Retrospective: Legend of Zelda

So I just got finished with Zelda: Spirit Tracks. And throughout, I have to say it was not an enjoyable experience, but I'll get to that in a moment.

The main purpose of this is to rant about the series as a whole. I haven't really made it that apparent to our readers, but I'm a huuuuuuuge Zelda fan. Hell, I even think the new one (Skyward Sword) will be worth trying.

But lately, I've been questioning the worthiness of the series. Especially after playing Spirit Tracks. I have just about every Legend of Zelda game (including Master Quest), and this game by itself is possibly going to be the first one I'm ever going to trade in. No matter what, any Zelda games have been off the trade-in list. I highly value the series, and love every second of the games, especially both of the N64 iterations of the games.

I'll be honest. My first Zelda experience that I can remember is Ocarina of Time. I've been told we used to have Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo, but I was too young to remember playing it.

The game enthralled me. It was dark and moody. It had a profound story. It was difficult, but in a good way. The mechanics all worked TREMENDOUSLY well. The graphics: amazing for its day.

Fast forward 12 years: Graphics look just about the same. Maybe a little less polygonal, but the graphics are still NOTHING compared to what current gen games have. Granted, we're talking about a DS game, but at the same time, Twilight Princess was no beauty either.

Now, I'll be the first to say that the graphics don't make the game. But I'm extremely tired of looking at bad graphics out of the house of N. They used to lead the graphical revolution. I mean, the Gamecube had on-par graphics with those of the Xbox and the PS2. Windwaker looked pretty nice on there (of course, cel-shaded graphics always seemed to look the best on the GC). When Twilight Princess came out, the PS3 and 360 had been released, and the Wii had been as well. The Wii's graphics are a joke. Of course, Twilight Princess was made for the Gamecube, but it felt a little bit like we were cheated. Instead of getting a next-gen version of the game that all the Zelda fans had been looking forward to, we got a game where you either played it like a less-inspired Ocarina, or waggled around a remote as you "pretended" that it was a real sword.

Skyward sword promises to fix the waggling, but the demo shown at E3 did not make me hopeful. It didn't work very well.


Sorry Shigeru, maybe it's time to retire :(

I'm not worried so much by the graphics. It definitely looks like a lush world. All I care about is a playable game that feels fun again.

Another thing I'm getting tired of is characters grunting, instead of having voice-overs. Link is one thing, but the rest of the cast? I think it's safe to say that we have the technology in spades to get the voiceovers on the disk by now. There is no excuse as to why we have to read what Zelda is saying.

And I'm not against reading either. I just feel more immersed in a universe when there's a voice associated with a character. I mean, there's a grunt associated with every character now, the next logical step is to give them a voice.

So where was I...oh yeah, Spirit Tracks. The game is basically the same as every other Zelda game thus far. The only things that have been replaced are a horse with an on-rails train, the Hookshot with a whip, and they ressurected the old Cane of Somaria, which created a block that you can manipulate. Except this version, you can raise sand in an area that you touch.

The touch screen really doesn't work that well here. Sword swipes are inaccurate, weapons sometimes fail to fire, and a certain late-game mechanic based upon your train's whistle randomly stops working as if you had moved the stylus off the screen. The touch-screen is beginning to feel very gimmicky, and I would like to see it toned down if they do decide to have another DS Zelda title. I only hope they don't retool Ocarina of Time (for the 3DS)to use the touch-screen, as it plays fine with the existing buttons.

The one thing I actually liked about this story was that Princess Zelda was accompanying you throughout. I would have preferred Shiek, but it mixed up gameplay just a little bit, though not enough to affect my opinion of it.

It was also interesting how you either run into old versions of characters out of Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass, or descendants of them. It also alludes to the Princess Zelda from those games, which I found was kind of neat. Definately tied the game further into the Chronology.

For those who don't know, Wind Waker was the first "Toon Link" style world, and you used a sailboat to travel everywhere. It tried to explain why you didn't see Hyrule anymore. Phantom Hourglass picked up where Wind Waker left off, and you got to experience a small branch of plot off of the Wind Waker storyline. Of course, by branch I mean it was basically the same story retold, but bastardized and put on the DS. It was still an enjoyable game, and the touch controls actually worked well. Spirit tracks takes place somewhere between 50-80 years after the events of Phantom Hourglass.

The train was the worst form of travel in any Zelda game I've ever played. It felt more like it was put in with the sole purpose of making the player waste time trying to chart a static route to a certain place, then making them backtrack across the whole continent. And god forbid if you get anywhere close to an unkillable enemy train. If it even touches you, you hit the gameover screen, only to need to navigate back from where you last zoned out of, and have to go through the same train-infested area again.

The flute, the musical instrument chosen for this iteration of the going, works well when you're using it like you use the ocarina in OoT, but when you have to play a duet to progress the story, it all falls apart. It doesn't explain exactly how the flute works, or that you don't have to stop blowing into the DS microphone to switch between notes (which would be assumed, considering that the note inbetween certain notes is not in the musical composition). Also, all you get is a metronome to show when you're on track. No indication that you're doing ok, or that you're missing. I must have spent an extra 2 hours combined trying to get past some of the duets, only to figure out that you don't need to stop blowing to switch notes on the fifteenth try at the final boss battle.

All in all, this game was a mess. Nintendo needs to inject some fresh blood into the series, as they have with Metroid, as well as the forthcoming Donkey Kong Country Returns. I understand that Zelda is as much Shigeru Miyamoto's child as Mario is, but I think it's time for him to let it go and start working on that new IP that he's been hinting that he wants to start working on.

I have my own ideas as to how to reinvigorate the series, but I don't think they'll listen.

Until that day...