Are Newer Races As Endearing As Older Ones?

[A Link In Time]

This is a question I've been pondering for awhile now and would like to regurgitate in the form of writing. Do you care for the newer races to the same extent as their precursors? Personally I've found recent species to be disappointing-both allied and enemies.

Skyward Sword Bokoblin

LD-003D Dreadfuse

Skyward Sword introduced the Kikwi, Mogma, Parella, and Ancient Robots. Of these four I solely found the Ancient Robots to be intriguing, a fresh take on the plethora of creatures populating the Zelda universe. The Kikwi were cute but nothing more. They were shallow shells of hopelessness with little to no character development. Then come the Mogma. Although they follow a unique naming pattern after metals or minerals, this mole race failed to distinguish itself from other land dwellers especially the versatile Goron. The Parella are self explainable. They were aesthetically horrid to gawk at.

And last but not least are the Ancient Robots, the ace card among the spoiled vegetables. This robotic formation was a throwback to the Twili, a rogue faction. Although good at heart, malicious programming created a rogue faction composed of such machines of destruction as Scervo and Dereadfuse. Moreover, the plight of this group was shockingly sad for they were deceased solely reincarnated via timeshift stones.

Changing gears we have the enemies. Axle recently created an article titled Enemy Variety vs. Enemy Depth. Skyward Sword offered 29 unique enemies with multiply variations of several. Nevertheless I felt as though they lacked the depth of previous dangerous denizens. These enemies were poorly designed aesthetically and stifled progression up the difficulty gradient very quickly. In my opinion the Stalfos Warrior is the toughest non boss foe in Skyward Sword and it is introduced in the Ancient Cistern. That leaves the entire second half of the game with no truly heavy duty enemies. I find it perplexing that Nintendo forwent inclusion of Iron Knuckles or Darknuts. Every 3D console Zelda game prior featured one or the other and they provided for a healthy challenge. It would appear as though the company didn't wish to alienate core segments of its target audience by pairing these creatures with motion controls.

I'd like to hear your opinion on the matter. Is Nintendo slacking off with creature design in recent installments? Do you feel any emotional connection to these newer constructs? Discuss.

 

[feraldonkey]

You know I was kind of thinking about this awhile ago, I think it can be compared to the way The Pokemon Company handles their creature designs and ideas. The first 251 Pokemon were unique and imaginative, whereas in the more recent games you have only a few that stand out.
I think it's just like that with some Nintendo staples.

 

[JuicieJ]

SS has some of the best design in the races and enemies in the entire series. Hell, it has some of the best enemies in gaming period. They required actual thought and strategy in order to be defeated, which is something only the tougher enemies in beloved games such as OoT and MM required. Only they were more intelligent. Simply superb design aesthetically. Very intuitive, as well.

The different races were very unique and interesting, even for a Zelda game. The Parella and Gorons were sadly underused, but the Parella had quite a unique design and had a surprising amount of intelligence, and the different take on the Gorons as archaeologists was a pretty big shock from their past incarnations, namely TP with their burly strength and stubborn pride. Gorko was also just a fabulous character. The Mogmas were great for the storytelling, as they always had a minor part of the plot in their appearances, and they even had some that were good and some that were conniving (Earth Temple to Fire Sanctuary). They also had great portrayals of personality. The Kikwis were just plain adorable and are easily my favorite race of the game. It's a shame they didn't serve a more important part in the plot. Not that they didn't serve their purpose well.

All that said, I haven't had as much fun interacting with the races and enemies in a Zelda game since the N64 days, which happen to be my first experiences with the franchise. If I can get as much of a sense of fresh and new out of a game 12 years after I played my first title in the series (OoT) that's really saying something. These new races are definitely just as endearing as the old ones, and I really hope to see them return, as well as the style of enemies.

 

[Spirit]

As far as Skyward Sword is concerned with its enemies and allies designs, I found them all to be very disappointing.

Indeed the only creature i thought escaped SS with any dignity was an enemy that we have seen time and time again; The Deku baba. The looked better than in previous installments and finally were given a slight depth instead of chopping them as you run past. Even though that strategy consisted of back flip and slash...

I didn't like any version of the Bokoblins, they didn't look and certainly weren't threatening or challenging. The only original enemy in SS that i did like is an enemy you see all of perhaps twice in very fleeting moments; those fire seal things in Eldin.

As for supporting races, the Mogmas looked and sounded awful and their roles within the narrative were unsatisfying, they gave me the impression that they wwere 1940s film noir gangsters that only needed bowler hats and pin stripe suits.
The Parella whom we see very fleetingly do nothing but open one door for you. The Kikwi did their best to nark me off too, their voices were cute but most of what they did in regard to narrative and game plot was pretty much just filler.

The ancient robots didn't do anything for me either and i wanted to like them but they just felt out of place to me, scrapper was annoying and the skipper was only needed once.

As a whole with new races both enemies and allies SS, to me, s one of the weakest in the franchise in terms of design and character plot inclusion. But thats just me.

 

[bunny]

I found all the races in SS to be quite enjoyable. Especially the Mogmas. Even if they were a bit... different... They were one of the most unique races in any Zelda game, IMO. I liked that each race had their own sort of... personality. I thought Nintendo did absolutely fantastic. However, I'm not really picky about these sorts of things... I never have been. >.<;;

 

[Ventus]

V @ Spirit =)

Nintendo is definitely slacking off on creature design, whether it's the aesthetics or the AI. Bokoblins more than ever look like absolute jokes in Skyward Sword, which is sort of fitting considering they are what they are (lol), so it is incredibly difficult for me to properly accentuate how good/bad (I mean bad, there is no good) they really are. The Stalfos look like magical constructs, but with their noises they make upon successfully being dispatched as well as other battle noises, again it's hard to take them seriously. They're worthy adversaries to be sure, but it's just so hard. I can appreciate the Zol/Gel (whatever they are); it's always been a simple enemy. All of the enemies in SS, though, they existed solely to stall Link rather than to say impede progress or outright kill him. That isn't much of an enemy - that's like the similitude of me threatening to kill Bobby's parents for his cooperation. There's just no pure drive behind SS' enemies to do much of anything, and it mostly has 1:1 swordplay to blame. Instead of having it so that every enemy follows Link's blade, why couldn't Nintendo make every enemy "independent" in the respects that they have almost random AI? Yes, this is a new control scheme for many, but there is absolutely no reason why the game has to be dumbed down in every respect.

Oh, silly me, I've only talked about the enemies. Newer races have been absolute crap sans Mogma, in my honest opinion. Why oh why would you ditch the already established races examples being Zora, Kokiri, Gorons in favor for some new races that quite honestly don't seem to fit with the times? The Ancient Robots are slightly justified with the timeshift stones; they clearly existed in the PAST, but every other race again besides the Mogma seemed to be there just to be 'fresh', as if they're going to be killed off anyway because Nintendo simply didn't want to reuse preestablished races once more. The personalities of the races once again excluding the Mogma, I really REALLY couldn't care for. People call the Kikwi and their mannerisms cute. I call them stupid, incredibly annoying and deserving of so much hatred. People love Scrapper and the other robots, I call them arrogant, useless tools. And people somehow enjoy the Parella, a feat that is simply beyond me. No, this isn't me wearing nostalgia goggles, I just don't see the point behind Nintendo introducing MORE races when they could still flesh out the ones they already have.

And one last thing: where the heck is the civilization?


**On the flip side**, the Mogma I found to be incredibly hilarious. It's part of their design, how they talk, and the fact that they aren't interruptive in what they do. They seemed to have this "rapper" feel to them, I can't pinpoint what I mean, but whatever it was it was a boon to their existence. I would love for Nintendo to KEEP the Mogma, but throw out every other race SS introduced.

And the whole "Gorons = archaeologists" thing, I see it on eye level in that it's a great idea, but with how SS pulled it off...yeah no, sorry. Keep Gorons in a civilization, they don't need to be crazed nomadic people who are, as far as I can tell, completely unaware of other existences than their own.

So, no, I did not feel any emotional attachment to the newer races, and it's mostly Nintendo's fault for horrible (IMO) enemy design and personality. Incredibly lackluster and disappointing are the only words to describe them.

 

[Awesome]

I personally don't like the newer races nearly as much as I like the dekus, gorons, and zoras. That being said, I didn't like the gorons in SS. They felt out of place in its world. I'm not saying that Nintendo only needs to use gorons, zoras, and dekus, but the character design needs to be better in future titles. The kiwis and mogmas really didn't do it for me. But it's all personal preference.

 

[:Zelda:Druggie:]

I didn't really mind the enemies too much, I never really think too much about them. I liked how Skyward Sword made them more hands on in the fact that they actually fought back/blocked your movements, which was refreshing.

I was disappointed with the characters/races, however. I believe I've stated in other posts of mine the importance of emotional connection for me. I love when a character/race can pull at your heart strings and make you actually feel something, a good race brings itself to life as much as possible. In Skyward Sword, as you mentioned, most characters seem to be nothing more than shells of cuteness or just bland faces. If you had to do something for a particular race, I felt you weren't actually helping them as much as in previous games. I mean, in Twilight Princess, how amazing was it when finally freeing the Zora from their frozen home? It was exciting to finally see them free because I felt as though I was genuinely helping them. To have them be lying around half dead after saving them also brought a feeling of sorrow to the moment, another emotional connection I liked. I also liked how Twilight Princess used the Goron race as the holders of another unique emotion, anger. The Gorons didn't like Link, or any humans to begin with, but Link won them over. Once again, a feeling of accomplishment, closeness, and happiness was obtained when finally overcoming this particular race's challenge.
In Skyward Sword, you seldom found yourself going to great lengths for anyone, let alone an entire group of people. I didn't feel too accomplished or helpful, I felt the quest focused way too much on getting to Zelda (I realize this is the main point of the game, but it felt too narrow for me). I hope Nintendo brings back more of a strong race importance/connection in the next installment.

 

[r2d93]

Most people are going to say they don't love the new races as much. Why? Because theyre new that's why. How could a mogma even compete with a beloved goron that we've seen oh so much of and grown to love and care for (we even were one at one point).

Other than them being just new, I also found them uninteresting. The most interesting to me were the mogma, and that's probably because they have their own theme and they have the whole theif/treasure hunter vibe to them. But i personally didn't like some othe the Mogma we are introduced to in the game as i found them arrogant and ignorant. The Kikwi were adorable but not much more. The Parella were bad looking and were also very uninteresting. The Best race to me was the ancient robots because they were new in a creative way, they were humorous, and I actually cared for saving them in the sandship. Plus scrapper is awesome.

As for the enemies, the only problem i had was the bokoblin. It was dumb looking to me, not intimidating, really not that smart (a smart enemy wouldn't run up to you and start blocking even when you havent swung your sword) and they were way overused. I didn't know that bokoblins could survive in a forest, a volcano, and a desert. Enemies in SS needed to be more area exclusive

 

[JuicieJ]

I didn't know that bokoblins could survive in a forest, a volcano, and a desert. Enemies in SS needed to be more area exclusive

They were in each area due to Ghirahim's orders to search for Zelda. From a gameplay perspective (like you did in that last sentence), I guess you could say that them being in each area was lazy design, but "I didn't know that blah blah blah" is a very weak point to bring up. I mean, I could say the same thing about the human civilizations in past titles if I wanted to.

 

[Petman1325]

I've always considered the main races to be the Hylians, Gorons, and Zoras, and then everything just evolved away from there. Well, at least that was my thought perspective until Skyward Sword came around. With the new races and species that have emerged from Skyward Sword, it makes you wonder what ever happened to those creatures to go extinct or just disappear from the face of Hyrule for a while?

I could pretty much just point out any sort of "-blin." In Ocarina of Time, which was considered the first for a while, all you had were the enormous, bear-like moblins. Once Wind Waker came around, you had a whole lot more "-blins" on top of the basic moblins established from the past games. The species, as you could imagine, just simply came and went, but some managed to come back again. It could possibly be the work of Ganon, but as for races, the only direct thing we can say is humans came from Hylians, and the Rito came from Zoras.