Bomber’s Notebook #014 – What The Elder Scrolls Can Teach Zelda
Posted on September 04 2012 by Majora's Cat
Back in late 2011, there was much debate over whether The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim should be named Game of the Year in several publications. Since then, fans that have allegiances to both of these fanbases have noted the differences and similarities between the two, many stating that they can’t be compared. While I believe that Zelda and The Elder Scrolls are from separate spheres of the gaming world, there are certainly similar elements in each game. Zelda has better puzzles and is oriented around a main quest of much higher quality.
The Legend of Zelda is an adventure and puzzle franchise, that’s not going to change. The Elder Scrolls is an RPG, but Zelda has some light RPG elements that could be improved. After all, if you’re going to incorporate certain elements or systems into a game, why not try to flesh them enough so they feel naturally integrated into the game? The Elder Scrolls could definitely afford to learn a few things from Zelda, but I’m here to talk about how Zelda could take pointers from Bethesda’s critically acclaimed open world franchise. Make the jump to continue reading!
The most prominent theme in The Elder Scrolls is the freedom of exploration and the lack of a focused main quest. The franchise is the very definition of Role-Playing Games. The character is free to go wherever he/she likes, and the size of the overworld ranges anywhere from 10 square miles in Morrowind to a mind-blowing 62,000 square miles in Daggerfall. This adds extra emphasis the concept of the open world, as simply exploring can initiate sidequests and even more sidequests will branch out after that.
Zelda games have never featured this sort of freedom and has actually been moving away from the idea. I, for one, love open world games, and Zelda would do splendidly to drift back to its roots. The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System stuck the player in the middle of a vast, unexplored landscape filled with various traps and enemies without an in-game map. Now by no means was the execution perfect, as the lack of direction combined with the finding and completing dungeons in a strictly determined order made for a lethal, sometimes frustrating mixture.
In Bethesda’s most recent magnum opus to Elder Scrolls fans, it was incredibly easy to keep track of your quests. The game literally guides you on the correct path the entire time, so there’s quite a low difficulty level and little brain activity involved with adventuring. The real challenge lies in combat with powerful enemies. On the other hand, Skyrim introduced to the player a beautiful, snow-covered world just waiting to be ravaged by the Dovahkiin. I honestly believe that Zelda should give the player a little more liberty to travel to new areas right from the outset.
What? Right from the beginning? Yeah, you heard me. I know, one of the charming things about Metroid and Zelda are that you gain new items then you’re able to access areas you couldn’t before. But recently it’s felt as if these limitations have too tight of a stranglehold over the player’s freedom. Hyrule was meant to be a vast, open world, and the way Skyward Sword turned out, it seems as if Nintendo is slowly but surely abandoning the concept. I love Skyward Sword unconditionally, but it would be just as great to see Zelda return to its original blueprints.
One thing The Elder Scrolls does excellently is making you care about the characters. And oh my, what a gargantuan cast of characters there are. Your character becomes entangled in the affairs of nearly every character in every sidequest, and some decisions are truly difficult to make. Sometimes these decisions will have a positive or negative impact on how your character is treated. There’s something so brilliant about this that makes The Elder Scrolls games addictive. Important NPCs can be interacted with, usually to a much greater extent than in Zelda. I sincerely hope that this level of character depth and artificial intelligence can be implemented into the Zelda series.
The entirety of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim‘s presentation rested on in-game sequences. No cutscenes. The Legend of Zelda has had a habit of using cutscenes as a storytelling device, and I think it’s been fantastic recently. The problem is that they use in-game models, so they don’t look especially spectacular. In very long sequences, it almost feels like you’re watching a movie, and they can’t be skipped the first time around.
A feasible solution to this is to cure boredom by allowing Link to move around the environment or at least let the player interact with the cutscenes. By this I mean being able to select different dialogue options to invoke different reactions or controlling some part of Link’s body to fend for himself in an action-packed event. Even better, the whole experience could just be in-game. After all, cutscenes already use in-game models.
Those are just a few small things that The Legend of Zelda could learn from The Elder Scrolls, another outstanding franchise. Do you think there are any other things The Elder Scrolls could teach Zelda or vice versa? Let us know in the comments below!
