Clyde32 on 26 March 2014
| Asriel said: It's the Legend of Zelda. Each entry isn't a completely infallible historical narrative that should be taken as fact when you play another game. To an extent, they're retelling of the same basic stories from era to era, both in the meta-fictional sense of being the same legend altered and added to within Hyrule, and within the sense that as new generations of players come across Zelda, it's a remix or alteration of the basic elements that have combined to create other games. If you attempt to pick apart Zelda's narrative so that it falls exactly into line with other games, then you will be disappointed. There are inconsistencies because narrative unity is a secondary concern, behind the primary concern of delivering the best mechanics, structure and gameplay experience. That's why I view them as literal legends, which aren't fixed narratives, but narratives subject to reinterpretation that feature the same broad conflicts, themes and structures. Kind of like Tolkien's legendarium, or the Icelandic sagas. To me, The Legend of Zelda is modern heroic-epic, featuring relatable archetypes in the eternal battle between good and evil. Skyward Sword established this with Demise threatening to return time and time again, the way in Tolkien, evil takes shape and returns time and time again, whether in visible, powerful forms like Morgoth or Sauron, or in forms like seflishness, jealousy etc within an individual, which leads to acts of evil. Some stories will be very similar--Ocarina of Time/Twilight Princess, A Link to the Past/A Link Between Worlds--while others will vary. Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask are very unusual Zelda games, but they still feature the fated hero and the incarnation of evil that must be defeated. And, like Rol, I think A Link Between Worlds could be the best thing to happen to Zelda for some time. If the next iterations take a non-linear approach that avoids hand-holding and rewards exploration and curiosity, then Zelda will be in the right place. Being honest, I think if you play Zelda expecting the story to make sense or the dots to connect extremely well from one game to another, you're missing the point. It's the Legend of Zelda, not the History of Zelda. |
Then why is this the first time I've been disappointed?
