Topic: New Zelda Game Heading to 3DS

[Bman87301]

I've always thought Link is ambidextrous, since in some games like Ocarina of Time he uses certain tools like the Hookshot with his right hand. So maybe he just decided to start holding his sword in his right hand to fit in with everyone else.

Nope. In OoT, Link would just put away the sword and still used his left hand for the Hookshot and all other items.

All Links prior to Skyward Sword are officially lefties. Of course, in the mirror reversals (the Wii version of Twilight Princess, the Master Quest of Ocarina of Time 3D) they appear to be using their right hands since everything is swapped, but they're not considered canon. Skyward Sword is the first Zelda to feature a right-handed Link.

[Mop it up]

I've always thought Link is ambidextrous, since in some games like Ocarina of Time he uses certain tools like the Hookshot with his right hand. So maybe he just decided to start holding his sword in his right hand to fit in with everyone else.

Nope. In OoT, Link would just put away the sword and still used his left hand for the Hookshot and all other items.

He clearly uses his right hand. If you don't believe me, go watch any YouTube video of the game labeled with "hookshot" and you'll see.

[Bman87301]

Link is NOT right handed. The tradition of Link was that every incarnation of Link is left handed. Yes I said every incarnation. There are multiple Links. Now unfortunately that tradition was officially broken with Skyward Sword (no left hand mode). So yeah, one COULD say that he is left handed now...

Well, since the Skyward Sword incarnation is right-handed, obviously not EVERY Link is left-handed.

P.S. -- Adrock was the one who made that statement, not me.

[Bman87301]

He clearly uses his right hand. If you don't believe me, go watch any YouTube video of the game labeled with "hookshot" and you'll see.

I stand corrected-- he does use his right for the Hookshot. Of course, people commonly use their non-dominant hand for simpler things like aiming. Link still uses his left for swinging his sword and when throwing Deku Nuts and his boomerang, so he's definitely still left-handed.

[Adrock]

Link is NOT right handed. The tradition of Link was that every incarnation of Link is left handed. Yes I said every incarnation. There are multiple Links. Now unfortunately that tradition was officially broken with Skyward Sword (no left hand mode). So yeah, one COULD say that he is left handed now...

What? You're attempting to correct me by repeating what I said. Link is officially right handed in Skyward Sword (and there's no confusion with a mirrored version either). That's why I said he's now right-handed so there goes that "tradition." Nintendo has changed and will continue to change the series to suit their needs.

[NWR_insanolord]

Link is technically a different person in almost every iteration of the game, so I don't see how it's that contradictory for this one to use his right hand. Also, he's the fucking hero of time, why the hell shouldn't he be ambidextrous? He just uses the sword in his left hand because he can and it looks cool and is somewhat unique compared to everybody else (Hipster Link).

[Thaneros]

A fully voiced Link....eww..
 
While it was ok for Samus because she has been having her own dialog since Super Metroid, Link(or Links) is/are different. What people keep forgeting is Link IS YOU and is nothing more than an avatar.

[Stogi]

As much as I like hearing this, I wouldn't consider this news since no one in their right minds would bet a dollar that Zelda wasn't coming to the 3DS again even if it was against a million. The news in this story that is actually worthy is the fact that they seriously considered remaking Majora's Mask but only decided not to bring it back because of the release of OOT 3D.

I for one would buy a remade Majora's Mask. It could greatly improve by having a second screen. There are so many times you have to switch masks, access your log, and swap items that it would be way more useful than it ever was for OOT. Now add updated graphics, 3D, and gyroscopic camera and you have one hell of a game.

[Adrock]

What people keep forgeting is Link IS YOU and is nothing more than an avatar.

Link used to be an avatar that represented the player when Link was a clean slate, a shell that the player could step into and project his/her feelings onto. Once Nintendo started adding characterization to Link (as minimal as it is), he stopped being the player and started being a character that projected his feelings to the player. This started when Nintendo added cutscenes showing Link being shocked or angry or happy. Those aren't my emotions. I'm watching Link react to the world and characters around him.

If Nintendo really wants Link to represent the player, maybe the cutscenes featuring Link should be in 1st person.

[nickmitch]

Link being a mute doesn't have anything to do with the NPCs talking. The main argument for the series not to have voice acting seems to be around Link's voice and the "Zelda tradition." Whatever tradition you think is there is mostly in your head. The series needs to keep growing, and since it's been moving in to a story telling direction, voice acting is the way to go.

As for Link being a lefty, he pretty much has to be right handed for the controls to work. However, he can still be a lefty in 3DS Zeldas.

[Thaneros]

Link being a mute doesn't have anything to do with the NPCs talking. The main argument for the series not to have voice acting seems to be around Link's voice and the "Zelda tradition." Whatever tradition you think is there is mostly in your head. The series needs to keep growing, and since it's been moving in to a story telling direction, voice acting is the way to go.

Maybe I'm just old fashion but I still believe great stories can still be told via text...js...

[NWR_insanolord]

It's not that they can't do it well in text; it's just that voice acting, if done well, would be a lot better, and more fitting with the kind of presentation the series has these days.

[nickmitch]

Great stories have been told with just text, but Zelda is now so much more than just text already. It's essentially a silent film in a world of talkies.

[Adrock]

Of course they can. That's why people still read and write books. However, games are a very different medium. You have video and audio. If you're not going to take advantage of it, might as well get rid of the music and sound effects since we can just use our imaginations.

[Stogi]

Question: Would you rather have an Orchestrated Soundtrack or Voice Acting?

[broodwars]

Question: Would you rather have an Orchestrated Soundtrack or Voice Acting?

There's no reason you can't have both and do them well, like much of the industry has been doing for years now.

[Stogi]

That's not my point. Which one do you think is more important to a gaming experience?

[broodwars]

That's not my point. Which one do you think is more important to a gaming experience?

Voice Acting.  Synth technology has evolved to the point where in games with high-quality synth like Xenoblade, the sound between synth and recorded symphonic is so similar that it's likely nearly indistinguishable to most players.  On the flipside, there is a very clear distinction between having voice acting and having pure text, with me having a definite preference for voice acting these days.  When I want to read a story and imagine character voices, I'll open a book.  I don't want to have to read my games as well, and good voice acting can do so much to elevate an experience.

[NWR_insanolord]

Yeah, I've got to agree with broodwars. Modern synth is a lot less noticeable of a downside than no voice acting.

[Ceric]

I'm sorry but I totally disagree with you guys on Voice Acting being a super improvement.

I'll put it this way if Nintendo recreated 2 classic games of equal interest to me, one read Totally redone modern soundtrack that complements and captures the essence of the story, and the other read all the text in the game now has accompanying emotional Voice Acting that really captures the essence of the story.  I probably make a point to not buy the Voice Acted one.

To me out of all the things Nintendo could do with the series going forward Voice Acting is a distance spot away from Supporting my 3D TV and that's not a medium priority for me.  I rather have true 5.1 Surround support before either of those.

[MagicCow64]

I just can't get worked up about voice acting. I hate extended cut scenes in games, and have since FF VII popularized that nefarious trend back in the day. Stuff now like Mass Effect where spoken dialogue is extremely pervasive doesn't really bother me, but I always, always skip through dialogue as soon as I finish reading the subtitles. So it's not so much an immersive presentation as one with a bunch of jerky jumps between half-finished sentences. It takes too long to listen to dialogue in an interactive context, though I agree with the poster above about Half-Life 2's approach.

Frankly I think games moving heavily toward pretensions of "storytelling" is a pox on the art form and that Zelda would do well to avoid going in that direction.

[Adrock]

Your issue, then, is with the cutscene, not the voice acting. I don't like watching extended cutscenes either. That's like going to the theater to watch a movie but they stop the reel right in the middle and force you to solve a puzzle first. It seems silly to ask the audience to partake in something other than what's intended. Games are meant to be played, movies are meant to be watched, books are meant to be read and so on. If Nintendo insists on putting little movies all over their videogames, then, yeah, I want the cutscenes to be as cinematic as possible. There should always be an option to fast forward or skip cutscenes altogether. The voice acting should be there for people who don't want to read text, who find it more engrossing. The option to fast forward/skip should be there for people who don't want to be bothered. I think that's the fairest way to go about it. Personally, I think cutscenes in videogames is lazy storytelling. I wish more companies would try to tell their stories through the action in the game.

[Thaneros]

I just can't get worked up about voice acting. I hate extended cut scenes in games, and have since FF VII popularized that nefarious trend back in the day. Stuff now like Mass Effect where spoken dialogue is extremely pervasive doesn't really bother me, but I always, always skip through dialogue as soon as I finish reading the subtitles. So it's not so much an immersive presentation as one with a bunch of jerky jumps between half-finished sentences. It takes too long to listen to dialogue in an interactive context, though I agree with the poster above about Half-Life 2's approach.

Frankly I think games moving heavily toward pretensions of "storytelling" is a pox on the art form and that Zelda would do well to avoid going in that direction.

 
Only in games like Deus Ex,LA Noir,Mass Effect where you have to 'read' ppl I think voice acting truly necessary.

[Ceric]

Your issue, then, is with the cutscene, not the voice acting. I don't like watching extended cutscenes either. That's like going to the theater to watch a movie but they stop the reel right in the middle and force you to solve a puzzle first. It seems silly to ask the audience to partake in something other than what's intended. Games are meant to be played, movies are meant to be watched, books are meant to be read and so on. If Nintendo insists on putting little movies all over their videogames, then, yeah, I want the cutscenes to be as cinematic as possible. There should always be an option to fast forward or skip cutscenes altogether. The voice acting should be there for people who don't want to read text, who find it more engrossing. The option to fast forward/skip should be there for people who don't want to be bothered. I think that's the fairest way to go about it. Personally, I think cutscenes in videogames is lazy storytelling. I wish more companies would try to tell their stories through the action in the game.

I believe cutscenes are unavoidable much like Fix point in time for Dr. Who are.  There are parts of the story that need to happen just so to be able to make a compelling story.  Though a good story will keep those to a minimum.

[Ian Sane]

I want good voice acting and good writing.  Practically all videogames fail on one or the other.  I can't stand Mario's voice and Other M has embarassingly poor writing.  Zelda would be worse off with voice acting if either one of those were a problem.  But it is pretty silly to not move forward on something like that because it could suck.

What I don't want to see is touchscreen controls like in the DS games.  I don't dislike it because it's different, I dislike it because it SUCKS.  It's an awkward and unintuitive way to control the game and is blantantly forced.  I completely skipped Spirit Tracks because of Phantom Hourglass' terrible **** controls.  Zelda is my favourite videogame series and yet I intentionally avoided playing a game in the series because of the controls!  I didn't want to do that but PH was so frustrating to play that I knew I would get no enjoyment from any future games with the same controls.  I don't want those types of controls even hinted at in Zelda 3DS.  If it doesn't have conventional controls I don't want it.

Crappy voice acting and a crappy story would not be good but nothing outright ruins a game like poor controls.  I don't want the gameplay to suffer (and that was my real beef with Other M).