After reading that headline, for just a moment, I thought this was going to be Bethesda-style gaslighting of players…
Spent too much time overhauling and perfecting game design and put the interns on story and narration.
As a lifelong Zelda fan, I’ve never cared much for the stories of Zelda games anyways. Like Mario games, they’re always incredibly simple placeholders that boil down to “princess gone, defeat evil that took her”. These games got their start when that was the only story that you could fit on the cartridge anyways, so I could see why Nintendo would want to keep that spirit alive.
Plus, in an open world game, is story really that important? I’d rather have the excellent gameplay of TOTK than something like Red Dead 2 which is a great story with excruciatingly boring gameplay.
I really enjoyed the writing of the side characters in the N64 games. Sure most only had two maybe three things to say outside a side quest but they all had a nugget of commentary on the human condition.
Personally I thought that N64 and the beginning of GC had the best cadence of Zelda games; a retelling of the main “legend” (evil ganon, triforce power corrupted, magical princess captured to use towards ultimate evil plan, hero appears, master sword, open path to ganon, defeat, time/space/existence saved) which was OOT, followed up by “here’s another adventure the hero went on that has almost nothing to don’t any of that, and it’s more character driven” which was Majoras Mask. It looked like we’d repeat that cycle with WindWaker (and to some extent I guess we did with Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks) but then we got TP and nothing and SS and nothing and they got so bogged down into turning Zelda into a lore dump. Now we don’t even have dungeons and item anymore. Dungeons and items were the core gameplay! Imagine being able to hook shot around in BotW?
The stories in most Nintendo games are weak and mostly pointless. I loved BOTW but strrrrrrrruggled to enjoy TOTK. It just felt too gimmicky. And I adore RDR2, story and gameplay.
I kinda liked the over the top anime narration. The repeated lines after every dungeon were terrible, but really enjoyed the tears stuff.
The story’s been basically the same since the first game anyway: Gannon bad. Zelda missing. Kill Gannon; rescue Zelda. Oh and there’s maybe a triangle to find depending on the game.
Definitely true. But I liked the renditions from the last two 3d games before BOTW. It’s just the gameplay that was rough in those. The next round needs to put the two together.
You haven’t had to rescue Zelda much in the past 25 years.
In Ocarina of Time, Zelda was a badass ninja warrior that was constantly helping you.
In Majora’s Mask, Zelda didn’t appear.
In Wind Waker, Zelda was the leader of a gang of pirates. She had their respect and undying loyalty despite all being twice her size, because of her toughness and bravery. IIRC she actually kills Gannon in this one by bouncing an arrow off Link’s shield.
I don’t remember Twilight Princess enough to speak on that one, tbh.
In Skyward Sword, you think you’re saving Zelda, but she’s actually totally fine the whole time. She’s working with a Sheikah to restore seals to prevent Demise from returning.
In BotW, Zelda is fighting Gannon for 100 years (!!!) to buy time while Link sleeps and then later cooks food in his underwear.
In TotK, Zelda makes the ultimate sacrifice, trading her humanity to give Link a chance to beat Ganondorf. She makes herself immortal, but trades away her individuality and ability to think. She spends eternity crying because of what she lost to give Hyrule hope. I think she’s particularly brave in this one.
Zelda has not been a damsel in distress for a very, very long time. Both Zelda and Link play critical roles in saving Hyrule. Their roles are just different. Link saves Hyrule with a sword. Zelda saves Hyrule in other ways. Their roles are different but equally necessary.
Ocarina of Time, Zelda was a badass ninja warrior that was constantly helping you.
And is then captured by gannon toward the end of the game and you must rescue her.
Doesn’t appear in Majora’s Mask
I am not even counting the games she doesn’t appear in at all. Link’s Awakening and pretty much all the GBA games are like that. But they aren’t the main series, either.
In Wind Waker, Zelda was the leader of a gang of pirates. She had their respect and undying loyalty despite all being twice her size, because of her toughness and bravery.
And she is kidnapped at some point in the game, and you must rescue her.
Don’t remember Twilight Princess
Like Link to the Past, OOT and WW: Shes kidnapped toward the end by Ganon, and you must rescue her.
Skyward Sword
Zelda is literally trapped in a crystal and must be rescued by killing Demise. Sure, she put herself in that crystal, but you still save her from being imprisoned forever.
BOTW
Like Skyward Sword, Zelda is trapped as energy in a constant battle to keep Ganon at bay. Since she comes back in TOTK, you obviously rescued her.
TOTK
I haven’t beat the whole game yet, but either it’s the only main series one where you don’t rescue Zelda, or Link finds a way to turn her back to normal, which would be like rescuing her, much like Skyward Sword and BOTW.
Honestly I don’t think anyone can really look at TotK and not think it was a massive undertaking. They took the giant open world of BotW, made it bigger, and added a ton of more physics interactions, and have it running on a 7-year-old gaming tablet. It’s incredible they could do that at all.
Always interesting to read about some of the specific considerations to go into features that may not seem that complicated at first glance (especially to the layman).
