General Zelda Is Zelda Too Childish to Continue to Flourish?

[Sydney]

Depends. Out of all the Zelda games I've played, A Link Between Worlds was easily the most childish; however, I believe that the game was targeted towards small children to begin with. With an easy storyline to follow, and dungeons that could be completed in less than an hour, it's a perfect game for young newcomers. Regarding other games in the series, a lot of them take on a more serious tone. Let me give you some examples.

*Majora's Mask features a town of citizens who are unaware of their impending demise. A young boy has to put his search for his dear friend on hold to save Termina, to save humanity.
*In Ocarina of Time, Link is bullied and ridiculed as a child for being the odd one out. The Deku Tree falls ill and dies, and he's forced to leave Saria, his best friend, behind. That would crush any normal person.
*In Twilight Princess, Link is practically abused by Midna and has to cater to her every demand and request. Not to mention he has to save to worlds/realms (Hyrule and the Twilight Realm). Oh, there's also Ilia, a potential love interest, that has no idea who he is.
*In The Wind Waker, Link's sister is abducted, he has to leave his Grandmother all by herself, and Tetra and KoRL are more important than they make themselves out to be. Talk about trippy...

But yeah, don't listen to the absurd complaints about TLoZ being too childish too continue. That's far from true, and we all know that.

 

[Random Person]

While I would love to see the series take a bigger step in the mature genre, I don't think childish is the correct word. Family friendly? Yes. Weird and off-putting? Yes. But not childish. The problem is moreso that the games appeal to the current generation of gamers (excluding WW, I have no idea where that came from). This somewhat explains why SS came out the way it did, as casual gamers were a big thing during that time, especially for the Wii.

Whenever death happens or is talked about in Zelda, it's 100 % serious and it's usually permanent. There's actually weight put on the death, because its not some throwaway joke. If someone dies, they're dead. If a war happens, a lot of people died. Nintendo doesn't try to gloss over serious issues or turn it into a joke.

Actually, the opposite tends to happen in the Zelda series. When one dies, they usually become a ghost, spirit or something in that sense where they can still linger. Sometimes these otherworld spirits are even used as comic relief. Recall OoT's Dampe, Twin Rova, MM's Stal Kingdom and many other examples. MM lets you feel the effect of death, but the gravity of it is usually disperses from the Zelda series. The characters of MM don't even know their loved ones are dead because Link disguises himself as them. It even has an entire land dedicated to seeing dead figures, nullifying the "death is final" concept. (Spoiler coming up) One of the saddest deaths, Link's uncle in ALttP, was reversed when we found out he was either never really dead or that the triforce reversed the process (same can be said for the tree kid). So death is actually one of the concepts of Zelda that could be "matured."

 

[SKULLKIDBUPPIED]

I don't think the problem is the graphical style, more the way the game has not really evolved all that much since 1998. I think Zelda should do something more like Dishonored (and not in the violent way) but make the way the way the the game plays totally up to the player. Make Link be able to be customized in what armor and weapons and items he would like to equip, what skills to learn, what items to upgrade. I think the way most Zelda games are pretty streamlined is a huge turn-off to some people. I mean, look at minecraft. the graphics in that game are not at all gritty or dark , nor the nonexistent story, but it's the ability to do anything that has attracted so many gamers to it.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

I don't think that the series is too childish to continue, the way I look at it the Super Mario series is more childish then zelda is, yet somehow it thrives. Nintendo needs to stop going after the normal gamer and start appealing to its core gamers. Sure a few things to draw in normal gamers is fine but its the core fan base that keeps them going. I hate to say it but the Wii U so far has been a bust, more people are buying the Xbox one and PS4 even though they cost more money. Quite frankly atleast if you buy one of those consoles you'll feel like your getting your moneys worth. Its to late to take back the Wii U, so nintendo is just going to have to deal with it for now. What needs to be done is they need to focus more upon their best games, that is what is going to keep them floating for now. They need to space the release of their games right, they need to make a third Super Mario Galaxy game, maybe also release another installment with Super Mario Sunshine. With Zelda Wii U they need to make it really big, they need to make the dungeons fun, add a lot of sidequests, make sure each weapon or item in the game is utilized to its full potential, and avoid to much linearity.