For Zelda

So here I was thinking to myself: What should I blog about? Then I came across this article on Kotaku talking about how every Zelda game after Zelda II has been bad, or at least, downhill in quality, with the latest addition to the series (Skyward Sword) being the worst one of all. This article was interesting, for one, as a lot of people seemed to agree with the authors comments, and a lot of people seem to “like” it on Facebook. Now, seeing as the author is a long-time Zelda fan who has played the first game to death and has even had dreams about it, I have to point out that when you write an article such as this, where you talk about an entire franchise or series in general, it’s better to make it clear that your opinions are your opinions. Don’t get me wrong, the article makes a lot of good points, but it doesn’t make any attempt to acknowledge other people’s opinions or arguments. In order to make a good argument, that is what you have to do. Instead, the article gives a long and overly embellished rundown of a person’s own thoughts within his own bubble. He tries too hard to sound smart, all while jumping to conclusions and never offering any counterarguments. This can be quite obnoxious, especially if a reader doesn’t happen to agree (and I’m sure there are plenty who don’t). Yet, this is how people typically are. They are trapped within their own bubbles, and only like to think and talk within the boundaries of their own limited minds. It is the same with fanboys (or fangirls) who love a series so much, and who would probably hate this article, to the point where they cannot recognize the faults or the things that could be improved upon.

I agree that Zelda games could be more challenging. At the same time, one thing the author of this article doesn’t realize (and many more experienced gamers don’t realize as well) is that difficulty does not always equal fun. For example, Spirit Tracks, which is one of the more difficult Zelda games, is very irritating due its control scheme. The same can be said about the first Zelda game. Skyward Sword's difficulty, which is relatively high for a Zelda game, can be rather annoying when coupled with the game's imperfect and at times impractical controls.

There are a lot of people who play video games just to have fun, and not to have their patience and button-pressing skills tested to the maximum. This author, of course, grew up on the first two Zelda games, where the difficulty levels were fairly high (most older games were in fact, quite difficult compared to more modern games). However, he doesn’t seem to realize that back then, the video game market was very different. Video games were not nearly as common as they are today, nowhere near as popular, and of course, not as profitable. There was no set standard for video games, and most gamers back then were different (in personality, temperament, etc.) from the gamers of today.

Zelda became popular thanks to the later games such as Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, etc. But of course, just because a game is popular doesn’t mean it’s good. Zelda games, however, tend to be very good, whether you’re comparing them to other Zelda games or to other games in general. Most people would agree with this. Does this mean they are perfect? Hell no. But they are a lot more player-friendly and enjoyable compared to the first two games, where you almost always had to figure everything out through random trial and error.

These author’s opinions are very narrow-minded and not all of them necessarily well-supported, though they do offer a refreshing change of pace from what we usually hear/read about Zelda games, especially the more modern ones. Yet, to discredit games like Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, which quite frankly, are the Zelda games that really set the bar as far as quality and depth goes, is ridiculous. Change is good for any video game series, and the changes that Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time brought were the very changes that allowed Zelda to be one of the most successful and popular game franchises of all time. Has the basic formula been reused and recycled far too many times? Maybe, but that has happened with every successful video game series. Look at Final Fantasy, Pokemon, and even Mario. It is always hard for a game to find the right balance between sticking its roots and evolving.

I am sure that a large number of Zelda fans were introduced to the series through games like Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and even Twilight Princess. For me, it was Link’s Awakening, and since then I have played every single Zelda game ever released, including the first two, multiple times. When a lot of people go back and try and play the first Zelda game, many of them are turned off by its difficulty and primitive structure. The sword mechanics, for example, are extremely hard to work with in comparison with later 2-D Zelda games. This is another example of how difficult does not equal to fun. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the first game and what it stands for, along the sense of exploration it offers. However, if you really think that setting bombs or candle fires in random spots and hoping for a secret entrance to show up is fun, then you really are out of touch. And if you think that being trapped in a room with 10 enemies that you can barely hit, and who can kill you within a few seconds is fun for most people, then you are just dumb. Story is important, gameplay is important, and of course change is important. The key is to find the right balance. This author seems to mainly want Zelda to be more like Demon’s Souls, which revolves around hard, unforgiving, and strict action gameplay. I admit, I agree with several of the author’s complaints. I dislike Twilight Princess’s long and dragged on intro, I dislike how open exploration is heavily limited in later Zelda games until you progress to a certain point, and I dislike how most of the environments, as pretty as they are, end up just becoming track courses that you constantly have to jog through. But this author, and the readers who choose to agree with him unquestionably, have established a very high, narrow, and biased set of standards for Zelda games. And this is why they are unhappy with Zelda, which is sad. I love Zelda games, but I know that all of them have their faults, and I could spend hours discussing them. No game is perfect, especially not the first Zelda game. Still, this article has encouraged me to play through the first two games again in order to see of my thoughts on them have changed at all.