| Khuutra said: You'll pardon me for dropping the matter of relative difficulty as compared to games in the past; that's not a matter on which I can mount a very full argument. As to the need for hand-holding in the upcoming game... well, the first Zelda was different, yes, but all of the 2-D Zeldas have much more limited puzzle-solving in the first place. If you pushed on every block from every direction, set enough objects on fire, and placed enough bombs, chances are pretty good you had solved the "puzzle". 3-D threw all of that shit right out the window. The thing about 3-D puzzle solving is that we as people who jumped on Ocarina of Time way back when are used to the logic needed to solve puzzles in a three-dimensional environment, which is very different from the logic needed for the old games; even the simplest stuff is much harder in 3-D, for most people, because it's not as intuitive that you're supposed to push that block into that depression, and once you add in the ability to move in a room which is actually constructed in three dimensions it becomes pretty clear why a lot of people have trouble getting through Zelda games as-is. The way I figure it, the puzzles in 3-D are using a logic that people aren't wrapping their heads around as-is. The way this hint system can work is that not only does it allow them to pass a puzzle, but it gives players a chance to become familiar with the logic required to solved Zelda's puzzles in a 3-D space. This not only makes it irrelevant how hard the puzzles are (since they're too hard anyway, why not just make them harder), it indoctrinates them into the particular behaviors necessary to be able to do the puzzles on their own. |
Which makes a good case for the next Zelda being harder. This one you need to build up an audience though. I am supposing we can agree that this, at its very heart, an attempt to bring in a new audience, and re-capture people who tried in the past but got frustrated by the game. Allowing them to go through the entire game only needing to fall back on the hint system as few times as possible. Once you get them around the idea they can beat a game, then the next one they will stick with a bit longer before flubbing out. Seems the most logical to me at least.
@KSV
Zelda has been an easy game since it was put on the SNES. There has not been one exception I could find to this. If most Zelda fans are playing it because of its difficulty then they are playing the wrong series. It never has been, and never will be the epitomy of challenge even within its own genre.
