Beginning Speedrunning with The Legend of Zelda

I started speedrunning back in 2018 (learn more on my speedrunning page). There were several games I thought about taking the time to learn to get a decent time in. Ultimately, I chose to run The Legend of Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was a toss-up between that Zelda game and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and I chose the former due to the length being shorter (roughly-speaking, 30 minutes vs. 90 minutes).

My First PB

My first official Personal Best, or PB, for The Legend of Zelda was completed on February 5th, 2018, with a time of 1:07:18 (1 hour, 7 minutes, 18 seconds).

It ran one of the easier routes for the category in question (“Any% No Up+A”, which is effectively “beat the game, and you can’t save and quit, or die and quit, to continue from a more convenient point”) and features several points where I just stop. I was consulting the route guide while playing and was still getting used to it, knowing where to go, what items to collect, and more.

Reaching Sub-30

One of the big goals for Zelda and this category is to attain a time under 30 minutes, or “sub-30.” Many, many attempts followed over the months (along hiatuses where no attempts were made) after that first PB of mine. Many PBs followed as I gradually whittled the time down to just over 30 minutes.

I then proceeded to get a time of 30:00 on three separate occasions. It was just funny at that point.

Then on December 15th, 2019, I did it. With a time of 29:41.09 I got a sub-30 entry in Zelda. A great achievement!

28:xx

The current world record for Zelda is 27:42 by the excellent runner Greenmario. It’s an insane time that requires everything to go your way in addition to having incredible skill. Given that 27:xx is possible, 28:xx is definitely doable. That was my next overall goal.

There were long gaps in which I didn’t speedrun, mostly due to getting into other hobbies. Some new strategies and techniques were discovered or chiseled out, making the beginning of the run more consistent. That combined with hundreds of attempts on record, I was able to get a time of 28:55.333 on October 2nd, 2023.

Other Categories

I’ve completed every category that exists for this game on the main leaderboard over at SRC. These categories range from variations on the main quest (Any%, 100%, Low%) to diffiuclt challenges like Extreme Rules (which has stipulations like “no killing enemies in the overworld”, “must visit every room of every dungeon”, and “cannot use your sword”).

Next Goals

I’m still doing runs of Zelda, and want to continue lowering my time. My next goal is 28:2x or better! Not only that, but I intend on improving my times in other categories within the game. This includes but isn’t limited to:

• Any%
• 100%
• Second Quest

It should be noted that in most categories except for the main one (Any% No Up+A), any version of the game is permitted, as is using the “Up+A” shortcut to the death screen. So you’ll see those being run on the Japanese version of the game (which features less text overall and saves time).