- 17 hours ago
Category
🎈
FunTranscript
00:07Welcome to MojoPlays and today we're looking at easter eggs, behind-the-scenes facts,
00:12and other secrets you may not know about the first two Legend of Zelda games.
00:23But before we dive in, we publish new content all week long,
00:26so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to stay notified about our latest videos.
00:34Between the original game and Skyward Sword, Koji Kondo composed music, in some capacity,
00:39for each of the home console Zelda games. The exception is Zelda II The Adventure of Link.
00:51The game was already planned to be vastly different from the first game,
00:55as intended by Shigeru Miyamoto. Other than him and writer Takashi Tezuka,
01:00the staff of the sequel consisted of newcomers. That included composer Akito Nakatsuka,
01:05who delivered a strong follow-up to Kondo's original work. The temple theme is a particular
01:10standout and took on new life thanks to Super Smash Bros. Melee, and is still a great dungeon theme.
01:21Early anime and fantasy influences
01:24Throughout the series, Zelda has been influenced by anime and fantasy, even at the very beginning.
01:38The first game's backstory, as depicted in the manual, was written by Keiji Terui, who had previously written
01:44for Dragon Ball. Where he took inspiration from Europe during the medieval times, Miyamoto and
01:49Tezuka found inspiration in fantasy, in different forms. For Miyamoto, it was in the Ultima series and
01:55a Japanese RPG called The Black Onyx. For Tezuka, when it came to creating the setting, he was inspired by
02:01J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
02:11A martial fantasy. Zelda II was also inspired by other games at the time, though for gameplay instead
02:18of story and setting. For the side-scrolling combat with high and low attacks, that came from Kung Fu
02:24Master, released in arcades in 1984 and ported to the NES by Miyamoto and his team the following year.
02:39As for the RPG mechanics, those were inspired by the very first Dragon Quest game.
02:50While the side-scrolling view would return in small segments across some of the top-down handheld games,
02:55the RPG mechanics of this nature never did return.
02:58The Adventure of Link has long been considered the black sheep of the Zelda family. Most players tend
03:06not to like it due to its high difficulty and its vastly different mechanics.
03:17But upon release, it was a huge hit. Reviews of the time caught it a major step forward from the
03:24original with all of its changes received positively. It went on to sell 4.48 million copies worldwide,
03:31not as good as the first, but still in the top 10 best selling for the NES. It also helped
03:36solidify Zelda as
03:37part of the Nintendo brand, which was enforced through heavy marketing and merchandise that
03:42included board games, the Nintendo serial system, and a short-lived animated series around the same time.
03:56Rupee Origins Rupees have been the currency of the Zelda series since the very beginning, and despite them
04:02sharing a name with the currency of real-life India, that was never an intention.
04:17When asked during a 2016 interview for the release of the NES Classic Mini, Miyamoto stated he didn't
04:23have India in mind when he named them Rupees. He just thought it was a cute sound, and went on
04:28to say that
04:29his Rupees were more like Ruby gems. As for the design, the sprite was lifted straight from another NES game,
04:35Clu Clu Land.
04:42No Rupees.
04:44From the mainline games, to the spin-offs, to even those horrid Phillips CD-i games, Rupees have appeared for
04:50Link to collect,
04:51and exchange for helpful items. There is one exception, however, and that is Zelda 2.
05:01No Rupees appear in this game, just another in a long line of differences that make the adventure of Link
05:08so
05:08unlike the other games. Instead, Link finds helpful NPCs who can heal him in towns, or is able to collect
05:14every item and spell he needs in order to progress through other means. The game is exceptionally hard,
05:20though, so at least you don't also need to worry about managing a budget.
05:31First seen in the original game, the knight-like enemy Darknut has appeared in multiple games since.
05:37However, it was replaced by a different knight enemy, the Iron Knuckle, in Zelda 2, which would
05:43also make future appearances. It might seem odd that Nintendo would have two separately named knights,
05:49even if their fighting styles are slightly different. But in the Japanese versions, these two enemies
05:54share a suffix, that being Naku. The Darknut is called the Tato-Naku, and the Iron Knuckle is called
06:01the Aya-Naku. This relation by name can be seen in other enemies as well, like the Mad Bomber,
06:06or Bamu-Naku, from Link's Awakening. And the Darkhammer, or Hanma-Naku, a mini-boss from Twilight Princess.
06:28The first delay. Zelda games tend to get delayed, to the point where we all knew it was coming
06:34before Tears of the Kingdom was pushed back. This, unfortunately, has been the case since the very
06:39first sequel. However, this was because of a widespread manufacturing problem, rather than
06:50having anything to do with the individual game. In 1988, Nintendo experienced a shortage of ROM chips,
06:57which affected the release of upcoming games, as well as restocks for older titles. The Adventure of
07:02Link arrived in time for the holiday season that year, but it was nearly two years after the game
07:07was launched in Japan.
07:16Possible sci-fi. While developing the original game, although fantasy was the clear choice and
07:22source of inspiration, Miyamoto did consider bringing in sci-fi elements.
07:35An early idea had Link traveling between two eras, the past and the future, while the Triforce would
07:41have been electronic chips instead of a holy artifact. The Zelda team would consider including more
07:46technological aspects in later games, like A Link to the Past as seen in Zelda's concept art. And it would
07:52eventually creep in before blending with the medieval fantasy setting in aspects like the robots of
07:57Skyward Sword and the Sheikah Slate of Breath of the Wild.
08:06Altered sound. Because The Legend of Zelda was released alongside the Famicom's disk system add-on in
08:12Japan, it was capable of higher sound quality than the cartridge version on the NES. A few notable sound effects
08:19were
08:19left out of the English version, like those of bosses roaring and enemies upon defeat. The most
08:25interesting exclusion dealt with the pole's voice, an enemy that resembles a rabbit.
08:34In the Japanese version, players were meant to shout into the Famicom controller's built-in
08:39microphone, which the NES did not have. Despite this being changed in-game, the manual still hinted this
08:45was the enemy's weakness, stating it hated loud noises and confused a lot of players in the process.
08:56Reused battle music. Just like the first game, Zelda 2 launched on the Famicom disk system, which meant
09:02some cut sounds for the NES version, as well as some music. Interestingly, there's an entire battle
09:08theme that is only used in the Japanese version. This piece of music wouldn't be entirely forgotten,
09:22though. It was repurposed as a mini-boss theme in the Minish Cap. It was nice for more players
09:27outside of Japan to hear it, on top of being a cool, deep-cut easter egg.
09:38Town names. Maybe a more commonly known easter egg these days, but a cool one nonetheless.
09:50The towns you find in Zelda 2 share names with the sages from Ocarina of Time.
09:55Chronologically, Sariya, Darunya, Ruto, Niburu, and Rauru all had towns and villages named after them.
10:02The sages who didn't were Impa and Zelda, since they're obviously already characters,
10:07but what's funny is that another Ocarina of Time name pops up as the town of Mido. If Nintendo reused
10:15town names for sages, historically implying they were named in honor of them, what did this little
10:20jerk do to deserve the same treatment?
10:30An iconic ad. At the time of the original game's release, the NES was still in its infancy,
10:36which is why, with limited products, Nintendo produced big-budget commercials.
10:41The very first Legend of Zelda ad is iconic to older players.
10:51It features a, let's say, strange man, yelling out the names of enemies and making silly sounds,
10:57while also calling out for Zelda. The man is actually actor and comedian John Kassir,
11:02who would go on to have a prolific voice acting career, from the mascot of Tales from the Crypt,
11:08and just when George was going to reward Mary Jo for all her hard work,
11:13to Deadpool and the early Ultimate Alliance games,
11:16You'd think it makes me less of a man if I came here for the Cherry Blossom Festival, huh?
11:21to that one really creepy clown in the first Dead Rising.
11:26Was a walking punchline!
11:32The game over
11:40Zelda 2 has an extremely well-known game over screen, maybe because so many players saw it so often.
11:46As Link dies, the screen flashes several times before the silhouette of Ganon appears with the text
11:52Game Over, Return of Ganon. But if you play anything other than the NES version,
11:57the flashing screens will have been removed.
12:00Beginning with the GameCube as part of a 2003 collection,
12:04Nintendo altered the game over animation for obvious reasons, to avoid causing seizures.
12:08And since that port, every version for release or through online emulation has been the same.
12:17Here lies the hero.
12:19In Sariya Town, but only in the Japanese version of Zelda 2,
12:23you can find a gravestone that reads,
12:26The Hero Loto Rests Here.
12:28This is a nod to a hero from Dragon Quest that was removed from the English language version,
12:33likely because the series had yet to be released in the US at the time.
12:42This was also somewhat of a response to another easter egg from the first Final Fantasy.
12:47In the town of Elfheim, the Japanese version has a gravestone for Link,
12:51but the American version, which was released three years later,
12:54has a gravestone for Erdrick, another reference to Dragon Quest.
13:07A boss of another name.
13:09There are a couple of interesting changes to the bosses in Zelda 2.
13:13One is that the fifth boss, Guma, is not in the Japanese version.
13:17Instead, those players faced a rematch of Germafencer, the boss of the second dungeon.
13:22Another change actually affects the lore, albeit minorly.
13:30The boss of the sixth dungeon is a serpentine dragon who rises out of the lava and breathes fire,
13:36named Barba.
13:38In the Japanese version, this boss is named Volvagia,
13:41naturally sharing a lot with its Ocarina of Time counterpart.
13:45It's interesting that this boss was meant to be called Volvagia,
13:48considering it now also appears earlier in its timeline in Echoes of Wisdom.
13:58Differences in leveling
14:00Given it took much longer than intended for Zelda 2 to be released internationally,
14:04there were a lot of differences between the two versions.
14:07Other than sounds, most of them were visual, like different sprites for Link and enemies,
14:12and different color palettes for dungeons.
14:14But there was one big change made to mechanics, namely leveling.
14:26On the Famicom, all three of Link's stats, attack, life, and magic,
14:31require the same amount of XP for each level up.
14:34On NES, they require different amounts,
14:36with attack costing the most, and life costing the least.
14:45Another difference is that, when you quit the game,
14:48the Famicom version brings two of those stats down to match the lowest one,
14:52while the NES version lets you keep your XP as is.
14:55Unique Challenges
14:57There are plenty of fan-created challenges across the Zelda series,
15:02some that can be applied to multiple games, and others that can only make sense to one entry.
15:07When it comes to Zelda 2, it has ways to make the game even harder, that are uniquely brutal.
15:17The most famous one is called the Low Stats Challenge,
15:20which requires earning the proper amount of XP to keep two of Link's stats at level 1,
15:25while maxing out the third.
15:26Another way to test yourself is through the Fairy Spell.
15:29Once Link learns it, it can be used to bypass locked doors inside dungeons,
15:34so you can add on another challenge by avoiding keys and saving magic for the Fairy.
15:45The First Remake
15:47For the Super Famicom, Nintendo developed the Satellaview,
15:51an add-on that allowed players to download games via satellite.
15:54And from mid-1995 to early-1997,
15:58it ran broadcasts of episodic releases of a remake for the first game,
16:03called BS Zelda no Densetsu.
16:13In addition to 16-bit graphics, the game featured altered versions of dungeons and voice acting.
16:19It also, notably, had a different story and didn't feature Link at all,
16:24with players instead controlling characters introduced in BSX, which launched with the Satellaview.
16:36It was popular enough for Nintendo to make a reworked version of the map,
16:40sort of like the original game's second quest.
16:50If you love games, be sure to check out WatchMojo's new game, Terrible Influence,
16:55just launched for purchase at TerribleInfluence.com.
16:58Terrible Influence is a satirical board game about the dark side of fame from the writer of the most
17:02popular girls in school and us. WatchMojo.
17:05Boom.
17:05Burr.
17:06I can make an apology video.
17:08Oh, you so would.
17:09Click on the link in the description to check out the game and be the first to play Terrible Influence.
17:15Sharing Secrets
17:16Many may know about the story behind Link having to get the sword from the old man in a cave,
17:21at the start of The Legend of Zelda.
17:25Link originally began with the sword, but when Japanese testers found the game confusing,
17:31Miyamoto chose to take it away. That's hilariously brutal, but the why is what's interesting.
17:37He wanted to force players to actively think about what they had to do.
17:41NPCs around them could hold useful information, but it was also a game where sharing secrets with
17:46other players was encouraged. A game, and then series, built around secrets was
17:51perfect for cultivating a pipeline of friends sharing their discoveries before the dawn of the internet.
17:56Miyamoto stated that because of this, Zelda laid the groundwork for
18:00Animal Crossing, a game built around communication.
18:13Are there any fun facts you know about the NES Zelda games?
18:16Share them with us in the comments, and we'll see you next time.
18:21See you guys!
18:22I'm not sure I'll see you next time.
18:22Bye!
Comments