DGC Ep 055: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (part two)

Dev Game Club

Welcome to the second episode in our series exploring SNES classic The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. We talk a lot about how it's difficult even to analyze a game that casts such a long shadow and open worlds as a genre. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played: Through Agahnim battle

Podcast breakdown: 0:30 Segment 1: LttP Discussion 52:05 Break 52:25 Segment 2: Feedback

Issues covered: hardware features, the series long shadow, how do you look at it with fresh eyes, the vocabulary that comes up every day, the underlying structure, discovery and exploration, "the Zelda game I always wanted," Nintendo establishing structures for several genres, what the legend means, multiple hands touching a series, the template, building up a set of skills to tackle each new challenge, stamina system in the new Zelda and how it's set aside in Skyrim, challenge vs expression, a wild goose chase, side quests to the ice rod and the flippers, taking notes, digression into Nintendo hardware quality, balancing discovery and usability, the bunny rabbit moment, the Moon Pearl, review drive, Game Theory Club, reimagining games, revisiting a game with series improvements, Link to the Past Randomizer, extending the life of a game.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Spirit Tracks, Super Metroid, Dungeons and Dragons, Atari 2600, Adventure, Breath of the Wild, Soul Reaver, Assassin's Creed (series), Mario (series), Castlevania, 1001 Nights, Dark Souls, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Shigeru Miyamoto, Metroid Prime (series), Retro Studios, Metroid: Other M, Team Ninja, CapCom, Eiji Aonuma, James Bond, Casino Royale, Final Fantasy, Skyrim, Todd Howard, UbiSoft, Far Cry (series), OC Remix, Zapturk, dedalusdivine, seaofmorgan, John Feil, Harley Baldwin, Mr.Rintrah, World of Warcraft, AreEyeSeaKay, Daron Stinnett, Starfighter, Ratchet & Clank, Doom (2016), Timothy McAleer, James R., Spelunky.

Next time: Play up to and through the Ice Palace

Links: Link to the Past Randomizer

@brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub [e-mail]