Comments on: Anatomy of a Game: Zelda IX

By: jparish

jparish — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 19:46:12 +0000

Sure, eventually. If memory serves, LA has the single most thoughtfully constructed overworld in the entire series.

By: Lilfut

Lilfut — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 19:07:02 +0000

I’ll admit to never playing past Level-2 of the original Zelda, but most of your statements here apply to Link’s Awakening’s Koholint as well. Will you be analyzing it at all?

By: Chicago Frank

Chicago Frank — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 14:36:20 +0000

I did not mean to put down those who work hard in the Game Development industry, I just meant to vent my frustration at this notion that seems to exist that gamers need to be explicitly told what to do or where to go next. I feel that it is becasue of this well intentioned but poorly implemented philosophy of making the modern video game a thrilling experience like a Hollywood movie, albeit one with interaction by the user. This forced feeding and coddling has reached a point that when a game like Fallout, or even something remarkably broken like Skyrim (which I do not want to argue about just pointing out how terrible the technical issues were) present the gamer with an open world in which discovery and experimentation are the key element to success, gamers and critic fawn all over it. Now this obviously doesn’t necessarily apply to action or driving games, but there is some discovery there as well that has been lost.

By: Suto

Suto — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 14:25:22 +0000

I am still amazed by the flow of the city in San Andreas, the way neighborhoods flow into one another, and up into the hills, into the forest. It’s a shame Nintendo can’t make a Zelda game with that scope, the current Zelda overworld seems to skew closer to Crash Bandioot levels.

By: MetManMas

MetManMas — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 10:35:33 +0000

People always complain about having to burn every bush or blow up every wall, but at leasr in the first quest the rules for secrets really are simple when it comes down to it. Only one potential door or staircase per screen in the overworld, and the only bombable walls are the flat mountain tiles facing the same way a shop door would. The dungeons have even simpler rules for their hidden doors since they can only be located in the center of walls (always between the bolts) or by pushing blocks.

I get the impression that the intent behind two different candles was that in practice, one’s intended for lighting rooms and the upgrade’s more geared towards finding secrets. However, in execution, it just leads to lots of tedious screen transitions trying to find the right bush to burn because it takes way too long to get the better candle.

By: jparish

jparish — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 08:22:02 +0000

Let us not get too carried away, here. Primordial Zelda could be awfully frustrating in its vagueness; and its not like all modern games are made by inept monkeys who don’t understand the precepts of good game design.

By: Googleshng

Googleshng — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 05:25:07 +0000

I prefer the more optimistic view that there is not (yet) a real career path where someone with a real mastery of the art of game design can be pulled out of a crowd by someone who has a good eye for it and handed a project. There’s a few talented people who got into a position to exercise those talents, largely by luck (correct me if I’m wrong, but Miyamoto got where he is by being able to draw a damn fine minimalist sprite), and none of them that I can think of have lost their touch for it so far.

There’s plenty of older games with no sense of coherent design, and I could name quite a few fancy pretty games with a rock-solid understanding of this stuff as their clear driving force. The real problem is just that it’s harder to give a quick impression of good game design sense than aesthetic sense. I can watch a trailer and see if you can do pretty, but to see if you can do clever I have to sit down and play the finished product.

By: Chicago Frank

Chicago Frank — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 01:50:10 +0000

It is a shame that contemporary game world design has seemed to completely pissed on all that has come before it. Things are telegraphed or pointed out, and exploration/discovery has been replaced by cinematics or QTE’s. My hypothesis is that since graphic fidelity is now the primary benefactor of development resource dollars, simple game design rules get dismissed or neglected in order to show off just how clever the X-physics or Y-paricle and lighting engines are. Furthermore, maps used to be an elegant and understated central tool to the gamers experience. World maps are pointless, hell the last 3d world map that flowed together to perfect was the original Jak & Daxter on PS2. . .

By: Sanagi

Sanagi — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 01:04:53 +0000

What a perfect explanation for why I still love Zelda 1 more than any of its sequels. There’s a lot that hasn’t aged well about the game, but that world map is just as engrossing now as it was in 1987.