What Makes A Zelda Game A Zelda Game?
October 20th, 2007I’m just about finished with Phantom Hourglass, and I was surprised both by how much content the game dropped from previous iterations as well as how much was familiar and even expected. So I started thinking a bit more about “what makes a Zelda game a Zelda game?” That is, if you stripped a modern entrant in the series down to its bare structure, what would you find?
- A start from nothing. Link always begins the game alone, weaponless, and itemless. Part of the series’s appeal is that you gradually become more powerful as you progress.
- A range of items with wildly variable utility. Although the Zelda series has drastically ramped up the number of items that Link gets to wield, it hasn’t made all that many of them particularly useful. The boomerange, bombs, bow, and hookshot are perennial crowd pleasers, but does anyone really care about (or even remember) the Cane of Samaria (LttP)? At the same time, even some new entrants are really appealing; Twilight Princess’s disc was great.
- Multiple themed dungeons with item-specific puzzles. All Zelda games have multiple dungeons, of course, but they also have specific recurring motifs (the water/ice levels, and so on) with a central puzzle theme centered around the dungeon’s major item. You can almost guarantee that if you didn’t find something in a particular dungeon, you’re not going to need it - and you might not need it too much afterwards. PH took this to an almost silly level - I can count the times I had to hookshot something that wasn’t a specific hookshot pole on one hand, and I’m fairly certain I only needed to do that in the overworld after the relevent level.
- An open map. Zelda really knocked open the adventure genre, and the sense of exploration is critical to the feel of the game, although the map never opens up fully until the very end of the game.
There have been a lot of additions to the series since the first game, but when I thought about it, I couldn’t really find all that much else that was common to every single game - even when you discount the black sheep of the family, Zelda II. I was almost as surprised to discover what wasn’t required: after all, even Zelda herself didn’t show up in Link’s Awakening, and Ganon is in most but not all iterations.
At the same time, these commonalities have increased over time. A Zelda title that didn’t have a fishing mini-game is almost unthinkable at this point. And one of the downsides is that they tend to be highly predictable. I’d love to see the next version throw out everything but the bare bones requirements I’ve outlined (including the cutesy characters - think Gorons - the unnecessary items, and everything else) and really make something different. Thoughts?
Posted in DS, Geoff, Nintendo, Wii |
October 20th, 2007 at 4:32 am
yea i have thoughts.
zelda fucking bow training.
October 20th, 2007 at 7:58 am
“I’d love to see the next version throw out everything but the bare bones requirements I’ve outlined (including the cutesy characters - think Gorons - the unnecessary items, and everything else) and really make something different. Thoughts?”
Agreed. Shake it up. I LOVED zelda II. Some of us are not afraid of change. Take zelda somewhere we’ve never gone before. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved every game, but it just seems like they got stuck in too much of a formula, especially in and after OoT.
October 20th, 2007 at 10:17 am
I loved Zelda 2 as well, but it was insanely difficult and frustrating. I think that’s why everyone hates it.
October 20th, 2007 at 11:48 am
“it was insanely difficult and frustrating”
I keep hearing this, but I don’t really have that memory (then again, its been about 20 years since I spent much time with it), other than the very last fight, which I always felt SHOULD be incredibly difficult. I think I may have to play it again to see how I feel about it now.
October 20th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
I’m one who found #2 really tough. In fact, I never actually managed to beat it, largely because I could never get the fighting down well enough. Even with the additional sword techniques, it was very easy to die and fairly difficult to evade enemy attacks.
October 20th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Cisco-
I dunno, I remember a lot of random bottomless and lava pits that were really easy to fall into. Some of the later dungeons just got really difficult, and the entire final dungeon is extremely difficult with no room for error (and then a long re-tread if you die). Extreme difficulty + long retread = High Frustration Factor.
Do I even need to mention how crazy difficult the new Darknuts were, particularly the blue ones? I remember spending honestly minutes at a time trying to take on a single one because it kept blocking my attacks. Ugh, just thinking about it still makes me angry. =)
October 20th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
I love Zelda II and I would welcome another game like that.
The game is quite difficult, but at this point I can beat most of the game pretty easily. The only thing I can’t beat is the Grand Palace, which is absolutely nuts
The last fight or two is what I can never get past, but even getting there is a massive ordeal. It would be nice to see a slightly more forgiving Zelda II-style game with no life system, so you don’t have to retrace your steps from the beginning if you lose.
October 21st, 2007 at 1:35 am
zelda 2 - hated it. hated hated hated it. gawd the awful battles. and gawd @the jumping - this aint mario!
zelda majora mask - the best 3d zelda, truly refreshing and innovative and ATMOSPHERIC, period. this is a fact from god himself.
fyi: the best zelda? You shouldn’t even ask. [hint: this blog's name]
worst zelda? hint: it’s about to be released.
October 21st, 2007 at 1:40 am
HOLY SHIT MARIO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ6CB5GhQ-k
IS IT KONDO? AHH I DONT KNOW
October 21st, 2007 at 8:22 am
That sounds very kondoish to me. I had a hard time telling if it was mario or zelda. Good stuff though.
October 21st, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Sounds pretty cool. Is it just me, though, or does it sound vaguely Final Fantasy-ish?
October 21st, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Nobuo Uematsu’s music is horribly overrated. Too much Hollywoodish, and thus the result is so-called epic, yet unmemorable [sp?]. also, too much classicalish.
October 21st, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I disagree very strongly. Uematsu is probably a bit overrated simply because of all the insane Final Fantasy fans, but I think many of his pieces are *very* memorable. I direct you in particular to Terra’s Theme (FF6) and the Main Theme (FF7), which are quite beautiful.
In contrast, I find many of Koji Kondo’s works rather fluffy and forgettable.
I guess what we’ve learned here is that opinions on music are subjective. Hooray! In any case, no one praised Uematsu here, until now, so I don’t know why you mention it.
October 21st, 2007 at 6:29 pm
He mentioned it because I said it sounded vaguely Final Fantasy-ish. =)
October 21st, 2007 at 8:11 pm
after a few more listens, i have to agree that it does sound like a FF music.
also, my excitement for said mario music has dropped.