Where should Zelda go next?

[happydolphin]

archbrix said:

I believe that Zelda should continue in both 2D and 3D.

I remember reading an interview with Miyamoto in a gaming magazine shortly after Ocarina had finished development. While he was very proud of what they had accomplished with the game and its immense amount of content, one statement he made always sticks in my mind: That it was still missing something that "makes Zelda a game of Zelda". I have to agree; there is a certain definitive quality that the original Zelda and A Link to the Past possess that the 3D Zelda games just cannot capture, just like when comparing 2D Mario to 3D Mario.

As much as I have the same desire (the magic of Zelda 1 was never recreated), I don't think you can say with certainty that it was lost due to the 3rd dimension.

If you look at Zelda 1, think of the crooked trees, the theme of secrets, the simple yet mystifying tunes, the confident footsteps as he enters a room, the strange sound that chimes when you obtain a new weapon/item, the chippy sound of rupees.

When you enter a room, you don't hear the fire, you just see it, alot of the sounds are dampened. This is a quality very few understand in entertainment, I wish some of us could see that.

Another thing, the woody textures and colors, the brown, the beige, the tree green. The graphics are not fuzzy, they are crisp on the NES, and simple yet to the point.

These few details that made Zelda 1 simple yet mystical, Nintendo was never able to recreate, except with maybe Zelda II (imho), and even then only to a certain extent.

There was something quiet yet ringy in Zelda 1, the only other game that had that sound appeal to an extent was OoT. Quiet moments were important in that game, and so was the use of echo.