More thoughts on Skyward Sword
So, now that I've had some time to digest the news of Zelda Wii, here's some more of my thoughts on it, including what I like and don't like about it, plus the concept that seems to drive Zelda in the first place, and what Zelda and ice cream have in common.
It's long, because I'm a gigantic nerd. But it's a passionate look at Zelda, so if you're interested, I would be honored if you read my tl;dr and shared your thoughts, too.
Edit: Actually, I'm going to leave it at this for now, because ffffff I've spent a lot of time writing this. But it feels awesome to get all written down. If you actually read it..... thank you. More on what I wanted to put in this entry later, when I have the time to write it.
When I was 11 years old, my mother, siblings and I took a trip down south to Key Largo to visit family friends. When Hurricane Andrew hit Miami in 1992, our house was destroyed and we lived in the Florida Keys for two years before moving back. We met the people we visited that particular summer during that time; Emily, the oldest girl, was in kindergarten with me while we lived there. It was May or June, the weather was gorgeous and they lived right on the water with an old little water-damaged dock and everything. But I wasn't outside enjoying the Atlantic Ocean, oh no, lol. I was inside discovering Ocarina of Time.
Emily's little brother had it, and I remember exactly where he was in the game, too. I distinctly remember the two of us huddled around the TV, draining the well in the Forest Temple and being completely blown away that you could even do that. Or well, he was blown away by that, but me, I was blown away by all of it. I hadn't ever seen anything like it Ocarina of Time before. Back then, 3D games were clunky, awkward, and tacky; the models were blocky and strange and the textures placed on the wire frames seemed to always look really gaudy and shitty to me, even as a preteen. But just that little piece I saw then, in the Forest Temple - the music, the tone, the enemies, Link, all of it looked fucking amazing. The controls were tight and responsive, with Z-targeting, the first action-game targeting system, making combat so much easier than the classic but awkward Super Mario 64 (which I had finished several times over at that point).
It would be several months later before I got Ocarina of Time, though, which I also remember very well. I was in a Circuit City with my Dad, browsing the Nintendo 64 games while he was busy looking for whatever we'd gone there for. I saw the cover for the game - I still have the box, by then it was the 1998 Game of the Year cover - and after inspecting the back and reading the game's description, I realized what it was, and that was it. With all the power I had, I was going to do what I could to walk out of that store with that game in my hands!!
Er, of course that entailed following my dad all around the store holding it out at him, begging and begging for him to get it for me. It's not like we'd gone there to get a game for me, it was probably for an extension cord or something similarly, in my mind, totally worthless. So it was a hard sell, to say the least. Plus, games were really fucking expensive back then. I'm pretty sure it was priced at $70, and this was back in 1999, too. But after much nagging, pleading and whining, somehow my father gave in and got it for me. I found it incredibly hard when I got home (it took me days to get out of the Deku Tree and a dozen deaths to beat Gohma, although now I can get through the frst dungeon in under 15 minutes lol) but despite that, a deep, obsessive, stalker-level passion had been born in me for the Legend of Zelda series.
Even looking back, I can see why it was so breathtaking and entrancing for us as the audience at the time. I've already mentioned how it blew every other 3D game out of the water in terms of the graphics and controls, but if you think about it, it was so excellently made on so many other levels. The pacing and setting were perfect, for example. By having Link grow up in the wilderness, his entry into Hyrule gives the game an energizing spirit of exploration and discovery right from the beginning. Hyrule is as new to him as it is to you.
The storyline builds itself up for the first third until, just as you start to get impatient for something new to happen, Ganondorf tricks you and the shit hits the fan, and then you're completely hooked. Walking out of the Temple of Time and seeing all those redeads, and the previously bright and cheery market square turned into something that belonged in a horror movie, had such a huge emotional impact on me that I can only compare with a few other experiences I've had with games to this very day. You get to go back through the friendly, peaceful world of 7 years prior, except now everything's gone to hell. You don't just have to fix everything to progress through the game, you WANT to, and to be emotionally invested in a video game puts it on the same level as books, movies and music.
I especially love how the game keeps your attention despite essentially making you go back through charted territory multiple times. After a grueling, confusing conquest of the Water Temple, you're treated to a very dramatic and cinematic cutscene in Kakariko with Link and Sheik - the cutscenes by the way were amazing, too; that kind of storytelling was usually reserved for grainy FMVs with horrible resolution during these years. And for the final dungeon before the finale, they put you in a completely new area, Gerudo Valley, which is my favorite part of the whole game. Each temple had its own little story within the game, but for the Spirit Temple it could have been a whole game on its own... the desert, the music, the Gerudo, sneaking around, picking off guards, escaping capture with the Hookshot, earning the Gerudo's trust, making your way through the sandstorm to the temple, meeting Nabooru, helping her, and finding her seven years later... it's just so awesome thinking about it that it makes me want to get up from the computer and turn my N64 on.
How could they possibly follow up on Ocarina? Well, they tried. There's two different games you could call follow-ups. The first is Majora's Mask, which came out less than 2 years after and came bundled with a little box you could plug into your N64 to give it more memory. And the second is Wind Waker, the "true" follow-up since it was a whole new story on Nintendo's new console, the Gamecube.
If you asked me, Majora's Mask surpassed Ocarina of Time in almost every way. The graphics were better, the sound was better, the story was absolutely incredible, it had a clear underrunning theme of refusing to accept an impending future despite the odds against you and triumphing in the face of tragedy. There are scenes from this game that still warm my heart and make me get choked up. The ending of the Kafei and Anju quest, where they're in their room at the inn embracing and waiting for everything to be over but not caring because they're finally together again - I sat and waited, hoped they would get up and run like the rest of Clock Town had, and when they never did, playing the Song of Time and having to leave them behind was like someone was twisting my heart against an orange juicer. The creepy, melancholy, unhappy mood the game creates really gives you a feeling of urgency and importance; Link really is the only person that can save the world.
A lot of people didn't like this game for a number of reasons. First of all, it's weird. The characters are strange and unnerving, the music is jarring at times (but for the sake of emphasizing the story...) and the timer and impermanence of what you're doing turned a lot of people off, not to mention THE DIFFICULTY - and for that I can understand why they wouldn't like it. Majora's Mask is what it is, and the fans should have accepted that and just enjoyed it. They couldn't follow up OoT with something that pandered right back at it; people would have complained just as much about that. Instead they made something new and fresh.
People clamor for more of what we got in OoT; my attitude on that is: why? We already have OoT, why make a game in the same style and tone? What would the point of that be? There are already so many people who complain about how Zelda games are too much alike, although it's my experience that the people who whine about that aren't Zelda fans in the first place and are happier with stuff like God of War or games in a different genre. It's like people can't ever be satisfied... if the next Zelda's too similar, they bitch that it's the same shit, but if it's different they whine about how it's different and BAWWW I DON'T LIKE THINGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT. Come on.
Of course I'm leading into a discussion of Wind Waker, here. I have to admit that when Wind Waker was announced, I wasn't happy. I was still coming off the gaming high caused by OoT and MM, two games with foreboding, emotional, heavy storylines and themes. For Nintendo to have the balls and shove some cel-shaded, bright and happy game in our faces was a pretty ballsy move, although at least it wasn't on the level of trolling that MGS2 was. I'll come clean: I was in the group of people I just scolded for wanting more of the same, simply because OoT was like Krispy Kreme donuts, or Pokemon, or crack, or anything else seemingly so awesome you only want more of the same.
I refused to play it. Not having a Gamecube contributed to that. I didn't play Wind Waker until several years later, and by then I was in college. I remember getting into a discussion about it with skychrono, who insisted it was awesome and somehow convinced me to play it.
It did not disappoint. I was shocked. At the beginning of the game I was still skeptical - especially when they take your sword away right after you finally get it, whose great idea was that? - but I quickly fell to the game's charms. I think that someone hung up on the disappointment of the cartoonish style, who can't get over that simple design choice, will always have a hard time appreciating this game. But as long as you can put that aside, know that your maturity isn't in jeopardy just because you're playing something with - oh God - COLOR in it, and just enjoy Wind Waker for what it is, you will have a blast with it.
Design choice aside, the graphics themselves are gorgeous. It remains the best cel-shaded game ever made, for sure. The lighting, water and smoke effects in particular are really impressive. They really make the game look like a living, breathing, moving children's book. Again, like every Zelda game, Wind Waker is all about the incredible mood they build through the graphics and music, which supports the story. A major criticism of Wind Waker is the boat travel, and I have to say I agree. But no game is perfect, including Ocarina I might add, and on the other side of the boat debate, you can say that Wind Waker wouldn't have the same open, swashbuckling, anything-is-possible sense of wonderment and amazement that it does.
I would say that, looking back, it was a relatively low point for the series, at least for my experience of it - but then it's like comparing skyscrapers, anyway. And looking back we can see that, but at the time it was released, you have to understand that people worried it would mean the downfall for Zelda - we had no idea the good games would keep coming. Wind Waker's amazing, and it has its own emotional messages, but it was different from OoT and MM. It was about hope and rebirth, new beginnings and the innocence of children and the promise of better things to come in the future. It was very, very different from the N64 titles. And yet, I can't imagine Wind Waker being the same without the graphics they decided to go with. If it looked like OoT or MM, it wouldn't have been the same, at all.
I would say both Majora's Mask and Wind Waker are better than Ocarina of Time - but Ocarina will always be #1 among the fans, simply because it's the one we can all agree was awesome, and because it was so epic and timeless in its scope and subject matter.
[unfinished]
It's long, because I'm a gigantic nerd. But it's a passionate look at Zelda, so if you're interested, I would be honored if you read my tl;dr and shared your thoughts, too.
Edit: Actually, I'm going to leave it at this for now, because ffffff I've spent a lot of time writing this. But it feels awesome to get all written down. If you actually read it..... thank you. More on what I wanted to put in this entry later, when I have the time to write it.
When I was 11 years old, my mother, siblings and I took a trip down south to Key Largo to visit family friends. When Hurricane Andrew hit Miami in 1992, our house was destroyed and we lived in the Florida Keys for two years before moving back. We met the people we visited that particular summer during that time; Emily, the oldest girl, was in kindergarten with me while we lived there. It was May or June, the weather was gorgeous and they lived right on the water with an old little water-damaged dock and everything. But I wasn't outside enjoying the Atlantic Ocean, oh no, lol. I was inside discovering Ocarina of Time.
Emily's little brother had it, and I remember exactly where he was in the game, too. I distinctly remember the two of us huddled around the TV, draining the well in the Forest Temple and being completely blown away that you could even do that. Or well, he was blown away by that, but me, I was blown away by all of it. I hadn't ever seen anything like it Ocarina of Time before. Back then, 3D games were clunky, awkward, and tacky; the models were blocky and strange and the textures placed on the wire frames seemed to always look really gaudy and shitty to me, even as a preteen. But just that little piece I saw then, in the Forest Temple - the music, the tone, the enemies, Link, all of it looked fucking amazing. The controls were tight and responsive, with Z-targeting, the first action-game targeting system, making combat so much easier than the classic but awkward Super Mario 64 (which I had finished several times over at that point).
It would be several months later before I got Ocarina of Time, though, which I also remember very well. I was in a Circuit City with my Dad, browsing the Nintendo 64 games while he was busy looking for whatever we'd gone there for. I saw the cover for the game - I still have the box, by then it was the 1998 Game of the Year cover - and after inspecting the back and reading the game's description, I realized what it was, and that was it. With all the power I had, I was going to do what I could to walk out of that store with that game in my hands!!
Er, of course that entailed following my dad all around the store holding it out at him, begging and begging for him to get it for me. It's not like we'd gone there to get a game for me, it was probably for an extension cord or something similarly, in my mind, totally worthless. So it was a hard sell, to say the least. Plus, games were really fucking expensive back then. I'm pretty sure it was priced at $70, and this was back in 1999, too. But after much nagging, pleading and whining, somehow my father gave in and got it for me. I found it incredibly hard when I got home (it took me days to get out of the Deku Tree and a dozen deaths to beat Gohma, although now I can get through the frst dungeon in under 15 minutes lol) but despite that, a deep, obsessive, stalker-level passion had been born in me for the Legend of Zelda series.
Even looking back, I can see why it was so breathtaking and entrancing for us as the audience at the time. I've already mentioned how it blew every other 3D game out of the water in terms of the graphics and controls, but if you think about it, it was so excellently made on so many other levels. The pacing and setting were perfect, for example. By having Link grow up in the wilderness, his entry into Hyrule gives the game an energizing spirit of exploration and discovery right from the beginning. Hyrule is as new to him as it is to you.
The storyline builds itself up for the first third until, just as you start to get impatient for something new to happen, Ganondorf tricks you and the shit hits the fan, and then you're completely hooked. Walking out of the Temple of Time and seeing all those redeads, and the previously bright and cheery market square turned into something that belonged in a horror movie, had such a huge emotional impact on me that I can only compare with a few other experiences I've had with games to this very day. You get to go back through the friendly, peaceful world of 7 years prior, except now everything's gone to hell. You don't just have to fix everything to progress through the game, you WANT to, and to be emotionally invested in a video game puts it on the same level as books, movies and music.
I especially love how the game keeps your attention despite essentially making you go back through charted territory multiple times. After a grueling, confusing conquest of the Water Temple, you're treated to a very dramatic and cinematic cutscene in Kakariko with Link and Sheik - the cutscenes by the way were amazing, too; that kind of storytelling was usually reserved for grainy FMVs with horrible resolution during these years. And for the final dungeon before the finale, they put you in a completely new area, Gerudo Valley, which is my favorite part of the whole game. Each temple had its own little story within the game, but for the Spirit Temple it could have been a whole game on its own... the desert, the music, the Gerudo, sneaking around, picking off guards, escaping capture with the Hookshot, earning the Gerudo's trust, making your way through the sandstorm to the temple, meeting Nabooru, helping her, and finding her seven years later... it's just so awesome thinking about it that it makes me want to get up from the computer and turn my N64 on.
How could they possibly follow up on Ocarina? Well, they tried. There's two different games you could call follow-ups. The first is Majora's Mask, which came out less than 2 years after and came bundled with a little box you could plug into your N64 to give it more memory. And the second is Wind Waker, the "true" follow-up since it was a whole new story on Nintendo's new console, the Gamecube.
If you asked me, Majora's Mask surpassed Ocarina of Time in almost every way. The graphics were better, the sound was better, the story was absolutely incredible, it had a clear underrunning theme of refusing to accept an impending future despite the odds against you and triumphing in the face of tragedy. There are scenes from this game that still warm my heart and make me get choked up. The ending of the Kafei and Anju quest, where they're in their room at the inn embracing and waiting for everything to be over but not caring because they're finally together again - I sat and waited, hoped they would get up and run like the rest of Clock Town had, and when they never did, playing the Song of Time and having to leave them behind was like someone was twisting my heart against an orange juicer. The creepy, melancholy, unhappy mood the game creates really gives you a feeling of urgency and importance; Link really is the only person that can save the world.
A lot of people didn't like this game for a number of reasons. First of all, it's weird. The characters are strange and unnerving, the music is jarring at times (but for the sake of emphasizing the story...) and the timer and impermanence of what you're doing turned a lot of people off, not to mention THE DIFFICULTY - and for that I can understand why they wouldn't like it. Majora's Mask is what it is, and the fans should have accepted that and just enjoyed it. They couldn't follow up OoT with something that pandered right back at it; people would have complained just as much about that. Instead they made something new and fresh.
People clamor for more of what we got in OoT; my attitude on that is: why? We already have OoT, why make a game in the same style and tone? What would the point of that be? There are already so many people who complain about how Zelda games are too much alike, although it's my experience that the people who whine about that aren't Zelda fans in the first place and are happier with stuff like God of War or games in a different genre. It's like people can't ever be satisfied... if the next Zelda's too similar, they bitch that it's the same shit, but if it's different they whine about how it's different and BAWWW I DON'T LIKE THINGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT. Come on.
Of course I'm leading into a discussion of Wind Waker, here. I have to admit that when Wind Waker was announced, I wasn't happy. I was still coming off the gaming high caused by OoT and MM, two games with foreboding, emotional, heavy storylines and themes. For Nintendo to have the balls and shove some cel-shaded, bright and happy game in our faces was a pretty ballsy move, although at least it wasn't on the level of trolling that MGS2 was. I'll come clean: I was in the group of people I just scolded for wanting more of the same, simply because OoT was like Krispy Kreme donuts, or Pokemon, or crack, or anything else seemingly so awesome you only want more of the same.
I refused to play it. Not having a Gamecube contributed to that. I didn't play Wind Waker until several years later, and by then I was in college. I remember getting into a discussion about it with skychrono, who insisted it was awesome and somehow convinced me to play it.
It did not disappoint. I was shocked. At the beginning of the game I was still skeptical - especially when they take your sword away right after you finally get it, whose great idea was that? - but I quickly fell to the game's charms. I think that someone hung up on the disappointment of the cartoonish style, who can't get over that simple design choice, will always have a hard time appreciating this game. But as long as you can put that aside, know that your maturity isn't in jeopardy just because you're playing something with - oh God - COLOR in it, and just enjoy Wind Waker for what it is, you will have a blast with it.
Design choice aside, the graphics themselves are gorgeous. It remains the best cel-shaded game ever made, for sure. The lighting, water and smoke effects in particular are really impressive. They really make the game look like a living, breathing, moving children's book. Again, like every Zelda game, Wind Waker is all about the incredible mood they build through the graphics and music, which supports the story. A major criticism of Wind Waker is the boat travel, and I have to say I agree. But no game is perfect, including Ocarina I might add, and on the other side of the boat debate, you can say that Wind Waker wouldn't have the same open, swashbuckling, anything-is-possible sense of wonderment and amazement that it does.
I would say that, looking back, it was a relatively low point for the series, at least for my experience of it - but then it's like comparing skyscrapers, anyway. And looking back we can see that, but at the time it was released, you have to understand that people worried it would mean the downfall for Zelda - we had no idea the good games would keep coming. Wind Waker's amazing, and it has its own emotional messages, but it was different from OoT and MM. It was about hope and rebirth, new beginnings and the innocence of children and the promise of better things to come in the future. It was very, very different from the N64 titles. And yet, I can't imagine Wind Waker being the same without the graphics they decided to go with. If it looked like OoT or MM, it wouldn't have been the same, at all.
I would say both Majora's Mask and Wind Waker are better than Ocarina of Time - but Ocarina will always be #1 among the fans, simply because it's the one we can all agree was awesome, and because it was so epic and timeless in its scope and subject matter.
[unfinished]