So, I’ve been watching updates on the latest games coming out, as is typical of me. Naturally, as a huge fan of the Zelda series I’m watching the latest info on A Link Between Worlds, the “newest” Zelda game to come out touted as being a sequel to A Link to the Past. I have not spared any time professing to others my criticisms about the game, and after an exchange with one of my fellow Zelda fans on deviantART, I decided to discuss it in further detail.
I love the Zelda series; that’s why I’m critical of things that I don’t like. It seems to me though that a lot of Zelda fans go out and bash anyone who has ANY critiques about an upcoming game. I try to expound on my opinions and I have people yelling and criticizing me for being concerned. Naturally, of course, I’ve seen a lot of the same people criticizing new Sonic games and bashing others for telling them the exact same thing they tell others.
Zelda is for Kids Apparently…
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is the latest example, and I’ve been critical of it ever since its first appearance. A Link to the Past is awesome, a remake of A Link to the Past? EPIC! Except… wait, its a sequel? Set hundreds of years later? But the world looks EXACTLY THE SAME? Oh, and they’re introduced a new mechanic… Link can… TURN INTO A PAINTING! Seriously?
After a nice looking artwork which started to make me feel better about the game, they revealed that the other world’s name is… Lorule… which is a more direct parallel of Hyrule as opposed to the Dark World. They also showed off the Ganondorf wannabe main antagonist and Hilda, a blatant dark doppleganger of Zelda. Whom is apparently suddenly the world’s greatest thing now that we’ve seen her for about five minutes and looks literally like a recolored Zelda.
The recent concept artwork? That’s about the ONLY thing that kinda interested me about the game. The gameplay concepts could be interesting from a puzzle solving aspect, but storyline wise its completely and totally ridiculous. And the graphics look atrocious as well. And all of this goes back to that overly kiddy feel that the Zelda series keeps trying to portray in recent years. Even if you argue that the early Zelda games were aimed for kids, most of said “kids” are grown up now.
Classic Zelda Wasn’t 4Kids
The early Zelda games concept art weren’t dark and gritty and in fact looked somewhat childish… but the games themselves certainly were NOT made for children. Or if they were, the developers certainly misjudged how difficult the games were for children to accomplish. These games were incredibly difficult and complex, something that a child could never even hope to get through. ESPECIALLY The Adventure of Link, which is even overall quite dark and gritty as well, with some areas of the game downright creepy.
A Link to the Past is probably the first one where a younger audience would be more likely to be able to clear it, but even that’s questionable. Its the first Zelda game I managed to beat and is easily my favorite. The graphics however were NOT kiddy, they weren’t gritty, they were balanced. Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Twilight Princess were all about the same as well. Twilight Princess was slightly more gritty, but that’s about it.
Ocarina of Time, I’ve heard arguments about that one as well. Despite what people say, it wasn’t geared towards entirely young audiences, and the game can be very dark at times. Majora’s Mask is even worse. So people trying to argue that those games were just as child like as The Wind Waker are stretching things greatly. The Wind Waker blatantly goes for a kiddy super-deformed graphical art style. Twilight Princess is FAR more accurate to the portrayal of the older games than Wind Waker is.
I’m not saying that the Zelda series can’t be aimed towards child-like audiences and should be more dark and gritty. I think Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, and Majora’s Mask are at a fairly safe level; designed to be more well-balanced. Not too dark, but not all sunshine and roses either with extremely bright color palettes (which the old games certainly never did replicate). The series is always balanced, but more often than not has the series shown a very dark perspective on the series as a whole, which is why people complain when childish elements keep getting flung around all over the place nowadays.
Its not nitpicking, its not being overly argumentative. I’m not hating on them trying something new. I’m annoyed by the constant perspective that Zelda fans are nothing but kids and constantly portraying the series to young audiences instead of simply a more general audience overall. And I get really annoyed when people complain about my concerns about something, like I’m just plain nitpicking to be nitpicky.
I’m not niticking; in fact, I’m the kind of person that is far more accepting that a lot of people. And its really frustrating having to deal with this kind of thing all the time.
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