Gossip Stone: What is you definition of a Zelda Item?

[snakeoiltanker]

What is your definition of a Zelda Item? by Andrew Kiser

Being a life-long Zelda fan can sometimes be difficult. To have an interest in a puzzle solving adventure game, it’s ironic that I find myself often having trouble solving one puzzle in particular: Which Zelda is my favorite? With nearly 20 years of personal experience with the franchise and having played all 17 of the canonical games, it’s hard to really know which game is my favorite. My go-to deciding factor is usually the amount of the items found within the game. Because of this, A Link to the Past had always held the highest position in my mind as it seemed to have the largest number of items. However, once I started really looking at the items themselves, I found it harder and harder to determine what really counted as an “item”. So what exactly is a “Zelda item”?

Hit the jump to find out more!

As with any perplexing problem, I did what any self respecting nerd would do: I created a fact comparison spreadsheet. I chose my favorite aspects of the games such as the number of items and dungeons, 3D vs. 2D, if the game had a magic meter, and if the game took place in Hyrule or another land. I then compiled this information into a handy spreadsheet so that I could easily compare each game in the series to determine which one really is the best.

Yet, there was a large problem with one column in my sheet: the Item column. At first I simply counted the number of items found in the item screen. However, the more looked at the obtainable items in the Zelda series I began to realize that my original definition was far from being all-inclusive.

Take for example two of my favorite Zelda games, Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past. A quick look at the item menu and it appears A Link to the Past has a couple more items than Ocarina of Time.

From the Ocarina of Time 3D item screen we see 21 items (not counting the trading sequence item). In A Link the Pastthere are 23 items (when counting all 4 bottles). Then I started noticing a problem when I looked back at the originalOcarina of Time‘s item screen where it gives a different item slot to each of the elemental arrows.

So I decided to count the arrows as separate items since they do have different uses and are found separately, bringingOcarina of Time to 24 items. Then of course there is the question of the boots. The Iron Boots and Hover Boots were originally part of the “equipment” screen but to make them easier to activate, Nintendo decided to add them to the “item” screen for the 3DS remake. This made me change my definition of an “item” to be anything that you had to manually equip to use. Then for Ocarina of Time we have to include the tunics, shields, and swords as well. This brings the game up to whopping 31 items and that still is not including “passive” equipment such as Zora scales, quivers, bomb bags, or the all-important power gauntlets. Not to mention the fact that in all of this I was still completely forgetting item upgrades. Even the first Zelda game had item upgrades and many games include them as dungeon items or side quests.

If this wasn’t perplexing enough, I soon discovered that these two games were not the only problematic games. With magical rings, transforming masks, handy medals, and even various treasures, this was becoming a seemingly herculean task to nail down. So I decided that I don’t have to figure this all out on my own.

What do you think is the definition of a Zelda “item”? Should there be distinctions between equipable items and passive equipment? Does an item’s location or requirement to continue the story matter? How important is the number of items in a Zelda game to you?

 

[snakeoiltanker]

Im not going to go into what game has more Items, but I do think my definition is a little different. For instance, I dont count upgrades as Items, its the same Item to me just better. However the upgrade does involve its own sidequest if not found in a dungeon. So you get more quest out of that one Item, but we are not talking about quests are we. Passive Items I am torn on, cuz while I would count the the power glove and flippers, things like the moon pearl in ALttP really doesnt do anything other than it really being an item you need to be able to stay human in the over world. Acting more as a story barrier needed too halt you from staying in the dark world too long, till they are ready for you too.

I guess I will say it like this, If it is an Item that helps you solve puzzles, or use in combat, its an Item. Things like the magic powder I would almost not call an Item as it has no real use other than changing what enemies look like, or awake the bat who upgrades your Magic. Which brings me too Ether Bombos and Quake. While those are medallions you have too equip, I see them more as a magic spell and not an Item. I look at Items as tools I guess would be the best way too say it. To cite a more recent Zelda than ALttP, I will mention MM. I wouldnt call the masks Items, as much as I would Dialog Activators. Yeah they have their use, and help you receive goodies. However I would call the transformation masks Items, as well as maybe say the bunny hood. And I wouldnt argue with anyone who claimed the Gibdo Mask was an Item, as it keeps redeads from attacking you. I hope Im giving good enough examples to see where I'm going with this. Thats just my way of looking at them. I personally wouldn't call the different Arrows items, as I see them more as upgrades to the bow.

I dont know, I thought this was an interesting topic, and would like too hear what you guys think.

 

[SavageWizzrobe]

It is definitely something of a grey area, but I know there are several different groups of things that you could call items. I'll try to list the groups I go by and some examples...

Equippable Items
This group refers to items that can be set to a particular button and are not active all the time (I consider swords, shields, and anything Link wears to be part of a separate category). Pretty much anything that appears on a "select item" screen in all relevant games is in this category.
Examples: bow, boomerang, hookshot, bombs, equippable masks, and bottles.

Equipment
This mainly refers to swords and shields, but also to anything Link can wear as clothing or armour. They are often equipped all the time, but this is not the case for all games. In some games, you can choose which sword or shield to use. Sometimes you can choose Link's tunic, armour, or boots as well, but not always.
Examples: Pegasus Shoes/Boots, Iron/Hover Boots, tunics, armour/mail, rings, Zora's Flippers, bracelets/gauntlets/power Gloves.

Passive Items
This category usually has to do with capacity upgrades, or non-clothing items that are always active.
Examples: quivers, bomb bags, wallets, diving scales, Stone of Agony, Gerudo's Card, Moon's Pearl

Quest Items
These are items that are important to the story, or track your progress throughout the game in some way, and aren't really used for anything else.
Examples: Spiritual Stones, Medallions, Remains Masks, Heart Pieces, Gold Skulltula Tokens, Poe Souls

Obviously this isn't perfect, as there are some items that are very iffy. How about the charts in WW? Learned songs? Hidden skills? Letters?
I honestly think the definition depends on the individual game, or at least a certain game engine.

 

[SpiteChaotic]

My definition might be simple but I like it. A zelda item by defintion to me is an item I use to solve puzzles. Dungeon puzzles, combat situations and how it gets me through the plot and game. No other items like the bomb, boomerang and bow feel more like zelda. With my fun way to use the timing of bombs to hit switchs that i was supposed to use other items to pass. Th boomerang to stun foes and do fun curves to retreive my items. The arrows long range combat at its best with the abillity to solve a puzzle or two.