| HoloDust said: I think Aonuma always had his vision of what Zelda should be, not so sure fans had a lot of influence on that (apart from TP with backlash at WW's art style) - and that is not swashbuckling explorations of 2D Zeldas, but more of a puzzle solving adventure with ocassional fight here and there. Nothing wrong with latter, but despite the fact that I enjoyed most 3D Zeldas, I always thought that balance between exploration, fighting and puzzle solving in all his 3D was off, and that's what I'm hoping Zelda U will finally fix. |
Fans complained about more than just the artstyle in Wind Waker, which also influenced the direction of TP. That's why it's structurally identical to OoT, but bigger. And fan backlash over TP being too big and boring with nothing to do is why SS is so small and linear. Aonuma said as much regarding both.
I think WW proves that Aonuma's idea of what Zelda isn't a "puzzle solving zelda with the occasional fight," since 60% of the game had you exploring the vast open sea and the combat system is the most deep, diverse, and complex in the series. Even moreso than TP, which had more techniques and weapons, but far less occasions there you were forced to use them.
I've felt like it was off too, and I don't even think puzzle solving belongs in Zelda at all. I think Zelda U will 100% fix the exploration and fighting bits, and there's one quote by him that makes me think they're at least tweaking how puzzles work in Zelda games.
“We’ve talked a little bit about the puzzle-solving element in Zelda, and how that’s kinda taken a different shape,” he said. “But I think people have come to just assume that puzzle-solving will exist in a Zelda game, and I kinda wanna change that, maybe turn it on its ear."
“As a player progresses they’re making logical choices to progress them in the game. And when I hear ‘puzzle solving’ I think of moving blocks so that a door opens or something like that. But I feel like making those logical choices and taking information that you received previously and making decisions based on that can also be a sort of puzzle-solving. So I wanna kinda rethink or maybe reconstruct the idea of puzzle-solving within the Zelda universe.” - Aonuma
I'm sick of Puzzelda being such a major focus. Never liked it. Never will. Hopefully this tweaks it for the better, if not ouright gets rid of it. Though, looking at Triforce Heroes, the former is more likely than the latter.
