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General Zelda With or Without the Lore?

Some Zelda fans love the theories and the timelines that link the games together, others don't really care and see the games as stand alone adventures in a universe without uniform or clear design.

So this is a thread to say which of the two you are;

Are you a Zelda fan who likes to think about and know the links between games to better see the structure of the lore the franchise offers (and does this keep you coming back for more with each game?)

Or are you a player who plays Zelda because you know it will be a quality product within a friendly world with characters you enjoy?
 

ihateghirahim

The Fierce Deity
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Location
Inside the Moon
I think every game needs to be fantastic on its own. I mean I didn't get SS for its place in the lore, and that aspect wasn't really that important. Nintendo has and still does focus on the game over the story, and that has brought success.

Nonetheless, a combined story would be much more fun. A unified timeline that made more sense would make the console games more enjoyable. The games are already amazing on their own, but the lore fails to extend to every game to another. The HH timeline contained little effort and stupid ideas that make no sense. We need unified timelines like the ones WW-PH-ST and OoT-MM had. These storylines make the games and the series more meaningful and more enjoyable.
 
I love videogame lore.

While the Hyrule Historia timeline put an end to much theorizing, it further expounded aspects of the Zelda universe we previously knew little about.

I'd like to see Nintendo feed us more information in the future but provide gamers with some time to contemplate how new games fit in with past titles before their placement on the timeline is revealed.
 

Random Person

Just Some Random Person
Joined
Feb 6, 2010
Location
Wig-Or-Log
I love the lore, however I think it would've been better if Nintendo had just came out and said "These games have no connections with each other whatsoever except for direct sequels." By placing an actual timeline but leaving out the continuity, they're really hindering themselves on story. I feel as though Nintendo is trying to get the best of both worlds by making games that claim to be connected, and yet aren't. Now some of these games I don't hold too much fault, and some I actually think did a pretty rupee job, but others I just can't ignore. Best example is SS. (Here we go again). SS appeared after HH making the timeline 100% official and telling us the series is an actual series. Then SS didn't behave like series prequel would while creating a ton of questions and answering very little. This left a lot of us feeling empty. The other part of the fan base was able to say "I never expected a legit prequel so I'm happy, you're silly for having such an expectation" but I've never felt shame in myself for expecting a legit prequel considering Nintendo was telling they're fans that Zelda was a legit series, especially with how some of the lore was actually coming together. Nintendo sets up Zelda games as if they're connected and then don't deliver.

I would prefer the games connected with all the lore and everything, but if you're going to have it, do it right. I can live with games that are supposed to stand alone and I'd rather do that than play connected games with no continuity. What I can't live with is unfulfilled promises or half done jobs that try to please everybody.
 

DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
I'm the latter. The theories I see fans make up are...insane over 90% of the time. They are too convoluted and overthought. I say this be cause Zelda isn't about lore or story. Nintendo doesn't care for story. I'd say story is their lowest priority. When I see all of these theories on Zelda titles...it's like going on FF.net and seeing that nearly all the stories focus on shipping despite this being a very small focus on the series they are dedicated too. In the end, I get the same impression from both: They are completely missing the point.

It...actually annoys me a tinge when I see all of these theories. Nintendo doesn't care. They just put the small amount of story Zelda possesses in each game because it's a standard in video games and nothing else. Don't get me wrong, I love it when Zelda has story. I deeply admire TP for taking that extra step. But it's just not the focus. And when people focus on it, I feel like they're missing the TRUE focus of Zelda titles. The reason Zelda is so great. I mean...if people want to theorize...there are so many better series for this. It's just not something Zelda focuses on and I can't help but feel these people are missing out on a series that suits their needs so much better.
 

Castle

Ch!ld0fV!si0n
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Location
Crisis? What Crisis?
Gender
Pan-decepticon-transdeliberate-selfidentifying-sodiumbased-extraexistential-temporal anomaly
Writing for deep narratives and character studies hasn't really been Nintendo's thing. I suppose they could, but they won't. It doesn't interest them, and that's fine by me. While the theories drive me wild, I do enjoy using my imagination even if I can never come to a certain conclusion. The series is so nondescript, untangling the knots would be a bloody mess. Only a series reboot from scratch would make things make any sense.

Extensive world lore can contribute greatly to a fiction universe, but that isn't what Zelda does, and I'm okay with that.
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
I buy Zelda games with the idea beforehand that I'm purchasing a quality product. While I don't care all too much for the overarching lore, I personally believe that the games should have a story that makes sense within its own context. This means that the base story should be engaging for me without considering "oh, so this guy is a decent of OoT Link right?". It means the base story should be well-written...or rather, it should have a decent flow.

Only when the game has a good enough story on its own do I consider its connections to the games that precede/follow it.
 

Justac00lguy

BooBoo
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Gender
Shewhale
I would definitely say I am all for the lore....

One of the great aspects about this franchise is that even after we finish a game there is still many questions to be answered as well as concepts to be explored. This leaves us with many things to discuss outside of the Zelda world and I feel it adds to the charm of the series even though recently we are gaining more and more information and it seems Nintendo are now trying to make more connections.

One of the reasons why I joined the forums was to contribute to the threory section and pose my own ideas and theories. Even though the Hyrule Histroia pretty much killed the biggest speculation of all, the Zelda Timeline, the information it provides gives us theorists more information and structure to make more accurate theories.
 
Joined
Aug 8, 2012
Location
yggdrasil
For me i am the latter. I know that Nintendo wants more money so they will put out a product that a large group of people enjoy so i know that atlleast in some ways it will be a quality product and not another madden.....
 

Sir Quaffler

May we meet again
I used to be that first type of fan. I used to obsess over how the series all tied in together and the lore of the world and all that stuff. But then somewhere along the line I came to the realization that the series cannot make any sort of sense chronologically speaking and never will. It's a Gordian knot with no solution.

That's when I decided to play the games for the game aspect. And I started to enjoy it even more. Rather than get hung up on why some games make no sense in the timeline or how some games don't connect that much with the other games in the franchise *cough Skyward Sword cough* I liked to just get into the feel of the game. And some games felt so much better playing them than others, I suppose. I play games to enjoy and challenge myself, and if a game (that isn't entirely about the story aspect, like The Walking Dead is) shoves its story in my face over its gameplay then I'm not gonna like it very much.
 

snakeoiltanker

Wake Up!
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Location
Ohio
I dont think i fall under one or the other respectively. I always thought of the games as stand alone storys that just had a lot of the same characters. but since SS the whole timeline thing has blown up. now i dont particularly care for the timeline, but i do agree it is very interesting, and has given me a lot more to read about and understand within the lore of a game i already love. i wouldnt say that the lore is what keeps me coming back. what keeps me coming back is the fact that i know that any zelda will at least be a satisfactory experience even if its not quite as good as the last.

call me a hybrid i guess!
 

HylianHero

Gardener of Elysium
Joined
Jan 21, 2013
Location
Academia de Hyrule
I love Zelda lore. No, I live for Zelda lore. But I play the games because they are great games and the fact they they have great lore is just an added bonus.
 
Joined
Nov 25, 2012
Location
Monkey Island
It's definitely more about each individual installment. Although, I think there's an aesthetic appeal to all the games being interwoven. It's not like Final Fantasy or Fire Emblem, where most of the games take place on completely different, unrelated universes (correct me if I'm wrong). And it's fun, as a fandom, to find all the little hints the devs throw in, like the Hero's Shade being the Hero of Time (that one made me smile).
 
Joined
Jan 28, 2013
I am the type of Zelda fans who love to think of the connections between the games. I do not care much about the timeline though. I love the plot of all of the games. It gives the Zelda games more of a chance to be it's own and it gives me more to think about. I love thinking about things like that. :wolf:
 

Shadsie

Sage of Tales
Oh, I love the lore. I'm into these games as stories - while the gameplay winds up being more important (according to Nintendo, if I'm not mistaken), the stories and the ur-story comes out on top for me.

Now, I don't really care about being *right* all the time about the Timeline or theories. I'm a fanfiction writer, and thus take the lore in my own directions, anyway - and don't feel a need to have fights with people, online or otherwise, over videogames, which are meant for enjoyment. At the same time, I like that there is a grand story and something to discuss with other fans (so long as they remain sane about it).
 

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