Muliplayer Zelda?

[Izagar]

The second picture is obviously altered, since the only Zelda characters in the Smash Series are Link, Young Link/Toon Link, Zelda/Shiek, and Ganondorf. No one else was added.

If we start making multiplayer games, Nintendo may start making games like Zelda Party (as opposed to Mario Party) or Zelda Kart (as opposed to Mario Kart). Zelda is more of an adventure game and not multiplayer, but if they did make a multi-player, I would like to see a Four Swords-like game that is in 3-D.

 

[Master94]

that picture is made by me, the second one.

 

[kpllk]

that picture is made by me, the second one.

It wasn't what I was thinking, but the one you made actually looks pretty fun.

 

[Master94]

I made new ones about your idea. Yes, i made these too.

This one could work with link-cable

Another nes controller needed
Is any of these like what you were thinking?

 

[kpllk]

I made new ones about your idea. Yes, i made these too.

This one could work with link-cable

Another nes controller needed
Is any of these like what you were thinking?

No. I was thinking of more a split screen type thing. Erlier you mentioned if it would be like a Minish Cap type thing. I don't have that game. Can you please explain what it is like as two players?

 

[Master94]

It is like ... at two player mode , each player control two links. One player mode four links

But it's not battle game. two players... kills enemies faster
And that game is super boring, if playing it alone.

 

[DvSag]

Multiplayer!? Blasphemy!? Maybe, Maybe Not...

Yo. Sup.

I'm new. My name is DvSag. Been a fan of Zelda since the NES days, and I think that's really all I really need to say about my level of devotion. Cool?

Anyway, like the rest of you (mainly those of us who feel obligated to subscribe to a Zelda forum site... which should be all of us losers) I've been debating over and over in my head about what the new Zelda title will be like. Frankly, I love the Zelda series, and aside from maybe a few new changes to the formula (mainly the level of AI difficulty) I think the series could stay the current course and never get stale.

But hell, I'm not the one developing the games, now am I? Apparently, from what I've heard there's talk of a fairly large change to the Zelda formula coming, and I, for one, am scared out of my firmly planted iron boots.

It's not that I don't trust Nintendo. They've never let us down before, I'm just afraid that they'll take a drastic dive into unfamiliar territory with the sacred brand name of Zelda and produce something that, well, isn't up to standard.

If you ask me, aside from the possible exception of Zelda II, EVERY major Zelda title could rate at least an 8.5 on any given rating scale, and I'd hate to think of a brand new Zelda title on a platform with as much potential as the Wii to rate at a disappointing 7, or even just a 7.5. D:

So with this in mind I'd put a lot of thought on how the formula for Zelda games can change without alienating itself from a basically perfect series of games dating back to its humble beginnings. Wait, humble? Pffft! What am I saying? Epic. Zelda had an absolutely epic beginning. :nod: Yea.

So after much internal (and one awkward moment of external) debate, here's my idea:
Make Zelda a TWO PLAYER GAME!
("OMG WHAT!? BAN THIS KID!! I HATE HIM ALREADY!! HE HAS NO IDEA WHAT ZELDA GAMES ARE ABOOT!! N00B!!")

No! No no no! Chill one sec and hear me out on this one.
Remember Majora's Mask? Hell yea you do. Remember the last part of the Kafei/Anju side-quest-extrrrrrravaganza? How cool was it to play as Kafei for those brief moments to solve that puzzle?
Remember in Wind Waker when Tingle gave you the Tingle Tuner? Remember how gay you thought it was that Tingle was even in the game? Irrelevant. But do you remember having a buddy next to you dropping bombs on enemies you were nowhere near, and opening previously inaccessable areas of dungeons you've already visited and (for the most part) cleaned out?
Remember ALL of Four Swords and/or Four Swords Adventure? (I actually don't... but I'm sure some of you do!)

What if the next major Zelda title had some sort of co-op? What if the next major Zelda title had co-op and had nothing to do with the Four Sword?

Here's how my plan fleshes out:
I understand that Link NEEDS to be the main focus of the game. I mean, the game is mainly about the lone hero on his quest to save the princess against the bad guy. That's the part of the Zelda formula that can NEVER change. But what if, say, Ganon teamed up with Vaati or Majora? (but not that plant thing from Phantom Hourglass. That was pretty dumb.) What if Link ran into double the trouble and couldn't do it alone the whole way through? THAT'S where co-op comes in.

Ok, rule #1: Link will ALWAYS be one of the played characters. Link is the alpha and omega. Link can be swapped between player 1 and player 2, but no matter what, Link will ALWAYS be there.

Now for some Q&A:

"What about player 2? If Link constantly has a partner, wouldn't that necessarily make it look like Link may not really be the Hero of Time, or Twilight, or Winds, or Whatever? Wouldn't open the possibility of the other guy/gal, whomever that may be, being the Hero of [Blank]?"

Maybe, maybe not... I admit that could be the case if Link had one partner from the beginning, but what if Link had multiple allies throughout his adventure? Think along the lines of Majora's Mask, but if the Goron, Zora, and Deku didn't die. Instead they got better and helped you.

"Alright, multiple allies. Not bad, DvSag. You've got a bit of brains to go along with your beauty. But wait, wouldn't multiple allies still open the possibility of continuity?"

Not if each ally came and went according to the storyline.

"Well that sounds like you'd come across an army! Exactly how many allies are you going to have throughout the game?"

I only imagine a small handful. If we keep getting new allies then you'd never get accustomed to the control scheme of anyone but Link. So let's say, not counting Link, maybe four playable characters? And these four characters would leave you at points only to come back to aid you at a different time, OR if you ever choose to go back to wherever it is you met them in the first place.

"Ok, but let's say you aren't in a dungeon?"

What Zelda game would be complete without your trusty steed? That's right. Epona would be playable. It may not seem necessary, but in Twilight Princess I always found it quite bothersome that Epona can't be handled while trying to fire an arrow. Well, with the buddy system your trouble would be a thing of the past. And could you imagine obstacle courses and possibly a dungeon that requires the use of both you and your horse, or even just your horse on her own? Wicked.

"How about when you're indoors where your horse can't be, but you havn't met your new ally yet?"

Jeez, I don't know. I don't have all the answers. Maybe second player could be... your fairy? Maybe you never come across segments like that in the game. I don't know, man. Ease up.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to get pushy."

Thats ok.

"Well, how about if you don't have any friends... uhhh... that can play with you at the time?"

That's the beauty of Wi-Fi connection. Now, I understand that Zelda is a very precise game, and we can't have two crossing files. One player might have more rupees than the other, one might want to be hardcore and go through the game with only three hearts, one might just be much farther than the other. Well, if that's the case then you'd just have to choose a host, and that host would be the dominant controller of the game. You'd play on their file, and they would choose when to swap characters, when to leave rooms, what major items to pick up and leave, and whatever other technical details I havn't thought of.

"Sounds fun."

It most certainly would be. So, tell me what you think, and what questions you have that I havn't already answered, especially if you see any flaws in my blueprint. I <3 criticism!!!

 

[Mases]

First off, DvSag, a warm welcome to the forums.

Jumping into the discussion here, this idea has been floating around in my mind a lot and it wouldn't surprise me if the games does have a heavy multiplayer somewhere down the future. Many games, (like my other favorite game franchise... Resident Evil) have gone this route and tossed in multiplayer, even when it seemed that the game was completely meant to be a single player game. Unfortunately, I find the reasoning for tossing in multiplayer is to just give it the 'co-op' label, signifying that it is playable online. This is the new trend in gaming and much of the mainstream titles have gone this direction. With Zelda, I think there is a bit of classicness to it that I would like to hold close to the heart. Thus, single player Zelda is still the way to go.

I do however, like the idea of briefly being able to play as other characters. Yes you are right, it was rather awkward but cool nonetheless when you were able to control Kafai for a short period of time. I do think it would be sweet if you were able to control somebody else more often. Perhaps... Princess Zelda?.

I'd like to point out that there are games where the developers have completely changed the player that you controll and they have been successfull. Take for instance, Metal Gear Solid 2. After the success of MGS1, the sequal saw you start your quest as Solid Snake, but then just a bit into the game, you played as a brand new character and you kept him for much of the game. Yet the game is still a critical success. That being said, I don't think that this would be a great idea.

What I do think would be an interesting idea that some would like, is that there could be maybe 1 or 2 places or dungeons that are purely linear. But there are multiple routes. However, Link travels through one of the routes and his sidekick travels through the other route. Meeting up throughout their quest to solve problems. (Sorta like Mario and Luigi Partners in Time. Only played that for... minutes but I think that's how it worked).

Overall though, I do think they can 'keep' the current form of Zelda. Nothing radically changed, just perhaps different graphical appearances of Link. But I certainly don't think a full fledged multiplayer game is the way to go for Zelda. Small pieces... yes, but I think EVERYTHING should be playable with a single player.

 

[DvSag]

Well, of course the game wouldn't be a mandatory co-op game. Those never really tend to work out well. I for one have never been able to play Four Swords because I could never find three friends with the game.

And much like you, I am also looking forward to Resident Evil 5 later this month. With this game heavily influencing my idea here, I was thinking if you don't want to play Zelda with someone else you can have a CPU controlled ally. It would definitely make swapping characters a non-debate.

And yea, as for allies I was thinking of the simple:
Goron
Zora
Deku
Epona
Zelda (and maybe a return of Sheik?) for Ganon's inevitable final dungeon

EDIT:
Oh, and thank you for the welcome!

But as for MGS2, I know the game is awesome, I've played it through quite a few times, but think about how angry the hardcore fans of the series were to find out they wouldn't be playing as Snake in the game, and would be playing as Raiden instead. I for one didn't mind too much, but it was a ballsy move on Konami's part. Nintendo probably wouldn't pull something like that. What if Waluigi starred in Super Mario Galaxy? That wouldn't have gone over well. Sure the game would be just as awesome, but people HATE Waluigi.

 

[Vincent]

I don't know. Perhaps there could be two version of the game. Like an option at the main menu. This could work in a number of ways. For example:

Multilayer through dungeons, as Mases previously stated. Where the puzzles require two players to get through. The bosses requiring two people could work out swimmingly as well. One player could distract the boss, while the other could attack, or something like that.

Another multiplayer option could be something like.... battling the other player... with the items you obtain throughout the game. That is probably a bad idea... though. It would probably work out better if there was a slew of enemies on the screen, and you had to kill them all with your partner. Knowing Nintendo, they'd have some sort of mini game like this.

Or perhaps it could be online co-op. Where you both can move freely. Much like how Resident Evil 5 is done. I see possibilities in this. Like, in dungeons, someone could be in one room, and the other player would be in another. Each solving a smaller piece of the puzzle. I don't know I'm just thinking of random ideas here.

 

[DvSag]

Yea, well, obviously split-screen for one system, but you don't have to split-screen for Wi-Fi.

I'm not sure about 1 on 1 battles... that just seems like a cheap, forced gimmick.
I'd much rather see fighting hordes of monsters, like you said, but in a side-by-side in a mini-game style mode. Like you were stuck in specific dungeon rooms or in the middle of Hyrule Field or on Tetra's Pirate Ship and they just kept coming. There could be leaderboards and time trials. Oh that would be amazing!

 

[ShellShocker]

I'll start this off with a secondary welcome to DvSag, I hope you enjoy it, anyway, onto the discussion.
I like your ideas Swiftblade, it's a bit like in Rachet Gladiator, in which you can have a 2 player story mode (y'know what I mean ), or a 1 player.
The 2 player story mode should have different dungeon layouts, different ways of defeating bosses, little modified side quests, a two main characters, instead of just one.
Maybe Link could get some sort of companion, anyway, a two player story mode could also be included a bit like in Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire video game, in which only one player does the major events, but in the other places, an other player could come and go as they please.
All of your ideas are great Swiftblade, I was just talking about other two player things.
Do you think the players should have a split-screen? (Not talking about a WiFi 2 player game here, obviously), or just one screen but they can't be TOO far apart.
I think it'd be better for two split screens, so they can be in totally different parts of dungeons, which would make it better for 2 player dungeons, and for boss fights.
Perhaps P1 (player 1) could have a different screen than P2 for boss fights, say if P2 was the distraction, he could have the monster's/boss' view.
Just my opinions, I'll add more later, probably.

EDIT: Darn, you were posting as I was typing, DvSag.

 

[Vincent]

Hmm I don't know about the whole split screen thing. I find the smallish screen to be annoying. Two players on the same screen could work out,but then again that could get annoying. Since you wouldn't be able to go all that far away from one another.

 

[ShellShocker]

You're right, split-screen is very annoying on a small television in my room. But on my birthday, we had a Rachet and Clank 3 tournament, and that had 4 split screens, but it wasn't very hard, because we were all crowded around the TV watching the shooting...
Anywho, what do others think of the split-screen for a 2P game, should a Zelda game have split-screen for multiple players?
I think it'd probably be best, I don't really see how it could work otherwise, anwyay.

 

[DvSag]

Thanks for the welcome, Shellshocker. I'm enjoying myself already.

Anyway, I can't figure out a way to get around not using split screen if you're going to use one television... unless there's some kind of new technology I havn't been informed of. And like Swiftblade mentioned, two players on the same screen would get annoying, and dare I say downright impossible at points?

And the thing about making the game co-op with Zelda is that I tried to figure out a way that the second player would never be there sitting around twiddling his thumbs while you shop for bombs and talk to the locals. I tried to figure out a way so they're always involved somehow, even if they aren't really involved.