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Zelda Extravaganza
Richard Goodness writes "AllRPG.com is featuring several editorials on the Legend of Zelda series. The Zelda Extravaganza covers such topics as the rumors of the Triforce in Ocarina of Time, nostalgia for the original gold cartridge, and attempts at an overall chronology of the series."
IMO, I think it is safe to say that Zelda is one of the few series that has no bad games in the series. I think Nintendo has delivered the Zelda experience with each game and has never been a letdown no matter what the system. I am hoping that the new Zelda coming out for the GameCube has as much impact as Zelda64: OOT did for the N64. Those were some great times.
On one of the linked pages here, one of the editors compares the Zelda series to the Final Fantasy series. (From a pro-Zelda footing).
In one of the paragraphs he says (speaking of zelda) "but when a videogame manages to hit both the mark of delivering a fantastic experience and spring up the nostalgia factor at the same time, by maintaining that great charm and story we know so well, with past, rejuvenated characters".
I think he just hit upon the main appeal of Zelda- while you have several different stories, it's almost like playing in a series of linked (no pun intended) universes. Personally, the SNES was as good as it gets for me. When I was playing WindWaker on my roommate's game cube and [spoiler alert!] The ship decended into the underwater castle I immediately started jumping up and down saying "Holy Shit! It's the Palace from A Link to the Past" and then I started looking at the topography of the world, and noticed subtle similarities between it's geography and that of the SNES game that only someone who had played both in great depth would notice, and had such respect for the game's designer.
It doesn't just happen once. I was playing Four Swords recently (which also takes place in a world very similar to the SNES version) and, after being locked in a jail cell, thought "Great, 8 years of video games and I'm back in the same @$(%*&$#(*%'ing jail cell again." It was awesome.
Later though, he remarks about Final Fantasy: "Chances are more people from way back when would recognize Link in a heart-beat, whereas Square simply hasn't given any of their FF characters the opportunity to really be remembered oh so many years later--much less decades.".
On that point I disagree. I never had a sense that Link had a real personality, or had real emotions. Yes, he was gasping when Zelda was captured, and got mean faced when looking at Ganon, but he never seemed to have any dimension to him. Contrast that to Final Fantasy 3 (VI in Japan). Even now, 8 years or so after the game first came out and I beat it, I still remember the emotional response the game provoked as it described the story of Terra (the half magical Esper/half human) and her quest to feel love. Remarkably, that's not the only complete story in the game. Almost every playable character has a back story and you get emotionally linked to each. How many of you were soo goddamn pissed you couldn't keep General Leo from dying, no matter how hard you tried. The man was the only sane and compassionate person in the entire empire- it was just injust for him to be slain! Or what about the story of Shadow, the mysterious Ninja who you never know much about. I remember being so curious who he was and what in his life made him so solitary- he was the most callous yet most self-sacrificing of any of the characters.
I don't know- It's interesting to see just how much a video game- a virtual world - can affect you,even so many years later.
Just a few thoughts from this wandering mind...
-Ryan
AUWYHSTOT (Acronyms are Useless When You Have to Spell Them Out Too)
Hehehe... It seemed stupid to me at first, but I noticed after a couple of years that a bunch of stuff in these games I was playing had consistent numeric limits. Everything came as 4 elements, 8 medallions, 16 hearts, 31/32 life bars, 64 levels, 128 screens, 255 rupees...
:)
Then I started doing some research into the way computers worked. I started calling those numbers "binary" numbers. I've learned a lot since then, but these patterns are actually what sparked my interest in all sorts of computer stuff.
And I still learn all sorts of stuff digging through the guts of old NES games with the cheat finder in FCE Ultra. You'd be amazed what they could fit in a byte back then.