Do Zelda games have bad or cliched stories?

[foont]

largedarryl said:

WereKitten said:

largedarryl said:
Well many people in this thread do help prove my point.

The pure genius that is Zelda is really a 2 sided coin. On one side, you are given a simple story that is predictable, mainly driven by great gameplay. This creates an approachable game to those gamers that find strong story driven games repulsive. Now Nintendo have always done a great job with Zelda keeping the in you face story very subtle and not game breaking. The other side of this coin shows that Zelda games have very deep stories that present many moral, religious and philosophical undertones that do not intrude on the primary entertainment factor that video gaming is there to present.

Disagree on this. People can find moral, religious and philosophical undertones wherever they want, especially in tales built of fairytale material and universal myths.

But they are the lowest common denominator of any narration: try to find a single fantasy plot that doesn't dabble in good, evil, friendship, betrayal, love or hubris.

 

Although I kind of agree with you on this, but clearly many of Zelda's story, artwork, etc. decisions were based on deeper meanings.

I'm actually mentioning the beauty of this is that none of the deeper story is fundamental to the enjoyment or progression of the games.

 

I have to agree with largedarryl, especially with what you initially said-- and I don't think it's a case of people simply "finding" these undertones because they "want" them to be there. There are a lot of intentional mythological, moral, philosophical, and even religious references in Zelda games. Just because these themes occur in virtually all stories especially in the fantasy genre does not undermine their presence or validity.

Also, fairytales and mythological material do not serve Werekitten's argument very well. Entertainment value aside, fairytales and mythology existed for moral, religious, philosophical reasons. That's why they are so universal. That's why they recur over and over and over in stories, throughout human history. That's how symbols work. That's how "reading" a "text" in the form of a book, painting, film, or video game works.

 

Seriously, you can't tell me that we should overlook the themes of isolation, friendship, and alturism in Majora's Mask simply because these themes have appeared in too many other stories. The storyline may not be the main focus/purpose of Zelda games, but these elements are not just randomly thrown in the game to make things look cool. They are put in the game because they help strenthen the world, experience, point, and yes, the story of the game.