VikzeLink's Weekly Sunday Poll 420!

[VikzeLink]

Last week's Question: Who is your favorite traditional shopkeeper from MM?

Third Place: Draw between "Trading Post Man" and "The Bomb Shop Owner" (9.1% each)
Second Place: The Part-Timer (27.3%)
First Place: Kotake (54.5%)

Of course it's the witch, and former boss, Kotake that takes it home! But the odd Part-Timer is not overly far behind. Trading Post Man and The Bomb Shop Owner also gets a vote each, while both the Goron and Zora Shopkeepers gets nothing...

RETRO POLL! The 61th poll was a poll about how much exploration you do in the Zelda-games. Most people anwered that they explore to a bigger or lesser degree in the games, except for one person. User @DarkestLink was the only one back then who did not like to explore and would keep to the main quest no matter what. Since then, BotW has come out. Has opinions changed along with that game?

This week's question: When playing a Zelda game, how much exploration do you do on your own?

I look through every little pixel
I check around me if there is anything I can see
I'm not actively looking, but if I see something, I go there
Nothing can keep me from the main quest

 

[Cfrock]

In Zelda, as in most games that allow me to explore, I get very uncomfortable if I don't scour as much of each area as I reasonably can the first time I go through it. I don't like feeling as though I missed something, and it's honestly a problem in a lot of cases. It makes games take up a lot more of my time than they otherwise would, and sometimes I get overwhelmed with options in games like Dishonored or Deus Ex that offer lots of different ways to get around if you take the time to find them.

That itch to explore everything is actually one of the reasons I couldn't stick with BotW. As soon as I set foot outside the Great Plateau, I distinctly remember being overwhelmed with the feeling that I would never see all of it. I would never find everything. I would never 100% it. And so the scale of the game, coupled with my inability to not explore everything, made me acutely aware that most of my time in the game would be spent doing nothing, and I would only grow more and more anxious and uncomfortable the longer I spent playing.

 

[Spirit]

I'm not sure, because I want the main story as fast as I can because story is important to me in Zelda, but also the worlds are (usually) full of lore and interesting things so I explore a lot in my way to each story beat.

I do leave my sidequests until last though, just teo extend the play time when I'm done. (this is why MM feels so counter intuitive to me).

 

[Vanessa28]

I love to explore every spot in the game. But when it's a new game I always go for the main quest first and then do sidequests

 

[twilitfalchion]

I'll look to see what's around me, but if something's too far away, I usually won't to go out of my way to get there.

 

[Princess Niki]

I like to explore as much as possible since of lot of the games leave plenty to explore.

 

[MapelSerup]

I explore as much as I can with each new area. I’m a completionist, but I don’t have the motivation to spend hours and hours on most games; I find it fun to find and do as much as I can as I progress through the game, just to make things more fun and because, if I save too much until the end, it won’t help me at all.

 

[DeletedUser8]

I look through every little pixel it really helps in the linear games, and it made the Water Temple in OoT a breeze for me in all version of the game, for me anyway. The only downside is I've never beaten BotW or WW because I tend to get overwhelmed once everything is opened up to me, and why I will probably never beat an open-world Zelda game. It always happen every time I start a new file in those two games, never fails. Or is it always fails in this case? Who knows.

 

[MW7]

I default to being a completionist and will look everywhere. I draw the line at rings in Oracle games, all vehicle customizations in Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, figurines in Wind Waker, and Koroks in Breath of the Wild. Other than that, I'm constantly searching the whole world. I tend to try to do side quests as early as possible to be as equipped as possible for dungeons, and I'll test out when the game lets you do things.

 

[GrooseIsLoose]

It depends on the game. For eg in TLoZ and MC, I just went straight whereas in SS and TP, I looked around.

 

[el :BeoWolf:]

I go after whatever looks interesting. The main quest can wait, OoT taught me that. Like in BotW I didn't go directly to Kakariko but took plenty of detours along the way.

 

[AncientPoe]

Exploration is my favorite part of these games. And I don't understand how it isn't that way for everyone.

 

[VikzeLink]

I explore most of the world, but I don't go into too much detail. I just don't care if I find another 50 Rupees, it's not really worth the time. Most bigger and more important things are much easier to find. The only exception I can think of is ALttP, where a couple of items, like the Cane of Byrna or the Magic Cape, are optional and hidden in places you have to search for.

 

[Doc]

Aside from BotW, I typically move incredibly linear in Zelda games. If a character tells me my next task is to the east, I'm not likely to travel west to find out whats over there. Very rarely will I go off course to find secrets. I find myself very invested in storylines for games, and especially in traditional Zelda titles where moving forward in the plot increases your arsenal and tools. So if you go exploring before that moment, you could find a secret that you can't entirely interact with because you're not equipped for it. At least, that's my thought process.

 

[~Kilza~]

I feel like I'm a mix of the top 2 options. Really, it can depend on the game and how I'm feeling at that time, but I definitely try to explore a good chunk of the game as I'm going through it.