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[Paul Eres]

http://tevisthompson.com/saving-zelda/

found this through jon blow's twitter, it articulates a lot of what i've felt about the original game vs the modern ones

Actually, we needn’t speculate on what the gods of Zelda had in mind when designing the difficulty.  Eiji Aonuma, director of Zelda since Ocarina, spoke to Game Informer about this directly:

“I never actually finished [the original Legend of Zelda]…I almost feel like there’s still no game more difficult than it. Every time I try to play it I end up getting ‘Game Over’ a few too many times and giving up partway through. Certainly after playing the original Zelda for the first time, I didn’t ever think that I wanted to make a game like that.”

Congratulations, Mr. Aonuma – you never have.

[powly]

That's actually pretty much why I haven't played Skyward Sword past the beginning. And why I didn't like Twilight Princess as much as I "should have". I think I should play the first Zelda through, though; never got past the first dungeon because it was pretty hard and I had 'more interesting' (= more modern) games to play. Maybe there's great value in it, after all.

[thatshelby]

that's a little ridiculous

[eyeliner]

Frustratingly hard game = good game?

Not by my standards.

I’m still a Zelda fan today, but I’m not an apologist.  Zelda sucks, and it has sucked for a long time.  It’s not the greatest series in gaming, and Ocarina of Time is certainly not the greatest game of all time (it’s not even a great Zelda).  The original Legend of Zelda is the greatest Zelda, Skyward Sword is the worst, and the trajectory is mostly downhill with a few exceptions (the bold horror of Majora’s Mask, the focused charm of Wind Waker).

I stopped at this paragraph. I concur that Ocarina might not be the best game ever, but the rest of what the guy wrote is bull.

[Paul Eres]

That's actually pretty much why I haven't played Skyward Sword past the beginning. And why I didn't like Twilight Princess as much as I "should have". I think I should play the first Zelda through, though; never got past the first dungeon because it was pretty hard and I had 'more interesting' (= more modern) games to play. Maybe there's great value in it, after all.

one suggestion is to not try to play the dungeons through in order in zelda1; the way the game is structured is to encourage exploration, so if you can't get past one thing go do another. the second dungeon is actually much easier than the first dungeon, for instance, and i usually do the second one first because it has a much more useful item in it (the boomerang is way more useful than the bow, especially early game)

[Ben_Hurr]

I kind of lost interest after the guy started moaning about modern zeldas not respecting the player etc. etc.

All I got out of that is:
-Modern zeldas are too hand-holdy + and devoid of challenge
-GAMES NEED TO BE FRUSTRATINGLY DIFFICULT AND HAVE DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES IF YOU LOSE

I agree with the first, and shake my head at the second.  


edit:
"For a while, I’ve been unable to imagine a better Zelda myself, not even as a reboot with a new studio.  I sensed what was wrong, and yet I couldn’t point to another modern game that offered many of those original Zelda pleasures.  Then I played Demon’s Souls last fall."

Oh god he pulled the Demon's Souls card.

[C.A. Sinner]

what's wrong with that? demon's souls is better than like the last four zeldas (including handheld ones) combined (srs).

i don't agree that ocarina etc. are bad games (tho skyward sword is one of the biggest snoozefests ever) but the core of his argument (which is about player agency) is sound.

[baconman]

OMFG!! WOW. Never expected to be saying this again... but I think I'm looking forward to a new Zelda game.

[Paul Eres]

what's wrong with that? demon's souls is better than the last four zeldas (including handheld ones) combined

the article mentions demon's souls near the end, saying it gave him hope that games like the original zelda can still find an audience

o i see this was mentioned already

[rdein]

the latest zelda is terrible and if you cant see that even after reading this article there is something seriously wrong with you

also lol @ aonuma not getting what zelda 1 did right. there is so much more in zelda 1 than anything in the legend of zelda: hand-holding filler quest

they should remake zelda 1, polish audio and music and maybe change a thing or two like the entrance to some dungeons (really studpily hidden).
the first zelda is "hard" because it's nes-game combat. obviously flawed and stupid. it could work wonders with today's technology (no bullshit gimmick controlz)

[C.A. Sinner]

the flags in the castle kinda look like nazi flags lol

[Ben_Hurr]

what's wrong with that? demon's souls is better than like the last four zeldas (including handheld ones) combined (srs).

i don't agree that ocarina etc. are bad games (tho skyward sword is one of the biggest snoozefests ever) but the core of his argument (which is about player agency) is sound.

The souls series is better than the later Zeldas.
However, I'd prefer games in the future to not be hand-holdy snoozefests like Zelda or infuriating exercises in masochism like Demon's Souls.

There needs to be a balance between the two extremes.


But goddamn, we always need more "WELL HERE'S A WORLD, HAVE AT IT.".

[Paul Eres]

regarding the difficulty of finding the dungeons in zelda1, part of that was due to bad translation. the clues to the secrets in zelda1 make a little more sense in japanese. when i was a kid i'd see clues like "eastmost penninsula is the secret" and have no idea what they meant, but in the japanese version it doesn't say that at all, it says "you need rupees to use arrows". similarly, in the english version where it says "10th enemy has the bomb", in the japanese version it says "you need the lion key"

in other words, they didn't actually translate the clues at all. they just wrote random text which had little to do with the original clues. maybe someone made a retranslation rom hack of the game with a better translation? the original wacky translations have become almost iconic but it'd be nice to play the game the way it was originally intended

[Capntastic]

Zelda was my first 'game' to a huge extent, and considering I was able to get very close to beating it as an illiterate 5 year old, that only occasionally needed to use mom as a translation device, I can't see how an adult would find it impossible beyond lack of effort.

Zelda 1's draw is that it has easy to grasp motivations:  Find cool places, kill cool monsters, get cool goodies.  I remember getting the stepladder and beyond thrilled at the new vistas it allowed me access to, for instance.  I immediately knew what it meant I could accomplish.

[Paul Eres]

yeah, i always find it funny when people say that zelda1 was too hard to beat or something, cause i beat it at age 7 without any guides. i think people just give up too easily