Tutorials Need to Be Removed from Zelda

[CheeseXCrackers]

The tutorials should be what they were in Majora's Mask. 100% optional and not forced upon you in any way.

 

[JuicieJ]

It's not the tutorials themselves that bother me, but rather the excessively long introductions that usually contain them. Ocarina of Time handled it best - you were given a task that essentially pushed you into tutorials. There was the platforming course with the signs in the small maze that led up to the path to the Kokiri Sword, the targeting lesson from the girl atop the shop, and the basics of equipping items on the Equipment screen. Then, within 10 minutes, you're in the first dungeon. That's how it should be.

More recently, however, Zelda games feel content to drag out their introductions, drowning you in seemingly endless exposition with very little gameplay. It takes a couple of hours for Skyward Sword to really get going. Twilight Princess did this as well. It's something that has really irked me for a while now - while Zelda isn't as bad about it as some games are (I'M LOOKING AT YOU ROXAS), they could do better to stick to OoT's model.

I can be at the Faron Woods in less than an hour. Just sayin'.

Btw, the fact that the Great Deku Tree is a giant tutorial pretty much negates your point.

 

[Non-Epic]

It's not the tutorials themselves that bother me, but rather the excessively long introductions that usually contain them. Ocarina of Time handled it best - you were given a task that essentially pushed you into tutorials. There was the platforming course with the signs in the small maze that led up to the path to the Kokiri Sword, the targeting lesson from the girl atop the shop, and the basics of equipping items on the Equipment screen. Then, within 10 minutes, you're in the first dungeon. That's how it should be.

More recently, however, Zelda games feel content to drag out their introductions, drowning you in seemingly endless exposition with very little gameplay. It takes a couple of hours for Skyward Sword to really get going. Twilight Princess did this as well. It's something that has really irked me for a while now - while Zelda isn't as bad about it as some games are (I'M LOOKING AT YOU ROXAS), they could do better to stick to OoT's model.

I see what you're getting at there. If they don't want to add the option to remove it in, that's fine. It should have some kind of tie in.

Anyone ever watch Egoraptor's Sequelitis on youtube? For Megaman X, it shows a great way to teach all the mechanics and controls of the game. That's something that's useful; being able to learn to play as we play, and not know it. When you mix in simple puzzles in the start, the controls are almost subliminally conveyed.

 

[r2d93]

I think they should be optional. The person teaching you should bring up the action and then ask if you know how to do it or if you'd like to be showed how

 

[RubenCrapton]

Yes! There should be an option where it's like "Do you know how to play?" and you can choose to skip the tutorial. I think it was Gears 1 that I played recently that had this and I was like "Yes! Every game ever needs this!"

 

[Mrflamexd3]

Zelda is becoming so easy that soon enough it will be as easy as an FPS...which I will then give up hope on the video game community. If it stays as it is then I will still have hope for Nintendo..but they are getting easier every time, so I can only imagine what might happen..

 

[JuicieJ]

Zelda is becoming so easy that soon enough it will be as easy as an FPS...which I will then give up hope on the video game community. If it stays as it is then I will still have hope for Nintendo..but they are getting easier every time, so I can only imagine what might happen..

Has it ever crossed your mind that you might be getting better, making the games more predictable?

 

[Beeker]

Tutorials shouldn't be removed from Zelda. Why? Because I'm sure every game will have not just veteran players, but people who are just playing Zelda for the first time. They need to learn how to play the game and get the idea of what to do.
But that doesn't mean that they should have to force tutorials every time like the last few games have. An option like asking if one knows how to play already would be perfect. If you do know, go on your merry way. If not, you could get taught the basics right there! Plus, that could also avoid having to watch the same tutorial again and again on multiple playthroughs.

 

[Ventus]

No, what should happen in my opinion is do it like the KIRBY series does. Every Kirby platforming game to date that I can recall WILL ask you "Do you know how to play?" with the options "Yes!" or "Nope!", with that question varying (sometimes it's "Do you want to learn how to play?" or something along those lines). Kirby Super Star for the SNES did it. Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards did it (I'm 100% sure since I'm doing video walkthroughs for that game). I THINK but do not KNOW that Kirby's Return to Dreamland did it. If you selected Yes, depending on how the question is worded (if it changes at all I don't remember), it'll give you some QUICK movies with instructions on how to play (sort of like Super Smash Bros Melee's "How to Play" special), then shoot you into the game. If you hit the negative option you're shot right into the game.

All Kirby titles were devved by HAL Labratory (or Sora, Idk) and published by Nintendo. Why can't Zelda do the same?

 

[Spirit]

Tutorials in Zelda have never bugged me, they did feel like a chore in SS but still didn't hamper the fun i had and didn't last all that long really. Though for some reason Mario Galaxy 2 came with a dvd tutorial, which was really weird so that is another option, though it still eludes me to this day why nintendo did that. A 3d Zelda game without a tutorial would seem alien to me.

 

[MW7]

Unless I'm overlooking something I think this is a rare situation in which everyone can be happy. Have tutorials and introductions filled with exposition, but grant players the option to skip them. Everyone wants to experience the game a little differently. The only thing I have to add that I don't think anyone has mentioned is that the ability to speed through dialogue significantly or skip dialogue sequences entirely should be available (I think this sort of relates to tutorials). Personally I want to get through everything that isn't gameplay as fast as possible, and they can accommodate me and others who feel the same without hurting anyone else's experience.

 

[Awesome]

Unless I'm overlooking something I think this is a rare situation in which everyone can be happy. Have tutorials and introductions filled with exposition, but grant players the option to skip them. Everyone wants to experience the game a little differently. The only thing I have to add that I don't think anyone has mentioned is that the ability to speed through dialogue significantly or skip dialogue sequences entirely should be available (I think this sort of relates to tutorials). Personally I want to get through everything that isn't gameplay as fast as possible, and they can accommodate me and others who feel the same without hurting anyone else's experience.

Well for most of the games in the series you are able to go through the dialogue faster. That was one of the many flaws of Skyward Sword. Maybe if you had the option to change the message speed it would have been fine, but they didn't even allow for that. Holding A just made it go slightly faster.

 

[nareky]

The option to skip should be there for the basics, anything new should be made to be done. Once ye have run through the game once, should be skippable if ye want

 

[bhavin]

a skip option is a must for future games, but we cant get rid of them altogether as new players still need to learn how to play the game. another idea is maybe a skip option dlc

 

[JuicieJ]

No, what should happen in my opinion is do it like the KIRBY series does. Every Kirby platforming game to date that I can recall WILL ask you "Do you know how to play?" with the options "Yes!" or "Nope!", with that question varying (sometimes it's "Do you want to learn how to play?" or something along those lines). Kirby Super Star for the SNES did it. Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards did it (I'm 100% sure since I'm doing video walkthroughs for that game). I THINK but do not KNOW that Kirby's Return to Dreamland did it. If you selected Yes, depending on how the question is worded (if it changes at all I don't remember), it'll give you some QUICK movies with instructions on how to play (sort of like Super Smash Bros Melee's "How to Play" special), then shoot you into the game. If you hit the negative option you're shot right into the game.

All Kirby titles were devved by HAL Labratory (or Sora, Idk) and published by Nintendo. Why can't Zelda do the same?

Kirby is also a platformer, a genre that barely needs instructions, and is much simpler than Zelda. Zelda's enemies are BA compared to Kirby's. They are. It also has very little story involvement. A quick tutorial is understandable and does all but make sense. Doing the "have you played" before thing would be fine, I guess, but having virtually no opening in a Zelda game would severely limit the story, hurting the potential of the game in the process.