I can't help but feel that Zelda games could be improved with the weight of consequence and failure. if you think back on the games that have been made so far, they all seem to be able to pul their punches when it comes to delivering on something like this. Even when you see the results of a cataclysmic decision (for instance, accidentally allowing Ganondorf access to the Sacred Realm in Ocarina of Time), everything ends up turning out just fine. We're told that the world has been ravaged by Ganondorf and his forces for the better part of a decade, and at first it certainly seems that way. You emerge from the temple of time to see the raging corona around Death Mountain, and the previously lively Castle Town Market lies in ruin, inhabited only by shuffling corpses and an uncaring wind. Oh wait but then no, it just turns out everyone made it to Kakariko Village, Hyrule Castle's neighboring village… which sits mysteriously unmolested despite practically being in Ganondorf's backyard.
But what if that wasn't the case? What if, say for instance in the new Zelda game coming out, there were consequences? Let's just say that maybe there are a bunch of small frontier towns and villages. And let's posit that some great bellowing Boss monster escapes the dungeon where you faced it, only to race towards the nearest evidence of civilization in order to realize its ancient purpose of bringing war and death to the Hylian race. What happens if you aren't able to stop such a lumbering monstrosity as it bears down on the unsuspecting villagers? What happens when it brings its weapons to bear on hapless folks? Blazing breath, gargantuan fists, deadly rays of frost… all the while with you racing up behind, cursing yourself under your breath for not being fast enough or clever enough to prevent this. What if that area is forever destroyed? Scorched earth and empty husks where verdant fields and quaint cottages once stood, forever a scar on both the landscape and your conscience? And what then, even if a few villagers manage to escape with their lives and whatever they could cram into hastily procured packs as they fled? Do they trudge over to the neighboring village? Would you see them on the streets and in the alleys, begging for whatever scraps people will spare to feed them, huddling under eves when the rains come?
And all the while, there you are, hero. You wouldn't need the story to tell you how to feel, you wouldn't need a cutscene to inform you what your heart already knows. You'd be in it. That was your failure. These people's suffering is your fault. Now that's what i call immersion!
But what if that wasn't the case? What if, say for instance in the new Zelda game coming out, there were consequences? Let's just say that maybe there are a bunch of small frontier towns and villages. And let's posit that some great bellowing Boss monster escapes the dungeon where you faced it, only to race towards the nearest evidence of civilization in order to realize its ancient purpose of bringing war and death to the Hylian race. What happens if you aren't able to stop such a lumbering monstrosity as it bears down on the unsuspecting villagers? What happens when it brings its weapons to bear on hapless folks? Blazing breath, gargantuan fists, deadly rays of frost… all the while with you racing up behind, cursing yourself under your breath for not being fast enough or clever enough to prevent this. What if that area is forever destroyed? Scorched earth and empty husks where verdant fields and quaint cottages once stood, forever a scar on both the landscape and your conscience? And what then, even if a few villagers manage to escape with their lives and whatever they could cram into hastily procured packs as they fled? Do they trudge over to the neighboring village? Would you see them on the streets and in the alleys, begging for whatever scraps people will spare to feed them, huddling under eves when the rains come?
And all the while, there you are, hero. You wouldn't need the story to tell you how to feel, you wouldn't need a cutscene to inform you what your heart already knows. You'd be in it. That was your failure. These people's suffering is your fault. Now that's what i call immersion!