As a Zelda fantard, I think it's
important that every Zelda game be in the running for Game of All
Time. Oftentimes, on Zelda forums, blogs, and such, people discuss
what could make Zelda better. There's notion that the “Zelda
formula” is getting a bit stale. I would agree. Some say the series
would fare better as an open world game. I would agree with that as
well. However, that's not all that's necessary. That would merely
improve Zelda into a good game. As the opening sentence might imply,
I don't think that's good enough.
My cousin has this game called Far Cry
3. I've spent a good bit of time over at his house of late, and I've
been playing the hell out of that game. It's really good. Anyway, I
found myself wondering, “Why can't Zelda have an overworld like this?”
However, as I traversed through the campaign, I realized that Zelda
would still suffer from many of the same problems if it were like
FarCry 3. Far Cry 3's main storyline is completely linear, just as
Zelda's is. There are things you can do such as skin animals or
liberate enemy bases which makes you feel as if you have a good
degree of freedom, but the freedom in that game is linear slavery
when compared to freedom offered by LoZ or even ALttP and OoT.
In the older Zelda games, the
recommended dungeon orders were optional. For example, in LoZ,
“Level-1” is referred to as such, but you don't necessarily have
to complete Level-1 first. You can do Level-3 first if you want.
Items from Levels 3 and 4 are required for Levels 5-8, but you can
basically go wherever the sam hell you want. The only place you can't
go is Level-9 (the last level where Princess Zelda is being held).
LoZ puts the free in free roaming.
Anyway, imagine if Zelda had an open
world like FarCry 3's where the entire map is accessible from the
start, but the dungeons still need to be completed in a set order. The only benefit is being able to do the sidequests early
(much like how you can liberate bases early in FarCry 3). And really:
What's the freakin' point of that in Zelda? You can play Bombchu Bowling from
the start of the game? That's nice and all, but it's quite a step
down from being able to clear the last dungeon first.
Zelda shouldn't settle for being a mere
good open world game. It could be so much more if Nintendo only
wanted it to be. Modern Zelda could be immortal – a part of the
conscience of gamers everywhere – as LoZ, ALttP, and OoT are. And
yet, not only do they avoid providing alternate dungeon orders, they
continually close off entire portions of the map until much later in
the game.
But maybe that will change with Zelda
U.
