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General Zelda About Overworld Tasks That Lead Up to Dungeons. Do You Like Them?

Salem

SICK
Joined
May 18, 2013
In a lot of the modern Zelda games, in order to access the next dungeon, there's more of a need to fulfil some overworld tasks, while In the older games, it was more basic, like burning a tree in a dead end to find a dungeon, or just playing the recorder near a pond.

It wasn't some abrupt change in the structure of the games in the series but it was more of a gradual change, which arguably started in LA although there was some variations in the series until we reached SS which basically had semi-dungeons before the dungeons.

Now, what do you prefer, having some tasks to do before reaching the dungeons? Do you like the over world to have dungeon-like puzzle solving before reaching the dungeon, or some simple errands perhaps like taking a letter from one character and giving it to another.

Or do you prefer the game to be faster passed and basically have only short treks between dungeons?

Or maybe you have some other ideas?
 

DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
I love these moments...sometimes they're even better than the actual dungeons.
 

Salem

SICK
Joined
May 18, 2013
for me, I generally find them not necessarily boring, although a lot of them are, but I want get them out the way quickly whenever I replay a Zelda game.
 

r2d93

Hero of the Stars
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
Location
Lost Woods
Honestly I reaally didn't like the extent that SS took it to because it made the game very unencouraging to to play. I want the dungeon material to be in the dungeons themselves not leading up to the dungeons. This way it's like "oh I just performed a strenuous long task, what's my reward? Oh, I get to start the next dungeon. yippee"

I like tasks for dungeons every once in awhile, just not as much as in SS
 

Mangachick14

Nerdy and Proud
Joined
Jul 8, 2012
Location
Behind My Computer Monitor
I like them. I think they're fun and nice change of pace from what we had in the original 8-bit game, where the overworld was simply how you get from point A to point B. To me, it makes the world more realistic, because things aren't always going to go the way you want them to. Especially if you have another party working against you. You will run into obstacles, which is what these tasks are really: Obstacles for Link to get around. Also, they show off the overworld in a way. What's the point of having an overworld if you aren't going to use it, right? I think TP and SS implemented this very well and I want to see it again.
 

SpiritGerudo

Flamey-o, Hotman!
Joined
Aug 29, 2011
Location
Halfway There
As long as they don't entirely consist of fetch quests and/or platforming "puzzles", I think that the out-of-dungeon content is awesome and extremely important, both in enhancing the story and varying the gameplay tone. Unfortunately, a lot of the time it DOES consist of fetch quests and platforming "puzzles" *COUGHSkywardSwordCOUGH* :(
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
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Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
I prefer fetch quests. It's not because of tradition, but I don't think I should have to "unlock" the dungeon using dungeon elements in the overworld. I'd rather "unlock" the dungeon by persuading a guard, or something.
 

ihateghirahim

The Fierce Deity
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Location
Inside the Moon
I think it's entirely dependent the game or how it's done. I can easily see it as either inventive like the ones in OoT, or boring like some of the SS ones.

I also like Ventus's idea of having to unlock dungeons. Hidden and hard to reach dungeons could make for interesting quests, although this is hardly a new concept.

I mean there's that one in the swamp you have to drain in LA. There's also the Tower of the Gods in WW.
 

NoRush

Soldier, Royal Family
Joined
Aug 20, 2009
Location
Indiana
I love these moments...sometimes they're even better than the actual dungeons.

Same here. The quests are about using your new tools and abilities to discover more about the land. This brings intimacy to the land, characters, the whole game. It also ensures that we can't just barge through the game meaninglessly. I love 'em.
 
Joined
Jul 9, 2013
Location
My computer
The "errands" and other things to do in between dungeons gives us a nice break in the action. I like being able to do other things besides just fight enemies and whatnot.
 

r2d93

Hero of the Stars
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
Location
Lost Woods
...Why does the reward matter? The reward is playing the game.

I suppose you do have a point there...
I guess just with Skyward Sword in particular the tasks required to get to dungeons felt more like chores than solid gameplay and I personally didn't enjoy it. I guess that's why I felt unrewarded
 

JuicieJ

SHOW ME YA MOVES!
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Location
On the midnight Spirit Train going anywhere
This is something I've praised in A Link to the Past, The Minish Cap, and Skyward Sword. They each have mild puzzle-solving elements along the paths to their respective dungeons, which allows for a smoother and more believable overworld/dungeon transition.

However, I only praise just that kind of scenario. When it's something that sends you careening across the entire overworld to find something, I take up issue. Link's Awakening, as great of a game as it is, was terrible about this (there was always more to find than just the keys), and moments like the library book fetch quest in TMC severely irritate me, as they serve as nothing more than meaningless padding to the adventure.

So my answer to the OP is yes, but only when it's like the first scenario I brought up.
 

Salem

SICK
Joined
May 18, 2013
As long as they don't entirely consist of fetch quests and/or platforming "puzzles", I think that the out-of-dungeon content is awesome and extremely important, both in enhancing the story and varying the gameplay tone. Unfortunately, a lot of the time it DOES consist of fetch quests and platforming "puzzles" *COUGHSkywardSwordCOUGH* :(
I think those puzzles belong in dungeons....

I prefer fetch quests. It's not because of tradition, but I don't think I should have to "unlock" the dungeon using dungeon elements in the overworld. I'd rather "unlock" the dungeon by persuading a guard, or something.
In general I prefer if I have to use the items I have to unlock the next dungeons

This is something I've praised in A Link to the Past, The Minish Cap, and Skyward Sword. They each have mild puzzle-solving elements along the paths to their respective dungeons, which allows for a smoother and more believable overworld/dungeon transition.

However, I only praise just that kind of scenario. When it's something that sends you careening across the entire overworld to find something, I take up issue. Link's Awakening, as great of a game as it is, was terrible about this (there was always more to find than just the keys), and moments like the library book fetch quest in TMC severely irritate me, as they serve as nothing more than meaningless padding to the adventure.

So my answer to the OP is yes, but only when it's like the first scenario I brought up.

I think SS overdid it in a way, the overworld became like a fully fletched dungeon, why don't they add more dungeons rather than spread out the dungeon like puzzles into the overworld? To me, that made the overworld even more barren than previous examples like TP.
 

JuicieJ

SHOW ME YA MOVES!
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Location
On the midnight Spirit Train going anywhere
I think SS overdid it in a way, the overworld became like a fully fletched dungeon

Not really. I'm aware that's what Nintendo described it as, and it's kind of true to an extent, but SS's surface portions are better described as large gameplay spaces. There was certainly a larger sense of progression in them than ever before, but a pretty big factor of them was the sheer amount of stuff to do in them. There's always something going on in them, always something to find, something to fight, some obstacle to overcome. It's very reminiscent of ALttP and TMC's overworlds in that regard -- obviously not from an exploration standpoint, but from a content one. (I know I already brought those two games up from the puzzle-solving perspective, but that's only one of the traits they share.)
 

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