History Videogame / TheLegendOfZeldaCDIGames

* NoHeroDiscount: Morshu explicitly says that he can't give Link credit if he's short on rubies, though he's at least apologetic about it. The Gamelon shopkeep, meanwhile, bluntly tells Zelda to wipe out a few more Goriyas if she can't afford something.

In 2023, in collaboration with Limited Run Games, Dopply (under the professional alias Seedy Eye Software[[note]][[{{Pun}} "CD-i"]], y'see[[/note]]) would announce that he had been working on a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Faces of Evil'' and ''Wand of Gamelon'', titled ''VideoGame/ArzetteTheJewelOfFaramore''. In addition to Dopply himself, the development team also includes ''Faces of Evil'' and ''Wand of Gamelon'''s background artist Rob Dunlavey, and Jeffrey Rath (Link) and Bonnie Jean Wilbur (Zelda) are also confirmed to be part of the game's voice cast. ''Arzette'' is set to release on February 14, 2024.

%%* AndThatsTerrible:

%%* PayEvilUntoEvil: This exchange from ''Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon'':

* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Ganon in ''Faces of Evil'' offer Link power and fame and threatens to kill him if he refuses, though the starts fighting the hero anyway.

* ClimaxBoss: The battle with Ganon's [[TheDragon dragons]] in both games; Lupay of ''Faces of Evil'' is the only boss other than [[FinalBoss Ganon]] that isn't repeated (though, oddly, they can be skipped completely), while Hektan of ''Wand of Gamelon'' precedes an important plot point (Duke Onkled being revealed as a traitor).

* FaceHeelTurn: Midway through ''Wand of Gamelon'', it's suddenly revealed that Duke Onkled was lying about being attacked by Ganon, and had actually allied with him in a plan to capture the king.

* MercyInvincibility: Sadly averted. Any kind of prolonged contact with an enemy, even if it's just for a second, can result in half of your health getting eaten up. Getting hurt doesn't knock you back, either.

* MilkingTheGiantCow: The animated characters often engage in this.
* ModestRoyalty: Played straight with Zelda and the King, but averted with Duke Onkled.

* MotivationalKiss: Actively {{defied|Trope}} by Zelda in ''Faces of Evil''.

* NintendoHard: A poorly-designed controller, ambiguous backgrounds, somewhat cryptic clues on what to do next, and enemies that respawn or are hard to hit all come together to make ''Faces of Evil'' and ''Wand of Gamelon'' games that are really unpleasant to get through but not impossible to beat. Although to be fair, ''Zelda's Adventure'' makes them look very short and easy by comparison.

* NuclearCandle: One use of the lantern lights up the entire dark area for a limited time, and requires lantern oil.
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Ganon in ''Faces of Evil'' offer Link power and fame and threatens to kill him if he refuses. However, you can't even make a choice in the matter since Ganon attacks you anyway.

* OnlySixFaces: All Koridians look exactly the same.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: This exchange from ''Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon'':

* PerfectlyCromulentWord: "Squadalah!"
* PlotHole:
** When Lord Kiro tells Zelda that the Duke Onkled betrayed the king, Zelda says that she already knows, even though she never learns this earlier in the game.
** The ending to ''Wand of Gamelon'' makes no sense whatsoever. How and when did Link get trapped in Alma's mirror? Why are Lord Kiro and Lady Alma here? What are the King and Zelda laughing at? Okay, the last one is most likely them laughing at Link's stupidity.
* PowerFist: An item in both ''Faces of Evil'' and ''Wand of Gamelon'', which lets the heroes break boulders and hurt tougher enemies.

* PreAsskickingOneLiner:
** This exchange from ''Wand of Gamelon'':

* PrepareToDie: Bosses are fond of telling "You will die!" or some similar variation of the sentence.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: King Harkinian and Zelda. Duke Onkled does absolutely nothing, though.

* SceneryPorn: For the time these games were made (1993 and 1995), the levels are actually rather beautiful. ''Zelda's Adventure'' tried to make things look realistic, and a few rooms in the game actually do look pretty stunning. [[DerangedAnimation Averted big time during the cutscenes]].

* SuddenlyVoiced: Link, Zelda and even Ganon.

* ThrowTheBookAtThem: Link's method of defeating Ganon in ''Faces of Evil.'' In case you think there's any sort of catch or prerequisites aside from scoring a direct hit with the book: [[OneHitPointWonder there isn't.]]
-->'''Ipo:''' Listen! Such is the power of the Prince of Darkness, that he can kill with a single look! Attacks against Ganon will prove fruitless unless Link attacks with the sacred book.
* TimeSkip:

* TomeOfEldritchLore: The book of Koridai, used to seal Ganon away.

* TrialAndErrorGameplay: Many times it's possible to get stuck due to the games being very non-linear and progression items usually not being clear.

** Many, ''many'' enemies in ''Zelda's Adventure'' make the exact same male grunt noise when they get hit. This includes things like birds, spiders and dragonflies.

** Lupay has a feminine voice, despite looking like Omfak from ''Wand of Gamelon'', whose voice was a lot more befitting of his WolfMan appearance.

* WithThisHerring:

* YourSizeMayVary: Some bosses, namely Militron and Glutko, are depicted as huge in cutscenes, being able to fit a person in the palm of one hand, but are only a little taller than Link in-game. Then there's the fact that Militron is revealed upon defeat to be a regular old man in armor the entire time, so not even the ''cutscenes'' are internally consistent.
* ZeroEffortBoss: In ''Faces'' and ''Wand'', they all go down in one hit -- even Ganon. You need the right weapon to do it, though.

* DepthPerplexion: Sometimes the perspective of the game, platforms, and the enemies make no sense.

* DisintegratorRay:

* DisproportionateRetribution: Ganon and light.

* ExtremeCloseUp: There is a very common - and usually unnecessary - idiosyncratic zooming-in on various characters in the cutscenes. Often overlaps with GrossUpCloseUp, especially with Yokan, who says half of his lines with his ugly, wrinkly face all over the screen.
* ExtremeOmnivore: Glutko in ''Faces of Evil.'' Also:
-->'''Link:''' [[HoldYourHippogriffs I'm so hungry, I could eat an Octorok!]]\\
'''Omfak:''' Whatever I see, I shall devour!

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Hektan gruesomely melts away into the ground after being hit by a SwordBeam from Zelda, leaving his HeartContainer -- which looks like a still-beating heart -- behind.

* FeedItABomb: Link can't wait to bomb some Dodongos! This is also how he beats Glutko, and how Zelda beats Omfak.

* HardLevelsEasyBosses: Of an even worse magnitude than ''VideoGame/{{Zelda II|TheAdventureOfLink}}''. In ''Faces of Evil'' and ''Wand of Gamelon'', whereas Link and Zelda respectively have to bust their asses to defeat the {{mooks}}, most of the bosses die with one hit. Even '''[[BigBad Ganon]]''' himself -- Link must [[ThrowTheBookAtThem throw the Book of Koridai]] at him; Zelda must use the titular Wand of Gamelon to summon binding chains... and then the book inexplicably reappears ''again'' to seal Ganon. The only bosses that put up a fight are the ones that need to be killed with standard attacks or weapons that don't kill in one hit like the Power Glove.
* HeKnowsAboutTimedHits:

* IfIDoNotReturn:

* InformedAbility: Link's claim that Ganon is "no match for the King". We see nothing of King Harkinian's supposed fighting ability (indeed, him getting captured by Ganon is what kickstarts the game's plot).
* InHarmsWay: The quote at the top of this page indicates Link has this attitude.

* ItMakesSenseInContext: The introductory cutscene for Tykogi Tower. It's supposed to depict the inhabitants of Sakado imprisoned there, but since all cutscenes (apart from the intro and ending) lack backgrounds, it instead shows out-of-context clips of Mayor Cravendish saying "This is illegal, you know." and Harbanno saying "My cakes will burn!". The WebVideo/GameGrumps [[https://youtu.be/bs_sBMR-D18?t=126 were notably confused]] by these characters suddenly appearing when Impa was the only person around (they're actually just visions in the Triforce of Wisdom).

* LargeHam: Pretty much every single character that has a speaking line.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: ''Zelda's Adventure'' has several seconds of loading during ''every screen transition''. The game cannot play music while loading, so in dungeons, moving to another room [[LongSongShortScene forces the music to restart]].
* MagicMirror: Link gets trapped inside Alma's mirror in ''Wand Of Gamelon''. We never learn how this happened.
* {{Malaproper}}: Philips didn't seem to realize that they're called "rupees", not "rubies."

* MediumBlending: Used in the opening of ''Zelda's Adventure''.

* AchillesHeel: The cause of the bosses being so [[HardLevelsEasyBosses anticlimactic]] in the first two games is that they usually go down in only a few hits to an item you need to search for.

* AlmostKiss: The visuals near the end of ''Faces Of Evil'' suggest one of these between Link and Zelda. Of course, what those visuals actually intended to accomplish is [[OffModel unclear]].

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Lady Alma in ''Wand of Gamelon'' seemed to enjoy mocking Zelda, was quick to point off they're better off without Link, and it's revealed Link was trapped in her mirror. It's unknown if Alma was the one who trapped him.

* AndThatsTerrible:

* ArtisticLicenseSpace: Odranoel the astronomer claims that the night is cold because stars are made of ice. Our own sun is proof that it isn't true. Even the coldest stars would be considered hot for humans.
* ArtShift: The cutscenes are very obviously animated by different people. Link and Zelda look different in pretty much every scene they appear in, and Zelda is even shown wearing a completely different outfit sometimes.

* BagOfHolding:

* BigGood: King Harkinian, both [[AdiposeRex literally]] and metaphorically.

* BookEnds: Link trying to get Zelda to kiss him in the beginning and final cutscenes in ''Faces of Evil''.

* BottomlessPits: There are certain levels where you instantly die from falling into areas that aren't solid ground (water and pits) but what exacerbates this problem is that the backgrounds aren't always clear about where you can and cannot stand. A deceptively notorious example of this is in Doradung Cave: If you walk two steps to the left at the start, Zelda will die from falling into a bottomless pit which is located precisely on the root of a dead tree trunk which innocently fools you into thinking that you can just walk over it safely.
* BreathlessNonSequitur: "My ship sails in the morning. I wonder what's for ''DINNER''?"[[note]]If you listen closely (''very'' closely; "turn the volume up on your headphones until your ears bleed" levels of closely), you can hear the sound of a dinner bell in the background of the scene, so it's not a complete non sequitur InUniverse.[[/note]]

** Spear Moblins and Snowballs make their debut in ''Faces of Evil'', though the latter was only an item before becoming an official enemy obstacle in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' 7 years later.

* TheChosenOne:

* CreepyGood: Several of the characters encountered can be a bit on the creepy side, even if they do nothing but help you.

* DemBones: The Stalfos enemies are skeletons.
* DenialOfDiagonalAttack: Link and Zelda can only swing their swords forward, not even getting the downwards stab that ''The Adventure of Link'' had.

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment:

A series of games based on ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' (as Philips didn't have the rights to the franchise name, none of them actually use the name "Legend of Zelda" anywhere) made in the early 90s, as part of Philips Electronics' deal with Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s [[UsefulNotes/{{SNESCDROM}} SNES CD-ROM]]. The idea fell through, but Philips had been given [[LicensedGame the right to make several games based on Nintendo characters]] (not their respective franchises, just the characters), in this case from ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]'' and ''Zelda''. So, along with ''VideoGame/HotelMario'', they made three games for the UsefulNotes/PhilipsCDi system: ''Link: The Faces of Evil'', ''Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon'' and ''Zelda's Adventure''. These are [[OldShame not regarded]] [[CanonDiscontinuity as canon]] by Nintendo, and are ignored by the timeline inside material such as Official Nintendo Power Zelda game lists, and ''Zelda'''s 25th anniversary artbook ''Literature/HyruleHistoria''.[[note]]In fact, these games aren't mentioned at all in ''Hyrule Historia''. Not even so much as a footnote.[[/note]]

In 2023, in collaboration with Limited Run Games, Dopply (under the professional alias Seedy Eye Software[[note]][[{{Pun}} "CD-i"]], y'see[[/note]]) would announce that he had been working on a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Faces of Evil'' and ''Wand of Gamelon'', titled ''VideoGame/ArzetteTheJewelOfFaramore''. In addition to Dopply himself, the development team also includes ''Faces of Evil'' and ''Wand of Gamelon'''s background artist Rob Dunlavey, and Jeffrey Rath (Link) and Bonnie Jean Wilbur (Zelda) are also confirmed to be part of the game's voice cast. ''Arzette'' is set to release sometime later in 2023.

The most infamous by far are the two sidescrolling platformer games reminiscent of ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'', both released in 1993. In ''Faces of Evil'', Link had to travel to the island of Koridai to liberate it from Ganon's forces; ''Wand of Gamelon'' featured Zelda traveling to Gamelon to save her father -- King Harkinian -- and Link. The games are quite infamous on the internet due to their animated cutscenes, often regarded as [[LargeHam hammy]], [[DerangedAnimation bizarre]], and [[{{Narm}} unintentionally hilarious]]; as a result, they are one of the sources most often used for humorous remix videos known as YouTubePoop.

* NowWhichOneWasThatVoice:
** Both "Link: The Faces of Evil" and "Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon" have voice actors credited, but it's never stated who voiced whom. Only Link and Zelda are credited in their respective games.
** "Zelda's Adventure" has no actor's credited. Composer Mark Andrade stated that he was Gaspra, but his voice over was Hal Smith.