| leatherhat said: http://www.gamesradar.com/3ds/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-3d/review/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-3d-review/a-20110616202423556029/g-2010061610502183083 Ocarina is particularly bad about dropping excessively vague hints (or no hints at all) as to what to do next. There are a handful of extremely important items (say, the Fire Arrows, Lens of Truth or even Epona) that are buried under a layer of riddles that don’t quite add up. Back in the day, we expected games to be mysterious and obtuse; today, we’re all accustomed to mechanics that lead us from one place to the next, even if it’s on an almost subconscious level. This isn’t about hand-holding or over-tutorializing, which is a whole other problem with games today – it’s about fundamental design, and Ocarina has always had this issue, especially compared to Wind Waker or Twilight Princess. This is the problem with modern games. No mystery. No Adventure. No discovery. Its pathetic, every game now a days has waypoints and other nonsense to drag you through the game. It pisses me off. There's never any easter eggs or sidequests or things to find. Its just mission/cutscene/ waypoint to the next mission etc. All but a few games follow this formula- and those exceptions are far and away the best games of the gen. And here is a mainstream reviewer complaining about a game that has these elements (with plenty of hand holding via Saria and Navi). Casual to the max, and everything wrong with modern game design. |
There isn't a problem with people being mainstream or even casual. What I would say a problem is, is if there is a need to feel that EVERY SINGLE GAME has to appeal to MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of players, because you have to recover your development costs, then you end up with an incredibly bland product that really doesn't appeal to anyone at all. I wonder what the heck happened to searching the Internet for when you are stuck?
A good game designs needs to be both accessible, for its intended audience, and deep, so that the individual ends up feeling it was worth their time. If you try to make a game to please everyone, you will end up pleasing no one.
