When The Legend of Zelda launched in 1986, it didn’t look like the beginning of a revolution. It was a top-down adventure starring a green tunic-wearing silent hero armed with nothing more than a wooden sword. Even so, no one, likely not even Nintendo, could have predicted what it would become. As simple as it looked on the surface, buried deep within its design was a philosophy that would leave a lasting mark on the industry, one that many modern games can still trace their roots back to today. In the years that followed The Legend of Zelda‘s release, that philosophy fundamentally changed how developers approached world design, player agency, and long-form progression.
40 years later, the shockwaves of its launch can still be felt, as the franchise continues to be one of the leading inspirations in the industry. In fact, evidence of The Legend of Zelda‘s tremendous impact can be found in its current occupancy of at least three of the spots in what are widely considered to be the top 10 best video games ever made. After a rather passionate fan of gaming curated over 900 greatest games lists to create a master list of the top 100 best video games of all time, the results showed Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Ocarina of Time, and A Link to the Past in the top 10, with Breath of the Wild holding the number 1 position. That’s an achievement no other franchise, not even Super Mario, has obtained, which says plenty about what Zelda brought to the table four decades ago and why it still leads the industry today.
In 1986, Zelda Introduced Players to an Open World That Trusted Them
Zelda laid the groundwork for the action-adventure genre, influenced the development of RPG hybrids for decades, and held gaming at large to a new standard.
In the mid-1980s, most console games were linear. Players moved from one stage to the next, often repeating patterns of escalating difficulty. But when The Legend of Zelda launched in 1986, it challenged what many had largely come to expect from a game, as it outright rejected that structure. After a brief opening screen and almost no hand-holding, players were placed in the middle of Hyrule and essentially told to figure it out. This is something that younger gamers might have thought began with a game like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom—that feeling of being driven by curiosity and the thrill of discovery—but nope. For Zelda, that happened 40 years ago.
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Zelda basically normalized the idea that a game world could exist independently of the player’s path through it. In other words, most console games at the time tied player progression directly to the unfolding of its world, with levels unlocking in a certain order or screens advancing in a fixed sequence. In that space, the world only existed in the order developers allowed the player to see it. However, when players started Zelda in 1986, the entire overworld was already there, allowing them to walk in almost any direction immediately and tackle its dungeons in any order. The craziest part, though, is that it provided all of that freedom without any explanation, letting curiosity-driven discovery be its own reward.
Just as importantly, The Legend of Zelda introduced one of the earliest battery-backed save systems on consoles. That essentially turned the experience from an arcade-style session into a much longer, more sustained adventure. Unlike almost every other game on console, Zelda didn’t need to be beaten in one sitting. Instead, it felt like an actual world one could visit whenever they wanted to—one that stayed in the same state even after it was turned off.
Zelda‘s Second Quest in the 1986 original is also one of the earliest examples of a post-game “remix,” which is universally known today as “New Game Plus.”
Those two major design choices—nonlinear exploration and persistent progression—changed console gaming forever. Technically, the Super Cassette Vision game Pop and Chips used batteries for saving in 1985, but Zelda is ultimately the title that made it a worldwide industry standard. And although it wasn’t the first “open” game, as early PC RPGs like Ultima were nonlinear, it was the first to bring that philosophy to home consoles, which made up a much larger portion of the gaming audience. In the end, Zelda laid the groundwork for the action-adventure genre, influenced the development of RPG hybrids for decades, and held gaming at large to a new standard.
Zelda’s Ability to Reinvent Itself Without Losing Itself Has Added Years to Its Influence
If Nintendo had stopped putting out Zelda games after the original launched in 1986, it would still be recognized today for its influence on the industry 40 years ago. However, as of 2026, the franchise consists of more than 30 titles, including over 20 mainline, canon entries. Very few video game IPs have lasted that long, and Zelda‘s ability to do so largely comes down to its knack for reinventing itself without losing itself in the process. Because it does that so well, it has repeatedly raised standards with innovative mechanics and ideas, making it something of a trend-setter in the industry, especially when one of its games strikes gold—which happens more often than most franchises can claim.
Ocarina of Time’s Z-targeting System Became the Blueprint for Nearly Every 3D Action Game Thereafter
When The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launched in 1998, it took all the original game’s ideas and translated them into a three-dimensional space, still preserving its most defining trait of respecting player intelligence. While its own ideas had a considerable impact on the franchise from then on, its Z-targeting system, in particular, changed how third-person combat could function in 3D games in general, influencing everything from third-person action games to modern Soulslikes. Mega Man Legends (released one year earlier) had a similar lock-on system, but it didn’t allow for the fluid movement or the camera centering that Zelda introduced in 1998. Ocarina of Time‘s version essentially became the blueprint for nearly every 3D action game that followed it.
Breath of the Wild Reintroduced Gaming to the Original Zelda’s Groundbreaking Design Philosophy
Then, along came Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2017—one of the most widely known games of the 21st century. In many ways, Breath of the Wild felt like a modern return to the 1986 classic, with players once again stepping into a vast, mysterious Hyrule with minimal instruction and near limitless possibility. They could go anywhere, climb anything, experiment with physics, and solve problems in their own way. Tears of the Kingdom then expanded on that philosophy with mechanics like Link’s Ultrahand ability and other skills that allowed players to improvise their way through the game rather than follow a rote path.
Pearl Abyss’ upcoming Crimson Desert even has an ability that looks like a copy-and-paste version of Link’s Ultrahand.
After Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, as it often has with Zelda, the industry responded. Breath of the Wild‘s systemic design, physics-driven interactions, and emphasis on emergent gameplay influenced countless open-world games in the years that followed. Games like Elden Ring, Genshin Impact, Sable, and Dredge have all explicitly stated at some point that Breath of the Wild was an inspiration, and there are undoubtedly many others where its influences are very clear, even if their developers haven’t pointed to it.
And yet, as the series has evolved, it hasn’t abandoned its identity. Even when some labeled Breath of the Wild a radical departure for Zelda, it was, as cliche as it sounds, an actual return to form. It was essentially 1986’s Zelda reimagined through modern hardware and contemporary open-world design, and that’s likely why it earned the acclaim that it did. In an era where open-world games were feeling repetitive, bloated, and overdone, Breath of the Wild brought things back to basics—back to a design philosophy that trusts players to find their way forward. If nothing else, that just proves how the industry repeatedly looks to Zelda as an example of what games can and often should be.
Even when some labeled Breath of the Wild a radical departure for Zelda, it was, as cliche as it sounds, an actual return to form.
40 years after a silent hero first stepped into Hyrule with a wooden sword, The Legend of Zelda still feels less like a design benchmark the rest of the industry keeps measuring itself against. In 1986, it showed developers that players didn’t need rigid structure to stay engaged and instead needed freedom, mystery, and a world that respected their intelligence. In 2026, that same philosophy is still influencing how games are built, especially as developers chase deeper immersion and more meaningful exploration. In short, The Legend of Zelda has reset expectations multiple times across four decades, and the fact that modern developers continue to return to its ideas proves that its blueprint still holds up.
- Released
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May 12, 2023
- ESRB
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Rated E for Everyone 10+ for Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
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Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
