Zelda Wii U Needs More Than HD Visuals to Succeed

Over at our newest network website, GenGAME, Editor in Chief Alex Plant has written a detailed Zelda piece titled, Zelda Wii U Needs More Than HD Visuals to Succeed. He goes into great detail about how the games have changed over the years and it really makes you think outside the box. Alex talks about the enemy progression, opening up the overworld early on, and perhaps toning down the puzzle-enemies that have become all to common in recent games. These are just some of the points he touches on, but I definitely suggest checking out the full article over at GenGAME. Jump inside to see my thoughts.

The point Alex made about how enemies have evolved really opened my mind and got me thinking. On the surface, the combat of the original Legend of Zelda for the NES seems like the most basic of all the Zelda games out there. You had a sword that performed a sword jab with an occasional sword beam attack. There weren’t hidden skills, spin attacks, or many alternate weapons at all that could be used to defeat enemies. However, when you think more deeply about it, the enemies involved, and the various skills and strategies needed to defeating them is much more involving than even the most difficult of modern Zelda enemies.

Take for instance a battle with a group of Wizzrobes, Bubbles, and Like-Likes. This combination of enemies appeared frequently in Level 6 and outside of a few rooms in later dungeons, this was one of the most difficult parts of the game for me. If you go in blindly and just try to swipe away, you’ll very likely die or be very wounded. Sure you can use a potion if you’d like, but even those won’t get you through the entire dungeon. You’ll have to learn some tactics, be very accurate with your movements, and learn to evade enemies and their attacks.

When I think of Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword, there are very few instances at all that come to mind where you are ever fighting multiple enemies at once. It is as if Nintendo fears doing this and will only do so in very rare instances towards the end of the game. Enemies came at you one by one, and for the most part were very rarely aggressive towards you at all. Most of the battling consisted of them just moving around their defenses or slowly creeping closer to you. There very rarely was an actual fear of dying from a standard enemy and only a select few enemies punished you if you made a mistake.

There were a few instances that stood out in Skyward Sword that I think could relate to these enemy barrages. In Sky Keep there were consecutive rooms, one that had a series of bokoblins, some archers, and stalfos all in the same room. In the subsequent room Link had to battle against a more dangerous Stalmaster with several surrounding cursed bokoblin. These were the types of rooms that were the norm back on the NES, but in Skyward Sword, were limited to some of the very last rooms in the final dungeon. It’s sad really as those more extensive battles in Skyward Sword were some of my favorite areas in the entire game.

With the Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Spirit Tracks, Nintendo had these types of rooms, but in most cases, separated them from the main story. The complete Savage Labyrinth, the Cave of Ordeals, and the Take em’ All On challenge were optional. Now I’m not saying these enemy gauntlets should be required, but at least a couple of the rooms in them should have been part of the main quest. Split it up. We don’t need 50 rooms in a row, but of those 50 rooms, a couple of similar type rooms could be found throughout the game. The Wind Waker did this in some cases… but Twilight Princess and Spirit Tracks, not so much. The trend away from these types of rooms seems clear.

The enemy discussion is just one topic that Alex touched on in the original article. I highly recommend checking out the full article for some much deeper analysis and other Zelda topics.