DuckNoises
Gone (Wind) Fishin'
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2010
- Location
- Montreal, QC, Canada
Much like Pocket Asian, I wouldn't mind seeing them return, but only with restrictions. The difficulty of the first few Zelda games certainly warranted them, which gave you a much more well-rounded arsenal until you found the Fire Rod. ALttP was probably the most balanced in terms of sword beams; the damage from physically hitting with the sword would scale faster with upgrades than the sword beam itself. This balanced out the sword beams, requiring you to make use of your magic meter or arrows to do significant damage from a distance. They also gave you an incentive to stay at full health.
In more recent 2D titles, Sword beams have made somewhat of a resurgence. There were many different beams at the player's disposal in the Minish Cap, and I would argue there were enough beams to the point where combat could become broken. If you were at full health, you'd swing the sword and shoot a beam; if you had the Four Sword, you could hold down the button, release a spin attack, and shoot another beam. Because of the flinching mechanism that his been present in almost every Zelda game since the series' creation, this would allow any player with the Four Sword to continually swing the sword, charge, and release a spin attack and prevent enemies from arriving to you alive. I felt that this was a large hole in the combat. This is why I maintain that there should only be a single sword beam, and it should only be available at full health.
Now, Phantom Hourglass; it is already an incredibly easy game, but with the L.2 Courage Fairy, you could shoot very wide sword beams in any direction, because of the stylus control. The ability to shoot beams in only one of four basic angles is what kept it balanced in the first few titles, but in PH, the beams could be shot from virtually anywhere to anything, which again, provided little incentive to use ranged weapons. Again, reasoning that sword beams should be limited in direction.
Next, Majora's Mask; we all know that the Fierce Deity Mask was meant to feel overpowered, but at times, it felt a little too overpowered. Coupled with the lock-on mechanism and the rate of fire of the sword, sword beams could be shot with perfect accuracy at extremely fast speeds, to the point where combat wasn't even a challenge anymore. Even if the damage were scaled down, the sword beams would almost always hit. The Fierce Deity Mask gave us a glimpse of why sword beams wouldn't work in a 3D environment with the lock-on mechanism, as it's just far too powerful. As such, I don't think sword beams should be present in 3D Zelda, even with scaled-down damage.
I am not as skeptical of SS's sword beams, because it seems to be a one-charge one-shot kind of basis, which eliminates the initial problem of abuse. I assume it can only be done once in a while because of a cool down timer, to avoid abuse. If sword beams are heavily, heavily restricted, they could find their way into 3D Zelda, but for now, I feel they should remain in 2D Zelda, and with restrictions similar to the older games and scaled to the game's difficulty.
In more recent 2D titles, Sword beams have made somewhat of a resurgence. There were many different beams at the player's disposal in the Minish Cap, and I would argue there were enough beams to the point where combat could become broken. If you were at full health, you'd swing the sword and shoot a beam; if you had the Four Sword, you could hold down the button, release a spin attack, and shoot another beam. Because of the flinching mechanism that his been present in almost every Zelda game since the series' creation, this would allow any player with the Four Sword to continually swing the sword, charge, and release a spin attack and prevent enemies from arriving to you alive. I felt that this was a large hole in the combat. This is why I maintain that there should only be a single sword beam, and it should only be available at full health.
Now, Phantom Hourglass; it is already an incredibly easy game, but with the L.2 Courage Fairy, you could shoot very wide sword beams in any direction, because of the stylus control. The ability to shoot beams in only one of four basic angles is what kept it balanced in the first few titles, but in PH, the beams could be shot from virtually anywhere to anything, which again, provided little incentive to use ranged weapons. Again, reasoning that sword beams should be limited in direction.
Next, Majora's Mask; we all know that the Fierce Deity Mask was meant to feel overpowered, but at times, it felt a little too overpowered. Coupled with the lock-on mechanism and the rate of fire of the sword, sword beams could be shot with perfect accuracy at extremely fast speeds, to the point where combat wasn't even a challenge anymore. Even if the damage were scaled down, the sword beams would almost always hit. The Fierce Deity Mask gave us a glimpse of why sword beams wouldn't work in a 3D environment with the lock-on mechanism, as it's just far too powerful. As such, I don't think sword beams should be present in 3D Zelda, even with scaled-down damage.
I am not as skeptical of SS's sword beams, because it seems to be a one-charge one-shot kind of basis, which eliminates the initial problem of abuse. I assume it can only be done once in a while because of a cool down timer, to avoid abuse. If sword beams are heavily, heavily restricted, they could find their way into 3D Zelda, but for now, I feel they should remain in 2D Zelda, and with restrictions similar to the older games and scaled to the game's difficulty.
