Helios said:
With Flagship as a precedent, I don't mind the idea of another studio trying their hand at Zelda. My inquiry is, rather, what could we expect Retro to bring to the table? Metroid Prime was a fresh start for the series, but the same could be said for Other M. Donkey Kong Returns is simply a new Donkey Kong of the same mold as the original. Could we, then, trust them to bring a 'western perspective' - whatever that means - to Zelda? And what, if this were to happen, would that entail?
I have long been clamoring for the franchise to get away from 'innocent boy turned hero' archetype. It's not bad, but it is something we have come to expect - in spite of the original not following that structure. If Retro were to bring something new in that regard, I would be all for it.
Still, I could be fruitful to examine what we actually expect from Retro. Might give a few people new perspectives on themselves and the series.
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I think that'ts fair - I used "Western perspective" haphazardly, perhaps, because for the past few days the wife and I have been discussing the differences between Eastern and Western visions of what constitutes Metroid
As to the matter of Donkey Kong Country Returns - given the nature of 2D platformers, I think it would be difficult to preserve the basic gameplay premise of DKC while also breaking the genre mold. RARE themselves (another Western developer) wasn't capable of doing it in 3D; the only thing we can judge Retro's version of the gam by is whether or not it's fun to play.
As for what I would expect from Retro? I'll ruminate for a bit as I type this.
1. A very in-depth level of art design. That's not new for Zelda, of course, becuse Zelda games tend to have among the best art assets in the business, but I would expect the mode and tone of the art design to change considerably. You know that lovely official art from Link to the Past? I would expect something more like that, realized on a 3D platform.
2. Focus on Link as an agent of the player's will. Ever since Wind Waker (or even Link to the Past, depending on how you want to look at it), Nintendo has been moving more and more toward establising Link as his own character with his own specific personality who behaves in specific ways in specific situations. One of the things I would expect from Retro is a return to Link acting as a symbol rather than a person, so that instead of a train engineer or an islander he is simply the Hero again. Whether or not that would be to the game's benefit is up in the air, but it's what I would expect.
3. Giant scary-ass bosses. This is in no way different from what the Zelda series currently has, I would just expect them to be somewhat more involved and not depend solely on one item to kill.
4. Increased focus on the active hostility of the game world. If there's one thing that is sort of missing from current Zelda games, it's the sense that everything is trying to kill you. I don't think this would necessarily translate into a harder game or anything like that, but we would still be surrounded by life forms that want to kill us all the time. Villages would become safe havens in the midst of a sea of menace.
5. Ganondorf. I know that's not really any different, but I would expect a unique and inteesting portrayal of the series's antagonist. I wouldn't expect him to be better than how Aonuma writes him, exactly, but I would expect him to be interesting.
6. A new way to approach the perspective of the game world. I don't pretend to know exactly what that would entail, nor do I pretend that Nintendo doesn't attempt to do the same thing every once in a while (like Phantom Hourglass); I do presume that it would be another case in which the reveal of te game's mechanics would cause a schism in the community, but people would ultimately fall in line when the game came out. THis perspective can go beyond controls and camera angles, too: it could involve how sidequests are set up and presented, what items qualify as weapons to aid you in your fight against a hostile world, what items (if any) are optional to obtain, on and on.
I'll need to spend some more time thinking about this. For a really good perspective on what I would expect to be different, I guess I would need to replay Other M, Super Metroid, and a couple of the Primes again.
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