I’m not going to deny that they are good games, they definitely are. However, there are some design choices made with BOTW and TOTK that really make me separate them from the rest of the series.
The item degradation, the voice acting, the open worldness, all these things aren’t what I want from a Zelda, and because of that, I doubt I’ll ever replay those games again. Again, not bad games at all, and if anyone said they were their favorite games, I’d totally understand that.
But does anyone else wish that we would get a more traditional Zelda game again?
When people say ‘traditional’, it’s very possible you’re only referring to a style of Zelda game that only started with N64’s Ocarina of Time. It was back then a change of pace for adventures that were sometimes too cryptic to decipher, or too difficult, for younger players.
Nintendo definitely spent a lot of the GameCube/Wii era trying to repeat the main appeal of that game; but most people I know still just enjoyed Ocarina more than the others. Even Majora’s Mask tried to take side roads with their time limit system to set itself apart.
So it does feel a bit like people constantly demand a “new Zelda just like the old ones” when the purpose of the old ones was to fulfill some new fantasy people hadn’t experienced. The ones that established themselves as “Ocarina of Time 2 / 3” just didn’t feel as notable. That practice of committing to new concepts does, by necessity, mean leaving some people with a poor taste in their mouths. I didn’t even feel that excited about Wind Waker back when it came out and popularized cel shaded art styles.
Idk about that. OoT was a 3D adaptation of the 2D Zelda formula. The fundamental Zelda formula has changed very little since A Link to the Past.
My idea of the “Zelda Formula” is a structured metroidvania where each “dungeon” is basically a mini metroidvania centered around one item, and the path between dungeons is usually more story driven. Occasionally there are items and puzzles between dungeons as well.
IMO the only Zelda games that don’t really follow the formula are:
- The Legend of Zelda (follows it loosely)
- Zelda II (follows it very loosely)
- A Link Between Worlds (kinda follows it but discards key aspects of it)
- The multiplayer entries (Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures, Triforce Heros) (kinda follow it but discard key aspects of it)
- Breath of the Wild
- Tears of the Kingdom (follows it very loosely)
Really the only thing I wish would go the hell away is item durability. It makes the rewards for things less cool. Like, oh look I did this long ass chain of fetch quests and got a beautiful sword that’s a reference to a past game; better make the most of it before it fucking explodes. Get outta here with that.
I do wish the world was more open. I despise huge walls and climbing. Especially when explosives are abundant. We invented dynamite specifically to not have to deal with huge fucking cliffs everywhere; let’s use some bomb flowers and really open shit up.
On that note, I love Breath of the Wild. I thought it was a great game. While I do also very much enjoy Tears of the Kingdom, I am endlessly frustrated with the unclimbable walls in the depths. I get so frustrated that I have to put down the game.
I haven’t gotten enough of the lightroots to see much of anything as far as the underground map goes. I’m trying but it’s hard to get around with all the walls. Not being able to get around the walls is the main thing preventing me from getting more lightroots.
I don’t think your opinion is as unpopular as you think. In the zelda discussions I frequent, this is a reoccuring opinion, especially from long time fans.
In my opinion, the last 2 Zeldas sacrifice a well designed linearity for freedom at every turn. The games offer so many different approaches to playing, that in their entirety, they feel completely different. However, depending on your playstyle, this freedom can fall flat. Once you figure out how to solve a certain challenge, you can adopt this and keep using the same solution for the next 100 times this challenge is thrown at you, OR you can force yourself to creatively come up with a new solution. Some gamers really like optimizing how they play and “powergame” and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Once they figure out the optimal strat for anything, the games become boring and monotonous to them, as they are more interested in solving the challenge in front of them, than in messing around with different approaches. This happened to me when I was playing Breath of the Wild.
With Tears of the Kingdom, I thankfully managed to avoid that trap and keep myself entertained for longer, but I can definitely see how one could have the same thing happen again: Find optimal strat -> Use it everywhere -> get bored with how monotonous the game is.
While this freedom approach offers a lot of new things, it fails to statisfy the same itch, that a traditionally designed zelda game would with it’s plentiful dungeons. Yes, the physics puzzles are great and the creative approaches offer a lot of various solutions to the same thing, but they aren’t a SS Ancient Basin or a TP Snowpeak Ruins.
I understand that desire a lot!
I do miss traditional dungeons, but as a person who likes playing a ton of different games and genres, I think TOTK (far more than BOTW) really does some incredible things with it’s systems and really invites true creativity. I think, overall, that outshines the very enjoyable, but linear approach of the older games.
I would love a next gen, classically dungeon based Zelda game too, but I think that if one of the older Zelda games came out today (skyward sword, ocarina, wind waker, etc) it simply wouldn’t have the universally fun pull of BOTW or TOTK.
They have big issues, yeah. But they are doing more to advance gaming as a whole by a huge amount and I can’t help but appreciate them.
The voice acting was by far the worst part. By a long shot. After that it’s the lack of traditional dungeons or memorable music. I’m not a huge fan of the new games really, but they are fun to dink around in
