Zelda Dungeon Talks: What Form Of Transportation, New Or Old, Should Be Featured In Future Games?
Posted on December 22 2015 by Josh Tasaico
Hey everybody and welcome to the latest edition of Zelda Dungeon Talks. In most games, Link is terribly slow and can’t move faster than a jog. Thankfully Skyward Sword fixed this by adding a stamina meter, allowing Link to sprint. Some other Link’s have their slow pace problem fixed by different methods of transportation. Of course some of these aren’t just to get around faster, they are entirely necessary to get around the world, for example the boat in
In this week’s edition of Zelda Dungeon Talks, various staff members will share with us their opinion on the topic. Feel free to send an email to zeldadungeontalks@gmail.com for a chance to have your response featured next week.
Kev Doughty – View Profile
While Skyward Sword didn’t do a lot for me there is one thing I really do hope comes back in future games: the loftwing. Riding around on Epona is great but soaring through the sky on a loftwing provides much more freedom. The skies in Skyward Sword needed a lot more islands worth investigating so having the loftwing to fly over mountain ranges, oceans or deserts as well as islands in the sky to explore would make the land of Hyrule much more free to roam.
Jon Lett – View Profile
I think that some of the old transportation systems could be used together in a new Hyrule, but simply in less significant ways. Zelda Wii U’s upcoming use of Epona, seemingly as the primary method of travel in the game, likely with some fast-travel method, is ideal for this new open world, as it encourages exploration while you travel the world the traditional way. But the new Hyrule seems far from being technologically advanced. If another future game were to use a simple primary travel system like this, but were more technologically advanced than Zelda Wii U’s world, many of the previous games’ systems could be used as alternate ways of getting around. The train in Phantom Hourglass may have been extremely tedious as a main travel method for a Zelda game, but perhaps a train being an optional way to get between major towns could work, or maybe a train that is the sole way of getting to a certain place, with many people inside that could have side-quests for you, like Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s Excess Express. How about boats? The Wind Waker made good use of a small boat, but a new title could have something involving large ships, or pirate vessels. Assassin’s Creed taught us how cool pirate battles on the sea can be, so maybe Zelda can put a cool spin on it. Finally, flying. Skyward Sword did a wonderful job of making flying the most boring thing ever, but maybe flying for just one part of a game could work as a short-term gimmick. Imagine visiting a dungeon like the City in the Sky, or an alternate world like the Twilight Realm, and having to fly to get around the floating isles. It could make for some sweet combat and puzzle solving. To reiterate, I think Zelda will, most of the time, have a dedicated travel system for each game, but I would like to see some of the old systems used as short-term/optional ways of transportation on a smaller scale, and perhaps combining these systems in one game, could be a neat new way for the series to go.
Alexis Anderson – View Profile
A lot of the modes of transportation are the same across the series in the form of warping to significant spots on the map, so if I had to bring back one of those mechanics I would have to go with the Flute from A Link to the Past (though admittedly I’d like it to play the sound of the Recorder from the original The Legend of Zelda). Other than that I love Loftwings, and while it’s unlikely that they’ll return in that form I would like flying on a large bird to come back in some way or another. As for totally new transportation, being able to warp to any point on the map would be fantastic, I can’t recall a Zelda game that allows this so pardon if there is one, so any warping function from previous games is welcome so long as it can take me anywhere I want to be.
Thomas Jacobs – View Profile
While I would love to see more Epona, having Dimitri, Ricky and Moosh from the Oracle games make their return would be glorious. Though I do believe that they would not work in every Zelda game: having them appear in the “realistic” 3D series would be rather jarring, but in the more cartoonish cel-shaded games or games in a similar style they can be done. As for gameplay implementation I have talked about this in an earlier article, but this can be done by making them integral parts for certain areas of the map, and by serving as potential animal companions as well they could make for a very fun and interesting game indeed.
