Breath of the Wild Diverse Levels of Difficulty

[Ronin]

Although unannounced at this time, Zelda U already has incredible potential in light of the hardware capacities of the Wii U. Virtually anything can be integrated into the game and handed over to the player for them to control. The GamePad will no doubt be the core focus of Zelda U's gameplay and serve as the bridge to connect us to the game. This begs the question, though... Will the Pad be used to make the game easier or harder, or will it give us the options to choose the difficulty for ourselves?

To many people, the most sensible thing to do is add a difficulty setting. They have argued that certain Zelda games came to feel mediocre since the games had the same difficulty all the way through. But I think that the Wii U offers ample opportunity to shake things up. Diversity is something that I believe should be more integral with the standard formula, and the GamePad is the key to unlocking that door. For example, utilizing its features in combat could mean is has different means of defeating a foe, rather than the typical approach-and-slash style.

Furthermore there are puzzles to consider. Taking a look back at a number of games, in Twilight Princess we see the puzzle with the Sacred Grove guardians of getting them back in their former positions, and Skyward Sword has the bridge puzzle leading to the Isle of Songs. Both of these are higher-level brain-twisters compared to the norm. Again, the Wii U can improve this scenario as well by presenting multiple ways to solve puzzles, such as using items to affect environments.

Long story short, do you think the Wii U will offer enough diversity to suffice the difficulty level? As I said, it has great potential, but can Nintendo truly deliver with this one based on the series' track record? And what ways would you like to see the GamePad utilized to build upon the past achievements of the formula?

 

[The Wanderer]

This is a bit of a tricky question to answer, partly because it's so all-encompassing. I'd love to see Zelda Wii U take good advantage of the GamePad, but I don't want it to be all about the GamePad. There are two things that usually go wrong with the latter approach. One, it makes the game a nice showcase of the console's capabilities, but it often makes the game itself suffer in core areas. Two, not everyone is fond of advanced control schemes, as seen in Skyward Sword, so we'd be losing a fair bit of people by making Zelda Wii U all about the GamePad. I think we should hold games like Metroid Prime 3 and Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition as references when contemplating advanced control schemes. The motion controls didn't feel forced in either of those games; rather, they felt natural because they were used to supplement the core gameplay rather than define it.

So should the GamePad take over Zelda Wii U? No, it shouldn't, but it should still have a significant focus. I don't know about using the GamePad for different ways to solve puzzles; either this gets too complicated and bogs down development time, or it becomes a neat gimmick we acknowledge once and move on from. I do think it would be a good idea to incorporate unique play styles into each controller setup, though. Let's assume just for now that Link can learn all manner of magic spells in Zelda Wii U. You can use the Wii Remote to make certain gestures to cast spells easily (in addition to mapped button pressing), or if you're playing with the GamePad, you could draw the signs of the spells on the Touch Screen. It would add that desired level of diversity, giving players different setups to master.

It may not be a bad idea to include some mini-games exclusive to each control scheme as well, but players may react negatively to this when they want to play Wii Remote mini-games and can't find their Remotes. But you're right, there's a world to be explored with the Wii U, and I predict the next official Zelda installment is only the tip of the iceberg there.

 

[Ventus]

Having used the GamePad rather extensively with the Rayman Legends demo, I have to say that it can make games easier or harder depending on player skill...but that itself is hard to say as you have to take into account player dexterity, hand size, arm size...et cetera. Where the gamepad is comfortable to hold for one, it would be the opposite for another. Where a player is dextrous, the other would not be. List goes on.

So, I can't make a blanket statement and say the GP will allow players to decide the difficulty, as different people are accustomed to different things (I figured this as just my two little brothers and I had widely differing opinions on the GamePad...if three kids who usually like the same things are so averse to each other's opinion on one thing, how does that size up to the world?). I can say, however, that we could get difficulty levels, and that the Gamepad should be incorporated into those levels (using a "gamepad on" mode). Warning: what I'm about to say is going to delay Zelda U's development time if Nintendo isn't already doing it. :brow:

Take three difficulties: easy, normal and hard. Easy usually is where enemies have 0.5x multipliers on all stats, normal is 1x, and hard is 2.0x or higher. We could make six functional difficulties though; easy and easy (gamepad on), normal and normal (gamepad on), hard and hard (gamepad on). I don't know what I'd do as far as gameplay order or what not, but with "gamepad on" difficulties, I'd make the gamepad more and more involved with the game, but the gamepad off modes would just be harder, traditional/classic Zelda, you know? The gamepad functionality would extend across more puzzles the harder the difficulty is...at least the way I'm imagining it. Gamepad off modes are for those who would prefer classic Zelda, or just aren't comfortable with the Gamepad.

In that respect I guess I would say the Gamepad would be integral to Zelda U, but it wouldn't define the game; it'd merely be a medium to play it.

 

[Spirit]

Having used the GamePad rather extensively with the Rayman Legends demo, I have to say that it can make games easier or harder depending on player skill...but that itself is hard to say as you have to take into account player dexterity, hand size, arm size...et cetera. Where the gamepad is comfortable to hold for one, it would be the opposite for another. Where a player is dextrous, the other would not be. List goes on.

So, I can't make a blanket statement and say the GP will allow players to decide the difficulty, as different people are accustomed to different things (I figured this as just my two little brothers and I had widely differing opinions on the GamePad...if three kids who usually like the same things are so averse to each other's opinion on one thing, how does that size up to the world?). I can say, however, that we could get difficulty levels, and that the Gamepad should be incorporated into those levels (using a "gamepad on" mode). Warning: what I'm about to say is going to delay Zelda U's development time if Nintendo isn't already doing it. :brow:

Take three difficulties: easy, normal and hard. Easy usually is where enemies have 0.5x multipliers on all stats, normal is 1x, and hard is 2.0x or higher. We could make six functional difficulties though; easy and easy (gamepad on), normal and normal (gamepad on), hard and hard (gamepad on). I don't know what I'd do as far as gameplay order or what not, but with "gamepad on" difficulties, I'd make the gamepad more and more involved with the game, but the gamepad off modes would just be harder, traditional/classic Zelda, you know? The gamepad functionality would extend across more puzzles the harder the difficulty is...at least the way I'm imagining it. Gamepad off modes are for those who would prefer classic Zelda, or just aren't comfortable with the Gamepad.

In that respect I guess I would say the Gamepad would be integral to Zelda U, but it wouldn't define the game; it'd merely be a medium to play it.

What he said, couldnt agree more, thanks for posting first Ven