I am a bit of an audiophile. If the music sucks me in, I’ll forgive a lot about a game. But sadly, the music in these Zelda games has never spoken to me, and I would consider the music to be one of the major weaknesses of the series, and one of the main reasons why I can’t connect with the games.
My next biggest complaint is the lack of guidance for the player on the user experience. On the one hand, they hold your hand on absolutely basic stuff with Navi, for instance, on how to move Link and how to jump. But then when you’re locked into a dungeon, they don’t help you at all when you actually need help. I was stuck for hours and hours not knowing what to do, quitting the game after trying everything I could think of doing, over and over and over. Do they provide a hint, or any kind of help from Navi? No. Not even a “Hey Listen, you dumbass, you can use your stick to light it on fire, even though that’s a mechanic that we haven’t introduced to you”. In games like Talos Principle (I’m assuming, since I haven’t played that particular one, but I’ve played others like Portal and Braid), you’re given mechanics and principles that are then used in different ways in other places, so it all seems logical. In Zelda games, I just feel like they don’t care about the user experience at all.
How about that village in Twilight Princess? I spent hours trying to figure out, what am I supposed to do? Why can’t I fish? What am I doing wrong? If I’m not supposed to fish, then why did they put all these hints around the village about fishing? Where am I supposed to go next? Maybe I need a tool I don’t have? Again, like Ocarina of Time, just hours and hours wasted just running around trying to try random things with no guidance from the game on what I’m stuck on, and plenty of guidance on absolutely everything else that I don’t need to know about, because I already play games. I know how to move Link Forward by pushing the stick on the wiimote, I can figure that out on my own, but I need to know what I’m supposed to do next.
It’s a mixture of the two. They hold the player’s hand too much for the stuff you can figure out on your own by just experimenting, but no help at all on the stuff where the player might really need help. The first can sometimes be just as annoying as the second. But the second can stop your progress for hours, so is worse.
This was one of the famous complaints about the water temple in OoT. Generally the temples use the primary function of whatever the tool you acquire is. Having played all them prior to Skyward Sword I’ve not found there to be too much trouble. They do tend to direct the player, sometimes overtly like Navi, sometimes subtly through level design, towards the goals.
I dunno, maybe its me, but I recognize your complaint, but can’t really connect with it. It’s always seemed pretty obvious to me. Usually there is some clue about needing some tool, or needing to go to some location, to point you in the right direction.
Well I played it for a few more hours. I just think its a bad game.
Not bad compared to other Zelda’s, just bad in its own right. Bad controls, bad pacing, bad puzzles, bad camera, bad combat, bad story oh and the games mechanics are tuned appallingly (the old “hey lets punish you at the start and makes things easier later” is a low light), whoever tuned the breakage rates at the beginning versus later did a particularly awful job.
Its mildly pretty I will give it that. If this was a $20 game on Steam nobody would have paid much attention to it.
I don’t regard myself as a Nintendo hater, I like my Switch and I love many many Nintendo games . But it appears most game players and critics find this Zelda worth their time. I have no idea why. Biggest disappointment this year for me by a long long way.
I dont want to ruin any one else’s fun and I am delighted some of you are clearly loving this. Enjoy because I sure as heck didnt.
There was a programmer I worked with a few years ago. A really smart guy. But he would rarely play any games. But then the few he did play, he didn’t seem to have any problems finishing them. Including Zelda. I was just really surprised, you know? Here, I am, a gamer since 1986, and this guy who very occasionally plays games has no problem getting through a Zelda game or other games which give me so much trouble. How did he do it? Was he just a savant at games like he was a savant at programming?
One day he was describing a game I’d played, and I blurted out, “Were you stuck on that section for hours like I was?” And he replied “Why would I be stuck? The guide said to get the key from under there”. “The what now? The guide? Like the strategy guide?” “Yes, of course. Whenever I buy a game, I always buy the strategy guide with it. Why would someone not buy the strategy guide if you’re buying the game?”
Mystery explained. I felt much better about my gaming IQ after that. It’s Ninendo, not me, and you can’t see me, but I’m sticking my tongue out at your right now. :-P
Can we talk about trial of the sword? I felt like Schwarzenegger at the end of predator. Even more so than eventide because I didn’t have my champion powers to lean on. I also never knew ancient arrows were effective against nonguardians. Never tried it on anything else.
Yeah, it had water. The previous 2 rooms had water too, though. This one starts you on a dock with no ability to hide, you just have to go in swinging.
I got stupid, I should have eaten food. I had 2 of the 3 down but I botched a dodge and he did like 6 hearts of damage which put me down.
That’s a great video, thanks for sharing. That actually made me want to play the game some more because the visuals and music were amongst my favourite things in Breath of the Wild. It’s such a gorgeous game.
If you haven’t watched the official Nintendo videos on how they built this game (including discussion on music… piano being a big deal in this score), then you really should. They’re in the list here…
I just remembered that during a thunderstorm you can toss a metal weapon, let a bokoblin pick it up and laugh at the results. Not to mention ride the updraft and slow motion shoot the survivors. This game is just so open… I love it.
I watched a review for NieR: Automata and I was reminded of the magical power some games have to make you overlook all the flaws. Especially when the music hits you just right. I appreciated that reviewer for openly acknowledging the weaknesses in Automata and admitting that he didn’t care. I think fans do a disservice to other players sometimes when they don’t take a moment to acknowledge things like that. It warps expectations for players drawn by the buzz.
I don’t have an answer for that issue since I don’t expect fans to make a caveat at the end of every glowing post about a game.
I will heartily agree with that sentiment for sure. But I’m just curious which part of my posts you were commenting on this time. Was it about the music not connecting for me, or complaining about Zelda holding your hand too much while simultaneously not helping you when you really need it?
I’ve always realized that I was an odd duck when it comes to Ocarina of Time, especially. It’s one of the best reviewed games of all time. And even Twilight Princess was pretty well reviewed considering how much I hated the experience.
Your opinion on these games is a true outlier. The music is like a religious hymnal for my youngest son. They have a travelling concert playing it live! Nintendo hand holding has been universally condemned by game reviewers and many gamers since the Gamecube era at least.
