I’m not going to deny that they are good games, they definitely are. However, there are some design choices made with BOTW and TOTK that really make me separate them from the rest of the series.
The item degradation, the voice acting, the open worldness, all these things aren’t what I want from a Zelda, and because of that, I doubt I’ll ever replay those games again. Again, not bad games at all, and if anyone said they were their favorite games, I’d totally understand that.
But does anyone else wish that we would get a more traditional Zelda game again?
Really the only thing I wish would go the hell away is item durability. It makes the rewards for things less cool. Like, oh look I did this long ass chain of fetch quests and got a beautiful sword that’s a reference to a past game; better make the most of it before it fucking explodes. Get outta here with that.
I do wish the world was more open. I despise huge walls and climbing. Especially when explosives are abundant. We invented dynamite specifically to not have to deal with huge fucking cliffs everywhere; let’s use some bomb flowers and really open shit up.
When people say ‘traditional’, it’s very possible you’re only referring to a style of Zelda game that only started with N64’s Ocarina of Time. It was back then a change of pace for adventures that were sometimes too cryptic to decipher, or too difficult, for younger players.
Nintendo definitely spent a lot of the GameCube/Wii era trying to repeat the main appeal of that game; but most people I know still just enjoyed Ocarina more than the others. Even Majora’s Mask tried to take side roads with their time limit system to set itself apart.
So it does feel a bit like people constantly demand a “new Zelda just like the old ones” when the purpose of the old ones was to fulfill some new fantasy people hadn’t experienced. The ones that established themselves as “Ocarina of Time 2 / 3” just didn’t feel as notable. That practice of committing to new concepts does, by necessity, mean leaving some people with a poor taste in their mouths. I didn’t even feel that excited about Wind Waker back when it came out and popularized cel shaded art styles.
Idk about that. OoT was a 3D adaptation of the 2D Zelda formula. The fundamental Zelda formula has changed very little since A Link to the Past.
My idea of the “Zelda Formula” is a structured metroidvania where each “dungeon” is basically a mini metroidvania centered around one item, and the path between dungeons is usually more story driven. Occasionally there are items and puzzles between dungeons as well.
IMO the only Zelda games that don’t really follow the formula are:
- The Legend of Zelda (follows it loosely)
- Zelda II (follows it very loosely)
- A Link Between Worlds (kinda follows it but discards key aspects of it)
- The multiplayer entries (Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures, Triforce Heros) (kinda follow it but discard key aspects of it)
- Breath of the Wild
- Tears of the Kingdom (follows it very loosely)
