The Official Legend of Zelda Thread: Echoes of Wisdom Sells 3.91 Million Units

[DanneSandin]

Veknoid_Outcast said:

DanneSandin said:
The recent Zelda games have been rather linear, as I thought players didn't like getting lost, wondering what to do, or where to go. However, I've come to question this 'traditional' approach as I felt that we couldn't gain the sense of wonder that existed in the original Legend Of Zelda, in which you made unexpected encounters and where what used to be impossible would suddenly become possible."

This quote is a bit of a concern... It shows that Aonuma hasn't understood one of the core elements of Zelda until very recently, and that Miyamoto hasn't corrected him either. Hopefully this means that Wii U Zelda, and every Zelda afterwards, will go back to its 8 bit roots of exploration!!

I think Aonuma is selling himself short. Apart from Skyward Sword, I don't think any of the Aonuma Zelda games have been excessively linear. If he wants to build the next Zelda in the model of the NES original, I'm all for it, but he should be proud of what he's accomplished so far.

I'm not saying that the recent Zelda games haven't been good; on the contrary! I haven't played a single Zelda game that I haven't enjoyed, but the fact is that you have been forced to do the dungeons/temples in a certain order most of the time, and you "unlock" parts of the overworld one bit at a time. This wasn't the case in the original game. You got an unfinished map with the game, and went about exploring. I think that the first ever dungeon I visited some 20 years ago, was the 2nd or 3rd one, NOT the 1st one. And that's one of the reasons I still think the 1st game is among the best of the Zelda games.

I'd also like to add that I think SS did some really great things with the... overworlds/worlds(?); it made a challange of the WAY to the temple! I loved that! The game might have been a lot more linear, but that was ok, because the path was almost as important as the actual temple.