When Realism is a Mere Annoyance
Posted on June 18 2009 by Nathanial Rumphol-Janc
As the years go by, and technology becomes more and more advanced, we gamers observe the changes in video games. We’ve seen them amount from
pixilated designs to the realistic quality they are presented in today.
Some games have such a high quality that they appear not that far off
the quality of a movie, with animated characters appearing life-like.
The demand in the gaming community is for this realism in graphics and
gameplay to be the standard, and we can’t deny that games will only
become more realistic as time progresses. Although realistic graphics
can enhance the gaming experience, the idea of realism can, in-fact,
prove to be an annoyance in gaming.
Twilight Princess, though three years since release, remains the most recent and realistic release to the Zelda
series to date. The graphics presented themselves at a higher level of
realism and, even though in a magical world, elements of realism
permeated themselves through the gameplay. You can’t oppose the fact it
would be annoying if in a new Zelda, realism was taken to the
extreme, with Link stopping for a meal every few hours; sleeping eight
hours a day; bathing in the river daily; blowing his nose on his
handkerchief; or having to cease saving the world for a week because he
catches the flu. Gaming doesn’t go this far into realism, as it would
be the end of gaming. No one would buy what they experience every day,
unless they’re a Sims fan of course. Although it doesn’t go to these
extremes, Twilight Princess has a number of elements which attempt to add realism to the game, but add mere annoyances.
For eons Link’s choice of travel has been the quick and easy, somersaulting, but Twilight Princess, and even The Wind Waker,
have brought about a compromise. While the games still allow for this
incessant rolling, Link can no longer roll up stairs, without hitting
his head. Seriously, what is this? Sure, it is more ‘realistic’, but it
is an annoyance, especially the inconsistency to it. Some stairways can
still be rolled up, but others can’t be. Some can’t even make up their
minds as to allow somersaulting or not, going both ways. Every Zelda
fan that knows what they’re doing has been aggravated by this little
annoyance, at least a small amount of times. This is just one case
where an attempt to introduce realism has brought about an annoying
element for players.
I remember back to Majora’s Mask,
where Link went for a stroll into the Bomb Shop and was denied the
purchase of a powder keg, by the Goron salesman. But… that was fine.
Link could just put on his Goron mask there, right in front of the guy,
and proceed to purchase the powder keg as if nothing unusual had
happened. Twilight Princess again brought about compromise for
the sake of realism. Although Midna is clearly the fan favorite companion
for Link, Midna has to have the most annoying lines in any Zelda game, even more so than Navi with her heys, listens and wake ups. Let alone her instructions on how to open a door when you’ve been playing Zelda for over a decade.
To our repetitive annoyance, Midna states: “No! No! Someone will see you! Transform where there’s no one around” and “If you transform here, it would scare someone! You don’t want to do that, do you?”
I don’t care if I scare someone. I want to warp from here. I want to
transform here; not run and hide around the corner to then re-emerge in
wolf form with no trace of Link. No-one makes a connection between the
disappearance of Link and the appearance of a wolf. Honestly, there’s
nothing unrealistic about that. ‘Realistically’, Link wouldn’t
transform where he can be seen, but ‘game-enjoyment-ally’, he should.
Twilight Princess
shows a number of attempts to make the gaming experience more
realistic, but contrarily adds little annoyances for the player, that
become significant annoyances the amount of times they repeat
themselves in a playthrough. Any veteran player will have been
frustrated by them, whether they admit it or not. We all want to see
realistic graphics, but we don’t want to see any more of these
annoyances left from attempts to instill realism. Please Nintendo. You
say gameplay comes first, at the expense of storyline, so please don’t let us see any little things
like this again.
