You really opened my eyes on what happened to the Zelda series and Nintendo in general. Despite owning most of the Zelda games I’ve only actually finished the first three games, not even Link’s Awakening or Ocarina held my interest for long. I never really put much thought to it other than perhaps I enjoyed the simplicity of the originals.
But you’re completely right in that what I and a lot of people want from Zelda is a sense of adventure and discovery. The people who are still amused by the ancient Ocarina of Time design just want constant puzzles to fiddle around with. Finding the Master Sword was once a great discovery in that you received a significant attack bonus. Now the Sword is nothing more than a plot device.
I usually don’t send emails but I imagine you’re receiving a lot of hate mail from Zelda fans right now. So I just wanted to say that you’re completely right. Keep up the good work.
That’s a great point with the Master Sword. You’d be excited because you had a weapon to slice down bad guys easier. In LTTP, it caused you to shoot beams when at full life! You felt like a badass! I now dread getting the Master Sword because it just leads to another cutscene. And there is no difference in gameplay between having the Master Sword and whatever you had before.
Like you, I got bored in the middle of Ocarina of Time. According to Miyamoto, most people did not finish Ocarina of Time. This could explain why Nintendo has insisted on making the Zelda games so much easier since then. I believe Nintendo got the analysis wrong with Ocarina of Time as to why people were not completing the game. It wasn’t because the game was ‘too hard’ but that people got bored.
I never got bored with the Classic Zelda games. Frustrated, sure, especially at the end of Zelda 2 when those flying eyeballs would bump you into the lava on your trip to the final palace. That was extremely frustrating. But it wasn’t boring.
It always felt like your earlier skills would transfer over to the next dungeon. You would also get items that were useful in combat. But with Modern Zelda, every dungeon feels like a reset button has been hit. It didn’t matter if you got a better sword or better item in the last dungeon.
In Super Mario Brothers, for example, your platforming skills would transfer over to the next level. But what skills is there to transfer over in Modern Zelda? Since everything is plot based and puzzle based, there are no ‘Zelda skills’. The only skill needed to beat the game is to solve puzzles which even a monkey can do. Many people just look up the solutions through a walkthrough anyway. However, a walkthrough will not ensure you will beat a Classic Zelda game. It’s such a radical difference.
Modern Zelda is not a skills based game. It is a time invested based game. The only reason why someone cannot finish Modern Zelda is if they pass out due to boredom.
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