General Zelda More Human-Cutesy Moments?

[Ventus]

One of the sole things I like about Skyward Sword is the beginning; it feels very real, like a human society. We have the bully (Groose), the girl we dote on (Zelda/Hylia), and us the lazy kid (Link). I liked how Zelda seemed like a human girl - she protected us at moments from the bully by using her charm-turned-anger, but at other times she would do naughty things like push us off cliffs or chew us out for being lazy.

Those latter things I REALLY appreciate in gaming. I was wondering if it would harm the series any to have more of those kinds of human moments? What do you think?

 

[A Link In Time]

No, I don't want to see more of these moments.

While Twilight Princess tossed away Ilia, Colin, and the Ordon gang early on, it actually tried to develop them in a plot nuance. While Skyward Sword's introduction was essential in seeing Groose's character transformation, it was very cheesy. Teenage drama? I have enough of that in real life, on Internet boards, and silly television shows. No more please.

If character interaction and emotional interaction are to be enhanced in the future, make these moments worthwhile like the Anju and Kafei sidequest-a pair of star crossed lovers-or Zelda's sacrifice to revive Midna. These moments flowed well with the franchise's adventure theme feeling very natural. Skyward Sword to me seemed like it was trying too hard to be an anime at times.

 

[Wolf Sage]

So long as the series continues to include "human/cutesy" moments like little kids humping rocks (in OoT), I'll be content.

 

[JuicieJ]

I thought you hated Zelda for pushing Link off a cliff.

And, yes, I'd love to see more moments like these. It's one of the many ways Skyward Sword stepped up its character development, and I only hope it gets even better in the future.

 

[DarkestLink]

Yes and no. Skyward Sword felt too much like modern teenage drama for me.

 

[ihateghirahim]

I like to think of those as belonging to SS. Every game has cool things that wouldn't be cool if the whole series had them:

The Wind Waker had sailing. Now imagine if every Zelda game was a nautical adventure. The quality would decline, and creativity would be thoroughly stifled. Link wouldn't be able to experience new forms of transportation, adventure, and he would lose any identifiable homeland. The same goes for the 3-day cycle in MM, the Wolf Form in TP, the Child/Adult time travel in OoT, and every single thing in Zelda II.

Each Zelda game must honor the past, but still be a unique experience. It's a fine line that, if walked, can keep a franchise forever amazing.

 

[Castle]

I did admire this about Skyward Sword, in the beginning. The portrayal of the characters is among the best in the series. Zelda is very down to earth and approachable in Skyward Sword. Groose is an archetype we can all relate to and who turns from an irritating jerk to a loveable buffoon by the end lends his character an endearing charm. It made me care about them. The people I was destined to save, as Link. Provided a personal vested interest beyond "Do it because it's fun or because we said so."

So long as it doesn't come off as melodramatic or schmaltzy, these sort of character moments can lend much to a narrative, and Skyward Sword has one of the series best narratives to date. Since OoT, imo.

 

[DekuPrincess]

I like having these moments as long as they don't take themselves too seriously. I felt that was the difference between TP and SS--SS was making a bit of a joke about it (especially with all the innuendo) which kind of made it feel like a Pixar movie; the kids go on oblivious, thinking it's great, while the adults are cracking up. But TP took itself so seriously, trying to create serious drama with the "human" moments, and it just fell flat to me. Human moments should stay cutesy, and stay at a minimum (but not nonexistent!) so as to provide some light relief without making it feel like the center of the game.

 

[Justac00lguy]

I like to think of those as belonging to SS. Every game has cool things that wouldn't be cool if the whole series had them:

The Wind Waker had sailing. Now imagine if every Zelda game was a nautical adventure. The quality would decline, and creativity would be thoroughly stifled. Link wouldn't be able to experience new forms of transportation, adventure, and he would lose any identifiable homeland. The same goes for the 3-day cycle in MM, the Wolf Form in TP, the Child/Adult time travel in OoT, and every single thing in Zelda II.

Each Zelda game must honor the past, but still be a unique experience. It's a fine line that, if walked, can keep a franchise forever amazing.

Even though I partly agree with your statement, this feature wasn't just an experiment of sorts I wouldn't say it was the unique feature that set SS apart. Skyward Swords unique feature was mainly the Wii Motion+ feature, this whole realistic human interaction wasn't truly a main feature of the game.

I think this feature was rather neat, maybe it was a bit too "Corny" or "high school" like but involving more human interaction in Zelda games is a must if they want to build a characters profile and the narrative of the game. If you make the interactions between characters more relatable then it may just make the characters seem more realistic and therfore as a player you could connect more within the plot of the game. I think this sort of feature is important is Nintendo does go down the root of building up characters and putting more emphasis on the story.

 

[Dragoncat]

I liked it, like everyone else said, it makes the characters more believable and relatable. It wasn't corny at all, and it didn't feel like one of those angsty drama filled high school fanfics we all hate so much, to me at least.

Deku Princess: Innuendo? In SS? I think TP had a tad bit of that, SS didn't. Groose may have been showing interest in Zelda, but it didn't appear to be innuendo to me. Compare that to Telma in TP. She shows cleavage and winks at Link suggestively. SS didn't have any more innuendo than a classic Disney movie like Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast, TP is more like Pixar imo.

I Hate Ghirahim: Like Cool Guy said, that wasn't the main part of SS. The flying and motion plus was.

 

[ihateghirahim]

Well the concept was so important that some have developed such strong feelings that we've all kept talking about it. Story and characters can be as essential to a game as actual gameplay if they're implemented heavily, and they were. It's an important aspect of many games. I mean games like Metroid: Other M would have been entirely different if story and character expressions had been removed (I sure wish they had. Story and expressions are very much part of a game, if not actual gameplay. However, in SS speaking was a part of gameplay. We were able to influence conversations and pick responses. The story is prevalent in SS, and we must acknowledge it as part of the game or else stop spending entire forums bickering about it (I choose the former).

 

[Kupsacker]

Yes, I felt that it was a great step in developing characters better. And one might complain that it's like a teenage drama, but, what do you expect? They're dramatic teenagers, duh.

 

[Justac00lguy]

Well the concept was so important that some have developed such strong feelings that we've all kept talking about it. Story and characters can be as essential to a game as actual gameplay if they're implemented heavily, and they were. It's an important aspect of many games. I mean games like Metroid: Other M would have been entirely different if story and character expressions had been removed (I sure wish they had. Story and expressions are very much part of a game, if not actual gameplay. However, in SS speaking was a part of gameplay. We were able to influence conversations and pick responses. The story is prevalent in SS, and we must acknowledge it as part of the game or else stop spending entire forums bickering about it (I choose the former).

Skyward Sword however was not a revolution in this aspect though. Wind Waker was the first game to generally develop emotion in characters through facial expressions and Twilight Princess built up their characters very well through the likes of character development, which was key to Minda. So yes of course characters and story is important, I wouldn't pick out Skyward Sword to be a revelation in this aspect, just because they had these "high school" drama moments, which I might add were only seen mostly at the beginning events of the game. I also wouldn't say this feature is an innovation as such, just a general expansion on building characters to a more deep and realistic level. This is sure to be built upon in future Zelda games and I don't think it will be a one off feature.

 

[Spirit]

The only part of the introduction i liked was following Fi to the goddess sword.

I didn't like the 'cutesy/human moments' of SS because the characters of Link, Zelda and Groose just felt as if they were bombarding you far too much with their generic character traits and i found it to be a bit much in the way most modern teenage drama pretentious fan-fictions are. The pushing Link off of the cliff moment was a bit too cheesy and tacky for me and didnt ring right. so no, no more of these socially flawed moments in Zelda please, the kids of TP did much better partly because i hated them for being annoying little runts and they got more of a reaction from me than casual eye rolls.

 

[DarkestLink]

The thing I found more opening in the annoying than the High School story was how much of a Gary-Stu this Link was built up to be. Out of all the people, he has the rarest Loftwing, and out of everyone, he has the closest connection--so close that he's arguably psychic. He's also the best flyer in his class despite doing the least amount of studying and preparation, is BFF with the most popular girl in school, and has the highest respect among teachers. Sure he's picked on, but pretty much nobody likes the bully anyway.

Strangely, the stuff with the Loftwing never really takes play during the rest of the story. Hell, we never even learn its name. The story just makes a point of informing us early on that Link is an Elite Warrior Knight and even if Groose trains himself to raise his power over 9000, no amount of hard work could prepare those low class scum to face the pinnacle of bird riding that is Link.

I mean hell, Link takes down all three of them while they gang up on them and has to beat them not once, but twice. The second time, they come back after using their Cheato Page code "Eggs".