General Modern Levels

[SpiritGerudo]

Something that's been bothering me lately is the increasing definition of separate "levels" within Zelda games (Skyward Sword most prominently). Let's look at Skyward Sword, shall we? After the tutorial, we have: Kikwi level, Deep Woods Level, Skyview. Eldin Level, Key Level, Earth Temple. Lanayru Level, electric-thingy level, Lanayru Mining Facility, and so on. Following this structure, the game has well defined and separated levels of platforming, then fetch quest, then dungeon.

Link's items are becoming more suited to this style as well. The clawshots and the beetle in particular show this change. The clawshots are used almost exclusively for long platforming segments that mostly just lay out a path for you and say "get to the end". The beetle is also used only for exploration, and is pretty much useless in battle (although I did scare a Bokoblin off a cliff with it once). The boomerang, which the beetle more or less replaced, was useful in both puzzles and combat, and the change to an item solely useful in puzzle situations shows the change to a more level-oriented game.

I for one hate the level-based gameplay, and the higher emphasis on platforming that results from it as well. I'd rather be challenged by well thought out enemy design and unique puzzles than the environment and movement. So do you think that more defined levels, as in Skyward Sword, and to a much lesser extent Twilight Princess, are better? Do you enjoy them more? Or do you think a more sporadic but exploration driven scheme of gameplay is better??

 

[Ventus]

The electric-thing you speak of is called Generators !
And I love you for this. I absolutely despise the madness that pervades modern Zelda. It is too generic in structure; too samey. I believe Zelda is being even more casualized by the minute ! Nintendo must change from this structuring and make the areas more Unique!

The environment should never be a challenge itself unless it's a naturally occuring disaster, i.e. earthquake or other form of disaster. Movement shouldn't be an issue either, unless you're on an icy plain (that is you lose traction) or in a pool of quicksand.

Story-driven gameplay as a whole is exactly what Zelda should NOT strive to do. I don't have the exact details, but what Skyward Sword presented is definitely the opposite of what I want Zelda to be.

 

[Salem]

Story-driven gameplay I don't like, it makes it feel like the actions are not entirely your doing. Also long cutscenes are boring.

I agree, I don't like the divide of the overworld into levels, but remember, most Zelda games have well defined areas, but the trick is to make the transition from one area to another seem seamless, this was achieved in the older games a lot, bit the transportation overworlds, not so much.

I don't exactly get your point about the items though, do you mean that it's always obvious what you need to do with them and that they act as glorified keys? If so I agree, if not, could you please clarify?

 

[Mellow Ezlo]

It makes Zelda almost seem like a platformer, which it is not. It works really well for games like Mario, but not for Zelda, and it is one of the few things I truly dislike about Skyward Sword.

When you have an adventure game, like Zelda, it is pretty much ideal to have room for exploration. Skyward Sword lacks that because of the inability to easily travel between regions. The exploration in Skyward Sword was extremely limited, which makes it seem less Zeldaish to me. Twilight Princess at least had those adventure elements that we have come to love in the series. I did not really consider TP a level-based game to be honest, whereas SS I did.

Exploration is essential in a series like this. Dividing the overworld into levels makes the game less fun because you have less room to look for stuff. In Twilight Princess at least, you could pretty much walk around the entire overworld, thus giving players tons of room to explore and look for stuff.

 

[Salem]

The funny thing about SS is they literally had the level select from Mario inspire the overworld structure in it, so your description of "levels" is more accurate than you think.