Gorons- Interesting Race or Too Overused?

[Nicole]

Gorons have been a part of Zelda for quite some time. Myself, I am not sure whether the Gorons made an apperance previous to OoT, but that's alright. They've still been around for awhile.

When you first saw the Gorons, you probably thought, "Why is that rock moving?" and it was pretty cool to interact with them and explore their cities. They were new characters, and odd ones at that. Then what's so bad about the Gorons?

In some games, nothing is really wrong with the Gorons. In Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, the Gorons had several different named characters for you to interact with, Darunia and Biggoron, or Gor Coron and Gor Liggs, if I recall the names correctly. They had their own little lives and a (limited) personality.

In some games like OoX, PH, and ST, there are just a bunch of unamed Gorons. No personality, no "individuality" of sorts. They just give you hints on where to go, and that's the end of that.

Even in Majora's Mask I thought the Gorons weren't handled too well. Here, some of them did have their own personalities, but not many actually did. Darunia was the "best" Goron as far as character development. Most of the Gorons, though, were no different than props in the game. Just to throw this in: Alike Minish Cap, MM also featured the return of Biggoron.

What do you guys think of the Gorons? Are they still interesting today? Or are they overused, and should be mixed up or replaced?

 

[i-am-link]

The Gorons, in my opinion, are somewhat overused. They need more development, in terms of the story behind them and/or personality. Maybe it would be interesting to see them with a new look. The "fat guy-shaped rock" design is getting old.

 

[Djinn]

I think it is interesting that of all the races introduced by OoT, the Gorons are the only one that is still around in all the sequels today. The Kokiri and Gerudo disappeared after OoT/MM, and the Zora were not seen again in the WW branch of sequels. But the Gorons are always present, even when the DS sequels invented their own tribes for Hyrule. Also I believe the Gorons have been the most fleshed out of all the tribes. Normally you only see various Hylians and the other tribe members look relatively the same outside a couple named individuals. Even all the Zoras and Gerudo only had a single character model. But in the case of the gorons there have been several named ones, you see young and old members, and recently in various shapes and sizes. This is definitely a recent thing, as generally the non humanoid tribes will only have one character model unless they are an important plot related individual. Then the player is supposed to be drawn to that individual and continue the story. I think Nintendo has done a decent job improving the look of the Gorons and Zora in TP and I hope this trend keeps up. The designs used in TP were actually the first ones I liked.

Yet after all these appearances of various members appearing on three consoles, we still have not seen a single female of the species. In OoT they maintained the "everyone except the named one looks the same." And I am glad they tweaked their design some, as the OoT variety looked way too simple. Their onion shaped heads with odd lips and tiny beady eyes always looked a little too weird.

I like them mostly because in almost all other games a race of large rock people would only be a monster to defeat by the hero. But in Zelda the large boulder people that live in lava, make bombs, and eat rocks are a friendly race that are generally helpful.

They have been used a lot lately, and I wish to see some of the other OoT tribes as well. Sometimes a little more than the Gorons but I am glad Nintendo has not forgotten them. I think they have only appeared to be overused because they are still around while Nintendo has apparently dropped a few other races in recent games in favor of a new plot related one such as the Twili or Minish. However Death Mountain has been an important part of Hyrule's landscape since the beginning, and I supposed the people that live there would have a little bit of importance. It does seem strange that Nintendo has maintained them in almost every game since their first appearance. Even if it was only a handful of members that appears like they did in MC or WW. While Kokiri and Gerudo are nowhere to be seen.

 

[Ninjatrek]

i havent played many Zelda games, but i do wish they would make them stand out more as characters. You interact with them for a short amount of time and then their out of my mind for the rest of the game. unless i need to see them again for a side quest, they never cross my mind.

 

[Hylian Knight]

I feel that they are overused also but would like to see them return in SwS just because it's the prequel to OoT.

 

[MartDiamond]

Just as with other races it would be nice to give every character distinct features, not only the important ones. Probably too much to ask for. Still I like the Gorons I think they are one of the cornerstones of the series and always play an important part, just too bad that 9 out of 10 times this is at a Death Mountain of sorts. Not much originality there.

 

[Pen]

Honestly, I don't think one can overuse the Goron tribe in a Zelda game!
Ever since OoT the Gorons have been in almost every Zelda game, so in my opinion the Gorons really do represent Zelda in an
extraordinary way!
They should make a new appearance in SS!

 

[Blazestarre]

It's nice to have a variety of races in the Zelda games. They add to the world and make it unique from other fantasy worlds. The Gorons are an interesting group of people and, besides the Hylians/humans, seem to be the most fleshed out of the races. But even if that's the case, we still don't know much about them. They serve very specific functions in the games they appear: bomb makers, blacksmiths, or merchants. The only games they actually are important to the plot are OoT, MM, and TP. In all the other games they're in, their only purpose seems to be to create variety among the NPCs, which kind of makes them pointless.

Now, I do like the Gorons, but it would be better if they were actually important and their race was an important factor. You shouldn't be able to just replace a Goron with someone from another race and everything would be the same (like WW). Essentially, the ideal would be not to have them be a pointless addition to the game.

 

[Linknerd09]

I think they are pretty old. They should bring back some tribes, or make a new tribe. Even though they are overused, they are still pretty interesting to see in a Zelda game.

 

[jack546]

I realy like the gorons and would lova an aperance in skyward sword.

 

[navi_the_fairy]

I think they're interesting. I'd like more of their culture to be revealed in upcoming games, such as whether or not they have females and such.

 

[Poste]

I enjoyed the useage of Gorons in all the LoZ games, especialy in TP

 

[DannyPidgeon]

I do like the gorons, but the concept of basically always meeting them near some mountainous, fiery area and doing some fire-related fetch quests definitely got to be a bit stale. However, I don't hate the Gorons- they're a unique and interesting race, with the most fleshed out history behind them. But it would be nice to see the Gorons perhaps occupying a different kind of area, or really focusing more on the other races of Hyrule.
...The Goron Mask was epic win though.

 

[Meego]

I love the gorons! They have to be the Zelda race I go on about most in rea life to people and my family definitely enjoy watching me play Zelda if the gorons come up. I love how powerful they are but also how friendly and harmless they are to some. I love watching them dance, that is funny. And the music is just awesome.

 

[Smitie]

I don't think the gorons as a race is overused. The design for the goron is very creative and cool. They are gentle giants, but they can also be dangerous. It would be nice to have some more diversity within the tribe, just like they did with the human population in twilight princess. Each individual should be unique and not a clone.

What I like to see more is different tribes of gorons. Not just the single group of gorons in the death mountain region, but multiple tribes like the minish in minish cap. Each tribe has his hierarchy, rules, traditions and conflicts. There could also be conflicts between the tribes which Link has to solve. This point isn't just for the gorons, but for each race in the zelda games. More small diverse tribes instead of just one with clones would make the zelda games a lot more realistic.