What is ruining 3D Zelda games?

[PurpleandRed]

This is going to be a pretty long blog about what I feel is possibly ruining the Zelda games.

The Legend of Zelda used to have good stories, stories that didn't focused on cliched main character romance for example. But since I played Skyward Sword, the stories have become melodramatic, overly romantic and non-zelda like. SS and BOTW both have overly emotional stories and a lovey-dovey Zelink relationship and didn't feel like a Zelda game. Both games had the worst incarnations of Link and Zelda, both of them seeming too mean in the game such as Zelda constantly teasing Link and is jealous of Link's loftwing and Link insulting a mogma who tried to help him get his things back. BOTW has Zelda scolding link such as in the frog scene and Link selfishly ignoring a man named Bozai's feelings in favor of sand boots. All he wants to talk about are those sand boots! And not to mention, both SS and BOTW Zeldas were over-emotional Zeldas having lovey-dovey relationships with the protagonists and that was just non-zelda to me. Yes, AOL had the kiss but the games, especially in SS both sort of had love plots between the protagonist and the titular character and it didn't feel like a Zelda game to me. Also, SS and BOTW Zelda being overemotional did not feel like a Zelda game to me.

While the gameplays are still good, well, except SS had just okay but flawed gameplay such as an empty world, sometimes frustrating controls, backtracking, hand-holding, railroading, linear gameplay, some annoying quests such as chasing after those annoying kikwis and tadtones. There's a lot of things wrong with that game and I can go on forever about what is wrong with it. It's too bad SS had focused too much on its story to even do much with its gameplay.

Now, I can't say anything about the ds Zelda games or WW because I haven't played them yet but am planning on to. But the last great Zelda game with a good story I had played was TP. BOTW is alright but not as good as TP.

I noticed that Shigeru Miyamoto has only been the general producer of the last two official 3D Zelda games, but not just simply the producer. Eiji Aonuma has taken over producing the last two Zelda games instead of being the director and I think Aonuma being the director and Miyamoto being the producer were part of why the Zelda series had charm. Instead, a guy named Hidemaro Fujibayashi has taken over being the director. This change in staff roles seemed to have caused the Zelda series to drop the ball. I think Aonuma should just stick with producing only the remakes, not an original game.

The result are two of the most recent Zelda games that seem more anime like. Such as having the cliched childhood friend turned implied romance trope in SS. You know I am not a fan of anime and this is why I have a problem with SS and BOTW being more anime like.

Anyway, these are my opinions on the games and what is ruining the Zelda franchise. I love the Zelda games and I do not want to see it go down this route of a good franchise slowly becoming not so good. These were my opinions on what I feel should change to give the Legend of Zelda series back its charm.

 

[DanielMazahreh]

I thought Skyward Sword Link was just as annoying and terrible as Skyward Sword Zelda. Don't get me wrong, I liked Skyward Sword Zelda. Just didn't like how her role was played after the beginning. So boring and used for padding just like the whole freaking game. It's terrible.

As for BotW, I loved both Link and Zelda very much. Almost my favorites out of all of them. I actually thought the story in BotW was very deep and highly involved full of little touches and details, and I think that is impressive given how little cutscenes the game has. My appreciation began the moment I watched the memories in the proper order, so DO NOT WATCH if you do not want to be SPOILED:


Watch 23:43. That is the defining moment where it hit me how brilliant this game is. Mipha looks to Link, then she advises Zelda about unlocking one's powers.

OP, I 100% agree with your critiques about SS. All these things you listed are real problems in the game that many fans and critics who gave it a 10 upon release refused to acknowledge until Tom McShea from GameSpot is the only reviewer with the balls and the courage to call Nintendo out on its horrible boss and collections padding system, little exploration, annoying main quests that use dowsing, Fi explaining everything to you, super slow speech bubbles even after holding the A button, and controls that do not register as perfectly at times compared with the press of a button.

Also, I think it's worth noting the loss in quality for Zelda games going more "anime" as you would describe it. I can understand where you are coming from when I think about Zelda characters and dungeons from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Those two games are genius! Breath of the Wild has established a perfect open-world formula that I think will definitely continue in the next Switch Zelda, so the most logical step for Nintendo to take is build upon that formula by expanding a huge dungeon system, secret grottos, underwater exploration, more enemies like Dark Nuts and Like Likes, more mid bosses, puzzles, and final bosses.

But when it comes to "anime" for Breath of the Wild, I actually really liked the game's art. It is extremely beautiful to look at, and thought everything was perfect. I also liked Skyward Sword's painting art style, but not as much as Breath of the Wild and The Wind Waker.

 

[PurpleandRed]

I thought Skyward Sword Link was just as annoying and terrible as Skyward Sword Zelda. Don't get me wrong, I liked Skyward Sword Zelda. Just didn't like how her role was played after the beginning. So boring and used for padding just like the whole freaking game. It's terrible.

As for BotW, I loved both Link and Zelda very much. Almost my favorites out of all of them. I actually thought the story in BotW was very deep and highly involved full of little touches and details, and I think that is impressive given how little cutscenes the game has. My appreciation began the moment I watched the memories in the proper order, so DO NOT WATCH if you do not want to be SPOILED:


Watch 23:43. That is the defining moment where it hit me how brilliant this game is. Mipha looks to Link, then she advises Zelda about unlocking one's powers.

OP, I 100% agree with your critiques about SS. All these things you listed are real problems in the game that many fans and critics who gave it a 10 upon release refused to acknowledge until Tom McShea from GameSpot is the only reviewer with the balls and the courage to call Nintendo out on its horrible boss and collections padding system, little exploration, annoying main quests that use dowsing, Fi explaining everything to you, super slow speech bubbles even after holding the A button, and controls that do not register as perfectly at times compared with the press of a button.

Also, I think it's worth noting the loss in quality for Zelda games going more "anime" as you would describe it. I can understand where you are coming from when I think about Zelda characters and dungeons from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Those two games are genius! Breath of the Wild has established a perfect open-world formula that I think will definitely continue in the next Switch Zelda, so the most logical step for Nintendo to take is build upon that formula by expanding a huge dungeon system, secret grottos, underwater exploration, more enemies like Dark Nuts and Like Likes, more mid bosses, puzzles, and final bosses.

But when it comes to "anime" for Breath of the Wild, I actually really liked the game's art. It is extremely beautiful to look at, and thought everything was perfect. I also liked Skyward Sword's painting art style, but not as much as Breath of the Wild and The Wind Waker.

I don't understand why you said SS Zelda is terrible but then you said you like her. Do you mean you hate her if she were real but like her as a fictional character? And yeah, I disliked SS Link, I don't mind a more expressive Link, he was pretty expressive in TP but I guess he kind of had too much personality for someone who is supposed to be a link to the player. There are way too many long cutscenes with him and there are some times where they could've put choices for the player to say such as the scene where Link is staring happily at Zelda crying, I think there could've been an option for "Don't cry" or something and when Zelda asks whether Link would stay on the surface or Skyloft, I think there could've been a choice that says "Skyloft" and then Zelda would probably be like "But we're hardly ever going to see each other" or something or there could've been a dorky option when Zelda goes to sleep that says something like "How am I going to rescue you? Is there a way?" . I know he's not the same Link as any of the other Links but I felt he was too lovey-dovey and passive since he lets bullies and even Zelda walk all over him.

He's also a bit of a jerk, such as sassing at a mogma who was trying to help him and an implication at the end where he may have wanted to live with Zelda to be clingy. I don't know exactly what happened but he and Zelda are a bit too young to be living together in the same household, I know they're in love but there is no implication that Gaepora is abusing Zelda or is disgusted at them having a relationship, I don't see why there's a need to live with her alone at a young age. Maybe when they're like 20, they can think about this.

It looks like unfortunately, that's why the Zelda series is going downhill to me. I am not that big on anime like some people are and that's what bothers me about the newer games is that they tend to use anime cliches. I have played ALTTP, OOT, and TP and I really liked them all. I do think that they should continue with the whole open world thing that they did in BOTW. It was unique and really cool how you get to do a lot more in that game such as cooking, getting your own house, helping someone build a town etc. and there was a lot of exploring to do.

I didn't like SS's art style because the character designs just look too ugly to me, like Zelda looks like some doll animal clown and Link has girlish lips with pants that look too big for him. I also didn't like the blend of 2D and 3D background style, it just didn't blend well for me.

 

[DanielMazahreh]

I thought Skyward Sword Link was just as annoying and terrible as Skyward Sword Zelda. Don't get me wrong, I liked Skyward Sword Zelda. Just didn't like how her role was played after the beginning. So boring and used for padding just like the whole freaking game. It's terrible.

As for BotW, I loved both Link and Zelda very much. Almost my favorites out of all of them. I actually thought the story in BotW was very deep and highly involved full of little touches and details, and I think that is impressive given how little cutscenes the game has. My appreciation began the moment I watched the memories in the proper order, so DO NOT WATCH if you do not want to be SPOILED:


Watch 23:43. That is the defining moment where it hit me how brilliant this game is. Mipha looks to Link, then she advises Zelda about unlocking one's powers.

OP, I 100% agree with your critiques about SS. All these things you listed are real problems in the game that many fans and critics who gave it a 10 upon release refused to acknowledge until Tom McShea from GameSpot is the only reviewer with the balls and the courage to call Nintendo out on its horrible boss and collections padding system, little exploration, annoying main quests that use dowsing, Fi explaining everything to you, super slow speech bubbles even after holding the A button, and controls that do not register as perfectly at times compared with the press of a button.

Also, I think it's worth noting the loss in quality for Zelda games going more "anime" as you would describe it. I can understand where you are coming from when I think about Zelda characters and dungeons from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Those two games are genius! Breath of the Wild has established a perfect open-world formula that I think will definitely continue in the next Switch Zelda, so the most logical step for Nintendo to take is build upon that formula by expanding a huge dungeon system, secret grottos, underwater exploration, more enemies like Dark Nuts and Like Likes, more mid bosses, puzzles, and final bosses.

But when it comes to "anime" for Breath of the Wild, I actually really liked the game's art. It is extremely beautiful to look at, and thought everything was perfect. I also liked Skyward Sword's painting art style, but not as much as Breath of the Wild and The Wind Waker.

I don't understand why you said SS Zelda is terrible but then you said you like her. Do you mean you hate her if she were real but like her as a fictional character? And yeah, I disliked SS Link, I don't mind a more expressive Link, he was pretty expressive in TP but I guess he kind of had too much personality for someone who is supposed to be a link to the player. There are way too many long cutscenes with him and there are some times where they could've put choices for the player to say such as the scene where Link is staring happily at Zelda crying, I think there could've been an option for "Don't cry" or something and when Zelda asks whether Link would stay on the surface or Skyloft, I think there could've been a choice that says "Skyloft" and then Zelda would probably be like "But we're hardly ever going to see each other" or something or there could've been a dorky option when Zelda goes to sleep that says something like "How am I going to rescue you? Is there a way?" . I know he's not the same Link as any of the other Links but I felt he was too lovey-dovey and passive since he lets bullies and even Zelda walk all over him.

He's also a bit of a jerk, such as sassing at a mogma who was trying to help him and an implication at the end where he may have wanted to live with Zelda to be clingy. I don't know exactly what happened but he and Zelda are a bit too young to be living together in the same household, I know they're in love but there is no implication that Gaepora is abusing Zelda or is disgusted at them having a relationship, I don't see why there's a need to live with her alone at a young age. Maybe when they're like 20, they can think about this.

It looks like unfortunately, that's why the Zelda series is going downhill to me. I am not that big on anime like some people are and that's what bothers me about the newer games is that they tend to use anime cliches. I have played ALTTP, OOT, and TP and I really liked them all. I do think that they should continue with the whole open world thing that they did in BOTW. It was unique and really cool how you get to do a lot more in that game such as cooking, getting your own house, helping someone build a town etc. and there was a lot of exploring to do.

I didn't like SS's art style because the character designs just look too ugly to me, like Zelda looks like some doll animal clown and Link has girlish lips with pants that look too big for him. I also didn't like the blend of 2D and 3D background style, it just didn't blend well for me.

Well, I didn't make it too obvious with my writing, but basically I liked the beginning sequences with Skyward Sword Zelda. I just didn't like her role for the rest of the main quest. I just didn't care. Skyward Sword's story is pathetic, imo. Breath of the Wild, on the other hand, is also pretty simple yet very effective with adding little touches here and there.

Recently, I was replaying Breath of the Wild on the Wii U. I am thoroughly impressed with how much they put on the Zora storyline. It seems a whole lot more involved than the rest of the champions. Now, I am sort of wondering and trying to imagine how Mipha was defeated.

 

[Dreamy]

In my opinion, nothing is ruining them. I think the series is doing pretty well. BoTW was a breath of fresh air. It added so many new element that I couldn't stop playing. I just hope they make another like TP.

 

[Deathstardom]

If one of these games would just have a super difficult sidequest that includes the Great Palace from Adventures of Link, I would be happy.

Despite how hated that game was, it is still a classic and has some of the best most difficult enemies of all time.

At some point, you get sick of different variations of Ganondorf. Fighting Shadow Link as a mini boss in Ocarina was super homage to the past, even if they made him way too easy. We have seen many variations of shadow link since. Barba got renamed Volvagia, but was one of the best bosses in Ocarina.

But at some point, introduce Horsehead, Helmethead, Rebonack, Carock the boss of all wizzrobes, Gooma, and Thunderbird.

Us old timers want some subtle nods to the past in the new games. Similar to Stone Cold Steve Austin occasionally appearing on Wrestling TV, it just adds a "Whoop" to the game when you see enemies of the past come

 

[DanielMazahreh]

Basically everything went down to the crapper starting with Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. The Wind Waker and the 3D games before were excellent and near-perfect games.

MM-10/10
OoT-10/10
TWW-9/10
TP-8/10
SS-7/10

And then came BotW, 10/10!!!!!

 

[cowpie_fromhell]

What is ruining 3D Zelda games?

BOTW,BOTW,BOTW and BOTW