The Legend of Zelda debuted in Japan in 1986 and a year later in 1987 in North America for the NES. Right from the start, the series was unlike anything else, offering what was then an expansive world filled with secrets and nonlinear gameplay. Zelda has only improved from there, hitting arguably its peak in 2017 with Breath of the Wild, and there is a chance that it might reach new heights in time. While very few match Zelda's influence or popularity, a few video game franchises are arguably just as good as Nintendo's legendary property. Heck...they might be even better.
Games That Are Basically Zelda Meets God Of War
Are there whimsical Zelda-like action-adventure games out there that mix in the brutality of God of War? Oh yes, there are...
Let's take a look at these rare cases that can challenge The Legend of Zelda in terms of quality and, in some cases, quantity. Some are directly from Nintendo, while others are from third-party developers. Either way, they are some of the strongest series still thriving to this day.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Super Mario
The Only Nintendo Franchise Bigger Than Zelda
- First Game: Super Mario Bros. (NES, 1985)
- Latest Console Game: Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch, 2023)
Mario has to be Nintendo’s number one franchise, as it was ultimately the one that propelled the company to console superstardom with Super Mario Bros. On the NES. The Mario games have evolved significantly over the years, but they have consistently produced platformers, both 2D and 3D, that have served as the blueprints for the entire genre. The controls are always sublime, the worlds are imaginative, and getting the powers is always a blast, from flying like a bee in a far-off galaxy to just slinging fireballs. The Mario games may not be as expansive as Zelda titles, featuring massive open-world environments to explore, but not every franchise has to have sandboxes to thrive.
Super Mario Odyssey had bigger areas to explore, which were great, but it’s not what Mario fans come to expect from their adventures. Beyond the core titles, Mario is also versatile enough to get spin-offs that are both hardcore and casual. The various Mario RPG games offer players something in the turn-based realm, the Mario Party games are great for all ages, and Luigi’s Mansion even sets up some horror vibes without being too scary. Mario is as iconic as Mickey Mouse for kids and adults, and the same cannot be said for Link from the Zelda franchise. Either way, both Mario and Zelda are top-tier Nintendo franchises that will never go away.
Final Fantasy
If JRPGs Are Your Genre Of Choice, Then Square Enix's Franchise Is Probably Better Than Nearly Any Other Franchise
- First Game: Final Fantasy (NES, 1987)
- Latest Console Game: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (PS5, 2024)
When Western fans think of Japanese RPGs, the Final Fantasy franchise is probably the first that comes to mind, whereas Japanese fans will probably think about Dragon Quest. Final Fantasy began on the NES a year after Zelda, and it is still thriving to this day on Nintendo hardware and elsewhere. The Zelda franchise skirts the line of RPGs, including some elements like health upgrades, but it has never fully converted into the genre. Final Fantasy, on the other hand, has successfully tried Zelda-like adventures including Final Fantasy Adventure, which is technically a Mana game, but at the time, it was seen as the RPG equivalent on the Game Boy to The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.
Major Video Game Franchises That Never Recovered After One Bad Game
These were once hit video game franchises, but thanks to one bad game, we may never see them again.
Comparisons aside, the best Final Fantasy games are the turn-based ones, and like the Zelda series, they take on an anthology format. There are recurring elements, like crystals, Chocobo, characters named Cid, and so on, but they are rarely direct sequels. This gives Square Enix, Squaresoft originally, a chance to be more experimental with the gameplay so that no two games are alike. The Materia system in Final Fantasy 7 is nothing like the Draw/Junction system from Final Fantasy 8, for example. While fans definitely have their favorite games and battle systems, there has never truly been a bad mainline game, and even the spin-offs are pretty consistent, like the Zelda franchise, and that’s pretty rare.
Fire Emblem
Nintendo's RPG Series Filled With Grand Tales Of War
- First Game: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (NES, 1990)
- Latest Console Game: Fire Emblem Engage (Switch, 2023)
Nintendo doesn’t have a turn-based or action RPG equivalent to Final Fantasy exactly, but they do have Fire Emblem. Its games have all consistently been turn-based tactical RPGs, except for several Musou spin-offs that focus on hack-and-slash combat. Beginning in 1990 on the NES, players have taken control of armies, moving them on grid-based maps and suffering the consequences of their choices. When characters died, that was it for them, which was frustrating, but it put more weight on strategy, which made the games feel more realistic. After all, planning the wrong moves during a real war would not result in a do-over.
Fire Emblem is actually one of the few Nintendo franchises that took a long time to come to North America, completely skipping the NES and SNES eras. The first game released outside of Japan was Fire Emblem for the GBA in 2003, which was the seventh main title in the franchise called Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade in Japan. Port history aside, the developer, Intelligent Systems, decided to make their franchise more open to RPG fans over time with difficulty options, along with non-permadeath paths. For North America, Fire Emblem Awakening on the 3DS is what changed the franchise forever, and now it’s seen as a higher-class example. While Fire Emblem doesn’t change that much in between sequels, and also mostly sticks to an anthology format, fans appreciate how it continues to evolve its tactical gameplay.
Xenoblade Chronicles
Bigger, More Interesting Worlds Than Even Zelda
- First Game: Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii, 2010)
- Latest Console Game: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Switch, 2022)
While not primarily made by Nintendo, the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise has been tied to the company ever since it debuted on the Wii in 2010. This anthology RPG series features MMO-style combat consistently between its four games, although the exact battle systems do change between releases. Overall, they rely on cooldown abilities that, when chained together with allies, can have different effects on enemies. A well-timed attack could topple an enemy, thus opening themselves up to more critical strikes. The battle system may take some time to get used to, but the real appeal of these games is the open-world areas.
8 Video Game Franchises That Are Effectively Dead
Could these slumbering franchises pull a Ninja Gaiden and return ten years later?
As vast and as deep as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is, along with other open-world games in the series, it does not hold a candle to the imaginative designs of Xenoblade Chronicles, nor to the scale. For example, in the first game, the entire world takes place on the backs of two titans that players can explore across the campaign, and it’s all presented in real-time with very few loads into areas. In Xenoblade Chronicles X, players get mechs called Skells that they can both drive and fly around in, giving them more verticality to their exploration endeavors. Even though the franchise is still relatively new in the grand scheme of things, with only four games, not counting remasters, Xenoblade Chronicles is worthy of standing tall next to Zelda for its consistency rate alone.
Metal Gear
Perhaps The Most Ambitious Story In Gaming History
- First Game: Metal Gear (MSX2, 1987)
- Latest Console Game: Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, 2025)
Metal Gear is something completely different from the rest of the pack, like Mario, as they are all mostly about stealth-based gameplay. Like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear started in 1987 as a Japanese computer game before making its way to the NES in that same year. What makes Metal Gear unique as a series is that the gameplay is more open-ended, and the choices have evolved. In most games, players will be dropped into a scenario and have to complete missions within one interconnected map, picking up gadgets and weapons as they move along, which opens up new gameplay options. For example, in Metal Gear Solid, players will begin with a pack of smokes that, when equipped, will decrease Solid Snake’s, the hero’s, health. Why include that in a game’s inventory?
The use of it comes later, as players can use smoke from the cigarettes to detect hidden red lasers that will trigger alarms. It’s this inventiveness and thinking outside the box in terms of design that turned the series creator, Hideo Kojima, into a godlike entity among video game fans. Like the dungeons of Zelda games, the mission zones in Metal Gear games are like puzzle dungeons, and there is no one right way through a scenario. Besides the gameplay, fans love how absurd the stories can get, turning the normal into supernatural, which can be over the top but also make sense in some ways. While the golden age of Metal Gear has faded thanks to Kojima stepping away from Konami, the franchise is still elite in the eyes of many between its mainline and spin-off games.
4 Zelda Games Better Than Ocarina Of Time (In Specific Areas)
Is there really no better Zelda experience than Ocarina of Time, which came out almost three decades ago? These games beg to differ.