Zelda: Best Repeat Ever?

[Charlie]

Why bother comparing them both?

Apples and oranges.

Human nature I guess. Oh, and I prefer apples to oranges.

[importaku]

Zelda the best repeat ever? Yeah you bet your ass it is.

Although the games seem to be the same i like to think along the same storyline as windwaker.

As in each game a hero rises up & wears the green clothes & becomes link & so the legend is retold but slightly different each time.

I also like the way the games acknowledges that some of us have shared the journey with link before. I know that no matter which zelda game i play i can use my knowledge from previous adventures to solve the dungeon puzzles as they all follow the same rules in each game. Like the rules for using bombs/arrows/lighting torches/statues with eyes ect....

Its like visiting an old friend (^_^)

[lostn]

As in each game a hero rises up & wears the green clothes & becomes link & so the legend is retold but slightly different each time.

I'd like them to remake LTTP with Wind Waker graphics. That game lets you get blue clothes and red clothes, so you're not always wearing the same green.

[gcjae]

I have literally just finished the Gamecube version and thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end. I didn't find any of it particularly difficult and didn't need to continue at any point.

It has got me in the mood to revisit Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker, so many happy memories...

[ste]

As a fan of the series, I put in 30 hours and tried my very hardest to like it, but left disappointed. I wrote about this in some depth on another site but I can't it right now.

The whole thing felt very rooted in N64 game design sensibilities, with everything branching off from the central Hyrule field. Now, games aren't bound by the technical restraints of the N64 era, so this... isn't really up to par with modern games that create sprawling worlds, like even Wind Waker at least attempted.

There are flat textureless walls at the boundaries of areas, and bottomless black pits in the middle of deserts, other technological throwbacks to the N64 era and things we just don't do anymore.

My other big complaint was that it felt incredibly bloated with fetch quests, collectathons and minigames to the point where they kinda 'cheapened' the experience.

I respect why people enjoy the game though; Zelda is always going to be incredibly charming and exciting on some level and the art style beautiful, just the series can't go on in its current state much longer and remain credible to anyone besides gigantic Nintendo fans.

[Jason]

...just the series can't go on in its current state much longer and remain credible to anyone besides gigantic Nintendo fans.

Quite the opposite IMO. To a new Zelda player it would be maginificent compared to 99.9% of other games out there. It's those people who've played the Zelda series in its entirety that feel it's going a little bit stale. Me, I've played every game (bar the CDI) in the series. I enjoyed TP the least since the NES versions, but it was still one hell of a game and one of the best games I've played since Wind Waker. TP is a fitting finale to the Zelda we know and love.

[ste]

Yeah, I pretty much agree, I was just thinking about the really vocal Ninty fanboy set then

I just think that as gamer nerds, we've seen stuff like Shadow of the Colossus, GTA3 and FFXII this past generation alone that are doing good jobs of making worlds that are much less 'videogamey' than past games.

With TP on the otherhand, it's like, we're in this central hub - now we have a loading screen and we're in the desert setting, finish the dungeon come back to the hub, now lets do the icey frozen one. It feels really, really 'videogamey' and while there's nothing wrong with that I guess, I mean it works for Dragon Quest, but I dunno how seriously it's gonna be taken as a 'modern epic' or whatever it is journalists call them these days.

My criticisms are probably really unfair, I mean the game switched console and was originally due for 2004 or something, but I do hope we get a more modern Zelda next time.

[Ryo Saeba]

@ste:
I have a Wii and haven't bought TP yet, I can wait until the price drops a bit. But what you're sayin here, doesn't sound that good to me. The central hub thing in Ocarina, was one of my biggest complaints with the game. It was a major step back from the 4th and 3rd part of the series, cause I always felt that the gameworld felt too small, restricting and shallow.
But that doesn't necessarily has something to do with the game being formulaic. Zelda isn't about telling epic stories imho. It shouldn't be about wicked plot twists and stuff, if you want that, you should play something like Final Fantasy instead.
The Gameplay dominates and dictates the story and I think that's a strong point of the series and typical for Miyamoto's Gamedesign approach. It is maybe also a major weakness for some, in that it's not that full of surprises, when it comes to the structure of the game. Collect a certain amount of quest items and then defeat the boss and save the princess/land or whatever. You'll always know what to do and what to expect, but as said, Zelda doesn't throw unforseeable twists at you, it tries to deliver a perfect gameplay experience and is way more systematic.
But imo that's not a bad way to design a game, far from it. I like this way, and I'd be fine if the series stays on it, but I also hope that the next installment takes full use of the Wiimote and delivers something more fresh. A change of the setting would also be welcomed^^' I mean, the fourth part is still my favourite in terms of story/setting and wasn't about kicking Ganon's ass while staying true to the roots of the series in other regards.
Ah yes, and the next one should be harder (after all I've read, TP tries to make up for the lack of difficulty with sheer size, which I is only pleasant for beginners). Why they don't incoroprate something like the Second Quest in Zelda1 is just beyond me.

[Charlie]

The majority of criticism voiced in this thread for TP is just, and I agree with lots of it, yet despite it's shortcomings I rate it as one of the best games I've played in a long, long time and it certainly, in my opinion, surpasses anything released on the Xbox 360 to date. I don't know what it is, but Zelda games always bring out the near-childlike emotions in me - something very few games manage.

[ste]

Zelda isn't about telling epic stories imho. It shouldn't be about wicked plot twists and stuff, if you want that, you should play something like Final Fantasy instead.

I agree, I don't mean worlds as in worlds with tons of backstory, just realistic settings. Shadow of the Colossus has no cut-scenes or plot twists to speak of for the most part, but that setting feels a lot more real than TP's 1990's hub style, for example.

[Wools]

Its like visiting an old friend (^_^)

It's a personal opinion I know, but modern Zelda's have really made me apethetic towards the series.

Ocarina of Time is one of my favourite games ever made. So it was a crushing disapointment to play Majoras Mask and all of the tools such as the boomerang, stick and sling shot were used to solve puzzles in the same way as had gone before. I'm sorry to say but the only games that get away with that is Pro Evo and I'm bored of that series too.

Playing Wind Waker & the opening of Twlight Priness is deju vu times a thousand with a crushing sense of disapointment. Can Nintendo really expect to continue it's premierer series with EA's mentalitly?

The designer of Resident Evil 4 said the series, before it's modern incarnation, was a shuffling carcus that needed to be destroyed. Nintendo has said that Twlight Princess is the last traditional Zelda before some kind of re-design. Going on the stale feeling of the series as it is, it's the best solution for the game.

Okami has upstaged Zelda, and it's time Nintendo re-asses it's best franchise.

[Ryo Saeba]

I agree, I don't mean worlds as in worlds with tons of backstory, just realistic settings. Shadow of the Colossus has no cut-scenes or plot twists to speak of for the most part, but that setting feels a lot more real than TP's 1990's hub style, for example.

I thought you referred to Ocarina, when you said "hub style world" oO
The Gameworlds in Zelda 3 and 4 felt way more organic, interconnected and natural to me, in contrast to the small, strictly divided and artificial Ocarina "overworld".
That's one of the reasons why I think that Ocarina wasn't as good as its two predecessors.

Okami has upstaged Zelda, and it's time Nintendo re-asses it's best franchise.

Okami has what? As said I haven't played TP, but when Okami is as "good" than I'l have to think about skipping TP (not really^^', but I'll have to wait until I can fetch it for some quids in a used bin).
Imo Okami is just a very lush looking game, that's way too long for its own good, with some "novel" drawing mechanic that only interrupts the gameplay and too much handholding/not enough challenge.

[iloveannie]

I agree, I don't mean worlds as in worlds with tons of backstory, just realistic settings. Shadow of the Colossus has no cut-scenes or plot twists to speak of for the most part, but that setting feels a lot more real than TP's 1990's hub style, for example.

I wasn't playing a video game when I was experiencing SotC. I was when playing Zelda.

Trouble with Zelda is that when you are right at the very top it is so easy to have appeared to have slipped if you don't climb higher.

[parkinho]

Trouble with Zelda is that when you are right at the very top it is so easy to have appeared to have slipped if you don't climb higher.

Very good point.

I can understand why people may be disappointed with TP, but for me was an astonishing return to form after the crushing let down that was Wind Waker. In my mind TP is a better game than Ocarina, and tied with Majora's Mask as the pinnacle of the series.

Just got a few more poes to capture then I've seen everything it has to offer

[lostn]

You found Majora's Mask to be the pinnacle of the series? O_O