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Zelda's Story: Does It Matter?

The Importance of Zelda's Story

  • Its One of the Most Important Aspects

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Its Important, But Not One of the Top Aspects

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • It Matters, But It's Not That Important

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • It's Not Important At All

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0

Random Person

Just Some Random Person
Joined
Feb 6, 2010
Location
Wig-Or-Log
Sup peeps, Random Person here.

Okay, lately I've been seeing this comment. "Zelda's story doesn't really matter." You guys know I love literature so seeing this upsets me because the story part of Zelda is one thing I observe heavily. But who cares what I think, its about everyone!

As far as I've know, Zelda fans have held the story in one of the highest spots when it comes to video-games. For me Personally in any game, be it Zelda or not, story is incredibly important, second only to gameplay but still very close behind it. Basically I think its really important and should be heavily considered. But lately, it seems some don't.

What I want to know is for Zelda games, where do you feel the importance of the story lies. AGREE WITH ME OR PERISH... uh... I mean... I want truthful, unbiased responses. ;)

Also, keep it in relative perspective. The original LoZ's story may not be as fantastic as OoT's, but for its time, that was highly acceptable for a story.
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
For any ol' Zelda Game, the story doesn't matter. But, when the game and the developers claim it to be something really important, I just have this need to have that importance conveyed to me in a way that makes me feel...I don't know, accomplished.

So for the general Zelda, I don't think the story matters. It's only when the people behind the game make all of these statements and what not. When the material isn't exactly the focal point of the game, e.g Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past, the story really has no bearing on the title itself or the series (except OoT inadvertently is the crux of Zelda as we know it). When the material is supposed to serve a certain role, for example a prequel on a large scale e.g Skyward Sword, the story just needs to deliver.
 

Fig

The Altruist
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Location
Mishima Tower
Ever since I played the original Ocarina of Time in 1998, I always thought that the story in an individual game in the franchise should be an important factor in the development of the game. The only problem is that Nintendo also needs to focus on the gameplay as well. What I'm trying to say that Nintendo shouldn't just focus on just the story, but also on the gameplay for the upcoming games, despite how much the story is important for me to understand what the main theme(s) is about for the game. Nintendo should be able to focus on the game's gameplay, not just focus on its story. I'm not saying that Nintendo should forget about the game's story and plot altogether, I'm just saying that Nintendo should at least spend more time than average to develop a game that has both a great story and awesome gameplay, like Skyward Sword!
 

Mrflamexd3

Wind Waker!
Joined
Apr 6, 2012
Location
California
If the story of Zelda didn't matter and it became like every other video game story from this generation, then I wouldn't play any of the new Zelda games..let's leave it at that.
 
The story should matter. The timeline as a whole is not as important as a solo Zelda tale, the timeline tells of a legacy and points in history that are so vague that they have become legend, they are an overview, a list of points and only serves to link the development of hyrule rather than a hero's struggle. I believe that the story within an installment is where the story is the most important, the constant and concise narrative being told as the plot develops between characters is what is the main focus should be and where my attention is always drawn.

I play Zelda games for the story, i probably shouldn't but i love the characters, i love the world and i love the mythology as a whole. I don't want to play many other games for their story alone, more so when i play other games i just have a 'lets see what happens' mentality, but with Zelda its more like 'wow i wonder what's gonna happen i need to know'. Its a shame though that nintendo don't pay enough attention to Zelda. We're post OoT now and we're still getting massive inconsistencies between installments, and they're really recent ones too, like SS and MC, Link gets his hat in MC, yet he has it in SS? Regardless of things like that though, the hazy legend stuff does fly with me. I like to think of each Zelda game as a story told around an open campfire with a group of people taking turns talking about the Hero of legend clad in green.

But with TP (a wonderful ballad of a story, expertly told with apathetic and despondent characters woven into a soulless ethereal world) and OoT (the age old legends of good vs evil, a boy and his horse, a kingdom and its princess etc told perfectly) Nintendo really shoot them in the foot by not giving more care to their stories, I really think that as a lover of literature and the narrative world that Nintendo really need to give at least fair amount of time dedicated to story as much as they do with their controls. I don't care where it fits inot the timeline or how well, i just want the relationship between characters to be real and heartfelt, i want the world to be believable and i want the narrative to leave a lasting, resonating hold over me and there is no greater franchise out there better than Zelda which could pull that off and still retain its soul.
 

Cel-Shaded Deku

Ha ha, charade you are!
Joined
Jul 24, 2010
Location
Rapin' your churches, burnin' your women!
Maybe I should have voted for it matters, but it's not that important, but either way I would still bring up the point that these are video games that we're talking about. Stories should be saved for movies and tv shows and I wouldn't mind a NES-esque minimalistic story that gives you just enough to understand what's going on. It would be great to not have seven minute unskipable cutscenes to interrupt the gameplay, which is really noticeable when you're replaying a game and you're breezing through it.
 

JuicieJ

SHOW ME YA MOVES!
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Location
On the midnight Spirit Train going anywhere
I don't see why anyone would say that story in Zelda doesn't matter at all, but I also don't see why anyone would say that it's one of the most important aspects. Zelda's a series based off of the gameplay. That's how it's always been and that's how it always should be. Story is beyond secondary in Zelda. It should always be nothing more than a compliment to the gameplay. That's not to say that I don't want better storywriting and more in-depth characters in the future, but the gameplay should, no matter what, be the forefront of the games. Period. That's Zelda's bread and butter and should always remain the series strong point. (Repetitive statements are repetitive.)
 
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PokaLink

Pokalink the avaricious
Joined
Feb 5, 2012
Location
Outset Island
Does the story matter? Yes it is the probably the biggest aspect, the story is the backdrop and the whole compelment of the hero or heroine, take Transformers, it may have had cool explosions but after movie one the story was a less compelling part and the only reason people watched was the special effects and fact its a Transformer movie, woudnt you agree the actual movie was starting to get boring after awhile? You may say, "But PokaLink this is no movie," true but what point would Link have in going after Zelda and tracking her down if there was no back drop and story, when you lose you think "No Zelda i let you down!" When you finally give the final blow you know that even though so many were hurt and so many were left disfigured and distained and now they were avenged and that all of the kind villegers would be safe for all of the future generations of Hyrule, or would they? I mean sure the dungeons are important to and gameplay but devolping the charecter and learning more about the situtation in the game is much more important.
 

AnimeHat

Humming Swordsman
Joined
Jun 21, 2012
Location
Arkansas, US
When you design a game, you need to have a good balance of Story, Gameplay, and Quality. This also applies to Zelda. Zelda is a world where the impossible is made possible, so good story telling is a very important aspect, but shouldn't be composed in exchange for bad gameplay or quality.
 
Joined
May 27, 2012
"If you just want a good story, you should pick up a novel or see a movie." - Miyamoto
Story really isn't that important, but a good story can make a great game even better. In my opinion, Majora's Mask is the best LoZ game, and one of the many reasons why Majora's Mask is so great is the wonderful and emotional story. I still don't think any of the LoZ games can compare to Majora's Mask story-wise. But a LoZ game doesn't need to great story to be good, I alwas hear people complaning about Twilight Princess's story, but I still consider it to be one of the more stronger LoZ games because of how fun it was. Gameplay is the most important thing in LoZ games, in all games. Story? I can take it or leave it. If I wanted a good story I'd pick up a book.
 

ENA-three!

the man from mars
Joined
Aug 25, 2011
Location
sa texas
for me the story matters alot. for me, the loz games have all had great stories. i tend to get sucked into the games story and sort of imagine that i am link. so i end up feeling like everything that is going on is happening to me. ...it makes the game so much greater this way. now without a well thought out story, its just save the princess, fight bad guys. but i like the story that gets made in each game with each supporting character, so yes, i feel a good story is important. loz without a story would be like "links crossbow game". do i feel the story could be better?? why not, better is good, do i feel the stories are laking? no, except i was left a bit dissapointed ith tp, the whole build up with ilia and then, nothing.
 

r2d93

Hero of the Stars
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
Location
Lost Woods
OH MY GODDESSES, it most certainly does matter! One of the most important aspects of Zelda to mee is how the game feels. This includes the story, the gameplay, the soundtrack, and the graphics. If Zelda games didn't have any story in them, the series would be massively repetetive. Also, the memories I get from Zelda (the memories that later give me nostalgia and MASSIVE urges to play the game again) honestly are only about 33% due to gameplay. When I want to play a Zelda game again, it's because I really want to experience the story and the images and the music and sounds.
So yes, story is important
 

SinkingBadges

The Quiet Man
As said above, it changes a lot from one Zelda to another. The first games might not have been heavy on it, but they did establish a pretty strong mythology Nintendo still follows to this day. Mainly, on the hero vs villain concept. I'm impressed by how much they've expanded on it through the years, to be honest.

Also, to go a little into personal experience: I still remember Wind Waker being one of the first times I ever had the story as one of the main reasons I was excited while playing a game. Looking for Aryll, then getting into a bigger scheme that Ganondorf was behind, and who knows what else could happen from there... casted a pretty strong hook on me.

It's been like that with every game since, Ocarina, Twilight, Minish Cap and even Skyward Sword (my thought on it here may have looked negative in the past, but the story did genuinely interest me to some degree). Not as effectively, but that not really because of the games themselves.

Eitherway, it would depend on the game. Not every game on the series has to follow the same development mentality. In my opinion, the most beautiful thing about creative expression: It has no rules.
 
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ENA-three!

the man from mars
Joined
Aug 25, 2011
Location
sa texas
ya know, if ww didnt have a good story, i prolly wouldnt of played it because i absolutely hated the cel shaded look. i remember i had trouble getting into it as a zelda game, but the story was pretty good so i stayed.
 

Pen

The game is on!
I most certainly agree. The story of a video game is very important to me. I think Link's Awakening was the first Zelda title to really have a great story, and since then we've had Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass and Skyward Sword, all with outstanding plots in my opinion.

I do think though that the storytelling in the series could improve just a little, simply because most of the games have very predictable stories. But other than that, I love the stories in the Zelda games and I think it's a very important part of a game.
 

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