Teleportation in Zelda Yay or Nay?

[Justac00lguy]

So this is basically going to be a small thread...

What are your opinions on teleportation in Zelda games? We've seen this features included in many Zelda games such as Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Wind Waker Ect. However do you think that the teleportation aspect added to the game or hinded it?

Teleportation can certainly make for easy and quick transportation across the overworld but in my opinion this kind of effect the exploration aspect of the game! So me I would fall somewhere in the middle, I would like a limited range of teleportation that can only be acquired 10 or so hours into the main story.

 

[Vaati101]

I'm not against the idea. It certainly helped in the Wind Waker where it was necessary for traversing the Great Sea. I think it will depend on how big the overworld is. if all the areas are accessible by short walking distances Say for example Hyrule Castle Market to Kakariko Village in Ocarina of Time then it's probably not necessary but if you are talking distances like Hyrule Castle market to lake Hylia, than yeah I would want to teleport their. I don't really care for exploration and I'd rather get on with what I have to do than just taking it slow and admiring the scenery.

 

[Deeds]

Hmm, it's a tough one. I'm telling myself I'd want it because it makes travelling so much easier. I guess that it all boils down to how big the overworld actually is. If it's the size of Skyrim, then I'd want it. If it's averagely sized like other Zelda games, then I'd want to travel with Epona, or any other means of travelling that have been implemented.

 

[Ventus]

Teleportation was done best in Ocarina of Time where it was convenient but not practically necessitated. In Twilight Princess as well as The Wind Waker, teleportation was practically necessary to get around to any place else suffer 20-30 minutes of lonesome travel, and this isn't necessarily bad -- it's just consequence of having a huger world to dabble in.

For teleporting to work efficiently, it needs to be convenient for the story goer, not incumbent for the story-goer. Warp points can open up as you receive game time or progression in the story...or heck, just as you discover the things yourself (think fo how waypoints work in the Diablo series).

 

[NESpowerhouse]

I'm all for teleportation in the Zelda series because not only does it save you a boat load of boredom from just waiting for your ship to finally sail to its destination (Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass), but that it's practically mandatory for you to traverse immense terrain efficiently.

 

[misskitten]

I enjoy having the option of teleportation. If you feel like doing the scenic route, you can, and if you need to get somewhere faster, you have the option of teleport

 

[TatlTails]

IMO, teleportation makes exploring more fun. You can go to the general area you want to be at, then explore from there. You don't have to trudge through places you don't want to trudge, and still explore the places you do.

 

[LalaCoyoteGamer]

Being able to warp/teleport was what saved TWW for me. Uggggggh, the sailing... I liked it, but it was made a lot more bearable with the ability to warp.

I liked warping in TP, too, but wouldn't mind too much if it wasn't in that game, since I liked riding Epona a lot.

 

[Spirit]

Teleportation would be nice, i had a thread here ages ago asking about a go-anywhere teleport system even if you wanted to teleport two steps in front of you, the entire overworld was subject to travel-by-teleportation, but this would only be because the overworld in question would be freakishly massive.

Teleportation in OoT was fine but we didnt really need to go back tot he places we learnt to telelport to, seriously how many times did we need the Bolero of Fire?
Teleportation in WW and TP were both fair but there is surely a way that teleportation could be upgraded (for lack of better word) to be a more fun mechanic rather than necessity.

 

[PhantomTriforce]

I like large overworlds, and to prevent them from being a hassle, we need teleportation. So I'm in favor of teleportation.

 

[Castle]

As a way to fast travel? Absolutely! I actually don't mind how it's been implemented in Zelda. (except wind waker that was pants on head stupid.) Heh, Zelda had worlds large enough for fast travel before Big Modern Epic RPG.

So, yes. It's an optional convenience feature. As a gameplay mechanic? Depending on how it's done, sure. But who wants to traverse several minutes across the same open ground you've been familiar with for the past 20 hours?

 

[The Wanderer]

In the main game, teleportation is all but essential. Zelda worlds are getting bigger and bigger, and most of us don't want to spend ages traversing the terrain for one simple thing. And imagine if what you were looking for turns out not to be available. You just wasted all that time.

And as I want Zelda's overworld to get huger and huger to epic proportions, teleportation will become vital to lessening the aggravation of players. Picture Xenoblade Chronicles without quick-travel. That would be a case of a game taking hundreds of hours to complete with some very angry players. So yes, teleportation is key.

However, I acknowledge what you're saying by nullifying teleportation and making players travel physically. There's a sense of realism and accomplishment when you wander across a long, dangerous stretch of land and stumble into the next town barely alive and desperate for supplies. Zelda could use some of this realism to a good end. So what I propose is a sort of "sub-game" you can engage in that doesn't influence the main game. I'm not fully sure what the goal of this sub-game would be, but it would force you to conserve resources and think ahead. Maybe the goal would be to complete tasks by an unseen and possibly evil Taskmaster - all without the help of transportation. Maybe it would have its own separate story, or by completing tasks, you could send money or materials or something to Link in the main game. And maybe, in the midst of all this, you can custom-create your own characters for the sub-game and play them cooperatively with your friends, making use of the "only one person playing" thing Nintendo is allegedly trying to change. It would be even more intense if you had hunger and thirst meters to keep track of.

Lots of ideas there, but teleportation should be a certain thing for the main game and probably something you should access early on. But for a bigger, more realistic challenge, there could be a sub-game with its own benefits.

And not to be picky, but I believe the wording you are looking for is "yea," not "yay."

 

[ihateghirahim]

Zelda worlds are big. Every indication from nintendo is that they will be getting bigger. Teleportation is an amazing feature that makes it the game easy to play. Imagine how tedious it would be to walk everywhere you went in OoT. That would get old really fast when you're trying to collect everything. It's just something needed to make big worlds easy to navigate. Don't you remember how tedious it got sailing around in WW? I can only imagine how much we would love that in a world twice that size.

 

[Random Person]

I believe teleportation should come back. The Zelda worlds keep getting bigger and bigger and the ability to teleport has always been appreciated. I missed it so in Skyward Sword. However, I don't think it should make traveling obsolete. I also believe that it should be earned. Despite having a fair amount of places to travel to in MM, you were still required to get around by yourself without it which makes you appreciate the over world more. In ST, you couldn't teleport unless you did a favor from somebody. One mistake this game did, though, was not telling you where your portal would take you and that can be more annoying than traveling itself. One key thing to take in as well is location of teleporting points. While I don't want teleporting to make traveling obsolete, it should also be of help. WW's teleporting made it so that while some of the work was taken away, you still felt like you had a chore to do due to the location of it's points. That may have been because sailing in itself is work, but whose to say?

All in all, bring it back and do it right.

 

[1upmuffin]

Teleportation was done best in Ocarina of Time where it was convenient but not practically necessitated. In Twilight Princess as well as The Wind Waker, teleportation was practically necessary to get around to any place else suffer 20-30 minutes of lonesome travel, and this isn't necessarily bad -- it's just consequence of having a huger world to dabble in.

For teleporting to work efficiently, it needs to be convenient for the story goer, not incumbent for the story-goer. Warp points can open up as you receive game time or progression in the story...or heck, just as you discover the things yourself (think fo how waypoints work in the Diablo series).

Definitely, in OoT it felt like secret tunnels to the different corners of the world, not the "fast travel to anywhere" of games like Skyrim.