| SJReiter said: I disagree with this completely. I do not believe that simply because the first Zelda was open world and non-linear that the series is 'supposed' to be that way. I think the reason for the change in style was not to 'distract' players from hardware limitations, it was instead because Nintendo realized that you need to give players some sort of driving motivation to play the game. A lot of people were very frustrated by the first Zelda because it literally just plopped you on a map and gave you no direction at all. Zelda games, as is true with any good game, need some sort of narrative push to drive the players towards accomplishing a goal. The motivation simply cannot be "to explore the world." That is not enough, and you're kidding yourself if you think that Zelda Wii U won't have the same sort of linearity as previous 3D Zeldas (although maybe not quite as restrictive). |
"A lot of people were frustrated with the original Zelda."
...The original Zelda is the second best selling franchise on the NES. Who cares if a few people were frustrated. They can play Mario instead. Zelda was made to be the polar opposite of Mario, and it did that job well.
And yes it was. Both Miyamoto and Aonuma confirmed that. They could never do what they wanted to do with the open world because the hardware couldn't handle it. The closest they got to it was with Wind Waker, as Aonuma said. Then TP and SS went back to being too linear again, and now with stronger hardware, they can finally make the Zelda it was always supposed to be. Aonuma literally said they were testing their ideas for Zelda U in ALBW. Guess what? It's the most non-linear 2D Zelda game since the original LoZ. Even less linear than Zelda 3.
ALBW was critically acclaimed, and it didn't have any sort of linear narrative to "drive the player." That's not what Zelda was ever supposed to be, and it's about damn time they got their shit together in that regard. Aonuma literally confirmed that you'd be tackling dungeons in any order you want in Zelda U. You know the only Zelda's that did that? Zelda 1 and to a slightly lesser extent ALBW. You're kidding yourself if you think, after literally being told exactly how Zelda U would not be linear, that it will still have anywhere near any sort of linearity found in the 3D games.
The motivation most definitely is just "explore the world." It was in Zelda 1, which Aonuma directly referanced when talking about what this game will be like, and it was in ALBW, which Aonuna directly stated was how Zelda U would be like. If exploration is not enough for you, play something else, because you'll hate future Zelda's.
