Legend of Zelda: New and Old

[daoman89]

With Windwaker coming out late October and A Link Between Worlds a day before my birthday, it's a good year for zelda fans with the disappointment of Zelda Wii-U remaining a mystery.  Whether or not a sneak peak at the HD game will happen sometime this year is a mystery as well.  Of course Miyamoto said that they'd tease it early NEXT year if WW sells good, but that's just mean.  Show us some of the damn game!

I will be one of those people purchasing WW again because 1... it's my favorite zelda game with SS in #2 and 2) I plan on getting all the heart pieces this time...  Should be easier with the boat turbo.

Next we have A Link Between Worlds.  I'm surprisingly not super hype about it yet, probably due to the fact that there's still only a tiny bit of details about it.  We have no trailer depicting a plot or anything such as a sneak peak at a NEW dungeon.  I'm curious as to why Link is wielding the Master Sword again when at the end of ALttP it says the damn sword will sleep foreva. 

Now back to Zelda U.  I understand them not revealing the game at E3 because they believed that showing it off would distract people from the other games, so it kinda makes sense I guess.  I can't wait to see the art direction they're taking and what its story will be about.  I loved the writing in SS, Ghirahim had some awesome quotes such as 'making your ears bleed with your own screams' or his personal attacks towards Link.  He was a dick which was cool.

I'm sure I am not the only one looking forward to some upcoming Zelda and I'm sure there's some of you who just don't care.  We do have both Oracle games to hold us (not me cause I beat them) until the others come out.  Surprisingly, they don't seem to be that popular yet.  Both of them were amazing games, upgraded versions of the GB classic LA.  The only thing they didn't trump LA on was their stories.  Link's Awakening had a much deeper story than those two.  I really hope those things get the attention they deserve. 

My favorite zelda story however is... Majora's Mask.  Why?  Because it was dark and the thought of everyone dying in 3 days made me want to save their asses.  Plus the way the 5 stages of grief were placed within each of the 5 areas (clock town, denial. swamp, anger. snow mountain, bargaining. ocean, depression and whatchamacallit, acceptance and death)  It was a story of Link healing the lands from these griefs and in the process growing up himself.  Other characters had their own role and everything was just great.

That's enough of me chattering away, what are your thoughts on anything about the zelda series?  Go nuts!

[Archem]

I love the series and await anything they have to offer with bated breath.

[DragonBlaze]

I have a love/hate relationship with The Legend of Zelda games. If you look at (most of) the individual games, they're absolutely amazing. Though looking at the games together, most of them follow the same basic format. I think of Zelda as the first 5 final fantasy games where they all had the same basic plot with different directions. After playing most of the Zelda games, I'm kinda sick of going to the 4-8 dungeons, getting the new equipment, and fighting ganon/ganondorf. I felt like skyward sword was a step in the right direction, but I feel like they need to reimagine the base game mechanics to really make the series great, at least for us long term fans.

[Archem]

I disagree. I feel that the reason any particular Zelda game can be seen as something really amazing is because the mechanics are tried-and-true, something that has every reason to be a central part of the games, and has been honed to a razor's edge by this point. Honestly, improving the stories with the games is the only way I can see a real improvement being made. Actually, perhaps a step backwards might be the way to go. The dungeons have lost their charm a little bit by not properly integrating the world around it into its own sub-dungeon the way they used to, and the dungeons themselves might be a little too streamlined. Making them complex and deep made them more confusing, but it also made them feel more like a place where you could get lost (in a good way). Most importantly, making the boss fights more complex (more than one pattern, multiple possible weaknesses, reacting to repeated abuse of weaknesses, and perhaps even a health bar in place of the traditional 3-hit system) could really help make the confrontations more exciting and memorable. I would like to see the dungeons made into something that fits more into the fiction than "abandoned cave filled with crazy puzzles for no reason", like abandoned villages, Moblin prisons, or magic castles in the sky with an undead king as the boss. They'll never be perfectly sensical, but at least they'll have a reason for existing. Leave the rest of the game alone, and things will be great.

[Prpl_Mage]

I've always thought that OOT is an amazing game, but when I replayed it again on the 3DS I kinda realized that it's pretty simple. Battlewise mostly at least. Gohma died in like 8 seconds, poor thing.

My greatest problem with Skyward sword is the dungeons, they are very linear in a really bad way. The previous games a had a bunch of going back and using that one thing you found in the cave, hidden stuff that you can get by bombing the right position and stuff like that. It was simply impossible to "get lost" in skyward sword and that's a shame.

I felt that twilight princess was a worthy game in the series, it had everything I expected. Horse, large world, a super annoying water temple and sidequests.

[zuhane]

I think the only way they could improve Zelda is by making it 2D again, then putting all their dev work into more items!

[Dr. Ace]

I'll keep it short because I have the unpopular opinion here.

1) I like Zelda games for the sheer fun they have.
2) They have been getting stale. I don't look forward to one anymore.
3) The general series is average.
4) The stories are bland. It's the same format over and over, but don't get me wrong. They serve the purpose they were written for. It's not a game which selling point is the story. But please, don't tell me it has a great story because it does not. It has a decent bland video game story.
5) Remake? Seriously? You think it's a great Zelda year because of another remake?

For the tl;dr: Zelda is meh, it good mindless fun but it's way overhyped.

[zuhane]

I guess each to their own, Dr. Ace :p I'll agree with you on story though. The story is VERY generic, but they just seem to drag
it out, do long panning shots and add orchestral music to make it seem more... "epic"?

However, you must have played LoZ: A Link To The Past! That is just something else, and it's dated surprisingly well!

[Prpl_Mage]

Like Drace, I kinda play Zelda for the fun and not for the story . Like how I play super mario bros, I do know that the princess is kindapped and will not be in the next castle, as it have been for the last 50 years or so but the gameplay and level design weights up for it.

[daoman89]

Nobody said "great" year for zelda.  It's a 'good' year because of the rerelease of the oracle games, remake of WW and we get a brand new zelda. 

The stories in the games are pretty simple and generic, but some of the games have deep meanings if you look into it, like Majora's Mask.  And another example is the Ancient Cistern dungeon in Skyward Sword which referenced some old story, you'd have to google that ish.  But like everyone basically said, you shouldn't expect a great story in which RPGs are suppose to have. 

I agree with the linear dungeons in SS.  They shouldn't make them so damn linear.  I mean, some were cool like the ship, but overall they were lacking in exploration.  Twilight Princess would've been better if enemies did more damage and the bosses actually put up a decent fight.  And as for both, STOP TELLING US AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN WHAT ITEM WE PICKED UP!!! 

Zelda does need a change, but too much change will make it 'not zelda'.

Determining whether or not the series is under or overrated is a matter of opinion and tastes.  I think CoD is overrated, but that's mostly because I couldn't care less about it.  I don't wanna play a realistic game, i wanna be taken away from this hellish earth.  I'd say all the popular series deserve the praise they get.  Each game has its own unique effects on people. 

Just don't start playing a game expecting something great or bad to what you've been hearing because all that matters is if you enjoy it.  Don't be that guy that starts off a game and purposely tries to pick out problems.  This is why I don't like watching reviews anymore because some of the things people pick on is retarded.

[Archem]

I think CoD is overrated, but that's mostly because I couldn't care less about it.  I don't wanna play a realistic game, i wanna be taken away from this hellish earth.

I want people to stop calling Call of Duty realistic. The games are Hollywood action at its finest; practically a Quake game with a different skin (and the same engine :p).

[Cerebus]

I don't see how people can call Call of Duty realistic.

Being able to survive multiple bullets by waiting a few seconds between each shot, but dying from a knife strike on the tip of your toe isn't what I would call realistic. That and many, many other things.
Like how a simple infantry soldier can call a nuclear strike on their exact position even if they are winning the fight.
It's just not realistic in the slightest. Like, at all. None. It's not.

I play Zelda games because I like the gameplay. I don't really care about the story because, as mentioned, it's the same thing over and over.
Most newer Zelda don't appeal to me. I hope this new one will be good. It's in 2D, so it's already interesting. I also hope it contains at least 8 dungeons. Perhaps they'll even reach the 12-13 that A Link to the Past had.
We'll see. We'll see...

[Prpl_Mage]

I think he meant realistic as in "it touches the conflicts of modern everyday life" in contrast to unrealistic "unicorns and puppies singing songs about how duke nukem destroyed the death star"

[daoman89]

I think he meant realistic as in "it touches the conflicts of modern everyday life" in contrast to unrealistic "unicorns and puppies singing songs about how duke nukem destroyed the death star"

Purp hit the nail on the head lol.  I know it's not real real life, but its played with realistic type things not like fantasy things that take more imagination to create. 

It's my fault for not being more specific

[Cerebus]

Oh, that kind of realism, I see. Makes sense.