For over thirty years, gamers have dived into adventure with Link, the main hero of The Legend of Zelda series. But it hasn’t always been the open world beauty of Breath of the Wild. By today’s standards, the original 8-bit Zelda games were a little bit primitive. But what if Link never quite escaped the limitations of his early titles? A new comedy short, The Legend of Zelda: The Shrub of Destiny, finds Link trapped in an endless loop. And it is open for debate whether Link even realizes that he’s stuck.
This short was written and performed by Kurt Quinn and Scott Kruse, and Quinn offered a characteristically brief explanation on his YouTube page: “Went on vacation in Rothenburg, Germany. Couldn’t help self.” It’s easy to see why they were so inspired to revisit Zelda’s earliest days. The buildings in Rothenburg looked like they could have come from a land of storybook tales, it definitely feels like a small village in Hyrule.
In this very quick tale, Link answers the call for help from a villager trapped in a shrubbery, and he goes on to free others from the castle wall and other background objects. The original Zelda games have their technical glitches, but nothing quite as overt as this short. Nintendo QA wouldn’t have let this one escape into the wild! At the very end, we have to wonder if Link is feeling some kind of existential crisis about the repetitive loop he now inhabits.
What did you think about The Shrub of Destiny? It’s not safe to go alone, so leave a comment below!
Image: Kurt Quinn
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