Hey Mr. Malstrom
I am not married! There is no ‘mister’ Malstrom. It is only MASTER Malstrom. Master is what they used to call unmarried men.
I began to read your blog after my disappointment with Spirit Tracks and especially after Skyward Sword.
The funny thing is that even though I fundamentally agree with you, I have a personal liking to Wind Waker. Now, here me out! Though it was so linear and illogical that I had to use a guide for the first time ever, I still played through it as my first finished ‘Zelda’ game.
Later, I’ve come to realize that it’s not a good example of a Zelda game – I tried NES Zelda right after, but naturally I couldn’t see the connection with Wind Waker, Majora’s Mask and even Ocarina Of Time which had become my comparing games to the rest of the series.
Link’s Awakening was the perfect game for me as it had just enough story and beaches to make me hooked on the top-down action.
Looking back on the series as a whole, I too think now that the games should be more like Zelda 2 actually (after I got over the lack of story and focus on combat).
I still like Wind Waker for what it was – a celshaded pirate game – but I think it should be another franchise, maybe Marvelous, just to differentiate it from Zelda. Zelda is about high fantasy.
Now, it may seem funny that I, a guy who appreciate Wind Waker, was disappointed with newer Aonuma Puzzeldas, like Spirit Tracks and Skyward Sword. But you see, unlike Phantom Hourglass – which had some spiritual connection to Link’s Awakening and especially Wind Waker like sailing on the open sea – Spirit Track and Skyward Sword rebooted all the things I liked about the latest games, that I had become accustomed to, like the pirate life in a decent story.
Spirit Tracks had no plot twists, but was just cliché and straight-forward which is critical when you play such a linear game. If all dungeons were open from the start like Zelda 1 then maybe I could have lived with it – except that Zelda as a character had become worse than Navi.
Which brings me to Skyward Sword; first I thought, “why can’t I have a dragon instead?”
Next, I wondered if this game was more like a Kid Icarus anime (with all the talk about goddesses and the location in the sky). When Uprising then appeared on the 3DS I was thinking, “just remove Pit from this gameplay already and give me a new Star Fox instead”.
And of course, even as a lover of Wind Waker, I could NOT tolerate an interrupting robot!
My point is: even Wind Waker fans are being screwed over. We were used to an ocean game with Sinbad the sailor elements, but instead we got a steampunk kiddy train and a high school drama!
If I was to say anything about the environments in Skyward Sword, it could easily make a believable Aladdin game, and Fi could be a ghini.
Anything but Zelda – let some other people make a western fantasy out of the Zelda brand!
And of course, I personally want a true sequel to Wind Waker rather than the same game just with bloom this time.
So yeah, even this newer Zelda fan who likes Wind Waker is upset.
regards,
A minority fan
If you started Zelda with Wind Waker, then you never experienced when Zelda used to be a PHENOMENON. Zelda was considered a revered game; you could hear it in the whispers of gamers. The gold cartridge was another give-away. Only a mainline Mario game was bigger (e.g. Super Mario Brothers 3 was ‘video armegeddon‘). Zelda had its own cereal and cartoon show.
Above: First episode of Link looking down Zelda’s robes still makes me laugh.
Zelda used to be the gold standard in action-RPG for the console. But something changed. After Ocarina, never again would Zelda be that standard. What changed? It was Aonuma and the “permanent Zelda team”. They keep making Zelda games no one cares about. The closest Zelda ever got back to its glory days was Twilight Princess in large part due to the Wii, to years of hype, and due to the game responding to the massive criticism (which is all actually criticism of Aonuma).
I’m not surprised that you, liking Wind Waker, are disturbed by what is going on. Nintendo despises its fans. What I mean by that, I mean that Nintendo hates its normal fanbase because the fanbase limits what Nintendo does. At least in Nintendo’s minds it does. What do you think is going on in Sakamoto’s head for the failure of Metroid: Other M? He blames the fans, of course. If it weren’t for those ‘evil’ fans and their damn ‘standards’ of what the series is, then Other M would sell gazillions he thinks. Miyamoto likely thinks the same of fans when it comes to his frustration in selling 3d Mario.
As a fan of classic Nintendo, I’ve never before felt more hostility coming from Nintendo than I do now. And it is not against a certain time period, it is just fans in general. For example, take the Smash Brothers fans. They are currently in shock and confused about what Sakurai is doing with Smash 4. They will soon realize that Sakurai is following a Nintendo ideology that says that the fans are the problem and Nintendo is omit from following the expectations of its fans. Of course, Nintendo could put out a new IP but they want the easy sales that an established IP gives.
“You’re going too far with this, Malstrom,” some might say. When I look at how Blizzard fired Jay Wilson over Diablo 3 despite Diablo 3 selling very well and that this is only one game compared to Aonuma who has had AT LEAST half a dozen Zelda games which have all been continuously swirling down the toilet from the franchise’s high of Ocarina, I am just shocked at how this guy, this Aonuma, gets a pass. Everyone in the Zelda ‘permanent team’ gets a pass. Why do these crappy Zelda games get a ‘permanent team’? Why doesn’t the Super Mario Brothers get a permanent team? What is so freaking special about Aonuma Zelda that there is a permanent team where they keep delivering mediocre game after mediocre game.
“Hello, my name is Aonuma! This time, I PROMISE, the next Zelda will be different. It will have RADICAL changes.” And then the next Zelda game is out and it is the same goddamn Aonuma game over and over again. “I swear, this time, we are going to get back to what made the early Zelda games great.” And it is the same exact Aonuma game. Every. Single. Time.
People can think I’m insane, but even they can’t deny that Zelda has been stuck in a rut and a good solution would be to make Zelda without the Aonuma and the ‘permanent Zelda team’ with all their stupid puzzles. How about Retro making a Zelda game? That could be interesting. How about Next Level Games make Zelda? I wouldn’t even mind seeing Capcom make another Zelda game.
But no, we’re not going to get that. And no, fans of Nintendo are going to keep finding Nintendo do the opposite of what they want on purpose. Nintendo is ruled by an ideology. They believe in “creativity” (which is a term for game makers to entertain themselves).
Even if you are a fan of, say, Skyward Sword, Nintendo will deliberately do the opposite what made you enjoy the game just because.
Look at how Nintendo operates the Virtual Console. Nintendo is not interested in satisfying demand out there. Nintendo is more interested in ideological concerns. They want to PUSH certain games like Balloon Fight (since younger people don’t realize it is a Joust rip-off) or Earthbound or Super Mario Brothers 2 (because of the same class mechanic used in the upcoming 3d Mario game). Fuck Nintendo. Tired of their bullshit.
To those who don’t get the anger, picture 2d Mario (which does sell). Then watch how every feature you’ve been asking for and was in prior games gets placed in 3d Mario (the different player classes, Giant world, Tanooki suit, etc.) while 2d Mario gets left-overs and ‘dah dah’ terrible music. I know that since Sakamoto didn’t get his way with Other M (people rejected his concepts), that Sakamoto will take his ball home and there won’t be any more Metroid games or any Metroid games allowed by other companies (they won’t include Samus because Sakamoto wants to make a ‘character’ out of her).
And Zelda, good heavens. Zelda has become nothing more than a parody of its former self. It’s the joke of the gaming world. Nintendo doesn’t realize everyone is laughing at them. They see the low sales numbers and thinks it is an aberration, that people really do enjoy their products. But if people did truly enjoy their products, wouldn’t their sales be higher?
What’s next? Is Nintendo going to get Miyamoto’s translator and put him charge of NOA’s marketing? Oh wait, they did.
I see Nintendo problems as a tug of war between two sides. The first side is Nintendo who is saying, “We want to do things OUR way.” The other side are the fans who are saying, “Your Gamecube ways suck as does your ‘creativity’. We won’t buy your products with you acting like this.” Nintendo doesn’t see the poor sales as a problem but as a ‘challenge’. “Let’s keep pushing and FORCE them to like what we want to put out!” Take the 3DS Zelda game. They intentionally made it another ‘Link’ because a Link to the Past sequel would give fans too much power. Nintendo wants to do whatever it wants… in all situations. They keep cranking out more games of the same series, yet they keep telling us that they aren’t ‘sequels’ which means they can do whatever they want. I call it eating their cake and having it too.
Nintendo needs another Gamecube disaster just to kick their arrogance out. Luckily with the Wii U, we have it.