AdventureRules- Charming and Open!

Hello there! I bet you forgot that Brink of Gaming had a blog! 😀

While I no longer participate on the blog front actively, my buddy Adventure Rules is closing down his WP site and wanted to send it off in spectacular fashion: a community writing event! Remember when we used to do those all the time? (I miss them!) Adventure Rules proposed that bloggers wanting to participate ask him a question, then he would respond with one in kind.

I asked Adventure Rules “What are your Top 10 Pokémon?” I’ll link his response post here.

In return, Adventure Rules asked one of the most challenging questions of all:

“What would you say is your favorite game series, and what about that series makes it so special for you?”

Choosing between liked options has never been my specialty, whether picking what to have for dinner or settling on a ranking for my top 10 favorite Pokémon (I did it once on the blog, but it’s not 100% accurate anymore). HOWEVER, Adventure Rules deserves a mighty send-off and so I’m going to make that effort for him!

(Author’s note: Adventure Rules is no longer shutting down his WP site, but it was still a joy to participate in this community event!)

---

Brink’s Awakening

I’ve been playing video games since I was four years old- that’s nearly 30 years of options to settle on! I cut my teeth on Super Mario Bros. 1-3, dove into Sonic the Hedgehog and its expanded comic universe, and eventually found true video game obsession with Pokémon Red and Blue. My next big expansion in gaming taste was discovering western RPGs with classics like Fable, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. But despite their importance to my personal gaming journey, I find that none of these series TRULY deserve the title of being my favorite. And so, with no more hesitation or delay, I declare my favorite video game series to be…

…The Legend of Zelda.

I know, I know- choosing Zelda is not a very unique or rare pick. Heck, entire internet personalities base their names, memes, wikis, and posts around this legendary (HA!) series. But like these same people I have not JUST a long history with Zelda, but countless memories, milestones, and time spent with friends while enjoying adventures in Hyrule and beyond.

---

A Brink to the Past

Every journey has to start somewhere- those are the Adventure Rules (HAHA!). But the beginning of my Zelda journey wasn’t mine alone. You see, my first experience in Hyrule was watching my best friend (I’ll call him Kray) start up Ocarina of Time and mish-mashing the buttons together to come up with Link’s name (which he and I still remember to this day! But it’s a sworn secret). We journeyed through Kokiri Forest, inside the Great Deku Tree, and eventually snuck our way into Hyrule Castle. It was my suggestion to check the far wall for a way in, where we then found the climbable rocks to access the mote.

Kray and I ended up playing several Zelda games together as kids- he would lead the charge, and I would pick them up myself later when I had more confidence in navigating these fantasy worlds. We spent so much time goofing around in Majora’s Mask, pulling all-nighters, swimming around the Great Bay as a Zora, and seeing how many funny freeze-frame angles we could get while shooting Tingle’s balloon with arrows. Kray also helped me get through Wind Waker for the first time when I became stuck on the later dungeons. Due to a change in living situation, Kray moved away and so we each played Twilight Princess on our own, but still talked about it frequently!

The last mainline Zelda game we played together was Skyward Sword for the Wii. We spent four days straight soaring the clouds, breaking chandeliers, and cursing out undead pirates before finally drawing the curtain on our journey at 4:00 am that final morning. While our adventures in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were also entirely our own (being grown adults now with spouses, house payments, and taxes), we couldn’t wait to share updates about our journeys and discoveries every day following release!

The Legend of Zelda has been a constant in my friendship with Kray since we were both 8 years old and has been there across so many life changes. Playing Zelda together are some of my favorite, most important memories. But even ripping away this vast amount of nostalgia that has its hooks in the series for me, Zelda would remain my favorite of all time for other reasons.

---

A Brink Between Worlds

At this time of writing, I have played every single Zelda game aside from Spirit Tracks and Triforce Heroes, though I have not yet found the patience to actually beat Zelda II or Phantom Hourglass. Perhaps I never will. But one thing that remains constant across this epic series is its commitment to growth, change, and never staying quite the same from adventure to adventure.

Sure, at the core of Zelda is its requirement of adventure- Open areas to explore, caves to plunder, items to discover, and enemies to battle! But the journey across a 2D Hyrule in A Link to the Past is so much different than the 3D Ocarina of Time. Even across polygonal iterations the layout and structure of each game world is vastly different, as is the rotating arsenal of weapons and items to help you on your journey. Zelda games offer a sense of variety while never straying too far off the path of “feeling” like Zelda. The fields, mountains, lakes, and deserts of Hyrule always look stunning in each new iteration (maybe not if you go back to the Nintendo 64 games now :P) and invite the player to look in every corner for secrets.

A massive part of Zelda’s charm (the games, not the princess… Okay, also the princess) is the lovable cast of characters that inhabit each world to see you on your way, from the elfish Hylians to the numerous other races that dwell within and around Hyrule. Bulky Gorons recruit you into their brotherhood, while Zoras offer you the means to swim skillfully, and sometimes dive down to the ocean’s depths. But there are also the Kokiri- small forest children that eventually transformed into Korok leaf spirits during the time of the Great Flood- the miniscule Minish folk, the burrowing Mogma, and so many other mysterious races that pop in even for just one game. Newer games have even offered sprinkles of “forgotten” races, such as the Zonai from Tears of the Kingdom, that add another layer of mystique to the Zelda mythology.

The individual characters of Zelda themselves range from normal citizens with little to say, to important quest-givers that offer up big rewards. From the zany Tingle who is 35 and thinks he’s a fairy to the delightfully-exuberant Beedle the merchant, many characters break the mold and appear in several games across the series to further lend a sense of familiarity. And who could forget the Hand in the Toilet who needed Link’s help several times over? Zelda’s cast is portrayed with a balance of helpfulness, curiosity, and whimsy that makes each character unique and lovable in their own ways… except Snot Kid from Wind Waker. He can get launched to the moon with a Zonai Rocket for all I care.

---

The Adventure of Brink

We’d be here all day if I were to dissect and monologue about every single facet of what makes the Zelda series my absolute favorite, but I’ve done my best to wrap it up into a nice, neat package. These games are the most fun, memorable, high-quality adventures I’ve ever undertaken, each one filled with memories both in and out-of-game. I mean, heck, I’m in the middle of filling my right arm with tattoos of my favorite “things” from each Zelda game (one tattoo per game, but that may change as I get closer to finishing it).

Thank you to Adventure Rules for this fun excuse to think about my favorite video game series! Until next time, everyone.

-Brink