Zelda 3DS: Eiji Aonuma Completely Misses the Point of A Link to the Past

GenGAME writes: "You’d think I’d be excited to hear more news about Zelda 3DS (A Link to the Past 2) from series producer Eiji Aonuma. After all, I’m a self-professed classic Zelda nut, and the game seems obviously intended to draw old farts like me in with fancy nostalgia-fied Hyrules, remixed soundtracks, and reddish-haired Links.

"But what I really want doesn’t have anything to do with that surface-level nostalgia. It has to do with a nostalgia for the core of what Zelda is. And so far, based on what I’ve heard from Mr. Aonuma and others, Zelda 3DS sounds more like a shallow appeal to nostalgia than a truly next-generation A Link to the Past."

[dedicatedtogamers]

Aonuma has gone on the record and said that he does not like the combat in Zelda, he has trouble beating Octoroks in the first Zelda game, and he wants to spend his time on story, NPCs, and puzzles because that's what he sees as important in Zelda...

...that's why I typically dislike his Zelda games.

[Xof]

...Er, does anyone like the combat is Zelda games? It's mediocre at best--and that applies to -every- Zelda game.

Just imagine how much more fun the 3D Zelda games would be if the combat were as responsive, dynamic and diverse as in Dark Souls. Imagine how much more fun 2D zelda games would be if the combat was as perfectly polished as in your average Ys game.

Zelda games do a number of things very well. Combat is not one of those things, and never has been.

[dedicatedtogamers]

The combat in the early games was quite good. I even liked the combat from Zelda II. During release, the combat in these games was as good if not better than any top-down arcade game of the time. And that's what Zelda originally was: an RPG-lite with skill-based arcade combat. Puzzles, NPCs, and storyline was an afterthought, even in games like LttP and Link's Awakening.

[wishingW3L]

that's true. Combat is always the weakest link on Zelda games, ALWAYS. And on the 3D ones it hasn't really evolved much, still the same as OOT's.

[Bimkoblerutso]

Not to try and sound hyperbolic, but Ocarina of Time literally laid the foundation from which almost all third person adventure games base their combat to this day.

I certainly agree that it's no longer the strong suit of the franchise, but there was a time when it was pretty much the forefather of 3D combat.

[Xof]

@Bimkoblerutso:

That's certainly true, but that doesn't make the combat itself good. Gaming is iterative. Most of the games that do something "first" don't do that thing particularly well. There's a reason people think of "Doom" as the first FPS--because it was the first FPS done really well.

[Dj7FairyTail]

someone never played Skyward Sword

[legendoflex]

There's a clear pattern among the Zelda games that go down in history and the ones that people move on from shortly after they release. The former focus on world-building, on weapons that are satisfying to use outside of just puzzles, and on having the most engaging combat in the business; the latter focus on character development, items that are used mostly or only for puzzles, and engaging the player through story text.

[tweet75]

as long as the game play and exploration are as good or better than the original I will be happy.

[Xof]

I'm getting real sick of people whining about the "core experience" of Zelda being ignored by modern games, defining that core experience as the first two NES games.

Zelda changed. There was a reason Zelda changed. And the change was for the better.

[TwilightSparkle]

If people dont like the combat system dont play it dosent mean everyone else dont like it, nintendo wiil keep making them as long as people buying them

[CrossingEden]

dat grammar

[XXXL]

What I'm sick of are the gimmicks. Stylus controls, motion controls, etc. Just give us old school dungeon crawling and a lush open world to explore. And don't hold our hand. We don't need "guides" (navi, midna, etc.) What made the original Zelda and LTTP so good was they threw you into the shit right off the bat.

[Xof]

I kind of disagree.

I don't think "handholding" is something we want, but I definitely want the companion-characters to stay. That flavor dialog goes a long way toward making the games more interesting, and make up for the inherent weaknesses of a silent protagonist.

But other than that, I agree completely.

I'd also add that I want to see Zelda take a more active role in the narrative. I'm sick to ****ing death of the damsel in distress trope.

I'd also like to see selectable-gender for Link, especially now that a larger (and increasingly larger) segment of gamers are women.

[mamotte]

People always want Zelda to change, but then, at the same time, they want the games to be like the old times.

I seriously cant understand the intenet.

[legendoflex]

I want Zelda to change so it's less like the current ones and more like the older ones.

[CrossingEden]

so that you can complain later that it's too similar to the old ones -_-

[TuxedoMoon]

Exactly! People don't really know what they want. If they got what they wanted, they'd complain more about something else. It's a no win situation. If they change too many things, people complain. If they leave it the same, people complain.

Anyway, if I want to play a fantasy game with challenging fights, I'll go play Dark Souls. If I want to be a girl or a boy in a fantasy world and save the land from an evil force, I'll play an MMO like Mabinogi. Zelda is Zelda and should always be just Zelda. Some changes here and there are good, don't get me wrong, but Zelda shouldn't try to be like Darksouls or something. IMO, it's that accessibility that makes the game engaging and fun for everyone.

[Blacklash93]

Waaayy too early to start judging the game.

Zelda has never had great combat, especially the 2D games. Skyward Sword subverted this a bit by making combat more like puzzles via the motion controls. It's always been about puzzles, dungeons, traps, quests, exploration, ect.

You will still be slaughtering rooms of enemies ala classic 2D Zelda, there will be dungeons with varied puzzles, there will be lots of quests and NPCs to talk to. That hasn't changed in all these years, why would it change now?

[legendoflex]

We're already seeing that it's changing. I noticed a couple trademark enemy behaviors were dumbed-down (one of them seemed nonexistent) in the original trailer.