I recently read this article about Zelda. Overall I really like what he had to say, although I don’t fully agree with everything he wrote.
Link to article: Saving Zelda
He did a really good job of putting many of my thoughts, possibly even subconsciously, to words. The enemies in Zelda almost seem to be a side thought. A little annoyance that slows me down. Back in the older Zeldas, before Ocarina of Time, you actually had to fight. Now you just do the same puzzle a bunch of times.
Within the article he says that “Zelda didn’t use to be this way” when referring to the puzzles. He talks about how good Zelda was when it was just an adventure. But by saying this, I get the feeling he’s inferring that the first two, maybe three Zelda games were ‘real’ and defined what a Zelda game should be, while the 12(?) games that followed have strayed.
My argument might be a bit more semantic than anything else, but the fact that MOST Zelda games have been the same tool = key to unlock puzzle repeat would indicate to me that the first few Zelda games were the anomalies that don’t fit the genre.
That said, I agree with him. The item is just a key. Everything is a locked door. The temple design is mediocre and it gets boring fast. It get tedious. Games are all about “overcoming unnecessary obstacles” but the gamer needs to do that voluntarily, and if the obstacles are too unnecessary or obnoxious, I don’t want to do them. That’s why I never finished Wind Waker.
The ‘point’ that really drove things home for me was about Link’s sword. The combat in Zelda is lacking. Tremendously. In Skyward Sword I was absolutely thrilled when I saw the waves of enemies coming at me near the final boss. But when I tried to do a spin move and take them all out, I could only attack the one or two who were actively engaging me. My attack never touched the rest of them.
I know he states many flaws with Ocarina of Time, but I feel that OoT was the last real Zelda game to give an open world to explore. Sure, they blocked off a lot of places unless you got certain items or glitched your way though. But compare that to Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword where whole areas were completely inaccessible until you had progressed far enough in the story.
At any rate. I feel he made some really good points and Zelda definitely in need of a rethink, or at very least, a tune up.