Zelda Dungeon Talks: What Could Zelda Learn From Its Competitors
Posted on July 21 2015 by Josh Tasaico
The Zelda franchise and Nintendo in general can learn a lot from competitors. The main point here is probably Nintendo’s technology. They tend to be a little behind at times and that has a massive impact on Zelda games. In order for the Zelda franchise to grow larger and larger, Nintendo needs to take more from what they have surrounding them, and use what they learn from competitors to up their game. Improvements to the Zelda franchise can easily be made if Nintendo makes a big improvement to themselves and starts bringing themselves up to date. Either way, what’s your opinion on the topic?
Question: What could the Zelda franchise learn from competitors?
Thomas Jacobs – View Profile
If anything, I consider the Metroid series to be one of the The Legend of Zelda’s biggest competitor. In my eyes Link and Samus are something akin to comrades in arms; soft-spoken badasses who go around looking for powerups and items to expand their arsenals to better deal with evil and defeat the main villain. The scope of their enemies and their main way to defeat them differ though, with Link using a sword and Samus her arm cannon. On the other hand they’re both rather pretty and fans of both series didn’t like the time where they had a lot of dialogue. And they both fought alongside Captain N back in the 80’s. I believe that the main place where The Legend of Zelda can learn from Metroid is in its open-endedness and its world design. The earlier Metroid games were noticeably stingy with giving out directions on where to go and what to do. Even then, it was up to the player to discover that they could not surmount certain obstacles without a new tool they could find by going into another direction. This creates the feeling of one great world where there are big monsters for Samus to defeat and obtain the powerups they guard, instead of having a bunch of dungeons that are essentially microcosms existing outside of the rest of the world. This would be a true mix of dungeon and overworld that Skyward Sword attempted to do but kinda failed to pull off. Though in the case of The Legend of Zelda an attempt has to be made to keep true to the wide open feel of places such as Hyrule Field, but I am certain that with careful consideration a great balance can be found that can make for a great installment in the series.
Jon Lett –View Profile
Nintendo is, in many ways, the leading innovator in the gaming industry. Yes, I’m a biased opinion, being a life-long Nintendo geek, but let’s be real. Nintendo has always shaped the major points of the industry, in terms of hardware, and in many cases software. Unfortunately, that has not helped the fact that they can prove to be old-fashioned, and a little behind the times. The most important part of the entertainment industry, as a whole, is listening to your fans, and unlike many of its competitors, Nintendo falls a bit short in this case (and I hate to point fingers, but Nintendo of Japan is likely the most guilty party, as they lead the development processes). No, you should not always give fans everything they ask for, but Nintendo, especially recently, has had a bad habit of not listening to their consumers. After the relentless cries of fans asking for more Amiibos, and the rather apparent dislike many fans took with the development choices Nintendo revealed during E3, it seems that Nintendo needs to start examining the more prominent demands coming from the fans. Granted, many Zelda games gave us what we never knew we wanted, but there are arguably many aspects of modern Zelda games that people collectively speak out against. The developers need to be at least a bit more open-minded about listening to its consumers.
James Djinn – View Profile
I do love the Zelda series but when it comes to modern fantasy gaming I often finding it very lacking in the story department. Fantasy games have evolved from simple point and click adventures or platformers to epic adventures with rich storylines that spawn book series and movie tie-ins. The Legend of Zelda has a rich storyline and each game does tell a very distinct tale. However I often think the series is a little behind the curb when it comes to the storyline of each game compared to the competition. But somehow when it comes to Zelda I really think the story per game is secondary, almost a supplement to the gameplay. Meanwhile Squaresoft has been a well known developer of fantasy epics with storylines that draw fans in more than the gameplay at times. If there was one thing that I wish Nintendo would take from the competition it is make a huge epic story that draws the fans in, have the entire game tell a story and not just give the player gameplay elements. Cutscenes, voices, hidden extra lore, I want all of it.
Alexis Anderson – View Profile
Define competitors. I wouldn’t think of any Nintendo games as competitors, so I would look to Skyrim and other open world games on Sony and Microsoft systems. Zelda obviously has to make some changes to be truly open world, so adopting a time-progression similar to Skyrim’s and having a seamless map would be important. To be honest though, I haven’t played Skyrim and I love The Legend of Zelda series just the way it is. So I’m content with it not imitating its competitors.
