History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / TheLegendOfZelda

* This trope also applies in terms of aesthetics and plot. In the first game, the Triforce has only two parts, with the Triforce of Courage and the appearance as flat, golden Sierpinski triangles not featured until ''Zelda II''; in fact, the artwork, the cartoon, and the CD-i games actually portray it as glowing, gem-like tetrahedrons. While the standard look for the Triforce is codified in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', it's portrayed as actually speaking to Link. Link also has brown hair, the expanded Hyrule in ''Zelda II'' (which had DeathMountain on the southern part of the OverworldNotToScale instead of the usual northern location and had eastern and western regions separated by water) is never heard of in any other game, and races that became iconic aspects of the series in later games (e.g. Gorons, friendly Zoras, the Sheikah) are completely absent in early games. Finally, the early games have zero hints to the eventual timeline issues that would develop in large part thanks to ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', which would not be settled until Nintendo released an official timeline on the game's 25th anniversary. Said timeline places the early games in a third timeline [[TheHeroDies in which Ganon won]] in ''Ocarina of Time''; even the creators seem to argue that the early installments were weird.

* Rupees in the first game came in two demoninations: Yellow (1) and Blue (5). Starting in ''A Link to the Past'', 1 Rupee has always been represented by Green, while the Yellow Rupee would reappear in ''Wind Waker'' and ''Twilight Princess'', this time being worth 10 Rupees. The nomenclature of Rupees was also a bit more inconsistent in the first game and its spin-offs, variably going by 'Rupy', 'Rupies' or 'Rubies'[[note]]Notably, the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames Zelda CD-i games]] seemed to take 'Ruby' literally, as 1 Ruby there is represented by Red[[/note]]. ''A Link to the Past'' stuck with 'Rupee', going for consistency with the real-world name for various South Asian currencies.

* The [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI very first]] installment in the series had enough examples to [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness/TheLegendOfZeldaI warrant its own page]]. Some of these examples are also applicable to the second and third games as detailed in the rest of the page.

* Rupees in the first game came in two demoninations: Yellow (1) and Blue (5). Starting in ''A Link to the Past'', 1 Rupee has always been represented by Green, while the Yellow Rupee would reappear in ''Wind Waker'' and ''Twilight Princess'', this time being worth 10 Rupees. The nomenclature of Rupees was also a bit more inconsistent in the first game and its spin-offs, variably going by 'Rupy', 'Rupies' or 'Rubies'.[[note]]Notably, the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames Zelda CD-i games]] seemed to take 'Ruby' literally, as 1 Ruby there is represented by Red[[/note]] ''A Link to the Past'' stuck with 'Rupee', going for consistency with the real-world name for various South Asian currencies.

* ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' remains the only mainline game not to include ''The Legend of Zelda'' in its English title, suggesting that in early planning, the official name of the series could have just been ''Zelda'', with the names of individual games going by TheXOfY instead. As a curious side note, the first two [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames Zelda CD-i games]], ''Link: The Faces of Evil'' and ''Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon'', follow the naming convention set out by ''The Adventure of Link''.
* ''The Adventure of Link'' would use many more standard RPG elements than later games, such as experience points, as well as Link actually learning spells from elderly wizards and casting them directly from his magic meter: later games would rarely have Link use magic without some sort of item tied to the magical effect, such as the Fire Rod.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'':
** This is the only game to refer to the Seven Sages as the "Seven Wise Men" and the Hylians as "Hylia". These terms were updated when the game was re-released for the Game Boy Advance.
** The game and the official ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' StrategyGuide make a distinction between the ancient Hylia people and the modern-day Hyruleans, the Hylia having magical prowess while the Hyruleans are mundane folk. Later games drop this distinction, as well as any strong associations between the Hylian people as a whole and magical powers.
** Monsters like Moblins and Hinox are actually Hyruleans under [[KarmicTransformation a Dark World curse]] due to their [[EvilMakesYouUgly evil nature]], rather than being natural pre-existing creatures.
** This is the only ''Zelda'' game to have each bottle share an inventory spot. Later games in the series tend to have them as separate items (though this is changed in the GBA release, being given an entire row in the inventory with their old slot filled by the shovel.) In addition, they are called "Magic Bottles" in this game (while future games simply called them "bottles").
** Unlike later games in the series, Link doesn't automatically heal when he takes a full HeartContainer after defeating the boss (except for the Heart Container received at the Sanctuary). Instead, he heals after obtaining the relevant PlotCoupon. Also of note, the Plot Coupon won't appear until after collecting the Heart Container, while in games after ''Link's Awakening'', both appear at the same time and the Heart Container can be skipped.
** This is the first ''Zelda'' game to feature the Sacred Realm, but due to Nintendo's censorship policies at the time, the translation refers to it as the "Golden Land", which carries over to the GBA port apart from one early mention of it as ''a'' "sacred realm". Later games and ''A Link Between Worlds'' use the proper translation.
** The three Pendants of Virtue needed to draw the Master Sword were the first of the recurring sets of green, blue, and red {{Plot Coupon}}s symbolizing courage, wisdom, and power. However, the Pendant of Wisdom is red and the Pendant of Power is blue, whereas nowadays the reverse is standard. ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds A Link Between Worlds]]'' reverses the colors to fit the current standard.
** The Big Key opens the Big Chest containing the dungeon's item. It's also used to open Big Key Doors, which saw more varied placement than in later games; not all them led to the boss room and some dungeons had more than one or even none.
** The Master Sword's first appearance in this game features a red and gold hilt instead of the purple hilt with an embedded gold gem that became standard with ''Ocarina of Time''. In addition, the Master Sword in ''A Link to the Past'' is not portrayed as the ultimate sword; it can be upgraded two more times, which change its appearance quite significantly. If a later game lets you upgrade the Master Sword, it is done via an enchantment that does not make any physical alterations to it (except in ''A Link Between Worlds'', which also lets you upgrade twice via blacksmithing).
** The game features two dwarven swordsmiths, who you need to upgrade the Master Sword, who are fairly classic fantasy dwarves in most respects. No dwarves of any sort appear in any later game, with their role being largely filled by the Gorons, and with the exception of two yetis who appear in ''Twilight Princess'', the series has since stuck to inventing original fictional races.

* Ganondorf himself was clean-shaven in his first appearance. ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'' gave him a beard, which every incarnation of him since has had.

* Rupees in the first game came in two demoninations: Yellow (1) and Blue (5). Starting in ''A Link to the Past'', 1 Rupee has always been represented by Green, while the Yellow Rupee would reappear in ''Wind Waker'' and ''Twilight Princess'', this time being worth 10 Rupees. The nomenclature of Rupees was also a bit more inconsistent in the first game and its spin-offs, variably going by 'Rupy', 'Rupies' or 'Rubies'. ''A Link to the Past'' stuck with 'Rupee', going for consistency with the real-world name for various South Asian currencies.

** The game features two dwarven swordsmiths, who you need to upgrade the Master Sword, who are fairly classic fantasy dwarves in most respects. No dwarves of any sort appear or are named in any later game (The Gorons mostly took over this role), and afterwards the series has stuck to inventing original fictional races.

* Ganon is consistently portrayed as a large, blue, evilly-dressed pig-like creature in the early games. His weapon of choice is magic, and eventually a trident, and battles take the form of hit-and-run rather than a direct duel. While ''A Link to the Past'' established that he was once human, this form was never shown, and there are no MorphicResonance elements that suggest a DarkSkinnedRedhead. Simply put, his human "Ganondorf" form didn't properly exist until ''Ocarina of Time'', and certainly was not expected at the time to be his iconic default form for every subsequent game. A few later games in the franchise similarly only feature his beast form, undoing the tradition of his human form being his "main" one.

** The game features two dwarven swordsmiths, who you need to upgrade the Master Sword, who are fairly classic fantasy dwarves in most respects. No dwarves of any sort appear or are named in any later game, and the afterwards the series has stuck to inventing original fictional races.

* Compared to later 3D ''Zelda'' games, ''Ocarina of Time'' has a very limited number of areas from which you can resume your playthrough after having saved your progress and finished the prior session. In the past era, you always restart from Link's house in Kokiri Forest; in the future era, you restart from the Temple of Time; in both eras, you can restart from the starting room of a dungeon or MiniDungeon if you saved and quit there. While this is a natural leftover from the 2D era of the series, and something that still used to be frequent during the fifth generation of systems, for a modern-day player this can be a problem if there aren't shortcuts unlocked, or warp songs learned, to return to the area where the current progress takes place. ''Majora's Mask'' technically shares this kind of limit, but it makes sense to always start from South Clock Town due to the entire game being structured around the three-day cycle, and both the game's warp points (the Owl Statues) and the song played to use them (Song of Soaring) become available much earlier in the adventure, so this is never a problem.[[note]]The statues can also allow you to interrupt your playthrough, but the involved save is only temporary so they don't count. In the 3DS remake, the saves are permanent[[/note]] And from ''The Wind Waker'' onwards, you always start from the entrance area of your latest overworld location or dungeon (except in ''Skyward Sword'', where you start from the Bird Statue you last saved with).

** The game features two dwarven swordsimths, who you need to upgrade the Master Sword, who are fairly classic fantasy dwarves in most respects. No dwarves of any sort appear or are named in any later game, and the afterwards the series has stuck to inventing original fictional races.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'':
** Ruto is indicated as being around the same age as Link and ages accordingly during the Timeskip, while later games establish that Zora's are LongLived (with ''Breath of the Wild'' in particular showing that they have ProportionalAging to match). No mention is made of the potential MayflyDecemberRomance that would take place if she actually went through with her ChildhoodMarriagePromise to Link.
** Compared to later 3D ''Zelda'' games, ''Ocarina of Time'' has a very limited number of areas from which you can resume your playthrough after having saved your progress and finished the prior session. In the past era, you always restart from Link's house in Kokiri Forest; in the future era, you restart from the Temple of Time; in both eras, you can restart from the starting room of a dungeon or MiniDungeon if you saved and quit there. While this is a natural leftover from the 2D era of the series, and something that still used to be frequent during the fifth generation of systems, for a modern-day player this can be a problem if there aren't shortcuts unlocked, or warp songs learned, to return to the area where the current progress takes place. ''Majora's Mask'' technically shares this kind of limit, but it makes sense to always start from South Clock Town due to the entire game being structured around the three-day cycle, and both the game's warp points (the Owl Statues) and the song played to use them (Song of Soaring) become available much earlier in the adventure, so this is never a problem.[[note]]The statues can also allow you to interrupt your playthrough, but the involved save is only temporary so they don't count. In the 3DS remake, the saves are permanent[[/note]] And from ''The Wind Waker'' onwards, you always start from the entrance area of your latest overworld location or dungeon (except in ''Skyward Sword'', where you start from the Bird Statue you last saved with).

* The [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI very first]] installment in the series had enough examples to [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness/TheLegendOfZeldaI warrant its own page]]. Some of which apply to the second and third games listed below.

* The [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI very first]] installment in the series had enough examples to [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness/TheLegendOfZeldaI warrant its own page]].

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'':
** The game lets you take keys between dungeons, which no future games allows -- in fact, most later games (presumably in response to it being possible in the first) remind you constantly that keys only work in the dungeon you find them in. Because of this, keys can also be bought from shopkeepers to cheat if the player is having trouble clearing a puzzle. There are no towns anywhere, so the only characters besides the main three (Link, Zelda and Ganon) are Old Men and Old Women found in caves. Your bow also [[MoneyToBurn uses rupees to make arrows]], which is bizarre even without contrast to other ''Zelda'' games. The English in-game text also has [[SpellMyNameWithAnS notoriously erratic spelling]].
** Link's sword behaves a bit differently than it would later in the series. Link only stabs straight ahead rather than swinging his sword, adding difficulty to the game since the player has to square up to the enemy to damage it. Additionally, shooting {{sword beam}}s is a power available to all swords as long as Link is at full health, and the sword beams travel the length of the screen and are as damaging as a sword strike. The sword beam is {{nerf}}ed in ''Zelda II'', Link starts swinging his sword in ''A Link to the Past'', and still later games restrict the beam to only the Master Sword or its nearest equivalent, if they're present at all.
** None of the bosses have BattleThemeMusic, not even Ganon. Additionally, until ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' did the same much later, this was the only game where more than one dungeon had the same boss. The seventh dungeon has the same boss as the first (Aquamentus), and the eighth dungeon has the same boss as the fourth (Gleeok).
** The game extensively uses DegradedBoss battles, whereas most games in the series don't reuse bosses as minibosses, or minibosses as common but difficult enemies. Dodongo and Manhandla get this treatment during the First Quest, while ''all'' of them get it during the Second Quest.
** There is a second quest available after you beat the game the first time. The overworld map is basically the same but the location of the dungeon entrances are different, and some items are in different places. In addition, the dungeon layouts are completely different. You can also directly access the 2nd quest by entering a special name on character creation.
** The game is [[WideOpenSandbox very open-ended]], allowing the player to roam at will and complete the dungeons in any order. This is aspect is steadily reduced from ''[[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink The Adventure of Link]]'' onward, being eventually replaced with a much more linear story structure codified in ''Ocarina of Time'', and is not seen again until ''A Link Between Worlds'' and ''Breath of the Wild'' reintroduced it many years later.
** In the art, Princess Zelda has a design entirely unlike her later ones, with a flared pink dress adorned with bows and short, bobbed red hair. While her later designs have tended to fluctuate and several have also been red-haired, they've all been portrayed with longer, straight hair and much more elaborate regalia.
** Dungeons are simply called Level 1, Level 2, etc., much like a more arcade-style game. All subsequent games give more flavorful names to their dungeons. The dungeons of the first game were subsequently given retronyms based on the shape of their respective floorplans.

** Compared to later 3D ''Zelda'' games, ''Ocarina of Time'' has a very limited number of areas from which you can resume your playthrough after having saved your progress and finished the prior session. In the past era, you always restart from Link's house in Kokiri Forest; in the future era, you restart from the Temple of Time; in both eras, you can restart from the starting room of a dungeon or MiniDungeon if you saved and quit there. While this is a natgural leftover from the 2D era of the series, and something that still used to be frequent during the fifth generation of systems, for a modern-day player this can be a problem if there aren't shortcuts unlocked, or warp songs learned, to return to the area where the current progress takes place. ''Majora's Mask'' technically shares this kind of limit, but it makes sense to always start from South Clock Town due to the entire game being structured around the three-day cycle, and both the game's warp points (the Owl Statues) and the song used to use them (Song of Soaring) become available much earlier in the adventure, so this is never a problem.[[note]]The statues can also allow you to interrupt your playthrough, but the involved save is only temporary so they don't count. In the 3DS remake, the saves are permanent[[/note]] And from ''The Wind Waker'' onwards, you always start from the entrance area of your latest overworld location or dungeon (except in ''Skyward Sword'', where you start from the Bird Statue you last saved with).

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': Ruto is indicated as being around the same age as Link and ages accordingly during the Timeskip, while later games establish that Zora's are LongLived (with ''Breath of the Wild'' in particular showing that they have ProportionalAging to match). No mention is made of the potential MayflyDecemberRomance that would take place if she actually went through with her ChildhoodMarriagePromise to Link.

* The first and [[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink second]] games have you find whole heart containers outside of dungeons instead of Pieces of Heart. This mechanic is resurrected in the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS and 3DS installments.

* ''[[EarlyInstallmentWeirdnessYMMV/TheLegendOfZeldaI The Legend of Zelda]]''

** None of the ones have BattleThemeMusic, not even Ganon. Additionally, until ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' did the same much later, this was the only game where more than one dungeon had the same boss. The seventh dungeon has the same boss as the first (Aquamentus), and the eighth dungeon has the same boss as the fourth (Gleeok).
** The game extensively uses DegradedBoss battles, whereas most games in the series don't reuse bosses as minibosses or minibosses as common but difficult enemies. Dodongo and Manhandla get this treatment during the First Quest, while ''all'' of them get it during the Second Quest.

* The original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' lets you take keys between dungeons, which just feels completely un-''Zelda''-like, especially since most later games (presumably in response to it being possible in the first) remind you constantly that keys only work in the dungeon you find them in. Because of this, keys can also be bought from shopkeepers to cheat if the player is having trouble clearing a puzzle. There are no towns anywhere, so the only characters besides the main three (Link, Zelda and Ganon) are Old Men and Old Women found in caves. Your bow also [[MoneyToBurn uses rupees to make arrows]], which is bizarre even without contrast to other ''Zelda''s. The English in-game text also has [[SpellMyNameWithAnS notoriously erratic spelling]].
* In the first game, Link's sword behaves a bit differently than it would later in the series. Link only stabs straight ahead rather than swinging his sword, adding difficulty to the game since the player would have to square up to the enemy to damage it. Additionally, shooting {{sword beam}}s was a power available to all swords as long as Link was at full health, and the sword beams traveled the length of the screen and were as damaging as a sword strike. The sword beam was {{nerf}}ed in ''Zelda II'', Link started swinging his sword in ''A Link to the Past'', and still later games restricted the beam to only be capable with the Master Sword or its nearest equivalent, if present at all.
* With regard to bosses, none of the ones in the first ''Zelda'' have BattleThemeMusic, not even Ganon. And until ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'', this was the only game where more than one dungeon had the same boss. The seventh dungeon has the same boss as the first (Aquamentus), and the eighth dungeon has the same boss as the fourth (Gleeok).
* The first game extensively uses DegradedBoss battles, whereas most games in the series don't reuse bosses or minibosses as common but difficult enemies. Dodongo and Manhandla get this treatment during the First Quest, while ''all'' of them get it during the Second Quest.
* The first and [[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink second]] games also have you find whole heart containers outside of dungeons instead of Pieces of Heart. This mechanic was resurrected in the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS installments.

* Up until ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds A Link Between Worlds]]'', [[WideOpenSandbox the open-endedness]] of the original game was nowhere to be seen. In fact, until the aforementioned [=3DS=] game, it was gradually reduced from ''[[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink The Adventure of Link]]'' onward.
* This trope also applies in terms of aesthetics and plot. The Triforce for one originally had only two parts, with the Triforce of Courage and the appearance as flat, golden Sierpinski triangles not featured until ''Zelda II''; in fact, the artwork, the cartoon, and the CD-i games actually portrayed it as glowing, gem-like tetrahedrons. While the standard look for the Triforce was codified in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', it was portrayed as actually speaking to Link. Link and Zelda had brown hair, the expanded Hyrule in ''Zelda II'' (which had DeathMountain on the southern part of the OverworldNotToScale instead of the usual northern location and had eastern and western regions separated by water) is never heard of in any other game, and races that became iconic aspects of the series in later games (e.g. Gorons, friendly Zoras, the Sheikah) are completely absent in early games. And then, of course, the early games had zero hints to the eventual timeline issues that would develop in large part thanks to ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', which would not be settled until Nintendo ''finally'' released an official timeline on the game's 25th anniversary. Said timeline relegates the early games to a third timeline [[TheHeroDies in which Ganon won]] in ''Ocarina of Time''; even the creators seem to argue that the early installments were weird.
* The three Pendants of Virtue needed to draw the Master Sword in ''A Link to the Past'' were the first of the recurring sets of green, blue, and red {{Plot Coupon}}s symbolizing courage, wisdom, and power; however, the Pendant of Wisdom was red and the Pendant of Power was blue, whereas nowadays the reverse is standard. ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds A Link Between Worlds]]'' reverses the colors to fit the current standard.
* In ''A Link to the Past'', the Big Key opens the Big Chest containing the dungeon's item. It was also used to open Big Key Doors, which saw more varied placement than in later games; not all them led to the boss room and some dungeons had more than one or even none.
* Both Link and the two Zeldas in the first two games had brown or reddish-brown hair, as depicted in official art. All other incarnations are varying degrees of blond. Link also originally had a long nose (which is used as a joke at least once). After ''Ocarina of Time'', all Links have had smaller noses.
* Ganon was consistently portrayed as a large, blue, evilly-dressed pig-like creature in the early games. His weapon of choice was magic, and eventually a trident, and battles took the form of hit-and-run rather than a direct duel. While ''Link to the Past'' established that he was once human, it was never shown, and there were no MorphicResonance elements that suggested a DarkSkinnedRedhead. Simply put, his human "Ganondorf" form didn't properly exist until ''Ocarina of Time'', and certainly was not expected at the time to be his iconic default form for every subsequent game. A few later games in the franchise similarly only feature his beast form, undoing the tradition of his human form being his "main" one.
* Ganon's weakness in the first game and ''A Link to the Past'' was [[SilverBullet Silver Arrows]], which were replaced with [[LightEmUp Light Arrows]] from ''Ocarina of Time'' onward. In the first game, that was also his only weakness, as the iconic Master Sword didn't exist yet. ''Ocarina of Time'' introduced the idea that the Master Sword must be used to deliver the final blow, an idea that has mostly stuck since.
* On the topic of the Master Sword, its first appearance in ''A Link to the Past'' featured a red and gold hilt instead of the purple hilt with an embedded gold gem that would become standard with ''Ocarina of Time''. In addition, the Master Sword in ''A Link to the Past'' was not portrayed as the ultimate sword; it could be upgraded two more times, which would change its appearance quite significantly. If a later game lets you upgrade the Master Sword, it is done via an enchantment that does not make any physical alterations to it.

* The first two games are AmbiguouslyChristian rather than subscribing to the FantasyPantheon of the three goddesses. Link has a cross on his shield, rather than any Hylian emblem; [[ReligionIsMagic the Book of Magic in the first game is explicitly referred to as a Bible]] in the Japanese version; a cross is a dungeon item in the second; and headstones in the cemeteries of these two games are adorned with crosses. This suggests that the original plan was to have Christianity as the religion of Hyrule, but starting with the third game they decided to create an original mythology instead. And interestingly, even though ''Link to the Past'' was the first installment that explicitly broke from Christian themes, in the booklet, [[https://zelda.gamepedia.com/File:LinkPraying.png there's art of Link praying to what's very clearly a crucifix, Jesus and everything]]. Miyamoto stated in an interview later that he's interested in world religions and uses them as inspiration for his games, but presumably didn't want to upset anyone with any unintentional inaccuracies as the series continued and religion became more important to the setting and plot.
* In the first game, dungeons are simply called Level 1, Level 2, etc., much like a more arcade-style game. All subsequent games give more flavorful names to their dungeons. The dungeons of the first game were subsequently given retronyms based on the shape of their respective floorplans.

* In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', Ruto is indicated as being around the same age as Link and ages accordingly during the Timeskip, while later games establish that Zora's are LongLived (with ''Breath of the Wild'' in particular showing that they have ProportionalAging to match). No mention is made of the potential MayflyDecemberRomance that would take place if she actually went through with her ChildhoodMarriagePromise to Link.

''[[EarlyInstallmentWeirdnessYMMV/TheLegendOfZeldaI The Legend of Zelda]]''

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' was the first game in the series to feature a ChainOfDeals quest, which is now a Zelda staple. But unlike all later ones, which were entirely optional, you're required to reach certain points in this quest to progress the plot.

* In the first game, dungeons are simply called Level 1, Level 2, etc., much like a more arcade-style game. All subsequent games give more flavorful names to their dungeons.

* In the first game, dungeons are simply called Level 1, Level 2, etc., much like a more arcade-style game. All subsequent games give more flavorful names to their dungeons.

* The first two games are AmbiguouslyChristian rather than subscribing to the FantasyPantheon of the three goddesses. Link has a cross on his shield, rather than any Hylian emblem; [[ReligionIsMagic the Book of Magic in the first game is explicitly referred to as a Bible]] in the Japanese version; a cross is a dungeon item in the second; and headstones in the cemeteries of these two games are adorned with crosses. This suggests that the original plan was to have Christianity as the religion of Hyrule, but starting with the third game they decided to create an original mythology instead. And interestingly, even though ''Link to the Past'' was the first installment that explicitly broke from Christian themes, in the booklet, [[https://zelda.gamepedia.com/File:LinkPraying.png there's art of Link praying to what's very clearly a crucifix, Jesus and everything]]. Miyamoto stated in an interview later that he's interested in world religions and uses them as inspiration for his games, but presumably didn't want to upset anyone with any unintentional inaccuracies as the series continued and religion became more important to the setting and plot.

* The first two games are AmbiguouslyChristian rather than subscribing to the FantasyPantheon of the three goddesses. Link has a cross on his shield, rather than the Hylian emblem; [[ReligionIsMagic the Book of Magic in the first game is explicitly referred to as a Bible]] in the first game; a cross is a dungeon item in the second; and headstones in the cemeteries of these two games are adorned with crosses. This suggests that the original plan was to have Christianity as the religion of Hyrule, but starting with the third game they decided to create an original mythology instead. And interestingly, even though ''Link to the Past'' was the first installment that explicitly broke from Christian themes, in the booklet, [[https://zelda.gamepedia.com/File:LinkPraying.png there's art of Link praying to what's very clearly a crucifix, Jesus and everything]]. Miyamoto stated in an interview later that he's interested in world religions and uses them as inspiration for his games, but presumably didn't want to upset anyone with any unintentional inaccuracies as the series continued and religion became more important to the setting and plot.