Repetative or Different?

[TheSerpent]

I know that the temples themselves are usually all different, but how about the way to get to them? Do you want to have to do similar or the same types of things (like the bugs in TP and restoring the tracks in ST), or different challenges like in MM, OoT, etc.?

I myself prefer different things, but I'll list some pros and cons.

Repetative:
pros:
·easier to get used to
·if the repetative thing happens to be fun, less risk of it being replaced by something boring
·can sometimes fit into the storyline more
cons:
·can get boring or just plain annoying
·gets easy for people who like a challenge
·can make the storyline very bland

Different:
pros:
·can be very original and fun
·if one method turns out boring, the next method can have another chance
·gives a good challenge sometimes
cons:
·might stray from the storyline a little bit
·can be confusing and leave you very disoriented
·hard to get used to

So, do you want the pre-temple "challenge" to be different for each one, or repetative.

 

[Zelink]

Different for sure. Remember in OOT how each temple was a journey to get to? It sets the mood for the temple Dampe-forest temple Climbing volcano and saving goron link-fire going through ice cavern-water well-shadow the whole gerudo thing-spirit. That's what reaching a temple should be. MM did a good job too and TWW though TWW was slightly repetitive, fire/ice islands.

 

[Xinnamin]

Pre temple challenges huh? Well I know I hated the TP light bugs, but that was abnormally repetitive. Most of the other games kept good variety. OoT had everything from the Sacred Meadow's maze to the Ice and Well mini-dungeons to the stealth factor of the Gerudo Fortress, and I loved that kind of variety. Spirit Track's track restoration was a little repetitive: find the new village, find the new Lokomo, fight your way to the sanctuary, learn the song. There was some variety, like the Rocktites (though there were two of them), the Fire Temple monsters (that was repetitive in itself though), the pirates, the Sand Temple trials, but over all there wasn't nearly enough extra stuff to do and I found the game going by a little too fast.

I like having a wide variety of things to do, and a variety of activities that are engaging and fun, neither too fast nor too dragged out to the point of repetition. That one con you mentioned though, "may stray from the storyline a little bit", I don't think that's a valid concern. All the action you had to do contributed to either to story directly or the general understanding of the Zelda universe, and that weighs just as much with the fanbase as the story does. You look at MM, taking just the main story, and you find it's rather boring. You take OoT's main storyline, and find that beyond the time-travel mechanism, it's really rather conventional. But what made those two games great outside the dungeons was the extra stuff you could do and what they contibuted. That's something I love about the variety of challenges; they contribute to the wide variety of theorizing material in a way repetitive tasks like the light bugs never could.