Magic in Future Zelda Games

Magic has served limited purposes throughout the history of Zelda games. In Zelda 2, it was not only necessary to get through some tough parts of the game, but it helped with the considerable difficulty. Since then, the magic meter has had limited utility at best.

A Link to the Past used the magic meter much more effectively than Zelda II. As with Zelda 2, magic helped make extremely difficult sections easier. It was also so effectively integrated into the game, with so many puzzles utilizing magic items and with magic items being consistently beneficial to combat, that using it was always fun.

Every Zelda game since has had some nods to this. In Ocarina of Time, arrows and special powers were bound to magic, but were so scarcely used that there was rarely incentive to carry green potions. With elemental arrows taking center stage in Majora’s Mask, magic became more important and an extended magic meter was more helpful, but it still didn’t quite feel like A Link to the Past.

The Wind Waker, like Ocarina of Time, boasted one item that was unnecessarily tethered to magic. In A Link to the Past, multiple items, with multiple special powers, that were consistently used both to solve puzzles and to improve combat, made use of the magic meter. This made it feel like an integral part of gameplay. In Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker, there was the Lens of Truth and the Deku Leaf, respectively. For both of these items, the magic meter was a bit of an annoyance. Segments of The Wind Waker that required extensive use of the Deku Leaf often provided players with enough magic power-ups that it almost took on the character of a platformer, trying to get from one platform to the other. The Lens of Truth was an easier item to use, but one wonders how liberating it might have been without magic.

If Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker had integrated magic into more items the way A Link to the Past did, the use of the magic meter for the items that did take advantage of it might have felt less like an annoyance and more like an asset; after all, the player would be more likely to carry magic-restoring items and always watch his or her use of the magic meter. As it stands, however, the developers too rarely seemed to know what to do with it.

More recent Zelda games provided a natural solution: they cut it out entirely. I, for one, never missed it. It felt liberating to be able to use items without worrying about how much magic they might take up, and, especially in Skyward Sword, kept the game from slowing down unnecessarily. If there is some sort of “limit” placed on an item (oil in lanterns in Twilight Princess, or shield degradation in Skyward Sword) it feels more natural and unique.

Perhaps magic will have a place in future Zelda games, but if it is incorporated again, it should be more widely used and more cleverly implemented in dungeon puzzles.

Do you think magic was used well in Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, and other post-SNES Zelda titles? How would you implement it? Do you miss it in more recent games?

 

~~~Recent Content Updates~~~

~~~Recent Wiki Articles~~~

Comments
Sorted Under: Editorials
Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,