VikzeLink's Weekly Sunday Poll 135!

[VikzeLink]

Last week's winners:
Last week's Question: Since it's been a hot topic lately: What are your thoughts on LIMITED editions and COLLECTORS editions?

Third Place: Draw between "I like Limited Editions, but not Colletors Editions" and "I don't know what they are" (10.00% each)
Second Place: I like neither (20.00%)
First Place: Draw between "They're both great" and "Neutral Opinion" (30.00% each)

This week's question: What do you consider the most essential (they are all important, but which is most important to you?) component of a Zelda-game?

Gameplay
Story
Music
The Game Design
Graphics
Don't Care

 

[AncientPoe]

For me it's the game's design. The original Legend of Zelda is one of my favorites, but it's not pretty. I think Zelda games are a very difficult design to get right, honestly. Free-roaming enough to let you do what you want, but structured enough to lead you through what the Devs intended. It's an alchemy, and I think the number of times Nintendo has gotten it right belies the difficulty in doing so. Unfortunately, when they fail it's glaringly obvious.

 

[Pen]

The gameplay is the most important part of practically every game in my opinion. That includes Zelda. I know only of a very small amount of games where I personally don't think the gameplay is priority one. Anyway, the gameplay in Zelda I think is particularly important for the simple reason that they are such gameplay driven video games. The story of a Zelda game on the other hand (while it might not be uncreative or bad in any way) is a much less important aspect because there simply is less focus on it. Also, just because I think the gameplay is the most essential component of any Zelda game, it doesn't by any means mean that I don't think the other aspects are important too. The game design is very central indeed, and the music is just extraordinarily terrific in many of the installments, and that can surely enhance the experience of playing the game. I already mentioned the story as being amongst the less essential components, and I'd personally place the graphics down there too. Of course some good graphics can look pretty, but to me the graphics of a game have never really mattered much.

 

[Iridescence]

It would be simpler if you just made it a poll of game mechanics vs. atmosphere.

 

[Burning Beast]

For me it'd have to be the gameplay. My heart would like to say story, but then I examine the two games I consider to be the best Zelda's (OoT and ALttP) and... story wasn't exactly either of those two games forte... But the gameplay in those two games was exceptional and really is what stands out to me in making those games great.

 

[ihateghirahim]

What's the difference between Game design and gameplay?

 

[Snow Queen]

Gameplay is the most important. Without good gameplay you can't have a good game. You can however, have a bad story and still have a good game.

 

[VikzeLink]

What's the difference between Game design and gameplay?

Gameplay is how the game feels to play, going around with Link and kill enemies, find treasures and stuff.

Game Design are things like puzzles, dungeon layout, boss strategies and such

 

[Mellow Ezlo]

Game Design is most important to me, closely followed by Gameplay. I actually think a good combination of both is what would ideally make a Zelda game great.

The original Legend of Zelda is a splendid example as to why game design is so important to the franchise. The game pretty much kickstarted the adventure genre, which was a result of there being so much to explore. A massive overworld, tons of secrets, well hidden dungeons; it's everything a Zelda game should be pretty much. Of course it is the first, so a lot of elements have been added and expanded upon since, but you can't deny that that game is extremely well designed. The addition of a "Hard Mode" further solidifies this because, if the first quest isn't easy enough for you, the second quest will likely pose a challenge. Can be a bit frustrating at times, especially constantly dying in the room with all those blue darknuts (can't remember which dungeon), but overall, it's really fun to play.

A Link to the Past is also a well designed game (and by extension, so is A Link Between Worlds) for many of the same reasons as the original. The early top-down games are the epitome of good game design imo.

As 3D games go, I feel like they all could have been designed better, but Majora's Mask is by far the best. Dungeons are scarce, but that is easily forgiveable by the sheer amount of extra content that the game has. The overworld, while it is open like in the other 3D console titles, it's much more condensed and easier to navigate because of the fact that it surrounds the central hub on all sides. It's really easy to get from Point A to Point B, and each area looks great and has engaging characters and story elements. The dungeons, while few, are all nice and difficult while not being simply frustrating. From the first dungeon to the last, each one provides the difficulty that I would expect from a series like Zelda, most notably the Great Bay Temple and Stone Tower Temple. Overall a fantastically designed game, easily one of the best, if not the best in the series. This is actually one of the reasons Majora's Mask is one of my favourite games.

 

[VikzeLink]

if the first quest isn't easy enough for you, the second quest will likely pose a challenge.

Wait what?

Jokes aside, I completely agree with you!

 

[onebizarrekai]

It was hard for me to decide between story and gameplay, but there have been a few instances where I get impatient with the gameplay. But I do like story. It's one of the main reasons I play video games.

 

[JetstreamSam]

It was hard for me to choose between gameplay and story, but ended up choosing story. I would like to see some deeper topics touched upon mostly. As Zelda fans, we base a lot of our knowledge off of theory. While this is an amazing trait that I haven't seen among many other fan pools out there, I simply want more concrete information. SS touched upon this with much grace (Though I didn't like SS gameplay wise) and I'd like to see Nintendo take this idea and run with it. The characters seemed to grow and learn throughout SS & it really helped me relate to them more