z-targeting, why are you using them instead of arrows? The only game where they're useful is, shockingly, PH of all things, which uses the stylus to let you plot out the path in advance, making it one of the like eight times ever the stylus was a better idea than just using buttons. I really like the design of bombchus, and honestly? I kind of wish that the Zelda series just used these in general instead of normal bombs. Normal bombs are kind of boring, and bombchus are just so cool and original as a concept. I imagine the alternate dimension where every game after OoT just uses these instead of normal bombs, and I think it's actually an improvement over the real world. Like, there's room to refine bombchus as a mechanic, make them easier to aim and control. More bombchus, Nintendo! I demand it.
Song of Storms
CD-I Cutscenes
Legend of Zelda (Name)
Great Fairies
The Vision in Lanayru Spring
Skull Kid
Going Straight to Castle Hyrule in BotW
Child Link vs Adult Link: Again, everything comes down to OoT. This is just another one of those things that showed up in literally one game in 1998, yet it's one of the most well-remembered elements of the series. It's exactly like Sheik, it existed literally just one time, yet people treat the difference between Child and Adult Link like it's one of the most memorable things about Link. I guess if you want, you could argue that MM technically has Adult Link in the form of the FDM, but whatever. This ended up defining Link as a character in Smash in multiple ways, but I wonder how much Smash influenced LoZ, too. I said this before, but pre-OoT, Link was definitely meant to be a kid hero (except, amazingly, in the CD-I games. They are truly more influential than any of us realized). Smash comes out right after OoT and "canonizes" Adult Link as the default, and later Young Link as a variation (and Toon Link as another variation), and after that, we get eight games with Child Link (MM, WW, OoA, OoS, MC, PH, ST, and FSA), and four with Adult Link (TP, SS, BotW, TotK). And while you might be thinking "Anagram, eight is larger than four, I know this because I just passed first grade," the trick is that every single one of those games bar MM uses the goofy cartoon WW art style, and MM is made of reused assets from OoT, while the Adult Link games vary between grim darkness (TP), cel-shaded goofiness (SS), and cel-shaded epic and serious (BotW/TotK). Adult Link has way more range, is what I'm saying, and I think that all of this just comes down to the exact moment that OoT came out (right before Smash, right as 3D was establishing itself as the default instead of 2D, right as video games were hitting the mainstream). It's actually almost a shame that we never got another Child/Adult Link game, because it's a cool idea that each version of Link encounters different problems (or the same problems) and has to use different tools to overcome them. Then again, we already had a Hero of Time. I remember after WW came out and called that Link the "Hero of the Winds," people were trying to call each version of Link a different "Hero of X." It's bizarre that they gave two Links, but only two Links, special titles. I wonder if Nintendo planned on giving each Link a different title, then just gave up.
Biggoron's Sword
Japanese Link to the Past commercial
Brawl in the Family
Sheik
Gerudo (Race): It's kind of funny how much the lore of Zelda races depends on OoT. Basically nothing is added between OoT and BotW besides that the Zora evolve into the Rito at some point in the WW timeline. But it almost goes beyond that. Everyone remembers the line in OoT about one male being born every one-hundred years, and he gets to be king. You know how many times that's come up in the series? Exactly once, and it's just there to justify why Ganondorf is the king of a tribe of only women. And that's 90% of the Gerudo deep lore, is just their connection to Ganondorf, which never comes up after OoT, and barely matters even within OoT. And don't tell me that in BotW, Urbosa briefly mentions that she wants to kill Ganon because legends say he was once a Gerudo, that doesn't count. I'm actually kind of shocked that that was never retconned, or "another legendary origin" for Ganondorf introduced, like that one is just a theory or something. That's like one of the handful of pieces of lore in the entire series that actually matters at all. And yet, while the Gerudo have more connection to what can charitably be called the main storyline of LoZ than the Goron and Zora, you can tell that for like twenty years after OoT, they mattered way less to Nintendo than the latter two. Those two show up in most games, missing out only occasionally. Aside from MM and its reused assets, the Gerudo didn't show up in a large capacity again until BotW, at the same time the Rito cropped back up. How many LoZ races just disappeared over time? Poor Deku, consigned to the dustbin of history. Yet, people remembered the Gerudo. Is it just because they're sexy amazons? Like, the idea of sexy green-skinned bedouin amazon thieves is just so utterly unlike everything else in the series, everything else in LoZ is like this idealized European fantasy land with magical races and magical monsters. They definitely played into this in BotW, where there's a classroom in the Gerudo city where women learn how to attract men, and they're like "should I beat him up and kidnap him against his will?" Like, BotW is definitely being silly about them. I remember that scene and the part where you dress up as a woman to infiltrate their city, but I don't remember a goddamned thing about the Zora or Goron quests. Was there an angry old man who says you can't help the Zora because you're responsible for the princess' death 100 years ago? Was there lava in the Goron quest? It's also really interesting how LoZ never again added a non-Hyrulian human group. It's just Hyrulians, Sheikah, and Gerudo. There's no like Chinese nation or Indian nation or whatever, it's just Europeans, Bedouins, and Ninjas. And the Sheikah were also added by OoT! Everything always comes back to OoT.