Has the Success of OOT Held the Series Back?

[Midna666]

The other day I was thinking about Ocarina of Time and the inpact that it's had on the Zelda series. And then I noticed something, OOT has a lot of sequels and games that continue the storyline that OOT started.
Majora's Mask is a direct sequel to OOT, and it has the same Link.
Wind Waker is another sequel that takes place a hundred years or so(give or take)after the adult timelines events, and it has it's own sequel PH, which has another sequel ST.
And finally we have Twilight Princess which also takes place a hundred years or so after OOT on the child timeline.
The thing that a lot of these games have in common is that they all tie into OOT(Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks not so much). Now OOT is a good game but I have to wonder if it's success has held the series back in terms of storyline?
Do you agree or dissagree?

 

[badmuffins]

I totally agree. OOT is a great game, but it has way to many sequels. Hopefully, Zelda Wii will be set before ocarina of time.

 

[Josh]

I think it has. OoT is a game that people love, for a lot of good reasons, but I think liking the game too much is a mistake on both the gamers and the creator's parts.

The gamer's part to me is obvious, they love the game so much that they can't let go of it, or even think that another zelda game would come close to beating it or taking it's place in the throne of zelda games.

But on the creator's part, it's the constant thought that you have to live up to this game, you have to beat it, you have to think of new ways to outdo this game and show you're still as good as you were back then. They tried to do it with Twilight Princess, and presumably with Zelda Wii. I think it ruins them in the end, because they try so hard to outdo it, they kill the game trying to accomplish it.

 

[Jupiter]

I even mentioned the other day in comments to another post that I think the Aonuma Zelda's are flagging.

MM, TWW, and TP are missing something--something essential--that used to be there in LoZ and ALttP. Primarily I am talking about non-linearity and a sense of exploration.

This is not mere nostalgia for 2D games; I think OoT is a masterpiece and that all of the console Zeldas since are good games. But I truly think that the series as been harmed by OoT's success. Here are things that got started in OoT and have continued, as if by habit, in all the games since:

1.) NON-LINEARITY: the order of the dungeons, the way you must complete each dungeon, and your path in the overworld is heavily proscribed for you

2.) LIMITED OVERWORLD EXPLORATION...in many cases you can't explore at will. In the latest title, Spirit Tracks, you are literally on tracks! A rail Zelda is an abomination.

3.) FETCH QUEST HELL: e.g. predictable overworld objectives that are basically like running errands (umm, sunken triforce pieces anyone?), increasingly fractioned heart pieces, and inanities like bug collecting

4.) GOOFINESS: Gorons. Sumo wrestling.

Now maybe this is Aonuma's fault, he has been at the helm. Or maybe the praise for OoT led them astray. Who knows.

One think I will say in Aonuma's favor is that the dungeons in OoT and TP are absolutely superb. It's the overworld that has completely devolved (to the point that it is on rails! Rails!)

Zelda Wii is, they insist, a rethinking of the series. I hope they are thinking about non-linearity and exploration.

 

[MrMosley]

I think that OoT has held it back, but not by making sequels to it. OoT is a very important game now because so many different ones are based off of it. The problem I see is the immense success of OoT. Ever since, it seems Nintendo has tried to top that success with each new game. Wind Waker was an outstanding game, and I actually enjoy playing it more than OoT, but it didn't do nearly as good because the masses were turned away by the graphics. Aonuma also hoped that Twilight Princess would bypass OoT in success, but that didn't happen either.

The thing is, OoT was released at a time when the world of gaming was going in a new direction: Creating games in a fully 3D world. A lot of gamers are much more interested in graphics these days and have been since the days of the 64. So for its time, OoT was revolutionary, and thus it gained favor not only from Zelda fans, but from just about anyone who owned an N64. No one was interested in the Gamecube, and while the Wii is open to a wide variety of gamers, most of the "hardcore gamers" go for either XBOX 360 or PS3 because they are so technologically advanced. And it is those hardcore gamers that make up a good portion, if not the largest portion, of the gaming community today. Its actually kinda sad that a lot of people turned their nose up at WW and TP, because they were really good games, especially WW.

I honestly don't think a Zelda game will ever match the success of OoT unless Nintendo presents a system that appeals to everyone, even the hardcore gamers. The 64 had so many good titles on it that more people bought it, and more people got into OoT. The bottom line is, I don't believe that any Zelda game, no matter how good it is or how much better Zelda fans think it is than OoT, will sell as good as OoT until Nintendo grabs the attention of the majority of gamers, as well as everyone else. That said, I don't think Zelda Wii will beat OoT in sales at all. If any Zelda game were to do it, it would have to be on a future Nintendo console that would have to sell like crazy and provide a good list of third party games, and not a bunch of crap gimmick games that any and every gaming company has made for the Wii.

 

[Seth]

Just adding on to it, when you say most people have turned to xbox ps3 etc., the Wii has actually sold more consoles then both of those.

 

[Jesper]

Sometimes it comes to my mind that...
Maybe the newer games would've been better withOUT OOT?
But that is a completely wrong thougt.
OOT set a new standard for games. From then on, Nintendo would want to produce even better Zelda games. Fixing the mistakes made in others.
Maybe the newer games aren't as good as OOT, but they are all great games. As long as Nintendo continues making games with the same standard as OOT, I'm happy ^^

 

[CZG]

Just adding on to it, when you say most people have turned to xbox ps3 etc., the Wii has actually sold more consoles then both of those.

And most of them never play on their wii console. It's the best sold, but least used gimmick of the last decade.
X-box and PS is more played actually.
I can't prove this, but if you see what kind of people bought the wii, you can tell the are no real fanatic gamers.
Except for a few Zelda fans, there isn't much gaming on the console.

A few gamers I know sold their wii and actually got another console instead.

 

[MrMosley]

And most of them never play on their wii console. It's the best sold, but least used gimmick of the last decade.
X-box and PS is more played actually.
I can't prove this, but if you see what kind of people bought the wii, you can tell the are no real fanatic gamers.
Except for a few Zelda fans, there isn't much gaming on the console.

A few gamers I know sold their wii and actually got another console instead.

Exactly. The Wii was a big deal for a long time because everyone wanted to experience it. Once they did, that's about as far as it went. I've had people at my local video game store actually talk customers out of buying a Wii or certain Wii games because they hate it that much. Its not that the Wii is a bad system or that it hasn't sold well, its just not got anything to offer that another system doesn't have. I mean, look at the Wii's video game library thus far. Its about 80% full of crap, gimmicky games that certain video game companies make within a couple of months tops, and put it out there. There are VERY few games on the Wii that are really worth the money, or worth spending the time to play. Games like Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, or Super Mario Bros. Wii, are among some of the few games that are actually worth having on Wii.

So its not the sales that makes the Wii a bad system, its the lack of a good library of games, combined with out-dated technology. Even their motion controls, the main selling point of a Wii, has been done by PS3. The PS3 is also coming out with a "wand" sooner or later that pretty much mimmicks the Wii remote in every way. XBOX has Project Natal coming out, which is questionable to whether it will succeed or not, but the thing is that its better technology than the Wii has. People buy XBOX's and PS3's to get the most for their money. Both systems play DVD's, and PS3 plays blu ray movies. Both systems soon enough, as previously mentioned, will expand on their motion controls to the point that it is the same and better than the Wii's current technology. And, those systems have HD compatibility, combined with a pretty big list of games that people want. With the Wii, we have what we have had since it as released. Sure, we got Wii Motion Plus, but wasn't that supposed to be what the Wii did anyway? Releasing that was like saying "Oh well, we couldn't get the motion controls working as well as we wanted, so here's something to help it out. The Wii can't play DVD's, it doesn't have up-to-date graphics, and its game library is terrible. No one is going to buy a Wii just to play a Zelda game, especially when they could spend that money on another console and get more out of it.

That is why I said that until Nintendo stops being so stuck up and starts offering more in their systems to their customers, another Zelda title will not pass up OoT in sales or popularity.

 

[Zenox]

Mr Mosley basically stabbed at every point worth making. Nintendo needs to stop being lazy/selfish and upgrade the Wii. Make the Motion Controls be worth it over the PS3 and XBox systems, otherwise, come time both systems have motion control, the Wii will just be completely useless. At least add HD graphics, sure they aren't that important, but I'm playing on an HD TV and when I want to switch from XBox to Wii, it gets annoying how I can't get the same resolution as the XBox. I mean, come on, all other systems out have HD graphics, why can't they?

The XBox and PS3 consoles are considerably more powerful than the Wii, so and upgrade to how they store files on the disks or just the system itself could amp up what they can do with their games. A game the size of Oblivion for both systems couldn't even be dreamed of to be played on Wii, let alone with the same graphics. I doubt they could make a game smaller than what they have now with the same graphics that game uses. The Wii isn't very powerful at all in comparison.

If they were to amp up what their system can do, combined with the amazing ideas Mr. Myamoto has come up with, the Wii would outsell every system in a few weeks. They recently came out with the Wii Motion Plus which I praise them for, I'm glad they're upping how their Motion Control works, but they're also comming out with that Virtility Sensor or whatever. What, is the Wii becoming a Pregnancy test too? They need to stop coming out with every day life things and focus on what they were made for, games, not everyday home helper, but games. We gamers don't want a virual sensor or whatever, we want our Zelda! If they were to make the system as powerful as the other two out there, then we could definately make a Zelda game unlike the rest and would definitely be more successful than Ocarina of Time was.

 

[Wielder of Aegis]

OOT was so groundbreaking and incredible that it seems to me that everyone who played it loved it so much that they decided that no other game could ever be better(even though WW and TP are much better in my opinion). I don't think it's held the series back but I think the fans did. It's pretty much summed up by someone whose letter appearred in a recent issue of Nintendo Power. And I quote," Even if Zelda Wii were the best game ever, it still wouldn't change the fact that you might have played Alttp first, or that OOT was the first 3d Zelda game. And if you're not going to let Nintendo make better game, where else can the series go but downhill?" Just my 2 cents.

 

[Ikana]

I agree that the OOT was a Great Game.But it did have to many sequels to it.Just hope zelda wii will be before it.

 

[Mehzmerize]

I love how the timeline splits after OoT, and OoT makes the LoZ timeline make a lot more sense then it would otherwise, and it also makes it a lot more interesting, before the release of the game there really wasn't much to go on as far as how all the games connected to eachother, and it was one of the most popular games, and I think it is one of the best games in relevence to the timeline to have been so popular, it would be a great choice as a first LoZ game for someone to play who hasn't played any of the LoZ games because of how early it is in the timeline, how important it is in the timeline, and all of the backstory involved in the plot about the triforce and Ganondorf

 

[Mehzmerize]

4.) GOOFINESS: Gorons. Sumo wrestling.

Ok. I agree with sumo wrestling. However. Gorons are awesome!!!!!

 

[Seth]

Ok. I agree with sumo wrestling. However. Gorons are awesome!!!!!

Yes, Gorons are the best!

Besides, a little bit of goofiness can be a good thing, it gets old when everything is serious and dark. But I don't see gorons as all that goofy anyways...