General Zelda Are You a Liberal or Conservative Zelda Fan?

[HatredHazard]

I'm not asking for your political views, lol. Looking around the threads I've noticed that some of us want Zelda to make major changes to the classic formula in upcoming titles; our biggest complaint of the former titles is that they haven't changed much from OoT's template. Others think that the Zelda formula is what makes Zelda, Zelda, and any radical changes would alienate fans. They think there have been significant innovations since OoT, such as the motion controls in SS, the cartoony artstyle introduced by WW, etc. Some of us are in the middle.

Where do you stand and why? Do you want to see radical changes in upcoming titles, and what would these changes be? Or would you rather Zelda stuck to the old time-tested template?


I'm more of a liberal; I want to see innovation in the next Zelda games. Particularly, I think the whole overworld-dungeon-overworld-dungeon pattern has gotten extremely predictable. Zelda should stick with its puzzle-solving and action-adventure roots, but that doesn't require dungeons. Why can't there be "dungeons"--as in, puzzle-type challenges--right in the middle of a town or outside? Besides gameplay changes, I want to see storyline changes as well. Less kidnapping and saving the maiden, for God's sake! Less cliche evil villain lord!

 

[A Link In Time]

No moderate?

I'm a conservative liberal. Zelda should experiment with the traditional formula as with Majora's Mask but introducing too many RPG elements like beastiaries and alchemy is going too far. Skyward Sword had the right idea with weapon upgrades. The next step is to introduce tougher foes to make these upgrades useful. I've mulled over the idea of combining dungeon and overworld as well but it should be done subtly by introducing more open top dungeons like the City In The Sky or mansions resembling Snowpeak or Ocarina's Forest Temple. I'm not averse to shops at dungeon entrances either to lively up the atmosphere.

If elements are introduced to alter Zelda's genre, then Nintendo should create a new franchise entirely.

 

[Spirit]

I want to see change and innovation in certain ways; I think MM was a good upgrade of the intricacies OoT could have had and WW was not so much as evolution as it was something different in the way that Zelda should change, but with recent Zelda changes in the way the software operates has gone hand in hand with the hardware, and that is the wrong kind of change for the series. Nintendo is now building games around hardware and using Zelda to sell the hardware instead of letting the software do it itself which isn't the right way to go about it.

I'm all for mixing up dungeon themes and orders and ways you go about them, i'm all for stylistic changes, leaps through time in the timeline and Valley of the Flood style ideas, it is the software that needs to change on its own and not be dependent on the hardware. So yeah, change is welcome but not becuase the hardware said so. If they can get that right then i'm all good

 

[DarkestLink]

Conservative. Mostly Nintendo seems to throw out original ideas for the sake of originality and nothing else. It adds nothing and sometimes ruins the experience like sailing did with Wind Waker or the sales like the constant graphics change.

Zelda's flourished best when trying to build off what it has rather than start something new.

OoT: Basic clone of aLttP with a better story, better dungeons, better combat, better graphics, and 3D. Best selling Zelda game.

TP: Basic clone of OoT with better story, much better combat, better graphics, and more content. 2nd best selling Zelda game.

 

[Dragoncat]

I'm kinda in the middle. I'm up for changes to story and gameplay, but I dont want too much. The instant Link starts flying around in a spaceship and firing lasers at aliens, for example, is the instant it is no longer Zelda for me. Zelda is supposed to be a medieval fantasy, not a sci fi. The aliens in MM are fine, but please don't make it the main point of the game. Nintendo has Metroid if you want that.

I agree that there needs to be less "save princess from evil guy". The story needs to branch out and experiment more, and it looks like they're trying to do that. My advice to Nintendo is keep it up, but never forget what makes Zelda the game we know and love.

 

[Dr3W21]

There should be a poll here....

But in any case, I'm kinda in the grey area between the two. I don't want all of the Zelda's to follow the same pattern exactly (that breeds monotony, which is probably my least favorite thing), but I do want to see them follow a similar sort-of pattern (you know, getting the Master Sword or something similar, element-based dungeons, things coming in sets of 3, etc.), but I also would like to see sufficient room for innovation.

 

[Ventus]

I'm a conservative liberal, just like my good man In_time. There are some changes the series, in my mind, can do, but others I likely will call radical and unneeded. Such radical changes are things like touch/motion controls; they just didn't feel like Zelda to me, and the story focus which didn't prove useful in Skyward Sword. Ironically, a complete gameplay overhaul to that of a JRPG akin to Star Ocean would be totally welcome to me, lol.

but introducing too many RPG elements like beastiaries and alchemy is going too far.

Alchemy already exists in the series as does a beastiary. :I

 

[Justac00lguy]

Innovation is what Zelda needs, the real question is though is how much? I think with too much change a Zelda game will not be seen as a true Zelda game as the series for a long time has stuck to the stable formula and even small tweaks to the formula can have the fans ih uprage...Take TWW for example this game changed the graphical style to a more suttle Cel-Shaded style, now this was actually a pretty big change but it pretty much cause a big controversy among fans and still to this day a lot of fans seem split.

I would say that each new Zelda game should stick to what makes Zelda games great...Essentially the fundamentals; Exploration, music, puzzles, charm, atmosphere, story, combat, graphics, gameplay, controls Etc. Now in order to keep a Zelda game true to the series it should maybe focus on changing or in a sense "innovating" on a couple of these aspects. Say for example putting more emphasis on exploration and changing the way we think about Non-linearity and maybe changing small aspects in terms of expanding on soundtrack and putting more emphasis on the story and so on....

Of course this is just a hypothesis but I think Nintendo can innovate on specific aspects and still get a good and fresh Zelda game without completely changing the formula, there is also the idea of adding features from other games like RPG aspects but yet again if Nintendo where to innovate in this fashion they should again do it in moderation

 

[NESpowerhouse]

I would consider myself somewhat in the middle because I want Nintendo to innovate with new ideas in the Zelda series to keep the series fresh and original, while I also want the series to remember as to what made past games so great. Something that made OoT's template so genius is that the game's length was perfect. It's a case of if it isn't broken, don't fix it.

 

[Random Person]

My thoughts...

[video=youtube;qpVj3vWNR5I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpVj3vWNR5I[/video]
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[DarkestLink]

I don't get why so many people ask for change and then the majority of them whine when it happens. Look at SS, it gets so much hate for the changes it made despite how small they all were...what's more, these same people tend to want to get rid of all change completely and get back outdated elements like non-linearity, often using the argument that "The old games did it".

 

[Ventus]

I don't get why so many people ask for change and then the majority of them whine when it happens. Look at SS, it gets so much hate for the changes it made despite how small they all were...

Just because I ask for a change doesn't mean the one that gets implemented is the one I wanted. Likewise, just because I ask for no change doesn't mean reprinting the same game will result in my buying it. It's the way emotions and what your wants are work, even if you don't *know* what your wants are at any point in time.

 

[TatlTails]

I'm one of those seemingly rare people that doesn't truly dislike anything in the Zelda series, with a few exceptions that I only notice after my first playthrough of the game. Just make me a fun game and I'm good. Though there are some things I kinda don't want in future games.

Heavy RPG elements. The upgrading in SS was pushing it in my eyes. It was fun, but kinda frustrating if you had trouble getting a certain type of item (coughtumbleweedscough) and I just didn't like it. I like Zelda best when it's a more adventure-focused game.

Nerfed difficulty. I don't like playing Twilight Princess very much. It feels like I'm taking forever to to everything and I just feel bored. I actually feel the same way about Ocarina of Time, though less so. I recently discovered these feelings are because I don't feel properly challenged. I'm having no difficulty doing anything. Easy games bore me. Keep making it hard like Skyward Sword brought back.

No sidequest focus. In Skyward Sword, almost the only sidequests were in Skyloft. But because there was so much focus on "Go back down to the surface and save Zelda!" that I actually felt like I wasn't supposed to explore Skyloft, so I missed out on a lot of probably really good sidequests. I love sidequests, but make me feel like I'm allowed to do them.

"Almost" voice acting. Seriously, if you're gonna make Link move his lips, but not talk, you're just messing with everybody by this point. All or nothing! Though I'd prefer nothing.

Stating the obvious. Nintendo, we just learned that information. Stop making 5 different people tell us the same thing.

Aaaand now I'm just rambling and probably contradicting my first statement by this point. Truthfully, if they keep doing this stuff, I'll still play the games, and enjoy them (with the exception of difficulty), and not really care for a while. But making these changes would make the games a lot more enjoyable in my eyes.

 

[DuelMark]

I am... neither side. I'm the middle ground.

 

[ihateghirahim]

The beauty of Zelda it is that is both conservative and liberal. The games can adapt to any platform or setting: 2d to 3d, N64-Gamecube, home console to Gameboy, Controller to Motion Controls, and still be the same type of game it was before. The Legend of Zelda has retained it's amazing abilities through new innovations and changes. Kids love SS the way many loved the first game on the NES all those years ago. Nintendo shall innovate, but Zelda, with all its dungeons, monsters, and epic stories, shall stand as the pinnacle of gaming. Long Live Zelda!