Slashdot Mirror
Legend Of Zelda - Evolution Of A Franchise
Thanks to Nintendo Power for its transcript of "Zelda guru" Eiji Aonuma's speech at last month's GDC conference. Aonuma, who's "been doing work related to a game known as Zelda... for roughly eight years", from the N64 through the current GameCube iterations, discusses his pre-Zelda influences ("What kinds of games did suit me? Those would be Text-Based Adventures"), the "three-day system" in N64 title Majora's Mask ("[done] to make the game data more compact while still providing deep gameplay"), and the essence of the series ("Zelda is a game that values REALITY over realism.")
I still to this day haven't beaten one Zelda game but I do agree that all of them encompass what a great game should be. Yes, I know, my skills are lame. I remember playing Zelda for the SNES and for the first time being engrossed into a video game plot/story. If Nintendo was smart they would bundle the new Zelda with the Game Cube. I'm sure a lot of people would by the System.
-Dipster
Not to mention The Adveneture of Link. Thats one damn hard game. Even gettign to the last palace from where you start is a mini quest in itself thanks to the lava plains and caves. ...and once you're there...unless yo u knwo the trick the grand palace IS, not in actuality, but in perception due to the brilliant design.
:)
One day I might even be bothered to dust off my NES and visit the bird knights and giant bobs again
Boo.
One of those days I'll boot up Ocarina on Time on my Gamecube and I'll go through the experience again...
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
I think that one of the successes of the Zelda dynasty is that you can kind of identify with the characters and say, "I would like to have this adventure." How many people ever wanted to be a fat plumber battling mushrooms and turtles (by jumping on them no less)? Give me a sword.
Zelda seems to have the same staying power as Final Fantasy, except they appeal to different types of fans (with significant overlap mind you). The FF fans are probably the ones that are more likely to play PnP and they probably immerse themselves in many other CRPGs. The Zelda fans (from the NES days) are probably the ones who preferred games like Contra, TMNT, XMen, etc. but were actually interested in a more involving plot mixed in with their action.
Now that I've said all that, I realize how much some people are going to disagree with what distinguishes Zelda from other games. Personally, I liked the fact that even though you had to go through a certain list of tasks, you could, to a degree, do them out-of-order, and sometimes this made the game a lot more interesting. (It can be especially tricky/frustrating in games where you have to go back and search a low-level dungeon because you couldn't get to a certain room before.)
Let's go Hurricanes!!! 2006 Stanley Cup Champions!!!
This comment right here is why I love Nintendo's games. Everyone cried foul when Nintendo moved to cel-shading for the Zelda: The Wind Waker, saying that they wanted a more realistic Zelda. Some people are STILL saying that.
... it's all required, and VERY expensive!
... a rare feat in gaming today.
As it turns out, The Wind Waker is probably the most realistic Zelda game I've played. But that has more to do with creating a world with logical rules, and then living by those rules. You can practically feel the wind swirling around you, things in distance fade out of view, but are still there (you can see FOREVER). The game may look cartoony, but it's a "real" world. It feels real, things react exactly as you'd expect.
The problem with "photorealistic" games is that we know so much about what the real world is like, that anything that doesn't jive with our expectations is JARRING. We all immediately notice when a realistic human character doesn't look or move right. Developers have to become slaves to perfection as opposed to creating art. Complex physics, ultra-detailed textures, flawless motion capture
The new Zelda was free from those constraints. The only expectations they had to worry about was their own, and as a result, the world feels more realistic than anything I've played before, because I was able to suspend my disbelief and keep it suspended