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Apr. 19th, 2014 07:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmxratedHaving beaten Legend of Zelda just yesterday, this would be a better time than any to discuss any possible plans involving my own answer to a Zelda game and whether they'd be worth pursuing.
To begin with, the reason why I ever did plan on something in the first place would go all the way back to certain imperfections I perceived with video games in general back in 9th grade (discussed here). That, of course, had not been the case when I was playing A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time just two years earlier. However, this was shortly before I received Majora's Mask, the game that lacked the Middle Ages feel that all previous games had, for my birthday that year, and was in fact exactly why I chose that as my birthday gift in the first place.
That said, I did plan to create two versions of my own game, one with the graphics of A Link to the Past, and the other with those of Ocarina of Time. Obviously, though, graphics weren't what really attracted me to those two games, just something that grew on me because I happened to like them by default. The NES games have different graphics but the same feel, which is exactly the reverse-case with Majora's Mask (whose graphics are based on OoT). (And to think that OoT even had its graphics upgraded for its 3DS re-release only a few years ago.) Gameplay can't possibly be it either, since Zelda II: The Adventure of Link has a completely different gameplay style from all the other games. The cutscenes in two of the CD-i games (which I only discovered via the Angry Video Game Nerd) aren't nearly as refined as the illustrations shown throughout the LttP player's guide, but craptastic as those games may be in general (and no, I'm not interested in actually playing them), I still perceived the same medieval flavor as with all other games preceding Majora's Mask. But, if it's only for the feeling of medieval Europe (with traces of other cultures or environments thrown in, such as the Egyptian-style Spirit Temple in OoT, or deserts in general), then I might as well be looking at an entire genre rather than a single franchise.
Another problem arises when a staple of the franchise, the moments of quirky humor amid the general seriousness in each game, is not something I'd be good at. Also gonna be an issue with Starbound, which is exactly why I once sought input from others before Chelle talked me out of that.
But anyway, let's look at the cut in this entry, and see what came to mind along the way as far as actual ideas go:
It was going to take place in a completely new version of Hyrule. It might have had some of the same characters from existing games, along with completely new characters.
Let's mention a few things: From what I once read in a Player's Pulse letter in Nintendo Power, The Wind Waker was the game that specifies that Link is reincarnated before the events of each game (obviously omitting Zelda II and Majora's Mask), a fact that the AVGN completely disregarded when he ranted about the events of Zelda chronology. This was way before Skyward Sword established the reason for that and the events of all games (except those for the Phillips CD-i, for obvious reasons) were compiled into a timeline that branches into three after Ocarina of Time in a book called Hyrule Historia. Before that, there was reason enough to assume that the two N64 games had their own continuity apart from the previous games, which would have been the case with my own game.
For the sake of resurrection, this game was going to also include Rue and Mint (from the Playstation game Threads of Fate) as playable characters. Other ToF characters (such as Claire and Maya) would also be plot-related.
That idea came to mind a year after I conceived the game, but is also one thing that has of recent years kept me from touching it again. For one thing, Threads of Fate seems to more resemble Europe of the 19th century than of the Middle Ages. For another thing, while it's not really an aversion, two guys and a girl is not my favorite gender ratio in general.
Up to three players would be able to control one of the characters each. Link specializes in wearing masks (as he did in Majora's Mask), Rue transforms into monsters (like he did in his own game), and Mint collects magic spell (similar to Din's Fire, etc. from Ocarina of Time) after each dungeon is cleared. These masks and magic spells work differently than from their respective games, and Rue can have up to twenty-four monster species to transform into.
Considering how little the actual world of Majora's Mask grew onto me as did LttP and OoT, I think I'd rather just do away with masks altogether for the most part. The number of different magic spells that Mint would have wielded in the game was also the result of a 24-based elemental system that I've since done away with in favor of the 12-based system that I apply nowadays. Originally, Link would have wielded all of those on top of everything in the three Zelda games and some original stuff. And Rue's monster transformations should be easy enough to do away with.
The beginning of the game would involve collecting the same four Boss Masks from Majora's Mask, which would be the keys to collecting the Master Sword. Link fights Twinmold (inside the Deku Tree), and then Gyorg (while escorting Zelda through the secret passage in Hyrule Castle); Rue has a similar beginning as in ToF, but is confronted by Odolwa; Mint fights Goht while escaping from the East Shadow Kingdom*. The three of them will eventually find one another.
*I know. This was previously the East Heaven Kingdom. However, in the game, I was going to classify Mint as a Shiekah. On a website that I can't find anymore, someone translated "Sheikah" into English as "People of the Shadows."
Considering the previous two items, and especially since my own game will probably be something original, this probably will not apply.
While Hyrule Field is still an expansive plain like it was in Ocarina of Time, the main part of the Golden Land/Dark World is a huge maze of golden brick walls. Players would need particular items in order to access more and more of the maze, which would lead to more places to visit.
Will probably retain this.
The Spiritual Stones and the Sage Medallions now have a lesser role than they did in Ocarina of Time. The Stones are now the Royal Family Jewels, which must all be found within Hyrule Castle in order to access a certain chamber within the Castle. The Medallions are all found in one dungeon (not sure which) and become platforms in a certain room (similar to how the platforms worked in Elroy's Atelior in ToF).
The thing with the Stones was inspired from the walkthrough for Duke Nukem: Time to Kill (never got very far into the actual game myself). Will probably retain both.
Along with Golden Skulltula Tokens and Pieces of Heart, players can now look for Scrolls in order to extend the gameplay. Collecting all the Scrolls in the game unlocks a really challenging special mode after completing the game, in which enemies can now drop key items (such as the Hookshot or a Bottle) just as easily as Rupees or Hearts; collecting the Key Items replaces what items were previously useable with the C-buttons (or any equivalent to those). Hard to explain.
Inspired from the coverage of Zelda II at the beginning of Nintendo Power's player's guide for Ocarina of Time. In truth, only one is relevant in that game, which is mentioned only in the manual's story, but the OoT guide suggests that there were more in general that had survived the test of time while others were lost or destroyed.
-----
If I were to look into creating anything Zelda-like, it would mainly be to preserve only the last three ideas in the above cut. However, considering how few protagonists in video games are female (especially in America back in the 80's and 90's), I might look into creating just a top-down game (graphics don't have to match anything) focusing on just one female character. Said game will probably also borrow aspects from Rosenkreuzstilette while being still original; namely, an improbably female cast in which the majority have super-long hair of different colors and styles.
In fact, I even have noticed several similarities between Zelda and RKS. For example, while Link, Zelda, and even Ganondorf (once) are all reincarnated in certain games, Spiritia and Iris are two halves of the reincarnation of the magus Rosenkreuz. Also, while Link is accompanied by the fairies Navi and Tatl in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask respectively, Spiritia and Freudia are accompanied respectively by Lilli and Strudel during the events of their games. The fact that Spiritia can tap into the magic of those she fights is also similar to how Link learns magic and skills from different people in Zelda II.
To begin with, the reason why I ever did plan on something in the first place would go all the way back to certain imperfections I perceived with video games in general back in 9th grade (discussed here). That, of course, had not been the case when I was playing A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time just two years earlier. However, this was shortly before I received Majora's Mask, the game that lacked the Middle Ages feel that all previous games had, for my birthday that year, and was in fact exactly why I chose that as my birthday gift in the first place.
That said, I did plan to create two versions of my own game, one with the graphics of A Link to the Past, and the other with those of Ocarina of Time. Obviously, though, graphics weren't what really attracted me to those two games, just something that grew on me because I happened to like them by default. The NES games have different graphics but the same feel, which is exactly the reverse-case with Majora's Mask (whose graphics are based on OoT). (And to think that OoT even had its graphics upgraded for its 3DS re-release only a few years ago.) Gameplay can't possibly be it either, since Zelda II: The Adventure of Link has a completely different gameplay style from all the other games. The cutscenes in two of the CD-i games (which I only discovered via the Angry Video Game Nerd) aren't nearly as refined as the illustrations shown throughout the LttP player's guide, but craptastic as those games may be in general (and no, I'm not interested in actually playing them), I still perceived the same medieval flavor as with all other games preceding Majora's Mask. But, if it's only for the feeling of medieval Europe (with traces of other cultures or environments thrown in, such as the Egyptian-style Spirit Temple in OoT, or deserts in general), then I might as well be looking at an entire genre rather than a single franchise.
Another problem arises when a staple of the franchise, the moments of quirky humor amid the general seriousness in each game, is not something I'd be good at. Also gonna be an issue with Starbound, which is exactly why I once sought input from others before Chelle talked me out of that.
But anyway, let's look at the cut in this entry, and see what came to mind along the way as far as actual ideas go:
It was going to take place in a completely new version of Hyrule. It might have had some of the same characters from existing games, along with completely new characters.
Let's mention a few things: From what I once read in a Player's Pulse letter in Nintendo Power, The Wind Waker was the game that specifies that Link is reincarnated before the events of each game (obviously omitting Zelda II and Majora's Mask), a fact that the AVGN completely disregarded when he ranted about the events of Zelda chronology. This was way before Skyward Sword established the reason for that and the events of all games (except those for the Phillips CD-i, for obvious reasons) were compiled into a timeline that branches into three after Ocarina of Time in a book called Hyrule Historia. Before that, there was reason enough to assume that the two N64 games had their own continuity apart from the previous games, which would have been the case with my own game.
For the sake of resurrection, this game was going to also include Rue and Mint (from the Playstation game Threads of Fate) as playable characters. Other ToF characters (such as Claire and Maya) would also be plot-related.
That idea came to mind a year after I conceived the game, but is also one thing that has of recent years kept me from touching it again. For one thing, Threads of Fate seems to more resemble Europe of the 19th century than of the Middle Ages. For another thing, while it's not really an aversion, two guys and a girl is not my favorite gender ratio in general.
Up to three players would be able to control one of the characters each. Link specializes in wearing masks (as he did in Majora's Mask), Rue transforms into monsters (like he did in his own game), and Mint collects magic spell (similar to Din's Fire, etc. from Ocarina of Time) after each dungeon is cleared. These masks and magic spells work differently than from their respective games, and Rue can have up to twenty-four monster species to transform into.
Considering how little the actual world of Majora's Mask grew onto me as did LttP and OoT, I think I'd rather just do away with masks altogether for the most part. The number of different magic spells that Mint would have wielded in the game was also the result of a 24-based elemental system that I've since done away with in favor of the 12-based system that I apply nowadays. Originally, Link would have wielded all of those on top of everything in the three Zelda games and some original stuff. And Rue's monster transformations should be easy enough to do away with.
The beginning of the game would involve collecting the same four Boss Masks from Majora's Mask, which would be the keys to collecting the Master Sword. Link fights Twinmold (inside the Deku Tree), and then Gyorg (while escorting Zelda through the secret passage in Hyrule Castle); Rue has a similar beginning as in ToF, but is confronted by Odolwa; Mint fights Goht while escaping from the East Shadow Kingdom*. The three of them will eventually find one another.
*I know. This was previously the East Heaven Kingdom. However, in the game, I was going to classify Mint as a Shiekah. On a website that I can't find anymore, someone translated "Sheikah" into English as "People of the Shadows."
Considering the previous two items, and especially since my own game will probably be something original, this probably will not apply.
While Hyrule Field is still an expansive plain like it was in Ocarina of Time, the main part of the Golden Land/Dark World is a huge maze of golden brick walls. Players would need particular items in order to access more and more of the maze, which would lead to more places to visit.
Will probably retain this.
The Spiritual Stones and the Sage Medallions now have a lesser role than they did in Ocarina of Time. The Stones are now the Royal Family Jewels, which must all be found within Hyrule Castle in order to access a certain chamber within the Castle. The Medallions are all found in one dungeon (not sure which) and become platforms in a certain room (similar to how the platforms worked in Elroy's Atelior in ToF).
The thing with the Stones was inspired from the walkthrough for Duke Nukem: Time to Kill (never got very far into the actual game myself). Will probably retain both.
Along with Golden Skulltula Tokens and Pieces of Heart, players can now look for Scrolls in order to extend the gameplay. Collecting all the Scrolls in the game unlocks a really challenging special mode after completing the game, in which enemies can now drop key items (such as the Hookshot or a Bottle) just as easily as Rupees or Hearts; collecting the Key Items replaces what items were previously useable with the C-buttons (or any equivalent to those). Hard to explain.
Inspired from the coverage of Zelda II at the beginning of Nintendo Power's player's guide for Ocarina of Time. In truth, only one is relevant in that game, which is mentioned only in the manual's story, but the OoT guide suggests that there were more in general that had survived the test of time while others were lost or destroyed.
-----
If I were to look into creating anything Zelda-like, it would mainly be to preserve only the last three ideas in the above cut. However, considering how few protagonists in video games are female (especially in America back in the 80's and 90's), I might look into creating just a top-down game (graphics don't have to match anything) focusing on just one female character. Said game will probably also borrow aspects from Rosenkreuzstilette while being still original; namely, an improbably female cast in which the majority have super-long hair of different colors and styles.
In fact, I even have noticed several similarities between Zelda and RKS. For example, while Link, Zelda, and even Ganondorf (once) are all reincarnated in certain games, Spiritia and Iris are two halves of the reincarnation of the magus Rosenkreuz. Also, while Link is accompanied by the fairies Navi and Tatl in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask respectively, Spiritia and Freudia are accompanied respectively by Lilli and Strudel during the events of their games. The fact that Spiritia can tap into the magic of those she fights is also similar to how Link learns magic and skills from different people in Zelda II.