There’s nothing quite like the anticipation for a new Zelda.
That feeling of a whole new world to explore, that sense of the unknown and what adventures
await within.
And boy are there a lot of unknowns when it comes to Zelda Wii U--even though it was supposed
to have originally come out last year, we still know to nothing about it.
And now we’re we’re just over a away from the game’s full unveiling at E3 2016--I
thought it’d be fun to put together the Top 10 things that I personally want to see
from the game.
I Want Voice Acting Well excuuuuse me princess.
Look, I’m not saying Link should talk But that doesn’t mean everyone else doesn’t
have to either..
After all, Gordan Freeman hasn’t uttered a word, but that didn’t stop the people
he encountered from doing so.
And those characters added to the believability of the world.
I’m not saying Zelda NEEDS voice acting, but I also think Zelda’s starting to feel
a little long in the tooth for lacking it.
I mean, isn’t it a little weird when you can see the characters lips moving realistically,
but nothing ever comes out.
Is everyone in Hyrule a mime?
Now of course, this all hinges on it being pulled off well--because God knows it’s
possible to screw up.
But if done right, proper voice acting would add to the believability of the world.
It
could also serve more practical purposes too, like allowing for dialogue to take place during
gameplay sequences, without bringing the action to a halt so you can page through some text.
Come on Nintendo.
I want a living, breathing world No world in Zelda has felt more alive than
Majora’s Mask Termina.
It felt like a real place, with real people, with real problems.
They even had schedules and could be followed as they went about their daily lives around
town.
And of course, there was the Moon.
Yep, the omniscient reminder of your present failure--and the characters were aware of
it too, with the town becoming increasingly distressed over the 3-Day period.
Zelda Wii U needs to recapture that level of energy--that level of realism-- and really
sells the idea that this is a real place where Link’s actions matter.
And what we’ve seen so far looks promising, with grass that realistically bends in the
wind, and wildlife that reacts to what’s happening nearby.
But that’s not far enough.
Give us a world full of people with depth--ones that react to Link’s actions and the world’s
present situation.
Let me see how people go about their daily lives.
And I want them to be aware of what’s happening around them--at least in a narrative sense.
But even Majora’s Mask kept the liveliness mostly confined to Clocktown--and I would
love if Zelda WIi U could expand that throughout the world, instead of just an empty and deserted
Hyrule Field.
And on that note...
I Want Things to Do in the World Who doesn’t love the idea of a massive world
to explore?
Bigger is better, right?
And so far, Zelda Wii U’s looks to be HUGE.
But then I think back to all the other games I’ve played with large worlds...and they
never really pulled me in.
Because the world felt like it was only big for the sake of being big.
Yeah, I’m looking at you Twilight Princess.
I want to go rewarded for going off the beaten path with cool things to discover.
And I don’t mean the typical chests or heart pieces.
I mean things that are meaningful--like item upgrades, for starters.
Do you remember how cool it was stumbling across the secret cave behind the waterfall
in A LInk to the Past, which contained a great fairy who could upgrade your gear?
Yeah, that was awesome--and totally optional.
Or what if you came across roaming travellers who each had different things to offer, whether
information or goods?
Point is, there’s a lot more Zelda Wii U can do to encourage exploration--and I think
they can extend that to the dungeons too.
I Want Different Dungeons
There’s little else I love more than that sense of discovery--the idea that you found
something hidden--something unknown.
And what if that something...were, say,, a dungeon?
Maybe dungeons don’t always need to be in extremely obvious and impossible to miss locations
like a volcano or giant tower.
Instead, what if Dungeons were instead well hidden and hard to find, all over the world.
The entrance might be as subtle as a cave, or crawling through a log.
And maybe you'd have to actually discover them for yourself, instead of being told exactly
where they are.
Making your main objectives something that you have to discover yourself could really
bring back that sense of exploration and adventure that’s been missing in some of the more
recent Zelda games.
You know, kind of like how the very first Zelda did it
Now of course, we already know Zelda Wii U’s world is huge, so trying to find just a handful
of them might be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Which is why I think there should actually be MORE of them.
And to compensate, maybe they don’t all need to be hours long.
In fact, what if they came in a variety of different lengths and objectives?
Maybe every dungeon doesn’t need to take 2-3 and have multiple bosses--or even an item.
Maybe some of them only need to offer a few puzzles, or maybe another might be more combat
focused?
Now obviously, the more dungeons you find, the harder it will be to find the rest.
And I have a solution to that too...what if Link has some kind of item that alerts him
to when he’s somewhat close to a dungeon.
And the more dungeons you find, the more precise it becomes in helping you to track down the
remainder.
Look, i’m just spitballing, but point is I want them to do something different with
the dungeons than just more of the same--including the bosses.
And speaking of which.
I Want Full-world Boss Battles In the nearly 30 years that Zelda’s been
around, we’ve seen some epic boss fights...as well as plenty of forgettable ones.
Point is, we’ve seen a lot of bosses--and it’s time for them to evolve beyond the
typical boss room.
And Zelda Wii U’s gigantic world offers a perfect opportunity to.
How awesome would it be if bosses were no longer confined by four walls, but instead
took the boundaries of the world itself?
We did get what might be a hint of this in the initial trailer with the stone enemy chasing
Link, and I can only hope the game runs wild with the concept.
This could also allow the game’s world itself to become essential to the gameplay--like
what if you have to lure a towering giant to a cliff that you can leap to him from.
Or what if the bosses actually threatened local villages and you had to try to shut
them down before they devastate the world?
Hell, what if you could even use bosses against one another, like getting a water boss’s
help in taking down a fire one?
There’s a ton of possibilities and I’ve only scratched the surface--and hopefully
Zelda Wii U will dig even deeper.
I Want Zelda to Be Challenging I know, I know, it’s almost a cliche at
this point...but Zelda games are too damn easy.
And when something’s easy, it lessens the sense of accomplishment for tackling a particular
challenge...like say, saving the world.
And that's on top of screwing with other aspects of the game, like mitigating the feeling of
satisfaction for finding more powerful items.
What good’s a shield if getting hit doesn’t matter?
Now I realize difficulty is an extremely subjective concept--what’s easy to me might be impossible
to someone else.
And while I’m not the biggest fan of difficulty selects, it might be time for Zelda to finally
add one so it can appeal to both Zelda veterans and newcomers.
They’ve already started to do this to some degree with Hero mode in the recent Zelda
remakes--now it’s time to get it right the first time.
Or maybe they could go the Resident Evil 4 route and dynamically scale the difficulty
based on your performance.
Nintendo’s figured out how to make Mario tough, but accessible--now it’s time to
do the same for Zelda.
I want the Economy to be Fixed Rupees are too damn common.
Cut down a bush?
Have 5 rupees.
Kill an enemy?
Here’s 10 of them.
Open a chest?
Take 50.
Oh wait, you can’t because your wallet’s full from all the other rupees.
When rupees are as common as free pizza at Planet Fitness, they no longer feel valuable.
And because they’re not rewarding to get, it breaks all kinds of things.
For one, it discourages exploration or really any activity that might give you rupees.
Second, iI removes the value of spending them, making the things you buy have less value--and
less reward.
I just want rupees to mean something again.
I want to have to think twice before I buy something in case it comes at the expense
of something else--I want the things I buy to feel valuable.
Come on Nintendo, fix the economy...in Zelda.
I Want Revamped Items - Avoid Twilight Princess’s pitfalls
Zelda has an item problem.
There are usually too many of them--and they serve too little purpose.
Nowadays, they mostly act as elaborate keys to solve puzzles in the dungeon you found
them in--and that needs to change.
Here’s what I propose: Less items, but more function.
Even though your inventory might be smaller, each item could be given more to do.
In fact, what if you could combine different items in your inventory to expand each of
their use?
Link’s Awakening actually touched on this idea with the Bomb Arrow, but what if they
took it even further.
Instead of a hookshot, what if you could attach a Rope Item to a Bow and Arrow to create rope
bridges instead?
Or maybe you could attach that same rope to your boomerang and use it to lasso enemies,
AT-AT style.
The possibilities are endless--and so are the options it would open up.
I mean, it would really make you think outside of the box to solve some puzzles if the solution
didn’t come strictly down to which of your items to use.
I want a Better Intro I swear to god if Link wakes up and immediately
has to go herd goats or find cats again, I’m going to scream.
I’ve said time and time again that the introduction of a game is so important.
It’s your initial window into this new world and can set the mood and tone for the entire
experience.
It’s the reason why Jurassic Park opens with the caged raptor instead of digging up
the mummified mosquito--yeah, it’s ultimately irrelevant to the plot, but it sets the tone
and expectation that Jurassic Park is a dangerous place, and better contextualizes the events
that follow up until the moment all mayhem breaks loose.
This is something Zelda needs.
Throw me into the action, or the story, or something.
I don’t need to see what life is like as a farmhand--I want to live what comes AFTER.
If you want a great example that Zelda could learn from, Beyond Good & Evil--which is similar
to Zelda in many ways--nailed it.
Even though Jade runs an Orphanage, the game didn’t make me babysit the kids for 3-hours
to know she runs an orphanage--instead, the game throws you right into the action.
You know what, I’m not even sure why I mentioned Beyond Good & Evil because even Zelda’s
done it better too.
Hell, I even made a whole video dedicated to it, so make sure to check it out after
this video.
I want a sense of mystery God damn do I love mysteries.
It’s what got me hooked on that stupid show, Lost, it’s what kept me engrossed through
Ex Machina, and it’s what pulled me into other Zelda games like Majora’s Mask and
Link’s Awakening...and it’s something that I’ve felt has been missing from the
more recent games, partially because Link usually has a sidekick character to explain
everything every step of the way.
I don’t want everything to be explained--at least not right away.
I WANT to see weird crap that’s not immediately followed by backstory.
I want to come across strange sites in the world and not be immediately told what to
do with them.
I loved the Ghost Ship in Wind Waker BECAUSE of how mysterious it is.
Now just do more of that and I’ll be happy.
Let me discover and figure things out for myself.
So there you have it--the Top 10 Things I want from Zelda Wii U and NX.
But while I would love for all of these to come true, there’s one more thing I didn’t
mention that could trump them all.
I want to be SURPRISED..
Regardless, we don’t have long to wait until we find out what the deal with Zelda Wii U
and NX really is, so make sure to stay tuned to GameXplain for all the deets as we’ll
personally be going hands on with it at E3.
Thanks for watching and make sure to hit that subscribe button for more on Zelda Wii U and
other things gaming too.