Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is coming soon, but will it really be all it says it will be? Tough call, considering Nintendo hasn't told us anything about it.
For the many masterpieces it has produced, there is one problem with the Zelda series that could very well destroy the franchise: Its gameplay is perfect. Ever since OOT every major Zelda game has been a TON of fun. Now that Twilight Princess and the Gamecube are past us, Skyward Sword will mark a new transition and direction for the series. I don’t know if we’ll be stuck with the Wii Controls forever. I don’t know if Skyward Sword will allow the GCN or Classic Controller, but probably not. The formula for Legend of Zelda games hasn’t changed much since Ocarina of Time. The gameplay, the controls, the collecting things from ends of dungeons, all things that have changed very little. Now in an era of games with Wii controls, Nintendo is pressured to try something new, mix it up a bit. Every console Zelda since OOT has heavily built off its gameplay, almost to the point of rehashing it. That’s the problem. OOT was considered perfect gameplay. Rehashing it makes people accuse it of being unoriginal and…..basically being rehashed. The plus side is that’s a safe territory, Nintendo knows it works but it’s probably worked for too long with too little innovation. On the other hand, reinventing the gameplay with things like the Wiimote might make things worse and lead to a new game being an odd duck or fans proclaiming the series has lost a lot of its glory. Yes, it might be a better move to try and do something different, but it might be far worse than they imagined. But that is all unknown. Nobody knows if a Wii game will have good controls until the disc is in the system and the Wiimote in is your hand. By then, whether it’s good or bad, Nintendo already has your money.
For the many masterpieces it has produced, there is one problem with the Zelda series that could very well destroy the franchise: Its gameplay is perfect. Ever since OOT every major Zelda game has been a TON of fun. Now that Twilight Princess and the Gamecube are past us, Skyward Sword will mark a new transition and direction for the series. I don’t know if we’ll be stuck with the Wii Controls forever. I don’t know if Skyward Sword will allow the GCN or Classic Controller, but probably not. The formula for Legend of Zelda games hasn’t changed much since Ocarina of Time. The gameplay, the controls, the collecting things from ends of dungeons, all things that have changed very little. Now in an era of games with Wii controls, Nintendo is pressured to try something new, mix it up a bit. Every console Zelda since OOT has heavily built off its gameplay, almost to the point of rehashing it. That’s the problem. OOT was considered perfect gameplay. Rehashing it makes people accuse it of being unoriginal and…..basically being rehashed. The plus side is that’s a safe territory, Nintendo knows it works but it’s probably worked for too long with too little innovation. On the other hand, reinventing the gameplay with things like the Wiimote might make things worse and lead to a new game being an odd duck or fans proclaiming the series has lost a lot of its glory. Yes, it might be a better move to try and do something different, but it might be far worse than they imagined. But that is all unknown. Nobody knows if a Wii game will have good controls until the disc is in the system and the Wiimote in is your hand. By then, whether it’s good or bad, Nintendo already has your money.
So how does Zelda stay fresh and new with every new game? How does it not go stale or stagnant? Right now Nintendo has to decide. Will they reinvent controls or story or both? Because the story and plot of the next Zelda will be the biggest new change we can expect to see, because with every new Zelda it always has been. Let’s face it; Nintendo has successfully pulled this off because OOT, MM, WW, and TP have plots that are all radically different from each other. When games have so similar gameplay, the only major variation and changes they can do is on the plot. That’s why I’m concerned for Skyward Sword. I’m not seeing much in the way of the story.
In fact, I’m not really seeing much of anything. Did Nintendo just forget how to make a hype-building trailer? Because two trailers for Skyward Sword have been released and they’re both total crap. This tells us absolutely nothing about the game at all. They’re just gameplay videos lazily put to some of the usual Zelda music (good music, of course. Koji Kondo knows what he’s doing). I guess the first trailer everyone’s seen had a nice start by showing all of Zelda’s masterpieces and Twilight Princess. Then we see a cel-shaded Adult Link pull the Master Sword out of the sheath. The trailer is doing fine. Then it just shows us a minute of gameplay and ends with Link jumping off a cliff. And there isn’t anything unique. Bombs that roll, a thingie that picks up stuff and takes it somewhere else, and the new Wii controls to stuff we’ve already seen. Oh and there’s a giant scorpion thing. Pre-order now. As if the brand name of Zelda itself is all the convincing we need to buy it. If a company has put no effort at all into marketing their product, then there is little chance I will buy it upon release. Doesn’t matter if it’s my favorite game series (which Zelda is). Nintendo isn’t taking Skyward Sword seriously and as a result I’m not either. These trailers reek of a cash-in.
Remember how awesome the trailers for Twilight Princess were? Especially the longer teaser trailer where it started with darkness outside Hyrule, portals dumping monsters around, Link turning into a wolf, getting captured, meeting some demon imp thing, a kid on a monster’s spear, horseback combat, and an epic climax where Link “jousts” with a monster on a bridge. It’s an epic trailer that really gets your blood pumping for the game. Everyone got mega-hyped for this game. But the Skyward Sword trailers just kinda throw stuff out there then end. They don’t tell us what this game is about at all. We don’t even see the villain until the second trailer and he’s barely on screen for a few seconds. Is that the villain? What is that? Is that the villain or is it the new support character? It looks unfathomably lame for an ally and ridiculously nonthreatening for a villain. I can barely tell what gender it is. I guess it could be a guy. Some people say the character looks like Vaati. Oh now we’re just insulting he/she. What part of these trailers gives off the epic vibe one would expect from the origin story of the freaking MASTER SWORD? This could be anything. It could be a handheld spinoff if the graphics weren’t so good. Fans actually cheered for these trailers. Cheered mildly. I sat there and I couldn’t be more disappointed if I was playing Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded. Grown men wept and cheered at Twilight Princess’ trailer. But Skyward Sword’s trailer not only sucks against the standards previous Zelda’s have set, it sucks in comparison to crap we already know will be horrible at the mere mention of its name. I can even pick something kinda random and it still does a better job.
Hey, Nintendo? Where are you going with Zelda? Give us something tangible we can latch onto and get hyped about. This will not change or influence our decision to buy or pre-order it. This is not a teaser trailer. It doesn’t show us even a little. This is a taunt trailer. “Tell them nothing”. Skyward Sword’s trailers actually hurt the game more than help. It tells us Nintendo has gotten lazy when it comes to marketing. This tells us the important thing about Zelda is their new Wii control-based gameplay system. While gameplay is important, Zelda is a series so rich in story and self-created mythology and lore. Fans value the plot/story far more than gameplay. If we’re really engaged and liking the story, we can look past gameplay inconveniences like the long boat rides in Wind Waker and the fact we can only really save once every 3 days in Majora’s Mask.
But my skepticism of the quality of Skyward Sword goes beyond just the trailers. The plot details are so scarce there’s hardly anything of substance. It takes place before Ocarina of Time, where some version of Link lives in a cloud city, he gets the Skyward Sword which will eventually somehow become the Master Sword and goes on an adventure to the world below that has been overrun by evil. Or the sword might be a girl or something, I dunno. And that’s pretty much it. That’s all we’ve got and none of it was in any trailer. Once again, I must stress that the story is the most important part of Legend of Zelda because the game is story-driven.
If the game just tells you to go to several dungeons and get the collectibles after each boss fight (Essences, Medallions, Fused Shadows, etc) and gives you no reason at all to collect them then it all feels like just a big chore. A fun chore perhaps. But there’s got to be a bigger meaning behind it all or a good reason for Link to collect them. For example, in Wind Waker Link must collect the orbs of the three goddesses to unlock the path to obtain a weapon that can defeat Ganondorf, and by defeating him he can rescue his sister. That’s great. He can just go on and roll with that. A bad example would be Twilight Princess, where a sinister-looking demon imp thing named Midna (I’m describing her as she would appear from Link’s perspective) has told Link he must be her slave and that he has to go and collect Fused Shadows for her, a dark and evil power. The spirits of light have even warned Link that this power is horrible and dangerous, and definitely not something to put in the wrong hands. Heck, when he’s about to collect the last one at Lakebed, the light spirit beats him over the head with a vision graphically depicting the greed of those who seek the Golden Power and the darkness surrounding the Fused Shadows, making one last effort to make Link stop collecting them. Does Link listen? Of course not. At no point does Link EVER question Midna or look suspicious of her or even wonder if collecting a dark power for a demon imp from another dimension is a bad idea. It wasn’t, and everything with Midna turned out just fine, but he had no reason at all to trust her and go along with her plans. I can’t believe no one has called Twilight Princess out on this one.
And that’s one of the reasons why I’m concerned about Skyward Sword’s story: Nintendo completely dropped the ball on the story of their last major Zelda game and since no one really noticed or cared they think they can get away with it in future projects. More concerning is that the story of Skyward Sword is the origin of the Master Sword, one of the most important items in the Zelda universe. It should epic, not half-assed. And people are confused about what their plans for it are. A lot of people have heard that the Skyward Sword will turn into the Master Sword. A lot of people also have heard that the Skyward Sword will turn into a girl somehow. Well which one is it? Is it both? In every Zelda game ever has each new incarnation of Link been swinging a mutated magical girl around at monsters? And what’s the deal with Link living on an island or something in the clouds? Since when did people live up there? Is this more of the Oocca crap from Twilight Princess? But Link looks human, not Oocca. Did they mutate into chickens over eons? What makes Link so confident that jumping off and into the sky will not harm him when he hits the ground? Who is that transvestite wizard thing? Is he/she the villain?
How can anyone be impressed by the story when they’ve shown us nothing of value? Just that the game will be about the Master Sword doesn’t tell us what will happen concerning it. And if it’s before Ocarina of Time, the common Ganondorf won’t be alive yet, so who’s going to try and stop Link? Is it Vaati yet again? We’re getting really sick of him. How about the Gerudo male born before Ganondorf? You know, the Gerudo thing they mentioned in Ocarina of Time where one is born every 100 years, which leads me to believe he’s not the first. Otherwise, when Ganondorf was born they’d have had one heck of a shock.
I will update my expectations as information is released, but I will not judge until I see the final game. I’m just saying it doesn’t look promising even if it will be an epic hit. Since the game isn’t out yet, all we got to rely upon is Zelda’s history and the pre-release information and trailers. And so far, what we’ve seen doesn’t look good. Every console and handheld Zelda on a Nintendo system created by Nintendo has ranged from good to epic. They haven’t totally screwed up a game like other good franchises (Metroid Other M, Pokémon Colosseum, every current-gen 3D Sonic game, Soul Calibur Legends, and Final Fantasy XIV). This is not counting rip-offs and the Phillips CDi games, of course. Zelda has questionable moments like the save system in Majora’s Mask, the graphics and boat travel in Wind Waker, and Link driving a train (WHAT THE…..). But it’s all been good and forgivable and fun every time. But I really really REALLY hope this doesn’t bomb when critics, reviewers, and fans like myself get our hands on it.
I love Legend of Zelda. It’s my favorite video game franchise ever. And I’ve always been hyped for a new console release. Yeah, sometimes I was a tad skeptical about things like the graphics of Wind Waker, but I was still looking forward to it. And based on Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Wind Waker, it’s very likely that Skyward Sword will be at least on par with them in terms of a good high-quality game. But I just do not see Nintendo putting effort into it, particularly the story. I’m not predicting doom and gloom for Skyward Sword. I’m just saying Nintendo is not giving gamers a reason to get hyped for it and buy it. But we shall see. As of today, Tuesday May 31, 2011, I see little to impress in the upcoming Skyward Sword.
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