[techjamie]

I wonder if it's because it got labeled "Mild Violence" whereas the violence in LoZ is considered "Fantasy Violence."

Maybe Mild Violence is more commonly applied to more real world violence and therefore scores higher in rating considerations or something. Because that's the only way I can make sense of that labelling.

[larrry]

Maybe Nintendo engaged in more back and forth with the ratings board to negotiate a low rating for Zelda, and the indie dev just accepted what they got?

Genuinely puzzling for sure

[Grombobulous]

I think this is exactly what happened.