What Zelda Can Learn From Skyrim
Posted on September 03 2011 by Mases Hagopian
Skyward Sword is set to release on November 18th, but just one week prior to its release, gaming fans will get to experience Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. While Skyrim and Skyward Sword are coming to different consoles, they still are both highly anticipated fantasy adventures coming this holiday. The folks over at IGN have recently written an article entitled What Zelda Can Learn From Skyrim in which it talks about ideas from the Elder Scrolls series that could work in Zelda. One of the suggestions is for Zelda to Open up the World and here is what IGN had to say.
Dungeons have increasingly followed a similar pattern as well. While older Zelda games allowed players to use acquired weapons and tools throughout an adventure, modern iterations of the franchise increasingly confine those uses to a single dungeon with its particular enemies.
Removing this structure would allow for some significant improvements to the Zelda formula. Skyrim is based around this premise. Wander the lands, discover secrets and allow the style of the player to dictate the pace and form of the story. Allow actions to have an impact. Some Zelda games, like Majora’s Mask, have worked with these ideas. Future Zelda games should embrace them.
There’s no doubt having a set structure in a game has its benefits. It allows certain design elements to be more complex, knowing that a player will be at a very specific point in the game with a very specific set of skills and tools. Yet we’ve seen Metroid games embrace more open-ended concepts to great success, and applying that to a vast Zelda adventure could have some great results.
I think the Zelda creators have acknowledged this fault to an extent and are working to correct it. Eiji Aonuma has talked a number of times about changing the whole field-dungeon-field play mechanic. Instead, he wants to blend these areas together so that just reaching a dungeon might have dungeon-like puzzles, while the dungeon itself is a place you might revisit over and over. I personally hope they take this one step further and make Skyward Sword a bit less linear than some of the more recent Zelda titles. The open world exploration would surely help out on this, giving the gamer the option of what he really wants to do. It would be sweet if things went back to the days of A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time where there might be a normal pathway through the dungeons that the hero should take, but there are options to play areas out of order if they so choose.
IGN went on to give other common suggestions about the Zelda series such as having more customization and progression, a story that isn’t a traditional rescue story, pushing HD limits, and making the games more cinematic. All of these are nice points and my guess is that many of them will be embraced in future Zelda titles. We already know there is going to be more customization and progression in Skyward Sword looking at the upgrade system to the beetle, as well as the three unique shields that Link can use.
The story, we don’t know too much but it appears it’s going down a familiar pathway. Zelda is sucked down to the land below and it is up to our hero Link to save her. We know the forging of the Master Sword and the Triforce will play some sort of role, but it looks like the story is going to revolve around Link saving Zelda again. Perhaps I’m wrong on this assumption and maybe this is just the first story-arch, where Link ends up rescuing Zelda by the 2nd dungeon, but at this point discovers an even graver danger that lies ahead.
The last two points about pushing the HD limits and making the game a bit more cinematic might go hand in hand. We’ll certainly have to wait for HD for the Nintendo Wii U, but I think Skyward Sword is heading in that cinematic direction. Just by the trailers of Link flying around on his bird, seeing the island in the sky with the massive statue. It’s got that epic adventure feel to it and I hope they capitalize on this further, especially when Link heads to the land below and has a grander land area to navigate. We just don’t know what we are going to get since we haven’t seen many cut-scenes and we don’t really know how massive the land areas will be.
So what are your thoughts on IGN’s suggestions? Do you think these additions can improve upon the Zelda series? Are there other things that you feel are more important than these? Let us know by posting in the comments below.
Source: IGN via GoNintendo
Related: Skyward Sword Walkthrough
