As the very first installment in the Zelda franchise, of course there will be plenty of aspects that would be changed or phased out in future games.
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- In addition to being earned after defeating bosses, full Container Hearts are found throughout the game including outside of dungeons, so Link doesn't have to assemble each with Pieces of Heart. While a few games later in the series reused the idea, most of the games in general do not.
- There are a lot of crosses throughout Hyrule, and one of the important upgrades Link can find is (in Japanese) explicitly a Bible. This is because Christianity was supposed to be Hyrule's religion; the mythology of the Golden Goddesses came later as a result of Earth Drift.
- There are no NPC-filled towns, and NPCs are rather rare and consist solely of merchants and hint-giving Old Men and Women hiding in caves. Ironically enough, this was rectified in the next game, which is generally considered to be the Oddball in the Series.
- Collecting the map only alters the radar at the top of the screen, and doesn't affect the map Link creates in dungeons at all. In order to figure out where they haven't been, players have to actually compare the twonote .
- The Triforce has only two pieces in the game: the Triforce of Wisdom, which Link is searching for throughout the game, and the Triforce of Power, which is stated in the backstory to be possessed by Ganon. The third piece, the Triforce of Courage, does not appear until the second game, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. This also means that the iconic three-triangle Triforce symbol is also missing (except for the ending of Zelda II, as well as its Japanese box art and being the mark on Link's hand in that game's manual), and would not become codified until A Link to the Past.
- This game has the Clock item, which freezes all enemies on screen and makes Link invincible in the current area. The Clock would not return until Hyrule Warriors.
- The lowest Rupee units are not green (since Rupees shared their palettes with the enemy characters), but flash between yellow and blue (though they're identified as "yellow" only). Also, the manual called them "rubies," while the in-game intro referred to them as "rupies" (singular "rupy".)
- This title, and to a slightly lesser extent the sequel, lacks the elaborate story-lines the series is famous for. There really isn't much in terms of dialogue and the fact there are so few NPCs makes it even more noticeable.
- Arrows aren't consumable ammo — instead, there's a singular Arrow item that you need to buy to make the Bow fireable, and then it consumes one rupee each shot.
- While Fairies are around to heal you (for a measly 3 hearts), there's no bottles to hold them in like the later games did, so you really had to be careful with taking damage. Link's Awakening and the Oracle duo also lack bottles but their fairies still heal more than 3 hearts. There are also permanent Fairies that are found at springs, but unlike the later Great Fairies, these are visually indistinguishable from normal Fairies.
- The Compass only shows where the Triforce fragment is located. Later games would have the Compass show the location of the dungeon's treasure chests and the location of the boss. The Map and Compass in the first game were found by either killing all enemies in the room or were in just plain sight while later games would have the two items be inside treasure chests.
- There are no treasure chests, so any item found inside of a dungeon either just appears out of thin air when all enemies are defeated, or it's just lying around in the open. A dungeon's major treasure would always be in an underground room.
- Keys were interchangeable, meaning you could use any key on any door in any dungeon, making it hypothetically possible to run out of keys.note The number of keys in a dungeon also frequently did not match the number of locks; Death Mountain in particular has far fewer keys than locks. Luckily, you could also buy keys from a shop if you happened to run out, though the concept of buying keys would stay in the first game. Zelda II continues this trend, but you can bypass locked doors with the Fairy spell. Starting with the third game, all keys can only be used in the dungeons they're found within. On a similar note, this game and the sequel has the Magical Key, an item that basically acted like infinite keys so you could open every door. The item was never brought back in later installments.
- In the manual, dungeons were named after the shapes of their maps: Dungeon 1 was "Eagle," Dungeon 2 was "Moon," and so on. In-game, the dungeons are simply numbered "Levels" (Level 1, Level 2, etc.). All subsequent games use more flavorful dungeon names.
- Upgrading your sword requires you to have your life meter have a certain number of hearts before the old men would allow you to claim your new sword. This wouldn't happen again until 31 years later in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild where 13 heart containers are required to pull out the Master Sword.
- Link cannot move diagonally.
- Link only stabs straight forward with his sword instead of slashing with it. In addition, he doesn't have any kind of spin slash, despite it eventually becoming his most iconic sword technique.
- The second quest can have Link sacrifice a Heart Container to the old men in dungeons if the player lacks the rupees to proceed. This idea would never be used again, but a revised version of the mechanic would appear in Breath of the Wild where an NPC can lower Link's maximum health in exchange for higher stamina and vice versa.
- Dungeons in this game acted more like labyrinths which you can easily get lost in and there weren't really any puzzles beyond "push a specific block to reveal the way". The sequel kept the design, but all future games afterwards would have their dungeons be more focused on puzzle solving and rooms being unique instead of copy pasted everywhere. Dungeons in the first game were also mostly just one floor with the basement being used as either shortcuts to other parts of the dungeon or a storeroom containing an item. Later games would use multiple floors and more complex room designs.
- Upgrading your bomb capacity could only be done by old men hidden in dungeons. This was changed in future games where capacity upgrades would be done in the overworld or a town. Although The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets did include a similar mechanic where thieves can sell upgrades in the dungeons when you encounter them.
- In the second quest, dungeons could have false walls and some of them were only accessible in one direction. The idea was dropped, though the concept of invisible doors hiding things were brought back in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
- Food being used as bait and a way to bypass the hungry Goryia in certain dungeons. It comes back after a fashion with bait seeds in the Oracle duo and in Breath of the Wild where Mighty Bananas can be used to distract Yiga Clan guards during the game's Stealth-Based Mission.
- You're required to show an old woman a letter from an old man before she'll allow you to buy potions. Later games would not do this, but a few would have you procure a similar item to be allowed to buy the stronger potions. Likewise, the red potion here comes in two doses. Later games don't give double doses for potions, although a few games would use it for other potion-like items like milk and soup.
- Along with the sequel, Hyrule Castle simply didn't exist and the concept of a king wasn't used until the sequel either, though he was a Posthumous Character in that game.
- A few dungeons in this game contain two special items. Level 1 has both the Boomerang and the Bow; Level 8 has the Magic Book and the Magic Key; and Level 9 has the Silver Arrows and the Red Ring. Later games stick strictly to a one-item-per-dungeon rule, with rare exceptions like the Spirit Temple in Ocarina of Timenote , Stone Tower Temple in Majora's Masknote , and Forsaken Fortress in The Wind Wakernote .
- The HUD would display Link's health on the right side of the screen, items in the middle, and the map on the left. By the 3D installments, the life meter was moved to the left, items to the right, and the map and rupee count towards the bottom corners of the screen.
- Unlike in later games, Link has no Bag of Holding or Hyperspace Arsenal; artwork depicts him carrying everything on his back
◊. - Hello, [Insert Name Here] is averted; you can name your file whatever you wish, but Zelda will always refer to Link as "Link" in the ending.note
- The Magical Rod is an item that lets you shoot magic waves as an effective means of a ranged attack. Later games would use similar rods like the Fire Rod, but the Magical Rod itself wouldn't return. Likewise, the Magic Book, which was used to enhance the Magical Rod, doesn't return in any game.
- There's no magic meter, though this is justified since the Magical Rod (which has infinite ammo) is the only item that would need it.
- While most dungeons were out in plain sight, some were completely hidden and required a specific item or action to access them and you had little to no hints on where said hidden dungeons are. While later games would continue to use hidden dungeons, the game would usually go out of its way to tell you how to get there and/or how to access them. The hidden dungeon entrances themselves were simple staircases or doorways in this game, while later games would make dungeon entrances much more unique.
- Defeating enemies is the only means of restocking consumable items (i.e. rupees, bombs, and hearts) in the overworld and dungeons. There are no pots to break or grass to cut, which would become iconic series attributes of later installments.
- There is no Master Sword in this game; the highest attainable sword is the Magic Sword. Additionally, the Sword Beam can be performed with any sword (even the most basic wooden sword at the start of the game), while later games typically restrict this ability to the Master Sword or other higher-level swords.
- Link cannot swim and can't enter water.
- The ability to save the game could only be done by either dying or using a button code on the second controller. Future games would allow you to save through the pause screen.
- Prices for some items could vary between shops, thus it was possible to be thrifty with your spending by shopping around for the best price and saving money. Later games would keep prices mostly consistent between shops with some exceptions.
- Warping between areas is done by taking a hidden staircase underneath a rock and each one would teleport you to a random location. The Recorder also did the same thing but with dungeon entrances instead. The sequels refined the warping mechanics by letting the player choose where they want to go.
- Rings were used to boost Link's defense. While this gimmick was used again in the Game Boy titles, later games would use other methods to increase Link's defense like tunics or an enchantment.
- The cap for rupees was 255, 16 for bombs, and 16 hearts was the most health Link could have. The sequels would give a much higher cap.
- Even the overall game design was very different to later games, with the original being basically an open world sand box. While the dungeons were numbered and some items such as the raft were required to reach certain places, overall the player is very free to explore the entire world from the start and will very likely stumble across and even complete dungeons outside of the numerical order. Later games, even Zelda II, were a lot more linear in nature with only some minor choices in dungeon completion order. It wouldn't be until Breath of The Wild, thirty years later, that the series would return to this style of game design. Though considering how successful Breath of the Wild turned out to be, this might just be the new face of the franchise.
- Heart Containers do not fully restore Link's health upon collecting them. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link would make Heart Containers fully restore Link's energy, but The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past would skip this feature again. By The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Heart Containers and Piece of Hearts restoring all life would become a standard feature.
- Some old women would offer the player a hint in exchange for some rupees, but they would have three different prices and not all of them would offer hints at the same prices. If you didn't pay the old women the correct price, they would either call you cheap or say how rich you are and take your rupees anyway. Later installments would have NPCs give you a hint much more directly.
- Some of the old men found in the game can offer the player a "money making game" where the player had to guess which rupee was the winning choice in order to make money. Future games would have way more elaborate mini-games and said games can offer more than just rupees for prizes.
- A few other old men found in the game will actually charge you 20 rupees for burning/blowing up his door.Old Man: PAY ME FOR THE DOOR REPAIR CHARGE
- Ganon requiring the Silver Arrows in order to slay him was due to him originally being designed more like a vampire before these elements got changed. The Silver Arrows would eventually be changed to the Light Arrows in later games to be more fitting with the setting the series went for.
- The multiple swords only serve as upgrades for Link and have no bearing on the plot. It wasn't until The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past where the Master Sword came to be and doubled as a Plot Device while stronger swords were (usually) made into optional items.
- Idling at the title screen would have the game give a plot summary as well as listing every single item in the game. While future games would continue to use the plot summaries as a hook for the player to get into, none of the games would show off all the obtainable items.
- Bombs in this game could only be placed and would quickly explode, but Link couldn't be harmed by his own bombs. Bombs in the later games would have much longer fuses, could be picked up and thrown anywhere, and its explosions could injure Link.
- The candles were effectively lanterns and served as a way to light up dark rooms. Link could use the candles as another means of attack and could injure himself with his own fire. Actual lanterns would appear in future games while the candles themselves wouldn't return.
