Defining The Legend of Zelda: The Role of Combat

ZU writes: Near the end of May, I examined the important role that puzzles have had in the evolution of the Legend of Zelda series. In that article, I noted that fans often debate whether puzzles or combat is more important to the series. Both puzzles and combat have played an important part in the evolution of the Legend of Zelda series and today I’m going to to take a closer look at the role of combat in The Legend of Zelda.

A newcomber to the Legend of Zelda series would quickly note that Link’s weapon of choice is a sword, but after playing through a portion of any Legend of Zelda game the same player would realize that there is far more to the combat of The Legend of Zelda than swordplay. The inventory items that Link acquires throughout each game have always played a pivotal role in Link’s adventures. I’ll be exploring roles of both swordplay and inventory items in this conclusion to “Defining The Legend of Zelda”.