Gears of War, Darksiders devs talk about how Zelda influenced them

The Legend of Zelda is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. In honor of that, GameSpot’s Mike Mahardy wrote an article about the series’ legacy, and reached out to some developers to see how it influenced them. Cliff Bleszinski – former Gears of War maker – as well as Darksiders developers Joe Madureira and David Adams shared some thoughts.

Continue on below for a look at what the three developers said. You can also find the original article with comments from artist David Hellman here.

Cliff Bleszinski

“My friend handed me the instruction manual. I can still remember the smell–that freshly printed smell.”

“There’s also that sense of mystery that Zelda had. That sense of wonder. In Gears of War, we put in references to the past, just to flesh out the world and lend a sense of background. That sense that this is a world you’re occupying.”

“Zelda is important for its influence, but also for what it means. It can be a projection of childhood. The first time I played Zelda, it really gave me that feeling of being a kid again, back in the woods outside of Boston.”

“You go underground a lot in Zelda. You do it in Gears of War, too. And being underground can be dangerous psychologically. It can be exhausting. So when you get out of the dungeon and into the overworld, you get a breath of fresh air, and it’s bright, and it’s sunny. That was a personal experience for Miyamoto. We need more of that.”

Joe Madureira

“I’ve moved about a dozen times since I pre-ordered that gold edition. I’m not a pack rat, but there are some things I can’t throw away. My collection of games has gotten smaller, but I still have that copy of Ocarina.”

“It made sense. Creating that 3D world with puzzles, and new items, and having the right amount of difficulty and progression. The feeling of mastering everything you’ve learned in order to progress. Zelda nailed that 30 years ago, and it still carries the torch for other games. It influenced our understanding of what games could be. Many of us are still emulating that.”

David Adams

“We went for it. Darksiders was essentially us saying, ‘Hey. Let’s make a mature Zelda game.'”

“I still remember the first Zelda game, where you would bomb every single patch of wall searching for holes to hidden rooms. There were only a few of them. But it was the search–the feeling of actually finding one–that had an odd sort of discovery.”

“I have confidence in Nintendo. They have the knowledge to keep molding the Zelda formula and making it fresh, and I think it will be relevant for a long time. Pick any other big franchise, and see if we’re still talking about it in three decades.”