Action role-playing game
An important influence on the action RPG genre was the 1986 action-adventure, "The Legend of Zelda", which served as the template for many future action RPGs. In contrast to previous action RPGs, such as "Dragon Slayer" and "Hydlide," which required the player to bump into enemies in order to attack them, "The Legend of Zelda" featured an attack button that animates a sword swing or projectile attack on the screen. It was also an early example of open-world, nonlinear gameplay, and introduced new features such as battery backup saving. These elements have been used in many action RPGs since.
The Legend of Zelda
A number of official books, novels, and gamebooks have been released based on the series as well. The earliest was "Moblin's Magic Spear", published in 1989 by Western Publishing under their Golden Books Family Entertainment division and written by Jack C. Harris. It took place sometime during the first game. Two gamebooks were published as part of the "Nintendo Adventure Books" series by Archway, both of which were written by Matt Wayne. The first was "The Crystal Trap" (which focuses more on Zelda) and the second was "The Shadow Prince". Both were released in 1992. A novel based on "Ocarina of Time" was released in 1999, written by Jason R. Rich and published by Sybex Inc. under their "Pathways to Adventure" series. Another two gamebooks were released as part of the "You Decide on the Adventure" series published by Scholastic. The first book was based on "Oracle of Seasons" and was released in 2001. The second, based on "Oracle of Ages", was released in 2002. Both were written by Craig Wessel. In 2006, Scholastic released a novel as part of their "Nintendo Heroes" series, "Link and the Portal of Doom". It was written by Tracey West and was set shortly after the events of "Ocarina of Time".