Im going to slowly playthrough most of the mainline Zelda games as there are very few I have properly completed so no better place to start than the 1986 classic. Prefix, I played this using the NES collection thing on the Switch.

Like most NES games there isn't any narrative, just a quest. Link has to save Princess Zelda from the evil Ganon. Very simple and the groundwork that the later entries build off. The meat of the game is in the dungeons and overworld exploration. The map is very easy to navigate if you find one online, it makes everything much easier. For the most part the dungeons are good and age surprisingly well, but the last two dungeons ramps the difficulty up out of nowhere which was quite rewarding considering how OP the sword is in this game. Most items were useless besides the candle and bombs as most of them have a single use for the dungeon you get it in. The overworld is mostly just a forest looking area with Death Mountain up to the north and a graveyard to the west, fun to explore and find all the secret hidden rooms, which I have absolutely no idea how people were meant to find these back in the day.

When it comes to visuals, the 8 bit art style is really charming and I love all the enemy sprites, good variety of enemies as well for the first game in the series. Score wise it is iconic, The Legend of Zelda franchise has some of my favourite tracks of all time in it and the first game in the series sets it up well. There are a handful of tracks in this game but the one you hear the most is the overworld theme which is pretty much synonymous with the franchise at this point.

A true classic. I think this game has aged quite for an NES game,. By todays standards it is borderline required to either use a guide or at least a map to save yourself walking around lost, but besides that its a good start to my favourite franchise of all time.