So How's About That Difficulty?

[Ventus]

A common center of war and strife among ZDers recently has been the topic of Zelda and it's difficulty drop as of late. I come to you all with but three questions: a) Do you believe the difficulty of Zelda games should drop further, stay at the current level (i.e SS/ST/PH level), or increase? , b) Should you believe the difficulty to increase for future games, to what level should it increase to (MM? ALttP? AoL perhaps?)? and finally c) Do you think the difficulty be static across the board, regardless of if the Zelda game is home console or handheld?

For me:

a) The difficulty of Zelda games should increase -- if they don't, it'll just be a borefest for me. I'm not into easy games when given the frame work of some amazing adventure; Skyward Sword was told to me by the commercials and the reviews and some fan reception that it was a legend that no one should miss out on. I found those tales to be sorely mistaken. SS = too easy coupled with terrible story and characters and too many good concepts that were poorly executed, making it Twilight Princess 1.5 perhaps.

b) For handhelds I'd appreciate MM or OoT level of difficulty. Why? I assume that Nintendo is going to make handheld Zeldas more in line with OoT3D as far as gameplay goes -- 3D view rather than the top down view. For consoles, anything from MM to AoL difficulty, kthx.

c) It should be different, since handheld games are more for the "play in between breaks" kinda player. Especially considering that Zelda is a Japanese franchise by birth -- look at the success that Kirby Mass Attack generated! It's a terribly easy game but the Japanese love it as do I!

Now it's your turn!

 

[illmatic]

a) I think difficulty in Zelda games should definitely increase. It's probably the biggest problem I have with the newer Zelda games. I know Nintendo is trying to cater to younger and newer games and want to keep it as universal as possible, but at least give us multiple difficulty options at the start of the game. A big problem I had with Skyward Sword was lack of variety of enemies as you progressed. They should have introduced more tougher enemies down the stretch instead of the same blobs and bats I've been battling since the first dungeon.

b) At least to OoT difficulty. I still found that game on the easy side, but there were still some tough parts that took some practice and multiple tries, at least when I first played through.

c) I guess depends on the type of game the next Zelda handheld title will be, 2D or 3D. If it's 2D, then I would prefer it to be more difficult, but if handheld titles are going to be 3D now, then keep it the same as console titles.

 

[ZeldaFan11]

Do you believe the difficulty of Zelda games should drop further, stay at the current level (i.e SS/ST/PH level), or increase?

I think that the difficulty of the should deffinatly increase. Skyward Sword was hard at the beginning but after you got used to the controlls, Fi basically spoon fed you all the way through it. We dont need a "side kick" that doesnt help you with everything,we need one that tells you a hint everynow and then. Dont get me wrong, i love SS...its just that sometimes i wish that in the game Fi would stop yelling out stuff.

Should you believe the difficulty to increase for future games, to what level should it increase to (MM? ALttP? AoL perhaps?)?

Since I have not completed Majoras Mask, ALttP, or AoL yet, I can't really answer this question efficiently.


Do you think the difficulty be static across the board, regardless of if the Zelda game is home console or handheld?

The console game imo should be alot harder than a handheld game. The handheld game can't do as much as the console version can do. So the difficulty should be way harder.

 

[JuicieJ]

I don't give two butts about difficulty to be brutally honest. It's one of the lowest priorities of mine in a video game. I have nothing against a game being difficult, but I most definitely don't care if it isn't.

That said, I actually prefer the difficulty level ST and SS have brought to the table over games like ALttP and even OoT to a degree. It's a nice balance of not too easy but not too hard. I would like the enemies stepping up their agressiveness to MM's level in the future (that's just perfect for Zelda's enemies), but I think SS's enemies were at the right level for a new conrtol scheme.

Because there are so many difficulty *****s out there, though, it'd be very wise for Nintendo to add multiple difficulty levels in future titles. This will allow the default setting to be around the level it is now so that more casual fans can enjoy it, but also allow hardcore fans wanting to overload their brains with difficulty to do so. It would also add replay value, as many people would enjoy going back and trying their hand at that next difficulty level. There's just no reason for Nintendo not do this, so I seriously hope they do in the future.

Again, I honestly din't care much about difficulty. As long as tne game is able to provide me with a decent challenge, good gameplay, and a gripping story (all of which most Zelda games, especially SS, have done), I'm happy. If the game's good, I'm good. Simple as that.

 

[MW7]

Difficulty increase? Yes, I'd love it if the games were harder than they currently are.

How difficult? Taking Skyward Sword as the starting point I'd break difficulty into three components- combat, navigation, puzzles. Combat in Skyward Sword was pretty close to ideal difficulty-wise. I do think things could have been much more varied, but this is easily the least important of the three components for me so I don't think Nintendo should spend as much time worrying about this. Difficulty from navigation was very below what I'd want from a Zelda game. Other than the open room in the Earth Temple, figuring out how to reach the north generator in the Sand Ship, and most of Sky Keep there wasn't much indecision in how to proceed. The answer was almost always plow forward or go through the only open door. It's like Nintendo thinks dungeons like Skull Woods in A Link to the Past or the Water Temple from Ocarina of Time would cause people's heads to explode nowadays. However, I'd appreciate seeing many more dungeons like these. As for puzzles I just felt like they were some of the easier ones of the series overall. I like big puzzles that challenge you throughout the dungeon like the pillar in the Snowhead Temple or the design of Sky Keep. Sky Keep and part of the Sand Ship contained the only puzzles that felt truly challenging to me at least. So ideally I'd like to see slightly harder combat than Skyward Sword, the navigation difficulty to be vastly increased to A Link to the Past difficulty, and puzzle difficulty to be like that seen in Oracle of Ages or Majora's Mask.

Different between handhelds and console? I don't think this would matter to me. I'd want both to be challenging. If there's a slight difference that would be alright.