General Zelda Am I Wrong for Liking Zelda for the Puzzles?

[Quillion]

Apparently, Miyamoto designed Zelda to be a game where you explore caves and hills and such and you weren't supposed to be guided. This isn't a stupid point that Egoraptor made; it's a perfectly valid point that Miyamoto directly stated.

But I wasn't aware of this when I got into Zelda. I thought it was a game focused on the environmental interaction and use of tools to progress through the game, with maybe some exploration, story, and combat on the side. I loved Zelda for the puzzles and thought that I should.

When there came this big outcry that Zelda should copy Skyrim and Dark Souls and/or just be more open-world, I was outraged (and I still am to this day). Why did Zelda fans want Zelda to be something that it isn't. Why weren't they appreciating the amazing puzzles of Skyward Sword and complaining about silly things like "too much plot" and "no exploration".

Then I found out that Zelda was supposed to be exploration-focused. Now I feel bad. I liked Zelda for something it wasn't supposed to be. Am I wrong for that?

 

[Jirohnagi]

I enjoy the puzzle elements more than i do the exploration. I loathe running around hunting for heart pieces in a fairly large world. And there is ALWAYS one i forget. But with the puzzle elements i've never forgotten them ^^

 

[Salem]

Yes, you're wrong for feeling this way and you should feel bad

In all seriousness, you can like any game or series for any reason whatsoever, just as long as you recognise and respect that other people like it for entirely different reasons.^^


Also, we don't necessarily want it to "copy" Skyrim and Dark Souls, we want it to go back to it's roots, it's only incidental that these two games have some of the qualities of the first Zelda game.

 

[Farore's Chosen]

nope

 

[MW7]

Well even the first Zelda game had some puzzles. I think this is just a matter of the series changing over time to focus more on puzzles and story and less on exploration. You were introduced to the series after this evolution already occurred. Even when Zelda was much more exploration-focused, there were puzzles. I have always enjoyed the puzzles of the series more than the other elements. I'm one of the people who complained about the shift towards more plot and away from exploration, and I feel like the greater focus on puzzles doesn't really hurt the potential for exploration. Plot inherently does decrease the freedom the player has when there's only one way the story can proceed (in other words I think it's long overdue for Zelda to have branching storylines within a single game). Puzzles can be added or subtracted without hurting exploration very much at all and in most cases enhancing it.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

puzzles are a pretty big part of the series,and if that's the aspect you enjoy most in the games,who are we to argue

[though personally i loathe puzzles,rather focus on the adventure]

 

[TheRockinStallion]

It may not have been intended to be a puzzle game but that seems to be what it is largely associated with. That, to me, is more of a challenge than "Let's see how many enemies I can kill." Seems like you enjoy the mental challenge the games have to offer... as you should. I applaud you because most puzzle games give me a headache! XD

 

[Akuhime-sama]

Then I found out that Zelda was supposed to be exploration-focused. Now I feel bad. I liked Zelda for something it wasn't supposed to be. Am I wrong for that?

What? Hell, no!
It doesn't matter WHY you like something, It just matters that you DO. xD
You're silly.

But, you probably should know what it's focus is. xD
Even if you know what it's focus is, you can still go on liking it for other reasons.
The primary feature of Tetris Worlds is for the puzzle-game Tetris.... But I only like Tetris Worlds because of the customizable characters. xD

Don't get me wrong, I like Tetris, but I think if you're looking for a good Tetris game, focused primarily on the gameplay of Tetris, Tetris Worlds isn't the way to go. I'd say get Tetris on the PS3, or even Tetris Party on the Wii. The reason is because Tetris Worlds is more story-driven, and you can't go to any level at any time, and there are a certain few other aspects about it that I wouldn't want if I really wanted to sit down and play Tetris for Tetris' sake. I play Tetris Worlds because I like the customization. That's it. Though, I wish they would bring back some of the customization features that Tetris Worlds introduced. Such as changing the color/pattern of your Tetraminos...

But I digress... My point in all of this is, it doesn't matter. You like what you like, and that's the important part. Why you like it is entirely irrelevant.
The only time it's relevant is when the reason you liked it, is going to be in jeopardy. Such as, new developing concepts, taking out the feature you most cared for.

And when it comes to Zelda, I don't think you have to worry about lack of Puzzle-solving. It's Zelda. They're going to keep their puzzle-solving in their games. I'm quite confident in that. Simply because people love it too much, and a lot of Zelda fans would be upset if they did. So, I'm sure they'd even agree that'd be a BAD move.

 

[Heroine of Time]

Why not both?

You're almost making it sound like it has to be either exploration-based OR puzzle-based... What's wrong with exploring the world to find more puzzles? Or puzzles that open up opportunities for more exploration?

I'd love to see a Skyrim-like Zelda world just because I love Skyrim's world to death. However, I don't want Zelda to be Skyrim. I want it to be Zelda. That includes the all the wonderful puzzles, no matter how rage-inducing they can be at times.

By the way, am I sensing sarcasm here? I kind of hope so... There are no wrong reasons to like Zelda. I love Zelda games' stories, yet I'm constantly hearing that the plots of Zelda games are horrible and pointless. Does that mean I'm liking the wrong things? Absolutely not. Anyone who tells you you're wrong for having another, less popular opinion is just being ridiculous. I'm guessing that you're feeling bad because you feel like you're alone in your opinion, but believe me, you are not. Now that you mention it, I realize that it's true that very few people talk about the quality of puzzles in the Zelda series these days... but the discussion is not completely nonexistent. In any case, just continue enjoying the games as they are and ignore the fabase, especially if they are making you feel upset. You don't want to start lashing out at others; you're definitely not going to convince anyone that way.

Don't worry about it too much. I strongly doubt that they will remove the focus from puzzles too much. The world might be a bit more open, but the dungeons have historically been riddled with fantastic puzzles. That's a complete staple of Zelda; people would start to miss the puzzles if they messed with the formula too much. Besides, who knows? Maybe this extra emphasis on exploration will be beneficial for the quality of puzzles. A large open world just opens up more opportunities for unique problem solving, doesn't it?

 

[Dio]

Zelda in my opinion has become too puzzle focussed with SS. The areas outside the dungeons had too many puzzles in them, it just seemed like the world wasn't believable or natural, it felt like a game world rather than a place, and immersion is very important for Zelda since the story is a big part of the series. Twilight princess on the other hand had a large space to explore, the world felt more real but there was just not enough to do in it.

I think Zelda U hopes to fix this giving us a vast world with many things to find, putting more focus on exploration again.

 

[Pieguys]

I really enjoy the puzzles myself There is no wrong thing to like about LoZ

 

[DarkestLink]

I enjoy the puzzles and the combat. Exploration is something Zelda has never handled well and should stay away from, regardless of what their original intent was.