February Eve
ZD District Attorney
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2010
- Location
- USA
I have attempted to search for a thread like this...now that I've looked a day, someone will probably come in and post me a link within the first few comments.
This is a spin-off from reading some of the wants/don't wants for the new Zelda Wii and reading about what's classic to people and what doesn't feel like Zelda. Which begs the question...
What does make it feel like Zelda for you? For starters, I've been thinking about how it seems obvious to me that part of the staples are the triforce, Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf...but Majora's Mask only has one out of four of those (well, 1.5 if you count Zelda in the flashback.) And while it does feel a little different to me, it's still "Zelda."
So, some of my staples:
1) Link and his video game equivalent of a bildungsroman (heh, sorry, it's just fun to say.) It's not just that he's the protagonist, it's that it's his coming-of-age story. (Perhaps this is one reason MM is that little bit different to me, since that already happened in OoT, but because Link is so young in it, it still works.)
2) Exploration. It's also starting to feel natural the way the world unrolls a piece at a time, though not as necessary (such as in LoZ and AlttP when you could visit a large amount in the beginning.)
3) The fantastical element to it. Magic meter or not, there's always SOME kind of magic that's accepted by the protagonist to advance the story - the triforce, warping, fairies & healing springs. Also, there's a spiritual component that no one in-story questions, it just is.
4) The quirky and often humorous universe. Gorons being used as a spring board, fish forming musical notes, cuccuos being used as hovering devices, cows in treehouses...even the darker games had these details.
5) Finally, when it all comes down to it, it's David vs. Goliath - Courage vs. Power.
I have others, but even out of those, my core elements are 1 & 5, so I'm fairly easy to please. What are your thoughts?
This is a spin-off from reading some of the wants/don't wants for the new Zelda Wii and reading about what's classic to people and what doesn't feel like Zelda. Which begs the question...
What does make it feel like Zelda for you? For starters, I've been thinking about how it seems obvious to me that part of the staples are the triforce, Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf...but Majora's Mask only has one out of four of those (well, 1.5 if you count Zelda in the flashback.) And while it does feel a little different to me, it's still "Zelda."
So, some of my staples:
1) Link and his video game equivalent of a bildungsroman (heh, sorry, it's just fun to say.) It's not just that he's the protagonist, it's that it's his coming-of-age story. (Perhaps this is one reason MM is that little bit different to me, since that already happened in OoT, but because Link is so young in it, it still works.)
2) Exploration. It's also starting to feel natural the way the world unrolls a piece at a time, though not as necessary (such as in LoZ and AlttP when you could visit a large amount in the beginning.)
3) The fantastical element to it. Magic meter or not, there's always SOME kind of magic that's accepted by the protagonist to advance the story - the triforce, warping, fairies & healing springs. Also, there's a spiritual component that no one in-story questions, it just is.
4) The quirky and often humorous universe. Gorons being used as a spring board, fish forming musical notes, cuccuos being used as hovering devices, cows in treehouses...even the darker games had these details.
5) Finally, when it all comes down to it, it's David vs. Goliath - Courage vs. Power.
I have others, but even out of those, my core elements are 1 & 5, so I'm fairly easy to please. What are your thoughts?