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.
CD-i games from The Legend of Zelda series
Released nearly 8 months after the first two "Zelda" CD-i games, "Zelda's Adventure" was created by a different third-party developer, Viridis. The game again follows a nontraditional Zelda-saves-Link plotline, but it uses a different game engine than "Faces of Evil" and "Wand of Gamelon". Whereas the first two CD-i games were patterned on the side-scrolling "Zelda II: The Adventure of Link", "Zelda's Adventure" took the top-down "The Legend of Zelda" as its model. "Zelda's Adventure" featured FMV cutscenes, but rather than using drawn animation, the game used live-action scenes. Reception for the game was poor, and whereas some modern critics have given more nuanced reviews of the first two games, modern criticism for "Zelda's Adventure" is unanimously negative.