The Legend of Zelda (video game)
"The Legend of Zelda" is considered a spiritual forerunner of the modern role-playing video game (RPG) genre. Though it is often not considered part of the genre since it lacked key RPG mechanics such as experience points, it had many features in common with RPGs and served as the template for the action role-playing game genre. The game's fantasy setting, musical style and action-adventure gameplay were adopted by many RPGs. Its commercial success helped lay the groundwork for involved, non-linear games in fantasy settings, such as those found in successful RPGs, including "Crystalis", "Soul Blazer", Square's "Seiken Densetsu" series, "Alundra", and "Brave Fencer Musashi". The popularity of the game also spawned several clones trying to emulate the game.
The Legend of Zelda (video game)
"GameSpot" featured "The Legend of Zelda" as one of the 15 most influential games of all time, for being an early example of open world, nonlinear gameplay, and for its introduction of battery backup saving, laying the foundations for later action-adventure games like "Metroid" and role-playing video games like "Final Fantasy", while influencing most modern games in general. In 2009, "Game Informer" called "The Legend of Zelda" "no less than the greatest game of all time" on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time", saying that it was "ahead of its time by years if not decades".