The Legend of Zelda: Zach's Quest

The Legend of Zelda series is one of the most popular, loved and influential video game series on this planet. So many kids of the 80's, 90's and the 2000's have grown up with these games and the adventures that Link and Zelda get themselves into. This series means an immense amount to a lot of people and honestly, I feel that The Legend of Zelda series means more to me than it does to anybody else on this Earth.

When I was in my mother's womb she would lay on the couch and watch my father play Zelda 1 and Zelda 2 on the Nintendo Entertainment System. My father would play Zelda 2 with my brother all the time and he taught him all the secrets of that game from beginning to the end. My father passed his love of Zelda and video games onto us from a very young age. The Zelda treasure chest chime is the sound that was played the day I was born and has not stopped ringing to this day.

January 8th, 2001, my father passed away and my life has forever changed because of it; the repercussions of his death still hang with me today. My mother became a single mom but she also became a warrior and my own personal Princess Zelda, someone whom'st I want to protect with my life and one who will protect me with all of her heart.

My life has always been reclusive and I've always been kind of an emotional and introverted kid, so naturally I turned to video games. My brother Eric and I would play Ocarina of Time and Mario 64 together all the time. Video games gave me a reason to be joyous and a reason to want to explore the world around me, they protected me and cared for me. My mother told me that my dad's favorite video game series was The Legend of Zelda, at the time I didn't really think much of him being gone and what any of it meant. My brother told me that my dad helped him beat Zelda 2 and taught him everything he knew about video games.

Fast forward to the year Twilight Princess released. I remember vividly around this time always wanting to know who my father was and what he thought of me. I especially was curious as to what he thought about the trailers and pictures of the new Zelda game coming out in December of that year. Slowly but surely the months crept by and I finally picked up Twilight Princess; during my time with the game I would always ask myself what would HE think, what would HE do. The death of my father hadn't really been something that I reflected on until that game came out. Twilight Princess made me take the stripes on my back and carry the weight of everything I've ignored up to this point in my life.

The Legend of Zelda series has a new main title game every six years, give or take a few. When these games get announced and gameplay gets shown, I cry, I get morose but I also get excited. The series has vicariously turned into something special for me, a beautiful time to reunite with the thoughts of my father. I've found him in every single Zelda game that has come out.

This year at the Switch event a couple of friends and I got together and live streamed the whole thing. The event ended with the final Zelda trailer and a release date, when the date splashed up on the screen I had tears in my eyes and I was screaming with joy. Breath of The Wild was coming and it was coming SOON. My friends and I were happy and running around their apartment screaming about Mario and Zelda while a soft warm feeling spread through my chest, the familiar and comfortable feeling of a new Zelda game coming out.

Breath of The Wild looks to be the best Zelda game to come out since Ocarina of Time and I cannot be more excited to play it and explore its world for copious hours with a smile on my face, thinking of my late father.

A young Quest plays Super Mario World