We’ve only gotten better, but still! I wonder how huge WiiU’s dev team will be for the next Zelda. Hopefully, they can hire someone who will force the team to show some restraint when it comes to the annoying quirks Zelda has developed over the years. Ie, the ever-growing tutorial and heavy dialogue.

…

*kills self*

Also: I have to agree on MetManMas’s assertion. So far, it’s something I’m rather enjoying in Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

I also had no idea there was a method to the whistle warp. I always thought it was random. I guess I wasn’t a very perceptive kid!

Still, I got to give credit for the original Zelda leaving the player to their own designs for the most part. There’s (cryptic) hints for some bits of progression if you go looking for them, but the game largely trusts the player to figure things out their own damn selves. No fairies or robots chiming in.

My favorite Zelda by far is still Link to the Past, largely because I feel it struck just the right balance between exploration and intel without being too obtuse or too hand holdy. You always have markers telling you where you should go on the map, but you’re free to explore, find goodies you won’t need until much later in the game, if at all. You don’t need it until the next to last dungeon, but you can get the ice rod as soon as you get out on the world map and find some bombs, and there’s no bomb bag required to get them. The tons of new items and places the flippers and titan’s mitt open up for you feel almost game breaking…and speaking of game breaking, if you know where to use the hammer you can go and tackle the fourth Dark World dungeon after the first one then sequence break the crap out of the intended dungeon order.

Anyway, this has been a great series on Zelda. Be sure to touch on how big a dick the old man is in Quest 2!