Zelda
Posted: June 28th, 2019, 7:07 am
posted by HCK on Aug 2, 2011:
When I was a kid, I loved the original Zelda and Zelda II (even thought I couldn't beat it). They really captured the spirit of adventure and exploration for me.
I never really played through SNES Zelda, but I appreciated it and always planned to play through it at some point. The closest I've been so far is like 85% complete.
Got N64 Zelda and ate it up... barreled my way through it. By this time I was in college, and I even skipped classes until I finished it.
After beating that first N64 Zelda, my love for the series has slowly drained.
Maybe it was the decidedly unclimactic, total let down of an ending Oot had... Gannon was so easy to beat, and the game ended so quickly after that I relayed the last part several times because I was sure I had missed something and gotten a "bad" ending.
Majora's Mask I put down after 30 minutes of play. I felt insulted that Nintendo thought I would enjoy repeating the same tasks over and over again within a narrow time limit. I think I literally said "what is this shit?"
Twilight Princess I started while deployed in Iraq. I got up to rescuing the Zoras when someone accidentally erased my game, and I never felt the need to play it again. Hated the Wii controls. (I don't need to pretend to swing a sword in my living room. I'm not 4.)
Now I've embarked on Twilight Princess for the Game Cube. I'm just a little farther than I was before. I just freed the castle area and began to learn my third special skill, when I realized that I didn't give a shit about it. Not because varied attacks aren't cool... they are. But I realized I didn't care because Zelda doesn't have a combat system built around skill. It's built around mindlessly whacking a button until everyone's dead. There are no epic sword battles. There's no great enemy AI that you have to outsmart, where you'd say "Thank God I learned Skill #14, or I'd be shit out of luck!" No, they put that stuff in to make it seem like the battle system is something special.
It's the same with the side quests. They're there to fill space and waste time. They add nothing to the story. Nintendo wants to lengthen the playing experience so they throw in crap, just like adding soy to meat; Zelda has become one big Nintendo hotdog.
That's my thoughts. What are yours?
When I was a kid, I loved the original Zelda and Zelda II (even thought I couldn't beat it). They really captured the spirit of adventure and exploration for me.
I never really played through SNES Zelda, but I appreciated it and always planned to play through it at some point. The closest I've been so far is like 85% complete.
Got N64 Zelda and ate it up... barreled my way through it. By this time I was in college, and I even skipped classes until I finished it.
After beating that first N64 Zelda, my love for the series has slowly drained.
Maybe it was the decidedly unclimactic, total let down of an ending Oot had... Gannon was so easy to beat, and the game ended so quickly after that I relayed the last part several times because I was sure I had missed something and gotten a "bad" ending.
Majora's Mask I put down after 30 minutes of play. I felt insulted that Nintendo thought I would enjoy repeating the same tasks over and over again within a narrow time limit. I think I literally said "what is this shit?"
Twilight Princess I started while deployed in Iraq. I got up to rescuing the Zoras when someone accidentally erased my game, and I never felt the need to play it again. Hated the Wii controls. (I don't need to pretend to swing a sword in my living room. I'm not 4.)
Now I've embarked on Twilight Princess for the Game Cube. I'm just a little farther than I was before. I just freed the castle area and began to learn my third special skill, when I realized that I didn't give a shit about it. Not because varied attacks aren't cool... they are. But I realized I didn't care because Zelda doesn't have a combat system built around skill. It's built around mindlessly whacking a button until everyone's dead. There are no epic sword battles. There's no great enemy AI that you have to outsmart, where you'd say "Thank God I learned Skill #14, or I'd be shit out of luck!" No, they put that stuff in to make it seem like the battle system is something special.
It's the same with the side quests. They're there to fill space and waste time. They add nothing to the story. Nintendo wants to lengthen the playing experience so they throw in crap, just like adding soy to meat; Zelda has become one big Nintendo hotdog.
That's my thoughts. What are yours?