Give Link a break: Celebrating the legends of people other than Zelda

Whose legend is it? Fourteen-year-old Corona (though you can name him anything you want, hint hint), whose plans to become a great hero get just a tad sidetracked after he loses his ability to talk to humans, in exchange for the gift of talking to animals and plants. (Including, memorably, a quick chat with our old pal Sonic The Hedgehog.)What’s the legend about? Co-existence, eventually. Through his travels in the animal kingdom, Corona eventually realizes that the monsters he’s been battling against aren’t evil, but merely misunderstood. That’s when time travel kicks in—no, really—sending our hero back into the past in order to eliminate the conditions that led to the disastrous human-monster wars in the first place. And all without needing any Master Swords or pesky magical triangles to help him manage the task!How Zelda is it? ❤️Crusader Of Centy owes a clear visual debt to Nintendo’s A Link To The Past, mimicking its colorful and stubby character design. But in terms of ambition, it frequently manages to actually outpace the far more famous game, introducing systems that let you mix and match Corona’s power-ups (which arrive in the form of various animal companions), leap across levels with some fairly robust platforming mechanics, and, of course, race a cheetah in a go-kart. (Don’t worry, you can bribe the cheetah to let you win.)Hookshot y/n? This one’s a little tricky. Corona does get an animal companion (Dodo) who has the ability to drag enemies back to him when he throws his sword at them. But in terms of movement, you’re a lot better off with Rio the armadillo, who’s happy to let you throw him and turn him into a makeshift platform to let you jump across a gap. (We told you this was an interesting one, right?)

Whose legend is it? An unnamed farm boy—or, rather, an alien “space sheriff” named Zero who crash-lands near the kid’s home and then possesses him.What’s the legend about? Zero has arrived on Earth in the 1800s in order to capture an intergalactic criminal, who has been unleashing monsters called Demiseeds on the world for not terribly well-explained reasons. Zero/unnamed farm boy have to kill the monsters that have invaded and defeat the lead criminal in order to save the world. You know, video game stuff.How Zelda is it? ❤️❤️Visually, it’s basically indistinguishable. The item menu and the dungeon map screens are exactly the same as 1992’s A Link To The Past, as are some geographical features of the map. One thing that’s not particularly Zelda, though, is the enemy designs. They are, to put it one way, pretty goddamn racist. A lot of bosses evoke Native American imagery, and one of the most common enemies traffics in the same racist tropes that crop up with characters like from Dragon Ball or Jinx from Pokémon. It’s not good. The game never actually came out Stateside, presumably because it was released in Japan extremely late in the life of the SNES—but maybe also because some executive at a game company recognized the problematic nature of the whole damn thing and decided to let Gunple fade into Japan-only obscurity.Hookshot y/n? No, but it does have Uzis and flamethrowers and bazookas. Just like they had in cowboy times!

Whose legend is it? The titular Alundra, an elven-ish “Dreamwalker” who has the ability to enter the sleeping minds of others—which, for some reason, inevitably takes the form of dungeons filled to the brim with Zelda-esque puzzles and bosses.What’s the legend about? After a sudden shipwreck, Alundra washes ashore in the village of Inoa, whose residents—conveniently enough—find themselves plagued with an increasingly lethal series of nightmares that only their newest resident can unravel. Working with local scientist Septimus and fellow Dreamwalker Meia, Alundra investigates both the village, and its residents’ subconsciouses, in an effort to get to the bottom of the plague.How Zelda is it? ❤️❤️❤️Quite a bit, at least at first. The top-down perspective is immediately obvious, alongside the split between overworld exploration and more elaborate dungeon delving. (Also, block-pushing, sliding ice puzzles, and other stock Zelda tropes are wildly abundant.) But where Alundra gets really interesting is in where it diverges from the Nintendo model by being, well, well-written. Heavy topics abound, and rather than a series of static quest-givers, Inoa’s residents evolve and change throughout the game—not always for the better, as the rising death count, despite Alundra’s best efforts, leads to increasingly harried outbreaks of xenophobia and despair.Hookshot y/n? No, but Alundra does get a wide assortment of wands, boots, capes, and more to upgrade his arsenal and movement abilities. Fun fact: Many of these new items are developed by local blacksmith Jess after being inspired by the death of someone in the village! Alundra’s just that kind of game.

Whose legend is it? Amaterasu, goddess of the sun, friend to all living things—and one extremely good pupper.What’s the legend about? One hundred years after sealing herself away to defeat a demon, the goddess Amaterasu—in the form of a white wolf—emerges from her slumber to find the land beset by evils, the people drained of their faith in the gods, and herself little more powerful than a regular canine. Accompanied by pint-sized pal Issun, she travels the land, collecting techniques for her Celestial Brush, doing good deeds to remind people of the power of divine intervention, and seeking to free her unknowing subjects of the scourge of the demons attacking them.How Zelda is it? ❤️❤️Although it predates the actual Zelda game where Link spends much of his time as a wolf (Twilight Princess) by several months, there’s a healthy streak of the franchise’s DNA running all through Ōkami. Less dungeon-and-tool-focused than many other entries on this list, it instead captures a more ineffable Zelda feeling. Really, it’s all about that sense of losing yourself in the world that games like Ocarina Of Time (and even the modern Breath Of The Wild) are still celebrated for, encouraging you to run all across the gorgeous cel-shaded countryside while tracking down sidequests, collecting stray treasures, and just marveling at the beauty of its world.Hookshot y/n? Shockingly for a video game in which the protagonist doesn’t have hands, the answer is pretty much a yes. One of Ammy’s Celestial Brush techniques allows her to create a vine running between herself and special flowers in the world, often allowing her to access higher areas. Not the most versatile version of the Hookshot ever devised, but damn good for a goddess sorely lacking in the thumbs department.

Whose legend is it? War, one of the Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse. He has a little hood over his tiny head, giant shoulder pauldrons over his giant shoulders, and a big sword in his meaty claw.What’s the legend about? Armageddon started too early, giving the armies of heaven and hell a head start before the Horsemen—tasked with balancing the inevitable conflict and defending Earth from apocalyptic devastation—could show up to the party. That means Earth was basically obliterated in the fighting, and the two factions are eagerly preparing to slaughter each other in Apocalypse Round 2. Blamed for the whole debacle, War has to figure out who started the apocalypse early, as well as why none of the other riders woke up with him—all while fighting off angels, demons, and a very snarky Mark Hamill.How Zelda is it? ❤️❤️❤️❤️If Shigeru Miyamoto had listened to heavy metal as a kid while he was exploring caves, Darksiders is what Zelda could’ve been. There’s a large hub world where you travel from location to location, you complete self-contained dungeon-like areas where you get a new item and then use it to solve environmental puzzles, and you fight enemies through relatively straightforward combat that mostly involves swords. (Although not exclusively swords.)Hookshot y/n? Yes. It’s called the Abyssal Chain, but as Shakespeare said, a Hookshot by any other name would still pull you toward big stuff and pull small stuff over toward you. There’s also a Portal gun that’s similarly unabashed about its inspiration.

Whose legend is it? A nameless (and thus name-able) descendant of a great hero. (Have you considered the name Mr. Butt? You should probably name him Mr. Butt.)What’s the legend about? Orbs! Orbs and sages, with the latter working to use the former to maintain a seal on the Dark King Onyx, bane of the Dotnia Kingdom. Look, the developers at Silicon Studio didn’t take the plot of this tongue-in-cheek pastiche of the Zelda formula too seriously, so there’s no need for you to either. Just fight your way through a bunch of dungeons and enjoy the still-gorgeous 3D pixel art, okay?How Zelda is it? ❤️❤️❤️Let’s put it this way, the very first tool you get in the very first dungeon is a boomerang. As a very intentional riff on Zelda games, 3D Dot Heroes does everything in its power to generate a 3-dimensional take on the original The Legend Of Zelda. (Not to be confused with the actual 3D Zelda games.) Interestingly, though, Silicon Studio couldn’t resist slotting in a few more modern aspects, most notably an RPG-lite forging system that lets you customize the power of the various weapons your hero acquires over their journey, which moves the game a little bit further from a straight homage. (There’s also the part where your sword can stretch all the way across the screen, which Link would probably kill to get his hands on.)Hookshot y/n? Well, it’s called a “Wire Wand,” and it’s not the most combat-ready version of everyone’s favorite spring-mounted grappling hook ever designed. But it’s there—and with it, the true heart of any great Zelda nod.