It occurs to me that I’ve almost completely neglected to blog about videogames during the eleven months I’ve been writing this site, yet, aside from writing, they are one of my greatest interests. This was in fact a conscious decision from the start, since I wanted this site to be about writing and literature, but now I’m feeling the need to branch out more for the sake of greater variety, and the Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is as good a game to start with as any, since I just finished it for the second time last night and enjoyed it more than the first time I played it six years ago.

The Wind Waker is the tenth game in the Legend of Zelda series, a twenty-three-year-old series of games which can be played in any order since each is largely self-contained. As with the Mario series of games, there are three recurring characters in almost every game: a boy named Link who is the hero, a princess named Zelda who generally becomes kidnapped or imprisoned at some point in the game, and a villain who is some sort of evil sorcerer determined on taking over and/or destroying the world, usually called Ganondorf, but occasionally another evil person. While this initially invites comparisons with Lord of the Rings-style high fantasy, the Zelda games have very much their own style and mythology that blends inspirations from both Eastern and Western legends.

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This is an essay that I wrote as part of my university course, a little heavy-going perhaps, but it was something I enjoyed writing and I suppose some people may enjoy reading, so here it is:

Only one reason is shared by all of us [novelists]: We wish to create worlds as real as, but other than the world that is¹ – John Fowles

‘Real’ is subjective, changing from person to person and with the passing of time. Because of this indefinite nature, the representation of what is ‘real’ both in literature and in other art, has always been difficult. (more…)