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Dowsing: Should It Return?

dowsing made sense as an inclusion because of Fi, (as unneeded and ridiculous as it looked and felt to me..) so i don't think it'd fit in another game aside from Skyward Sword 2 (which hopefully doesn't happen). There may be other ways of collecting treasures etc in future Zelda games like OoT's rumble/agony stone to alert the player of a nearby collectable (which i much prefer to the dowsing) but as for dowsing itself, going into first person, finding a beep etc.. i don't think it'll return and i hope it doesn't too.
 
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Aug 25, 2012
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I'd use some "Reply With Quote" options here, but that would make this message obscenely long....

Basically, I agree with both Random Person and JuiceJ regarding the nature of dowsing. Strictly speaking, it's optional, but it's such an omnipresent part of the game that it's hard to ignore. You don't have to swat a fly buzzing around your head, but more often than not, it seems like the right thing to do. Dowsing felt much the same way. (Not to compare dowsing's enjoyability to a housefly, as I found the former to be pretty enjoyable, but it hopefully gets the point across.)

As I said in an earlier post, I do believe dowsing should return, but with far more attention put on its optional use. It's perfect for things like buried treasure, but story objectives could be more cleverly completed with keener methods like riddles, environmental observation, and memorizing facts. It's true that nobody says you have to use dowsing, but when it's constantly prompted and promoted the way it is, it feels a bit like going through Mario Kart without using items or GoldenEye 007 without shooting anyone. No one says you always have to do it, but it's such an integral part of the game that you're shorting yourself the experience by not taking it.

In addition to dowsing's promoted use, it also acts as somewhat of a cop-out for smarter puzzles or more-engaging sidequests. Rather than immersing yourself in anything new, like solving puzzles, defeating hordes of enemy kidnappers, or unique mini-games, you're just running across the terrain until you find what you're looking for, grab it, and return to the starting point. That's not saying Nintendo can only use this approach for dowsing, but again, this is where dowsing should be rethought a bit if it makes another appearance. By coming across as entirely optional (like the Sheikah Stones) and not as a normal part of gameplay, it can be used to make the game a bit easier or, as per my preference, for finding small treasures across the world.

Long story short, dowsing should return. It would just probably be better if it was more optional. We have things like Sheikah Stones to help lost players, so dowsing feels slightly redundant unless Nintendo rethinks its basic design.
 

Ronin

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I think dowsing should definitely come back. Maybe not in the next game, or in the title after that, but without question I think it's a feature that has the potential to infinitely revolutionize the series. When contemplating on this, it can be sort of hard to come up with new ideas for the implementation of dowsing. After all, having used it extensively in Skyward Sword everything I imagined it could do has already been done. Dowsing had a very simplistic line of protocol, which simply stipulated that it could find objects of quest-similar significance, or smaller items that can be used to upgrade weapons. Essentially it could lead the holder of the sword (the "dowser") on a direct path toward what they had in mind. And that takes me to my next point...

Some people have argued before that dowsing is an extremely linear procedure. On the other hand, I'd argue that it's only as linear as the player makes it. It actually can be turned on and off at will, allowing some divergence from the chief directive so that there wasn't a lack of exploration. Even while following the mainquest, the player could break away and roam through the surrounding areas, hoping to unearth some secret(s) hidden nearby. Or they didn't even have to use dowsing at all as they went in search of a story-importance object (just say it's the key shards that are needed to open the Earth Temple). The player could easily go in search of something by following any series of clues along the way. But my main point is that dowsing is there only if it's needed; and that's how it should stay, should it return.

Finally, I agree with TheWanderer that dowsing has to be reconsidered in the way that it is, so that it doesn't provide a redundant experience. It potentially encompasses a whole range of performances, making it more than a "shortcut" to a desired destination. But the uses as they are now have to be reconfigured and established with a different set of rules first. Nintendo knows how to do this, because they've taken a feature from the past and brought it back in a totally new way before, or applied various uses to it (such with the Iron Boots being used for both sumo-wrestling and magnetized shoes). I'm confident that dowsing will be no different if Nintendo decides it's a worthwhile tool for a new quest in Hyrule. Who knows? Maybe we could sword-fight in First Person while dowsing. xD
 

JuicieJ

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I also don't like the argument that because it's optional it cannot be complained about in terms of making the game easy. Things like Shiekah stones fall under this category in my eyes, because you have to go out of your way to access that help. However, dowsing is always available at the touch (or rather the hold...) of a button. Arguing this is like arguing that giving a player access to God-Mode at any point in the game is excusable simply because it's optional. Truth is, when presented with an easy way forward, even players like myself will go against their own wishes of having a challenge. However, it did make things like finding Goddess Cubes a little less frustrating.

I don't see how having access to it at any time makes a difference. It's still optional. Optional feature is optional. If you're not forced to use it, then it's not an issue. Now, if dowsing had had issues in its use, yeah, there would be reason to complain about it. But... there aren't any. (I don't think your opening statements were objective issues, but rather personal ones.)
 

Cfrock

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I understand that dowsing is optional and therefore you don't have to use it but there is still a difference in how dowsing is optional compared to, say, the Sheikah Stones being optional.

The Sheikah Stone pops up, says 'If you need me, I'll be right here' and then you might never go near it again.
Dowsing is constantly brought to your attention and the game clearly wants you to use it. Here's an example.

When you get to the Faron Woods and have to find the Kikwis, Fi tells you that you can dowse for them and then the game makes a point of showing you that the Kikwis are now dowsing targets. The game clearly intends for you to dowse for them. Now, you don't have to dowse, not at all, but the game never just says 'Go find the Kikwis' and then leaves you to decide whether or not to dowse for them.
When it comes to dowsing you don't make the decision to use it, you have to make the decision not to use it. You are only not going to dowse for things if you consciously make the decision not to, which makes what is technically an optional feature feel almost mandatory. I do agree that it being optional means there's no point in complaining that it makes things easy, but there is a difference between dowsing and other optional features in the way you have to choose not to use it, rather than the other way around.

Staying on topic, I don't know about having dowsing return. I mean, it never bothered me but I was never particularly fond of it. Perhaps if it didn't require first-person and was more just Link holding his sword out and it pointing in the direction of what you were trying to find I would have liked it more. That way it wouldn't interrupt the flow of the game as much and it could mean dowsing wouldn't tell you how high or low an object was, meaning it would be a little less helpful, therefore leaving you with some challenge even if you do use it.
That said, if it came back exactly as it is in Skyward Sword, I wouldn't complain.
 
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Aug 29, 2012
I disliked the dowsing ability. Just another way for Fi to annoy me. I never used it so I don't care if it comes back, but I just thought it was a useless way to use the motion control features. I thought something like Goddess 'eyes' would be almost better and cooler than just giving me a general direction (GENERAL DIRECTION!!! **salutes**) of where to go. Kind of like the Lens of Truth.
 
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Nov 2, 2012
I didn't like it. I tried to use it and it just annoyed me. I've wanted to move in first person in a Zelda game for a very long time now but Skyward didn't do it the way i wanted it to so I was disappointed.
 
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Oct 26, 2012
The dowsing feature in no way enhanced the game for me. I'd vote that it stay exclusive to Skyward Sword so that the money and manpower that would be put into moving forward with that specific option can be put into more useful, creative, and stimulating components of future titles.
 

Batman

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Not really. It was a cool tool but I think it's kind of specific to Skyward Sword. If a future Zelda game implemented dowsing it would probably come off as gimmicky and unnecessary.
 
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Apr 10, 2012
Sure, though I don't remember it being said that it was optional, I liked it. It points u to the general direction, like finding the Kikwis, but I had a bit of exploring to find them. Though I found out it was optional through an experiment, I wish it was made more obvious that it was optional. Also, I wish that they would let u use it as a feature u can use without it beeping. Though it took a second to enter and exit dowsing, so sort of a minor complaint. But still, I wish the beeping wasn't there.
 

Ventus

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I don't want Dowsing to return. Regardless of if it is optional or not, I don't like the idea of physically being pointed in the right direction in-game; it's like a cheat sheet for whenever you're stuck and don't know which way to go. Back in my day, we had to use maps or context clues to find our way around things (e.g the Knuckles/Rouge stages in Sonic Adventure 1 & 2). If we were bad at the game, we'd have to suck it up and try to get better, or else die trying. It's true, we had access to strategy guides [those things people rarely buy these days] and we even had to go online to request walkthroughs to be completed. We didn't get the help ingame, because we worked for our reward. Yeah, I agree it is a rather cruel and twisted mindset that I'm potentially forwarding onto others, but I much prefer the reward of finally defeating a colossus all by my lonesome rather than having something do it for to the point where I'm just going through the motions.
 

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