Email: The irony of Aonuma Zelda games

Is that so many of the elements in these games could be awesome if used for combat and exploration, instead of for expressing creativity, pointless narration, or for solving “Intrusive-Restrictive Puzzles”*.

We already saw the inverse with Ocarina, in that awesome items from the past games are still awesome on the overworld, and start to suck when used for puzzles. So what about elements in the games Aonuma directed?

Majora’s Mask: 

• The time limit, with an ability to go back in time at any point, could be used to add a sense of urgency in getting things done in a cycle, but it wouldn’t force you to do puzzle like things to avoid losing items (and I notice it’s the standard Zelda items that get lost when you go back in time). Imagine something as simple as any dungeon has to be found and beaten in an hour. You get to keep the dungeon MacGuffin with you as you go back in time, but then you have to find the next dungeon in time, or be forced to go back and start that dungeon over.
• The masks would simply be alternative ways to fight. Few enemies would require a certain mask to fight. Most would just go down with some mask powers faster than others. It would be about giving more battle options.

Wind Waker

• The ocean overworld is a pain to travel on, and largely consists of just a bunch of water. That might be what a real ocean is like, but since games are supposed to be fun, it’s the equivalent of a cruise ship that forces passengers to just sit on the deck and watch the water as they travel. The parts where there is actually stuff going on is a lot more fun. Plus while using bombs as cannonballs is cool, it should not be your only combat option unless you stop the boat. Link should be able to use his sword as well when sailing. Speaking of sailing, it could work, but travel would have to be intuitive. None of this crap about how EVERY TIME you want to change direction, you need to play the song of winds, wait for the animation to play, and then choose the direction. One way would be if Link has a magic boat, it might as well be able to move like a speedboat with the analog stick, and the other analog stick, or pointer, would be used for aiming.
• As for the Hyrule beneath this ocean, it was a big disappointment that you couldn’t really explore it. Let’s say you could? Then you’d have something akin to the light and dark world in A Link to the Past. The (improved) ocean above, and Hyrule below. But they would still each count as their own overworld, not this crap that Skyward Sword is pulling.

Twilight Princess

• There are three problems with the wolf form. 1. The collect-a-thons in order to clear areas. 2. The sense ability in combat is more used for quantum enemies (in that when observed, they change their state from invincible to invulnerable). 3. Gameplay seems more designed to prove how necessary Midna is (aside from warping) rather than taking advantage of what wolves can do. Taking advantage could open up a lot of gameplay options. Instead of being forced to use sense to hurt invisible enemies, it would be just a way to see them without having to guess or try to find shadows. Sense could also be used for finding weak spots on enemies, even if you could hit them without knowing where. As for digging, it would be more than a glorified shovel. Imagine digging holes in ways that could trip up enemies. You could take on Darknuts the normal way, or make potholes for them to fall on their faces, and you could get a few easy hits in before they get up. And instead of the few bugs that you had to dig to uncover (really, I don’t think digging was used against enemies in any other way), you could use digging to pull Leevers right out of the ground, instead of waiting to see when they would appear.

Phantom Hourglass

• The time limit here could also work. You have to beat the dungeon in a certain amount of time, or you start to lose health. And there would be safe spots, but instead of being used for shoehorning in stealth gameplay (which seems to be just another kind of puzzle in these games), it would allow the option of trying to take down some enemies at a distance, or hope the join you in this spot, where you would use your sword without having to worry about losing more time.

Spirit Tracks

• Zelda is turned into a ghost. While Aonuma saw narrative and puzzle possibilities, I see co-op gameplay. Zelda could possess enemies, fight with them alongside Link, and see which enemies work best in which situation (but challenge players could try beating the game with possessing only Keeses).
• Yes, even the trains could have worked. The biggest problem was the train being a substitute for the overworld. It could be instead something like a form of warping, where there is a train going around the overworld, and it would be used for quick transit (while you still have the option of travelling on foot). Why would it be there? Well there could be no justification at all, or it could be powered by magic. But again, it would not be a substitute for the overworld.

Yeah, you could say I’m overthinking this, but then again, if Nintendo won’t, someone has to.

* That’s a term I’m coining for puzzles that get shoehorned into games that don’t fit (unlike games that are meant to be puzzles, like Tetris of course, or even Professor Layton games, which are up-front about being nothing but puzzles), and have very few actual solutions (imagine if a jigsaw puzzle, even those 9 piece ones for little kids, forces you to put the pieces in at a certain order), which of course takes away choices.

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Aonuma recently made comments that Zelda is ‘unique’ and must not be compared to any genre since it is unlike anything. This is ridiculous. Aonuma Zelda is exactly like the bargain bin PC adventure games. There is nothing unique here except a game with C rated gameplay getting A rated production values. Imagine playing a flash game that has an orchestra soundtrack. This is how Aonuma Zelda feels like to me. Giant buns with no beef inside.